On Not Being Able to View the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction

At least I had legs to carry me down
Two flights of stairs and outside,
Most of the way to the waterfront.
I walked as far as the sidewalk was shoveled,
To the underpass where I could see the garish mural
Of psychedelicized flowers and read the trite affirmations
That still managed to be a comfort to this cynic.
At least I could see a crescent moon on its descent,
Wrapped in downy gathering clouds.
At least I could smell winter in the last dregs of fall,
In home fireplaces, in the kitchen
Of the local old-school Italian restaurant
Open for business, surviving the pandemic.
Tomorrow it will snow again;
Monday it will be overcast.
So most likely, I will miss viewing
This once-in-800-years event,
This Star of Bethlehem.
But I am not downcast—I have already had
My Christmas miracle:
I got out of the city with my sweetie,
Lock stock barrel, the whole kitten caboodle,
To a smaller city with more space
Both inside and out.
I do not pass a single soul on my walk
And feel blessed as I breathe in the cold, clean air,
Noting how some upended chunks of snow
Resemble tiny gravestones in the dusk
And feel graced when I slip on an icy patch
And recover my balance.

It's the Great Conjunction, Charlie Brown (and the Great Mutation, Too)

“How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes,and how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?”

—Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

Six very long months ago, I threw a predictive hat into the ring that the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjunction would usher in “positive new developments, since it is clear to me that Saturn at 0 degrees of Aquarius (where it was in late March and early April of this year, and where it is currently) is a crucial factor for this particular pandemic. Aquarius rules groups of people, revolution, science, and technology. With Jupiter joining Saturn there at the end of this year, perhaps humanity will step up to the plate.” (From my blog post of 6/27/20.)

Little did I know when I was waxing so uncharacteristically optimistic in my usually downbeat astrology blog that this was to be no ordinary Jupiter-Saturn conjunction—not that any of them are, as so-called Great Conjunctions only occur every 20 years and serve as markers for societal epochs—but a Great Mutation. It came as mind-blowing news for me to learn that Great Conjunctions do not fall in random signs every other decade, as I had assumed ever since I began practicing astrology; instead, Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions occur in a single element for 200 years before jumping to a different element for the next 200 years—although there is a preview of the Great Mutation in the penultimate conjunction of each 200-year cycle. (Indispensable source material for this article: https://www.astropro.com, “Astrologer Richard Nolle’s 3000-Year Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction Table," published 4/26/98.)

In other words, by the time you read this article, we will have just emerged from an earth-element Great Conjunction cycle that began on January 26, 1842. Let that sink in for a New York minute: on a societal level, this cycle has been almost entirely focused on the material world. Even the flower children of the 1960s who turned on, tuned in, and dropped out of the dog-eat-dog rat race for at least a few years, wanted to (as per Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock”) “get back to the land to set my soul free […] And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

Our most recent glimpse of the air-element Great Conjunction cycle was the 1980–81 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Libra, which marked the next two decades with the rise of the personal computer, the internet, and dramatic shifts in the institutions of marriage, law, politics, and borders. There was the rise of Reagan on the one hand, the fall of the Berlin Wall on the other.

In 2000 the final earth-element Great Conjunction occurred, in Taurus. With the exception of the preview of 40 years ago, our last Great Conjunction in the air-element cycle occurred on January 16, 1405—and it happened in Aquarius.

I am writing this with Jupiter and Saturn still playing tug-of-time in Capricorn, so I am finding it difficult to evade the clutches of earth-sign logic, which is empirical, not theoretical; rooted in the five senses and the mundane world. Perhaps it is the Capricorn influence that is encouraging me to fixate on an identical pattern during the last elemental shift from earth to air: Libra (1186) to Taurus (1206) to Aquarius (1226) rather than ditch history and simply predict that the coming Great Mutation in Aquarius will send humanity to group therapy…. Yet even if history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.

The countless generations of astrologers who lived before the outer planets were discovered would probably slap me upside the head for not being aware of this Great Conjunction pattern, but back in the long-ago day, Jupiter and Saturn really were the naked eye’s final frontiers of our solar system. Every 20 years, they appear in the night sky to merge into one extraordinarily bright star, which in the year 6 BC was conjunct in Pisces three times (May, October, and December) and christened the Star of Bethlehem or the Christmas Star, alerting the Three Wise Men (code for astrologers) to the birth of a great spiritual leader. Before the outer planets were discovered, Jupiter co-ruled Sagittarius and Pisces, while Saturn co-ruled Capricorn and Aquarius. These final four signs of the zodiac are associated with transpersonal matters; appropriately, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction is also known as the Great Chronocrator, Markers of Time.

The Great Mutation at 0 degrees of Aquarius occurs on December 21, 2020, on the heels of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the Sun enters the Saturn-ruled sign Capricorn. Saturn is clearly still a force to be reckoned with here, not ready to cede its dominance of 2020, and is putting its harsh taskmaster stamp on the “dark winter” that US president-elect Joe Biden has been warning us about concerning the pandemic. Although expansive, optimistic, gambling Jupiter will have an easier time transiting through Aquarius than in Capricorn (sign of its fall), it will still be dominated by Saturn, as the latter planet is still the co-ruler of Aquarius.

