There is supposedly an old Chinese blessing/curse which is “May you live in interesting times”. Interesting times are more eventful than uninteresting times, but whether that is good or bad, hence a blessing or a curse, is the question. An interesting time is like for example the early Twentieth Century (UR=NE/PL) or the time right after World War II (PL=UR/NE). Those were interesting times to be alive.
Currently we are living in a three-fold interesting time (IT) as if we had won the trifecta. The current term de jour is poly-crisis. I’ve explored all these three before but here I want to put them all together and associate them with keywords from the popular press and talk which may give you some insight into what is taking place. Some people think that there is some nefarious actor behind all three changes happening but I believe it is just that all three are happening at the same time. So those of us who are alive now need to know that these times are unique or special; in a way all times are unique, just as all astrological charts are unique, but some are more unique or special than others. We live in such a time. Just as keywords for the planets hide ideas that are associated with those symbols the keywords that I give will hide ramifications of these three events. Use your own imagination to complete the meanings.
The keywords and tendencies of each IT will reflect on to the other ITs so each keyword constellation will effect the others. Each IT will influence/reinforce the other two ITs so they will be different and perhaps more interesting than if each were happening by itself. As they say the sum is more than just the parts.
Last Pluto Return
The first of these three ITs is associated with the Pluto Return of the United States. No country has existed with one Constitution as long as the US so this return is unique. And since the United States is the most powerful country in the world currently, whatever happens to it will effect the entire world. But we really don’t know for sure where Pluto was 250 years ago so we can’t be sure this is the actual Pluto Return. But as astrologers commonly do for a birth charts with birth time unknown a process called rectification is used to determine the birthtime; this process is essentially if you know the answer (some momentous event in the person’s life) what was the question (chart that would show that event) or astrological Jeopardy(TM). We can judge if this is a Pluto Return by seeing if what is happening in real life (IRL) is what would be expected for a Pluto Return and so far many are talking about the breakdown of United States society, from both a blue and a red perspective. America seems to really be in a quandary. I can can see as possibilities a breakup of the country, a change in the way the Supreme Court is run, a realignment of political parties, the birth of new political parties, and other outcomes that would not have not seemed conceivable in the last century. Division is the keyword on everybody’s lip currently. More than once I’ve heard someone say that they haven’t seen a division like this since the Civil War.
Another way that this Pluto return manifests itself is in the huge involvement of the National Security State with our politics. Recent example abound but I should point out that the Russiagate saga over the last part of the last decade is a prime example (see long article by long time journalist Jeff Gerth in a recent copy of the Columbia Journalism Review and the article in the online magazine Tablet by Jacob Siegal called “The Hoax of the Century”) and the CIA’s debunking of the Hunter Biden laptop story — which was later shown to be as it was claimed to be before the 2020 election — at the request of a Biden campaign official who later became Secretary of State.
Pluto Return
The popular term for this time is Civil War, which some people think will actually happen. I don’t know about that but anyone can see there is an increasing division between one group of people (call them Team Blue or the elite establishment or team reality or whatever term you are most comfortable with) against another group of people (call them deplorables or MAGA Republicans or anit-vaxxers, or populists or team reality or even Team Red). Essentially there are two basic viewpoints of reality and each group thinks the other group is crazy or deluded or evil. But the members of each group are not all the same, for example “anti-vaxxers” are not the same as Team Red — President Trump, the mascot of the MAGA Republicans, oversaw operation warp speed which was the epitome of anti-anti-vaxxer! — and the elite are not the same as Team Blue but the omnipresent “they” wants you to believe this. But there are two somewhat hazy groups that are somewhat opposite and spreading. I believe this split will see a new political realignment at least as significant as when the Republican Party formed out of third parties that existed in the time before the (first?) Civil War. What will be the Fort Sumter moment this time? Both sides would probably nominate Jan 6 but for very different reasons. And these traits are common but it is more wide spread then the cliches. Other possibilities could be a new constitution, a modification of the Supreme Court, or even breakup of the united States into several regional blocs, sort of like a re-Europization of the EU (caused for example by the next IT).
The graphical ephemeris above illustrates the whole of the Pluto return. We see the first actual return of Pluto to its natal position at point 1 in early 2022. It happens again at point 2 and 3. Finally at point 4 later in this year Pluto is stationary on the US natal Pluto for the last return.
But this conflict is not between the “left” and the “right” as it is between two world views which more or less correspond to the astrological terms I use in this blog: Pluto and Uranus or globalist and populists or up and down or the 1% and the 99% or artificial and natural.
Transiting Neptune Opposite Natal Neptune – a Demi-Return
The second IT is what I have called previously the Sixth Crisis. Since the founding of this country every 80 to 90 years there has been a crisis; these crises started very small and local to part of North America and each crisis has become larger and more global. This is discussed from a non-astrological perspective in the book the Fourth Turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss. Howe has a new book coming out called the Fourth Turning Is Here whose title says it all.
The keyword concept I give for this is World War III, otherwise known as the war in Ukraine but perhaps expanding into a war with China. But another concept that is certainly important here is a change from the unipolar world, a world with one dominant power, to a multipolar world with some powerful countries but none are considered the “top dog”. The world has never experienced the multipolar world before in human history; before it was unipoloar the world consisted of separate nations; this was before the Europeans had expanded to colonize the whole world. Globalism and the Unipolar world started 500 years ago with Spain being the first Single Pole. Since the US has the conjunction of Sun, Venus, and Jupiter which I’ve described before as double plus good the country has been very very lucky in its expansion so the United States is currently the Single Pole.
The unipolar world could only exist once Columbus discoverd America as far as Europe was concerned and the cat was out of the bag that there was a large undiscovered part of the earth that could be exploited by the the nations of Europe. That is what the last 500 years have been about and that is about to come to an end. I am reminded of the original Dylan who wrote a famous poem as his father was dying: “Do not go gentle into that good night Rage, rage against the dying of the light”. The American Empire is dying and that empire is certainly raging against its dying of light. The country must realize there is life after death.
Multipolarity is an entirely new way of running the world. For the West the feudal world gave way to the modern world 500 years ago and to what brave new world to (coin a phrase) will this period begat? Pluto already knows the type of brave new world it wants. Will Uranus figure its reply to this?
The Sixth Crisis
I’ve listed five factors that determined the crisis, factors that have reoccurred every 80 to 90 years since the beginning of this country. The first crisis was very local — Jamestown — but each succeeding one got larger and more geographically widespread. The fifth crisis was World War II. These five factors are all illustrated in the graphical ephemeris above. The first was Neptune making a demi-return to the natal Neptune of the United States (Number 1). Then there was Neptune over the MC or IC of the US and Neptune at either 0 Aries or 0 Libra (Number 2 and 3). Finally there was the Uranus return (Number 4) and Uranus crossing the Descendant of the US (Number 5). These five events occur during the whole decade from 2021 through 2029. The Neptune demi-return — illustrated above — started early in 2021 and the final pass of Uranus over the U.S. Descendant — illustrated below — happens in early 2029.
Watching the behavior of the United States at this time is like watching a divorce where it is obvious to everyone except one of the principles that the relationship is over and he/she struggles to keep the marriage together (often by doubling down) and as a result the outcome of the divorce for that person is much worse that otherwise would have been the case. Is this a real life “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe” (a play/movie by Edward Albee) but with less alcohol? The situation could go so much better for the United States if the country had better leaders. I believe this current situation should be a chapter of a newly updated version of Barbara Tuckman’s March of Folly, a masterful book about what the title says: How stupidity and hubris (something the Greek dramatists were aware of 2500 years ago) leads to downfalls, starting with the Trojan War with the Wooden Horse. (I imagine the conversation at that time went something like this: The Greeks left this beautiful wooden horse before they departed; Wouldn’t it be a good idea to bring this into the city so we can play with it? What could go wrong? There’s some chick named Cassandra who thinks that is a real bad idea but she is so into conspiracy theories I don’t believe a word she says.) America is so besotted with war propaganda (hello, Neptune) that is difficult to find any public figure commenting clearly.
Uranus at Descendant
We’ll talk about the third IT in Part II — this third IT is a threesome also.
The theme of the last year has been Neptune and this post will be also about Neptune but in a more “traditional” sense. Some of the keywords for Neptune are disease, illness, gas, and earthquakes. That last keyword may need some explanation but it comes from the mythology concerning Neptune (the Roman god) or Poseidon (the Greek name for the same god). It seems that earthquakes were considered to originate when Neptune stamped his trident in the earth.
I once had a student who was a Pisces and she would get upset whenever I mentioned difficult manifestations of Neptune. But I did not mean to defame Neptune. I have a strong Neptune myself and in fact the planet makes a close minor aspect to my Ascendant.
In all of these charts to be discussed below Uranus is prominent. One chart has only an approximate time, one time I got from news accounts, while the other has a time to the nearest second. The charts for two of the events have a strong Neptune aspecting either the Ascendant or Midheaven.
The first (two) charts are for the multiple explosions on the Nordstream underseas pipelines that were designed to carry gas from Russia to Germany and thus to the rest of Europe. These explosion are considered the greatest act of industrial terrorism in history, caused the largest release of methane in a single event, and an act of war against Germany and Russia. Certainly a very big deal but it does not get talked about much.
This second chart is for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. It is considered by many to be the worst environmental disaster in recent American history. There have have been other disasters such as the BP oil well explosion but that was in the Gulf of Mexico and not the continental United States. There have been other train derailments but this one was carrying several toxic chemicals and so was worse. As I understand it, the vinyl chloride — used to make PVC — that the train was carrying was burned so that the track would be quickly available. It is normal for spillage from trains to be cleaned up and taken away; it is very unusual for this mess to be burned. Because it was burned more toxic substances were produced, including dioxin which is a known carcinogen.
The third event is the first of several earthquakes to hit Turkey (or Turkiya) and Syria with the epicenter in Turkey. While Turkey is a original member of NATO Syria is one-third occupied by the United States and it is under sanctions which makes helping that country much more difficult.
Nordstream explosions happened in four different locations (see map) but three were close together and the first explosion happened somewhat distant so the location is the center of the three explosions closest together and the fourth has its own location.
First Nordstream Explosion
From the chart we can see that this was a New Moon (about two hours after the exact conjunction of the Sun and Moon) which was below the earth so it was very dark at the time. The second chart was 17 hours later so that the New moon was almost a day old. Jupiter was opposite the Moon closely (see the fourth harmonic chart later for a graphic illustration of how close).
Second Nordstream Explosions
In a pattern we will see repeated, the Sun was in hard aspect — a sesquiquadrate in this case — to Uranus at about half a degree in the first chart but in the second chart this aspect was almost exact. One quick interpretation of Sun-Uranus hard aspects is that something unexpected happened this day.
Notice the shape formed by Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun. It looks like a kite with the tail pointing to the Sun. In astrology there is a planetary formation called a kite which looks much the same except the aspects holding the kite together are trines and sextiles. So I will call this formation a Hard Kite.
