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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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”.
500 Year Party 