Saturn in Aquarius

[Jim Eshelman]

Saturn in Capricorn is defining dramatically the current era. We're only a little over a year from when she moves into Aquarius. What shall we expect? Here are the times since 1800 that Saturn has been in Aquarius.

Apr 15 1816 to Jul 24 1816
Jan 8 1817 to Mar 22 1819

Feb 20 1846 to May 8 1848
Sep 4 1848 to Jan 31 1849

Apr 3 1875 to Aug 12 1875
Dec 30 1875 to Mar 13 1878

Feb 12 1905 to Apr 28 1907
Sep 25 1907 to Jan 21 1908

Mar 23 1934 to Aug 31 1934
Dec 18 1934 to Mar 4 1937

Feb 3 1964 to Apr 16 1966
Oct 17 1966 to Jan 4 1967

Mar 13 1993 to Sep 22 1993
Dec 1 1993 to Jun 26 1995
Jul 15 1995 to Feb 23 1996

May 19 2022 to Jun 20 2022
Jan 25 2023 to Apr 5 2025

[Jim Eshelman]

Apr 15 1816 - Jul 24 1816
Jan 8 1817 - Mar 22 1819

France abolished divorce. (It had been permitted by the French Revolution but historically barred before that.)

The Society for the Promotion of Permanent & Universal Peace founded in London.

French passenger ship Medusa ran aground off Senegal, 140 died in a botched rescue that took weeks. Scandal for French government.

Modern Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and part of Brazil declared themselves independent of Spain under the name of the United Provinces of South America.

General Jose de San Martin's army of 5,423 soldiers crossed the Andes to liberate Chile and (later) Peru. A month later, in the Battle of Chacabuco, the Argentine-Chilean patriotic army defeated the Spanish.

James Madison vetoed the Bonus Bill (an infrastructure bill funded by dividends from the Second Bank) saying it was a good idea but didn't think Congress had the power to do this.

James Monroe inaugurated president.

King Ferdinand VII of Spain decreed production and sale of tobacco in Cuba to be legal, giving birth to the Cuban cigar industry.

Erie Canal construction begins (!). Earlier in the year, U.S. and U.K. signed a treaty prohibiting armed vessels in the Great Lakes.

Venezuela's independent government established by Simon Bolivar.

First Seminole War began in Florida. (The war that made Andrew Jackson famous. Ironically, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams defended this as a justifiable intervention against terrorism.)

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein published (anonymously). Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias published.

British Institute of Civil Engineers founded.

Chile proclaimed independence from Spain.

A melting glacier unblocks the Lac de Mauvoisin in Switzerland unleashes flood waters into the Valley of Bagnes killing 34 people.

Bank of the United States reverses its policy on expanding credit, demanding immediate repayment of balances due nationwide. This results in vast numbers of defaults that eventually trigger the Panic of 1819.

Augustin-Jean Fresnel's paper "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light," submitted to the French Academy of Sciences, demolishes the oldest remaining objection to the wave theory of light.

The U.S. Department of War establishes its Topographical Bureau.

U.S.-U.K. treaty sets U.S.-Canadian border at the 49th parallel.

Panic of 1819 begins in the earliest days of the year.

Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.

House of Representatives agrees to the Tallmadge Amendment barring slaves from the new state of Missouri. This starts dominoes falling that eventuate later in the Missouri Compromise.

Spain cedes Florida to the U.S. in exchange for U.S. renouncing any claims on Texas that it might have secondary to the Louisiana Purchase.

[Jim Eshelman]

Feb 20 1846 - May 8 1848
Sep 4 1848 - Jan 31 1849

The Galician slaughter in the Krakow Uprising: Polish nationalists rose up in the Free City of Krakow and were suppressed by the Austrian Empire. - Similarly, the Revolution of Maria da Fonte in Portugal is crushed by royalist troops within a few months. (How much is crushing revolution a theme of this passage?)

Liberty Bell gets its crack while ringing for Washington's birthday.

U.K. repeals the Corn Laws, replacing the older colonial mercantile trade system with free trade. (I just had an intuition that the upcoming cycle will show a strong return to free trade.)

Mexican-American War: Open conflict over the disputed border of Texas. U.S. declares war on Mexico. (Look how this is a direct continuation of events ending the last cycle!) In the Battle of Palo Alto (first major battle of the war), Zachary Taylor's forces defeat Mexican forces north of the Rio Grande.

California Republic declares independence from Mexico. In Sonoma, the Bear Flag Revolt by American settlers rebelled against Mexico a few days later and, again, proclaimed the California Republic. In the Battle of Monterey, a U.S. navy vessel occupies Monterey starting the U.S. annexation of California.

The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established. Soon after, the Second Carlist War begins in Spain (were they connected?).

Electric Telegraph Co. founded in Britain.

Neptune is discovered.

First successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia.

Donner Party wagon train (87 settlers) is stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains. (Three months later when a relief party arrives, only 48 are left.)

Agnosticism is on the rise among intellectuals in Europe, so Pope Pius IX issued his encyclical Qui pluribus in response.

Sweden abolishes the Guildsystem. Trade and handicrafts permits thereafter are granted every applicant of legal age.

Mexican-American War: Zachary Taylor's 5,000 troops, with superior artillery, drive off and defeat 15,000 Mexican troops. Gen. Winfield Scott's troops invade Mexico near Veracruz, taking it in a single siege.

