Democracy, oligarchy, monarchy – all subject to the immutable law of change

‘Democracy is the least worst alternative’ is a saying precis-ed from a speech by Winston Churchill: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

The ancient Greeks prized their version of democracy (no women or slaves allowed to vote) and theorised endlessly about which was the best form of government – democracy, oligarchy or monarchy. In an imagined debate, Herodotus, the historian, put the pro-democracy case as “accountable government – refers all decisions to the common people.” Whereas his opponent said: “Democracy is a kind of mob rule. There is nothing more stupid or given to brutality. The approach of the general populace is that of a river swollen with winter rain: they rush blindly forward and sweep things before them”.

All empires, dynasties and civilizations with different forms of government have their day historically and then they fade, usually slowly, disintegrating into stagnation, excess and collapse. Often it takes a triple conjunction of three out of the four outer planets – Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – to mark the changeover. In the tumultuous 5^th Century AD when a quadruple conjunction of Saturn­, Neptune, Pluto, Jupiter in Taurus was followed 30 years later by a Uranus, Pluto, Saturn conjunction, the Roman Empire fell which had been the dominant force for 450 years. It was a bleak century of confusion and mass migration with the Barbarians taking over the European continent, and the Picts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons invading England. The Slavs raided and settled in the Balkans, and in China the oppressive Jin Dynasty fell, giving way to 150 years of confusion.

Two triple conjunctions later in the 7^th Century the Persian Sassanids, who have controlled much of the Middle East, fall and this is the effective start of the medieval Greek Byzantine Empire. The Merovingian Dynasty in Europe declines, with power passing to the founders of the Carolingian Dynasty. India is lapsing into the Dark Ages.

The next triple conjunction in the 10^th Century sees dynasties that rose under the previous triple conjunction in Germany and China now fade. The next one in the 14^th Century sees the founding of the powerful Ottoman Empire, which will last for 600 years. 18^th Century triple conjunction establishes for the first time a European balance of power and ends centuries of conflict. Large-scale German and Scots-Irish immigration to North America starts.

The most recent triple conjunction 1988/91 collapsed the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe, whose ideological base was set by Marx and Engels in the previous triple conjunction.

That’s a bit long-winded but it gives a picture of the constant rise and falls, the ebb and flow of history. It doesn’t necessarily need a triple conjunction. It can be double conjunctions or for example Pluto returning to a particular sign which is a once in 250 year occurrence.

The UK and France lost/gave up their empires when they were on a Half Pluto Return (i.e tr Pluto opposition natal Pluto) and a full Neptune return. When the USA was on its Pluto Half Return in the 1930s it was poleaxed by the great depression but recovered. It is moving towards the full conjunction in 2022.

If there’s one thing that history tells us is that what goes up must come down at some point. Portugal had the first global empire in the 15th and 16^th centuries and was one of the world’s major economic, political and military powers. Now it’s a holiday destination with financial woes. Baghdad was once the centre of civilization in the 8^th Century. Britain in its heyday had the largest empire in history and for over a century, was the foremost global power. It held sway over 23% of the world population and 24% of the Earth’s total land area. “The empire on which the sun never sets”. Now it’s way down the food chain, partly because of two stupendously expensive world wars.

Nothing lasts for ever.