During and around 1648, Saturn joined Pluto in Gemini, with both opposing Uranus joining Neptune in Sagittarius. This leads to the following:

Saturn conjunct Pluto
Saturn opposite Uranus
Saturn opposite Neptune
Uranus opposite Pluto
Uranus conjunct Neptune
Neptune opposite Pluto

The Saturn transits connect to 1617, 1624 and 1630, respectively. More details on these connections a bit later. The Uranus and Neptune transits provide a more   compelling, revealing picture. 
	Uranus opposed previously around 1540, when Henry VIII tipped the Protestant balance of power away Rome and when other sects other than Lutheranism, such as the Hugenots, began to dilute control any group could hold over Christianity. At the next quadrate alignment, during the mid 1560s,  Uranus stood at a upper square position to Pluto. This decade ranks as a bloody when for France, as she fought her religious wars. The decade also also witnessed the start of the Eighty year war that ended in 1648. Before this date Uranus had quadrate alignments with Pluto around 1598 and 1623, times of significance discussed later. 
		The Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1648 falls between the Uranus-Neptune conjunctions of 1478 and 1821. The Enlightenment stands out as one of the components of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment stands on the foundation of the Age of Reason, essentially a cultural initiated by the end of the Thirty Years War. The roots of the intellectual curiosity that brought the break from the Church, Aristotle and Pluto clearly began near 1478 with the dual circumstance of the end of Byzantium bringing Greek scholarship to western Europe just as publishers realized that they needed more than religious texts to make capital investment worthwhile. Erasmus begot Luther (sort of) and Copernicus who influenced Kepler and Galileo. The works of all these helped foster new ideas, methods and perspectives. Since the Church mostly rejected these ideas, even in light of definitive evidence, it lost credibility in the world of ideas, leaving open any and all ideas. Looking forward the 1649Uranus-Neptune 1821, of which the stretch from 1649-1789 represents about three-quarters, the trend accelerates. Natural philosophy turned into science and with its acceptance, Newton’s ideas led to Faraday and Stephenson, electricity and steam-power. From this perspective 1648 appears as a nexus, a turning point from which those of the time could not look back.
	France and Europe did not just step into the modern world and ultimately the French Revolution came along as a step in the process. Louis XIV, and other monarchs, struggled with these transitions and left some issues unresolved that contributed to the revolution. France under the Sun King fought wars and competed to make his state the most dominant power in Europe. War and commerce required new weapons, new methods and technologies. Those who designed, supplied and maintained the new equipment or systems demanded cash payment, but government and tax policies remain mired in medieval rules and traditions. One of the chief traditions implied that nobility paid no taxes. This arrangement had worked in simpler times, but those times had passed. Ironically, Louis XIV stoked the situation to the point of impasse that eventually came to a head in 1789. 
	The king of France, embittered by Les Frondes, executed a life-long plan to coddle the nobles so as to control them. He concocted am endless array of rituals and entitlements to keep the nobles at arms-length, but essentially idle. For the tasks he really wanted to accomplish he turned to the growing middle-class that he bolstered. Weapons, canals and commerce require engineers, lawyers, architects and those in similar professions. All required cash payment, king or no king. In turn, to fight wars, build Versaille, improve roads and canals (to more easily move goods, supplies and troops), the government called for more taxes from a limited tax base. Since nobles, often with carrying lifelong dispensation from taxation, paid little or no taxes, new revenues had to come from the growing class Louis helped foster. What Louis had set in motion was a class that grew financially, but not politically. 
	This new middle-class, new to France and Europe, had another side that contributed to the revolution: education. Their literacy left them open to the ideas of the philosophés, who, freed to rethink all during the Age of Reason/Enlightenment, pondered the rights of men (and women to some degree). The Revolution lived off of the propaganda of every interest group who felt reason to claim a right to determine how government and the people worked together. Because Louis XIV benefited the bourgeoisie, and French debt had not reached the unmanageable proportions, this group tolerated their political impotence. Only when debt combined with poor harvest did monied classes turn against the monarchy. With another touch of irony, it was another fight for freedom that tipped the balance.

