Pluto transiting Capricorn in the Sidereal and Tropical Zodiacs over Thousands of Years.  What are the Lessons for our Times?

by Roy Gillett

The transit of the planets through the actual sidereal and symbolic tropical zodiacs represents different, but complimentary views of human understanding. In the context of the 25,860 Great Year cycle from and to the coincidence of two zodiacs, the transits of Pluto though Capricorn in both comes at times of major structural social change. Looking back over thousands of years, and especially the two most recent transits of Pluto in Capricorn to the 2008-40 one we are in midst of, suggests human cultural change as important as the development of writing 5,000 years ago.  Turning away from the present greed-motivated global economy is the key, irresistible first step towards a genuinely efficient way of creating our future together.

The nature and complimentary potential of the tropical and sidereal zodiacs

A major disagreement in early years of the foundation of the Astrological Association of Great Britain(1), of which I am President, was whether our studies would be based mainly on the tropical or Fagan/Allan sidereal zodiac. Although the western tropical system was chosen, from my experiences in India and studies since I have always felt that both systems are not only valid, but complimentary.  Indeed, for vitally fundamental reasons, I see that together they give a much more complete description of life.

Because it calculates from the exact moment of vernal equinox each year, not allowing for its precession, the tropical zodiac forces an unnatural correction upon our view of the heavens. We refuse to accept the limitations of living on the earth, rather seek to master them and make this work to our personal advantage.
This is very much a western view of cosmic reality. It can engender great progress, but is it wise and sustainable?  Might it not engender dissatisfied and competitive unstable societies, each obsessed with rules based on self-interest, and so faced with conflict and war?

The sidereal zodiac allows for precession and calculates the planets in their actual zodiacal positions. We are encouraged to accept what the heavenly cycles impose upon us, live this life to the very best, and so create the cause for fortunate future rebirths.

This is very much an eastern view of cosmic reality.  Individuals are more easily-satisfied and fatalistically accept their lives, but can be exposed to exploitation. Societies are pliant, even wise, but do they progress?

When the two zodiacs coincide (approximately every 25,860 years) there is confusion.  At the circle’s half way point (12,930 years on) the zodiacs oppose. At this point in the cycle it is claimed that the two viewpoints independently recognise and work together(2).  It is a time of the highest consciousness.

For the rest of this Great Year cycle, our consciousness is growing (waxing phase), or degenerating (waning phase)(3). Today the world is at an early regeneration stage.  Humanity has reached a stage of recognising its capacity to have great power, but, like an early adolescent, unaware of the proper nature of this power, or what is the right thing to do with it.

The Planets through the signs of both zodiacs

Studying and interpreting the cycles of the planets passing through both zodiac backgrounds alongside historic events and cultural developments offers a vast area of potential research.

It is important to consider which of the two zodiacs was transited first.  Before 221 CE(4), it was sidereal first then tropical. Hence cultures and their religions tended to be based upon the realities that heavenly and earthly cycles imposed on peoples’ lives.  The Hindu and Greco/Roman religions had many Gods fulfilling various functions, but arranged in a hierarchy. Even where there was only one God (e.g. Judaism and Zoroastrianism), or a ‘way’ rather than a God, (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism), systems, such as astrology, the Kabballah, or I-Ching were vital ways to guide decisions.  Humanity’s role was to work within the way things were. Any Promethean attempt to over-reach led to negative life experiences, even punishment directly from the gods. 

Confused, unsure, very slowly at first and then gathering pace; after 221 CE, this changed as the planets transited the tropical zodiac further and further ahead of the sidereal one. Now the individual ego became more important. Religions emphasised that devotees were especially chosen (Christianity / Islam). Then from the 16th century came the possibility that God was not needed and humanity could understand and even master nature.

Astro-indicators of global crisis and social change

How far has all this progressed by our own time?   Let us start by considering the moment Jupiter conjuncts Pluto in November 2020.
When a special combination of astro-events is imminent, it is normal to check how often this happens and, if infrequent, whether there is a pattern from the past.  Seeing the focus of outer planets in Capricorn building to the end of this decade, I checked for previous such patterns, using the Electional Search feature in Solar Fire 9(5).  Diagram 1 shows a gap of nearly 5,000 years between Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto being in Capricorn and the last two conjunct; this without considering Uranus being in Taurus - another earth sign.

