The Uranus/Pluto Square and The Crisis of Civilization

This mouthful of a title is going to need some background information:

Astrology

Astrology is a symbolic language used to analyze an individual’s personality and to predict life events. It can also be used to interpret and predict historical trends, especially using  the aspects (angular relationships)  between the slower moving outer planets. The symbolic language of astrology is mythic, accumulating from the psycho-social wisdom of the past. Its components – planets, signs, aspects – are each a numinous archetype, a primal expression of an at once basic yet complex psychological icon that over the ages have developed a rich patina of meaning. The movement of the planets through the signs and the aspect patterns between them are an intricate dance of dynamic energies. This is the synchronistic dance of life itself, reflected in the shimmering of subatomic particles as well as in movement of individual lives, and in the greater mass movements of the collective life of civilization called history. To perceive history through a mythic lens helps to reconnect us to the principle of the sacred in the unfurling of the cosmos. To live life mythically, using astrological tools, is to participate in the growth and direction of consciousness.
　
The Outer Planets

Prior to 1781, the astrologers’ lexicon of planets included only those visible to the naked eye – the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. With the discovery of Uranus, new energies began to manifest in the human race. Uranus is called the Awakener – a sky archetype whose lightening-like role of provocateur is disruptive, inventive, liberating, iconoclastic. As Uranus emerged into human consciousness, the concept of civil rights began to flourish, as its function is to break the bounds of the conservative Saturnian establishment. The Industrial Revolution, the American, French, and the Haitian slave Revolutions quickly unfolded around that time, ushering in Uranus’ principles of rebellion, equality, the power and the dignity of the individual will. In the July 4, 1776 chart of the United States, the Moon is in Aquarius, the sign ruled by Uranus.

In 1846, Neptune, the sea planet was discovered, unfolding its archetype of collectivity and universalism to balance the naked individuality of Uranus. The Communist Manifesto and the revolutions of 1848 followed shortly. Neptune symbolizes the state of the vast undifferentiated sea of collective human emotion. Neptune’s sign placement sets the style and tone of a generation.

In 1930 the discovery of Pluto unleashed another new archetypal energy. Pluto, as ruler of the Underworld, is associated with transformation and renewal, death and sex, extremes of power, corruption, the urge to bring repressed needs to the surface. The rise of dictators in the 30’s – Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin – and the development of nuclear power, are prime examples of the Pluto archetype at work.

Planetary Movement

Planets move through the Zodiac at different rates of speed, creating a pattern of relationship between them. Starting at 0 degrees apart, two or more planets merge their archetypes to form a conjunction. It is a birth, a creative act that begins a cycle. After the conjunction, the faster planet moves away from the slower one. When it is 90 degrees from the slower planet a square is formed. This aspect, comparable to the First Quarter Moon, symbolizes breaking away from the past, growth, striking out on one’s own initiative – it is the crisis of becoming. This square aspect between the planets Uranus and Pluto, will set the tone for the next few years. The cycle continues at 180 degrees, when the faster planet opposes the slower one to  illuminate and culminate in a peak experience. And at 270 degrees the square is repeated. This is the crisis of reorientation and adjustment to the approaching demands of the next cycle which begins again at the conjunction.

　
With the Sun and Moon, this pattern repeats every month. This is what makes a lunar month. Other pairs of planets each have their own "months." And when it comes to the cycle of the three outer planets most used by astrologers – Uranus, Neptune, Pluto – the "months" are historical epochs:

Neptune/Pluto cyle

Repeats every:                    500 years

Most recent conjunction:     1891-92

Sign:                                   Gemini

Uranus/Neptune cycle
Repeats every:                    170 years

Most recent conjunction:     1993

Sign:                                   Capricorn

Uranus/Pluto cycle

Repeats every:                  110-140 years

Most recent conjunction:   1965-66

Sign:                                 Virgo

                 

                                  
Uranus/Pluto Square

We’re concerned here with the Uranus/Pluto cycle, as it is now approaching its first quarter square of crisis in growth. This pairing, in the past, has unleashed torrents of historical change.

The current Uranus/Pluto cycle began in 1965-66 with their conjunction at 17-18 Virgo. This was the symbolic birth of a new culture, an explosion of creative energies that transformed every field of endeavor. From the Berkeley Free Speech Movement of 1964 to the Moon Landing of 1969, an entirely new paradigm was born, fueled by an explosion of technological change and by an outpouring of subconscious content (Pluto) unleashed by the lightening-like intensity (Uranus) of psychedelics. By the end of the decade, the image of the earth floating in space as photographed from the Moon, became the icon of a culture transformed. In mental, critical Virgo, Uranus and Pluto forged a countercultural critique: the anti-Vietnam War movement, hippies, yippies in the U.S.; standing up to Soviet tanks in Czechoslovakia; the Cultural Revolution in China. Conservative Saturn’s opposition to Uranus and Pluto (1966-67) came to symbolize a value-system being born standing in opposition to the established order. The psychedelic experience had awakened an awareness of the unity of all things which spilled over into every facet of life. "Everything is everything", "you are what you eat", "think globally, act locally", became mantras of the new culture. While the counterculture of universal values was being born, the material realm unleashed the microchip, as Uranus’ technological innovation met Pluto’s power to replicate endlessly in technically-oriented Virgo. The computer revolution was on its way and by the 90’s, indeed, everything was connected to everything via web or cell-phone.

