by
Béatrice Boucher, DFAstrological Studies ©
Most themes present and past that are related to the entry
of Pluto in the earthy sign of Capricorn have been discussed
by astrologers all over the world.
During the last transit of Pluto in Capricorn the political
situation in the kingdom of France, ie the Absolute Monarchy
was clearly a preparation for the revolution to come. Too
many wars had devastated the country, the people were sick
and starving. The next king, Louis XVI, seemed first to wanting
changes and to do something about the dramatic economical
situation. He tried to carry out social reforms but the nobility
didn’t want to lose its privileges and thwarted each
of his plans. Finally Louis XVI was guillotined by the people,
like many others with him, during the French revolution.
On the new continent,
another country was ready for change and fought its wars of
independence. In the US-chart we find Pluto in Capricorn in
the 2nd house (Sibly chart - Dane Rudhyar). The US will have
their first Pluto return, but not sooner as 2021-2022 when
Pluto will be at 27 degree Capricorn.
So, there is much
to say about this period and much has already been written
and said. For now I would only like to point at some less
known events which were important as well and which shows
some resemblances with the present situation.
I discovered that
there had been an international stock market crash in august
1763, that was followed by the bankruptcy of hundreds of enterprises
in Europe. Rather surprising at first glance because in 1763
Saturn was in Taurus (money) trine Pluto and Uranus was in
Aries like it will be in 2010. A quote:
“The overheated financial markets at the end of the
Seven Years' War become fatal to the Amsterdam financial world.
The great need of money, necessary for the purchase of war
material, provoked kite flying to draw and back due to be
prolonged. This created a comprehensive bill of exchanges
of which Amsterdam and Hamburg were the centres of.
About this phenomenon Sautijn Kluit notes:
"People
by then took recourse to the credit they owned by others;
who were likewise unable to comply and resorted to the credit
that they had by others, the latter were as well forced
to take a similar path. And hence "the ride continued”
and gradually there was a gradual ‘kite flying."
As the original debtors weren’t able to pay, the credit
in fact was an artificially constructed house of cards which
had to collapse at the very first wind blast. When in July
1763 a major Amsterdam banker went bankrupt, the house of
cards collapsed and even very solid banking houses were in
difficulty. Because of the international entanglement the
crisis quickly spread to Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig. In Hamburg
only, more than 95 merchants and bankers went bankrupt in
short time.
The US and Europe seem now to be on retraining exercises,
though the credits ones has from land and buildings -the high
mortgages-- are now not so much from merchants or nobility,
but from workers at least so long Saturn is still in Virgo.
A resemblance
with the current situation is that at the end of the last
phase of Pluto through Sagittarius (like next year), there
was on a global level, a (first) world war: the 7-year war
(1756-1763). This 7-year war is sometimes called the first
world war, but this remains a question because in fact only
the European countries were at war with each others every
where in the world. Ultimately - and that's interesting -
it led to a redistribution of nearly all possessed territories
(ie the colonies). This too contributed to the humanitarian
and economic crisis: the old structures had to be completely
destroyed. That is Pluto in Capricorn too.
Furthermore
- and just for the record about Capricorn and Science - it
is during the last Pluto Capricorn period that the metre,
the kilogram and the second (!) were defined as "fixed
units"!.
Beatrice Boucher, DFAstrological Studies © '07
publication for AstroTime
* See
also the article
Pluto in Capricorn 2008-2024 Joyce Hoen
