Looking Back at 9/11 aka Sept. 11 and Its Fallout 20 Years Later

As much as I do not wish to be ruled by schedules or anniversaries or societally sanctioned nostalgia, I cannot pass up this rare opportunity -- the 20th anniversary of 9/11 aka Sept. 11 -- to break my astrological silence. It was a cruel summer, and even though the Delta surge seems to have peaked in the U.S., we are still in the grips of a Saturn-Uranus square (the hallmark aspect of 2021).

I perused some of my posts concerning that clear blue late-summer morning, though as I'd lamented in my "I lived below 14th St. and watched the towers collapse and smelled the death" 10th anniversary post 10 years ago, I cannot access the post I wrote on the actual day for a long-defunct blog sponsored by a long-defunct startup called Webseed. What stands out to me is the importance of the delayed response of harsh taskmaster and timekeeper Saturn, particularly when it aspects Uranus or Pluto: in May 2000, Saturn in Taurus squared Uranus in Aquarius, and in August 2001, Saturn in Gemini opposed Pluto in Sagittarius; not so coincidentally, this opposition formed on the U.S.'s Ascendant (Sagittarius) and Descendant (Gemini). All warnings about an Al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil were ignored as the 21st century dawned. On the day of the devastating attack, the Moon was in Gemini, the sign of the Twins (and two planes flew into the Twin Towers).

On November 16, 2009, posting on the waning square between Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn that referenced 9/11 and the Saturn-Pluto opposition, I wrote: "Americans are divided about the swine flu vaccine, and there's also a vaccine shortage. [...] On a global level -- well, to expect world peace may be a naive pipe dream, but issues involving the environment and pandemics (of which the swine flu is just the beginning) are just as important as all the futile, costly wars being fought."

In January 2020, Saturn caught up with Pluto for a conjunction in Capricorn that was the defining aspect of last year, ushering in the Covid-19 pandemic that is by no means over despite the arrival of the miracle vaccines, as most of the world is still unvaccinated and in the U.S., the pandemic was immediately politicized. The Delta variant did not originate in the U.S., but because enough Americans refused to get a free, safe, highly effective vaccine or mask up, this summer saw a surge that mainly ravaged southern states with low vax rates, though a high-vax state like Oregon suffered due to the environmental hazard of constant wildfires. And just like the first two months of 2020, not enough people grokked that Delta was not going to stay in India or other faraway countries like a good little variant.

The hard squares and oppositions involving Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto have all manifested in extreme polarization at every level, from neighborhoods to states to nations to the entire planet. Nuance has been flushed down the toilet. Everything and everyone seems black or white, red or blue, right or wrong, good or evil. Facts are opinions and opinions are facts. The U.S. briefly enjoyed the goodwill of most of the world in the immediate aftermath of 9/11; we squandered that goodwill in drawn-out, misguided wars and security theater. With Pluto in Capricorn since 2008/9, authorities and institutions of all kinds are no longer trusted due to their being overtly untrustworthy ... yet no one in power (Pluto) gives it up willingly. We went from the international (Pluto in Sagittarius) terrorism of 9/11 to the domestic insurrection of January 6 (Sun in Capricorn), and Trump wants our money again. Biden pulled the troops out of Afghanistan, facing mountains of criticisms for how the long-overdue pullout was implemented, while Texas implemented sharia law that may wind up overturning the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade in the U.S. And Biden's new national mask mandates, a big stick instead of a carrot that only went so far, may ignite a conflagration that will set off Civil War II.

With Pluto in the last half of the last decanate of the last Earth sign of Capricorn, this perfect storm of crises may be last call for humanity to mend our fences and tear down our walls (Capricorn), learn to live with one another at every level, and treat our home planet with more respect ... for Mother Nature always bats last.

Saturn Square Uranus, 2021: A Collapsing Bridge over Troubled Water

(This article will appear in slightly different form in the summer issue of The Ingress, NCGR-NYC's quarterly astrology journal; I wanted to update it here.)

Attempting to write about the Saturn-Uranus square of 2021 is as complicated as living through it. I have never been one to sugarcoat challenging planetary aspects, whether they are natal, progressed, or transits. Still, this transit is a hard nut to crack and a bitter pill to swallow.

Traditional astrology maintains that more can be accomplished during tough aspects than flowing ones. Many of us in the United States are currently in a much better place than we were a year ago, with the rollout of highly effective, accessible, free vaccines for all individuals over the age of 12 that are saving those of us who are fully vaccinated from the rise of worrisome Covid-19 variants (at least for now). 54% of the total US population has now received at least one dose of a vaccine, with 46% fully vaccinated. With the Centers for Disease Control’s mid-May blessing, as well as the long-awaited reopening of New York City and the state of California, many Americans are acting as if the pandemic is in our rearview mirror. Traffic jams have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, office workers (some enthusiastic, others less so) have begun to return to the office at least part of the time, and more people are traveling by plane. And yet…

