Astro­log­i­cal Mus­ings — The Pulse of Life and the Astro­log­i­cal Cycles of Order and Dis­or­der (Octo­ber 29, 2023)

(If you wish to lis­ten to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Pod­casts)

I thought it would be help­ful after my last show to pull back once again and take in a larg­er per­spec­tive so that we might see how the plan­ets are shap­ing and inform­ing the cir­cum­stances of our past, present, and future. As you know by now, I find that what is most sig­nif­i­cant for our under­stand­ing of these influ­ences is formed by two fac­tors, the zodi­a­cal posi­tions of the major out­er plan­ets, com­bined with their inter­sect­ing series of align­ments or aspects, and it this sign/aspect com­bi­na­tion which shapes and forms the ener­gies and influ­ences in any par­tic­u­lar period.

The dance of the plan­ets, what we might also call the Pulse of Life, is formed on the deep­est lev­els by Plu­to, Nep­tune, and Uranus because they, both indi­vid­u­al­ly and through their com­bi­na­tions with one anoth­er, cre­ate the long wave influ­ences that inform and shape the rise and fall of peo­ples, cul­tures, and civ­i­liza­tions through­out his­to­ry. I will review where we are now as under­stood by this pat­tern­mak­ing today, but I also want to speak about anoth­er indi­ca­tor that some mun­dane astrologers use to under­stand the tides of his­to­ry over the cen­turies. I believe you may find the Cyclic Index intu­itive­ly instruc­tive and help­ful in under­stand­ing where we have come from and what may lie ahead for us all.

Plu­to
We begin, as usu­al, with the Long-Wave plan­ets Plu­to, Nep­tune, and Uranus, by look­ing at both their indi­vid­ual posi­tions and by their cycles of rela­tion­ship with one anoth­er. Plu­to has begun the tran­si­tion from the sign of Capri­corn, (where it has been since 2008), into the sign of Aquar­ius where it will remain from 2024 to 2044. If we look at its pre­vi­ous pas­sage in Aquar­ius from 1778–1798, we can cer­tain­ly note that it was a very event­ful time in the world indeed, encom­pass­ing in the West­ern hemi­sphere both the Amer­i­can and French Rev­o­lu­tions which led to the con­ti­nen­tal wide wars of Napoleon Bonaparte.

When we look at the past his­tor­i­cal peri­ods of Plu­to in Capri­corn, it con­sis­tent­ly her­alds the time when a par­tic­u­lar insti­tu­tion­al order for soci­ety, (the insti­tu­tions of fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, eco­nom­ic, and polit­i­cal), begin to fun­da­men­tal­ly break down. Why is that? It is because these struc­tures formed to meet human needs were estab­lished in the late 1700’s and 1800’s. This insti­tu­tion­al order was made to fit and to meet the needs of that time. But now we and the world have changed so very much that these sys­tems and struc­tures can no longer meet our needs, they are inad­e­quate. Some­times it is they, and their prod­ucts or ser­vices, that have become the very source of some of our prob­lems today.

With the advent of Plu­to in Aquar­ius, we might hope and believe that our world would move away from the tur­bu­lence of recent mem­o­ry and back to a more inte­gra­tive and peace­ful time. But if his­to­ry is any guide, we are prob­a­bly going to be faced with some very great chal­lenges indeed, just as our ances­tors did in the late 1700’s and ear­ly 1800’s. We do not mere­ly emerge from a bro­ken sys­tem into a ful­ly func­tion­al par­a­digm of mean­ing and order.

Why? Because while it is cer­tain­ly hard to main­tain an order­ly life as an insti­tu­tion­al order unrav­els, and it is painful and hard to let go of what you knew and count­ed on…yes, it is hard to say good­bye. But if you think that the pass­ing of an age takes for­ti­tude and strength, I think we will find that a greater courage and vision will be need­ed to build our New World as Plu­to moves into Aquar­ius. It is always hard­er to build than to destroy. But at least we can take com­fort from the truth that we will be mov­ing for­ward with the hope for a bet­ter tomor­row, and not liv­ing with regret for what is lost or escap­ing into delu­sions of a world that nev­er was.

