As this series has shown, outer planet midpoints involving Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto represent what I call a Zeitgeist Change in the whole of world society. The zeitgeist is the overriding spirit of the time, the often unconscious background upon which all actions play. It is like the water a fish swims in, something that is so omnipresent that you are unaware of it.
The first midpoint of the Twenty-First Century will be special, one might even say extraordinary, for reasons listed in the paragraphs below. I would suggest that because the midpoint is extraordinary the changes happening at this midpoint will also be extraordinary, special, something beyond what is normally expected at a zeitgeist change.
As we have seen, there are three types of outer planet midpoints: The most common type has Uranus or Pluto at the apex. These alternate through the ages, occurring two or three times per century. The second type is a grand trine type, with all three planets taking turns as the apex point, because the planets are all roughly trine and in signs of the same element. This type occurs every 500 years, the last one being in the later Eighteenth Century — the Enlightenment Midpoint. The third type, which also occurs once every 500 years, is Neptune as the apex; the last time this type occurred was in the first decade of the Sixteenth Century, which saw the world change drastically as Europeans discovered the other hemisphere of the globe. As you might have guessed, this upcoming outer planet midpoint has Neptune at the apex. From limited evidence, this type of zeitgeist change sets the scene for the next 500 years.
Most midpoints last about three years. Of course you can extend this by giving a bigger orb, but with a reasonably small orb, say two degree, that is how long they last. For example, the one at the end of the World War Two lasted 1944-1946 and the one at the end of the Seventies was 1978-1980. But by using those same rules, this midpoint will last 2021-2029, a full nine years, as can be seen in the graphical ephemeris. This is because of the motions of Neptune and Pluto; we’ve seen something like this before with the “long sextile” of Neptune and Pluto in the Forties, Fifties, Sixties , Seventies, and Eighties. This happens because of the very eccentric orbit of Pluto so that for some times it travels inside the orbit of Neptune.
Notice also that Neptune is at 0 Aries for two of those years. The cardinal axis is important to show events that effect the whole world, so a contact with the cardinal axis, and especially 0 Aries, marks this midpoint as very important, as if an exclamation mark were added to it. The black horizontal line represents the Aries point, and you can see the path of Neptune and the Uranus/Pluto midpoint cross it near the vertical center line representing August 10, 2025.
Also notice that for part of the time that Neptune is at 0 Aries, Saturn is conjunct Neptune. We talked about the Saturn-Neptune conjunction last time. The previous conjunction was in 1989, at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is the next conjunction, and to emphasize its importance, it is on 0 Aries. A phrase describing this conjunction of Saturn and Neptune is, “Well, it was a good idea at the time”. One wonders what ideas will be tossed aside under this important Saturn Neptune conjunction. If there is a realization of a major ecological crisis at the time, as I have previously suggested, perhaps what will be seen to be no longer a good idea is the consumptive lifestyle of many Western nations.
But not only is this a long lasting midpoint configuration, but aspects are involved also. We have Uranus trine Pluto, the opening trine from the conjunction of those two planets in the Sixties, Uranus sextile Neptune, and Neptune sextile Pluto, in what is often called a mini grand trine. But as you can imagine, an aspect formation involving the three other planets is very rare. If we don’t count conjunctions, there was an opposition, sextile, trine in 1538, a T-Square (also a midpoint) in 1567, a square, sesquiquadrate, semisquare in 1612, and opposition, trine, sextile in 1736, a grind trine in 1770 (also a midpoint), and another square, sequiquadrate, semisquare in 1932 (see part 1 for details) but none were nearly as long lasting as this one.
As we can see from this graphical ephemeris, this aspect configuration is also long lasting, running from (depending on orbs) from 2024 through 2029. This graphical ephemeris is in the sixth harmonic, so when the lines are close together — conjunct — the aspect is happening. The Neptune-Pluto sextile goes on even longer, to 2033 or so. This is the return of the long sextile.
