Saturn Challenges the U.S.A.

Right now transiting Saturn is nearing an opposition aspect with the Sun in the Sibly chart for the United States. The aspect will move within a degree on Jan. 9. Around the same time transiting Saturn will be square natal Saturn in the Sibly chart. These are important aspects at any time but they are particularly important for 2019 because they will be the only major transits we will see for the Sibly chart until Jan. 2020.

Saturn typically brings a challenge and with the President and Congress at an impasse over Trump’s border wall and no end in sight for the government shutdown, these are certainly challenging times. If President Trump were to cite astrology to support his threat to declare a state of emergency, I’m afraid I’d have to back him up.

When this sort of Mundane Astrology, I like to look back in history and see what was happening in the country during similar transits. This is what was happening during the last four times that Saturn opposed the US Sun and squared its Saturn. The dates listed are when the aspects were within a degree:

:Apr – June, Dec 1989 – In the Spring of 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the USSR would no longer interfere in the internal affairs of its satellite states. This brought about plans for free elections in Poland and other Eastern European countries. Then in Nov. 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, ending the Cold War and making the United States the only superpower left standing.

Feb, Aug, Oct-Nov 1960 – In February young African-Americans in Greensboro, NC began “sit-ins” at Woolworth’s lunch counters, protesting segregation. The demonstrations spread across the country and became a major part of the Civil Rights Movement. Then in Nov. John F. Kennedy was elected President.

Dec. 1930 – Faced with an economic downturn that showed no signs of improving, Herbert Hoover put aside laissez faire capitalist doctrine and asked Congress for money to fund public works projects designed to put people to work and stimulate the US economy.

Feb, July, Nov-Dec 1901 – In Sept. 1901 President McKinley was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt became President.

I should add that there were other important aspects in force during a couple of these events. In Sept. 1901 Uranus was conjunct the Sibly Ascendant and in late 1989 Uranus was opposed to the Sibly Venus. However, I still think we can still see a pattern that relates to Saturn.

In each instance there was challenge. In 1989 the challenge was the US assuming a role of leadership, not just for the Free World , but for the entire world.

In 1960 the challenges were numerous, from the Civil Rights Movement to Castro in Cuba to the Cold War teetering toward becoming a hot war to the space race.

In 1930 the challenge was obvious. The capitalist system was in crisis and the Great Depression was underway.

In 1901 the immediate challenge was the assassination of a sitting President, but there were also challenges coming from the growing influence of monopolies in our economic system and the emergence of the United States as a world power.

To each of those challenges, the country responded with a new approach, a new idea and a new identity.

After 1989 the United States began imposing its will on other countries like Panama and Iraq, not because they posed a military threat to us, but because they behaved badly.

John Kennedy’s election in 1960 was greatly helped by support from the black community after he reached out to Martin Luther King.

Herbert Hoover’s request for public works money was much too little much too late as far as the Great Depression was concerned, but it did represent a break from laissez faire capitalism and foreshadowed FDR’s New Deal.

As I said, Uranus was on Sibly Ascendant when William McKinley was shot and Theodore Roosevelt was certainly an Uranian character. However, he immediately turned his attention to the challenges of his time and stamped his hard-charging, progressive identity on the United States.

So the question for us now is how are we going to respond to Saturn’s challenges? What is going to be our new identity? We don’t have an Uranus aspect helping us out this time, so we can’t rely on a revolution, like the fall of the Berlin Wall, or a Uranian hero, like Theodore Roosevelt.

I think that the brand new Democratic majority in Congress will turn out to be our answer to the current challenges facing this nation (which go far beyond the government shutdown.) It is a Democratic majority unlike any we have seen before, with more women, more people of color and more minorities in general. Some people say it is a Democratic majority that looks like America. Also, as a group, this new batch of Representatives are younger and lean farther to the left that any we’ve seen in a long time.

This new House of Representative has already proved to be a factor in thwarting Trump’s border wall. I think that it will continue to assert its power in the months to come, particularly in August and September of this year. Eventually, we are going to look back at this group as the beginning of a trend toward a younger and more diverse Congress and a new identity for our country.