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Zeitgeist Changes — Part 5

The Fourth Turning is a 1996 book by William Strauss and Neil Howe that was recently popular during the election of 2016. It postulates a crisis for America soon, because previous crises have bedeviled America ever 80 to 90 years since the Revolutionary War. As astrologers, that time period should ring bells, and in fact the cycle has extended longer than Strauss and Howe imagine. As has been suggested by this blog, it is unfortunate that historians don’t know astrology. If they did, they would realize that this pattern extends from before the Revolutionary War and corresponds to planetary periods. By looking at the astrological pattern, we can see this cycle has been occurring since the nation was founded, and is getting more intense with each succeeding cycle. The period of 80 to 90 years is one Uranus cycle and one-half of a Neptune Cycle. Let’s look (again) at what happened every 80 to 90 years in American history.

Starving Time

The first successful colony in what has become the United States was in Jamestown in what is now the state of Virginia in May of 1607. The Winter of 1609-1610 is called the Starving Time: Of the 500 residents of Jamestown in the Fall, only 60 were left by the time Spring rolled around. Domestic animals were killed for food, and some cannibalism took place, as shown in (for example) a New York Times story about a current archaeological discovery on the James River. A fleet from England did finally come, but it had only more colonists and not food. In the summer of 1610 (July 7) as they sailed away, another ship with supplies came and they all returned to the colony, which then was firmly established. This was the first crisis of America. If we look at chart for November 24, 1609, that winter of the Starving Time, we see that Uranus is on the Descendant of the United States. However, looking at the next chart for November 24, 1614, when Neptune first came to the Midheaven, we see that it is a full five year after the crisis, and so this does not seem to fit the pattern. Of course, in this example the crisis only lasted a few months, not nearly as long as the others did. Or perhaps since there was no government (represented by the MC axis) there was no transit of the MC. Note that in this case the Uranus conjunction occured before the Neptune conjunction/opposition, but those two will exchange places over the cycles.

Starving Time 2

King William’s War 1

Several wars occurred in the early colonies, called in general the French and Indian Wars, since both were involved, and each war got a name in the colonies depending on who was the ruler of England at that time. They had different names in Europe, since France was also involved. Both France and England had colonies in North America, and the French were allied with the Native Americans, and those two overseas powers were involved in several wars to determine who would have possession of the New World. Spoiler: England won and would become the dominant force in the world for 150 years.

In 1688, there was the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain that replaced the Catholic King James II (son of King Charles I who was executed in the English Civil War) with Protestants William and Mary from Holland. Thus the first such war in America was called King William’s War, and it was fought in 1689-97 with England, France, the American Indians, and the American colonists. This was about 80 to 88 years after the Starving Time, and from the chart we can see that Uranus was at the Descendant during the War, Neptune reached the IC of the United State (not yet born) in 1697, three months before the end of the war.

King William’s War 2

Eighty to ninety years later, after all the French and Indian wars had died out, and after the important Seven Years War (1756-1763), which saw England defeating France to become top dog in the world, it was time for the Revolutionary War, and sure enough those two planets were in their correct spots.

Revolutionary War 1

The official dates for the Revolutionary War are from the Battle of Lexington and Concord (April 19,1775) to the surrender at Yorktown (October 19, 1781). This first image is for June 23, 1777; that date is not, as far as I know, a stand out date in the Revolutionary War. Notice that all three outer planets are near their birth locations. This is not surprising, considering that this chart is less than a year after birth. What the chart does show is that Uranus is passing over the Descendant and on this date is exactly opposite the Ascendant for the first time since birth. Again, not surprising since the natal position of Uranus is close to the Descendant. Whereas the Ascendant relates to the personal projection – a good synonym is persona – the Descendant is the opposite point, and indicates how we relate to the outside world. In personal astrology, this often is used to refer to the partner or people one draws to oneself or open enemies. In either case, it refer to energy coming to us from outside, which can easily be seen as a war which also comes to us.

Revolutionary War 2

In the second chart, for November 23, 1778 we see that Neptune has come to the Midheaven of the United States. The Midheaven refers to the way the country relates to the outside world or vice versa; one can see it as a public persona as opposed to the private persona of the Ascendant. Perhaps this suggests that a war, which involves the government (MC axis) of the United States is always started under the illusion of good intentions and a peaceful outcome.

