“Wait:What?” Astrology Reveals Dramatic COVID-19 Meaning, its Powerful Purpose

What astrological configuration might be associated to the shocking pandemic that rocks the world, and what can we learn from the astrologer’s perspective?  An extremely powerful and notably rare planetary alignment is associated to the onset of the Pandemic.  Saturn and Pluto came to the same degree and conjoined in Capricorn on January 12, 2020. It would seem like this is a frequent event, given that Saturn makes its cycle approximately every 29 years, so there should many examples of Saturn-Pluto conjunctions in Capricorn. However, this is not the case. The last time this configuration appeared was 502 years prior to 2020!  In fact, it is a very rare configuration, but its power is notable. The last time we saw Saturn conjoin Pluto in Capricorn was in the year 1518. This was the time when Leonardo Davinci ultimately departed from Italy for France, and it was the approximate end of the Italian Renaissance. Since 187BC when Antiochus was killed and the events in Israel which led up to the revolt of the Maccabees preceded the coming of Jesus, we have only seen 9 cases of this conjunction. The result is that we have insufficient historical event data to use as an indicator of precisely what to expect from this union of titans in the powerful sign of Capricorn.

Schedule of Saturn-Pluto Conjunctions in Capricorn

Criteria:  FIND  (Sat in Cp)  AND  (Plu in Cp)  AND  (Sat  Cnj  Plu)

Search From: Mar 12 0501 BC  9:03:55 am

Search To:   Dec 31 2020  7:53:36 pm

Aspect Criteria: Exact Conj, +/- 3 degrees

Status:      Finished – 9 matches

[3] Is Exact          Jan 2 0187 BC    2:08:45 pm         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Dec 8 0047          8:22:23 am         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Feb 27 0549        10:39:46 pm       (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Aug 7 0549          7:49:19 am         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Nov 8 0549          7:57:29 am         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Jan 12 0783         5:41:03 pm         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Dec 19 1284        4:27:50 pm         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Jan 3 1518 OS    5:40:12 am         (LMT +6:59:56)

[3] Is Exact          Jan 12 2020         9:59:24 am         (MST +7:00)

Getting Into the Details

Despite the fact that we don’t have a precise sense of what historic developments ensued under this rare configuration, It makes terrific sense to do our best to unpack the details of this alignment. It is our purpose here to bring much greater clarity to the question of “the whys and hows” involved in this major event.  

First, we need to clearly identify the players in this drama. Saturn, Pluto are the lead actors, and the setting in which they appear as the curtain of this event rises is the Sign of Capricorn.  First, we must examine the roles of the lead actors.

Saturn

Saturn, the ringed planet, has a long-established tradition in all cultures that practiced astrological observation. Saturn is associated with stopping. The Hebrew people observe the Sabbath, and on this occasion, many forms of engagement with nature that cause changes, business commerce, and work itself is set aside. It is a time of rest, reflection, and dedication to deeper meaning. “Saturday” is associated to Saturn. The word in Hebrew for Sabbath is “Shabbat,” and its root is a combination of the three Hebrew letters, Shin –  ש, Bet –  ב, and Tav – ת. Unsurprisingly, the name of the planet Saturn in Hebrew is “Shabtoi”, featuring the exact same letters at its root. We learn from this that the primary role of Saturn is to stop typical and normative activities for the purpose of regaining our focus on what genuinely matters and that which deserves our commitment.

Astrologers consider Saturn’s influence as one of evaluating, challenging, testing and verifying. The planet is traditionally associated to endings, and constraint. In Financial Astrology, Saturn is associated to the reduction of economic strength.

The symbol of Saturn appears as an ear beneath a cross.

The cross is symbolic of the nexus of our choices in the context of the divine impulses guiding us. The ear is listening, and “questions” what we are doing in this context. When we are doing what we are designed to do, Saturn behaves like the payroll office of the Zodiac – we get rewarded. But if we are misaligned, Saturn will stop our motion, require us to take stock, and “take away even that which we have” Note this theme as expressed in scripture:

“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”

Matthew 13:12 (KJV)

Saturn’s purpose is a process of assessment.

