Pandemic – The New Phase
This is part II of an earlier post, Pandemic – The Fourth Turning where I look at the current societal changes through the lens of evolutionary astrology. I recommend you read it first as I will pick up from where that post left off, what if “all humans are valued equally.” The simple answer, much would have to change in our social, political and economic systems for this to happen. Yet it is never a simple when dealing with humans!
Winter Solstice
Lets start by taking a look back at the last 9 months. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic which is now the leading cause of death in our country, yet many people are still in some level of denial. The stock market is back to the level of pre pandemic and we have unprecedented numbers of people out of work and lacking food, yet we measure the health of our economy by this number. We have a political system which is filled with partisanship and misinformation, pick your favorite news channel and get your perspective validated. Do you notice the thread of commonality in all of these…information and perceptions…some have started calling it The War on Sense-Making! I’ll come back to this later in the post.
Jupiter and Saturn
What do they represent? More than I can get into in a single post yet I want to look at them through the lens of their relationship to each other, what we call their phase. Like the Sun/Moon relationship which starts with the New Moon, peaks with the Full Moon and returns to the New Moon, we can look at the phase of Jupiter/Saturn. In his book, Book of the Moon, Steven Forrest calls the relationship the Cycle of Ambition. While the Sun/Moon cycle is approximately 28 days, the Jupiter/Saturn cycle is approximately 20 years. Here is how Steven describes what this relationship represents (used with permission).
We envision a beautiful garden in our backyard, lush with flowers, fountains and mysterious nooks: an earthly paradise, only awaiting construction. Welcome to Jupiter.
We get halfway through digging the first hole for the first five-gallon flowering plant. We realize how hard this project is going to be. Perhaps we reassess our attempt to re-create Versailles. Welcome to Saturn.
Big visions always collide with reality. But without big visions, how drab reality would be! And without realism, hard work and compromise would humans ever produce anything beyond advice, hot air and the empty recommendations of yet another committee? When are we being too ambitious and when are we selling ourselves short? ‘Doubt nothing except your limits.’ It is an encouraging sentiment, but I fervently doubt were I to set out to be the first person to swim to Hawaii, that I would make it. Some limits are real, and we can learn that the easy way or the hard way.
The phase relationship between Jupiter and Saturn tells us a lot about what our souls are learning in terms of unraveling this tangle between our big dreams and objective reality. Because of the principle of synchronicity, it also casts light on the kinds of circumstances – both in terms of opportunities and resistance – that our ambitions are likely to encounter.“
Just as we can apply this to ourselves individually, we can apply it to our culture collectively. All of this is happening in the rebellious sign of Aquarius, and there is no doubt we are clearly in The Age of Aquarius. The last time we started a new Jupiter/Saturn cycle in Aquarius was approximately 800 years ago. Aquarius brings the role of technology and individuation into the picture. Does technology serve us or do we serve it? Are we overly identified with our “group” or are we thinking for ourselves?
Now apply this perspective to our country, this moment in time and our planet, the impact we have. Over 200 years ago our founding fathers had a big dream for this country, a lot of hard work has gone into creating it…it’s time to revisit the vision, look at where we’re working hard. Never in human history has one country had a greater influence on the planet than the United States. We spend more money on the military and our currency is the global reserve currency. This is a tremendous amount of power, how are we using it?
Cycle of Ambition - The Phases
Understanding that the start of any cycle is the point of conjunction. This makes the time prior the 8th phase, the time after the 1st phase. Again in the Book of the Moon, Steven describes the characteristics of the phases like this…
8th Phase – 315-360 degrees
- Letting it go
- Losing ego-investment in accomplishment
- Release and surrender
- Graceful endings
- The has-been
- Inspiration
- Not being recognized
- Intimations of future possibilities
- Prescience
- “Today’s science fiction is tomorrows reality”
- Compassionate gifts
1st Phase – 0-45 degrees
- Big dreams
- Learning how to aspire
- Visionary experience
- Inner accomplishments, unseen by the world
- Learning to honor the invisible and unmanifest
- Creativity
- Futurism
- Contagious enthusiasm
- Utopianism
- Leadership
- Breakthroughs and new beginnings
- Ideas ahead of their time or for which “the technology does not yet exist”
It’s not difficult to see the expression of the 8th phase in many aspects of our social, political and economic structures. As I look at the characteristics of the emerging 1st phase it gives me hope and inspires me to share some of the my thinking. Before doing that I want to revisit the role information and perceptions are playing in the world.
