In honor of the waxing Saturn-Uranus opposition this month, let’s take a look at what happened in history before, during other occasions of this aspect. Saturn rules karma and work, loss and limitation. He is authority and status quo, supportive of tradition and hard to talk into change. He rewards discipline and endurance; his energy is needed to form boundaries and maintain stability in society. The real drag about Saturn and by extension Capricornian energy is that it can be obliged to come down with a heavy hand, forcing compliance with mandates that have long outlived their usefulness. It can control through fear.

When behaving well, Uranus represents an opposite sort of energy that is supportive of sudden change, even revolution in looking towards a “better future”. Under a Uranus transit to personal planets such as the Sun, Moon or Mars, anything that has become redundant in the life is suddenly demolished; something new must be built in its place. At the highest level Uranus stands for cosmic inspiration and the divine breath of creative intent; at the lowest level Uranus can be reactively violent and fascist in intent, simply destroying one ordered structure only to replace it with another ordered structure. The real drag about Uranian and by extension Aquarian energy, is that it requires complete freedom for itself while demanding order and obedience from everyone else. It can control through fanaticism.

In history, when these two planets have come into opposition, the general flavor has been one of social upheaval and financial skullduggery; revolution and attempts at financial or social reform on one hand, countered by martial law and the vigorous use of force to repress rights and freedoms on the other. The years listed below are representative of a few two- to three- year periods during which the titans clashed.

1963: The hippie and civil rights movements, with corresponding backlash by the establishment. The rock-and-roll revolution.

1918: World War I occurred between 1914 and 1919, marking the alleged end of monarchial control over much of Europe and progress towards greater democratization and modernization. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia commenced in 1917.

1873: The Gilded Age, when the US robber barons ruled; this year in particular also marked a Black Friday, wherein European investors withdrew their funds from the US economy. Severe depression followed, with many left starving and homeless. Genocide for the North American Indian was at its height. This period marked the rise of the corporation as a major socio-economic and political force.

1829: Andrew Jackson is president; he does not share power as a principle. Revival of evangelical religion in the North, as a response to the slavery problem in America. The slave trade is thriving in Washington DC, with pens located right next to congressional halls, where speakers boast about liberty and rights. A time of severe slave revolts and race riots. Most Americans in prison are there for debt, usually for less than $20.00. Revolution erupts in France, to remove Charles X from the throne. British authorities fight the practice of sati, or ritual murder of Indian widows in India, then a colony of Britain.

As we are so close to election time and at the beginning of major socio-economic mutation, let’s look at the October lunations as they play out against the American birth chart; specifically the Scorpio rising chart rectified by Michael Wolfstar. The house emphasis of this chart fits the American persona most accurately in my opinion. Scorpio rising refers to a Scorpio Ascendant and first house, giving the collective persona a darker, more complex character besides making Pluto (the masses, power, hidden riches) ruler of the chart, which also suits the nation’s New World Order agenda.

The Full Moon and a climax in activity occur on October 14, 2008 at 4:02 pm in Washington, DC. When aligned with the Scorpio US birth chart several interesting aspect themes jump out. Note aggressive, war-like Mars sitting on the Ascendant just inside the twelfth house of hidden business, in close square to the US birth chart Nodes of the Moon, representing the status quo and general developmental path of the society. Mars rules the US chart sixth house of work, health and the military, besides being traditional ruler of the US Ascendant and first house, therefore ruling the people at large. We can surmise then, that that the people are plenty angry about lost jobs, draining wars, and stupid economic policies, also just a thread closer to provoking civil disorder. The lunation itself is in the nation’s sixth house of service, work and health, with the Moon (the people) in conjunction with the US Chiron (where we can't deal) in Aries, in square to the maternal US Mercury in Cancer (communication, commerce), ninth house of social structures and ideology; also in sextile to the US Mars and Part of Fortune in the eighth house of other people’s money, corporate and power issues. The Sun (national identity) is also cosseted in the twelfth house of hidden agendas and karma, making sneaky decisions behind closed doors.

