Up from crisis with "The Jupiter-Saturn system"

What follows here is a chapter taken from my latest e-book, entitled A Silver Lining in Aquarius: Engineering the future with the 2020 Jupiter-Saturn cycle. I'm offering it here as a sneak peek, but also for its relevance to the news of this past week and to our times, more generally. Please note that I've added some pictures into the mix here--charts and tables are the only illustrations in the original text. 

Chapter two

The Jupiter-Saturn system

The Jupiter-Saturn cycle functions as a system within and dynamically related to the broader solar system. Systems analyst Donella Meadows notes that “behavior is latent within the structure”[i]—and that systems therefore cause their own behaviors! In other words, the environment of ideas, philosophies and ideologies (Jupiter) around which a society structures itself (Saturn)—beginning with its short- or long-term focus—will determine its behavior (Jupiter) and by extension, who benefits, expands and grows, and who lives with constant obstacles and limitations.  

The long Earth synod (Trigonalis cycle) coming to a close this year has focused heavily on the material aspects of life in society (as Bill Clinton famously said, “it’s the Economy, stupid”) and as noted, this focus has resulted in entrenched social systems that too often determine who is allowed to prosper and who is not. Unfortunately, America’s streets these days are less “paved with gold” than they are with protesters calling out the bias and injustice in those systems.  

In its buoyant drive for growth and expansion, Jupiter is always challenging “the odds” (a form of limits) laid down by Saturn, whether in a casino or in our national economy, but as co-ruler with Neptune of Pisces, Jupiter tends toward excessive behavior that refuses to acknowledge the wisdom of Saturn’s restraints. Gambling away a paycheck out of deluded “optimism” gets old real fast—as does refusing to take precautions during a pandemic. Acknowledging limits can be very helpful and healthy, in fact—essential for keeping one’s life in balance and addressing life’s challenges. On the other hand, allowing limitations to tip out of balance in the opposite direction, producing oppression, inertia and stagnation that stymie any forward motion is equally unproductive. 

Planetary energies, like people, are constantly interacting.

 

Clearly, societies don’t address challenges and evolve in a vacuum—their efforts reflect cultural values and biases, ideologies and power dynamics, and this context (“story”) absolutely influences priorities and outcomes. Astrologically, all this reflects the fact that, during any one of their cycles together, Jupiter and Saturn also interact separately with three other outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) and those interactions ultimately factor into the overall tone set by the Jupiter-Saturn cycle itself. 

Importantly, the positions of Jupiter and Saturn relative to these remaining outer planets and to each other are what determine the number of waxing and waning cycles we experience at any given time, which explains why these so-called “social planets” have long been regarded as our “Great Chronocrators,” or cosmic “timekeepers.” Not only do they “tick off” predictable, roughly 20-year cycles with 5-year quarters that track pretty nicely with the natural generational rhythm of life in human societies, but they also provide a kind of “barometer” that reflects the prevailing tone in society at any given time. This barometer is called the “cyclical index.” The authors of the classic text Mundane Astrology cite the “Law of the Rhythms of Time” as proposed by astrologer Claude Ganeau to describe the importance of this index:

“The stability or instability of the world is directly related to the difference in the sum of the phases of all waxing cycles of the five outer planets, and the sum of the phases of the waning cycles of planets. Whilst the figure remains positive, the earth will tend to experience relative stability and a period of evolution; when the resultant figure is negative the earth enters a period of crisis and involution.”[ii]

To illustrate with something that’s been top-of-mind recently, we will consider the cyclical index numbers embedded in Charts 1 and 2 after we’ve taken a brief look at their waxing and waning cycles.

Issued first on 9/22/1862 as a warning to the South to drop the rebellion.

A long historical process approaches a new threshold  

Consider Chart 1 below for the Emancipation Proclamation, first issued on September 22, 1862 (even though “Juneteenth” wouldn’t make liberation known across the entire nation for nearly 3 more years, in June 1865).  As we’ll see, the narrative continues into our current times (Chart 2 ahead), with the Black Lives Matter movement, founded on July 13, 2013 in response to the clearly biased acquittal of George Zimmerman in the wake of his vigilante-style killing of black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in February 2012. 

Chart 1. Emancipation Proclamation.

