CHAPTER THREE
Cycles of Relationship - 2

The Neptune-Pluto Cycles
This cycle, measured by the time elapsing between two successive conjunctions of the two planets, lasts close to 493 years. The geocentric conjunctions are usually repeated three times, so that it may be better to use the single heliocentric conjunctions as points of reference or milestones in the process of change. There were heliocentric conjunctions, according to available tables, in 1892 AD; 1399 AD around 906 AD; around 413 AD; around 81 BC; around 574 BC Every one of these dates refers to a crucial change in civilization, or in the striving of cultured peoples toward a universal civilization. It is possible also that the cycles of Uranus are closely interwoven with this Neptune-Pluto pattern; for in 1395-96 AD Uranus in early Sagittarius was opposing the Neptune-Pluto conjunction, while there seems to have been from 577 to 574 an approximate triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto near 15 Taurus.¹
      This period witnessed the reform of Gautama, the Buddha (according to the Hindu chronology), the birth of Pythagoras, the fall of Jerusalem, and indeed this sixth centruy BC began a completely new phase in the development of the human mind. In a lesser manner, the fifth century AD (which saw the final breakdown of the Roman Empire), the tenth century AD (which witnessed a new birth of culture, the Romanesque style) and the years around 1400 AD (which marked the spiritual beginnings of the Renaissance Movement) were also most important milestones in the vast evolutionary process which gradually is leading Man to a universal civilization.
      I mentioned already the fact that, as a result of the great eccentricity of Pluto's orbit, this planet, when closest to the sun, moves faster than Neptune. This leads to a peculiar situation in terms of the aspects between the two planets. For over 90 years Neptune and Pluto remain in nearly the same angular relationship. Today these two planets form a sextile aspect. This aspect began, one might say, when Neptune reached Libra in 1942-43 while Pluto was located in early Leo. This sextile aspect will last until nearly 2030-2040; and it constitutes, as it were, the deep bass-note supporting the chord of faster shifting planetary relationships. As the sextile is a constructive and steadying aspect, this "long-sextile" of Neptune and Pluto constitutes a most hopeful factor in an otherwise tense celestial situation. It should mark the beginning of a new order — perhaps of a global civilization and a true World-Federation.²
      During the eighteenth century — from about 1698 to 1792 — Neptune and Pluto formed a "long-trine" aspect. The trine is an aspect referring to expansion of consciousness or "vision" — and this eighteenth century has been called the "century of lights." The light was only intellectual and rational, but it nevertheless led to the Revolutionary Era which saw the birth of political democracy and liberation from many old Medieval dogmas.
      The preceding Pluto cycle saw also a "long-sextile" which corresponded to the Renaissance; so that we might hope on that basis that our present-day crisis will in some way be a "Renaissance." However all conjunctions of Neptune and Pluto, and the long-lasting aspect which follows, need not be considered constructive in terms of the then dominant culture. The conjunction of the beginning of the tenth century did mark the beginning of the great Catholic order of the Middle Ages, and of the Kiev Russia after Rurik the Great; but the conjunction of the fifth century in Taurus occurred as the Roman Empire was about completely to collapse. However, the break-down of the Roman Empire led under the sextile of Neptune to Pluto, to the rise of new kingdoms, particularly that of the Franks under Clovis, who, by becoming baptized in the new religion, began the cycle of North European Christianity.

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1. Editorial Note: When an early version of Michael R. Meyer's A Call to Transformation (which expanded upon Rudhyar's treatment of the near triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), first appeared in The Mountain Astrologer magazine during 1991, a representive of a pseudo-scientific type of astrology responded with strong objections, stating the writer was using "imaginary" data, that there was no near triple conjunction of the trans-Saturian planets around 575-577 BC.
      Yet the most recent version of the most precise and accurate ephemeris ever developed - the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) DE404 - proves there was indeed a very tight near triple conjunction of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto during 575-577 BC.
     Here's a sampling of the JPL DE404 data:



2. Editorial Note: During the early years of the 21st Century Neptune and Pluto actually phase in and out of exact septile aspects. Beginning 2001-2002, exact septile aspects will occur around each new year until 2007. See A Call to Transformation by Michael R. Meyer for more.