1998 and 2010 - Parallels And Future Patterns

by Robert Wilkinson

I read in an article that 1998 was the year the Hummer was first sold in the US, symbolizing the beginning of an era of excess that has now ended. I realized that Jupiter was in Pisces in 1998, and so that year probably has parallels to 2010.

The article by Tom Toles, resident cartoonist of the WaPo, is titled "Final Shark Jump," and has some interesting insights:

Looking back in time just a little ways reveals that the biggest thing ever to have "Jumped the Shark" is the United States.

What was the exact moment? I would say 1998, when General Motors, in the euphoria of SUV mania, bought the brand and started selling the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Hummer, for personal transportation purposes. This is the moment when the country gave in to its cultural self-definition of the Ultimate Consumer Society, gave up every pretense of thoughtful, measured behavior, and capitulated completely to excess. We at last knelt down before the gilded Behemoth. The behemoth of transport, the behemoth of the McMansion, the behemoth Shopping Mall, the behemoth rates of stock returns for some, behemoth levels of personal debt for the rest.

If you liked this particular moment of U.S. history, well, good for you. But it's over, and it won't be coming back. There was simply no place left for it to go down this road, because it didn't really fit on the road to begin with. Don't ask me what comes next for the United States, but whatever it is, it won't be that. --Tom Toles

(For the uninitiated, "Jumping the Shark" is synonymous with the movie phrase "Nuking the fridge." It's where a plot takes an absurd or unlikely twist to renew interest in a character or plot trajectory.)

Anyway, as I was saying, he makes the point that he felt the "Ultimate Consumer Society" began in 1998. If that's reasonably accurate (there are many points both for and against, as well as other things happening since the mid-90s, like The Grand Irrationality) then perhaps a look back at what happened in 1998 may help us understand some things about the year just past, where Jupiter occupied roughly the same degree span from late Aquarius through late Pisces.

I found some relevant things in Wikipedia about that year. It sure seems like there were a lot of "El Nino" and "La Nina" superstorms that year spanning lots of tornadoes, as well as a major tsunami and other extreme events. The following events may show us patterns related to what ended and began in 2010. Some of them closely parallel recent events. When possible, I've put the correlation in ( ) just after the 1998 event.

In January 1998, when Jupiter was still in late Aquarius, we find smoking banned in California bars and restaurants. Though not confined to January, the following nations also enacted laws to restrict or ban smoking in 1998: Australia, Belgium, China, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the US (of course!) and a host of others.

Two more notable things happened when Jupiter was in late Aquarius: Russia began to issue new rubles, and the Lunar Prospector found frozen water on the Moon.

In a disturbing parallel featuring Jupiter at the end of Aquarius, on Feb 4, 1998 a 6.1 earthquake Afghanistan killed more than 5,000 people (Jup at 30 Aquarius), while on Jan 12, 2010 a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, with a confirmed death toll over 230,000 (Jup at 29 Aquarius).

For the rest of the year (Jupiter in Pisces) we see lots of people calling other people terrorists and trying to kill them, mostly related to the Balkans, lots of earthquakes, and a major Supreme Court decision on gay rights ruling that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex. (Repeal of DADT).

Other 1998 Jupiter in Pisces events include a middle school massacre, along with one in Algeria, and a lot of bombings. We had the introduction of Viagra in the US, and the merger of Citicorp with Travelers creating what at the time was the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup.

A mine waste reservoir in Andalusia, Spain ruptured discharging heavy metal waste into the Guadiamar River, threatening the ecosystem and ruining farmland (Hungarian sludge disaster). California voters abolish the state's bilingual education program (Arizona). Russia had a financial crisis (Europe), and the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada (US nullification movement).

In 1998 the US Congress of the United States passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (European Copyright for Creativity Declaration), and a US Judge approved a billion dollar settlement against brokerage houses cheating in widespread price-fixing (several in the US in 2010).

America Online acquired Netscape (In 2010 Google acquired Aardvark, DocVerse, Bump, Invite Media, ITA, Slide, Jambool, and Like; Facebook acquired Friendster; Ebay acquired Milo)

Of course, there should also be parallels between 1999 and 2011, to the degree Jupiter is involved. In 1999, Jupiter entered Aries mid-February, then entered Taurus in late June. It got to 5 Taurus in August ("The Widow before an open grave") and then retrograded back into Aries in late October, where it stayed until it again re-entered Taurus in mid-February 2000.

in 2011, Jupiter enters Aries in late January, then enters Taurus in mid-June. It moves forward to 11 Taurus, then retrogrades back to 1 Taurus in late December when it again goes forward in motion.