An Outer Planet Intermission

Back to 1399 Uranus opposed Pluto 1399, 1540, 1648, 1792 and, moving forward 1902. One thing these times hold in common a break from the past. 1792 proves an obvious example of this. 1540 stands out with Henry VIII’s break from Rome—imagine the state of Europe had Britain remained Catholic. 1648 should be noted for the English Civil War, the beginning of the Age of Reason, end of the Thirty and Eighty Year Wars and Les Frondes. 1902-1905 brought us the First Russian Revolution, E=MC2, heavier-than-air flight, radio and affordable automobiles. While 1399 may not stand out, we should remember it as a time when workers began to demand more since labor, decimated by Black Death, stood in great demand. This also marked the height of the Great Western Schism when three Popes claimed the title, backed by three different factions across Europe. Also remember as a time when Henry the Navigator sponsored navigations around African seas that eventually would lead to the slave trade, the sublimation of native cultures in America and the first wave of globalization, complete by the 1570s. Gutenberg’s, likely between 1396 and 1398, adds a special accent to the time, especially since his perfection of the printed Bible, made all other events listed above possible.
	The Gutenberg Bible reached the world in 1455 when Uranus was conjunct Pluto. The Reformation and the Renaissance thrived on the printed word. Printing in the vernacular required the printing press. At the 1540 Uranus-Pluto opposition Copernicus published his planetary theories. At the next Uranus-Pluto conjunction around 1598, Kepler had already entered the path that ultimately lead to his improvement and supplement of Copernicus. Descartes was born in 1598. By 1648 Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler had converged upon Aristotle and Church doctrine, ushering in the Age of Reason. By the 1711 conjunction, the laws of physics, published to mass audiences, reached a level of comprehension that fueled the Industrial Revolution. The same or similar presses fueled the Enlightenment, in languages millions could read and for prices even the poorest could sometimes afford. Keep in mind as well that the often wealthy, but politically impotent bourgeoisie, often treasured the literacy that helped enriched them. Though the peasantry bristled under the unfair tax system, the balance tipped into revolution when the newly powerful middle-class went against the ancien regime.
	Moving forward from the Uranus-Pluto opposition to 1848 at the conjunction of these lands us in the midst of all types of change inspired by the French Revolution, floating forward on the power of the press. In the United States abolitionist and women’s movements established inextracble roots. In Europe, though seemingly failures, the Revolutions of 1848 gave the message to governments that the populace had the power to win greater privilege. We should remember too that Karl Mark printed the Communist Manifesto, his attempt to extend the French Revolution into the future. 
	At next the opposition, 1902-1905, the workers rights of Marx played a role in progressive movements all over the world, with the issue more acute in some places, such as Russia, now very dependent on industry and the workers on which  it depends, Indeed, we can see a combination of all these themes, French Revolution, 1848 revolts/women’s rights/abolitionist movement, progressivism,1905 Revolution at the following Uranus-Pluto conjunction of 1965-66. The marches and protests in the streets trace back to tactics learned on the streets of Paris. The civil rights and women’s movements had matured beyond their roots of 1848. The spectre of the USSR, communism and rights of the people left their marks on all types protests and movements, such as the one in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
	The printing press, again emergent with the 1455 Uranus-Pluto conjunction,  plays a central role in all of these episodes, but we see other themes as well. Religion and its role in society all coincide with Uranus-Pluto turning points, from the Great Western Schism, at a peak at the 1397 Uranus-Pluto opposition, to Henry VIIIs abdication around 1540, to the nuncio’s refusal of the Peace of Westphalia, to the thorny, often violent appropriation of Church property during the French Revolution. By 1848 Protestantism had evolved into hundreds of sects, some had the temerity if God existed and the once all powerful Church held little influence as Italy turned itself into a nation.
	The same route traces the evolution of European maritime trade from fishing freight haulers into discoverers, colonizers, invaders, vagabonds, slave-traders and empire-builders. Henry the Navigator began sponsoring voyages further into the Atlantic and along the coasts of Africa at 1347Uranus-180-Pluto1455. The chief source of the advances here came from the ongoing development of the caravelle, similar to the ships Columbus sailed to Hispaniola. These crafts developed from the designs of Portuguese fisherman who used the amalgamation of Arab and Viking sails with Chinese stern rudder and compass with localized ship-building methods. These combinations let sailors take advantage of prevailing currents, freeing them to find currents and wind patterns that let travsverse oceans. At 1455Uranus-0-Pluto1598 the need to find new ocean routes likely received a boost from the Ottoman conquest of Byzantium, bringing an end to the Roman Empire. Again we can also point to the printing press since through the mass-printed word did many learn about ‘new worlds’. 
	By 1455Uranus-180-Pluto1598: 1540-42 Spanish and Portuguese companies had established economical and, more importantly ecological roots in a variety of places. By 1540 the native tribes on the American continent headed toward a morality rates as high as 90% because of European diseases. New vegetation and wild livestock, with few natural enemies flourished in their new ecosystems. At the next conjunction and opposition, 1598 and 1648, we see accelerating loss of Iberian overseas the English and Dutch in particular, By 1711Uranus-0-Pluto1855: 1711 the British and French fought over overseas colonies; Spain and Portugal could only look on. By the time of the opposition coincident with the French Revolution  around 1792 the affect of the overseas colonies held profound effects for both Britain and France. 

