Navigating the 2020's Astrologically
Talk Given 18 September 2021 By Karen James
“All are but parts of one stupendous whole,Whose body Nature is, and God the soul”
Alexander Pope’s beautiful words lead us into today’s topic which is Navigating the 2020’s Astrologically. We will be zooming in to the 2020’s starting from a big chunk of the stupendous whole in order to have a cosmic context.
[Image courtesy of NASA] The centre structure is the Laniakea Super-cluster. Laniakea means “Immense Heaven” in Hawaiian and contains about 100,000 galaxies. This includes our Milky Way, shown here as the red dot which contains about 300 billion stars, including our very own Sun.
[Image courtesy of NASA]
The next image is a famous photograph taken on 14th of February 1990 by NASA’s Voyager 1. It’s the Pale Blue Dot which inspired the title of Carl Sagan’s book of the same name in which he wrote: “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.”
Now that we’ve reached here spatially, let’s take a quick time fly through to reach now.
Vedic wisdom offers the most profound perspective on time and we’ll launch our time flight with a quote from the the Celestial Song, more commonly known as The Bhagavid Gita:
“Those who understand the cosmic laws know that the day of Brahma ends after a thousand yugas and the night of Brahma ends after a thousand yugas When the day of Brahma dawns, forms are brought forth from the unmanifest.
When the night of Brahma comes,these forms merge in the formless again.
This multitude of beings is created and destroyed, again and again, in the succeeding days and nights of Brahma.”
One day of Brahma mentioned in the above quote is 4.32 billion human years. Flying through this day of Brahma that we are currently in, we find ourselves in the dawn of an Iron Age which began around 5100 years ago – as per the diagram – and coincided with the Noah’s Ark Flood of the Bible. In this dark and dull age, people only have one quarter of their good qualities. Spiritual efforts decline, negativity predominates. Selfishness, anger, jealousy, pride, greed, lust, strife, fear, hunger and despair gain ground – and we certainly see evidence of this all around us.
The Iron Age is the basic unit of cosmic time and is 432 000 years long. These numbers are not accidental. The numerology of 432 000 gives 4+3+2 = 9 which is the number of divine completion. It comes at the end of a cycle called Maya Yuga which lasts 4.32 million human years. In the Golden Age, we were truthful, righteous, pure hearted and everyone lived in peace. In all likelihood we were beings of light. In the Silver Age, we lost 25% of our goodness and we were motivated by rewards for our actions. In the Brass Age, we lost half our goodness and injustice increased. The numbers 4, 3 and 2 repeat in the duration ratios of the previous 3 ages: Brass = 2x Iron = 864000 years; Silver = 3xIron= 1,296 million years; Golden = 4xIron = 1,728 million years.
For an alternative, possibly complimentary perspective, let’s head to Ancient Greece and look at Plato’s view that all life on earth is an intimate part of a living universe which breathes in and out in a perfect rhythm. To Plato, the entire universe consisted of two opposing principles of Strife and Love. The universe breathes in for 36 000 years gradually increasing Strife and decreasing Love until Maximum Strife is reached. As the universe breathes out for the next 36 000 years Strife decreases and Love increase to Maximum Love. Interestingly, Plato set the start date of the current cycle at 5100 years ago which coincides with the start of the Vedic Iron Age we mentioned above. The only small problem is that Plato hasn’t told us if we are in the Strife In Breath, or the Love Out Breath.
Now that we know that we are roughly 5100 years into a Vedic Iron Age, and a Platonic Breath Cycle, we are ready to zoom straight to the astrology of the 2020’s:
“Aster” means star and “logos” means words or story – therefore astrology is literally the story of the stars, or the story that the stars tell us of our lives, our loves, our weather, our societies an cultures. I will be using the ancient sidereal zodiac which is based on the actual constellations of stars in the night sky that has been used in Vedic astrology for thousands of years. Our bodies are made of star dust and the story this zodiac tells is truer, deeper and more spiritual.
We’re going to be looking at only the really big bells of the 2020’s. These heavy hitters of astrology reflect major social and generational patterns. We will focus mainly on six conjunctions – where planets meet up in the same degree, minute and second of the zodiac. They mark the start of long cycles – as we will see. Plato said that these great conjunctions of the outer planets bring confusion, chaos, death and dissolution.
