We’ve discussed before the malefic tendency of hard aspects between Saturn and Pluto. We saw two example of this in the 9/11 attack and the Spanish American War. Here are three more examples.
The first one is the start of World War I, exactly 100 years ago this year. Because a number of alliances had been set up in Europe, it only took a spark to set the whole edifice on fire. That spark was the assassination of the Serbian Archduke by a deranged anarchist on June 28, 1914. This assassination allowed the various alliances to take sides, and Russia came to the support of Serbia and then it was all downhill. On this centennial year there have many book s exploring this onset of war, such as The Sleepwalkers, which describes accurately what the world was at the onset of war. For most of the West, the previous 100 years had been a relatively peaceful time, the first in memory. Sure there had been some wars, such as the Civil War in the United States, and the Crimean War, and, though few Americans are aware of it, but you can be sure the Chinese remember it, the Taiping Rebellion in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, which is considered one of the deadliest military conflicts in history, with at least 20 million deaths. But for the West things had been mostly peaceful since the Napoleonic Wars were over. It was considered that peace had broken out and would last forever. Possibly because there had been so little war that many (such as Theodore Roosevelt) worried that men had lost their manliness, and large armies were build up “just in case”.
In the first chart for the start of World War I, we see that Pluto has just entered the sign of Libra, a Cardinal point. This date, for the assassination, is considered the starting event for the War, but the hostilities didn’t start until at least a month later, and then the war slowly ramped up. The Americans did not enter the war until April of 1917. From the chart you can see that Saturn is conjunct Pluto and the conjunction will get tighter over the next months, as the war starts to build. World War I marked the first time that the developments of the Industrial Revolution could be really applied to warfare. Thanks, submarines, aircraft, automatic weapons, and poison gas could be used. The result was massive bloodshed.
The standard beginning date for World War II is Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, even though there was a multi-year run-up to the “official” war, including such things as the Spanish Civil War (1936), Japan’s invasion of China (1937), and Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia (1938). The chart above is set for the official date. Note that there is a square between Saturn and Pluto; Saturn is retrograde and the square will get weaker before it gets tighter. Note also that Saturn is opposite the North Node of the Moon, and thus conjunct the South Node.
Some consider World War II a continuation of World War I. Certainly the harsh reparation forced on Germany after World War I had an effect. But Germany did enjoy a flowering of culture and democracy, called the Weimar Republic, after the War. This was the “Twenties” in Germany and lasted until the Great Depression started to take effect. We all know what came next.
The third chart is for a event called “The first 9/11” by those in the Western hemisphere. There was also an important event in South Africa on a 9/11/1906 in the history of non-violence, but that is a discussion for elsewhere. The event of 9/11/1973 was the occasion of the death of Salvador Allende of Chile and Augusto Pinochet taking power in that country, leading to a military dictatorship that lasted until 1990. Unlike the start of a war, especially World War I, the start of the Chilean dictatorship was very rapid. On this specific day the government of Chile was overthrown and the current president died, whether by the army or his own hand is still unknown. But there was an immediate change in government.
In the chart for 9/11/1973 we again see the Saturn square Pluto, with a very tight orb that is only four minutes of arc. And notice again that Saturn is opposite the North Node of the Moon and thus conjunct the South Node of the Moon, just as we saw in the chart for the start of World War II.
It is interesting that in two of these cases we see Saturn conjunct the South Node of the Moon as well as square Pluto. How should we interpret this? The South Node of the Moon sometimes has Saturnian connotations, especially in Indian astrology. This would increase the Saturnian influence. It also suggests difficulties in connections with others. It goes without saying that in both these instances, this Saturn-Node meaning played itself out.
For more details of Saturn and Pluto see Section V of Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas.