The Challenging Astrology Of 2020-2022 & A NEW ERA
2020
While many astrologers didn’t predict a pandemic specifically (except French astrologer, André Barbault), we did see 2020 as a particularly challenging year because of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction. We don’t always know the specifics of how things will manifest when we look at the astrology but we can tell what the overall energy looks like, and we can also look at what has happened during these planetary cycles in the past.
The new era that we entered began with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in January 2020, which symbolized the destruction of the covid-19 pandemic. In Richard Tarnas’ book, Cosmos and Psyche, he points out that, “The alignments of the Saturn-Pluto cycle coincided with especially challenging historical periods” signifying an “end to an era,” and the ending of life as we had known it. Tarnas points out that the First and Second World Wars, the September 11th attacks in the United States, the Black Plague, and the AIDS epidemic all happened during a challenging Saturn-Pluto alignment. On The Astrology Podcast, Tarnas states that
We had this confinement with the lockdowns and people being isolated in their homes. There was the ordering of hard labor with essential workers having to continue to show up, put their health and lives at risk to care for society. As Tarnas points out, “All of these people were being exposed to COVID of the way the social inequalities are hierarchically established in our society, and on they’re facing the Saturn-Pluto more at that level of facing death, facing mortality, risking themselves with very hard labor.”
We can see the enduring consequences of that Saturn-Pluto conjunction with covid as it’s still a virus hanging around and some people are experiencing the effects of long-covid. Of course, there are other long-lasting consequences people are facing like with housing, losses of loved ones, unemployment or change in employment, etc.
Saturn represents structures, boundaries, restrictions, death and dying, suffering, maturity, authority, security, reliability, the establishment, tradition, status, law and order, long-lasting systems, discipline, control. Pluto intensifies whatever planet it’s aspecting. Pluto signifies depth, extremes, power, death and rebirth.
This cosmic combo indicates a longer period of a harsher, more intense time. Covid is still hanging around, and some people are experiencing the effects of long-covid. The pandemic made life harder for a lot of people, and for those who were already struggling, it magnified their struggles. There have been long-lasting consequences of the pandemic with people’s health and well being, housing affordability, losses of loved ones, unemployment or change in employment, greater financial struggles, etc.
Pluto is the underworld, and it highlights inequities and power imbalances that have deep roots. The Saturn-Pluto cycle symbolizing a global pandemic in many ways revealed the deeply held social-economic inequities in our societies.
2021
The Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020 happened in the sign of Capricorn (the earth sign it rules), which deals with the physical structures of our society. Capricorn as a nocturnal sign is reflective. Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn forced us to reflect on the foundations that make up our societies.
Saturn asks us to reflect on what’s working and what’s not working. It calls us to mature. Pluto intensifies whatever it touches making this time a deep reflection.
In December of 2020, Saturn changed signs and conjoined Jupiter in the sign of Aquarius (Saturn’s air sign) where they stayed throughout most of 2021. A new Jupiter and Saturn cycle began.
Saturn in Capricorn had us reflecting on the past, where have we been? Saturn in Aquarius has been getting us to think about the future, where are we going? Where do we want to go? But, still in a slow, deliberate manner because Saturn is cautious and focused.
Aquarius can represent medical innovations, thus with Saturn and Jupiter there, this is when the vaccines were distributed. This gave us some hope (Jupiter) for a future (Aquarius). There began this push pull of control versus freedom with covid, however, with variants popping up in 2021 just when we thought we would get a handle on the virus with the vaccines. The Saturn-Uranus square was getting stronger indicating this push pull.
You might have heard the rumor that we’re in the age of Aquarius, and, well, we might be, but that’s a whole different thing altogether. We are in the “age of air,” however. This got initiated with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in December 2020 in the sign of Aquarius. Jupiter and Saturn define and shape our world, they represent how our world and societies are structured, organized, and run. They represent our governments, and what is governing well and what isn’t. Jupiter represents governing and governments, and wants things to be running smoothly. Saturn represents our boundaries, limits, and constraints.
Jupiter and Saturn go through cycles together, and they are now in an “air” cycle where we are having Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in air signs for 200 years sparking the “age of air.” Every 200 years, they change the element of where they join forces. Jupiter and Saturn recently ended their cycle in earth signs, and had their first conjunction in an air sign in Libra in 1980. In 2000, they had their last conjunction in an earth sign, Taurus. Then, in December 2020, they had their second conjunction in an air sign, Aquarius, which signified their settlement into air signs for the next few hundred years.
In this new “age of air,” we are dealing with air themes like ideas, intellect, education, planes, space, social connections, communication, technology, travel, the mind, etc. We will continue to see these themes be the focus of our world for the next 200 years with Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in air signs (Aquarius, Gemini, Libra), and these themes will be, especially, prominent over the next twenty years with Pluto in Aquarius.
Conjunctions indicate a new cycle so with the Saturn-Pluto and Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions of 2020 and the future conjunction of Saturn-Neptune (2026), all point to a rebirth, new beginnings, a new era.
2025-2026 has more new cycles ending and beginning. In 2026, specifically, there is an amazing configuration with the outer planets in harmonious aspects with one another, something we have not seen in our lifetime. Because we haven’t seen this in our lifetime, it is hard to predict, but like most of these transits reveal, life is a full of a mix of positive and challenging experiences. What these planetary shifts reveal though is that the world as we’ve known it is changing drastically.
There are more new eras coming when Neptune enters Aries and Uranus enters Gemini. We continue to live in extremely pivotal times.
Learn more in my post HERE.