Each time the nation has sunk into a great depression a grand cross pattern has existed. This grand cross has been formed by transiting Saturn in mid-Capricorn and another "heavy" planet in mid-Aries, both opposite and/or square the United States’ natal Sun square Saturn.

In Part One, we covered how this grand cross repeated during the great depressions of the 1780s and 1840s. In this part, we will see that the grand cross pattern repeats with the great depressions of the 1870s and 1930s.

The Depression of the 1870s

The United States suffered its third great depression during the 1870s. This time Saturn's trip through Capricorn formed a square with Neptune in Aries to create the grand cross with The U.S. Sun and Saturn, with Mars in Libra adding power to this most malevolent aspect.

The Depression of the 1930s

Sixty years later, the U.S.A. went through what is arguably the worst great depression of its history. I say "arguably" because existing historic data indicates that the great depression of the 1780s was as bad, or worse.

A biwheel chart for January 1, 1931, near the depths of this great depression, shows transiting Saturn at 13 degrees Capricorn square Uranus in Aries to form the grand cross with the U.S. Sun and Saturn. Ominously, Pluto was nearly conjunct the U.S. Sun in Cancer at this time.

What About the 1960s?

When Saturn arrived in mid-Capricorn opposite the U.S. Sun in the early 1960s, there was no heavy planet squaring Saturn from mid-Aries, and there was no great depression. Instead, the developments of the 60s were unprecedented (Uranus) and transforming (Pluto).

The Boom of the 1990s

Economists who track the 30- and/or 60-year rhythm of great depressions were sure the 1990s would send the U.S.A. into another. Dr. Ravi Batra's book, The Great Depression of 1990, was a bestseller in the late 1980s. But this time, when Saturn moved opposite The U.S. Sun, it was accompanied through Capricorn by Uranus and Neptune, with all three sextile (60 degrees from) Pluto in Scorpio. There was no grand cross, and no great depression.

Instead, during the 1990s we have had a record run-up of stock prices (speculative bubble), coupled with a widening gap between rich and poor, the two conditions that have always been extant when previous great depressions arrived.

Will the Bubble and Gap Bring Us Another Depression?

As we move into the new millennium, Saturn isn't due to arrive opposite the U.S. Sun until January 2019. At that time, it won't square another "heavy" in Aries. Thus, based on past astro-economic correlations, we can expect to suffer no great depression during the 2020s.

However, we are not likely to make it to 2020 without suffering something like a combination of the 1930s and 1960s. This is because Pluto, when it arrives opposite the U.S. Sun, will be square Uranus in mid-Aries to form a grand cross with the U.S. Sun and Saturn.

A Pluto-Anchored Grand Cross

What can we expect from a grand cross anchored by Pluto instead of Saturn? Past history of Pluto-Uranus combinations are instructive.

Pluto was conjunct the U.S. Sun in Cancer and square transiting Uranus in Aries during much of the great depression of the 1930s. Pluto and Uranus were conjunct in Virgo, with both conjunct the U.S. Neptune (which squares its natal Mars in Gemini) for that dramatic decade of upheaval now known as the 60s.

Pluto and Uranus in the 1750s

The last time Pluto was in Sagittarius was the 1750s. At the beginning of the French and Indian War, Pluto was at 12 degrees Sagittarius (about where it is right now) and Uranus was square Pluto at 11 degrees Pisces. This war was a major turning point, setting off the holocaust that decimated Native Americans and coincided with the social ferment that led to the American Revolution.

For a colony to rebel against its mother country was unprecedented (Uranus) and spelled the death of old kingdoms and the birth of new democracies (Pluto). The American Revolution virtually turned our assumptions about governance upside down.

Pluto and Uranus in the 1960s

The Pluto-Uranus conjunction of the 60s changed American cultural assumptions about race, gender, economic justice and the right of government to induct people into the military.

It's therefore a good bet that when Pluto and Uranus create a grand cross with the U.S. Sun-square-Saturn in 2014, we can look for another time of social upheaval and changing cultural assumptions. Whatever revolutionary angst has built up the most force will manifest (Pluto) in ways that cannot be predicted (Uranus).

Tied to the Past

Although the Pluto-Uranus combinations of the 1700s and 1960s moved us toward democracy, something like an umbilical cord continued to tie us to medieval autocracy. What had developed by the 1990s was governance by plutocracy masked as democracy. The rich still controlled democratically elected lawmakers.

The Pluto-anchored grand cross of 2014 appears destined to sever the umbilical cord to medieval autocracy and establish a purer form of democracy. How this will come about, however, is unpredictable (Uranus).

For more information, see Saturn and Great Depressions Part One