Sade Sati refers to the 7.5 years that Saturn takes transiting around the Moon of a birth chart. Saturn takes 2.5 years in a sign, so counting the sign before the Moon, the sign of the Moon and the sign after we have a total of about 7.5 years. With the Moon being the most personal planet in a chart, ruling our mind and emotions, and Saturn being the planet of karma and the harshest malefic; this transit denotes a challenging time of inner crisis and emotional maturation for a native. For a country, this shows a similarly challenging time.
Saturn sign
Dates
Capricorn (12th from Moon)
24/01/20-28/04/22, 12/07/22-17/01/23
Aquarius (conjunct Moon)
28/04/22-12/07/22, 17/01/23-29/03/25
Pisces (2nd from Moon)
29/03/25-02/06/27, 19/10/27-23/02/28
The United States, with a Moon in Aquarius, has been going through Sade Sati since 2020 and will remain like this until about early 2028, when Saturn leaves the sign of Pisces. 2023 is an important year in the culmination of this transit, as Saturn will transit the Moon in its exact natal degree.
Saturn transiting the Moon shows the most intense phase of the transit, when a native feels the most pressure and restrictions. Similarly, a turbulent global situation, with challenges from China and Russia, has been afflicting the US specially hard this year.
Tr. Saturn conjunct natal Moon
19/03/23 D
01/10/23 ℞
06/12/23 D
D: refers to direct, ℞: refers to retrograde
As denoted in the table above, Saturn will join the Moon a total of three times in 2023. It is common for slower planets, such as Saturn, to make three hits to a point in a chart, as part of their retrograde cycle. Some astrologers attribute a meaning to each of the hits. With the first one being a warning, or the awareness of issues. The second one, retrograde, showing a crisis or a turning point. The last one showing the conclusion, or finalization, a time where a native learns or adjusts himself to the lessons of that transit.
March 2023, when the first hit happened, was about a year after the start of the Ukraine War. A conflict that, by what both sides claimed at the time, would last no more than a few months. And yet we’ve had the first anniversary, and we are almost reaching a second one.
The second hit will happen on October 1st, so events around mid September to early October will tend to express a turning point for the US. The third hit, on December, will show some kind of shift in thinking for the country.
Predictions
As always, I don’t like looking at things in a vacuum. So putting things into perspective, the last Sade Sati for the US happened around 1991 to 1998. At that time, the US faced terror attacks, the imminence of the dot-com bubble and other financial crisis, as well as conflicts abroad like Iraq. Overall, on that previous cycle, the US faced challenges but came out of it without many problems.
A big difference this time is that the US is going through its first Pluto return. A Pluto return is a transit that no person has ever lived. Pluto takes about 14 years transiting each sign, times all the twelve signs, that yields about 168 years for a return. So Pluto return is something that mostly affects large institutions, such as countries and corporations.
Pluto being the planet of transformation, his return signals a time of strong transformation. Along with that, the US is going through Rahu-Mercury dasha from 2023 until 2026, both planets sitting in the 8th house of transformation. Overall, the trend for the US seems a rebirth or redefinition of the country. A fresh start of sorts being formed between now and the coming years.
So in the longer term, there is a clear transformation happening for the US. New definitions, new ways and new directions will tend to arise out of this.
Looking at the Sade Sati itself, I tend to believe that Saturn in Pisces will be much tamer than Saturn in Capricorn/Aquarius, and even a bit positive for the country. With that, I tend to believe that positive change could arise around 2025.
For the short term, Saturn in Aquarius will tend to be turbulent, specially for the remaining of 2023. Challenges will continue to arise, morale will be low and things will tend towards a downturn.
I still tend to believe that, in the long term, the current challenges and problems faced will lead towards improvement. Even though things might seem down in the short term.
