Final Exams
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Things Change
This week brings the second of three Jupiter/Pluto conjunctions (June 29, 2020, 11:22 pm PDT). These big conjunctions of the outer planets often come together three times because of these planets’ long retrograde periods. Jupiter made the first connection with Pluto on April 4, then turned retrograde and is now making a second conjunction (June 29). After Jupiter turns direct, it will make a third and final conjunction on November 12.
In order to move forward to a new kind of society, some of the old structures have to go. That’s Pluto’s job, and that’s what it’s been doing as it’s traveled with Saturn and Jupiter since last year. Saturn represents the old structures, the old rules, the old forms… the way we think things have to be. As Pluto has traveled with Saturn over the past year, the strategy has been to throw out the old ways and turn everything on its head. Sometimes, getting to the next step can mean losing a lot of things we weren’t ready to lose.
When one cycle ends, another begins – and that is a comforting way to think of what we’re going through. When terrible things happen, we can always look back from a historical perspective and say, “Well, we survived it. We got through it. Things change… and that’s the nature of life.”
Jupiter coming together with Pluto, on the one hand, amplifies the difficult dimensions of Pluto, but it also opens the door to tremendous advances.
The Story
There is the person you are inside, and there is the story you tell about that person. You tell it in a million ways – with words, through your name or your title, the clothes you wear, the songs you listen to. Conjunctions of the Sun and Mercury are good moments decide what story you’re going to tell about yourself. Sometimes, you try out a variety of stories – a crazy hairdo that doesn’t suit you, the nickname that never catches on – in the hope that you can become an ideal version of yourself.
But as the Sun and Mercury join together in introspective Cancer this week (June 30, 2020, 7:53 pm PDT), with both sextile iconoclastic Uranus (Mercury sextile Uranus 3:13 pm, Sun sextile Uranus 11:06 pm PDT), your personal identity is challenged in an exciting way. There’s a revelation that if you’ll only surrender preexisting ideas of yourself, you can become something more – by becoming more precisely yourself.
Drafting table
On Dec. 19, 2017, Saturn entered Capricorn for the first time in 29 years. Capricorn is something of a lone wolf, and Saturn’s journey here has been a solitary path for each of us. “Let us become the authorities over our own lives,” Saturn urged. “Let us keep our heads down, eyes on our own drafting table, and design a structure and ambition for our lives that makes sense.” Once each of us has done that, we can move into the next stage of the Saturn journey, in collectivist Aquarius, and join forces to build a society that works for all of us.
We’ve had a taste of that since Saturn entered Aquarius on March 21. But retrograde Saturn stepping back into Capricorn (July 1, 2020, 4:39 pm PDT) is like a scout who has journeyed ahead of the rest of the expedition, had a good look at the territory ahead, and has returned with recommendations. “Here’s what we’ll need up ahead,” he says. “Here’s a last opportunity to put our houses in order, repair our wagons, and build a stronger team.”
This spring, structures have fallen apart all around us. Organizations, groups of friends, political movements, even families have been falling away from their centers as the force of unprecedented events have spun us faster and faster. The center isn’t holding. It needs strengthening through leadership and commitment. That’s Saturn’s job as it retraces its steps through late Capricorn until December 16.
The Capricorn Full Moon (July 4, 2020, 9:44 pm PDT) closes a series of eclipses in Cancer and Capricorn that began in July 2018. This Lunar Eclipse is a final exam of sorts; what have made of the changes and challenges we’ve faced over this two-year period? Are we more or less financially secure, more content in our families, happy in our homes? Are we taking care of the people around us, or is it everyone for themselves?
This lunar eclipse is a very small one, just a bid of prenumbral shading. In the wake of the New Moon’s powerful Solar Eclipse in Cancer, this one is Capricorn’s small handshake with us on his way out the door. The Moon’s Sabian symbol at the eclipse degree is An ancient bas-relief carved in granite. And the Sun’s symbol is A very old man facing a vast dark space to the northeast. Both talk about what know, what’s stood the test of time, but also about what lies ahead in the “vast dark space to the northeast.” If this last two years have solidified your values, the vast dark space ahead will hold heart-opening promise. If not, the road forward may hold more peril than promise.
For insights into how this eclipse affects your chart, look back to the time periods when other lunar eclipses at this degree – most recently: July 7 2009, July 5 2002, July 6 1982.
Writing and collages © 2020 April Elliott Kent
Jen and I dig deep into all the week’s highlights
in our latest podcast episode,
32 | Capricorn Lunar Eclipse: A Minnesota Goodbye
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