Barbault’s Basket is Here!

I’m excited. This month, four of the slowest-moving planets in the solar system are gathering into one of the most significant planetary alignments of the 21st century. Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter all reach 4 degrees of their respective signs, linked by a graceful chain of sextiles and trines into what astrologers are calling “Barbault’s Basket,” after the notable French mundane astrologer André Barbault, who believed that this alignment would signal a major upswing in humanity’s fortunes.

Ever since the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, I’ve rolled my eyes at all claims that some arrangement of the planets would suddenly lift humanity into a more enlightened state of consciousness. It didn’t happen back then. And it hasn’t happened since, even though the predictions kept coming.  So why am I excited about this one?

André Barbault was no turbaned mystic peering into a crystal ball. A meticulous researcher, he spent decades comparing planetary cycles with the historical record, searching for recurring patterns across wars, revolutions, economic crises, and epidemics. He concluded that certain planetary patterns consistently coincided with periods of crisis and contraction, while others marked renewal and expansion. Thirty years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he identified 1988–89 as the likely end of the communist era. Years before COVID-19, he warned that the severe planetary compression of 2020 pointed toward a global pandemic.

Barbault—who died in 2019—believed that the planets of this moment—July 2026—marked the beginning of the 21^st century’s most hopeful chapter. He called it “a splendid relaunch of civilization,” envisioning a period of renewed human progress that would especially benefit those long left behind: “a promotion of the lower strata of the world population, a significant rise in the standard of living of the poor, a victory over misery won in unprecedented solidarity.”

It’s hard to be hopeful these days. And under ordinary circumstances, I would dismiss it as astrology hype. But after a decades-long swing toward concentrated wealth and power, this moment resonates differently. A counter-movement isn’t merely possible—it becomes inevitable.  The powerful few have gone too far and people are standing up. There’s a growing insistence amongst ordinary folks that the systems we’ve built should be serving us, not the oligarchs. That’s why Barbault’s vision excites me—it’s describing what’s already happening.

Take Hungary. Viktor Orbán had spent sixteen years tightening his grip on the country, with most major media outlets refusing to give meaningful coverage to his challenger, Péter Magyar. Then Magyar did something almost quaint. For two years he drove from village to village, shaking hands, listening, and talking with ordinary people, especially in rural communities. And then the impossible occurred: an entrenched strongmen was toppled, peacefully, by the people.

Then there’s Albania’s Flamingo Revolution. In a nation with little history of civil protest, a campaign to save a protected lagoon from luxury development quickly became something much larger. Thousands of Albanians—joined by protestors in cities across Europe—took to the streets for weeks demanding that their country was not for sale. Their movement became so powerful that the European Parliament warned Albania its hopes of joining the European Union could be at risk if it didn’t listen. Ordinary people standing up for what they knew belonged to them.

Here in the United States, the same spirit keeps rising in a thousand different ways. Millions have gathered in the No Kings demonstrations. Communities are organizing against giant AI data centers, migrant prisons, corruption, and countless local abuses of power. On issue after issue, broad public agreement is emerging long before political leaders find the courage to act.

If Barbault was right that this alignment marks a relaunch of civilization, it makes sense that it would start like this, with crowds of people declaring they just won’t take it anymore. The planets will slowly drift apart in the months ahead. The “Basket” won’t last. But I suspect the spirit Barbault envisioned has only just begun.

Can you see the basket formation in the chart? The Basket’s lid is formed by the Pluto/Jupiter opposition, the center by the pair of trines between Pluto/Uranus and Neptune/Jupiter, the sides by the sextiles between Pluto/Neptune, Neptune/Uranus and Uranus/Jupiter.

Is the Basket at work in your chart this month?  Check out Steven Forrest’s Skylog report for transits from Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter!  

You might also enjoy “Barbault’s Basket and You” in my Cancer New Moon workshop this month.