Where Humanity Meets Technology: Top Six Astrological Events of 2024

The Media Environment Matters, Especially in 2024

Dear Friend and Reader:

When you study the history of media and how it impacts society, which very few people ever do because of course it’s just a bunch of gadgets, it’s easy to see that no foresight is involved. None whatsoever. Society blazes blindly forward driven by the lure of the Next Great Thing.

And right now we are speeding blindly through the intersection of humanity and technology.

We get little hindsight, either, and it ain’t 20/20. It’s more like looking in the rear-view mirror when the guy behind you has his high beams on and is tailgating you at 80 mph with light rain coating the road.

However, the story of our lives is that of how our social relationships, our personal sense of being, the meaning of existence, and the most important qualities of society are all driven by exposure to the media environment.

And we are in a brutal phase — with most people driven out of their bodies and out of their minds, disjointed from one another and from the cycles of nature. It’s fair to say that there is no longer any such thing as “nature” — that may have ended when the first satellite was put into space and the planet became an art exhibit.

My sense is that people’s souls are howling for contact and acknowledgement. So many are burning with pent-up energy that wants to go somewhere creative and loving. Many are in agony watching the world fall apart, and be taken from them. Many want to awaken from the anesthesia and feel something, anything.

Astrology is about nature and cycles. Astrology tells us about the timing, and “what time it is” in the largest sense of the idea. If the Earth is an art exhibit, astrology serves as the curator. So let’s take a little tour of the major events of 2024.

The All-American Aries Eclipse | April 8, 2024

THERE ARE MANY distinctions to the astrology of the coming year, though this particular eclipse is outstanding for many reasons. Let’s start here, and then the rest of this article will go in chronological order.

As a social and cultural event, the All-American Aries Eclipse will be the best party since Jerry Garcia was in business. People will gather along the stripe and many who were “strangers” on April 7 will be friends for the rest of their lives starting April 8.

The chart for the AAA eclipse, annotated and posted below, contains the story of our whole era, with its emphasis on Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus — the last two signs, and the first two. It’s a moment of clarity in the midst of the digital dream.

For one thing, the Moon and Sun are conjunct Chiron, the awakener.

Chiron seeks wholeness and integration. In Aries, this is about consciousness of the pervasive, self-obsessed characteristic of our times. It’s about seeing the personal impact of these things. This eclipse spreads the message far and wide.

Second, Mercury retrograde is exactly conjunct Eris. This brings inner awareness (that is the retrograde factor) a powerful force for scattering awareness, disembodiment — and self-reconciliation. It’s a moment to address the “deep disorientation of intellect and destabilization of culture throughout the world.”

In the summer of 2017, a total solar eclipse in Leo made a streak from sea to shining sea (from Oregon to the Carolinas). At the time, I proposed this was about the Summer of Trust (what can I say; a boy can dream). For all of American history, dramatic total solar eclipses evaded the mainland United States — until the digital age. Then the first of them happened in grand fashion.

The west-to-east shadow described the brutal division of United States society. Sure, the world is divided in many ways, and the United States is often polarized. Yet American culture was ripped in half by the events of 2016-2017, including and especially by brutal uprisings of both misogyny and misandry: prejudice based on sex.

In 2024, which at the time seemed far in the future, we have a second American eclipse, which paints a diagonal shadow from Maine to Texas.

Pluto enters Aquarius #2

Jan. 20, 2024. Welcome to the age of digital consequences. The choice is between tyranny and group initiation. We are conquered separately. We learn to be free together.

This seems to be “the big one” as far as Pluto moving into Aquarius, though there will still be one more brief retrograde into Capricorn in September and a third ingress, on Nov. 19, 2024. I view this as one last late opportunity for resolving Pluto in Capricorn business, with the help of that placement while it lasts.

Pluto spent a few months in Aquarius in early 2023, but hardly anyone noticed. We have been feeling the impact of Pluto in Aquarius as far back as the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of Jan. 12, 2020. The events of that month were a warning knell. Few were paying attention.

On Jan. 20 (coming right up), Pluto enters Aquarius in a conjunction with the Sun. The theme of this 20-year transit is “full digital conditions.”

