This year, on April 21st there is a Uranus Jupiter conjunction in Taurus. This conjunction is rare; the last three were in 1181, 1858 and 1941. The 1941 conjunction was at 25’38 Taurus on the malefic fixed star Algol, as was the 1858 conjunction at 29’25 Taurus.
One way to look at these major conjunctions is to see what happened in the past. Here is the first one in 1181.
I have set it for Paris because of events there which show a theme. The new king, Phillip needed money to fight his barons who questioned his authority. In 1180 he rounded up all the Jews and imprisoned them, charging a huge ransom to release them . In 1181, he cancelled all the loans Jewish bankers had made to Christians and pocketed 20% of the money. In 1182 he confiscated all Jewish lands and expelled them from his kingdom. Jews are ruled by Saturn.
Here we see the Uranus Jupiter squaring Saturn, the king took their money (Taurus) by force (Uranus). It was doubtless a shock as Jews had been living peacefully in France for over 1000 years. It was done with violence (Uranus) by a greedy (Jupiter) enemy (ruler of the 7th house). The King is shown by the ruler of the 10th which is Mercury in its own sign (Gemini) conjunct the Moon (the people). The people were doubtless delighted to see their debts cancelled. Pluto is in the 10th (the state) opposite a strong Mars in Capricorn, eventually the State (10th house) threw them out of their homes (4th house) with threats and violence, or forced them to convert to Christianity. Notice Mars, ruler of the 3rd house of neighbours and the 8th of other people’s money is trine the Jupiter Uranus and Pluto is sextile. Taking their neighbours’ homes and money enriched (Jupiter) them and freed (Uranus) them from their debts (8th house).
So, we have: theft, violence, money and goods, religion or ethnicity, and abuse of power.
The next conjunction in Taurus was in 1858.
In 1858, London suffered from the Big Stink. The River Thames had become so polluted from human and industrial waste that it became a stinking mess which is believed caused at least three cholera epidemics which claimed the lives of thousands of people. During June there was a heatwave, average temperatures were between 34-36C and the water evaporated leaving the sewage on the river bank. The smell was so bad that parliament could not function. Engineer Bazalgette designed and built a huge, complex, very expensive sewerage system which is still being used today. Mars in Scorpio (the big stink) trine sewerage (Saturn) in water (Neptune) and the way out was the Jupiter Uranus conjunction and to spend money (Jupiter in Taurus) in innovative ways (Uranus) paid for by the Government (10th house).
From Punch magazine 1858. Public domain.
In the same year, there was another money grab by a government. The assets of the East India Company (remember from The Pirates of the Caribbean how evil they were) was transferred to the British Crown. The East India Company was an incredibly profitable business, accounting for half the world’s trade in the 1800s. They effectively ruled over India until 1858. Jupiter Uranus in Taurus conjunct the 10th of Government, shows bringing the money home.
On June 16th 1858 Lincoln made his famous speech, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’ referring to the divisions between slave owning and non-slave owning states which eventually led to the Civil War. Lincoln was appealing for justice (Jupiter) the slave owners presumably were concerned about their money (Taurus) and revolted (Uranus) to protect their ‘assets’.
So we have pollution, engineering, extortion, transfer of assets to the Crown, revolution, and no support for the defenseless (slaves) because of money.
Interestingly, the chart shows the conjunction as part of a Kite, Saturn in Cancer, trine Mars in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces with Mars opposing the Jupiter Uranus (was this the stink?). Scorpio is other people’s money, the Mars is conjunct the 4th house showing cash being brought home to the UK by action of the Government (10th house). The Jupiter Uranus conjunction is in a wide conjunction to the Fixed star Algol, (the demon’s head in Arabic) which is of the nature of Jupiter and Saturn and said to be malefic. Certainly, for the USA it was, ramification from the Civil War/slavery continue to this day.
The next conjunction was in 1941. There was a stellium in Taurus: Lilith with Saturn almost exactly conjunct the Sun; then Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Jupiter all in the 10th house of government. These were the darkest days of the war in the UK. The Blitz, (carpet bombing of British cities) occurred between September 1940 and May 1941. Whole streets were razed to the ground and many thousands of people died in cities like London, Liverpool and Hull.
The Blitz shows Jupiter (excess) destruction (Uranus) of property (Taurus) with technology (Uranus) to destroy the hope (Jupiter) of the country and cause the Government (10th) to surrender having reaching the limit of endurance (Saturn). The Sun, (the ruler of the Ascendant) conjunct Saturn shows this was an issue of very survival. Notice that Mars in the house of open enemies (7th) squares all these planets. This was not so much a land-grab (although that would have followed if the Nazis had been successful) as land destruction. I think the extraordinary stellium of 7 planets plus the MC shows how critical this time was.
