An Astrological Map of 2500 Years of Western History
The three outermost planets are all invisible to the naked eye, and
have orbital periods roughly double each other: Uranus (84 yrs), Neptune
(~160 yrs), and Pluto (~320 yrs with a highly eccentric orbit). The
big cycle is Neptune-Pluto, which conjoin each other every 490+ yrs,
but usually without Uranus. The astrological time map is fractal in
the sense that you can always zoom in for more detail by adding planets
with faster orbits, i.e. Saturn and Jupiter, etc. A conjunction of Uranus
with either Neptune or Pluto represents a ten to fifteen year archetypal
phenomena, while Neptune and Pluto together represent an even bigger
nodal period.
The only time all three were conjoined in recorded history was in 575BCE,
the Axial Age: Buddha, Lao Tsu, Confucius, Pythagoras and the Presocratics,
possibly Zoroaster, and the Babylonian exile when the Old Testament
was written down. Incidentally, I noticed that this was also the time
of the first recorded predictive astronomy in Chaldea (and I wonder
if the Hebrews brought the math which made that possible back to Babylon
with them from Egypt?)
The next N-P opposition is 325BCE, with Uranus
(and Saturn and Jupiter) conjoining Pluto, all lined up opposite Neptune.
Alexander and Aristotle both die within a year or two of this date!
This is the height of Greece, and the transition from the Classical
to the Hellenistic Greek world.
The next N+P conjunction is 85BCE, the time
of Julius Caesar, and the first illustration of a phenomenon we will
see again and again. About a hundred years (maybe 120 yrs or a quarter
cycle, i.e. perhaps the anti-node of the half cycle?) after the conjunction
we see the crest of the bow wave of what will characterize the new period.
In this case, Jesus is born as Uranus opposes Pluto, and teaches and
dies as Uranus opposes Neptune, both for the first time after the big
N+P conjunction.
The next opposition of N-P coincides with the reign Marcus Aurelius
at the height of Rome. The next N+P conjunction is in 411AD,
within one year of the date given by the history books for the fall
of Rome, in 410BCE, when it is burned.
We will skip the dark ages in Europe. There are correlation's with the
founding of Islam, and with the rise of Byzantium, and the time of the
consolodation of Catholicism in Europe roughly correlates with the N+P
conjunction in 905AD, but by and large little
of note happens in Europe during this long period.
The next big news in the West is 1399AD when
N+P are conjoined, with Uranus tightly opposite. This is the half way
point of a 4000 year cycle and correlates with the beginning of the
Italian Renaissance.
Incidentally, the weekend I worked all this out for the first time,
my friend Tom came up and said that they had just found an Egyptian
"Stonehenge" in southern Egypt which was 7000 yrs old. I said,
"Probably 6500 yrs." Sure enough, when we checked the website
it said 6000-6500 yrs old. I had already been aware of 4500BCE from
my own astronomical astrology studies, as that was also the time when
the axis of the equinoxes (which move by precession) lined up with the
direction vector of the center of the galaxy (but that is way outside
of even conventional astrology).
The Renaissance was carried on the one hundred year wave coming off
the N+P conjunction of 1399.
The next N-P opposition is 1650 when Descartes
publishes and Newton is born (the analog of the height of Greece).
The next N+P conjunction is about 1892 when,
within a five year period, virtually every modern invention which will
shape the 20th century is invented. Uranus goes opposite Pluto, and
then Neptune, in the first few years of the 20th century as relativity,
and quantum, come in.
Finally, Uranus exactly conjoins Pluto in 1966,
joined by Jupiter in 1968-69 with the Moon
landing, and general social revolution. Uranus first comes in to conjoin
Neptune in 1989 joined by Saturn and Jupiter
opposite, all exactly aligned within two days of the fall of the Berlin
Wall. The U+N conjunction is exact in 1993,
marked by the rise of the internet, and Jupiter joins the conjunction
in 1997.
So, the 60's and the 90's are in some sense analogous to the birth and
teachings of Jesus, and the whole thirty year period at the end of the
20th century is also analogous to the rise of Classical Greece, Classical
Rome, and the late Italian Renaissance. Hence the claim about 1997,
and this period in general, that not since the Renaissance has there
been such a harmonious astrological
opportunity - though you probably wouldn't have known it then either
had you been living through it.
Of course the really tough metaphysical problem is how to reconcile
the basically cyclical astrological model of time with the logarithmic
reality of time in which we find ourselves embedded at this
moment of history.
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