The chart for the Great Mutation in Washington DC points to a classic earth-air conflict, as the Ascendant at 0 degrees of Taurus (conjunct Joe Biden’s Moon at 1 degree of Taurus) exactly squares the Great Mutation, with wild-card Uranus in Taurus in the First House of identity, while the Sun-Mercury conjunction at 0–1 degrees of Capricorn trines the Ascendant. Consider, too, that the Sun on Inauguration Day conjuncts the Great Mutation, literally spotlighting its significance. I do not want to come off as Chicken Little here, but…the sky could very well be falling.

The seeds of Saturn in Aquarius were sown at the very beginning of last spring; this winter, they will bloom as social distancing (a manifestation of Saturn in Aquarius) moves into a new phase with new or enhanced forms of online or virtual technology (Aquarius) in an attempt to normalize on a collective scale what this time last year was unthinkable or unimaginable for most individuals. Social media will be more policed (Saturn) at the same time it expands (Jupiter); Zoom may roll out a Zany offshoot while Slack rolls out Slick. This past spring, I predicted that multiple breakthrough Covid-19 vaccines would be invented on the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction; at the time of this writing, approvals of various vaccines are already occurring in some countries, without necessarily finishing the standard protocol (Jupiter and Uranus going rogue on Saturn).

The most significant aspects of the winter of 2020–21, following the Great Mutation, are profoundly challenging: the Jupiter-Uranus square (1/17/21) and the first of several Saturn-Uranus squares (2/17/21), during the same period that Mars is conjunct Uranus in Taurus. As Mars is an inner planet, and debilitated in Taurus, there is no way for us to opt out of these challenging squares, and they will involve the same signs of the Jupiter-Uranus and Saturn-Uranus squares of 2000—just flipped. Rhyming history, anyone?

Think back to 2000, the final Great Conjunction in the earth element, specifically Taurus; reflect on the past 20 years of societal matters, and how they have all been tied into the sign of money and possessions. Particularly in the US, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened into a canyon. Unfettered capitalism, tax breaks, and the stock market have mainly benefited the 1%. Nearly all politicians are in the back pockets of corporations, which recently were determined to have the same rights as people (but not vice-versa). 9/11 occurred and has had the effect of dismantling certain personal liberties (e.g., Big Brotherish surveillance) in the name of security (an earth-element desire). Even as the internet, virtual reality, and AI gained traction with Uranus in Aquarius, the tech bubble burst in 2000 and true communication between disparate groups (Jupiter and Saturn) got bogged down in the bullheaded “my way or the highway” modus operandi that is the dark side of Taurus.

This time around, however, Uranus has moved from the sign of its rulership to the sign of its fall, which suggests that the effects of this square will be even harsher and involve not just public health and economic misery for millions of people, but the climate-change emergency that is mainly kindling young activists who will be most affected by the coming devastation if nothing is done very soon to mitigate it (as it may already be too late to stop the damage entirely).

During the spring of 2020, millions of individuals lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and a global recession ensued;
Saturn backed off from the exact square, but starting this winter, the square will be in full force. While the Jupiter-Uranus square willencourage conspiracy theories, cultlike groups, rampant fake news, and gambling with money and literal lives, the real crash will come on the exact Saturn-Uranus square. Incoming president Biden may say “Bye Don” as the Lame Donald Duck is removed from the White House with a butterfly net (or, depending on what he attempts during the Jupiter-Uranus square, in handcuffs). But unless the US Senate is flipped in the January runoff in Georgia or the Senate Majority Leader candy-flips, Americans may not be helped in any real way this winter as Covid-19 ravages the nation and vaccines are at the very earliest stages of being distributed. As of this writing, there are talks in the Senate of passing a compromised stimulus bill to help individuals and businesses; if there is no significant improvement, and individuals are being evicted and going hungry, even more people will take to the streets in protest of this utterly avoidable mess than the Black Lives Matter movement (though there will be overlap). And the protesting could easily turn violent.

The stubborn nature of this Great Mutation in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus also indicates that another bubble will burst, with more potential violence: the information bubble, which has polarized our society and is yoked to money in the form of corporate interests and hucksters. Critical thinking has become a lost art, as has compassion and a sense of fair play. Every opinion is a fact; every fact is an opinion. Many of us, no matter how nice, educated, or “evolved” we are, have our own set-in-stone beliefs on just about everything, gleaned from such disparate sources that when op-ed columnists opine, newscasters speak, epidemiologists weigh in, the CDC flipflops, Facebook friends post, or twitterers tweet, they are all preaching in echo chambers to their very separate choirs. Very recently, I became aware of Parler, a far-right social media platform that formed in response to pushback from Facebook.

Federal mask mandates and strict three-month lockdowns may work in some countries, but not here, and particularly not during a 20-year cycle defined, as in the last 20-year cycle, by Jupiter and Saturn squaring Uranus in fixed know-it-all signs. Freedom has become such a loaded term, used by many people to define their right to not wear a mask to protect other people, that I nearly scrapped the Bob Dylan reference at the beginning of this article. As the poet William Butler Yeats put it so eloquently in “The Second Coming,” just following the First World War and the last pandemic:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Now that we are trying to tame the worst public health crisis since Yeats wrote that poem in 1919, the center must regain its footing if we are to make it as a species, or at least as Americans, to the next potential renaissance (as occurred in Italy midway through the last air-element Great Conjunction cycle). We need not to “get back to normal,” as recent normal was not working out so well for many of us, but to be inspired by a long-ago era.