Uranus main energy is to transform. It rules sudden changes and radical transformations, it represents the quest to invent and revolutionize. Through that, the planet is associated with many modern technologies, such as planes and computers. On a person, it rules a crazy professor archetype, showing a nervous demeanor with an ingenious and inventive mind. Uranus is associated with natural disasters such as earthquakes, thunderstorms and hurricanes, as these represent uprooting events in nature. Socially, it is associated with times of revolution and rebellion, denoting the transformation of society.
Uranus subjects: Radical and sudden changes, unusual matters, uncommon things, odd, strange and new. Nervousness and nervous energy. Inventive, scientific, a quest for discovery. Revolutions, rebellions and uprisings. Lightning and electricity. Technology, inventions, electrical machines, computers. Airplanes and Air travel. Earthquakes. Thunderstorms. Astrology.
Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, being the first, it shows the fire of excitement. The fresh start. Aries is happy with any new start, with beginning everything, the problem comes with sustaining and keeping things. Dealing with the long term is always hard for Aries, as it desires to always deal with the new. Maintenance and sustenance are never the main thoughts of Aries. Aries, being ruled by Mars, is also related to wars, aggression, fights and guns. As well as engineering and other Martian activities, such as sports.
Aries is an interesting match with Uranus. The engineering aspects of Aries goes well with the scientific and inventive nature of the planet, so Uranus in Aries usually signifies a good time for inventions and discoveries. Uranus in Aries tends to, however, promote wars and conflicts. It was prominent during the build-up and the beginning of World War 2, for instance.
Uranus is change, Aries is new. So these two together are usually a bombastic match. The desire for change is huge, so it becomes a time of strong impulses, big declarations and a quest for revolution.
Uranus takes about 7 years transiting each sign, but as it retrogrades, the planet will usually make a short venture into the new sign before entering for the main transit. The table below shows the transit in Aries from the beginning, with the short venture (or transition) in 2016, the main transit from 2017 until 2024, and the end of it between 2024 and 2025.
Uranus sign
Dates
Aries transition
27/06/2016 until 31/08/2016
Pisces end
31/08/2016 until 07/04/2017
Aries main transit
07/04/2017 until 01/06/2024
Taurus transition
01/06/2024 until 13/12/2024
Aries end
13/12/2024 until 18/03/2025
Taurus main transit
18/03/2025 until 06/07/2031
With the timeline above, we can understand that mid-2024 until early 2025 will be a transitory period. We will see the final gasps of the Aries transit, and we will start entering the new reality of Uranus in Taurus. So what does the Uranus in Aries transit mean?
Uranus in Aries: Looking back
Uranus in Aries was in effect from about 1933 to early 1941, this encompasses a lot of the World War II period, specially the build-up towards it. During that time, many inventions came to be, such as the jet engine, FM Radio, magnetic recording tape (which allowed for hour long recordings, something impossible with previous recording technologies), radars, photocopiers/xerox machines, ballpoint pens, nylon, helicopters, as well as the initial development of nuclear weapons.
A common thread with these inventions was the usage for war efforts. Many of them allowed for improved attacks, improved speed or improved communications. Communication itself was essential for information and propaganda efforts at the time.
Taking a slight detour, Mundane Astrology is the art of nesting cycles. It is a complicated endeavor. You will rarely find a time where everything is exactly the same. Uranus might be in the same position, but Neptune and Pluto are in very different signs than they were at the time. The same goes for Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
So we must weight the differences caused by the shifting planetary cycles. Uranus in Aries with Saturn in Capricorn will be very different than Uranus in Aries with Saturn in Scorpio, for example. The cycles are similar, not equal. So the predictions have to follow a similar pattern of alteration.
I say this because a common mistake in Mundane Astrology is expecting things to be exactly the same all the time, and making lazy predictions. There is a phrase, “when you’re a hammer, everything is a nail”, that summarizes this kind of mistake. It is easy to see things when you have it in your mind that you must expect them.