American Medical Association (AMA) founded in Philadelphia.

First U.S. postage stamps issued.

Mormon pioneers, led by Brigham Young, arrive in Salt Lake Valley and start building Salt Like City.

Mexican-American War continues.

Charlotte Bronte publishes Jane Eyre under a pen name. (Soon after, Wuthering Heights.)

Wikipedia summarizes that 1848 was "historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the political and philosophical landscape and had major ramifications throughout the rest of the century."

Sicilian Revolution of Independence began in Palermo to overthrow the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. (Three previous revolutions since 1800 had failed; this one eventually succeeded in creating an independent state for 16 months.)

Gold was discovered in California at Sutter's Mill.

Mexican-American war ends in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico ceded most of the current southwest U.S. to the United States. Almost concurrently, California became a state.

Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto, "an analytical approach to class struggle... and the conflicts of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production," calling for a "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions." [Definitely sounds anti-Sagittarian! Neptune was also in Aquarius for this pass of Saturn.]

After days of revolution in France, King Louis Philippe I abdicated in favor of his son, Prince Philippe, making way for the French Second Republic.

The March Unrest in Sweden, a "brief series of riots" ignited by news of the French Revolution of 1848.

Hungarian Revolution of 1848, peaceful mass demonstrations by "young revolutionary intellectuals" calling for freedom and self-determination for Hungary. Soon after, the first Hungarian national government is formed and "democratic revolutionary laws" are promulgated that end serfdom and feudal privileges of the nobility and feature freedom of religion and the press and democratic elections. Months later, Ferdinand V (the Hungarian king and Habsburg emperor) refuses to recognize the democratic government, forcing a temporary "crisis government" dependent on Austria.

In a Berlin barricade within the German Revolutions of 1848-49, hundreds die and the king is forced to appoint a liberal government.

Completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River (and thus to the Gulf of Mexico).

[Though I haven't been listing the numerous skirmishes here, there were - in this transit and 30 years earlier - numerous conflicts and small wars involving the British in India.]

Swiss Federal Constitution (modeled on the U.S. Constitution) went into effect.

A new Constitution of the Netherlands severely constrained the monarchy and introduced representative democracy.

France ratified a new constitution. Prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte is elected first president of the Second French Republic.

Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated in favor of his nephew, the great Franz Joseph.

The Austrian army entered the Hungarian capitals of Buda and Pest, forcing the Hungarian government and parliament to flee. Armed Romanian groups massacre Hungarian civilians at Nagyenyed. On the last day Saturn is in Aquarius, 10,000 Russian soldiers enter Transylvania to help Austria defeat Hungary.

[Jim Eshelman]

Apr 3 1875 - Aug 12 1875
Dec 30 1875 - Mar 13 1878

Treaty of Saint Petersburg signed between Russia and Japan.

Third Carlist War in Spain. [Lots of details, I don't have the overview yet.]

Founding of various sports such as pro baseball and college football.

Alexander Graham Bell applied for and is granted a patent for the telephone.

Johns Hopkins University was founded.

Japan's military forces Korea to sign a treaty opening ports to trade and ceasing regarding itself as a tributary of China. China encourages Korea to balance this by signing other treaties with European nations.

Dewey Decimal Classification is first published.

Sweden's first democratic prime minister assumes power as constitutional reforms come into place.

Bulgarian "April Uprising" against the Ottoman Empire. (It was "brutally suppressed.")

The Centennial Exposition (first World's Fair in the U.S.) held in Philadelphia to celebrate the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Eli Lilly founded in Indiana.

Nicolaus Otto filed a patent for the four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine. [Maybe a general pattern of invention and progress is showing; I think that was a major part of the Centennial Exposition, too.]

On the First Transcontinental Express, the first train arrives in San Francisco from New York City.

[Various pieces of the Indian Wars going on, including the large inter-tribe Sitting Bull conference, Crazy Horse's victory at Rosebud Creek in Montana, and the Battle of Little Bighorn.]

Serbia & Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

Russia and Austria-Hungary, in the Reichstadt Agreement, agree to partition the Balkan Penninsula.

Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph.

Richard Wagner inaugurated the Bayreuth Festival.

Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act.

The Great Sioux War of 1876 - Battle of Wolf Mountain - the last battle of Crazy Horse and his warriors against the U.S. in Montana.

Disaffected Japanese samurai revolt in the Satsuma Rebellion and is eventually crushed by a drafted army.

The intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election is resolved by the Compromise of 1977, selecting Rutherford B. Hayes (even though Tilden won the popular vote).

Emile Berliner invented the microphone.

University of Tokyo was established.

Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire (Russo-Turkish War). [This war absorbed much of the year, with lots of smaller steps.]

In the Great Sioux War, Crazy Horse and his warriors surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska after being weakened by cold and hunger.

France's "16 May 1877 Crisis" occurred, a constitutional crisis in the French Third Republic "concerning the distribution of power between the president and the legislature." (Royalist president vs. Republican legislature.) In a new election, the Republicans held the lead, so that the parliamentarian system prevailed over a Royalist presidential system.

Romania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire (but a war was still required to confirm it the following year).

Bell installed the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario.

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina published serially.

Wimbledon lawn tennis tournament established.

Great Railroad Strike of 1977 (riots by Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers in Baltimore), with a sympathy strike and rioting in Pittsburgh and "a full-scale worker's rebellion in St. Louis." This briefly established a Communist government, that was then shut down by U.S. troops.

