In the late 20th and early 21st century, the United States and some other countries have been beset with "culture wars." As new cultural values emerge through historical great awakenings, such as that of the 1960s, or those that gave us the great religions in ancient times, old cultures defend and revive themselves and try to stamp out the new ones. If we look at history, then, we can see that culture wars are nothing new. Today's older "traditional" cultures were themselves once the new culture on the block, and they themselves had to battle with older ones to become the dominant, established cultures they are today. It's all part of the process of unfolding human evolution. All the old cultures are still with us, and make their overwhelming power felt in the form of the current dominant political ideologies in the United States of America, as well as in other forms around the world-- perhaps especially in the West and Middle East.
Some philosophers today are proposing a new culture or worldview, which they call "integral." This is also called "the theory of everything." Since I see myself as included among them, I need to understand what they are saying, what they can teach me, and how my approach of the philosophers wheel compares to theirs. Generally, Integral Philosophy seeks to discover how all things fit into a larger whole. It sees the conflicts between ideas and outlooks, but also notices ways in which they can fit together. But this means more than seeing that "everything is all one" or "all the same," as many of my fellow mystics do. It also means seeing that all ideas are part of a larger order or hierarchy, each with its own value. Some ideas may be older than others too, and thus maybe "less progressive" (or, on the other hand, more venerable).
As of 2008 there is increasing discussion of "spiral dynamics," as part of the growing trend toward "integral philosophy." Spiral Dynamics is one of the favorite topics of such philosophers. It says the universe is evolving and going through stages of development, and so do human beings and human society. This approach is also related to "developmental psychology," whose creators include James Mark Baldwin, Jean Piaget and Abraham Maslow, which claims to trace the stages which individual human beings pass through during their lives. Many integral philosophers propose that our personal life stages mirror those of humanity as a whole. They also suggest that certain groups of people reflect these stages by their behavior and ideals.
Personally, I resist developmental psychology a bit. I don't think individuals go through the same stages at the same time. People march to the beat of their own drummer, especially today. Many children experience life stages attributed to middle age, and vice versa. People might experience a calling to a higher purpose or an awakening of the spirit as teenagers, or experience adolescence in midlife. Developmental Psychology takes no account of what people might bring in from past lives either; it lacks the esoteric perspective. Also, the stages people go through may depend on their time in history, and thus which generation (or generational type) they belong to. Strauss and Howe have discussed in their books how a person's generation and generational type influences the stages they go through in life. For all these reasons I am skeptical of developmental psychology, not only as presented by psychologists, but by other astrologers as well.
Such generalities and patterns, even those of developmental psychology, might have some partial truth, because as Integral Philosophy proposes, life happens in orders and rhythms, not just randomly. These patterns and orders, including all those I have discussed in my other Philosophers Wheel pages, such as the chakras, the medicine wheel and other esoteric wisdom traditions, help us to see how all things fit together. Since the way we think and live today is so confused, incoherent and full of conflicts, seeing this larger order is essential. So I will concede some truth to "developmental psychology," but concentrate on how its offspring "spiral dynamics" applies to cultural and political history-- even though Spiral Dynamics too has the well-recognized danger that interpreting some stages as "more advanced" than others could conceal a hidden agenda. I will deal with this as we go along.
Spiral Dynamics is, as Steve McIntosh says, "a pattern of relationships that exhibit systemic properties," not a Newtonian physical law or "material" object. Like all generalities, it has many exceptions and subtleties. Once we understand the pattern, we can see how individuals fit or don't fit, but only if we don't stereotype too strictly. There are always gradations. It depends on your philosophy, as well as your experience and knowledge, whether or not you think these exceptions disprove the existence of any or all of these patterns, theories and generalities! See my article on the philosophy circle for more on this.
Spiral Dynamics leads Integral Philosophy to focus in large part on evolution and change through time. This adds another dimension to what sacred geometry, divine proportions, magic circles, medicine wheels, the tree of life, tarot cards, Jungian or Enneagram types, Bach Toccatas, and other "eternal and static archetypes and forms," might give us. To understand the whole, it seems to say, is to understand how things have developed, and how they might develop in the future. It sees the value of all previous stages, as well as the need to emerge from and transcend their limits.