Even if we do another search, considering only the three planets together in Capricorn, a 2,443-year gap remains (1894 BCE to 549 CE) and then just the year 1284 before 2020. If we use a sidereal zodiac(6), the gap widens to 3,714 years (3165 BCE to 549 CE) with just the years 1048 and 1283 before 2021.

Pluto through the signs of both zodiacs 19th to 21st century

If we are to choose just one planet, the cycle of Pluto best illustrates many key historical developments and, crucially, those the world faces today.  To answer dwarf-planet-creating astronomers(7), we must explain it is not suggested that Pluto, so small and far away, is actually doing anything to us!  Rather it is a marker from which we measure predicable experiences over time. Imagine a string attached to a pole and then the changing experiences of walking at a distance the length of the string from the pole. We will experience grass, the road, pot holes, ponds, houses, rivers, even a sea shore perhaps. The pole does not create these experiences, but knowing where we are in the circle around it tells us what might happen each time we come around.  The planets map our lives, they do not create them.

Pluto is chosen because its 246-year cycle indicates highly appropriate social trauma and change.  The very nature of each of the zodiac signs it occupies, is shown by the list in Diagram 2. Use your knowledge of recent history to see how developments triggered by Pluto’s tropical period became consolidated during the sidereal period of Pluto’s transit.

Pluto in Capricorn through both zodiacs before the Christian era

Looking back thousands of years, Diagram 3 shows Pluto transiting Capricorn (where it is tropically today) at very special moments in eastern and western cultures. Appropriate to this sign, the emphasis is upon fundamental structural regeneration.  Note, because Pluto and the other planets transit the sidereal zodiac first at that time in history, the right hand (sidereal) column comes first and shows the main practical work being down, whereas the left hand (tropical) column shows times of completion.

Pluto in Capricorn through both zodiacs soon after their coincidence

When, in 221 CE, both zodiacs coincided, the six dynasties in China were particularly unstable, as was Rome, where astrology’s use degenerated into manipulation for personal power.

Very early in the first Pluto-in-Capricorn period of the new Great Year cycle, with the tropical zodiac moving ahead of the sidereal (287-330(1) CE), Christianity was legalised in Rome (313 CE) and the Council of Nicaea was held (325 CE). This seeded a tradition that was to dominate Europe and its drive to world colonialization. 320 CE was the beginning of the Indian classical period, which began a golden age lasting until the 7th century.
As planets transited the tropical zodiac ever further ahead of the sidereal zodiac, western and middle eastern cultures increasingly saw themselves as individually unique, with the right to understand and master the limitations of the Earth and heavens. Increasingly religions and cultures become focussed on the liberation of the individual, and that liberation being dependent upon the acceptance of a specific belief. Astrology and other esoteric knowledge was rejected or pushed to the sidelines.

Christianity and then Islam offered a special role for all individuals who followed the one true god.  From 17th to 18th century, rationalism started to suggest there was no need for a god and assume humanity had the right to use and change the Universe at will.

Humanity is at a dangerous, early-adolescent stage in the Great Year Cycle – thinking it knows better than mother earth and father sky.  Pluto transits through both zodiacs over the past 500 years show clearly how this has come about and what the world faces today.

Pluto in Capricorn through both zodiacs from the Renaissance

We come to the chief focus of this paper; the two Pluto-in-Capricorn periods before today.  These show direct development to our contemporary challenges. Now the planets transit the tropical (left hand column) first and sidereal (right hand column) second.  Diagram 4 shows clearly that Pluto’s tropical transit through Capricorn came at a time of key changes in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which are consolidated and institutionalised into permanent developments through the sidereal transit phase. In the West, we see the early beginnings of individual choice in belief with a breakdown of the central authority of the Roman Church. European and Islamic colonial exploration led to long term changes in Eastern Europe and Asian cultures.

Diagram 5 shows just how far these developments had come by the time of the next Pluto in Capricorn transit. Human individuality focused increasingly on the scientific mind. Early inventions of the first machines led to factories and the consequent movement of people from the countryside to the towns. Rebellion against the old order gathered apace.  By the end of the period both US and France had overthrown their monarchies. Captain Cook precisely mapped North America, Pacific Islands and parts of Australasia.  The pattern of colonial authority was established in India, to be a model for a growing British Empire.