An era when the newborn Magna Carta was used as a springboard for common law outside of England. An era when the populace (symbolized by Aquarius) hungered and fought for human rights (Aquarius again) that would benefit as many people of all races, religions, and walks of life as possible instead of sinking into tribalism, cynicism, nihilism, and authoritarian populism (which has enabled fascism, holocausts, ethnic cleansing—and most recently, a mentally ill psychopathic grifter to become the President of the United States). An era when ideas and communication (domains of the air element) were valued at least as much as things and ownership (ruled by earth).

Tribunals and revolutions may be unavoidable during this elemental societal change. But if enough humane humans unite, we can get the true Age of Aquarius rolling…with the great transformer Pluto transiting through Aquarius, to boot. This winter, let us mask up, take a deep breath, and begin a 200-year-long journey.

Jupiter Conjunct Pluto, Round Three: The Return of the Coronavirus That Never Left

Jupiter and Pluto swimming in a sea of Covid-19; collage created by T. C. Gardstein in April 2020

The Jupiter-Pluto conjunction of 2020 has been one of those aspects that neatly dovetail with science: as I wrote back at the end of June, with number 2 of 3 such meetings between Jupiter and Pluto about to recur, this aspect has coincided with surges of Covid-19. Now, as we gaze down the barrel of the third and final conjunction, exact today (11/12) at 4:39 p.m. EST, the pandemic is spiraling out of control in many countries (with a few notable exceptions, such as the Far East and Australia, which instituted strict lockdowns). Even New York City, which had succeeded in tamping down positive cases to about 1 percent this past summer after a terrible spring during which tens of thousands of New Yorkers died, is moving in the wrong direction -- as is the rest of the state.

Unlike the first two Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions, we have a glimmer of hope in the form of a supposedly highly effective vaccine being developed by a pharmaceutical house that has refused to take any Operation Warp Speed money from the White House's current administration. I predicted earlier this year that mid- to late December would bring a welcome Christmas present (even if, like me, you do not celebrate this holiday) in the form of a scientific breakthrough, a testament to humans' humanity. It would be wonderful if a vaccine that is safe and reliable turns out to be this gift. However, as reputable news sources have already cautioned, one or more such vaccines will not end this pandemic immediately; there will be issues concerning manufacture, distribution, and a willingness of most people to take the vaccine, and in the Nothern Hemisphere, there will be a long winter of "pandemic fatigue" to get through first.

Interestingly, on the second Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, Mars entered its ruling sign Aries, which turned retrograde near the end of the sign on September 9. Traditionally, the period of Mars retrograde indicates that bullies will prevail. Mars finally stations direct on Friday the 13th, so hopefully this will put the kibosh on any coup that the current US (p)resident may be planning via some high-up Republicans finally growing a backbone and refusing to enable the Toddler in Chief any further. If this does not occur, Mars direct in Aries may well spark a new wave of protests.

Remember that Jupiter expands the nature of whatever planet it contacts as well as the sign it inhabits. Jupiter is said to be in its fall (i.e., significantly debilitated) in Capricorn, where it has been since late 2019, and Pluto in Capricorn could also be referred to as Big Brother, combining the Saturnian harsh taskmaster with the underhanded, manipulative Plutonian cruelty aimed at the collective. The Jupiter-Pluto conjunction has indeed brought mass suffering, but the maddening thing about it was that it didn't have to be so devastating. The pandemic could've and should've been brought to heel in January or February, but a perfect storm of the worst manifestations of Capricorn -- corrupt, heartless governments and leaders; the politicization of science; having "the economy," corporations, and the stock market matter more than people's lives; cruel racism; extreme nihilism and cynicism stemming from just as extreme mistrust of abusive institutions -- wound up raining illness, death, stress, depression, and destruction down on millions of people.

Even after Jupiter pulls past Pluto for good (or, more accurately, for the next 13 years) we will be feeling the effects of this conjunction very intensely for at least another week or so, as the Sun in Scorpio will sextile Jupiter and Pluto on Saturday 11/14 and the Moon in Capricorn will conjunct Jupiter and Pluto on Thursday 11/19. The sextile should bring an opportunity to work harmoniously with this odd, potentially destructive energy, while the Capricorn Moon will attempt to suppress the emotions, but any denial or stuffing down of feelings will ultimately fail. Confronting the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction is not for the faint of heart, but it must be done if there is any hope for getting through it.

If you are having a Solar Return or an anniversary today, which just so happens to be the day of the week ruled by Jupiter, the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction will certainly have a lot to say about your upcoming year as an individual or as part of a relationship. This uncompromising aspect urges you not to randomly gamble (as Jupiter frequently does to test Lady Luck) but to take extreme actions to learn, teach, travel, have out-of-body experiences, expand your roots, deep-dive into earth energies, and ultimately transform.

Election Predictions: Mercury Stationing Direct on a Jupiter-Pluto Conjunction...Will the Third Time Be the Charm, or the Perfect Storm?

With Mercury stationing direct on US Election Day, it is very unlikely that the results will be determined tonight or even tomorrow, particularly since Mercury will soon square transiting Saturn in Capricorn (indicating delays) and US Pluto in Capricorn (indicating all kinds of frightening, underhanded, violent, criminally oriented possibilites). Mercury is in Libra, the sign of the Scales (the symbol of justice), so it's also very likely that the Supreme Court will be involved.