The background of Spiral Dynamics is very deep and broad. The idea of evolution itself comes from Greek philosophy, as well as from the hermetic, kabbalistic, and neo-platonic philosophers like Plotinus. It got its scientific expression first from Lamarck in the early 1800s, and then from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel in the mid-19th Century. Scientists today such as Francisco Varela, Rupert Sheldrake and others have offered alternatives to Darwinian evolution-- which they say can't sufficiently account for new developments, but only for variation within the old ones. I share this view, and feel strongly that it is unfortunate that genuine critiques of Darwinian evolution are given such little press. In this vaccuum, the critique falls to those who are stuck in outdated worldviews, such as fundamentalist Biblical religion. The believers offer some tepic criticisms about gaps in the evidence, and make some valid points about the moral effects of evolution theory, but offer nothing to replace Darwin except their own authoritarian beliefs. Darwin can only be replaced with new theories that have some basis in truth, not belief. Meanwhile we are left with the useless and destructive "culture wars."
Henri Bergson, that very foundational early-20th Century philosopher, proposed Creative Evolution, as the alternative to Creation (aka Intelligent Design) and Evolution (aka Darwinism). This is the main point of Integral Philosophy. Evolution (including human evolution and history) is the story of an ongoing process of creation reaching ever-more conscious levels, not simply a random outcome of mechanical causes like gene mutation and natural selection. But this also means life is not the fully-developed product of a supernatural creation that happened in the past, once and for all. Other great philosophers who have laid the foundations for Spiral Dynamics, whose work I won't discuss here, include Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo, and Alfred North Whitehead, creator of "process philosophy." Also, we can't forget Georg Hegel (1770-1831) who showed how history could be seen as a succession of stages in which the failings of one stage would give rise to a conflicting one, followed by a synthesis that would become the next stage. You can find Darwin, Hegel, Teilhard, Bergson and Whitehead placed on my philosophers wheel. These above philosophers have all been influential in many fields and on many other writers.
Lesser-known researchers and theorists have also contributed. Best known today is Ken Wilber (b.1949), who is developing his own "theory of everything" and proposing many ways in which different ideas fit together, including "circles" and "quadrants" that resemble the philosophers wheel. I think the work of Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is important. Swiss philosopher Gene Gebser (1905-1973), psychologist Gustav Fechner (1801-1887), and especially the modern psychologist Clare Graves (1914-1986) made important contributions. In 1996 Graves' students Don Beck and Chris Cowan laid out eight stages of Spiral Dynamics often cited today, and which we will review below. Others include Robert Kegan and Allan Combs. Michael Wayne's 2005 book Quantum Integral Medicine has been an important background source for this webpage, as have been Karen Engelsen's 2004 article in Edge Life entitled "The Next Step in Evolution: Exploring the Organizing Principles that Continue to Structure our Mindset", and Steve McIntosh's 2007 book Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (see link to book excerpts).
Before I fulfill my main purpose here and compare each stage of Spiral Dynamics to the meanings of the planets in astrology, and thereby expand its meaning, let's look briefly at Spiral Dynamics as originally given and applied to cultural history, and what each stage says about us and the various worldviews that shape us.
First of all, let's notice that of all the symbols and forms I have discussed elsewhere, it is clear that the chakra system is the one most nearly related to Spiral Dynamics. The chakra system is the series of 7 major (and other minor) centers of energy and consciousness located up and down along the human backbone or spine. As of now I don't know if any of its founders or exponents are aware of the chakras. Of course, the two currents that move up and down these chakras, move in a spiral or helix fashion, switching places at each chakra; and each chakra represents a "stage" from a more earthly to a more spiritual type of consciousness within us. Anodea Judith in her books and website, as well as other authors, have said clearly that the chakras correspond to developmental stages in both the individual and society. The chakras also alternate between yang or assertive, and yin or receptive, as they go up; starting with a yang chakra first.
