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BILL HANSEN is innovative in the field of cycle research and prognostication. His unique style of chart interpretation, a blend of ancient knowledge and modern statistical methods, results in highly accurate and practical information that you can use. Bill has contributed four valuable techniques to the field of astrology: a simplified method of natal and transit interpretation; the Relocation Plotter; the Diurnal Planet for a Year Progression technique; and the Dice Oracle. Meet Astro Bill
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CURRENT PLUTO PERIHELION:-Renaissance or Perish
by Bill Hansen
We are in the throes of an economic, socio-political renaissance. 1989 marks the two-and-a-half-century journey of Pluto around the Sun. In this year, Pluto was closer to the Sun than its nearest neighbor, the planet Neptune. Historically, the Pluto perihelion (closest solar approach) has been associated with rapid cultural changes. Advancements tend to be made in science, medicine, and the arts during such times. Wealth radically redistributes. Wars and migrations of people increase. Nations retool to meet the demands of more sophisticated markets. People adopt new principles of business and philosophy. A revolution of bold new ideas sweeps through institutions.
Once Pluto crosses the orbit of Neptune, it remains closer to the Sun for approximately 22 years. The last time this occurred was from 1730 to 1750 (perihelion in 1742) during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Caused by the death of the last male descendant of the Habsburg family, the war was instrumental in changing 600 years of Habsburg hegemony in Europe. A struggle for power engulfed most of Europe's great powers during the 1740's. The Treaty of Vienna ended the War of the Polish Succession in 1738. The Silesian War ended with the Treaty of Breslau and the Treaty of Berlin in 1742. In 1739, Persian forces shattered the Mongul Empire. That same year, the War of Jenkin's Ear between Britain and Spain started. Prussia's Frederick II started a Second Silesian War in 1744; and King George's War broke out in the Caribbean and in North America between Britain and France.
The ubiquitous changes of the period were created not only by war, but also by genius. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the most versatile and influential Frenchman of the time, was 30 years old in 1742; he inspired many leaders of the French Revolution. A great Humanist Renaissance in France, Britain, and Germany was underway. Great personages effectively changed social conditions that had existed for centuries. Democratic thought was born; individual freedom emerged. A few of the notable included Luigi Galvani, James Watt, J.S. Bach, George Frederick Handel, Francois Voltaire, Thomas Paine, George Washington, David Hume, Immanuael Kant, Franz Anton Mesmer, and Catherine the Great. Benjamin Franklin invented a lightning conductor in 1752, proving that lightning is a form of electricity. This led, of course, to the harnessing of electrical power. Two other significant inventions of the time included the gyroscope stabilizer for ships, and the Franklin stove. Called the "Age of Enlightenment," it was truly a transitional time of Plutonian dimension.
Pluto was perihelion in 1494 when Columbus sailed the Americas. The period of Pluto's inner orbit of Neptune (1481-1501) was called the Italian Renaissance. Superstars of history appeared in this period too: Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Martin Luther, and Niccolo Machiavelli.
Two hundred and twenty-one years earlier marked the beginning of the Habsburg reign when Redolf IV was elected king of Germany. Pluto was perihelion again in 1246, and in 1232 the earliest known use of rockets in warfare is believed to have occurred between the Chinese and Mongols. The Seventh Crusade also took place.
One Pluto perihelion passage earlier takes us to the year 999 and the beginning of the Japanese literary and artistic golden age. In the year 1000, the Viking Biarni Heriulfsson was blown off course and subsequently sighted the coast of North America. Two years later, Leif Ericsson led an expedition down the coast of North America possibly as far as Maryland. The Chinese also perfected gunpowder during this monumental period.
Even ancient Pluto perihelion’s compare with renaissance events. During the 5th Century the Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.) gave Athens her first great military triumph over Persia, resulting in a long period of conflict between these two nations. News of the victory at Marathon, carried more than 26 miles to Athens by a runner who fell dead after delivering the message, has been commemorated in Olympic games ever since. Persian forces under the command of Xerxes won the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.; the Persian army of nearly 200,000 surrounded a force of only 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians. A month after the massacre at Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis was fought, effectively turning the tide in favor of the Greeks. In 479 B.C., the Persian invasion of Greece ended with the Battle of Plataea.
Frogs, like canaries in a tunnel, are a “first alert” to environmental problems. Amphibians are environmental sponges, absorbing gases and liquids through their moist skin and shell-less eggs. From the rain forests of Central America and Australia to the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains of the United States, amphibians – frogs, toads, salamanders – have been disappearing. If not completely killed off in spots, deformed frogs have been showing up since the 1970s. The problem has become much worst in the 1990s. Scientists point to four major suspects: climate change, pollution, disease, and increased ultraviolet radiation due to thinning of the ozone layer. Amphibian die-offs are normal but evidence shows this to be a global catastrophe completely out-of-proportion with any cyclical trends. Unpolluted ecosystems such as parks and reserves are not immune – three of seven native frog and toad species in the Yosemite National Park have disappeared, and the other four are declining in number. The frogs are telling us that something is terribly wrong with our environment.
