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Upheaval and Rebellion on the Horizon

The USA Progressed Sun-Uranus Square of 2011

Observing the present condition of American culture and politics, in some quarters a rather distinct atmosphere of discontent and uneasiness can be seen. Many people have become displeased with the actions of the government and with the increasing deficit. The Great Recession, and its economic hardship for so many, has contributed to this angst. The transit of Neptune over the U.S. Moon has produced nebulous dissatisfaction.

Chart 1

Further exacerbating this period of vague antipathy amongst the public will be the U.S. progressed Moon conjoining the nation’s natal Neptune on June 27th, holding that influence until the subsequent progressed conjunction about four months later. This means that the entire midterm election campaign season will be conducted under a Neptunian haze of fear, worry, misinformation, outright deception, and obfuscation of the truth.

The five oppositions of Saturn and Uranus between late 2008 and this July have cultivated a growing resentment of the establishment, and, in a significant political twist of fate, those who came to power in 2008 as the outsiders promising reform have now become the incumbents targeted by disgruntled voters who are agitating for their removal from office.

Looking at the U.S. Sibly chart and its current secondary progressions and transits, the astrologer sees that the American Sun has progressed to a trine with Jupiter. This aspect, perfecting on September 27th of this year, has been responsible for the country holding it together despite all of the restlessness and resentment in the political atmosphere.

Waiting in the wings, however, is the 2011 progressed Sun-Uranus square, the transit of Uranus over the IC, a U.S. Saturn return, and the transit of Pluto opposite the Sibly ruler, Jupiter. This forewarns us that an intense storm of political extremism, widespread social instability and upheaval, and a rebellious disregard for the law is gathering on the horizon.

In Mundane Astrology, the 4th house rules the common people, land and houses, and the opposition party in government. (1) The influence of Uranus tends toward insurrection and anarchy. What emerges as the likely outcome next year is an uprising by the common people, such as those who now gravitate toward the Tea Party Movement and its deficit reduction platform, and Latinos upset by the illegal immigration crackdown in Arizona.

Mars has been transiting the Sibly 8th house since September 25th of last year. Because of its lengthy retrogradation between the stations at 19º Leo and 0º Leo, Mars will not ingress into the U.S. 9th house until May 27th, having spent a total of eight months in the mundane house of insurance, public debt, and financial relations with foreign countries. It is no wonder that health insurance reform, the ballooning government deficit, financial regulatory reform, and the European debt crisis have been dominating the headlines.

Remarkably, coinciding with the progressed Sun-Uranus square becoming exact in October of next year is the concurrent ingress of the U.S. progressed Ascendant into Virgo, ending its 38-year passage through the sign of Leo, which began in February 1973. A new 36-year American period of history will commence with the progressed Virgo rising.

The progressed Leo rising era and its infatuation with Hollywood celebrities, the societal addiction to electronic entertainment and games, and the casino mentality on Wall Street that led to overly risky financial practices, will all soon be coming to a merciful ending.

Replacing this will be the new progressed Virgo rising era, lasting until 2047 and ushering in a more humble and conservative America, with a return to traditional values such as hard work and craftsmanship. Health insurance reform legislation, with its emphasis on preventative medicine, diet, exercise and nutrition, all ruled by Virgo, should lead to a healthier and fitter America, while the current epidemic of childhood obesity transitions into a new generation of health conscious youngsters snacking on carrots and apples.

chart 2

How should the astrologer further assess the upcoming societal instability in 2011? The only other progressed Sun-Uranus square in American history occurred in 1836, the year that the Texas Revolution and the Battle of the Alamo took place. The Republic of Texas won independence from Mexico and existed as an independent country for twelve years. Hostilities increased between the United States and Mexico and a Declaration of War occurred in 1846. After defeating the Mexicans, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified in October 1848, with the United States acquiring Texas, New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming from Mexico.

chart 3

If the history of the U.S. progressed Sun-Uranus synodic cycle repeats itself, the expected disorder in 2011 will involve the large number of undocumented aliens from Mexico who are in the country illegally. Political extremism regarding immigration with Pluto opposing the U.S. Jupiter, widespread social instability and upheaval with Uranus transiting the Sibly IC, and a willful disregard for the law brought on by the progressed Sun-Uranus square, should be expected next year as the U.S. Congress takes on volatile immigration reform legislation, or the states enact their own laws regarding illegal immigrants.

