SYNODIC ASTROLOGY

When two or more planets move together through the sky, they form an
astronomical configuration called a synod (from the Greek,synodos, which means a
traveling together). The more slowly this synod moves, the more powerful its
influence on human affairs. Synods, for good or for ill, exert a powerful force on
history, introducing change and sometimes upheaval. They can bring about new
forms of cultural expression in art, literature, and music, technology, and in new
political structures.
Synodic conjunctions, like a Uranus Neptune conjunction, exert a dominant
influence, seen and unseen, on a world-historical level and upon ones personal life.
It was a Neptune Uranus synod of 1989/90 that brought about the collapse of the
Soviet Union and restructured most of the governments of Eastern Europe. Those
synods involving Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris, since they move the slowest in
their orbits around the Sun, are the most powerful. Those involving Saturn and
Jupiter exert a more easily perceivable influence.
It is always important to note in historical astrology where the conjunction
becomes exact, the impact of the synodic cycle will be greatest at that point; the
effect will be the most dynamic; I call it the dynamic impact point.

Planetary Synodic Cycles: The Triple

Conjunctionin Astrology
One of the most powerful known planetary synodic cycles so far in history (there
may be planets beyond Eris to alter this) occurred in the sixth century B.C., and it
was exact (within 1) at 8 through 11 Taurus, approximately between 577 and
574 B.C. (Eris during this period was traveling between 20 and 23 Gemini) This
was when the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, made a conjunction in
astrological and astronomical Taurus. Since this triple conjunction occurs only
every 120,000 years, it was the most powerful that has occurred in human history.

What Did the Astrology Triple

Conjunction Do?
The Triple Conjunction introduced something new into the human condition.The
history of this era, especially in the few centuries that followed it, describes a birth
of something fresh, original and undone before in the human experience. Greek
science, the foundation of modern science, was born in this era. The rule of law
emerged in Athens, later in Rome, and is still the basis of our freedoms today. A
new level of human freedom emerged. This was the foundation of what we call
today, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Spiritual belief began to center on
a one God, but in different forms. The religion of Buddhism and the philosophy of

Taoism swept through Asia; Israel and Judaism, during the Babylonian Captivity
(this was an era dominated by the prophet Daniel, a seer far greater than
Nostradamus, whose gaze looked thousands of years into the future), literally went
through a death and rebirth. The outcome: The Psalms and Proverbs and Isaiah
and Job and the five books of Moses plus the books of the prophets were from oral
tradition written down and would become what we today call the Old Testament.
Later these teachings would seep into the Roman Empire, long before the arrival of
Christ, beginning to form the basis of our Judeo-Christian heritage. If we review the
historical events that took place in that century and in the following ones, we must
conclude even today, some 2500 years later, that we are still reacting to the impact
of that synod. During this era Buddha (563-483 B.C.) brought a new spiritual reality
into India.Then it spread through much of Asia; Confucius (28 September, 551-479
B.C.) and Lao Tzu (born 606 B.C.?) revolutionized religion and philosophy in China;
and it was at this time that Pythagoras (570-497 B.C.) grew famous as a teacher of
many disciplines, and helped to bring about the flowering of Hellenic civilization.

Aischylos

Historically, this configuration activated the development of high classical Greece.

It heralded the beginning of our modern world. Some of the greatest philosophers
and thinkers, poets and playwrights, artists and sculptors, warriors, statesmen and
lawgivers in all human history appeared in this century and the two that followed.
Their names are still well known: Solon (lawgiver, 638 BC 558 BC); Aeschylus
(the playwright, 525 456 B.C.); Thales (mathematics and physics and astrology,
625 546 BC); Pindar (poetry, 522443 BC); Zeno of Elea (philosophy and
astrology, 490c.430 BC); Anaximander (natural science, 610 c. 546 BC); Aesop
(fables, 620-564 BC); Heraclitus (philosophy and lawgiving, 535 c. 475 BC);
Parmenides (philosophy, born 540 BC). These names are just a sampling; many
others exist. This was the time when the Oracle of Delphi, known for its profound

wisdom, became prominent in the Mediterranean world, and when there at Delphi
the great temple of Apollo was constructed in the Sixth Century BC. The century

Pericles of Athens

that followed the triple conjunction was known as the Age ofPericles (his dates
were 495 429 B.C.). Many of the ideas that lie at the foundation of our modern
civilizationlaws and customs and traditionswere formulated at that time by
philosophers like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. During the triple conjunction, Rome
was a small city-state ruled by a king, Servius Tullius (reigned 578-535 BC). He was
not a bad king, but was succeeded by Tarquinius the Proud (535 496 BC), the
seventh and last king of ancient Rome. Tarquinius was a selfish ruler, injurious to
his people, and was overthrown in a conspiracy led by Brutus. Brutus and those
who were with him enacted a whole new dynamic, a new politics, a new system of
laws in which the ruling class made the choice to share its power and its privileges
with the common men, called the plebeians. This separation of powers between the
ruling class, the nobility, and the plebeians, established a dynamic creative tension,
which led first to the founding of the Roman Republic (509 B.C.) and then, some
five hundred years later, to the Empire (27 BC). The combined influence of those
two institutions lasted for nearly two millennia. The Roman Empire imparted many
good conventions to human civilization, including the concept of the rule of law,
namely, that no man is above the law. When this principle is a part of the legal
system, everyone is more disciplined, and all people are given the opportunity to
express more creativity and freedom. It is around the time of the Triple
Conjunction that the rule of law began to be practicedin Greece and Italy.

Temple of Solomon

In ancient Israel, the Babylonian Captivity lasted from 587538B.C. The First
Temple had been burned to the ground, its stones overturned, and the city of
Jerusalem sacked and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II (634 562 BC). The Jews
were forced to pick up what they could take with them and move to Babylon, which
was one of the great city-state empires of that era. Yet Babylon would soon fall as
a power in the Fertile Crescent, as all the old empires were dying. The triple
conjunction was occurring in Taurus, and all the old traditional customs,
civilizations, empires were broken and scattered. The Triple Conjunction for Israel
was a time of retrenchment, when everything but bare essence was stripped away;
this was when an enlightened priesthood began to assume the reins of political
power, and continued to hold it for centuries. It is when many of the greatest books
of the Old Testament were written down from oral tradition, and scholars say it was
when the Dutero-Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55) was written. In 536 B.C., Cyrus II, the
Persian emperor who reigned from 553 to 529 B.C (as described by Herodotus),
went to war against Babylon, destroyed its empire, and later in respect for services
rendered, freed the Jews, allowing them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the
Temple. Israel was one of the few civilizations that made the transition from presynodic times, keeping its customs and traditions intact, possibly because it was
ruled as a theocracy, possibly because much of the wisdom and truth found in its
religious teachings and applied to its customs and laws was immune to time and
synodic cycles.

The 6th Century B.C.

The 6th century B.C. was a time of endings and beginnings. The endings had to do
with the Taurus part of the synod. Taurus stands for the traditional, the stable, the
long-lasting. That the triple conjunction occurred in this sign meant that the long
duration of these traditional ancient civilizations and powers would now conclude.
For example, the ancient and powerful empire of Assyria fell toward the beginning
of the triple conjunction (605 BC) Sumer was by now already a distant memory;
when Abraham emigrated (2000 B.C.) from Ur or Mari, the Sumerians were already
being replaced by the younger Semitic races. Many of the Sumerian laws were
codified by Hammurabi around 1750 B.C. Sumers arts and writing and
mathematics and astrology had been passed on to the Babylonians and the

Assyrians and others. Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 B.C., as did Egypt in 525
B.C. Both civilizations were corrupt and decaying, living in the shadow of their
former power and glory, low hanging fruit for the first organized military power to
make the attempt. Power was moving from the Fertile Crescent to the West. Persia
itself was an empire built on ancient practices and customs. Cyrus II, The Great,
represented much of the best of deep antiquitybut it was the best of the past.

Herodotus, the First Historian

The expansion of the Persian Empire, carried out by emperors after the death of
Cyrus, was stopped by the Greeks in the Persian Wars (490-449 B.C.). This was the
main theme of Herodotus Histories: the war between the ancient centralized
empires and the new human spirit being born in Greece. The Persian Empire was
later completely destroyed by the armies of Alexander the Great (333 B.C.). New art
and science was all allowed to grow in relative freedom for centuries. The
individual human spirit continued to learn and expand. Although I am not going to
discuss it in detail, one can trace the same growth of the human spirit in China
(which had entered the Iron Age at about this time). Confucius revolutionized
political and philosophical thought in China. Up to the end of the last century, the
bureaucracy that supported the Chinese emperor was still in place. It was
essentially the same one designed by Confucius during the time of the triple
conjunction. In Japan, the emperors trace their lineage back to the era of the triple
conjunction. In Mesoamerica (Central America and Mexico) a people known as the
Olmecs built pyramids and other massive structures and cities, many of which since
have disappeared, some of which are still standing. This civilization developed
sometime before 1000 B.C., consolidated its power by 800 B.C., built some of its
greatest structures around the time of the triple conjunction including the Pyramid
of the Sun. Many Olmec writings date from this era, and if they are ever deciphered,
remarkable poetry and philosophy might be discovered. Israel, Greece, and Rome
in this era each embody the dawn of a new civilization, the birth of a younger
people, more warlike, perhaps shorter-lived, but filled with overflowing vitality and
the urge to push on into new realms of knowledge, new depths of spirit. In fact,
most of their mythic tales concern freedom, independence, autonomy and the
personal development of the soul. The story of King David (1040970 BC)
historically took place around 1010 to 970 BC B.C., but was written down during
the century of the triple conjunction. It is an Aries myth dealing with issues of
freedom, personal unfolding, the interaction with a father figure, King Saul, 1079
-1007 B.C., who grew up under a Pl/NE conjunction of late Aries and early Taurus,
and the alignment of personal will with Gods will, and the personal relationship of
God with man. Pluto/Neptune moved in the years 1074 through 1072 BC from 28
Aries to 2 Taurus. Alexander the Great (21 July 356, Pella, Macedon, to 323 B.C.),
whose birth followed this synod by a little more than two centuries, was an
exemplar of the new individuality, personal freedom and creative drive that flooded

the mind of humankind in this era. As warrior, he was often the first soldier to climb
the city wall. As high priest, he was the first to offer the sacrifice in the morning. He
composed songs and poetry. As a student of

Raphaels Plato and Aristotle

Aristotle (384 BC 322 BC), whom his father, King Philip, had hired as tutor, he
disputed philosophy with the finest minds in Greece. He was an Aries exemplar, an
individual who developed all his gifts and talents. In the Age of Aries (1943 B.C. to
213 A.D.), when the Vernal Equinox point was traveling through the constellation
of Aries (from 1943 B.C. to 213 A.D.), the individual unfolding of the creative power
of the human spirit found its way into human civilization. This new level of
achievement in the expression of the mind was reflected in the poetry of Homer,
the Psalms of David, the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes of Solomon, the Hellenic
Flowering and the high civilization achieved by the Roman Empire. This unfolding
placed its seal on all human endeavors: It was the beginning of our modem era.

Deeper Synodic Functions

I hope you are beginning to understand that the synodos discharges an awesome
power, that it has a substantial, transformative effect on the human race. Its
energies can function in several ways. Those who are not born with the synod, but
who are functioning at the height of their creative powers, when the two (or more)
planets move into the alignment of a longitudinal conjunction, often use this
energy to make tremendous contributions. Albert Einstein perhaps saw deeper into
the physics of reality than any person since Isaac Newton. He had his profoundest
visions about relativity when he was in his late teens and early twenties, when
Pluto and Neptune were conjunct in the 1890s and early part of the century. One
could say the same of Carl Jung (26 July 1875 6 June 1961), Maurice Ravel
(March 7, 1875 December 28, 1937), Rilke (4 December 1875 29 December
1926), Thomas Mann (6 June 1875 12 August 1955), Hermann Hesse (July 2,
1877 August 9, 1962), and inventors like Orville Wright (August 19, 1871
January 30, 1948). They all did some of their best work under the influence of this
conjunction. Others are born with the conjunction, and bring its power into
manifestation, when in later years, they reach a maturity of creative expression. An
example of this type of manifestation would bemoving backwards in history, Mary
Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 December 3, 1910), the founder of Christian Science,
who was born with the Uranus/Neptune conjunction. Another would be Walt
Whitman, the poet, also born with this synod (May 31, 1819 March 26, 1892). Of
course, there was Adolph Hitler, born April 20th1889, who had the Pluto/Neptune
conjunction in Gemini on his 8thHouse Cusp. Among other attributes, the

8thHouse rules war and occult matters. U.S. Grant (April 27, 1822 July 23, 1885)
was born with the Uranus/Neptune synod ( NE5 Capricorn | UR 7 Capricorn). It
gave him the unique ability to read the minds of his opposing generals, including
Robert E. Lee (January 19, 1807 October 12, 1870). Campaign study had helped
him develop the most valuable of all his aptitudes, that of seeing into the mentality
of his opponents. We have his own accounts of how he began to trust this capacity
he found in himself. More than that, he began to guess how they would react to his
initiatives, and even how they would arrive at independent decisions. Lee, whom
he respected and who respected him was more puzzling to read. General
Longstreet, one of Lees subordinates, had warned Lee that Grant was a man we
cannot afford to underrate. But, eventually, Grant entered his mind and anticipated
one move of his after another. Appomattox was to prove as much a mental as a
material victory! Each person born with this synod uses its energy in a unique and
different manner.

