Under the Scope: Cycles of History
Anton D’Abreu is the author of new ‘collective’ (or mundane) astrology website ‘Cycles of History’ which
examines outer planetary cycles and how or whether they match major developments and events. He
tells us about his ideas, how Charles Harvey and André Barbault inspired him and what his system tells
him about certain happenings
Q: Anton D’Abreu! Tell us about
your
intriguing
new
website
Cycles of History. It’s sub-titled
“Verifiable patterns in rec ent world
developments”.
A: Astrologers will find this site (based
on my book Cycles of History: http://
cyclesofhistory.com)
quite
unusual.
First and foremost it makes no mention
of individual (psychological) astrology
or astrological signs and is aimed at a
general audience. It deals purely with
the five outer planets and the 10 cycles
they form of between 12 and 493 years.
Second, 98% of what is on this site is
current or recent history researched
in great detail – the astrology lies in
the framework and the formula. Third,
the approach is strictly scientific – the
planetary data is calculated using NASA’s
JPL export ephemeris, a hypothesis is put
up, with clear measurable rules, and the
process of testing explained so it can be
repeated by anyone. Fourth, the formula
is not just based on synchronicity (as is
Richard Tarnas’ Cosmos and Psyche) but
also sequentiality.
The rules are strict - each of the five planets
is given a precise dual meaning which
leads to a generically defined meaning
for each cycle. For human developments
to match or correlate with any of these
cycles, first they should fit the meaning of
the cycle; second, they must encounter a
challenge at 90°, reach maximum fruition
at 180° and meet a terminal challenge at
270°; and third, events cited must occur
within 10° before or after the four cycle
stages. That’s a tough test.
Q: What or who drew you to a
fascination with planetary cycles
and their correlation to history?
Did anyone inspire you – such as
André Barbault?
A: I was drawn to astrology by the
amazing insight my chart and its transits
gave me as I went through a crisis; and
the intellectual quality and empathy of
those who taught me. Crucially it was
transits rather than charts that fascinated
me most – it still is the case. My interest
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Sep/Oct 2015 The Astrological Journal
in planetary cycles came more from
trying to make sense of the bewildering
range of changes sweeping through the
world at the time of the Uranus/Neptune
1993 conjunction. It was listening and
talking to Charles Harvey that inspired
me to believe that at least one part of
astrology could become part of a new
science. But I think I took on board the
difficulties, and of course prejudice,
researchers like Gauquelin encountered.
It turned my mind to whether there was
data other than birth times and birth
charts that could be shown to work.
Speaking French, I read some of Barbault
and met him at a Paris conference – what
interested me was what he was saying
about the interaction of cycles.
Q:
Barbault
links
many
revolutionary tendencies to SaturnNeptune aspects – and I see you
identify five outer cycles with the
Palestine/Israel conflict. Could
you give us a brief guide as to your
thinking on the latter.
A: We are back with the strict rules I
adopted. The dual cyclical meaning I
assigned Saturn was ‘implementation and
restriction’, and for Neptune ‘idealism
and disillusion’. So the cycle’s generic
meaning would be “The implementation
or restriction of collective ideals” – in other
words, “converting ideals into practice” or
“ideals prevented from becoming reality”.
All revolutions are driven by idealism
but all encounter cold Saturnian reality.
One has only to think of Communism: it
perfectly matches this cycle. Witness the
path from the Communist Manifesto at
the 1846 conjunction, then across four
cycle matches to the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1989.
The Israel/Palestine conflict correlation
is complicated. Uniquely of all modern
crises, five cycles appear to match its
development – and, yes, the chief one
is Saturn/Neptune. Look how the 1988
cycle conjunction closely matches the
beginning of a new drive to achieve the
ideal of an independent Palestinian state.
This happens on different levels. First, in
protests on the streets of the West Bank
and Gaza. Second, in the PLO declaring
a Palestinian state - in time abandoning
the call for the destruction of Israel.
Yet, third, at the same time, the Hamas
Islamic Brotherhood is founded which
clearly advocates the destruction of
Israel.
The 2014 – 2017 three-quarter stage in
the cycle should see some redefinition of
Palestine statehood that will help bypass
the twin obstacles of militant rocketfiring into Israel and the building of
Jewish settlements in land planned for
the independent state.
Q: Have you had public feedback
yet to anything on the site?
A: Early days. I guess a deafening silence
at the moment. It is different and there
is quite a lot to take on board. I have had
some kind comments about the book. I
have yet to send the site link to a dozen
sceptical but sympathetic experts.
Q: Tell us something of your
background as an astrologer.
Where do you live?
A: If I was to be pedantic I would say
professionally I am a modern historian
using astrology as a tool. My aim is to
get the outside world to admit there is
something in planetary cycles and that
task is easiest if my status is independent.
I have never acted as a professional
astrologer and certainly never read charts
for money. I have no qualifications despite
having attended the FAS. But may I make
it clear. If I do take a questioning stance
like Dean & Mather (‘Recent Advances
in Natal Astrology’) I will never, unlike
them, end up rejecting astrology – it has
made such an unquestionable impact on
my life.
Though I have attended many AA, CPA,
and LSA events it was with the FAS that
I started in 1994, with several years of its
wonderfully inspiring Summer Schools at
Jesus and Exeter colleges, Oxford. And
coincidentally it is in Oxford that I now
live.
Under the Scope: Cycles of History
Q: And tell us something about
your horoscope. Do you recognise
yourself in your chart?
