The Astrology Blog 30 March 2020
All times in BST
“It takes all the faith within you
It takes your heart and it takes mine
It takes love to be forgiven
Livin’ in these troubled times.
Livin’ in These Troubled Times – song recorded by various artists, written by Roger Cook, Sam Hogin, Philip Donnelly
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
I was pleased to see the BBC running a piece about domestic violence.This subject had occurred to me weeks ago when we started to face lockdown measures and I remember feeling rather relieved that I live alone rather than with someone who got on my nerves!
More seriously, that chain of thought made me think about women who are being abused or dominated, and what an unthinkable nightmare it must be to be imprisoned with your tormentor –
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52081280
If you know of anyone in the UK who might need help please can you pass on the helpline number below.
If you’re not in the UK then there will be helplines in your own country. Men can also be victims and the figures are alarming to say the least –
An estimated 1.6 million women and 786,000 men experienced domestic abuse in England and Wales in the year ending March 2019. And in 2018, 173 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides across the UK.
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline
The 24 hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge is for women experiencing domestic abuse, their family, friends and others calling on their behalf.
Phone: 0808 2000 247
The 24 hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline
WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK?
Reading through my feature for Network She (link in intro above) reminds me not just of how much life has changed, but also how fast everything is still changing.
I wrote the feature only a week ago, feels like a month, and in that short space of time things have yet again moved on apace.
The word “unprecedented” is being used over and over again in the media, and in nearly every conversation I have the word “surreal” is there.
We are all in shock, not just because of what is unfolding but also because of the speed at which it’s happening.
We’re all struggling to get our heads around it.
The first death in Wuhan was less than three months ago and was “something awful happening in China”.
It’s little wonder that so many people are not yet practicing effective social distancing because the message is still not getting through.
PEAK WEEK
This week’s astrology suggests that this is going to be a peak week, almost certainly in the number of new cases and deaths being reported from around the world, but even more so in the measures being taken to enforce the varying forms of lockdowns currently in place.
The other phrase constantly in the news is “Draconian measures”. Astrology’s phrase for the same thing would be “Plutonic measures”.
Before we get to the massive landmark of the Jupiter – Pluto conjunction this coming weekend there are other major features unfolding that clearly add to the picture.
The week starts with Mercury coming “out of shadow” and heading for Neptune, Mars changing sign and immediately meeting up with Saturn –
Monday 30 March
- Mercury out of Shadow
- Mars ingress Aquarius 20.44
Tuesday 31 March
- Mars conjunct Saturn 0 Aquarius 19.33
Saturday 4 April
- Mercury conjunct Neptune 19 Pisces 02.16
Coming “out of shadow” is the moment when Mercury gets back to the place at which he originally turned retrograde. This is like coming full circle and it marks the moment when Mercury is back to full speed. Here’s the sequence –
- 17 February – Mercury turned retrograde at 13 degrees of Pisces
- 10 March – Mercury, having slid back into the previous sign, turns direct at 28 degrees of Aquarius
- 16 March – Mercury re-enters Pisces for the second time
- 30 March – Mercury gets back to 13 degrees of Pisces and this is when he’s “out of shadow”
TURNING POINT
So when Mercury turns direct that’s the turning point, either in our understanding of a situation, such as new information coming to light, or in terms of actual events unfolding.
In “normal” times it would be when everything starts moving in the right direction.
When Mercury moves out of shadow that’s the moment when we would “normally” see definite results, especially in terms of dealing with whatever problems he created for you in the first place.
Nobody now really knows what the new “normal” is, other than it bears no relation whatsoever to anything that any of us have ever experienced.
My own feeling is that on this occasion Mercury being back up to full speed in mutable (spreading, disseminating) Pisces and now joining Neptune (Pisces planet) reflects not just the uncontainable factor and momentum of the virus itself but also how the flood of information, statistics and anxiety is permeating every nook and cranny of the world.
It’s at saturation point.
I strongly recommend imposing your own restrictions on watching, reading or listening nonstop to the news.
We all know what’s happening, we know what we have to do.
Keep informed but being immersed also feeds our fear and affects our psychological abilities to cope.
Mercury is the mind planet and rules everything to do with communication.
Coming out of shadow may also symbolize the real wakeup call, the realization that this isn’t just a bad dream that will soon be over but an ongoing nightmare.
Even those who up until now haven’t been taking this seriously enough can’t fail to miss the point that this is affecting everyone, everywhere, from the royal family to the poverty stricken third world.
And in the physical body Mercury rules the lungs and the breath of life itself. The picture emerging now is the new crisis for ventilators.