First Nordstream Explosion Harmonic 4
Finally note that Mercury is opposed to Neptune, and indeed this whole incident has Neptune writ large. No one will take responsibility for this huge terrorist act and most governments say they have no idea who did it. The mass media seems uninterested who finding out what happened. Perhaps relevant to this lack of interest is the fact that there are six planets retrograde: the five outers and of course Mercury. This incident is a huge mystery that no one is interested in. Of course, remember the old statement: Don’t ask a question if you don’t want the answer.
Second Nordstream Explosions Harmonic 4
This case was discussed previously (Midterms and Minor Aspects) and the fourth harmonic chart is interesting to look at since it reveals that Pluto is tightly configured with Moon/Jupiter and Uranus/Saturn.
Neptune is involved: though most consider this an act of sabotage and not a natural phenomenon there is much uncertainty about the perpetrator. A few weeks ago noted journalist Seymour Hearst posted an article telling how the United States, along with Norway, blew up the pipeline. He indicated that this was an act requiring a major player or a state to perform. There was absolutely no mention of this in the major media. Then more recently the New York Times and a prominent German newspaper published separately details from intelligence sources that the explosions were from explosives planted by a pro-Ukraine group of six from the fifty foot yacht Andromeda. This seems similar to the plot of a episode of the Sixties sitcom Gilligan’s Island where the Professor makes a coconut bomb which is planted underwater by Ginger and Mary Ann. Then there are claims that Russian ships were seen in the vicinity of the explosion a few days before it happened. Thus there is uncertainty of the perpetrators and at least two very conflicting stories, thus a Neptunian haze surrounds this event.
The next case to look at is a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a small town near the Pennsylvania border. The train was carrying several toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride which is used to make the very common PVC. But the derailment would not have been nearly as bad except that a controlled burn of the spilled contents took place later, thus exposing the toxic chemicals to a much wider group of people and also hiding the local effects since they were spread over a larger population. This chart is based on the time given by the sources I checked. Neptune is exactly on the Descendant and also square the Midheaven. There is an exact Sun square Uranus at the time, saying again that something unexpected would happen on that day. Not only does Neptune rule the toxic chemical spilled, but there is also uncertainty about what caused the accident and why it was made worse by the “controlled’ burn. Another problem was caused by lack of safety equipment; for example the train had the same type of brakes as used during the Civil War instead of newer brakes that could have prevented the derailment but cost more money. Also, more engineers on the train could have noticed the forming problems before the accident.
Train Derailment
Making this incident even more interesting is that Don Delillo wrote a novel in 1985 called White Noise that had been floating around Hollywood for many years until it was finally made into a movie with the same title released in 2022. The novel/movie concerns an airborne toxic cloud from a train derailment and the movie was filmed in East Palestine. The movie seemed to capture the disaster that happened in that town and some of the residents of the city were even extras in the movie. Certainly a case of life imitating art.
Earthquake in Turkey
The third incident to look at is the Earthquake in Turkiye/Syria. The time and location are exact (which is usually the case with earthquakes and seismographs). This earthquake took place about six hours after the Full Moon. Neptune is exactly square is Ascendant and there is a wide square of Sun and Uranus, not surprising since this earthquake took place three days after the derailment.
Number of Earthquakes in Turkey per Year
As shown in the graph Turkey has had a huge number of earthquakes in the Twenty-First Century compared to the time before. As of this writing there are about 53,000 casualties and 26 million displaced persons. While certainly not the deadliest earthquake in a century the death toll is high because it was early in the morning when most were asleep.
There is some contention that this was an artificial earthquake: a Romanian legislator brought this out in a speech before her Parliament. She maintains that since there was no true epicenter and many earthquakes occurred along the same line it was caused by something like HAAAP (High-Frequency Active Auroral Program) which of course was immediately denied by fact-checkers. Thus Neptune shows the doubts over the true origins.
I did not pick these three events expecting anything in common; they were large scale events that seemed to be important and with long term consequences. But there are some things in common. Two of the charts have tight aspects between Neptune and one of the angles, either the Ascendant or the Midheaven. All three have hard aspects between the Sun and Uranus. And all three are Neptunian in the more traditional sense.
We will soon see the first of three major sign changes for outer planets. Anytime an outer planet changes sign it is considered significant. There are many articles available that describe what has happened throughout history when, say, Neptune goes into Pisces or Pluto goes into Capricorn. A few years ago I discussed what happened when Pluto entered Capricorn. That occurred in 2007 through 2009 and the world saw what is called the Great Recession (as opposed to the Great Reset which is coming up). The previous time that Pluto entered Capricorn saw Britain become the dominant power in the (unipolar) world, which lasted until World War I when the USA took the reins of power even though it took the country another world war to act on this and believe it. And the time before that saw the Reformation start after Martin Luther supposedly nailed his theses to the church door. We will soon see all three outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — change sign within a 3 year period. One can see that if one change of sign is important, then three changing at almost the same time will be very very important.
In the book Astrology of Sustainability the astrologer J.Lee Lehman, PhD. talks about the transits of outer planets and mention this while discussing Pluto moving from Capricorn : “…cluelessness is a general characteristic of a period with a change in outer planet sign: the people who have benefited from the Old Regime often are slow to notice that the rules have changed.” Imagine what three changes of signs in three years for the outer planets will mean to those members of the Old Regime, that is Pluto, in the upcoming years.
Signs are, like house systems, a way of dividing 360 degrees by that ever popular number twelve starting of course at zero Aries. So whenever a planet changes sign it is making a multiple of 30 degree aspect to the Aries point. Thus when Pluto goes into Aquarius it will be sextile the Aries Point; when Neptune goes into Aries it will be conjunct the Aries Point; and when Uranus goes into Gemini it will be also sextile the Aries Point. Uranus has a period of 84 years so few are still alive who remember when Uranus last went into Gemini which was in 1942. The period of Neptune is twice that of Uranus so the last time Neptune entered Aries was 1862. Note that at that time Uranus was also in Gemini having entered that sign 1858 and 1858. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was in 1778 when the United States was fighting its Revolutionary War. It is fairly obvious the commonality of those three periods: both 1778, 1862 and 1942 saw the United States involved in a war. I wonder what will happen this time.
The last time all three planets changed sign at about the same time, and into the same signs as they are changing into now, was 500 years ago, as illustrated above. Uranus went into Gemini about 1524; Neptune went into Aries about 1534; and Pluto went into Aquarius about 1531 — the same three ingresses we are seeing now. Since Pluto has a period of 250 years we see that this upcoming entrance of Pluto into Aquarius is only the second time since 1531 that Pluto entered Aquarius. In the Sixteenth Century Uranus was the first to change sign and Pluto went into Aquarius seven years later; Neptune was the last to change sign. By the time Pluto entered Aquarius Uranus had moved into Cancer and shortly after Neptune entered Aries Uranus moved into Leo, two signs after Gemini. Not all three ingresses happened as close together as they do this time.
Thus 500 years ago the spread for all three ingresses was about 10 years so there was not much overlap. To say that the period 1524 to 1534 was important to the shaping of the modern world is not hyperbole. One can see that the three outer planets changing into the same three signs this decade is an echo of what happened 500 years ago. At the intermediate time 250 years after that early 16th century period, Uranus went into Gemini about 1775, Neptune went into Libra — opposite Aries — about 1779, and Pluto went into Aquarius about 1777. The timing of these sign changes with the birth of the United States is quite obvious. These three ingresses also mark the Enlightenment, though that had more to do with the grand trine of the three outer planets that century. The Enlightenment is that time when rationalism replaced religion as the dominant force in societies. I have predicted previously in this blog that we will see irrationalism (that is the opposite of rationalism) replace rationalism after this change the world is going through this decade. This may be hard if not impossible to believe if you were raised in the scientific paradigm that dominates this society and has seen the adulation of scientists after World War II (they gave us the atomic bomb that ended that war was a popular outlook in America at that time) and it has only grown since in our technically dominated world. And according to the rational mindset astrology is the ultimate in irrationalism.
One way to see when all three outer planets change sign visually is by using a graphical ephemeris in harmonic six because all three of the signs being changed into are positive: Pluto into Aquarius, Neptune into Aries, and Uranus into Gemini. The heavy horizontal line is 0 Aries or in this case the positive sign boundry. Looking at the image above we see that Pluto first moves into Aquarius in the Spring of 2023, just dipping its toe in so to speak and then goes back into the safer confines of Capricorn until late winter of 2024 when it moves seriously into Aquarius until it returns briefly to Capricorn in Fall of 2024 but finally moves into Aquarius for good at the start of 2025. Neptune goes stationary at the Aries point in Summer of 2024 (to be discussed in more depth in a later post) before returning to Pisces for winter of 2025-26, finally moving into Aries for good in early 2026. Finally Uranus moves into Gemini for late Summer, Fall and Winter of 2025 and finally moves into Gemini for good in Summer of 2026.
Summarizing, Pluto moves into Aquarius in 2023 and 2024, Neptune moves into Aries 2024, 2025, and Uranus moves into Gemini in 2025 and 2026.
As mentioned previously in this blog, the interpretations that I use of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in the current context can be laid out as follows: Note these planets have multi-variant meanings (I believe that term was used by Richard Tarnas) and so those planets have different meanings in different circumstances. But for the current crisis of this decade I think the following meanings are most useful. Uranus represents the individual people and the local and natural world as well as the desire and need for freedom. Neptune represents deception and illusion and propaganda as well as diseases and vaccines and that virtual world we call the “Internet” as well as a sense of a spiritual world. Pluto represent the opposite of Uranus in the current sense, big tech, big media, big pharma, global and the not natural — that is to say the technical and industrial.
With those meanings in mind we can see that these three different ingresses represent three different currents taking over the world . The first current will be of Plutonian energies, something that we can already see though the actual ingress won’t happen until the Vernal Equinox of 2023. The energy following that will be Neptunian which suggests there will be even more uncertainly about what is happening in the world and more propaganda supporting the narrative of Pluto so it will seem like the forces of Pluto will be all-powerful since it will appear at that time that that is the only energy available, but it will be hard to know for sure. But to paraphrase a common statement, Uranus bats last. The Uranian energies will finally come in after everyone is confused and believing that Pluto has triumphed. This will be discussed in a later post. This will see the biggest change in the direction of the world for a least 500 years. As the Romantic poet Shelly said a little over 200 years ago in the poem The Masque of Anarchy — “Ye are many, they are few” or to paraphrase Uranus is/are many and Pluto is/are few.
There is also a fourth change of sign at almost the same time as the first ingress of Pluto into Aquarius and so this should actually be considered the first of the many changes of sign in this short period, and this is one for a planet that for most of humankind’s existence was the outermost planet; Saturn is changing sign from Aquarius to Pisces in early March about two weeks before Pluto makes its first foray in Aquarius. This suggests a changed from the scientific viewpoint ruled by Aquarius to a more “non-scientific” viewpoint ruled by Pisces. In fact it has already started. The last two years have seen the popularity of the phrase “Trust Science”; I see it on lawn signs in richer neighborhoods above mine. This is a profoundly anti-science statement. You trust religion but science needs controversy and a variety of opinions in order to grow. I say this as someone who actually has a degree in science even though it is only BS. A more accurate statement would be Question Science since that is what scientists are suppose to do. But I guess that belief is so Twentieth Century.
