Music Monday ~ Singing us out of the last of those Uranus/Pluto blues

Mid-March 2015 - right around now in fact - sees the last of a set of seven pesky square (right angle) aspects between Uranus and Pluto. These square aspects have been lurking around in especially troublesome mode since June 2012, at around 8 to 15 degrees of Aries (Uranus) and Capricorn (Pluto), affecting other Cardinal signs (Cancer and Libra) by aspect too. While results of their sporadic, uneasy quadrilateral quadrille may not, as yet, be fully realised, the seeds have certainly been sown. Those two planets reputedly signify unexpected change and long-term transformation via some often challenging routes. The square aspect in astrology indicates an uncomfortable connection between inharmonious elements/signs. This can manifest as stress and tension. When the two planets involved are slow-movers, as are Uranus and Pluto, results are most often seen in mundane events, and not always immediately. Astrologer Philip Sedgwick has a good current piece on this topic - see End of One Era. If an individual had natal planets close to degrees and signs involved in the Uranus/Pluto squares, there could have been corresponding areas of tension or stress arising in that person's life, around the times of the square aspects.

We should give 2012-2015's set of Uranus/Pluto squares a musical send off. It'll be a few decades before their like occurs again.

How about The Last Blues Song? It's sung (and danced) here by Julie Andrews and Sandy Duncan -

2010 - 2030 - Yet another cycle?

Five years ago, Patrice Guinard of C.U.R.A. (The International Astrology Research Center), made a "true and wonderful" prediction for the twenty years 2010-2030 . It's brief, read it HERE. (I'm not able to access the noted "provisos" though.)

The prediction doesn't fill me with eager anticipation! It is based on Pluto - say no more!

SNIP

With its high latitude, Pluto cannot easily form aspects, especially the conjunction or opposition, with any planet. But when its latitude is lower, these aspects are possible.

What's this about latitude? I did once get into the declination thing in astrology, but discarded it as being either not useful or "a bridge too far" when combined with the many other variables available. Latitude is another way of describing declination in astrology (I think).

From astrologer Paul Newman's piece Declination for Beginners

In a nutshell, declination is a form of latitude rather than longitude. It is the measurement of planets north or south of the celestial equator, which is the Earth"s equator extended into space. It is worth remembering that when we talk of an exact conjunction of planets in a zodiac sign—for example the Moon and Saturn in Leo—these would not necessarily be conjunct in the sky. They would be conjunct by longitude (maybe appearing one above the other) but not necessarily conjunct by latitude or declination.* Similarly, the Moon and Saturn may be conjunct by declination (parallel to each other) but from different zodiac signs and therefore not conjunct by longitude. Separately either of these types of "conjunction" (longitude conjunction, declination parallel) has an equal force, but the strongest possible conjunction in astrology is when two planets are conjunct by longitude and parallel by declination at the same time. They would then appear to be conjunct in the sky. This may also help to explain why some transits seem stronger than others.

Here's what librarising.com has to say on astrological latitude

The ecliptic or Sun's apparent path is a belt of some 16 degrees thick(8° north and 8° south) where all the planets including our Earth orbit. Only Pluto and the dwarfs(as well as most stars) deviate from this belt. Wheareas east-west on the ecliptic is measured as LONGITUDE(in degrees), north-south of the ecliptic is measured as LATITUDE(in degrees). So planets in longitude and latitude in astrology refer to their position with respect to the sun's plane or ecliptic as seen from Earth. How this all translates to terrestial co-ordinates is another matter.

So then, taking Patrice Guinard's prediction into account, here's yet another potential cyclical pattern in astrology. Is it likely to be as significant as some other, better known cycles though? At least, it needs to be taken into account when considering them. When Pluto is involved in other cyclical patterns - aspect cycles such as the Uranus/Pluto squares we've experienced in the past few years, if any points in that Uranus/Pluto cycle coincided with Pluto's low latitude cycle (they all did), results could prove to be more intense, more clearly defined. What we need to be doing is looking for any other cyclical patterns involving Pluto, from now until around 2030, and marking 'em with an asterisk!