MARS CONJUNCT SATURN IN AQUARIUS
Saturn changes sign approximately once every two and a half years. As noted a couple of weeks ago, this is going to be another complex journey –
- Saturn ingress Aquarius (22 March)
- Will get only as far as 2 degrees of Aquarius before turning retrograde (11 May)
- Will slide back into Capricorn again (1 July)
- Will turn direct again at 25 Capricorn (29 Sept)
- Will reenter Aquarius for the second time at the end of the year (17 Dec)
It’s another indication that we should believe what we’re now being told in terms of the timescale.
Saturn is known as Lord of Time – he rules everything to do with the nature of time, from the ageing process to clocks – and that we’re looking at coping with this situation in one form or another for the rest of the year rather than just the next few months.
Saturn is also boundaries and restrictions, and is one of the planetary rules of Aquarius, the modern or co-ruler being Uranus.
Both Aquarius and Uranus rule the collective, so everything to do with groups and humanity on a worldwide scale.
So the implications for crowd control are obvious.
MARS
Mars now moving into the scrum, and joining Saturn at 0 degrees of this sign, signals a new chapter in the making that looks as if it will be about militancy.
Mars is the god of war and, as Macron said a few weeks back, we ARE at war, with an invisible enemy.
The police in the UK are being given more powers to break up crowds and my own feeling is that the arrival of Mars could also signal the mobilization of the army.
We have to see ourselves as part of the collective now, we can’t act on individual desires, and those who see themselves as separate from or above this law are arguably the biggest part of the problem.
Experts have said they expect the number of coronavirus cases and deaths to continue to rise for the next two to three weeks, before the effects of social distancing measures and restrictions on everyday life begin to have an impact…. current measures could be in place until June.
Scotland’s chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House:
“The modelling that’s been done, and that I have seen, has always said that we need at least 13 weeks of some sort of measures in order to really get this virus away from spreading amongst people.
When you have a shorter period of time, as I understand other countries have done, as soon as you lift the measures the virus comes back again because you haven’t stopped it transmitting amongst lots of people.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-52079922
PERSONAL LEVEL
At a more personal level if you have planets or Angles at 0 degrees of Aquarius, or 0 degrees of anything, then it’s a time for being extra mindful and careful.
But I have no wish to be alarmist on this point.
We have to remember that ordinary life still goes on in lots of other ways.
Yes in the physical body Mars rules fevers and inflammation but he also rules cuts and things like nettle stings!
It’s too easy to scare ourselves with medical astrology, I’ve done it loads of times.
And it’s one of the reasons why I generally refuse medical questions, it’s not my area of expertise.
In our emotional world Mars rules all the heated emotions, from passion to anger.
This combination with Saturn may well show as extra friction if you’re cooped up with your family.
But it’s also a good combination for new rules, for getting together and working out what is best for the good of the whole. Make cooperation and fairness your watchwords.
VENUS THE LOVE & MONEY PLANET
Mars (men) is known as one of the love planets and Venus (women) is the other.
Venus is now on her final leg of the journey through her own sign of Taurus and will move into Gemini at the end of the week and, like Mars, will almost immediately align with Saturn –
Friday 3 April
- Venus ingress Gemini 18.12
Saturday 4 April
- Venus 1 Gemini trine Saturn 1 Aquarius 18.11
Venus changing sign is more significant than usual as, yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s the beginning of yet another complex journey.
At full speed Venus takes three to four weeks to whizz through each sign, but she turns retrograde once every 18-20 months, and stays retrograde for a period of around 42 days, backtracking about 15 or 16 degrees. The sign in which she turns retrograde repeats every 8 years.
It’s a while off yet but Venus will get as far as 22 degrees of Gemini and will then turn retrograde (13 May, the day before Jupiter also turns retrograde) and will turn direct again at 5 degrees of Gemini on 25 June.
She’ll eventually enter the following sign of Cancer on 7 August.
In other words, Venus will be in Gemini for four months, four times longer than usual.
It’s rather mind boggling to speculate on how this is all going to show.
Venus also rules our pleasures, and the money that we make to enjoy those pleasures, and for many the ongoing hardships will be tough.
Most of us will have to kiss goodbye to whatever it was that we had planned for the summer.
VENUS IN GEMINI
Gemini is also a super sociable sign, find me a Gemini who doesn’t love/need to talk, and the lack of social life and too much isolation will take its toll.
So now is the time to think ahead. Social (Venus) media (Gemini) will be increasingly important so if you’re not already on Facebook, if you’re not already part of online groups or if you haven’t already got your friends and family on Whatsapp groups, now’s the time to get going on this.
So many people have already told me that they don’t know how they’d be surviving without Facebook.