As you can see on Steve McIntosh's website and his excerpt on Spiral Dynamics, a spiral is used to illustrate the theory in which the stages move back and forth, first an assertive, then a "group-oriented" or more submissive stage. There are eight stages in all, but the final stage is a hypothetical one that hasn't happened. In Karen Engelsen's account, the 7th and 8th stages are called "twins." Since one of these final stages is called "holistic" and the other "integral," and since these words mean the same thing, I think we can safely say that, in fact, Spiral Dynamics outlines 7 stages, equal to the 7 centers of the chakra system.
So, adding the chakras to my description, lets start with the first stage. Each is given a color and different names by various authors. These stages are also called memes, meaning a worldview that has been transmitted across people and cultures and programmed their behavior, much as a gene with DNA replicates in the human body. In this sense these greater "memes" are more than catchy, persuasive slogans or images, because they direct entire cultures and civilization through common beliefs and mindsets.
1. Beige: Archaic-Instinctual. At this stage the first human societies have emerged and are preoccupied with basic survival, and people depend on instincts. There is little sense of self or the group. This meme is yang and corresponds to the first, root chakra at the base of the spine which is concerned with survival and grounding.
2. Purple: Magical-Tribal. At this stage people form into tribes. The animistic, magical worldview predominates, in which the world is seen to be made up of and populated by spirits. Among them are the ancestors who guide and bond the tribe together. Magic is used to cast spells to appease the spirits who might bring good or bad events. Ethnic beliefs and family rituals are predominant. This yin meme corresponds to the second, genital chakra of sensuality, bonding and desire.
3. Red: Warriors and Power Gods. At this stage, the world is seen to be full of threats. Emperors conquer territories and try to defeat other lords and emperors. They dominate and inspire the people to go to war and accomplish great feats. These lords and warriors develop humanity's first sense of an independent self, which seeks power and glory. The Gods and Goddesses of this meme are powerful and remorseless; meanwhile on Earth vast battles kill thousands and release rape and pillage. Male gods and rulers are venerated; patriarchy arrives and continues in several succeeding memes. This yang meme corresponds to the third chakra of power and will at the solar plexus and navel.
4. Blue: Righteous or Mythic Order and Tradition. At this stage authority and morality is used to curb the excessive disorder of the aggressive, self-centered Red meme. The people submit to God-given written moral codes of conduct based on absolute, divine principles of right and wrong. This order comes primarily from authoritarian religion, though sometimes other kinds of Orders can inspire the same religious devotion and obedience. Guilt is used to curb impulses, and those who don't believe in the same way are often ostracized or killed when they can't be converted by missionaries. This yin stage corresponds to the fourth chakra of the heart: devotion and relationship.
5. Orange: Achievement-Modernist. At this stage the spiral swings back toward self-assertion, in the form of competition in the emerging capitalist society. Science and inquiry are freed from the dogma of the previous religious meme. The goal, elucidated in The Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th Centuries, is material progress attained through freedom of thought and the free market, by mastering the mechanical laws of nature, and by developing and applying technology and other means to control and manipulate the world. Whereas the previous stage depended on faith, now objective and rational proof is required. The rule of the Middle Class and liberal democracy replaces the Emperors and Priests. The dominant religion is secular humanism. This yang stage corresponds to the fifth chakra at the throat that represents expression through thought and language.
6. Green: Community, Sensitivity, Egalitarian, Post-Modern. Karen Engelsen described this stage as emerging in the mid-19th Century, and she included in it the Communist and Socialist systems that destroyed or limited the Achievement-oriented Free Market. McIntosh and others, however, date the Green meme from the 1960s. At this stage people seek to recover the sensitive, lost self which was separated and alienated from Nature by the previous meme, and to restore the sense of Community destroyed by capitalist competition. New communities based on common values and consensus are chosen. Cultural Creatives drop out of competitive society (the rat race) to seek spirituality and develop sensitivity and human potential. Feeling and caring are valued above cold thinking and manipulation. Hierarchy is rejected in the Green meme in favor of the unity of all people on one restored Earth. In Deep Ecology we not only seek to regain our respect for all living beings, but to reject human domination of the world and of one group over another. Peace and environmentalism advance. Respect for diversity and political correctness are proclaimed, and sometimes enforced. There is multi-cultural and pluralistic rejection of absolutes and intolerance. The rise of feminism finally overthrows patriarchy. The Green stage is yin and corresponds to the 6th chakra of vision and imagination at the third eye.
