The microbial scourge of 2020 has more than one astrological signature, each pointing to a different set of lessons the Cosmos is doing its best to teach humanity. These are explored in the blogs.
Eris, which notoriously squared the Capricorn stellium in January, can be seen as Nature’s reaction to humanity’s ecocidal folly.
Pandemics, the global spread of an elusive agent, are governed by Neptune. It’s the universality of the virus that gets the emphasis during the first half of June, when the Sun-Venus conjunction in Gemini squares Mars-Neptune in Pisces (6/3-13).
Deadly plagues are, of course, Plutonian. As the driver of the January 2020 stellium, Pluto is capo dei capi of the crisis.
Mars comes into his own
Infections that flare up are associated with Mars.
At the end of June, Mars goes into Aries. Why are astrologers all hopped up about this?
— Because Mars is heading towards a series of squares with Jupiter and Pluto, which will trigger the January stellium as a cosmic echo, starting this summer through the end of the year;
— because Mars will be exactly conjunct Eris when it squares Pluto in December;
— because it will be retrograde for an unusually long time (Sept 9th -Nov 13th);
— and because it’s Mars.
Mars transits tend to manifest on the event level, which for most people feels more real than the less tangible levels of existence (see this article). And Mars is at its most martial in Aries, the sign of its rulership.
These squares tell us that any premature lifting of protocols like shelter-in-place would be a supremely bad idea. Whether or not they are officially lifted, we should personally keep doing what we can to flatten the Covid curve from late summer and fall 2020 when Mars will be most active.
As without, so within
On the last day of June, Jupiter and Pluto conjoin to the minute of arc (see April’s SkyWatch) for the second time this year: a conflation of the planet of growth with the planet of raw power. The house it falls in can tip you off to where you’re using all this intensity.
The USA chart, for example, is getting pounded in the 2nd & 8th houses (plutocracy) as the transit ignites Uncle Sam’s natal Mercury-Pluto opposition. This suggests another milestone in the gradual loss of superpower status.
Here’s where the macrocosm-microcosm principle can be applied to our own ends. In the world at large, humanity is coping with what happens when the urge to expand (Jupiter) is driven by the urge to dominate (Pluto). But as individuals, we have a better shot at deploying this transit with awareness.
Diving deeper
Jupiter is about breadth, while Pluto is about depth. What would it look like if we were to change in both ways, at once? What would it feel like to grow from the inside out?
If we were to fully accessing Pluto, our ambition would be to become ennobled. An old-fashioned idea, this implies a strengthening of character. A deepening of integrity.
This doesn’t exclude worldly concerns (Capricorn). Professional goals, too, can be rewritten now. At best, the new vision is to empower ourselves without disempowering others.
