Mundane Matters - Cycles

One Step Forward?

11 May 2006

Taken from Astrolgy Quarterly Autumn 2006

Cycles are one of the major building blocks of astrology. Cyclical processes are the basis behind astrological forecasting; when a body returns to a particular position or relationship to another body there is a resonance with previous occasions when this has happened, for instance Saturn returns to its natal position or Jupiter and Saturn are in aspect.

The most obvious cycle – obvious in the fact that we can see it happening – is that of the Sun and the Moon. Their dance from New Moon at their conjunction, waxing out to Full Moon at their opposition and waning back to new again passes through all possible aspects that they could make.

Any two planets in aspect to each other will be at a specific phase in this cycle from conjunction to opposition and back; any particular aspect is part of a larger process.

The Sun and Moon move through their cycle moving forwards continually making each aspect only once as neither body can be retrograde. If both planets are direct in motion when they make a particular aspect there will be only one instance of it. If either body is retrograde in motion that particular aspect will occur more than once.

For instance, the current Jupiter Saturn square will be exact three times due to each planets period of retrograde motion. The graphic ephemeris – set for ninety degrees – shows the three square aspects which will occur over the twelve months from December 2005.

If you chart the angular distance between the two bodies you get a regular pattern, each phase follows directly on from the previous phase, the angular distance between the two bodies is increasing. A conjunction progresses to a sextile, to a square, to , to a trine, to an opposition and back through the aspects to a conjunction.

You may get a repeat of the aspect when there’s retrograde activity but each phase progresses to the next. You can see this on the graph of the angular distance between the Sun and the Moon shown here, the angle increases as the cycle progresses. The New Moon would be around the 11th January (0°) and the Full Moon around the 25th (180°). The vertical lines are caused by the distance changing from 359° to 0°.

However, this is only true, however, for bodies whose orbits do not cross. Bodies who do have these peculiar orbits are Chiron and Pluto. Chiron crosses the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, and Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit. This gives us a different progression to the cycle.

When you have crossing orbits the phases within a cycle do not progress directly to the next aspect and can be repeated. For instance, Saturn and Chiron reached the opposition phase of their cycle in 1986 and left it in 2006.

This is not to say that they’ve been continually in opposition for this whole period. There have been many Saturn Chiron oppositions over this period: the phase of the cycle is being repeated. The angular distance between the two bodies has swung between 160 and 200 degrees hitting the 180 opposition aspect many times.

For most of this period Chiron has been travelling very fast as it is near the orbit of Saturn and its perihelion. This makes sense. Both bodies are travelling at around the same speed so they will maintain a constant (ish) distance from each other.

Chiron is now slowing down as it moves nearer the orbit of Uranus and its aphelion. The relationship between them is no longer being maintained and further phases of the cycle will now be seen.

The point to note is that some phases may repeat many times. The sextile between Neptune and Pluto is presently dissipating but there will be a significant period through to the middle of this century when it will again be exact. It seems we have not finished with this part of the story and forecasts made on the basis of a phase passing may not tell the whole story.

Saturn and Chiron

Although the data for Chiron is not reliable once you go beyond the 20th Century, you can see a pattern over a long term period. The current cycle has its wobble around the opposition but looking at that thousand years you can see the wobble occurs at different periods of the cycle. There appears to be one wobble around the opposition or two wobbles around the squares.

In terms of interpretation, you could say that we have only just left the opposition phase which started in the mid eighties. Issues which refuse to be resolved keep coming back. Perhaps now we can see movement although current events may lead us to believe that this movement is not in a positive direction.

Neptune and Pluto

Neptune and Pluto have been in sextile aspect to each other since the 1940’s and this aspect has formed one of the major indications of the late 20th century. For the period from the late 1940’s to the early 1990’s this aspect was within a four degree orb. Could this common thread symbolise the common values which established themselves in post war western society? Particularly with regard to popular culture?*

Many popular movements began to atomise in the early 1990’s, such as music and television, just as the sextile began to dissipate. We’re at the point where the aspect has retreated as far as it goes, one could consider that we are at a low point in terms of social cohesion.

Societies all around the world had to rebuild following the Second World War, this doesn’t apply only to Western societies. The sextile phase indicates an easy flowing of energy but with some effort – sextiles involve both two and three in their symbolism.

Looking at the graph shows that we get two periods around the exact sextile aspect. A very optimistic thought would be that the second phase, which we are now moving towards, gives us a chance to rework the initial ideas developed during the late 20th century. If we get to 2020 we might get a second chance to try it again.

Considering the period since 650 CE you can see that the Neptune Pluto wobbles always happen around the opening sextile phase and the incoming quincunx. This deserves further investigation.

To finish I’d like to demonstrate the themes which appear to be invoked consider this snippet which Charles Riddoux shared at the AA Conference 2005. The Lord of the Rings was published by Tolkien when Neptune and Pluto were around 51° apart and they were in the same relationship to each other when Peter Jackson’s film of the book was released.

*My thanks go to Lisa Edie for the comments which contributed to this idea.