Here we see Jupiter still within the 1^st quarter phase of its 1861 cycle with a Saturn that launched conjunct Sibly Neptune in Virgo (see historical cycle data in Appendix B)—signaling an idealistic “dream,” but perhaps an elusive new order that wasn’t quite what it appeared. The momentous, earth-shaking, new beginnings nature of this event is reflected in there being eight waxing cycles—Jupiter-Saturn, Jupiter-Uranus, Jupiter-Pluto, Saturn-Uranus, Saturn-Neptune, Saturn-Pluto, Uranus-Neptune and Uranus-Pluto, with only two waning ones—Jupiter-Neptune and Neptune-Pluto. Abolition was an idealistic movement that had worked for some time to achieve this outcome, so even the waning Jupiter-Neptune cycle, still just past opposition, seemed to say “job well done.” 

Yet, there are hints in this chart that the celebrations were premature –Uranus conjoined the Gemini So. Node and both conjoined Sibly Mars (Sibly chart, Chart 4 ahead)—this reflects that slaves were also liberated this early in the Civil War so they could help the Union defeat the Confederacy (and not help the Confederates), so by the time the war was over, those free slaves who decided to stay in the South found it would quickly become an inhospitable, resentful environment for them and their civil rights. Lincoln’s 1865 assassination put segregationist Andrew Johnson in control, and he basically allowed Confederate states to ignore Reconstruction-era (1865-1877) civil rights laws. 

Instead, white supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan arose during this period (with Johnson’s approval) and used domestic terrorism tactics to enforce what would eventually be known as the Jim Crow laws—designed to suppress the black voice in government, to deny economic opportunities and to keep blacks separate from whites in all walks of life. 

So while Emancipation was a glorious step for a limited time, as the output of an important mutable Virgo Jupiter-Saturn cycle, it didn’t possess the staying power required to truly end slavery and discrimination. Could all this have been different if Lincoln had lived? Hard to say, but that wouldn’t have changed the fact that the freed slaves were used as pawns in the Civil War and were basically set up for a long, historical struggle for every bit of progress since. It’s fair to wonder if the way Emancipation was handled actually created some of the lasting white-black enmity that endures in the south today. 

Now, to calculate the cyclical index number for Chart 1, let’s take the exact sum of all waxing degrees of separation and subtract the sum of all waning degrees of separation:

Cyclic Index, Emancipation Proclamation (Chart 1).

Waxing cycles	Degrees of separation	Waning cycles	Degrees of Separation
Jup-Sat	9.38
Jup-Ura	105.17
		Jup-Nep	183.26
Jup-Plu	144.53
Sat-Ura	95.40
Sat-Nep	173.49
Sat-Plu	135.15
Ura-Nep	78.09
Ura-Plu	39.36
		Nep-Plu	321.27
Sub-Totals	780.57		504.53
Difference	276.04

Notice that the “difference” between the sum of waxing cycles and the sum of waning ones is a positive 276.04—certainly reflecting the hopeful, buoyant spirit of the Emancipation itself, but its context within the Civil War is key here and probably the reason the cyclic index drawn from this chart wasn’t a very big number (as these things go). Emancipation was a positive coup for the Union and the abolitionists’ fight, but it was fairly easily throttled as an effort to officially embrace freed slaves and their descendants as fully-equal Americans. 

Chart 2. Black Lives Matter Movement.

The idealistic activism of the Black Lives Matter movement and the confidence that the time has finally come for black Americans to receive more equal treatment so they can flourish is captured in the waxing Jupiter cycles (with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) shown here. It’s also embodied nicely in the Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune water grand trine (Cancer-Scorpio-Pisces), animated by the Jupiter-Mars conjunction. Notice that there are several waning cycles, as well—Jupiter-Saturn, Saturn-Uranus, Saturn-Neptune and Saturn-Pluto—appropriately, the cycles that will be pushing for the dismantling and re-engineering of existing social structures and power dynamics before better systems and structures can be built. This probably accounts for why so many have commented that “this time feels different.” 

Painted on the street near Lafayette Park in D.C.

 

For example, the nice waning Saturn-Neptune (Sco-Pis) trine reflects a definitive moment in the long goodbye to an unaccountable police and incarceration system that the 1989 Saturn-Neptune cycle ideologically supported from its Saturnian Capricorn origins. Chances are, Venus (Leo) squaring the Scorpio-Taurus Nodal axis, will bless the push for transforming the status quo (Scorpio No. Node). 

Let’s now consider the cyclic index for this significant moment in civil rights history. 

Cyclic Index, Black Lives Matter movement (Chart 2).

Waxing cycles	Degrees of separation	Waning cycles	Degrees of Separation
		Jup-Sat	239.09
Jup-Ura	81.28	Nep-Plu
Jup-Nep	118.57
Jup-Plu	173.59
		Sat-Ura	157.40
		Sat-Nep
		Sat-Plu	65.09
Ura-Nep	37.29
Ura-Plu	92.31
Nep-Plu	55.02
Sub-Totals	558.06		461.58
Difference	96.48

Despite the harsh difficulties of our times since then, we see in this cyclic index that there was some residual positivity left in 2013 when the BLM movement’s founders took a leap of faith that maybe “this time could be different.” 