Uranus Discovery

Saturn-Pluto Wave

As with Martin Luther’s theses and its aftereffects, the Thirty Years War, and the foundation of post-modern global map of post World War II, a Saturn-Pluto wave coincides with a major historical episode. Though the Revolution proper began in 1789 and ended around 1797 with Napoleon’s elevation, its overall immediate affect on Europe extended through the end of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath. Also consider that the difficulties leading the uprising began in the early 1780s when the threat of French bankruptcy became apparent. 

1786

1792

1802

1810

This period must mention the most serious mistake on Napoleon’s part: his entry into and stubborn fight with the Spanish people. Beyond doubt, the decision to fight for and remain in Iberia drained resources that surely would have helped elsewhere. More than this the decision to commit to Spain showed where the commitment to Napoleon failed the revolution and where Napoleon failed to solve a fundamental flaw in his personality. The Revolution failed France because it placed the nation’s fate with the capabilities and desire of one man. Around this time we can see where this desire began to fade as Mr. Bonaparte wearied of day-to-day drudgery of bureaucracy needed to keep a government functional. In place of this, the Emperor sought to return to the pursuits that brought him glory. The mistakes he made from about 1808 forward shows that the time away from direct military command had blunted his generalship. Beyond this shortfall, the French reliance on the great general displayed another basic deficiency of the Corsican leader: the inability for him to find a successor anywhere near equal his skill. Indeed, we can see that all his defeats come from Napoleon’s tendency to put trust in those who had not earned it or deserved it. Even his family, which owed him everything for the great sums of wealth they commanded, would take the best deal for thier interests no matter how it affected their benefactor.

[Insert Napoleon’s chart and interpretation for this period]

1819

1648

1648 represents a recurring theme throughout the French Revolution.

The Enlightenment and the 80 Year Trine

1711Uranus-Pluto1848

[1711Uranus-Pluto1848]

This entire Uranus-Pluto wave, some can contend, transcribes the complete episode of the French Revolution. Perhaps may see this opinion as an exercise in historical fantasy, but many would agree that the French people would not have risen against Louis XIV. But even with his great power and accomplishment, his dying years near the beginning of the 1711Uranus-Pluto1848 coincided with the waning of his effectiveness. His foreign and economic policy created a legacy of war with Great Britain. His governing style left his predecessors little choice but to govern similarly. We would not go wrong in equating with the beginning of this Uranus-Pluto wave and Louis XIV's death.
	Its end in 1848 came the same year as the 1848 Revolutions, that demonstrated, simultaneously, that the man and woman in the street had little power against better equipped, trained and motivated troops with the almost exclusive purpose of waging war and that insurgents had a voices ignored only in peril. Though in many ways we we still struggle to integrate the French Revolution, the 1848 uprisings defined the end of the its European episode. At this time (the same year as the Communist Manifesto reached publication), governments realized that the middle-class made better allies than working/poorer classes. The middle-class agreed with the assessment, bringing to a close the romantic notion, borne of the Revolution, that the lower and middle classes marched in solidarity.

Saturn waves During 1711Uranus-Pluto1848

Saturn-Pluto

As typically seen in other episodes, Saturn-Pluto waves fall along the fault lines of history. Most spectacularly, 1787Saturn-Pluto1819 runs in exact parallel to the main events of the French Revolution from initial rumblings through the Napoleonic Wars and their resolution. Unsurprisingly, the quadrate alignments of 1787Saturn-Pluto1819 at 1787, 1792, 1802, 1810, and 1819, respectively line up with years when the Revolution took dramatic turns in new directions. Additionally, as shown before, the path back through Saturn-Pluto waves leads directly to times when the root causes of a major historical event emerge. Under closer examination, Saturn-Pluto waves connected to the French Revolution stand out as a text-book example of how to measure history using Saturn and Pluto. 

1648Saturn-Pluto1680
1680Saturn-Pluto1713
1714Saturn-Pluto1750
1750Saturn-Pluto1786
1787Saturn-Pluto1819