We basically get two choices: digital fascism, or group initiation. That means we become prisoners of the digital environment, or we evolve into freedom together.

We have had a taste of what digital can do (a global lockdown resulting from a computer-generated sequence, falsely called a virus, named MN980947, for example). But we ain’t seen the most impressive manifestations of digital, which already have many people convinced we are living in a simulation and that everything that ever happened was a hoax, from the Beatles to the tragedy of the atomic bomb.

What these pseudo-revolutionaries are not saying is that the entire human race is rigged up through an artificial nervous system that encapsulates the globe. What they are not saying is that to simulate human thought, experience and creative output is to indulge hubris and court the kind of disaster we refer to when we talk about Atlantis.

Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Taurus

April 20, 2024. The expansion principle meets the revolution; revaluation of assets; possible crypto bull market. Your dollars are important, and so is real food.

This 13-year conjunction is always an exciting one, hinting at radical, unexpected and unpredictable developments in its immediate surroundings. I say that knowing how weird the world is; Jupiter-Uranus stuff really and truly stands up and above the usual.

The last one happened in Pisces in early 2011, and that was the year we got Fukushima, Occupy Wall St., Arab Spring, and the pro-union protests in Wisconsin that nobody but me remembers. And there was a lot of weird stuff below the radar but still great fun from the standpoint of the perverse — from a sea monster to spontaneous human combustion.

In 2024, the conjunction will take place in Taurus and is likely to be associated with issues surrounding finance, revaluation of assets, and natural resources. Uranus has been in Taurus since 2018 and we have seen some wild things — though most of them were associated with the 2020 scenario, where most mortals came out on the losing end of the bargain.

Crypto Bull Market; Beware of Fake Beef

The conjunction argues for an improvement in the cryptocurrency market after a nearly two-year slump that is finally starting to rebound. Generally, Uranus in Taurus describes new kinds of assets of whatever sort, which will experience at least a temporary surge and potentially an enduring upswing. This is happening in the sign of the bull, and indicates a whole new cycle and potentially a bull market.

But beware of fake beef, and fake money. This conjunction suggests the attempt to move both, presented as “innovation.” The moment money is gone, freedom is gone. Part of freedom is to eat whatever food you can afford: that is the element of basic choice that freedom implies.

We’ll have a big year in tech news, with actual, memorable developments. However, you might be cautious of any attempt to “outsource” your body even more than it already is, like hiring an electronic nose to sniff your food for you.

Many of those will be associated with Pluto entering Aquarius, though I reckon that the ones connected to Jupiter-Uranus will have a more exuberant quality rather than the darker and control-oriented ones connected to Pluto in Aquarius. That said, be cautious of any development where electricity (Uranus) meets the body (Taurus).

This aspect can also hint at great minds getting together, and the development of highly intelligent groups. We dearly need people of common interest to get together and further their agenda in service of the community. The key here is to never sell out your values as a condition of getting together with others. This is the spiritual integrity piece: live your truth no matter who you are with, and congregate with those with whom you share actual core values.

Jupiter enters Gemini, with Sedna

May 25, 2024. Finally, it’s not the Sixties anymore.

Jupiter in Gemini says forward in all directions! And it starts in late May. Besides Pluto, there are not many sign changes of transpersonal or outer planets. (Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars change signs throughout every year.)

One of them is Jupiter, moving from Taurus to Gemini. Jupiter spends about a year in each sign. And when it arrives in Gemini, it will be accompanying Sedna, a very remote planet that is a member of what is called the “scattered disk.”

This makes a fairly ordinary sign-change of Jupiter extra-special. And Jupiter tends to enhance and enlarge the quality of whatever it makes contact with. Sedna entering her first new sign since discovery will be a learning experience.

Sedna is the goddess of the frozen waters, named for the Inuit (Eskimo) goddess of creation and abundance — the mother of the whales, dolphins, seals, and other aquatic creatures. It’s an ultra-slow-mover that has been in Taurus since early 1967. Sedna in Taurus is the last hangover of 1960s astrology, although it was not discovered until 2002. It caused something of a fuss because the discoverers announced its name before it was given an official minor planet number.

