The Astrological Signatures of Historical Revolutions: From Paris to Tehran
History is often taught as a series of disconnected dates and battles, a chaotic sequence of events driven by chance. But at the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic, we view time differently. We see history as a spiral, a recurring dance of archetypes played out on the stage of the world. As a student of Social Anthropology at Swansea University, I learned to track the rise and fall of cultures; as an astrologer, I learned to track the planetary clocks that time them.
Revolutions do not happen in a vacuum. They are cosmic release valves, triggered when the pressure of the collective unconscious meets specific planetary alignments. By examining the astrological signatures of three major historical upheavals, France in 1789, Russia in 1917, and Iran in 1979, we can begin to understand the "weather" of revolt and, perhaps, see what the current skies hold for us.
1789: The French Revolution and the Power of Pluto in Aquarius
The storming of the Bastille was not just a political act; it was the birth scream of a new astrological age. In the late 18th century, the slow-moving planet Pluto, the agent of death, rebirth, and deep transformation, was transiting through the sign of Aquarius (1778–1798).
Aquarius is the sign of the collective, the common man, and the overthrow of hierarchy. When Pluto, the planet of power, entered this sign, it energised the archetype of "The People" against "The Crown" (Leo, the opposite sign). The famous motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité is a perfectly Aquarian manifesto. However, Pluto also rules the underworld and the shadow. The shadow of this transit was "The Terror," where the ideal of freedom descended into the paranoia of the guillotine. We must pay close attention to this, as Pluto has returned to Aquarius in 2024, echoing these same themes of radical power redistribution.
1917: The Russian Revolution and the Saturn-Neptune Dissolution
If the French Revolution was fiery and Aquarian, the Russian Revolution was watery and Neptunian. The astrological signature here was a potent conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in the sign of Leo.
This is a complex pairing. Saturn represents the hard reality of the state, structure, and the status quo. Neptune represents dreams, socialism, and the dissolution of boundaries. When they met, the rigid structure of the Tsarist autocracy (Saturn) was dissolved by the collective dream of a communist utopia (Neptune). The Bolsheviks offered a vision of a world without class barriers, a classic Neptunian ideal. Yet, as Saturn reasserted itself, that dream hardened into the grim reality of the Soviet state. In Jungian terms, this is the danger of "inflation," where the collective psyche becomes possessed by a myth that reality cannot sustain.
1979: The Iranian Revolution and the Shock of Uranus in Scorpio
Fast forward to the late 20th century, and we find a different kind of fire. The Iranian Revolution, which replaced a secular monarchy with an Islamic Theocracy, occurred under the transit of Uranus in Scorpio.
Uranus is the planet of sudden, electric change and revolution. Scorpio is the sign of intensity, death, sex, and fundamentalist religion. It rules the hidden depths of the psyche and the resources buried deep underground (oil). When the lightning of Uranus struck the deep waters of Scorpio, the result was an explosive, passionate, and fundamentally spiritual upheaval. Unlike the rational Aquarian revolution of France, this was a revolution of the soul and the gut. It was a rejection of the modern, secular world in favour of a deep, intense return to religious roots, a manifestation of the Scorpionic shadow resisting the light.
The Cycle Returns: What Now?
Why does this matter today? Because the wheel has turned. As mentioned, we are currently experiencing the return of Pluto in Aquarius, the same signature that underpinned the French and American Revolutions. We are also approaching a new Saturn-Neptune conjunction in 2026.
The stars suggest we are entering a period of profound instability where the old structures of authority (Saturn) are dissolving, and the power of the collective (Aquarius) is rising. We see this in the decentralisation of currency (crypto), the breakdown of trust in governments, and the rise of protest movements globally.
At the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic, we advise our clients not to fear these times but to understand them. Revolutions are not just external political events; they are externalisations of internal shifts. The "King" is dying inside us, and a new, more egalitarian consciousness is fighting to be born. Our task is to facilitate this birth without losing our heads.
