The Eight Stages of Empire: How America’s Pluto Return Signals the End of an Era

An excerpt from the 2023 Global Outlook on January 22, 2023.
Transcript edited for print.

What began in 2022 was literally the end of the Pax Americana, New World Order. In 2023, we’re seeing the final capitulation playing out. This all ties into the Pluto return.

We’ve had one of three Pluto returns, the first of which initiated on February 20th, 2022. It correlates with unprecedented, historically significant events—systemic crises, the imposition of collective, compulsive power by governments and non-state actors, and populist resistance to authority through drastic action. It also represents the destruction of an earlier mode of life.

The Beginning of America’s Pluto Return

Looking at the broader influence of the U.S. Pluto return, it actually began around January 2017, literally the day Trump took office. That moment marked the beginning, or nascent phase, of the American Pluto return.

Right now, in 2023, we’re at the peak of it. This peak will continue throughout the year and gradually wane, extending its impact into early 2028.

Pluto and the Eight Stages of Empire

Pluto rules empires, hegemonies, and the rise and fall of civilizations.

If we take the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence—July 4th, 1776—and divide the timeline up to the first Pluto return on February 20th, 2022, into eight equal parts, we can trace the eight stages of the American empire:

1. The Age of Outburst
2. The Age of Conquests
3. The Age of Commerce
4. The Age of Affluence
5. The Age of Intellect
6. The Age of Decadence
7. The Age of Decline
8. The Age of Collapse

This method comes from John Glubb, a British army officer who wrote The Fate of Empires. He outlined how powerful civilizations rise, often destroy themselves, or go through reformation. That’s exactly what’s happening now.

1936: The Pluto Opposition — Power, Fascism, and Atomic Awakening

Let’s go back to 1936—the time of the Pluto opposition.

That was during the Great Depression, but Pluto also rules nuclear power: nuclear plants, weapons, and all forms of atomic energy. Around this time, we see the emergence of nuclear research and the first developments that led to the atomic bomb, which would be dropped nine years later. The first fission experiments took place in Chicago in 1936, under intense secrecy.

Pluto also rules fascism. What did we see in the 1930s? The rise of Adolf Hitler and ultranationalist ideology—centralized autocracy, militarism, and authoritarian socialism. That same archetype is visible today with leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

In the U.S., we see plutocracy—rule by oligarchy, militarism, concentration of wealth and power, and suppression of dissent.

1963: The Space Race and the Birth of the Deep State

Moving to 1963, we enter another Pluto phase. This was the beginning of the space race—Pluto also rules space. Spaceflight, interplanetary travel, and technological ambition all fall under Pluto’s domain. Back then, it was the U.S. and the USSR. Today, it’s the U.S. and China, with the creation of the Space Force, weaponization of space, and growing concerns over space-based threats, terrestrial and extraterrestrial. This theme is becoming dominant again in 2023.

Also in 1963, we saw the rise of what we now call the Deep State—a secretive network controlling foreign policy, military, and intelligence operations under the guise of national security. A small, powerful group shaped political outcomes, financing presidents and lawmakers.

The Kennedy assassination marked a turning point, with later evidence and insiders suggesting CIA involvement. This covert power structure has since expanded, manipulating democratic systems to serve oligarchic interests. What appears to be democracy often functions as a controlled intelligence operation, something that’s becoming clearer for those paying attention in 2023.

1982: The Pluto Square and the Cold War Zenith

Then, in 1982, during another Pluto phase—a backward square—we enter the Reagan era.

This period marked the height of the Cold War: intense geopolitical tension, proxy wars, espionage, economic sanctions, and competition between superpowers. It was an era defined by psychological and technological warfare, all driven by Pluto’s transformative influence.

2000–2023: The Terminal Phase — From Globalization to Crisis

As Pluto moved into its terminal phase starting in 2000, the stage was set for today’s collapse period. Around 2001, a global crisis began—not just America’s Fourth Turning, but a larger worldwide shift. This is a period of widespread conflict, instability, and breakdown across political, economic, and social systems.

Similar “general crises” have occurred before, like the third-century Roman crisis or the seventeenth-century European upheavals—and we’re living through one now.

The Roman Parallel: Pluto’s Return and the Fall of a Republic

Looking back, the best comparison is the Roman Empire’s Pluto return between 216 and 284 AD—its first Pluto return.

During that time, Rome faced plague, epidemics, natural disasters, invasions, famine, economic collapse, and climate instability. Hyperinflation, agricultural decline, and political fragmentation nearly destroyed the empire. By the end, Rome had transformed into a full-blown plutocracy, maintaining the illusion of republican government while true power rested in the hands of elites.

And that’s where we are now. The United States is facing many of the same challenges—a republic shifting toward plutocracy as we go through our own Pluto return.

Modern America: The Final Stages — Decline and Collapse

The parallels to Rome are striking: expansion of big government, big tech, big media, big business, and the merging of these forces into centralized control. We’re seeing modern warfare, the erosion of capitalism, forced compliance, censorship, election controversies, “too big to fail” institutions, and economic manipulation through crony capitalism and kleptocracy. Since 2008 especially, free-market capitalism has largely disappeared.

We’re also seeing excessive taxation and government overreach—for example, the Biden administration hiring 87,000 IRS agents to increase audits on average Americans. This mirrors the Roman Empire’s late-stage over-taxation and bureaucratic control.

Standing at the Threshold: Collapse or Rebirth

All of these trends—from authoritarian governance to social engineering—are symptoms of the same larger transformation that occurs under a Pluto return.

And, just like Rome, America stands at the threshold between collapse and possible rebirth.

For nearly four decades, William Stickevers has empowered business leaders, independent thinkers, and visionaries to navigate global shifts and critical turning points with clarity and confidence. His unique blend of astrological techniques, macroeconomic insights, and strategic forecasting equips clients to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in uncertain times. Discover how William’s in-depth forecasts, programs, and astrological consultations can help you make more confident, well-timed decisions, and recognize opportunities others overlook. Visit williamstickevers.com for your strategic advantage in business, finances, and life.

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A trends forecaster, William’s annual global forecasts are backed by a deep study of economies, geopolitics, archetypal cosmology, and modern astrological forecasting techniques. William’s predictions for the outcome of the U.S. Midterm and Presidential Elections are well documented on his blog.

William Stickevers is a strategic astrological advisor, advising clients from 28 countries for nearly four decades with strategy and cosmic insight and foresight to gain an asymmetrical advantage in their investing, business planning and decisions, and to live a more fulfilled life according to their soul’s code and calling.

William has been a regular guest on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and The Jerry Wills Show, and featured on The Unexplained with Howard Hughes, Beyond Reality Radio with Jason Hawes and JV Johnson, We Don’t Die Radio with Sandra Champlain, Supernatural Girlz, Paranormal Podcast, and Alan Steinfeld’s New Realities. An international speaker, William has lectured at the New York Open Center, Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), two Funai Media events in Tokyo, Japan, the United Astrology Conference (2018), for the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NYC, Long Island, New Jersey, San Francisco chapters), American Federation of Astrologers (Los Angeles), the Astrological Society of Connecticut, the San Francisco Astrological Society, and in Europe (Munich and Bucharest) and Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama).

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