In 1499 the German astrologer Johann Stoffler predicted the world would be destroyed by a catastrophic flood on February 4, 1524, due to an ominous conjunction of planets in Pisces, the zodiacal sign of water. It wasn't long before other astrologers quickly followed suit by lending their support to Stoffler's claim of an impending deluge, spurring many to build boats or relocate to higher ground. Even the philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli chimed in at one point by writing verses urging others to escape to the high hills to avoid the coming cataclysm.

 

 

As it turned out, 1524 came and went without any catastrophe, and certainly produced no such "flood"—or so it seemed. If we stand back and broaden our historical focus just a bit we'll see that quite a lot happened, actually, but it didn't unfold precisely in 1524, nor was it as straightforward as astrologers of the time predicted.

 

 

As befits the symbolism of Pisces, the years and decades which followed witnessed a profound change in the world, but one involving the religious sensibility of men and women, as the once all-powerful Catholic church found itself convulsed by dissent amongst its parishioners and priests. That reached a tipping point ten years later, in 1534, when Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, thus making it available to ordinary people and undercutting the privileged status of papal authority. It would be the beginning of the end for the centralized church, a Copernican shift in the religious world, as it were.

 

 

So in reality, a "flood" did occur, but it involved a different manner of Piscean symbolism altogether, and unfolded over a much longer span of time. 1

 

 

Examples like this tell us something important about the nature and symbolism of stelliums, and how they operate in our world. Take a close look at their timing throughout history and you'll find that they rarely exert their full influence right away, tending instead to reveal their true power over years or even decades. In that respect I've come to think of them as "industrial strength New Moons." Ever heard the phrase "what the New Moon promises, the Full Moon delivers"? That's true of all conjunctions, actually, since they represent the starting point of larger cycles. When Pluto and Neptune came together in the early 1890s, for instance, it planted a seed that continued to unfold in the decades which followed in the areas of religion, technology, and the arts.

 

 

So when an entire group of planets comes together to form a multiple-conjunction—what astrologers properly term a stellium—it signals a change of an even more momentous sort, particularly if one or more of the outer planets are involved. Such configurations serve as history's engines of change, indicating seismic shifts in the cultural imagination on multiple levels simultaneously. Whenever they occur throughout the centuries, we see one chapter in the collective consciousness closing off and another one opening up, a proverbial "changing of the guard" in one area or another.

 

 

This understanding of planetary line-ups is something that artists, poets and filmmakers through the years have intuitively sensed, as for example in Jim Henson's Dark Crystal, or Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, where major shifts in evolution were shown accompanied by major line-ups of planets.

 

With that in mind, it's worth taking a look at some other significant events from history to see how an understanding of stelliums can shed light on their meaning and timing.

 

 

The Events of 9/11

It may have been writer and esoteric scholar Manly Palmer Hall who first suggested that major wars are often accompanied or preceded by major multiple planet line-ups. That isn't simply because stelliums are inherently negative or violent, but because they signal seismic changes in consciousness—of which wars and revolution are the most turbulent expressions. Think of the word "revolution" itself, which is an astronomical term describing the completion of a cycle, of something coming "full circle" then starting up again. The effects of stelliums are revolutionary in the truest sense of the word.

 

There are countless examples of this from recent history. The Spanish American War was preceded by a six-planet line up in Sagittarius during early December of 1899; the outbreak of World War I was accompanied by a close conjunction of six planets in Aquarius during January of 1914, all within six degrees; America’s entry into World War II followed on the heels of a major lineup in Taurus in May of 1941; while the multiple planet lineup of 1962 preceded the nearly-apocalyptic Cuban Missile Crisis later that fall. To that short list I'd add the seven planet line-up that occurred in January of 1994 in Capricorn, followed just a few weeks later by the horrific slaughter in Rwanda of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children.

 

 

So when I learned that a significant line-up of planets was slated to occur in May of 2000, involving the planets Mars, Mercury, Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, all in the earthy sign of Taurus, I wondered whether we'd see a major conflict taking shape in its wake, too. The last time we saw a stellium in Taurus this significant was back in early 1941, the same year we saw the world plunged into a global conflict following the bombing of Pearl Harbor several months later in December.

