This Libra MAD&OF sits within the Aquarius micro-age (Aug 1582 – Jul 1597) and therefore mimics the Libra MAD&OF (December 1910 – October 1920) associated with the First World War (1914/17 – 18) and Spanish flu. The next major level up to greatly influence this period was the Taurus-Capricorn sub-age decan (1552 – 1612). Taurus is beneficial to England (see The UK Astrological Signature) which was certainly on display in this Libra period.
Again, major conflicts occur under Libra’s watch commencing with the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) which included the famous Spanish Armada (1588) with 130 ships and 30,000 men when Catholic Spain planned to invade Protestant England and dispose Queen Elizabeth 1 but failed miserably at the hands of what constituted the British navy and adverse weather. The English countered with two armadas against Spain which both failed, and Spain sent a second armada against England which also failed due to bad weather. This is where Sir Francis Drake became famous. At this time Spain was the world’s superpower. The victory was acclaimed by the English as their greatest since Agincourt, and the memory of the victory over the Armada was evoked during the Napoleonic Wars in a later Libra period when again England found itself threatened by another invasion. From the standpoint of Libra, Queen Elizabeth’s legend persisted and grew long after her death due to the successful repulsion of the Spanish Armadas.[1] Queen Elizabeth is one of the most notable females that stood near the beginning of the Libra age-decan (1433 – 2149).
This Libra period sits within the Elizabethan era (1558 – 1603) and is taken as England’s golden age attributed a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain[2] with the naval triumph over Spain exclusively associated with this Libra period. This golden age commenced in the Taurus sub-age decan (1537 – 1612) and Taurus figures strongly in the English astrological signature.[3]
Again, war was highly prevalent as is the case for the last 5,000 years and only some major ones will be mentioned. The War of the Three Henrys (1587-89) was one of a series of French civil wars under the umbrella of the French Wars of Religion (1562 – 98) The war was instigated by Spain to keep France from interfering with the Spanish army in the Netherlands and the Spanish invasion of England – there were so many wars that they had wars within wars!
The Eighty Years’ War commencing in 1568 (before this Libra period) was basically a Protestant revolt of what are today the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg against the superpower of Catholic Spain but by 1587 the newly formed Dutch Republic entered a period of more than two centuries of relative political stability and strongly increased its trade and wealth from this time onward, with Amsterdam replacing Antwerp as the main port of north-west Europe. The republic was more tolerant of different religions and ideas than its contemporary states were, allowing freedom of thought to its residents. Artists flourished under this regime, including painters such as Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer leading to the Dutch Golden Age lasting until 1672.[4] Libra may have placed its stamp on the Dutch Golden Age but the influence of both the Capricorn sub-age (1433 – 1612) and Taurus sub-age decan overflow (1552 – 1612) suggests that these signs appear in the Dutch astrological signature?
In the Far East the first Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 was really the beginning of a proxy war between Japan and China with Korea the stepping stone from Japan to China. The conflict ended in 1598 after Japan’s second unsuccessful invasion followed by the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula after a military stalemate (appropriate for Libra). This war resulted in an imbalance of power within Japan with the Toyotomi clan’s power significantly weakened due to the exhaustion of its armed forces for the failed Korean conflict and the opposing Tokugawa clan, who had abstained from the war, and with their armed forces in tack, were able to eventually triumphed (post this Libra period) against the Toyotomi clan. Libra seems to prefer two major opposing forces. Libra is considered a key sign for the whole of the Far East including China.
Highly notable females again mark this Libra period and a good example is the classic feud between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots ending with the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 at the hands of her cousin Queen Elizabeth after Mary was implicated in a plot to murder Elizabeth.
With the growing strength of Capricorn the accusations of witchcraft against women grew to a crescendo in this period. From 1581 to 1593 the Witch Trials of Trier in Germany were perhaps the biggest witch trials in European history. They formed one of the four largest witch trials in Germany. The persecutions started around Trier in 1581 and reached the city itself in 1587, where it was to lead to the death of about 368 people, and it may have been the biggest mass execution in Europe in peace time.[5]
Not to be outdone by the Germans, in 1590, Agnes Sampson was questioned by King James VI of Scotland, and confessed to practicing witchcraft. This was apparently part of the North Berwick witch trials of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland which ran for two years and implicated over seventy people. The “witches” allegedly held their covens on the Auld Kirk Green, part of the modern-day North Berwick Harbour area. The confessions were extracted by torture.[6]
Prosecutions for the crime of witchcraft reached a highpoint commencing 1580 (in this Libra period) to 1630 during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion when an estimated 50,000 people were burned at the stake, of which roughly 80% were women, and most often over the age of 40. This 50 year period correlates to the peak strength of Capricorn associated with the end of the Capricorn sub-age in (1433 -1612) when Capricorn was peaking. Stern autocratic male Capricorn historically orientated towards the subjugation of women – especially older intelligent women with knowledge and wisdom.