Mars, the planet of war, aggression, and desire, is still retrograde in its ruling sign Aries until 11/13, the day after the final of three Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions in Capricorn, so until then there is also a sense of pushing hard without quite breaking through. As I wrote earlier this year, I believe the signature of Covid-19 is the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn; each time this aspect that expands/magnifies (Jupiter) pestilence and death (Pluto) nears the exact conjunction (April 4, June 30, November 12), there has has been a corresponding wave or surge of this pandemic. This holds especially true for the United States, since Jupiter will also pass over US Pluto, though Europe is currently facing a second wave. The key difference, of course, is that the US government, steered by the Republican majority in the Senate, cut off aid to individuals and small businesses months ago; economic hardship (also symbolized by Jupiter in the sign of its fall) foisted on those who need the most help has effectively set up a lose-lose situation. Many claim that the cure (lockdowns and less extreme restrictions) is worse than the disease, yet the two undeniably depend on each other. The politicization of public health has been an unfortunate side effect of this heavily Capricorn year, though Saturn's three-month stay in Aquarius (from late March till early July) manifested in the highly unpopular social (Aquarius) distancing (Saturn).

Although I believe that Biden will prevail in the end, due to his own natal chart lining up better than Trump's with the US's natal chart this year, over the next four years, with the United States coming up on its Pluto Return, revolution is inevitable, both from without and within. The United States must either regenerate and transform (Pluto actions) or die under a fascist plutocracy. Trump may wind up in jail, but the fact that almost half of the US voters continue to believe in his vision, as well as the rise in Far Right groups such as QAnon, is highly concerning. Over twenty years ago, I predicted that the US would have another civil war, despite the messy geographical boundaries. Now it seems more than ever that the US is headed for a messy divorce.

It remains to be seen if the US will wind up on the right side of history by the time the biggest global crisis since the Great Depression and World War II has ended with either a bang or a whimper.

Jupiter Conjunct Pluto, Round Two: The Return of the Coronavirus That Never Left

Jupiter and Pluto posing in a sea of Covid-19
Collage by T. C. Gardstein

As I predicted in a post from this spring, Mars transiting Pisces unleashed a whole lot of trouble concerning action (Mars), the emotions (Pisces), and public health (the domain of the opposite sign of Virgo). Around the time that Mars entered the final sign of the zodiac in mid-May, many countries and states within the US began opening up, in many cases not meeting the US government's own guidelines. Unemployment (represented by Pisces, since the opposite sign of Virgo represents employment) continued to climb (a key factor in the premature reopening of the US). The death of George Floyd on Memorial Day brought a few weeks' worth of emotional yet largely peaceful social justice (Pisces, the sign where Jupiter is exalted) protests all over the world, peaking in early June, when Mars formed a difficult square to Venus retrograde in Gemini (itself a placement that would seem to encourage backing away from social distancing). After a spate of looting and problems with the police, NYC was placed under curfew for about a week for the first time ever, just prior to its first phase of officially emerging from the lock down. This city is now midway through the much-vaunted Phase 2, when it is possible to dine at restaurants with outdoor seating, get elective medical procedures, get your teeth cleaned, go back to the office (though many companies are moving slowly on that), and either mask up or not, depending on how and where you roll (in my neighborhood, not so much).

From my perspective as an astrologer in New York City, mid-May through June was (and still is) a perfect storm for what many are calling the second wave of Covid-19 (epidemiologists beg to differ, as the virus has not receded enough to end the first wave, but it's clear that many people have stopped listening to scientists). The storm broke shortly after Mercury turned retrograde in Cancer (6/18), with the Solar Eclipse on the heels of the 6/21 Summer Solstice (which was the Winter Solstice for the Southern Hemisphere). It is inevitable that Mercury retrograde must backpedal, creating delays and second thoughts; countries that had apparently gotten the virus under control, including Australia and Germany, were dealing with new outbreaks, while many cities of the US that had escaped the initial onslaught in March and April, such as Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles, were at risk of becoming the next New York City. As of yesterday, recently reopened bars (represented by Pisces), acknowledged to encourage the spread of the virus among relatively young, healthy people who would then infect others, closed down again in the new hot spots.

Considering that the first Jupiter-Pluto conjunction occurred on April 4, right around the peak of the horror show in NYC, it does not take an astrological genius to see that the second Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, exact on June 30, is bringing more of the same to other cities. The US is in particular trouble, however. On July 1, as borders reopen in the European Union with Saturn about to retrograde back into Capricorn, it is almost certain that the EU will put the US on its no-fly list. Just a few days later, on July 4, the US has its Solar Return, which features a Lunar Eclipse and an approaching square between Mercury retrograde in Cancer and Mars in its ruling sign of Aries (a classic aspect of arguments that can turn violent).

I will write in more detail about the US's 244nd birthday, but with transiting Saturn in the Solar Return retrograding back over the US natal Pluto this summer, it is conceivable that there will be localized (if not nationwide) lock downs and walk-backs, as well more restrictions and separations from first world countries that view the US with a mixture of pity, concern, frustration, and revulsion. Fortunately, Saturn will turn direct before it forms another conjunction with transiting Pluto (as we had on January 12 of this year -- the day that the genome of Covid-19 was made public), but we will experience a third Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in mid-November, which would seem to indicate a second wave as well as turmoil in the US concerning the presidential election.

In case reading this post is tempting you to stick your head in a toaster oven, I am still optimistic that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 degrees of Aquarius in mid-December will bring positive new developments, since it is clear to me that Saturn at 0 degrees of Aquarius (where it was in late March and early April of this year, and where it is currently) is a crucial factor for this particular pandemic. Aquarius rules groups of people, revolution, science, and technology. With Jupiter joining Saturn there at the end of this year, perhaps humanity will step up to the plate and evolve in a, well, humanitarian way instead of dying out or handing the keys over to robots whose AI tops our collective IQ.