Mars' two moons discovered.

Treaties start to be formed with the Blackfoot nations and settling in reservations.

Edison announced the invention of the phonograph, secures a patent.

[Jim Eshelman]

Feb 12 1905 - Apr 28 1907
Sep 25 1907 - Jan 21 1908

Russo-Japanese war is underway. (Interestingly, a lot of history between those two countries has occurred in various Saturn in Aquarius transits.)

Echoing events of the prior cycle, the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 (aka Eulsa Treaty) effectively made Korea a Japanese protectorate.

Czar Nicholas II agrees to create the Duma (an elected national assembly). Several months later, he is forced to grant Russia's first constitution, including a Duma with certain powers. The 1905 Bolshevik revolution climaxes in the 12-day Moscow Uprising before being suppressed by the army.

Albert Einstein submits a paper for publication explaining the photoelectric effect in terms of light quanta. A month later, he completed his doctoral dissertation, "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions." Several other published items as the year goes on, including one that introduced his special theory of relativity and another that introduced his E =mc2 equation of mass-energy equivalence.

Kaiser Wilhelm II asserts German equality with France in Morocco, triggering the so-called First Moroccan Crisis.

Sun Yat-sen forms a union of Chinese secret societies committed to bring down the Manchu dynasty.

Wright brothers' third plane stays in the air 39 minutes (first flight lasting over 30 minutes).

Through a series of steps, Sweden's union with Norway is eventually dismantled, leaving Norway an independent country.

Sinn Fein is founded as a political party in Dublin with a goal of Irish independence.

In the Persian Constitutional Revolution, a nationalistic coalition of Persian merchants, religious leaders, and intellectuals forced the shah to grant a constitution with a national assembly.

Mount Vesuvius erupted, wiping out Naples.

In Los Angeles, a Pentecostalism revival was fostered by the three-year Azusa Street Revival, led by William J. Seymour. (It began on the night of April 9, 1906.)

The great San Francisco earthquake occurred 4/18/1906.

President Roosevelt signed the Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906.

Immigration through Ellis Island hit its peak (1907 busiest year ever).

Guglielmo Marconi initiates commercial trans-Atlantic radio communication with his longwave wireless telegraphy stations.

[Jim Eshelman]

Mar 23 1934 - Aug 31 1934
Dec 18 1934 - Mar 4 1937

The first Three Stooges film is released. Also the first Donald Duck cartoon.

Bonnie & Clyde are ambushed by police and killed. John Dillinger killed by FBI agents. The FBI kills the Barker Street Gang.

In Germany, in the Night of the Long Knives, Nazis purge the left-wing faction of their party as well as conservative anti-Nazis in a series of extrajudicial political murders over three days. Two weeks later, Hitler justifies this purge before the Reichstag.

Adolf Hitler became Fuhrer of Germany (combining Head of State with Chancellor), following Hindenburg's death. The united German armed forces (Wehrmacht) swore a personal oath of loyalty to him. A referendum the same month shows 90% of Germany's people approved.

Bruno Hauptmann trial, conviction, and execution for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

Amelia Earhart flies solo from Hawaii to California, the first person to do so.

Parker Brothers introduces Monopoly.

Discovery and clinical development of the first broadly effective antibiotic, Prontosil (a sulfa drug), in Germany.

Hitler orders the German air force (Luftwaffe) re-established, then general German re-armament, then reactivation of the military draft, violating the Treaty of Versailles. The next year, he occupied the Rhineland.

First demonstration of radar to detect aircraft.

First TV program transmitted in Germany.

Dust Bowl (which I think started with Saturn in Capricorn): 4/14/35 was "Black Sunday," a terrible dust storm hitting eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma.

A New Deal executive order created the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded.

Pres. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law. [This will be part of "social programs" etc. themes.]

The Nuremberg Laws in Germany remove citizenship from Jews.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) formed by a dozen labor leaders to promote industrial unionism in North America.

King George V dies, is succeeded by King Edward VIII.

John Maynard Keynes' book The General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money is published, dramatically shifting economic thought by placing macroeconomics at the center of its theory. Among is chief features was the support of government intervention, deficit spending, and counter-cycle policies (but this is an unfair summary of the larger theory). Most importantly, it was an assault on the Classical Economics orthodoxy.

Italy annexed Ethiopia.

[Numerous examples of important train travel thresholds in these various passages.]

Major North American heat wave breaks records and kills thousands.

Triborough Bridge opens to traffic in NYC.
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

Spanish Civil War begins when the Spanish Army of Africa launches a coup against the Second Spanish Republic.

Stalin's Great Purge in the Soviet Union began (a two-year campaign of political suppression).

The Rome-Berlin axis is formed.

Stalin's 1936 Soviet Constitution is adopted by the USSR.

Sulfonamide successfully treats streptococcus meningitis for the first time.

King Edward VIII abdicates. His brother succeeds him as King George VI.

Stalin's purge to Trotskyists.

[Jim Eshelman]

Feb 3 1964 - Apr 16 1966
Oct 17 1966 - Jan 4 1967

Black and Puerto Rican students protest racial segregation in NYC public schools with a school boycott.

U.S. 24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes.

The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan, having only a few days earlier (two days before Saturn entered Aquarius) hit #1 on U.S. charts for the first time. Beatlemania starts the British Invasion that dominated these years.