7. Yellow: Integral (and Turquoise: Holistic). At this stage respect for hierarchy and natural degrees of ranking and excellence returns to complement equality and diversity. An ultimate sense of absolute truth is restored, not as dogma but as an indefinite, emerging purpose guiding human and world evolution. Instead of the confrontation with older worldviews in the "culture wars," which captivate many who function at the orange stage and some at the green stage, the different views are seen as part of the up and down currents of the dynamic spiral. All stages are necessary and answer a need within human evolution, and change and development are a natural part of this on-going process. We know that the world is one whole being with one mind, made up of distinct individuals who are themselves both whole beings and parts of a greater whole. Human functions like feeling and thinking or methods of knowledge like science and religion interact in fruitful relationship, and the multiple levels, memes and stages are woven into a single conscious system energized by harmonics and mystical forces. Governments seek to encourage people to evolve and emerge from their own level (nested hierarchy). This meme is yang and corresponds to the seventh or crown chakra of spiritual realization and knowledge.
I notice that the choice of colors for these stages or memes has a distinct purpose. They don't necessarily correspond to the meaning of colors in other systems. The yang or assertive memes are given bright or hot colors, and the yin, submissive-to-group memes are given darker or cooler ones. The early or base memes, after "beige," start with adjoining colors at the red end (red and purple), but by the time you get to the blue and orange memes the colors are polar opposites across the color wheel. This corresponds to the dualism between religion (blue) and science (orange) which so afflicts our world and causes the "culture wars" of today. But at the top end of the spiral the colors green and yellow are again adjacent colors on the wheel, showing greater harmony and resolution, the goal of integral philosophy.
Below is a table of the 7 stages or memes in Spiral Dynamics. In titling these memes, by the way, I sometimes avoid terms like "archaic" "traditional" "modern" "post-modern" or "new age" because these terms are merely descriptions of how each stage is related to the current moment of time. But although this orients us historically, time will pass, and when it does these names will not be accurate.
| Color | Stage/Meme | Description | Rulership/Politics |
| Beige | Instinctive | survival oriented | first societies emerge |
| Purple | Magical | animistic | tribes |
| Red | Warrior | aggressive | emperors and war lords |
| Blue | Religious Order | moral laws and beliefs | church |
| Orange | Achievement | rational, secular, capitalist | democracy, middle class, "free" market |
| Green | All One People | feeling-oriented, pluralistic | environmentalist, peace movement |
| Yellow | Integral | transcend and include all levels | nested hierarchy |
With my background in philosophy, history and astrology, I have noticed that the stages described by Spiral Dynamics can be very powerfully symbolized and brought to life by the planets. The astrological meaning of these planets is known to many people, even if not known to many others. But the great 1914 symphonic poem by Gustav Holst illustrates the meanings of the planets given by astrology very vividly for us, and most people are familiar with this music.
The idea that there is a "ladder of planets" has been covered on some of my other pages, as well as in Robert Place's recent book on The Tarot. Many ancient mystics used the planets to contemplate a "ladder" from the earth to heaven, where they believed God lived and higher consciousness could be found. They postulated that the soul came down to earth to be born on this ladder, and would return by climbing it back, and that through contemplation they could anticipate these journeys. At each planet they would receive or release certain traits. Thus each planet, even then, was thought of as a "stage" on the way from ordinary consciousness to the divine. This is just what Spiral Dynamics wishes to show has been happening on a larger scale through human evolution and cultural history.
