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Malvin Artley has been a practising astrologer for more than a decade. He is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers.
Malvin is the author of Bodies of Fire: An Exploration of the Lesser Chakra System. He has authored numerous articles and was a member of the faculty of the University of the Seven Rays, a non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching of the Trans-Himalayan tradition as expressed through the books of Alice Bailey, Helena Blavatsky and others.
His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism. He has done extensive work with Chinese astrology and the cycles they use and seeks to synthesize the great Western and Oriental systems on such matters.
Malvin lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He also works in the engineering trades and sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.

The Grand Quintile [part 2]
rare planetary configurations in October 2004

In this the second part of his article on the Grand Quintiles of Ocober 2004, Malvin Artley continues his discussion the meaning of these remarkable cosmic events. These aspects stimulate the heights and depths of human achievement. Malvin argues that quintiles bring us newness and greater connectedness with God. They show us the way to a better understanding of the universe and of the beauty of creation. By putting us in touch with the greater Archetypes we are empowered to be more than we were and to stand apart from the status quo and show our uniqueness as human beings.

But, perhaps one of the more revealing lists in terms of quintiles comes from a collection of poets and writers. As is well known, writers are one of the more reflective groups of people in terms of creative process and they deal with symbolism in ways that most of the other groups do not. This is not to say they are any more creative or “mentally endowed”. Rather, they are able to bring the energy of quintiles down into manifested form in a different manner than some of the other groups, both in terms of process and of technique. Artists of all types work with symbolism as a matter of course, and all of them have their ways of bringing symbols into physical form. Writers simply do it with letters as symbols for thoughts. Of the writers and poets, we have: Emile Zola, Yeats, Jaqueline Susann, Percy B. Shelley, Jean Paul Sartre, Anais Nin, Jack Kerouac, Washington Irving, Victor Hugo, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickenson, Stephen Crane, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Pearl S. Buck and Louisa May Alcott. Of course, this list would not be complete for most of you without adding the following names: Alice A. Bailey, Annie Besant, Helena Blavatsky and Helena Roerich, the authors and then some of the ABCs of occultism as we know it in the West. I should add here that, with all the people listed in the last two paragraphs, their charts were chosen because of an emphasis of what the astrologer would call “10th Harmonic aspects”—deciles (semi-quintiles: 36 degrees), quintiles, tredeciles (108 degrees, or 3 semi-quintiles) and biquintiles (144 degrees). All of these aspects express the quintile paradigm in some form or another.

Each of the above-mentioned people has expressed something unique to the world in their own way. They have taken the mundane and ordinary and added something original to it. They have worked consciously with symbolism and expressed that to the world in an original manner, or they have stood as symbols themselves. They have stood outside the normal order of humanity and shown that “something extra” that noone else had quite been able to do. In short, they had been a link in some manner between the Mind of God and humanity, either rightly or wrongly, and have added to the richness of human experience as a result. In another way of looking at it, they did their bit in one way or another to shift the paradigms of human thought.

Now, with some of the people listed it may be a bit hard to see how that might be so, or even hard to swallow, but no matter what we might feel about them personally, they have all made their mark on the culture of human thought—and some, like Einstein, Mozart, Martin Luther King and even Hitler—have changed the course of human history by what they have brought through from the higher realms. It may be difficult to see how an artist might change the course of history sometimes, but inspiration is a thing never lost on the human heart. Art moves humanity sometimes—I would even say often—more effectively than brute force, as witnessed by the effect of the media upon human thought and public opinion. “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

Our Dreams Become Reality

All this brings us to a very important consideration of what quintiles actually mean before we move into a consideration of the Grand Quintiles. It was stated previously that the 5th Ray in its higher modus operandi expresses esoteric psychology. The phrases: “Yesterday's science fiction is today's science fact.” and “God geometrizes.” may seem to be unrelated, but they do, in fact, say a lot about how quintiles operate and what the true nature of science and mind really is. I have spoken many times about how outer life is but a symbolic expression of inner realities in the life of the Soul. It is the nature of the human mind to enquire and to aspire to greater things. Restless beings, are we, and our lot in life is divine discontent. No matter how much we know there is always something else that would make our lives better and more manageable, and it is this very dynamic that has given rise to science. Every time we pierce through the veils of ignorance and illusion we wrest another piece of God's puzzle from the Grand Design and make it our own. We thus come a little closer to understanding the Mind of God in our own way. That which we have dreamt for ourselves and our ken becomes reality for all when we know how to manifest them. The symbolism of the divine becomes “cold, hard fact”. It will come as no surprise, then, that science is but occultism made everyday reality and concrete to the average person. Our dreams (science fiction) become reality (science fact). And, guess what—the basis of all science is mathematics, and numbers are one of the ultimate sets of symbols for us.

