Pocahontas Marries John Rolfe (April 5, 1614)

As a landmark event, there can be no other one that is as important, both to the white settlers in Jamestown, Virginia and the Native America peoples who lived nearby. As we do not have Pocahontas’ birth date, this event is the start of the Europeans’ conquering of North America.

During her stay at Henricus, Pocahontas met John Rolfe. Rolfe’s English-born wife Sarah Hacker and child Bermuda had died on the way to Virginia after the wreck of the ship Sea Venture on the Summer Isles, now known as Bermuda. He established the Virginia plantation Varina Farms, where he cultivated a new strain of tobacco. Rolfe was a pious man and agonized over the potential moral repercussions of marrying a heathen, though in fact Pocahontas had accepted the Christian faith and taken the baptismal name Rebecca. In a long letter to the governor requesting permission to wed her, he expressed his love for Pocahontas and his belief that he would be saving her soul. He wrote that he was:

motivated not by the unbridled desire of carnal affection, but for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our country, for the Glory of God, for my own salvation… namely Pocahontas, to whom my hearty and best thoughts are, and have been a long time so entangled, and enthralled in so intricate a labyrinth that I was even a-wearied to unwind myself thereout.

The couple were married on April 5, 1614, by chaplain Richard Buck, probably at Jamestown. For two years they lived at Varina Farms, across the James River from Henricus. Their son, Thomas, was born in January 1615.

The marriage created a climate of peace between the Jamestown colonists and Powhatan’s tribes; it endured for eight years as the “Peace of Pocahontas”. In 1615, Ralph Hamor wrote, “Since the wedding we have had friendly commerce and trade not only with Powhatan but also with his subjects round about us.” The marriage was controversial in the British court at the time because “a commoner” had “the audacity” to marry a “princess”

Wikipedia

I’ve set the clock for noon. Significantly, there are three inconjuncts, only two of which would be consistent for the whole day. Let’s look at them:

Sun Inconjunct Neptune

You are very sensitive to your environment and to the people around you. On one level of your being, you feel what is going on very acutely. Unfortunately your understanding often comes in terms that are very difficult to communicate to others, because their meaning is not clear in your own mind. Your greatest danger is in being exposed to negative people who are full of anger or depression or who act very harshly toward you and undermine your self-confidence. Your self-confidence has to be boosted at every conceivable opportunity, and it would be very destructive for you to be criticized sharply, unless the person has made it very clear that he or she loves you.

Planets in Youth (page 92) by Robert Hand (1977)

Mars Inconjunct Jupiter

With this aspect you probably are quite active, with abundant energy for anything you want to do. But you must learn to control your energies rather than have them control you. You may be inclined to take excessive risks, to try out things that you are not sure you can do. But be careful, because with this aspect the energies of Mars and Jupiter do not work very smoothly together. If you overextend yourself and try to do more than you are physically capable of, you may have an accident. Also you may be clumsy when you take up a new activity until you learn to control your physical body better.

Ibid (page 228)

Neptune Inconjunct Midheaven (perhaps)

You are very impressionable, in that you pick up the energies around you very quickly. Therefore it is very important that you be surrounded by wholesome influences in your early years, because negative influences will weaken your self-esteem and make it much more difficult to accomplish anything when you are older. On the other hand, your impressionableness may give rise to some psychic ability, or at least a very sharp intuition when you ae older.

Ibid (page 342)

After traveling to England, Pocahontas died before they could return to Virginia.

In March 1617, Rolfe and Pocahontas boarded a ship to return to Virginia, but they had sailed only as far as Gravesend on the River Thames when Pocahontas became gravely ill. She was taken ashore, where she died from unknown causes, aged approximately 21 and “much lamented”. According to Rolfe, she declared that “all must die”; for her, it was enough that her child lived. Speculated causes of her death include pneumonia, smallpox, tuberculosis, hemorrhagic dysentery (“the Bloody flux”) and poisoning.

Wikipedia

Her death may have been a clue that European diseases could somehow decimate the Native population, too.

Hmm.