Pres. Johnson announced that the U.S. had developed a jet capable of sustained flight at more than 2,000 mph and altitudes of more than 70,000 feet.

Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa convicted of jury tampering, sentenced to jail time.

[Theory that just occurred to me: Do the main themes of this transit amount to anti-authoritarianism, i.e., opposite Saturn in Leo themes.]

Malcolm X, suspended from the Nation of Islam, says he is forming a black nationalist party, then leaves the Nation of Islam.

Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammed Ali.

Supreme Court rules in NYT v Sullivan that, under the 1st Amendment, speech criticizing political figures cannot be censored.

Jack Ruby convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald.

Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world (it took 30 days).

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara reiterates American determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid to push back a Communist insurgency.

Jeopardy debuts.

[Various actions related to anti-segregation including push-back, jailing, etc.]

IBM announces its epic System/360 family of mainframes.

Malcom X delivers his "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech in Detroit.

Sentencing in England for the Great Train Robbery (2.6 million pound theft) lays an aggregate 307 years in prison on 12 men.

Johnson and Khrushchev announce plans to cut back production of material used to make nuclear weapons.

1964 New York World's Fair on the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by the British.

Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

BASIC program language created and first run.

Viet Cong-caused explosion on the USNS Card in Saigon's port, sinks the ship.

Twelve men burning their draft cards in public in NYC is the start of activist war resistance protesting the Vietnam War.

LBJ introduces his vision for a "Great Society." The next year he proclaimed it in his State of the Union address.

Coup in South Vietnam rolled over the leadership. The ousted leaders were tried for "lax morality."

LBJ vs. Goldwater presidential race. (Johnson won handily.) It is probably most interesting here as the extreme disparity of the social and economic models represented.

Several historically important murders of Black men in the South, KKK intensified activity, and generally no conviction of White perpetrators.

Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which abolished racial segregation in the U.S.

Race riots in Harlem last six days.

Intensification of the Vietnam War as PM Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam and American involvement deepens. Numerous important incidents in the war. The U.S. immediately sends 5,000 more military advisors (bringing the total to 21,000). U.S. destroyer Maddox is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading to U.S. concentrated bombing of North Vietnam. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving Johnson broad war powers. Other events later in the year (after the election) escalate our involvement in Vietnam. Operation: Rolling Thunder aerial bombardment. U.S. Marines becomes the first ground forces. U.S. troops later increased to 75,000 and then 125,000. The war intensifies through this whole period, as does the accelerating resistance to it in the U.S. - Pentagon eventually advises LBJ that forces need to increase from 125,000 to 400,000 if they are to meet their goals; Johnson calls for more countries to send troops, which occurs, but USSR also steps up on the other side, sending rockets to North Vietnam. Johnson declared the U.S. should stay in Vietnam until Communist aggression in the country is ended. I early 1966, U.S. announced it would increase troop numbers significantly.

1964 Philadelphia race riots (nearly 800 arrests).

Warren Commission Report is published concerning JFK's assassination.

Moog synthesizer prototype demonstrated.

University of Berkeley student activists protest the arrest of a civil rights volunteer. Eventually this "explodes" into the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, which later occupied administrative buildings and other actions.

54 people escape to West Berlin through a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.

Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the U.S.

Nikita Khrushchev is deposed as Soviet leader, replaced by Brezhnev and Kosygin.

People's Republic of China first explodes an atomic bomb. France performs underground nuclear testing.

Northern Rhodesia becomes independent from Britain rule as the Republic of Zambia. Kenya becomes a republic. Gambia and The Maldives became independent of the UK.

Riots over control of the Panama Canal, U.S. offers to negotiate a new treaty. [Another "big ditch" Aquarius theme.]

Malcolm X was murdered.

Three Selma marches beginning with "Bloody Sunday" and climaxing with a National Guard escort to Montgomery on the third march. LBJ's "We Shall Overcome" speech. Numerous other civil rights conflicts over the summer.

Johnson sends Congress the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is passed and signed into law.

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performs the first spacewalk. Soon after, Gemini 3 is America's first two-person space flight. Gemini 4 later features Ed White making the first U.S. space walk.

Astrodome opens.

The first SDS march against the war attracts 25,000 protestors to Washington.

Mariner 4 photographs Mars.

Bob Dylan stirs scandal by going electric at the Newport Folk Festival.

Johnson's War on Poverty includes the creation of Medicare and Medicaid.

Watts riots (6 days) in Los Angeles.

Castro permits any Cubans who want to emigrate to the U.S. Within a month or so, the first group of Cuban refugees arrived in the U.S. Later, U.S. agrees with Cuba to provide an airlift ("Freedom Flights"), which by 1971 brought a quarter million Cubans over.

The Immigration & Nationality Act of 1965 ended immigration quotas based on national origin.

New border conflicts between India and Pakistan (though I can't find anything that seems to link it to Saturn in Aquarius). Ended by successful peace negotiations and a treaty (Tashkent Declaration).

Indonesian mass executions (1965-66). This is part of the governments resistance to communist attempts to take over the government. The army began hunting, arresting, and executing communists. In the middle of this, Indonesia outlawed the Communist party. Pres. Sukarno who had served 22 years) handed executive power over to General Suharto (who went on to serve 31 years) in order to calm the great unrest.

[Saturn in Aquarius does appear to be a time of enormous unrest when people feel they have a chance to do something about it and strike out. Often they succeeded, sometimes they were further suppressed.]

