By Susan Abbott Gidel
The New York Stock Exchange could come under pressure in mid-May 2025 as Uranus makes its third-ever conjunction to the Big Board’s natal Sun at 27 Taurus, exact on Monday, May 19. The pressure almost definitely will be heightened because the transiting Sun also will be conjunct the exchange’s natal Sun (and transiting Uranus) just two days prior. This is the first time in history that both Uranus and the Sun will be aligned with the NYSE Sun at the same time.
Uranus is the planet that likes to disrupt and bring about change. In its current sign of Taurus, that definitely could be targeted toward finances because the sign is ruled by Venus, which rules money. The Sun represents identity, in this case, of the NYSE. Fittingly, the exchange’s Sun sign is Taurus, associated with finances and stability, because its founding under the buttonwood tree is widely recognized as May 17, 1792.
(The time to use for the NYSE founding, a requirement for setting the “angles” of the horoscope chart, is unknown. Indeed, in my astrology software, I have entries for nine different proposed starting times from a dozen different astrologers that range from 7:54 am to 12 noon. Thus, I believe it is dicey to watch transits to the angles—most often the ascendant and midheaven that change degrees every four minutes of time and change signs every two hours—for important information about the NYSE. However, all the planets are in the same zodiacal position no matter the time of the horoscope chart; the Moon is 18-20 Aries across all those nine times. That’s why I’m sticking with focusing on transits to the NYSE founding’s planets, not the angles.)
Disrupting NYSE Identity
So, Uranus conjunct the NYSE Sun means a disruption to the exchange’s identity. In the two previous occurrences, these disruptions were negative in that the stock market went into decline, even panic. And, with the Sun also conjunct the NYSE Sun, there will be a bigger-than-normal spotlight on whatever might occur.
It takes 84 years for Uranus to travel completely around the zodiac, so the 2025 conjunction with the NYSE Sun has happened only twice before. Let’s take a look at what happened those two previous times.
Panic of 1857 with Uranus conjunct NYSE Sun
Due to the planet’s retrograde, Uranus was conjunct the NYSE Sun three times—June 27, 1857; November 15, 1857; and April 16, 1858. The first two dates contained the start of the Panic of 1857, which is considered the first global economic crisis.
Although the dominant railroad stocks had been in decline since peaking in 1852, what got the ball rolling to create the bear-market bottom panic was the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company on August 24, 1857. This was due to “reckless making of loans and to official frauds, which shocked all financial America,” according to author Edmund Clarence Stedman in Volume 1 of “The New York Stock Exchange,” published in 1905.
As the panic worsened with stocks declining, businesses folding and bank depositors demanding gold, New York banks suspended the ability to exchange paper notes and bills for gold for two months, from October 13 to December 12, 1857.
Astrologers typically expect transits that make three (or five, or sometimes seven) passes over a specific point in a horoscope chart to follow a pattern of introducing the issue near the first pass, reviewing the issue at the middle one(s) and resolving the issue at the final pass.
As luck would have it, Jupiter came to conjoin the NYSE Sun on May 4, 1858, shortly after the third and final pass from Uranus. The Jupiter transit, which occurs once every 12 years, begins a new cycle of hope and optimism when it conjoins the Sun.
WWII Slowdown in 1941-42 with Uranus conjunct NYSE Sun
Uranus once again transited the NYSE Sun three times during WWII—June 7, 1941; December 15, 1941; and March 24, 1942. The U.S. stock market had been bearish throughout 1941, with prominent stocks like AT&T and General Motors down more than 25%.
A week before the second pass from Uranus, the United States entered the war following the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
Stock market activity slowed to a crawl, with February 1942 transactions the fewest since 1915. “Brokers were laid off, fired, or put on part-time; the Exchange floor appeared half-deserted,” according to a NYSE history by Robert Sobel.
This time around, Jupiter was conjunct the NYSE Sun in May 1941, a few weeks before the first Uranus connection rather than near the end of the Uranus transit as in 1857-8. That means Jupiter was conjunct Uranus in the sky on May 8, 1941. That connection is considered bullish, and indeed the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied from 115 to 130 (13%) by August 1, 1941. It then fell 17% to a bottom of 95 in April 1942 just after the last Uranus/Sun transit and ahead of the start of a new 45-year Saturn/Uranus cycle on May 3, 1942 at 29 Taurus, which typically marks an extremely significant low in the stock market.
Uranus conjunct NYSE Sun 2024-2026
The current iteration of Uranus aligning with the NYSE Sun already has begun, when the planet came close—but not exact—to the exchange’s Sun to both the degree and minute on September 2, 2024 ahead of its retrograde from September 2024 to January 2025. It will do the same close-but-no-cigar move on February 4, 2026 when it stations direct at 27 Taurus 27.
And, Jupiter is not nearby to help out the stock market like it was in 1858 and 1941. The Jupiter/NYSE Sun conjunction last occurred on May 14, 2024, more than a year ahead of this upcoming Uranus/NYSE Sun conjunction. During last year’s Jupiter/NYSE Sun conjunction, the DJIA was in the midst of an uptrend that had begun near 32,000 in October 2023, and was trading just under 40,000. The DJIA proceeded over the next seven months to rally to its all-time high of 45,073 on December 4, 2024.
For this upcoming Uranus/NYSE Sun event, the exact conjunction occurs just once—on May 19, 2025, two days after the exchange’s 233rd birthday. We mentioned earlier that the spotlight is extra bright this time around because the Sun also will be conjunct the NYSE Sun at the same time for the first time in history. What’s more, this Uranus influence could be especially potent because it occurs just once, not three times. Therefore, the pressure on the NYSE and the U.S. stock market as compared with the previous two occurrences could be especially intense.