We think “woke” is something recent, but it’s not. There have been events from the past which help explain why we seem to wake up and then fall asleep again, only to repeat the cycle again and again.

The Great Awakening (January 1, 1731)

Religious revivals have been with us for almost 300 years. The first one on record started in England in 1731. It emphasized a more personal approach to God, rather than one through the church and priests.

Pulling away from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening made religion more personal by fostering a sense of spiritual conviction of personal sin and need for redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to personal morality. It incited rancor and division between traditionalists, who insisted on the continuing importance of ritual and doctrine, and revivalists who encouraged emotional involvement and personal commitment. It had a major impact in reshaping the Congregational church, the Presbyterian church, the Dutch Reformed Church, and the German Reformed denomination, and strengthened the small Baptist and Methodist denominations. It had less impact on Anglicans and Quakers. Unlike the Second Great Awakening, which began about 1800 and reached out to the unchurched, the First Great Awakening focused on those who were already church members. It changed their rituals, their piety, and their self-awareness.

Wikipedia

I have erected a chart for the beginning of 1731 (NS), just to see what was happening behind the scenes.

Even as a snapshot of the planets for that year, there were four inconjuncts in operations: Sun/Mercury inconjunct Neptune; Venus inconjunct Jupiter; and Saturn inconjunct Pluto. Those are powerful aspects.

I suspect that these six Methodists had a lot to do with the changes to religious practices, on both sides of the Atlantic. Even the American Founding Fathers were influenced by them, although the Masons may have given the Constitution its final meet and potatoes recipe.

But like all things human and temporal, what begins so hopefully, ends in…

The Great Disappointment (October 22, 1844)

When William Miller predicted that Jesus would return on this date in 1844, people sold their belongings and waiting with bated breath to be transported to Heaven in the Rapture. Oops.

This time there was only one inconjunct connecting the Sun and Uranus. Could that be the Universe’s way of taking away ‘false prophecy’? I think it is even more apparent when you combine ‘the first and the last’ charts.

The connections may seem accidental, but is anything truly accidental? Disappointment’s Pluto transiting the Awakening’s Ascendant is a story in itself. At the same time, Disappointment’s Mercury is transiting Awakening’s Pluto. This is a wake-up call. But, as we so well know, we will be fooled again.

So, here we are again, almost 300 years later. Anyone for a religious revival?