Pluto in Capricorn today

To describe fully world development from the late 18th century to today’s tropical Pluto-in-Capricorn period and then estimate what is to come, we would need to consider all the outer planets through the signs. Yet, just focussing on Pluto alone from its first tropical entry into Capricorn in January 2008 until its final sidereal egress in September 2040, reveals the depth of the challenge we face in addressing what was triggered by the two previous Pluto-in-Capricorn periods. Diagram 6 reveals major economic structural issues.  What is claimed to be ‘economic reality’ dominates today’s social assumptions. It hangs like a dark cloud over every area of our relationships with each other.  Does it have to be like this?

Which brings us back to Diagram 1, where we started.  Until 2040, when Pluto’s Capricorn sidereal transit ends, there are twenty-two more years, when regeneration is focused on structural change. Recent economic challenges are much more than sustainable natural market corrections.  Astro-cycles suggest a major shift in the nature of civilisation comparable to more than 5,000 years ago.

Accelerating the planet to a dangerously lethal point, the previous two Pluto in Capricorn periods have triggered five hundred years of major global restructuring, based upon colonialism that grew into consumption-obsessed capitalist enterprise. To know and judge its nature, intrinsic sustainability and ultimate destiny, the full force of all the planets are needed.

The inadequacy of the world economic system and its regulation

Massive advances in world exploration in the early Renaissance were financed by royal patronage, or financial and seafaring adventurers.  In the late 17th century, financial sponsorship was institutionalised into a system of shareholdings that was to revolutionise and form the basis of the way the world has since done business. Diagram 7 is the noon day chart of the Bank of England; originally founded to administer a highly successful share issue to finance the British Navy.  It shows clearly a self-serving, speculative and deceptively exploitative attitude toward the organisation of human enterprise.  (The dominance of speculative Leo planets, alongside a mutable grand cross between Mars in Virgo, Venus/Uranus in Gemini, Neptune in Pisces and Saturn in Sagittarius.) With the focus upon acquisitive short-term success and competitive speculation, not the foundation of stable enduring businesses.

Yet, because it suited the times of colonial exploitation and future industrial expansion, this way of investing and dealing in capital and materials became the economic foundation of world affairs. Inevitably, such a system leads to price booms and busts. The present US Federal Reserve, founded in 1915, is the most recent of several previous attempts to correct them.  Its chart, Diagram 8, reveals it to be no more than the custodian of a casino. (Mars and Neptune in Cancer rising opposed, Jupiter in Capricorn across the Ascendant/Descendant axis, and again a mutual grand cross with Mercury in Sagittarius opposing Saturn in Gemini.)  Such casino economics needs new markets to exploit. It has survived to the present time through colonialism and neo-colonialism. In recent decades, computer digitalisation has brought in more and more money, making trading accessible to an increasing number of people. It has also enabled the artificial creation of credit and manipulation of the markets.

Times of earth planet dominance from 1925 to 2021(2)

The Bank of England and US Federal Reserve astrology charts reveal the key flaw in the system–that earth planets are afflicted or lacking altogether in these foundation charts. So, when the transiting planets are dominantly in earth signs, markets are confronted with reality and nearly always correct downward.  This is particularly so, when outer planets are involved. Diagram 9 shows that, over the past ninety years, critical market corrections, leading to radical social difficulties, have coincided with the dominance of earth planets.

As well as the extreme rarity of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto being in Capricorn together, the years 2018-20 will see ongoing pulses of earth stelliums every time the inner planets transit Taurus (now with Uranus there Tropically), Virgo and Capricorn.  If past astro-experience is a guide, this period promises to be the greatest confrontation with reality business, and all in the world that depends on it, has faced for centuries, if not millennia.

A world economic system, appropriate for the colonial exploitation of virgin resources and markets, just is not suited, when all the world can be the producer and consumer. Neoclassical economists are fast running out of short term fixes that seem to just make us economise, while working harder and harder.  In 2017, a new book The Econocracy(8) was published by young economists. This demonstrated that the technical complexity of today economics puts power in the hands of an unelected elite, whose narrow ‘scientific’ models assume a world-view that most people may not accept, but feel powerless to understand and change.

Today’s neoclassical system, with globalisation in the controlling hands of an elite, is accelerating to its own incompetent destruction. The world economy will be forced to face the reality of expanding debt.   The desperate pressure for growth will no longer be the happy panacea that solves all our problems, but the slave driver that creates most of them? By fighting to gain more than we need for ourselves with words, regulations, agreements, broken agreements, sanctions, force of arms and even war, we only make matters worse. To attempt to do so when Capricorn efficiency is insisting itself upon us, leads to equally powerful intransigence coming back from those we seek to exploit. To force more from the planet’s resources pollutes and makes our lives barren.

