{maketoc}The French Revolution still stands as one of the signature events of all time. It heralded the final shift away from feudal practices.!!1648: Historical &amp; Astrological RootsThe roots of the French Revolution firmly rooted themselves around 1648.!!End of Thirty Years WarFrance clearly emerged as a winner of the (external links:[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415128838?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mundaneastrol-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0415128838|The Thirty Years' War]&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=mundaneastrol-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0415128838&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; style=&quot;border:none !important; margin:0px !important;&quot; /&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841763780?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mundaneastrol-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1841763780&quot;&gt;The Thirty Years' War 1618-1648&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=mundaneastrol-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1841763780&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; style=&quot;border:none !important; margin:0px !important; [[external links to Amazon.com appear here and elsewhere on this page]''). England never involved itself in the conflict and found itself distracted by its leadership crisis. Germany, of course, ended more fragmented than ever. Italy fairly well suffering the same fate. Though the Dutch also emerged victorious from the fight with Spain, its smaller population and economy never proved a threat to the rest of Europe. Spain and the Church emerged as the biggest losers of the Thirty Years War.  The former, long the most substantial rival to the French, after this point completed its spiral of decline to the point that it looked to its former adversary about half-century from this point. The French had always enjoyed a more beneficial relationship with Rome, but result of the Peace of Westphalia only fortified its position. Not falling to the same degree of detriment as these two, but nonetheless losing some influence was the other large power in Europe, the Hapsburg's. Though, still a powerful block, its position indicated this family  at this time began to look more to past glory than the modern world of the future.Keep in mind as well that the French never really committed any troops to the conflict, having backed whomever it felt offered France the best advantage. Hence, with no real rivals, the largest population in Europe, a fertile agricultural sector and strong merchant sector, France should be considered as the &quot;superpower&quot; of the mid XVIIth century. Nonetheless, some issues loomed within the French sphere.((Louis XIV)) ascended to the throne in 1643 at five years-old, obviously too young to rule. His regency eventually passed to Cardinal Mazarin , successor to Cardinal Richelieu. With this effective leader the nobility had major issues, one that foreshadowed things to come: taxes. Also in play were rights granted accumulatively over time to towns, regions and nobility, again mostly revolving issues of revenue. These issues exploded into an affair known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fronde|Les Frondes.]...page...!!Les FrondesDespite France emerging as winner from the Thirty Years War, the costs of fighting it still brought the treasury to near bankruptcy.As became common during these centuries, the monarch, often tied to fixed incomes, constantly needed new forms or revenue. This search served as root cause for Les Frondes. A two pronged affair, the first pitted the ''parlements'' a form of appeals court across France, who refused Mazarin's edict for taxation. The parlement of Paris riled the citizenry who threatened the royalty of exile. The affair ended with the return of soldiery from the Thirty Years War. But the latter also brought nobles who wanted to maintain ancient rites of revenue and taxation. Since the nobles fought amongst themselves, they essentially canceled out their power. In the end this gave Louis XIV the means and motivation to keep this group in check. This dynamic serves as a strong foundation of the French Revolution.!!Age of ReasonThe French Revolution more than any other previous uprising ended revolving around the realm of ideas. The revolution fairly well brought  the Enlightenment to its end. This cultural movement came directly from the Age of Reason, itself, an attempt to answer the questions that Aristotle and Plato had failed to. This movement, of course led to the Scientific Revolution and the tendency to approach life rationally rather than through spirituality. With the Age of Reason came Hume and Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau and the ''philosophes'', to whom many participants of the uprising looked to for inspiration. That a rational only approach could not work was something that could only be discovered through hard reality proved a major lesson. !!Enlightened Despotism&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The monarchs of the time found their power because of constant need of revenue and their ability to negate the noble classes. Because  of a continual need for modernization, accountants, engineers, professors and other professionals came more and more into demand. Nobles could not build bridges, design weaponry or build economies. Merchants, looked on with derision, nonetheless held the power of the purse both against the nobility and the monarchy. With nobles only getting in the way, the king increasingly dealt directly with this fourth estate. This dynamic led directly to the circumstance that exploded in 1789.!!The Fourth Estate&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The whole affair proved that money without power only leads to frustration. But more than anything, the French Revolution highlighted that tradition had to fall away to modern concerns. The monarchy never recovered from Louis XIV's wars against most of Europe. Because it ignored the nobility instead of reforming it, the burning issue of taxation festered until explosion at the end of the 18th century. In fact the situation got worse since to raise revenue, the government resorted to the one time sale of offices that included the privilege of tax avoidance. More and more the burden of funding France fell on the bourgeoisie and with it came less services and security, a fact magnified by bread shortages of the time. We should also keep in mind that many French had intimate connections to American affair that centered around &quot;taxation without representation&quot;.