Firefighters in Queen Victoria Street EC1, on the night of May 10/11th 1941 the last big raid of the Blitz. Public domain.
Interestingly, the last raid of the Blitz was on the night of May 11th, two days after the Jupiter Uranus conjunction. It was decided the campaign had failed and Nazi resources were deployed elsewhere. Neptune, in the 3rd house of neighbours was trine the stellium, perhaps showing the Nazi delusion (Neptune) that winning the war this way against their neighbours (3rd house) would be successful. The fact that the chart ruler, the Sun, was conjunct the MC and Saturn suggests both limitation and a strong determination to resist.
At the same time, on May 10th 1941, the British captured a German ship carrying the enigma machine. Although the machine was thrown overboard, other documents including code books for future months were discovered. Another vessel captured in June carried similar documents. From these, Alan Turing, with the help of Polish code breakers, was able to break the code and use it to hunt down German ships attacking the North Atlantic shipping which was bringing urgent supplies to the UK which was blockaded.
This was a stroke of luck (Jupiter) revealing technology (Uranus) to protect food supplies (Taurus). British and Canadian warships formed convoys (3rd house) to protect merchant shipping crossing the Atlantic and by February 1942 the Germans withdrew from the North Atlantic and the USA entered the war following Pearl Harbour in December 1941. This can be seen as a ‘sea-grab’ as the Allies were henceforth able to sail the Atlantic unmolested because they could track Nazi u-boats.
Neptune trine the stellium also shows success at sea, confusion, the German sailors threw the machine overboard but forgot the other documents and restoring safe passage for food and essential supplies (Taurus). The loss of life can be seen from the map below which shows the extent of the battle for the North Atlantic in 1941. The blue dots are merchant ships sunk, the red dots Nazi u-boats.
Image: Semhur: Wikimedia commons.
Land-grab is one way x described Jupiter Uranus in Taurus in a recent talk, or rather destruction of land (Pearl Harbour, the Blitz). But Jupiter brings luck, even if it is not apparent at first. Pearl Harbour brought the USA into the war which was eventually the tipping point for allied victory. After May 1941, carpet bombing of British cities stopped as it didn’t destroy morale as was anticipated. The freeing of the North Atlantic helped save the UK from starvation.
So, again the themes of violence (Uranus), the fight over resources (Taurus), luck, or it running out (Jupiter), land-grab (Uranus in Taurus), targeting of innocents (Uranus).
So, what then can we expect with this year’s conjunction? Jupiter Uranus is in the 10th house, near the cusp of the 11th house. Uranus rules the 7th cusp of open enemies and Jupiter rules the 8th of other people’s resources (and the intercepted 5th house). They are trine the Moon in Virgo in the 3rd of neighbours and sextile a wide Mars Saturn conjunction in Pisces in the 8th house. Mars is exactly opposite the Moon at 22’07 (the Moon is 22.03). The chart ruler is the Sun, again in the 10th house of Government, this time applying to a trine of Pluto near the Descendant and ruling the 5th (contests).
There is another stellium this time in the 2nd and 3rd houses, while the Jupiter Uranus conjunction occurs in the 4th house of home, ancestors, land and inheritance.
Predictions are hard to do in astrology. But if we look at the chart we see the government is ruled by Jupiter, heading for an explosion (Uranus) in the 4th house which rules land, the grave and the end of the matter. The conjunction makes a tight sextile to Mars in Pisces. Uranus Mars often shows violence and aggression. The Government may respond aggressively or create a diversion through violence and the defenseless may be blamed. Big news at the moment is the Israel/Iranian standoff and the role of the US and UK in supporting the genocide in Gaza. Certainly, the government is on its last legs, is there a further revelation of corruption and poor behaviour to come? It is hard to imagine was further depths they may sink to which would call an election, a vote of no confidence perhaps.
Although the conjunction is on the 21st, the after effects will last for a while. There may be a showing on the actual date but events in the coming weeks will indicate its deeper significance.
Greek Island Summer School 2024 June 12th-19th Nidri, Lefkada, Greece.
Some of the class of 2023, there were too many to get into one picture!
We will be studying Horary Astrology: Details here. Joanna Watters who lives in Nidri and deals with accommodation and flights can be contacted here She has a weekly blog and can be found on instagram
Elisabeth Brooke 