This evening, dearest friends, we experience the subtle but profound shift in cosmic energies that occurs when the largest and most distant visible planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, come together in a close conjunction in our skies. If the weather’s clear at twilight we’ll see this rare occurrence above the Western horizon. Sadly, it’s likely to be hidden by cloud cover here in Naarm but perhaps it offers us a deeper opportunity to feel into the unique signature of these energies. The two planets will be as close as we’ll get to see them at around 11pm AEDT.
Although the Great Conjunction occurs every 20 years, this year the two socially influential planets leave the element in which they’ve been meeting for the previous 200 years, shifting us out of Earth and into a new 200 year Age of Air. The sign in which Great Conjunctions occur determines the shape of collective events over the ensuing 20 year period and the element they meet in describes the overall character and concerns of the era. Air is the element of the mind, of consciousness, information, justice, perception, curiosity and creative intelligence. Aquarius rules the internet, innovation, technology, astrology, social equality, social distancing, de-centralised networks of power, expansions in consciousness, the cosmos, outsiders, eccentrics, trailblazing individuals who shine in our collective firmament and the potential for each of us to serve the greater good through the authentic expression of our gifts.
This year’s meeting of Saturn and Jupiter is also one of their seven closest conjunctions in 3000 years. The last visible alignment this close was in March 1226 and it won’t be this close again until 2080 and then 2400. The Great Mutation of 2020 also occurs on the Summer/Winter Solstice, a highly unusual event in itself. The Solstice marks the Sun’s maximum/minimum declination along the ecliptic, the transition into Cardinal Capricorn and the beginning of Summer/Winter.
On this Solstice, the Great Mutation situates us on the cusp of a major new phase in our lives. The house where it occurs in our natal charts indicates the areas of life that will be defining for us over the next two decades. Although much about this unfolding era is unknown and turbulence and tumult may surround the changes ahead, our vision will act as our guiding star. This is an immensely powerful time to focus on the nature of this vision, to articulate intentions for the coming era that feel authentically aligned with the truth in our own souls. Ask for what serves the highest good.
This week’s potent astrology extends these era-defining events. Today we also experience the third of 2020’s Mars-Pluto squares, and this is big, and not necessarily easy energy. Mars is the planet of action, ambition and aggression. Pluto’s the planet of power, destruction, hidden material, trauma, renewal and riches. This transit may trigger challenging issues, competitive tensions, struggles for dominance, anger and reactivity relating to themes that have been unfolding throughout 2020 but it also gives us access to enormous reserves of power and energy to achieve and transform. There’s a spiritually potent dimension to this energy. If we can relinquish our need to be right, to prove ourselves, to win, and courageously face the surfacing subterranean material in order to simply experience its power, we surrender to god, to the higher frequencies within the cosmos through which we experience grace.
Just as Saturn and Jupiter form the Great Conjunction at 0 degrees Aquarius tonight, the Sun and Mercury also meet at 0 degrees of Capricorn amplifying the initiating energy. Yesterday, Mercury was cazimi - within minutes of an exact conjunction with the sun - and we may have experienced some beautiful communications with the Messenger planet at the throne of the Sun. With Mercury combust today, it’s rendered invisible by the Sun’s rays and the influence of our egos or our souls may be intensified in Mercurial matters. External communications may be more challenging but we’re determined behind the scenes. Combustion can further assist us to tune into what is true in our hearts, to burn off old stories that no longer serve the path of our soul’s growth.
The ‘Father of Astronomy’ Johannes Kepler developed the mathematical tools to identify the position of the planets over time following the laws of planetary motion. He employed these tools to study the Great Conjunction cycles in depth in 1603 and proposed that the Star of Bethlehem, which the Three Wise Men, Zoroastrian priests and astrologers, used to predict the birth of Christ, was a similarly close Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter and a Great Mutation into the sign of Pisces. This unfolding moment in our own collective history feels similarly defining. Under the influence of Aquarius, however, there’s potential for each of us find our own unique way to god and through the expression of our unique gifts, ensure the betterment of our world.
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