Toys of the Cosmos

Taken from Astrology Quarterly Spring 2005

18 November 2006

I have been working on this material for some time and have presented it at several talks around the south east between 2001 and 2004

• Do we control our own fate?

• Are we pawns of the Gods?

• Can anything we do make a difference?

• Do the tides of history seek out those who can play roles and parts already established?

• Are the parts already cast and progress turns on the decisions of a particular individual?

• Can an extraordinary individual divert the flow of history?

Many are those who have asked these questions. I'm not guaranteeing any answers but hopefully we might emerge with a greater understanding of the questions. Some individuals will have larger astrological cycles woven tightly into their individual charts. These collective energies tend to mark those willing to heed the call and make a significant contribution to their generation's story. Not everyone marked in this way has the opportunity or inclination to respond but those able to see beyond the existing paradigm can move humanity forward into a new way of thinking.

It is widely acknowledged that people who embody the spirit of the time, the Zeitgeist, have the outer planets personalised within their natal charts. Might this be even more influential if someone was locked into a particular phase of the larger planetary cycles? What if the cycle as a whole had a purpose which needed to be fulfilled and events and persons tied up with past phases were linked to those involved with those in the future?

As astrologers we forget that "our" birthchart is not our exclusive property. It is the chart for the moment we were born and as such contains seeds and potentials greater than one human lifetime could bring to fruition. A human lifetime, and a human life, can only realise so much and collective energies cannot manifest through a single person.

So how can we begin to analyse this? How can we gauge if someone will be a paragon of their generation? Conventional astrology centres its attention on charts, mostly natal charts, and a chart is a single moment set for a specific location, a cross section of the river of time. It doesn't look back or forward: it is a static moment. We can turn our attention to transits and progressions which opens up the time scale but attention is generally focused on contacts between the natal chart and the transits/progressions by degree. Exclusive focus on the synastry between the two charts can lead us to ignore times when there is a resonance between the natal and a specific time period. For example Saturn Pluto people (those with an aspect between these planets) resonate to the Pluto Saturn cycle. India, Pakistan, Israel and the UN all have the Saturn Pluto conjunction of 1948 in their charts and all have experienced Pluto Saturn echoes from the recent transiting Pluto Saturn opposition.

I'd like you to consider the idea that we experience time more than once: within ourselves as shown by our natal chart, as transits and progressions, but also through synastry when we encounter people and organisations who embody a particular period of time; I'm sure this idea is not news to those of you who have children in their lives, they have their own natal charts but these also embody the transits which marked their arrival. Consider the period immediately after World War II. The difficulties of this period were shown very clearly in the astrology of the time: Saturn in Cancer – where is my home? refugee crises, boundary disputes; then Saturn in Leo – who will lead this new world? then Pluto conjunct Saturn in Leo – we will take charge of our own power leading to new states and institutions being formed. These ideas and themes were woven into the charts of those born during this period but it was also experienced as a transit by those alive at the time. The events of the post war period were carried out by people who may not have had Saturn in Cancer, in Leo or in aspect to Pluto but their actions and decisions were still part of the collective experience of those configurations.

So how can we begin to look at this astrologically? Using what I describe as dynamic astrology is very similar to working with transits. Look for the last time the conjunction between the two planets in question took place and for which phase of the cycle you are in and when that last took place. Using Pluto Saturn as an example, the last conjunction was in November 1982, the square took place in March 1993, October 1993 and January 1994, and the opposition in August 2001, November 2001 and May 2002. Taking Israel as an example, you can see that these dates highlight significant periods in its history, even pulling similar characters into the time line. 1982/3 gave us the crisis in Lebanon, 1993/4 gave us Ariel Sharon as defence minister and a Palestinian refugee problem and now he is their leader and once more they have boundary and refugee concerns. This is a very simple example is to show you the ebb and flow and re-occurrence which cycles can bring.

This seems a good point to explore exactly what a cycle is but first, a health warning: taking bits of a chart or a situation out of context will end in tears. We isolate parts of a chart when giving examples but it is very dangerous to say that x causes y. Regardless of whether you think determination has anything to do with astrology, astrology is non-linear and one configuration can be behind many events. Cycles will reinforce each other and be at different phases and appear to contradict each other, but this is really no different from a natal chart with Sun, Mars in Aries but also Venus, Jupiter in Pisces. Knowing that you need to regard the whole is the compelling factor.

Cycles are the basis of the astrological world view; we have a cyclical view of time, we expect things to repeat and astrology is the study of the nature of time as defined by the movement of the planets. Every planet is moving with regard to every other planet. They are all at some phase of a cycle. Each chart is a cross section of this stream of time and it doesn't take much to see that every part of a horoscope is part of a cycle, whether very short or very long.

Firstly, I would like to distinguish between two slightly different cycles. The first, and probably more familiar, is a planet moving with regard to its own position in a chart or with regard to the zodiac. It is this type of cycle we're referring to when we talk about Saturn returns, transiting Saturn is aspecting its own position in a natal chart, or Uranus in Pisces when a planet returns to a particular part of the zodiac. The second, and less well known type, is the movement of two bodies with regard to each other, such as that of the Sun and Moon's movement to form the lunation cycle. It is these cycles I am talking about in this article.

