Neptune in Scorpio revisited

[Jim Eshelman]

While digging around for the reprint of Bradley's article on the solar apex, I stumbled on a letter of mine published in the August 1975 issue of American Astrology. I wrote it before leaving Indiana - obviously sometime after August 1974 - and it was published in a magazine that appeared on the newsstands a month after I landed in California, while I was living with Gary Duncan in Irving. Here it is:

NOBODY LISTENED
In the aftermath of Watergate and the recovery process of the United States. it seems everyone has ignored the closest advance warning in this field of forecasting that I've found yet. May I quote from your 1969 Yearbook? On page 5, the best mundane astrologer of recent times, Donald Bradley (Garth Allen) , was describing the new sign transit of the planet Neptune.

Entering upon the starfield of Scorpio, Neptune takes on the attribute of fixity in place of the former cardinality of expression. As usual, Scorpio is the most difficult of signs to interpret in practical terms - but that old keyword, regeneration, probably applies as conveniently as any. Historical repetitions provide the clues about what to expect from Neptune's constellation transits. The Libra stint from 1954 to 1968 I o a great extent reflective of Neptune's activities farther back in time, from 1789 through 1802.

Similarly, the 1803-1816 period of national and global history will echo frequently in trends and eventualities during the next 14 years. Study your history books carefully with this astronomical circumstance in mind, and you'll have a preview of lies in store for us. One man, Napoleon Bonaparte, dominated that era, and if you check back one cycle further, to the Neptune-in-Scorpio tenure before that, you'll be struck by the fact that one man's name, Cromwell, and his orneriness, dominated that era's developments in the saga of western man. Could this mean that the next few years will produce the same sort of Machiavellian strongman figure that yokels usually welcome and intellectuals rightly fear? The scroll of past human foibles is enough warrant for suggesting that campaigners who figuratively wrap themselves in red, white, and blue, should be carefully watched.

...This superman prospect is more likely than we like to face up to. In any event, the emergence of a Cromwell or Napoleon type of era, even if not a specific personality, lies immediately ahead of us, provided we're reading the stars right."

Arien Cromwell, Leonian Napoleon - and Sagittarian Nixon? Political analysts were highlighting the fact less than a year ago that, without Watergate, the Nixon machine (which is certainly distinct from Nixon, the man) had evolved to the point wherefrom it could enjoy nearly perpetual power, a self-propagating device. Fortunately for all concerned, Uranus entered sidereal Libra at the right time, making for the overthrow of many political figureheads around the world, including right here at home. Yet that doesn't dilute the forecast written in 1968, published concerning the year Nixon came into power, and still relatively effective through 1982.

James Eshelman, Indianapolis, Ind.

[By Jove]

Nixon political machine? Definitely. Nixon the man? The old fart might as well have been my high school math teacher.

[Jim Eshelman]

Neptune first entered Scorpio in February 1967 and settled in a year and a half later, in September '68. It last left on October 4, 1982.

The AIDS crisis started during this time, but nobody knew it at the time. It never really broke out into visibility until about the time Neptune left Scorpio.