On January 5, 1959, Saturn moves into Capricorn for a three-year stay, with the exception of a very short time just across the threshold of Aquarius in May, 1961. It is one of the longest periods passed by Saturn in any one zodiacal sign.
There are several other reasons why Saturn's forthcoming stay in the sign it rules is important just now; it is particularly significant for the United States. The main reason is the fact that Jupiter and Saturn will be conjunct at 26° Capricorn at the end of February, 1961. As this conjunction occurs, it will sound the actual keynote of our next Administration, once in power. Moreover, it occurs very near the Pluto of the U. S. birth-chart (27° Capricorn), which is in opposition to Mercury (24° Cancer).
It also falls at the midpoint of Vice President Nixon's broad conjunction of the Sun (19 1/2° Capricorn) and Uranus (2 l/2° Aquarius). It also should be considered as a kind of prelude (or "overture"), sounding out some of the main themes to be developed during the dramatic years 1988-1994, when both Uranus and Neptune will be in Capricorn (they will be conjunct several times in 1992). Saturn will then have returned to that sign and through 1988 and 1989 will cross Uranus and Neptune, while Jupiter in Cancer will oppose this Capricorn aggregation of heavy planets.
The Jupiter-Saturn Pattern
The cycle of successive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn has been the dominant feature of all mundane astrology calculations and prognostications until the discovery of planets beyond Saturn. While Mars and Venus represent the two polarities of the personal-emotional life, Jupiter and Saturn constitute similarly the two polarities of our social life — that is, life as affected by our community, our nation, our sense of fellowship (or lack of fellowship) with other human beings around us and, in a still broader sense, with whatever entities one meetw in the visible or invisible universe. Jupiter and Saturn refer, thus, to "affairs of state" and national or financial policies, as well as to the religious life, using here the term "religious life" to describe a person's participation in an organized religion or at least in a set form of group worship or religious ritual.
A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs every twenty years; but the real cycle encompasses three such conjunctions, for every sixty years the conjunction recurs in approximately the same place of the zodiac. Thus, while there were conjunctions of the two planets in 1842, late 1861, 1881, 1901, 1921, 1940-41, and the next in 1961, these conjunctions took place in the sign Capricorn only in 1842, 1901 and once more in Capricorn in 1961.
Because the cycle is quite regular, this means that every new conjunction occurs not far from 120 degrees away from the preceding ones. It follows from this that a few successive conjunctions occur in Earth signs (Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus), then the next ones will fall in Air signs, then Water, then Fire signs — a complete cycle lasting about 960 years. By using such a cycle, various methods of prognostications have been derived; but all that needs to be considered in this article is the fact that we are in an "earth period" of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions. This period, lasting theoretically 240 years, has been said to begin with the 1842 conjunction; but this is partly inaccurate, as the 1802 conjunction already occurred in the earth sign Virgo, The 1821 conjunction, however, returned to the fire sign Aries.
What particularly concerns us here are the facts that (1) approximately every thirty years, Saturn passes about three years in Capricorn and (2) during Saturn's three-year stay in Capricorn (in this present period of history), at one time Jupiter conjoins Saturn and the next time Jupiter opposes Saturn. Thus, during its stay in Capricorn before and after 1842, Saturn was conjunct Jupiter; but at Saturn's next transit through Capricorn, Jupiter opposed Saturn (1871). Thirty years later, Jupiter and Saturn were again conjunct (1901); while in 1931, they were in opposition. In 1961 they will form a conjunction once more.
It would seem logical, therefore, to say that the Saturn transits through Capricorn are, in rotation, causes (conjunctions) and effects (oppositions) within a larger sixty-year cycle. This cycle constitutes the basic cycle insofar as our social and religious experiences are concerned, when such experiences are framed within relatively narrow social and culture boundaries. As man leaves behind the traditional cultural framework of his geographically limited community, he emerges into a sphere of activity and relationship which, then, must be referred to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The cycle of conjunctions of Neptune and Pluto measures roughly 500-year periods; and these periods are of essential importance where the history of human civilization as a whole is our concern.
