Introduction
In my previous article, “The 80-year echo” (#326), I looked back and found the 80-year cycle surfacing with a correlation of 0.88 (r=0.88) with the DJIA. I found it intriguing because I remembered that George Bayer often looked back at the 80-year cycle.
George Bayer noticed a remarkable 80-year cycle in the stock market following Mercury’s position. In Rule #4A, Mercury 80 years ago, he noticed that when Mercury went retrograde or direct, tops and bottoms tended to form 80 years later, and not just by a few points.
You may have noticed that Bayer’s Rule #4A is similar to his Rule #4, which examined Mercury’s retrograde position and its effect 1 year later. Any 360 solar degrees of Mercury’s retrograde or direct position from last year, or 28800 solar degrees (80 years ago), lands at a similar spot and overlaps a current retrograde period. How is that possible?
Be aware that after 79 years, Mercury (328 helio revolutions) and Mars (42 helio revolutions) are at the same heliocentric longitude (+/- 1 day). Add 1 year to that (79 years), and because Mercury’s retrograde phases have moved forward each year, the shift always occurs at the end of the current retrograde period.
This may explain why Bayer saw large moves and why both rules #4 and 4A are similar.
Looking back 80 years
Themes of the past often repeat. I have often written about this on the 60-year cycle. Looking back at 1946, I see the midterm election echoes again today.
In 1946, the USA faced high postwar inflation, and voters’ frustration led Republicans to defeat President Truman’s Democrats in the midterm elections in both chambers of Congress. The 2026 midterm elections delivered a similar loss of power for the current administration in both chambers of Congress, but this time it flipped to the Democrats.
Looking back at 1946 on the DJIA, I see that the recent decline may not be over yet. In 1946, the DJIA made its last low of the year on November 22 (163.55 close), a higher low that retested the October 9 closing low of 163.12, right into Mercury 80-year echo between November 11 and December 1.
In the rest of this post, I reviewed, updated, and annotated my #326 charts, and they’re available to all free subscribers (no paywall).
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