A: Ah the question I feared most. The
answer is 1) I won’t tell you much; 2) yes,
definitely! I am a very Virgoan Piscean.
I have a t-square whose apex is near my
MC. I have three tight oppositions that
have taken a successive battering from
Pluto.
Q: Is the website solely your work –
or are you part of a team?
A: The website is solely my work though
Gerard Evans, the site designer, h as
played an important role in putting it
together. The ‘lozenge’ buttons were put
together by his team in India and Pakistan
as was the search engine, whose design
greatly benefited from input from Rique
Pottenger, Allen Edwall (www.astrowin.
org), William Faulkner at NASA’s JPL
and Alois Treindl at Astrodienst.
Astrid Fallon played the most important
role in helping me develop the cycle
formula – in its first manifestation as
Worldclocks
(http://www.fallonastro.
com/worldclocks.html). We discussed
the meanings of the cycle stages at length
– and that legend appeared in my first
article on the book (The Astrological
Journal, September 2011).
Q: What do you hope to achieve
with this site?
A: I would like to get historians and
scientists at least taking the hypothesis
seriously. I would like a general audience
to start thinking about longer cycles
than they are used to (month, year) and
questioning whether cycles could make
sense of the bewildering pace of change
we all face. And I would like astrologers
to recognise their unique experience,
even expertise, in measuring time – a
subject science has yet to really come to
terms with.
Q: Would you say the site is dynamic
in the sense of being constantly
updated?
A: That is my plan. With the book I
originally drew a line at mid-2012, now
it’s mid-2013. Updating takes time. For
instance, to look at the next Jupiter/
Pluto cycle stage in respect of Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, N. Ireland and
Israel/Palestine, I needed to look through
11 months of events – that is 20 events
per day times 330 days – some 6,600
events – and gauge whether they were
significant and whether together they
were demonstrating a key development
appropriate to the cycle stage.
Q: The ‘Societal Mindset’ page
is intriguing. For instance, you
associate the Uranus/Pluto square
with ‘women and minorities’,
and March 2015 is indicated as a
significant moment for the given
groups. Did you know that on
March 28, 2015, the Women’s
Equality Party was founded in the
UK by a group of people including
newspaper
columnist
Suzanne
Moore and TV/radio personality
Sandi Toksvig? Would you say
that’s a valid correlation. And why
Uranus-Pluto precisely?
A: ‘Societal Mindset’ is a section of the
book that compensates for the fact that
I believe that the 139-year Uranus/
Pluto cycle is ultimately generically and
therefore fundamentally about computers
and postmodernism. But I recognise that
the explosive drive for freedom and racial,
women’s and gay rights was by far the
most visible and tangible manifestation
of the cycle conjunction in the Sixties.
In my opinion, the Out square lasting till
2020 challenges this drive.
So I am afraid for people in the West I
see the quarter cycle stage in this cycle
as a challenge - especially in the field of
individual rights of expression, which I
don’t think is the focus of the party you
mention. In the West I feel the battle
for racial, gender and sexual orientation
rights is now meeting a challenge from
the majority.
Q: Mundane astrology is often
accused of over-selective use of
events to illustrate certain cycles.
For instance, it could be argued that
at any given moment in the last fivehundred years, a revolution or war
was ongoing. How you do answer
this kind of blanket criticism?
A: Sorry, I prefer to use the term ‘collective
astrology’. (Who outside knows what
‘mundane’ means?) The accusations are I
believe frequently justified. The rich sign
symbolism and multi-mode geometry of
planetary aspects allow almost any topic
to be correlated with a cycle. But these
synchronous statements tend to be of
little use and are certainly not testable.
You must start by looking at the length
of the cycle – the longer it is the more
generic your definition should be. There
must be a sequence – so if things happen
at the conjunction – OK, where are they
at the quarter- and half-way stage? My
approach is not to decide what the cycle is
about then find evidence to back it up, but
to look at the synchronistic evidence and
let that help decide the theory. Finally,
I believe you must ensure that what you
are saying is of global significance – as I
believe that it is only at this level that the
formula truly works.
As to wars. I don’t think cycles correlate
primarily with events or clusters of events
– they coincide with developments made
up of a sequence of events. Wars tend to be
manifestations of developments not the
developments themselves. Long-running
conflicts like those in Northern Ireland or
Israel/Palestine are quite different – they
are sequential developments.
Q: How useful as a forecasting tool
do you think your site is?
A: I would like to think that the site will
be useful not only to astrologers but to
non-astrologers. I have certainly made
myself a hostage to fortune by being quite
clear about future timing – though I have
deliberately been generic about exactly
what will happen. Take two examples.
First, if fundamentalist terrorism does
not substantially change its focus by
2020 my Saturn/Pluto correlation will
be disproved. If between 2020 and
2023 there is not a terminal change in
the cycle of finance deregulation or the
nuclear disaster cycle that has run from
Chernobyl to Fukushima my Saturn/
Uranus correlation is disproved.
Q: In broader terms, do you foresee
the day when astrology will find
mainstream ‘respectability’?
A: Difficult. Like homeopathy it’s
virtually unprovable and unsettles a lot
of professionals. But I think part of the
methodology of astrology could be taken
on board by the mainstream in time. The
key question is: ‘Does it work?’ In the
psychotherapy field I would say it already
has respectability
http://cyclesofhistory.com
Email:[email protected]
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