When planets change their clothing
by Ray Grasse
Each ingress is accompanied by dramatic events relevant to the planetary symbolism, as this survey demonstrates.
Over the years that I’ve been following planetary movements through the signs, it’s been fascinating to see what sorts of historical changes happen around those times when the slow-moving planets first move into new zodiacal signs – a process astrologers call ‘ingresses’.
As most astrologers know, this sort of socio-cultural change generally unfolds fairly slowly rather than immediately. Yet I’ve sometimes been surprised to see major shifts of emphasis happen within those first few weeks, months, or even days after the ingress occurs.
With that in mind, I’ve compiled a short list of some of the more intriguing correlations I’ve noticed from recent times, which expands on a short list I mentioned briefly in an earlier book. (1) To be clear, these select events hardly represent the full impact of such ingresses, as there are many manifestations which emerge whenever a planet moves through a sign, on various levels – culturally, politically, religiously, scientifically, even geologically. These are just some of the more conspicuous correlations I’ve come across, but which may sometimes serve as clues or ‘omens’ to the broader ramifications of those placements that unfold in their wake. (2)
Before diving in here, I need to explain that slow-moving planets customarily dip in and out of a new sign before finally settling in ‘for the long haul’, as it were. Some of the events compiled here are those which took place shortly after that initial entry, some of which happen shortly after the final ingress into the sign. Either way, the expressions of the zodiacal/planetary influence involved are ones that invite close examination and reflection.
1. Pluto's ingress into Cancer in 1912
Due to its irregular orbit, Pluto can reside in a given sign for anywhere between 12 to 30 years. During the 20th century, Pluto first ingressed Cancer on 11 September 1912, but moved back into that sign ‘for the long haul’ on 28 May 1914. It was exactly four weeks after that latter date that Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, which in turn triggered WWI. As for the possible astro-significance there, consider that Cancer is domestic in nature, and relates to such matters as family, property and emotional boundaries. With turbulent Pluto moving through this sign, WWI devastated virtually all of those for large segments of the population, while enacting a massive ‘transformation’ of property and national boundaries throughout much of Europe.
2. Uranus' ingress into Aries in 1927
Uranus characteristically resides in a sign for six or seven years. On 1 April 1927, the planet of technology first moved into the pioneering sign Aries – the sign of new beginnings. Several days after that ingress, on 7 April, an event (sometimes considered the birth of modern television occurred) when the Bell Telephone Company transmitted an image of Herbert Hoover from Washington, D.C. to New York City – the first successful long-distance demonstration of televised technology. Several weeks later, Philo Farnsworth achieved another televised milestone when he transmitted the first electronic television motion pictures (as opposed to electromechanical TV systems that had been used before).
Lindbergh’s The Spirit of St. Louis
Source: SDASM Archives, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
The next month, on 20-21 May 1927, another iconic breakthrough took place when Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop transatlantic airplane flight from New York City to Paris, France, in his single-engine aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis.
Still another benchmark of modern times came several months later when, on 6 October, the film The Jazz Singer premiered in New York City – the film widely regarded as a key turning point in the history of cinema. Though it wasn’t the first ‘talkie’, it became the highest grossing movie up to that point and popularised sound motion pictures from that point forward.
3. Pluto's ingress into Leo in 1938
Though it had dipped in and out of Leo temporarily the previous year, Pluto entered Leo ‘for the long haul’ on 4 August 1938. Several months later, on 17 December, scientist Otto Hahn discovered the nuclear fission of Uranium, which caused some to call it the ‘birth of the Atomic Age’. Considering that Leo is associated by astrologers with the Sun, the movement of transformational Pluto into this sign seems a fitting symbol for an unlocking of true ‘solar power’. As we’ll also see later, the ascendancy of Hitler during this time reflected the darker side of the powerful forces being tapped into during that period, but in more psycho-political ways. In that vein, I want to include here a comment posted on social media by my astrological colleague, Sheri Robin Hartstein, which I think makes a valuable point regarding the importance of this particular ingress:
The most notorious example (of planetary ingresses) from the last century is one that involved a double-whammy ingress of Saturn into Taurus while squaring Pluto in Leo during July-September 1939 leading up to the start of World War Two. Pluto had first ingressed into Leo in late 1937 for two months, then again the following year at critical junctures (i.e., on 30 Sept. 1938 coinciding with the infamous ‘Peace for our Time’ Munich Agreement between England and Germany.) But it wasn’t until Saturn ingressed into Taurus and squared Pluto in the first degrees of Leo that Germany invaded Poland on 1 Sept. 1939 and the world war began. (A third important factor at that juncture was transiting Pluto exactly square the nodes in Scorpio/Taurus, with Saturn conjunct the Taurus South Node.)
