The U.S. Pluto and its Progression in the U.S. Economy

Today's Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross sent me off on a meandering path concerning the U.S. Pluto in history. As mentioned in my last post, Terry interviewed NY Times writer Gretchen Morgenson about the U.S. Bailout of the Banks and Mortgage Companies.

The 1776 chart for the U.S. gives a natal Pluto which is Retrograde at the end of Capricorn at 28 Degrees. Progressed Pluto doesn't move very much at all so most Astrologers ignore it in people. But in Countries which have a longer lifespan it's movement can be better detected. Changes of Direction, either Direct or Retrograde can show big Changes. This change is very prominent in influence in the U.S. economic situation regarding investments.

The Federal Reserve Bank was created while Pluto was in the opposing Sign of Cancer so Pluto's Movement into a Cardinal Sign is going to be a big influence in the Country's economic situation. The Great Depression happened as Pluto was going through its opposition.

There are some theories that when a planet is placed at the end of a sign, it is essentially tired of the energy of that sign and just wants to move on. Being Retrograde, the U.S. natal Pluto has been in Capricorn at the end of that sign ever sincethe country was created in 1776. That's some pretty tired stuff as Capricorn already represents an old man. If you look on Wikipedia at the history of Recessions in the U.S. you sort of get the idea that the U.S. has a problem with money flow. Capricorn is wise, but it is cautious and generally afraid of falling down and breaking its hip.

I looked a little closer at the Retrograde Motion of Pluto for the July 4, 1776 chart of the U.S. First I looked at the transit. Pluto went Direct by transit on Oct. 8, 1776. This shows nothing very stand outish but I'm not knowledgeable about American History. I'm just noting the date for future reference. I found two letters reproduced on the Internet written on this date. One is by George Washington and one is by John Adams. Both were struggling with the Revolution, of course. And in particular they were struggling with money.

Next I looked at the year for when Pluto stationed Direct in the U.S. chart around 1872-73. Boy, was this a history lesson in Stock Market crashes. I don't have the exact date because of computer problems but there was a huge International Stock Market crash which began with the Viennese Stock Exchange on May 9, 1873. This lasted more than 20 years and is known as the "Victorian Depression." By coincidence I found this short article written by a Canadian Economist, Stephen S. Poloz, called "Remembering the Victorian Depression." Poloz was wondering if the U.S. was headed for another version of this depression. He doesn't think so. And, being Canadian, he was able to ask this question way back in May when the U.S. guys didn't have a clue we were even already in a recession: http://www.edc.ca/english/docs/ereports/commentary/publications_14616.htm.

This chart (Viennese Exchange Crash) has an outer planet t-square of an almost exact opposition between Saturn at 3 Aquarius and Uranus at 3 Leo. Neptune at 27 Aries is the apex planet. This t-square was made into a Grand Square opposing Mars 4 Scorpio Rx on the date of the crash. Sun, Pluto, and Venus Rx were all in conjunction to the Taurus North Node (25 Taurus). It's a very difficult chart to say the least. This crash obviously isn't related to the U.S. Pluto progression. I'm just adding this information because it's a huge crash which the U.S. Market followed later that year.

The United States depression, which is called "The Long Depression", followed on Sept. 18, 1873. At this point, the Railroad Industry ground to a halt after a long boom period precipitated by the end of the Civil War. A Pennsylvania banker, Jay Cooke & Company, went bankrupt on that date. On Sept. 20, the Stock Market was shut down and stayed shut for 10 days. This Depression is given an ending date of 1877.

There were several problems that occurred at once to cause the problems. The Coinage Act of 1873 turned the U.S. to the Gold Standard. This meant that Silver wasn't used anymore on the markets and this had a depressing effect on the Silver/Mining Industry. There was also a huge epidemic of disease in Horses in the year before which wiped out a lot of the Horse population. This affected transportation as well as the army who was fighting the Indians on foot. (Why didn't the Indians just win at that point, really...). I do remember reading Terry Lamb's prediction that the Saturn-Uranus opposition this year could bring a bad influenza so this could be problematic for us.

The chart for this date shows that Saturn was at 27 Capricorn Rx and was squaring Neptune at 28 Aries. This means that it was conjunct the U.S. natal Pluto. It was also one degree past and approaching the spot where Progressed Pluto was stationing direct.

There are some similarities to today's charts. Jupiter and Saturn were in reversed spots in Virgo and Capricorn. Pluto-NN of the 1873 chart are squaring the spot where Neptune-NN are today.

It's interesting that the 1870s were the point when the United States economy began to take off. This corresponds to the idea of a planet turning in direct motion. Worldwide, industrial production did really well. In the U.S. it increased fourfold. (I think my source for this is Wikipedia, sorry can't really remember). In the current U.S. production has dropped probably to almost nothing so we're definitely not on that same cycle.

So this Pluto spot is a sensitive point for any planet to hit. Jupiter will conjunct the U.S. Pluto in late December, 2008 into January, 2009. It doesn't appear that that Jupiter-Pluto connections are the best thing for the U.S. Economy but what do I know?

Uranus passed over natal Pluto in 1994-5 and Neptune passed over it in 1996. I'm probably the only to remember this but there had been a serious Real Estate bust from between 1990 and 1995 in California. The drop in home values was more extreme then than it is now. The Technology Boom began around that time as well. The passage of Uranus and Neptune over the U.S. Pluto was a good thing in these instances. The U.S. Savings & Loan crisis happened as these two were in conjunction around 1989-90.

The U.S. Pluto Return will be sometime around 2022.