So perhaps Science is dead but we just don’t realize it and may not realize it for many years.
Since Saturn is a relatively fast moving planet we will see it’s entrance into Aries within this decade also. And that time will be also important, but that is a subject for another post.
The midterm election in the United States is greatly looked forward to by political junkies because it is the first obvious election mandate for the Joe Biden presidency. Because of the interest, I have decided to look at this chart and it is indeed interesting.
Midterm Election
The first thing one notices is that a full moon is happening on that election day November 8, 2022. Mercury is conjunct the Sun tightly and Venus is widely conjunct it also. At the other end of the opposition Uranus conjoins the Moon as well as the North Node of the Moon. Expect the unexpected. This latter conjunction should be a big flag, and sure enough this Full Moon is also a lunar eclipse. Unlike a solar eclipse which last only an hour or so, a lunar eclipse lasts several hours. There are four retrograde planets at the time of this full Moon: Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. Mars is one of the least often retrograde planets and it is near to its natal position and thus a Mars return for the United States. The Sun and the Moon make an almost exact semisquare/sesquiquadrate with the US Midheaven. Clearly this election will influence the standing and appearance of the United States within the wider world, which is something the Midheaven represents.
Midterms – USA
One can say that the outcome of the election will be a surprise. This can be taken many ways. In the United States the first midterm election after a new president has been elected two years previously there is traditionally a loss for the President’s party, what President Obama called in the 2010 midterm election a “shellacking”. So on one hand this midterm might present a huge loss for the Democrats, even more that would be expected. On the other hand, it could be a surprise in that the ruling party suffers no defeats unlike what happens normally. Because of Neptune’s prominence perhaps we will not know the final result for some time after election day since the results will be obscured by Neptunian haze.
And of course, as is true for this year, Neptune is opposite its natal position and Pluto is conjunct its natal position. The last time there was a similar configuration was the late Thirties when Pluto was opposite its natal position and Neptune was conjunct its natal position. At that time the world saw the beginnings of World War II and the Great Depression had been going on for several years.
A brief discussion of aspects and orbs is needed for an introduction to minor aspects. Aspects are the angular separation between two planets or other points. The validity of aspects was shown decades ago by John Nelson of RCA in that the aspects of planets (in a heliocentric manner) could affect the quality of radio signals, something that RCA was very interested in. Hard aspects caused more interference with radio signals. Orbs are the distance from exact — called partile — in which an aspect is said to still be effective. One easy way to get an argument among astrologers is to question the size of orbs. Some astrologers use what I consider to be huge orbs, so big that meaning ceases to exist. I once did computer work for an astrologer who insisted on using a ten degree orb for what is usually considered a minor aspect, an inconjunct or quincunx of 150 degrees.
Aspects are based on numbers — the numbers which divide a full circle to give the aspect which is a fraction of a circle. The three most important aspect families are based on the first three numbers — called whole numbers in mathematics because that is what they are, not fractions of a number. The first number is one and that gives the conjunction which I consider the mother of all aspects just as the number one is a divisor of all other numbers. The next number is two which gives the opposition, square, and so forth which are based on octaves of two. The number after that is three which gives trines, sextiles and so forth.
Note that the much used number twelve belongs to both families of two and three and of course one but then all aspects are derived from the conjunction. And the number twelve occurs in many areas for example in Judeo-Christian religion where we have the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Christ. In both cases each of the twelve have been assigned to a particular zodiacal sign. Both the day and the night have twelve hours so this is a very well used number and has been for millennia.
The families of two and the families of three are most often described respectively as hard aspect and soft aspects, though I prefer the terms overt — in the open — and covert — not out front. Everybody can feel an aspect of series two, it knocks you over the head; these are called event-oriented, but series three aspects are present but do not force themselves on you. Traditionally they are easy, but all of World War II saw a transiting trine of Uranus and Neptune so they are not necessarily pleasant.
We normally just use what are called the Ptolemaic aspects (after Second Century astrology Claudius Ptolemy who wrote early astrology books Tetrabiblos and the Almagest). These are conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition. If one is a little more daring they would throw in the semisquare — the name indicates that it is half of a square — and the sesquiquadrate — a square and a half which are also called minor aspects. They can also be called the octile and trioctile, indicating that they are based on the number eight. Continuing the series, half of a semisquare is a demisquare of semioctile. These aspects are 22.5, 67.5, 112.5, and 157.5 degrees. Like the square and the semisquare, the demisquare can be powerful if it close to exact. But the question occurs what orb should one use for a demisquare?
A question about orbs is what is the shape of the orb, that is how does the strength of the aspect fall off as distance from exact — called partile — falls off. Is the orb a sawtooth, where it falls off rapidly as the aspect becomes less than partile? Is the aspect of the same strength if within the orb after which it falls off immediately, like a tooth shape? Or is it like a normal curve when the strength falls off slowly at first as the aspect is less than partile and then falls off faster. I tend to believe in the normal curve since many things operate based on a normal curve.
Normal Curve from Wikipedia
With a normal curve you have something called the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter lower case sigma). Most of the area under the normal curve is contained within two standard deviations on either side of the center, so I will consider the orb value as being two standard deviations. But remember that there is life outside two standard deviations, which suggests that occasionally an aspect can be active outside its orb, but this is not usual.
The next question is what orb to use. It seems obvious (to me) that as the aspect becomes a greater harmonic the orb should decrease, that is the orb for a square is less than an orb of a conjunction. I have always liked what are called harmonic orbs, in which the orb is proportional to the number on which the aspect is based. So for example if we consider the orb for a conjunction to be twelve degrees — and twelve is a number used often in astrology — then the orb for an opposition is six degrees, or twelve divided by two, and the orb for a square is three, or twelve divided by four. So an orb for semioctile or demisquare would be 12/16 or 45 minutes.
The following section on the October Surprise was written weeks ago but Mercury Retrograde got in the way. I used to think that “Mercury Retrograde” was just an excuse astrologers used when something did not come together but since that time I’ve experienced many Mercury retrograde periods during which many things did not come together, more so than in non-Mercury Retrograde periods. (But note that the periods for a couple of days before and after the retrograde — when Mercury is moving slow — are also problematic.) This just concluded Mercury Retrograde period — from September 10 to October 1 — was brutal.
October Surprise Graphical Ephemeris Harmonic 16
While looking at the current transits I noticed planets coming together in late September but in minor aspects so that one would usually not see it. Demisquare aspects are not often noticed but can be seen in a what is called a fourth harmonic chart — aka ninety-degree dial — where all positions are multiplied by four and then 360 is subtracted until the total is under 360. While looking at a graphical ephemeris I noticed an interesting lineup of planets in late September. Notice how the lines for Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto come together in late September. Shown below are the first harmonic of this date– 9/26 — where we notice Sun, Mercury, and Venus conjunct and oppose Jupiter, Mars trines Saturn, Jupiter semloadisquare both Uranus and Saturn which are square and Sloadun tightly semisquare Uranus. But then look at the fourth harmonic chart. Pluto is square the Sun-Jupiter opposition to Saturn-Uranus and Mars is trine/sextile both ends of the opposition. The squares in the fourth harmonic chart are demi-squares and the oppositions are actually semisquare/sesquiquadrates. There are a lot of plloadanets connected and I thought that this indicated an “October Surprise”.
October Surprise
This is not just a theoretical discussion: It is almost a tradition in American politics to have what is called an “October Surprise” before an election in November, something that is unexpected and causes changes in voter’s minds. The term originated in 1980 during the Carter-Reagan campaign when the Reagan team prevented the hostages in Iran from being released until after Reagan was elected, thereby denying a win to the Carter campaign; the Carter campaign was certain that a release before the election woulloadd have helped his election chances. During the summer people’s mind are consumed by other things than electoral politics, but after Labor Day and the return of students to their school people become more concerned about facts on the ground. So it is after Labor Day that an “October Surprise” can occur — October Surprise Season begins. By looking at astrology, it appears many planets will come together in minor aspects late September to set the stage for an October surprise.
October Surprise Harmonic 4
In the fourth harmonic chart (above) we see a T-square with Saturn-Uranus opposite Sun-Jupiter all square the apex point Pluto. Remember that in a fourth harmonic chart the square is in actually a demi-square.
Notice other timings. The transiting Sun goes over natal Neptune just after Labor Day and then goes over the MC on September 26, the same date as was pointed out above.
Looking back one can see things — obviously — that one can not see looking forward. With the benefit of hindsight we can see what happened about September 26. Much to the surprise of many — but not the CIA which warned Germany of this possibility (https://www.reuters.com/world/cia-warned-berlin-about-possible-attacks-gas-pipelines-summer-spiegel-2022-09-27/) — several bombs went off on the Russia to Germany pipelines Nordstream 1 and 2 which were supposed to deliver gas to Germany from Russia. The first explosion occurred at 2:03 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on September 26. Protests had been happening in Germany demanding that that country drop its sanctions against Russia and allow gas to flow through the pipelines, something that could not happen after bombs blew holes in the pipelines.
Nordstream Explosion
Looking at the chart for the first Nordstream explosion, we see that it happened about two hours after the New Moon with Jupiter in Aries opposite this New Moon. This perhaps indicates the explosion of gas that burst from the pipelines when the explosion hit, and the result has been captured in a photograph. Some are saying that this was the biggest one-time release of methane. When you look at the chart it appears like the is an arrow pointing at the New Moon, commanding your attention.
I’ve also included the fourth harmonic chart of this event so that you can see how similar it is to the chart earlier displayed that only suggested an “October Surprise”.
This is the Neptune war, and Neptune is a good symbol for the pharmaceutical and telecommunication industries that are so important these days and the defining industries of the age. Another important Neptune concept is propaganda. Though propaganda has a negative connotation, it merely means information in general. The propaganda you agree with is information but the propaganda that you disagree with are lies, or in today’s speak MDM or misinformation, disinformation, and malinformaton. Of these three the worst is the last item, which means information that is true but will get the hearer of such malinformation to take unorthodox opinions different than of the government.
In an important way this war differs from others before it, and this is due to the Internet being available. This is another reason I call this the first Neptune War, since the Internet (which I mean the Web) had just started when the Afghanistan and Iraq wars started. Now there are many independent reporters from countries which are not associated with either side. An example is Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean-American who has been reporting from the Ukraine and caused an online stir when he was captured by the Ukrainian SBU (their FBI). He has released independent reports from the Ukraine War on his YouTube channel that have nor pleased the Ukrainian authorities. Anybody can watch his reports which are still on YouTube. This kind of reportage did not and could not exist during the wars of the Twentieth Century. These external reports can certainly change our perception of reality. Thus you can see why the powers that be want to restrict the exposure of the independent sources.