Civil War

And 80 to 90 years after the Revolutionary War, along comes the Civil War, sometimes called the Second Revolutionary War, for different reason depending on which side the speaker is on. The dates for the American Civil War are from the firing on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861) to the surrender at Appomattox court house (April 9, 1865). For the the Civil War there is only one chart, for March 11, 1862. The war had started almost a year earlier. We see both Uranus opposite the Ascendant as in the first Revolutionary War chart, and Neptune conjunct the IC (Imum Coeli –the Bottom of the Sky) of the United States chart, opposite the Midheaven. This is about one Uranus cycle, 84 years, after the first chart. The fact that Neptune is now opposite the earlier position (the second chart for November 23, 1778) is not surprising since the period of Neptune is almost exactly double that of Neptune. Note also that since the natal Uranus is close to the Descendant and the natal Neptune is close to the Midheaven, these periods are also close to a Uranus return and a Neptune bi-return. But we do see a pattern. Notice by this time both Uranus/Descendant and Neptune/Midheaven axis aspects occur at the same time. We will notice later that the Neptune aspect will occur before the Uranus aspect.

World War II 1

The dates for American participation in World War II – the Americans were definitely late to the party – is measured from the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) to the surrender of Japan (Germany had surrendered 4 months earlier) September 2, 1945. One notices that the wars get larger – more participants and over a larger area — and more bloody over time. Starving Time in Jamestown only lasted one winter and less than 500 people died, though of course by percentage of population it is very huge. Compare that to World War II, which lasted for the Americans four years and less than 500,000 Americans died, though it was a world war and many people from other countries, especially the Soviet Union that bore the brunt of the German invasion, died.

World War II 2

Let’s look at the World War II charts. The first chart is for November 5, 1942, the first time Neptune conjoined the Midheaven of the United States in this cycle. Then the second chart for World War II for August 6, 1944, one year to the day before the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the first pass of Uranus to the Descendant of the United States. Also Neptune is very close – one degree beyond – the Midheaven. This was again one Uranus cycle, and one-half a Neptune cycle since the Civil War. The pattern repeats itself. Notice how the Neptune aspect now takes place before the Uranus aspect. The Descendant is where energy comes in to you from outside, and so Uranus on the Descendant suggests disturbance, upset coming into the country, like for example a war. At least it was in the four cases we looked at. Since we have only the United States as an example, and only five cases to draw upon, we can’t draw a definite conclusion. But in every case there was, the correlation was exact.

What we have seen are five crises, starting at the birth of the colony at Jamestown and occurring every 80 to 90 years with increasing death, violence, and geographical spread, involving the United States. The obvious question is when will this pattern happen next. As you may already suspect, this is coming up soon, and this is one of several cycles that are coming due at about the same time. We will leave for later the exploration of the exact date; but first, we must look at another cycle of great importance.

But how will the next turn of the Uranus/Neptune cycle manifest? One might expect another war, even bigger than World War II. This reasoning was what caused The Fourth Turning‘s notoriety during the election. Several possibilities: Aliens from outer space will invade and the nations of the world will band together to fight them. A bit fanciful, then perhaps it will be an asteroid that will be expected to hit the earth and the nations of the world will band together to fight it. Or perhaps it will be a world wide fight between the 1% and the 99% since inequality will have become so much worse than it is now. Several people consider the state of the United States so divisive and contentious – the term used is polarized — that a new civil war is expected to break out, so that is another possibility. This period could see the Third World War, more horrible that the Second which occurred 84 tears before. Or perhaps this will see the final collapse of the ecosystems of the world. But since I’m an optimist (Jupiter conjunct Sun) my best guess is that the nations of the world will finally decide that the global crises are so ominous that they need to band together in a World War II-scale attempt to fight for the survival of the planet. Of course it should have been done in the 1980s. There is much more that needs to be said about this period, one of the most important of at least the 21st Century, but we need to have more background. If this is the type of crises we will face in a few more years, it suggests that many things will happen between now and then to make the countries of the world think that that type of world wide response is finally necessary. And they are, you need just to look around with eyes unblinded, which is difficult with the constant bombardment of information that we daily receive. But the signs are all around, we just have to see them through all the chaff.

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June 5, 2015

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World War Two

World War Two is one of the major events of the Twentieth Century. The official date for the start of this war is September 1, 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. But many events occurred before that date that could be considered part of World War II. Some of these events are discussed below.

Germany Invades Poland

In the chart for the start of World War Two, when Germany invaded Poland, we see the typical Saturn square Pluto. Saturn is opposite the North Node of the Moon, and thus conjunct the South Node, suggesting that this conflict will involve the whole world. Uranus is closely trine Neptune, and this is the aspect that will color the whole period of the war, as we will see below. It is shown most clearly in the graphical ephemeris discussed at the end.