In other words, the November 29, 1901, conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 14° Capricorn was the beginning of a sixty-year cycle which will close in February, 1961. The triple opposition of Jupiter to Saturn during 1931 was the climax of that cycle — Saturn had entered Capricorn on January 21, 1900, after a long opposition to Neptune (and earlier Pluto) — and left Capricorn on January 19, 1903. It entered Capricorn on November 31, 1929 — just after the Wall Street crash! — and left that sign on November 19, 1932, just after Franklin D. Roosevelt's election! Now Saturn is once more ready to re-enter Capricorn.
It is obviously most interesting to note that in 1901 (Jupiter-Saturn conjunction), President McKinley was assassinated (September 6, 1901); and this paved the way for Theodore Roosevelt's control of the government. For the first time, actually, the United States was to take an important role in international affairs. (This started, in a sense, with the Spanish-American War, in which Teddy Roosevelt rose to fame.) A new America self-consciously "flexing its muscles" (the Big Stick Policy!) was in the making.
Then came World War I and Wilson's noble, yet futile efforts. Our tragic "isolationism," coupled with an economic "boom," based on the enormous profit of American industry during the war, led in turn to the 1929-1930 crash and the Depression — which led to the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt versus Hitler (both rising to power in 1932-1933 and dying almost simultaneously in 1945).
One thing seems certain: the years 1959 and 1960 will be quite crucial in determining the political and economic trends of the next sixty years; and if what is built is not wise and constructive, then the period centering around the opposition of Jupiter to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn will be very rugged and the Depression of 1930 would seem to be childlike play in retrospect. Indeed, things could be very much worse than a mere depression; but, of course, something dramatic might happen.
Let us go back for a moment to 1842 in order to check up somewhat further on the sixty-year cycle. The Industrial Revolution really started around 1842. Thirty years later (1871, Jupiter-Saturn opposition), the Franco-German War ended; while in the Far East, Japan abolished feudalism and began in earnest her modernization. These two events had immense consequences. The Asiatic one led to the Russian-Japanese War soon after 1901. The year 1901 was the time of the Boxer rising in China, which found modernized Japan already angling for Manchuria. This led to the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and to the general arousing of all Asiatic people and, because of Theodore Roosevelt's intervention, to Japan's resentment toward America — which led to Pearl Harbor! The defeat of France in 1871 resulted inevitably in the growth of an aggressive German imperialism and World War I.
It is also interesting to note that the first real revolutionary movement in czarist Russia occurred in 1901 under the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Capricorn — and the Anglo-Boer South African War was then nearing its end. Will things happen in Russia in 1961 to begin the sixty-year cycle? The South African situation is assuredly due for a radical crisis before long. But what concerns us most, of course, is the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt's coming to power (after McKinley's death) and what might conceivably occur around the next presidential elections. Just as there was a relationship between this 1901 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction and the 1930 opposition which tied in with the depression and the rise of F. D. Roosevelt and Hitler, so there could very well be a relationship between the results of the 1960 fall elections and the possibly cataclysmic events of the 1988-1990 period.
Much more than these two planets, should be considered when one seeks to evaluate possible events of a global scale. The three planets beyond Saturn, as already stated, are probably the deciding factors; and, as I have often said, the fact that Neptune and Pluto will oscillate in and out of a harmonious sextile aspect until well into the 21st century should weigh heavily and constructively in the balance of all human destiny. Unfortunately, this constructive Neptune-Pluto aspect will be rudely challenged by the spread-out conjunctions of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Pluto should, in such circumstances, act as a true savior! This is quite a fascinating and puzzling situation — particularly as then Pluto in Scorpio will be closer to the Sun than the orbit of Neptune. Pluto performs this unusual feat once in its 248-year revolution around the Sun. It happened last during the 18th century and could be related then to the spread of revolutionary and democratic ideas and, in a sense, to the birth of our modern, industrial and technology-controlled society.
