Posted on June 28, 2020 | Link to original
Dear Friend and Reader:
This week we are at one of the peak events of 2020: the conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn. The alignment using conventional Earth-centered astrology is Tuesday, June 30, at about 1:46 am Eastern Time.
While this conjunction (which means start of a new cycle), is not as famous as Saturn conjunct Pluto, which happened Jan. 12, from the standpoint of spiritual, mundane or psychological astrology, it is a significant development — one whose manifestations we can see in the world. In fact we are looking right at them.
Before I interpret a bit, first a technical note. This aspect spans from April 4, when it first lined up, through Nov. 12. Often aspects between the slower-moving planets happen three times during that cycle due to the quicker planet making a retrograde that involves the slower one. That did not happen with Saturn-Pluto. It is happening with Jupiter-Pluto. When there are three expressions of an aspect in a short time (which are all the same thing), the “real” one is the middle event; that’s the one closest to the conjunction from the viewpoint of the Sun.
The Jupiter-Pluto conjunction occurs once ever 13 years or so. Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the Sun, and in that time, Pluto has moved a little further along. The previous conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto was Dec. 11, 2007, in Sagittarius, very near the Galactic Core. The big news of the season was a strike by television writers. Here is my coverage from that week.
Essentials of This Aspect
Up until now, my idea of Jupiter conjunct Pluto has been primarily about spiritual common ground. I think of this aspect as describing the golden thread that links all religions and ideologies — God has “many shores, one lake,” as is said on the Yoga path. Think of the soul-light of Pluto illuminating Jupiter, and expanded by it.
Isabel Hickey was one of the first writers in English to take a careful look at Pluto. She takes a two-sided approach to the issue. “The positive expression of these energies can be an excellent influence for personal honor and integrity.” She adds, “Pluto brings action and a crisis into the life that can make or break one’s reputation. There is a desire to be important financially and socially. If this is not achieved, the person can be self-destructive.” You do not have to look far to see these issues of financial, political and scientific “importance” rumbling through everything right now. Here is one way that seems to be working.
There are similar viewpoints by established authors. Rob Hand talks about high aspirations and ambitions (which can go overboard as will to power if not regulated and treated with respect, and can lead to difficulties). He uses terms like “power drive” and ambition becoming the “irresistible force against an unmovable society.”
Given all of that, my “golden thread” and “many shores, one lake” viewpoint is a friendly one. That said, earlier this year, a member of our editorial team suggested I look at the megadeath theme, combining the harbinger and ambassador of the Roman underworld, Pluto, with Jupiter, the expander. This is happening in the sign Capricorn, which is Saturnian in nature and has its own themes of “the end” and images of the Grim Reaper and final harvest and all of that.
Before I go on, I want to introduce one thought. From the standpoint of spiritual healing, it’s dangerous to try to talk anyone out of their fear unless they ask you to do so. People tend to be attached to their fears, for a good reason: often, their personality is made of them. So to question fear is, for many, to question the seeming basis of their existence. Therefore, the best way to address fear (such as in a therapy context) is to let it speak, and sit with it and stay there for a while.
Then the question might arise: is the thing you say you fear present in this room, right now? One thing we can say for sure about our current situations is that it’s bringing up plenty of fear, which I propose was long preexisting.
Three Peaks of Death Obsession
So one thing Jupiter-Pluto is describing is death obsession, and the way that is manifesting is fear of Covid-19 and “the invisible enemy” as Trump is fond of calling it — with whom we are at war, and on a war footing, with a war effort, and the use of the military, and suffering casualties on the front lines, and collateral damage, and needing the innovations in technology that usually only come with wars. Then there is the fog of war that a few commentators have pointed out.
My colleague proposed that there would be three peaks of corona mania, and therefore a kind of death fever, coinciding with the three conjunctions — in April, June and November. So far, that has worked out. We are in a new, frantic crescendo of “case” counts. The potential third peak during the U.S. presidential election is a little troubling to consider.
To understand this issue, it’s vital to understand why case counts in particular are, shall we say, based on an exaggeration that is newsworthy but not making the news.
For analysis of that, you have to read dependable off-to-the-side websites like Planet Waves, or a new article in Off-Guardian that breaks down the issue from a technical standpoint and reviews the known studies related to this important matter.
(This is one of the top two issues I have been developing in my journalism the past four months — the problems with the PCR test, and the related issue of viral origins.)
This is not to say that this whole thing is a hoax. I repeat that we must learn how to actually take care of ourselves, rather than panic or pretend nothing is going on.
I also maintain that were this really seen by the government as a health issue, we would be getting better medical information and real prevention advice. But very little of that is forthcoming, and this is a problem we must solve.