We had a virtual birthday party last Friday evening – when Venus was applying to a good aspect with Jupiter – which actually created a lot of fun, and a lot of hangovers!
LOVE IN THE CORONA CLIMATE
Back to love, in the corona climate there are several issues that are going to be noticeable.
On the downside – or upside depending on your point of view – the risk of divorce or separation will go up.
This has already been illustrated in China who, seemingly and so far, seem to have come through their peak period.
It’s the number of people filing for divorce that is now spiking as many have discovered that being with a partner 24/7 was enough to show them that they were in the wrong relationship, or one that was not strong enough to withstand this kind of pressure.
I personally can’t think of anything much worse than being imprisoned with someone I didn’t love.
And it must be shattering to find that the person you thought you could rely on for love, comfort and companionship was unable to give it. Or vice versa.
AFFAIRS…
The other very common factor when Venus enters Gemini, and especially when she turns retrograde, is the spike in affairs.
Gemini is the sign of the Twins so Venus (love and sex) in Gemini (two) can signal the classic love triangle.
I expect many casual affairs will naturally crumble as lovers are simply physically unable to be together.
I can only imagine that more serious affairs will be the source of a great deal of anguish.
If you’re single now is definitely not the time to get involved with anyone who is already unavailable!
But Venus in Gemini (Mercury’s sign, the media) is fabulous for internet dating.
I know several people are doing it and am told that there’s actually a big plus in the fact that you can’t arrange to meet up.
It swings the focus onto a meeting of minds first.
You have the chance to get to know someone very well first. And anyway you can’t have sex two meters apart.
Venus rules beauty too so spare a thought for the world of salons, hairdressers, massage parlours and so on.
Many of these places wont’ survive and will simply go out of business.
As Venus leaves Taurus (earth, the senses) and arrives in Gemini (air, the mind) it seems that we will have to forgo the physical touch in all kinds of ways.
I bumped into two girlfriends at the local supermarket a few days ago and we were all comparing our grey roots – as we stood two meters apart.
All of the hairdressers have been closed for several weeks, along with the nail bar and the Hammam, the sauna and the only place in Nidri where you could get a massage.
JUPITER CONJUNCT PLUTO
This aspect has been “applying” (getting closer) for weeks and the end of this week brings the first exact conjunction of these two major planets, an alliance that will play out for the rest of the year and which is clearly the astrological backdrop for this pandemic –
Sunday 5 April
- Jupiter conjunct Pluto 25 Capricorn 02.15
Here’s a reminder of the sequence
- First conjunction 5 April
- Jupiter will turn retrograde 14 May
- Jupiter travels back to rejoin Pluto 30 June
- Jupiter will turn direct 13 September
- Jupiter will catch up with Pluto for the third and final time 12 November
Going back for a minute, we had the Saturn – Pluto conjunction (once every 34 years) on 12 January.
With that wonderful thing called hindsight we now know the true significance of this major event as 11 January was the date of the first death from the virus, and 12 January was the exact day that China authorities alerted the World Health Organisation to the number of virus cases in Wuhan.
On this date they also said that there was no clear evidence that the virus passes easily from person to person.
How wrong can you be! Any astrologer reading that statement would have known immediately that something more serious was in the making, and in fact it was the very next day 13 January when the first case outside of China was reported in Thailand.
THE IMPACT OF PLUTO
Pluto annihilated Saturn’s boundaries, it was an invisible enemy impossible to contain, and now virtually the whole world is in lockdown.
Jupiter enters Capricorn once every 12 years and has now caught up with Pluto.
So now it’s all things Jupiterian that are being “cancelled out” by Pluto’s relentlessness –
Jupiter – main principle is expansion, rules anything that makes our life bigger and better.
He is known as the Greater Benefic, the bringer of freedom, liberation, opportunity, luck, good fortune, abundance and generosity.
Jupiter also rules long distance travel and all matters or people related to overseas.
Pluto – main principle is endings/beginnings, often starting with loss, finality, death of the old and the birth of the new, transformative processes, darkness, absence, invisibility, starting from scratch, deep healing, resourcefulness and secrets.
His nature is absolute, uncompromising and disempowering.
I agree it makes depressing reading.
But the real clampdown, the removal (Pluto) of personal freedom (Jupiter) is literally the only way forwards.
And I am trying to finish on a positive note here so let me just say that one of the most powerful things about astrology, and I’ve discovered this countless times with client work, is the chance to date something.
When you have a timeline you know that something difficult, whatever it might be, will end.
One of my mantras at the moment is, “This is not forever … it just feels like it!!”
Stay home, stay safe,
With love from Greece
Joanna