From Pandemic to Protests: Is Truth a Virus?

I have been wanting to post about George Floyd and the protests and riots, but keep second-guessing myself. After all, I am not out there protesting in my home city of New York. I have to admit that I am afraid to do so. Under the best of circumstances I do not do well in crowds, and despite so many people behaving as if the pandemic is over, it is still very much with us. There is also no guarantee that even as a peaceful protester, I would make it home without being tear-gassed, pushed around, arrested, or stranded on a bridge for two hours with thousands of other pedestrians.

These fears, however well founded, also make me fear that I am totally missing the point: that this is the time for every person (or at least every seemingly healthy person under the age of 60 or 65), to throw caution to the wind for the opportunity to help change the world, to finally put an end to racism or, as assistant professor Dr. Kihana Miraya Ross terms it in today's op-ed piece in the New York Times: "anti-blackness," meaning "the inability to recognize black humanity." Dr. Ross offers up some real food for thought, writing that "George Floyd was killed because anti-blackness is endemic to, and is central to how all of us make sense of the the social, economic, historical and cultural dimensions of human life."

I can say that I am with the protesters in spirit. In less than an hour, there will be a memorial for George Floyd taking place in Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn. His brother is scheduled to speak. I can watch the memorial live-streamed, maybe even catch a glimpse of a friend or two who are still recognizable in their masks because I can identify their eyes. But I am choosing not to put myself in harm's way, either from Covid-19 (which I could then pass on to others, especially if I am an asymptomatic carrier) or from a cop who decides to take a middle-aged white woman down a notch or two. I can say that there are other ways to protest: write about the need for justice and an entire overhaul of the system; donate to the cause. I can say that I chose not to take part in #blackouttuesday because I decided it would be more helpful to repost information that included various phone numbers and names of organizations, as well as questions to ask yourself if you are not black and truly want to help.

I can say all of these things and also that I predicted riots and looting this summer, with Mars in Aries, possibly resulting in martial law. They came about a month early: Mars is still in Pisces. However, we are also coming up on the Sun-Mars square on Saturday, and just had the Venus-Mars square with Venus retrograde in Gemini. I also did not predict that the catalyst would be police brutality, with its victim, a man in his forties just a few years younger than me, crying out for his deceased mother, his last words that he couldn't breathe. However, I told my astrology students back in April that something had to give in the United States, that months of being locked down in a country that threw $1,200 at each person and could not deal with the millions of people who were suddenly unemployed would result in many people taking to the streets who feel they have nothing left to lose.

I am hoping against hope that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 degrees of Aquarius, exact on December 20, will manifest as laws being changed and true justice being served. Aquarius symbolizes social reform, revolution, sudden changes, and large groups of people. I sincerely hope that all the action we are seeing now will result in Republicans being voted out of office at every level in the United States, and positive change for the human race, so that we can truly say that we are all in this--whatever this is--together.

Peace.

Pluto-in-Virgo Generation: Transforming the Work Environment

Back in the day (i.e., December 1999), I published my first astrology article, "The Astrology of Generation X," in Dell Horoscope. That month, I regularly walked to my friendly neighborhood news stand, Gem Spa, which also made the best egg creams in New York City, to see my name featured on Dell Horoscope's final cover of the twentieth century. I was 29 years old and had every reason to believe that I was on the verge, that my thirties in the "aughts" (as I somewhat pretentiously referred to the '00s) would bring me over the threshold. To be sure, my upcoming Saturn Return chart looked ominous, with a pileup of planets in Taurus squaring Uranus in Aquarius. Yet I was still hopeful. It helped that the magazine almost immediately accepted another article and that I landed my first telecommuting job that winter (organizing a database for an online business dictionary), which necessitated my first desktop (a Compaq) with internet capability. To be sure, it was a gig (meaning the hours were just shy of making me eligible for benefits), but the hourly wage was decent, and my landlords at that time were my parents. The ruler of my 6th house, Uranus, was in my 1st house, so I was born to be my own boss, to freelance. If I was a patchwork worker, I figured I could cover myself enough to have a patchwork blanket.

In that first article, I wrote that the Pluto-in-Virgo group, born between 1956-57 and 1971-72, may have "bad job karma." This was in part a reaction to what the early Gen-Xers (and late Boomers) experienced in the workplace during the 1990s, trailing the Pluto-in-Leo mainline Boomers like Cinderella picking up after her diva stepsisters: we were either snubbed or bullied. The media painted us as apathetic slackers or stupid jocks; the smarter ones were nerds before geek was chic.

As the "aughts" wore on, however, the slacker image wore out like an artfully ripped flannel shirt. Pluto-in-Virgo workers got busy as transiting Pluto burned through Sagittarius. By the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, with Pluto entering Capricorn, the so-called Great Recession hit the United States, and most downsized Pluto-in-Virgo individuals had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of forty while also being left out of the fledgling Boomer-Millennial debate/pity party/pissing contest. Virtually every industry was cut to the bone; it was a "jobless recovery" that mainly benefited corporations and banks (Pluto in Capricorn) as well as people who were already rich (the so-called 1 percent). Freelancing and gig work became more common, with many people having to cobble two or three jobs together just to survive. (The only reason I was able to stay afloat as a freelancer in publishing for as long as I did was because I had worked "in house" for a few years.) Now, with the Covid-19 pandemic leading to unemployment levels in the United States not seen since the Great Depression, it will fall to the Pluto-in-Virgo group to transform the work environment.