Matter and Energy are One

Einstein gave us Relativity theory and the proof that matter and energy are one. The basis of that is the simplest of equations: E=mc squared. Mozart gave us some of the most divine and perfect music the world has heard. Yet, music is numbers in motion, for all vibration has a periodicity and cyclical nature that is described by numbers. It is the same with all shapes and colours. And, it is the same with the human voice and all forms. All art and science has its basis in mathematics, as does all symbolic language. And, quintiles allow us to access those symbols and ultimately the mathematics behind them, though we may not (and most often do not) recognize that a symbol is, after all, God geometrizing. There are many who would feel offence at art and science being lumped together and that art could be reduced to numbers, but our art is more and more digitalized every day. There is actually no separation between art and science. Mathematics is as exquisite an expression of the divine as the greatest painting, music or poetry. We only make it different in our own minds.

Quintiles bring us newness and greater connectedness with God. They show us the way to a better understanding of the universe and of the beauty of creation. By putting us in touch with the greater Archetypes we are empowered to be more than we were and to stand apart from the status quo and show our uniqueness as human beings. But we can only do this if we have even only a tenuous link with the higher Self. If a person has quintiles in his or her chart, then such a connection, if existent, becomes a channel for the voice of the Soul to pour forth into the lives of all around them. Having quintiles in a chart is no guarantee of such a connection, however. True genius is only ever of the Soul, but a fuller measure of contact with the Soul usually only comes at a cost to the persona, for the persona most often resists anything new, as it is the status quo within our own energy fields. This brings us to the last point in this discussion—quintiles are usually only activated after a personal struggle unless the Soul-force is already strong within the individual. A study of the lives of the previously-listed individuals will more than likely reveal that their genius was only released after some personal upheaval. All this makes the quintile sound more like a Uranian type of influence, but the quintile does not bring on the crises. It is only active after the fact. We usually only understand a crisis in hindsight. Wisdom has 20-20 rear-view vision, we could say. However, quintiles can also operate as support in the midst of a crisis if the link to the Soul is already established. There is a lot more that can be said about all this, but we need to move on.

The Grand Quintile

With that, let us move on to a consideration of the Grand Quintiles to come. Both of them last for roughly 6 hours. The first one begins at 6:45 PM ACST (9:15 AM GMT 30 Sept.) on 1 Oct 2004. It reaches its peak at app. 9:30 PM ACST (noon GMT) and finally ends at 1:20 AM ACST (3:50 PM GMT), depending upon the orb used. The 2nd one begins at 2:30 AM ACST on 29 Oct 2004 (5:00 PM 28 Oct GMT), peaks at around 5:30 AM (8:00 PM GMT) and ends at 11:00 AM ACST (1:30 AM GMT 29 Oct). As with any of the more complex alignments in the heavens, there is a key aspect that configures the entire alignment and sets the key measure for it. In the case of these two alignments that aspect is a quintile between Uranus and Pluto, both of which form the base of what we would call a 10th harmonic yod with Saturn as the apex planet.

This yod has been in effect since September 3rd. Saturn has been biquintile to Pluto since the 23rd of August. What will be of interest here is that fact that these planets—Saturn/Uranus/Pluto—are the three planets that develop and confer will upon humanity, and they do so through invoking crisis and struggle in a person's life so that the will must be used to bring about resolution. We could say that we learn to be resolute through these planets. Uranus and Pluto are the two planets that govern the path of occultism, and in this yod we see a very potent and powerful symbol for the creative release of karma, the establishment of a new order along more humanistic lines, the ability to set new paradigms for leadership and a new social order in place, the genius of manipulation of forces for right or materialistic ends, the compulsion to find new ways of releasing old patterns, the impulse to consciously work with the forces of evolution for the betterment of humanity and the ability and necessity for the old to bring surprising and revelatory spiritual impulses to the mass of humanity. In summary, this is one of the more consciously liberating, or consciousness-liberating, aspects that has been seen for some time. The last time this yod was even close to being formed was in Dec. 1063. At that time Saturn was bi-quintile to both Uranus and Pluto, but the latter were not close enough to be quintile to each other.

