The cycle of Jupiter which is taken at sixty years, assumes a significance only when we have proved the fact of interplanetary action. This fact has been established both astronomically and astrologically. The planet Jupiter takes twelve years to perform a revolution in the zodiac, and five times twelve is sixty years. But Saturn has a period of thirty years, and twice this is also sixty years. Consequently, if the planets Saturn and Jupiter are acting together from the same part of the heavens at a given date, they will be together again in the same part of the heavens at the end of sixty years, with a small variation due to the actual difference of their periods. This fact has proved of astronomical value, inasmuch as it has enabled us to estimate the disturbance due to their mutual action in the orbits of both planets. The period at which these perturbations would recur has been estimated at 920 years by Laplace, who discovered it. These perturbations form what are called the Great Equations of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, when calculation is made of their longitudes in orbit. It may be useful to note that at the maximum the disturbance of Saturn due to Jupiter’s action is 49´, and that of Jupiter due to Saturn’s action is 21´. As the discovery was not made until 1786, it will naturally follow that all calculations made from Saturn’s position prior to the eighteenth century, when it was incorporated as a factor in the Nautical Almanac, must be to some extent at fault. As cosmic symbols these planets, Saturn and Jupiter, have great significance, and they were highly esteemed in the astrological thought of the ancients.
Jupiter, as the most bulky of all the planets in the system, early claimed attention and took a foremost place in the pantheon. We find him as Jupiter-Ammon, as the Deva-pitar, Deo-pitar, and Jupiter of the Indian and Roman theogonies. He is found in the Sanskrit writings as Guru, the spiritual father or God-father, as the name Deo-pitar signifies, and also as Brihaspati, i. e. the Lord of Increase or Expansion. Similarly, Saturn was S’iva, the Destroyer, whose reputation for devouring his own offspring is referred to in the classical mythology of the Greeks. Thus Jupiter is Brahma, the Creator, and Saturn is S’iva, the Destroyer. Such a significance they are found to hold in the concept of modern astrologers. When, therefore, Jupiter is found in that part of the heavens which is empirically determined to have rule over the destinies of a country or people, there is found to be a period of expansion and prosperity; but when Saturn is thus placed the country suffers privations and losses. Let us look at some of these instances, as they have a direct bearing on the practical side of our occult studies, and give to the Law of Cycles an economic value.
I have before me an Investment Handbook, giving the dates of the highest and lowest records of the various prices of Stocks during the last fifteen years. The figures that I shall quote are taken directly from this book, and I need hardly assure the reader that the editors have no associations with Astrology.
From any astrological book dealing with the influence of the zodiac published prior to the year at which our observations commence, the reader may extract the following information: Scorpio rules Brazil, Sagittarius rules Spain, Capricornus rules India, Aquarius rules Russia, Pisces rules Portugal, Aries rules England, Taurus rules Ireland, etc. In 1895-6-7 the planet Saturn was in the sign Scorpio, and in 1898 Brazilian Stocks were at the lowest price between 1895 and 1910. In 1898 Saturn was in Sagittarius, and Spanish Fours were then at the lowest between 1895 and 1910, a period of fifteen years. In 1901 Saturn was in the sign Capricornus, but Jupiter also was there, and in effect, we do not find any depreciation of Stocks, but the reverse so far as India was concerned. In 1903-4-5 Saturn was in Aquarius, and in 1906 Russian 4% and 5% Stocks were at their lowest during the period under consideration. During 1906-7-8 Saturn was in Pisces, and in the following year Portuguese Stocks touched the lowest during a period of fifteen years.
During 1909-10 Saturn was in the sign Aries, and in 1910 Consols as well as Annuities were at their lowest for a period of fifteen years. During 1911-12 Saturn was in the sign Taurus, and Irish Land Stock is now (1912) lower than it has been for the past seventeen years.
These facts speak for themselves, and they show that Saturn is the cause of depression, destruction of credit and national prosperity, and loss.