It will be a tough task, as the Pluto-in-Leo generation isn't going anywhere, and they are far more likely to be at the top of the pyramid in terms of position and power. But in the decade leading up to this global health crisis, the younger Millennial generation (born with Pluto in Scorpio and Sagittarius) has been far more likely than their Boomer bosses to view white-collar office or "knowledge" work more as a thing than a place, thanks to the technological advances that occurred during Uranus and Neptune transiting Aquarius, from the World Wide Web and Windows 95 through smartphones. It is therefore up to the Pluto-in-Virgo group to transform the work environment, even if it means jamming the gears with our bodies.

For office workers, this will entail Pluto-in-Virgo managers convincing Boomer top dogs that health concerns (Virgo) matter more than face time and that actual productivity (Virgo again) matters more than the appearance of busyness. As all 50 states have reopened in varying degrees for business despite the warnings of epidemiologists, this is the optimal time to jettison the one-size-fits-all approach to work in favor of flexible arrangements that will suit everyone's different and often unexpected needs, including the most control-freaky Pluto-in-Leo bosses (when they consider how much money they will save on office space while still being able to monitor their employees' output via tracking software). The "essential" workers in the service industry who are grossly underpaid while risking their health face an even tougher battle for a living wage plus sick live, as well as the millions of Americans who will remain unemployed and, consequently, uninsured and at risk for all sorts of health issues, including malnutrition. I am hoping against hope that some Pluto-in-Virgo individuals will come out of the woodwork to engineer a pragmatic (Virgo) plan (Virgo again) that will clean up (yep, Virgo once again) the mess we are in.

At its worst, Virgo is myopic and pays so much attention to detail that it can't see the forest for the trees, but at its best, there is a purity of purpose that cares more about what works and less about ideology. It is worth noting that the US natal chart has Neptune in Virgo square Mars in Gemini, which can lead to poor judgment as well as erratic energy, lies, and scandal. Transiting Neptune in Pisces is within range of opposing America's Neptune, and in part this is manifesting as the United States being #1 in infections and deaths from a pandemic.

Pluto has an extreme nature; it transforms or kills all matters relating to the sign it transits. The "tune in, turn on, drop out" credo of the late 1960s was born during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo. Divorce peaked with Pluto transiting the marriage sign of Libra, while AIDS peaked during the Pluto in Scorpio transit, effectively ending the sexual revolution. Organized religion, higher education, travel, and zealots were all spotlighted during Pluto's transit of Sagittarius (9/11 occurred on the heels of the Saturn-Pluto opposition). Now, with Pluto in the last decanate of Capricorn, edging up to the US's Pluto's Return, individuals born between 1969 and 1972 are best positioned to work with this often frightening, harsh energy. Since Virgo excels at finding the perfect words for each situation, perhaps it is time to come up with 95 memes for a new reformation.

She's Leaving Home, Bye-Bye (Remembering When)

Today is the 18th anniversary of the first time I left New York City for Another Place: an island that was an extinct volcano, a little-known dot in the Dutch West Indies. Most of my mail was forwarded to Holland.

I had nearly moved to Berlin to be with a not-so-old flame, then chickened out for a few reasons that still make sense to me nearly two decades later, and other reasons that do not. With Sagittarius at my IC, and its ruler, Jupiter, sextile the IC, I could have predicted that I would move far away. However, Pluto exactly square the IC from the Ascendant complicates things. I can run, but Pluto has always pulled me back.

I did not move away because of 9/11, which had happened eight months earlier. I moved to that specific place for all the wrong reasons. I did paint some nice watercolors that the local gallery accepted. (Big fish, little pond.) Two years later, I would joke to my new friends that it took moving out of the country to get me from Manhattan to Brooklyn, which was just beginning its long run as the epicenter of hipsterdom. I would joke about how it was probably the only island on the planet that lacked a beach. I would joke about the two Dutch families that basically owned the island and must have inbred for several generations to ensure their whiteness. Most of the so-called islanders fled for other, slightly more happening islands such as St. Kitts and St. Maarten. There was a second-rate medical school on the island for first-rate students from impoverished countries and third-rate Americans who could not gain admittance to a US medical school. The only fresh produce on the island were mangoes. I would fly to St. Maarten for a day, go to the French side for the beach and shops in Marigot, and pack my rolling suitcase with roast chickens, croissants, a baguette, cheese, and chocolate.

Fifteen years later, I left my fourth apartment in Brooklyn for a basement in New Jersey for all the right reasons. I thought I was going to land in Philadelphia. Two months later, I was back, having secured the ultimate brass ring: a salaried position that paid a living wage. I joked to my few remaining friends that it took leaving the state of New York for me to move from Brooklyn to Queens. Unfortunately, Pluto opposed my natal Sun five times between early 2018 and late 2019, so I paid a heavy price for my financial autonomy: a workplace so unbelievably dysfunctional it could have been the focus of a reality TV show.

There have been more years than not that I have forgotten this day in my personal history. This year, I guess I was destined to remember because I have been fantasizing once again about leaving New York, where I was born and where I finally grew up. It would not be because of COVID-19, but because I have not been able to truly enjoy the city since returning to it on my own terms in the fall of 2017. The city I truly miss was the city of 1998 to 2009. Far too much about me is different now to recapture that decade, and far too much about the city has changed, as well. That is the thing about New York: it keeps changing, both for better and worse. Now that spring is finally here, New Yorkers in my neighborhood are emerging from their apartments after nearly three months of mostly staying in: restless, some masked, as many not, some social distancing, as many not, counting down for the reopening to commence. I am restless, too, but not to go back to the way things were.

