Remembering the last time Jupiter cut loose from the Uranus-Pluto cross...  

By John Townley, July 2014. 

This year has spawned a great and astrologically-expected change from our Great Recession skies, dominated by Saturn, through the last year and a half frozen in a cardinal T and/or grand cross of the Uranus/Pluto square compounded with Jupiter and (mostly) Mars, and now evolving into more open, Jupiter-dominated skies for the next several years to come. Of course, the Jupiter release was being much-anticipated in the hopes it would bring positive change and progress at last, but from the recent headlines, it seems like all hell has been breaking loose instead.

How has this come to pass, and is there a precedent we should look back to in hopes of putting the clarity of hindsight into our headlights?

Actually, we should all be shivering with frissons of deja vu, or would be if we were centenarians with well-preserved memories – because we were astrologically in an astonishing similar place just one Uranus cycle ago, when Uranus was last time in mid-Aries. Just as we were struggling with the Saturn-dominated bucket skies of the early Great Depression in the very late 1920s and early ‘30s, we walked right into the very same cardinal Uranus-Pluto square we’ve been in lately, except Pluto was in Cancer that time, and it was Saturn that then moved in to make for a paralytic cardinal T and grand cross with first Jupiter in 1930, then Mars in the summer of 1931. And, just like now, the recurring T-cross prevented Jupiter then moving into Leo (as now) and then Virgo from having its full effect in the following year.

     
When cardinal cross broke up in 1933, FDR, Hitler, and Stalin took control of the reins of radical change under Jupiter skies .

Across the world, you saw revolutions fomenting but not getting anywhere (not unlike the current Arab Spring), and governments of the largest nations locked into internal disputes that prevented the actual change that was clearly in the wind. From the officially-hidden Russian famine, to confrontations in Manchuria, to the death-rattles of the Weimar Republic, there was lots of bad news, but not much real change. Then, suddenly, the skies cleared in early to mid-1933, starting with Hitler’s appointment as Germany’s chancellor on January 30’s Jupiter-Mars conjunction and the end of the last vestige of the T-cross (with Venus), followed by Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration as president March 4 under Mars/Jupiter/Neptune as well. Both were the final struggle under Mars retrograde chasing Jupiter (as has just finished now) to break free of the social and political log-jams and push forward into full-blown National Socialism on one side and the New Deal on the other. Meanwhile, Stalin broke out of his own power struggle and began the Great Purge (or the Great Terror) that turned the turmoil of Russian revolution into full-blown Soviet dictatorship. Across the world, Japan finally committed to full-scale war in Manchuria and the Far East began its whirlwind march to eventual world war as well. A stalled globe almost overnight turned into an accellerating runaway train.

And at the time, who knew what any of this portended? The deadly implications of Uranus square Pluto weren't even known to astrologers, Pluto having only just made its appearance in 1930. To many, on different fronts with varying philosophies, it looked like progress heralded by long-awaited Jupiter skies was finally under way, the Depression might finally recede, and Jupiter-Neptune ideals might ultimately bring a new and better world, something many were still hoping for even by the end of Jupiter’s long run during the 1939 World’s Fair. It was certainly gangbusters high-risk change, as these Jupiter-bucket periods always are, and wishful thinking and simple selfish attention made Jupiter’s dark side less evident than it should have been. Indeed, if there is a number one dangerous evil, it really is selfishness -- even in the guise of just minding your own business, until you realize someone else’s business just took over yours because you were not paying attention to the larger, shared picture.

   
After Saturn-sky Depression cross (l) broke up, Hitler's rise to Chancellor (r) and FDR's to President opened long Jupiter period

But anyhow, here we all bloody well are in, astrologically at least, an astonishingly similar place to our relatively recently-passed forebears – and it’s still no easier to sort out what the future will bring. Is there another near-Armageddon we’re missing just ahead over the horizon as before, or will we be able to creatively shape the envelope of events to avoid losing control this time? Ultimately, as before, we may not truly know which the real dangers are and thus again find ourselves defending against the illusory ones instead. In retrospect, the dangers of Uranus/Pluto were clearly nationalist, political, and military last time. But as we guard against those (and there are plenty), could religious, cultural, or even evironmental issues be what really sneaks up on us and sweeps us away into unanticipated turmoil? After Noah, no more water, fire next time. After the hot and cold wars of the Twentieth Century, maybe it's no more fire, but wind and water next time, instead? You never hear the shot that kills you, as they say…

It does, however, give pause for thought – about just what the depressed Saturn-ruling buckets and also the rare Saturn-rescue bowl periods mean, and the times of frozen, locked-up conflict of late (talk to the American Congress about that!), and now the unannounched global firestorms that seem to be coming suddenly upon us as Jupiter’s huge energy is freed up and sweeps us all along like a runaway train, as it has done before. Certainly it's a thrill to feel the gusty wind in your hair, and you do get there fast – if only you can avoid derailing on that curve ahead that’s closing in sooner than you think. 

The open-ended question is, of course, what critical information are we not including in this mix, like we were missing the absolutely-essential knowledge of barely-discovered Pluto last time? Chiron (not all that new)? Eris? Sedna? Haumea? Makemake? Or somethng else entirely (not even a planet) we don't even know about yet? Your course is only as good as your last set of observations, and you only get the right answer if you ask the right question...

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