Will this new penetration or "fecundation" of Neptune's orbit by Pluto refer in some manner to the growing expectation in some quarters today for a new Messiah, Avatar — or a "Second Coming" of Christ? If it does, this is not likely to occur the way many "good people" expect today, but perhaps rather as ancient Hindu stories speak of the coming of Krishna, the divine Incarnation, some 5,000 years ago. Krishna was a statesman whose consummate skill forced the annihilation of the two opposing sides of the warrior caste of India at the battle of Kurukshettra (a parallel perhaps to the Biblical Armageddon?). This total destruction of the warriors paved the way to the long, peaceful period of Brahminical domination and India's great "Age of Philosophy," reaching its climax with the Buddha, around 600 B.C.
I might add that during the 1930-31 period of the Depression, Uranus in Aries was squaring the opposition of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively in Cancer and Capricorn; while in the parallel Jupiter-Saturn situation in 1989-1990, Saturn, I repeat, will be conjunct Uranus and Neptune (with Mars adding its square in October, 1989, and its weight to the Capricorn group in February, 1990 — possibly the most dangerous period!). I should also say that through 1931, when the Depression was hitting us hard, Saturn was opposing Pluto in Cancer; Jupiter crossing Pluto at the end of May, 1931, on the 20th degree of Cancer. This observation leads us to study the relationship which such aspects had and will have to the United States birth-chart.
The United States Birth-Chart
The regular reader of this magazine is presumably aware of the fact that I feel entirely convinced that the correct birth-chart of the American people is the one erected for July 4, 1776, with approximately 13° Sagittarius rising. The recent verifications of the accuracy of this chart by transits and events are so spectacular as to leave no doubt in my mind; moreover, I see no psychological justification for the traditional idea that Americans are of the Gemini type. Physiologically, they show strongly (Uncle Sam!) the Sagittarian type, with long and strongly developed thighs. Psychologically, we have certainly not overgrown the Puritan (or anti-Puritan, in some recent cases, which is still the same thing in reverse!) temperament of the Founders.
We love "campaigning" for something, "being liked." We are (relatively, in comparison with any other people) jovial, "good people," kind and at times blustering and opinionated. When Uranus passed through Gemini, there were wars (which refer to the sixth and seventh houses); and the planetary emphasis in this United States chart on the seventh house (Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Sun) dovetails in with our many marriages and divorces, our love for "group associations," etc. — while Uranus in the sixth house refers unmistakably to our revolutionary attitude toward Labor, technology and even toward our armed forces.
The Moon, at the cusp of the third house (27° Aquarius), is placed to characterize a people always on the move, emphasizing the use and abuse of all means of communication, cars, the press, radios, television, etc.
If I repeat here these observations, it is because they have so much bearing on the evaluation of the meaning of Saturn in Capricorn, particularly of the 1961 conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the U. S. natal Pluto in the second house. Pluto is, in the U. S. chart, in opposition to a Mercury retrograde at 24°17' Cancer and in the eighth house. As I have shown repeatedly, the most obvious meaning of the eighth house is business. It means business because all manifestations of business activity are based on and the fruits of contractual agreements — and these, of course, refer to the seventh house. What the seventh house begins, the eighth house brings to some kind of fruition.
The United States is the land of multitudinous contracts, installment buying, etc. — thus, we have a logical emphasis on seventh-house planets, in Cancer, sign of "home" and real estate, foundations for our American wealth. The ruler of the U. S. seventh house is Mercury; and Mercury is, very appropriately, in the eighth house of business — that is, the American passion for relationship (seventh house) manifests essentially in the field of business.
When Pluto was discovered by an American in Cancer, it was at the cusp of the U. S. chart's eighth house — what a "coincidence"! But, of course, it had been passing through the seventh house and meeting all the planets there.
Interestingly enough, it had crossed what I consider the U. S. descendant in 1896, exactly when the U. S. Government had reaffirmed in the strongest possible terms the Monroe Doctrine in the case of a dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela (so-called Olney Doctrine, stating that "the United States was practically sovereign on this continent") — and when William McKinley was campaigning for the Presidency on the Gold Standard issue (vs. Wm. J. Bryan and the free silver, income tax plans). The McKinley Administration, which led to the Theodore Roosevelt Administration, marked the beginnings of the policy of inevitable total involvement of America in power politics, starting with the 1898 Spanish-American War, the annexation of Hawaii, and so on. When Pluto crossed the U. S. chart's Mars in 1904-06, Roosevelt intervened in the settlement of the Russo-Japanese War, with consequences already mentioned. Pluto was, thus, affecting our international relationships as well as consolidating American business enterprises (the "great trusts" era around 1901).
