Originally published on Medium.com on 9/4/2020. View original here.
I spent last fall becoming well acquainted with Pilot Truck Stops as I made one last leg of a two year almost nonstop book tour. During this trip, Pilot became more than my cheap overnight camping spot, but also my travel office. For a few dollars’ worth of daily wifi, I could sit at a counter, stare at my laptop and with headphones in, listen to a steady stream of the worst music ever while working on a few writing projects.
One involved writing Astrological forecasts for the months ahead. Looking through the list of major upcoming transits, it was the first time I started to think “wow, we’re in for some shit.”
Really, though, I had no idea.
Though the combination of Uranus in Taurus, the stellium of planets making their way through Capricorn, and numerous intense conjunctions between planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto were definitely a lead up to some major (and less than pleasant) shifts in the economy and government, the true magnitude of how these energetic shifts would play out was clearly not to be underestimated. But predicting exactly what events would take place and how is less clear.
Astrology is a great resource for self-knowledge and for some types of prediction. Though it is usually best to guide us toward particular areas of harmony, growth or unrest, Astrology alone does not clearly outline exactly what events will take shape. Often, a transit’s impact is better understood as it is happening or slightly thereafter. When you can see events taking place and link them to the associated energy shifts.
You may be thinking “but that’s not prediction, it’s confirmation bias.”
The point, though, is not to feel special for seeing what was coming. It is to understand what the moment requires of us, what it’s potential can bring for change, destruction or growth.
It’s not intended to be a guessing game.
So while several transits and aspects suggested intense and volatile actions taken by government leaders during particular time frames, this can indicate events being set into motion but coming to full fruition later or dramatic changes now. It could also connote anything from an economic bubble bursting to a financial scam being exposed or a combination of factors that lead to financial ruin and the need to rebuild.
We have been shown, with recent transits, that no one is immune from the consequences of individual and collective actions. Just as we have almost constant reminders of this on a daily basis.
Here is a brief overview of what has been going on in the sky and how it is helping us to recognized just how fucked up we are as a society (or perhaps as individuals, but hey, who am I to judge) and what may come next.
Usually, the transiting planets will impact individuals in very different ways depending on where the planets align with your Natal planets’ placements. Yet the slower planets (because they are more distant/slower moving) are associated with changes that have a greater impact but can be slower to take shape. And their placements in signs associated with society rather than the individual, all suggested that while we may have our own individual experiences of the fuckery about to unfold, that it would be a blend of both a personal and collective time of reckoning.
In between writing content, I messaged with a friend, listing the transits to come. Our reactions were pretty much the same. A steady combination of “This should be interesting…” and “Well, we’re in for some shit.”
At the time, it seemed the biggest pile of fuckery would relate somehow to Trump’s impeachment hearings or some idiotic thing he would do because, well, you can pretty much set your clock by the president doing dumb shit, even if you’re not an Astrologer. War games, military escalation and the like. Another major time of upheaval and potential military or violent conflict appeared present during the spring and summer.
Yet just like we can’t possibly understand what is going on in the present without looking to the past, so too can we not fully understand the implications of planetary transits without seeing the transits and aspects as a continuum. Rather than seeing it as something that just suddenly happens.
After all, even the most erratic and dramatic transit that would seem on face value to have the most profound impact, is really one moment, one point along a continuum. No choice, on the individual or collective level, is made in an instant.
No uprising begins with just one catalyst. One case doesn’t make a pandemic, one solitary act of defiance doesn’t make a revolution. Though it seems that way because we tend to shrink wrap our realities and package our history into bite sized pieces that are easier to digest. Yet the blossoming uprising, and even the devastation of a pandemic or sweeping devastation of an economic recession, have their roots in the past. In other times, other choices or failures to choose. Other transits that brought illumination or from which we collectively hid in our own blissful ignorance.
Saturn and the Ghosts of Fuckery Past
I’m going to start with Saturn because I’m partial to this old bastard. In a nutshell, Saturn’s energy reminds me of my favorite supernatural-socialist holiday story, A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is pretty Saturn like. But that’s not all. The whole notion of having three chances to face your shit or be doomed to a life of misery in which you will die alone and people will pick through your stuff and laugh at you before you’re even cold in the ground, is very Saturnine.
It should go without saying by now, but Saturn is not only the Planet of timing (which is a whole thing in the story as well, I mean, the ghosts showed up on time, by appointment). He’s also the planet of Karma, consequences, restriction, harsh lessons, hard work, self-discipline and pretty much anything you can think of that would be categorically unpleasant like having a root canal or struggling to pay rent because you live in an authoritarian fascist oligarchy.
