Uranus Pluto Synodic Cycle

Synodic Cycles and Violent Change

The Uranus Pluto synodic cycle acts on our plane of existence often in a more violent manner than the other synods. Its actions are sudden and abrupt. For those who have held on to power too long, their fall can be swift and total.

A Uranus/Pluto synod, which was exact in 1710 at 28° Leo, took place during the Wars of Spanish Succession. These wars were fought primarily over increasing the power of  France and its French King Louis XIV. It was the greatest military power in Europe. This synod was conjunct Louis XIV mid-heaven and exactly sextile his natal Eris located at 28° II. He ended up loosing these wars. Possibly Plutonian karma. This synod also helped usher in the Age of Enlightenment.

Found natally in the birth chart, as it was in the charts of the Emperor Julian and also in the chart of the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, this synod can signify a willingness to fight for more individual

creative human expression. Julian sought to revive the ancient virtues of the Roman Empire and merge them with a new spiritual awareness then coming into being. Jean Jacques Rousseau, authoring The Social Contract, injected a new ideal into the political consciousness of his time, one that led eventually to greater  personal freedom by eroding the class distinctions of ancient Europe. Both the emperor and the philosopher had this in common—they sought to increase human creativity and freedom by destroying outmoded, corrupt ideas and practices. The emperor attempted to destroy a political elite, the philosopher attempted to destroy an entrenched intellectualism.

Uranus Pluto Synodic Cycle in the Sixties in the USA

It is fortunate that the violence and intensity Uranus Pluto synodic cycle does not last as long as other synods. Most recently this synod occurred during the mid 1960′s. It resulted in the USA in social, political, cultural upheaval. Had it lasted another ten years the whole fabric of American society might have been torn apart.

The placement of the poles of Uranus also has importance in determining the nature of the influence of the synod. When Uranus/Pluto occurred in the 1960′s, the north and south poles of Uranus equally faced Earth, creating an energy perhaps more destabilizing, but more conducive to the birth of the new. In the 1850′s conjunction, Uranus was moving from its Equinox point, where its north and south poles equally faced Earth, to a station where the north pole faces Earth. This position culminated in 1862.

When one pole of the planet Uranus faces the Earth, the focus, for good or for ill, is one pointed, more intense. In 1861, during the American Civil War, the north pole of Uranus faced Earth, and Uranus in the sky was conjunct the natal U.S. Uranus (1776) and inconjunct Eris. Americans needed to solve that one-pointed issue of slavery.

In charts of historical personages and nations, the factors of its polarity, longitude and declination must be weighed. Pluto, because of its highly eccentric orbit, while located at the same general longitude (or right ascension) in the sky as Uranus, may be much above it or much below it by declination, so much so that the nature of the entire synodic influence can be strengthened or weakened. If these two planets are conjunct by both longitude and declination, their influence is most powerful.

If a synod is placed in a certain part of the sky, and if in addition a strong influence coming from that sector, the synod will take on the qualities of that region. For example, take the 1990’s Uranus, Neptune, Saturn triple synod. It stood very close to the center of our Milky Way Galaxy; it acted as a lens to focus the energy for whatever influence was coming out from that sector. It will take decades to determine the full influence of that configuration.

The Uranus/Pluto synodic cycle lasts for approximately 127.30 years. If one gives the conjunction an orb of ten degrees on either side of partile, one could say that it lasts for about 125 years. If this synod occurs on a nation’s planet, as for example when Uranus/Pluto conjoined the U.S. Neptune (1776) at 22°Virgo in the 1960′s, it activated all of the issues ruled by that planet.

Let’s examine the two previous UR/PL synods and how they functioned in American history.

Uranus Pluto Synod Ruling 1962-1969

In 1962-69, giving this synod a ten degree orb in each direction, one could say that Uranus Pluto synodic cycle ruled the decade of the 1960′s. The 1960′s in America ushered in a high tech industrial revolution, which culminated in an astronaut walking on the Moon. It also saw civil rights riots in many major metropolitan areas. Conjunct the U.S. Neptune (1776 chart), this synod motivated Congress to pass many new laws seeking to balance social injustices.

The war in Vietnam grew highly unpopular. It sparked mass marches in Washington and other cities, which led to new legislation in Congress. The politics of America was transformed.

On a more mystic level, spiritual counselors, coming from many disciplines and traditions around the world, came to America and began openly teaching their disciplines. Major spiritual truths were born into the mass mind of Americans at this time. America’s Neptune (1776), on every level, was being activated.