Beethoven at Uranus/Neptune Synod

When the conjunction of Uranus/Neptune was exact, between 1821 and 1825,
Ludwig van Beethoven (born 16December1770,see chart) wrote and premiered
his Ninth Symphony in Vienna (7 May 1824). This symphony about brotherhood
and joy is, I feel, one of the greatest pieces of music ever composed. It
demonstrates a combination of the Uranian and the Neptunian influences. (also, its
4th movement, the chorale, is one of the most difficult and least well performed).
The three ways to judge synodic influence are: First, one can examine the person or
nation born under its influence (e.g., the modem state of Israel was founded under a
Saturn/Pluto conjunction). These individuals or nations will manifest their creative
gifts in a unique and different manner, often introducing something new into
human experience. Second, those individuals who are at the height of their creative
powers will use this energy to enhance their inventiveness and originality, and
often a synod will take them to heights they would have never reached otherwise,
as I think it did with Beethoven and Einstein (14 March 1879 18 April 1955) and
Jung. Third, a synod transmutes nations, empires, cultures, civilizations, as the triple
conjunction destroyed the power of Babylon and Egypt and Persia and a little
earlier that of Assyria. Within this framework I will continue the discussion of

particular synods.

How the Jupiter Saturn Synod Works

When one looks up into the sky at nightand for millennia astrologers did just
thatone can easily see Jupiter, which shines at a maximum visual magnitude
of-2.7,and Saturn, which shines at a maximum visual magnitude of+0.7The
average human eye is capable of seeing objects in the sky up to a magnitude
ofabout +5.5. If you were able to see Jupiter and Saturn with their magnetic fields,
each would look as large as the Full Moon.

These two planets have been observed for thousands of years. It takes Saturn
about thirty years to orbit the Sun, Jupiter about twelve. Since Jupiter has the faster
orbit, there are periods, when they both appear at the same degree of longitude in
the sky This is the conjunction. This is the Jupiter/Saturn Synod. The time it takes
for these two bodies to move from conjunction to conjunction is about twenty
years.
This twenty-year cycle is perhaps the most important of all the shorter synodic
cycles. It has a definite effect on the chart of every nation on the planet.
The most significant circumstances in the life of a nation, especially a democratic
republic offree institutions and the rule of law, happens when those in power, at
the time ofthe conjunction and often at the time of the opposition, pass that power
on to a whole new group ofpeople.
At this time, during the period ofits new phase, or the full phase, a political party
that may have been in power for years, or a group in government who followed a
certain political philosophy, might simply go out ofpower, or be voted out ofoffice.
Ifthis synod conjuncts a planet ofa nations chart, it will activate everything that
planet rules for the next twenty years.
Lets examine how this synod has worked in American history beginning with the

most recent.
2001 2021
Jupiter 22 6 Saturn 22Taurus 23 26 May 2000
Early June 2000,23 and 24 Taurus
June 20 Jupiter at 27 Taurus | July 12 SA27 Taurus
This cycle will last to Dec 2020with Jupiter/Saturn at29 Capricornthru 0 and1
Aquariusin Jan 2021
The year 2000 is an election year. Neither side has an incumbent running, which
means the election can go either way. The nation is prosperous and at peace.
Normally in conditions like this the party in power retains the presidency. However,
it is the beginning of a new twenty year Jupiter/Saturn cycle. People are hungry for
something new; the previous administration has been involved in numerous
scandals, one of which a president has been impeached by Congress. An
impeachment is a rare event in American history. Americans know this and are tired
of all the sleaze; the election is very close, finally decided by a few votes in the
state of Florida, with both sides crying foul, and the opposing party takes the
presidency. The taint of scandal goes away. Voters breathe a sigh of relief.
This 27 Taurus synod begins as a trine to the Declaration (1776 chart) Pluto and a
trine to the Constitutional Sun (1787 chart), implying among other things war and
economic issues and perhaps a more conservative time.
Jupiter 1II 14 Saturn 24Taurus 5 Jan 20, 2001
A new president is sworn in.
9/11 happens on Sept 11, 2001: Jupiter is 11Cancer 31; Saturn is 14 Gemini
44. That is the war. The economy does expand and is prosperous for many years,
but some of that rests on an overvalued real estate bubble, and that bubble bursts
in 2008. This causes a panic. The politicians in power dont seem to be handling it
too well. As in the Great Depression, everything they do seems to make it worse.
The American people are dissatisfied and
Ten years after the Jupiter/Saturn synodarrives theJupiter Saturn Opposition = 28
March 2011: Saturn 14 Libra Jupiter at 14 Aries. This is a year when the people
vote and they come out all year in large numbers to vote. Plus there is a:USA
Saturn Return,another indication of deep change.
On election day all over the US, Saturn on Nov. 2 is at 1140 of Libra, or 35
away from the conjunction to natal US Saturn, which becomes within 1 exact the
22ndof November; By Dec. 2, 2010 the conjunction has been made, and in early
January new people begin to take control of elective offices in the land. The
elections have been a tsunami for those in power, the elites. The elite have lost the
House of Representatives. And they have lost their 3/5ths majority in the Senate,
so in the Senate they can now be filibustered, meaning they have lost their
absolute voting power majority in the Senate. The old elites have also lost a
majority of governorships and legislatures around the USA. Government unions, an
elite special interest faction, vow to fight any way they can to keep their powers;

yet in state after state their power begins to slip away: the sovereign vote of the
people can still destroy the power of special interests. The presidents approval rate
remains in the low 40s. Congress job approval rating at this time is the worst in
poll taking history. Yet natural change is occurring everywhere.
When the 2012 elections are done and finished, I will add more here.
1981- 2001 JUSA 10 Libra in Jan. 20, 1981
Nov 1980 thru August, 19815 Librathru12 Libraback to6 Libra
Also Saturn Return this year
Also Eris exactly opposed natal Saturn of USA | Saturn opposed Jupiter March
1991Sa= 353 Auqarius| Jupiter 353 Leo Rx
The Influence of Ronald Reagan

President Reagan

It does seem strange that one of the most important, successful and changeeffecting leaders in the world history of the late 20thcentury, a two term president
of the USA, one who further believed in and employed astrologers for the timing of
events, would not have an accurate confirmed birth time. But such seems to be the
case. There are rectifications and dowsings and psychic probes that cover times
from early in the morning then moving all through the day. Perhaps some day we
will get a definitive time. At present we dont have one. The chief problem seems to
be that the birth certificate comes with thedateof birth, but not thetime.
Another problem is that the historian, Edmund Morris, chosen by the Reagan
people to write his biography, their decision based on his one good book, turns out
to be a mediocre to poor historian. He wrote one magnificent book, the first half of
a biography of Teddy Roosevelt: It was magnetic and readable and hard to put
down, but he was never to write another book on that level. His biography on
Reagan is filled with fantasy and actual falsehoods, including, most likely, fictional
sources as to Reagans time of birth; as history, it is terrible; as a story, it is even

worse.
In AstroDatabank, the Rodden Rating is DD, awarded for conflicting, unverified
times. After reading their reasons in Sources, I agree. You can read about it here
ReaganBeforeDawn

Reagan Ascent to Power Chart. Click for larger.

Reagan before dawn.

I have included several speculative charts. I am using a favorite one, which

probably means that it is not correct, as favorite speculative charts, when the true
time of birth is miraculously uncovered, often demonstrate. I am maintaining
discipline and employing only what can be used here.
Reagan 2:00AM

Reagan 2:00 am. Click for larger image.

When you analyze a natal chart of someone like President Reagan, the first thing
you want to do is compare it to the core chart of America, the Declaration chart
(July 4, 1776). This will begin to show you as an astro historian the kind of effect he
had on the nation.

The first connection I notice is that partile trine of Jupiter in Scorpio to the USA
Sun in Cancer (it is under 30 off of exact). So there is an element of belief and
faith in the very heart of what the Founders were trying to create when they
founded the Republic. President Reagan read and studied many books on the
Constitution and the Declaration and about American history for years and years
before he became president. When he entered office he knew generally what he
wanted to do. His Jupiter trine to the US Sun was going to be highly beneficial for

the USA. Scorpio is renewal and he was going to renew the founding principles
embodied in the Declaration, and he would renew Americas faith in itself.

Another very close aspect was the opposition of his Mars at 4 Capricorn to the US
3 Cancer Venus and 5 Jupiter in Cancer. This conjunction in the natal US chart
rules the governing elites: the bureaucrats in Washington, the lifetime politicians in
Congress, special interest groups, etc. Reagan would be challenging them for his
full two terms in office.

The third major structure is Reagans Pluto/Eris/Uranus. His Pluto and Uranus are
exactly inconjunct; Eris is sextile Uranus and square Pluto: This is a very tight
structure. Reagans Uranus at 26 32 Capricorn conjuncts the US Pluto which is
27 Capricorn, which means the whole structure of Reagans Pluto/Eris/Uranus sits
on the US Pluto. For purpose of our discussion here Pluto rules economics and war.
Reagan was to have an enormous effect on America in both of these areas. Three of
his planets impacted the US Pluto which means that he had an enormous effect on
the Plutonian and Scorpionic functions of the US.
William Casey, Reagans DCI

William Casey, Reagans DCI

How? After thirty years or so, historians are saying Ronald Reagan won the Cold
War. Margaret Thatcher said he won it and not a shot was fired. A few shots were
fired and some lives were lost but more or less she was right. Much of his success
rested in his genius (Mercury conjunct Uranus in Capricorn) in choosing
subordinates who would fight this war. His choice of CIA director, William Casey, if
judged purely on effectiveness, on what was achieved, would mean he chose the
best CIA director in American history. William Casey destroyed the Soviets in
Afghanistan, and that was one of the actions that helped bring down the Soviet
Union. Reagan destroyed Soviet reliance of oil incomes, thus limiting its fundings
to conduct wars and revolutions around the planet. The histories of this are only
now beginning to be written. Reagan helped destroy communism in the Soviet
Union. Today there is no Soviet Union. This type of plutonian power was welded in
conjunction with Eris, so the destruction was permanent and long term.
The economy. Reagan had spent many years studying what made a people
prosperous and what made them poor. He had always been fascinated with
economics: He majored in it in college. Later, especially when he was reading and
studying while traveling across America by rail, as a spokesman for General Electric
Co., he studied Adam Smith, Bastiat, Milton Friedman, many others. He studied and
read and thought. Practically, he noted, in addition to committing millions of
political murders, how poor the Soviets were, how communism and socialism
generally created poverty.
By the time he entered his presidency, he knew, exactly what he wanted to do. He
would dismantle those parts of government, the socialist parts, inspired by
Keynesian philosophies, the progressive practices, the over-regulations that were
choking the economy. He challenged the elites in the media, in academia, in the
opposing party, and he won that argument with the American people. He changed
the whole direction of government. His influence was so powerful that the next
thirty years of America would be the most prosperous it had ever experienced.
Renewal. Ronald Reagan was first and foremost a very spiritual person. His mother,
who brought him up, was deeply religious; in her own community she was a
spiritual leader, a prophetess, a healer, and she instructed her son in Christian
teachings, in prayer, in connecting to that higher power that we call God. All his life
he was deeply religious. He often practiced silent prayer: It is said that practiced
silent prayer in cabinet meetings at the White House, or even when riding his
Arabian horse at his ranch in California. This president was a deeply religious as
Abraham Lincoln. This is found all over his chart: first of course is the Sun square
Jupiter, then the Mercury opposed Neptune (the silent prayer), also the Uranus
Mercury sextile Eris.
Living in a secular age, he did not talk about his connection to a higher power, no
very much anyway. Yet he believed as deeply as the Founders in that connection to
a higher power, and he shared their values, especially as stated in the Declaration.