Let us look at the astrological charts for some of the major participants of this Neptune War. There are several charts for the current Russia, but my favorite is for the actual lowering of the flag of the Soviet Union and raising the flag for Russia. This obviously bears huge symbolic meaning. This chart suggests a strongly introverted — all planets below the horizon — country and one with deeply held values — Venus conjunct Pluto. With the Moon in the first house and conjunct the Ascendant it is easy for it to be/feel insulted and take every thing personally. I’m sure Russia right now feels like the Rodney Dangerfield of countries, it just can’t get no respect and it craves that.
Russia
The transiting Sun was on the Russia MC on April 30 of 2014, just after the exact grand cross and just before the Odessa massacre, mentioned previously and below. Note that by 2020 transiting Uranus was coming to the MC showing that the country could be very excitable and upset at the time. At the start of Operation Z Uranus was a degree and a half away from the Midheaven on the tenth house side. Certainly the country would exhibit some Uranian tendencies to the outside world.
Invasion of Ukraine
Back in 2014 most western commentators agreed that there were far-right or even neo-Nazi forces in the Ukraine, as this article for Reuters makes clear; and here is one from the Washington Post . At the time people were worried about neo-Nazis from the US and other countries going to train in Ukraine. But since the Russian invasion these forces have disappeared, a purge of Neo-Nazis from Ukraine, a real denazification. But since we are talking about 2014 we can still admit that these dark forces existed. One of the more egregious acts of those forces occurred in the first week of May in 2014 as was mentioned in the last post. The memory of that action is so strong in the country that a curfew has been instituted for the first week of May in Odessa. It was then, about a month after the Maidan coup, that a group of people who were opposed to the coup were driven into union hall after which the doors were barricaded and the building was set afire. Those few who managed to escape were set upon by the neo-Nazi mobs who had started the fire and killed. The day is important because of the chart for April 22: this event was less than 10 days later.
Americans do not understand the meaning of the word “Nazi” to the Russians. In America “Nazis” are something that existed in World War Two and there was something called the American Nazi Party headed by George Lincoln Rockwell that existed a long time ago. And you can call people you disagree with a Nazi — remember the Soup Nazi in the comedy Seinfeld back in the Nineties. But to the Russians the term is more immediate. The Soviet Union lost over 25 million people to the armies of Nazi Germany and almost every family has relatives that died in the war. Every town still has monuments to the men lost in that war. Putin himself lost an older brother to the Germans in World War Two.
NATO
NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — is a big actor in this war, even though it is not considered a participant. Even though the name suggest that it involves countries centered around the North Atlantic, we now see observer status for Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Some suggest that this is actually a war between Russia and NATO. The original purpose of NATO was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down” according to the first secretary general of NATO. NATO was formed shortly after the start of the Cold War and while we don’t have a birthtime, one can safely assume that the meeting where the agreement was signed was sometime during the day, and in that case 12 noon is a reasonable guess. Of course the Sun in on the MC which is true by definition; the designation AM and PM stand for ante-meridian (before the sun reaches the meridian) and post-meridian (after the sun has reached the meridian). NATO is an Aries with Mars and Venus closely conjoined and also conjunct the Sun. NATO is a very hot-blooded, passionate organization. You have to wonder if a staff astrologer picked the birth date for this organization. I’ve heard it argued that for organizations noon is the correct time.
Jupiter is essentially the only planet on the west of the chart and is in the seventh house conjunct the Descendant. This of course changes with an afternoon birthtime. To the outside world, NATO appears to be very positive and enthusiastic but self-contained. The First house Pluto further accents this directness. Neptune is conjunct the IC, suggesting that NATO is somewhat uncertain about its foundation and purpose in life, but with all those planets up at the top of the chart (in Aries no less) it is headstrong and aiming to make a mark in the world.
NATO in 2014
Uranus of the Grand Cross — April 2014 — is on the Sun of NATO and thus all of the planets of the formation are aspecting NATO’s Sun (and loosely the MC),and much like that of the United States it is strongly hit by the transits of 2014. The Mars-Uranus opposition of those transits lie on the Sun-Neptune opposition of the natal chart, suggesting that what was happening at the time of the Grand Square involved NATO as well as the United States. Notice that the transiting Mars conjunction to Neptune is exact.
NATO and Z
At the time of the Russian invasion, Pluto was closely conjunct the Descendant of NATO — the “force majeure” that NATO feels is coming from outside the organization. Also transiting Neptune is tightly square the Moon of NATO — the organization is still unclear on how to deal with this crisis; this is an echo of the Neptune on the IC of the natal chart which was mentioned above. This transiting Pluto is conjunct the natal Jupiter suggesting that NATO’s sense of optimism and benevolence is feeling crushed by the force of Pluto (Russia). Pluto was on the Ascendant of the US on 9/11 and Pluto makes me think of the falling/flaming tower in the Tarot major arcana.
Ukraine
As with Russia, there are several charts for Ukraine. This chart is drawn for when independence from the Soviet Union was declared. With many planets above the horizon it is much more outgoing than Russia. Quite noticeable is Pluto near the Midheaven and Uranus exactly on the Ascendant. It is a country undergoing transformation (Pluto) and with a strong sense of independence; I would guess it does not like being told what to do. One notices first the cluster of planets around the Sun. Next we see Pluto at the Midheaven and much tighter Uranus conjunct the Ascendant at under two degrees.
Ukraine at Russian Invasion
In the transits during the Russian invasion Uranus is prominent also. Uranus is opposite the MC and trine the Ascendant. For April 22, 2014 we see that Pluto is conjunct the natal Neptune and in the first house of Ukraine. In 2012 and 2013 Pluto conjoined the Ukraine Ascendant which would suggest the powerful changes or transformations were coming to the country.
Ukraine and Grand Cross
And of course here is the standard chart for Vladimir Putin though I’m a bit hesitant to discuss it. This invasion of Ukraine is being personified — at least in the West — as being a war by Putin. We also hear that it is Putin’s price hike that is causing prices in the United States to rise. America has done this in other wars, such as attaching Sudam Hussein to the invasion of Iraq and Ho Chi Minh to the invasion of Vietnam, but the connection of Putin with this war is so strong it is scary. There are other people in the government of Russia whose opinions are important. We do not consider, for example, that the American invasion of Iraq is “Bush’s War” since we know many others were involved. The demonization of the leader of a foreign country can come to no good, but the demonization of Putin stated at least in 2015 with Russiagate. And indeed other Russians than Putin are being banned, such as Russian cats and Russian composers. Try to get an America symphony orchestra to play the 1812 Overture or Pictures From an Exhibition, and Christmas time will be without the Nutcracker Suite. We should also recognize that the birthtime is considered of a low level of reliability and I have been told there are even doubts about the year of birth.
Note the stellium of planets with his Sun in the Twelfth house. If the date is correct even without a good time that stellium still exists. Closest of the planets to the Sun is Saturn. Though being a Libra he is in some ways a Capricorn, and that is good for being a politician. People with a strong Saturn tend to feel much responsibility, and I am sure this sense of responsibility to the Russian people was one factor in his decision to take a “crossing the Rubicon” step of invading another country.
The most obvious feature of this chart is Pluto on the Midheaven, even tighter that with the Ukraine. The standard interpretation in the West is that this positioning shows how aggressive and overwhelming Putin is. But another interpretation is that it shows what a transformational leader Putin is. But of course with such a dubious birth time such interpretations are almost cartoons.
Those using the Transneptunian planets may point out that Putin has Zeus, the planet of directed energy (or war), conjunct his Pluto making him even more ruthless — the standard meaning for this conjunction is “to start something new” and with the invasion of Ukraine we certainly saw that. In the chart of the invasion discussed in the first part we say Mars square Zeus. But of course Putin also has Poseidon, a higher Neptune, conjunct his Sun which suggests a wise person. But the United States also has Poseidon conjunct its Sun, and the spirit of that conjunction inspires the popular belief of a “City on the Hill” but unfortunately other things have overwhelmed that, like a tight Pluto semisquare the Ascendant.
When the invasion of Ukraine happened, transiting Uranus in his Seventh house was opposite his Venus — a challenge to his sense of self worth coming from outside his country. He is well beyond his second Saturn return and transiting Saturn is trine his natal Saturn, more sense of responsibility.
There is one other participant whose chart we should look at, and he has an actual birth time, thought it is from memory. That is for the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. In the source I checked (a company run by the person who provided the data) it is given as very good data but that depends on Zelensky’s memory.
V. Zelensky
Jupiter rising in the first house is a good sign — he displays optimism to the people seeing him. The conjunction of Sun and Venus at about three quarters of a degree shows him as someone who identifies his self with how he displays, on how he is seen by others. The opinions of others are important to him. He has a tight Moon trine Neptune which indicates he is either an actor or a politician. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts had Neptune conjunct his Moon, and water (Moon) led to his downfall. Zelensky’s birth was just after Full Moon (as was that of another possible politician, Donald Trump) and if his time is close to correct his birth was one day after full Moon at the bottom of the sky, the symbolic lowest point in the chart, his foundation. There are some deeply personal things possibly with his mother that I’m not privy to. The least often retrograde planet — Mars — is retrograde and loosely opposite his Sun — good for a Churchill in a T-shirt, as he has been dubbed. At the time of his birth Mars was halfway through its retrograde cycle.
Zelensky Russian invasion
At the start of the Russian invasion Saturn was right on his Midheaven, the only time this happens on this Saturn cycle. This indicates that he will have burdens places on him at this time which I realize is self evident.
Zelensky and the Grand Cross
At the time of the Grand Cross mention previously — late April 2014, the real start of the war — Pluto was on his Mercury, but there was nothing as impressive as that Grand Cross on the US Chart or even on the NATO chart.
Ultimately, these massive changes in society are because of computers and especially the Internet — Neptune truly represents the virtual as opposed the real. When the World Wide Web was first introduced under the Uranus- Neptune conjunction of the early Nineties it was believed that this would lead to true world-wide democracy and other optimistic visions of the future. What was unrealized by most at the time is that the Internet could lead to the ultimate totalitarianism since the Internet can also be used for ultimate control. What we see now is a world wide conflict between this two possible futures through the use of the Internet and computers.
Both the decade of the Sixties and the decade of the Nineties had a very important conjunction of two of the three outer planets — Uranus and Pluto in the Sixties and Uranus and Neptune in the Nineties. The third possible conjunction — Neptune and Pluto — happened in the early 1890s — a good lead in to the eventful Twentieth Century. But we have been fortunate to witness two out of three outer planet conjunctions within 30 years. But the Sixties are more highly regarded in popular culture than the Nineties, even thought, to name just one item, the development of the World Wide Web was more significant than anything that happened in the Sixties, even than the Beatles!! But the Internet was born in the Sixties even thought it would not become popular until that other decade. Perhaps this loving of the Sixties is because the generation of the sixties, the Boomers, still control the media. But as explained previously, there is twenty year Jupiter-Saturn cycle overlaid over the decades, and the Sixties was a waxing decade (as is the current decade) while the Nineties was a waning decade and the nature of the decade effected how we would respond to events of that decade. Waxing decades are just considered more important and eventful, witness the Twenties, the Forties and the Eighties.