To understand the reasons, you have to look to politics and business. Say something naughty about elderberry or zinc and Facebook can slap a fake news message on your page. They even censored a Nobel laureate virologist weighing in on Covid! If you are looking for better information, please consult your neighborhood homeopath, naturopath (ND) or herbalist, or a holistic MD. That means seeking several private, informed opinions, and a forum to discuss the many sides of this issue. Right now, we have public uninformed opinion focusing on one side of the issue.
It seems obvious that there is something wrong and that people are getting sick. That is one matter, and the deeper matter is we do not understand why. Whether we are being told the truth is its own issue. However, the test being used (reverse transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction) is not producing dependable or scientifically meaningful numbers — but is treated as if it is, when federal government documents specifically say otherwise.
And it is not producing the most important thing, which is proof of infection. This may seem absurd to someone watching the news every day. Of course they know what a case is; they have a scientific test. However, that falls apart quickly if you peel back all of the seeming facts in that statement and reveal the underlying assumptions. And to do that takes some guts and independent thinking, which is a social risk. It does not happen by itself. This is one of the most vital themes of Saturn in Aquarius: learning how not to be bullied by social pressure or public opinion.
But it’s sure terrifying to hear that there are 10 million “cases” in the world and 10,000 new cases discovered in one day, in one state. That is frightening, depressing and demoralizing, especially if repeated every five minutes around the clock. Is it true? Does it matter, from a spiritual standpoint? Regardless of the reality behind the words and numbers, we are being given those numbers every hour on TV and by direct feed into pocket computers — digital mainlining. And, once again, many people are scared (literally) out of their wits.
If nothing else, Jupiter is famous for exaggeration, and for magnifying issues out of proportion. That is what it does. In actual experience, Jupiter is famous for its bluster, its false promises and its exaggerations. And right now, Jupiter is conjunct Pluto, talking about death, accented by business, law and politics. The entities involved, in turn, have a bad case of Jupiter-Pluto fever: ambition and importance at all costs.
Adding Pallas to the Equation
All three conjunctions of Jupiter and Pluto are accompanied by the asteroid (2) Pallas. This is one of the better developed asteroids (the second ever discovered, in 1802). It’s named for the goddess of wisdom (Pallas is another name for Athena), who also happens to represent matters of law, politics and government.
Asteroids help call the theme of an event. It is remarkable that all three of the alignments are within one degree, and the Nov. 12 event has all three aligned to within an arc minute, at 22 Capricorn 51-52, which is just incredible.
In my long experience with (2) Pallas, I can testify that it offers insight into relationships with the political sphere, legal strategy, political strategy and government.
Note that the Parthenon, which is often incorrectly associated with Athena, was where you went to pay your taxes. The Greeks then used it as a munitions storage, and the Turks bombed it, which is why it’s such a mess.
Pallas, in an encounter on the Acropolis of Athens outside her temple (along the side wall; you cannot go in), said her theme and method includes sacrificing femininity for a specific purpose.*
We are on notice here. We are on notice that, whatever may be happening from a health standpoint, we are witnessing a political event. Whatever may be going on from a medical standpoint, we tend only to hear about what serves a political (and business) agenda (and the two are interrelated).
We are facing our most personal fears of death (which includes fears of loss, of sickness, and of chaos). These are among the primal issues known as the klesas in Hindu philosophy. These are the matters that even the enlightened masters must confront and struggle with. The fear of death is very, very easy to provoke in individuals and a population. We tend to be a society that often places more emphasis and even value on death than we do on life. A lot of people spend their whole lives that way, whether fearing existence or rewriting their will 10 times.
One of my sources of spiritual guidance has written, “Accept no compromise in which death plays a part.” That may seem like an odd thought, though when you find an applicable situation to put it to use, it’s then possible to see how valuable it is; how much leverage it holds. We are used to making compromises with death, and moreover the conditioned fear of death, as a way of life. We could run through many permutations of this idea, though in the most mundane terms, I would translate it to, “Be skeptical of death threats, and moreover, know them when you see them.”
That seems to be the teaching of the moment.
I’ll have more on the Full Moon later this week, which is aligned exactly with the asteroid Vesta, one of the patron saints of Planet Waves.
With love,
* The first (and only) time I visited the acropolis in Athens, I went with the intention of visiting Athena’s temple (the Erechtheion), and if she was available, meeting her. Discovering entry to that area was forbidden, I walked around the side and sat down on the ground right next to her temple, lit some incense and jammed in-between two of the stones of the exterior wall, and waited. A few moments later, she arrived with one splash of her presence, in front of me, above and to the right, and conveyed the following thought: “I have sacrificed an element of my femininity to do what I do, as you have sacrificed an element of your masculinity to do what you do.”