President Wilson was elected in 1912, re-elected in 1916, just as World War I was beginning, first in the Balkans (1912), then all over Europe (1914). Then Pluto was moving into Cancer, very close to our natal Venus, ruler of the United States tenth house. Wilson, with his great Libran dreams of the League of Nations and his personal Sagittarian righteous and unyielding temperament, declared war, practically as Pluto crossed our natal Venus — a previous crossing just preceded the sinking of the Lusitania.
The passage of Pluto over the U. S. Jupiter coincided with the Versailles Treaty (July, 1919) and with the Prohibition Amendment, with its tragic consequences of spreading defiance of the law and gangdom. As Pluto reached the U. S. Sun (1924 to 1926), the Jazz Age was in full swing, the boom flourished and Stalin succeeded Lenin — while the Dawes Plan bolstered up Germany and Hitler was beginning his political career. The seeds of the Depression and of World War II were being sown.
The Depression, which had already affected our European allies, hit us as Pluto was entering the U. S. eighth house. Pluto reached the U. S. Mercury in the fall of 1933, with the Rooseveltian New Deal in full swing. The New Deal stresses the Plutonian factor of large-scale integration — its largest scale, nationally, being governmental control.
Pluto opposed its natal place in the fall of 1935, thus completing the stirring up of the U. S. Mercury-Pluto opposition affecting the business and financial life of the American people (eighth and second houses). When Pluto crossed and re-crossed the U. S. north node (1943-1944), we were finally in sight of victory in World War II. Pluto was practically on this north node when the first atomic chain reaction succeeded in Chicago, promising inconceivable potentialities of energy and victory in war — indeed, a possible rebirth of civilization (eighth house)!
Saturn Opposes the U. S. Planets
The transits of Pluto over the Gemini and Cancer planets of the U. S. chart were duplicated in 1944-46 by transits of Saturn. As Saturn crossed the natal U. S. Venus and Jupiter, Franklin D. Roosevelt's health gradually became worse and he died (which, again, fits in well with a Libran Venus-ruled U. S. midheaven and a Sagittarian Jupiter-ruled ascendant). Saturn was also squared by Neptune at 4° Libra; and the progressed Mars of the U. S. chart was, quite typically, at the exact midheaven; while Uranus was crisscrossing the descendant and Jupiter was crisscrossing the ninth-house Neptune, as the United Nations were formed.
This means, of course, that thirty years before, Saturn was also going through Cancer (1915-16-17); Saturn was conjunct the U. S. Mercury when we officially entered World War I. Some 15 years later, as we already saw, Saturn was in Capricorn, ushering in the Depression; it crossed Pluto at the end of January, 1932, having just met Mars at 25° Capricorn, opposite the U. S. Mercury.
Of late, Saturn has moved across the U. S. ascendant (13° plus Sagittarius) in February and November, 1957; this also fits in well with our peculiar "recession," which has been caused mainly by a kind of generalized public apathy and uncertainty and by a sense of expectation that it ought to happen — indeed, a widespread feeling of futility and of drifting along without proper leadership, quite characteristic of the transit of Saturn over one's ascendant. When the President decided to send troops to Lebanon, Saturn was retrograding in exact opposition to the U. S. seventh-house Mars — a confusedly aggressive and probably unnecessary gesture, paralleling the ineffective approach of the Hoover Administration to the spreading European depression, before it hit us sharply in the fall of 1929.
Might we then be faced by another depression, to which this recession would be only a prelude, as Saturn moves into Capricorn (as it did on November 30, 1929) and especially into the U. S. second house (spring and even more in late December, I960)?
