The Ghost of Gurus Past

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready… The teacher will Disappear.” ― Tao Te Ching

I’d never seen this quote in its full form, only the first sentence. It’s a little grim now considering thoughts that have been on my mind.

I have been fortunate to have many great teachers throughout my life. They’ve come in the form of family members, classroom teachers, managers, and mentors. But it wasn’t until after I turned 30 when I began to realize that any elder could be a teacher. Some have stood out much more than others as exemplars of what I aspire to be. In some sense they help me to form that image. Some have provided an example for what I want to be nothing like. They serve as tests of my patience and red flags for when I’m working against the will of the universe. But even they will be missed by a future me. When the teacher disappears, an era is over.

This thought brings my mind to this quote I once heard,

“At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it”.

I think Sam Harris once mentioned it in a meditation or something, but wherever it came from, it is a familiar sentiment. We all know this feeling. There is a last day for everything, even life. Obviously life. We just never really want to think about that.

Even planetary archetypes disappear. We are approaching the final weeks of Saturn in Aquarius and of Pluto in Capricorn. Saturn will not return to Aquarius for another 30 years and Pluto will not return to Capricorn within the lifetime of anyone alive today (after making two retrogrades back into the sign, first in June 2023 — Jan 2024 & a final visit in Sept-Nov 2024). Astrologers know this is coming. There will be a final visit and then the planets will continue to move around the zodiacal wheel.

Now I find it funny that Mercury Retrograded just before meeting up with Pluto at the very end of last year. Mercury will not meet Pluto in the sign of Capricorn again for another 250 years. So there’s been a lot of build up to the encounter. Mercury retrograded just before reaching Pluto. They meet this time just before Pluto enters the anaretic degree, at 28°58’ (twenty-eight degrees and fifty-eight minutes). A big message is coming in. What have we learned during this time of Pluto in Capricorn? What are the lessons of this era? Which of our teachers will disappear?

Pluto at 29° of Capricorn Themes

Pluto 29°: Death, rising from the ashes, regeneration, crisis, leader or authority position, beginnings and endings, spiritual birth and death, obsessions related to power and control, obsessive compulsive behaviour, excessive use of force, transformations, digging deeply to find the truth, sexuality, crisis situations, and also esoteric issues can play an important role in a person’s life.

29° Capricorn: The peak in money. Family businesses, establishing a business, helping someone else to establish a business, all kinds of work related to money and tangible things, father, authority, social status, order or system, construction, apathy, skills gained by working, money earned by working, material and concrete matters, pessimism, negative thinking causing fear and anxiety, stinginess, saving money, relationships based on self-interest, depression, focusing on the dark side or dark occult tendencies, chemistry, scientific and mathematical issues, taking too much responsibility, choices based on fear not on love, government or government affairs, giving too much value to money and power. Creating a respectable social reputation and status before moving into a fixed sign, Aquarius.

Anaretic Degree - 29º

Pluto in Capricorn

This cardinal earth sign is ruled by Saturn, associated with systematization and structure, the status quo, the old guard, law and punishment. So Pluto in Capricorn empowered, warped, distorted, corrupted, deconstructed and transformed these significations. People from this span of time may stand out as ambitious and determined as a group. Individuals with aspects from Pluto to more personal planets and points may stand out as their transformational architects and professionals.

People also take on characteristics of the time they come from. Accordingly, the 1762–1778 Pluto in Capricorn period featured the beginning of the American Revolution, a time when the most powerful empire in the world was taken down a peg, and a new power arose. The current 2008–2024 Pluto in Capricorn period has seen all entrenched powers get rattled by the square from Uranus, over the course of the 2008 economic crash, Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, Wikileaks, Edward Snowden, Brexit, the 2016 election, etc. At the same time, governments around the world have been trending toward corruption, crony capitalism, oligarchies, authoritarianism. The United States of America will reach its Pluto return in 2022, meanwhile China is ascendant. The most powerful have the most to lose, and the scrappiest and hungriest have the most to gain.