One of the greatest threats to our civilization is over population. Overcrowded cities are the main cause of water shortages and electricity brownouts today. But overcrowding in centuries past contributed to the fall of Rome, Babylon, and the Mayan empire. The Mayas, who dominated Central America in the 9th Century, built sophisticated irrigation systems to supply fresh water to their booming population. The Mayans survived periods of war and disease. They created a society of great wealth, rich in culture and complex bureaucracies, especially in the capital city of Tikal. But their unsustainable population explosion was handed a knockout punch by a long drought beginning about 840 A.D.
Overpopulation is only sustainable as long as the land is not overexploited, water and energy sources remain sufficient, and pollution is reduced to safe levels. Technology may well solve these problems, or become part of the problem. The Pluto perihelion revealed the danger of ozone destroying chlorofluorocarbons and greenhouse gases, which are a direct result of technological and industrial advance. Genetically engineered crops promise to increase crop yields while supplying additional nutrients. But a mistake in the cross engineering of species could be devastating.
Energy may not be a critical threat in future years since renewable sources, principally from the wind and the sun, are contributing more electricity than ever before. By the end of the Pluto perihelion, wind power alone provided 7% of Denmark’s electricity, and 23% of northern Spain. Wind power has increased an average of 25.7% a year and solar power 16.8% a year since 1990. It is not energy, but the weather, that should concern us most.
We hope not to follow the Akkadian empire in Mesopotamia, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Indus Valley civilization in India, and early societies in Palestine, Greece, and Crete. Each of these great civilizations fell in a catastrophic drought and cooling of the atmosphere between 2300 and 2200 B.C. In the American Southwest, the ancient Anasazi civilization succumbed to three decades of exceptional drought and cooler temperatures in the 13th Century A.D.
The Pluto perihelion corresponded with a long and severe drought that lasted into the 21st Century. This produced a serious shortage of fresh water. Although water covers three-quarters of our planet, 95% of it is salty and 70% of the rest is locked up in ice. Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Oakland, California estimates that a billion people worldwide lack adequate clean water. “Half the world’s population has water service inferior to the ancient Greeks and Romans,” he said. Water-borne diseases kill 10,000 to 20,000 children daily! The shortage of water, pronounced during droughts, is causing record numbers of people to migrate into metropolitan areas, especially in Third World countries. By 2015, population experts predict there will be 28 megacities, each with more than 10 million people. Tokyo is already home to more than 26 million people. Bombay is expected to grow from 18 million to 26 million; Los Angeles from 13.1 million to 14.1 million; New York City from 16.6 million to 17.4 million by 2015.
Water is the weak link in the survival equation. The American West gets most of its water from the Colorado River basin. As western states continue to boom in population, water shortages will increase. The Rio Grande, supplying much of Mexico’s water, is being over pumped. China’s Yellow River is in peril for the same reason. The Pentagon and State Department warn that future conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa will involve water rights more than human rights.
We are at a remarkable crossroads in history. Technological advances have rapidly changed every facet of our lives. In a mere two decades the computer, satellites, and space exploration have become commonplace. The massive project to map the human genetic code (started in 1989 and scheduled for completion in 2005) has opened vast biological and reproductive possibilities promising to revolutionize both agriculture and human health. The Human Genome Project promises new cures - medical miracles like DNA vaccines - and reliable ways to discover potential diseases before they develop. The harnessing of genes will likely produce the biggest renaissance of all in human health.
Old ailments are being eradicated while new infectious agents are being discovered. Diagnostics has never been so good. X-ray machines, like the ultrasound, CT scans, PET scans, and MRIs, now offer an internal view of the body without invading it. Major advances have come in treating heart disease, in performing transplants, and in the treatment of AIDS. An understanding of the role genes play in triggering cancer has revolutionized therapies. But with all these advances come equally perplexing questions involving the ethics of cloning, abortion, and assisted suicide.
The first cloning of a mammal (Dolly the sheep) took place in February 1997. Between 1998 and 2000 researchers cloned mice, calves, goats, and pigs. A bull was even ‘recloned’ from a cloned bull. The full meaning of the Pluto perihelion took place in April 2000 as scientists discovered that cloning could restore body cells to a youthful state. The next step, cloning human life, was inevitable sooner or later despite President Clinton’s ban on federal funding of human-cloning research. In October 2001, the first cloned human embryos were created at Advanced Cell Technology’s lab in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The significance of the Pluto perihelion has reached across all facets of society. The worldwide Web was created in 1991. The rush to create the hardware and software to extend the reach of the Web fueled the greatest stock market surge in history. The U.S. stock market crash of 2001 and the resulting recession will only temporarily stop the mammoth rise in productivity made possible by the computer.
