Jupiter-Uranus Conjunctions, 1928 and 2010: A Retrospective

Copyright © John Michael Greer 2024. All rights reserved.

The conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus on 20 April 2024 was a significant milestone in astrology, but it stands in the shadow of a much more important conjunction between these two planets. It has been part of the lore of outer planet conjunctions since ancient times that when such a conjunction takes place at the beginning of Aries, that marks the end and beginning of an entire cycle of conjunctions. April’s event, which took place at 21° Taurus, had no such impact—but the previous conjunction of these two planets, on 8 June 2010, did. 

Due to the relative orbital speeds of the two planets, Jupiter and Uranus conjoin at the beginning of Aries only at irregular intervals. The last such conjunction before 2010 took place on January 25, 1928, but the last one before then was in 588 AD, and the table of historical conjunctions available to me—which goes back to 600 BC—shows no others. Similarly, there will be no other conjunction of these planets at the beginning of Aries this side of 2400 AD, the upper end of those same tables. The sequence of orbital events that led Jupiter and Uranus to have two conjunctions at 0° Aries in less than a century is very rare, and this pair of conjunctions thus deserves close study by mundane astrologers. 

Conjunctions between Jupiter and Uranus are historically associated with revolutionary events. The first European to set foot on the North American continent, the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, did so on the day that these two planets conjoined in 1513; the first human being to set foot on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, did so on the day that these two planets conjoined in 1969. (In a double helping of irony, Ponce de Leon’s landing place is within the borders of the Cape Canaveral spaceport.) Jupiter and Uranus conjoined in 1775, signaling the start of the American Revolution, and then did it again in 1789, signaling the start of the French Revolution. When these two planets conjoin, the worlds tremble. 

There is good reason for this, because Jupiter and Uranus do not make easy partners. Historical astrologer Richard Tarnas pointed out quite accurately that the people who named Uranus clearly weren’t astrologers, because the planet Uranus has very few of the properties of the mythological Titan whose name he bears. Rather, the planet should have been named Prometheus, after the rebel Titan who tricked the gods and stole fire for humanity. The difficult relations between the planets are well signaled by the myth that has Jupiter binding Prometheus to a mountain, where an eagle (Jupiter’s bird) perpetually gnaws at his liver (Jupiter’s organ). 

It’s an explosive pairing, in other words. When and where the explosions will happen, on the other hand, depends on the detailed charts for the moment of each conjunction, and their political, economic, and social implications can be read in the usual manner using the methods of mundane astrology. With this in mind, let’s turn to the first of these two remarkable conjunctions. I have drawn up both charts for Washington DC, with an eye to their implications for the United States; readers in other countries can easily recast the same charts for their own national capitals and adjust accordingly. 

From Washington DC this conjunction took place in the small hours of the morning, and the conjunction is in the 5th house of the chart. Jupiter is dignified by term and night triplicity, but he faces a barrage of hostile aspects: squares with Venus and Mars, a semisquare with Mercury, and of course the conjunction with malefic Uranus himself. Uranus suffers from all these aspects but the last, though he benefits from his conjunction with benefic Jupiter. Since his minor dignities have not yet been worked out by astrologers, the best that can be said is that both planets appear to be in similarly mixed condition, more afflicted than not but still possessing some strength. 

The aspects just noted are worth attending to. Mercury semisquare Jupiter is traditionally a bad omen for religion, and it’s doubtless no accident that the period from 1928 to 2010 saw religious traditions lose much of their cultural influence and authority in most countries; the impact of organized persecution as in the Communist nations was more than balanced by the effect of sheer apathy in Europe and the Americas. Mercury semisquare Uranus encourages political activism but indicates that it will accomplish few of its goals. Both these aspects are also unfavorable for education; in the US chart, with Mercury in the 3rd house, the collapse of standards in the public schools is clearly shown here. 

Venus square Jupiter warns of extravagance, soaring taxes, and disorganization in society and religion; Venus square Uranus is also bad for government finances, and stirs up discord and dissatisfaction in family and marital life, changes in sexual and social habits, and class conflict. Mars square Jupiter also indicates extravagance and trouble in the religious sphere, while Mars square Uranus predicts social turbulence, strikes, riots, political disturbances, and the violent or sudden deaths of important politicians. Again, all of these are not exactly unfamiliar to anyone who studies the history of the US and the world between 1928 and 2010. 