Let's review briefly the meaning of the planets in astrology, climbing up as we go the ladder of planets one way. There are two directions in which to climb the ladder, and each direction or current can be interpreted as taking us either up toward the divine or downward toward manifestation on Earth. Unlike the chakra system, Spiral Dynamics seems to fit the climb outward to the stars, rather than the climb inward from the dark outer planets to the Sun or the Earth. So that is the direction we will climb the ladder now.
The Sun is the center of the solar system, the basic source of our life and energy. It represents the glory attributed to the Father-God Creator or to the creative force of life. It is noble, dramatic and expressive.
The Moon represents our instincts, emotions and feelings. It nourishes life and provides for basic needs. Unlike the stable energy source of the Sun, the Moon reflects the Sun's rays and rules the fluctuating tides. It appears to wax and wane in its light.
Mercury is named after the ancient God Hermes or Thoth. He is the Magician who brings knowledge to humanity. He is the winged messenger who represents writing, communication and rational thought. Mercury symbolizes brethren and neighbors as well as short journeys.
Venus is the goddess of love who represents the allure of feminine beauty and sexuality. She represents art, but also money and values generally. She balances and evaluates.
Mars is the god of war. He stirs up trouble and rouses us to action and adventure. Mars represents conquest and the courage to defend against our enemies. He represents male sexual desire, and the strong sense of ego and individuality. He gives us the energy and desire to fight inner battles as well as outer ones.
Jupiter is the jolly giant among the planets. He brings us wealth, wisdom, and celebration in pageantry, ceremony and ritual. Jupiter expands our perspective so that we can understand the moral laws that govern society. Jupiter represents organized religion and the priesthood as well as philosophy and the Higher Mind generally. He is the ultimate "joiner," but also sends us on long journeys. He has the faith and confidence to dream and act big.
Saturn represents law and order. Where Jupiter is the Church, Saturn is the State. Saturn organizes, controls and restricts us. He sets boundaries and rules. Saturn is very realistic, worldly, pessimistic, practical and down-to-earth; the teacher and task-master. Saturn is ambitious and seeks status and power. He is the god of old age and Father Time, and the favorite of high officials and petty bureaucrats. People ruled by Saturn are thinkers who follow well-trod procedures and formulas, and may be dogmatic or limited in their outlook to what is traditional or strictly demonstrated by science and precedent.
Uranus is the revolutionary, awakener and non-conformist. Discovered in 1781, the year the United States won its independence on the eve of the French Revolution, Uranus is the planet of liberty and freedom, and the champion of individual rights and progress. It thus represents the power of the Middle Class or Bourgeoisie unleashed by the revolutions both political and industrial, and its competitive individualism and self-reliance, but also of all those who continue to rebel against established authorities-- even those who were once the revolutionaries themselves. This fact is what gave Hegel his idea about conflict and synthesis through history, which was passed on to Karl Marx. Uranus is inventive and looks outside the boxes and boundaries set by Saturn. He represents the unexpected and overturns lots of applecarts.
Neptune, discovered in 1846, represents the social advances of the 19th Century, just as Uranus represents those of the 18th. It has always been associated by astrologers with socialism and communism and other programs intended to help the poor and the working class. It is the symbol of boundless compassion and the advent of genuine humanitarian attitudes that emerged in the period of its discovery. It also represents the yearnings of the mystic to dissolve and transcend all boundaries and limits. It expands on Jupiter and Uranus to extend migration and commerce over the globe. It represents greatly heightened sensitivity expressed in the most subtle art forms, but also escapism through alcoholism, drugs, deceit, or other forms of decadence.
Pluto, discovered in 1930, is the planet of the 20th Century and the god of all forbidden fruits of the Underworld. It represents vast cycles of death and rebirth in civilization and its power structures. It plumbs the depths to release explosive, pent-up, hidden powers both within the soul and the world, and always brings new life. Depth psychology and Existentialism as well as bioenergetics, relativity, quantum physics and atomic energy are typical Plutonian manifestations. It destroys the old to make way for the new. Pluto forces us to confront nothingness so that we may become transformed and renewed. It brought a holocaust which also released unimagined wealth and power. By showing us the futility of polarization and atomic weapons, I think it is also a symbol of peace, and in its bent for transforming the old into the new it stands for ecology, recycling and alternative energy.
