Predictable Shock

Mars will set off the Uranus-Pluto square in late November, striking at its most powerful point of access (see the Nov Skywatch). Much has been written about this transit’s unpredictability; but the concept needs to be qualified. We have learned enough about how Uranus and Pluto work to refine our understanding about the nature of shock.

During the transit’s peak years (2012-15), political upheavals should no longer be surprising. Shake-ups to governmental conventions are inevitable as the pillars of worldly power crumble and crack.  As for super-storms and earthquakes, they certainly give us a collective slap in the face — that’s their cosmic purpose — but at this point I don’t think we could consider them unexpected. Man-made environmental depredations are messing with meteorological and geothermal patterns. This is another known known, as the good general used to say.

These two types of unsurprising surprises are connected.  With every “freak” weather disaster (Uranus in Aries) such as the flooding in Manhattan and the earthquakes in China and Guatemala, humanity is being challenged to change its obsolete approach to its infrastructures (Pluto in Capricorn). Such as building nuclear plants and skyscrapers in earthquake zones, and exorbitant sports stadiums in coastal areas that will be underwater within our lifetimes if nothing is done to stop global warming.

Another Capricornian condition crying out for Uranian change is the corrupt state of governmental agencies set up to regulate industry, supposedly in the public interest. Consider this revelation recently unearthed through the Freedom of information Act: A month after the US Environmental Protection Agency found radiation in air, water and milk as a result of toxic fallout from Japan last Spring, the task of collecting nuclear data was handed off to — wait for it — a nuclear industry lobbying group.

As the USA recovers from the one-two punch of storm and election (Mars opposition Sibly Uranus), it’s time to prepare our perspective for more unsurprising shocks. Over the solstice period, Jupiter catches up with the Sibly Uranus at the same time that Saturn quincunxes it. This natal Uranus is the signature of America’s independent spirit, and when it is provoked we can expect a surge of creative popular outrage.

Whatever it triggers will take place against the backdrop of the long-anticipated date that spells out the upcoming learning curve for the world (discussed in detail in my lecture): December 21st 2012.

Jessica’s latest podcast with Frederick Woodruff looks at the Brian Thompson shooting and the folk hero phenomenon.


Jessica’s first webinar on the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, “Controlled Abandon,” looks at the transit as an invitation to radical consciousness change. Feb 27th 2025 at the San Francisco Astrological Society.


Jessica’s popular lecture on transpersonal-personal planet combinations can be requested from NCGR.
Details here.


Jessica’s webinar on Pluto in Aquarius is available here.