Pluto in Capricorn – The Health of the World

The Past and the Future

By Diane L. Cramer, MS CA

During the fall of 2007, I was a member of a panel discussion hosted by the Uranian Society in New York City on the possible effects of Pluto’s entry into Capricorn. As a medical astrologer, I reported on the health of the world throughout history when Pluto fell in Capricorn and then gave my interpretation of the two Ingress Charts of Pluto’s entry into Capricorn in 2008 in terms of world health. The following article covers the results of my research. Occasionally, there are instances of time overlaps due to the historical context of the information.

I used two sources in researching the history of Pluto in Capricorn. The first was the book Disease and History by Frederick Fox Cartwright. The second source was the Internet. Using various combinations of keywords, I searched as far back in time as possible to learn anything I could about world health during the periods Pluto was in Capricorn. Needless to say, the closer I got to modern times, the more information I was able to retrieve. Some medical and historical sources on the Internet are limited to libraries and medical institutions, but I availed myself of whatever I could find.

Though there are diseases that go back to ancient times (and still occur today) as well as diseases and epidemics that occur with regularity throughout history, I noted some diseases that did not seem to occur or to involve a major outbreak among the populous during the times Pluto was in Capricorn. (Supposedly, the first description of typhus was in 1083 and the first description of polio was in 1789. The study of tuberculosis dates back to the 1020’s but it was not identified as a single disease until the 1820’s.)

These are:

- TB

- Polio

- Typhus

- Typhoid fever

- Cholera

- Scarlet Fever

Going back in time, here are my results for when Pluto was in Capricorn in terms of disease and medical breakthroughs. Solar Fire Deluxe was my source for dates. For the sake of space, I have included beginning and end dates but have not listed all the retrograde dates.

PART ONE: TIMELINE OF PLUTO IN CAPRICORN:

11/5/0204 BC– 1/2/0184 BC – In 200 BC, the Greek physician Galan used natural magnets to relieve pain in treating many illnesses. Around the same time was the first written reference to acupuncture in what is considered the earliest surviving canonical text of traditional Chinese medicine – Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. Though the exact dates are controversial, there is mention of 204 BC in one source and 200 BC in another source. Acupuncture itself reached a milestone around 2697-2597 BC.

1/4/0042 – 12/14/0061 – I discovered a brief reference to the use of Chinese herbs in curing disease.

1/21/0287 – 11/27/0306 - Alchemy was a popular though controversial topic at this time and was widely practiced. However, in the year 296, the Roman Emperor Diocletian sought out and burnt all the Egyptian books on alchemy and the other Hermetic sciences, thus destroying all evidence of any progress made up to that time.

The Roman Emperor Constantine (AD 285 - AD 337) condemned the baths and gymnasiums as he thought they added to the abuse of sex.

Public health and sanitation were more advanced in the year AD 300 than they were to be again until the middle of the nineteenth century.

2/23/0532 – 11/23/0551 - The Holy Roman Empire under Justinian in 540 AD was ravaged by bubonic plague. More than 10,000 people died per day in Central Europe. This plague is viewed as undermining the late Roman Empire, politically and economically. It may have originated in 541-542 either in Ethiopia and moving through Egypt or in the Central Asian steppes, where it then traveled along caravan trading routes exchanging both goods and infections. Coastal cities were especially hard hit. The campaigns of Justinian also led to expansion of the plague. The disease spread from Asia Minor to Africa and Italy and also to Western Europe. The plague may have reduced the population of the Mediterranean world by the year 600 to no more than 60% of its count a century earlier.

The History of the Wars, published in 550 by Procopius, describes the symptoms and immediate consequences of the disease. Procopius was the legal secretary of the general Belisarius and traveled with him throughout Justinian’s campaigns in Italy, the Balkans, and in Africa. In 542, he witnessed the plague in Constantinople.

During these years, Judeo-Christian medicine began to replace the prevailing folk remedies, and it was also a time of religious conversion to Judaism and Christianity.

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