4. Neptune's ingress into Scorpio in 1955
Neptune spends roughly 14 years in a sign, and is the planet most often associated with music, film, and mysticism. Neptune first moved into Scorpio on 25 December 1955. Less than two months later, on 22 February 1956, Elvis Presley exploded onto the charts with ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. Shortly after, on 13 March, he released his first gold album, simply titled Elvis Presley, then on 3 April appeared on the Milton Berle Show, prior to his more famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. In light of the Scorpio influence, it’s worth noting the controversy surrounding Elvis during that period over the overtly ‘sexual’ nature of his performances, with conservative viewers objecting strongly to his onstage hip-thrusts in particular – causing producers of the Ed Sullivan Show several months later to film him only from the waist up!
Elvis Presley, (publicity still from Jailhouse Rock)
Source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ6-2067 Location: NYWTS -- BIOG, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Interestingly enough, this was also a seminal period for the evolution of The Beatles. To begin with, the musical venue most associated with their early career, the Cavern Club, opened on 16 January 1957 in Liverpool, England. On 6 July of that year, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time, and one month later, John Lennon’s first group, the Quarrymen, played at the Cavern Club, literally setting the stage for the yet-to-be-formed Beatles.
On a very different note, on 4 October 1957, eight weeks after Neptune moved into Scorpio for the final time, the very first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched into space by the Russians. How might this tie into Neptune’s entrance into Scorpio? One possibility is this: as I mentioned in an earlier chapter [for a book-in-progress from which this essay is extracted], I remember watching that pinpoint of light streaming far overhead as a child, and it was an unspeakably mysterious – and Neptunian – experience for me. It certainly felt like a new world of the imagination had opened up – and with it came the true birth of the Space Age and our collective entry into the dark realms far beyond terra firma.
5. Pluto's ingress into Capricorn in 2008
In the years leading up to 2008, a growing number of astrologers predicted that the imminent entry of Pluto into Capricorn could trigger a major shake-up on Wall Street and the global economy, due to the turbulent impact of this planet on the sign associated with business and government. For me, this seemed a prime opportunity to test out the viability of not only ingresses but of the tropical zodiac more specifically (since its boundaries are different from those of the sidereal – in the latter case, a more heavily star-based zodiac). I say that because the financial forecasts being proposed were so dramatic and severe that this seemed to offer a relatively clear-cut ‘before and after’ case study in astrological prediction.
As it turned out, within just weeks of Pluto’s move into Capricorn in 2008, Wall Street went into a historic meltdown, leaving the global economy teetering on a financial precipice.
6. Uranus' ingress into Aries in 2011
On 11 March 2011 the planet Uranus was scheduled to move into the tropical sign of Aries, signalling a major transition that might seriously impact culture and society. What made this ingress especially important to me was the fact that Uranus was also starting to enter into a long-term stressful relationship (a square) with Pluto in Capricorn, which suggested this impending change could be turbulent or even revolutionary. On the day before this ingress occurred, on 10 March, I spoke with an old friend, Tim Boyd (about to become president of the Theosophical Society in America, where I had previously worked as an editor), and mentioned this planetary shift to him. I specifically suggested that he watch the news carefully for any major shake-ups on the global front those next few days.
Fukushima, The four damaged reactor buildings on 16 March 2011.
Source: Digital Globe, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
As it so happened, the very next day, exactly as Uranus moved into fiery Aries, the Fukushima disaster occurred. A massive earthquake shook Japan and triggered a tsunami that took the life of thousands and caused a disastrous meltdown at the Haichi power plant. The destruction of the nuclear generator spread radiation across a wide region and continues to pose a serious risk for both humans and marine wildlife to this day.
