Believe it or not, there are historians out here doing astrological work without knowing they are doing it. 

Back in 1997, William Strauss and Neil Howe published a book entitled, “The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy.” Its basic premise is that modern history moves in specific cycles called saeculums, which represent 80 – 100 years in duration. These cycles are divided into four sections called Turnings. Each Turning has a specific quality that defines the feel or zeitgeist of that era. They are:

• 1st – High
• 2nd – Awakening
• 3rd – Unraveling 
• 4th – Crisis

This proposed cyclical theory was based upon historical research of major cultural events that correlated to the timing and quality of its applicable Turning. When the book was published in the late 1990’s America was moving through its 3rd Turning, the Unraveling. As a result, it was written as a warning for the upcoming 4th Turning Crisis that was right around the corner. They detail the 4th Turning accordingly:

“Every fourth turning starts with a catalyst event that terminates the mood of Unraveling and unleashes one of Crisis. Come the Fourth Turning, sparks of history trigger a fierce new dynamic of public synergy. Each of these sparks is linked to a specific threat about which society had been fully informed but against which it had left itself poorly protected. People stop tolerating the weakening of institutions, the splintering of the culture, and the individualizing of daily behavior. Collective action is now seen as vital to solving society’s most fundamental problems.”[i]

To make the case for this prediction, they focused heavily on seven major events that they believed to represent prior 4th Turning crises. Each of these events below contains the proposed corresponding time frame of duration along with the climax year for the Turning.

4th Turning Events

1. War of the Roses (1459 – 1487, 1485)
2. Armada Crisis (1569 – 1594, 1588)
3. Glorious Revolution (1675 – 1704, 1689) 
4. Revolutionary War (1773 – 1794, 1781) 
5. Civil War (1860 – 1865, 1863) 
6. Great Depression & World War II (1929 – 1946, 1944)
7. Millennial Crisis (2005 – 2026, 2025)

There are a few immediately noticeable anomalies and trends to this list. First, each climax year is about 80 – 100 years removed from the climax year of the proceeding or succeeding climax year. Obviously, this aligns to the stated general duration of a saeculum. Also, the tracking of climax events only went as far back as the 15th century. According to Strauss and Howe, “The self-sustaining cycle of archetypes originated at the very moment that the world made its break with cyclical time and tradition. This happened in Western Europe during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. This Renaissance…marked the true Western threshold into modern history. It was an age of glorious art and architecture, demonstrating that ‘man’ was now indeed ‘the measure of all things.’”[ii] This rationale seems logical, but it still does not explain why this cycle did not manifest earlier. Why is the birth of modern history also the beginning of the saeculum cycle?

The other strange quirk is that the strongest climax events after the 17th century appear to be solely American and the timeframe between these events appears to have shortened as well. Prior to the birth of America, there was about 100 years between events. Afterwards, this has consistently tightened to around 80 – 85 years. Was America a transition point where the saeculum’s time frame suddenly compressed and became more consistent? Strauss and Howe proposed that America’s philosophical denial to the idea of cyclical history has somehow triggered this cycle into a more surreal level of manifestation. This may be possible, but might it also be possible that something else is at work here as well?

While this list generates many questions, the authors offer this insight into the underlying rationale for this cyclical theory: “We need to realize that without some notion of historical recurrence, no one can meaningfully discuss the past at all. Only through recurrence can time reveal the enduring myths that define who we are.”[iii] Also, “In their search for deeper meanings, the ancients translated events into myths and heroes into archetypes, players in a recurring drama, in which new civic orders are perpetually created, nurtured, exhausted, destroyed – and, in the end, regenerated.”[iv]

Does any of this sound familiar? If you study or practice astrology, it should. Astrologers have been basically saying the same thing about the movements of the planets and their archetypal manifestations for generations. So, if there appears to be a similarity in approach (i.e. tracking correlations of manifestation to recurring cycles), then is there an astrological cycle that closely aligns to any of the historical saeculum cycles that Strauss and Howe discovered? 

As a matter of fact, yes. 