As of this writing in 2008 there is some controversy over whether Pluto is a planet. This is because in recent times other smaller bodies have been discovered far out in our solar system, and one of them may be as big as Pluto. In defending Pluto's status, I say that none of these other bodies has such a large Moon (Charon), nor such a regular relationship with the other outer planets Uranus and Neptune (they exhibit a 1-2-3 relationship in the length of their orbits). Pluto's passage inside Neptune, far from disqualifying it, is one of the most powerful and historically-significant symbols in the solar system. Its recent closest passage to the Sun and Earth coincided with the greatest liberation the world has ever seen (the 1989-era movements).
After Pluto, the first "minor planet" besides the asteroids to be discovered was Chiron in 1977. Pluto's Moon Charon was discovered the same year. This icy asteroid called Chiron moves alone between the orbits or Saturn and Uranus. It thus has been given the traits of a "rainbow bridge" or "key" between the visible and invisible realms by astrologers. It coincided with the emergence of many keys and tools of transformation within the New Age and Human Potential movements. It is also called the "wounded healer" and represents wisdom gained through integrating and accepting the wounds and chaotic conditions of life.
The controversial reduction in status of Pluto occured around 2005, just when politics in America seemed in full retreat from all the advances of the 20th Century. Perhaps Pluto and all its forbidden fruits were being put back in the closet or buried underground again, even as Pluto began its trek back into the depths from its nearest passage to us in 1989. Thus everything from socialism and its watered-down applications in America like the New Deal and the Great Society, to pluralism and tolerance of other religions, to restoring the environment, to releasing free expression of repressed and primitive energy, to spiritual awakening and cultural experiments, and above all the realizations of the peace movement, were all being denounced and destroyed by the Bush adminstration. Even science was in retreat.
On the other hand, all this regression, which had been building momentum since the late 1970s when Chiron was discovered, and launched in earnest by the ascension of the reactionary Ronald Reagan, might yet fulfill some purpose in the larger scheme of things. We can symbolize this with Chiron, since in effect it has put us back below Uranus again, with the aim of rediscovering some of the lost values of earlier memes. If one of these days, instead of just regressing and going back to them, as has been happening under Bush and the Republicans, we can include and also transcend them, some healing of our nation and world could occur. Chiron can thus symbolize the integration possible among all the memes from the traditional visible realms to the transcendent invisible realms.
Since 1977 further small bodies have been found in what is called the Kuiper belt, including one way out there that might be as big as Pluto. It also has a very ecliptic orbit that brings it inside the belt and even inside the farthest reaches of Pluto's orbit. This one, now called Aris, was discovered in 2003 and is said to be "quarrelsome." That would fit with the crazy and unnecessary Iraq War launched by Bush that very year. But does Aris have a higher meaning, just as Pluto once stood for the holocaust and nuclear weapons but now represents peace and ecology?
Since the planets are such potent symbols of different ways of thinking, feeling and behaving, and since so many of them seem to illustrate the memes of Spiral Dynamics, I decided to associate the planets with the stages or memes in Spiral Dynamics, and call it Planetary Dynamics.
The main point I am making is revealed by the obvious difference between the two. There are 7 memes, but 10 planets. In fact, in looking at these 7 Spiral Dynamics stages, it seemed to me that three important historical stages were missing. Besides the 7 chakras, another esoteric model came to mind here, and that is the Kabbalah's Tree of Life, which has the same 7 levels but consists of 10 circles (the Sephiroth). There is also a shadowy 11th circle (Daath). In the Tree of Life symbol, there are two circles instead of one on three of the levels. I decided to lay out my revised version of Spiral Dynamics so that it looks more like the Tree of Life diagram than a straight spiral; except that instead of the third, fifth and sixth levels (as on the Tree), Planetary Dynamics has two planet memes (instead of just one) on the second, fourth and fifth levels.
