_edited.png){kind=logo}
I don’t often use the word “disaster,” but when I do, I mean it. The word disaster comes from Greek and Roman meaning “ill-starred.” And that feels pretty accurate to me--currently many things feel unwell of sky and body.
Astrology can provide insight to patterns and larger cycles of experience...though I hesitate when using it for predictions. And as it relates to COvid-19, it almost feels too soon or insensitive to pretend to know what’s going to happen or the entire picture of this pandemic. Sometimes astrology gets used as a placeholder or scapegoat instead of feeling the discomfort of the unknown. I don’t want to create a blanket of cozy devoid from acknowledging the sadness and devastation that many, including myself, are experiencing.
That being said, astrology can help bring clarity to a vast vision. For that reason, it’s not about just offering comfort and more about reminding us that we are a part of the entire cosmos. In more traditional forms of astrology, planets are either malevolent or benevolent in certain placements or aspects. In archetypal astrology, which I have been a student of for the past years, we take a different approach.
Because astrology operates on both the personal and collective level, to understand large-scale events and moments in history astrologers focus more on the outer planets or “transpersonal planets” that connect us to the whole. They move the slowest and point to collective and generational shifts we experience together, instead of personal planets or asteroids which move more quickly. Planetary bodies such as Venus or Mercury orbit closer to Earth and have a deeper connection to our immediate lives.
In astrology it is often a group of planetary constellations or disaster--not one planetary interaction--that culminates in such a large collective impact. Instead, it’s a combination of planetary dances that may or may not have been seen before. The planets don’t cause things to happen, they occur in what could be called acausal synchronicity, words from C.G. Jung. Jung describes this in his book On Synchronicity as “...meaningful coincidence of two more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.”
For me, this higher probability is where the magic of “as above, so below” happens. The Corona virus is a moment where all of us exist separately as souls and as a whole, with something shared collectively that is also mirrored in the heavens. We are building to something new and different both together and separately. For years astrologers have speculated on the many larger than life astrological alignments of 2020...and now we are living into them whether we like it or not.
While the personal planets Mercury, Mars, and even the asteroid Hygiea have certainly been a part of this constellation, I’m focusing on the outer planets for the larger threads we may be noticing. And as with all astrological interpretations, this is through my on lens and chart...so take what you will or ill.;)
Chiron squaring nodes // Healing and Feeling Initiation
Pluto conjunct Saturn // Great grief and collective cocoon
Saturn into Aquarius // #alonetogether
Pluto square Eris // Uncovering Chaos and Xenophobia or Shame & Scapegoating
Sedna trine Pluto // Earth & Indigenous Wisdom
Healing & Feeling Initiation: Chiron squaring Lunar Nodes
When in Cancer and Capricorn As concerns about the virus escalated in late February and early March, Chiron in Aries was--and continues to--square the lunar nodes in Cancer and Capricorn. The lunar nodes are astronomical points where the Moon’s orbit intersects the Earth’s path around the Sun. the collective push and pull, and hopefully balance, occurs between the seeming opposites of home and work life balance.
The aspect of a square represents a tension and challenge to Chiron, the meteor/asteroid hybrid planetary body called a Centaur. Chiron is often called the wounded-healer though represents something much more...it connects us to underworld invitations that often become our rites of passage into wholeness. Chiron has been in Aries since February of 2019 and may reveal our societal wounds around feeling a lack of purpose, “wounded” or toxic masculinity, or anger. In relationship to the nodes it pushes us into healing by any means necessary. Aries also rules invasions and I think I assumed this phase of humanity would be war-like, and instead it is a different type of intrusion.
This intrusion has now become our initiation into something new and unknown. As Chiron orbits between Saturn and Uranus what we can know and see with our senses (Saturn) and the future and uncertainty (Uranus). We also come into contact with the Golden Shadow in ourselves and each other, a place where our deepest insecurities meet our magical creative instinct. Our Golden Shadow is our link to God/Universe/Source, the place we plug in to be challenged and born anew.
Chiron has been in Aries since February of 2019 and may reveal our societal wounds around feeling a lack of purpose, “wounded” or toxic masculinity, or anger. In relationship to the nodes it pushes us into healing by any means necessary. Aries also rules invasions and I think I assumed this phase of humanity would be war-like, and instead it is a different type of intrusion.
With this combination we are being pulled to healing our relationship to home, family, and comfort while in its shadow expression brings up control and containment of emotions. The tightrope and opposition between cozy and home (Cancer) or controlled at home (Capricorn). Now we are being called to find our place within the healing, one that brings us more towards feeling rather than suppression, and care rather than capitalism...though first the Grief.