There is much worry expressed in the United States about Russian disinformation. There was even a proposal for a Disinformation Governance Board to oversee the spread of disinformation, especially Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. This board was to have been overseen by the self-described Mary Poppins of Disinformation (there is a video of her singing about this and she has good pipes). And of course disinformation is itself ruled by Neptune. This particular organization has been halted, at least temporarily, probably because of all the bad press it garnered and the reference to the Ministry of Information in a novel by George Orwell, but I’m sure that the spirit lives on. But since all forms of Russian information (such as the television service RT) has been banned from the US airways it is unclear what amount of Russian information/disinformation is allowed into this country. Perhaps it is anything Russia says that happens to reported on. It seems a move is afoot to label history of Ukraine and the Maidan Revolution as Russian disinformation, which immediately makes what was once the truth now suspect. The banning of RT currently is reminiscent of England cutting the overseas cables from Germany shortly after the start of World War I. The result of those overseas cables being cut was that America could not get the German view of things but only the British view. Thus there were reports of Huns raping Nuns and stories of crucifixion. These very horrific stories increased the desire for war in America. But the amount of United States propaganda supporting the Ukraine war which the United States is theoretically not involved in is more that I have ever seen; the propaganda supporting the Iraq War in 2003 pales in comparison. Those who are old enough to remember the propaganda during World War II confirm that the current level is higher than ever.
I like to noticed the connections between this sixth crisis and the previous fifth crisis that was World War II and its aftermath. Two things stand out: World War II was the real thing that ended the Great Depression for Americans, and so the leaders of America realized that the defense spending necessitated during the war needed to be kept going to avoid a return to the Depression. As a result the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about was continued with increased defense spending for the new Cold War that started within a couple of years after the end of World War II, under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 1946-1948. The MIC is certainly reaping benefits under this current war. Recently the US Congress has passed a $40 billion bill to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, but most of that money will go to defense industries such as Raytheon. The thought that this has any connection to the fact that the current Secretary of Defense was previously on the Board of Raytheon is only from the minds of cynics or conspiracy theorists.
Cold War
It is clear — since they say it — US wants regime change in Russia. At first it seemed in the West that we must support Ukraine but with no boots on the ground. Later it became clear that there were US boots on the ground of Ukraine and had been for awhile, probably since 2014, and this included people from CIA and NATO giving support and training to Ukrainian troops. Any talk of a negotiated settlement was considered nonsense since the US wanted to wear down Russia much like the (US instigated) Russian invasion of Afghanistan wore down the Soviet Union. However to many it seems that war is wearing down the United States and Europe more than Russia.
Recently but before this invasion year Voldemort Zelensky pondered if Ukraine should get nuclear weapons since those in Ukraine were given up with the break-up of the Soviet Union. The image of “Nazis With Nukes” was certainly a good way of getting the Russians riled up.
Few who are not historians remember the Cuban Missile Crisis since they don’t teach it in school. Fewer than 20 years ago when there was a big protest world wide to the Iraq War there were many more who remembered that crisis. In that case of Cuba 60 years ago the United States invaded that island nation “only 90 miles from our shores” when Cuba became friendly to the Soviet Union, and almost had a nuclear war because the Soviets tried to put missiles into Cuba. Up until this time that is the closest the world has come to nuclear War since World War 2. Kennedy agreed to remove missiles from Turkey that were already scheduled to be removed in exchange for the Soviet Union removing their missiles from Cuba. Since President Biden has shown that he is more of a peacemaker than JFK I’m sure we have nothing to worry about! ` The example of Cuba shows how antsy major powers become when they see a possible threat very close to them. Imagine if Canada wanted to be have a Russian military base on Vancouver Island how disturbed the United States would be. But of course since many Americans consider Russia as a gas station disguised as a country (a joke John McCain told often) it is not really allowed to get upset. But since Russia has nuclear weapons on the scale of the United States, perhaps it is due a little more respect. As we can see from the chart of Russia, it is a country that wants this respect. Maybe we can send them that famous Aretha Franklin song instead.
From a wider perspective what we are seeing now is the end of the 500 year period that was a unipolar world. First it was Spain, then Holland, the England and finally the United States for the last 100 years as the dominant power. We are now moving into the multipolar world, where several countries are important. If the United States recognized this then things would go much better that what is currently happening: the US is fighting to hold onto its crown as the single most important power instead of being satisfied as being one of the important powers. Fighting this trend will only reduce the power of the United States in the long run.
It won’t be called that in the history books of course. Maybe the Cyber-war (from cybernetics) or the Social Media War or the Propaganda War. But Neptune in its various meanings very well represents this war. Neptune or Neptune inspired things seem very important at this time in history. While there has always been an important place for propaganda in the midst of war — consider stories of Huns raping Nuns in Germany in World War I — the use of propaganda in this war is magnified because there are now many high tech means of creating and transmitting it.
FDR
The famous American astrologer Rob Hand tells how the astrologers of the Thirties, who were mostly Republicans — unlike today’s astrologers — could not believe the accepted chart for FDR because he had Uranus in the twelfth house and those astrologers could not believe that such a extreme radical as FDR didn’t have Uranus in the first house where it would be much more prominent. One may think that since astrologers reject the standard narrative that astrology is a pseudoscience they would be more likely to contest other standard narratives — such that FDR was a radical — than most people, but human nature does not always work like that.
A more recent example of this blindness is the 2016 election where most astrologers thought that Hilary Clinton would be elected President even though a couple of fairly standard methods for predicting the winner showed Donald Trump elected. See for example the book Astrology: Worlds Visible and Invisible by Everett Blackman for a discussion of one method of determining the President.
Below is a chart for the speech by Vladimir Putin announcing the invasion (or special operation) of Ukraine. The actual invasion happened a short time later. This was called Operation Z, the Russian name for the invasion of Ukraine, though you can’t call it that in Russia. This was the beginning of Putin’s speech (at 6 in the morning) announcing the upcoming invasion. I don’t find it very compelling for the start of an event that will change the world and may even destroy it. At the start of the Covid Panic we had a Saturn-Pluto conjunction, which time after time has indicated something important happening.
Operation Z
Just look at the Saturn Pluto opposition at both the start of the Spanish-American war and 9/11. And both of those opposition were on the Ascendant-Descendant axis of the United States, indicating that both events would impact the U.S. In this chart for Operation Z we have not even a minor aspect between Saturn and Pluto. We have a tight semisquare between Jupiter and Pluto, and a square between Mars and the hypothetical planet Zeus, which can suggest an outbreak of hostilities but still is not world shaking. That square does suggest the invasion — the meaning given is “military technique, officer, firearm” — but I was hoping for a lot more. There is also a conjunction of Venus and Mars in the first house near the Ascendant which suggests that the Russians feel passionate about this war.
And then I realized that that was not the true start of the war. Getting the correct birth time is important to astrology. Once a German doctor measured several events, such as crowning, first breath, and cutting the umbilical, to find which birth time gave the best chart. This is discussed in the book Recent Advances in Natal Astrology. The first breath was the winner. We must do the same thing with world events.
When did this war start? It could have been when a recently formed CIA decided to train ex-Nazi Ukrainians to combat the Soviet Union; it could have been when in 1991 representatives for America said to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward” if East and West Germany could reunite and join NATO, but that promise wasn’t in writing so it didn’t count. By 1998 other countries joined NATO and by now there have been fourteen additional countries in NATO that have certainly pushed the organization more than an inch towards Russia; we will discuss the chart of NATO in the next post. Experts such as George Kennan, who could be said to have started the Cold War with just one telegram (though it was a Long one) warned about this expansion of NATO just before he died at 101. He thought expansion of NATO a really bad idea.
No the war started in 2014 as evidenced by this chart.
Grand Cross
In late April of that year the following formation occurred: a grand cross with Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto. It was part of the Uranus Pluto square of that period in the early teens. Notice how tight this grand cross is: each orb is less than 20 minutes of arc — this is almost perfect. This was the dominant astrological formation of the year (or any other year for that matter).
David
Charts with distinct patterns can be significant. For example a man named David who lived 3000 years ago had a chart with a six pointed star, which was difficult to do before the outer planets were discovered. Back then they used wider orbs than I do. The grand trine between the Moon, Mercury and Jupiter is clear, but also imagine another grand trine between Venus, Mars and Saturn. He put that star on his shield to warn his competitors of his awesome chart. That star still appears in many places currently and even appears in the flag of a country. The formation is even named for the man who had that star originally.
Grand Cross Within USA
Also interesting is how this grand cross fits into the US chart like a hand fits into a glove. (We’ll see in a later post that this chart fits into the charts of the other participants as well.) Jupiter is conjunct the U. S. Sun at a half a degree and all the other three planets of the grand cross are as tight or tighter to the U.S. Sun. Thirteen degrees of cardinal signs has been energized by this grand cross. Certainly something important happened within/to the US in 2014 but it wasn’t obvious (at least to me) at the time what that was. That period was half way through the second term of Obama and his viceroy for Ukraine, his vice president, was involved with that country. For example, his son had a job with a Ukrainian oil company that paid him well even though he had no experience with the oil business or with Ukraine. And Ukraine was still important under Trump: one impeachment for President Trump involved his call to Ukraine and he was slow to send weapons to that country even though his predecessor thought that would be a bad idea. Ukraine has been involved in American politics for at least eight years.
And here is a graphical ephemeris for that period and you can see clearly how all four planets cross at one point of time. Astrologers knew about this formation long before it happened. Note that it is part of the Uranus Pluto square the effected much during the start of the second decade of the Twenty-First Century, for example the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street in the United States occurred at the time. And I have a personal story about the events under that square. At the time I was in the habit of riding my bike through several towns in my valley and back again, a total distance of about 50 miles every weekend. The trips were always fairly uneventful. But the trip I took on the weekend before April 22 stands out in my memory for several events. The first was a large pickup truck parked on the bikepath three miles from my house. Later there was a minor accident. After that on the return trip I avoided another accident but got into skirmish with a pedestrian on the bike path. It was obviously memorable.
The year of 2014 was special in Ukraine. That was when an event called the Maidan Revolution, which had been forming the previous year, took place in Kiev’s Square of the same name. This followed several months of demonstrations against the then current democratically elected President of Ukraine. Some people think that the United States was involved in that protest, even though the U.S. has never done anything like that before except in South America (remember the Monroe Doctrine) and in Iran and perhaps a few other places. During the protest some US government officials – such as Victoria Nuland, who holds a high position in the Biden administration — were handing out cookies to the protestors. For Americans an analogy would be if on the insurrection of January 6 there were representative of the Duma, the Russian parliament, handing out cookies to the protestors while admitting that they thought Trump would be a better President. If that happened you can see that some people would be a tad suspicious.
After these demonstrations in the square there was a coup in Ukraine, the most obvious coup in history according to the founder of the private CIA, Stratfor. Some people think the coup was supported or even instigated by the US; the NYT thought so at the time. Nevertheless, the current President of Ukraine was replaced by someone who in a strange coincidence happened to be the person Ms. Nuland thought would be perfect for the job.
