United States progessed New Moon

[Jim Eshelman]

On June 8, 2024, the United States natal chart will experience a progressed New Moon: Progressed Sun and Moon will conjoin at 27°49' Aquarius. In personal charts, we are used to seeing such major Moon-Sun aspects mark turning points that draw significant attention from other people and mark significant "phase changes" or reorientations in our lives. With a New Moon (Moon-Sun conjunction), we specifically expect beginning a new cycle (which, by progression, is a roughly 30-year cycle).

Before jumping to conclusions that this will occur for the U.S., we should see if this progressed aspect has indeed marked such turning points or reorientations in the past, dividing U.S. history into recognizable eras. Here are the dates in the past when the U.S. chart's progressed Moon conjoined, opposed, or squared progressed Sun. -- Please note that the years (but not the months or dates) of these cycles will be correct for any theoretical birth time on July 4, 1776.

In particular, are we now ending a discernible major cycle that began in 1994, when the last progressed New Moon occurred.

-- Square: Feb 28 1780
Conjunction: Jun 7 1787
-- Square: Jul 25 1795
-- Opposition: Oct 17 1802
-- Square: May 26 1809
Conjunction: Jan 10 1817
-- Square: Mar 9 1825
-- Opposition: Feb 15 1832
-- Square: Sep 29 1838
Conjunction: Sep 12 1846
-- Square: Sep 26 1854
-- Opposition: Jun 17 1861
-- Square: Apr 1 1868
Conjunction: May 29 1876
-- Square: Mar 19 1884
-- Opposition: Nov 2 1890
-- Square: Dec 7 1897
Conjunction: Feb 17 1906
-- Square: Aug 15 1913
-- Opposition: Apr 15 1920
-- Square: Oct 8 1927
Conjunction: Oct 27 1935
-- Square: Dec 21 1942
-- Opposition: Nov 1 1949
-- Square: Sep 3 1957
Conjunction: Jun 13 1965
-- Square: Apr 18 1972
-- Opposition: Jun 24 1979
-- Square: Jul 27 1987
Conjunction: Dec 27 1994
-- Square: Aug 23 2001
-- Opposition: Mar 9 2009
-- Square: May 15 2017
Conjunction: Jun 8 2024
-- Square: Jan 19 2031
-- Opposition: Nov 30 2038
-- Square: Jan 9 2047

[Jim Eshelman]

We might separately assess whether the exact timing of the aspects signaled anything major - the exact aspect timing being a separate matter from looking at this as a broad, cyclic phase shift. I will make some rough notes of anything that looks significant to me within one calendar month of each of these dates.

Conjunction: Jun 7 1787. The Constitutional Convention convened to amend the Articles of Confederation. Instead, before adjourning, they created what we now know as the U.S. constitution.

Square: Jul 25 1795. The Jay Treaty enhanced long-term relationships with Great Britain (at a time much of Europe was organizing to oppose Napoleon).

Opposition: Oct 17 1802. Port of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi were closed to American traffic, setting in motion the steps that would require the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Square: May 26 1809. (Nothing.)

Conjunction: Jan 10 1817. (Nothing obvious to me. Several states and future states are being formed during the general period.)

Square: Mar 9 1825. Start of Quincy Adams administration. Nothing more explicit, but the usual movement from a new administration.

Opposition: Feb 15 1832. (Nothing.)

Square: Sep 29 1838. A time of division, with events such as Missouri declaring Mormons enemies of the state to be exterminated (leading to the Mormon diaspora) and the deadliest Native American attack on white settlers in Texas.

Conjunction: Sep 12 1846. (Nothing obvious to me except that, two months earlier, the U.S. military began the campaign that eventually would lead to annexing California.)

Square: Sep 26 1854. (Nothing of consequence for the future.)

Opposition: Jun 17 1861. A volatile, pivotal time as the Civil War has formally begun following Lincoln's election. In this two-month window, Virginia seceded based on a May 23 referendum. Significant battles include the first major Confederate victory at Bull Run.

Square: Apr 1 1868. Nothing during this window. It is the onramp to Pres. Johnson's impeachment trial a month later.

Conjunction: May 29 1876. The main event of these two months that had long reach into the future is that the first transcontinental rail express train reached San Francisco three and a half days after leaving NYC. - Some significant battles in the American Indian Wars including the Battle of Little Bighorn. If there is a broad pattern here, it involves U.S.A. coast-to-coast expansion.

Square: Mar 19 1884. (Nothing.)

Opposition: Nov 2 1890. (Nothing obvious to me within the target window.)

Square: Dec 7 1897. (Nothing.)

Conjunction: Feb 17 1906. (Nothing obvious to me.)

Square: Aug 15 1913. (Nothing.)

Opposition: Apr 15 1920. In the aftermath of World War I. The Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. The two-year Great Influenza Epidemic was declared over. Besides this double-dose of "aftermath" and "it's over now," nothing very decisive occurred in the U.S.

Square: Oct 8 1927. The first "talkie" film to become a big hit opened (Oct 6).

Conjunction: Oct 27 1935. (Nothing obvious to me, though a lot is happening in the broader time period.)

Square: Dec 21 1942. U.S. is deeply involved with WW II by this point. The Manhattan Project has its first success (not known to the public).

Opposition: Nov 1 1949. Another "it's over" period with much rearrangement and change worldwide; but the goal is to identify if any such thing was specifically present for the U.S. Quasi-U.S. was the laying of the U.N. Headquarters corner stone in Manhattan. Alger Hiss' second trial began. It's hard to single out distinctly U.S. events.

Square: Sep 3 1957. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was enacted (an early move on this topic). On Oct 4, U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik, very demoralizing to the U.S. (though marking this eight-year period as the most aggressive in the Space Race).

Conjunction: Jun 13 1965. So much happened in the year; the immediate question is whether appropriate significant events defining the direction of the U.S. as a whole happened within one month either side of the exact date. I don't find any such events. (The Vietnam war is in motion, of course, more as a long-term, on-going event.)

Square: Apr 18 1972. Congress approved the ERA and sent it to the states. The Vietnam war is continuing (and the 1972 presidential election is in the background with its important Watergate sequelae).

Opposition: Jun 24 1979. Following the Dan White verdict, multiple gay rights themed protests and law changes occurred in various coastal cities. Salt II treaty signed. Pres. Carter addressed the nation about its "crisis in confidence."

Square: Jul 27 1987. The Dow topped 2,500 for the first time. (Nothing else of obvious U.S. historic significance.)

Conjunction: Dec 27 1994. Something more relevant to the world than the U.S. is that America Online purchased a web browser to offer its subscribers for access to the World Wide Web. (Netscape Navigator appeared a month later.) These were defining event for the decades to follow worldwide. It was the short-term event leading to the era started by Windows 95 the following year (again a worldwide event more than U.S. distinctive). - The mid-term elections signaled public displeasure with the first two years of the Clinton administration and set in motion new political polarities that indeed cascaded into the future.

Square: Aug 23 2001. 9/11 and a series of deadly anthrax attacks occurred during this two-month window. Pres. Bush declares a broad "war on terror."

Opposition: Mar 9 2009. (Nothing obvious to me. The first months of the Obama administration.)

Square: May 15 2017. Early months of Trump administration. U.S. government withdraws from Paris Climate Agreement, stirring widespread criticism.

Conjunction: Jun 8 2024. This is now. What happens next?