On the 21st of December 2020 the planets Jupiter and Saturn were conjunct (in the same place in our skies) in Aquarius. Traditionally the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn has been called ‘The Great Conjunction’
Jupiter and Saturn are the planets that represent society. In the most simple terms Jupiter represents the way society expands and Saturn represents the boundaries in which that expansion can take place. Jupiter also represents things like rulership, justice, education, philosophy and religion, while Saturn would indicate the rules, what we are working on and our limits.
Saturn and Jupiter make a conjunction about every 20 years so ‘Great Conjunctions’ are not enormously rare. However in 2020 Saturn and Jupiter, the rulers of human society, established a 200 year cycle of meeting in the skies (conjunct) in air signs.
The 200 year cycle we left behind, had the conjunctions happening in earth signs. Earth signs rule the material realm and it is clear to see how earth dominated the past 200 years have been. Prior to 1800 we had little in the way of industry and the enormous power production facilities we have now. There were no huge cities, enormous skyscrapers and all the things that have become synonymous with modern life. We have vastly increased our access to all things – we have huge ships, cars airplanes and modern buildings. Appliances, cell phones, computers and all manner of gadgets. We really have a lot of things!
Air signs are to do with mind and innovation. Because astrology is cyclic, looking back at the previous air cycle, in the 13th and 14th century gives hints and clues as to what to expect.
The 12th Century had seen a huge increase in trade and connection across Europe. By the beginning of the 13th Century two predominant drivers of change appeared. Firstly a large mercantile class had emerged and with them a new power centre. And secondly the rise of a class of citizens significantly free of the feudal system and the church as well as the increased connections developed through trade (and war) lead to a rapid increase in the availability of knowledge
By the beginning of the 13th century the city state as an entity significantly separate from the feudal lords had emerged but this expanded rapidly over the following century and eventually brought an interconnected web city states. Interconnected commerce and regular trade fairs in turn saw much of the financial system we have today emerge: merchant banking, the wider use of currency, bills of exchange, and foreign exchange dealings.
Urbanisation and connection to the libraries of the East rapidly expanded knowledge and the precursor to the modern university, the ‘universitas’ emerged. At first these were guilds of teachers and students but soon these guilds began to rent or buy physical space for lectures. By the end of the era more than 50 universities had been established across Europe. Universities drew students and therefore wealth into the cities and as that became recognised universities became alternative power centres in their own right. The crusades had lead to much more contact between the intellectuals of the east and the west and during the 13th and 14th century there was a shift towards integrating alternative religious and belief systems into the mystical studies that happened in Europe.
During the 1200’s manuscripts began to be translated into the vernacular languages and as spread of knowledge increased the first book shops selling manuscripts appeared. Knowledge began to be seen as a driving force for societal development and some areas highly regulated the sale of books to make them as widely available as possible.
Much of 2020 was about breakdown, the effects of which we are still feeling. The Saturn Pluto Conjunction of January 2020 made this year an extreme stress test of our structures.
The birth of the age of air amidst the breakdown holds something new for the future..
The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that experienced in 2020, is more constructive and creative but it doesn’t mean we are returning ‘to normal’. In fact the astrology suggests that we are entering into a new period of time completely. A process that only accelerates through the 2020’s.
While the 21st of December saw the full establishment of the Air cycle, we have had one precursor. This is because the shifts from one element to the other do not happen in an instant. Back in 1980 we had an initial Great Conjunction occurring in an air sign. This ushered in the computer age.
Air has to do with mind, ideas and movement. Innovation and sophistication of our ways of doing things and being in the world are likely to emerge. Given our climate situation, there may be a very literal focus on the air!
Many people are aware of the limitations of our existing financial systems, which have their foundations in the previous air era, and we have already seen the emergence of crypto-currency, internet payment systems and the blockchain. We can expect these trends in financial innovation continuing in the times to come despite the current culling! Trade has already changed fundamentally with the internet being a primary platform for many transactions from Amazon to Uber and Airbnb. These innovations are already shifting our need to own things. Many millennials do not own cars and Airbnb is already shifting the dynamics of property ownership.