The war involved countries on both sides of the world, namely Germany and Japan. Germany had only been its own country a little more than 60 years, and Japan had begun to adopt Western methods about the same time. Germany had already been involved in the First World War (as had been Japan), and Japan had been involved in a war with Russia at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Both wanted to expand their power.

Germany had been a democracy since the end of World War One, but at the beginning of 1933 a soldier from World War I became Chancellor of Germany, and after that things began to change. In the chart of his assumption of power we see Uranus square Pluto. This can indicate revolutionary activity, as was the case in the Depression-era US, but Hitler’s rise to power was also revolutionary in its own way.

Hitler Assumes Power

The Japanese were also on the move long before the Second World War officially started. They had learned from the Chinese that you do not want to be ruled by Western powers, and so they weren’t, but they had desires on that mainland continent. In 1931 they invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria and took control. Here is the chart for that invasion. Neptune is semisquare Pluto, the same aspect as we saw in the Depression and indeed this invasion was taking place at the same time as the Great Depression and much of the world was focussed on other things. At the same time Saturn was square Uranus — this often indicates a conflict between the forces of conservatism and more radical ideas, but of course that can play out on many levels.

Japan Invades Manchuria

The Japanese did not treat the Chinese well, and one of the most notorious incidents was called the Rape of Nanking. In this incident, which started on December 13, 1937 and extended into the next year, the Nazis were the good guys. At one time during this incident the German embassy in Nanking served as a refuge to the Chinese that were being persecuted by the Japanese. A good study of this is The Rape of Nanking by Iris Murdock. In the chart for the start of this event the first thing we notice is that Saturn is at the Aries point, and it will get closer over the next few weeks. Planets at the Aries point have world wide implications. The rest of the world was fairly Saturnian at this time and in China things were about to become even more so. Pluto is opposite Jupiter, and both aspect that Saturn on the Aries point. Jupiter-Pluto can be seen as a whole lot of Pluto, and in this case Pluto indicated dark forces that suddenly came into play. Pluto had been discovered a few years ago, and is said to rule, among other things, the dark conditions around the world in the Thirties.

Rape of Nanking

In Europe, Hitler was not the only fascist — defined originally in an Italian encyclopedia as corporatism — to take power. In Italy there was Benito Mussolini, and in Spain the was Francisco Franco, who managed to rule Spain until his death in 975, although he had relinquished some power in the years up to his death. But Franco was involved in a lead up to the Second Word War called the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939. The Spanish Civil War is seen as a “test-run” for the official war to come, and many “premature antifascists” from Western countries went to Spain to fight against the fascists whom the rest of the world either ignored or thought would defeat the Communists. At one time Harry Truman, who would eventually become President of the United States, declared that if the Fascist were wining we should support the Communists, and if the Communists were winning we should support the Fascists. Such an attitude did not endear him to Stalin. A recent book about the Spanish Civil War and the well-known people who were there, such as Ernest Hemingway, is Hell and Good Company by Richard Rhodes. A group of people from America under the name “Abraham Lincoln Brigade” fought in the war, since they realized that a victory for Franco (backed by Hitler and Mussolini) would bode badly for the future of the world, and they were correct.

Spanish Civil War Starts

In the chart for the start of this civil war, we see that again Pluto raises its ugly head, with Sun conjunct Pluto on that day. Pluto is also widely trine Saturn, another example of the problems with Saturn/Pluto, and Mars is approaching a conjunction with Pluto which would only get tighter. The well-known painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, Guernica, depicts the horror seen during this war. In this massacre, the German air force bombed a town in the Basque region of Spain, killing and terrifying many defenseless civilians.

Spanish Civil War Ends

The chart for the end of the Spanish Civil War looks completely different. The only aspect lasting more that a few hours is the Jupiter opposite Neptune. For these two planets Ebertin says “apparent happiness”. There was a happiness because the war had ended, but as we know with hindsight, the big War was about to start, rendering any happiness as only temporary.

The Ten Years of World War Two

In this graphical ephemeris overview of the years of the Second World War, we see the prominent aspect is the Uranus-Neptune trine. Since this a third harmonic graphical ephemeris, this aspect looks like a conjunction, with the lines moving in and out of orb. It slowly came into orb in the middle of the decade of the Thirties, and was first exact in the summer of 1939. It continued to be exact through 1944 and then started to widen in 1945, just as the war was drawing to a close.