We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness The concepts, the self evident truths in
the Declaration were placed, after years of careful thought, into the Constitution.
The Constitution was explained by the Federalist Papers. It was a magnificent way
of creating a New Order of the Ages, something never achieved in history on this
level. All this was Reagans philosophy, his faith.
Much of this had been forgotten. In the 60s and 70s the Declaration and
Constitution quit being taught in our schools. They were being forgotten. They
were declared by progressives, even by President Wilson, to be out of date. Things
are more complicated now, they reasoned. They said that it was time for highly
educated bureaucrats to run things, and in order to be efficient, these bureaucrats
needed to do away with separation of powers, even with representative
government. Otherwise, you could not get things done. Of course we would need
to hire more and more bureaucrats to do this, that is, we would always require more
and more government.
When Reagan became president, he faced a government that was larger and more
permanent than it had ever been in American history, except during the 2ndWorld
War. It was a crippling influence. The economy was dying; foreign policy was in
malaise. It was time for renewal.
He reversed a lot of it in his two terms, one reason for the extraordinary burst of
prosperity that followed. More importantly, he brought back the original Founders
ideas on how a free people can live in a republic. These ideas on human freedom
and creativity actually go back thousands of years; these ideas are far more
profound than the progressive, socialist, national socialist and communist fads that
have occurred since the French Revolution. Part of his genius was that he made
these ideas popular again.
Reagan won the argument over whether the ideas found in the Declaration and
Federalist Papers were out of date. He began to turn American government
completely around. He did it of course with his genius for communication about
politics and history, his Mercury Uranus conjunction in Capricorn. No one could
match him in winning the argument, ever. When his influence is assessed by
philosophical historians centuries from now, that may be what they credit him with
most, that after more two hundred years of history, when it was all beginning to be
forgotten, he reopened the wells of truth and freedom. Reagan was always
interested human freedom. That was his chief interest in the political realm. He is
one of those who have brought more freedom to the planet than almost any other.
The fact that Eris is a part of this structure may mean that his influence on the
economy and on economic thinking in general and on the philosophy of lasting
human freedom in a republic will last for centuries.
Astrologically, here is how it worked:
On the day Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, Jan 20, 1981, several major
aspects were occurring in the US Chart.

Saturn was within 5 of the US natal Saturn, and a few months later would be
making the conjunction.America was entering its seventh Saturn Return.
Saturn Returns are always transformative for a nation. Those in power often
go out of power: Sometimes, like in the Battle of Chattanooga, where Grant
defeated Bragg (and where America wasentering its 3rd Saturn Return,
November 2325, 1863, the Saturn Return can occur in the middle of a
violent war; other times, like in the USA in 1981, are more peaceful, but the
re-structuring of institutions of power can happen.
2 The planet Eris, at 14 Aries 07 was making an exact opposition to US natal
Saturn (14 Libra 48). This was the first time in US history that had
happened. All the influence and change happening now would be centuries
long-lived. Whatever Eris touches is given a kind of immortality.
3 Ronald Reagan was sworn in on a new twenty year Jupiter/Saturn synod
(Jupiter 10 Libra, Saturn 09 Libra). This synod was conjunct the US Saturn,
making it doubly effective. And, yes, the synod was opposed by the planet
Eris, making its effect enormously long-lived. Everything would change, and it
would stay changed for longer than anyone living would realize. Americas
oldest president, who in many ways seemed very young, and appealed to the
young, was sworn in as president.
What Does This Mean
So the synod of Jupiter/Saturn conjoined the natal USA Saturn. This meant that
America was nowalsobeginning a new Saturn cycle. Such beginnings are always a
time of renewal. In historical astrology Saturn in the chart of a nation represents its
standing in the world. The Eris opposition to that Saturn means its standing in the
world will be connected with war. The type of war it will fight will be Erian rather
than Arian. Erian war is just as forceful as Arian, but it is often fought covertly using
every tool available. Reagan won the Cold War fighting with economics (destroying
the Russian oil revenues while at the same time increasing US military
expenditures) as well as covert war (destroying Russian dominance in Afghanistan
by supplying shoulder fired ground-to-air missiles and other ordinance to the
Afghan resistance).
The opposition of Eris to US Saturn meant that the next thirty years would see US
power in the world supported by this type of war.
As part of the renewal, Reagan brought back the military power of the US, which
had been in the doldrums since the withdrawal from Vietnam; he restored its
confidence. Every battle he fought lost almost no lives, yet was a victory for
America:
Grenada (25 October 1983): The massive invasion of Grenada wiped out the
installation of a new dictatorship there. It slowed the expansion of Cuban/Soviet
influence in Central America.
Afghanistan: Caused the defeat and withdrawal of Soviet armies.
Libyan bombing (April 15, 1986): Stopped terrorism in Europe, and inhibited

Colonel Quadaffi from embarking on further terrorist adventures.

Support of the British against the Argentines in the Falklands War (2 April 1982
14 June 1982): Stopped the invasion of British Commonwealth island by an
Argentine dictatorship that no one on that island wanted.
Fighting the Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua by supporting the Contras: Not as
successful, but still slowed it down.
Initiating the Strategic Defense Initiative (March 23, 1983), which would cost so
much that the Soviets were never going to be able to pay to keep up with the
Americans.
Installing missiles in Western Europe (1982-83): This gave the Europeans security
for the first time in years, and weakened the Soviets.
Giving covert support to the Israelis in bombing the nuclear reactor in Osirak, Iraq
(June 7, 1981).
America would mostly win the wars it fought for the next thirty years. The synod
conjunct Americas Saturn and opposed by Eris placed its stamp on the whole cycle,
American expression of power, and on the presidency. Every president would be
involved in a war. Even president Clinton, someone who did not want to be in any
war, fought successfully in Kosovo and Bosnia.
1961-1981.This Jupiter/Saturn synod began at 230Capricorn and moved to
28 Capricorn, and in March of 1961was exactly conjunct the Pluto at
270Capricorn of Americas 1776chart. The dynamic impact point of Jupiter/Saturn
that occurred on Americas Pluto placed its mark upon the next twenty years of
American political life. Every president underwent some kind of Plutonian
experience.
President Kennedy was elected at the beginning of this cycle (and, remember,
Pluto is anti-parallel the natal Sun of the 1776chart), after three years in office was
assassinated, possibly in a conspiracy. The second president, Lyndon Johnson, was
hounded out of office over the mis-handling of a foreign war (war is ruled by Pluto).
President Nixon had to resign from office due to complications arising from a
burglary scandal (burglary is ruled by Pluto), and also possibly from conspiracy.
President Ford was humiliated in a presidential debate concerning his knowledge
of foreign policy in particular and in general by his demeanor and clumsiness, and
lost the election (Pluto can rule public humiliation). President Carter was
humiliated by the events surrounding the Iranian hostage crisis (transiting Pluto
was square his natal Sun), and also was accused of poorly handling the economy
(Pluto is an economic planet) and of being afraid of the power of his presidency. In
a somewhat humiliating defeat, he was voted out of office. Every issue and every
event, during that twenty year period, was somehow Plutonian in nature.
In1961,when Jupiter and Saturn were in their new phase, a whole new group of
people came to power. President Kennedy entered office at the head of a party that
had been out of power. He had a fresh political philosophy. So did Lyndon Johnson
and Richard Nixon. The Jupiter/Saturn influence dominated both political parties,

and it molded their philosophies. In foreign policy, they were all more conservative
than later presidents would be. Richard Nixon, the third president of this cycle,
came from a different party, one that was supposed to have a different political
philosophy. Yet if one examines President Nixons actions as chief-executive, as
opposed to the propaganda of his political campaignsthe opening of China
relations, the support of all the civil rights reforms, the push to have an astronaut
walk on the Moonthe agenda of this president much more resembled that of
Kennedy and Johnson and Carter and their political programs than it did
Eisenhowers or Trumans or Roosevelts.
In this era America in its backing of currency went off the gold and silver standards:
Johnson, the Democrat, removed the silver from coinage in 1967; and Nixon, the
Republican, closed the gold window in 1971, taking the American dollar off the
gold standard, forcing the currencies of the world to float. This action had a major
drastic effect on the world economy. All these economic changes were Plutonian in
nature. They followed from the synodic influence on the U.S Pluto.
1941-1961. In the previous JU/SA synod, we uncover two dynamic impact points.
One moves roughly from 11 to 15 degrees of Taurus, and then again from 6
through 9 degrees of Taurus. Examining the 1776 chart, we note no conjunctions to
its natal planets.
That dynamic impact point does make a sextile to the U.S. Sun (1776), and later,
though not as strongly, to the U.S. Jupiter (1776). In that era, Roosevelt was
president, and much of the civilized world was already at war. In 1940, the German
Third Reich was the most powerful nation on the planet. By the November election
of 1940, in which Roosevelt was re-elected for a third term, the Third Reich ruled
of all Europe, parts of Russia, much of the Mediterranean and parts of North Africa.
It seemed this totalitarian power was strong and getting stronger.
Like much of the world, America had been for years caught in the mire of an
economic depression. Roosevelt had come into power some seven years previously,
as a reformer, perceived almost as a savior. He had inherited a deep economic
crisis, one that was crippling the nation. He tried many solutions, mostly involving
more and more government bureaucracies, and none seemed to work very well,
though they did alleviate suffering.
A case could be made that his political philosophy was liberal: His program for
the American people was that government would take a much greater part in the
private lives of its citizens than it had ever done before. New bureaucracies were
created. Government jobs were given to the indigent. Securities markets and banks
were for the first time regulated by government agencies. For a few years it looked
as if the economy was going to be nationalized. However, the nation remained in
depression.
Roosevelt, like many other presidents, including Hoover who preceded him, didnt
really understand how economics worked. And probably that is not why he was
chosen by the powers of Providence.

In 1940, around the time of the third re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, a strange
series of events happened: Many of the liberal, left-leaning people he had brought
into government in 1933 were replaced by conservatives.
Roosevelt was concerned about the spread of the darkness of Nazism, was worried
about the war in Europe. He saw long before many others that America would have
to enter this war, or else the world would become something very different than it
was. He had already been secretly supporting Churchill and others in their crusade
against Hitler.
His work in the Second World War showed his genius for leadership; it was the
stamp of his greatness. As much as any other single leader of this era, he destroyed
the satanic princes of the Third Reich.
This was a leader who saw far into the future. He required a different kind of
person who could help him fight this war. The people he drew to him were more
conservative, more traditional and orthodox in their thinking. Some were army
officers with names like Marshall and Eisenhower, some were heads of
corporations, who could assist in the effort to produce the tanks and guns and ships
and thousands of other items needed to prosecute a war.
The Jupiter/Saturn synod crossed Roosevelts natal Saturn (it was his second
Saturn return), and then went on to touch his Neptune, making him one of the most
powerful people in the world. Like everyone else, he had to align his exercise of
power with the new synodic energies. With its Taurus emphasis, it brought to
power many traditional, non-radical people. They ruled America and dominated the
world for the next twenty years.
This synods sextile to the American Sun(1776)thrust America into a level of world
power and authority it had never previously exercised. During this twenty-year
period the president of the United States came to exercise a vast power all over the
planet.
There were some years in this cycle when America was the only nation that
possessed a nuclear capacity. During the years after World War II, many other
nations were digging themselves out of the rubble of war. America had an intact
and huge industrial capacity, which economically dominated the planet.
Truman came into power on the crescent phase of the synod (SA4 CA; JU 20 VI).
At the beginning of his term he had to make a quick decision on an extremely
important matterhe had to choose whether or not to use an atomic bomb on
Japan. He too shared in the awesome power of this synod.
Truman was just as much an anti-Communist conservative as any other political
personage in America during this twenty year period. He was responsible for
getting legislation passed in the Congress to assist Europe in its recovery. This was
called the Marshall Plan. The monies from this aid enabled the fledgling
democracies in Europe to inhibit the spread of communism. When North Korea
invaded South Korea (June 25, 1950),Truman immediately responded by sending in
American divisions. It was Truman who signed the National Security Act of

1947,which in addition to other acts created the Central Intelligence Agency.