 

But if a major conflict was going to unfold this time around, what form would it take? And who would be battling who, I wondered? I've come to believe we can get an early sense of what a major stellium might bring by looking closely for subtle clues or omens around the time of the alignment itself. That's because even though the full effects of the alignment won't be felt right away, their effects will announce their presence in the form of "seed symbols" early on. Those can show up in any number of places, such as movies, books, TV shows, or other social developments. For example, the twelve months following the Uranus/Neptune conjunction of 1993 saw the emergence into popular consciousness of the internet, a development that has since gone on to alter our world in ways far greater than anyone at the time could have imagined. 1993 was also the year the Hubble Telescope became fully active—a technological marvel that's since gone on to change our understanding of the universe. Anyone paying attention back in the early 1990s could have predicted developments like these could have long-lasting repercussions without too much effort, simply by merit of the timing involved.

 

 

So when I learned that a major Hollywood film was about to be released exactly in the midst of the 2000 stellium, I was curious to see if anything in the film might might hold clues for our near future. Sitting in the movie theater that first weekend, I was particularly struck by the film's opening sequence, which depicted a battle between the Roman legions and barbarians at the Empire's borders. I thought much about that scene in the coming months, and on finishing up my second book Signs of the Times one year later, wrote the following passage about what that sequence could portend for the long-range impact of the Taurus stellium:

 

       "…as of this writing (Spring, 2001), there are disturbing signs of unrest taking shape around the                world, particularly in the Middle East, along with growing concerns over terrorist activity                          directed against the United States by militant factions from that region. Perhaps this uneasiness                shows another level of significance in Gladiator, released during the May 2000 lineup. In that                    film’s first major sequence, imperial troops battle 'barbarian' forces  at  the Empire’s borders,                      using their superior technology. Set during the reign of emperor Marcus Aurelius, it is a turning                point in the Empire’s history; Roman power has   reached its zenith, yet it  will increasingly                        find itself threatened by those very barbarians--that era’s equivalent to our modern- day                              'third world' countries. One might see a parallel here with the state of affairs now facing                              superpowers like America in its   dealings with Iraq   or terrorists like Osama bin Laden,                            though whether we’ll see a similar turning of the tide like that experienced by ancient Rome                      remains to be seen." 2

 

As it turned out, the publication date on my book was pushed back from Autumn of 2001 to early 2002 (a not uncommon practice in the publishing field, alas); but fortunately the editors kept that passage intact, however moot it had become by that point. But the fact remains that the tragedy on 9/11 did revolve around terrorists and Osama bin Laden, at least as far the dominant media narrative around the tragedy was concerned. Whatever one's own beliefs about what really happened that day, the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon became the opening volley in the much-ballyhooed "war on terror," which not only impacted life in regions like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan but seriously undermined civil rights in the U.S. as a result of the Patriot Act. As yet another expression of the Taurean symbolism in that stellium, the decade following 9/11 also witnessed a restructuring of the U.S. (and to some extent world) economy, as Bush's term in office made the corporate sector's influence on American politics more far-reaching than ever before.

 

Since then, of course, many astrologers have gone on to relate 9/11 to the powerhouse opposition between Pluto and Saturn that was in effect throughout 2001 and 2002, due to that aspect's association with high drama and structural transformations. While that configuration surely played a key role in the events of that day, I'd suggest that we view it as superimposed on the lingering effects of the stellium one year earlier, and that the two energies were acting in concert with one another. Historic events are rarely the result of any one planetary pattern by itself, in other words, and it's important that we consider the multiple causes which can pool their energies into a single development, whether that be the Protestant Reformation, 9/11, or Pearl Harbor. 3

 

 

The JFK Assassination and the Beatles

As a child in grade school at the time, I'm old enough to remember exactly where I was when I got the news of JFK's assassination that day. That was a remarkable enough moment in history, but it was made all the more remarkable by the convergence of several other significant events happening in its compass. Consider that less than sixty minutes before the President was shot, the famous Christian theologian and fiction writer C.S. Lewis died, while just twelve minutes before that the famed author and intellectual Aldous Huxley died (famously under the influence of LSD, incidentally).

