An Extra Great Conjunction, A Critical Degree, Goddesses, and A Prophecy Guide Us Toward Wholeness
If you pay any attention at all to astrology or astronomy, you can’t have missed the excitement around 2020’s Winter Solstice on December 21. Extraordinary planetary positioning, a compelling prophecy, and goddesses aligning side-by-side with gods of change bring poignant denouement to a year that has been like none other in our lifetime. Let's begin with the celestial event most people are talking about.
The Great Conjunction
On the morning of December 19, Jupiter joins Saturn in the sign of Aquarius, forming their conjunction in a new sign. Two days later, they’ll be closer in alignment than they’ve been in centuries. Conjunction is an astronomical term for when two celestial bodies have the same right ascension or the same ecliptic longitude, as observed from Earth. The orbits of these two particular planets bring them together in conjunction every 19.6 years. This event has been known for centuries as The Great Conjunction because until the telescope was invented, these were the two most distant planets we could see with the naked eye. When they came together in the sky every two decades, it was super exciting. It was regarded as the start of a new generation, a new way of being.
It’s still a big deal, even though we have more-distant planets in our awareness now, because we’re talking about the two biggest planets in our solar system, our two gas giants. When they align in conjunction, their bright light together is visually quite stunning. At the right time and place in the night and depending on their position relative to the sun, we can see them without any special equipment. Some say this stunning conjunction explains the Christmas star.
Here are some fascinating features of the 2020 Great Conjunction that make it extra great:
· Jupiter and Saturn will be in extremely close alignment, separated by just one-tenth of a degree. The last time they were this close was during Galileo’s time, in 1623, almost four centuries ago. But – the 1623 Great Conjunction wasn't visible to most people because of its location below the horizon in the night sky. The last time The Great Conjunction was this close and visible to the naked eye was in 1226!! Almost 800 years ago!
· This year The Great Conjunction is also at the point of its Great Mutation, which takes place about every 200 years. The astrological sign the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction is in repeats in the same element (fire, earth, air, or water) for ten cycles of twenty years each, and then it moves into the next element for ten cycles (but with the second-to-last conjunction of each 10-cycle series positioned in the next element it’s ultimately moving to, as a sort of preview of what’s to come). When Jupiter-Saturn finally starts its consecutive series of conjunctions in the next element, it is known as a Great Mutation. In 2020, The Great Conjunction makes its Great Mutation and begins its 200-year consecutive series in the air element, in the sign of Aquarius.
· The very minute Jupiter and Saturn are in as close alignment as they have been since 1623 falls on the 2020 Winter Solstice. It’ll be at 1:02pm EST on December 21 that the two planets are exactly aligned at 0°, 29’ (0 degrees, 29 minutes) Aquarius. The distance between Jupiter and Saturn from our perspective on Earth will be one-fifth the diameter of a full moon. While it’s true they are aligned in the same section of the sky respective to Earth, they are still over 450 million miles apart from each other.
· The 2020 Great Conjunction happens at 0°! The last time we saw a Great Conjunction happen at zero degrees of its astrological sign was in the year 1305 with The Great Conjunction at 0°, 49’ Scorpio. 700 years ago! See more below on the astrological significance of planets at 0°.
· It’ll be another 60 years before Jupiter and Saturn will be this close again, and then another 400 years before it happens again.
So, when to see it?
It’s been visible for months, and it’s been getting closer as the days have passed. If skies are clear, look to the southwest after sunset. In our Northern Hemisphere, Jupiter and Saturn will appear low in the southwestern sky for about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset. On December 21, they’ll look like the Christmas star. With my poor vision, they already look like one lovely starburst! The two planets will be close enough to be considered in conjunction into March 2021.
But what does it mean?
Astrologically, is there meaning to be made of all these incredibly fascinating concurrences? Very much so, as we consider our transition from the Astronomical Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. Regardless of how an astronomer or astrologer configures the “official” start of the new age, depending on the system used, the events of the 2020 Solstice are clear harbingers of a new way of living.