The 1989 Pluto perihelion marks the fifth industrial revolution of American history. Before industrial developments, mankind lived through long periods marked by slow, innovative progress. Primitive man wandered about gathering whatever edibles were available (Mercury stage). Eventually trade developed as people formed communities (Venus stage). Agriculture arose from these fixed settlements (Moon stage). Then in the 18th Century waterpower, textiles, and iron promoted the first industrial revolution (Mars stage). In the mid-19th Century came stream, rail, and steel (Jupiter stage). The turn of the 20th Century brought electricity, chemicals, and internal combustion (Saturn stage). Fifty years later, it was electronics, aviation, and mass production (Uranus stage). The current revolution is based on semiconductors, fiber optics, genetics, and software (Neptune stage). The next industrial age will be driven by machines the size of molecules (Pluto stage).
A global system of trade started with the first industrial age in the mid 1800s. This initial foray into globalization ended after World War I. The Russian Revolution and the Great Depression dampened the first great worldwide industrial expansionism. World War II divided the world differently than it had been and set the stage for a second globalization run. But the Cold War essentially froze the global industrial advance. When the Cold War ended with the Berlin Wall falling in 1989 (the Pluto perihelion), the third phase of globalization – a new world order – began.
The first two phases of globalization were given impetus by the invention of the railroad, the steamship, and the automobile. Today’s era of globalization is built around telecommunications. Microchips, satellites, fiber optics, and the Internet are its driving force. The world will get smaller and tighter due to these technologies because developing countries no longer need to trade raw materials to the West to get the finished products that they need. Developing countries can now become major producers. And industrial nations can relocate various operations in Third World countries to save money. Research, production, and marketing can be located in different parts of the world, tied together through computers and teleconferencing. People can trade services and information globally for the first time in a matter of seconds!
The new globalization system is in fact an integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies. It allows individuals, corporations, and nation-states to communicate with each other farther, faster, and cheaper than ever before. Everyone is not connected, of course. The left-out individuals and nation-states will sink deeper behind and become bedrock of resistance to further globalization. The international corporations behind globalization will seek to neutralize or convert renegade countries. The general conflict of globalization pits the rights of the individual – including regions, countries, and cultural groups – against global conformity designed by international corporations and mega-rich individuals. Wars will rage for twenty years or so – a world civil war – in which one-world forces will oppose those of renegade countries and regions seeking to retain their identities.
The idea behind globalization is free-market capitalism. For globalization to succeed, participating nations must open their markets, deregulate and privatize their economies. It is the American model of free trade and competition exported internationally.
Globalization has its own mores and defining technologies: computerization, miniaturization, digitization, satellite communications, fiber optics, and the Internet. A shift in mindset and lifestyle has followed these developing technologies, essentially creating a cultural homogenization. People are leaving rural areas (small towns) and agricultural lifestyles to join the urban throngs (big cities) and urban lifestyles linked with global fashion, food, and entertainment trends.
There are three factors that keep globalization intact. The first is the balance of power between nations. The United States is the sole superpower responsible for keeping the world’s troublemakers under toe. This is best achieved with a balance of power between treaty nations. The second factor is the relationship between nations and global markets. The global markets are made up of millions of investors. The worldwide pool of investors is a powerful key to globalization. Investment conglomerates and multinational corporations pressure governments to change laws to protect and promote their trade. They are capable of triggering the downfall of governments by moving massive sums of money with the click of a mouse.
The third balance of power is the newest and most precarious. It is the relationship between individuals and nation-states. Globalization has reduced many barriers to freedom. Individuals are not as severely limited as they once were. Freedom of movement encourages entrepreneurship. Financial markets thrive in an environment of innovative thinking and freewheeling assembly. Governments that overly protect and control key industries hurt the flow of manufacture. Globalization, however, has empowered individual investors by liberating their ability to trade stocks on the international markets. Mega-rich individuals are now capable of directly influencing (hedging) select world commodities. The mega-rich used to be limited by governments, corporations, and public or private institutions. All that has radically changed since the Pluto perihelion.
Costs have come down in several key industries – computers, telecommunications, miniaturization, compression technology, and digitization. The cost cutting innovations that began in the 1980s have resulted in widespread advances. To paraphrase Lawrence Grossman, former NBC News president, “Printing made us all readers. Xeroxing made us all publishers. Television made us all viewers. Digitization makes us all broadcasters.” Put another way, globalization allows individuals and small businesses, not just countries and corporations, to be producers of finished goods. The world is suddenly coordinated as countries big and small now have the opportunity to assemble the technologies, raw materials and funding to be producers, or subcontractors, of highly complex finished products or services.