The base of the just-described yod gives the dynamic of the things to be brought through with this alignment. There is another thought that I need to add in the light of what has just been said. Throughout all of this and with what comes after the alignment the following point will ring out and will become more and more clear: He who does not learn from history will be doomed to repeat it. But there is no turning back after this. A quick look at the world stage will show us why. There are elections coming up in the US and Australia just after these alignments. The outcome of the US elections will set the course of history in the West for some time to come. The forces of materialism are strong on all sides and seek ascendancy and supremacy in certain sectors of the world. But, the forces for freedom are stronger, so long as we are vigilant. Conscious choice is the key here, along with a firm adherence to one's connection with one's higher Self. There will be ongoing struggle, but the Soul of humanity is being more and more evoked every day. Through this alignment we will see how far we have come. Expect an increase in insanity from certain factions. Expect also examples of true genius and astounding Light to step forward and to shine through.

Historical Patterns

The quintile and biquintile aspects between Uranus and Pluto occur roughly every 20-24 years. They are marked by certain discoveries coming to light and by certain urges to the liberation of humanity from the bondage of ignorance and oppression. I will list some of the ones from modern history along with their results to give some idea of what is brought through. The dates are when the aspect occurred. The events occurred in that year or shortly thereafter.

March 1803: Switzerland gained independence, the Louisiana Purchase from the French in the US, Britain and France went to war, Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor (1804), the first periodic table of the elements was put forward, the first steam train was tested, complex number equations developed, the electric battery.
1824: The RSPCA was established, the Erie Canal was opened, there were wars for independence in Greece and South America, the first wire suspension bridge was tested, the first steam passenger train was put in operation (1825), the Derringer pistol was put on the market, the rum ration was halved on British ships, non-Euclidean geometry, the electromagnet.
1851: the first free trade act was enacted in Britain, the Tai Ping rebellion in China, the Pinkerton Detective Agency was established, Reuter's News Agency was established, the French Aeronautical Society was founded (the first of its kind), Otis Elevators was founded, the first Australian gold rush took place, the Crimean War started (1854), Benjamin Franklin shows that lightning is electricity.
1871: German unification, the Mendeleev periodic table of the elements, France capitulates to Germany in a humiliating defeat, France Commune ends in blood and violence (over 20,000 Parisians lose their lives on the barricades), Dr. Livingstone is found at lake Tanganyika (he wasn't lost after all), Barnum's Circus opens in New York, the Chicago fires raged for 3 days, Yellowstone National Park was created — inspiration for wilderness protection the world over(1872), RCMP formed ('73), Spanish Republic proclaimed ('73), first exhibition of impressionist art in Paris ('74). The Theosophical Society was founded by Blavatsky and H.S. Olcott. In 1873 there was the first US postcard, the first illustrated daily newspaper (New york), the first color photographs, the QWERTY typewriter keyboard, and Maxwell published his theories on radio waves. The telegraph, the light bulb, the automobile and the telephone were all invented directly after this. Impressionism was given birth.
Feb 1891: The world's first old-age pensions in Germany, baseball was invented, first female suffrage in the world (New Zealand, '92), Standard Oil monopoly was busted in the US ('92), The motion picture camera invented in Edison's lab, motion picture studios developed ('92), 4-color rotary printing presses are developed, the telephoto lens is developed, the automatic telephone switchboard, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published ('92), X-Rays discovered ('95) (the discovery that presaged the atomic age). This decade was when major advances were made in the infant science of nuclear physics. The atomic age had its conception here. Radio broadcasting came about shortly after ('94, telegraphy), box-making machines are invented (the packaging industry is born), antitoxins discovered.
Sep 1915: world is at flash point with many parts of Europe already in conflict, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity ('17), the Bohr model of atomic structure and the electron shell model of chemical bonding, Germany is the first country to use aircraft militarily (air warfare is born), the kinetic theory of gases is put forward, the electric loudspeaker developed, radios get tuners (the radio industry becomes possible), the first regular airmail service, photocomposition begins, short-wave radio invented ('19), the flip-flop circuit is invented (the birth of binary electronics), the world erupts into war, penicillin discovered, Goddard is developing modern rocketry, sonar.
Sep 1939: the world is sinking into war again (the decisive blow is being delivered to materialism), the first regular TV broadcast takes place in the US, Kirlian photography is developed, America gets stereo sound (“Fantasia”, the movie), the first digital computer ('42), nuclear fission developed in Germany, the Manhattan Project ('42), radar developed, German rockets developed that later become the models for modern space-flight rockets, the true Atomic Age is born.

I looked through many lists in compiling the above and picked out those items that most closely coincided with the dates or those that were just after by a few years. The last decade of the 1800s was an exception, because there was a great impulse toward liberation given during that time and thus quite a lot of work was done with matter and radioactivity during that decade.