The cultural explosion unleashed by Uranus/Pluto seemed to subside after the 60’s, but it was really quietly percolating down into the mainstream. Attitudes and values that were revolutionary in the 60’s – civil rights of minorities, women, gays; environmentalism, the whole food movement – are now accepted by the majority. But the basic structures and institutions of society have been resistant to change. As we enter the first quarter square phase, this can no longer be the case. A first quarter square demands action. The state of civilization, at this moment in time, is in dire need of transformations on multiple fronts. Every field is going through enormous revision right now. But the revolutionary impetus of Uranus is coming up against the intransigence of Pluto. To make this even more dramatic, Uranus is moving through Aries, the first sign of Spring – an impulsive, impatient, dynamic fire sign, while Pluto’s placement in earthy Capricorn – the sign of structure, tradition, established institutions – indicates that the very foundations of civilization are in for a real challenge. (Pluto’s entry into Capricorn coincided with the financial collapse of 2008). As an even further emphasis of the importance of this square, the aspect repeats seven times over the next three years. Normally, outer planet aspects repeat only three or five times, as their yearly motion through the Zodiac becomes retrograde (backwards) for several months of the year. I could not find any other time when two planets made seven contacts.

Date of Square                  Uranus in Aries/Pluto in Capricorn
6/24/12                                 9 Degrees
9/18/12                                 7 Degrees
5/20/13                                 12 Degrees
11/1/13                                 10 Degrees
4/21/14                                 14 Degrees
12/14/14                               13 Degrees
3/16/15                                 16 Degrees

This square between the two most dynamic outer planets is a watershed event. The collective decisions made over the next few crucial years will determine the future course of human events. All the worlds’ problems and oppressions are merging to a focal point. The world climate problem has reached a tipping point. If not enough is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years, large areas of the earth may become uninhabitable, sea level rise may inundate coastal areas. Oil, water, food supplies – all of these are about to enter crisis mode. The out-of-control system of global capitalism has been despoiling the earth for years and passing on those costs to governments that are now going bankrupt. The out-of-control military-industrial system is again pushing us to the brink of catastrophic war. Never before have so many species of plants and animals disappeared so rapidly, as human activity and environmental degradation have taken their toll. Truly, humanity is in a state of existential crisis.

As I write this, Uranus and Pluto are moving rapidly towards their first exact square, having come within one degree of square during the summer of 2011. We are going to see – have already seen – a pronounced increase in revolutionary activity of all sorts. The Arab Spring, riots in Europe, Occupy Wall Street are just a taste of what’s to come. Uranus and Pluto aspects are like steam suddenly exploding from a pressure cooker. As global climate change kicks in, storms, droughts, and floods will intensify, driving mass migrations of the dispossessed (i.e. Pakistan, summer of 2010). We are bound to see also increased volcanic and earthquake activity, as the square represents unbalanced energies straddling the earth.

In April 2014, Mars in Libra and Jupiter in Cancer form a Grand Cross with the Uranus/Pluto square. This should represent the climax of an extraordinarily tense few years. Uranus’ principle of the erratic precludes any exact predictions, but war, ecological disaster and economic collapse loom large on the horizon. 

But there is a hopeful side to these transits. Uranus and Pluto are compelling us to action. Action can be positive. Revolutionary action can be transformational. In February 2012, Neptune entered its rulership, Pisces, for a 14 year stay. Neptune in Pisces overlaying the Square suggests that mass-movements will be swelling in power and reach, that a unity of spiritual principles will develop in the next few years that will negate the feelings of hopelessness and alienation that have captured large segments of the world. This unity will be partly achieved with social networking connections. It will, most importantly, be a leaderless mass-movement, driven by grassroots democratic consensus-building and compassion for the less fortunate. Plutonian resistance to this movement will be intense, but it will be a rearguard action, defending a hierarchical order which is doomed to extinction. The world is rising up against poverty, injustice, and lack of dignity. A wave of Uranian rebellion is upon us, a tsunami of pent-up anger and frustration that will transform all relationships and hopefully leave in its wake a world awakened and connected. This is the truest manifestation of the Uranus/Pluto square: an awakening in social relationships that expresses the same unity that physicists have come to see in the material universe.

Over fifteen billion years the universe brought forth stars, galaxies, supernovas, the first cells, the advanced eukaryotes, the proliferation of the animals and plants, the conscious self-awareness that has come to permeate so thickly the many components of the Earth community. The future of Earth’s community rests in significant ways upon the decisions to be made by humans who have inserted themselves so deeply into even the genetic codes of Earth’s processes. This future will be worked out in the tensions between those committed to the Technozoic, a future of increased exploitation of Earth as resource, all for the benefit of humans, and those committed to the Ecozoic, a new mode of human-Earth relations, one where the well-being of the entire Earth community is the primary concern.

– from The Universe Story, by Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry


We are stardust, we are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.

– from Woodstock, by Joni Mitchell 

For more on using Astrology to interpret history, see Palden Jenkins' Astrological Cycles in History at : http://cura.free.fr/xx/20palden.html

or read Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, by Richard Tarnas (Plume, 2006)