Progressive Policies and the Uranus/Pluto Cycle

PROGRESSIVE POLICIES AND THE URANUS/PLUTO CYCLE

Progressive administrations have initiated major liberal policies during successive Uranus/Pluto conjunctions, squares, and oppositions.  Uranus and Pluto are both planets of change – radical and revolutionary in the case of Uranus; totalitarian and transformative in the case of Pluto.  Together they point to unstable times when sudden dramatic shifts in national policy take place.  Old doctrines are dismantled replaced by innovative new ideas designed to correct social problems that in end dramatically redirect the nation.

Transiting Uranus opposite Pluto in the heavens (1899, 1901-02) corresponded with the Spanish-American War that turned America from isolationism and established it as a world power during the McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt administrations.  The country’s industrialization and the growth of huge, powerful trusts in such fields as steel, railroads, banks, and financial institutions led a group of reformists, who call themselves Progressives, to demand control of the large trusts.  Roosevelt works to curb the power of the trusts and to promote Federal regulation of private business.  His devotion to natural resource preservation leads to the Reclamation Act and building of the Roosevelt Dam.  Roosevelt also acts as mediator in a miner’s strike that put the nation in a coal shortage.  The strikers demand an eight-hour day, a 20% wage increase, and union recognition.  The conservative press disapproved of the Presidential initiative but the deal gains Roosevelt wide public support and considerable political leverage.

Uranus/Pluto square from 1932-34 marked another monumental rise of government programs under reform-minded Franklin D. Roosevelt who promises a “new deal” for all Americans.  His election platform calls for a greatly expanded public works program.  To address the Great Depression Roosevelt adds many new federal agencies to enable the executive branch to manipulate the economy.  Many of these huge agencies are still in existence today: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the FHA and the TVA.  In 1934, Congress passes a long list of legislation that almost rivals that of 1933.  Additional agencies are created, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which greatly expands the authority of the federal government.  The Social Security Act is passed in 1935.

L.B.J’s Great Society of welfare reform and passage of the Civil Rights Act take place during the Uranus/Pluto conjunction of 1965-66.  The growth of the Vietnam War increases dissent and splits the country in open revolt at times.  Massive government outlays to keep the war going and also pay for welfare commitments stimulate inflation, pushing prices and interest rates to record highs.

The long seven phase Uranus/Pluto square from June 2012 – March 2015 corresponds with Obama’s pledge to “fundamentally change America.”  He does so by ending the Great Recession with a $787 billion economic stimulus plan, a bailout of the automobile industry, and passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Act to regulate banks and the financial industry.  Business regulations are expanded and the Affordable Care Act mandates that everyone buy health insurance.  The Iran nuclear agreement in July 2015 forestalls by 10 years the day when Iran can obtain a nuclear weapon.  The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership are two other efforts to reshape American industry to fit global standards that came about during this cycle.  Lax immigration laws allow thousands of illegal immigrants to enter the country.  Same-sex marriage becomes legal and sexual orientation acceptance more commonplace.  A great polarization between Americans politically, religiously, and socially also develops at this time.

The next super surge of progressive liberalism in America is due during the Uranus opposition Pluto of 2046-48.  This period is likely to be in response to widespread warfare and social unrest.