In honor of both Thanksgiving and Mercury Retrograde here is last year’s post on the astrology of Thanksgiving.
"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" By Jennie A. Brownscombe.
The folks who landed and settled Plymouth, MA, and who we call pilgrims in actuality were religious rebels who outwardly criticized Queen Elizabeth the First for trying to unite England under one religion. For Elizabeth, this uniformity was a political necessity as fractious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (in our terminology) nearly tore apart the country prior to her reign. Though the Puritan’s religious beliefs were an offshoot of Protestantism, the Puritan’s civil disobedience was a wound to Elizabeth’s attempt to restore order in a country bleeding from the disputes of the past. As a result of the censure of their actions many members fled to Holland and eventually settled in Leyden, Netherlands which was much more religiously tolerant than England. However, though they lived there for a little over a decade, they became increasingly uncomfortable with the local culture, considering the Dutch “libertine” and with their children’s assimilation of Dutch culture. The Puritans decided it was time to leave the Netherlands, but where to go was the question.
On July 29, 1619 an English government patent was issued to John Wincob for a colony to be established at the northern borders Virginia colony but negotiations with the London Company over the territory to be settled stalled. In February of 1620 a London merchant, Tom Weston, approached the Leyden refugees with offers of funding the new settlement with the backing of seventy other merchants with assurances he could resolve the difficulties with the London Company. One John Pierce got involved and all of sudden the new colony was to be settled at the mouth of the Hudson River.