This does not seem at all necessary. But what will happen then is that a new president will have been nominated and elected — if it should be actually a "new" president! As we investigate the planetary situation at the time of the perhaps fateful November, 1960, elections, we discover some things which cause us to ponder and to wonder. Mars will then be at 16° Cancer and, after a few days, will regress through the whole sixteen degrees of Cancer. This will be one of the situations in which Mars remains for six months in the same zodiacal sign. The last time it occurred, in 1956, Mars was for six months in Pisces; this stay coincided with the Suez crisis. The crisis started when Secretary Dulles repudiated the Egyptian deal concerning the Assuan Dam project, essential then to Nasser's prestige, about the time Mars entered Pisces!
A six-month stay of Mars in Pisces does not affect the U. S. crucially (except that Mars was stationary retrograde at 23 1/2° Pisces, just opposite our — so accurately confusing! — Neptune in the house of foreign affairs). But a six-month stay of Mars in Cancer might concern us a great deal, for Mars then opposes Saturn. It does so just before the elections at 13° Cancer (nearly at the time Jupiter enters Capricorn); again in December, 1960 (16°), and at the very threshold of Leo-Aquarius in May, 1961, fairly soon after the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of late February.
Aspects made by a planet like Mars during its retrograde period or during such a long stay in one sign are very important; and 13° Cancer is the degree of the U. S. natal Sun! One somehow wonders what could happen on the 20th of October, 1960, when Mars at 12°47' Cancer, less than one degree before reaching the U. S. natal Sun, opposes Saturn in Capricorn — and this with the elections a fortnight ahead!
Later on, Mars will be "stationary retrograde" at 18°37' Cancer, just on the eighth-house cusp of the U. S. chart — while Jupiter will be in exact opposition to the U. S. chart's Venus and Jupiter. Again, Pluto, moving in sextile to this Venus-Jupiter pair, may save the situation — but how?
We might note also that the year 1960 will open with Saturn and the Sun in conjunction — in Washington, however, the exact conjunction occurs in the afternoon of December 31, 1959 (4:20 P.M.); but in Russia, east of Moscow, and in Iraq, Arabia and all Asia, it occurs after midnight; thus, as the first major aspect of 1960, conditioning the mind of the people who accept our new year as the beginning of their year.
Of course, Saturn is said to be strong in Capricorn — normally, strong in a constructive sense (that is, "at its best"). A country like India, theoretically ruled by Capricorn, could be powerfully affected. What concerns us, however, is not only that while in Capricorn, Saturn opposes the most basic U. S. planets, but that it particularly stirs up, together with Jupiter, the one opposition aspect of the U. S. chart, between Mercury in the house of business and Pluto in the house of money and finances. The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Pluto somehow conjures vistas which may not be too pleasant to the democratically minded person who loves freedom — such an elusive term!
Could it mean that a trend toward a form of more or less overt or subtle business totalitarianism will take shape, even more definitely than it has done until now. Could it refer to the spreading use of atomic power, which certainly would facilitate the control of almost everything by a few very large corporations — a use perhaps made more necessary if the oil of the Near East were in danger of being lost?
At any rate, Pluto in the U. S. second house stands for the typical American trend toward business centralization, mass production and the ever-increasing power of large corporations, hidden trusts, banks and insurance companies. These social-financial entities control credit, all forms of contracts and in a quite real sense perhaps war and peace — Pluto opposing Mercury ruling the U. S. seventh house. In this opposition, we see symbolized the contrast between the Cancerian character of small holdings and individually controlled businesses, and the Capricornian nature of large-scale, nationally operating and politically ambitious corporations. The Capricornian type may be remarkably effective and for its own ultimate interest may take good care of its employees! But it is paternalistic, even if in a velvet-gloved, "altruistic" way. It is not "democratic" in the spiritual sense of the term, the American fathers' sense.
Richard Nixon, the Capricornian
In view of all this, whoever is intelligently trying to foresee on an astrological basis the trend of events during the years Saturn is passing in Capricorn must inevitably think of Richard Nixon, heir-apparent to the Republican Administration and characteristically a native of Capricorn. Born on January 9, 1913, seemingly with mid-Virgo rising — though I have personally no proof of the correctness of this usually given ascendant — Nixon has Mercury, Jupiter and the Sun in Capricorn. Moreover, his Mars is at 29°45' Sagittarius in very close conjunction with his Mercury, only a few minutes of arc into Capricorn; Uranus is at 2°42' Aquarius, only some thirteen degrees ahead of the Sun. His Moon is also in Aquarius (20°) and in the sixth house.