Even the political Left in the late Forties and the Fifties was concerned with
fighting Communism. During that twenty-year period in America very little
radical, leftist or socialist thought or politics existed either in government, or in the
universities or anywhere else in American culture. For a while anti-Communism
became almost a religion. It reached its most fanatic point around the conjunction
of Saturn/Neptune in the early Fifties.
Those in power, either in government or in the media or in the universities,
promoted or espoused conservative ideas and philosophies of governance.
Eisenhower was sworn in as president when Jupiter and Saturn were 15 degrees
past their opposition, in the full phase (Jan. 20, 1953, 12:32p.m., Washington). For a
party in power the full phase can signify a time of falling apart, or it can be a
flowering of what was begun at the conjunction. In the ascent-to-power chart of
Eisenhower, Jupiter is placed in the same position that it synodically occupied in
1940, sextile the US Sun (1776). If I had been an astrologer living at this time, I
would have forecast a rather successful term of rule, a flowering of his ability to
handle power easily and gracefully, which he began learning about in the early
1940s when he was called to Washington to work with General Marshal.
Eisenhower was to carry that power right up to the time that Saturn and Jupiter
conjuncted again in 1961. At that time, new people, new parties, new organizations,
new groups took on the direction of government.
By October of 1958, Jupiter and Saturn had entered the closing 450(JU 50 SC; SA
200 SG). Americas stability and total dominance of the world, militarily and
economically, was beginning to erode. Eisenhower, who had hardly ever been
criticized either by the media or by the congressional Democrats (in that era, they
were known as the loyal opposition) began to receive disapproval and censure from
these and many other sources.
The Russians had initiated the Space Age by lofting into space a two-hundredpound satellite, the Sputnik (October 4, 1957). This achievement caused
consternation and fear in America. The problem of segregation of the races, a
holdover from what was begun in the American Civil War, was entering mass
consciousness. Eisenhower was not really concerned with either space exploration
or racial segregation. These issues were to be addressed in the upcoming JU/SA
cycle. People began to criticize him for this.
Eisenhower began to seem inept to the American people. The media came up with
the term missile gap: It was felt that America was vulnerable to a missile attack,
that maybe the Soviet Union was ahead of America. Historically, this has been
proven to be very, very untrue. While the Russians were able to construct a
prototype rocket that would place a satellite in orbit, they simply lacked the
technology to built rockets that would carry nuclear devices to American cities, or
an astronaut to the Moon.
Eisenhower had been using spy planes for several years to determine just how

powerful the Russians really were. In 1960, one of these U-2 planes was shot down
by a Soviet missile, and the pilot taken captive. Eisenhower was made to look
incompetent. A summit meeting was scheduled between the USA and the Soviets.
It was canceled, and things looked even worse.
However, the intelligence flights that Eisenhower had authorized over Russia gave
him this knowledge: While the Russians were boasting of great military strength, in
truth, their strategic military force was extremely weak. The president knew the
Soviet Union could be destroyed as a nation in literally twenty-four hours by
Americas invincible bomber force.
This knowledge and power helped the next president, John Kennedy, stand up to
the Russian Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, and made Khrushchev back away from a
confrontation during the Cuban Missile Crisis three years later.
It was believed and felt and talked about in the media, and by Eisenhowers
opposition, that he was getting old. At the time he was one of the oldest U.S.
presidents in American history, true to his Saturn archetype. It was said that he was
inept, that he should retire, and that it was time to get the country moving again.
People felt the winds of a new Jupiter/Saturn cycle approaching. Out with the old,
in with the new.
Yet
Had Eisenhower served for four more years (which was now not allowed by a new
Constitutional amendment), perhaps America would not have gotten involved in
Vietnam. I believe that no one else could have kept America out of that conflict.
Yet
The energies were changing. It was time for a new group of people to take power;
they had to be given their chance. They had to make their mistakes, gather
experience. This is how republics nourish themselves. In the cycle that
spanned1961to1981,a man walked on the Moon, the balance of power changed
on the planet (Nixons treaties with China), and a racial balance was achieved in
America that confirmed all the gains made in the previous hundred years and finally
began to heal all the wounds opened by the civil war.
1921-1941.Here we see a completely different influence upon the American
political process. The dynamic impact point of this synod occurred at230, 24, 25&
26of Virgo, in July, Aug. and Sept. of1921.

Constitution Chart. Click for larger.

In this example let us use both U.S. chartsthe1776and the1787.In

the1787chart, the synod conjuncts its natal Sun. The synod also exactly
inconjuncts the Saturn of that chart, and exactly squares its Jupiter. In the
Declaration chart there is a conjunction of its Neptune, and a trine of its Pluto, off
by one degree.
The conjunction of Saturn to the Sun of a nations chart would almost be enough to
allow the astro-historian to forecast that the structure of power of the chiefexecutive of that nation would somehow change. With the synod, one can easily
assume that the leader, his party, and all those around him who share the power,
will go out of office, or assume power, or somehow that the nature of their power
will be changed. This synod conjuncted the Sun of the Constitution chart.

SibleyDeclarationChart. For larger chart click on image.

That is of course what happened. The president who went out of office was
Woodrow Wilson. He had a stroke, he was so ineffective that his wife and an
assistant ran the country for the last year of his office. The Democratic candidate
who replaced him was easily defeated by the Republican, Warren Harding, a
newspaperman and senator from Ohio who ran for office on a platform of peace
and prosperity. The American people were tired of war and of Woodrow Wilson;
they wished to pursue their own careers, to get on with their lives. Warren in his
short time in office brought back that prosperity
This JU/SA period covers The Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the
birth of America as a world power, though it would only take its place as a power in
the following cycle.
In astro-history, the eighth house in the chart of a nation will reveal its finances,
the state of its resources, its banks, its corporations, its brokerage houses, anything
to do with shared assets, wealth, capital, property. Most of the Founding Fathers
were themselves businessmen and capitalists. The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of
Rights written into the Constitution was designed to protect private property.
The position of the Sun, and Venus and Mercury in this chart has to do with risk,
investment and hopefully a return of some kind. That is its economic meaning.
A synodic conjunction on this point implies that these financial matters will all
somehow be rearranged.
The pursuit of prosperity is a major theme in American culture. It is a partial
meaning of the phrase, written by Thomas Jefferson, the pursuit of happiness.
This phrase, which is a part of the Declaration of Independence, still a legal
document, is a legal right given to every individual in America. Each person has the
freedom to develop creative ideas and make them work in the world. Each person
in America has the right to pursue knowledge and wisdom.
In the Twenties in America people were occupied with the application of this kind
of practical philosophy. They elected a conservative Republican, who preached the
benefits of peace and prosperity.
Like any other human condition, a general prosperity can generate social problems:
It can lead to a pride that blocks all expressions of the creative force. This financial
hubris, expressed as a financial bubble, may be why the Great Depression was
activated. With Saturn, either alone or in a synod, affecting the 8th house or Pluto
of a chart, anything that is inflated will come crashing down.
The Jupiter/Saturn synod, moving through the Declaration chart, was exactly trine
Pluto, and it was conjunct Neptune. Synods apply reality checks to whatever
energies they touch.
The trine of Pluto to Pluto (1776) brought many years of prosperity to America.
American presidents did not fare so well. Harding died in office in1923(Pluto was
crossing the U.S. Sun). It seems that he was broken-hearted over the Tea Pot
Dome scandal, which had to do with the sale of oil rights. At the same time, the

American economy was experiencing a burst of mega-growth. When he died (Aug.

2, 1923), America was having a Saturn return (its fifth), and Jupiter was 25 ahead
of Saturn.
Calvin Coolidge succeeded Harding, when Pluto was conjunct Coolidges natal Sun.
In 1924, he was easily re-elected on the same moderately conservative platform of
prosperity and peace. As a somewhat prophetic and sensitive president, feeling the
economy heading into a major economic collapse, he chose not to run in 1928.
Here is one description of those years:
After nine years of Republican rule, prosperity seemed like a permanent condition rather
than the upswing of an economic cycle. America was the spoiled child of history, with
the greatest privileged class the world had ever seen. The number of shares on the New
York Stock Exchange grew from 25 million in 1923 to 1,125 million in 1928. Every clerk
and every postman knew what a margin account was. John Jacob Rascob wrote an
article inLadies Home Journalentitled, Everybody Ought To Be Rich.
Or this:
But after the crash, the value of stocks was down by 50 percent and those depreciated
stocks were the collateral for bank loans. The borrowers couldnt pay and the banks
couldnt collect and the depositors withdrew their money. [from Ted Morgan, FDR, A
Biography (new York: Simon and Schuster, 1985) P. 317]
Herbert Hoover ran a political campaign espousing the same creed of economic
security.
Everyone was to have two cars, and a chicken in every pot. Less than seven
months into his first term as president, the New York Stock Exchange experienced
a complete deflation in its prices. The Wall Street Crash occurred on October 24,
1929.By Dec. 1st the value of securities had dropped by twenty-six billion dollars
(1929dollars).
When the crash occurred, Saturn was at25Sagittarius, and Jupiter was at 16
Gemini, about 9away from the opposition, which became exact in August of
1930at 6 Cancer/Capricorn, conjunct (1776) Americas Jupiter; later, the dynamic
impact point of this opposition would also occur on Americas Sun (1776).
This opposition represented the falling apart of a whole political philosophy of
prosperity. It was the end of an era of speculation based on the belief in something
for nothing.
In this whole JU/SA cycle there occurred a major change in what party, what group
of people had the power and managed affairs of state.
When the economy collapsed, when the value of currency deflated, when the
unemployment figures reached a quarter of the work force, drastic solutions were
called forand yet nothing happened. President Hoover, a brilliant and successful
engineer, was a hands-on man. He tried everything: Many new government
programs. Nothing worked at all. Matters worsened.
By the time of the next presidential election (Nov. 8, 1932),JU/SA had been in its
full phase for a little over two years (JU: 18 VI; SA: 29CP).This Full phase

placed its seal upon Americas entire political process: The Republican party would
become the minority party for many decades. The power that it held from the
beginning of American Civil War fell apart during the opposition phase.
The economic needs of the nation were such that its financial institutions had to be
rearranged. The American people were thrown into circumstances of scarcity and
hunger, and it was incumbent upon the government to show compassion and
mercy.
President Roosevelt Ascent-to-Power chart. Click for larger.

President Roosevelts Ascent to Power Chart. Click for larger image.

If we examine Roosevelts ascent-to-power chart, dated from the time he was

sworn in as President, we note some interesting patterns. Mars and Jupiter and
Neptune are in their strongest aspectsthe astronomic opposition, when the Earth
and the Sun and these planets in their orbits line up in a straight line (see diagram).
To have Mars and Jupiter and Neptune lined up in the sky together on the line of
the nodes with the Earth between and the Sun on the other side is one of the most
powerful political charts in American history. It is perhaps just what was needed to
break the political and economic crisis and stagnation that threatened the nation in
this era. This cluster of planets located in Pisces is roughly conjunct the Sun/
Venus/Mercury of the Constitution chart, and the ascent Jupiter is within four
degrees of a conjunction to the Declaration charts Neptune. All these placements
indicate enormous activitythe Mars influence betokens a change of political and
economic philosophy; the Jupiter influence, a change of Americas laws.
Overshadowing all, in the Neptune/nodal axis influence, we find an enormous
compassion for suffering.
At JU/SA opposition, if a crisis of political philosophy exists, and if the skill to carry
out the ideas born at the JU/SA conjunction is lost, and if those in power are not
able to meet the demands of the predicament, then their authority will collapse,

and new group of people, often a new party, will come into power.
In a democratic republic this principle of metamorphosis works more fluidly; in a
highly controlled dictatorship, this process may require the effect of a stronger
influence, like an outer planet synod, although sometimes the single Plutonian
influence suffices.
1901-1921.William McKinley was sworn in for his second term as President on
March 4, 1901, when Saturn was at 14 Capricorn and Jupiter was at 8 Capricorn.
The dynamic impact point of this synod reached 130 Capricorn in November of
1901.On September the 6th of that year, while standing in a reception line at the
Pan American Exposition in Buffalo N.Y., McKinley was shot by an anarchist. He
died on Sept. 14,and Theodore Roosevelt, at age 42,the youngest so far, was
sworn in as President.
Thus began a Jupiter/Saturn synod that ushered in a new century. This synod
opposed the Sun of the US chart (1776). Every president of this cycle was involved
in an active challenge from the outside, often from foreign nations. Sometimes the
president was actively doing the challenging himself. Theodore Roosevelt, or TR,
as we will call him so as not to confuse him with Franklin Roosevelt, confronted
the business interests and corporations, which by the turn of the century had grown
extremely powerful. They had complete control of the legislative process, partly
through bribery, partly thru belief of the elected representatives, both on a national
and state level.
TR was responsible for getting the Sherman Anti-Trust laws passed, and he made
sure that they were enforced.
He dissolved Northern Securities Co. and others for violating anti-trust laws; intervened
in a coal strike on behalf of the public; obtained the Elkins law forbidding rebates to
corporations in 1903;the Hepburn law regulating railroad rates in 1906; the Pure Food
and Drugs Act, 1906; the Reclamation Act and employers liability laws.[Theodore
Roosevelt, World Almanac, 1984 (New York: Newspaper Enterprise Association, 1984)
p.257]
As were all the presidents who served during this cycle, TR was a confrontational
president. His administration attacked the power of large corporations, and to a
large extent broke it. He reasserted the power of government over the factions of
business and other special interests. The presidents that followed continued this
process.
TR desired to send the Navy on a round-the-world trip, as a show of force to other
nations. Congress refused to pay for the journey. As a reply, Roosevelt said, I will
send it around the world, let Congress bring it back. TR was always confronting his
Congress.
In 1905, the President won the Nobel Peace Prize for arranging a treaty between
Japan and Russia. America began to be seen in the world as a peace-keeper; she
began to take her place in the world as a power. It was during this twenty-year

