Transcript of Radio Show: The Hierarchy of Planetary Influences and their Cycles, Jupiter to Pluto (7/31/2022)
(If you wish to listen to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Podcasts)
I thought it could be useful if we stepped back from what we have been doing over the past many shows, that is our looking at just one, two or three of the major planetary cycles, and consider more of the entire hierarchy of planets and their intersecting orbits from Jupiter to Pluto. It is certainly most important to look at the “big three”, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. But by including the fuller range of influences as brought to bear with the addition of Saturn and Jupiter, I believe we will find a deeper appreciation and understanding of what I have called “The Dance of the Planets”.
What I and many Astrologers do is consider the combination of influences from the various categories of planets, and their various interweaving cycles with one another, we take these to form a more complete picture of the influences we experience here on Earth. We certainly look at each planet as having its own realm of meaning and influence, but it is also true that just as we are shaped and formed by our experiences with one another, the planets and their messages are shaped and formed by their interrelationships with one another too.
Now, we can sort or arrange the planets in a number of ways, but what seems most meaningful for our purposes is to arrange them by their individual orbital periods from the longest to the shortest, and then to group them into three types or categories of influence with regards to their orbital relationships and by their synodic cycles, which is the period from one conjunction to the next conjunction with one another.
Starting with the outermost planets, which we will type as LONG WAVE TRANSFORMATIONAL, we have Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus. This grouping gives us the relationship pairings of Neptune with Pluto forming a conjunction roughly every 492 years, then Uranus with Neptune at 171 years, and finally Uranus with Pluto at 127 years. Given their longer synodic cycles, we have observed that they represent or influence Transformational or Evolutionary patterns of human history.
The next set of planetary pairs we call the MID WAVE CRYSTALLIZING, and they are formed by Saturn aligning with these longer Transformational planets. Here we have Saturn with Uranus at 45 years, Saturn with Neptune at 36 years, and Saturn with Pluto at 33 years. This set of combinations concerns the dynamic interrelationship between continuity and change, the necessary struggle between the conserving and preserving nature of Saturn counterpointed to the Spiritual Imperative for Growth and Change held by the outer three planets.
The final set of planetary pairs we call the SHORT WAVE GROWTH set, which is formed by Jupiter with both the Transformational outer three and with the avatar of Order held by Saturn, and these range from Jupiter with Saturn at 20 years, Jupiter with Uranus at 14 years, Jupiter with Neptune at 13 years and Jupiter with Pluto at 12 years.
Long Wave Transformational
Pluto/Neptune
For the Long Wave Transformational pairings, the 492-year cycle of Pluto and Neptune holds the integral relationship between the Will and Unconditional Love, between Boundaries that form our Sacred Spaces and the ultimate Oneness of Spirit and Reality. Each time Pluto and Neptune form a conjunction, one can see the end and beginning of how we form ourselves into our spaces with one another, and those dates are: 83BCE, 411CE, 905, 1398, and 1891.
And then, as they form their series of aspects with one another after each conjunction, we see the waxing square and the Opposition, (also the semi-square and SesquiSquare) and then in reverse order back to the next conjunction, as forming critical moments in the struggle for balance between our exercise of our Will counterpointed to our experience of Love.
Neptune/Uranus
The next pairing by synodic period is the 171-year cycle of Neptune and Uranus, and they hold the integral relationship between Unconditional Love and Freer Minds, or Individuality versus Communality.
The dates for their series of conjunctions or the beginning of their cycle of relationship were: 1478, 1650, 1821 and 1993. And then just like with Pluto/Neptune, the subsequent critical moments in their cycle of relationship shape and form our human experience of how we reconcile our need to be Free yet equally Interdependent upon one another.
Pluto/Uranus
The final pair by synodic period length, and of the purely Transformational group, is the 127-year cycle of Pluto and Uranus, which holds the integral relationship between Will and Freedom, or Sacred Space and Individuality. The dates for their conjunctions were: 1455, 1597, 1710, 1850 and 1965. Again, we can see this playing out over the course of their aspects between one conjunction to the next as providing meaning and guidance for how we must strive to balance our individual Freedom with the necessity to not infringe upon the Sacred Space of another.
Mid Wave Crystallizing
But let us now turn and look at the set of alignments that forge a more focused set of opportunities and challenges in our journey of Spiritual Awakening, and to the two which are presiding over our current situation, and these are the series of alignments of Saturn with the Transformational planets, and the Jupiter pairings with them and Saturn as well.
The set of alignments of Saturn with the three Outer and Transformational planets carries the meanings and messages of our Spiritual Awakening brought about by the Alchemical Transformations when these Evolutionary Forces meet with the Structures and Objective Realms held by Saturn. The result is often discord and clashes with these Evolutionary agents as they interact with the conservative nature of Saturn.
Saturn/Uranus
The first of these is the 45-year cycle of Saturn with Uranus, which holds the dynamic confrontation of what I would call the Principle of Order versus Freer Minds, or we might say Tradition versus Innovation. Their most recent conjunctions were 1852, 1897, 1942 and 1988, and at each conjunction a new impulse was released in this dynamic dance of the old ways and the New.