It is an interesting chart including two opposite groups of planets, each within a sextile's span. Saturn, Pluto and Neptune — all three retrograde and at about 30° of each other surround the midheaven and tenth house; while the rest of the planets, all direct, are found in the northwest sector of the chart, with the Sun in the Capricorn-ruled fifth house. Quite evidently, this is the chart of a person with some deep-seated complex and with an ambitious urge for self-expression. Pluto is conjunct the great star Betelgeuze and dominates the wheel; and it is in close opposition to the fourth-house Mars, suggesting an inner conflict, perhaps with parental roots.
What is most important here is the fact that Nixon's Neptune is almost exactly on the natal U. S. Mercury and that the midpoint of the arc Sun to Uranus is very close to the U. S. Pluto and even closer to the 1961 conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Unless something happens to him, Nixon is practically certain to be the Republican nominee for the presidency in 1960. These points of contact between his birth-chart and the U. S. chart are evidently very significant — to which should be added that his Pluto is also at about the midpoint between the U. S. Mars and Venus.
But this is not all! The progressed Sun of the U. S. birth-chart will have reached the opposition to the natal U. S. Sun when this article is read, and there has just been a conjunction of the U. S. progressed Mercury and the progressed Sun. In other words, this is indeed a Capricorn period for the American people, a period which started when the United States progressed Sun entered Capricorn late in 1945 — when, therefore, the burden and responsibilities of world leadership began to confront us on a permanent basis, or at least the burden and responsibility of giving and sustaining in many ways the so-called "free world."
We were not actually prepared for such a task, particularly at the diplomatic level — or even more at the psychological level. Our grasp of the new type of world problems, of ancient history and of the mentality and the changing attitudes of other peoples has been woefully lacking in real understanding. But, obviously, we did what we could; and just as obviously, it might have been far worse. The astrological point is, however, that the U. S. progressed Sun and Mercury have been opposing the main planets of the United States birth-chart; and such an opposition would tend to signify that the American people have been forced to face objectively the meaning of its birth destiny. This has not been easy; and it remains very difficult.
Saturn, in the Sagittarius-rising U.S. chart, is elevated in the tenth house and, thus, represents both the executive and the law of the land. Now the progressed U. S. Sun is squaring this Saturn! This, of course, means that our present American destiny and our popular mood is very much dominated by Saturn and Saturn-ruled Capricorn; and this is the astrological basis for this peculiar "recession" of ours and for a generalized psychological state which is both depressive and rebellious (the "beat generation," and so on).
This forming square of the U. S. progressed Sun to the U. S. natal Saturn may already have referred to the Supreme Court's decisions, which caused quite a problem in the South — an understatement, no doubt! It could also very well refer to President Elsenhower's rather weakened physical condition, not to say more. It could affect, along that line, Vice President Nixon's future. On the day of the now-past (but still in the future as this is written on August 6, 1958) elections for Congress, Mars retrograde was exactly on Nixon's ninth-house Saturn — which is interesting and intriguing, as otherwise the national trend seemed democratic in view of the important Jupiter-Neptune aspects.
However, more significant by far is the fact that on election time in November, 1960, Saturn will be exactly opposing the natal U. S. Sun, Jupiter coming to an opposition to the natal U. S. Venus and Jupiter, after Mars has crossed these three U. S. planets. Jupiter will be on Nixon's Mars, Mercury and Jupiter triple conjunction! His progressed Sun will square, from Pisces, the natal U. S. Uranus in the house of labor.
All this, quite evidently, can at best only suggest a trend; but it should be enough to show how important the coming three years, during which Saturn passes through Capricorn, can be. Let us trust that the highest and most constructive implications for the American people's destiny of this intensely Saturnian and Capricornian period will be harmoniously realized!