The astrology of the collective

BY CAROLINA SAWNEY MSC D PSYC ASTROL, ASTROLOGER

LONDON, 2012, LA TUNDRA MAGAZINE

Key years in the history of empire, capital, economic crises and revolutions

1758-1759: The British Empire expands to India and Nova Scotia. Thanks to the invention of the sextant, they dominate the sea. 


1792: Industrial Revolution. The beginning of a capitalist industry. Proclamation of the French Republic that inaugurates its revolutionary calendar. Dollar coinage introduced in the US. The New York Stock Exchange starts to operate informally.

1820-1821: Spanish revolution. Simón Bolivar defeats the Spanish army in South America. Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Perú declare independence from Spain. Rebellions against the Ottoman empire. 

1850: The beginning industrial capitalism that transforms the globe into a world economy. The end of the European Revolutions.


1877: The beginning of imperial colonialism in the midts of the Great Depression. First monopolies, that establish ties with financial capital. The term plutocracy is coined.

1901: Monopoly capitalism is accentuated. Standard Oils becomes a super-estate. End of the Boxer uprising in China. Growth of European influence there. The Social Revolutionary Party is organised in Russia.

1933: The end of imperial colonialism. The worst years of the international Great Depression. Hitler starts his “1000 year empire” -that lasted 12. In the USA, the banks close for 7 days. 

1965-1966: European Union integration: a treaty is signed merging the European Coals and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the Eurotom, all under one Council and a single Commission. Cultural Revolution in China. Offshore funds start to speculate against the Bretton Woods system.
2012-2015: Economic crises at the center of the capitalist economies. 

These dates, that mean a climax and a watershed in larger periods of change arise from the historical ages as demarcated by the historian Eric Hobsbawm according to the theory of cycles by Carl Marx. And they coincide with astronomical precision with the planetary cycles of Pluto -associated in astrology with deep transformations- and Uranus -that symbolises revolutions-, when the planets combine in the heavens making an exact aspect (0 degrees of orb), forming a conjunction (1850 and 1965-1966), a waxing square of 90 degrees (1759 and 1877, 2012-2015), an opposition or aspect of 180 degrees (1792 and 1901) or a waning square, of 270 degrees (1820 and 1933).The changes start and finish a few degrees before and after the aspects are exact by degree. 


If the planets unfold time and inform patterns and cycles in nature, according to archetypal cosmology, that applies the astrological methods to a transdiscipliary group of sciences, the dates mentioned, are associated with the archetype of the survival of the fittest (fitness certified not only by survival but also by domination), crises, confrontations and deep reorganisations, as represented by Pluto; and the promethean vision of social progress based on radical ideas and the rapid acceleration of scientific and technological breakthroughs as represented by Uranus.

For example, the political French revolution and the industrial British revolution around 1792 spread outwards and Europe conquered the world (Pluto), but they also provided the non-European world with the conditions and equipment for its eventual counter-attack, as European colonies resented being subordinated to the metropoli and demanded autonomy (Uranus). 


From the Great Depression of 1877, a Victorian equivalent of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the drama (Pluto) of progress (Uranus) continued to be fuelled by a small country. British foreign investments went from an annual average of 85 million for the period 1875-1879 to 900 millions in 1910 -1913. There was spectacular growth: railway networks expanded into different continents, submarine cables crossed the Atlantic, gassworks were built. Mass emigration is also part of this cycle. There was a new (Uranus) integration of the 'underdeveloped' countries as dependencies (Pluto) into a world economy dominated by the 'developed' countries. 


Between 2012 and 2015, Pluto and Uranus, that have entered the signs where the seasons change (Aries and Capricorn), mark an exact quarter hour since their conjunction in 1965 and 1966, picking up the themes that were relevant during those years -but also earlier in the cycle. 


The historical importance of the astronomical alignment is greater now because Pluto is transiting, until 2024, through the constellation of Capricorn, a socio-political sign that represents the laws on which the solid material basis of civilisation is built: the economy, including the financial system, markets, material resources, currencies. The transit of Pluto through Capricorn implies changes that once made, solidify to stay in the long term. Capricorn is an earth sign associated with stability. Socially, we perceive synchronic events that actualise the archetypes: the crises (Pluto) of the debt, the euro, the political superstructures (Capricorn), like the European Union and Great Britain of the same sign.

Personally, with Pluto in Capricorn, we feel the motivation to reorganise in a practical way a fundamental pillar in our lives (this will depend on the houses where both the natal and transiting Pluto-Uranus are placed in the birth chart). In March 2011, Uranus entered the constellation of Aries, the sign that symbolises archetypal beginnings, action and pioneering. And we feel the need to innovate (Uranus) in our actions in the present (Aries). All our actions added up will define the definite shape of the zeitgeist. It's important to be aware of their meaning. Because history does not repeat itself, but rhymes.