cycle that America tipped the balance of power against Germany in the First World
War, and in doing so, began to determine the destiny of the world historical order
for the 20thCentury and beyond.
After serving essentially two terms, TR decided not to run for office again, and was
followed by another Republican, William Howard Taft. Taft, because of his
philosophy and the way he governed, was soon opposed by TR and others in the
Republican Party. In the election of 1912(Nov. 8, 1912),Saturn was at 20Gemini
and Jupiter was 180 Sagittarius. The synod had just a few months previously
entered its full phase. Both Republicans totaled more popular votes than the
Democratic candidate, but the Democrat won the most electoral votes. On March
4th, 1913,Woodrow Wilson became the next president, and finished out the JU/SA
cycle.
It can often happen at the full phase that one party, one faction, one interest will
go out of office, and another will come to power. It happened in the Thirties, and it
happened in 1912.During this cycle, the power of the presidency continued to
grow. Wilson in his early years completely dominated his Congress. During his
term, the Federal Reserve, a government institution that oversees the banks, was
born. Government began to exert greater power over the economy than it ever had
before. His was an activist government.
President Wilson was Americas first progressive president. He appointed Bryan his
Secretary of State. Wilson believed the Constitution was out of date, that it should
be replaced with more enlightened laws. Government bureaucracies ruled by
disinterested bureaucrats could get things done a lot quicker and easier than the
messy legislative process as ordered by separation of powers and representative
government. He was the first true socialist president in American history. America
was now being introduced to the ideas of socialism that were born in the Uranus/
Neptune synod. Every civilization on the planet, free and not so free, would have in
its own way to come to terms with this new religion.
America entered the First World War (April 6, 1917).President Wilson completely
abandoned any isolationist tendencies. He joined in the war against Germany and
later took on a prominent role in peacemaking. Wilson was a guiding influence in
the formation of the League of Nations, his idea of the beginning of a one world
government bureaucracy. It would be opposed by his Senate, and never ratified in
America.
During the JU/SA synod that lasted from 1901to1921,Americas role in the world
grew larger and larger. In this cycle not only did a president arrange a peace treaty
between two waning nations, but another president was forced into a war he didnt
want to fight. Once forced, America fought quite well.
Under Teddy Roosevelt, America introduced itself as a world power, under Taft, it
became recognized as an economic force, and under Wilson it became a powerful
defender of human freedoms. The synod entered its balsamic phase (JU 15 LE; SA
6 VI)in Oct. 1919.A breakdown of the energies of this synod occurred; its original

thrust was interiorized.

At this time Wilson attempted to bring the U.S. into the League of Nations, and
met resistance from Congress. He then suffered a stroke (Sept. 26, 1919)that left
him incapacitated for the remainder of his term. This allowed the U.S. Senate to
reject the Treaty of Versailles (Nov. 19, 1919),effectively killing the League of
Nations.
America became once more isolationist, pursuing its own private ends, and
disregarding as long as it could the events taking place around it in the world.
Not until the cycle that began in 1940did America return to the problems of the
world. By that time the problems were critical and dangerous, threatening to
destroy human civilization.
As this twenty-year synod completed itself, presidents who were its major actors,
either participated in different activities, or left the stage of history entirely. Of the
three presidents who dominated this cycle, Theodore Roosevelt died in
1919,followed by Wilson, who remained an invalid in quiet retreat till his death in
1924.In 1921,Taft was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Courta position
he craved more than the office of Chief Executivewhere he served with
distinction till his death in 1930.
1881-1901. The JU/SA synod of 1881,which moved from 27Aries to 3 Taurus,
made a sextile to Americas Venus/Jupiter and a square to its Pluto (1776).This
cycle contained the NE/PL synod that occurred on Americas Uranus(1776) in the
1890s.
In this period, America experienced an Industrial Revolution. The rapid expansion
of its production capacity and its foreign export began to make America a wealthy
and prosperous land. With this prosperity came problems. A new class of
industrialists had established itself, partly by destroying the old elite, the Southern
plantation aristocracy. This new elite had gathered to itself too much power. They
would buy and sell politicians. Votes could be manipulated; special interests
could get their way, regardless of what was good for the whole.
In a society whose members can vote freely for the representatives who form their
government, a certain balance must be maintained. This is a balance between the
private and the public sectors, where each constitutes a kind of faction. The private
sector includes groups and organizations like corporations or small businesses or
universities or even political parties out of office. If the private sector is so powerful
that it can control the major decisions of government through bribery, graft or
intimidation, then government loses its function of representing the interest of the
whole. The result can be a descent into oligarchy, the rule of the few, a general
stagnation of the nations economy, and if this condition lasts long enough, a living
death of the general culture. This situation exists in many nations on the planet
today.
On the other side of the balance, government dominates everything, and no private
sector exists. When the bureaucrats and politicians own it all, make all the

decisions, again, the civilization stagnates and decays. This condition is quite
common today. To have a dynamic creative society, private and public need to stay
in balance.
In 1881, a whole new class of Americans emergedinventors, railroad magnates,
industrialists and plutocrats, like J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller. They had created some of the largest fortunes in the world. The riches
that they were using to buy politicians wielded an enormous influence, weakening
government to the point that the balance of the private and public sectors was lost.
By 1881, the heroes of the Civil War, the Founding Fathers, the distinguished
members of the Senate and House who served the nation so well in the early part
of the nineteenth century had all become mythical figures. Lincoln had been dead
for fifteen years, and General Grant, knowing that he had cancer of the throat and
desirous of supporting his family, was beginning to write hisMemoirs; he would be
dead within three years. Sherman was becoming a querulous old man. America as a
constitutional nation, a democratic republic, was preparing to enter its second
century.
This cycle saw the end of the Indian Wars; railroads connected the East and West
coasts; telephone and wireless communication was developed. This Jupiter/Saturn
cycle was also the beginning of a Neptune/Pluto epoch. It marked Americas entry
into a new age during which the world for the next five hundred years it was
possible would be dominated by American ideas and inventions and styles and
political philosophy.
The first president in this cycle, James A. Garfield, had been a Republican
Congressman, serving in both the House and the Senate for almost eighteen years.
His record as Congressman was not very distinguished because of his connection
with the Credit Mobilier scandal, and his acceptance of a fee in the DeGolyer
paving contract case. After a deadlock in the Republican convention, he was
nominated for president on the 36th ballot. He handily defeated the Democratic
candidate, Winfield Scott Hancock, a general at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Some five months after he was sworn in as president, on July 2, 1881 (JU 12 TA;
SA 070 TA), he was shot by a disaffected patronage seeker, and after lingering for a
while, he died on Sept. 19, 1881 (JU 26 TA; SA 12o TA).
He was succeeded by Chester Arthur, another politician accused of political
corruption and graft. This president surprised everybodyhe fought corruption by
prosecuting his former associates. He also backed civil service reform (civil service
was a form of patronage corruption at that time) and generally refused to have
anything to do with the political machine which had originally nurtured his career.
Not having the support of any of those machine politicians who backed him in the
1880 elections, he was voted out of office in 1884. In the 1884 elections the notion
of reform was again in the air.
The Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland, ran on a reform ticket and won. Most
of his presidential work was involved in restoring balance between public and

private sectors.
He was followed in office by Benjamin Harrison, a Republican who also ran on a
reform ticket. Harrison also failed to satisfy machine politicians in his party, and he
served for only one term.
On March 4, 1893, Grover Cleveland was again sworn in as President (SA 12`LI, JU
25 AR), again showing how, on the opposition of Jupiter and Saturn, during their
Full phase, control of elected office can pass from one party to another.
In the 1896 election, Grover Cleveland chose not to run for office. William Jennings
Bryan, the candidate of the Democrats, was for his day considered radical and
liberal and not conservative at all (recall, the JU/SA occurred in Taurus, a
conservative sign). Bryan was the nations first well known progressive. The nation
chose an ethical but conservative Republican, William McKinley, who closed out
the JU/SA cycle.
To sum up, this cycle was a relatively quiet time of prosperous growth; a major
struggle took place between reform and machine politics, which every president
had to address. The one war that occurred at this time, the Spanish American War,
was a small war, in terms of material expended and casualties, not at all
comparable to the American Civil War or World War I.
1861-1881. This synods dynamic impact point, when it became exact, occurred
Aug., Sept., Oct., and Nov. of 61 at 10 through 23 of Virgo, and again in Apr., May
and June of 1862, at 160, 17 and 180of Virgo.

Constitution Chart. Click for larger image.

In our analysis we note that at 130Virgo it was aspecting the Sun of the
Declaration chart by a sextile, suggesting a change of party, a change of president.
When the dynamic impact point reached 220, it conjoined the Neptune of this chart,
suggesting an exercise of power that has to do with Neptunian issues like

helplessness, the desire to assist helpless people like slaves, and the struggle to
maintain the union of the states (union and oneness are ruled by Neptune). When
this synod touched the Sun and Venus and Mercury of the Constitutional chart, it
produced a major change in the way that the laws and exercise of power in America
are structured. This occurs in the 8th house of the Constitutional chart, suggesting
all those situations that the 8th house in a historical chart would rulewar and civil
war, anarchy, conspiracy and assassination of the ruler (Sun is the Chief Executive),
revolution, a kind of death and rebirth of the nation, issues to do with bondage.
Above all, when a Jupiter/Saturn synod rests on the 8th house Sun of a nation, one
can expect a major crisis in that nations affairs. This synod was square the Jupiter
of the Constitutional chart, indicating changes in the laws of America. This synod
was inconjunct the Saturn/Pluto of this chart, indicating change in the legislative
branch of government.
1861 marked probably the greatest crisis point that has occurred so far in American
history. As with any other major crisis in a nations history, the astro-historian can
uncover numerous indications pointing to that event. For example, when Franklin
Roosevelt was sworn in as president in 1941, there were numerous indications that
America would go to war, including a partile Pluto opposition to the ascent-topower chart Sun that was occurring on the day he was sworn in. To understand the
meaning of what is transpiring at any point in history the astro-historian must
always examine the strongest aspect.
In April 1861, the United States entered the Civil War. It is possible to come up
with many interpretations of what happened, yet the determinant, activating
historical factor of this war was the Jupiter/Saturn synod. All the other influences fit
in around the energy created by this synod. For example, one could use Lincolns
ascent-to-power chart or the firing-on-Fort Sumpter chart (April 12, 1861) which is
the official beginning of the War; or perhaps the astro-historian could use the day
the first Confederate State, South Carolina, succeeded (Dec. 20, 1860).The aspect
that dominated this whole process was the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction that
conjoined the Constitutional Sun.
In the first years of the war, battles did not go so well for the Union: The First
Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861)was fought ten miles from Washington D.C., and
the Union was routed. This was followed in August of 1862by the Second Battle of
Bull Run, where it happened all over again. There were many other losses by the
Union. Later, the Union began winning all its battles. A major battle was fought on
November 25, 1863.Called Missionary Ridge, it was fought in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, in the wars Western Theater. The Battle of Missionary Ridge was the
real defeat of the Confederate Army. Its army continued to exist, and it was a year
and 5months before the war would finally end, but this battle tipped the scales
permanently in favor of the Union.
At this battle Saturn and Jupiter had moved in the sky from their new phase to
close to the first thirty degree aspect, where often what was begun at the new takes

on the firmness of reality. On November 25,1863,Saturn was at 14LI 45,and

Jupiter was at 130SC 04.It was conjunct Mars, which was at 14 SC 47,so JU
was almost at that thirty degree aspect. This thirty degree aspect is placed on
Americas natal Saturn, with transiting Saturn conjunct Americas natal
Saturn(1776).The Union was having its third Saturn return on the day of the
battle.
When Grant accepted Lees surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9,
1865,Saturn was at 270Libra and Jupiter was at 28Sagittarius, making a precise
sextile.
The war was over; in less than a week Lincoln was assassinated. He was followed
by a succession of mediocre presidents, the choices of an all powerful Republican
party that dominated national and local politics for the remainder of that twentyyear cycle.
America continued to open economically, the political influence of slavery and
slave owners was totally destroyed, and America was able to get on with growing
into the twentieth and twenty first centur

jup=pluto
Jupiter Pluto
Aug 6 5 Cancer 5 5 Cancer 57
Aug 10 6 Cancer 6 Cancer
Feb 5 Cancer 4 Cancer
May 21 31,1931 18 Cancer to 19 Cancer (5/31)6
28 July 1 Aug 1943
(July 30, 1943)Jupiter Pluto
6 Leo 35 6 Leo 52
Nov 1-8 1955 Jupiter Pluto
28 Leo 28 Leo
Jan June November 1956
Jupiter Pluto
30 Jan 28 Leo 44 27 Leo 50
8 Feb 27 Leo 37 27 Leo 36
13 June to
17 June 26 Leo 31 26 Leo 29
Oct 1968
Jupiter Pluto
Oct. 9 23 Virgo 00 23 virgo 33
Oct 13 23 Virgo 39 23 virgo 39 (exact)
Jupiter Pluto
Oct 29 1981 23 Libra 57 24 Libra 43
Nov 2 24 Libra 53 24 Libra 53

Out of orb by the 7th.