The ring of Saturn is a remarkable feature, and it speaks symbolically of the Gold Ring, the universal symbol of commitment, marriage, authority, and obligation. Traditionally, Gold was not quickly refined to complete purity with one cycle through the refiner’s fire. To refine gold, the smelting process involves introducing high temperatures, allowing for impurities to rise from the surface from the gold ore, where they were removed, and then, the process was repeated seven times, ultimately yielding pure gold metal.

Saturn’s location in the birth horoscope is associated to the type of effort a person will undertake. Saturn’s position and relationships with other planets provides information directly pertaining to what commitments, obligations, responsibilities and demands for maturity are in play. When Saturn in Transit makes aspect to any planet in the Natal Chart, the native will be required to face obligations and may be constrained to reevaluate and reconstitute in certain ways.

The key takeaway as it relates to our topic is that Saturn puts on the brakes in order to reassess what is going on, and to make interim corrections in the directional course of actions.

Pluto

Pluto – also known as Hades, was aptly and presciently named after the Roman God of the Underworld. The planet’s role can be a bit confusing for beginning astrologers. The planets beyond Saturn cannot be seen by the naked eye. Pluto has a very long orbital period of roughly 248 years during which it traverses the entire zodiac. Pluto travels approximately 20 years through each zodiacal sign. Pluto was unheard of prior to February 18, 1930 and was not a component of the any cultural or traditional interpretations of astrology prior to the 20^th century.  Recently, in 2006, some astronomers demoted Pluto and said it was not a planet but a dwarf planet in 2006, only to be reinstated. However experienced astrologers note that whenever Pluto changed signs or made a significant alignment with other planets, or the planets in an even horoscope, massive changes ensued. Pluto became associated to nuclear blasts, volcanic eruption, releasing of deeply held truths or suppressed resources, and wholesale transformations. Pluto’s astrological alignments have been associated and back-tested to give astrologers a clear pattern of interpretations for its often very-challenging effects in world events and personal lives.

An effective way to interpret the role of Pluto is to consider its placement as the external player in the solar system. In key ways Pluto is analogously similar to Mercury, which is the “messenger” or “communication planet.”  Mercury is always quite close to the Sun and is quintessentially associated to local and familiar information. Pluto is also involved with transmission of information and details but is associated to the transmission of unfamiliar and distant, powerful and transformative information.  Unlike Mercury which transmits local and thus palatable and digestible information from within our familiar sphere of awareness, Pluto is conveying an entirely different data stream. Consider Pluto as a step-down transformer within a power system. The huge expressions of Black holes, Nebulae, Galaxies and the Universe itself move through the auspices of Pluto. The planet does its best to bring these massive forces down to bite-size chunks, but they are too big to be bite-sized, so the influence of a Pluto transmission is overwhelming and generally upsetting. In this case, Pluto requires us to completely realign ourselves with the greater truths that we ignore in our self-oriented way of living. We must face the facts – facts that we did not even realize exist. We must stop deluding ourselves that we are somehow on track, and face reality on a higher and more holistic level. Only having reached this level of awareness can we craft the strategies and actions that are required of us in order to create a harmonious and sustainable society on this planet.

Interaction of the Players

Now that we have established the characteristics and observable effects of these players, what happens when they are conjoined? Saturn takes on the raw unbridled power of Pluto, and the character of Saturn’s demand for reevaluation is augmented to orders of magnitude higher levels than normal. Pluto takes on the attributes of Saturn and its unbridled power becomes such a powerful constraint that “never such a thing has been seen in the days of mankind.” 

Here, we see the entire world grinding to a halt, and months later not much has changed. Reevaluation has barely begun. People speak of “returning” to normal, but clearly there is something amiss with “normal.” Climate Change, Mass Extinction, broken Public health systems, lack of planetary cooperation, perpetual states of war, all of these portend the need for a redirection at the highest levels.

A classical Kubler-Ross grieving process appears to be taking place. In most countries, the frustration at not being able to live as customary in the span of our entire lives is faced with a variety of responses. NO evidence appears to prove the later stages of the model have been approached, much less achieved.

