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The Return of the Twenty-Year Cycle
By Art Gatti
FATE :: March 2004

For years people have whispered about a mysterious 20-year cycle that seems to take the lives of American presidents elected in years ending in zero: William Henry Harrison, elected in 1840; Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860; James Garfield, 1880; William McKinley, 1900; Warren Harding, 1920; Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940; and Kennedy, 1960—all elected in years ending in zero, all died in office. The Twenty-year Cycle has affixed itself like a dark cloud over the lives of the presidents who died under it, for accompanying all but one of those deaths were harsh economic and social times for this nation and for the world.

Cycles of one sort or another are often examined to attempt to explain economic recessions. One type has never been seriously considered, mostly because it extends beyond the limits of planet Earth. Even the most perfunctory glance at the years surrounding the Twenty-year Cycle will show that specific planetary cycles clearly correspond to a long series of social or economic crises that we and our ancestors have lived through. For obvious reasons—chiefly the scientific prejudice against anything remotely astrological—this curious fact has been purposely overlooked.

Whatever one’s opinion of astrology, numbers don’t lie. One particular planetary cycle—the regular conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn—has corresponded to a long string of socioeconomic troubles here in the United States and abroad. And there’s an even bigger kicker: United States presidents die.

Those deaths—American national tragedies—could occur in a matter of weeks following inauguration, as in the case of William Henry Harrison, or after more than one term of office, as in the cases of William McKinley and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both these men were initially elected in years that did not end in zero—McKinley in 1896 and FDR in 1932—but were later re-elected in zero years, and their deaths emphasize the rule that all it takes to fall “victim” to the cycle is that a president be elected in a zero year, whether it was the officeholder’s first, second, or third time winning the presidency.

In 1980, many worried about this strange, deadly phenomenon, and they supposed that Ronald Reagan, about to be inaugurated after his victory in November, would be the next to die. But March 30, 1981, came and went. A would-be assassin’s bullets struck, but the president survived. Americans breathed a sigh of relief and supposed that the horrendous 20-year string of events must have been one long, meaningless coincidence.

But was it? ...

Read the rest of this article in the March 2004 issue of FATE

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