Wednesday night I wrote a short article to go with the new video, which has some (shorter) notes about the four gas giants changing signs. Read that here.
Dear Friend and Reader:
We are about to discover whether astrology means anything. I mean, will anything help? I can say this: Despite whatever concerns I have been expressing, the aspect pattern I’m about to describe (and others) present the potential to move our lives along, to wake up, to make changes, and to do something meaningful.
So first, this is the week of the Chiron-Eris conjunction (The Awakening aspect) that I’ve been going on about endlessly for the past six months; that occurs May 27, which for practical purposes has been right now all year.
Tonight, however, I’m here mostly to discuss something else.
There is major movement involving what are known as the gas giants — that is, the transpersonal planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. By transpersonal, I mean that they represent many people, large concepts and big issues.
Unfortunately, in the digital environment, it’s nearly impossible to tell the scale of anything, since everything feels like a hoax or is just another bit of email.
Together, these bodies comprise 99% of the planetary mass of the solar system — and they are all moving into new signs nearly simultaneously. Neptune entered Aries for the first of two times in late March. Saturn enters Aries for the first of two times on May 24. Jupiter enters Cancer (in and done) on June 9. Then Uranus enters Gemini for the first of two times on July 7.
Then, They Get Together
More exciting is that on June 15, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune line up on the Aries Point in a massive square aspect with the Earth at the fulcrum. (Please see accompanying video above.) The nature of the Aries Point is where the collective realm reaches into the personal realm.
But that being the nature of our times, it’s difficult to see how this might appear in a more meaningful form. Everything is such a blur. There is little sense of change being anything more than another crisis — a severe bias in thought right now. But let’s try. The astrology we’re looking at says that anything is possible.
Saturn and Neptune are in early Aries, on the great cosmic trigger. Then Jupiter in early Cancer meets them at 90-degrees — the most powerful aspect — which further activates the Aries Point and gets three of these giant planets working together.
Jupiter moves quickly and this exact square pattern will not repeat; early June is its great moment. However, some form of this pattern will hold well into 2026, and the effects will continue far longer; and there has been a long warmup to getting here.
And then in July, Uranus enters Gemini, which activates Saturn and Neptune once again.
Major Planets as Contrasted with Minor
The minor planets represent factors that are difficult to discern and more difficult to give names to. Chiron, for example, rarely manifests as a conscious ability to help others heal. Usually, it either drops out of sight, or comes to the surface in a time of crisis every now and then. So most people have a lot of work to do around Chiron, though the distractions from doing so are seemingly endless.
Centaur-like Pluto (yes, Pluto resembles a very unusual centaur) and the other actual centaurs usually act well below the level of awareness. They describe factors that seem inherent in the environment or family patterns and that disappear into the background. The things they represent — healing, inner growth, spiritual evolution and self-inquiry — are just not that interesting to most people.
The major planets are like the main boulevards of society rather than the backstreets of the soul. They also seem to conduct the orchestra of visible history. The American presidencies of Kennedy, Reagan/Bush, and Bush II, all showed up at the time of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions — as did the whole 2020 crisis.
These planets represent wholesale changes to the tone and feeling of society that have a way of disappearing for being so large (as contrasted to the minor planets, which disappear because they are so small). So when all four of the gas giants change signs together, you know that society is changing in big ways — especially with the Aries Point involved.
Beyond Drama and Intrigue
What planets are left? Well, Mercury, Venus, Mars and a bunch of asteroids, which provide all the fodder we need to indulge in various shades of drama and personal intrigue. The inner planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) offer ideas for how we express sex and gender (astrology is the original nonbinary art, since Mercury is a hermaphrodite and everyone has both Venus and Mars.)
For most individuals, Mercury, Venus and Mars keep us distracted on the personal level. If most of what you think about is food, money, relationships, relationship hassles and what color the bathroom is painted, the inner planets will serve you just fine. The asteroids are like a vast costume shop where a diversity of roles are available (nearly all of them are named for goddesses — and there are thousands).
Try as they may, many people need more from life. Or they discover that no matter how much they eat, or how many houses they have, no matter how many outfits, no matter how much intrigue, something is missing.
More Important Things
Now that the inner planet dramas of earlier this year have settled down somewhat, we have something else unusual: the four gas giants moving all at once — at the same time we’re having a very significant minor planet alignment of Chiron and Eris. That’s the one that picked up and ran with the 1970s, even though neither planet had been discovered.
In the ‘70s there were flareups of social crisis; in the 2020s we have a chronic case. Many people just feel tortured, inconsolable and exhausted. The world is polarized and divided like never before, which is a function of the digital environment. There is not a lot to be happy about that doesn’t require spending money. Nothing is free except maybe dinner at Grandma’s house or a hug from your dog.