The 5th house placement in the US chart is even more crucial, however. The 5th house is among other things the house of financial speculation, and a Jupiter-Uranus conjunction here with both planets badly dignified is among other things a warning siren predicting a major speculative bubble and crash. With Saturn in close conjunction with the cusp of the 2nd house of economics, and the conjunction square two planets in the 2nd, it’s safe to assume that the crash will lead to hard times in the economic sphere. The historic stock market boom and bust of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed it showed up promptly on cue. Notice that Saturn’s one aspect is a sextile with Mercury in the 3rd house of transport, communications, and media; this predicts the boom in technology in 3rd house issues that took place during and after the Depression years. 

The 5th house, however, is also the house of sex. It has Pisces on the cusp and so Neptune, which we’ll be discussing shortly, is its ruler. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in that house, as already noted, squares both Venus and Mars, which are among other things the planets of women and men respectively, and of traditional gender roles. I see this as a prediction of one of the most radical social transformations of the 1928-2010 period: the sexual revolution. In 1928 America it was unthinkable that casual promiscuity would become socially acceptable, much less that alternative sexualities (which are ruled by Uranus) would become equally so. Notice that Mars rules the 6th house of public health and Venus the 7th house of marriage; the role of the sexual revolution in spreading sexually transmitted diseases and causing steep declines in marriage rates are predicted by the squares with Mars and Venus respectively. 

Finally, Neptune stands high above all the other planets in the chart, conjunct the midheaven from the 10th house side. As the only planet in two-thirds of the chart, he has an outsized effect. Neptune is the planet of mass phenomena, and in this placement he indicates another of the most radical social transformations of the 1928-2010 period: the transformation of popular liberalism into the governing ideology of the United States and much of the industrial world. 

You have to read things written before 1928 to understand just how improbable and even bizarre this idea would have seemed at the time; it was considered not merely normal but inevitable that the ruling classes would be conservative in their outlook and that liberalism would always be the ideology of the underdog, struggling to gather enough political clout to push the system to accept necessary change. In this chart, however, Neptune has risen to the 10th house of government and the executive branch, and opposes the Moon, the planet of the political classes, who are at his mercy in Pisces (the sign Neptune rules) in the 4th house of the party out of power. 

The overturning of the American class system set in motion by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal is clearly shown here. Notice also that Neptune’s one favorable aspect is an applying trine with Venus, the planet of women’s issues in the 2nd house; the role of organized feminism as a source of strength for the liberal movement, and the dramatic changes in women’s economic status that both followed from and supported that movement, is also easy to see. 

Plenty of other points could be extracted from this chart, but those already covered are the most important. Let’s move on at this point. 

Here we are in a much more tangled situation, with two strong aspect patterns and no one planet holding the predominance Neptune had in the earlier chart. Yet the resonances between the 1928 and 2010 charts are crucial. Notice first of all that Neptune is conjunct the midheaven in both charts—but the two placements are in exact opposition to each other, only 15 minutes of arc from perfection!  A historic reversal has taken place:  liberalism, which started out in opposition to the privileged classes, has become their staunchest ally. This is shown also by the change from Moon opposite Neptune in the 1928 chart to Moon sextile Neptune in this chart. 

That sextile is a complex matter, however, because it does not stand alone. Both the Moon and Neptune are inconjunct a third planet, Saturn. A sextile and two inconjuncts form an aspect pattern known among astrologers as a yod or, more colorfully, a Finger of God. A yod aspect pattern generates a great deal of energy and initiative which act clumsily at first—inconjuncts are aspects of frustration and difficulty—but in time transform themselves into movement toward the planet at the point of the yod—in this case, old, cold, conservative Saturn.  

This is made even more complex than it would otherwise be, because Saturn is in opposition to the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. A yod that takes shape around an opposition in this way is as powerful as it is dangerous, because the movement toward the planet at the point must contend with the stark opposition of the planet (or, as in this case, planets) at the center of the sextile. Thus the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction sets in motion a pattern of events that can only be resolved by rejecting the conjunction itself and moving in the opposite direction. Nor is this a temporary condition; since the conjunction takes place at 0° Aries, this same pattern will remain in place for centuries to come. 