In another interesting twist, modern occultists have associated the planets with each of the circles on the Tree of Life, in an ascending pattern from the Earth and Moon at the bottom of the Tree to Saturn (and perhaps the outer invisible planets) at the top of the Tree. Here again there's a slight difference, since the planets come on faster in my scheme; Mars in Planetary Dynamics is already reached at the third level, while on the Tree of Life Mars is not reached until the fifth level. And the planetary "ladder" used by occultists on the Tree is geocentric, so that the Sun is in the middle of the ladder at the fourth chakra, since that is where the Earth actually is (but the Sun appears to be).
Here is a table that shows how I associate the planets with the stages. As I will explain later, I perceive that cultural history is more complicated than simply a progression of one stage following another. While one predominates, another is rising. What's more, still another meme was recently overthrown from dominance, but appears to be channeled and guided within the dominance of the new meme to unfold its highest qualities and potentials, which it couldn't do while it was busy dominating and controlling us. I use the astrological term "exalted" to represent this. Of course, each newly dominant meme also carries some of the baggage or methods of domination given us by the previous meme. So in the table I show how history is shaped by the dominant meme, as well as by the one rising and the one exalted. Another advantage of Planetary Dynamics is that the succession of dates resemble more closely the Fibinocci Series, the basis of the spiral in Nature.
| Begin date (approx.) | Planet | chakra & color | Dominating Nature | Planet Exalted Under Dominant As | Planet in Ascendant |
| before -80,000 | The Sun | 1 | Humans emerge. | Moon: tools | |
| -80,000 | The Moon | 1-beige | Instinct. Tool-making | Sun- Sun worship | Mercury- magic |
| -30,000 | Mercury | 2-purple | Magical, tribal, animism, hunter-gatherer culture | Moon- tribal identity; Sun worship | Venus- goddess worship, art |
| -7000 | Venus | 2-pink | Agriculture, Goddess worship, fertility, towns, archaic age | Mercury- writing, civilization | Mars- war, patriarchy |
| -2300 | Mars | 3-red | Empires, war-gods, patriarchy begins, assertive self (glory and fame), late archaic and classic age | Venus- classic visual art, commerce, the golden mean | Jupiter- religion, philosophy (Axis Age c. 500 BC) |
| 300 | Jupiter | 4-blue | Religious Rule, Church, moral laws, traditional or medieval times | Mars- chivalry, religious empires, feudalism | Saturn- state, law |
| 1300 | Saturn | 4-brown | Kingdoms, Science, dualism, perspective, aristocracy, early-modern times | Jupiter- revived neo-Platonic and modern philosophy, Exploration, The Reformation | Uranus- individuals, middle class commerce |
| 1781 | Uranus | 5-orange | Democracy, Individualism, Inventions, Electricity, middle class, "liberty," revolutions, early industry in Britain, proto-modern times | Saturn- constitutional law, atomic physics and chemistry | Neptune- socialism, romanticism |
| 1846 | Neptune | 5-lemon | Socialism, collectivism, humanitarian, "equality," romanticism, mysticism, modern arts, workers, unions, socialist power (conj. Pluto 1892), modern times | Uranus- People's and Utopian Activism, industrial revolution, inventions at peak, new physics, democracy advances | Pluto- psychology, existentialism, bio-energetics, conservation (conj. Neptune 1892, discovered 1930) |
| 1966 | Pluto | 6-green | Ecology and Peace, All One on Earth, Eco-feminism, diversity, gestalt therapy etc., cultural creatives, Post-modern times (Uranus conj. Pluto 1966) | Neptune- Sensitivity, psychedelia, consciousness movement, search for community, etc. | Chiron- holistic and integral |
| 1977 | Chiron | 7-yellow | Integral/Holistic, competence, nested hierarchy, "transcend and include" all previous worldview memes | Pluto- New Age and transformational movements, the Green Party, recycling and alternative energies | Aris- world order? (Kuiper belt- connect to galaxy?) |
Chakra dynamics:
yang/aggressive: 1,3,5,7
yin/submissive or group-oriented: 2,4,6
More comments on these planetary dynamics stages will be posted soon. E. Alan Meece