One of the most odious acts of this period is when at least 40 workers who were against the Maidan revolution were driven into a union house in Odessa by some who were called at the time Nazis and burned alive or killed if they tried to escape. This happened on May 2, 2014 a couple of months after the coup. This year the government of Ukraine has set a curfew for May 2 because they were afraid of protests or riots on that day to draw attention to the event. In certain ways that massacre of Russian citizens in Odessa can be considered the start of this war, the Kristallnacht of this war, and the astrological conditions are extreme. You will seldom see an exact grand cross involving several outer planets. And of course the Uranus-Pluto square during that three year period set up the conditions.
Now that we have established the chart for the beginning of this war that I am calling the first Neptune War, we will look at the charts of the participants next time and see how the chart for late April 2014 was involved with them. But I’ll end by noting on effect that chart had on the internal manifestation in the United States.
The Sun square Saturn in the US chart was highlighted by this grand cross since Mars is conjunct the natal Saturn. Normally Sun square Saturn would suggest an inferiority complex, a certain restriction on one’s life force. No one would say that applies to the United States. Of course, having Sun conjunct Jupiter and Venus, the “Greater Benefic” and the “Lesser Benefic” in traditional astrology certainly helps counteract this tendency. But deep down the country has an inferiority complex involving how it has treated other people, especially black and native people, but it has tried hard to ignore that square for a long time. That repressed Sun square Saturn is now coming into the fore because of the emphasis given to it by the grand cross and you can see all of this in discussions involving racism, white privilege, etc. The people and the government of the United States are acting out this square but not really dealing with it.
As has been discussed many times recently in this blog, Neptune is a most important planet in today’s world. As I write this, Neptune is in the third decan (third of a sign – 10 degrees) of Pisces approaching Zero Aries, the cardinal point that everyone in the world shares. By 2025 and 2026 Neptune will finally cross the cardinal axis, so Neptunian conditions will prevail for a while.
Neptune at 0 Aries 1
Recently I have been exposed to two different opinions on how Neptunian energies are already playing out in the world. These two large assumptions regard the mental state of the world: they suggest that certain groups of people are in fact very deluded and attempting to force their delusions on others making life difficult for them. In just what I have written you see that Neptune — the master of delusion — applies to this phenomena. Neptune is the fulcrum or pivot point around which these two hypotheses revolve.
One branch of this is shown by this headline from the online magazine Salon.com: “Is America experiencing mass psychosis?” and the subhead adds :”Psychologists say that America is going through what Carl Jung warned us would happen eventually”. Jung warned that societies were in danger of a pandemic of delusional ideas. The author of this article sees signs of mass psychosis everywhere she looks: many people doubting reality, such as skepticism that for the last two years the world has been beset by a dreadful plague and the only salvation is to use drugs provided by pharmaceutical companies. Others signs of delusion are from those who doubt that the 2020 national election was won by Democrat Joe Biden. And though she does not add in the followers of QAnon it certainly is a illustration of delusion. And the author of this piece — which of course reflects a wider viewpoint among those who read Salon — thinks that the recent eruption of the Covid pandemic has brought such feelings to the fore. As the author explains, when you have lost your job and are gripped with a fear of dying from a deadly disease, and hold anti-government beliefs or lack a college education, you are especially prone to such delusional (Neptune again) thinking. One prime example of this thinking is that of Covid-deniers who reject scientific knowledge and turn to purveyors of misinformation such as Robert Kennedy or Joseph Mercola. Some of these miscreants even believe that the Covid vaccines can kill them instead of being safe and effective.
The author references Carl Jung when she suggests that people who are into conspiracy theories or followers of New Age religions are acting out against their parents, or in this case the surrogate for parents, the state. People need myths and in an increasingly secular society that need is not met. New Age religions or QAnon, which the author considers as similar but opposite, draw those who need some myths in their life. These two are mirror images of one another, one ignoring the shadow and the other being only shadow. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out which is which.
A related link in that article is to one about the “Disinformation Dozen”, twelve people whose anti-vax propaganda is the most spread by Facebook. The top two of these 12 are the above mentioned Mercola and Kennedy. But their closed feedback loop is closer than just being the top two. Mercola was a pre-publication reader of Kennedy’s recent book about Anthony Fauci, and Kennedy’s website often publishes articles by Mercola. Facebook denies that most anti-vax posts are from these dozen, saying that only a small percentage of the relevant posts are from those twelve. In this case the “Disinformation Dozen” is more figurative than literal, though Facebook (now Meta) only interprets the statement in a literal fashion. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, the creators of the meme Disinformation Dozen meant, or should have meant, that these twelve are major fountainheads of the misinformation that influence many others, the head of the anti-vax snake as it were. And here is a good take down of Robert Kennedy from a left viewpoint which shows this is the attitude of those to the left of the readers of Salon.
Some even believe that the vaccines were planned to harm people and that many doctors are purposely denying that the vaccines are dangerous for fear of losing their jobs, income, and well-respected position in the community.
And just in time for the New Years, everybody’s favorite podcaster Joe Rogan (whose listener/viewership is at least 10 times that of CNN) interviewed Dr. Robert Malone (who did work leading to mRNA vaccines while in graduate school, is double-jabbed, and gave money to the Biden-Harris campaign). Malone is a true apostate since once he was truly part of the medical establishment and has rebelled against it. Melone mentioned the subject of the alternate Neptunian hypothesis presented below, and this link for the Salon article which covers one view of this other hypothesis, which Salon considers totally fallacious. This article about the most popular podcast from a most popular podcaster highlights the personage who the readers should hate.
This alternative Rogan podcast was not allowed to exist without quickly drawing criticism. 270 “medical specialists” demanded that Spotify, new home to Joe Rogen, ban this current podcast because it contains so much misinformation (hello, Neptune). The upset at the brazen Joe Rogan podcast is previewed by this Salon article. And since this article appeared, the pressure on Joe Rogan has only increased after Neil Young gave Spotify the ultimatum either withdraw that Joe Rogan podcast or stop using his music.
Neptune at 0 Aries 2
The opposing or complementary thesis is proposed by Belgian Professor of clinical psychology Mattias Desmet (University of Ghent) and is called mass formation. He has a book out in English called The Psychology of Totalitarianism describing this. Mass formation is a psychological condition that applies to the collective (mass) just as hypnosis applies to the individual. When a person is hypnotized they are capable of believing such things as the onion they eat is a sweet apple. For the collective the groups can believe that the leader that tells them to hate certain groups or nations is a wise and peaceful person. Previous examples of mass formation are the witch trials (Salem and earlier in Europe), Dutch tulip mania in the Seventeenth Century, parts of the French Revolution, the Dreyfus case in France, the Communist Revolution in Russia, the Nazi rule in Germany, racial massacres, and of course Jonestown, which added the phrase “Drinking the Koolaide” to our vocabulary. But in the future, if Desmet’s thesis is correct, this term could be replaced by “Taking the Jab”.
Desmet divides the population into three groups depending on how they respond to the mass formation. The largest group, 40% to 60%, go along to get along, that is to say they agree with the dominant narrative because that is much easier to do, they win the approval of their friend and neighbors, and they don’t have to think for themselves . The next group are the true believers who accept the dominant narrative fully. This group is smaller at about 30% to 40%. Finally the remaining group are the apostates or dissidents. He found that the more educated are the most susceptible to mass formation despite what some (the highly educated) might believe. Professor Desmet thinks that in the current world those who believe that their leaders are correct in thinking that the largest pandemic in a century has engulfed the world and only by the injection of certain drugs can this pandemic be eliminated are suffering from a mass formation. He doesn’t use the term psychosis to avoid the suggestion of severe mental problems, though some do use that term.
The link to a YouTube is not allowed here, but the video is “youtube.com/watch?v=CRo-ieBEw-8&list=WL&index=10&t=14s”
There are four conditions that Desmet considers necessary for the formation of a mass formation: A feeling of isolation (such as from a strong lockdown); the sense that things are meaningless / they no longer make sense / that there are too many contradictory messages; a free floating anxiety, one that doesn’t have a true center of focus, and a free floating frustration, one that can be directed towards a common enemy, those who in some way do not conform or an opposing state that the rulers condemn.
But of course it would not take long for an official denunciation of anything such a a mass formation: both Reuters and AP report that there is no such thing according to the experts they interviewed. And the Salon article mentioned above concerning Joe Rogan makes it clear that this theory is not accepted.
Neptune at 0 Aries 3
In either case there is the thought that a mass psychosis is engulfing the world, either to make the masses doubt the wisdom of their leaders or to make the masses accept the wisdom of their leaders. In any case, Neptune is highlighted. As mentioned above Neptune is approaching the zero Aries point, the first time in 168 years. Previously Neptune crossed 0 Aries in 1861 and 1862 and crossed 0 Libra in 1941 and 1942. The commonality is clear. As mentioned in the previous post, both these were crisis times. This time Neptune will cross 0 Aries in 2025 and 2026 as illustrated. There is already talk of a civil war in America between the two factions indicated above witness all the protests around the world that are never mentioned in the mainstream media but are still there.
Perhaps a civil war is desirable to those at the top with a civil war keeping those at the bottom involved fighting one another while those at the top can keep making money and taking power for themselves. Seems like a win-win situation!
Postscript. As this cartoon shows, the Covid Narrative was replaced by the Ukraine Narrative without missing a beat. But Neptune still rules.
The fog of War is a common expression in wartime (and also the title of a book by Robert McNamara who was Secretary of Defense during many years of the Vietnam War and so knows a thing or two about wartime fog) and this is the foggiest war at least since World War I. This term refers to how difficult in wartime it is to see what is really happening. Both sides in the conflict have reason to support their arguments with propaganda. And journalists, who at one time were considered arbiters of truth, during war they side with whatever government they are under. So as a result of this “fog” it becomes very difficult to tell what is going on. Note how Neptune obviously rules fog (air and water) in both the literal and figurative meanings. Another appropriate saying to keep in mind is that in war truth is the first casualty. Truth is missing, it has disappeared in good Neptunian fashion. The propaganda level is very high and truth is hard to come by. Propaganda, as I set out a few posts back, is also signified by Neptune. The safest course is not to believe anything which is said about a war.
And Nazis are again in the foreground as they were in World War II. While Nazis have been referred to before, like the American Nazis marching in Skokie Illinois in 1977 which was a great test for the ACLU and caused distress among many Jewish people, but somehow this is different, not wannabe Nazis in America but actual Nazis in a county that helped support Hitler back in the last crisis. So in this current time we hear that either Putin is fighting the Nazis in Ukraine or the President of Ukraine is Jewish so how can there be Nazis. In either case, there are Nazis being mentioned.
This is a Twenty-first Century world war and not a Twentieth Century world war so expect it to be a lot different. Our expectations of “world war” is based on the two that we know. Einstein is reputed to have said “I don’t know with what weapons the third world war will be fought but the fourth will be fought with sticks an stones”.
In the previous post I discussed the six crises that have beset American history with the sixth currently happening. Perhaps you haven’t seen the current crisis yet — to paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron, the crisis will not be televised, or for this day and age, the crisis will not be YouTube’d. It is only in hindsight that you can truly judge the strength of the crisis; who could predict the full scale of World War Two from the Japanese invasion of China. And even with a marked start of that crisis — Germany’s invasion of Poland — hindsight is better.