The cyclic law and that of periodicity are practically identical. For what we trace as the periodicity of phenomena, can be shown to bear a direct relation to planetary cycles. Take, for instance, the periodicity of Sun-spots. The years of maximum frequency noted have led to the discovery of a period of 11 years and 40 days. Many years ago I published a statement to the effect that the rents in the luminous envelope or photosphere of the Sun would be found to coincide with the occursions of the planets Mars and Jupiter. Since then I have made further research, and I find that the mean of the two periods of these planets is 11 years and 203 days, which is in excess of the observed period of maximum solar activity by 163 days; but by taking the periods of Mars, Venus and the Earth into account, we have a period of 11 years 40½ days, which is exactly what we want. The Sun-spot period of 11·11 years is, therefore, attributable to the combined action of the planets Venus, the Earth and Mars, the mean of whose cycles yields a period so exactly in conformity with it. Probably the introduction of Jupiter and Saturn to the equation would yield a climacteric every fifth period. It is, however, of extreme interest to note that the years of the maximum Sun-spot appearance, 1871, 1882, 1904, 1916, 1927, are found to be associated with important configurations of the major planets: 1871, Saturn opposition Jupiter; 1882, Saturn conjunct Neptune; 1904, Jupiter opposition Uranus; 1916, Saturn conjunct Neptune; 1927, Jupiter conjunct Uranus. From this we might conclude that the luminous envelope of the Sun is acted upon by the planetary bodies when they are on the same solar meridian. An ingenious student of planetary influence, Prof. Corrigan, has suggested that by regarding the solar disc as a plane, and setting off the orbits of the planets from the centre, the parallels of solar latitude tangent to the orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, are those along which the greatest Sun-spot activity is shown. Thus he shows that at the latitude of 5° North and South of the Sun’s equator, spots are produced by the action of the planet Mercury on the Sun: at latitude 6° those produced by Venus’s action are seen; at 7° those due to the action of the Earth and its satellite; at 13° those frequent spots due to Mars; and at 48° those due to Saturn; while the band corresponding to the orbit of Jupiter is attended by the largest and most frequent display of Sunspots. Hence the Professor is quite in agreement with my original statement that Sun-spots are principally caused by Mars and Jupiter. This certainly upholds the original observation that Sunspots are connected with the occursions of the planets Jupiter and Mars, but it would extend the period to 11 years and 203 days. The whole subject is, however, in its infancy.
The cycle of 265 years arising out of the periodic conjunctions of Saturn and Mars, and marking epochs of great political disturbance in those areas of the world associated with the signs of the zodiac wherein the conjunctions occur, has already received treatment in my former works, so that nothing need be added in this place. For the benefit of those who have not hitherto touched the subject, however, I may give a single instance. Saturn and Mars form their conjunction every two years, during which period they move forward one sign, the whole circle embracing about 29½ years, so that they complete nine cycles and come to a conjunction in the same part of the zodiac about the same time of the year after a period of 265 years. The last conjunction of Saturn in Aries was in 1910, and 265 years before this date takes us back to the year 1645, when the insurrection under Cromwell took place, and 265 years earlier, in 1380, we have the insurrection under Wat Tyler. Similar effects can be traced in the history of other countries from the same cause.
The old astrologers gave certain periods as the Least Years of the planets, the Sun and Moon. In the scheme of Ptolemy, which differs in some respects from this enumeration, most of these periods are represented and evidently have reference to the orbital periods of the bodies referred to. Thus the Moon has a period of 4 years, Mercury 10 years, Venus 8 years, Mars 15 years, Sun 19 years, Jupiter 12 years, Saturn 30 years, following upon which modern astrologers have added Uranus 84 years, and Neptune 164 years. But by taking the periods of the ancient planets only it is found that they are all contained in a period of 120 years, and that the periods of those planets which rule opposite signs, as Moon and Saturn, Mars and Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, when multiplied together produce 120, which is one-third of the degrees in a circle, and is the basis of the Vims’ottaradasa periods of the Hindu system, about which something may be said in a subsequent section of this work.