1994 Jupiter Pluto
28 Nov 27 Scorpio 29 28 Scorpio 16
Dec1 28 Scorpio 29 Scorpio
Dec 2 28 Scorpio 26 exact
2007 Jupiter Pluto
07 Dec 2007 27 Sag 18 28 sag 11
11 Dec 2007 28 Sag 22 28 Sag 22
15 Dec 29 Sag 15 Out of orb

How Jupiter and Pluto Work Together

Perusing the table above, you might note that the Jupiter/Pluto synod comes and
goes swiftly, as a peregrine falcon dives down onto the fleeing duck: first, there is a
cloud of feathers, and within a few minutes, everything is ingested and it is all
done.
This synod lasts for a few days, not to return for eleven or twelve years, depending
on the longitudinal speed of Pluto. Sometimes Jupiter in its retrograde cycle will
make it last longer, as happened in 1955/56 when the synod was exact at 26, 27,
and 28 Leo. Even here the exact conjunction lasted only a few days (see table
above).
These synods do not affect history in the same way that the longer lasting ones do.
The Uranus/Neptune synod brought about the trial and execution of Charles I of
England; it also brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. These longer
synods involve matters of astrologic influence affecting the vast structures of
government devised by men.
Jupiter Pluto is as strong as some of these, but it has to be judged differently. It is
best to measure how it changes the lives of the players of history.

John F. Kennedys Jupiter Pluto

Experience
Kennedy in the Solomons in 1943

During World War II, on August 2, 1943, Lieutenant Junior Grade John F. Kennedy
captained a torpedo boat patrolling the Blackett Strait between Kolombangara and
Arundel in the Solomon Islands; he was searching for Japanese ships to destroy. It
was about 2:00 AM on a moonless night, and many of the crew were sleeping,
when a Japanese destroyer, theAmagiri, moving at possibly 50 mph, rammed his
ship and tore it in half, causing its fuel to explode and burn.
This was a Plutonian event. It came suddenly and was totally devastating. It was

war: two of his crew were instantly killed; two were badly burned. The survivors
floated in shark and crocodile infested waters; and the destroyer steamed away, not
bothering to search for survivors. The two other PT boats in the area thought no
one could have survived this explosion, and they turned away without looking for
anyone and sped back to base.
A Jupiter/Pluto synod at 6 Leo lay within 1 of an exact sextile to Kennedys 7
Gemini Sun. How Kennedy handled this crisis would determine the unfolding of the
rest of his life.
John F. Kennedy. Click for larger.

After the smashing of the boat, Kennedy kept a calm mind. Those
whocouldntswim he assigned to a floating timber from the broken ship. Kennedy
himself towed a severely burned crewman, and he moved the eleven survivors to a
small island some 3 1/2 miles away. It took them four hours to dog paddle there. It
was a small island about the size of a football field, no water, no food. While his
crew rested, he swam about 2.5 miles further and found an island with water and
food (coconuts), returned to the first island, and got his crew to that island, where
they were able to survive for about a week until they were picked up. This was a
natural leader, who with a calm mind continued to give the right orders to his crew
all through the hard days. After sending a message with some passing fishermen
carved on a coconut shell, his crew was rescued within a week.
This synod brought out the qualities of courage that only an event like this could
bring out. That night he was not able to depend on a wealthy and powerful father,
on influence and contacts, on his Harvard education, or on many other benefits
coming from a family of influence. The only quality of character that worked in the
burning water was courage, and courage was what he found in himself that night
and the days that followed. The Jupiter did bring protection but the Pluto
demanded courage. After that week he would be a different man for the rest of his
life.
That it happened on the synod meant that millions of people would affected by his
courage, by the test that he passed; and this synodic influence raised him to the
presidency.

Saturn/PlutoAn Approximate 33 Year Cycle

Saturn/PlutoAn Approximate 33 Year

Cycle
This cycle occurs fifteen times during the five hundred year Neptune Pluto cycle
and three times in every century. I am not going to break this cycle down by
moving backwards in time. There are simply too many.
The average SA/PL cycle lasts about thirty-three years. I use the word about
because both planets have rather eccentric orbits. Plutos is 0.248, Saturns is 0.056,

compared to the Earth at 0.017. In the 1850sand 1860s, Pluto moved relative to
the Earth at a much slower speed than it did in the 1980s, when it was at
perihelion, or closest to the Sun. Thus, the length of time that the two planets take to
travel (measured in longitude) from conjunction to conjunction will vary. Also, if
Saturn is in its retrograde phase at the time of the conjunction, as it was for example
during the 1982/83conjunction, as much as two years can be added to the cycle.
The dynamic impact point of this cycle can last for about two months. This point in
the 1982/83conjunction occurred at 270and 280Libra, squaring the U.S. 1776Pluto.
A severe economic recession was occurring in America at that time.

Adolph Hitlers chart. Click for larger.

When Saturn and Pluto travel together, their influence can often work so as to bring
about the catabolic destruction of all structures of government, statehood, law,
custom. The destruction is then be followed by a rebirth into the new.
These two planets are karmic in nature. In easily identifiable ways, they seek to
balance unjust conditions, circumstances, and situations. Some examples:
In August, 1914, when the First World War began, Pluto and Saturn were in their
New phase, conjunct at around 0 Cancer. Saturn activated the Pluto 300Neptune,
which as the first Crescent phase of PL/NE, was the aspect that activated this war.
World War I destroyed the old Europe. It destroyed dynasties and class structures
and models of government that had lasted for centuries.

Adolph Hitler
On September 1, 1939, Adolph Hitler invaded Poland and World War II began.
Many historians group World Wars I & II as part of the same process, in that World
War II was the conclusion of what began in August 1914. At that time, at the
beginning of the Second World War, Pluto was located at 0 Leo, and Saturn was at
0 Taurus. They were making the closing squarethis implies, symbolically, an
end of something. When this synod is in an exact aspect, its energies are dangerous
and karmically volatile. It was out of World War II, and as a reaction against the
Nazi nuclear research, that the Americans developed the atomic bomb.

WorldWarII. Click for larger.

Historically, the Saturn/Pluto synod influence acts to purify structures of
government. This influence seeks to eliminate the old and the worn-out; it
eradicates evil when nothing else can. On the day the Second World War began,
Saturn/Pluto was in a dialogue with Adolph Hitlers natal Sun, where Saturn
conjoined it and Pluto squared it. The influence of this synod went on to wipe him
out. Step by step, his power was stripped away, his provinces and conquered
nations lost, his armies captured and destroyed, until finally he ended his days in an

underground bunker/cave.
This war began on the third quarter synodic square, whose influence works
differently from that of the conjunction or first quarter square. That it was a third
quarter Saturn/Pluto war might imply some ancient karmic problem, a very ancient
evil, whose origin traces deep into prehistory. This war might have been a mass
cleansing.

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Constitution chart.
The best example of a historical Saturn/Pluto conjunction, or the New phase of this
synod, is that found in the Constitutional chart of the U.S.A.
This synod sits on the ascendant of the chart. In the astrology of history the first
house represents the people of a nation. So this synod placed here indicates the will
of the people.
This synod also defines the nature of the originators and framers of this document,
the Founding Fathers. Since the Founders were the chosen representatives of the
people, this

Founding Chart for Israel. Click for larger.

document represents the will of the American people. Any nation that has a Saturn/
Pluto conjunction, like Israel, would have natural friendship and sympathy with the

American people. The founding chart for Israel also comes with the SaturnPluto
conjunction.
This synod addresses any problems related to the exercise of political power. When
a people reach a certain high level of self-rule, they must face the dilemma of
faction, which I have discussed elsewhere.
Saturn/Pluto in its New phase is the Constitutional charts single most powerful
focus. It rests on the ascendantthis implies that the American people have a past
of dealing with the problem of faction, and points possibly to the karma of bondage
and slavery. This chart also promises that this people will one day become wealthy
(Pluto), but that the wealth will derive from hard work (Saturn).
Both planets are located together in astrologic Aquarius, possibly demonstrating the
power of the legislative branch of government, implying that it may be just a little
more powerful than the other two branches. The Congress has always had the
power of the purse, the control over government spending.
I am assigning this synod to the U.S. Congress.
Since astrology is in many ways an imprecise art, in examining this chart, one
would also have to define Uranus and the Moon as secondary indicators of the U.S.
Congress.
In any historical chart the Sun represents the executive power, whether it be king or
emperor, tyrant or dictator, president or prime minister. In the Constitutional chart,
the Sun, Venus, and Mercury are located in a thirteen degree span in late
astrological Virgo. The Saturn half of the synod exactly inconjuncts the Sun; while
the Pluto half is loosely inconjunct Mercury and Venus, but in a partile inconjunct
to their mid-point.
The inconjunct or quincunx is traditionally in astrology an aspect of separation. In
historical astrology, this quincunx in the Constitutional chart manifests as a
separation of powers. In our example, the inconjunct from the synod to the Sun/
Mercury/Venus grouping, it is the separation between the legislative and the
executive.
The judicial branch of government, represented by the Jupiter/south node/Mars
conjunction in the fifth house, has a more subtle connection with the synod. Saturn
trines Jupiter, implying that on some levels the legislative works in harmony with
the courts, helpful because the legislative branch passes the laws. But Pluto makes
the trioctile, another separation aspect, to the Mars/south node, thus creating a
separation between these two governmental powers. The south node is often an
indication of past experiences, past karmas. That Mars sits on the line of the nodes
shows that the violence and mischief of faction was a major concern to the
framers of the Constitution.
Buried in the trioctile (135) energy of Pluto to Mars is the prohibition against Bills
of Attainder. These Bills, which allowed legislative bodies to try and condemn to
punishment individuals and other factions, are one of the more virulent misuses of
legislative power found in the history of the rise and fall of republics. The Jupiter/
south node/Mars in the 5th house has to do with legal guarantees of the right of the
individual to pursue creative happiness.

Sun square Jupiter in Constitution Chart

The exact square of Jupiter to the Sun is a further demonstration of the separation of
powers between the executive and the judicial. The Founding Fathers debated long
and seriously at the Philadelphia Convention over the problem of judges remaining
independent and unbiased. The control of the judge by the emperor, by the consul,
the tyrant, by the king or queen, was a form of corruption never really solved in
ancient Greece or Rome. Not eventheEmperor Julian was able to work this out.
Yet Madison, Washington and others did establish a free and independent judiciary,
one that has remained intact for over two hundred years.

In Federalist 10 Madison, explaining a

technique to keep judges honest, wrote that No man is allowed to be a judge in his
own cause, another demonstration of the power of that 5th house grouping.
This charts Mercury disposits its Jupiter. That configuration represents the power
given by the Constitution to the President to appoint judges, including Justices to
the Supreme Court. Yet Jupiter and the Sun are square, indicating a judiciary that is
often quite independent of and even in conflict with the executive. Once justices are
appointed, they follow independent paths, ones quite different from the policies of
the president who appointed them, just as Madison intended. President Eisenhower
expressed a bitter disappointment in the performance of Earl Warren as Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, a man Eisenhower himself had selected. During the
Watergate scandal in the early 1970s in America, President Nixon received no
assistance whatsoever from the Chief Justice that he had appointed. In a decision of
the Court, rendered on July 24, 1974, the president was ordered to turn over all
tapes and documents related to the Watergate break-in. By August he resigned.
Franklin Roosevelt, one of the most powerful presidents in American history,
sought to reducesome thought destroythe power of the Supreme Court. His
efforts were thwarted by the Congress, but really by the Constitution, all of which
can be seen in the Jupiter square Sun of this chart.
While this synod gives the American Congress an almost measureless power,
sometimes Saturn/Pluto influence will reverse itself and turn on this legislative
body. The legislative branch of government represents the American collective
mind, including all its good and bad qualities. In this branch of government are

found the very best legal and philosophical minds along with the most corrupt
politicians. For two centuries Congress has been riddled with scandals and
corruption. On synodic squares, oppositions and conjunctions this branch of
government has its hubris completely stripped away and is often completely
humbled. The McCarthy phenomenon, a religious, anti-communist crusade in the
late Nineteen-Forties and early Fifties of the 20th Century, grew out of the
legislative branch of government. It destroyed the careers and the lives of many
prominent Americans.
As Pluto moved to the opposition of the Saturn part of this synod, that movement
recoiled in on itself, reversed its energy, backfired. Those who were a part of this
crusade tended to lose their own careers, and many of them fell into total obscurity.
Senator McCarthy drank himself to death. The power of the legislative to do
damage to the individual was checked and limited for nearly fifteen years. While
Madison believed that In republican government the legislative authority,
necessarily, predominates. ,he also had a deep mistrust of the legislative process:
One observation however I must be permitted, to add, on this subject [the
legislative], as claiming in my judgment a very serious attention. It is, that in all
legislative assemblies, the greater the number composing them may be, the fewer
will be the men who will in fact direct their proceedings. In the first place, the more
numerous any assembly may be, of whatever characters composed, the greater is
known to be the ascendancy of passion over reason. In the next place, the larger the
number, the greater will be the proportion of members of limited information and of
weak capacities. Now it is precisely on characters of this description that the
eloquence and address of the few are known to act with all their force. In the antient
republics, where the whole body of the people assembled in person, a single orator,
or an artful statesman, was generally seen to rule with as compleat a sway, as if a
scepter had been placed in his single hands. On the same principle the more
multitudinous a representative assembly may be rendered, the more it will partake
of the infirmities incident to the collective meetings of the people. Ignorance will be
the dupe of cunning; and passion the slave of sophistry and declamation. The
people can never err more than in supposing that by multiplying their
representatives, beyond a certain limit, they strengthen the barrier against the
government of a few. Experience will forever admonish them that on the contrary,
after securing a sufficient number for the purposes of safety, of local information,
and of diffusive sympathy for the whole society, they will counteract their own
views by every addition to their representatives. The countenance of the
government will become more democratic; but the soul that animates it will be
more oligarchic. The machine will be enlarged, but the fewer and often, the more
secret will be the springs by which its motions are directed.
[from Madison, Jay, Hamilton, the Federalist Papers, Bantam Books, 1982, pp
297-298]
Consequently, the power to elect congressmen was placed in the hands of the
populace, who were given the power and opportunity to throw their elected
representatives out of office every two years.