The Bringer of Change

The revolution period for the planet Uranus is roughly 84 years.[v] This is the time it takes Uranus to move through all 12 zodiacal signs and return to its original position. Uranus was discovered in 1781 and this happens to coincide with the climax year identified for the 4th Turning that corresponded with The Revolutionary War. And if we move to the climax year of the next 4th Turning (1863 – The Civil War), Uranus had returned within a couple degrees to its position within the chart of its discovery. Moving forward to the next climax event (1944 – World War II) puts Uranus within about 10-15 degrees from its return. For the current 4th turning, Uranus’ return will occur in 2031, a bit later than the climax year (2025) that Strauss and Howe predicted with their original 1997 book.

Uranus aligns with the Fourth Turning in more ways than just timing for it represents the archetype of change and revolution. For those who have studied the manifestation of this planet, they are aware that it is literally the bringer of chaos and crisis. Strauss and Howe’s description echoes this well: “The Crisis climax is human history’s equivalent to nature’s raging typhoon, the kind that sucks all surrounding matter into a single swirl of ferocious energy.”[vi] To that end, it should be noted that Uranus is also the astrological significator of tornados, typhoons, and hurricanes.

But Uranus is also freedom and independence, innovation, and technology. It is invention and rule breaking. As you can imagine, any planetary return to its original position heightens and amplifies the manifestation of the archetypes associated with that planet. Everything it represents is magnified for evaluation. So it was for Uranus, for one year after its discovery (1782) America memorialized within its great seal the phrase, “novo ordo seclorum” which is Latin for “a new order of the ages.” Uranus was the first of the outer planets to be discovered, ushering in a new age of consciousness and evolution for humanity. As a country, America embodies the archetypes that Uranus symbolizes. This may be why the timing of each saeculum’s 4th Turning became more exact with America. And if we look backwards, we notice that Uranus transits coinciding with 4th Turning climax events in the past also align powerfully to its discovery chart from the future. For example:

1. Invention of Printing Press (1440) – Johannes Gutenberg’s invention revolutionized humanity with the delivery of mass communication. It was a major contributing factor of the Renaissance. This invention coincided with the Uranus return (1439 – 1445 whole sign, 1444 exact). This was not mentioned by the authors because this event did not coincide with a major crisis or war, but instead it correlated to another archetypal function or Uranus: revolutionary invention.
2. War of the Roses (1459 – 1487, 1485 climax) – Transit Uranus opposed natal Uranus (1480 – 1485 whole sign, 1485 exact). 
3. Armada Crisis (1569 – 1594, 1588 climax) – Transit Uranus was square natal Uranus (1584 – 1591 whole sign, 1590 exact).
4. Glorious Revolution (1675 – 1704, 1689 climax) – Transit Uranus conjunct natal Uranus (1691 – 1697 whole sign, 1696 exact). This represents the first “return.” This revolution represents a pre-cursor to the main revolution that would accompany its discovery. 

Each one of these prior 4th Turning events coincided with hard aspects or conjunctions from transit Uranus to its placement in its future discovery chart. This raises powerful questions. Do these alignments symbolize a type of evolution that was building towards the eventual discovery of this new archetype? Were these precursor events Uranus’ way of announcing its formal arrival? Is it possible that the discovery of Uranus was such a massive event in human history that all preceding saeculums aligned to that future event of discovery which also happened to correspond with the birth of a new nation that was based around its archetypal principles as well? If so, the arrival of modernity found its definition through Uranus, Uranus found its expression through America, and all of this can be explicitly traced back to alignments from the birth of modernity hundreds of years earlier. This is fate and prophecy on a grand scale. This is as big as it gets. And if accurate, we then need to turn our attention to the Crisis staring us in the face. 

The Current 4th Turning

In their 1997 book, Strauss and Howe predicted the beginning of the current 4th Turning Crisis to begin around 2005 with the climax year at 2025. In the follow-up book published in 2023 by Howe (Strauss passed away in 2007) that prediction was revised. The new book states that the beginning of the current Crisis period began in 2008, which corresponded with the 3rd Quarter Uranus square and the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis. While they were in the ballpark of the initial prediction, the actual manifestation still required an overall adjustment of the entire estimate. The new prediction estimates the climax year will occur sometime in the early 2030’s. This is more appropriate because it closely aligns to the Uranus cycle. Uranus’ return will not become exact until 2031 – 2032.

So, what can we expect? Well, we can defer to Strauss and Howe’s research for clues.[vii] And that research is not pretty.

