1948Saturn-360°/0°-Pluto1983:1948
~1947–1954

All quad­ra­ture align­ments appears at the time of a given tran­sit, but we need remem­ber that rep­re­sent devel­op­ment over time. A con­junc­tion (360°/0°) comes at the begin­ning of a wave but also rep­re­sents the end of the pre­ced­ing one. Moments con­nected to con­junc­tions come infused with a sense of the new, while also con­tain­ing a feel­ing  of pass­ing or fad­ing away.

This wave begins as the Wars ended. Its begin­ning coin­ci­dent with the Cold War shows up as a theme through­out the entire period.

This period cov­ers the end of the War Period (1915Saturn-Pluto1947) and the onset of the Cold War. In the 2–3 years sur­round­ing 1948, many new nations emerged or sig­nif­i­cantly restruc­tured. The Batons of power  passed from Britain and France to the USA and USSR.. The half cen­tury of wars took a large toll on Euro­pean economies and infra­struc­ture. The United States took their place on the basis of a greatly expanded indus­trial base and immi­gra­tions of the pre­vi­ous cen­tury. The USSR had begun to absorb ter­ri­to­ries and install pup­pet dic­ta­tors across cen­tral and east­ern Europe begin­ning with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.

Soviet inten­tions had become obvi­ous before the war ended, but reached a crit­i­cal junc­ture with the Berlin Block­ade that began in 1948. The Mar­shall Plan helped fur­ther cement rela­tions between the United States, but also set up the Soviet Bloc of nations des­tined to take a slower road to devel­op­ment under author­i­tar­ian regimes.

New or Re-Purposed Nations

Also out of the ashes of the War period arose new nations or ones that took on sig­nif­i­cantly altered pur­poses or struc­tures. These included Israel, Pak­istan, India, Japan (new con­sti­tu­tion), Com­mu­nist China, along with the ones cre­ated under the Soviet sphere. Addi­tion­ally, the United Nations emerged out of the ashes of the League of Nations. NATO was cre­ated to answer Soviet inten­tions. The CIA suc­ceeded the OSS in Sep­tem­ber 1947.

1948 and Mad Men

The Cold War reached a peak about the time Mad Men begins. The Cuban Mis­sile Cri­sis dom­i­nated Sea­son Two; Sterling-Cooper pitches cruises to Israel in Sea­son One. The tra­jec­tory (we know Sea­son Four is in pro­duc­tion) has to bring us to Viet­nam and its con­nec­tions to Com­mu­nism. The Volk­swa­gen ad sig­nals the begin­ning of the import boom and Germany’s return to rel­a­tive pros­per­ity. This is how outer planet waves work. Across each quad­ra­ture align­ment, the over­all the,me of the wave reflects the devel­op­ment con­nected to episodes promi­nent at the con­junc­tion. The over­all char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Cold War has an equally strong influ­ence around 1963 as it did in 1948, but with devel­op­ment con­sis­tent with the pro­por­tions of each wave.

The first quad­rant lasts untii about 1954.