7. Uranus' ingress into Taurus in 2018
On 15 May 2018, Uranus then entered the tropical sign Taurus. Because of the widely accepted association of Taurus with Earth, many astrologers wondered whether we might start seeing major geological changes taking place at the point of its entry into this sign.
As it turned out, the week leading up to this ingress saw major volcanic activity starting up in Hawaii, and on 16 May, the day after its entry into Taurus, there was a significant eruption of Mount Kilauea, sending an ash plume 30,000 feet into the air. Nor was this the only Earth-related development occurring during that general period. Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano began erupting in mid-May as well, sending plumes of smoke almost four miles into the air, while on 29 May Guatemala’s Fuego volcano violently erupted, killing at least 62 people. On that exact same day, an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 shook the Big Island of Hawaii, sending plumes of ash thousands of feet upward from Mount Kilauea (again). Indeed, this general surge of volcanic activity led to the journal New Scientist to publish an article on 6 June 2018, titled ‘Why are there do many devastating volcanic eruptions right now?’
8. Chiron's ingress into Pisces in 2010
The planetoid Chiron is associated by many astrologers with issues of wounding and healing. This celestial body shifted into Pisces – the sign most associated with the ocean – on 22 April 2010. The Deepwater Horizon rig sank in 5000 ft. of water in the Gulf of Mexico that same day, causing incalculable damage to the Gulf and many of its creatures.
9. Saturn's ingress into Aquarius in 2020
On 21 March 2020, Saturn moved into Aquarius, precisely at a point when the theme of ‘social distancing’ became prevalent around the world, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic; this was coupled with a worldwide governmental crackdown on citizens who congregated in groups. One could hardly imagine a more fitting manifestation than this of Saturn (the planet of constriction and authority) moving into Aquarius (the sign of groups and social interactions)!
But while concerns over the pandemic lingered for some time, things became even more complicated in a different way when Saturn backed out of Aquarius, then re-entered it alongside Jupiter in late 2020 – making for a simultaneous double-ingress of those two planets in zero degrees of Aquarius on 21 December. Writing that previous summer, prior to the Biden/Trump presidential election, I made this comment in my book StarGates:
As of this writing, one of the more interesting (celestial triggers ahead) is set to happen around 21 December of this year. Besides this being the date of the Winter Solstice, it will also be when Saturn and Jupiter precisely conjoin for the first time in 20 years, in zero degrees of Aquarius…In addition to that, this is precisely when Mars in Aries will be forming a tight square to that epic Saturn/Pluto conjunction from January of 2020 at 22 degrees of Capricorn, serving as a trigger to that pattern as well. The fact that three major triggers will occur so shortly after the U.S. Presidential election naturally leads one to wonder whether the impact of those celestial markers will somehow involve fallout from that political event – a ‘perfect storm’ of political proportions, maybe? (3)
As it turned out, that “perfect storm” did happen, when just a few days later, on 6 January 2021, an angry mob of Donald Trump supporters attempted to overthrow the US government. Numbering in the thousands, rioters stormed the D.C. Capitol in hope of halting the next president’s certification. Having failed at that, the formal inauguration of Joe Biden as president then took place two weeks later, on 20 January 2021.
It was a dramatic event like none other in America’s history and represented a dramatic changing of the guard – but a complex and very double-edged one at that. Coming on the heels of the arch-conservative Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn shortly before, some astrologers had been predicting the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Aquarius might point to a progressive or liberal ‘wave’ ahead.
On the surface of things, that did seem to be the case, not only with the election of the Biden/Harris ticket (a moderately liberal President alongside the first female and first woman-of-colour Vice President), but with the installation of a far more diverse Congress as well. Yet as the attempted insurrection in reaction to Biden’s election made clear, any potential sea-change ahead wasn’t simply going to settle into place without a fight. If indeed the events around an ingress (or set of them) are omens of a sort, then these developments strongly hinted at a complicated situation ahead, not just in the US but likely for many other countries, as we collectively struggle to reconcile the opposing forces of constriction and expansion, ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’.
