Outer Planet Cycles
Neptune made its final ingress into Aries a few weeks ago (it crossed briefly into Aries last spring). It’ll be in Aries until 2039.
Neptune last went into Aries on April 13th, 1861, which coincides with the beginning of the Civil War (confederates shelled Fort Sumpter then night of April 12th), and it was in Aries from 1697–1712 (founding of Great Britain, 1st steam engine, founding of Prussian State, War of Spanish Succession) and from 1533–1548 (John Calvin takes power in Switzerland, Henry VIII breaks with Catholic Church, Spanish Conquest of Peru).
Pluto has been in Aquarius since last spring. Pluto was last in Aquarius 1777-1789 and before that from 1532 to 1553. Pluto last entered Aries in 1822.
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Astroloy is a strange thing. It shouldn’t have any bearing on human events, but I have found the patterns its measures produce are consistently worth looking at. I don’t use these patterns to predict what will actually happen, but as tools to make sense of what to say about where we are.
Outer planet cycles are long. Pluto takes some 248 years to circle the sun, Neptune 165, Uranus 84. No human being ever lives through a complete Neptune or Pluto transit. I suspect this means we don’t really completely understand the effects of these planets. Astrologers have tended to interpret the effects of these planets using the language of myth, spirituality, and religion — language we use when don’t have other language.
Neptune seems to involve change that is described in oceanic or mystical terms — as an experience of the vast. It’s associated with dream, idealism and ideals, visionary experience, and drug and alcohol use. Intense beauty, overwhelming sensation.
Pluto seems to involve change that is deep, thorough and utter. Actual death and what comes after. Because human beings fear this kind of change, Pluto is also associated with intense efforts to control. The intense effort to hold on as one falls into the abyss. What Foucault called power and the desire for it.
Uranus seems to involve sudden, convulsive, shattering change. Lightning, earthquakes. Electrical storms. It is associated with inventions because of the way these rapidly distrupt patterns of daily life.
When we look at outer planet transits, we look at a planet’s transit through the Zodiac (from Aries to Picsis) and cycles that begin when one planet or luminary (sun and moon) are conjunct (at the same point in the zodiac). The cycle of the sun and moon is the quickest of these and is the model for the others. If we use the lunar cycle, key dates of any cycle are the new moon (conjunction), the 1st and 3rd quarters (squares) and the full moon (opposition). New moons respresent the emergence of a new impulse, quarter moon phases indicate moments of struggle — during the first quarter, the emergent impulse is struggling to express itself, and during the 3rd quarter what’s come into being begins to fall apart for reneal at the new new moon — and the full phase marks the realization of what’s come into being given the new moon impulse.
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There was a Uranus-Neptune conjunction (in Capricorn) in 1993. The one before that conjunction was in 1821 (also in Capricorn). The “full moon” (mid-point) of that 1821 cycle was 1906-1910. The cycle previous to the 1821 cycle began in 1650 (in the midst of the English Civil War; both planets were opposed to Pluto at that time as well).
There was a Neptune-Pluto conjunction in 1891 (in Gemini). The prior Neptune-Pluto conjunction was in 1398 (in Gemini); they were opposite each other in the 1640s (English Civil War)
There was a Uranus-Pluto conjunction in 1964-5. The previous Uranus-Pluto cycle began in 1850-51, and its full-moon phase (opposition) came in 1901-2. There was also a Uranus-Pluto opposition from 1792-94 (in Leo/Aquarius).
If you look at these dates a few things jump out.
° Neptune entered Aries when Pluto was in Aquarius in the 1530s (Henry VII, Spanish conquest of Peru).
° A Uranus-Neptune cycle began in 1650 just after each planet has been in opposition to Pluto (through the 1640s). (English Civil War)
° The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was 1777-1789; there was a Uranus-Pluto opposition from 1792-4. (US and French Revolutions — both, arguably “failed” revolutions)
° Pluto last entered Aries in 1822; the last full Uranus-Neptune cycle began in 1821 (that cycle ended in 1993). (The 1821 Uranus-Neptune conjunction is marked by English Romantic movement, Beethovan — a new vision of a unified humanity that was, sadly, as Melville saw, still a vision of a “white” humanity.)
° The last time Neptune entered Aries was in April 1861.
° The current Neptune-Pluto cycle began in 1891; the 1821 Uranus-Neptune cycle came to its fullmoon phase 1906-10, and there was a Uranus-Pluto opposition in 1901-2. (Beginning of conflict between European Nations and, arguably, the beginning of “modernism.”)
° The current Uranus-Pluto cycle began in 1963-4.