But there is another historical/astrological cycle that is important — what I’ve called in this blog in 2018 a Zeitgeist Change; these are shown by a midpoint configuration involving the three outer planets. This happens two or three times a century, with usually Uranus or Pluto as the apex planet.
There have been three zeitgeist changes in the Twentieth Century; each marked a major shift in the reality of the world. The German word zeitgeist means the spirit of the age and when the zeitgeist changes a new reality becomes dominate, so much so that people begin to forget that the world was once different than it is now — perhaps the current is a New Normal.
First Zeitgeist Change of Twentieth Century
In the first decade of the Twentieth Century such a midpoint configuration existed with Uranus as the apex planet. This period involved a change into the “Modern” world and in fact is a movement called Modernism, seeing for example the development of relativity and quantum mechanics, two theories that completely changed the scientific view of the universe. That decade saw the rising renown of both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung; after their theories became popular the view of human behavior changed for good. Many artists such as Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky changed what was accepted as art. And while the automobile was invented in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, the automobile became popular in this decade with especially the Model T Ford in America. Also invented in the previous century but became extremely popular in the new century were both personal photography with the recently introduced Kodak film camera and motion pictures which allowed everyone to see a new reality. And this first decade of the Twentieth Century also saw the first powered flight that changed the world forever and made it seem much smaller.
Second Zeitgeist Change of the Twentieth Century
The second zeitgeist change of that century was at the end of World War II. This was marked by the explosion of three nuclear weapons — two dropped on Japanese cities — which seemed to cleave time in two and marked the beginnings of a new world. This period has been described as the birth of the Anthropocene Age where so many things changed in a short period of time, the consequences of which would not be known for some time. The direction of many trend lines, such as that for the use of plastic or pesticides, took a rapid upward slant starting after the War. This midpoint had the apex planet of Pluto which is totally appropriate for the beginning of the atomic age.
Third Zeitgeist Change of Twentieth Century
The third zeitgeist change was in the late seventies and marked the rise to dominance of the political philosophy known as neo-liberalism. Briefly, this is the philosophy that the markets are everything and that (to quote one proponent of neo-liberalism) there is no alternative. The apex planet in this case was Uranus. We now forget that time after World War II and before 1980 when the markets were not so all-consuming as they are now and the United States had the highest tax rate of over 70%.
The last time both events – crisis and zeitgeist change — happened in close proximity was at the end of World War II. With both these events occurring at the same time, the scale of the change was tremendous. Did this fifth crisis caused these massive changes that followed it or was it a coincidence? One can argue either way.
Crisis and Change in the Twentieth Century
Here is a chart that shows both the midpoint configuration zeitgeist change and the fifth crisis with Neptune near the MC and Uranus near the Descendant of the US. The date is that of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Normally Uranus or Pluto are the apex point of the configuration, but once in every 500 years the apex planet is Neptune; this is the type of midpoint we are having this decade. The previous zeitgeist change 500 years ago brought us the modern world and all that entails with the printing press and the New World, a place that would be totally unrecognizable to a citizen of the Middle Ages or of the ancient world. This was the start of the 500 year party. We could say that we will move into what could be called the “Post-Modern” world if that term were not already in use. Perhaps a better term is a post-party world. As I’ve said before, after a party you have to clean up all the messes made and replenish all the items used up during the party.
Major Zeitgeist Change Sixteenth Century
The midpoint configuration 500 years ago lasted 1503-1507, about half as long as the midpoint this time lasts. We are moving into the Post-Party world, but unfortunately manfy people do not want the party to end. We will see a major conflict as this zeitgeist change takes place.
Major Zeitgeist Change Twenty-First Century
I have previously sketched out the opposing forces in this drama. One side has already let it be known what they want this zeitgeist change to be in books such as the Great Reset by Klaus Schwab (a Bond villain if there every was one) and in the slogan adopted in many places: Build Back Better. Several people have named this side of the drama with such names as Global Capitalism or Mr. Global, but I prefer the more inclusive term (as spelled out previously) of Pluto. ` But for the other side — called by some the Greek word demos (which is not short for demonstrations) which means the people and from which we derive the word democracy and for which I use the symbol Uranus — there is no plan for what the zeitgeist change should bring, no plan B at all. Some ideas have been floated, such as the People’s Reset, but the demos — Uranus — had better get its act together to fight against the plans that Pluto brings, because never in history have the Pluto people had the concerns of the Uranus people in mind. As George Carlin put it: “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it”.
Another way of looking at this split is in how people think about dealing with the upcoming problems of the world that we now hear so much about from political leaders to individuals such Greta Thunberg. It is now the end of the 500 year party but most people only recognize some symptoms rather the underlying problem. One way of dealing with these problems is more technological fixes where all vehicles become electric and we eat meat that is grown in a lab or insects also grown in a lab because those in nature are dying. This proposes a techno-industrial future where we will only live in a virtual world because the natural world is so toxic. This future has been prophesied for a long time — see the story “The Machine Stops” written by E. M Forster over 100 years ago. But at least (from the perspective of Pluto) things do keep on growing and there is money to be made so that is a good outcome. The people who support these ideas are called Bright Greens or as I call them the Pluto Greens.
The other greens (Uranus — the people’s — Greens) believe that only by de-centralizing the governments and de-industrializing the world, returning to the natural, and a policy of de-growth and embracing natural health do we have any hope of saving the planet. One can see this is directly opposite to the Pluto Greens: more growth and “green” industry (an oxymoron), escape from nature, and industrial medicalized health. But there is not as much money made from following the Uranus green ideas. Again we see this basic split in humanity, one that I have referred to often as Pluto versus Uranus or Global versus Local.
Another term I have heard about what the change could be from the Uranus side is called the Great Awakening, perhaps an echo of the Great Awakenings in American history (at least two) that appear to be associated with Uranus-Neptune conjunctions. Note that in the second half of this decade we have a Uranus-Neptune sextile, an aspect not nearly as dynamic as a conjunction, though in this case Pluto is closely involved. I’ve heard that there is a move to form alternative institutions to the current ones which have proven time and again to be hopelessly corrupt. The biggest area of accomplishment seems to be an alternative to the mainstream media; the term I’ve heard used for this alternative is New Media, the kind you won’t find on YouTube or as these folks call it GooTube.
For thousands of years people have lived in a hierarchical society where those at the top, perhaps called kings or patricians (Pluto), had a say over those at the bottom, perhaps called commoners or plebeians (Uranus). That is the same separation into two groups that we see in modern times though now those at the top are so much more powerful than those at the bottom than ever in previous history. Perhaps a real change of the zeitgeist would be to have a real democracy where there is no longer a hierarchical society, so this may be a time for a call for the end of Hierarchy.
The world is heading for disaster (bad stars) in so many ways — a library could be filled with books describing the ugly futures (dystopias) now in store. End of the world books and movies have been around for a while, see for example When Worlds Collide from 1951 (based on a 1933 novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie), but now the number of these has increased dramatically.
Note that this division between Pluto and Uranus — Up versus Down — is different than the more classic Jupiter versus Saturn — Left versus Right — which is a concept that originated in the French Revolution. People make a mistake if they conflate these two polarities. Supporting Uranus issues is neither necessarily Republican or Democratic though both political parties like to pretend they do. ` The world has been under the leadership of Pluto for all these millennia. The wagon is racing out of control under the guidance of Pluto and it is demanding (to Uranus) that it be permitted to right the wagon. Pluto wants Uranus to believe that the problem is not with Pluto itself but rather it’s all the fault of Uranus and that Pluto has ways to keep the wagon on the road. Uranus must seize the reins of the wagon before it goes into the ditch. Pluto wants to keep the factions of Uranus separated and fighting among themselves so that Pluto has free reign. It is a long standing dogma of Pluto and why they fear real democracy (cf James Madison): those folks really don’t have the wisdom that Pluto has and so as their betters Pluto must lead them as if they were children.
To sum up, the world is seeing a huge crisis in this decade, one bigger than World War II, more geographically widespread, and involving more death and destruction, followed by the biggest change in (at least) 500 years. This is not surprising since a crisis as big as this one is expected to be will alter society so much that a huge change should be expected. What we are also seeing in this ten year decade is the biggest conflict in world history, something that has gone on for millennia, but, I feel, is coming to a historical climax. This crisis is very big and I believe it is the crisis itself that will change radically how people think of themselves and their so-called leaders. But since this crisis has just begun things have a long way to go. Or as a Scottish friend once said to me: “Hold on to yer hairdos laddies a big storm is coming”.
Every 80 to 90 years in American history there has been a crisis. These crises started very small and local but each succeeding crisis was larger and involved more people, not just in the United States but in the rest of the world. To astrologers, the year range of 80 to 90 should ring a bell: The period of Uranus is 84 years and that of Neptune — at 168 years — is exactly double that. As we will see the motions of these planets interact with the chart of the United States in ways such that there are five different cycles that all come due within a period of 5 to 10 years. These cycles are Uranus coming to its natal position — called a Uranus Return — and Neptune coming back to either its natal (return) or opposite (demi-return) its natal position. These two cycles occur for any chart drawn for a birth in 1776. The next two cycles are transiting Neptune coming to or opposite to the Midheaven in the Sibly natal chart for the U.S. and Uranus coming the Descendant of the Sibly chart. These two cycles involved a certain chart of the United States. The fifth cycle is Neptune coming to the Aries or Libra point; this cycle does not involve the United States at all, but holds for the world at large. I’ve also noticed — as you will see from the graphical ephemerides shown below — that there is also a hard aspect between the Pluto and the natal North Node of the Moon each time these other transits are happening. I’m not sure what to make of this, but Ebertin’s description of the principle of these two points is intriguing. Ebertin says the principle of these two points is the common destiny of a large mass of people.
The first crisis in American history is called the Starving Time. This took place in the recently founded colony of Jamestown. The colonists weren’t on great terms with the people that already lived on this land that was new to them and also the colonists made many mistakes. The winter of 1609-10 was for them the final reckoning. They didn’t have enough food to make it through the winter and so almost 90% of the population died over that winter. Some were so desperate that they removed bodies from their graves for food. The required supply ship from England was late in coming so they were not rescued until the following spring and it took years to finally recover from the Starving Time. So while the severe crisis only lasted the season the recovery took years covering the period when Uranus and Neptune were making the appropriate aspects.
Crisis 1: Starving Time
Here is when the various transits mentioned above played out for this crisis. You can follow all these in the above graphical ephemeris. Neptune was conjunct its natal position (one full Neptune cycle before the birth of the country) in 1610-11, Neptune was conjunct the Midheaven of the not yet formed United States in 1615-16. Neptune crossed zero Libra in 1614-15; Uranus conjoined its natal position in 1608-1609; and finally Uranus crossed the Descendant of the not yet born United States in 1609-10. In this case the transit of Uranus over the Descendant was the closest in time to the actual crisis, but since it took several years to recover from the damage and the almost loss of the colony important actions related to the crisis were occurring when Neptune crossed those points.