However, the Aquarian tide of rationalism started to gain traction with the publication in 1584 of The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot, which undermined the common belief that witches existed. Scot expressed the view that “it is neither a witch, nor devil, but glorious God that maketh the thunder…God maketh the blustering tempests and whirlwinds…”.[7]
North America continued to be a focus under Libra and in 1583, Newfoundland was formally claimed as a colony of England but not successfully settled at this time. Also very interesting in relation to the future USA, in 1584 Walter Raleigh sent an expedition to explore the Outer Banks of Virginia (now North Carolina), with a view to establishing an English colony, and they located Roanoke Island.[8] In the following year, the first group of colonists was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh but only lasted until June 1586, but was followed by a second attempt in 1587.[9] The second attempt was futile, and by the time the British returned in 1590, the colonialists had disappeared and it became known as the Lost Colony.
Interestingly, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552/4 – 1618) was born in a Taurus-Taurus generation, and this may explain why Raleigh strongest focus in his life was in searching for El Dorado (City of Gold) and he made two expeditions to the Americas in search of this gold – and ultimately was executed for his over zealousness by attacking a Spanish outpost in his quest.[10]
Notable theatrical developments took place in this Libra period commencing in 1583 when the Queen Elizabeth’s Men troupe of actors was founded in England and became the dominant acting company for the rest of the 1580s. Queen Elizabeth’s Men was the first large company of actors in English Renaissance theatre, twice the size of its predecessors. The size of the new company enabled it to act a new kind of historical play, built on a larger scale than ever before including Shakespeare’s histories. These new plays were equivalent to “Hollywood spectaculars” of their era.[11] In 1587 the Rose (theatre) was founded in London beginning a trend for theatres to be situated at arm’s length from the authorities in an area outside the jurisdiction of the City of London where bear/bull-baitings, gaming dens and brothels were surreptitiously operating. It was the first purpose-built playhouse to ever stage a production of any of Shakespeare’s plays. Christopher Marlowe became the theatre’s main playwright. While the theatre thrived, at the very end of this Libra period, an outbreak of the Plague thwarted all theatres[12] (with no Libra available to support them).
Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. Somewhere in this Libra period (probably the mid-1580s) Shakespeare was able to have his plays performed and by 1592, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked by other playwrights such as Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit:
“… there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a Player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.”
Shakespeare was accused of reaching above his ‘lowly’ rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called “University Wits”).[13] The main sign that drove Shakespeare was from Pisces, and the rise of Shakespeare in this Libra period coincided with the Pisces sting-in-the-tail of the Pisces sub-age and overflow (1254 – 1433 – 1612) with the Pisces sting-in-the-tail the Pisces micro-age and overflow (1567 – 1582 – 1597) with this period arguably representing the peak of Pisces in the 26,000 years cycle of the astrological ages. Shakespeare was born in an Aries-Aries generation (second half of the Aries micro-age (1552 – 1567) indicating that he came from a generation with drive!
Christopher Marlowe was of the same Aries-Aries generation and was the leading Elizabethan playwright and strongly influenced Shakespeare who succeeded him following Marlowe’s untimely death at the age of 29 in 1593.
On the artistic front, El Greco (1541 – 1614) was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance and he is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism and his works were considered as “strange”, “queer”, “original”, “eccentric” and “odd. However, much of his works were undertaken within the eccentric Aquarius micro-age and overflow (1582 – 1597 – 1612). In 1586 he obtained the commission for The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, now his best-known work. Painters from the beginning of the 20th century rediscovered El Greco – his expressiveness and colors influenced Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne[14] and one commentator stated that “Cézanne and El Greco are spiritual brothers despite the centuries which separate them”.[15] It should be noted that Cubism appeared as an avant-garde artistic movement during the 1910s[16] associated with the Libra micro-age decan and overflow (Dec 1910 – Nov 1915 – Oct 1920).
The famous Italian painter Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) had a formative influence on Baroque painting and influenced the later works of Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt. His style fell out of favor until the 20th century but he was labeled “What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting.”[17] Caravaggio’s apprenticeship occurred in this Libra period and in the last year he left Milan and went to Rome as a destitute hack-work artist. One of his earliest works in 1589 was Caravaggio’s Young Sick Bacchus, supposedly a self-portrait done during convalescence from a serious illness (with Capricorn overtones). Caravaggio’s innovation was a radical naturalism that contrasted light and dark with little intermediate value.[18] This “darkness” can be attributed to the strength of Capricorn with the Capricorn sub-age approaching its peak strength in 1612.
