2020: Divine Comedy, Deep Chaos, Deep Calling
20:20 vision is usually in retrospect. This year we’re called to look both ways.
2020: a year of global crisis. ‘Crisis’, etymologically, is ‘a turning point in a disease, the change which indicates recovery or death’, from the Greek ‘krinein’, ‘to discriminate, to decide’.
We’re called to discriminate, to decide. What is the real disease? How can we recover?
One time-honoured way of trying to look more deeply into what is happening here, is to look out there, into the wondrous cosmos. When we do, we see a year of intense conjunctions of outer planets. These are rare occurrences; the outer planets have long periods of revolution. Moreover they occur at key points in the solar, Gregorian calendar of 2020.
The 2020 sequence was ushered in by and dominated by, Pluto, the god of the underworld. The Divine Comedy of planetary events began on January 10th with a lunar eclipse, followed on January 12th by a Saturn Pluto conjunction. Saturn (simplified) represents structure, the status quo. Pluto is the volcano of what has been hidden or suppressed.
Pluto then meets Jupiter three times (see the main time line). Jupiter represents ideals, expansion and inflation. The centre piece of the Divine Comedy is the middle Jupiter Pluto conjunction which occurred at the midpoint of the calendar year, June 30th. It shared centre stage with the annular solar eclipse which greeted the summer solstice on June 21st. A lunar eclipse on 5th June introduced this scenario and it was completed with another lunar eclipse on 4th July.
The final act begins on November 12th with the last of the three Jupiter Pluto conjunctions. Then another lunar eclipse on November 29th, a total solar eclipse on December 14th and the grand finale, the Jupiter Saturn conjunction exactly at the winter solstice on December 21st, ten days before the end of the calendar year. The Divine Comedy has been framed with ten day intervals at the beginning and end, four days in from Twelfth Night and four days before Christmas.
What might all this be telling us?
Conjunctions are endings of one cycle and beginnings of another (see planetary cycles diagram). The Saturn Pluto cycle that is ending now, began in 1982 (shortly after three Jupiter Saturn conjunctions through 1980 and 1981). That period included economic recession in the US and UK, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and escalation of the Cold War.
The last Jupiter Pluto conjunction was in December 2007, right before the 2008 financial crash (a.k.a. the Great Bankers’ Robbery). The last Jupiter Saturn conjunction was in May 2000 when the dot com bubble burst causing an economic recession.
This Jupiter Saturn conjunction will be the closest since 1623, i.e. their elevations above the horizon will be very close. This will also be the end of an approximately 200 year Jupiter Saturn cycle where nearly all the conjunctions have occurred in earth constellations (in the tropical zodiac; the complexities are clarified in the website given at the end). From 2020 until 2219 air signs will predominate.
The 200 year cycle is a quarter of an 800 year cycle, going through the four elements, earth, air, water, fire. The previous beginning of the coming 800 year air cycle was in 1226. In England that was the first year of the rule of the Magna Carta, having been finalised in 1225.
Another highly significant element of this Jupiter Saturn conjunction is that, unlike the situation in 1980 to 1982, it takes place after the Saturn and Jupiter conjunctions with Pluto have completed. As these revolve very slowly around the sun, we will continue to feel their reverberations but it is the Jupiter Saturn conjunction which will mark the new beginning for entering 2021.
Jupiter and Saturn are the outermost of the planets visible with the naked eye (see diagram). They represent forces that are within our conscious control. Whereas Pluto is the outermost of the three transpersonal planets which can only be seen with telescopes. It was not until 1781 that the nearest, Uranus, was discovered. These represent cosmic forces outside of our control, which help us to work on our human destiny, often through difficulty.
We need to be turning our minds to what we want to create in this next 20 year Jupiter Saturn cycle (or 200 year cycle, or 800 year cycle?!). Jupiter and Saturn are the social planets (see the diagram). They call us to recognise the social nature of human becoming. How might we unite the high flying ideals of Jupiter with the practicality of Saturn in our communal living and organisation?
We can ask for Divine guidance to envisage possible ways in which larger scale, human relations might develop harmoniously. Michaelic guidance is available if we open ourselves to it. We were given a sign, confirming this, as it was precisely at Michaelmas, September 29th when Saturn changed from retrograde to direct, which marked the first inching open of the tight, Plutonic cluster.
The Pluto dominated atmosphere has been breeding a climate of fear. We only have to listen to, watch or read, the mainstream media to get that message. We know who pays the piper, directly or indirectly. But all of us who in our hearts, know true love of the Divine, are blessed with the possibility of accessing spiritual strength.
In the Divine Comedy, Dante is guided through Hell and Purgatory into Paradise, eventually rising to the Empyrean. We have been traversing the deep chaos of the 2020 Pluto conjunctions. It is out of chaos that a new world is born. This is the deep calling for us to fulfil our destiny of human becoming. Guidance and help is available. Thanks be to God.
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P.S. The Divine joke is on us: we need 20:20 vision to see through the fog of fear.
P.P.S. I have needed to leave out a lot of detail about the extraordinary, intricate patterning of the astronomology of 2020. You are welcome to contact me at 9harmonia@gmail.com to find out more. Also to find out about our Sacred Mathematics Research Group meetings in the Forest Row area, Sussex.