Certain things stand out from the preceding listing:

Certain secrets of the atom and of electricity were given out at each time.
The media was given unique and potent strides forward at each time.
Certain of the mathematics of the time/space continuum were evolved around those times.
Photography as a technology was given a great boost.
There were major developments in transport technology.
There were great movements and crises in the realm of human independence and freedom.
The boundaries of humanity were expanded.
There were great strides made in communications technology.

In short, our understanding of time and space, our concepts of human interchange, communication, expression and freedom and the fixing of images and sounds in the ether of space are all unfolded under the impulse of the quintile/biquintile aspects between Uranus and Pluto. Every passage of that quintile in recent history has left something quite unique for humanity, has changed the paradigms of our thinking, has given us ever-greater freedom and liberty, has interconnected us in a world brotherhood to an ever-greater extent and has shown us in hindsight that, indeed, the limits of what we can do is bounded only by our imagination. The fact that wars have raged around us during those times has only spurred us onward and wiped away those restricting social structures and regimes that have held us back from the realization of our dreams. The war years have been times that have tested the limits of human endurance and imagination, but they have also evoked the human Soul. Truly, necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and warfare has advanced science in a way that nothing else quite can. But, there are many things besides warfare that fire the imagination, too. As has been said, there is nothing like a good crisis to really grab our attention, to bring the will to bear on a situation and to push for solutions to problems. We find ourselves in a world crisis once again. This quintile will last until the end of March 2005. Let us be certain to avail ourselves of its profound gifts to all of us.

Saturn at the apex of the yod (which will last until Dec 16th) points to the necessity of bringing the imagination to bear, of firmly grounding in outer circumstance what we are given, of adapting every twist and turn of circumstance toward the liberating influences pouring through and—perhaps most especially—in the creative use of time and form in this current unfolding of the Plan and thus our understanding of the workings of the divine. I had stated before that the same yod almost came to pass in 1063. As an example of how important the Uranus/Pluto quintile is to unlocking the energy of the yod, and due to the fact that quintile was not present then, there were no great discoveries or liberating impulses exhibited at that time. Biquintiles are an aspect that shows awareness of creative technique, but unless they are aided by other aspects that lead to manifestation of the sensed ideals then they often come to naught. All the awareness in the world is of no use if it cannot be utilized. But, in a true Grand Quintile all the biquintiles are linked to the base quintiles. Creative potential is allied with creative technique, and if there are manifesting aspects (squares and oppositions) present as well, then the scene is set for the unleashing of tremendous creative gifts and the introduction of much that is new and strikingly original onto the planet. With that, let us look at our present Grand Quintiles.

The October 1st alignment is completed by the Moon. It is composed of the Moon, Saturn, a Mercury/Sun conjunction—conjunct Mars and Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus in order around the chart wheel. Each point of the quintile is also biquintile the two plants in the figure furthest opposite that point. In all, every planet is involved except for Venus and Neptune. It is a most astounding configuration. The fact that almost all the planets are involved points to how potent a figure it is, though it lasts but only a few hours. The thing that makes it even more interesting, though, is the two planets outside of the alignment, because they are poised as the planets that release the potential of the figure. Venus is in a wide opposition to Uranus and the Moon is square to Neptune. Under orthodox interpretation these would not seem to be aspects that would particularly lead to great manifestations of creative impulses, but we need to keep in mind that this configuration works largely from the realm of mind. When seen in that regard then the releasing aspects take on a new light.

Occult and Mysterious

Venus has been called the most occult and mysterious planet in the solar system. Neptune can be seen in the same light to a degree. The opposition between Venus and Uranus brings about a great independence in matters of the heart, a tendency to form odd alliances, disappointment through misplaced affections, detachment, idealism in love and a general eccentricity. In all, I would say this aspect fits the Grand Quintile quite well. The Moon/Neptune square gives a generally unrealistic outlook, daydreaming, na�ve charm, a love of mysticism and an impractical outlook on life—just the sort of thing one would need to let the imagination run loose. If there is a true note of hardness in this chart, it comes from the Saturn opposition to Chiron. A general outlook on the chart indicates that it will not be a particularly kind period emotionally, but that may be just the sort of thing that is needed to unlock some of the potential in the figure.

In part three of this article, Malvin Artley analyses the specifics of the aspects and draws conclusions on how these will affect the world. Malvin argues that quintiles are only efficacious if people have the Soul contact and mental equipment necessary to be able to access them, and that this will be a deeply spiritual awakening.

Read part three of The Grand Quintile 2004

Malvin Artley is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers. His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests in those fields are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism.
He sends out periodic emails about astrological happenings and developments. These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list please let me know. If you feel inspired to pass them on please do so, but do so without alteration or charge. They are sent to people of many persuasions, not just astrologers. Blessings. Click here to subscribe to Malvin's periodic letters.