The Capricorn Context

This powerful combination appears in the Sign of Capricorn. What does Capricorn represent in this evaluation? Capricorn is Cardinal Earth, representing consolidation, stability, reliability, large-scale control, major systems. The sign involves everything in the realm of the MACRO. Macro in this context includes world finance, supply chains, global commerce, healthcare systems, science, medicine, the human role on earth, every expression of civilization at the highest levels. Surveillance, competing economic systems, policy, all of these are in play. The higher order of material existence, the basic and fundamental systems and resources that make everything hang together and function from the core level, this is the work of Capricorn.

When Pluto entered Capricorn on November 26, 2008, the world was on its heels and the great recession yielded market declines to nearly 34%, and the Obama election led to a massive consolidation of certain aspects of the government, economy through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), banking system, reach of the federal reserve, healthcare, and centralization of power in a  host of specific examples. Very large-scale mergers and massive corporate growth and increased government powers ensued within Pluto’s journey through Capricorn, and Apple, first company who reached a market capitalization of a Trillion Dollars. Apple was followed by Alphabet (Google) , Amazon, Microsoft, and Petro China. Apple reached a valuation of $2 trillion. It is not mistaken to note that authoritarian regimes gained traction and flourished under Pluto’s journey through Capricorn.

The Pluto transit through Capricorn lasts until 2024, when Pluto finally begins its transit through Aquarius. This sign, the home to the “greater good of all” gives us hope that Pluto’s power will lead to the affirmative transformation of human attention from self-centered and exploitative behavior to a sustainable, mutually beneficial and supportive era. However, it’s not possible to arrive that result unless we slow down, take stock, reach consensus, make a better strategy, and align our resources and behaviors to meet the challenges we have ignored.

Saturn entered Capricorn on December 19, 2017, and ultimately departs Capricorn on December 17, 2020. This three-year period is marked as a time of frustration, delays, which lead to reduction of excess waste and superficiality. The transit is a period of “get-your-act together” on a global scale. The meetup with Pluto is Saturn’s prime event during this transit.

The conjunction occurring on January 12, 2020 does not repeat, but the planets returned to within 3 degrees of proximity – as close as close as they get in this cycle on September 29, 2020. On that day, worldwide COVID-19 deaths surpassed 1 million.

Common features over many cycles of Saturn through Capricorn including consolidation of big business, changes in government policy, monopolies, the meaning of work, formation of key treaties, political upheaval, advancements in science, Maritime, fire & Mining disasters, Extreme weather events, bigotry, cultural developments, and expansion of certain features of religion and spirituality.

Impact of the Conjunction

The term for Planet in Hebrew is “Mazal.” The term conjoins the prefix “from or with” and the term Zal, which means “dripping.”  Hence a planet is associated to the formation of a reservoir of a specific resource or potential. This resource is imputed on a planetary scale, to the core, and major planetary events like the Saturn-Pluto conjunction tend to resonate out from the core and make its presence known for years not merely for months.

An example of this resonance is the Saturn-Uranus in 90-degee angle “squares” that occurred seven times between Jun 2012 and March 2015. Saturn, the planet associated to Tradition and the Old Ways met up with Uranus, the planet of Change. The Obama-McCain 2012 election was about this dynamic, with McCain representing the old ways and Obama representing change. It was interesting to watch the results, which demonstrated that change was needed and the old ways need to be disrupted. The term “disrupter” became common parlance in the aftermath of this series of planetary meetings. From the disrupters, we got Amazon.com, Uber, AirBnB, Twitter, and a host of new technologies and attending challenges. The impulse of the squares is still being felt. The same can be said about the rare Saturn-Pluto meetup. While the pandemic may or may not subside in medical and health terms, the impact on the human psyche and on world events and the outlook of humanity is likely to last at least through the next decade if not longer. The MACRO dimensions of the world change very slowly. The powerful “dripping” in this case, is more like a tidal wave, and the impact of the huge swell in human terms is difficult to estimate. However, what we need to watch for is the progress towards “acceptance” in the Kubler-Ross framework. Until we reach that level, which is long past denial, the work of this Major Transit will remain incomplete, and chaos will continue to reign.