10. Pluto's ingress into Aquarius in 2023
Photograph from purported UFO sighting in Passaic, New Jersey
Source: George Stockderivative work: thumperward, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
On 23 March 2023, Pluto moved into Aquarius for the first time in over two centuries. It was exactly during this period that we saw a massive upsurge of discussion about both the perils and promise of A.I., or artificial intelligence, especially with the introduction of graphic programs like Midjourney and writing programs like ChatGPT. That was certainly ‘Aquarian’, as was the fact that this same period witnessed a virtual explosion of discussion in the media about UFOs/UAPs, and the possibility of humanity’s contact with extraterrestrial or non-human intelligences. This climaxed in a highly publicised US Senate hearing in late July (involving live testimonies from figures like David Grusch about possible crash retrieval programs), as well as the controversial work of physicist Avi Loeb and his claim of obtaining possible evidence of materials from beyond our solar system.
On a more political level, Pluto in Aquarius symbolises the ‘power of the masses’ (versus Pluto’s meaning in its opposite sign, Leo, symbolising the power of the reigning monarchal individual, or ‘star’). The last time Pluto moved through Aquarius was the late 1700s, which was a period that witnessed both the American and French Revolutions. When Pluto moved into Aquarius this time, we quickly saw massive street protests in countries like France and Israel railing against the policies of their leaders, while in the US the Department of Justice was launching unprecedented legal actions against former President Donald Trump, which some might well interpret as an effort by Aquarian ‘We the People’ forces to take down a would-be autocrat.
The movement of Pluto in Aquarius also seems behind the extended writers’ and actors’ strike in Hollywood – which, as of this writing (autumn 2023) remains unresolved. In fact, it began on 2 May 2023, within just twenty-four hours of Pluto’s station point at zero degrees of Aquarius. The strike involved creative artists of various stripes banding together against the corporate ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ of the entertainment industry, protesting unfair contractual terms around residual payments from streaming media as well as the possible replacement of writers and actors by artificial intelligence. The year 2023 witnessed another major act of resistance when members of the United Auto Workers union (UAW) went on strike against America’s three largest automakers – Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis – in the middle of September.
Final thoughts
Turning our gaze to the road ahead, it’s worth calling out a few of the upcoming planetary ingresses that readers should watch for in the years immediately ahead. Here are the ones I’ll be watching closely:
- Neptune moves into Aries on 31 March 2025.
- Saturn moves into Aries on 24 May 2025.
- Uranus moves into Gemini on 17 July 2025.
- Chiron moves into Taurus on 19 June 2026.
- Saturn moves into Taurus on 13 April 2028.
In particular, note the two ingresses taking place close to each other between the months of March and July of 2025. Earlier we saw the unusual double ingress of Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius within days of each other in late 2020; it’s even more unusual to see three major ingresses happening so close to one another like this (even though they aren’t within a few days of each other).
So, what could that possibly mean? We’ll be finding out soon enough!
Endnotes:
(1) Grasse, Ray. (2020). StarGates: Essays on Astrology, Symbolism, and the Synchronistic Universe. Inner Eye Publications, Chicago. See footnotes to chapter 22.
(2) To my mind, examples like those here don’t simply offer an intriguing illustration of astrology-in-action but may also provide compelling circumstantial evidence for the influence and reality of the zodiac itself (in this case, the ‘tropical’ one). Surprisingly enough, this is something debated even by some within the astrological community itself, with a few astrologers I’ve known suggesting we should dispense with zodiacal factors altogether in favour of relying solely on planetary angles and aspects. (Though my colleague and friend Richard Tarnas doesn’t align himself dogmatically with that viewpoint, he did adopt it for his book, Cosmos and Psyche, mainly for reasons of simplicity and clarity, choosing instead to focus primarily on planetary cycles through history without reference to zodiacal placements.) Do lists of ingresses like we’ve seen here provide ironclad proof for the reality and influence of the zodiac? Of course not. But are they compelling? Without a doubt.
(3) StarGates, see chapter 20.
Published by: The Astrological Journal, Nov/Dec 2023
Author:
Ray Grasse is an astrologer living in the Chicagoland area and has been associate astrologer for The Mountain Astrologer magazine for 20 or so years. He is the author of several books including The Waking Dream, Under a Sacred Sky, An Infinity of Gods, Urban Mystic, and Signs of the Times. This essay has been adapted from a forthcoming collection of essays. His website is: raygrasse.com.
© Ray Grasse, Astrological Journal, 2024