The early growth of the organization and the way in which its agenda calling for broad

cultural/systemic change caught on were supported by the fairly strong Jupiter cycles we see here, which resonated nicely with the waxing Uranus-Neptune, Uranus-Pluto and Neptune-Pluto cycles.  It’s possible that these broad collective cycles, which work on our collective unconscious, moving hearts and minds, have provided a fertile context for change that is finally beginning to manifest.

It is the interactions between the “social” level (Jupiter-Saturn) and the “collective” level (Uranus-Neptune-Pluto) that produce resonance and broad cultural acceptance for change and progress. Every time the police have abused and/or killed another black person since BLM’s founding, they have basically strengthened and promoted the ideals and aims of this movement. And, as alluded to earlier, the waning status of the cycles we see in the right-hand column have perhaps supported the movement’s call to dismantle public institutions because systemic racism has run its course and needs to end.  

Challenges still abound, of course, like getting Congress to act constructively, despite the deeply dramatic events of recent months. Even so, what is it about George Floyd’s specific death that seems to have finally made a difference? The officers involved have been charged with actual crimes, instead of the usual slap on the wrist and exoneration. The outpouring of support for BLM in the wake of his death has been amazingly diverse, raising its agenda to a new level of acceptability, and the protests have been going on now for more than six weeks and have already caused actual change in local police departments. The calls for systemic change are resonating in ways that they probably couldn’t have, even in 2013—a sign that the time is ripe for change. To complete our exploration into how events on the ground are reflected in Jupiter and Saturn cycles and the cyclic index, let’s consider the following Chart 3 and table. 

 

Chart 3. George Floyd's death

The resurgent arrogance of power displayed in the brutal murder of George Floyd under the knee of police office Derek Chauvin is certainly seen in this Jupiter-ruled chart (Sagittarius ASC), with Jupiter (now Rx) a mere 2°+degrees from its late Capricorn cycle launch with Pluto this past April.  

This thuggish power display was “resurgent” in the sense that with several fresh instances of violence against black men in the past months, Chauvin basically had to know better, but from the video he appears to basically dare anyone to intervene. His demeanor is arrogant and nonplussed, as if he feels perfectly entitled to crush the life out of this man who is calling out for his dead mother and pleading for his life (seen here in the 8^th house Cancer Moon). 

George Floyd's death and image have come to represent the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

From the way the younger cops are standing around watching him, it appears that Chauvin was trying to train them (Jupiter-Pluto can be the professor from hell) in a hands-on tactic, handing down to them like some precious legacy one of the most heinous tactics ever devised for black humiliation and suppression—all the while communicating that it is the cop’s right to deploy such tactics at will. 

It’s still hard to shake having watched the heinous display in that video, and this chart reflects that. We couldn’t ask for a more vivid, Technicolor picture of systemic racism in American police forces; the turmoil and demands for systemic change inspired by Floyd’s death are seen in the way Saturn—only recently ingressed into Aquarius by this point, but still widely conjunct its January cycle launch with Pluto—disposes the Capricorn points while also widely squaring Uranus (Taurus) in the 6^th house of public servants (in this case, police). 

Saturn also conjoins asteroid Pallas here (both in Aquarius), reflecting the insistent cries for Justice and accountability that have followed Floyd’s killing. 

That said, let’s see what the cyclical index for this chart adds to the conversation.

Cyclic index, George Floyd death (Chart 3).

Waxing cycles	Degrees of separation	Waning cycles	Degrees of Separation
		Jup-Sat	355.15
		Jup-Ura	101.13
		Jup-Nep	306.17
Jup-Plu	2.15
		Sat-Ura	263.31
		Sat-Nep	311.02
Sat-Plu	7.0
Ura-Nep	47.30
Ura-Plu	103.28
Nep-Plu	55.58
Sub-Totals	215.31		1336.78
Difference	-1121.47

As we can see, the social climate has become seriously negative—while a couple new cycles have begun (Jupiter-Pluto, Saturn-Pluto) since 2013, they are not yet contributing large enough positive numbers on the left side of this chart to offset the increasingly high waning cycle numbers on the right. The high negative difference (-1121.47!) merely confirms what we already know—the tone of our social discourse has plunged deep into negativity and rancor since 2013, threatening the unity and very soul of our nation. Many have commented that we seem to have “turned a corner” as a nation since Floyd’s death—could that be because we see a transition point of five waxing cycles and five waning ones in this chart?