Rhodesia rebellion starts to build. U.N. pushes U.K. to intervene as strongly as possible to stop it. Martial law is announced. Britain stands ready to use force to resolve the issues in the region (the U.N. accepts this decision 82-9). U.N. Security Council advises all nations to stop trading with Rhodesia: this leads to various nations aligning on one or the other side of this issue as the problems heat up. Zambia and the U.K. agree on a deadline for ousting Rhodesia's white government. Commonwealth prime ministers convened in Nigeria to confer on Rhodesia (mostly). U.K. then cut off all trade with Rhodesia. 38 African nations demanded the U.K. use force against the Rhodesian government. Harold Wilson and Ian Smith met in the Mediterranean to negotiate. U.N. approved an oil embargo against Rhodesia; South Africa doesn't join it. Wilson then withdrew all prior offers to the Rhodesian government and declared he would agree to Rhodesian independence only after a Black majority government was established; Smith insisted Rhodesia was already a republic. (Ten months after Saturn left Aquarius, Rhodesia passed anti-Apartheid laws.)

Antiwar protests in 80 U.S. cities draw 100,000 protestors. Weeks later, a pro-Vietnam march in Washington drew 25,000 people.

Anti-government demonstrations in the Dominican Republic.

The miniskirt debuts and is controversial.

U.K. abolished the death penalty.

U.K. then U.N. adopts formal positions against racial discrimination. Aborigines gain the vote in Queensland, Australia (but apparently not in the country overall).

Wikipedia summarizes 1966 as a year when the Cultural Revolution began in China (but this was with Saturn in Pisces) and "there are coups d'état throughout the world." - I'll itemize those below that occurred while Saturn was in Aquarius.

Coups: In Central African Republic, a military ruler ousted the president. Republic of Upper Volta (today: Burkina Faso) a military coup deposed the president. Nigeria, a bloody coup to depose the civilian government results in the PM's death; then another military faction overthrew the first, leaving a military governor in place (starting a long period of military rule in the country). Syria, a military leader was replaced by another military leader. Ghana, police and military (supported by the CIA) put the National Liberation Council in power while the president was out of the country.

Demonstrations in Hungary against high food prices.

Soviet Luna 9 made the first controlled (rocket-assisted) landing on the moon.

John Lennon controversially remarked that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now," leading to tremendous outrage that has to be tamed.

Leonid Brezhnev became USSR General Secretary and Communist Party leader.

Time magazine cover story: "Is God Dead?" [Note several critical points in these transits that signal increased agnosticism or atheism.]

Barbados achieves independence from the U.K.

[Jim Eshelman]

Mar 13 1993 - Sep 22 1993
Dec 1 1993 - Jun 26 1995
Jul 15 1995 - Feb 23 1996

Four Corners hantavirus outbreak, 12 died.

Great Flood of 1993 (Mississippi & Missouri Rivers) - I've seen several floods under these various Saturn in Aquarius passages and not listed them - I doubt its causative - but I mention this just to stir the idea into the mix as a sub-theme of other ideas.

The Bosnian War is underway. The U.N.-protected Srebrenica is named a safe area (though there was eventually a massacre there after Saturn moved into Pisces). Eventually, NATO launches a bombing campaign against Bosnian Serbs. The Dayton Agreement eventually ended the Bosnian War. Under NATO peacekeeping, conflict including civil disturbance continues for a while.

Yugoslav War (& Balkan Wars in general): Continued conflict and on-going efforts to resolve it. Eventually, 21 Bosnian Serb commanders were charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by a U.N. international criminal tribunal convened for the Balkan Wars.

Waco Siege: U.S. government vs. Branch Davidians went on for 51 days and ended with 76 people dead.

WHO declared tuberculosis a global emergency.

President of Sri Lanka killed by a Tamil Tigers suicide bomber.

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is created at The Hague.

Large protests against Milosevik's regime in Belgrade.

Is there a democratization wave? It seems numerous countries are holding first elections, or important election results are being internationally confirmed. Lots or this going on.

Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands. Eventually, Iraq agrees. - In a later stage, Iraq again stops cooperating with UNSCOM and redeploys troops near Kuwait (with U.S. troops deployed to Kuwait in response).

Pres. Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence HQ in Baghdad in response to an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President Bush during a Kuwait visit.

Michael Jackson child sexual abuse civil suit charges filed.

Windows NT is first released.

AOL gives Usenet access to all its subscribers, changing online culture forever. It later extends full WWW access to its members.

Russian troops withdraw from Poland, which a few days later has parliamentary elections.

Clinton signs NAFTA into law: It became official 1/1/94. [Note earlier cycles where Free Trade was strong.]

[NOTE: I think water rights are going to become an increasingly important matter. I don't see this argued in earlier periods, but there are so many "water flowing, big ditch, aqueduct" etc. pieces of history and symbolism that I think pipelines in general - but especially for water - will be a big part of it.]

Nancy Kerrigan attacked and disabled by Tonya Harding's ex-husband.

Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov set a record for days spent in orbit (437.7 days).

Pres. Clinton and Pres. Yeltsin sign the Kremlin Accords, ending preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles at each country and providing for the dismantling of Russia's nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.

Northridge earthquake.

Clinton's first State of the Union address calls for health care reform, a ban on assault weapons, and welfare reform.

Church of England ordains its first female priests.

