What is often called the first Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union started shortly after the end of World War II. Sometimes this is called the second Cold War since shortly after the end of War War I and the start of the Russian Revolution several countries including the United States under President Woodrow Wilson sent troops into Russia to fight against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. Diplomatic recognition of the new Soviet Union that came out of that civil war was not granted by the United States until President Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union in 1933, thus ending that first cold war. But since most forget or never knew about that American intervention, we will refer to the cold war that started after World War II as the first cold war.

Truman Doctrine

The beginning of this cold war is widely assumed to have started with the promulgation of the “Truman Doctrine” by President Harry Truman in 1947. Nineteen Forty Seven was a big year for the birth of a new America. Later in that same year the National Security Act was passed, which among other things created that infamous three letter agency the Central Intelligence Agency, known widely as the CIA. The CIA was an outgrowth of the wartime OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and German ideas that were brought into this country by Operation Paperclip and especially Reinhard Gehlen, (https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/german-spymaster-reinhard-gehlen/) who was the head of German spy organizations under several leaders.

Birth of CIA

The reason that 1947 was such a banner year was indicated by the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that took place that summer. As you can judge by the nature of these planets and historical association, this combination is not good news. There have been only two such conjunctions since the one of 1947. The one in the early Eighties indicates the start of the”New Cold War” with fighting in several central American countries; the results of those wars we are now seeing at the southern border of the United States. The next Saturn-Pluto conjunction was in January of 2020. I initially thought the fact that President Trump had ordered the assassination of Iranian military leader Qusem Soleimani would lead to a large scale war between the United States and Iran but something else of great import happened instead.

Saturn-Pluto Conjunction of 1947

This Cold War is shown by the Long Sextile of Neptune and Pluto. The two planets conjoined in the 1890s, thus suggesting the momentous changes that were about to begin and grow more prevalent in the new Twentieth Century. After that conjunction it would take half a century before the opening sextile of those two planets occurred.

First Cold War

If we look at this graphical ephemeris we see that there is a sixth harmonic conjunction between the two outer planets — the long sextile between Neptune and Pluto. It goes from the late Forties (Number 1) to the early Nineties (Number 2). I saw several years ago that this was an indicator of the Cold War. This time period is between the Truman Doctrine and the fall of the Soviet Union. But Pluto reached its perihelion — closest to the Sun — at about the turn of the century and so there will be another long sextile in the Twenty-First Century. When I saw that many years ago I figured this could not be a return to the Cold War since that had long gone. How naive I was! There is another long sextile — but not as long — from 2021 to 2036. So maybe this will indicate another Cold War, or perhaps a Hot War which the West seems to be gearing up for.

Neptune and Pluto have an interesting pattern. Pluto has a very elliptic orbit so that sometimes it is inside the orbit of Neptune. The astronomer (and astrologer) Johannes Kepler created the laws of planetary motion that are the basis of the ephemerides that we use in astrology today. His second law states that planets sweep out equal arcs in equal time, which implies that when a planet is farther from the Sun (which is one of the two centers of the ellipse that is the planetary orbit) it moves slower than when it is closer to the Sun. Thus Pluto takes a lot longer to go through the sign of Gemini — 30 year — than the sign of Sagittarius — 11 years. As result of this speedup/slowdown Neptune and Pluto can hold the same aspect for many years.

Second Cold War?

This second long sextile occurs from 2021 (Number 1) until 2036 (Number 2) with the most intense period between 2024 (Number 3) and 2029 (Number 4).

For anyone familiar with the uses of propaganda it appears that this country is trying to build up to a war with Russia. The anger and hate directed towards Russia dwarfs what was seen during the First Cold War from 1947 to 1992. During that one we would at least talk to the Soviet Union as did Eisenhower (though he was shanghaied by a U2 flight over the Soviet Union right before the talks, but that at least it gave its name to a rock group whose leader at a recent show in Las Vegas celebrated Navalny, the Russian dissident I mentioned previously), Nixon, and Reagan, who almost abolished nuclear weapons in consultations with the leader of the Soviet Union. But that was so Twentieth Century.

After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City President Putin was the first to offer condolences to the United States and allowed the US to use Russian airspace for an attack on Afghanistan.

Putin Catches Fish; Bush Applauds

I recently saw a photograph taken in Summer of 2007 of a fishing trip taken by both Presidents Bush and President Putin at Kennebunkport, Maine. Putin is the only one who caught anything and he threw it back. The younger Bush is applauding in the background. Bush and Putin were even at the same dance once in Russia in 2008: https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1794537840639881245. But it is hard to imagine anything like that happening now, such as for example Biden and Putin going on a bicycle trip or even eating ice cream together.

One wonders what will end this second Cold War. Will Russia collapse like the Soviet Union did? Will the United States collapse instead, thus ending a conflict between those two superpowers. Or perhaps there will be a hot war that will end the planet and thus also this second Cold War. Stay tuned.