° The current Uranus-Neptune cycle began in 1993.
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The dates I’ve marked out focus on historical and cultural shifts in European and US culture. I don’t believe this story is the only story — I need to do a deeper dive into the way these aspects line up with events in Asian history (China, Japan, India) and in relation to Africa and within the Muslim world.
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The ingress of Neptune into Aries does seem to be marked by the eruption of real violence (US Civil War, War of Spanish Succession, Protestant Reformation and Spanish conquest of Peru) as new significant political entities come into being or are realized.
Pluto in Aquarius — far from being the Age of Aquarius — has been marked by ideological violence and arguably failed revolution. Spanish (catholic) conquest of Peru, Protestant reformation violence in Switzerland, Henry VIII separation from the Catholic Church (arguably a “failed” revolution because the basic patterns of authoritarian violence were not disrupted), the American Revolution (arguably a “failed” revolution because of the persistence of slavery, its support of the rights of property/land owners, and the eventual genocide of native peoples), and the French Revolution.
The Uranus-Neptune utopian vision of universal brotherhood (and other universalisms) that fueled the 19th and 20th centuries and produced the extraordinary emergence of “modernity” came to an end in 1993 which marked the emergence of some kind of new utopian ideal. For me so far, the new utopias that have emerged are that of neo-liberal globalization, the first appearance of what came to be the internet and the emergence of hip-hop as a universal language. We are currently entering the 1st crescent phase of this cycle.
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The US has gone through two Uranus cycles (from 1776-1860, and from 1860-1944). Both of the returns (when Uranus returns to its original place) are significant — 1860, 1944. The next Uranus cycles begins in 2028. This is the cycle Steve Bannon has picked up on to predict an American crisis and renewl. If you dial in, the key dates for each of the completed cycles are: 1776, 1797 (1st quarter), 1818 (full moon), 1839 (3rd quarter); and 1860 (new moon), 1881 (1st quarter), 1902 (opposition), 1923 (3rd quarter). The key dates of the current cycle are 1944 (new moon), 1965 (1st quarter), 1986 (opposition), and 2007 (3rd quarter) — roughly, US emergence as a world power in 1944, the civil rights era and emergence of the Vietnam War at the 1st quarter (not to mention Bob Dylan going electric and the Velvets), the Reagan years and the height of the cold war at the full moon phase, and the beginning of the collapse of that in 2007, just before economic crisis of 2008 and with the failure of the Iraq War.
It does seem that the US is in the final death throes of the 1944 cycle, and it seems possible that we are at the cusp of another convulsion (Civil War, WWII) by which we will define ourselves. For me, the keys to the next Uranus cycle are the 1964 uranus-Pluto conjunction (Civil Rights, Consumerism, US power in SE Asia) and the 1993 Uranus-Neptune conjunction (hip-hop, Clinton neo-liberalism). The 1964 Uranus-Pluto conjunction had its 1st quarter moment in March 2015 (as Trump emerged as a serious candidate and when the dems began to kill the Bernie Sanders campaign).
The new moon for the next US Uranus cycle is 2028. This is the date of the next US Presidential election. All current evidence suggests that the Republicans/MAGA folk are attempting to fix or annul this election (through executive action). We should understand current events (Trump led US Government actions in the world and at home) in relation to this.
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When students would ask me (back in 2014, 2016) where I thought things were going, I’d tell them I thought I was on the Titanic. I was handing people overboard, hoping they’d survive, but I knew I wasn’t getting off the boat. The band was playing. I wasn’t sad or scared, because I’d come to terms with death and decided — along with Rilke — that the only thing to do in the face of death was to praise and love.
I still think we are on the Titanic. I don’t think we’ll be saved by ideological furor (progressive left or right). If you are looking to “win” safety, that win won’t actually be a win (failed revolutions, Pluto trying to exert power to avoid death) —‚ and that’s likely true both for the MAGA conservative Catholic/evangelical fantasist who hopes to make the world safe for themselves, and the neo-liberal progressive who wants to protect his “white” American suburban-consumer life. It’ll be like the “win” Israel imagines it has won over Gaza or the “win” Spain won over Peru, or the “win” the Protestants thought they’d gotten over the Catholic Church.
And lots of actual human beings will be killed by others of us.
I can’t help you with the fear of death/safety at all costs thing, but I think it’s really the most important work you can do. It is the only real politics that matters. Figure out how to love and care in the face of death. Deal with utter loss and keep going. If you can, don’t allow yourself to hate, and be merciful with yourself when you feel scared or when you do hate. And be patient, because lots of folks will be shouting, “Barabbas.”