I realize there is very little in the way of astrology about this post. I guess I thought back in 2002 that with the Sun trining my Pluto and Ascendant that day, I would land on my feet once the prop plane landed on the shortest commercial runway in the world. Instead, I realized almost immediately (with the Sun inconjunct my Jupiter) what a mistake I had made. I never bothered to fully unpack. But then, that is true of every single place I have lived. Too much stuff (Cancer stellium), too little space (city apartments do not come with attics or basements), too much restlessness (Sagittarius IC).

Perhaps transiting Pluto trine my Pluto will help me find my true home. Pluto turned retrograde about 10' shy of the exact trine this spring, so I guess I will have to wait a while. In the meantime, I will try to be better about living in the moment, as strange as this time has been.

When Predictive Astrology Fails and Why It Is Not Proof that Astrology Is Fake

I am not familiar with the astrologer Susan Miller, but apparently, according to a recent article in the New York Times ("Will Coranavirus Kill Astrology?" by Hayley Phelan, 5/9/20), she predicted in January that 2020 was going to be a wonderful year.

Cue mic crash

Oy. Ms. Miller later recanted this prediction on her website in mid-March, when COVID-19 was slamming into New York, her city of residence; this appeased her many disillusioned fans. She held Pluto responsible (a safe gambit, since Pluto is the OG badass of our solar system) and spoke of the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction that was also in effect during the Spanish Influence pandemic of 1918. She also predicted a second wave that would occur this fall and dissipate by mid-December. Her rationale? That with Jupiter and Pluto parting ways by the end of this year, the pandemic would depart for good.

Personally, I disagree with her assessment, as it was precisely with Saturn at the end of Capricorn and the beginning of Aquarius that the tipping point was reached, with much of the world being placed in lockdown mode. We have not even finished with the so-called first wave in most of America. We are learning more about the nature of the virus, but at this point we can't say for sure that antibodies constitute immunity, and that a vaccine or cure is just a matter of when, not if. Many states are currently reopening even as public health officials say that it is still too soon. And with the seemingly far-off Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius on the heels of the Winter Solstice, social (or, more accurately, physical) distancing will expand to the point of being normalized during the holiday season. Zoom and other virtual hangout platforms may very well recede when Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn this summer, but they will return (with added features, perhaps Smell-O-Vision?) with Saturn once again in Aquarius.

Yet even if it turns out that Ms. Miller is correct, in which case I would be very glad to have been incorrect, the point I wish to make here is that it is very risky to be in the predictive astrology business. For even if an astrologer is uncannily accurate in predicting widespread societal events, these events will still affect individuals differently. Not everyone who contracts COVID-19 will die of it or even feel ill; not every person who then catches the virus from the first person will croak or experience symptoms, and so on. Not every person will lose his or her livelihood during the Great Depression II. Not every person will even know someone personally who died of the virus or who became unemployed. Certain individuals, as hard as it may be to fathom, will actually thrive this year by falling in love, or by figuring out how to live their best possible lives when lockdown lifts. Such individuals could have many natal planets forming a trine or sextile aspect to the dreaded Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions of 2020. Many more individuals will experience both harmonious and challenging aspects to Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions, so there will be something to cushion the worst-case scenario.

The thing about Capricorn and its ruling planet Saturn is that it is empirical, oriented toward the material world. It is a quantitative sign more comfortable dealing with the five senses than with mystical, airy-fairy mumbo-jumbo. As a Cardinal earth sign, Capricorn is far more at home with doing than with being. It would be unfair to say that Capricorn/Saturn has no inner life, but it would be fair to say that Capricorn/Saturn tends to look to the things of the outer world to define its inner core. So during this Capricorn-oriented time, it is more likely that astrologers, who are after all just people, are tempted to make outer-world predictions rather than inner-world predictions that will be invisible to almost everyone except to the person experiencing a profound psychological shift.

I cannot promise that I will shy away from predictions made by looking at planetary transits this year, but I do promise to study even more closely individuals' progressions, when everything unfolds in its own time. Even for those of us who have been home for the past several weeks, we do not live in a vacuum, but your own cosmic blueprint aka natal chart is something that no pandemic, political unrest, or economic collapse can take away from you.

Astrology in the Time of COVID-19

(image credit: Dark Star Astrology)

So much has already been written about and discussed by astrologers about the pandemic known as COVID-19, I do not simply want to regurgitate all of what is by now common knowledge (i.e., the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that occurred this January during a Capricorn stellium comprising the Sun, Ceres, Saturn, Pluto, and Mercury) almost two months after this particular coronovirus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Yet I do feel that there is much to add that I hope will serve the purpose of helping all those who find this article or have discovered my newly revived astrology blog. I am not here to offer false hope, empty platitudes, or unwarranted fear, but to call it as I see it. And back in the day, I did see January 2020 as kicking off a potential apocalypse (which literally means to uncover or reveal), possibly World War III. Two clients of mine recently remembered that I'd predicted this, though during the era of the Uranus-Pluto square (2012-15), it was hard to believe that things could get even worse.