After the Governor of Arizona recently signed into state law a tough crackdown on illegal immigration, a report by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 59 percent of adults polled in a national survey gave their overall approval to the law, which opponents charge is unconstitutional and a mandate for racial profiling. (2)

On the other side of the coin, an Associated Press-Univision poll released May 13th found sharp contrasts between the views of Hispanics and others on immigration. A resounding majority of Latinos say illegal immigrants are a boon to the country, while most non-Hispanics say illegal immigrants are a drain on society. The poll also found most Hispanics condemn Arizona’s strict new law targeting undocumented immigrants, while only 20 percent of non-Hispanics oppose it. (3)

As you can see, a highly polarized political environment is evolving in this country as we enter into the three Jupiter-Saturn oppositions between May 2010 and March 2011. The flash point is likely to occur after the midterm elections, when Congress takes up this volatile legislative agenda. Is there also a discernible pattern in American history where, during prior progressed Sun-Uranus aspects, the country has experienced upheaval and rebellion, along with anti-immigrant sentiment? The following research shows such events:

1788:  Progressed Sun @ 24º
Cancer Octile Progressed Uranus @ 9º Gemini
U.S. Constitution, ratified by New Hampshire, the ninth state, comes into force.

1836:  Progressed Sun @ 10
º Virgo Square Progressed Uranus @ 10º Gemini
Battle of the Alamo; Texas wins independence from Mexico and becomes a republic.

1881: Progressed Sun @ 25
º Libra Tri-Octile Progressed Uranus @ 10º Gemini Rx
President James A. Garfield assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau.

1924: Progressed Sun @ 8
º Sagittarius Opposite Progressed Uranus @ 8º Gemini Rx
Johnson–Reed Immigration Act of 1924; prohibiting immigration of all Japanese.

1967: Progressed Sun @ 22º Capricorn Tri-Octile Progressed Uranus @ 7º Gemini Rx
Ghetto riots in Cleveland, Newark, and Detroit; Lincoln Memorial Anti-War Demonstration.

2011: Progressed Sun @ 7º Pisces Square Progressed Uranus @ 7º Gemini
Congress again takes up legislation on illegal immigration.

These types of progressed aspects have a two-year impact on the country. From the start of the one-degree applying orb, to the aspect perfecting, to the end of the one-degree separating orb lasts about 24 months. When within this 2-year window should astrologers expect events to occur? To know this, one refers to C.E.O. Carter’s Law of Excitation:

“If, at the time that a progressed body is in aspect to another by direction, either of these bodies forms an aspect by transit with either of the two directional bodies, then this transit will excite the direction into immediate operation”.
(4)

The progressed square of the U.S. Sun and Uranus will be in effect from October 2010 until October 2012. Limiting the aspect to its one-degree orb range, the U.S. progressed Sun will travel the degrees of 6º00′  to 8º01′  Pisces while forming that square.

According to Carter’s Law of Excitation, and to your correspondent’s more detailed interpretation of this law in his Volume I – Progressions, the transit of the Sun passing through 6º to 8º of mutable signs, or through 21º to 23º of cardinal signs, will produce transit conjunctions, octiles, squares, tri-octiles, or oppositions to this progressed aspect while it is within its one-degree orb, thus exciting or triggering events into manifestation. (5)

The dates on which these transit triggers will occur:

October 14-15, 2010             July 14, 2011                 April 11, 2012
November 28-29, 2010       August 30, 2011            May 27-28, 2012
January 11-12, 2011              October 15, 2011           July 13-14, 2012
February 25, 2011                 November 29, 2011      August 29-30, 2012
April 11-12, 2011                    January 12, 2012          October 14-15, 2012
May 28, 2011                         February 26, 2012

Students of history will recall that in November 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law The Immigration Reform and Control Act. According to Wikipedia:

The Act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants (immigrants who do not possess lawful work authorization), required employers to attest to their employees’ immigration status, and granted amnesty to certain illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously. The Act also granted a path towards legalization to certain agricultural seasonal workers and immigrants who had been continuously and illegally present in the United States since January 1, 1982.

The description of this 1986 legislation looks almost identical to what is being proposed at the present time. Therefore, why hasn’t the 1986 law been more rigorously enforced, and why must Congress start working on similar legislation all over again?

