This Summer will bring some important astrological formations which among other things illustrates the astrology of the decade. This decade sees the returns or demi-returns of the three outer planets. All in all it is a packed decade.

Grand Trine and More

On August 9, 2025 there will be a beautiful formation of the ten planets in both a world chart and in comparison to the US chart. While it does not suggest that anything will happen on that particular day, it does show graphically an overview of forces that are operative at the time. Of course, so many events of note are happening this year that there will certainly be some this August: it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Lets Look at them.

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction is at the Aries point. A Saturn-Neptune conjunction happens every 36 years; the last one was in 1989 which saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and in the next years the fall of the Soviet Union and related governments; that conjunction was in the middle of Capricorn. The one before that was in 1953 at about 20 Libra. Before that in 1917 in early Leo. I don’t know when previously there was conjunction at 0 Aries but it must have been a very long time ago. If we assume that every degree in the zodiac eventually sees the conjunction, and since the cycle happens every 36 years, then the last time this conjunction happened at 0 Aries was 360 times 36 or about 13,000 years ago

There is a mini-Grand Trine – a trine and two sextiles — between Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, with Neptune at the crux point which is also conjunct Saturn and the Aries point. Neptune is also at the midpoint of Uranus-Pluto. This midpoint configuration (and not part of a Grand Trine of those three planets) happens every 500 years, but the last time they formed an aspect was 2500 years ago — about 576 BCE — and that was a conjunction. Thus there is the midpoint configuration and the aspect configuration. The midpoint last longer than the aspect as can be seen in the two graphical ephemerides below.

Uranus-Neptune-Pluto Mini-Grand Trine

This graphical ephemeris is in the sixth harmonic so sextiles and trine look like conjunctions. You can see how the three planets come together in 2024 and stay together until 2029.

Neptune=Uranus/Pluto

In this graphical ephemeris the midpoint of Uranus and Pluto (slightly darker line) is plotted along with Neptune. You can see how closely the two lines stick together from 2023 through 2028 and are within a couple of degrees of each other from 2021 through 2031.

Saturn-Neptune opposite Mars along the cardinal axis. Mars is opposite that Saturn-Neptune conjunction right along the cardinal axis of 0 Aries/0 Libra. That gives more kick to the conjunction.

Uranus, Pluto, and Mars form a fairly tight Grand Trine.

Moon semisquare Saturn-Neptune and sesquiquadrate Mars. Sun sesquiquadrate Saturn-Neptune and semisquare Mars, so that that Full Moon is a diagonal to the rectangle formed by Sun, Moon, Saturn,Neptune, and Mars.

And a Mercury Pluto opposition reflecting the Mercury Pluto opposition in the natal chart of the US.

And for good measure a Full Moon.

Transits Within US Chart

When we look at this chart within the chart of the United states it gets even more interesting. We see the following:
The Saturn-Neptune is on the IC of the United States and thus opposite the Midheaven of the US. That places Mars directly on the MC of the US. Thus the “spine” of the US — the MC/IC axis — is energized by the Mars opposite Saturn Neptune.

Transits to US Chart

Pluto and Uranus trine the US Midheaven.

Jupiter conjunct the US Sun.

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A good graphical representation of how this complex of planets hits the Midheaven of the US chart is to look at a sixth harmonic chart. In the sixth harmonic trines and sextiles appear as conjunctions. If you look at the MC of the US you see quite a pile-up.

Sixth Harmonic Transits To US Chart

But earlier in the Summer there is another set of transits that pictorially are not as pretty but still important. The opening square of Jupiter and Saturn happens three times, the last time in Summer of 2025; this marks the beginning of the second half of this decade. But since Saturn is conjunct Neptune there is also a Jupiter square Neptune at almost the same time and in fact just three days separate the Jupiter Saturn and Jupiter Neptune squares.

Jupiter Square Saturn Last Time

Jupiter Square Neptune

Earlier in the Summer Uranus squares the Moon on May 15, the only time the square is exact this cycle. However on the first of February 2026 Uranus retrogrades to within a quarter degree of an exact square. These two images illustrate the exact square in 2025 and the almost exact square of 2026. Below that is a graphical ephemeris that illustrates the exact (1) and almost exact (2) squares where you can see that Uranus retrogrades and approaches the Moon but turns direct just before it squares the Moon.

Uranus Square US Moon

Uranus Square US Moon Near Miss

Uranus And US Moon