As stated in the chapter on Pluto, faction, political parties, divisions, groups are
necessary, but at the same time certain controls must be placed on them. The Sun,
the center of any political chart, sits in the 8th house of the Constitutional chart.
This allows only one faction to take control at a time. Power is then passed on to a
different faction, whether it be the Democrats or Republicans or Whigs or
Federalists. This faction will have their power moderated and checked by that 1st
house synod, the Congress, and also by that Jupiter, node, Mars in the 5th.
At certain times this tri-partite system of government has collapsed. This occurred
when the lawswhat this chart representswere unable to control the violence
of faction.
In the 1960s, when Uranus/Pluto hovered about the Sun of the Constitutional chart,
its dynamic impact point never touched the Sun. It did touch its Venus and civil
rights legislation (Venus rules laws) was then passed by Congress, including the
Voting Rights Act (August 6th, 1965). It also inconjuncted that Pluto/Saturn synod
in the first house of the Constitutional chart. During this period strife existed at
home, in the form ofassassinations of popularpublicfigures, race riots, student
unrest, strange cultural transformations, and rage over an unpopular war in
Vietnam. This synod was going back and forth for five years, exact at 16 thru 20
Virgo, often exactly inconjunct one or another of the planets making up the Saturn/
Pluto synod. This was one of the high stress points in all of American history
If enough pressure by a synod were ever brought to bear on this point, the nation
could find itself involved in an even worse civil war than the last one. As with the
American Civil War, this synod might reveal structural flaws that are now only
dimly perceived. America may be one of the oldest systems of government on the
planet, but it can still be exploded apart by the chaos of faction.

James Madison
Mr. Madison himself had a Saturn/Eris/Pluto synod sitting on his ascendant. This is
probably why he understood so well the problems of this newly born democracy.
the Eris in this position confers on him a certain immortality; he will probably be

remembered as long as Aristotle or Cicero.

Madisons Pluto Saturn Eris

The Saturn/Pluto synod in the Constitutional chart shows the karmic lesson. If one
interprets slavery or bondage as Pluto, and Saturn as the defining quality of slavery,
and at the same time the karmic changer of this condition, one can see how this
synod contains the seeds of a future civil war. When Pluto moved into the square of
the Constitutional ascendant (April 12, 1861: PL=8 TA 36) and of its own natal
position, Fort Sumpter was fired upon, and the war began.
The Constitutional Saturn/Pluto may bring other karmic tests and crises for the
future. This must wait for the analysis of future astro-historians.
Plutonian power resembles a tank of unstablenitroglycerinstored in the back of a
pickup truck finding its way down a bumpy dirt road. It must be used with care and
balance, with respect for individual human rights and liberties. Faction can function
both as lifeblood of a free people and as the destroyer of liberty; it can lead a people
into the deadness of bondage or into the happiness conferred by freedom. Applied
with care, with consideration for the prerogative and good and free will of others,
within the form-giving and ethical intent of Saturn, this synod can give birth to a
civilization better and higher than ever dreamt of.
I call this quality Plutonian light. In the 18th century, Franklin and Madison and
Jefferson and several others had it, and in the 19th century Lincoln and others had
it.
All content Copyright Historical Astrology

HowtheSaturn/Neptune Synod Works

In a Saturn/Neptune synod, Saturn takes the energy of Neptune and makes it work
on the earth plane. Neptune is quite pliable. It can manifest as an ideology like
Communism that promises good to all people, and yet commits a hundred million
political murders; it can channel a religion like Christianity that saves the best of an
ancient crumbling civilization, thus benefiting humanity forever; it can manifest as
the highest and the lowest. What matters is how its user uses it. For example,
Mozart had the Sun Neptune opposition and used that to compose some of the
worlds greatest music. Abraham Lincoln employed his Neptune to hold the

American Union together.

A synod occurs within the framework of a complex cycle. Its wholeness must be
applied to the chart of a nation. One must not fail to separate out the whole cycle.
The conjunction period for SA/NE cycles lasts for approximately two years. Below
is a sampling.
1951-1953
The SA/NE synod of 1951-1953 is found in the 6th house of the inauguration
(ascent-to-power) chart of the new President, Dwight Eisenhower. It placed its
stamp on his eight years of rule, on the important issues of the daythe threat of
totalitarian rule from abroad, the desire of many people, high in government circles,
to go to war, the later problems of race discrimination and segregation, and the
religion/frenzy of anti-Communism and McCarthy.

Ascent To Power for President Eisenhower

The dynamic impact point of this synod conjuncted Eisenhowers natal Sun during
the 52 election and again during June, July and August of 53. This opened the
gateway to the exercise of an enormous power, which he primarily used to bring
the world back into a situation of global peace.
On Oct. 8, 1953, in the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator died (SA
26 LI Rx, NE 23 LI Rx). The rigid totalitarian rule which had begun in 1917
under a previous SANE, started a slow thirty-six-year period of dissolution, which
culminated in the freeing of the Eastern European nations like Poland and East
Germany and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This all happened in November 1989,
when Neptune/Saturn were again exactly conjunct (100 Capricorn).
This synod occurs every 36 years on an averaged out basis because of Saturns high
orbital eccentricity. It will always have as its focus the need to make real an inner
vision. A theme of oneness always reverberates through this cycle.
This synod was present at the creation of the Soviet Union (Nov. 1917: SA 14 LE,

NE 07LE). Communism had an inner vision, namely, that we are all one and should
look after and take care of each other. This philosophy comes from many different
strains of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In practice, it never seemed to work that
way.
Depending on where this synod occurs in a nations chart it can herald the rise of
many new circumstances. In cultural America, in the Fifties, it was responsible for
the rise in popularity of rock and roll music, for the spread of television and other
transformations of mass culture. Neptune is a ruler of the arts; figure and shape,
style and structure are what Saturn rules. At the conjunction or new phase of
Saturn/Neptune, one can expect the arts to somehow change and take a new form.
At the new phase, at their conjunction, politically and historically, a symbolic
ending or beginning often occurs. Stalins death, after a reign of terror that lasted
for a full Saturn cycle (thirty years), was a conclusion, an ending to the misuse of
SA/NE energy. The cult of personality, the police state and KGB, prison camps for
enemies of the state, total censorship, and the power and privileges of the
nomenklatura, were so ingrained that it would take a whole SA/NE cycle (1953 to
1989) just for this system to wind down, and for the people who had lived under it
to deprogram themselves.
In the historical process, Saturn is a political planet, and when it is the consort of
Neptune, an entire political system can be generated. The synods of SA/NE often
rule the political philosophies of the left. These include liberalism, socialism and
Communism, which is a philosophy of oneness. One can follow the political
fortunes of the leftin America it would be the Democratic Party; in Britain, Labor;
in France and other European nations, the Socialistsby analyzing the phase
relationship of Saturn/Neptune.
In America, in 1952/53 during the balsamic and new phases of SA/NE, the forces of
liberalism in America were weak. A conservative president had been sworn into
office, and Congress, regardless of party affiliation, was often more conservative
than the president.
When the opposition of Saturn and Neptune occurred, in 72 and 73 (April 1, 1972:
SA: 4 GE; NE 4 SG), then their motion through the sky entered its full phase. This
was a time of flowering or prospering of what was begun at the New Phase. At this
time in America, the political left was as strong as it was in the Mid-1930s in
America, when the opposition occurred (March 1, 1936: Saturn: 15 Pisces;
Neptune 15 Virgo). During this period a powerful Congress passed an enormous
amount of legislation that embodied the philosophy of the Left. This Congress was
strong enough to force a Republican president to resign from office. When SA/NE
moved into its balsamic and new phases, the Left began losing its power. People
began to criticize the Left for not having ideas. If institutions are allowed to
remain free, it will always happen thus.

Milan Kundera image

The power of Neptune when it travels with Saturn can indeed be misused. One of
the best and most poetic descriptions I have found of this kind of distortion comes
fromThe Book of Laughter and Forgettingby Milan Kundera. It describes the
application of Saturn/Neptune power in Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s and
early 1950s:
I too once danced in a ring. It was in the spring of 1948. The Communists had just
taken power in my country, the Socialist and Christian Democrat ministers had fled
abroad, and I took other Communist students by the hand, I put my arms around their
shoulders, and we took two steps in place, one step forward, lifted first one leg and then
the other, and we did it just about every month, there being always something to
celebrate, an anniversary here a special event there, old wrongs were righted, new
wrongs perpetrated, factories were nationalized, thousands of people went to jail,
medical care became free of charge, small shopkeepers lost their shops, aged workers
took their first vacations ever in confiscated country houses, and we smiled the smile of
happiness.
Then one day I said something I would better have left unsaid.
I was expelled from the Party and had to leave the circle. That is when I became aware
of the magic qualities of the circle. Leave a row and you can always go back to it. The
row is an open formation. But when a circle closes, there is no return. It is no accident
that the planets move in a circle and when a stone breaks loose from one of them it is
drawn inexorably away by centrifugal force. Like the meteorite broken loose from a
planet, I too fell from the circle and have been falling ever since. Some people remain in
the circle until they die, others smash to pieces at the end of a long fall After all, we
are everyone of us inhabitants of a universe where everything turns in circles.[from
Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting,trans. By Michael Heim. (New
York: Viking Penguin, 1987) pp. 65-66]
And also:
an idyll for all. People have always aspired to an idyll, a garden where nightingales
sing, a realm of harmony where the world does not rise up as a stranger against man,
nor man against other men, where the world and all its people are molded from a single
stock and the fire lighting up the heavens is the fire burning in the hearts of men, where
every man is a note in a magnificent Bach fugue and anyone who refuses his note is a
mere black dot, useless and meaningless, easily caught and squashed between the
fingers like an insect.

From the start there were people who realized they lacked the proper temperament for
the idyll and wished to leave the country. But since by definition an idyll is one world
for all, the people who wished to emigrate were implicitly denying its validity. Instead of
going abroad, they went behind bars. Timid lovers held hands on moviescreens, marital
infidelity received harsh penalties at citizens courts of honor. Nightingales sang and the
body of Clementis swung back and forth like a bell ringing in the new dawn for
mankind.
Lower expressions of Neptune energy exist-the escapist, the addict, the smearing of a
reputation through calumny, libeling, and any political fanaticism, whether from the
right or the left. In the ascent-to-power chart cast for Adolph Hider at the time he was
sworn in as First Chancellor, the planet Neptune sits right atop the line of the nodes,
indicating all the above extremism.[Kundera, pp. 8-9]
When Neptune functions with Saturn in world affairs (in the Third Reich chart
these two planets were exactly inconjunct) the energy of the synod can be
distorted. Leaders tell lies to the people, and the people can be enslaved. When the
intent of fairness in the law is distorted by faction, the idyll turns into a nightmare.
Yet history has shown us times when the power of this synod has been used well
and correctlygiving rise to totally different conditions.
In its highest expression, Neptune represents the power of forgiveness; it
represents union with all life. Neptunes power of forgiveness and release can
dissolve all barriers of separateness. The concept of sacrifice, which so often
appears in discussions of the Neptune influence, is nothing more than the desire to
do what is best for the whole, sometimes to the point where it might require
dissolution of the individual ego. Neptunes stimulus springs ultimately from a
spiritual vision of love.
The martial energy of ancient Rome, the saturnine secret police power of the
Soviets, the Jupiterian excesses of the French military dictatorship under Louis XIV
of Franceall are understandable and familiar expressions of power. Much of the
Old Testament is a song to war. The King David story, as discussed elsewhere, is
the epitome of the Age of Aries.
Rarely is Neptune in its highest expression found in the round of human affairs.
Scrolling through history, one finds a few examples of its higher expression here
and there, some in the Renaissance, some in antiquity. The pharaohs with the help
of their scientist-priests may have applied Saturn/Neptune power in order to keep
their land from being invaded, possibly by using it to control and confuse the minds
of their enemies. But this of course is conjecture.

Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher born around the Triple Conjunction (born 604
B.C.?), whose teachings have helped guide the human race, understood the use of
Neptune power:

A leader is best
When people barely know he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you.
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will say,
We did this ourselves.
[from Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching,Walter Bynner, trans.
(New York: Capricorn Books, 1942, Verse 17, P. 34]
To see an example of the highest expression of Neptune/Saturn energy,please
visit the section on Abraham Lincoln.
Neptune/Saturn 1989-90
Feb 14, 1989: Saturn: 10 Capricorn 26 | Neptune: 1126 Capricorn
Synod exact: March 3, 1989: 1153 Capricorn
Rx Conjunction: June 23, 1989: 11 Capricorn 16
Direct conjunction: November 13, 1989: 10 Capricorn 19
1990: Not conjunct but very close
Overall this synod acted as a booster for the Uranus/Neptune synod; it intensified

its influence, because it happened on and around the Uranus/Neptune conjunction.

In the USA George Bush was elected president. He promised to be kinder and
gentler, and that is what he was until Saddam tried to take over much of the
worlds oil supply. Over that issue, America would briefly go to war the next year.
Two scientists, Pons and Fleischman, announced they had discovered a new form
of energy called cold fusion, which turned out to be something of a ponzi scheme,
very Neptunian, very confusing. Nothing ever much came of it. Problem was that no
one could replicate their experiments.
David Dinkins was the first African American elected mayor of New York City.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake happened in San Francisco October 17, 1989.
On and on and on: Nothing much happened in America.

Birth of the Soviet Union. Click for larger

However, Saturn/Neptune was exerting an enormous effect on the Soviet

Union.Since we have a good time for the founding of that nation, we can use
houses. We find that this synod formed and worked its effect in the fourth house of
the chart of the Soviet Union, also where the Uranus/Neptune synod was working
its effect. The fourth house in a nations chart is its foundations. These foundations
were being dissolved by Saturn/Neptune.
On Feb. 15, 1989, when the synod was within a degree or so of the inconjunct of
the natal Jupiter of this chart, the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, where they had
warring for ten years.
A new Congress of Deputies met between 25 May and 9 June 1989; it was filled
with reformers; each day the Communist Party saw more of its powers slip away.
The Soviet Empire itself was dissolving: That year, in 1989, it lost Lithuania,
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Uzbekistan, and
Kazakhstan.
The Soviet Union was born on a Saturn/Neptune in 1917 and it dying on one in

1989.
2006-2007 Saturn/Neptune in opposition
1stOpposition: Aug 03, 2006 Neptune: 17 Aquarius 53 | Saturn 17 Leo 53
Retrograde Opposition: Feb 28, 2007: Neptune 20 Aquarius 13 | Saturn 20 Leo
13
Direct Opposition: Neptune: 21 Aquarius 47| Saturn 21 Leo 47
Chart of President Bush

Chart of George Bush. Click for larger.

The most important part of this opposition and its effect on American history was
that President Bush had lost his popularity over an unpopular war in Iraq. This is
the year that the Democrats in a hotly contested election re-took the House of
Representatives, and would take the whole congress and the presidency in 2008.
For the first time a woman was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
By 2009, for the first time in nearly thirty years, the Democrats would have control
of everything.
How things had changed from 1988 where the Republican candidate accused the
Democratic candidate of being liberal!
In a republic, it has to work that way: Both sides get to exercise power.
Uranus and Saturn work together to bring into the human realm all sorts of new
ideas, circumstances, inventions, discoveries, etc.Uranus acts as a lens, a focal point
for a channel I call Divine Mindthe source of all new concepts, creative
ideas.Saturn functions to crystallize structure, to build, taking ideas from an infinite
intuitive faculty, that the human race hardly understands even today, and births
them into form. SA/UR synods have often worked to make tangible strides in the
advance of human civilization. These breakthroughs occur sometimes in the new
phase, sometimes at full, and sometimes at other phases, like the closing 90, the
last quarter phase.

This cycle takes an average of 45 years from conjunction to conjunction. Saturn

orbits out from the Sun at about nine astronomical units, and Uranus is out at
about nineteen astronomical units: Uranus is roughly twice as far out from the Sun
as is Saturn. In their motion together they exert a profound influence on human
affairs. I will cover some of these; they are all fascinating.
The conceit that Uranus and Saturn are ancient enemies is a concept that I have
never likedit smells of malefics and afflictions. Such beliefs are dangerous to the
well-being of the human spirit. The implication is that the individual lies helpless,
at the mercy of the conflict of these two gas giants: This mythology is an approach
to life based on fear. In a world of such enmity and evil, it must be absolutely
necessary to attempt to manipulate events.
In ancient Rome, if a strange event occurred, like the birth of a two headed-baby,
an augury was taken, or the Sibylline Prophecies were consulted. If the gods
needed to be appeased, a sacrifice was ordered by the Senate, performed by the
consuls, the tribunes.
Today, when we see a blood-red, partially eclipsed Full Moon, or an eclipse shadow
passing over the capitol city of a great nation, we dont perform a sacrifice to
appease a bad sign. So why do we still interpret configurations and aspects in the
sky as good and bad? Perhaps our perceptions of these influences need to mature,
become more experienced and knowledgeable. Perhaps that knowledge might
grow into wisdom.
The workings of synodic phases are often subtle, and not often easily readable.
They can bring major advances into whatever area of human activity they touch.
While too many Saturn/Uranus cycles occur to be able to discuss them all in this
book, a brief review of some of the more intriguing ones would include:

MagnaChartaSigning. Click for larger chart.

1215 A.D. Rebirth of the Rule of Law.

In 1215 A.D., a SA/UR conjunction (its dynamic impact point is located at 5, 60,7,
8o and 90 of Libra), took a position in the 7th house of the 1066 chart for the
founding of England, and squared its Sun. On June 15th, 1215 A.D., the king was
forced to sign a document called the Magna Charta. This document limited the
power of the king. In the English speaking world this was the beginning of the idea,
as voiced by Thomas Jefferson some 561 years later, that all human beings are
created with certain unalienable rights.

King John signing Magna Charta

The Magna Charta said that the king could impose no tax, except by permission of
the Great Council. No freeman could be arrested or deprived of property without
due process of law. Immediate trial by a jury of peers was guaranteed. This synod
added in tangible form a major advance to the freedom of the human spirit.
1398 A.D. The Neptune/Pluto synod that occurred in the late 14th and early 15th
centuries brought in the High Renaissance. A SA/UR synod in 1398 occurred
roughly in opposition (dynamic impact point: 12, 13, 14 Sagittarius) to that NE/
PL (4 & 3 II). Both these synods took place in the information signs, Gemini and
Sagittarius, and probably influenced the flowering of modem science, including
Renaissance art, music, poetry and politics etc.
1440-42 A. D. Forty-five years later Saturn conjuncted Uranus at 11-16 Gemini.
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press; it was called movable type. In
making the written word available to millions, this technology transformed the
collective mind of humankind. In a tangible and uniquely Uranian way of bringing
light to the mind it made people more free.
1851-52 A.D. Saturn/Uranus occurred in late Aries and early Taurus (28 AR- 020
TA), and was part of the UR/PL synod for that period. America was quiet, or at least
quieter than it would be some ten years in the future. The Compromise of 1850
allowed slave-holders to pursue fugitive slaves into free states; Texas became a
slave state. The Compromise of 1850 was part of the movement of the slave states

to increase slavery, especially in the new territories that were applying for
statehood. Slavery was lucrative for those who owned slaves; and it was corrupting
the laws and culture of the nation. Many felt this new attempt to legalize slavery
all over America was an abomination: One of them was Abraham Lincoln. It was
around this time that he devoted his life to fighting it. The synod was exact at 2,
3, 4 Taurus in 1851, conjuncting his South Node, an indicator of past karma.

Saturn Uranus and the American Civil

War
At the first quarter square of that synod, in April of 1861, when transiting Uranus
was at 90 Gemini (conjunct natal US Uranus, 1776 chart) and transiting Saturn was
at 90 Virgo, at the synods 1st quarter square, the American Civil War began. It was
a war about human freedom and slavery in America.

Linconlns Second Inaugural Speech. Click for larger.

By March 4, 1865, with the American Civil War due to end in a few weeks, when
Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address, one of the greatest arguments
against human slavery the human race possesses, and which summed up the
meaning of the whole war, that synod had moved into a trine 25 Gemini for
Uranus, 29 Libra for Saturn (on the day he died from an assassins bullet to his
head, it would be an exact trine). Also, on the day he gave that speech, Eris, which
often confers immortality, was conjunct his Natal Mercury 10 Pisces, trine his
natal Uranus 9 Scorpio. This 700 word speech will be around for thousands of
years.
Other things were happening.
Herman Melville published what was possibly the greatest American novel, Moby
Dick. In 1852, Uncle Toms Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly was published by Harriet

Beecher Stowe. Within a year it had sold 300,000 copies, and slavery became the
central issue of America. During these years (1851 and 1852) the first sewing
machine was patented by Singer, and the technology for a safe elevator that would
not come crashing down was developed by Otis, allowing the later construction of
skyscrapers.
1897 A. D. The SA/UR that occurred in at 250 290 Scorpio was even more subtle.
Research and scientific investigation were emphasized and since it took place
within the NE/PL influence, it placed its stamp on the next 500 years of history.
Scorpio gave the synod high-tech overtones, pointing the way towards such diverse
fields as nuclear power and computers and depth psychology. In that era, America
was relatively quiet. A Monetary Conference was held; America decided to stay on
the gold standard; the first subway was built in Boston. This synod was sextile the
1776 U.S. Pluto, and America was by then one of the most prosperous nations on
the planet.
1942 A.D. This synod heralded major technological advances. On Oct. 1 1942 UR
4 II SA 12 II), the first American jet airplane, the XP-59, was tested in California.
On December 2, 1942 (SA 11 Gemini and UR 2Gemini), Enrico Fermi and Arthur
Compton in an undertaking at the University of Chicago known as the Argonne
Project, demonstrated the first sustained nuclear reaction, initiating the nuclear age.

Political Cycles
Uranus/Saturn synods help define political cycles, as do Saturn/Neptune synods.
Uranus is a political influence; Saturn is political. Politically, Uranus can express
itself as anarchic, fascist, Hitlerian, Flat-Earthian, radical, conservative. All these
articulations of the planetary energy require the free expression of originality, and
even the most eccentric Uranian is seeking to communicate this. The combination
of Saturn and Uranus together tends to be conservative, placing itself politically on
the Right, as Saturn/Neptune tends to place itself on the political Left,
representing Liberalism, Socialism, and Communism. The synodic cycles involving
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune often define the political fortunes of the political
Right and the Left.

Astrology & Saturn Uranus

The Uranus/Saturn synod rules astrologers and astronomers, astrology and
astronomy.

Galactic Center. Click for full picture.

In the world of astrology, during the balsamic phase of this synod, which lasted
from 1981 till 1988, the conjunction occurred upon the Milky Way galactic center
at 27Sagittarius. During this period many of the best and most well-known
astrologers died, including Dane Rudhyar and John Addey. Many astrological
publications went out of business. Yet this was a time of rebirth in astrology. We
can expect the rise of new advances in this field, and, since it occurred on the
galactic center, some incredible discoveries, exponential leaps forward in
knowledge, new realities, and/or breakthroughs in science.

Saturn/Uranus 1987-1989
Exact degrees 27 Sagittarius through 3 Capricorn. Exact all through 1988. A new
level of the digital world is reached. Already thousands of people who were rich
enough and could afford it owned personal computers (as opposed to corporate
mainframes or workstations); after this synod millions of people owned them. The
use of older inventions, a century earlier at the cutting edge of technology, like
typewriters, died; desktop publishing and printers became available to everyone.
Use of the internet by hundreds of millions followed. By the year 2010, where
Saturn and Uranus are at opposition of 28 Virgo and 28Pisces, a synodic time of
flowering, people are carrying smart phones that take pictures and transmit them to
friends, that play online songs and download them when desired, that receive and
send messages anywhere in the world, that allow their users to take classes on line,
that can even show exactly what star is directly above you no matter where you are
on the planet. All of this is right out of a science fiction literature of the 1940s and
50s; and, yes, Saturn/Uranus is one of the rulers of science fiction.
Astronomy

New Planet discovered 30 light years from Earth.

The science of astronomy has exploded. New planets around distant stars are being
discovered. We know more about the interior of the Sun. Planets are being mapped,
sampled, tested.