Zeitgeist Update III; a note on the Icelandic Volcano

Saturn and Uranus will be exactly opposite each other in 2 days time. This will be the 4th in a series of 5 oppositions that began in November 2008 and which will finish in 3 months time. These Oppositions, which occur every 40 years or so, tend to be periods of disruptive change, whether economically, socially or politically.


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Saturn represents the status quo in whatever sphere, and Uranus overthrows that, he has his eye on the future and he barges in with his wrecking ball, without so much as a ‘by your leave’. Thus it was that in late 2008 we saw a wave of bankruptcies of financial institutions, and the beginning of the biggest financial crisis since the 1930s. As the series of Oppositions draws to an end, so we see the US beginning to make serious attempts to create a less risky financial system. Where the US goes, others follow. This will no doubt be seen as one of the big changes of the current Saturn-Uranus series, as will the American healthcare reforms and their election of a black President. And also China has shot ahead economically over the last couple of years, overtaking first the UK and now Germany and starting to become the world’s second superpower.


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The last week or two, as Saturn and Uranus move in on each other, has been very typical of the interaction of the 2 planets. There has of course been the Icelandic volcano*, an explosive force from below (Uranus) that breaks through the earth’s crust (Saturn) and that has disrupted air (Uranus) travel (Mercury Retrograde). China has had an earthquake and an oil rig has exploded off the US coast. Obama has got pushy about financial reform in the US. A new international agreement on new nuclear weapons has been reached. There has been a wave of political protest, coups and bombings in the East – Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Iraq – and the General Election campaign in the UK took a dramatic turn as the Liberal party shone in the pre-election TV debates, which have themselves been Saturn-Uranus, the overcoming of decades of political resistance to them. Greece has threatened to go bankrupt, and the EU has had to decide whether it really is a union when it comes to that most touchy of places, the pocket. And the Catholic Church, that most Saturnian of institutions, has been under intense, unprecedented pressure over the child abuse allegations, pressure that is rocking it to its core worldwide.

Dramatic as this series of Saturn-Uranus oppositions has been, it is only an ice-breaker for the much bigger change that is to follow, as Uranus squares Pluto: this square is already with us, as the 2 planets come within 3 degrees of an exact aspect this summer, one degree next year and exactitude in 2012 (when, of course, the world will end!)

And we can see much of the dramatic change of the last couple of years as just a beginning: the financial system has yet to be reformed, the American healthcare reform is only a beginning, China is not quite there yet as a superpower, and the EU has a choice it has not yet taken about becoming the world No 1 economic superpower.

The last Uranus-Pluto square was in the 1930s. With Pluto in Cancer, the issue concerned homeland (Cancer), with many countries being taken over and others fighting to keep their borders. This time Pluto is in the opposite sign of Capricorn, but subject to the same square from Uranus in Aries. So I think this time the issue will be more the basic institutions (Capricorn) that we build on our homeland. International institutions will undergo deep change: assuming the new Obama-led America continues for the next 6 years, I think these institutions will strengthen, with last week’s international nuclear agreement being indicative. It was the largest international meeting in the US since the end of World War II. A successful multilateral approach to Iran, which the Obama administration is also attempting, would be a big step towards strengthening international institutions. What we are seeing is the difference between George Bush’s narrowly tribal Sun in Cancer, and Obama’s 12th House Saturn in Capricorn which, envisioned by its conjunction to Jupiter in Aquarius, has the potential to be an enlightened world leader.

So all the pointers are towards Pluto in Capricorn involving a move away from narrow self-interest: countries growing up from the childhood world of Cancer into the adult world of Capricorn. In Europe, we are slowly and voluntarily surrendering thousands of years of sovereignty into a wider European culture. As China grows in size, so does the pressure grow for it to co-operate with other countries over e.g. Iran. And over-arching this is the climate/environmental issue, another force for international co-operation. We are in a loose sense talking about Pluto in Capricorn as world government, rooted in the common interest of the superpowers, and probably to some extent imposed on the lesser powers.

* Iceland has natal Saturn (its physical structure) at 29.39 Gemini. Uranus will exactly square this Saturn in a few weeks, and Jupiter a few weeks after that, so it would not surprise me if the current volcanic activity coninues, or even intensifies, over the next 6 weeks, or even through to next March, when Jupiter and Uranus make their final squares to the Icelandic Saturn.


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Pluto is also crossing the Icelandic IC at 3.32 Capricorn (Saturn-ruled) all year. What more could you ask for?