When these big bell patterns come in large clusters, as they do in the 2020’s, we know that these are significant times that we are living through.
- conjunction of Saturn and Pluto on 12 Jan 2020 (33 year cycle)
- Saturn-Uranus Square which happens three times in 2021
- conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto on 5April, 30 June and 12 November 2020 (12 year cycle)
- conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on 21 Dec 2020 (20 year cycle)
- conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus on 21 April 2024 (14 year cycle)
- conjunction of Saturn and Neptune 20 Feb 2026 (13 year cycle)
The first big bell started ringing on the 12th of January 2020 with a meeting of dark, stormy and heavy Saturn and destructive Pluto, which like the mythical phoenix rises from the ashes of its own fiery death. These heavy hitters met in the sign of sidereal Sagittarius, which is moving fire – having the energy of a run away bush fire. Sagittarius is also a sign of goodness because it is ruled by the Greater Benefic planet Jupiter. The meeting of Saturn and Pluto marks a 33 year cycle which historically has to do with fascism, emerging nations, very deep cultural change, cultural colonics, purgation, destruction and resurrection. India and Pakistan gained their independence days after the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 1947 and the Indian sub-continent was thrown into appalling rioting, bloodshed, civil war and sectarian violence. Mussolini’s Fascist behaviour around WW1, and Hitler’s Nazism and death camps around WW2 also happened under these two planets.
In 2020, the Saturn-Pluto conjunction was within one degree of Jupiter in sidereal Sagittarius in the subversive, secretive, hidden house of China’s National chart.
Two days before the conjunction, a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse amped up this conjunction and activated China’s hidden Jupiter.
The day before the conjunction, Uranus – a planet that brings lightning bolts of shock and extremes “stood still” at 8 degrees of sidereal Aries which is ruled by warlike Mars. When these slow moving planets stand still, their effect is exaggerated. Serious extremes and major shocks were thus added to the stormy destruction of Saturn and Pluto.
Let’s remember what happened in 2020:
- 31st December 2019 – Respiratory illness outbreak in Wuhan reported to WHO.
- 23th January – Wuhan under full lock-down
- 30th January, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health emergency.
- 2nd February – global air travel was restricted.
- 11th March the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, its first such designation since declaring H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009.
- By April 2020, about half of the world’s population was under some form of lock-down, with more than 3.9 billion people in more than 90 countries or territories having been asked or ordered to stay at home by their governments.
The entire globe has experienced traumatic cultural change. I find it truly amazing that the entire world was in lock-step response with wearing of masks, elbow bumping, massive social restrictions, banning of international travel, closure of schools and religious gatherings. It has been disruptive on a massive scale.
The second big bell of 2020 was the Jupiter and Pluto conjunction in April, June and November in Sidereal Sagittarius and Sidereal Capricorn marked a new 12 year cycle. This pattern is historically associated with the growth of international terrorism and big money. Terrorism by definition is subversive and destructive – it’s not outright war, there are hidden motives, attacks that seemingly come out of nowhere but are secretly well planned and often executed with military precision. At present, we are still not sure if covid19 is an engineered bio-weapon originating in the Wuhan labs. We do know that for a few international elites, whom Catherine Austin Fitts calls Mr Global, masks, testing kits and vaccines have brought immense wealth and power. We are talking billions and billions of dollars, as the aim is to vaccinate the entire global population. Sagittarius shows us that there were good intentions (the initial aim was to prevent people getting sick), later came the Capricorn (which is all about business strategy and is pretty heartless.)
The third and final big bell of 2020 was the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction which began 22nd December in Sidereal Capricorn. Jupiter and Saturn were known to the ancients as the Great Time Keepers. They meet up very 20 years – creating a Great Year Cycle which marks the development and evolution of social structures and redefines national identities over a twenty year period.
Considering that there was only one conjunction in the previous ten years, we can see that 2020, with three massive conjunctions, marked huge social change.