Nor is this the only explosive aspect pattern at work in this chart. Neptune is opposite Mars, and both planets are square Mercury, forming the T-square aspect pattern. The T-square is a pattern of extraordinary tension seeking sudden release. In this case the tension builds between Neptune at midheaven and Mars at nadir; these are like the two ends of a tightly strung bow, and Mercury in the 12th is the hand that holds the nocked arrow. Where is it aimed?  The 6th house, the house of the laboring classes and the military. In the conflict between establishment liberalism and the insurgent populism indicated by Mars in the 4th, the balance of power is held by ideas linked to the traditional institutions of American life. Any time those appeal to the working classes and the military—the rank and file themselves, not the business interests and bureaucracies that currently exercise notional control over them—stasis will give way to explosive movement. 

Both these aspect patterns—and above all Neptune, the one planet they have in common—should be kept in mind when interpreting the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. That has its own complexities, to be sure. To begin with, the condition of both planets must be assessed.  Jupiter retains his dignity in the first term of Aries but the Sun is above the horizon, so his night triplicity has no effect; both planets are, however, in the angular 10th house, the strongest position in an astrological chart, and Mercury is sextile them rather than semisquare. On the other hand, the opposition with Saturn is a formidable debility, and the two planets are also inconjunct Mars, another sharp debility. All in all, they are still in mixed dignity, but slightly better than in the earlier chart. 

The aspects have their own tales to tell.  Mercury sextile Jupiter is at least as favorable for religion as the previous aspect was baleful, and it is favorable for the institutional sector and, if other indications support this, for prosperity. Mercury sextile Uranus favors new inventions and discoveries and can indicate beneficial changes in legislation. Mars inconjunct Jupiter is unfortunate for religion, causing disputes and conflicts within and between religious movements.  Mars inconjunct Uranus brings trouble on the government and predicts dissatisfaction, turmoil, and a risk of mass violence; it stirs up problems that have few if any solutions. Jupiter opposite Saturn brings misfortune of many kinds to governments and institutions, while Saturn opposite Uranus is an explosive aspect that makes the political sphere unusually difficult and tempestuous and brings troubles and disasters onto the government.

Notice that in this chart, only one planet has no aspects at all: the Sun, peregrine in Gemini and stuck all by himself late in the cadent 12th house, a little too far from the ascendant to be angular. His placement shows that the US presidency during the time governed by this chart is much weaker than it appears, held hostage by an increasingly fossilized institutional structure. The one power that remains to the president is his capacity to speak to the general public—this is shown by his placement in Gemini, the natural ruler of the 3rd house of media, and also by the fact that in this chart Leo, which is ruled by the Sun, is on the 3rd house cusp. 

The real power currently rests with the bureaucracies of the executive branch.  This may not remain true indefinitely:  insurgent Mars in the 4th rules the sign in which the tempestuous Jupiter-Uranus conjunction tales place and in which the Moon is placed—that is to say, in traditional terms, he disposes of both the conjunction and the Moon—and the cusp of the 11th house of the national legislature is also subject to him.  This may indicate a transfer of power from the executive to the legislative branch (the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction is late in the 10th house of the executive branch, conjunct the cusp of the 11th), possibly by way of one or more constitutional amendments (Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, is on the cusp of the 9th house of laws and constitutions). Whether this happens or not will have to be judged from later charts. 

Nearly as neglected as the Sun in this chart is Venus, all by herself in the 2nd house. She is well dignified, being in her day triplicity in Cancer and also in her term, but her only aspect is a square with the Moon and, since she is in Cancer, the Moon is her dispositor. Legislation favoring women has already been undercut in various ways; expect this to continue, but women will maintain their position to some degree due to their increasingly significant economic clout (Venus well dignified in the 2nd). Here again, the ebb and flow of women’s position in politics and economics will have to be judged from subsequent charts. 

More generally, this needs to be kept in mind while dealing with all the implications of this chart. The 2010 conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus establishes an astrological keynote against which all subsequent conjunctions of these two planets will sound harmonies or discords.  The 20 April 2024 conjunction, interestingly, has a Moon-Neptune opposition like the one in the 1928 chart but reversed, with the Moon high and Neptune near the nadir; meanwhile Mars is applying to a conjunction with Neptune rather than opposing it, as in 2010.  All these relationships can be interpreted as a guide to these important conjunctions and the sweeping transformations in politics and society that they predict.