When Jupiter and Saturn align in conjunction, Jupiter’s amplification and call for truth and justice together with Saturn’s energy of structure, control, and limitation brings an experience of tension between a need for expansion and the need for discipline. Throughout 2020, this tension has clearly manifested in our personal lives and in our experience as a nation. (See my post on The Astrology of 2020). However, if/when these opposing forces integrate through understanding, we experience an ideal blend of enthusiasm and structure. We all benefit again within a structured system and therefore can do well in our lives.
Analytical Psychologist Carl Jung said there is no balance, and no system of self-regulation, without opposition. He said that when opposites learn to integrate, a third sort of entity emerges. Keeping this in mind as we consider our country’s current polarization, we can reasonably anticipate a societal shift toward wholeness over the next two decades.
With Jupiter and Saturn aligned in the sign of Aquarius, the collective mindset really will begin to shift. The two planets have been in and out of close alignment in the sign of Capricorn throughout 2020. Transitioning from a Capricornian year full of conflicting energies around control, authority, limits, and responsibility, Jupiter-Saturn in Aquarius moves us into a 20-year period of awakening, emancipation, humanitarian vision, objective outlook, and radical shift. For the next 200 years, while The Great Conjunction happens in air signs, which we associate with the mind, we progress even further into a visionary age (Aquarius), the information age (Gemini), and an age of social relatedness (Libra). We will be building upon our foundation from the passing 200-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle in earths signs, which brought among other earthy things the firm establishment and growth of the United States of America, the industrial revolution, and capitalization of our natural resources.
It’s onward, but not necessarily directly upward, from here: A Critical Degree
Let’s consider more closely now the fact that the 2020 Great Conjunction happens at 0° Aquarius. Each of the twelve astrological signs makes up a 30° portion of the sky. Many astrologers consider planets at 0° of any sign to be a “critical degree”. Critical degrees are considered particularly sensitive and often empowering, and a planet at 0° (and 29°) of a sign manifests a more crisis-oriented energy. When a planet moves into the very beginning of an astrological sign, it also moves into a new element (air, in this case). Planets at 0° of a sign take on the pure or undiluted nature of the sign, but the sign’s true essence and the challenges the planet must face and embrace on its journey are in a sense just being discovered, and have yet to be mastered. There’s still a lot to learn. There’s a certain “beginner’s mind” that we take on at 0° in the air element.
This reminds us that we are just at the beginning of our transition to the Age of Aquarius. We have a long way to go before we as a people embrace the Whole over the Self. In my next newsletter I’ll describe the energies of 2021 in full, but looking at the zodiac chart of Inauguration Day on January 20, 2021, we have a good sense of the Aquarian qualities that will mark the start of our next presidential administration. The patterns of The Cosmos on Inauguration Day promise high energy and signal a radical shift in the country’s path; it's an important day for the history books, for certain. Anger and awakening vie for center stage.
Goddesses Hold Us and Guide Us Into 2021
All the while, as Gods Jupiter and Saturn and other masculine energies have been positioning into place, Goddesses Lilith, Pallas Athene, and Eris, among other holders of the Divine Feminine, have been guiding celestial events with their yin strength. On the Winter Solstice, each of these three goddesses will be partnered up, side-by-side with planetary gods of change to lend their energies in a yin-yang integration of the opposites...
Lilith and Uranus
Throughout the fall, Black Moon Lilith (the geometric point that marks the furthest point of the moon's orbit around the earth), goddess of women’s rage, sexuality, power, independence, raw authenticity, and women's absolute demand for equality, has been moving closer and closer to Uranus, the god of awakening and reform. On the Winter Solstice, she’ll be seated within two degrees of Uranus in the sign of Taurus. I see Lilith as the ultimate Nasty Woman. You GO, girl. In conjunction with Uranus, Lilith in Taurus says determined, secure women like Dr. Jill Biden will not be apologizing for their power, thank you very much. Marked by Lilith and Uranus, trine the Sun and Mercury on the Winter Solstice, our feminist work moving into 2021 is to continue to identify with women with strong minds in powerful positions.