In November 1986, within a day of when President Reagan signed the previous legislation into law, there was an inferior conjunction of the Sun and retrograde Venus in Scorpio. These inferior conjunctions have a recurrence pattern, forming in Scorpio every eight years; thus in 1994, 2002, and again this year in 2010, there have been, or will be, inferior conjunctions of the Sun and retrograde Venus in the same degree area of Scorpio.

In Mundane Astrology, the 11th house rules Congress and legislative bodies, such as the Senate and the House of Representatives. Retrograde planets are known to produce two types of manifestation: 1) something previously gained is taken away; and 2) actions must be done over again. That Venus is the ruler of the Sibly 11th, and that its inferior conjunction cycle in Scorpio has been falling in the U.S.11th house, informs the astrologer why the 1986 immigration reform law is coming back to be legislated again.

In Mundane Astrology, the third house rules neighboring nations and the country’s relations with them. (6) Right as transiting Neptune ingressed into the Sibly 3rd house in March 2009, Mexican drug cartels began to be perceived as threatening the security and stability of the United States. The barbaric violence of Mexican drug gangs has crossed the border and has begun destabilizing American cities.

While beheadings, kidnappings, home invasions, murdering of politicians, journalists and police officers, and the financial bribery of military officers and elected officials is common in Mexico, some of this violence is now spilling across the border into the United States. It is this darker and violent side of the illegal immigration dilemma that prompted Arizona politicians to enact their recent legislation.

Astrologers may deduce that at the ingress of Neptune into Pisces, and thus relegating its transit through the Sibly 3rd house to an intercepted status, the full extent and reach of Mexican drug gangs hidden in the Unites States will become more completely exposed.

Similar to the early 1930s, during the squares of Uranus and Pluto, when law enforcement in the United States had its hands full going after organized crime syndicates, bootleggers, and violent gang activity, one suspects that the seven squares of Uranus and Pluto from 2012 until 2015 will result in similar levels of violence in America and in equivalent efforts by the FBI and the DEA to restore law and order.

One is left thinking that the United States is about to head into a wild ride starting in 2011, with the progressed Sun-Uranus square bringing upheaval, rebellion, and general conditions of instability all around. The ingress of the USA progressed Ascendant into Virgo will also activate the Sibly 9th house of immigration, wherein the intercepted Virgo ruled by a progressed retrograde Mercury between September 1994 and August 2016 will have resulted in 22 years of ineffective attempts at securing the borders and producing a competent solution for dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants living in our country.

A progressed Virgo rising in the U.S. Sibly horoscope will represent a new era in American life and it is informative for astrologers to review United States history and see how past progressed Ascendant sign changes have demarcated periods of the American experience.

1776 to 1799 • U.S. Sibly Ascendant in Sagittarius
Country Founded upon Moral Principles of Freedom and Democracy.

1799 to 1830 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Capricorn

Era of Founding Fathers as Presidents.

1830 to 1851 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Aquarius

Era of Jacksonian Democracy and Political Involvement by the Common Man.

1851 to 1868 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Pisces
Era of Slavery Compromise and the Civil War.

1868 to 1885 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Aries
Era of Reconstruction and the Indian Wars.

1885 to 1906 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Taurus
Era of the Railroads and Wealth Creation by Robber Barons.

1906 to 1935 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Gemini

Era of the Telephone, Radio, Telegraph, and the Automobile.

1935 to 1973 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Cancer
Era of Great Depression, World War II, the 60s, and the Modern Nuclear Family.

1973 to 2011 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Leo
Era of Celebrity Infatuation, Entertainment Culture, and Baby Boomer Excesses.

2011 to 2047 • Progressed U.S. Ascendant in Virgo
Era of Healthy Citizens, Self-Employment, Hard Work, and a Return to Craftsmanship.

Astrologers will observe that the duration of the progressed U.S. Ascendant in a given sign varies from as few as 17 years in Pisces or Aries, to as long as 38 years in Cancer or Leo. This is due to the phenomenon known as Signs of Short or Long Ascension, caused by the 23 1/2º tilt of the Earth’s polar axis.

This is precisely why one can never eyeball the movement of a progressed Ascendant in an individual’s horoscope by assuming one degree of progression per year of life. This method comes close when estimating the current degree of a progressing Midheaven from a person’s age, but variability of the progressing Ascendant does not allow one to do this.

© 2010 Robert P. Blaschke

Bibliography

Bernard Grun, The Timetables of History, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975.