World choices for the future

How could people living in the fourth or third millennium BCE imagine what was to happen from the developing use of the written word? How could they visualise our world today? When Luther exposed the excesses of the Roman church in the early sixteenth century, could he and his supporters have imagined the consequent destructive slaughter.  Could they have imagined that it would seed a human-centred process that side-lined Christianity as irrelevant in many peoples’ minds.  When the first steam engine was created, how many people visualised today’s ‘technological wonderland’?  When circumventing explorers found and mapped the entire globe, did they foresee that scientific advances would bring us ever-closer to a global village?

So, when we note the remarkable transits of the years we are now in the midst of, it would be unwise to extrapolate the world as we see it today for even hundreds and certainly not thousands of years into the future. The horror may be far greater than we can imagine, but also there will be far more amazing advances than we could ever dream of.

A final word

The role of astrology is not to instruct, or even advise, but to describe what fundamentally underlies our circumstances, and to point to the consequences of what we decide to do going forward.  Yet good astrologers have learnt one lesson that can help decisions for the future. We know that selfish manipulation of others may work for a while, but never succeeds in the end. It just makes matters worse.  So, any imminent world crisis will not be resolved by narrow economic solutions, propped up by laws and assumptions, based on greed and hatred of anyone in the way.

There is another Capricorn reality. It is offers deeper basic principles with economics as the servant, not the slave-master of decisions.  Recognise things as they are. Care for the natural flow. Sustain a healthy world by celebrating new discoveries and adjusting, enjoying, making allowances and working less. Spend more time relaxing with each other. This may provide less of what we have been told we should want, but more of what we really want and enjoy.

This is the positive way of looking at the economic realities of these years. Do not fight against what seems to be in the way, make use of it, let it be a lesson for a better world.

Think and acting like this will lead to genuine economic efficiency, as well as personal happiness.  This is the life-changing opportunity offered at this key stage in human history.  Perhaps, as in the past, it will take hundreds of years of false steps before we mature to understand the true nature of the true way. How long is in our hands and those of future generations. Astrology will always be there as a touchstone to guide our way.

Endnotes:
1 Since 2014 known as The Astrological Association, a registered charitable incorporated organisation.
2 The hexagram or six-pointed star is best known in the West for its connection to Zionism and the Israeli flag, yet is has been a core symbol used by many of the great world religions (especially Hindu and Buddhist) for thousands of years.
3 Developed from Sri Yukteswar’s thesis for the Great Year in The Holy Science. (Pub 1990 Self-Realisation Fellowship).In his Galactic Alignment, (Pub. 2002 Bear and Company) John Major Jenkins extends its relevance to many esoteric traditions, suggesting all are focussed on our galaxy’s centre.
4 Based on the most commonly used ayanamsa calculation used by western sidereal astrologers. Further studies, using alternative ayanamsa calculation would be interesting.
5  Solar Fire v9 astrology calculation software distributed by Astrolabe Inc (contact: http://alabe.com/ or https://crucialastrotools.co.uk/)
6  In the western sidereal tradition, the Fagan\Allen ayanamsa period is used.  This takes 221 CE as the year both zodiacs were together.
7 The International Astronomical Union’s 2006 decision to demote Pluto was highly controversial. (https://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highly-controversial-definition.html).  Astrologers may wonder that this happened the year before the world economy was to go into a massive economic crisis!
8 The Econocracy Joe Earle, Chahal Moran & Zach Ward-Perkins (2017 Manchester University Press)

Image sources:
All diagrams provided by the author

Published at: ivcconference.com/constellation-news/, 2018.

Author:
Roy Gillett B.Ed (Hons Ldn) is President of The Astrological Association in the UK. Roy became a full-time astrologer and consultant in 1976. He has spoken at and often organised numerous international conferences. He has been an astrology software adviser and astro-finance researcher in the UK since 1988. He edited the only books by the great French astrologer Andre Barbault translated into English (The Value of Astrology and Planetary Cycles Mundane Astrology). His own astrology books are Astrology and Compassion the Convenient Truth, Economy, Ecology and Kindness and The Secret Language of Astrology. Published in 2017, his Reversing the Race to Global Destruction (Abandoning the Politics of Greed) uses astro-cycle insight to question and correct contemporary economic, educational, political and media assumed 'truths', and then to visualise a happier world.
More information on these books and activities at: https://www.crucialastrotools.co.uk/index.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roy.gillett.355

© 2017/19 - Roy Gillett - Constellation News

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