Pallas Athene and Jupiter-Saturn
Asteroid Pallas Athene, or Athena, goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare, is right there in the spotlight of The Great Conjunction, just 4 degrees from Jupiter-Saturn on December 21. She is seen as a symbol of freedom and democracy. If Jupiter-Saturn together are moving us into a 20-year period of awakening, emancipation, humanitarian vision, objective outlook, and radical shift, Pallas Athene is there holding up her spear to say we are all in this together, and we’re going to be magnificently heroic as we march into this new age of collective awareness.
Eris and Mars
Discovered by astronomers in 2005, dwarf planet Eris is named for the ancient Greek goddess of strife and discord. In astrology, she is emerging to become a force for evolutionary movement, a true agent of change. She is driven to do something. Teamed up in precise conjunction with Mars, god of war and assertion, on the Winter Solstice at 23° Aries—the fire sign of bold action, survival, and initiative—they are a formidable powerhouse of change. There is real impatience here. Enough is enough! Enough of the crap, 2020! Enough of the efforts to further polarize us, enough of Senate stymieing, and conspiracy theories, and the cesspool of gaslighting and bold faced lying. Get the wholeness show on the road!
What else makes the 2020 Winter Solstice extra notable?
Well...... the very survival of humanity depends on our participation, according to Aboriginal Prophecy.
Our Calling: The Prophecy of the Elders of Uluru
Uluru, specifically Ayers Rock at Uluru, is a massive sandstone monolith standing at an elevation of 2,831 feet in the heart of Australia’s Northern Territory’s arid Red Centre. It is within Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, and the nearest large town is 280 miles away. I first became aware of Ayers Rock when Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited it in 1983. Uluru is sacred to indigenous Australians and is thought to have begun forming around 550 million years ago.
According to the story of Uluru “Dreamtime”, or “The Dreaming,” the world was a featureless place until the ancestors of the Anangu traveled across the land, creating structures like Ayers Rock. The monolith, with drawings on rock outcroppings and petroglyphs all around it, tells the story of the ancestors. Certain rock outcroppings represent ancestral spirits, and Anangu elders believe that by touching the rocks they can communicate with Dreamtime and receive blessings from their ancestors.
The Elders refer to a “Magic Box” located at Uluru that must be activated on the 2020 Winter Solstice by pure, positive, life-force energy generated by 200,000 human beings. If unassisted by humans, the box will do nothing. If enough people are sending their love and positive light toward Uluru at the time of the Solstice, and those people can allow themselves at that time to be unburdened by negative thoughts, such as those associated with COVID, economic chaos, injustices, and violence, and can instead focus only on the positive, the Magic Box will absorb this pure energy from across the world and then activate and distribute across all the ley lines and Dreaming tracks on this planet. In other words, we’ll set into motion the healing of the Earth that is essential to the future of human existence.
The prophecy says that once this ceremony of human energy is completed, the Earth will continually vibrate at a much higher level, forever. However, if fewer than 200,000 people participate, and fear and negativity prevail, the box will remain idle and afterward the Earth’s axis will tilt, the oceans will wash over the planet, and virtually everything will be literally washed away. Either way, Earth will be cleansed and will survive. Whether humans are a cooperative and positive presence on the Earth long into the future is a factor of their pure-intentioned participation in honoring this year’s Winter Solstice.
Will you please participate?
Today’s spiritual leaders of the region and many around the world regard Uluru as the Solar Plexus chakra of our planet! Each one of us who participates embraces our small, but critical part in promoting anima mundi—the intrinsic connection between all living things on Earth.
Timing of the ceremony follows the timing of the Summer or Winter Solstice across the globe. Here on the east coast of the United States, the solstice happens at 5:02 a.m. on Monday, December 21st. You can decide how to participate in the ceremony according to how you personally can best free your mind of negative thoughts and energy, be present in pure light, and send your love and life-force energy toward Uluru. You might seat yourself facing southwest. My plan is to get up at about 4:30, make myself a cup of coffee, surround myself with my favorite crystals and candles, listen to one particular song, face southwest, and starting at 5:00 a.m., focus my mind’s eye on the beautiful Ayers Rock and send my love to the heart of Uluru, to the Earth’s Solar Plexus, and to do this for about a half hour.
I will do something similar at 1:02pm that day, when the Great Conjunction is at its closest alignment, to celebrate what I see as one of our most important points of entrance into the Age of Aquarius.
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