…the World Health Organization is now advising even fully vaccinated individuals to continue wearing masks indoors due to the rise of Delta, an official "variant of concern." A recent headline in BuzzFeed News reports that due to politically driven low rates of vaccination in the Deep South and rural areas across the US, ”The Delta Variant Could Create ‘Two Americas’ of COVID, Experts Warn” (Peter Aldhous, buzzfeednews.com, 6/17/21). Thus, as much of the nation is looking forward to a CDC-sanctioned unmasked-if-vaxxed summer of reunions, parties, museum visits, travel, and overall exuberance, this news item is a nagging reminder that Covid-19 is not yet in our collective rearview mirror. Indeed, this pandemic is not yet finished in much of the world—not because too many people are refusing offers of free beer, free joints, free doughnuts, and other free rides with Covid-19 shots for various reasons, but because vaccines are either not available at all or are not as effective as the ones we have here in the US.

And not all of us here are trashing our masks or double-booking our social calendars to make up for lost time. Some of us are grieving over major personal losses in a culture that stresses moving on by getting busy. Even some of the luckier ducks among us feel confused, worried, doubtful, and/or mistrustful. Not all of us wish to get back to a normal that entailed excessive noise, endless social obligations that necessitated a lot of unnecessary expenditures, and rampant rat-racing. Not all of us believe that our democracy is safe, that we won’t see another pandemic in our lifetimes, and that (even with record low temperatures followed just a week later by highs in the Greater New York area, and the West Coast facing severe heat and draught even before the Summer Solstice), the climate crisis is a hoax.

The beginning of the pandemic seemed to encourage a dawning awareness in the rugged-individual-oriented US that we were all in this together; all connected. Yet almost immediately, that insight had to compete for airtime with the Time to Get Back to Normal Show, the I Won’t Wear a Mask or Social Distance Show, and the Politicization of the Pandemic Show. Astrologically, this could be explained (astrosplained?) by the fact that the Saturn-Uranus square did not occur in 2020, as Saturn turned retrograde almost as soon as it entered Aquarius. Consequently, there was a turning away from truly dealing with the pandemic and everything related to this public health crisis (i.e., everything). For many (though by no means all) Americans, the election also brought a sense of relief that our nation managed to avoid the worst-case scenario.

We do not have the luxury of turning away this year, and hell hath no fury like a square scorned. The first Saturn-Uranus square of 2021 occurred on February 17, when Mars was conjunct Uranus in Taurus. (Interestingly, the insurrection of January 6 occurred with Mars at the last degree of Aries; the Capitol was secured when Mars entered Taurus.) As Mars is an inner planet, and debilitated in Taurus, for many of us, there was a series of highly personal challenges involving financial health as well as physical health (both related to earth signs). Another manifestation of the square in mid-February: three severe winter storms (Uranus) in North America comprising cyclones, blizzards, ice storm, and tornadoes. This storm system was the deadliest, costliest storm system in North America’s recorded history; Texas’s power grid (Uranus) got hammered, resulting in the worst blackout since the one in the Northeast in the summer of 2003. The pandemic had begun waning in the US as the oldest and/or most vulnerable citizens became eligible for vaccination (even if too many of them had to stand outside for hours in the bitter cold to get inoculated), yet the biggest public health crisis in more than a century surged in many other countries, which gave birth to some worrisome variants of the virus.

We are now two weeks past the second Saturn-Uranus square of June 14. The spring was marked by several standoffs between Saturn (the set-in-stone status quo) and Uranus (the explosive revolutionary). The Israel-Gaza violence culminated on the exact second square with a coalition ousting Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu. There was a flurry of voter suppression bills and the return of mass shootings in the US. Liz Cheney got the boot from fellow Republicans for daring to repudiate former president Trump. As of this writing, calls for official commissions on January 6 and the pandemic are going unheeded. New York State legalized weed. India surpassed US Covid-19 cases and deaths. Some vaccines were paused; the rate of vaccinations in the US peaked in mid-April and have been declining since then. Seemingly out of left field, the CDC announced that only unvaccinated individuals need to continue wearing masks in most places. The US Supreme Court is preparing to overturn Roe vs. Wade. A container ship got stranded in the Suez Canal. The Mexican metro collapsed due to structural failure, causing 26 deaths and 79 hospitalizations. The Colonial Pipeline hack disrupted gasoline supplies in the southeastern states. The G7 Summit revealed more “cracks” than unity, with Cold War overtones concerning relations with Russia and China. Biden met with Putin. Someone who refused to wear a mask in a store in Georgia returned to shoot and kill the clerk who’d had the gall to ask him to mask up. The stalled infrastructure bill. And, on the day of the first Full Moon of summer (i.e., with the Moon in Saturn-ruled Capricorn), a condo complex near Miami collapsed due to a critical structural failure that a consultant had warned the building managers about in 2018. Repairs were finally about to begin nearly three years after the report, but instead, a lot of people (and their pets) are now presumed dead in this preventable disaster.