Great Grief & Collective Cocoon: Saturn and Pluto conjunction + Jupiter
Since 2019 Pluto and Saturn have started moving towards each other in the sky, in what is called a conjunction. However, this wasn’t just any old conjunction in the works. Every 33-37ish years Pluto and Saturn come into conjunction, the last time was in 1982...another economic recession and a conservative uprising that Reagan rode to the White House.
When the planet of power--Pluto--meets the planet of position--Saturn--the stakes get high. Pluto’s force wants to get messy and Saturn wants to contain, perhaps the push pull of the uncovering process of the collective shadow. Saturn rules structures and Pluto wants to destroy them, hence the resistance and government corruptions galore (but that also happens when you elect a psychopath to the US office of presidency).
However, there is a new power afoot that we can feel, perhaps on the other side of our isolation and grief. A power rooted (key Capricorn and Saturn word) in integrity and a redistribution of power. Pluto initiates a rebirth and often a need to return to inner world for a soul or ego death before being born again. The butterfly metaphor follows a Pluto cycle like a moth to a flame.
Throughout 2020, Jupiter and Pluto conjunct three times on April 4, June 30, and November 12. With it we seem to sit at a crossroads of heaven and hell...deciding what we will shed (Pluto) and what will become bigger and better (Jupiter). Perhaps in June we may reach a point of envisioning a new reality as an elevated expression of these two archetypes. Though as early April continues we are at the pit, the lowest point of the power and intensity these two evoke. My hope is that by the conjunction in November we have reached an integration of ideals.
Saturn and Jupiter
Saturn into Aquarius: #alonetogether
One of the current top hashtags, #alonetogether, captures this planetary movement perfectly. The lonely planet Saturn moved into Aquarius, a sign of community and togetherness on March 21. Saturn is isolation, existential dread, loneliness...the heaviness of being human. As it moves into Aquarius there may be a new vision or sense of reality though it will return to Capricorn in July in retrograde, hopefully completing any last lessons on the past. My hope is an integration of 3D and 5D reality, where we consciously shape our world without ignoring differing realities and create together structures of stability.
Saturn moves back into Capricorn in the fall then makes its final move back into Aquarius in December of 2020. Hoping for a new normal by then.
Eris square Pluto: Uncovering Chaos & Xenophobia
It’s no secret--key Pluto word--that the United States constantly seeks a scapegoat. Throughout our history we’ve made enemies out of the others amongst our midst. Be it immigrants, racism, anti-semitism, those with disabilities, homeless populations, and now we seem to want to blame China. Blame someone for our mistakes always, it’s the American way. In the chart of the U.S.A. Eris in Capricorn sits across from the Cancer Sun. It points to our roots of the myriad ways we create separateness and otherness as a guise of our sensitivity and insecurity (Cancer).
I utilize Eris often in astrology sessions on a personal level, though seeing it play out in the larger field is painful. Eris represents the part of us who feel like lone wolves without a pack. It creates chaos and a sense of belonging through finding enemies. When this dwarf planet squares an angle of tension with Pluto, we may begin to at last uncover more of our xenophobia and fear of difference.
Sedna trine Saturn: Earth & Indigenous Wisdom
Sedna, a dwarf planet past Pluto, represents our depths, is often linked to trauma and sexual assault. The #metoo movement occurred in February 2018 occurred during the Jupiter and Sedna opposition t-squaring the Sun in Aquarius, expanding and bringing awareness to the (read more about Sedna here) pain of women. Similar to the watery underworld of Sedna, the descent into ourselves can be confusion, isolation, and a need to integrate our pain. The gem of this myth and archetype reminds us of our personal power and desire to simultaneously be empowered even while underwater.
When in harmony with Saturn we perhaps see an uplifting of the Earth, an entity that has been greatly traumatized and mistreated throughout history. Sedna is also named after an indigenous goddess and therefore connects us to the wisdom of cultures that have been colonized and contained through patriarchal values of money, productivity, and power.
Potential "disasters" ahead:
In archetypal astrology we don't focus on predictions so much as patterns or archetypal predictions. It's a way of thinking about the future in terms of multi-valent possibilities versus determinism, like some of the more traditional forms of astrology. While early 2020 was filled with archetypal energies swirling, they continue through the year and early 2021 and I have my archetypal eye on the ones below:
June 30, 2020: Jupiter and Pluto conjunction
August-December 2020: Mars squaring the Saturn-Pluto-Jupiter loose conjunction
November 12, 2020: Jupiter and Pluto conjunction
December 21, 2020: Saturn and Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius