Uranus: Parallels between 2012 and 1844 |
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Posted to Subscribers on 3 January 2012 |
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Dear Subscribers, This post is a continuation of what I have been writing on Uranus in Aries and patterns. To some extent, there are more parallels between 2012 and 1844 than I saw with 1928. If you missed the post on comparisons with 1928, it is archived here: http://www.ingridnaiman.com/subscription_lists/astrology_emails/uranus_aries.htmlFor me, the most striking parallel between 2012 and 1844 was that leading up to the "turning point" in 1844, there was chaos following a financial panic in 1837 that was attributed to speculation and runaway inflation. The government had been selling land for what many believed was worthless paper. On May 10th, the banks in New York began accepting payment only in gold and silver. This precipitated five years of depression and unemployment as well as bank failures. In the U.K., the Bank Charter Act 1844 gave exclusive note issuing power to the central bank. The new notes had to be backed by gold or government debt and the purpose was to curb inflation. The regulation only applied to England and Wales. Private banks in Ireland and Scotland still issue currency. Similar events took place within a remarkably tight time frame in several countries.
Elections
Polk's short list had four objectives and he achieved all four, kept his promise not to run for a second term, and died of cholera shortly after leaving office. Debt On another note, also very important, in the 1800s, actually going back many centuries, there were debtors prisons, some quite infamous. London was the largest city in Europe at the time and was known for abuses. The right to operate the prisons was awarded to bidders; and prisoners had to pay the jailers for every tiny service, such as unlocking the irons and permitting delivery of meals. Then, as we all know, some debtors were exiled to Australia. The for profit Fleet Prison had such egregious practices that it was closed in 1844. The end of the practice of transporting debtors to Australia was also near. For me, this quaint piece of information is relevant — not just because it is a page from history — but because the issue of debt and its causes still haunts us. After centuries, actually thousands of years, humanity is still trying to define debt as well as the rights of creditors. I became so interested in this that I tried to read up on legal and religious perspectives, but truly, the real issue is that insatiable greed at the top is causing massive suffering for the masses. Defining who the criminals are and who the injured parties are will take a major panel of incorruptible experts. However, what I have tentatively put on the table as the parallel worthy of our best human effort is that we must look at the value of labor, the role of money, and the right to survive as well as the need to invest. Roman law had ceilings on interest. Judaism prohibits Jews from charging interest on loans to other Jews, but they may charge interest on loans to others. Christianity has witnessed epochs when the charging of interest was regarded as a sin and revisionist positions in which there were countless exceptions and unique ways of perceiving interest as a reward for the use of capital that might otherwise be invested in a manner that increased the wealth of the investor. Islam is adamant: those who charge interest will be prohibited from entering heaven and the devout are urged to perform charitable works instead of trying to maximize the value of their idle assets. In most traditional cultures, items that need to be purchased were assumed to have a more or less constant value as measured in precious metals, i.e., the cost of a kilo of rice would be equal to a certain amount of silver or gold and this "real" cost is expected to remain the same for centuries. The moment we introduce other means of exchange and delegate the power to create paper money and dare we add plastic and other digital forms of money, we are basically challenging the market to adjust. Almost inevitably, the financial free-for-all ends in runaway inflation and massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich. The poor, of course, are also hit very hard but they have fewer assets that are coveted by the super rich. In short, the system is so flawed that it is destined to fail and then questions arise:
Then, for those who might want to dig deeper, 1844 was the year that Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx met for the first time. That meeting took place in Paris.
Prisons That parallel is so obvious! However, it is hard not to editorialize about overcrowding, extremely harsh sentences for deeds that in the future might not even be regarded as crimes, and dare we mention Guantanamo or extraordinary rendition.
International Relations The first diplomatic agreement between the U.S. and China was signed. It is called the Sino-American Treaty of Wanghia.
Technology On the technology front, the most significant new development might have been the telegraph. Samuel Morse sent his first message, "What hath God wrought" on May 24th, and the very next day, the first telegraphed news dispatch was published in the Boston Patriot. Other developments:
This may be a little over the top, but it seems worth noting since there are people planning to rapture out in 2012 as well as many who think the world is coming to an end. Each who chooses to embrace concepts like these is, of course, free to do so, but 1844 was the year the Millerites expected Christ to return. In a totally different part of the world, 1844 was the year of the Edict of Toleration that allowed Jews to settle in the Holy Land. Then, last for today: a book called Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was published anonymously in 1844. Only in the twelfth edition was the author's name revealed, Robert Chambers. At the time, the book was regarded as speculative and completely unorthodox. Before saying more, keep in mind that Uranus is not orthodox and we are still discussing this cycling of Uranus. It seems hugely relevant so I cannot resist the temptation. I don't want to go into the details, but the book challenged prevailing theological tenets by examining the origin of matter and its transmutation through geologic time. Chambers dared to address issues such as extinction and prepared the way for the acceptance of Darwin's Origin of the Species. I guess what I am suggesting is that if cycles repeat, expect something new that is challenging to prevailing views . . . and that will, of course, meet with huge resistance in certain quarters while exciting others to drop what they formerly believed. In sum, as the cycles spiral, we ought to see major advances in technology. What I am also suggesting is that just as the telegraph basically made the Pony Express obsolete, we should look at some present technologies as interim rather than here to stay. In the next cycle, 1928, there were breakthroughs in broadcasting and films. What should we now expect? Many blessings, Ingrid
Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2012
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