Although COVID-19 first showed up in late 2019 (hence the "-19" appended to the shortened form of "coronavirus"), China publicly shared the the genome of this virus on January 12, 2020: the very day that the Saturn-Pluto conjunction was exact. Interestingly, the Moon was in Leo, the sign of royalty, and "corona" refers to the virus's crownlike spikes. Its "novel" nature does not refer to a long work of fiction but to its being a new strain for humans, yet on the day that its genetic coding was made available, the planetoid Chiron, the Wounded Healer, was in the first degree of Aries (which happens to be the first sign and "newborn" of the zodiac). Even now, many people believe that COVID-19 is a hoax or just another flu (which itself is a remnant of our last pandemic of 1918).

Just as COVID-19's very existence or seriousness has been up for debate, so has its origins. What is apparent to me is that large and/or exotic animals were involved (Mars in Sagittarius making a wide but approaching square to Neptune in Pisces). Certainly, the so-called wet markets in China, where live and dead animals coexist, have been scrutinized. Mars in Sagittarius also points to international travel being a crucial factor.

I am writing this from my apartment in New York City, which until very recently was the epicenter of the pandemic, when New Jersey overtook New York in terms of new cases. However, even though new cases and deaths have steeply declined in New York since its peak in early April (just past the Full Moon, with the Moon in Scorpio), the city remains locked down as other states are opening up, as well as previously ravaged European countries such as Italy and Spain. It was clear to me last month, which featured the steepest rise in unemployment in history, the combination of a president who is essentially a failed businessman egging on protesters desperate to get back to work (because the United States is the only first-world country that lacks universal healthcare, mandatory paid sick leave, and government assistance) would lead to an increase in illness and death. A public health emergency should not be politicized or used as a weapon against individuals in the name of big business, yet with a Capricorn stellium in its genome chart, this is exactly what we are seeing, along with the reality that so many US workers deemed "essential" are risking their health for peanuts (or peanut butter).

The United States is two years away from its first Pluto Return, yet the most unlovely, cruel features of Pluto in Capricorn (e.g., corporations and "too big to fail" businesses and banks valued over people, abusive authority figures, autocracy, dictatorships, rampant materialism, extreme greed, the gap between the haves and have-nots grown to the size of the Grand Canyon) that have been increasing since 2008 have been exposed to the light, thanks to the COVID-19 genome's Sun conjunct the Saturn-Pluto conjunction. This pandemic has revealed the rot (Pluto) within the foundation (Capricorn) that, under the current US administration, is essentially forcing everyone who lives here to fend for themselves. Science (represented by Venus at 28 Aquarius) is unaspected in COVID-19's genome chart, but interestingly, it was after Mercury turned direct on that Venus during the second week of March that the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Indeed, the astrological culprit responsible for the delay, secrecy, and denial concerning COVID-19 was Mercury, which turned retrograde in Pisces, the sign of its detriment, in mid-February. Three precious weeks were lost that could've been used for tracing and testing. It is true that not all leaders and governments handled the growing crisis in the same way, but certainly, it was not handled well in the United States. With the Centers for Disease Control defunded and providing faulty tests (unlike the diagnostics created by WHO), and with the president claiming back in March that he was not responsible for dealing with COVID-19 and favoring his own hunches over science, favoring red states over blue for needed supplies, essentially pitting states against one another and constituents against their governors, it is no surprise to me that the United States' patchwork approach is going to lead to even more devastation, or that the administration is apparently okay with millions of Americans dying until (or unless) there is a cure or a vaccine -- that this is the price of getting back to business. What does give me pause is that many Americans themselves see COVID-19 as "only" killing the elderly (symbolized by Capricorn) or people with compromised immune systems and/or preexisting conditions including diabetes and high blood pressure, and so to hell with them: it's time for the relatively young and fit to suck it up and make like the lord of the flies. Another frightening factor is that the Far Right and its followers are behaving like a death cult.

What gives me comfort is the knowledge that there are also people all over the world who look upon this time-out as a wake-up call to change their lives at a very deep-rooted level (Pluto in Capricorn) and also try to save the planet we call home (which, since its name is Earth, especially resonates with the earth signs Taurus, Virgo, and yes, Capricorn) and build a better world before it really is too late. I myself feel that the best aspect of this pandemic has been having more time to think instead of sleepwalking through life feeling increasingly numb, and that "getting back to normal" would be a tragic missed opportunity for all of us to fix some longstanding personal mistakes and, as much as it is in our power to do so, societal mistakes.

Mars in Pisces is a difficult placement, and I predict that the coming transit of Mars in Pisces (May 13 - June 28) combined with a retrograde Venus in Gemini will be a challenge to many people's health, particularly involving the lungs, arms, and hands. It may also be a period when those who have ostensibly recovered from COVID-19 find that the illness has left permanent damage.

This summer will be marked by Saturn returning to Capricorn after spending three months in Aquarius, as well as Mars in Aries. This will be a period where "getting back to normal" by "getting back to business" (Saturn in Capricorn) will take precedence over the so-called social distancing that has thus far been the hallmark of Saturn in Aquarius, and there will also be increased violence with Mars in Aries that could result, by the time of the Mars-Saturn square on August 24, in martial law.

I have been asked by some of my astrology students and clients if I see a second wave of COVID-19 later this year. Although I am concerned that Saturn back in late Capricorn from July until mid-December could put us back where we started this past winter, resulting in another mass lock down as Saturn moves back into Aquarius, what concerns me more is that in the United States, the first wave has not yet peaked when you take New York City out of the equation.

Hope this has given you some food for thought. I shall write more about the astrology of COVID-19 and other matters, but if you are interested in joining my weekly astrology classes on Zoom, please contact me with your email address. I am also available for private consultation.