Uranus/Pluto activated those mass experiences of the awakening of love, often induced by sizeable doses of designer drugs like LSD-25 or natural substances like mescaline. Uranus/Pluto is a scientific synod. The “summer of love” that occurred in San Francisco in 1966 (San Francisco also has a Neptune at the same position as the Declaration Neptune), was a manifestation of the energy of this synod. In these years, the mental state of bliss, called samadhi, was shared among tens of thousands of people, in numerous different ways (drugs, meditation, etc.), almost always freely and spontaneously, often as a surprise, but very naturally.

The introduction of new spiritual disciplines occurred. Some of them had a shattering, then reforming effect on the whole culture. For example, a professor of clinical psychology teaching at Columbia University “channeled” a series of lessons and spiritual teachings entitled A Course in Miracles. This book purported to be a correction of the original Christian teachings. It became extremely popular. It still is. Spiritually, this period has been called the Fourth Great Awakening in America. That was the Neptune conjunction.

The American Civil War

1847-54. This Uranus/Pluto was exact in 1851 at 28°and 29°Aries and at 0° Taurus. The first aspect this synod made was the square to the U.S. Pluto (1776 chart). At the same time, the U.S. experienced its first quarter square of Pluto to natal Pluto. The northeastern states like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Vermont were experiencing an economic boom. It made the whole nation prosperous along with many other parts of the world. Factories in these states produced enormous amounts of steel and iron and copper, as well as finished products like textiles, and weapons, steam engines and advanced farming implements.

With this economic power came political power, if only the power to buy votes in Congress. Political power had for many years rested with the Southern States. The State of Virginia alone gave the USA a number of its first presidents. Due to the flexibility of representation set up and embodied in our Constitution by the Founding Fathers, new States were yearly being admitted to the Union. The Southern elite were losing their power.

The Southern planter aristocracy, with its gentility, refinement and culture, nevertheless was based on a dark legacy—slavery. The eventual and certain but delayed loss of its power was extremely threatening.

A new upper class appeared—the Northern industrialists with their amazing economic power. This was the new cultural and spiritual elite. Its beliefs were embodied in the writings of Emerson and Thoreau and Melville. A religious movement called a Great Awakening was taking place.  It was The Third Great Awakening and it contributed the war against slavery.

1850 saw the enactment of a bill called the Compromise Bill of 1850, an attempt to solve some of the problems of slavery by allowing it to continue in the Southern states and restricting its spread to the new States entering the Union. It really didn’t work very well. Some issues do not suffer compromise. Slavery was evil; it had to be eliminated entirely from the body politic. To abolish slavery required a civil war.

The process of ridding itself of slavery began in earnest when America’s Pluto (1776 chart) was squared by Uranus/Pluto (in 1851 & 1852 at 27° Aries). An unjust karmic condition coming under the influence of Pluto, seeks to find a new balance. The addition of Uranus to Pluto adds an aggressive drive for freedom. (The Uranus/Pluto influence occurring in the 1960′s assisted in wiping away what was called Jim Crow, the segregation customs and laws that prohibited blacks in many parts of the nation from finding employment.)

The dissolution of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that occurred May 30 1854, on a final vote of Congress, is the single act that brought about the American Civil War. It allowed the practice of slavery to expand into the Western Territories, and that was too much for the North to swallow. On that day Pluto was at 3° Taurus and Uranus had moved up to 14° Taurus. The synod was touching the Declaration Sun by less than a degree of sextile and the Declaration Venus, also by less than one degree. This was the time forces began to accumulate that would fight slavery, even if it meant war. This was the time when Lincoln withdrew from his seclusion (1849-54) and began to actively fight to end slavery, and where he also assisted in the birthing of the Republican party.

Pluto is an economic planet. Its location in an earth sign (27° Capricorn in the 1776 chart) indicates what kind of property the American people would hold. Pluto is also the archetypal energy that rules bondage, and thus in America’s chart, along with the conjunction to the south node, the synod indicates the karma that this people must work out. The American people had to come to terms with the idea of holding human beings in bondage and that making them property that can be bought and sold is an abuse of the human spirit.

The crescent phase asks one to make real the vision of what was begun at the new. Often in this phase a conflict, a strain, a trial must be endured. This testing is necessary in order to make permanent what was begun at the New phase.

The Uranus/Pluto synod of 1850/51 moved into the first thirty degrees, and Uranus by transit was conjunct America’s natal Uranus (Uranus:9° Gemini 21′; Pluto 8° Taurus 36′), on April 12,1861, the day the American Civil War began.

When the angle between Uranus and Pluto moved into the 45° aspect, which began in 1863 and was in orb all of 1864, the conflict between the past and the future of America reached its apex. With great pains, the North began winning all its battles in both theaters of the war, and slavery and the whole ethos the planter aristocracy represented in America was eliminated forever.