Finally, on the sweet side of Libra, the first known commercial importation of chocolate to Europe in 1585, from Mexico to Spain, but the Spanish adopted the addition of (Libra) sugar to sweeten chocolate, whereas the indigenous American had only mixed chocolate with spices – but it required an acquired taste. The new Spanish sugar variety took off with a vengeance, and for some time, chocolate drinks were far more popular in Spain than coffee.[19] It was quickly followed by the publication of Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke in 1631.
Again, we see with Libra some major conflicts – the Spanish Armada where England was nearly invaded and pirates like Sir Francis Drake became a national hero. The conflict between the Dutch and Spain was resolved with creation of the Dutch Republic leading to more than two centuries of relative political stability called the Dutch Golden Age. China was under threat from Japan with Japan invading Korea for the very first time, but failed to move on to the conquest of China. In North America, Newfoundland was formally claimed as a colony of England and some unsuccessful attempts were made to colonize Roanoke Island (North Carolina). At a minimum, this is the beginning of the Libra connection to the USA.
The power play between two highly notable women – Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots led to the execution of Mary while the other major female focus of the times was arguably the biggest mass execution of witches in Europe. By 1630 an estimated about 40,000 women had been burnt at the stake. But the rationality of Aquarius did show signs of life with the argument against the existence of witchcraft by the publication of The Discoverie of Witchcraft.
Libra obviously promoted the theatre with the creation of Queen Elizabeth’s Men troupe of actors and the construction of the Rose theatre in a destitute part of London and by the end of this Libra period, Shakespeare was in full swing. The other famous playwright of the times died only one year past the end of this Libra period making the Libra period the full extent of Marlowe’s theatrical output. The father of modern painting also appeared with El Greco and Caravaggio was mainly in his apprentice period but commence producing artwork before this Libra period ended. Sugar and chocolate naturally are attracted to Libra with its first commercial importation to Europe.
Libra-associated events will occur at any time in history, and for example, in every 15 years micro-age, there is a 29 to 30 month Libra nano-age and overflow. However, again with this Libra MAD&OF (1582 – 1592), highly notable and remarkable historical events that can be associated with a Libra archetype indicate a stronger presence of Libra than is normal. The brightness of Libra was not quenched by the dark side of the Capricorn sub-age and overflow (1433 – 1612 – 1791).
References
[1]Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), Wikipedia, Retrieved 04:25, January 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anglo-Spanish_War_(1585%E2%80%931604)&oldid=1000121904
[2] Elizabethan era, Wikipedia, Retrieved 00:50, February 23, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elizabethan_era&oldid=1005608209
[3] The UK Astrological Signature, https://macroastro.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/the-uk-astrological-signature/
[4] Dutch Republic, Wikipedia, Retrieved 05:01, January 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dutch_Republic&oldid=999742782
[5] Trier witch trials, Wikipedia, Retrieved 05:36, January 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trier_witch_trials&oldid=993312124
[6] North Berwick witch trials, Wikipedia, Retrieved 05:47, January 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=North_Berwick_witch_trials&oldid=994221672
[7] Scot, Reginald (1584). Discoverie of Witchcraft p. 2.
[8] Grun, Bernard (1991). The Timetables of History, (3rd ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 259. ISBN 0-671-74919-6.
[9] Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992), The Chronology of British History, London: Century Ltd. pp. 160–162. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
[10] Walter Raleigh, Wikipedia, Retrieved 00:27, February 23, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Raleigh&oldid=1007402650
[11] McMillin; MacLean (1998), pp. 5, 11–12.
[12] The Rose (theatre), Wikipedia,Retrieved 07:03, January 25, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Rose_(theatre)&oldid=999109684
[13] William Shakespeare, Wikipedia, Retrieved 23:23, February 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Shakespeare&oldid=1007731515
[14] El Greco, Wikipedia, Retrieved 02:39, February 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=El_Greco&oldid=1007494780
[15] J. Brown, El Greco of Toledo, p28
[16] Cubism, Wikipedia, Retrieved 02:42, February 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cubism&oldid=1007041592
[17] Quoted in Gilles Lambert, “Caravaggio”, p.8.
[18] Caravaggio, Wikipedia, Retrieved 02:56, February 22, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caravaggio&oldid=1007107802
[19] History of chocolate in Spain, Wikipedia, Retrieved 07:15, January 25, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_chocolate_in_Spain&oldid=998684132
Demystifying the Aquarian Age 
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