Ok, I don’t actually know if Saturn rules root canals, but he is associated with bones and you are stuck in a chair while the dentist performs this procedure which causes restriction, so go figure…
I’m hard on Saturn, but he can take it. He’s also the planet of structures, foundation, government, routines and all the annoying predictable shit that keeps the trains running, the taxes paid and fiscal conservatives happy.
But in all seriousness, Saturn doesn’t have a political affiliation and really doesn’t care about your country’s GDP. This is the planet of orderliness, consequences, traditions and self-discipline. Saturn asks, what is your responsibility? What do you need to sacrifice? What can you do without? What can you accomplish through hard work and dedication to society?
Saturn entered Capricorn in December of 2017. His transit through this sign is important because he rules this sign. So the energy is more concentrated, bringing restrictions, consequences, Karmic actions and limitations in a way that impacts career, business, government, authority figures, elders and systems and structures thought to be unchangeable.
Saturn going through Capricorn forces us to ask ourselves, “is this REALLY the way things are just because we were taught this is the way things are? Or are we RESPONSIBLE on some level to our collective society to change what isn’t working?”
Saturn going through Capricorn also exposes corruption in business and government. Any lessons involving Saturn tend to be heavy and harsh. This transit also asked us, “Are you SURE that you really understand stability and security? Or have you thrown things together with duct tape and hoped for the best?”
What works during good times will fall apart during a major Saturn transit if the construction isn’t solid. From the economy, to business to government to an individual’s foundation to the fabric of society.
It is no surprise that a movement that gained ground during this transit used the phrase “Time’s up!” It’s no surprise that the image of the “old guard” or the “old white man” or the status quo is exactly what/who is being called to task, confronting the consequences of generations of institutions that were built on a corruption of power. And held together with duct tape.
Saturn makes this journey every so often, it is not a once in a lifetime event. What makes this trip through Capricorn unique? This time, Saturn joined his heavy-hitting buddies in a cluster (known as a stellium) that began at the end of 2019 and is continuing until December of 2020.
During this more recent time span, Saturn took a detour into Aquarius while he was retrograde, from March to July. Saturn’s stodgy and restrictive nature feels about as comfortable in the sign of Aquarius as your republican uncle would feel at a jam band festival. But during this time, we got a small taste of what is to come after December 19th 2020.
When Saturn is in Capricorn, we are asked to revisit what we believe our foundation, security, power structures and authority figures need to be based on our traditions. Must we do what we’ve always done?
When Saturn enters Aquarius, business, finances, government and social structures and institutions are disrupted. It is no surprise that we are now more vigilantly questioning “Why do we need statues to dead white guys who fought against America so that they could continue to enslave other human beings?”
It is no surprise we are seriously questioning whether our “heroes” of history were really all we made them out to be. Saturn going through Aquarius brings turmoil and upheaval. Aquarian energy is humanitarian and progressive, breaking down barriers and creating dramatic change. Aquarius is the rebel of the zodiac. And we could use a rebel.
But there’s a catch.
Aquarius energy doesn’t give a fuck what becomes of the rubble, when a roadblock is encountered, Aquarius will blow it up.
Now this doesn’t literally mean people will start blowing up buildings in December. They may, but that would be a matter of free will and choice inspired by these energies, not the energies themselves.
I use the phrase “blow up” symbolically for the most part. Aquarius energy doesn’t tiptoe into progress. For the decades, centuries, of “wait and see” politics that moderate and centrists “progressives” in the U.S. have comfortably hidden behind, Aquarius’s attitude is “Fuck it, we need to destroy this institution one way or another or nothing will change…
Now, we’ve been through Saturn transiting Aquarius many times. To give a reminder of the kinds of events likely to coincide with this transit, look again to major breakthroughs, uprisings and attempted uprisings in the past. Saturn transited this sign in the mid sixties and mid nineties.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, these transits are a continuum. So as Saturn left Capricorn, we were asked to reflect on ongoing issues of injustice, institutionalized racism and how power is used by our government to oppress other governments and people in the U.S. and abroad.
Just as racism didn’t end with civil rights legislation being passed, and classism doesn’t end during an economic bubble in which some people are doing just fine, we didn’t learn all of what we needed to from these past transits. So we will once again face the lessons that arise when corruption and misuse of authority and power can no longer be denied. We again will have to face the music and deal with the consequences of the society we have created or at worst, enabled.