We are staring an inability to take appropriate domestic initiative (Chiron in Aries) in the face, coupled with absolutely infantile notions about what we are entitled to and who has in fact caused the current economic mess and gratuitous rape of the environment we find ourselves in; some folks are still blaming “bleeding liberals” for having repealed the laws protecting these sensitive areas! Complete confusion and disinformation abounds around exactly who laid the legal and legislative groundwork for the disintegration of this country’s infrastructure. Complete denial over the fact that a hell-bent, infinitely expansive brand of unfettered capitalism is going to demolish the globe in short order, helped along by human overpopulation.

The time of lunation puts the transiting Nodes of the Moon directly on the survival angles of the US birth chart; the South Node representative of the past is in kingly Leo, resting on the Midheaven of ruling authority and social structures along with the Part of Fortune. This does not bode well for the over-all theme of the chart. It symbolizes that our leaders are not only stuck in the past, they are also dedicated to an elite consolidation of power over the nation in rather feudal (Leo) manner. The North Node (path of growth) transiting opposite is in Aquarius, accompanied by transiting Chiron; the home base is wounded and alienated; with Neptune (delusion, deception, complacency) closing in on the US Moon (the people at large) in Aquarius. How many of us are too tired from working too much, otherwise escaping into a stupor tended by electronic virtual reality?

The Nodal placement indicates that it is time to reverse the direction of rule in favor of more parity for humanity at large. Trouble is, with the secret weapons now available for use in crowd control, do the powers that be really have to? Saturn (the past, status quo, authority, karma) in the eleventh house of the legislature rests uneasily in quincunx to the North Node and IC angle of the founding chart; up there in the hallowed halls of government they just can’t seem to make up their minds, to bend over yet again for special interests or to actually fix something. Additionally, the shadow side of Aquarius wants order at any cost; any means can justify questionable ends. Aquarius is also a barren sign; it can easily disconnect from a grounding in nature, choosing to rest in the arms of a paternal sky god or the “logical” mind instead. So the grass-roots constituency likely can't be relied upon to do the wise and enlightened thing in a pinch, at all.

Another interesting feature of the chart is transiting Venus (finances, beauty, women, attraction) in Scorpio (think: Scorpion), first house of the US chart in square to the US Moon of the people, fourth house. Easy to tie this symbology to the siren appeal of Ms. Palin, assisting in the methodical bamboozlement of the populace. Note that Venus rules the US seventh house of partners, enemies and projected pieces of ourselves, also the twelfth house of our undoing and karma. Can’t miss the lady, she appeals to the red-neck, baby-popping, animal-slaughtering princess in all of us. Palin and this Venus in Scorpio are reminiscent of Samarimus, a queen of heaven in ancient Babylonia.

This living goddess did not love the earth; she was profligate, manipulative, arrogant and dedicated to the pursuit of power for its own glorification. She is said to be the hidden Goddess implicit in Masonic ritual. Yet all bowed before her beauty and divine right to rule. Follow her up with transiting Pluto, lord of life, death and power issues in the US second house of the people’s money, in opposition to the US chart Venus in the eighth house of other people’s money, debt, corporate power and control issues. When Pluto and Venus mix it up in money houses, we are speaking about sex, money and power in terms of who gets control, who gets the big windfalls, and who ends up carrying the bag, namely many American generations to come.

Please note, in the words of conservative Ben Stein: “The [banking] crisis occurred…because the financial system allowed entities to place bets on whether or not those mortgages would ever be paid. You didn’t have to own a mortgage to make the bets. These bets, called Credit Default Swaps, are complex. But in a nutshell, they allow someone to profit immensely…if large numbers of subprime mortgages are not paid off and go into default.

The profit can be wildly out of proportion to the real amount of defaults, because the speculators can push down the price of instruments tied to the subprime mortgages far beyond what the real rates of loss have been…these credit default swaps have been written (as insurance is written) as private contracts. There is nil government regulation of them. Who writes these policies? Banks. Investment banks. Insurance companies. They now owe the buyers of these Credit Default Swaps on junk mortgage debt trillions of dollars. It is this liability that is the bottomless pit of liability for the financial institutions of America.”