The good news is that in turning this corner we have the perfect opportunity to clear out the negatives in our systems and our leadership, and to make something constructive out of the situation as the new cycles begin to work their magic. Bottom line, we must do what we can to cooperate with the natural intent of waning times. 

Which brings us back full circle to why it’s important to consider the interactions of Jupiter and Saturn as a dynamic society-engineering “system” that encompasses all the ways these two interact with each other, and separately, with each of the remaining outer planets. These two, and the many ways in which their contrasting impulses interact to produce nuanced behavior and results, are the “engines” for seven out of ten outer planetary cycles, so it’s difficult to overstate their importance in the cosmic scheme of things. 

Of course, all of this only enhances the importance of the new Aquarius cycle launching this coming December, and there’s much more to say about that ahead. 

[END OF EXCERPT—entire text available here]

Jupiter-Saturn in Aquarius should open up possibilities in all of these.

Final thoughts

Those deeply negative cyclical index numbers in Chart 3 also apply to anything happening during these times, while we wait for the various planetary cycles to “lighten up.” They are especially relevant to the pandemic and our seeming inability to collectively commit to serious solutions. The result: over 130,000 dead and counting, and the dread of wondering whether our children and grandchildren will be forced by a self-serving president to return to school this fall without knowing if this can be done safely!

Indeed, the overall dull, stagnant feel of our times (as reflected inthe cyclic index in Table 3) is represented so well by the pandemic, but that feel also applies to much of what happens in the news, including Trump’s latest descent into utterly indecent, corrupt behavior with his commutation of Roger Stone’s more-than-deserved sentence. As David Frum, writing for The Atlantic put it, the amazing thing was how openly this corrupt drama has played out. He says,

“Stone was accused of—and convicted of—lying to Congress about his role in the WikiLeaks matter. Since Stone himself would have been in no legal jeopardy had he told the truth, the strong inference is that he lied to protect somebody else. Just today, this very day, Stone told the journalist Howard Fineman why he lied and whom he was protecting. “He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.” You read that, and you blink. As the prominent Trump critic George Conway tweeted: “I mean, even Tony Soprano would have used only a pay phone or burner phone to say something like this.” Stone said it on the record to one of the best-known reporters in Washington. In so many words, he seemed to imply: I could have hurt the president if I’d rolled over on him. I kept my mouth shut. He owes me.

And sure enough, Trump did owe him. Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month sentence. Roger Stone will not go to prison. Stone’s former business partner Paul Manafort is likewise keeping silent. And so the American public will likely never know what use the Russians made of the Trump polling information that Manafort shared with them. Manafort has extra reason to keep quiet, for he must feel new confidence that his pardon is coming.”

Clearly, corrupt episodes and scandals are nothing new in this nation—or anywhere else, for that matter. However, the blatant expectation that players like Trump and Stone seem to harbor is that they will get by with anything they try to pull off to aggrandize their own power at everyone else’s expense, and that's a darkly radical departure. The shameless way in which this administration has systematically stripped the U.S. of any standing or legitimacy as a world power--a legitimacy that was painstakingly built up over centuries by passably competent leadership, and was animated by strong, democratic institutions and at least some reliable sense of honor and ethics (nobody's claiming perfection here)--is simply shattering. 

To my eye, we’ve hit a bottom that we may not have imagined was even possible in a nation that prides itself on its Rule of Law-based government. And yet, as we’ve discussed over several years now on the site, the astrological warning signs have been flashing RED ALERT for some time now. 

The question is, what will we collectively do about it? 

I choose to believe that the beginnings of better times are on the way, but a lot will depend upon how we approach the opportunities that will follow from Jupiter and Saturn conjoining in late December in "maverick" air sign, Aquarius. We simply can't squander this opportunity to begin re-engineering our badly damaged society and government institutions. 

The only way to go is up--and IMHO, it can't happen too soon! 

Up, Up & Away!

A Silver Lining in Aquarius Chapter two excerpt copyright 2020, Raye Robertson. All rights reserved. 

Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. A graduate of the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane, collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. Several of her articles on these topics have been featured in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications over the years; see the sidebar links on the home page for her two most recent publications, now available as e-books on Amazon.

For information about  individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com.

© Raye Robertson 2020. All rights reserved. 

---

[i] Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Sustainability Institute, 2008, p. 1.

[ii] Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion, Charles Harvey, Mundane Astrology: An introduction to the astrology of nations and groups, Thorsons, London, 1984, p. 174.