Footnotes:

(1) An Introduction to Political Astrology, Charles E.O. Carter, L.N. Fowler & Co., 1951

(2) Reuters news report, May 12, 2010.

(3) The Associated Press report of May 14, 2010.

(4) The Principles of Astrology, Charles E.O. Carter, L.N. Fowler & Co., 1925

(5) Uranus will neither transit through 6º – 8º of mutable nor 21º – 23º of cardinal during this two-year period.

(6) An Introduction to Political Astrology, Charles E.O. Carter, L.N. Fowler & Co., 1951

 

9 Comments

  1. great work, Sir Robert

    personally I’m kinda digging the idea of the USA Asc moving to Virgo. Feels like we could use it…

    so I guess the Sun-Uranus transit phase angle returns will be the best times during this progressed square for our country to harness the energy constructively?

  2. Ah, I was with you until you said:

    “It is this darker and violent side of the illegal immigration dilemma that prompted Arizona politicians to enact their recent legislation.”

    Study after study has shown that all these crimes in Arizona have dropped sharply. Let’s call it what it is, scapegoating and racism.

    I can’t say about anyone else, but I am not looking forward to paying $12 for a tomato.

    I think the astrology supports the federal government stepping in, just like they had to during the 60s and the South’s insistence on segregation. Saturn in the 10th would support the ultimate authority laying down the law in the current situation. Sometimes daddy does know best 😉

    Actually, I think what is happening in Arizona is very reflective of the Saturn/Uranus opposition. As history has shown us again and again, Uranus always wins that one.

    Thanks for your thoughts.

  3. Thank you for an insightful article without personal conjecture thrown into the mix.

    I know that the next several years will be challenging to say the least, however, knowing that Virgo will be on the US Asc is encouraging.

    Once again, great article!!

  4. Bravo, Robert! Bravo! Thank you for this magnificent contribution.

  5. One can also see the Neptune/Lunar (by transit and progression) influences in the Gulf Oil Spill. Confusion, oil, ocean…

  6. Thanks for a great article Robert! It seems this might be a time to sort out all the USA charts, using events through 2020. I would like to throw the d.o.t.a. chart into the pile: July 6, 1775 at 5:25 pm LAT, Phila. PA (Declaration of Taking Arms – see Helen Boyd).

  7. Thanks for a sane and clear-eyed article.

  8. Hi Rob,
    Much thanks for the very good piece. Really gives me a great grasp with how to apply SP measurements to Mundane astrology, where I have always felt it was better served.

    If I may, I would just like to add that per Solar Arc measurements for the USA chart in the year 2011, we note that SA Neptune=MC in Sep, and SA Pluto=Mars in Dec. These planets I have found, tend to correlate quite strongly to terrorism and terrorist attacks. At the same time we also have transit Uranus opposed the USA MC and square the USA Jupiter and Venus, the rulers of the Asc and MC respectively. According to my computer, the SP-SP Sun-Uranus square is partile in *Oct 2011*. So, all of this points to some major shakeups, possibly involving violence and terrorism, in the Fall of next year.

    We’ll see.

    Thanks so much again!

    Salaam
    Mu

  9. Thank you for a great article. I would be interested in seeing just how the continuations of the Pluto/Neptune septiles impact this time phase, since we are seeing much of that energy when things are pushed into the public awareness [the hidden minerals in Afganistan and off shore of Haiti, the Gulf oil spill, foreign flags on oil rigs and Marshall Island, NASA ending space shuttle missions and Stephen Hawking discussing aliens and (“possible” hostile) contact] just to name a few things. But how the expansion when dealing with the outer planets may show issues from outside (international/world government/global force) may show impact on the U.S. and laws. Dealing with intercepted houses, wouldn’t that indicate more complex issues to deal with, and showing more intensity involved with the issues related to those houses/planets/aspects? The comment from MU pertaining to indications of terrorism and terrorists, may indicate something more than “on the ground” but perhaps challenges to freedoms and power (Leo), which may be then, Virgo energy indication on the first house cusp of the U.S. chart. If nothing else, we sure are going through the “void”, so to speak. Viewing as well, the multiple levels of karma playing in may ways sure does show us the way to bring a center to all the chaos, where we need to be in order to handle the shifts taking place being indicated with the possible outcomes still floating in the unknown. Perhaps Virgo on the first house cusp indicates more than anything our individual and collective correct use of will… how mindful will be be?

    Thank you for doing your part to help bring a greater level of decorum to the world.
    Gale


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