All cycles have the same phases and these phases have the same nature and these are the movement from conjunction through square to opposition back through square and back to conjunction and then it repeats. The conjunction is a seed moment, whatever is sown then will form the substance of the cycle as it proceeds. As the faster moving planet moves away from the slower they form a series of hard and soft aspects finally reaching opposition. What ever is developing will have periods of growth – the soft aspects – and periods of crisis or readjustment - the hard aspects. The crises are not necessarily "bad" but are times when the idea behind it all is questioned. Think of a car turning a corner; you have to apply the break, change gear and turn the steering wheel. This isn't a bad thing but it is a period of adjustment. Not making the adjustment would be far worse. As the cycle reaches the outgoing trine what ever is developing begins to bud and will flower as it reaches the opposition. This is the time when what ever was sown will have reached its fullest and highest manifestation.

As the cycles come back towards the conjunction, what ever has been given out to the world must be taken back. This is not a phase which most people are comfortable with; it's time to lie in the bed you made; time to clear up and deal with the consequences of your actions.

The component parts of these cycles has been dealt with in other publications1 so I will not elaborate further but the phases of these cycles, no matter how different in timescale, are very similar; a conjunction is a seed moment whether beginning five hundred years of Pluto Neptune or 24 hours of Sun to IC. The interaction between cycles of different lengths marks out history. You can divide these into four types:

Very Long term cycles - outer planets to other outer planets

• Neptune/Pluto 492 Years
• Uranus/Neptune 172 Years
• Uranus/Pluto 127 Years

Long term cycles - outer planets to Saturn

• Saturn/Uranus 45 Years
• Saturn/Neptune 36 Years
• Saturn/Pluto 33 Years

Medium term cycles - outer planets to Jupiter

• Jupiter/Uranus 14 Years
• Jupiter/Neptune 13 Years
• Jupiter/Pluto 12 Years

Short term cycles - inner planets to the other planets

The sharp eyes amongst you will have noticed that the cycle of Jupiter to Saturn is missing from this classification; this is because these two planets draw out several cycles. Not only is there the cycle between conjunctions but there are two larger cycles due to these conjunctions being in the same element for 240 years. We have this 240 years of conjunctions in a particular element and 960 years of Jupiter and Saturn completing all the elements; this is both a very, very long term, very long term and medium term cycle depending on which level you look at.

Jupiter/Saturn

• 20 Years from conunction to conjunction
• 240 years of conjunctions in one element
• 960 years to complete all elements

The more interesting periods of history tend to have lots of cycles at key phases, sometimes hitting the same degree areas. One period which has a significant amount of activity is the period from 1816 through to 1821. Even a cursory knowledge of history will confirm that this was a traumatic period in history being immediately after the Napoleonic wars, right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution and at a time when much of the bedrock of modern science was being laid down. The following list will illustrate the tension built up over the late degrees of mutable and early degrees of cardinal, as if the ideas were stirred up to such a frenzy that there was no choice but to spring forward and apply them as demonstrated by the increasing command of the material environment brought by the Industrial Revolution.

Planetary Focus leading up to 1821

• Neptune square Pluto
  22 Sag Dec 1816
• Jupiter square Pluto
  23 Sag Dec 1817
• Jupiter conjunct Neptune
  24 Sag Dec 1817
• Saturn conjunct Pluto
  27 Pisces May/Oct 1819
• Saturn square Uranus
  24 Pisces Apr 1819
• Saturn square Neptune
  26 Pisces Oct 1819
• Uranus square Pluto
  25 Sag Jan 1820
• Jupiter conjunct Pluto
  27 Pisces Feb 1821
• Jupiter square Neptune
  2 Aries Mar 1821
• Jupiter square Uranus
  2 Aries Mar 1821
• Uranus conjunct Neptune
  3 Cap Mar 1821

In addition to these there was also a Jupiter Saturn conjunction in June of 1821 at 5 Virgo, so not included in this focus of activity.

The cycle I'd like to focus on is that of Uranus and Neptune and the topic I'm going to expand upon is that of the development of science, with particular reference to the field of radioactivity. Let's start by noting the big developments of the 1820 – 1822 period:

1820

• Electrodynamics is born
• Basic laws of electromagnetism are discovered
• First galvanometer in use

1821

• Faraday reports on electrodynamic rotation and builds first two motors powered by electricity
• Thermo electricity is discovered
• Catholic Church lifts the ban on teaching the Copernican system
• Rosetta Stone is decoded

1822

• Rome removes Galileo's Dialogues from list of prohibited books
• First dinosaur fossils are found
• First positive image which could be called a photograph is made

Here we have discoveries upon which much of modern scientific breakthroughs are based which lead the way for our ideas to change, leading to modern, scientific thought. The idea I'd like to expand in the rest of this article is how the cycle unfolds in tandem with the ideas themselves; techniques which are necessary for science to progress seem to be developed on previous phases of the cycle and those necessary to progress ideas forward emerge on cue as the cycles progress. But let us start with the woman who started the ball rolling, both for this article and for the development of radioactivity: Marie Curie.

