December 2020
Saturn and Jupiter join together and enter Aquarius, ushering in an era of social responsibility. They make a once -in- 800 -year appearance doubled up in the sky!
Yes! Finally some good news. Can you feel it? Jupiter is moving closer to Saturn and away from Pluto. There is more of a sense of certainty, stability. We are still in a massive crisis, but now we know, among other things, that soon grown-ups will be in charge.
So Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn is material reality, structure, form—literally, our bones. Jupiter is our belief systems, how and if we perceive a fabric of purpose and meaning in our lives and in the universe. Saturn and Jupiter are mid-distance planets, planets that aren’t the “personal” expressions of individual personality the way that Mercury, Venus and Mars are; nor are they transpersonal unconscious forces like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Jupiter and Saturn are in the middle, in between the personal planets and the transpersonal ones, and besides representing our individual relationship to structure and form, and faith and fate, they also manifest in the structures that we humans create in our society: institutions, government, economy, religion, the law.
They come together (in a conjunction) once every 20 years. When they join up there are always impacts on the societal structures and institutions. There are very close right now and are at the tail end of Capricorn, where they have been along with Pluto for a good few years. Capricorn is an earth sign, and as such, it involves the material plane. Capricorn, like all the earth signs, has to do with our bodies, with this planet Earth we live on, with what we do in our work, what we build with our hands, what we create as a society. Of all the earth signs, Capricorn’s realm is how we manifest ourselves and our destiny in the world around us, usually through work and career. So you can see that with all the planetary movement in Capricorn over the past few years by planets that are structural and societal in nature (Jupiter and Saturn) and transformational (Pluto), it has been an incredibly stressful period in which these planetary energies have played themselves out through the structures of government, politics, social institutions, and on the earth itself.
Saturn and Jupiter always signify profound changes in systems, and in Capricorn right now, it is about governing, the presidential transition, the economy, leadership and planning. Saturn and Jupiter have very different energies astrologically, and together, they form an interesting balance with Saturn moderating Jupiter’s excess, and Jupiter softening Saturn’s hard edges. I like it as a combination – it can bring really seasoned leadership. long-range vision, and the positive wisdom one gains from age and experience.
The move into Aquarius is significant because it marks the start of a 200 year period of the Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions occurring in air signs. We are leaving the earth cycle and moving into the air cycle. It takes 800 years for Saturn and Jupiter conjunctions to move through all four elements of the zodiac. It means that we are moving from a focus on the material to potentially a focus on consciousness, vision, ideals, and connections. Some astrologers think this portends the end of capitalism, the end of an era that began with the industrial revolution.
Aquarius is the “water bearer” constellation – confusing, I know. Didn’t I just say it was an air sign? It is an air sign, communicating, transmitting, and carrying the water principle to humanity. The water principle is interrelationship and connection, “substance of we feeling”. Aquarius is the second to last sign, and the last three signs (Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces) all have to do with the collective. Aquarius is the most oriented to the larger collective of the three air signs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. The air signs also have to do with belonging – where are my people? It is interesting that these two planets enter Aquarius in a time of great social isolation because of the pandemic.
Saturn moves into Aquarius on the 17th and Jupiter on the 19th. By the 21st they are so astronomically close that they appear to be one single bright planet in the sky before sunset! People speculate that this same phenomenon was the star of Bethlehem that drew the Magi. Better go outside and look at the night sky! The entry of Saturn and Jupiter into Aquarius signifies a new age, an age of infusing Aquarian humanitarian values into structures and systems. Could it be the famed Age of Aquarius? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILSr9BbhoJQ What a thought!
Not to get all religious on you – and those of you that know me know I am no fan of organized religion—but if we look back 800 years, Francis of Assisi was reforming the corrupt Catholic church. He was devoted to the poor and he talked to birds. You gotta love a guy in a dress who talks to animals! And speaking of Francis, the current Pope Francis just published an op-ed in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opinion/pope-francis-covid.html?searchResultPosition=1 in which he wrote:
“We cannot return to the false securities of the political and economic systems we had before the crisis. We need economies that give to all access to the fruits of creation, to the basic needs of life: to land, lodging and labor. We need a politics that can integrate and dialogue with the poor, the excluded and the vulnerable, that gives people a say in the decisions that affect their lives. We need to slow down, take stock and design better ways of living together on this earth… To come out of this crisis better, we have to recover the knowledge that as a people we have a shared destination. The pandemic has reminded us that no one is saved alone. What ties us to one another is what we commonly call solidarity. Solidarity is more than acts of generosity, important as they are; it is the call to embrace the reality that we are bound by bonds of reciprocity. On this solid foundation we can build a better, different, human future. “