We again will question and then radically try to break free from, the institutions which we once held to be infallible.
Though Saturn is about society and the collective, Saturn’s path from Capricorn to Aquarius asks us to confront as individuals, the type of society we are creating. Does the ambition of the few really trump the needs of the many?
Pluto- Digging Up the Deep Fuckery
Pluto is the Lord of the Underworld, which sounds glamorous and all until you consider that this role also links him to death, decay, waste, plumbing, crap-you’d-rather-keep-hidden and loss.
So to compensate, it was decided he would also be the ruler of wealth, power and transformation.
Pluto has been in Capricorn for a while now and has been in Capricorn before. But what makes his transit through the sign of business, tradition, government and stability unique is that this time, his troublesome behind is hunkered down right between Saturn and Jupiter for a good period of time.
He’s so slow moving in fact, that he’s been transiting Capricorn since 2008 and will continue to do so until 2024. So in order to really appreciate the damage-er, profound changes, he is bringing, we must consider the large scale changes that have taken place in business, government, power structures and the like in this time frame. His full influence will not totally be understood for another 24 years and if we survive we’ll be able to sit back and pontificate about the good old days when Pluto was stirring up shit and how we all learned profound lessons and are now so much better off.
Pluto is fascination and obsession. Focus and zealoutry. It’s safe to say that matters of government, policy, security and tradition have created polarization and zealoutry in attitudes of late. It’s also fair to say that much profound loss has been suffered not only since the pandemic, but also dating back to earlier hardships posed by the recession of 2008, when Pluto first entered this sign.
For many, this marked the beginning of a period of lost faith in government and security of career, traditional work paths and the economy. For my peers and I, this marked the beginning of the solid realization that a single career or two worked for about 40 hours per week to provide a sustainable lifestyle and the option of retirement at a decent age between 55 and 80, would not be likely.
Instead, things started to break down. Pluto works like an excavator. He digs shit up, exposes corruption and calls us to pay attention to power structures. In Capricorn, he calls our attention to the power of banks, of government regulators, or affluent oligarchs who actually hold the puppet strings (which many didn’t recognize until Pluto’s transit led to events which pulled the veil back to reveal the truth, another Plutonian concept).
So why is the fuckery suddenly so much more intense?
Because Pluto digs up all the skeletons buried in the closet, exposing the secrets and playing on our fears until we do something to make ourselves stronger. Pluto forces us to purge ourselves of the bullshit we’ve been hiding behind. And on his own, he’s a force to be reckoned with.
But when he’s aligned in close connection to Saturn (the Lord of Karma) and Jupiter (the planetary equivalent of a magnifying glass) you can expect the recently dredged up shit to not only hit the fan but to be amplified significantly.
Also, Pluto-Jupiter conjunctions are associated with highly destructive events involving massive deaths such as plagues and even plagues resulting in desperate enough circumstances to trigger social uprisings.
So what are we to do?
Well, when it comes to dealing with Plutonian energy effectively, the best we can do is to become really, deeply honest about what we’ve held up as powerful and worthy of power, wealth and status. Here in the U.S., we’ve made it a national sport to praise celebrities. To our detriment, as it now becomes abundantly clear that a massive screw-up whose only claim to fame is being born to a wealthy family and enjoying a lifetime of enabling and empty praise is perhaps not to be given the status of politician let alone president, let alone god.
What does Pluto ask of us?
To let shit go.
Let go of the idea that wealth is equivalent to merit. Let go of what we have been led to believe about what defines power and who does and doesn’t deserve to have it. Let go of our hero worship, our glorification of a treacherous past. Let go of our willingness to be subservient to fascism rather than active participants in our own government.
Let go of the whole system if we have to, from “education” to “criminal justice” to “financial” to “healthcare.”
And yes, I used slightly unnecessary quotes because these systems have been built to fail to provide the functions they are named for.
Pluto in Capricorn calls us to see this for what it is, drop our illusions and be willing to take our power back even at the cost of the security we’ve been sold (with a high interest rate and little return on our investment).
Pluto drills down to the core. So for anything to get better, the mess will have to first get worse. Pluto does not allow you to stash clean, unfolded laundry into your dresser drawers on top of layers of old laundry. Instead, Pluto forces you to dump out the entire drawer and get rid of those ugly ass pants you’ve been holding on to for twenty years because they may come into style again.
Jupiter- More, Bigger, Better Fuckery
Another very American idea is that bigger is better. This idea is very much in alignment with the energy of the planet Jupiter. Now, Jupiter is a little different from these other heavy hitters. His energy is typically lucky and benevolent.
