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.