The very definition of infrastructure (Saturn) is controversial (Uranus). The concept (and actuality) of infrastructure is clearly ruled by Saturn, the planet synonymous with organization, framework, architecture, skeleton, configuration, edifice, shell, government, and (of course) structure. Yet with the square from reform-oriented, tech-savvy Uranus, infrastructure no longer solely refers to roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, power grids, and mass transportation, but cybersecurity, telecommunications, AI, even health care and child care. Present-day electronics and electricity are inextricably linked to computer science and computer engineering. Basically, if it’s a system that has anything to do with how well or poorly a country functions, whether it’s tangible or not, it’s now considered to be infrastructure. And with the square, it has become painfully clear in the US (along with other countries with morally bankrupt leaders and/or unfettered capitalism) that governments, corporations, civil society groups, and individuals who are not superrich are vulnerable to cyberattacks and one-strike-and-you’re-out losses due to crumbling infrastructure, which could include a shredded safety net.

The last time we experienced a Saturn-Uranus square was in 2000, with the signs flipped: Saturn was in Taurus and Uranus was in its ruling sign Aquarius. Particularly in the US, the gap between the haves and the have-nots began widening into a canyon at that time. Unfettered capitalism, tax breaks, and the stock market have mainly benefited the 1% since 2000. Nearly all politicians are in the back pockets of corporations (Saturn). 9/11 occurred, resulting in certain personal liberties being dismantled 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 (Saturn and Uranus) got bogged down in the stubborn “my way or the highway” modus operandi that is the dark side of Taurus.

This time around, since Uranus has moved from the sign of its rulership to the sign of its fall, the effects of the Saturn-Uranus square are harsher and involve not just a pandemic and economic misery for millions of people, but the climate-change emergency that is mainly kindling young activists (some still in their teens) who will be most affected by the coming devastation unless something is accomplished within the next decade or two to mitigate it.

In the spring of 2020, millions of individuals lost their jobs due to the pandemic, resulting in a global recession. At that time, Saturn backed off from the exact square to Uranus, but it is the signature aspect of 2021. The third and final exact square occurs on December 24 (will it be a lump of coal or a Green Deal for Christmas?), yet its effects will not diminish until the fall of 2022 because Saturn and Uranus will remain within orb of the square until then. Could 2022 wind up being 2021 Lite? Perhaps, but for individuals who are being crushed now, the gradual easing up may not make enough of a difference.

Crashes, clashes and hangovers are part and parcel of any Saturn-Uranus square. We should all know by now that true healing cannot occur by applying Band-Aids to deep wounds, “thoughts and prayers” lip service to the latest preventable atrocity. If adequate disaster relief is not given, the disaster will only be prolonged. Unless Covid-19 is tamed worldwide, this pandemic will still be a force to be reckoned with. Can we possibly take the best part of fixed signs—persistence and endurance—to find common ground and call it a draw, so that no matter what our individual circumstances or views may be, we can all emerge from the Saturn-Uranus square in a more unified place, if not in one piece or truly at peace?

Musings on Progressed Moon Conjunct Natal Pluto

Been here before, 27.3 years ago to be precise.
It's scorched earth, it's blackened ice.
It's death a fortnight before First House rebirth.
It's questioning how much I'm really worth.
Of course, history rhymes instead of repeats;
There are different desires, different defeats.
January '94, grad school dropout, PTSD...
Now middle-aged, overweight, is this really me?
Back then I was mainly driven by art;
Now I'm gainfully employed with a broken heart.
Is a stormy connection better than being alone?
I scroll through opinions on my smartphone.
It's been six months since we fled the city;
It's some sort of magic that's not always pretty.
Somehow we dodged the bullet known as Covid-19;
In six weeks we are safe to make some sort of scene.
But first I must rise from my own ashes
And dry my tear-spiked eyelashes.

Mars in the Last Gasp of Aries

It's been a long six months of Mars in Aries, hasn't it? It's not going quietly into that goodnight, what with rabid, Far Beyond Right and Gone Wrong Trumpeters storming the Capitol, inflamed by the almost-gone president's stolen-election speech. These wack-jobs interrupted the last bit of officialdom needed to declare Joe Biden the winner. Shots. Gas masks. National Guard. Civil War II, anyone? I predicted it over 20 years ago in my defunct astrology blog (sponsored by the defunct Webseed startup), and most readers thought I was crazy.

Maybe I am crazy anyway. Regardless, I can't see Mars's transit of Taurus being anything but difficult. I already wrote about the Mars-Saturn and Mars-Jupiter squares of January, as well as Mars conjunct Uranus: oppression, depression, illness, war, explosions. By the time Mars makes a beneficial trine to Pluto in Capricorn on 2/24, indicating a positive flow of regenerative energy of body, bank account, and the planet Earth itself, it may feel like too little, too late.

Mars (headstrong energy) going through Taurus (ruling the ears, nose, and throat) could very well mean that the new, more contagious strain of Covid-19 will rip through the populace as the vaccine rollout is bogged down. There may not be any half measures when it comes to lock downs.

The Senate runoffs in Georgia have provided some much-needed hope. That outcome could've been far worse. Still, I stand by my predictions made last month: at least in the US, we are in for a very cold, dark winter.

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.

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.