Mundane – global – astrology is primarily an observational science. The ancient Hermetic axiom – as above-so below – guides the endeavor.
Observation starts the research trail and to learn the current influence of a planet or sign on global affairs data pertaining to the Aquarian Age, the sign transits and in-sky aspects of the major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), and the astro-events occurring in the all the major cycle charts must be observed and matched with events and trends occurring here on Earth.
Students of mundane astrology in the 21st century owe a huge debt of gratitude to Elbert Benjamine’s mundane astrology class and the painstaking research it conducted during the 1920’s and 30’s that has now become the foundation of modern mundane astrology.
So what did the class actually do and how can we benefit from its research methods?
April 1937
Following Pluto’s discovery in 1930 Elbert Benjamine began building a Pluto fact-file and in 1937, with Jupiter opposition Pluto in the sky, the lead article in the June issue of the Church of Light Quarterly was titled: What the opposition of Jupiter revealed as to the influence of Pluto. Here’s what Elbert wrote:
‘We had been looking forward to the period around April 22, 1937 as a time when we should be able to learn more about the influence of Pluto, the planet which, since its discovery seven years ago, has had so much to do with the trend of world affairs.
Whenever a planet, either in the sky, or in its cycle, makes unusually powerful aspects, the things it rules on Earth are given commensurate importance.
They respond to the added volume of astral energy, which in vibratory rate is the same as their own, and gain in activity making their influence conspicuous.
We felt therefore, if we scanned the periodicals issued near the date of April 22, when Jupiter came to the opposition of Pluto in the sky, that they would confirm the evidence we already had collected, by showing these things now to be highly active; that this new planet (Pluto) is related to coercion, group activity and mass production, the discovery of the operation of the inside of things, invisible forces and the borderline which separates life from death.
As expressing the quality of Pluto’s influence, near April 22, the newspapers reported on a number of extortion cases, the one gaining the most publicity relating to the popular movie star, Clark Gable.
For a week the newspapers gave the Extortion Trial, as they called it, tremendous publicity and the verdict ending the trial was brought in by the jury on April 23.
And on April 22 there were not less than a dozen major strikes in progress, some of the sit-down variety, and popular as Clark Gable is, the trial in which he acted as witness could not compete for newspaper space with the accounts of these mass efforts (Pluto) to force employers to meet the demands of labor.
But these heavy aspects in the sky not only influence the activities of individuals they also influence the steps taken by nations.
As indicating the group activity characteristic of Pluto, the newspapers of April 20 chronicled that 27 nations had combined to place a sanitary cordon of warships around Spain.
And as revealing the typical manner in which the consolidation of one group to affect a given purpose is met by the consolidation of another group to defeat the efforts of the first, the newssheets of April 23 bear headlines that London and Paris had formed an alliance for mutual defense; and to counteract this, as recorded in the newspapers of April 26, Italy is negotiating a military alliance with Germany.
These group activities were largely instigated by the wealth that the planet Jupiter, which is in opposition to Pluto, rules.
As indicating the influence of Pluto the Literary Digest of April 24 gave almost two pages to the mass (Pluto) experiments, some 500,000 tests, carried out over the past few years by scientists in a dozen universities, by which telepathy and clairvoyance have definitely been proved.’
September-December 1937
In the December 1937 issue of The Church of Light Quarterly Elbert Benjamine reported on the influence of the Neptune-Jupiter-Uranus grand trine on the movies. He wrote:
‘Musicians and artists in general are ruled by Venus, which means that those following these vocations have the mental factors within their unconscious minds mapped by Venus unusually active.
But those who are able to dramatize their music to an extraordinary degree and thus attain high recognition, and to a less extent those who are lovers of classical music, especially the symphony, pick up the energies from Neptune in more than common volume.
Neptune is the upper-octave expression of the Venus vibration so the more refined and intricate forms of music are ruled by Neptune. It is also the planet which rules the movies.
Uranus, on the other hand, has nothing in particular to do with music, but its influence is in the direction of things that are new, innovative and original.
During September 1937 Uranus and Neptune came well within orb of a trine aspect in the sky and we expected something new relating to music and the movies. And as Jupiter, the planet of patronage, made the trine aspect to both of these planets, the planet indications were particularly favorable to the presentation of some new art form, especially as on September 14, Jupiter turned direct in motion to move toward completing the trine with Neptune.
It was under these aspects in the sky that an entirely new type of movie was presented to the public. For the first time in screen history, undiluted classical music was joined in dramatic unity with the comedy, pathos and suspense which go to make a great picture.
Wagner’s Third Act Prelude to Lohengrin, Liszts’ Second Hungarian Rhapsody, the Finale of Tschaikowsky’s Fifth Symphony, Mozart’s Alleluja, and the drinking song from Verdi’s Traviata, were skillfully woven into a plot which unlike musical films of the past, has not been subordinated to the entertainment factor.’ (The movie, One Hundred Men and a Girl, starred Deanna Durbin.)
But life on Earth highlights extremes – great beauty and great wickedness – and at this time Elbert was compelled to comment on the influence of Pluto on a sex-crime wave. In the December 1937 issue of The Church of Light Quarterly he wrote:
‘But the (Neptune-Jupiter-Uranus) grand trine has not been the only powerful aspect in the sky. And if we are to gain a proper insight into the workings of planetary forces we must consider the sordid as well as those beautiful, and it seems that adverse aspects to Pluto bring out that which is criminal and sordid as nothing else can.
It may be that Pluto, as co-ruler of Scorpio, tends somewhat to an association of sex with its crimes. But even when sex is not involved, the most atrocious crimes, and the most viciously criminal, come under its influence.
Consequently, with Pluto so heavily afflicted in the sky by the opposition of Jupiter, this year has witnessed an unusual number of particularly revolting crimes. The newspapers heralded this summer as marking an unprecedented wave of sex-crimes. And while it is to be doubted if such crimes were more numerous than in other years when Pluto was badly afflicted, yet many of the sex crimes against children were particularly drastic.’
The evidence reveals that the major in-sky aspects produce significant events and developments in humanity’s story – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Astrology doesn’t stand still and in the 21st century the building of global astrology’s knowledge-base continues as events in the sky are matched with events and developments here on Earth.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