This graphical ephemeris represents the ten year period from about October 1935 to the end of September 1945. Some important events are marked on the graph: the black arrow just to the left of the center line is the official start of the war with Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. You can see that the trine first became exact just before that time, which is hidden by the white arrow. The Rape of Nanking is indicated by the green arrow. The Spanish Civil War extends from the blue arrow to the white arrow. The German forces invaded Rhineland at the yellow arrow and invaded the Sudetenland at the azure arrow. The Pearl Harbor attack, which was followed closely by the American decision to enter the war, is shown by the brown arrow. The Battle of Midway, which was a decisive moment in the Pacific War, is indicated by the dark blue arrow. The D-Day Battle, June 6, 1944, is shown by the dark green arrow, and was discussed previously. Finally, the surrender of Germany is indicated by the red arrow to the far right of the graph. The bombing of Japan at Hiroshima will be discussed at a later point.

Victory In Europe

In the chart for Victory in Europe — VE – Day, when Germany surrendered, we see Sun trine Jupiter. Great luck, as can be seen by photo of the crowds in America reacting to the news. In the same chart, but as transits to the US chart, Saturn is conjunct the US Sun and sesquiquadrate the US Moon. What should have been a happy event seems to be tinged with a Saturninan sadness, and in fact President Roosevelt, who had been in that position for over ten years, had died less than a month previously.

VE Day in the USA

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June 20, 2014

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Three With Saturn-Pluto

We’ve discussed before the malefic tendency of hard aspects between Saturn and Pluto. We saw two example of this in the 9/11 attack and the Spanish American War. Here are three more examples.

The first one is the start of World War I, exactly 100 years ago this year. Because a number of alliances had been set up in Europe, it only took a spark to set the whole edifice on fire. That spark was the assassination of the Serbian Archduke by a deranged anarchist on June 28, 1914. This assassination allowed the various alliances to take sides, and Russia came to the support of Serbia and then it was all downhill. On this centennial year there have many book s exploring this onset of war, such as The Sleepwalkers, which describes accurately what the world was at the onset of war. For most of the West, the previous 100 years had been a relatively peaceful time, the first in memory. Sure there had been some wars, such as the Civil War in the United States, and the Crimean War, and, though few Americans are aware of it, but you can be sure the Chinese remember it, the Taiping Rebellion in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, which is considered one of the deadliest military conflicts in history, with at least 20 million deaths. But for the West things had been mostly peaceful since the Napoleonic Wars were over. It was considered that peace had broken out and would last forever. Possibly because there had been so little war that many (such as Theodore Roosevelt) worried that men had lost their manliness, and large armies were build up “just in case”.

World War I

In the first chart for the start of World War I, we see that Pluto has just entered the sign of Libra, a Cardinal point. This date, for the assassination, is considered the starting event for the War, but the hostilities didn’t start until at least a month later, and then the war slowly ramped up. The Americans did not enter the war until April of 1917. From the chart you can see that Saturn is conjunct Pluto and the conjunction will get tighter over the next months, as the war starts to build. World War I marked the first time that the developments of the Industrial Revolution could be really applied to warfare. Thanks, submarines, aircraft, automatic weapons, and poison gas could be used. The result was massive bloodshed.

World War II

The standard beginning date for World War II is Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, even though there was a multi-year run-up to the “official” war, including such things as the Spanish Civil War (1936), Japan’s invasion of China (1937), and Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia (1938). The chart above is set for the official date. Note that there is a square between Saturn and Pluto; Saturn is retrograde and the square will get weaker before it gets tighter. Note also that Saturn is opposite the North Node of the Moon, and thus conjunct the South Node.

Some consider World War II a continuation of World War I. Certainly the harsh reparation forced on Germany after World War I had an effect. But Germany did enjoy a flowering of culture and democracy, called the Weimar Republic, after the War. This was the “Twenties” in Germany and lasted until the Great Depression started to take effect. We all know what came next.

The First 9/11

The third chart is for a event called “The first 9/11” by those in the Western hemisphere. There was also an important event in South Africa on a 9/11/1906 in the history of non-violence, but that is a discussion for elsewhere. The event of 9/11/1973 was the occasion of the death of Salvador Allende of Chile and Augusto Pinochet taking power in that country, leading to a military dictatorship that lasted until 1990. Unlike the start of a war, especially World War I, the start of the Chilean dictatorship was very rapid. On this specific day the government of Chile was overthrown and the current president died, whether by the army or his own hand is still unknown. But there was an immediate change in government.