Nep­tune
Mean­while, Nep­tune is fin­ish­ing its jour­ney through Pisces, which is from 2011 to 2025–26, (with its pre­vi­ous pas­sages being from 1848–1862 and 1685–1698, and the one I believe that is very much like our own, because it was also a time with Plu­to in Capri­corn, and that was 1521–1535). With Nep­tune in Pisces, the veil between our worlds and between one anoth­er has become so very per­me­able that we find our­selves in a ver­i­ta­ble sea of illu­mi­na­tions and illu­sions, with visions of the greater com­mu­ni­ty of spir­it col­lid­ing with divi­sions formed by fears found­ed in half-truths and lies. What we will find is that as Nep­tune moves into Aries from 2026 to 2039, we will see a new vision of the world and of our­selves begin to unfold, as we move away from doubts into cer­tain­ties, from a sea of con­fu­sion into a call to take up our mis­sion to build the “new world”. And this will bring a wel­come relief to many, but it is cer­tain­ly not an indi­ca­tor of “peace in our time”. No, the fight over the future will cer­tain­ly break the old order and realign peo­ples and nations as it has done before, in fact as it did so in the pre­vi­ous peri­ods of 1862–1875, dur­ing and after our Civ­il War, and from 1698–1712, which wit­nessed a Euro­pean Wide War over the Span­ish Suc­ces­sion, and from 1535–1548, with an exis­ten­tial strug­gle between the Catholic and Protes­tant orders in Europe, and again it is this peri­od is the one most like our time when Plu­to was in Aquar­ius as it will be now.

Uranus
And third­ly, we have Uranus mov­ing through the sign of Tau­rus now from 2018 to 2026, (with pre­vi­ous pas­sages being 1935–1942 and 1851–1859), and it is his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant that each of these Uran­ian pas­sages, mod­u­lat­ed through Tau­rus which is the sign of Val­ue, accom­pa­nied major dis­lo­ca­tions, dis­rup­tions, and upheavals for the expe­ri­ence of val­ue in each of those peri­ods (and I would cer­tain­ly think we would all agree in our time too).

Cycles of Relationship
What is also very instruc­tive and spe­cial about our time, and also sig­nif­i­cant in form­ing the Cyclic Index Indi­ca­tor that we are going to exam­ine next, is that we have had all three out­er plan­ets form their con­junc­tions with one anoth­er over the past cen­tu­ry. That is all of them began a new cycle of rela­tion­ship in the last 130 years or so.

Neptune/Pluto
The most impor­tant mark­er of peri­ods rough­ly every 500 years is the Neptune/Pluto cycle. Their last con­junc­tion took place in 1891–92 in Gem­i­ni, and it real­ly is a bet­ter moment to mark the begin­ning of the so-called mil­len­ni­um than the year 2000. The pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were 1398, which also her­ald­ed the start of Neptune/Pluto series of con­junc­tions in Gem­i­ni, where­as the pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were in Tau­rus in 905, 411, then 84 BCE, and the “great one” of 578 BCE, which is when all three out­er plan­ets formed a grand triple con­junc­tion in Tau­rus, and as I have not­ed before cor­re­spond­ed to the time of Con­fu­cius, Bud­dha, Lao Tzu, Zoroast­er and Pythago­ras and many oth­ers who “sowed the seeds” for the quick­en­ing of our civilization.

This is the fun­da­men­tal cyclic rela­tion­ship gov­ern­ing our his­to­ry, the root cycle formed by the rela­tion­ship between Spir­i­tu­al Will (Plu­to) and Uncon­di­tion­al Love (Nep­tune), or how the uni­ver­sal sub­stance-ener­gy which is the Divine Light or Love is shaped by the many hosts of will­ing beings in our solar sys­tem, and for us by we humans. Plu­to brings about trans­for­ma­tions for the very struc­tur­ing of soci­eties and cul­tures, and Nep­tune pro­vides the dreams, visions and inspi­ra­tions that are inform­ing these trans­for­ma­tions of the con­tain­ers of real­i­ty shaped by Pluto.

Their cycle, like any cycle, will go through var­i­ous stages from con­junc­tion to the next con­junc­tion, formed by the wax­ing semi-square, to the sex­tile (where we have been since the 1950’s) to the square, to the trine and final­ly to the oppo­si­tion and then back again to the next con­junc­tion. Per­haps in a lat­er show, we can exam­ine this series of aspects for the pre­vi­ous cycle from 1398 to 1891, and then com­pare it to our own so far, and also fold in the rel­e­vant cycle rela­tion­ships of the next two pairs.

Uranus/Neptune
The sec­ond of the big three cycles begins at the con­junc­tion of Uranus with Nep­tune, and their cycle is about 170 years. Their last con­junc­tion was in 1993 in the sign of Capri­corn. The pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were 1821 also in Capri­corn, 1650 in Sagit­tar­ius and 1478 in Scor­pio. This is the cycle of rela­tion­ship formed by the rela­tion­ship between Freer Mind (Uranus) and Uncon­di­tion­al Love (Nep­tune), man­i­fest­ing cul­tur­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly as the inter­weav­ing bal­ance between Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and Com­mu­nal­i­ty. The com­bi­na­tion of Uranus and Nep­tune reveals the ongo­ing dynam­ic rela­tion­ship between Rea­son and Faith, Sci­ence and Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and one could see their dynam­ic dance as form­ing what we might call the world­view or par­a­digm (or par­a­digms) of an age. A new par­a­digm of mean­ing was formed and guid­ed the world start­ing in 1821; that one has end­ed now and a new one is unfold­ing, and it is slow­ly reveal­ing itself and becom­ing more evi­dent now that we are 30 years from their last con­junc­tion in 1993.