So let’s move on and look at the chart for the New Moon of beginnings, set for October 28 2008 at 7:13 pm in Washington DC, once again set against the backdrop of the US Scorpio Rising birth chart. The lunation grabs the attention right away, with the Sun and Moon at about 6 degrees Scorpio, again hidden just behind the founding chart Ascendant, in the US twelfth house of karma and self-undoing. The Sun (national identity) here is ruler of the US tenth house of governing authority; the Moon (the people) is in charge of the US ninth house of social structures and ideology; at the lunation they are in near perfect t-square with the US birth chart Nodes of the Moon. The lunation Midheaven point is also directly on the US chart South Node of the Moon, looking back into the past.

This aspect pattern sure seems symbolic of either a disintegration or regeneration (Scorpio) of the foundational fabric of our nation. The impetus again comes out of the hidden twelfth house of secret enemies, karma, self-undoing and self-mastery; the ray of hope being that Scorpio also rules the first house of the people at large. But sorry folks, you got your work cut out for you; looks like some mighty clever people at the very top are way, way ahead of the game in using fear, disinformation and selective media spin to throw us into a tizzy yet again. Transiting Scorpio Mars (aggression, ambition, the military) in the US first house, is now squaring the US Moon in Aquarius; people are still mad as hell, only more openly; can’t really say they have gotten clear yet, however, about the root of the problem.

Because transiting Neptune (deception, delusion, fog) is corrupting the US Moon of the people while in square to the transiting Mars. This Mars-Neptune square is a mirror for the US birth chart Neptune-Mars square that runs from the US chart eighth house of other people’s (or countries) money and corporate power to the eleventh house of the legislature and community affairs. Transiting Neptune on the home base is even in trine to the birth chart Mars and Part of Fortune, compounding the hallowed US tendency to go raid some chicken farms in Iran or pit-mine in Peru to make things all right again at home.

Transiting Saturn (Mr. Business) is bearing down steadily on the US Neptune, both in the US chart eleventh house of the legislature, triggering that same treacherous Neptune-Mars square that helps us project our shadow onto other countries or races, while trying to shove Wall Street losses onto taxpayers. Just can’t say, in this instance if Saturn is on the side of the people or not. Is some grand illusion just wrapping up its elaborate charade, forcing the county down yet one more level to economic ruin, or will the House and Congress finally develop some balls, step back from bailing out the rich guys, pass some meaningful banking reforms-or even put back the ones that were in place, before Republican presidents and the Republican-dominated congress repealed most of them, with the help of many Democrats.

Don’t worry, folks, there’s plenty more action to come in the next two years, as Saturn (the past) and Uranus (the future) will continue to dance together five more times. One thing is certain, on a personal level our lives are going to change considerably; our social system is in a furnace of disintegration to ashes that must likely come to pass before a vast evil that grips the world can be vanquished. Many of us have lessons to learn about compassion towards all living things instead of measuring the meaning of life by mere human utility, efficiency and profit. This philosophy has not been compatible with business as usual for thousands of years but it is the cornerstone of future sustainability for the planet.

Some say there is an ancient global web of rulership pushing the buttons at the top, guided by military-religious hereditary elite, today compounded by corporate rule. The cultivation of conditioned ignorance, fear, guilt, and shame is favored for control of the masses, even by middle-class yuppie kids embarking on a career in business. The masses are having a hard time stepping out of the box anyway. How can we do away with those that would control us, when we choose not to control our own appetites for excess and when we prefer to be fed lies or offer lies up in lieu of the truth? Will we humans ever see the point of limiting our numbers willingly and living with nature, returning to Gaia what is taken out instead of simply hoarding, pillaging, and polluting? After all, there is no where else left to go; all the frontiers and wide open spaces are gone and the stars, so far, remain tantalizingly out of reach.