In the chart for 9/11/1973 we again see the Saturn square Pluto, with a very tight orb that is only four minutes of arc. And notice again that Saturn is opposite the North Node of the Moon and thus conjunct the South Node of the Moon, just as we saw in the chart for the start of World War II.

It is interesting that in two of these cases we see Saturn conjunct the South Node of the Moon as well as square Pluto. How should we interpret this? The South Node of the Moon sometimes has Saturnian connotations, especially in Indian astrology. This would increase the Saturnian influence. It also suggests difficulties in connections with others. It goes without saying that in both these instances, this Saturn-Node meaning played itself out.

For more details of Saturn and Pluto see Section V of Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas.

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June 13, 2014

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D-Day

This year seems to be shaping up as a big one for anniversaries ending in zero, and we haven’t even reached to big one this summer. This June has witnessed the seventieth anniversary of the landing of allied troops at Normandy Beach, hastening the end of World War II. This landing started at 6:30 in the morning (time zone two hours East of Greenwich) of June 6, 1944. I really didn’t expect from from looking at the chart of this event, but the most interesting thing was when it was compared to the chart of the United States.

D-Day represented the culmination of long planning for opening a second front in Europe that had been demanded by Stalin years before, since the Soviets were baring the brunt of German war machine. There was an aerial bombardment of the coast earlier in the morning, but the invasion of joint forces from many European and North American countries is considered the D-Day invasion which was recently celebrated. The codename for this was Operation Neptune, and there have been several book published recently with that title. And there are movies about D-Day, the most famous of which is Saving Private Ryan.

D-Day Event Chart

This first chart shows the D-Day event at 6:30. You can notice that this is a Full Moon, with the exact Full Moon about 9 hours later. The Full Moon suggests the culmination of some process. In this case it was the culmination of a long process of planning. You can see that the Moon has set and the Sun has just risen, as makes sense at 6:30 in the morning close to the Summer Solstice. There are two conjunction that are noticeable The first one is Mars conjunct Pluto. This conjunction can be read as superhuman strength or brutality. Certainly superhuman strength was needed in the D-Day landing, which taxed the strength of about 150,000 men, half of which were Americans. But not only was great strength needed on the day of the landing, but also much planning which took place before the day; this was necessary to assure a successful invasion. The tightest conjunction – about a quarter of a degree – is Venus and Uranus. At first this did not seem fitting, suggesting sudden love affairs and such. But that is on a personal level. It also suggests dancing and rhythm. In this case the conjunction implies that a great deal of planning and even rehearsal for many months before the final assault. In a way it was like a vary elaborate dance whose moves were planned out well in advance of the exact occasion. This was most necessary.

Then notice that the Moon is almost exactly opposite this Venus-Uranus conjunction. This was the timing indicator, since the Moon travels so fast this tight aspect only last a few hours. It was approaching so it would be exact in another four hours, just as the invasion was reaching it high point.

Another thing to notice is the planet Jupiter down by the IC and opposite the Midheaven. This indicates good luck, fortune at the base of the project, which was the Allied assault at Normandy Beach, and which they certainly needed.

D-Day Sixth Harmonic

But there is something else, which we can see most clearly in the sixth harmonic chart of the event. In this we see a wide conjunction of Pluto, Mars, Uranus, Venus, and the Moon, with the three center planets being the tightest. This represents the Mars-Pluto sextile the Venus-Uranus and trine the Moon. All five of these planets which we have talked about were involved in one aspect complex.

D-Day and USA

Finally let us look at these planets within the chart of the United States, since the Americans made a large fraction of the soldiers in the invasion. For the United states, which was on Eastern War Time for the D-Day landings, the time was six hours earlier. Notice that the Venus-Uranus conjunction is on the Uranus of the United States and the Mars-Pluto conjunction is on the node of the United States. The United States is definitely connected to this event. Finally notice that the planet Neptune is on the MC of the US. Not only that, but Neptune is opposite the Aries point at about 1 and a half degrees of Libra.; anything connected with the Aries point is connected to the World, since the Aries point is common to the World. That is most appropriate for an operation code-named Neptune. For the United States, the Full Moon has just risen and it is illuminating the chart.

500 Year Party

An astrological study of history and politics

Tag Archives: World War II

Zeitgeist Changes — Part 5

World War Two

Three With Saturn-Pluto

D-Day