Apple Computer releases the Power Macintosh, the first Macs to use the new PowerPC chips. The same day, the Linux kernel ver. 1.0 is released into the world. [NB Mars conjoined Saturn exactly in Aquarius that day, which had four planets in Aquarius.]

Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis within the larger Rwandan Civil War, killing in excess of half a million Tutsis, killing the main figures in government, and forcing an interim government into Zaire.

South Africa's first fully multiracial elections signal the final, full elimination of apartheid. Nelson Mandela is elected president. -- Soon after, the nation joined the Commonwealth (which it had left in 1961, 33 years earlier).

The Channel Tunnel opens between England and France after seven years of construction. [Another one of these 'channels,' 'pipelines,' etc. of Aquarius theme.]

OJ Simpson killed his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. The arrest and murder trial dominated national attention for about a year.

Aum Shinrikyo cult members launch two sarin gas attacks in Japan. (11 principle perpetrators were executed 25 years later.)

Order of the Solar Temple: 23 members in Switzerland and 25 members in Quebec found dead.

Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos.
eBay founded by Pierre Omidyar.

Yemen Civil War of 1994.

After Russia withdraws its final troops from Germany, the Allied occupation of Berlin ends with full ceremony. - A week later, Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, a preliminary to a peace treaty that formally ends the state of war between the two countries that began in 1948. - The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced a "complete cessation of military operations." - The Russian Army pulled out of Estonia and Latvia, ending the last traces of Soviet occupation of eastern Europe.

The first protests in Cuba against Castro's government since 1959.

Federal Assault Weapons Ban enacted, a 10-year-ban on the manufacture of new firearms in the assault weapons category.

California voted in Proposition 187, to deny most public services to illegal aliens. A federal judge quickly issued a restraining order.

World Trade Organization, created by treaty of 123 nations, began to regulate international trade. (It is "the largest economic organization in the world.")

The U.K.'s oldest investment bank, Barings Bank, collapsed after its broker lost $1.4B speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 in a stunning act of domestic terrorism.

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: Over 170 countries agree to extend it indefinitely and without conditions.

Microsoft launched Windows 95.

The Million Man March in Washington, DC, set in motion by Louis Farrakhan, drew political attention to intercity and minority issues.

Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin is murdered at a Tel Aviv peace rally.

Saquinavir, the first protease inhibitor to treat HIV/AIDS, is approved by the FDA. Within two years, U.S. AIDS deaths per year drop by two-thirds.

Motorola introduced the first clamshell mobile phone.

Worldwide, some of the coldest winters ever occurred during this passage; almost enough to make me think "blizzard" and "snow" are Saturn in Aquarius keywords.

[Jim Eshelman]

Saturn first dips into the constellation Aquarius for one month - May 19 to June 20, 2022 - then returns for its full two-year run January 25, 2023 to April 5, 2025. Above all else, we look forward to putting behind us the time of Saturn in Capricorn that began January 30, 2020, accurately describing two years of our day-to-day living during the Covid-19 pandemic.

What shall we expect from the new sign-transit? The central themes are pragmatic futurism and democratizing power. Like clockwork, thrice each century Saturn in Aquarius brings a season of unrest when the masses rebel against restriction, rising up to strike against tyranny. Usually this is a surging anti-imperial, anti-authoritarian wave of democracy, including new constitutions, pivotal elections, marches, riots, civil wars, and other wrestling for liberty. These movements usually succeed; sometimes, though, the tyrannical forces are too powerful and the freedom movement is suppressed.

Many times the demand for liberty has spread contagiously across an entire continent or region. Between 1816 and 1819, most South American nations declared, and battled to win, freedom from Spain (especially through Simon Bolivar's leadership). In 1848, an eruption of revolutions exploded across most of Europe battling for more liberal government, sometimes winning and, in any case, permanently changing the social and political fabric. (One was the influential second French revolution.) The Ottoman Empire was repeatedly challenged in the 1870s. In two short years during the mid-1960s, imperialism was hurled out of Africa by rebellions that made the old African geographic and political landscape unrecognizable, while coups struck elsewhere. (Will the new Saturn in Aquarius cycle see further dismantling of Britain's Commonwealth?) In 1993-96 the remapping was in the Balkans, including the Yugoslav War, plus the final stages of dismantling the old Soviet hegemony, the Rwandan genocide, Yemen's civil war, Cuba's first protests ever against the Castro regime, and the fall of apartheid in South Africa.

Between and amidst these epochal revolutions and remappings in South America, Africa, and the Balkans and against the Ottomans, lesser events with the same anti-authority, anti-imperial character emerged. In the 1840s, the Mexican War led to the U.S. acquiring most of the American southwest plus California liberating itself (with a couple of extra local rebellions along the way). Between 1905-08, much of the world rearranged in ways that later shaped World War I, including the czar's sharing power with a Russian legislature (as the shah did with a new Persian national assembly), Sun Yat-sen's preparations to topple the Manchus, and Sinn Fein's founding as a powerful political force. In the 1990s, the Waco Siege and Oklahoma City bombing reflected the times. Only in the 1930s pass did other astrological patterns swing this trend the opposite direction, securing power to ferocious, anti-democratic totalitarians.