Uranus/Pluto
And then we have the third major cycle which begins at a Uranus/Pluto con­junc­tion, and their cycle of rela­tion­ship is on aver­age about 125 years. Their most recent con­junc­tion was in 1965–66 in Vir­go. The pre­vi­ous con­junc­tions were 1850 in Aries, 1710 in Leo and 1598 in Aries. Their com­bi­na­tion forms the rela­tion­ship cycle between the Spir­i­tu­al Will and Freer Mind, and we can see that in his­to­ry it forms an indi­ca­tor of a rad­i­cal change, at times rev­o­lu­tion­ary or some­times reac­tionary, and often both! Where­as the Neptune/Pluto com­bi­na­tion pro­vides the over­all struc­tur­ing and restruc­tur­ing of a 500-year peri­od, the Uranus/Pluto com­bi­na­tion cre­ates more bursts or breaks in the ener­gy and form of a peo­ple or cul­ture, whether that is being made by a new idea forc­ing its way into an old struc­ture to break it apart, or by a reac­tion to new ideas that meets with the Will of the old regime as a coun­ter­rev­o­lu­tion with con­ser­vatism fight­ing to restore or main­tain an old order.

Cyclic Indi­ca­tor Index
Now after this review of the three out­er plan­ets and where we are now, I want to include this oth­er tech­nique for eval­u­at­ing what we might call the bal­ance of ener­gies, of expan­sion and con­trac­tion, of greater inte­gra­tion or dis­in­te­gra­tion as shown by what is called the Cyclic Index Indicator.

What the Cyclic Indi­ca­tor reveals is a gen­er­al index of the state of plan­e­tary influ­ences, and it is cre­at­ed by adding up each planet’s posi­tion rel­a­tive to the oth­ers. What we do is add the degree sep­a­rat­ing each plan­et from anoth­er, 10 degrees, 90 degrees on up to 180 degrees, so that by this method we are get­ting a final sum­ma­tion num­ber that shows how spread apart or close togeth­er the plan­ets are from another.

For exam­ple, for the out­er­most plan­ets, we take Uranus and see how many degrees it is from Nep­tune and note that, and then how many degrees from Plu­to and then add that togeth­er to form one val­ue. Then we do the same for the sep­a­ra­tion of Nep­tune to Plu­to, and that becomes anoth­er num­ber. We add those all togeth­er to get the com­plete Long-Wave Num­ber for that moment.

Then we do the same for the three com­bi­na­tions of Sat­urn with Uranus, Nep­tune, and Plu­to. Final­ly, we add Jupiter to the mix by deter­min­ing how far it is from Sat­urn, Uranus, Nep­tune, and Plu­to. What we have cre­at­ed by all those addi­tions of the sep­a­ra­tions of plan­ets to each oth­er is what mun­dane astrologers call the Cyclic Index.

What we will find is that in peri­ods of time when the over­all spac­ing of the plan­ets is grow­ing, that they are each more spread apart from one anoth­er in the Zodi­ac, that those peri­ods coin­cide with his­tor­i­cal con­di­tions that are more pos­i­tive, more con­ducive to growth, more inte­grat­ed with one anoth­er. And when the spread between all the out­er plan­ets is declin­ing, we seem to move into his­tor­i­cal peri­ods of more dis­or­der, of greater dis­in­te­gra­tion and loss.

Intu­itive­ly it makes sense, that when there are more points of con­nec­tiv­i­ty that can inform and bal­ance out one anoth­er, a greater poten­tial for the inte­gra­tion of the whole is made pos­si­ble. And when the plan­ets “clump” togeth­er, there is a greater imbal­ance and low­er lev­el of inte­gra­tion and greater instability.

Let’s exam­ine then what it shows for recent his­tor­i­cal peri­ods (and here I will just note the most sig­nif­i­cant events in any peri­od), and then let us take a look at our own moment and what the Cyclic Index shows for our future. His­tor­i­cal­ly, the index can reach its low­est lev­els when the plan­ets are most con­cen­trat­ed or clos­er togeth­er (and there­fore poten­tial­ly more unsta­ble), and this will hap­pen when the three out­er plan­ets reach their con­junc­tions with one anoth­er. In fact, with two of those out­er con­junc­tions occur­ring in the 1960’s and the 1990’s for us, this alone can account for how chal­leng­ing our time has been. But the plan­ets can also be spaced apart for some time, and then the index moves less up or down, and then it will even­tu­al­ly return to a more chal­leng­ing peri­od when they move clos­er to one anoth­er pro­duc­ing sharp­er swings in the index.