 

But that's not all. While doing some research on the music of that period, I came across this extraordinary tidbit on Wikipedia:

 

"On 10 December 1963, a five-minute news story shot in England about the phenomenon of Beatlemania was shown on the CBS Evening News. The segment first aired on the CBS Morning News on 22 November and had originally been scheduled to be repeated on that day's Evening News, but regular programming was cancelled following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy earlier that day."

 

In other words, the very same day that JFK was shot and both C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died, North American audiences experienced one of their first media glimpses of a musical phenomenon which eventually went on to define the entire decade—the Beatles.

 

Clearly, something big was "in the air" that day. But what, exactly?

 

Astrologers have debated the horoscope of the JFK assassination ever since, and more than a few have puzzled over the seeming lack of major configurations that day. True, Pluto was widely squaring Mercury, Mars, and Venus, while Uranus was closely squaring Mercury as well, along with a few other aspects. But none of these are especially unusual, and certainly not earthshaking. And the Earth definitely shook on 11/22/63. So what could have triggered a tectonic shift the likes of which heralded the demise of Camelot, the death of notable writers, and the introduction of a major musical phenomenon to American audiences?

 

Rather than look solely at the transits on that day, I'd suggest we broaden our focus and examine the larger trends throughout that entire decade. Notably, the 1960's played host to the once-in-every-110-year conjunction of Uranus and Pluto which became exact in 1965 and 1966 (though its influence extended for years on either side). But no less important was the fact that the decade also witnessed an extraordinary line-up of planets in Aquarius just one year before JFK's assassination, during the first week February, 1962—a configuration made even more powerful by the inclusion of an exact conjunction of the Sun and Moon, in a solar eclipse.

 

Display chart for the 1962 stellium, erected for Feb. 4 1962 6:10 PM Dallas, Texas

 

If we look carefully to where the planets were when JFK was assassinated in 1963 (12:30 PM standard time, Nov. 22, 1963, Dallas, TX), we find that the transits at that moment not only formed significant aspects to the stellium one year earlier but also served to trigger the potentials of the emerging Uranus/Pluto conjunction emerging. Among these triggers were:

 

* When JFK was shot the planets of the 1962 stellium were crossing over the Ascendant in Dallas, with the Nodes particularly aligned to the Nov. 22nd Asc/Dsc axis.

 

* Transiting Uranus on Nov. 22nd was conjuncting Pluto in the 1962 chart.

 

* The Moon returned to the sign that it occupied back on Feb. 5th of 1962, thus signaling a "lunar return."

 

* Saturn was squaring the 1962 Venus (and more widely Mercury Jupiter, Sun, and the Moon).

 

* Tr. Neptune was closely squaring the 1962 Sun.

 

• Tr. Sun was closely squaring the '62 Uranus.

 

In short, the planetary transits on Nov. 22, 1963 were connected to a far broader complex of energies in effect during that entire period, among them the powerful configurations signified by that stellium back in February of 1962. Like a time-release capsule on a gigantic scale, the extraordinary potentials from that previous year's line-up had been lying in wait, and became activated by the transits on that fateful in ways that proved both terrifying and inspiring. 4

 

Grasping the Big Picture

Examples like these illustrate some of the ways that stelliums demand the need to take the 'long view" in assessing their effects long after they've become exact. But this points up an even broader problem that can arise in the astrologer's, practice—namely, the failure to fully consider the big picture when studying virtually any astrological pattern, whether that be on the mundane or personal levels. Let me explain.

 

As mentioned, when an historic event occurs there's a tendency to zero in on the precise moment it occurred by drawing up a horoscope for that exact minute and hour. Yet that approach runs the risk of missing the proverbial forest for the trees, since there may be far larger patterns at work besides just those isolated transits. Although that's especially true when it come to stelliums, as we've seen, it can happen with other configurations as well.