Finally, we cannot overlook the domestic riots and revolts in the United States during the mid-1960s. Skipping lightly over the first "everything is changing now" domestic revolution of that era when Beatlemania erupted on the landscape a few days after Saturn entered Aquarius February 3, 1964, the three years following brought three interrelated surges - the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam War, and widespread urban unrest and violence - spreading like fire on flash paper. Events included three Selma marches and everything that followed them; racial justice riots in Watts, Harlem, Philadelphia, and New York City; the burning of draft cards, self-immolation of Buddhists, the 25,000-student SDS march on Washington protesting the war (and larger crowds nationwide taking to the streets later), and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. All of this occurred in the short time Saturn was in Sidereal Aquarius.

The primary tone of these times is clear. (I have left out much that could have been included.)

In most cases, despite opposition, liberty won. In a few cases, though, tyrannical forces overwhelmed the rebels. Symbolized by the famous crack in the Liberty Bell (which happened with Saturn in Aquarius), under this sign transit the Austrian army and 10,000 Russian soldiers suppressed a freedom movement in Hungary. Bulgaria's "April Uprising" against the Ottoman Empire was brutally suppressed. The Samurai's Satsuma Rebellion was crushed by Japan's newly drafted army. Most of the 19th century "Indian Wars" genocide and cowering of native Americans by the U.S. military occurred with this transit. Stalin's Great Purge launched a two-year campaign of political suppression followed by a purge of Troskyists. Hitler's Night of the Long Knives exterminated opposing factions in complete disregard of the law, then his Nuremberg Laws repealed Jews' German citizenship. In the '60s, anti-segregation movements struggled with fierce push-back, including violence and jailing, intensification of KKK activity, historically important murders of southern Black men, and routine acquittals of White perpetrators.

Nonetheless, more often than not, liberty and democratizing power prevailed. Though struggles lie before us, I am optimistic for voting rights and key, historic gains in equity if history is our rightful guide.


Along with these freedom, democracy, and social equity themes, Saturn in Aquarius in the 20th century brought liberal social reforms. New Deal and Great Society programs stand out: In the 1930s, the government-funded, job-creating infrastructure plan called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established, a concept again in the spotlight as we forge a post-pandemic return to prosperity. Social Security began; three decades later came Medicare and Medicaid; then, 30 years after that, the Clinton administration attempted an aggressive push for universal health care that, perhaps, will be completed in the new pass. President Johnson called for and signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing racial segregation) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, then presented his larger vision for a Great Society. Dozens of similar, smaller events filled the Aquarius transits of the '60s and '90s, including a Supreme Court ruling that speech critical of political figures cannot be censored, U.K. and U.N. aligning against racial discrimination (giving aborigines their first voting rights in Australia), Castro's "freedom flights" allowing Cuban emigration to the U.S., a federal assault weapons ban, and other liberalizing law. Oh, and the miniskirt appeared, causing quite a stir and a small social revolution.

Liberal economic models have taken center stage. Seminal works by Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes were published with Saturn in Aquarius. Touching the same cord, President Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election with their biggest differences being their positions on racial equality and their starkly liberal vs. starkly conservative economic models.

It seems clear that Keynesian policies will continue to mark the post-Covid recovery and that quasi-Marxist criticism of undisciplined capitalism will be loud. Still, capitalism is in no sense dead. One mark of Saturn in Aquarius for the last century has been free trade, from the founding of the World Trade Organization (binding over a hundred countries into the largest trade organization ever) to the spirit (if not the fine points) of NAFTA. New forms of collective purchasing and economic relationship now will emerge.

Minimally restricted free trade will be one of the basic forces of the new period, breaking the economic chokehold and goods bottleneck of the Saturn in Capricorn years. I predict that, in ways I cannot personally imagine - perhaps ways that have not been invented as I write - democratizing commerce will be an innovative force, creating new kinds of non-plutocratic markets. After all, bridging the extremes of anti-Marxist aggressive capitalism and democratic consumer freedoms during the last pass of Saturn through Aquarius were the founding of both Amazon and eBay - at least, as they first appeared. Something needs to (and, therefore, will) bring the advantages of ecommerce to local brick and mortar shopping.

Science, invention, and technical progress have thrived under this transit. It takes no great insight to predict the continued march of science and technology and its ever-increasing contribution to our lives. Examples of past theoretical developments include Fresnel's writings on the wave theory of light or Einstein's new determination of molecular dimensions and publication of the special theory of relativity. Past practical developments include many in communication (which now will be less wired, of course). Bell and Edison were busy inventing and securing patents. Bell patented the telephone and established the world's first commercial phone service. Edison invented the phonograph and Berliner the microphone. Marconi introduced commercial trans-Atlantic longwave radio. Radar was proven useful in detecting airplanes. What new discoveries will logically extend these inventions between now and 2025?

Computer technology has introduced its most epic new platforms under Saturn in Aquarius. In the 1960s, IBM launched System/360 mainframes, while the BASIC programming language (among others) was created. In the '90s, Microsoft released Windows NT and Windows 95, Apple brought out the Power Macintosh, the first version of the Linux kernel appeared, and the Internet (already established in military, academic, and scientific circles) was unleashed on the general public. Again, democratizing power is a recognizable theme.

Technology stocks are likely winners for the new period. Saturn's sign transits always show areas where prices rise due to demand. Whether shortages of beef (Saturn in Taurus), gasoline (Gemini), housing (Cancer), or marketed gold (Leo), blocks in the service industry (Virgo), restrictions on immigration and foreign travel (Sagittarius), or lack of basic goods (Capricorn), scarcity has driven up markets. One can expect that Aquarius-themed markets (such as tech stocks, which already include the only trillionaire market value companies on the planet) are the new safe bet.