A History of Pluto Through the Zodiac

American Revolution Events during the last Pluto In Capricorn Transit

1763

• The Treaty of Paris formally ends the French and Indian War. France cedes most of its territories in North America to Great Britain, but Louisiana west of the Mississippi River is ceded to Spain (February 10)
• Pontiac’s War is launched by a Native American confederation in the Great Lakes region under the overall command of the eponymous Ottawa chief. Previously allied with France, they were dissatisfied by the policies of the British under Amherst (April 25, 1763 — July 25, 1766)
• King George’s Royal Proclamation of 1763 establishes administration in territories newly ceded by France. To prevent further violence between settlers and Native Americans, the Proclamation sets a western boundary on the American colonies (October 7)
• Navigation Acts are re-enforced by George Grenville as a part of his attempt to reassert unified economic control over the British Empire following the Seven Years’ War

1764

• The Sugar Act (April 5), intended to raise revenues, and the Currency Act (September 1), prohibiting the colonies from issuing paper money, are passed by Parliament. These Acts, coming during the economic slump that followed the French and Indian War, are resented by the colonists and lead to protest

1765

• Parliament enacts (March 22) the Stamp Act to impose control and help defray the cost of keeping troops in America to control the colonists, imposing a tax on many types of printed materials used in the colonies. Seen as a violation of rights, the Act sparks violent demonstrations in several Colonies. Virginia’s House of Burgesses adopts (May 29) the Virginia Resolves claiming that, under British law, Virginians could be taxed only by an assembly to which they had elected representatives
• Delegates from nine colonies attend the Stamp Act Congress which adopts (October 19) a Declaration of Rights and Grievances and petitions Parliament and the king to repeal the Act
• Parliament enacts (March 24) the Quartering Act, requiring the Colonies to provide housing, food, and other provisions to British troops. The act is resisted or circumvented in most of the colonies. In 1767 and again in 1769, Parliament suspended the governor and legislature of New York for failure to comply

1766

• The British Parliament repeals the unpopular Stamp Act of the previous year, but, in the simultaneous Declaratory Act, asserts its “full power and authority to make laws and statutes … to bind the colonies and people of America … in all cases whatsoever” (March 18)
• Liberty Pole erected in New York City commons in celebration of the Stamp Act repeal (May 21). An intermittent skirmish with the British garrison over the removal of this and other poles, and their replacement by the Sons of Liberty, rages until the Province of New York is under the control of the revolutionary New York Provincial Congress in 1775

1767

• The Townshend Acts, named for Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, are passed by Parliament, placing duties on many items imported into America (June 29)

1768

• Britain’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Hillsborough, orders colonial governors to stop their own assemblies from endorsing Adams’ circular letter (April). Hillsborough also orders the governor of Massachusetts to dissolve the general court if the Massachusetts assembly does not revoke the letter. By month’s end, the assemblies of New Hampshire, Connecticut and New Jersey have endorsed the letter
• A British warship, HMS Romney, armed with 50 cannon sails into Boston harbor after a call for help from custom commissioners who are constantly being harassed by Boston agitators (May). A customs official is later locked up in the cabin of Liberty, a sloop owned by John Hancock (June). Imported wine was unloaded illegally into Boston without payment of duties. Following this incident, customs officials seize Hancock’s sloop. After threats of violence from Bostonians, the customs officials escape to an island off Boston, then request the intervention of British troops
• The governor of Massachusetts dissolves the general court (July) after the legislature defies his order to revoke Adams’ circular letter. In August, in Boston and New York, merchants agree to boycott most British goods until the Townshend Acts are repealed. In September, at a town meeting in Boston, residents are urged to arm themselves. Later in September, British warships sail into Boston Harbor, then two regiments of British infantry land in Boston and set up permanent residence to keep order

1769

• To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York broadside published anonymously by local Son of Liberty Alexander McDougall (December 16)

1770

• Lord North becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain (January 28)
• Shooting of Christopher Seider (February 22)
• Boston Massacre (March 5)

1771

• Battle of Alamance in North Carolina (May 16)

1772

• Samuel Adams organizes the Committees of Correspondence
• Pine Tree Riot (April 13–14)
• The Watauga Association in what would become Tennessee declares itself independent (May)
• Gaspee Affair (June 9)
• Somerset v Stewart A British court ruling confirms that there is nothing in English common law that supports slavery in England (June 22)

1773

• James Rivington’s New-York Gazeteer begins publication (April 22)
• Parliament passes the Tea Act (May 10)
• Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York published by local Sons of Liberty (December 15)
• Colonists in all major ports refuse to allow tea to be landed
• Boston Tea Party (December 16)

1774

• Benjamin Franklin, Massachusetts’ agent in London, is ridiculed before Parliament (January 29)[1]
• Lord Dunmore’s War (May–October)
• British pass Intolerable Acts, including:
• Boston Port Act (March 31)
• Administration of Justice Act (May 20)
• Massachusetts Government Act (May 20)
• A second Quartering Act (June 2)
• Quebec Act (June 22)
• Powder Alarm, General Gage’s secret raid on the Cambridge powder magazine (September 1)
• First Continental Congress, (September 5 — October 26); 12 colonies send delegates; major actions:
• Declaration and Resolves, also known as Declaration of Rights (October 14)[2]
• Continental Association (October 20)[3]
• Petition to the King (October 26)
• Suffolk Resolves, Suffolk County, Massachusetts (September 9)
• Burning of the Peggy Stewart (October 19)
• Greenwich Tea Party (December 22)

1775

Battles of Lexington and Concord.

• Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride (April 18)
• Battles of Lexington and Concord, followed by the Siege of Boston (April 19)
• Gunpowder Incident (April 20)
• Skenesboro, New York (now Whitehall, New York) captured by Lieutenant Samuel Herrick (May 9)
• Fort Ticonderoga captured by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys (May 10)
• Second Continental Congress meets (May 10)
• Battle of Machias (June 11–12)
• Congress votes to create Continental Army out of the militia units around Boston and appointed George Washington of Virginia as commanding general. This would later become the modern United States Army (June 14)
• Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17)
• Washington arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts to take command of the Continental Army (July 2)
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms issued (July 6)
• Olive Branch Petition sent to King George III (July 8)
• King George III issues a proclamation declaring the colonies in rebellion (August 23)
• Continental Navy established by the Second Continental Congress (October 13)
• Snow Campaign (November–December)
• Dunmore’s Proclamation issued by Lord Dunmore, colonial governor of Virginia, offering freedom to slaves that abandon their Patriot masters and fight for the British (November 7)
• Continental Marines established by Continental Congress. They would become the modern day United States Marine Corps (November 10)
• Battle of Kemp’s Landing (November 15)
• Siege of Savage’s Old Fields (November 19–21)
• Henry Knox transported fifty-nine captured cannons (taken from Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point) from upstate New York to Boston, Massachusetts; took 56 days to complete (December 5, 1775 — January 24, 1776)
• Battle of Great Bridge (December 9)
• British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec (December 31)

1776

• Burning of Norfolk (January 1)
• New Hampshire ratifies the first state constitution (January 5)
• Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense (January 10)
• David Mathews appointed Mayor of New York, the highest ranking civilian officer for English North America for the duration of the Revolution
• Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge (February 27)
• Battle of the Rice Boats (March 2–3)
• Battle of Nassau (March 3–4)
• Fortification of Dorchester Heights results in British forces evacuating Boston (March 4–5)
• British evacuate Boston (March 17)
• The Continental Army departs its first winter encampment at Cambridge, Massachusetts (April 4)
• Congress opens American ports to trade with all other nations except Britain (April 6)
• Pennsylvania Provincial Conference (June 18–25)
• Battle of Sullivan’s Island (June 28)
• Thomas Hickey hanged for role in plot to assassinate George Washington (June 28). British Colonial Loyalist New York Mayor David Mathews previously arrested in Flatbush, Brooklyn for his role in the plot (June 22)
• Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet (June 29)
• Largest assembly of British naval fleet in history commences off the coasts of Staten Island, Brooklyn and New Jersey (July 3)
• Second Continental Congress enacts (July 2) a resolution declaring independence from the British Empire, and then approves (July 4) the written “United States Declaration of Independence”
• Sons of Liberty order enslaved African Americans to topple the statue of King George III in Bowling Green (July 9)
• Battle of Long Island, a.k.a. Battle of Brooklyn (August 27)
• British prison ships begin in Wallabout Bay, New York
• Staten Island Peace Conference (September 11)
• Landing at Kip’s Bay (September 15)
• Battle of Harlem Heights (September 16)
• Great Fire of New York (September 21–22)
• Nathan Hale captured and executed for espionage (September 22)
• Battle of Valcour Island (October 11)
• Battle of Pell’s Point (October 18)
• Battle of White Plains (October 29)
• Battle of Fort Cumberland (November 10–29)
• Battle of Fort Washington (November 16)
• Battle of Fort Lee (November 20)
• Ambush of Geary (December 14)
• Battle of Iron Works Hill (December 23–26)
• Battle of Trenton (December 26)