Sedna’s 11,400-year orbit places it in its current position at the end of the last ice age — that is, we are at the Sedna return of the ice sheets of the Northern Hemisphere finally retreating to the polar caps.

Jupiter is the magnifier. We will through this conjunction get our first look at what Sedna in Gemini is about. There will be information forthcoming about the true nature of the “split mind” and what we think of as the hemispheres of the brain.

Saturn conjunct Nessus in Pisces

Near-miss, July 4, 2024, exact Feb. 7, 2025. Heralding the diminishing returns of victim consciousness.

This rare conjunction — between Saturn and our era-defining centaur Nessus in Pisces (starting in 2014) — is a commentary on the need to awaken from victim culture. The commodity value around all facts of victimization has never been higher. It grants social standing, legal standing, the potential for monetization and a near-total escape from healing, growth and personal responsibility.

Nessus is the third-discovered centaur planet, manifesting in 1993. Its 122-year orbit crosses the paths of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, so it’s a weaver of many worlds. The Nessus myth is a tale of seemingly hapless figures who fall prey to circumstance, who act out their karma unconsciously, and whose actions are never questioned.

In real life, the questions go unasked because to do so makes one vulnerable to attack and accusation. We agree tacitly that the victimhood franchise must be protected at all costs — though it’s now at the point of diminishing returns.

Saturn and the Reality Principle

Saturn with its reality principle will insist that the questions be asked as this conjunction forms. Thankfully it is a slow burn that will last for about a year; we are under its influence even now. This conjunction suggests we are moving into a time when taking responsibility for one’s choices and actions gains some traction.

Nessus in Pisces contains information about the hazy zone where consent or lack thereof, meets sex offered as a commodity, meets sex taken as an advantage over another (mix, match and morph for additional possibilities including such precious gems as “I wanted it, but I didn’t want it”).

I’m not talking about those who have been harmed and are committed to a healing process. I am talking about the exploitation of and capitalizing on what should be private matters, with attention sought in the therapy room and not on Twitter.

Feeling safe with someone — anyone — is a fundamental human need. Its fulfillment is partly about having the trustworthy person available, and partly about being able to trust. More emphasis is put on the first than the second. To trust involves a set of skills that must be cultivated and learned. An essential ingredient is boundaries, which includes agreements of all kinds. And things go wrong at times; that cannot be an obstacle.

I trust that Saturn is going to place a container around this currently out-of-control territory. People are aching to trust one another right now. We must help one another create these opportunities for sharing, loving and healing. That means holding space for growth and healing rather than just for the privilege of victimhood.

This Conjunction Last Happened in Gemini

This conjunction last occurred in 1973 (in Gemini, where a great many of us have our Nessus placement). At this time, there were concurrent movements: identity politics to one side, and self-actualization on the other. There was the feminist claim of equality, and the anti-feminist claim of being the perpetual victim.

As with all things where Gemini and centaur energy meet, the cause and the effect are wholly in the mind, and they are never separate. All centaurs convey ancestral energy; those of us with Nessus in Gemini would be wise to pay attention for double binds and paradoxes of any kind.

With the soft energy field of Pisces as the ground of the current conjunction, the crisis of Nessus and all its fog is floating on a sea of bliss. This event is an invitation to swim toward freedom and liberation, shorn of the binding of guilt and shame that hold together all the dark things in the world.

Pluto enters Aquarius to Stay

Nov. 19, 2024. Rising awareness of the potentially disastrous consequences of digital technology on children. Does anyone care?

People put a lot of hot air into the idea of protecting children.

Yet the most dangerous influences are usually ignored, or treated as normal. One of them is overexposure to the digital environment. Parents need to think twice before allowing children to have iPads or any form of the internet as a babysitter. Many parents try to cut down the sugar and the junk food while their children are exposed to the toxic digital environment 24×7.

Moreover, in this environment we must rethink how children are socialized and make sure they have many opportunities to relate to one another offline. Children need to spend a lot of time in the ordinary natural world of woods and fields and seashores — not as special places to visit, but ordinary ones.

I am aware that as a society, it may be too late. But it is not too late for individuals.

I will develop this theme through 2024…and in a forthcoming article.