Epochs of Revolution

I took the title of this blog from Richard Tarnas' book Psyche and Cosmos.  Each chapter is devoted to a pair of outer planets that periodically form geometric patterns in the sky. Tarnas writes about what synchronistically unfolded in the social, political, cultural, literary and scientific affairs in the western world at the same time.  Uranus and Pluto is the pair we are focusing on with these days.  Uranus coincides with sudden awakenings and Pluto with revolutionary uprisings and shifts in power that affect large numbers of people.This current alignment of these 2 has been  in orb of influence since 2007 and will be until 2020.

Epochs of revolution have beginnings at the conjunction or apparent merging of the two bodies (think monthly New Moons when the Sun and Moon are together).  At that time a new concept of what counts as truth is formed. The last time Uranus and Pluto were together was 1960-1972, most intensely exact between 1965-6.  Approximately 40 years later the opening 90 degree square forms between the same 2 planets. That is when the seeds formed in 1965 have to be modified or redefined. One example of this is Medicare, enacted in 1965 and now by the agreement of all parties needs modification.

Certainly the polarity of the platforms held by the democrats and republicans in the current election is an example of this country (and many others) at a crisis point.  Are going to go backwards from the progressive movement started in the 60's and undo those reforms in social policy made then, or are we going to strengthen and expand those initiatives? We are at a crossroads; voting for one side or the other will have a decided effect on our lives. The crossroads coincide with the opening square of Uranus and Pluto. Our change in perspective as to who we are, our place in and responsibility for the world we live in has to take a more defined form.  There is a great deal of tension surrounding these shifts as there are many who are incapable of seeing the world differently than they have known it to be and hang on for dear life.

We are speaking of it today for two reasons.  One is that becoming conscious of the second of seven exact 90 degree opening squares between Uranus and Pluto (through March 2015), occurring on the 18th of this month, will help us navigate our way ahead; and secondly I was inspired to write about a prime mover of another epoch of revolution as I heard Dava Sobel at Ross School speak about her latest book and play centered on Copernicus (1473-1543).

Copernicus was one of those highly educated persons whose intuitive and reasoned insights changed the way we thought of ourselves and our place in the universe.  As Tarnas says:  "The nature of the Copernican revolution was so fundamental that what had to be rethought was not only all the conventional scientific theories but the entire hierarchy of humanity's place in the universal scheme of things: its relation to the rest of nature and to the cosmos, its relation to the divine, the basis for its morality, its capacity for certain knowledge, its historical self-understanding."

The beginning of what was to become know as the Copernican revolution was at the conjunction of Pluto and Uranus that occurred during the years 1450-1461. Uranus and Pluto conjunctions form once approximately every 100-150 years and usher in periods of cultural and political upheaval.  Guttenberg developed the movable-type printing press during the conjunction years, which was the necessary prerequisite for the Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment as new ideas could spread through printed materials.  Copernicus was at Krakow University 1491-95 studying, among other things cosmology (not called that then of course) during the same opening square of Uranus and Pluto that we are experiencing now.

The publication of Copernicus' book did not occur until 1543 when Uranus and Pluto had come 180 degrees to each other and the fulfillment of the promise inherent in the coupling of the same 2 planets 100 years before. Copernicus knew that what he was proposing: that the earth moved around the Sun and also on its axis was revolutionary, upsetting thousand of years of unquestionable belief that the earth stood still.  It was not until 50 years later when Kepler and  Galileo made their mathematical calculations and planetary observations with the telescope that confirmed the heliocentric theory and the Scientific Revolution was advanced forward.

The next few years we will live through are the 1/2 way point between the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto 1960-72 and their coming 180 away from each other in the 2040's.   We now need another Copernican Revolution as upsetting to the status quo as his theory was then. A revolution in rethinking humanity's place in the universal scheme of things, the consequences of our actions on our planet and towards each other, our morality and self understanding.  

I heard Tim Bishop speak yesterday, incumbent in Congress running a race with a right-wing opponent whose policies, speak to holding on for dear life to the life they have made for themselves with those like themselves. Bishop said this election was a confirming or defining one. We voted "hope and change" with Obama in in 2008 but we need another election cycle, this one, to confirm we are set on the path chosen then, or do we want to regress backwards? We are at a turning point and the second square of Uranus and Pluto (with Pluto stationing direct-extra powerful) exact again on the 18th and close to the equinox on the 22nd will not go unnoticed.  Are we able to move forward and free ourselves from old ways of seeing things or are we in denial of the realities in front of us?