Staying on CURA's website, a piece titled Astrological Cycles in History by Palden Jenkins is well worth a good long read. There's a lot to digest there, but as a taster, maybe try starting part-way through the piece at the section headed Uranus-Pluto cycles and the storms of history.

Penultimate paragraphs of the piece (it was written in 2002 by the way):

At present, many prophecy buffs look toward the year 2012 as a time of drastic change. Though end-of-the-world type anticipations might turn out to be exaggerated, there nevertheless is a Uranus-Pluto square from 2012-15. At a square, new impulses arising from a conjunction are put to the test - there is a manifestation crisis. The astrologically-logical likelihood for 2012 is that the paradigm-shift issues of the 1960s will be forced by circumstance to deliver their goods: ecological ideas, women's power and techno-globalism, to name but three bundles of issues, will probably have to handle an emergency. War, institutions and boundaries (Aries-Capricorn) are predictable front-runners for likely trouble. Knowing how things are nowadays, this aspect is likely actually to bring a hailstorm of major issues.

But the choices now are fundamental. We need to realise, for example, that war no longer resolves conflicts as once it did. This is now a pragmatic issue, not solely a moral one or the domain of lettuce-eating pacifists. In the twelve years up to this aspect, we possess the choice to make major proactive forward-steps, or to continue delaying and avoiding such challenges as long as possible. As in 1930, on the previous square, when economic and social crisis demanded drastic action, so around 2012 we tread perilous paths along which the choices we make might have enormous and rapid outcomes. Ten years after 1930 the world was at war. What will the world be like in the decade following 2012?

Surfing the Waves of Revolution ?

Andrew O'Hehir's piece at Salon yesterday , The Age of Revolution: 1989 to 2013 and Counting, - "From the Berlin Wall to Cairo, we live in an era of anti-authoritarian revolution that may transform the world" had me rifling through the ephemeris and my saved astrology links to discover whether 1989 was part of the Uranus-Pluto cycle we hear so much about these days.

For background, a few snips from Mr O'Hehir's interesting essay:

.......But if you can separate the populist and/or military coup against Morsi’s government from short-term political or ideological questions, it fits into a much larger historical pattern that is global in scale. We live in an age of revolution, and specifically of anti-elite, anti-authoritarian revolution. It’s an age that began in earnest with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and shows no signs of slowing down. Edward Snowden, who on Friday was reportedly offered asylum by both Nicaragua and Venezuela, is in his own way a soldier in that revolution, one who has exposed the secrets of the world’s greatest imperial power and made it look both foolish and vulnerable. That’s the thread that connects this week’s explosive news out of Egypt to the bizarre episode of the Bolivian president’s airplane, which was forced to land in Vienna (almost certainly at the behest of someone in Washington), based on false rumors that Snowden might be on board. Screw national sovereignty – the most powerful nation on earth is hunting a computer nerd! In other words, both these things are driving powerful people crazy.

Indeed, historians of the future – assuming there are any – may well compare our era to the great wave of social and political revolutions that transformed Europe in the middle of the 19th century, and ultimately led to the sweeping away of the old aristocratic order. What the conclusion of our current revolutionary wave will look like, and whether it will sound the death knell for the dominant liberal-capitalist world order, I have no idea. But I feel certain that a lot of people in boardrooms, executive suites and presidential palaces are wondering the same thing.

Comments below the article were interesting, at least they were when they didn't descend into the usual skirmish between right and left, or snarks by the grammar/spelling police. One brave soul (cckelsey) even dared to say:

There are those who have studied astrology who suggest that Uranus-Pluto alignments correlate with emancipatory humanitarian impulses across the collective. From what I understand, we are in one of those alignments that will run through this decade though it is not as pronounced as the periods that offered the French Revolution and 1960's. From what I've seen presented, these periods tend to swing into Saturn-Pluto alignments which often offer authoritarian backlash.

That was put down immediately by:

Agent C: @cckelsey I hope you're trying to be funny.

Sigh! Double sigh!!