Jupiter is like the bigger than life Santa Claus in the sky who influences humanitarian issues, law, science, philosophy and higher education.
So Jupiter usually gives a boost to whatever he touches.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, that can also include destruction, death and disease when what he’s close to is Pluto. Jupiter expands and amplifies. Though I do believe his influence brings some semblance of luck or at least the tendency to steer people toward progress and advocating for those who need to be uplifted.
So every crisis that erupts, Jupiter shines some light on messages that need to be heard and were previously silenced. Jupiter encourages idealistic conversations rather than status quo fixes.
Jupiter in Capricorn can expand the influence of government or traditions, but can also help us to move our government or leadership in the direction of more humanitarian, socially progressive efforts.
And remember, he’s not in Capricorn alone. He’s very closely in contact with Saturn and Pluto. Saturn restricts, Jupiter expands. Don’t be surprised if the coming months continue to feel like a bad soap opera in which every time the hero almost wins, the villain throws a curve ball. We won’t know just how lucky or benevolently things will turn out because each miniscule sign of progress brings another crisis to confront.
In December, Jupiter will move into Aquarius, amplifying progressive ideals even further. This transit will also bring a tendency to amplify extremist thinking, polarizing conspiracy theories and zealoutry as well.
Uranus in Taurus- Fucking with Finances
Uranus in Taurus will continue for another 26 years. This planet is also a slow mover but a gamechanger as well. This transit aids in the needed shakedown that exposes corruption on Wall Street and in our rigged economic system.
Innovation in finances is likely. From the cryptocurrency craze to people rejecting traditional finances and opting for alternative systems like bartering, expect the unexpected now when it comes to the economy.
A crash and many more to come are likely under this transit. Uranus tries to force change instantly and in extreme ways, to whatever he touches. So until we figure out a system that works for the collective rather than only serving the needs of the affluent, Uranus in Taurus will continue crashing our efforts to define, hoard and misuse wealth like he was playing with a toy car on a bad day.
Also, Taurus is associated with whatever we use to find security and sustenance. So not only is the economy likely to be dramatically transformed even as it goes through several unexpected crashes and dramatic reforms, but so too is our notion of food, agriculture and farming.
Unsustainable systems will continue to be exposed and unexpected twists and turns will force us to make dramatic changes to the way we grow, harvest and obtain food. Issues regarding food shortages are also likely as we will be forced to confront the unsustainability of the status quo.
Though a civil war and social unrest is possible because of several underlying tensions, food insecurity may end up being a key aspect of what finally pushes some countries, including the U.S., over the edge and forces a movement to redistribute resources to the masses rather than allowing resources to be hoarded by a few powerful families.
Neptune in Pisces- Intuition, Illusions and Pizzagate
Of all of these transits, Neptune moving through Pisces is perhaps the easiest to hijack under a hippie-dippy umbrella of peace and love. Yes, Neptune in Pisces brings this as well as spiritual awakening, as well as greater compassion, as well as the potential for a reawakening of our awareness of deep connection to all life.
Yet as the planet of love, compassion, spirituality, mysticism and sacrifice, this planet in his sign of rulership, Pisces, can also bring out extremes of unfounded faith, zealoutry, cults, martyrdom, illusions and the most fantastic displays of wishful thinking imaginable.
This transit can bring us into more authentic connection with Spirit and help us heal deep emotional wounds. It can also make Pizzagate sound realistic.
It’s no surprise that this transit (and the others working in tandem) have led to a period in which education and information are seen as the enemy of the everyday person, in which science is considered a fad and people are encouraged to make a choose-your-own-adventure kaleidoscope of their own realities.
We have work to do.
The potential to confuse wishful thinking for intuition is higher during this transit. Even us “spiritual” and “sensitive” people (maybe moreso) need to get the batteries checked on our bullshit detectors.
This transit is asking us to find our connection to each other, our capacity to facilitate healing and spread compassion. And somehow, if we aren’t careful, we will completely sidestep this profound transit’s gifts and settle for a devotion to QAnon.
Neptune in Pisces asks you what you will sacrifice of yourself and to what gain? This transit asks us how we can find our connection to each other and how we can open our minds to the miraculous aspects of our spiritual nature.
This is a time of profound healing, awareness, empowerment and dramatic, revolutionary change. We can work to dismantle the institutions that have led to our collective demise for centuries. Or we can be distracted by shiny objects.
These transits are tough, but they are an opportunity to individually contribute to massive collective progress.
Let’s not blow it.