A separate category of scientific advance historically has been medical science breakthroughs. I predict dramatic genetic medicine developments arising from or moving past the brilliant mRNA methods that created the most successful SARS-Cov-2 vaccines. Traditional medicine will flourish during the upcoming period as brilliant science meets more enlightened, practical models of delivering health care. In the past, medical developments under Saturn in Aquarius included the discovery of the first broadly effective antibiotic, the introduction of ether as anesthesia, sulfonamide's success in treating streptococcus meningitis, and the first protase inhibitor to treat HIV (with consequent plunging of AIDS deaths). Is it too early to predict universal cancer prevention? (The AMA and Johns Hopkins were founded under this sign transit.)


Two other themes, though less critical to our lives, are so prevalent under Saturn in Aquarius as to warrant mention. First (recalling that ancient astrologers wrote of Aquarius primarily in terms of plumbing and waterways), Sidereal Aquarius is usually implicated whenever a big ditch is involved, especially a waterway, e.g., during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, a year Mars spent mostly in Aquarius. With Saturn in Aquarius, we find construction beginning on the Erie Canal (just after the U.S. and U.K. agreed to no armed vessels in the Great Lakes) and the subsequent completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. We find riots (and treaty renegotiations) over the Panama Canal and the opening of the Channel Tunnel between England and France. Other connecting channels also opened, such as the Triborough and Oakland Bay bridges. It may be fun to watch for events like this over the next few years.

In a related vein, water rights will be increasingly important and perhaps a primary area that climate change is in the news. (That, and pipeline topics in general.)

Agnosticism and atheism will become stronger social forces (consistent with stronger scientific thinking detached from belief). Several historic periods of Saturn in Aquarius have shown this trend, one so powerfully that Pope Pius IX penned his Qui pluribus encyclical in response. John Lennon casually remarked that the Beatles had become more popular than God (he was right, as sympathetic clerics around the nation remarked). Time magazine offered its memorable "Is God Dead?" cover story.

One can always find other points to make: The fruitfulness of astrological farming is ever bountiful. Other past events with Saturn in Aquarius include matters again on our radar, even though they may not have obvious Saturn or Aquarius themes. For example, we near the second Saturn return of the Warren Commission's report on the JFK assassination - will this mark final disclosures? Following the highly disputed 1876 presidential election, Congress gave the presidency to Hayes even though Tilden won the popular vote: Five Saturn cycles later, will this somehow reflect in the 2024 election? Will we see some analog of the OJ Simpson murders and trial having dominated a nation's attention for half of a Saturn in Aquarius passage?

In any case, the broad pattern of democratizing power, fighting for freedom, liberal social reforms and economic models, free trade, thriving of science and invention, surging of tech stocks, medical science breakthroughs, and pragmatic futurism - with more agnosticism and some fun stories about big ditches - seem pretty certain between early 2023 and the spring of 2025.

[Jim Eshelman]

[Here is the shortened form for my monthly U.S. forecasts. It loses much in the compression but may be more accessible to some.]

Democratizing power, rebelling against restriction, fighting for freedom. The masses rise against tyranny. A surging anti-imperial, anti-authoritarian wave with new constitutions, pivotal elections, social unrest, marches, riots, civil wars and other wrestling for liberty (with predictable resistance and push-back). Optimistic for voting rights and historic gains in racial equity. Liberal social reforms and economics, likely including universal health care and continued Keynesian policies. Free trade breaks economic bottlenecks. Democratizing commerce as an innovative force, creating new markets. Science, invention, and technology thrive (technology stocks win). Medical science breakthroughs, especially in genetic medicine. Traditional medicine flourishes as brilliant science meets a more enlightened, practical model of delivering health care. Water rights and other pipeline issues are increasingly important. Agnosticism and atheism become stronger social forces. Pragmatic futurism in diverse forms.

[Jim Eshelman]

Today, Saturn left Capricorn for good (this time around). Covid-19 is still with us, but the Covid-19 era that began January 30, 2020 is done and gone.

Now, onward to some sort of "brave, new world" with Saturn in Aquarius.

[Jim Eshelman]

Saturn in Aquarius means, at the moment, that Saturn and Neptune are in Aquarius. I don't think we'll see the full Saturn in Aquarius effect until Neptune leaves.

Meanwhile, the positive is that AI is likely to explode on the landscape with both here. The negative is I don't think most tech stocks will do as well in 2023 as they will in '24.

[Jim Eshelman]

As predicted, leaving Saturn in Capricorn means leaving the Covid-19 pandemic behind.

Today, only 5 days into Saturn in Aquarius, the White House just announced it is ending the national Covid public emergency state. They are delaying canceling the official alarm until May so hospitals etc. can make practical adjustments, but otherwise they'd end it today.

[Jim Eshelman]

Today's NY Times has an article that documents movement in the direction of what I called the democratization of technology. In some ways, it's a return to a pre-social media Internet but with newer tools. (Solunars.com is right in the flow of the trend.) Anyway, here is Saturn in Aquarius in action.

The Future of Social Media Is a Lot Less Social
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/tech ... ocial.html

[Jim Eshelman]

Goggle's latest breakthrough in quantum computing is an even bigger deal than AI. In fact, it might make fantasies of AI realistic. This is the kind of stuff that has happened every 30 years with Saturn in Aquarius.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/tech ... uting.html