The financial markets have undergone a tremendous democratization too. Originally, a few bankers held the sovereign debts of a few countries. This all began to change in the late 1960s when the ‘commercial paper’ market emerged. Corporations issued bonds to the public in order to raise capital. Banks were then no longer the sole keepers of debt. Next came investment banks buying up home mortgages from banks and home mortgage companies. The investment banks then issued $1,000 bonds on the bought up mortgages. This spread the debt around to individuals. One of the greatest financial changes came in the 1980s when Michael Milken sold the idea of “junk bonds” to investors. Junk bonds are primarily struggling blue-chip companies and start-up companies with little capital. They were being asked by banks to pay higher interest rates for loans. Milken found a way to pool these companies and get a higher rate of return on their bonds. It was a bonanza for Milken and the markets. Unfortunately, Milken was corrupt and finally fell from grace. The wealth and greed generated by the junk bond market, however, transformed the individual investor. Day traders popped up everywhere. People that would not normally invest in the stock market got the fever – the great bull market of the 1980s and 1990s was on.
What evolved from these events is that once a lot of bankers held the sovereign debts of a lot of countries. Next came a few wealthy individuals and bankers holding the sovereign debts of a lot of countries. And now many individuals, through pension funds and mutual funds, hold the sovereign debts of many countries.
Television and radio broadcasting were once restricted because the spectrums and technologies for transmission were limited. Cable television broke this barrier. Satellite signals were once available only to big, costly cable and dish systems. Miniaturization allowed small, inexpensive satellite dishes to proliferate the market. Suddenly millions of people around the world could receive up to a hundred stations or more. Digital television will boost reception to 500 or more channels. As the Internet and television merge, people will begin transmitting not only typed information across the world but real-time sound and pictures as well. Compression technology is also transforming the information arena. DVD (digital video disks) will replace videotapes, just as CDs replaced cassette tapes.
Margaret Thatcher in England, beginning in 1979, and Ronald Reagan in the United States, beginning in 1980, led popular majorities that cast aside government-directed economic approaches. Gone was the big government approach of the Great Society and traditional Keynesian economics. Less government intervention in the market was in order, and it worked. Two decades of unprecedented growth resulted.
The French philosopher Montesquieu (18th Century) wrote in THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS, “two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling; and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities.” Multinational trade is changing geopolitics but not ending tribal, civil, and national squabbles. Thucydides, writing about the Peloponnesian War, said nations are moved to go to war for one of three reasons: honor, fear, and interest. Nations that fight today must rebuild to foster globalization. Future wars, therefore, will still start based on honor, fear, or interest but the end result will be to homogenize the vanquished. Wayward nation-states will be subjugated and turned into consuming-producing factories aligned with the international consortium. There will likewise be no money loaned to nation-states that peacefully opt-out of the globalist dream. And wars that might be fought for honor or fear may be prevented by mutual interest. Take the China and Taiwan situation. China has declared that it will go to war if Taiwan declares total independence from China. This is not likely to happen because war would stop investment in China. China needs to join the global herd to gain financially and industrially or it will be left behind in the waste heap of the Third World. This is not to say, as many foreign experts assert, that China would not use military force if pushed too far by Taipei. But the economic incentives to preserving the peace are so great China would be reluctant to attack. What we face as a result of globalization are regional conflicts, not world wars.
Globalization is homogenizing people. National cultures are under attack. By changing the social habits, traditions, laws and lifestyles of a nation, or by destroying them environmentally, social cohesion becomes unglued. When unrestrained globalization displaces cultures and environments, it destroys the underlying fabric of communal life. A delicate balance must be assured if globalization is to continue. If cultures diminish in importance, the defining motivations of distinct groups of people will wither away. Globalization can only be sustainable if cultures and environments are respected. The laws and heritages of individual nations must not succumb to global drives for uniformity. But if globalization becomes just a more efficient way to exchange goods and cultures, it will survive. The best that globalization can provide is a confederation of distinct cultures free to chose among the diverse interests and products of the world. The worst that globalization can produce is a homogenized globe of fast-food restaurants and mindless media. If globalization promotes cultural diversity, it will continue. If it destroys culture and environment, the new world order will crumple. Astrologer Jeanne Mozier writing in the 100th issue of The Mountain Astrologer said, “A federated global structure that provides a voice for unique regional and national distinctions would be a positive face for globalization. A worst-case scenario is a corporate or institutional structure complete with faceless boards of directors answerable to no one.”
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Article written by Bill Hansen 2010. All rights reserved.
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