Moving on to 2021, we find that the signature sky pattern is the
Saturn-Uranus Square – 2021 (Saturn in Sidereal Capricorn Square Uranus in Sidereal Aries)
A square is a challenging 90 degree pattern and brings great tension. Saturn and Uranus square each other three times. The first in February, the second square in June have already happened. As the third and final clash occurs on 24th of December 2021, this fight between opposing forces is not yet over. We can say that the effects will be felt for the whole of 2021, with deeper impact in February, June and December. In weather astrology Saturn square Uranus signals disrupted weather patterns which we can see playing out all over the planet this year. In world affairs this signals the struggle of the Saturnian forces of heavy top down authoritarianism, heavy restrictions involving masks, lock down, police forces pitted against the powerful Uranian need of individuals for freedom at all costs! There are various groups of resistance forming all over the planet including right here in the Garden Route. This entire year has been consumed by all sorts of struggles. Even ex president Jacob Zuma has featured, having to go to jail for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission. The call for his arrest and him handing himself in amid great consternation from his supporters happened as warlike Mars connected the small gap between the Saturn Uranus Square in early July 2021.
Saturn is in sidereal Capricorn which shows restraint coming from conservative business minded people with master strategies guiding them.
Uranus, in Sidereal Aries, shows the freedom seekers are ready for the fight, they are path finders, courageous and can they be naïve. These are the people who don’t want to lose the freedom to decide what goes into their bodies, they are sceptical of the covid mRNA vaccines because they are so experimental and have never been used before. There are also people who are tired of wearing masks, tired of not being able to travel overseas to holiday and visit friends and family, tired of being locked down. They are actively making waves to get their freedoms back. It’s a real struggle because Saturn is strong in sidereal Capricorn and Uranus is fighting fit in warlike sidereal Aries. This signature could bring a physical war, but so far it looks like a war between the governments of the world and the hearts and minds of the citizens.
Now for the good news: On the 12th of April 2022, Jupiter and Neptune meet up at 29 degrees of sidereal Aquarius, starting a 13 year cycle.
This aspect pattern is our best hope of positive change. Jupiter represents all that is good and spiritual. It is fairly strong in Aquarius and is soon going to be moving into oceanic sidereal Pisces where it is very strong and a force for the Good. Neptune at its highest vibration is also spiritual, at lower vibrations it is deceptive, … The textbooks mention strong idealism, humanitarianism, unfolding of idealistic and religious belief systems for this pattern. My best prediction at present is that there will be some kind of spiritual intervention from the Divine Power that created our us and our universe.
Jupiter-Neptune is also a weather signature of seismic events and freak storms, so the actual weather could become more extreme in 2022 as well. There are American Indian prophecies that seem to be pointing in the direction of massive change on Mother Earth who will bring forth Big water, Big fire and Big winds to restore balance .
I predict that this positive intervention will start around March 2022. I doubt that it be a magic wand that changes everything overnight. A few years may be needed to shift things to a higher vibration as much damage has been done by the global forces and the selfishness of humans in general.
Continuing the Big Shift started in 2022, the Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction – 21 April 2024 at 27 degrees of sidereal Aries marks the beginning of a 14 year cycle which is connected with the growth and awakening of human consciousness and the purposeful extension and transcendance of horizons. It encourages a perception of deeper potentialities. It is a capitalist oriented cycle, and includes rebellion against the status quo, audacity and risk taking.
The final Big Bell conjunction of the 2020’s is the Saturn-Neptune Conjunction – 20 Feb 2026 at 6 degrees of sidereal Pisces
This 36 year cycle seems to be related to the growth of socialism or communism and also global world orders based on spiritual principles. I think both socialism and spiritually included governments will be seen in different parts of the world.
So what are we do to? I believe that the best that we, as individuals, can do is to develop our relationship with the divine power of Love and Light. We need to consciously increase our innate goodness from the default Iron Age setting of 25% by making time and space in our lives To Be Still and cultivate our relationship with the Divine. Deep inner prayer, meditation and other inner stillness techniques will be helpful. In this way we will be little candles of light in the darkness of this major transition that is the 2020s.
I’d like to close with an inspiring quote from Mikhail Naimy’s Book of Mirdad:
“God is the axis of the wheel of Time. Though all things rotate about Him in Time and Space, yet is He always timeless and space-less and still. Though all things proceed from His Word, yet is His Word as timeless and space-less as He.
“In the axis, all is peace. On the rim, all is commotion. Where would you rather be?
I say to you, slip from the rim of Time into the axis and spare yourselves the nausea of motion. Let Time revolve about you; but you revolve not with Time.”