The major contours of history are shown by the transits of the outer planets — Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. For example, World War One was shown by a semisextile between Neptune and Pluto, the Great Depression was indicated by a semisquare/square/sesquiquadrate between those three planets, World War Two was shown by a trine between Uranus and Pluto, the Cold War was indicated by the long sextile between Neptune and Pluto that lasted (as did the Cold War between the United States and allied powers and the Soviet Union and its allied powers) between 1945 and 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, and the Sixties by a conjunction between Uranus and Pluto.
Here are charts that illustrate these aspects. Included is both a wheel chart showing when the aspect is exact, and the the appropriate graphical ephemeris showing how the aspect behaved over time. A brief note for those not used to a graphical ephemeris (described in the section Definitions at the top of this page). The graphical ephemeris shows the motions of the planets over time, and this is indicated by the horizontal scale along the bottom. The graphical ephemeris is shown in the harmonic appropriate to make the aspect in question look like a conjunction; thus for example the semisextile — thirty degrees — is a twelfth harmonic (30 X 12 = 360, a full circle) aspect so that a graphical ephemeris to show the semisextile between Neptune and Pluto shows those two planets being close together in the time period shown is drawn in the twelfth harmonic.
This first chart shows a fairly exact semisextile between Neptune and Pluto, which were conjunct a quarter century earlier, on 9/23/1916, in the midst of World War One. The next image shows the graphical ephemeris from June 1914 when the conflict started, to when the conflict ended about where the black arrow is. You can see that the semisextile started becoming within orb at the start of the war on the far left of the graph, got very tight during the middle part of the war, and then separated.
This next chart shows an exact triangle consisting of Uranus sesquiquadrate Neptune, Neptune semisquare Pluto, and Pluto square Uranus to complete the figure on 4/7/1932 at the height of the Great Depression. In the corresponding graphical ephemeris, we can see a close Neptune-Pluto semisquare with Uranus approaching aspect with the two at the left of the graph, right as the Great Depression was starting. Then all three travel together — in the eighth harmonic — in the peak of the Great Depression. Finally, by 1935, the three planets begin to separate from aspects.
In this next set of charts, we see an exact trine between Uranus and Neptune on 4/7/1942, when World War Two was going strong and all parties were involved. In the graphical ephemeris, Uranus and Neptune start to travel in trine at the left of the chart in 1936, when the war really started with Japan invading China, Franco attacking forces in the Spanish Civil War, and Germany invading several countries. The war officially started in early September 1939, with Germany attacking Poland; this is the second vertical line to the left of the center line, where the trine is exact. The trine separates after 1943 and gets even wider as the war draws to a close.
With the Cold War, we see an exact sextile between Neptune and Pluto on June 27, 1953, when the Cold War was going strong. But the Cold War lasted a long time, from 1945 until the disappearance of one of the protagonists of the Cold War in 1991. In this graphical ephemeris spanning 50 years, we see that Neptune and Pluto start to get within orb of a sextile at the far left of the graph in 1945, and they go in and out of exactitude over the next 50 years. The sextile finally separates for good in late 1990 and 1991. You can see that the two periods where the aspect was very exact in the early Fifties and the early Eighties.
Finally here are two charts for the Sixties, the first showing an exact conjunction on April 4, 1966. The corresponding graphical ephemeris shows Uranus and Pluto approaching conjunction in 1964 (though with a larger orb it may have been earlier — the separation at the far left between the two planets is about five degrees), the conjunction is exact in 1965 and 1966, and then the conjunction widens after that with the orb being about four degrees at the right of the graph, which is September 1967.
Aspects involving all three planets are more potent that those involving just two, and the strongest of those is the midpoint. Midpoints involving the three outer planets occur at most three times a century and, as we shall see later, these midpoint configurations indicate a major change in the zeitgeist of society, one so great that it can be called a “Soft Coup.” People who come of age after the midpoint do not realize that the world was ever different than what they know, and others soon forget that the world was once different, so that they begin to accept the new reality as having always be the fact. These are zeitgeist changes. Zeitgeist is a German word that means spirit of the time, the way people think or believe, like the water that a fish swims in. Once you forget that the zeitgeist has changed and believe that things have always been as they are now, you also come to believe that things can’t change, that they will always be like they are now. That is the difficulty many people have as they attempt to predict the future; they think that things will go on as they are now, and as they have always been — they just carry on the trends that are happening now for a few more years.
There are two or three midpoints most centuries and (for the last 2000 years) they alternate between Uranus at the apex with Pluto at the apex. There are two exceptions: the first is that once every 500 years we have Neptune at the apex. From a limited sample, these midpoints are the most important since they indicate a change that will influence the next 500 years. The last such midpoint was about 1503-1506; this period saw publication of the first maps of the earth that were similar to the ones we use today; the voyages of the previous decade had shown the Europeans that there were new continents. These new maps and conception of the world set the stage for the subsequent colonization and exploitation of that new hemisphere that would definitively influence and shape the next half millennium — the 500 Year Party. The previous midpoint with Neptune at apex was 990-993, and that period saw the rise of Otto I — first ruler of the Holy Roman Empire — and a rebirth of art in the medieval period. This is called the Ottonian Renaissance. In China the Song Dynasty started, and there soon resulted in what is called the Song Renaissance, where among other things gunpowder and movable type were developed.
The other exception is that once every 500 years there is a century where the three outer planets are in signs of the same element so there is potentially a grand trine. In this case all three take tuns being the apex planet. This is the only midpoint activity of that century. The last trine like this occurred in the period 1760-1776. This saw the Enlightenment and the birth of the United States. The one before that was in 1240 through 1265. Mongol hordes from Asia, led by grandsons of Genghis Khan, had been attacking Europe for many years in the Thirteenth Century, and may have introduced gunpowder into Europe; they mysteriously started to withdraw in 1242. Perhaps the fact that the climate changed significantly at this point was one of the reasons for the sudden withdrawal. But the next quarter century, the period of this midpoint configuration, was a time when the beaten Europe had to recover itself and redefine its reality.
Here a my preliminary thoughts to the meanings, beyond the zeitgeist change, for these various types of outer planet midpoints. Uranus apex midpoints signify a change; this is sort of the default midpoint result. Pluto apex midpoints are a more transformative change. Neptune apex midpoints represent the most far reaching change, determining the next 500 years, but also the most nebulous or least obvious. The grand trine configuration of all three apex planets in a midpoint represents a change in many dimensions over a wide period of time.
About 2500 years ago — 576BCE — there was a triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Since the period of Neptune is about twice the period of Uranus, and that of Pluto is three times the period of Uranus, this is not impossible. The period for the conjunction of all three is about 4000 years so the next will occur in 3369CE. But for the 500 years or so after this conjunction, that is before the Common Era started, the midpoints of those three outer planets did not follow the scheme indicated above. The midpoint of this 4000 year cycle was in 1396 so we are in the second half of this long cycle.