One of the things President Abe Lincoln said in 1861 that has echoed down through time is this:

If he had uttered those words during the McCarthy Era of the 1950s, he would have been called a communist sympathizer, charged with plotting the overthrow of the US Government, and imprisoned.

Workers and the Wealthy in U.S. History

In fact, wealthy investors in search of profits and workers in search of jobs need each other. Yet the ongoing struggle between workers and the wealthy has characterized American history since the first English colonists sloshed ashore at Jamestown in 1607. The tide of this ongoing battle has changed most definitively whenever Uranus has arrived in mid-Aries, opposite the US natal Saturn (ruler of established ways and means). From mid-Aries, Uranus also is within orb of a square to the US Sun (sense of "I am") in mid-Cancer. Since July 4, 1776 Uranus in mid-Aries has coincided with the great depression of the 1840s and the great depression of the 1930s—both periods of working class uprisings.

Prior to the USA 's birth, Uranus in Aries coincided with such uprisings as Bacon's Rebellion in the 1670s, and the refusal of Indians to be enslaved by Spanish gold-hunters in the 1590s. Uranus moving conjunct the US natal Saturn in Libra has also brought dramatic innovations to the worker-wealthy conflict. Examples: Beginning in 1619, African slaves were imported and eventually replaced English indentured servants. In the 1880s, a new wave of immigrants from Europe were replacing native-born American industrial workers. A century later, during the Reagan Administration, the wealthy began to outsource jobs to cheap-labor markets, and in a variety of other ways make life difficult for native-born American workers.

The Sixties had hardened the resolve of the wealthy to wipe out all awareness of what Lincoln had said in 1861. Slowly but surely "socialist" programs—public education, unemployment compensation, social security and other programs beneficial to the working class—have been subtly sabotaged. Now Congress is poised to pass the so-called "drug benefit for seniors" that will eventually destroy Medicare by gradually forcing seniors into HMOs, further enriching the insurance corporations.

The connection between US military operations in foreign lands and the interests of big corporations is hard to miss, although corporate-owned media does its best to enable the American public to miss it. People outside the USA believe the Bush Administration invaded Iraq to capture the oil, protect the dollar against the euro, and protect Israel from Iraqis sympathetic with the Palestinian cause. Inside the USA , people are urged to believe "we" are bringing "American freedom and democracy" to Iraq.

Outer Planet Transits to the U.S. Chart

Astrologically, major turning points in the ongoing American class war have occurred when the outer planets have made hard angles to the US Sun-Saturn square or Mars-Neptune square. Even before the USA was born as a nation in 1776, hard angles from the outer planets coincided with major turning points in this conflict. When the first African slaves were offloaded in the Jamestown colony in 1619, Neptune was within orb of a conjunction with the US natal Saturn in Libra, and opposite Saturn was Jupiter in Aries, square Venus conjunct the US natal Sun placement in Cancer. Neptune, Jupiter and Venus thus afflicted the US Sun-Saturn by forming a T square pattern.

The US Civil War broke out when Neptune was opposite its own natal position and Uranus was conjunct its natal position, as well. The outcome was a declaration that slavery was henceforth illegal in America . Slavery was morphed into institutionalized oppression of African Americans, effectively continuing the "benefits" of cheap labor for the wealthy. I put benefits in quotes because the huge divide between rich and poor created by this post-slavery racism sabotaged the economic development of the South until the Civil Rights Movement broke its hold. The wealthy and workers, I repeat, are really interdependent.

During the 1960s when "Jim Crow" was attacked, Uranus and Pluto were conjunct the US natal Neptune and square the US Mars. The civil rights movement spread to the anti-Vietnam War and the so-called "counter-culture" movements. The rich did not easily give up "divide and conquer" by color-coding the working class, however, especially in the South. And wealthy conservatives worked hard to put their guys in the White House. Momentum was definitely with the rich by year 2000 when Democratic candidate Al Gore lost the Supreme Court case that installed Republican George Bush in the White House, inspiring conservatives to mount another assault on the working class.

At the heart of this ongoing struggle is an assumption passed down from the European Dark Ages: Mother Nature has not provided enough for everyone so the most able must control the less able. This economic philosophy replaced the belief extant in the Americas when Columbus arrived: that Mother Nature provides more than enough for everyone so Her fruits must be distributed as fairly as possible, and the natural environment protected.

The angst between the wealthy and workers was hotly debated by the Founders in the late 1700s. It dominated the writing of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, with transiting Uranus conjunct the US natal Saturn, square the US Sun in Cancer. In effect, the Constitution spoke for the wealthy while the Bill of Rights spoke for the workers. That it was wealthy slave-owner Thomas Jefferson, paraphrasing Tom Paine, who penned the Bill of Rights indicates that Jefferson and his friends were trying to resolve the conflict between workers and the wealthy. That they succeeded to some degree set the stage for the further development of democracy during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Plutocracy-Democracy

What we now have is not really democracy (government by the consent of the governed), but rather rule by the rich (plutocracy) masquerading as democracy. Nevertheless, during the past two centuries, democracy as an ideal has grown dramatically. Now most nations claim to have a democratic government, although some are a lot more democratic in fact than others. The "freedom and democracy" the Bush Administration claims it is bringing to the long-suffering people of Iraq is based on the present American design: everyone should vote, but those elected should serve the wealthy. President Bush's dedication to preserving the status quo inherited from the Dark Ages makes him a hero of wealthy investors who are now free to import cheap labor or outsource American jobs to cheap labor markets abroad.

Given the history of Uranus in this ongoing class war, we can look for the next major turning point when Uranus moves opposite the US natal Neptune , and thus also square the US Mars. Uranus will move within orb of that opposition in January 2008, and be exact on June 2 and July 21, 2008 , and March 9, 2009 . We can look for a definitive, long-lasting resolution to the American class war when Uranus moves through mid-Aries during the 2000-teens, making direct hits May 15 and September 30, 2014 , and March 7, 2015 . With the US natal Sun-Saturn square hit by Pluto, Uranus, Mars, Jupiter and Venus, we can look for a major transformation of our economic beliefs.

Robert Gover's book Time and Money: the Economy and the Planets came out in late May, 2005. Euromoney Magazine reviewed it in late 2005. Robert has partnered with a fund manager in Florida, Mike Mansfield, to do a financial newsletter. Robert was the featured speaker at a conference of investors from around the world in Denver on September 24, 2005, He has a BA in economics and has studied astrology since 1965. By the mid-1970s, he had become interested in stock market astrology, and by the mid-1980s, with the advent of astrological software, his interest had expanded to the whole economy. Time and Money may be purchased from www.hopepubs.com, or amazon, B&N and other online vendors, as well as book stores. Robert is a memmber of the International Society of Astrological Research, the International Society of Business Astrologers, and the American Federation of Astrologers. He is also a novelist, and the latest edition of his most famous book One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding can be purchased at most online bookstores. His other novels may be obtained from used or rare book dealers. He has written one other nonfiction book: Voodoo Contra, about the conradictory meanings of that ominous word.