“Even if the nation stays together, its geography could be fundamentally changed, its party structure altered, its Constitution and Bill of Rights amended beyond recognition. If there is confrontation, it is likely to lead to war. This could be any kind of war – class war, sectional war, war against global anarchists, or superpower war. If there is a war, it is likely to culminate in total war, fought until the losing side has been rendered nill – its will broken, territory taken, and leaders captured. And if there is total war, it is likely that the most destructive weapons available will be deployed.”[viii]

Wars, division, collapses, catastrophes…it is all on the table. As we have seen time and time again, Uranus is the bringer of crisis. And we do not need astrology or historical saeculum cycles to tell us this. We can feel it right now. This sense of crisis looms over us like the shadow of an approaching meteor. In today’s environment, barely a day passes where someone does not try to predict how and when civil war will break out the United States. What this research and the astrological correlations show is that none of this is conjecture. This is real. It is practically here. And it has the potential to be bigger than any of the other crises. Why? Because this Uranus return is occurring on heels of the Great Mutation from 2020, the United States Pluto return, Pluto’s return within the Uranus discovery chart, and solar arc Pluto’s arrival at the Imum Coeli within its own discovery chart (something I wrote about in 2023). There are numerous cyclical watershed events that are building to this Crisis climax.

Are We Ready?

Starting in 2025, the following ten years will define the rest of the century. 

That may be hard to fathom for some, frightening for others, while invigorating or elating for even more. Such is the nature of our predicament. From just about every area of society, we feel that our way of life is not sustainable. And we know that what is coming has been a long time coming. Many of us are the children who were born into a society that was decaying long before we arrived and broke sometime afterwards. That is why this Crisis will be prominently confronted by two generations: Gen X and the Millennials. It will be their time to rise. The Silent generation and Boomers will be too old. The Zoomers are still too young and not ready for the weight of leadership. Yet these two generations who have never known a functional society will be called upon to provide leadership. And for those who understand archetypes and cycles, their voice will be desperately needed. During the pandemic, astrology’s popularity soared as people reached out to this knowledge base for answers. The Crisis may trigger an even stronger need (Uranus also rules astrology). 

These two generations must find a way to bring back the value of community. They must work together to hold each other together to survive. Most importantly, they must revisit what it means to be free and independent in a shared society…because that has not existed in a long time. The return of Uranus requires its population to renew and refine its commitment to freedom and independence, and not just romantically, but in a manner that is manageable. They must re-envision (and possibly, rebuild) a society that is structured in just a way to promote the greatest degree of common-sense freedom amongst its inhabitants. This is what Uranus promised humanity when it arrived and its archetype was symbolically embedded into the country of America. We are a Uranian nation. It is built into our cultural DNA. That is why this cycle resonates so strong for us. Modern humanity beats to America’s heart because we shine the light of freedom brighter than anywhere else. We must survive. We do not have a choice. Fascism is rising in many corners of the world and if we fail it may harken another dark age. Humanity’s evolution depends on our resolution.

There is no way to completely prepare for this because we do not yet know what the exact nature of the Crisis will be. But by gaining awareness of the cycles, we can see the storm clouds gathering. We can feel the weather getting colder. We can notice it getting darker. We can accept the season that has arrived and find our resolve, focus our wills, and prepare our minds for the inevitable. By not entering this blindly and with full awareness of our archetypal destiny we can better recognize when the climax has arrived and respond more effectively. 

History shows that the greatest leaders arise when they are called upon and those are usually during moments of Crisis. When the moment arrives will you be ready?

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[i] William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophesy, Three Rivers Press, 1997, p.256 – 257.

[ii] Ibid, p.91 – 92.

[iii] Ibid, p.13.

[iv] Ibid, p.20.

[v] While the authors of this book (and its recently published companion) go into great detail with each Turning and the corresponding four generational archetypes involved with each stage of this cycle, there is not a straightforward astrological correlation to these dynamics. I will leave that research to other astrologers, but will mention that the Neptune opposition occurs around 82 years and the solar arc square occurs at 90 years. A more expansive treatment of these additional cycles may reveal even stronger correlations to the saeculum.

[vi] William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning: An American Prophesy, Three Rivers Press, 1997, p.258.

[vii] It is highly recommended that all students and practitioners of astrology become acquainted with these two books: “The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy” and “The Fourth Turning is Here.”

[viii] Ibid, p.278