So while in 1999 Jupiter split its time between Aries and Taurus, in 2011 once Jupiter enters Taurus it stays there until it enters Gemini mid-June 2012. This would imply some "concentrated similarities," but with a major difference between Nov-Dec 1999/Jan-Feb 2000 and what we can expect in 2011 when Jupiter does not retrograde back into Aries.

If we're tracking Jupiter parallels, then I suppose it's safe to compare mid-Feb through late June 1999 with what will happen between late Jan and mid-June 2011. Also that the events of late 1999 and early 2000 will specifically echo in what occurs this coming May and early June.

And, getting back to the original premise that we began an era of excess in 1998 that is now ending, perhaps we can get a sense of what's coming the next 12 years by seeing the correlations between then and now. The facts are always different, but the patterns show us deeper connections.

The only caveat to doing this kind of research is that the planets beyond Jupiter have all moved forward in their orbit, and so the aspects made will be very different in the future than they have been these past 12 years. During this past 12 year era, Pluto has moved from early Sagittarius to early Capricorn, Neptune has moved from early to late Aquarius, Uranus has moved from mid-Aquarius to early Aries, and Saturn has moved from late Aries to mid-Libra.

Obviously the aspects Jupiter made to all of these will be very different in the 12 years to come before it again occupies late Aquarius through early Taurus 2021-2024, just in time to greet "the Spring" of the 21st Century.

Just a few thoughts from a macro-view of what we've been through and what's to come.

© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[jan]

WOW, as usual---[ And your radio interview was excellent ] Amazing what we witness and live through; the horrors of Arizona this weekend.... Here, we have a new problem with Gold mining, strip-mining companies from Canada about to destroy a natural Baja Oasis. Agua vale mas que oro. Baja California Sur is magical and no matter where you live it seems that something is askew. Paying attention and getting involved is OMG... it is the sixties revisited!

[Matt]

So delicious to read... but I think all the rams in the cantina want to know: when do we get Jupiter for our own exclusivity for an entire, continuous 12-month span?! At the same time, Jupiter's prolonged sojourn in Aries' solar 2nd isn't such a bad consolation prize!

[Warriorlady]

Gah, the Hummer makes me cringe!

[Micheline]

Robert I totally agree. And something unpresented is happening here in Tokyo on Saturday night, someone got the last of the Zeitgest films to show on Saturday night in Tokyo. I got facebooked and I am facebooking lots of people. I am not agree with the whole thing. But I think it is time that we got together and really stood up as a community and united to change things. Discussion will be very interesting....

[aquarius40]

"But I think it is time that we got together and really stood up as a community and united to change things."

My instinct, Micheline, is that change is absolutely coming. But people are going to have to stop thinking of change as being either "good or bad." It'll just be change. For those of us in America, I think UR in Aries coupled with PL in Cap, CH/NEP in Pis, they'll be delusion, pain and disappointment with some groups wanting to exercise their "rights" in negative ways. Bad news but I think that we have to go through this in order to evolve to something better and higher.

[Isabel Nobre]

Lately one has read about the sudden deaths of birds and fish in different quadrants of the Earth. Now, some are defending the idea that this has something to do with the rapid movement of the Magnetic North Pole, which advances towards Russia at a pace of around 25 MILES a year!

I do not know whether this is correct, but I sense that even us, Humans, can "pick up" on magnetic disturbances sometimes...

I for one usually have strange dreams of deep, deep sleep and terrible tiredness every time there is a big earthquake or other catastrophe - even in totally different parts of the world.

The truth is that we are all interrelated and interconnected, and therefore we can tune in to what is occurring.

I think change is already occuring and, because we are right in the midst of it, we will only feel it when it reveals itself - but some can sense it already.

Love

Isabel

[caliban]

The man I knew with a hummer owned a business. He kept it parked inside the warehouse and drove it and parked it in the lot a couple of times a week. His theory was that folks would think his business was doing well and that he must have a good product so he would get more business. Ya just never know.