We can also assume some political shifting, as happened in the 13th century, new power centres will emerge. 2020 has seen the establishment of a large ‘work from home’ class and countries are already looking at how regulation of this new class will change but ‘work from home’ allows a greater freedom in choosing a location from which to work and we’re already seeing the ‘work from home class’ using this new freedom to choose an alternative location (and power structure) to align with. This is only just beginning to emerge but by the end of the century it will likely have completely transformed the world in which we live. A class of people less dependant on national structures is likely to emerge. We’re already seeing some, usually small, countries being very open to foreign workers. Freer cities and the ubiquitousness of Airbnb and Uber type systems allows for pretty seamless transitions from the model of owning a house and driving to the office every day to a world where individuals are no longer bound to a specific place as serfs were bound to the land.
With cities realising that they need to consider how they plan for a world in which the environment and national structures are highly stressed it is likely that the city will become a more central governance structure while the national governments will start to diminish as the primary political structure. This is already being seen with cities considering their independence from national power grids, water systems and food systems. Once cities realise that there’s a large emerging class of nomadic workers, they will realise it’s in their best interests to attract and develop this class of people.
Since this great conjunction will occur in Aquarius, a humanitarian sign, we are likely to see the non-government-organisation (NGO) with it’s humanitarian aims and not-for profit motivation becoming a larger and larger driver in society and NGO’s which have been increasing in number over the last decade or so will likely become an even bigger driver of change and innovation over the next 20 years becoming a firmly established power centre in their own right.
As in the previous air era, it seems probable that knowledge will become more central to our society. The internet has already made information widely available and that trend is most likely to increase. And as the university began the process of the democratisation of knowledge in the 13 and 14th centuries the internet together with the NGO will provide a platform for the spreading of knowledge. To become educated will no longer be at the state’s discretion or only available to those who can afford private education as we have known it, but rather we will increasingly learn our skills via the internet, making knowledge vastly more accessible. New material structure will likely form around these ways of learning and I have already seen schools which operate predominantly online with small tutoring groups in many countries allowing families much more freedom of movement than has been possible up till now. This will further free up the movement of the ‘work from home’ class, whose families will be entirely unbound from the physical structures of the 20th century.
We are already on the edge of a technical revolution (Aquarius is the sign of tech), it’s seems obvious to many people that AI and other technological breakthroughs will continue apace in the years to come, especially over the next 20 year period. Saturn has kept things grounded over the past 2 years while it makes its transit through Aquarius and we have seen some limiting of the powers of the great tech behemoths – predominantly financially. Saturn will demand at the least that they grow up and take some responsibility. This has already started happening with governments and political blocs, like the EU, increasingly concerned with the spread of misinformation and propaganda via the internet. It will also becoming increasingly more in the interests of several power centres to make sure people are educated in order to develop a level of discernment around what is going on, giving further impetus to the development of mind and ideas that can be expected in times to come. By the time Pluto enters Aquarius in March 2023 the situation will really be ripe for dredging up the shadow side of the Aquarian power systems, as has happened to the traditional power structures during Pluto’s transit through Capricorn (traditional power structures).
Many astrologer are calling this moment one of the major tipping points into ‘The Age of Aquarius’. These ages are far bigger in scope than the next 200 years and are to do with our human conceptions of divinity. – I’ve posted about this on my FB page and will add it here soon.
Nevertheless it is likely that we will see an acceleration of ‘alternative spiritual systems’ as we did becoming more and more prevalent. This likely fuelled by the increased understanding of neuroscience and human psychology as well as the infusion of information from indigenous spiritual systems.
As we enter into this new time cycle are approaching a time of increasing change on many levels that is likely to reshape the way humans live on our planet in ways that are new, innovative and more sophisticated than the status quo we have come to accept as reality.