A practical example of this was 2020. March 2020 had a similar astrological pattern to the one around September 11th 2001. Many astrologers expected a big terror attack, we got the pandemic instead. They were both uprooting, and world changing events, but their causes and nature were very different. The pattern was similar, not equal; so were the effects.
I say this because a lot of people have been drawing parallels with World War 2, since the Ukraine War started. But the context of 100 years ago and now is very different.
First of all, the two world wars happened about 20 years apart, with WWI between 1914 and 1918, and WWII from 1939 to 1945. In a lot of ways, those were continued conflicts. A lot of what lead to the first war helped lead us towards the second.
On the contrary, we’ve had no big war in the last 20 years, not even in the last 40 years for the matter. The early 1930s had constant fear of a new war, people feared a new conflict coming into play. We can’t say the same about the current times.
When Uranus entered Aries, around 2017, mentioning the possibility of a major war or global conflict would have you branded as a crackpot. There were wars (a constant of humanity), and local conflicts, but nothing as big or scalable as in the context of the two World Wars.
The big thing around the 2016-2020 period were protests. In the US, many protests happened in this period. In other countries, a lot of uprisings against governments similarly happened. While the previous Uranus in Aries transit dealt a lot with war, the current one showed a much bigger focus on smaller conflicts, such as protests.
Technologically, this Aries transit brought artificial intelligence into the mainstream. We went from AI being a pipe dream to people using ChatGPT on their phones. The technology from the 1930s focused on war and defense. The technology from the 2010s and 2020s focuses on information, data processing and expression.
Our current technology has an Aries impulse behind it, as the focus is on fast results, even if superficial or not elaborated. There is also a quest for control and domination, for controlling access to technology and information. Aries craves to dominate and exert power, to be number one. In a lot of ways, the current focus is on an information war.
Uranus in Aries: Looking ahead
The end of Uranus in Aries between now and 2025 will be very interesting. The Aries energy has been intensified, with Rahu here since April 2022 (leaving this October) and Jupiter here since May (leaving May next year). With the eclipses and these two planets in Aries, the Uranus transit has been intensified in 2022-2023.
In the first six months of 2024, I believe we will some intense Aries action, as Jupiter will transit conjunct Uranus.
My big expectation for 2024, and the end of Uranus in Aries, is a lot of excitement. We will see big announcements, big declarations and new beginnings. One big example deals with the BRICS countries, who have made many declarations in regards to changing the world order, displacing the US.
We will see a lot of similar moves or declarations, in this regard, from now until about May 2024. Around the world, even in the US, we will see people making powerful announcements. Similar declarations, about changing the world, will come from corporations and other institutions. This is the energy of Uranus in Aries, strong announcements, excitement, trying to convey change through force and sheer enthusiasm.
The thing I want you to notice is that I’m talking about declarations, I’m not talking about actions, and specially not about results. And that is also a thing about Aries. The sign deals best with the short term, with bursts of action. The sustenance of Aries in the long term is never guaranteed, all that matters is the now.
To be fair, this doesn’t guarantee that everything started under an Aries impulse will fail. But it does show that what is behind it is excitement, rather than substance.
With that in mind, I would take any big announcement, or anything said to “change the world” from now until May 2024 with a grain of salt. A lot of these things might wind down and not materialize. The sustaining power behind these changes is lacking, and Uranus in Taurus might bring back a harsh reality shock.
The second part of 2024 will have Uranus in Taurus initial venture. Taurus is the sign of banking, finances and sustenance. Taurus deals with anything that can help a person grow and maintain himself, like money and food. The Uranus in Taurus transit will deal a lot with changes in finances, resources and the essentials of society. I will write more on Uranus in Taurus in the future, on a dedicated text.
From December 2024 until March 2025, we will see the final leg of Uranus in Aries. The whole 2024 will tend to be a moment of strong rhetoric, strong impulses and announcements. This swan song of Aries, on late 2024 and early 2025, will specially highlight this trend. The start of 2025 will be very turbulent. That could be a time of conflict or strong clashes in the world.