Marie Curie

When I first began to investigate the idea of a cycle phase being locked into a natal chart I thought of Mme Curie. Not only does she have the outgoing square of Uranus to Neptune exact to seven minutes but Uranus is tightly conjunct her descendant. Additionally, Jupiter is exactly sesquiquadrate Uranus, Sun is opposite Pluto across her MC/IC axis, Sun and Moon complete a grand trine in water with Uranus and the nodes, ascendant and Pluto turn this into a grand sextile. All this certainly qualifies her as an outer planet person and one who has turning points of the very long term cycles locked into her natal chart.

One of Marie Curie's contributions to science was the isolation of the first radioactive elements, Polonium and Radium. This happened in 1898, a few years after the conjunction of Neptune and Pluto but there was little in the way of major cyclical activity, although the shorter cycles showed up the discovery in her chart2. This led me to wonder if this was just a stepping stone to a more significant turning point. To explore this let us return to the start of the Uranus Neptune cycle and track its development through the 19th and early 20th Century, through to the opposition of the cycle – the flowering of what ever is represented – and note the discoveries and developments made.

1846/7

Uranus semi-square Neptune
In 1845 Michael Faraday develops theory of electromagnetism which is built on in 1846 to give formal units of electricity

1867/8

Uranus square Neptune
New theories of the atom were proposed by Lord Kelvin.
1869 gives the first glimpses of the electron shell and the first publication of the periodic table.

1880

Uranus trine Neptune
Pierre Curie discovers the Piezoelectric effect

1906

Uranus opposition Neptune
Marie Curie becomes the first woman professor at Sorbonne
Rutherford makes progress in the theoretical understanding of radioactivity. He is awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908, with the opposition still in orb.

You can see that key developments were made on the turning of this cycle even down to the discovery of a technique which was instrumental to Marie Curie's work being discovered by her husband at a previous phase. The isolation of the radioactive elements does not fit with this timetable, however, the events of 1903 through 1906 certainly fit with the symbolism of the opposition. Curie is awarded the Nobel Prize and her colleague, Ernest Rutherford makes a crucial theoretical breakthrough for which he is also awarded the Nobel Prize; could it be that this was the pinnacle? A discovery which pushed science forward to greater and deeper understanding?

If we are at the peak of a cycle, might we look to see if the next pioneer might be born now? Might he have the essence of these discoveries within him? In 1904 Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, was born, not only within orb of the opposition but with Neptune 180 degrees away from its position at the conjunction and with Uranus closely conjunct his descendant as we found with Mme Curie.

Robert Oppenheimer

First Controlled Nuclear Reaction

Uranus Neptune Conjunction of 1821

He also has a partile incoming trine of Saturn and Pluto, his actions would be altogether darker and, with the incoming trine, there would be consequences which could not be ignored. Interestingly, he would become head of the Atomic Energy Commissions General Advisory Committee from 1947 to 1952; Saturn conjoined Pluto in 1948.

Taking the cycle forward we have the following:

1931

Uranus sesquiquadrate Neptune
– New forms of radioactivity are discovered
– Among the research team are Irene Curie, Marie's daughter, and her husband
– First particle smasher comes on line

1941/42

Uranus trine Neptune
– Spontaneous fission of Uranium
– Plutonium is isolated
– First controlled nuclear reaction
– Stephen Hawking is born!!!

Again you can see people from within the same family contributing to different parts of the cycle, this time the involvement is from Curie's daughter. The incoming trine gives us the breakthrough which we will all have to live with: the breakthrough which leads to the nuclear bomb.
An examination of the three charts shows many, many contacts and if you look at the conjunction chart there are more still. What might this tell us? It's very easy to look at this and say that this is what you would expect to see, astrology is based on the premise that everything is linked. But is the addition of the cyclical framework indicative of an idea being unfolded through time?

Historians argue about how to approach history: do great men carve out the turning points of history or does history look around for anyone who will fit the bill and scoop them up on behalf of its mission?

We recently voted Winston Churchill the greatest Briton but was he the only man who could have done the job? Were there others who could have filled his boots? We will never know and will probably never know which approach is more accurate. What we can be reasonably clear about is that cycles do repeat and we all resonate to their energy.
John Maynard Keynes once said:

"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Practical men, who believe they are quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."
General Theory (1947 ed.) ch. 24

I put it to you that the sentiment of this is also applicable to astrology. We all are all familiar with the idea of raising our own natal charts to their highest level of manifestation but should we not also watch for the cycles? As they unfold across the centuries might we take care not to become the Toys of the Cosmos?

1 Mundane Astrology, Baigent, Campion and Harvey; Anima Mundi, Charles Harvey; The Eagle and the Lark, Bernadette Brady, to name but three.

2 Discovery of Polonium: new moon on her descendant and Uranus, training her Sun, Saturn conjunct her Mercury.

Bibliography

Mundane Astrology, Baigent, Campion and Harvey
Anima Mundi, Charles Harvey
Tables of Planetary Phenomena, Neil F Michelsen
Timetables of History
Timetables of Science
Marie Curie, Robert Reid
Madame Curie, Eve Curie