The second crisis was called in the colonies King Williams’s War and other names as well; this was just the North American part of a larger war called the Nine Years War. In North America this war involved England (including the English colonists), France, and Native Americans. This was the first of several wars in North America involving those same parties. In North America, this war was fought from 1688-1697.
Many other things were going on in this period. For the British — and America was a colony of Britain at this time — 1688 was a very important year for what is called the Glorious Revolution. This was a non-violent change to the governing of the country, which at the time meant the king. The king of England at the time was James II, younger brother of Charles II who was the restored king after his father, Charles I, was executed during the English Civil War in the middle of that century. James II of England was Catholic and was hard on the Church of England which had been established by an early Tudor king. He was replaced in this Glorious Revolution by his daughter Mary and her husband William, who was also King of Holland and a Protestant.
Four years later an event happened in America that is still talked about today: the Salem Witch Trials. These occurred in 1692 and 1693 in the village of Salem Massachusetts. Two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and 19 were eventually executed.
Also in this period the slave trade experienced a big boost. Perhaps it was the elimination of a Catholic king in England that allowed this expansion to take place. This is discussed more fully in the book Freedom’s Debt by William Pettigrew. Of course, this meant a big increase in slaves brought to America. Perhaps those who support the 1619 Project concerning when slaves were first brought to America should pay more attention to this milestone.
Starting in 1689 there were a number of rebellions in America that in ways presaged the Revolution that would happen at the next crisis. The book to read about this is The Glorious Revolution in America by David Lovejoy.
Crisis 2: King William’s War
Here is when these planets made the appropriate aspects for this second crisis. Neptune was opposite the natal Neptune in 1693-94. Neptune was conjoined the Aries point and the IC of the United States in 1697-98, just as this war was ending. Uranus returned to its natal position in 1692-93; Uranus crossed the Descendant in 1693-94. So here we can see with a longer event — not just one winter as in the first crisis — that all five of these planetary indicators line up with the crises.
Crisis 3: American Revolution
The third crisis was the American Revolution. This war went on from 1775 to 1783. By definition, Neptune was conjoined the natal Neptune and Uranus was conjoined the natal Uranus at this time since the birth chart is set for a date shortly after the start of the war, which is said to be the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. But both Uranus and Neptune crossed the angles that they are close to in the natal chart while the war was being fought. Note that other countries than England and its colony were involved in this war, most notably France that may have saved the bacon for America and indirectly caused its own revolution.
The fourth crisis was the American Civil War, which is sometimes called the second American Revolution (eg. historian Charles Beard). It officially started with the firing on the Federal Fort Sumter, a military base in North Carolina, by the Confederates. This happened on April 12, 1861. But events leading to that civil war had occurred for years if not decades before that event. One important occurrence was the raid by John Brown and his followers on the Harper’s Ferry military depot in the middle of October 1859. The Dread Scott decision of the Supreme Court, announced by incoming President James Buchanan in March of 1857, was another prominent forerunner.
The American Civil War did involve more than just the North and South. The nationals from many other countries enlisted and fought in the Civil War, which was seen important by them for the causes of anti-slavery and state’s rights. Both England and France were considering recognizing the Confederacy but the timely intervention of the Russian Navy prevented this from happening. The crises was already becoming international.
Crisis 4: American Civil War
As can be seen in the above graphical ephemeris, here is when the appropriate transits took place. The Neptune demi-return occurred in 1857 and 1858; the Uranus return was in 1860 and 1861; Neptune was positioned at 0 Aries in 1861 and 1862; finally Uranus crossed the Descendant of the United States (Sibly chart) and Neptune crossed the IC of the US in 1861 and 1862.
The fifth crisis was World War II. The official start of this war was on September 1, 1939 when the German forces invaded Poland, but there were many events in the years before that that presaged a world-wide war, such as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and then their invasion of China in July of 1937. For Americans the war started when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, an American military base on the American colony of Hawaii, in December of 1941.
Crisis 5: World War Two
These were the appropriate transits: Neptune returned to its natal position in 1938, 1939, and 1940 — it was exactly there in early September 1939; Neptune was at the Libra point in 1941, 1942, and 1943; Neptune was at the Midheaven in 1943 and 1944; both the Uranus return and Uranus crossing the Descendant were in 1944 and 1945.
After this war there were many changes, the most in American history. We will discuss this more fully in the next post. This time is considered the start of the Anthropocene, that geologic age that is determined by the force of human beings. Also this time was the start of the Atomic Age. The use of plastics, which was fairly limited before the war, exploded afterwards and has grown immensely since: as a result women could finally wear nylon stockings and the plastic ball-point pen proved popular.
Crisis 6: TBA
For the sixth crisis, the one we are starting now, the Neptune demi-return is 2021 and 2022; Neptune crosses 0 Libra in 2024 and 2025; it crosses the Sibly IC in 2025 and 2026; the Uranus return is in 2027 and 2028; finally Uranus crosses the Sibly Descendant in 2028 and 2029. It appears that this crisis will last most of the decade.
Dedicated to Enid R. Leonard who has been an editor for many of these blog posts.
The transit of Pluto to the natal Mercury of the United States by opposition is a decisive transit that happened several times during during 2020 and 2021 with the final transit being a stationary direct opposition in the fall of this year. The exact transits are on 2-27-2020, 6-25-2020, and 1-1-2021, and while the stationary direct transit of Pluto to Mercury is not exact, it is within eight minutes of exact and since it is stationary, I expect this will see the final manifestation of the Pluto-Mercury opposition that has been building all last year. Looking at the previous conjunctions and oppositions of transiting Pluto to natal Mercury will provide some ideas of what might happen in the future.
Pluto conjunct Mercury
The conjunction of transiting Pluto to the natal Mercury happened only once in the lifetime of the country since Pluto takes so long to revolve around the Sun. These conjunctions were on 9-2-1933, 12-19-1933, and 7-13-1934. What happened at that time was that Franklin Roosevelt had just been elected (November 1932) and inaugurated (March 1933) as a President to a country that had suffered several years of the Great Depression, and strong revolutionary activity had begun among such organizations and people as the Communist Party, Huey Long, and Father Coughlin. This was the low point of the Depression: the banking system was near to collapse, unemployment was high, and exports had vanished. The Japanese had just invaded China and Hitler had recently assumed power in Germany, so the world situation was looking dire and the potential for a world war was becoming more obvious. Then came Roosevelt’s famous 100 days shortly before the first exact conjunction. Roosevelt had saved capitalism from itself in the worst crisis since the founding of the country, and the activity started at this time played out during the rest of the decade even though the Great Depression wasn’t totally over until America entered World War II in 1942.
Pluto Opposite Mercury
The previous opposition between these two planets occurred before the Declaration of Independence was signed, which marked the official birth of the country. These three oppositions were on 2-28-1774, 6-24-1774, and 1-3-1775. This period saw several famous events in American history as well as some not so well known: The Boston Tea Party was on 12-16-1773 and the Battle of Lexington and Concord, considered the opening battle of the American Revolution, occurred on April 18 and 19, 1775. Thomas Paine, whose writings were so influential in the Revolution, moved to America from Great Britain on 11-30-1774. The first Continental Congress, where people from several states could gather together and air their grievance with Great Britain, was convened on 9-5-1774. This period was so eventful that a book was written just about that year: 1774: The Long Year of the Revolution by Mary Beth Norton.
Pluto Opposite Mercury
The three oppositions of Pluto to natal Mercury in 2020 followed by a stationary direct very close opposition reflect the Pluto return for the United States exactly one year later. In that case, there are three exact conjunctions with the natal Pluto in 2022, with the last one being at the end of the year, followed by a stationary direct conjunction within twenty minutes in the Fall of 2023, when again, the five outer planets are retrograde just as they are now. It is almost as if the Pluto opposition to Mercury is a preview for the actual Pluto return.
Final Exact Pluto Opposite Mercury
The manifestation of Pluto to Mercury seems to be a warm-up to what will be the decisive act that will play out later when Pluto is conjunct/opposite its natal position. The first time this happened was when the transiting Pluto was in fact natal Pluto of the United States on July 4, 1776. This was indeed the birth of something new, that being the United States; the Declaration was the significator of that birth. Pluto was opposite the natal Pluto on 6/22/1937, 1/22/1937, and 8/10/1988 when the New Deal of FDR had performed as much as it could, so much so that some things were pulled back, resulting in what is called the Roosevelt Depression of 1938.
In mundane charts such as the one of the United States, Mercury represents the means of communications; when the nation was founded, this referred to newspapers; these days the world of communications has expanded to include many technologies that did not exist in the Eighteenth Century. These include radio, television, and the Internet, which allow audio and video productions to be seen from anyplace with a connection. But Mercury refers to more than just those methods of communications. It also signifies the narrative projected by those means of communication. The Australian blogger Caitlin Johnstone has written many blogs about the power of narrative, saying that who controls the narrative controls the world. Also related, the book Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky describe how this narrative is formed by the manufacturing of consent (a term from 20th Century journalist Walter Lippmann) with the involvement of Mercury.
An example of a recent prominent narrative, one which has dominated the first two decades of this century, has been that of the noble crusade to save the women of Afghanistan and bring democracy to that land. Just recently this narrative has seen some exposure of its dark underbelly with the final withdrawal of America from that country. This withdrawal indicates how little there is to show for this noble effort after twenty years. One can only say: another one bites the dust.
Pluto Stationary Opposite Mercury
In our current situation, the main narrative seems to be about this fearsome virus that threatens the world, and it can only be controlled by a magical potion from our noble pharmaceutical companies. That narrative is supported by the government and almost all of the media, whether newspapers, radio, television, or the Internet. Over the last year and a half, just as Pluto has been moving opposite the narrative-representing Mercury, this narrative has been attacked by people called ‘anti-vaxxers’. As this transit has happened, the media has become less trustworthy according to polls. A recent survey shows that American’s trust of the media is the lowest of 46 countries, ranking at only 29%, but not really much has happened in response to this mistrust of media except for much grumbling by people.
All this pent-up discontent will finally be revealed this fall and winter with the final opposition of Pluto stationary to natal Mercury. There is anger in the country that has been brewing during the last 18 months, and it will eventually come out. On the physical level, perhaps a President will issue a mandate that inflames people thus bringing long-simmering tensions to a boil.
In cases like this, when seen in hindsight, these Mercury-Pluto events set the stage for what will develop later, but no one really knows what the outcome will be.
Another transit occurring at the same time, visible in the graphical ephemeris above, is the square of Saturn and Uranus. The opposition of these two slow moving planets was described previously in a post about the year 1919. The two principles represented by these planets are the conservative, standard narrative versus something new or different — orthodox versus unconventional. In the “Red Summer” of 1919, we saw bloodshed and conflict between orthodoxy and dissent, shown most clearly by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer and his fight against suspected Communists and anarchists in the country, though much more did happen under that opposition. I would expect this transit will add more weight to the Pluto-Mercury opposition discussed above, which will become clear by next year.
500 Year Party 