The World Without:

A Powerful Election Season

If you are like us, you are feeling a bit of interference from the intensity of this election season in the U.S.A. Even without the election, the news buffet is overly abundant. Like never before, we are inundated by the 24 hour news cycle and the chaos of social media. Maintaining peaceful awareness of our role in the powerful play of life supports our ability to remain centered. Let’s take a closer look at the election (the world without) and then focus closer to home (the world within).

One of the key ways to unlock the insights of astrology is to evaluate planetary astrological cycles. At The Traveler’s Well Astrology, we view life as a journey of spirit and astrology acts as a guide for that eternal journey of growth and expansion. A focus of Evolutionary Astrology is the movements of the slow moving outer planets that are essential to our evolution via their astrological cycles. The outer planets patiently mark time on this eternal journey and, in 2020, they highlight a powerful reason this election is particularly meaningful.

The magic number at this time is 84

Eighty-four years takes us back in time to the election of 1936 and the cycles of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The election of 1936 took place in the height of the Depression and the era of the New Deal. President Roosevelt was the incumbent and was working to enact several additional New Deal provisions as the enactment of Unemployment Benefits and Social Security were already in place and proving very popular with the electorate. President Roosevelt won the election in a landslide.

Let’s explore this 84 year astrological cycle and the connections in the cycle of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto related to the chart of the United States and the elections of both 1936 and 2020.

Transiting Uranus

First, the length of time it takes Uranus to orbit the Sun is 84 years, which means Uranus will transit every degree of your birth chart over an 84 year period. The same is true for the chart of the United States and the election in 1936, was 84 years ago. In 1936, transiting Uranus was at 7 degrees of Taurus and was square the nodes of the moon in the chart for the U.S.A. with the South Node at 7 degrees Aquarius and the North Node at 7 degrees Leo.

Fast forward 84 years to the election of 2020, and transiting Uranus is again squaring the South and North Nodes of the moon in the chart for the U.S.A. Similar to 1936, Uranus square the nodes marks an important time regarding the potential for a change in direction of the nation. We do not have The Great Depression as a backdrop, but we do have economic impacts from the covid-19 pandemic that are rattling our foundations.

Uranus is known as the Great Awakener

Via transits, Uranus creates sudden situations that serve to shock you and wake you up so that you can liberate. Why? In order for you to experience the full capacity of your authenticity. This is happening for the U.S.A. at the time of this election with the key words being sudden, change and awaken. It is this sudden nature of change that makes Uranus a powerful, transforming planet.

This may be one reason we feel the tug of war presented by the external events so strongly right now as we, along with the collective, struggle with notions related to the authentic expression of our country that move us in the present moment along the spectrum of the past to the future as represented by the south node of the moon (the past) and the north node of the moon (the future).

Transiting Neptune

Second, Neptune’s orbit around the sun is 165 years (Neptune’s orbit is a bit variable), but he is now at the opposite point in the sky from where he was 84 years ago. Hence, he is making the same aspect to the chart of the U.S.A., but from a different vantage point.

At the election in 1936, transiting Neptune was at 18 degrees of Virgo and almost conjunct the Neptune in the USA chart, meaning it was the Neptune return for the United States and a time of recognizing our dreams and beliefs about the meaning of the nation! This transit happened against the back drop the global Great Depression where citizens considered how a nation would collectively respond to the challenges of the times.

For the election of 2020, transiting Neptune will be at 18 degrees of Pisces, exactly opposed where he was in 1936. This is not a Neptune Return (new cycle) as in 1936, but rather a Neptune opposition, which represents a half way marker in Neptune’s cycle and asks ‘how is it going down there’. This opposition is a time of taking stock of those dreams and beliefs in the context of where we are today.

Neptune in Pisces Represents The Collective Dream

Neptune in Pisces relates to perfection, to utopia. During uncertain times, the external world is less perfect than ever, and it makes it feel as if utopia has moved too deeply into the mist for us to even glimpse it. Especially when external circumstances seem contrary to your personal spiritual truth, the resulting disillusionment can feel like the tidal wave created by Neptune that pulls us under.