The gas giants describe things that “just seem to happen.” The seemingly minor planets (including Chiron, Eris and the Family Hunger Games alignment in Capricorn) describe what you really have to care about to do something with. They represent subtle factors in one’s inner life that require deep devotion to work with. Sooner or later, everyone gets there in some form or another. That is where the real work happens: the conscious growth.
What is concerning is that the digital environment takes people out of themselves; it takes us out of ourselves. It’s not just the distractions and the entertainment and every minute of the day being filled up. “Out of yourself” also includes carrying your brain around in a half-pound hunk of metal, glass and silicone.
And now this alt-brain is being outfitted with synthetic thought and decision-making capability that will ensure that human ingenuity and creativity are outsourced to Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos more than ever.
Do we consider them such great examples of humanity that we would delegate control of our lives to them?
The Physical-Emotional Nexus
For introspection, inner growth, healing and personal evolution, we must refer to this new, somewhat strange third category of planets — the minor planets, starting with Pluto, continuing with Chiron, and encompassing the newer centaurs and objects beyond Neptune (discussed in the Family Hunger Games series). But they require you to go beyond the ordinary and into realms normally invisible to your self-perception.
And we are getting plenty of guidance from these small worlds — it’s really at a peak right now — with the Chiron-Eris conjunction and Pluto still newly in Aquarius (and many other examples, including the Family Hunger Games formation).
In the age of disembodied existence, it’s easy to go to the gym. It’s easy to stay in your house and not come out, though the “purely physical” remains within fairly easy access. The challenge is the nexus where emotional and physical existence intersect.
As humans are increasingly digitized, the “physical machine” is still understood to exist. Yet the emotional and mental bodies are rapidly being separated from the physical body, and this is the digital haze. It’s the sorely lacking state of empathy and caring. It’s the assumption that other people do not have feelings and if they do, they don’t matter. It’s the condition of “not having a sense of who you are” or what is true for you.
What I am saying here is that disembodiment can include having a great routine at the gym or yoga class. The issue involves where your emotions and your feelings meet your body, and your ability to feel and integrate them.
Beyond Self-Delusion
Sometimes it seems like all of society is a hoax, sustained by self-delusion. This is an illusion of digital space, which is a playground for deceit, scams and deep fakes — and it makes it very easy for people to convince themselves of what is not true.
Neptune in Aries is the biggest opportunity for self-deception and self-delusion that we have ever experienced. We will be living with Neptune in Aries until the late 2030s. One of the lessons of Neptune in Aries is how to be honest with oneself. Saturn arriving in Aries this weekend describes a shift in this process.
For some it will feel like having their bubble popped. For others it will feel like an invitation to come back to reality. There is likely to be some disillusionment, which is a good thing because illusions are dangerous and unhelpful.
The square from Jupiter, which enters Cancer and engages in about two weeks, will be inflammatory to some. That is, depending on how you respond to influences from the sign of oceans and tides, you may be feeling quite a lot and not know what to do with it. Others will be more invested in their emotional experience (the word I’m thinking of is grounded, but we’re talking about water).
It will be important to keep a grip. That’s not easy — especially when the core of that is about holding true to your sense of who you are when you may have a quickly diminishing notion of who and what that is.
As Joni Mitchell wrote so eloquently, “I’m not sure who I am, but life is for learning.”
As long as you say so.
With love,
Your faithful astrologer,
Everything you say (always) about digital – the synthetic astral – rings true to me Eric… but, and, I also have a strong sense that there is more conscious growth happening than we might think. It doesn’t show up on the internet – appropriately – but I see it everywhere, hear about it in conversations with friends, sense it in the air, feel it within myself… I think there are many people who are doing the work of the minor planets, I think people are facing down the family hunger games in their own lives and dealing with their stuff… and I know several younger couples raising their kids with extraordinary mindfulness and love – but because the digital noise is so loud, this quiet work of deep humanity is less discernible. As you referred to in the video, sixth and tenth house material is certainly being used as loud and mercenary distraction online – but the ninth house work may be happening nonetheless… invisibly, silently, inwardly… perhaps our “group evolution” is a process that needs to occur within many individuals simultaneously, not necessarily aware of each other in a conscious way, but deeply connected at the level of our shared humanity… and perhaps by our promise, made many lifetimes ago, to show up here at this time and anchor the Light into this dimension during this particular time of our evolution, call down and anchor the Light through our consciousness, through our bodies themselves… I’d be interested to hear if a pattern like what I’m trying to define here is reflected anywhere in the current astrology? cheers, xox