From what has been written, it should be obvious that at this time all three of the outer planets change signs (and thus aspect the Aries point) and all three go into positive signs: Uranus goes into Gemini in 2025, Neptune goes into Aries 2025, and Pluto goes into Aquarius in 2023. Books have been written about historic changes as a single outer planet changes signs: see for example The Astrology of Sustainability by J. Lee Lehman. One can only imagine the impressive changes in store when all three outer planets change signs at the same time!
But the USA chart is also heavily involved with this midpoint, as the next chart shows. That Saturn Neptune conjunction is opposite the MC of the US, and thus both Uranus and Pluto are trine the Midheaven of the US charts, the public image of the country. And of course the Uranus-Pluto midpoint is on the MC of the US — more Uranus Pluto energy coming into the US!
This graphical ephemeris shows how Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Mars come together on the United States Midheaven in early August 2025. This represents a two year period, so you can see how the planets approach the US MC. The solid horizontal black line is the Aries point, and right below it the dashed black line is the United States Midheaven. You can see how Saturn (blue grey line — glyph at the bottom), Uranus (blue line), Neptune (violet line), Pluto (dark red line), and Mars (red line almost going vertical, since it has a period of two years) all come together on the US MC at the center vertical line representing August 8, 2025, the- same as the wheel chart shows.
But also remember the outer planets and the US chart. We previously mentioned the Pluto return of the US, in 2022 and 2023. This happens just as this midpoint configuration starts to kick in. At about the same time there is a Neptune semi-return, where Neptune is opposed to its natal position. Then coming up is a the Uranus return later in 2027 and 2028. These returns of outer planets to their natal positions in the US chart indicate changes in that country.
And finally, we have Neptune crossing the MC axis when it is conjoined the IC in the US chart in 2025, and then Uranus crosses the Descendant in 2028, fulfilling once again the crisis aspects that previously have occurred five times in the US chart, corresponding to five crises that became increasingly severe. This suggests a sixth crisis, larger than the first five. But of course with all these other changes happening at the same time, this is baked in.
So it all adds up to major changes, the year of the jackpot, or the perfect storm. I have given my ideas of what needs to change; looking around at the world, there is no lack of things that have gone on for far too long. This midpoint configuration starts out in a few years, but it is preceded by other things such as the important Pluto return that I talked about a short time ago. The future is coming at us, and few are prepared.
Uranian sidebar
For those of you who use the eight hypothetical planets of Uranian astrology, there is something else that corresponds to what was said above. Both Kronos and Hades cross the Sun of the US and shortly thereafter conjoin in this period of the midpoint, as is shown in the wheel and graphical ephemeris below. Kronos can be described as everything above normal; Presidents usually have a strong Kronos because it indicates authority. Donald Trump has Kronos at the Midheaven with either used birth time. Hades can be thought of as representing disaster and also ancient wisdom. Doctors who treat the very ill and astrologers have prominent Hades, as well as do the very ill. The conjunction could in one interpretation be thought of as representing a very great disaster. But a more positive interpretation is reaching new heights because of a disaster. Notice that the conjunction of the US Sun by Kronos precedes the conjunction by Hades by two years. Optimist that I am, I interpret this as the US will have two years to finally become an adult before the disaster hits it, and thus able to help the rest of the world when the conjunction of those two planets happens at the end of the decade. It’s all up to us.
This graphical ephemeris showing those two hypothetical planets looks a bit daunting. On the left and near the top we see the light brown path of Kronos intersecting the dashed yellow line representing the Sun of the US near the black arrow. This is 2021-2023. Then, a little farther along, we see the darker brown line representing Hades intersecting the Sun at the red arrow. This is 2024-2026. Finally the two planets conjoin at the green arrow in 2029-2031. On that same image we can see the mini-grand trine of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto to the left of the center line, representing 5/16/2029, indicated by the blue arrow.
And finally here are three images of those three points of interest: Kronos conjunct the US Sun on 4/30/2022; Hades conjunct the Sun on 4/30/2025, and finally Hades conjunct Kronos on 4/20/2030, about five degrees beyond the US Sun.