He began by equating Saturn-Neptune with muckraking, observing that it is "one of the signs of good national health in a democratic society." If you aren't familiar with the old term, it refers to stirring up scandalous junk from the bottom of the swamp and disclosing it. (We certainly saw a fair bit of that - honest and dishonest - over the last year with Saturn square Neptune.) Bradley gave examples of this in politics from 20th century history books, and then tagged Vance Packard's writings as having made this a larger focus in the '50s and after.
What inspired the article in 1964 were two quality muckraking books about the funeral industry, disclosing all sorts of things the public didn't generally know. As a result, reforms were already underway. His conclusion to the article was, "Some wholesale reforms will overtake the funeral business ere the Saturn-Neptune influence has run its course. Malefics which inspire social progre,, you see, can't be All Bad!"
Here is the most interesting astrological text IMO:
Garth Allen wrote:We are interested primarily in the astrology behind the moods and movements of "mass psychology," since nothing ever happens as a "trend" unless there are celestial correspondences for the trend. Even the simplest of fads, whether on such trivial things as toy novelties or such basic things as popular dance forms, have their inevitable reflections in planetary configurations. The entrance of Uranus into sidereal Leo, for example, sparked the sequences of dances, from Rock-n-roll to the Twist and the Slop, in which the partners gyrate almost independently, seldom touching each other. Famed authority on dancing, Agnes de Mille, commented that this new style is without precedent in recent centuries anywhere and seems to be a throwback to primitive mating rituals having the same characteristics. Uranus rules individuality and separateness, while Leo typifies the romantic ritual - ergo! a case of astrological symbolism running true to form.
Fads are not actually so whimsical or flimsy as they seem on the surface... (Even the hula-hoop craze reached its peak as the two mightiest planets of the solar system moseyed through those parts of the zodiac traditionally said to rule the body parts concerned.) Sp even those deadly-serious trends of muckraking have their cosmic parallels too, through the medium of what an occultist might call "thought patterns."
As the great Aspect of the Year, the Saturn-Neptune square, took form, with Saturn dignified in Capricorn and Neptune in Libra, hovering around 21° which is the "exaltation" or "throne" of Saturn in the sky, the minds of millions of people were suddenly directed to the subject of Death and the lousiness of the profession which capitalizes on it through every Neptunian trick, contrivance and disguise imaginable.