In 1936, the impact of the Great Depression was financially much more devastating than the impacts of covid-19. With the new Neptune cycle in 1936, the collective spoke in support of the measures like Social Security and Unemployment Benefits that had not existed prior.

In 2020, with Neptune opposing Neptune, we are being asked as a nation if programs like Social Security and Unemployment Benefits are still as meaningful today as they were when they were founded in 1936.

Transiting Pluto

Third, Pluto’s orbit around the sun is 248 years, but because his orbit varies a great deal, he is also at the opposite point from where he was 84 years ago. At the election in 1936, transiting Pluto was at 28 degrees of Cancer and was opposing Pluto at 27 Capricorn in the U.S.A. chart. It was the test of the Pluto opposition!

For the election of 2020, transiting Pluto will be at 22 degrees of Capricorn, roughly opposed where he was in 1936. This is a time of taking stock of the meaning and purpose of power and wealth for the nation and its citizens in the context of where we are today.

A Pluto Return Transforms The Soul Of A Nation

Even more importantly, this is a wake-up call prior to the very important Pluto Return in the U.S.A. chart in 2022. We can expect much of the intensity we are presently experiencing in the nation to continue through the Pluto Return. This election marks a key evolutionary juncture for the soul of the nation, which will continue to transform through 2022.

Given the cycle of Pluto, individuals never experience a Pluto Return as we do not live for 248 years. At most, we experience the first Pluto square at roughly 85 years. Given that the planet Pluto was only discovered in 1930, our conscious awareness of his planetary existence has not experienced a full Pluto cycle.

These next two years will be quite intense as the power of Pluto is a bit like the Wookie Chewbacca in Star Wars playing chess with C3PO where Han Solo says ‘Let the Wookie win’. Why? Because, if you do not, he will rip your arms off. That is dramatic, but Pluto demands transformation at any cost. This is another reason for the intensity of this key marker on the Pluto Return journey for the U.S.A.

This concludes our ‘The World Without’ section of the journey. Let’s now explore ‘The World Within’!

The World Within:

A Powerful Season of Awareness

While the external world of politics and social engagement goes on around us, there is another side of life – the world within. The world within embodies the perspective of spirituality and the journey of the soul. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto play important roles in the external world without and in the internal world within.

In the external world of society and politics:

Uranus is concerned with democracy,
Neptune with religion and spirituality, and
Pluto with wealth and power.

In the internal world of spirituality, religion and our beliefs:

Uranus is concerned with free will and authenticity,
Neptune with purification of our thoughts, words and actions, and
Pluto with healing our deepest emotional wounds that leads to transformation.

During challenging times, external circumstances seem to push all of the buttons. You might feel uncertain or fearful or just irritated. The feelings are there to remind us that we have more spiritual work to do. Swami Rama of the Himalayas often said, “Life’s adversities are here to help you. They can become instruments of your progress.” Times when we experience particularly challenging circumstances in the external world can be a really good time to make spiritual progress.

Paramahansa Yogananda would ask astrologers to identify his most challenging days so that he could achieve the greatest results by being fully awake!

When external circumstances make you fearful, sad or angry, what should you do? Here are a couple of ideas.

be kind with yourself

It is OK to feel uncertain. Many of those around you are having similar feelings. Spend some quiet moments focusing on the world within and isolating what belongs to you from the noise of the external world. The movie of the external world will continue to play on whether you are paying attention or not. So, give yourself a break from the noise and feel the peace of tending your own garden.

Acknowledge your feelings

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge your feelings and reactions to circumstances that you wish you didn’t feel. It is OK that you are not perfect. It is OK that you are still learning. Perfection is not possible in the external realm of humanity as the powerful play of maya unfolds on the earth. Recognize your role, hold the light near to you and strengthen your own fortress.

Patience

Progress on establishing any changes you make a priority will come one step at a time. Be patient knowing that healing and spiritual growth come one step at a time. The eternal journey represents the long-view and when you hold the long-view, from the perspective of the soul, the authority of patience increases opening the gate to your garden so that peace, calm and joy can enter.

Wishing you peace and contentment within in the midst of challenging times without and may you move in harmony with the Sun, Moon and stars.

October 2020 - Cycles of Uranus, Neptune & Pluto