And here we find ourselves in the last major aspect of that 1988 cycle, which is the waning square, and which is guiding us here in 2021 and 2022. The previous significant moments from that 1988 seeding were the waxing square of 1999–2000, the opposition of 2008-10, and now the waning square of 2021–2022. Whether you look at these turning points through a Political, Economic or Cultural lens, you can certainly see how whatever was released in 1988 came to a crisis or turning point in the year 2000. And that this was followed by the opposition or “Full Moon” revelation of 2008-10; and that was most certainly a climactic moment in which the forces of progress were so clearly revealed and opposed by the forces of fear and darkness, and this struggle played out dramatically in our social and political polarizations of the time.
Which brings us to our moment now, which is the waning square of 2021–22. The waxing square, like 1999–2000, is a turning point or crisis of action; it is a choosing between one action or another, the need to make a commitment to one thing, or one form or action, to one way of being and not another. The waning square is once again a crisis or turning point, but more in the realm of ideas, thoughts, beliefs, or meanings. It takes as it “reference point” whatever was revealed at the “Full Moon”, which here was the opposition 2008-10, which laid out for all to see the differing meanings and messages of that moment. And now, given where we find ourselves in 2021–22, we face a period when we need to choose what we believe, to think through what is true versus false, what is real and what is not real, and so we sort ourselves by the division between our beliefs, our facts, and our truths.
The opportunity (and challenge) of any waning square, like the one we have in 2021 and 2022, is that it brings what is called the “gift of severance”, and it calls upon us, it asks of us, to let go of what we must so that we might continue to grow; it is an opportunity to turn from being held and bound by a negatively rooted past, to turn from the husk of dead spirit and embrace the living spirit of love. All of us need to reject any circumscribed and shadowed way of thinking and being, that we leave behind our more instinctual roots that divide us from one another, because they bind us by fear and not by hope and love.
But in addition to this Saturn/Uranus De-Crystallizing moment we have one more alignment that is shaping our reality and decisions, and it is one of the final set of alignments formed by the Short-Wave Growth grouping, and that is of Jupiter combining with either the Evolutionary or the Saturnian placements.
Short Wave Growth
It seems quite timely or fortuitous, because what we are experiencing is the next alignment of Jupiter with Saturn. Their 20-year cycle articulates the integral relationship between Truth or Meaning (Jupiter) and Order or Manifestation (Saturn). We are at a very important moment in their cycle of relationship because it is the first significant alignment in their cycle following the historic conjunction in Aquarius at the end of 2020.
Jupiter/Saturn
That conjunction Astrologers call The Great Mutation, as it began a new series of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in the Air Signs, signaling the end of the previous 200-year cycle of Earth conjunctions, and the start of a new Airy Cycle of Jupiter and Saturn that will happen for the next 200 years. It was and is a spiritual seed that was planted, and it heralded a turning point; and it was a sign for many that a New Age has begun. And now we have reached a critical moment in the birth of a New Age.
The first significant aspect in any cycle relationship is the waxing semi-square or 45 degrees, and this is what we are experiencing in 2022 into 2023. It was exact on July 21st, and will repeat on September 21st, with the final exact alignment be on March 21st, 2023, but its influence is present during the entirety of this year and into 2023.
Remember, a conjunction is like a New Moon, or very much like the planting of a seed. After that beginning, for the next many days, weeks, months, or years (depending upon the length of the entire cycle), that first phase takes place symbolically “beneath the surface”, like a seed sending down roots and equally sending up tendrils to the surface. For some greater or lesser time, we must wait for the proof that something has begun. And it is at the waxing semi-square that the new life appears visibly above the soil, it becomes apparent that something has indeed “happened”, and we see the first real “test” of this new form of life or being is now to be experienced.
Ideally, it can and should be a time of quickening, of moving forward with greater urgency and exhilaration, with the joy and power of new beginnings. But this can also be a time when doubt or fear can rear up to hold back the new life. We must remember that it is always fear that brings about pain. At this critical moment in the cycle of life, it may be the uncertainty regarding whatever is this new way of being that leads or causes a negative reaction; or it can be the siren song of the past that calls to return or stay in a more familiar time or space, and this too can hold back or limit the growth of new life.
The Living Spirit is the ultimate Root of everything and everyone, and each and every particle of this Universe is shaped and guided by the purpose behind the entirety of Creation, which is to grow; and if we are to grow, if we are to be what we are, which is the living spirit, we must lovingly embrace change. And if we are to grow, we must also move towards ever greater inclusiveness and integration with the whole of Creation, so that we might rise and become an ever more complete human in our Life of the One.
There is no way to know which way anyone will go; but there is no question which way we should go.
We should remember, as it has been said before, “beaten paths are for beaten people”. We are here to make our way to the greater light, to live by a more encompassing love for one another and all of life on this planet. This is the way of Spirit; this is the way of the One.
So, as this New Age begins, we are being asked to decide right now what will be the future that is coming? Will we stand for the future that is ultimately destined to be?
We really have no choice but to follow our hearts and listen to the voice of the silence, to listen for that quiet, still presence that lives in all our hearts and we will do what is loving and kind and true.
It is quite simply the way.
It is the way of Light and Truth and Love.
It is the Way of the One.