The War on Sense-Making
The last time we had a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius was in the years 1226, 1285, 1345 and 1405. In between those years the conjunctions happened in the signs of Gemini and Virgo, both ruled by Mercury. Do you begin to see the theme of perceptions, information and learning emerging?
We are now at the equivalent point of that 1226 cycle. What was emerging in the world at that time? Some people attribute the printing press as the beginning of the modern era, but something happened before that to fed the printing press, the demand for information. Prior to the 1200’s most information, i.e. books, were created by monks in monasteries. This limited the topics of replication, often religious, and frequently if the monastic sect didn’t “agree” with what was being copied it was edited to align with their philosophy. As a result people lived in a world where information was limited and you were never quite sure of its accuracy.
At this same time we see the emergence of what are called the Medieval Universities, where the demand for accurate, non religious information was born. Often referred to as “Scholastic Guilds of Masters or Students” the accumulation of knowledge, i.e. information, was created. Between the years 1208 and 1405 over a dozen “Universities” were founded in medieval Europe, was this the true birth of the Information Age? Was this the time that set the stage for the printing press in the 1400’s, 3rd phase of the cycle, and ultimately the renaissance of the 1600’s, 5th phase of the cycle, the equivalent of the full Moon, where it is most visible.
As we complete the current Jupiter/Saturn cycle let’s consider some of the properties of our current Information Age. We live in a time when access to information is unprecedented. A story can propagate around the world in literally minutes, you can “post,” and get immediate feedback with “likes.” You can “tweet” and have it “re-tweeted” instantaneously. You can turn on news 24 hours a day, selecting any world perspective you desire. Our attention is hijacked by social media, advertising and biased news reporting. We live in a world where information is unlimited and you are never quite sure of its accuracy…sound familiar? It’s time to admit that the information is not the problem, the evolution of how we pay attention is!
New Cycle Dawning
Today we start the new cycle, yet it’s not a hard, fixed point. Consider this question, when does a kitten become a cat? It’s a process, an evolution in the human psyche that is being presented. Keep in mind we are entering the 1st phase, what we begin to imagine today won’t come to full fruition until the 5th phase.
It is a time for a new type of leadership, filled with contagious enthusiasm and futurism. For all of human history technology has created behavior, look at the impact the cell phone has had on our lives. We’re like Pavlov’s dog, with a simple ding or buzz we’re reaching for our device! It’s now time to flip the process…what if we started imaging the kind of world we desire and built the technology that encouraged and rewarded it? Does that sound like a process for ideas ahead of their time for which the technology doesn’t yet exist? Welcome to the 1st phase.
However, before we go off and start building our technology we must imagine the foundation on which it will be built, what I call core values. Check out my TEDx Talk from 2019 on Living a Values Based Life. What I’d like to offer are values I think we can share, you may have others and they are welcome. What I hope is these are ones we have in common.
- Cooperation, we work together to create the world we imagine. Competition is in internal process where we strive to learn and grow.
- Choice, we are free to make our own choices and are fully responsible for their outcomes. Individuals in institutions are responsible for the outcomes of that organization.
- Consequence, where we have shared agreements, choosing not to follow that agreement has a consequence. A simple example, a red light while driving means stop anywhere on the planet. If I choose to not follow that agreement I lose my privilege to drive on public roads.
- Commons, we share things openly and freely. The resources of the planet, the infrastructure we build, the knowledge we create is for the benefit of everyone.
- Contribution, it is through our contribution we create value and everyone’s contribution is equal. No longer is someone valued more than another.
- Creation, we create what is meaningful to ourselves and offer it freely to others.
Now imagine if you will an economy built on the values of the commons and contribution, a social system that rewards creation and contribution, and a political system built on choice and consequences. This may all sound a bit utopian, remember, we are in the 1st phase! All of this may be hard to imagine, yet there are people who are working towards these ends. Pay attention to how you pay attention, question the information you’re receiving, does it align with your values and what choices are you making based on it.
One of the projects that inspires me is The Consilience Project by the Civilization Research Institute. I’ve been following founder and visionary Daniel Schmachtenberger for many years as he’s been talking about The War on Sense-Making on his site Civilization Emerging.
As you enter the 1st phase of the Jupiter/Saturn cycle in Aquarius how do you want to show up? There are a couple of books I recommend as a foundation for this new phase:
- “Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Drive World” by Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West.
- “No More Feedback: Cultivate Consciousness at Work” by Carol Sanford.
In my next blog I will continue this analysis of social change as the United States approaches it’s Pluto return in February 2022.