1777

• Battle of the Assunpink Creek, also known as the Second Battle of Trenton (January 2)
• Battle of Princeton (January 3)
• Continental Army enters second winter encampment of the war at Morristown (January 6)
• Forage War (January–March):
• Battle of Millstone (January 20)
• Battle of Drake’s Farm (February 1)
• Battle of Quibbletown (February 8)
• Battle of Spanktown (February 23)
• Battle of Bound Brook (April 13)
• British regulars, under Major General William Tryon, burn and loot Danbury, Connecticut (April 26)
• Battle of Ridgefield (April 27)
• Battle of Thomas Creek (May 17)
• Meigs Raid (May 23)
• First Middlebrook encampment (May 28 — July 2)
• Battle of Short Hills (June 26)
• Fort Ticonderoga abandoned by the Americans due to advancing British troops placing cannon on Mount Defiance (July 5)
• British retake Fort Ticonderoga (July 6)
• Battle of Hubbardton (July 7)
• Delegates in Vermont, which was not one of the Thirteen Colonies, establish a republic and adopt a constitution, the first in what is now the territory of the United States to prohibit slavery (July 8)
• Battle of Fort Anne (July 8)
• Siege of Fort Stanwix (August 2–23)
• Battle of Oriskany (August 6)
• Battle of Machias (1777) (August 13–14)
• Battle of Bennington (August 16)
• Battle of Staten Island (August 22)
• Siege of Fort Henry (September 1)
• Battle of Cooch’s Bridge (September 3)
• Battle of Brandywine (September 11)
• Battle of the Clouds (September 16)
• Battle of Paoli (Paoli Massacre) (September 20)
• British occupation of Philadelphia (September 26)
• Battle of Germantown (October 4)
• Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery (October 6)
• Two Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7) conclude with the surrender of the British army under General Burgoyne.
• Battle of Red Bank (October 22)
• Articles of Confederation adopted by the Second Continental Congress (November 15)
• Capture of Fort Mifflin, (November 16) and Fort Mercer, (November 18)
• Battle of Gloucester (1777) (November 25)
• Battle of White Marsh (December 5 — December 8)
• Battle of Matson’s Ford (December 11)
• Rivington’s Gazetter renamed Royal Gazette (December 13)
• Continental Army in third winter quarters at Valley Forge (December 19, 1777 — June 19, 1778)

1778

• Treaty of Amity and Commerce and Treaty of Alliance with France (February 6)
• France is the first foreign country to recognise the flag of the United States, on the ship of John Paul Jones (February 14)
• Battle of Quinton’s Bridge (March 18)
• John Paul Jones, in command of the Ranger, attacks Whitehaven in England, America’s first naval engagement outside North America (April 20)
• The Great Chain across the Hudson is completed (April 30)
• Battle of Crooked Billet (May 1)
• Battle of Barren Hill (May 20)
• Battle of Cobleskill (May 30)
• British occupation of Philadelphia (ends June)
• Whaleboat attack on Flatbush, Brooklyn to kidnap New York Mayor David Mathews and other British and Loyalist figures partially succeeds in securing Captain James Moncrief and Theophylact Bache, President of the New York Chamber of Commerce, for future prisoner exchange (June)
• Battle of Monmouth (June 28)
• Battle of Wyoming (July 3)
• Battle of Ushant (July 27)
• Battle of Rhode Island (August 29)
• Baylor Massacre (September 27)
• Culper Spy Ring is begun (October)
• Battle of Chestnut Neck (October 6)
• Affair at Little Egg Harbor (October 15)
• Cherry Valley massacre (November 11)
• Capture of Savannah, British successfully launch their southern strategy (December 29)
• Majority of Continental Army in fourth winter quarters at Middlebrook Cantonment (November 30, 1778 — June 3, 1779)
• Major General Israel Putnam chooses Redding, Connecticut as his winter encampment to keep an eye on the storehouses in Danbury, Connecticut (1778–1779)

Timeline of the American Revolution - Wikipedia

World History during the last Pluto in Capricorn Transit

1762

Catherine II (“the Great”) becomes czarina of Russia. Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract. Mozart tours Europe as six-year-old prodigy.

1765

James Watt invents the steam engine. Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the American colonists.

1769

Sir William Arkwright patents a spinning machine — an early step in the Industrial Revolution.

1770

The Boston Massacre.

1772

Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discover nitrogen. Partition of Poland — in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia divide land and people of Poland, end its independence.

1773

The Boston Tea Party.

1774

First Continental Congress drafts “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”

1775

The American Revolution begins with battle of Lexington and Concord. Second Continental Congress. Priestley discovers hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.

1776

Declaration of Independence. Gen. George Washington crosses the Delaware Christmas night. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Fragonard’s Washerwoman. Mozart’s Haffner Serenade.

1778

Capt. James Cook discovers Hawaii. Franz Mesmer uses hypnotism.

1700-1799 (A.D.) World History

Originally written in Collective Journaling at The Stoa