Cyclic Index Periods
Look­ing at the 20^th cen­tu­ry, the Cyclic Index had been climb­ing since the 1880’s and 1890’s, but turns down­ward from 1901 to 1907, then it ris­es again and then plum­mets down­wards from 1913 to 1919, or the First World War.

It turns upwards until the late 1920’s, moves down into 1932 which saw the Great Depres­sion, moves up some­what until 1938–39, and then plum­mets down again, (and far worse than in 1913–1919), to reach a bot­tom point in 1944 where it begins to climb again. This is the peri­od of World War II.

It turns down again in 1951–52, reach­ing the bot­tom around 1956. This is the Kore­an War and oth­er Cold War clash­es. It then ris­es from the mid 1950’s until around 1964–65, when it turns down again until 1970–71. This was the Viet­nam War.

It ris­es up once more, then turns and plum­mets quite strong­ly from 1976 to 1983. This was the peri­od char­ac­ter­ized by both infla­tion and stag­na­tion in the US econ­o­my, termed Stagfla­tion, prin­ci­pal­ly cre­at­ed in the real world by the unfund­ed debts of the Viet­nam war and oth­er polit­i­cal-eco­nom­ic struggles.

Then the index rose from 1983 to 1990, then it turned down­ward until 1997. Though the USA and much of the world was ben­e­fit­ing in the 1990’s from the end of the Cold War due to the col­lapse of the Sovi­et Union, through­out the world regions were fac­ing dis­rup­tion and chaos in such events as the First Gulf War, the wars in the for­mer Yugoslavia, the Con­go Wars, and many others.

The index turned upward around 1997–98 and con­tin­ued to climb until 2003. This was the begin­ning of the War on Ter­ror, with the over­throw of the Tal­iban in Afghanistan and the begin­ning of the Iraq War.

The index turned down again in 2003 until 2010. This peri­od saw the Iraq war fuel a rise in Islam­ic ter­ror dri­ven by Sunni/Shite strug­gles for pow­er, (which would even­tu­al­ly lead to the rise of ISIS), and the mort­gage debt bub­ble burst­ing forc­ing the USA, (and the much of the world), into what many have called “the sec­ond great depression”.

The Index rose from 2010 through 2014, which saw the slow recov­ery of the USA econ­o­my but equal­ly the rise of the Tea Par­ty move­ment and a ris­ing bat­tle over the polit­i­cal struc­ture in the USA between majori­tar­i­an ver­sus minor­i­ty con­trol for the states and fed­er­al gov­ern­men­tal structures.

The Index has fall­en from 2014 to, well, to just now in 2023–24, as it has slow­ly begun to turn upwards at this point. As in the past, the turn­ing upward of the index does not appear to be evi­dent until a year or more after­wards, (just like when it turns down­wards, it takes time for that to be ful­ly appre­ci­at­ed as well).

The Index will con­tin­ue upward from 2024–25 until 2030–31. Does this mean we can expect that our gen­er­al con­di­tions will improve? Though the Index is one among many fac­tors to con­sid­er, we can at least hope that its gen­er­al indi­ca­tion for the tenor of the times may promise an improv­ing world con­di­tion over the next many years ahead.

More­over, where­as ear­li­er in the 1800’s and 1900’s there were larg­er swings in the index and deep­er dips, the index is now mov­ing into a more con­strained up and down pat­tern as we move through the rest of the 21^st cen­tu­ry. Per­haps this too promis­es a stronger like­li­hood of inte­gra­tion and bal­ance for the future.

But of course, these meth­ods of try­ing to under­stand our world, as revealed by the indi­vid­ual plan­ets, and by the plan­e­tary pair­ings, along with the Cyclic Index, do not and can­not reveal the con­tent of our lives and the real­i­ty we face. That con­tent, our lives, and our world is made by us, and what we cre­ate or destroy depends upon how we under­stand and respond to so many influ­ences and ener­gy-forms that we are expe­ri­enc­ing and that we are also cre­at­ing too.

If we choose the path of Light and Love, if we choose to under­stand, and for­give we can move for­ward, as we take and make the very best from these avatars of spir­it that hold the sto­ry of Cre­ation for us.

Let us live and learn to ded­i­cate our lives to do what we came here to do, which is quite sim­ply yet pro­found­ly to do one thing, we came to learn how to be a bet­ter human, and how to live on this plan­et with under­stand­ing and love.