No one has any need for astrology to inform them that we are living through intense times of accelerated change. It can, however, be helpful to name and understand some of the current powerful planetary influences, in order to make sense of the chaos we are witnessing and to inspire us to imagine the world we would like to inhabit and to leave to our descendants.
The astrological backdrop of 2021 is a clash between the archetypal energies correlated with Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus, which peaks three times over the course of the year.* Saturn is associated with tradition, structure, three-dimensional reality, and the old order. Uranus is associated with revolution, freedom, technology, and the future. We are witnessing a desperate attempt by those who have held power in the past to maintain their position and privilege, which is reflected in the increase of polarization, authoritarian regimes, and nationalism around the globe. In the USA, the very foundation of our democratic system is under siege.
This crisis at home is related not only to the struggle between the death throes of the old world and the birth process of the new, but the USA is in the midst of its first Pluto Return.** Every planetary body has a cycle. For example, the Earth takes 365 days to orbit the Sun, Jupiter 12 years, Saturn 29 years, and Pluto 248 years. When a planet returns to the position in the heavens that it was at birth, its influence is felt particularly powerfully. The birthday of the USA is considered to be the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Themes associated with Pluto are death and rebirth, the surfacing of repressed unbearable memories from the deep unconscious, purging and transformation. Witness the increased acknowledgment of the fact that our country was founded on the brutality of slavery and the genocide of native peoples, and the ugly reality of ongoing pervasive systemic racism. This is a quintessential expression of a Pluto Return; the surfacing of repressed unbearable truths.
Democracy is only possible when there are shared ground rules. As this condition no longer exists, the foundation for a functional democracy is now unraveling, which is very Plutonian. A central tenet of democracy is that each side honors the results of fair elections and supports a peaceful transition of power. Though the recent presidential election was repeatedly challenged as rigged, it was time and again proven to have been fair. Though the courts ruled again and again that the claims of fraud were baseless, the Republican party refuses to accept reality and the results. Democracy cannot be sustained if there is no agreement as to the rules of the game. Last week Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican, was ousted from her position of leadership of the party because she refused to be silent. She clearly spoke out against the continued lie that the election had been stolen. She also held the former president responsible for inciting the insurrection at the capital. For her unwillingness to collude with her party’s delusion and attack on the democratic process, she was ex-communicated. Two-thirds of Republicans do not acknowledge the election results and 40 % support political violence as a means to defend the American way of life.
In the refusal of the Republican party to acknowledge the election results, we see the influence of Saturn at play. There is a desperation to hold onto a former version of America, with its white patriarchal majority and suppression of women’s reproductive rights. The diversity of our population and the empowerment of women and minorities is only increasing. By 2045 whites will be in the minority. In addition, the decline of heteronormative mores, and the increased acceptance of gender fluidity, are contributing to the creation of a new society with a radically different demographic and culture than that of the old world. In the attempts to suppress elections by making it more difficult for people of color to vote, by the gerrymandering, and now by even the denial of the outcome of a fair election, we see evidence of a desperate but futile Saturnian attempt to hold onto an old world. Uranus will eventually win, but it’s likely to be a dramatic and turbulent process.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System, magnifies all that it touches. It entered the sign of Pisces on May 13, 2021. *** This astrological event is correlated with a time when there is a great deal of energetic support for developing and expressing our visionary, imaginative, intuitive, and creative natures. Jupiter spends about a year in each sign, and for the past two years, Jupiter was first in Capricorn and then Aquarius. A planet is more naturally able to fully express its nature in certain signs as opposed to others. Jupiter is very much at home in Pisces. It was much harder for its energy to fully manifest during its sojourn in Capricorn and Aquarius, which are both ruled by Saturn.
The archetype of Pisces is associated with a connection with the Divine, with Oneness, with creativity, with compassion and forgiveness, the pristine natural world and the oceans in particular. Its shadow expression can be addiction, illusion, delusion, escapism, passivity, and ecological disasters. The energy of Pisces can express itself in all of these very different ways, and we are likely to witness the whole array of positive and negative manifestations during this time period.
Jupiter in the mystical sign of Pisces lends deep support for us to envision the world that we would like to create and to have faith that it is possible, despite the daunting evidence to the contrary. It is a time when the veil is thinned, and we have more access to the unseen realms. Our intuitive capacities are super-charged, and we can call upon the assistance of the ancestors and Spirits to guide and inform us as to how we can be of greatest support for dreaming into being Charles Eisenstein‘s vision of “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”
Here is a link to a brilliant presentation about Jupiter in Pisces offered by one of my favorite astrologers, Emily Trinkaus:
*It has done so once already in mid-February, and will again in mid-June and on Christmas Eve.
**The USA Pluto Return will be exact in April 2022, though its influence is already very much evident
***Jupiter will be moving in and out of the sign of Pisces from May 13th, 2021 until the end of December 2022.