&lt;div style=&quot;align:center;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As with most history pivot points, no one cause can explain the French Revolution. Instead, many factor led to the uprising that engulfed all of Europe and reverberates down to our time. Instead, may issues came to unsolvable conclusions that many saw the complete rejection of the past the only viable alternative. what readers will find fascinating is how closely outer planet movements match the consequence of ignoring the realities of the time. What we learn below  may offer clues to handling similar situations.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;!!((Astrological Importance))&lt;br /&gt;{attachment id=24}&lt;br /&gt;!!((Neptune opposite Pluto: 1644-1648))&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The opposition exactly bifurcates the ((1398Neptune-Pluto)) wavewith the period from 1398 to 1648 looking backward for answers and the second half looking forward. Since an overwhelming theme of the wave centers around how Christianity morphed from a political force to simply religious advisory role,w e should not be surprised that religion played a central role to the French Revolution back to this time. ((Descartes))' 'I think, therefore I am' gave permission to question all. Questions abounded, reaching the point where ((Voltaire)), venerated as a saint of the cause rejected all religion as superstitious nonsense that could only harm. This attitude left people without answers. While many agreed that the Church no longer served the needs of the people, no one know how to find a suitable replacement. This doubt left the Revolution without a moral center and resulted in attempt to replace worship of God, with worship to the nation of France. In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0141002239?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mundaneastrol-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0141002239&quot;&gt;Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots, and Revolutionaries, 1776-1871&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=mundaneastrol-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0141002239&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; style=&quot;border:none !important; margin:0px !important;&quot; /&gt;, Adam Zamoyski states:&lt;blockquote&gt;Human emotions needed something richer to feed on than amere 'system' if they were to be engaged. And engaged they must be, forif removed religious control of social behavior and the monarchsrole as   ultimate arbiter, the very fount-head of civil sanction would dryup something had to be put in their place. The question was ultimatelyhow to induce people to be good in a godless society.&lt;/blockquote&gt;Of course, understanding the need to substitute who the people worship with the mechanisms that encourage the substitution and the actual methods of doing so differ completely. Indeed, the exercise is likely impossible, but since no one had attempted the switch, particularly, on such a large scale, how could anyone have known. The more important point here centers around the insecurity  the undermining of the Church meant to all. In fact, this topic deserves its own discussion, but the argument could be made that the ((morality the Church)) reneged on its duty to foment, has never been truly replaced. Certainly, the French never pulled off the attempt.The important point to know about the Neptune-Pluto opposition is the that since religion had played such a central in all of European life, replacing it because of its corruption and its inability to keep up with changing times, the replacement came painfully, often accompanied by death and bloodshed. Theory is one thing, reality is another....page...!!((Uranus conjunct Neptune: 1649))Uranus aligned with Neptune in 1648 and would again in 1821. That Europe moved from the ((Scientific Revolution)) to the ((Industrial Revolution)) speaks volumes (reference: [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679772537?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=mundaneastrol-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0679772537|The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848]&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=mundaneastrol-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0679772537&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; style=&quot;border:none !important; margin:0px !important;&quot; /&gt;) especially since Uranus upper square Neptune (see below) in 1786 appearing just before the Revolution, is part of the 1648-1821 Uranus-Neptune wave. This wave connects closely to the widespread acceptance of new technology by the public. The Enlightenment would have meant nothing without the distribution of ideas. While the previous wave (1478-1648) saw the shift from purely religious titles to more secular ones, the stream turned into a flood after 1649. One reason the Revolution proved as popular as it did is that the populace came armed with ideas that could only have come from widely distributed printed material. To get an idea of how the people's access to knowledge takes large leaps refer to ((1821)) and ((1992)).!!((Uranus opposite Pluto: 1650))...page...!!Saturn and all the Above: 1640s((Saturn)) transits to the three more remote planets brings their underlying social issues down-to-earth (''Of course, planets do not make humans do anything, it just seems that way''). At 1648 ((Saturn)) aligned with ((Pluto)) and opposed the ((Uranus-Neptune conjunction)). In 1792, Saturn aligned with Neptune just before it squared the Uranus-Pluto opposition. In a future exercise the connections between ((Saturn-Uranus)), ((Saturn-Neptune)) and ((Saturn-Pluto)) relationships will prove an interesting exercise. For now, remember to add the planet of reality to this equation....page...!!((Uranus conjunct Pluto: 1707))!!((Uranus upper square Neptune: 1786))!!((Uranus opposite Pluto: 1792))&lt;/h3&gt;...page...!!((Saturn relative to Uranus,Neptune and Pluto: 1780s))!!External Links&lt;br /&gt;''Links do not constitute an endorsement of a site''