 

Take the Uranus/Pluto conjunction of the 1960s. Though it became exact in 1965 and 1966, it continues to exert its effects up through the present day, as evidenced not only in the increasingly liberated attitudes towards sexuality and gender we see amongst younger generations, but in terms of many other dramatic developments that have occurred since then, especially as that conjunction continues being activated by subsequent transits.

 

In the Spring of 2006, for instance, long after the Uranus and Pluto separated, we suddenly saw many of those born during that conjunction acting out a rebellious energy that strongly recalled the spirit of the 60's, such as with the release of the film V for Vendetta, produced by the Wachowski siblings, both born during the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in the mid-60s. 5 The film had its premiere on March 17 of 2006, just as transiting Uranus began opposing the zodiacal degrees of the 60's Uranus/Pluto alignment. The fact that we continue seeing street protestors around the world sporting the film's Guy Fawkes mask is a testament not only to the enduring impact of the movie (as well as the Alan Moore graphic novel it's based upon), but to the impact of the Uranus/Pluto conjunction of the mid-1960s. Few astrologers studying the horoscopes for the exact weeks or months of that conjunction back then could have imagined the diverse long-term effects that would continue to result from it over the ensuing decades.

 

Or consider the square between Uranus and Pluto that we've been dealing with these last few years. It's natural for us to look to the daily news reports for evidence of its effects in real time—and indeed, we've already seen a number of developments that reflect its revolutionary energies in areas like gay marriage, the Occupy Wall Street movement, Arab Spring, drug legalization, and various breakthroughs in the field of science, among others. But the effects of this square will undoubtedly continue to reverberate for months or even years after its completed, as it continues to be triggered by ongoing transits.

 

To put it simply: when any aspect completes, it isn't "over"--any more than shouting into a canyon stops echoing the moment you close your mouth! Indeed, there's no better example of that than the natal chart itself. As I've pointed out in previous articles, one doesn't truly know the full meaning of a planetary configuration until the children born during it grow up and make their mark on the world. For instance, Beethoven was born in the midst of a rare Grand Trine involving the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, that came into play during the late 1700's. The effects of that pattern didn't simply evaporate once those planets shifted out of orb! In fact, every time you turn on the radio now and hear the music of Beethoven being played, you're experiencing the effects of the configurations from back then manifesting in the present day.

 

In that same way, our world is constantly seeing the effects of old planetary configurations in action, both directly and indirectly, through the legacies of figures like Martin Luther King, Julius Ceasar, Plato, Adolph Hitler, or the Buddha. We're all living embodiments of the universe as it appeared at the moment we were born, and we continue to send out those energies through all our actions and achievements. All of which raises an intriguing question: how will the effects of the planetary configurations when you were born continue rippling out into the world in the years, decades, or even centuries to come?

 

 

 

 

Notes:

1) In an echo of the 1524 stellium, a more recent planetary line-up in Pisces took place in early 2013, and curiously enough, the Catholic church experienced a significant shift of a different sort then, when Pope Benedict resigned office to be replaced by the incoming Pope Francis. Besides being the first Pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit Pope, as well as the first non-European Pope since Pope Gregory in 741, he's shown himself to be a reformer interested in restoring primary Christian (read: Piscean) principles of compassion and humility, while also showing indications of addressing longstanding financial and sexual abuses in the church. It remains to be seen whether his efforts in that regard will have any lasting effects or not.

 

2) Signs of the Times: Unlocking the Symbolic Language of World Events (Hampton Roads 2002), p. 258. 

 

3) It's worth noting that the 2000 Taurus stellium included a square to the planet Uranus, just as the 1941 Taurus stellium did—and both of the tragedies unfolding in their wakes, Pearl Harbor and 9/11, involved deadly attacks by aircraft!

 

4) As yet another example of the long-term effects of the 1962 stellium, singer Bob Dylan (himself born at the tail end of a stellium, on May 25, 1941) saw his first album being released the same month as that line-up in Aquarius. It attracted little attention at the time, yet eventually turned out to be the start of an extraordinarily successful career lasting to the present day.

 

5) Andy Wachowski was born on December 27, 1967, while Lana (formerly Larry) Wachowski was born on June 21, 1965.

 

 

Reprinted from The Mountain Astrologer, October/November 2014