Commenter Graham Clark said (among other things):

Well heck, if we're going to allow for the twenty years of status quo between the dissolution of the Soviet sphere and the Arab Spring, we might as well go back another twenty and say the new "age of revolution" started in 1968.

He was right - and the 1960s do link back to Uranus-Pluto.

I couldn't see any Uranus-Pluto link in 1989, but there was a fairly rare triple conjunction of Uranus-Saturn-Neptune - in Capricorn that year. The conjunction linked the cycles of Saturn/Uranus (approx. every 45 years), Saturn/Neptune (approx. 35 years), and Uranus/Neptune (approx 172 years).

Looked at from one perspective, the period 1989 to the present (and onward) can be seen as a revolutionary age, still ongoing, for its full flavour hasn't reached the USA yet. While 1989 isn't part of a "matched set" of astrological aspects, it's another piece in the jigsaw puzzle - and fits right in, showing that certain points in the outer planets' cycles do indeed correlate noticeably with mundane events here on Earth. We ride the varied waves of time along with the planets.

From section 87 of one of the most often consulted favourite books sitting on the shelf under my desk: Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes ~

The people learn, unlearn, learn,
a builder, a wrecker, a builder again,
a juggler of shifting puppets.
In so few eyeblinks
In transition lightning streaks,
the people project midgets into giants,
the people shrink titans into dwarfs

Faiths blow on the winds
and become shibboleths
and deep growths
with men ready to die
for a living word on the tongue,
for a light alive in the bones,
for dreams fluttering in the wrists . . .

Sleep is a suspension midway
and a conundrum of shadows
lost in meadows of the moon.
The people sleep.

Ai! ai! the people sleep.
Yet the sleepers toss in sleep
and an end comes of sleep
and the sleepers wake.
Ai! ai! the sleepers wake! . . .

Uranus Square Pluto - Brush Stroke in a Vast Oil Painting

Our internet connection went south for a while earlier, it led to my delving into a couple of astrology books to see what the authors had to say about a matter currently claiming astrologers' attention: the square aspect (90 degree angle) now being formed between Uranus, planet of revolution & change, and Pluto planet of transformation following some kind of "clearing away". Square aspects in astrology, by the way, denote conflict and challenge.

On first thought it would seem that these two outer planets, with somewhat scary reputations, might indicate events more troublesome when in harmonious aspect, working together via - a trine (120 degrees), for instance. Could the challenge of a square lessen the likelihood of a turmoil-laden scenario the two slow-moving planets might be seen to reflect when working in tandem?

Astrologers look to history and consider what has happened in previous planetary cycles when similar aspects occurred. Using historical reference as yardstick isn't particularly reassuring though.

From Planets in Aspect by Robert Pelletier (1974)

Uranus and Pluto were in this relation from 1931 to 1934, when dramatic events stirred the world. While people were deeply preoccupied with the Depression, trying to find work and food, Hitler made his move. He effectively restored order amid the chaos in his own country and stabilized its economy, but the price paid by the people was extremely high. He enslaved them and gained domination over those willing to serve his madness.

You must be constantly alert to pay the price you will pay if you fail to respond to the danger signals of any popular movement or political development. there will always be individuals who will try to rise to power when the public is apathetic.

That's something to keep in mind - whilst also remembering that the rest of the planets are in very different positions now, in 2012, from the way they were during any previous Uranus/Pluto squares. The world has changed some too - though not nearly as much as one might wish!

The result of current astrological indicators won't be properly clear for at least a couple of decades. It's as if now we're looking, with a magnifiying glass, at a single brush-stroke in a vast oil painting. There is no way of knowing what the complete painting is all about.

Another of my books, E. Alan Meece's Horoscope for the New Millennium tells how current astro positions might play out in humans born at this time:

"Lonely rebels" 2011-2018 (Generation Z-b) (Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn; Neptune in Pisces).
This group will be similar to those born in the early 1930s. Like them, they will be confused rebels or lonely seekers in their youth. Growing up in times of crisis, they will insist on breaking free from authorities and blazing their own path, however unsure of where it might lead them. Highly visionary, in later years some of them will be able to adapt and find a powerful leadership position within society.