The Divine Monochord – Robert Fludd 1617

As I wrote more than once over the last year or so, this was going to be an exceedingly difficult year and we are closer now to the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Winter Solstice 2020. This marks the nature, essence and direction for the next 20 years, with the various phases watched carefully – such as the opposition and squares that will occur during that period. There will also, of course, be a myriad of other influences that will stand in the larger framework. The events do at times seem to be genuinely apocalyptic.

Spiritus Mundi was a term used by W.B. Yeats to describe the collective Soul of the universe, containing the memories of all time. The current title is from “The Second Coming” by the poet, which also connects in important ways to an article I wrote in the Summer of 2017. The title, “Slouching towards Bethlehem,” was taken from the same poem. The themes are similar insofar as chaos and irrational action express itself, rooted in fear and anger, with global violence as a result. I will argue here, also, that awareness of the cosmic forces at play and what they are really showing us is the key to avoiding reactionary responses that lead us to an ever darker place and state of mind.

Cancer Ingress of The Sun. 20 Jun 2020. 10:43:33 pm. London, England

I would like to say that this is not a time for negativity, fear or projection. Many of the elements that we have considered essential parts of our lives have changed drastically and may appear to be beyond redemption. There is a centre to the storm and in that centre lies peace. However, the key is in understanding what we are experiencing. Terms such as “social isolation” and all that implies are quintessentially Saturn – Cold and Dry. One of the traditional names of Saturn is Fasifer, the keeper of Gate to the Fixed Stars, the final barrier, if you will.. His metal is lead which is extremely heavy and toxic. The lead used in the Roman water mains caused insanity in the population.

The Saturnine influences have been felt internationally and the greatest poison at this time is that of the mind and consciousness, even of the soul perhaps. We cannot run from Saturn, but he is far less dangerous if we understand what he’s all about. In everyday life, we may be presented with poisonous thoughts, in the form of lies, for example, but we don’t have to fall for them. We certainly don’t have to live by them.

If we turn to the Summer Solstice charts, we find that Saturn is the Almuten of the chart as well as the lord of the Ascendant. He is in one of his own domiciles in retrograde. As he slips backwards, he will be in his other domicile of Capricorn. Either way, he is strong, but perhaps a bit discombobulated. The eye is on the two social planets as they move toward the Great Conjunction. It’s a time of tumultuousness and intrigue.

Mars is the Jupiterean sign of Pisces, which thwarts much direct action. Jupiter is also in his Fall in Capricorn. We can say that for now, Mars has to do as he is bidden by the Great Malefic. Because of the natural idealism of Jupiter, it’s as if Mars is running amok, driven by a confused and misunderstood motive – is it to demonstrate for the greater good or to loot, driven by a state of chaos in which the message is scrambled in the smoke and rubble of a rebellious but incompetent urge to tear all asunder? The sextile between Jupiter and Mars is not particularly helpful in this case.

We have a relatively strong Mercury, but he’s also retrograde. He is free of the Sunbeams, in the 7th house (angular) of open enemies and the Sun in Cancer is Perigrine in the same house. Nevertheless, Mercury is Lord of the Moon in Gemini, within the North Node in Exaltation.

The Moon is in a very tight applying square to Mars. This is a shortlived transit but is also an integral part of this Cardinal chart – the influence of which will be in some effect until the Solstice.  The Moon works as an emotional impulse to Mars. That in itself is not always a bad thing, but we are mixing emotional with mental in a way that isn’t going to be graciously received. This is evident on streets around the world and in the resulting chaos and polarization in the media, including social media.

The theme of a dispossessed Mars is becoming manifest in calls for police forces around the world to be defunded. The Martian impulse is running rampant and at the same time, the Martial forces are being told to disband, to be de-funded even in very large cities with high crime rates. You will recall that Mars in the 3rd House is indicative of conflicts with brethren in this situation  That is one of the indications we might consider in the chart of a civil war.

Again, the theme of “Social Isolation” has become something of a racial Isolation, where for the greatest extent in decades racism of all stripes calls for distinguishing and separating people based on race, no matter how irrational that may be. But it isn’t about reason. This injured Mars resorts to vicious temper tantrums on a global scale, which affects the same on the other end of the polarity. Most importantly of all, nobody ever said that Mars was a wonderful ambassador unless of course, you think that napalm bombs are the greatest, most effective form of diplomacy Yet Mars is the Lord of the Geniture, the best ambassador available and perfectly mimicked by the Martian Hornets that line up to induce terror.

Venus is trine Saturn, which might have been a faint call for a gentler war among the masses is spoiled by being too little too late and both planets in retrograde motion.

The truly positive nature of this celestial map is that it calls us to step back and see what is actually going on, not only now, but always. We see Falsifer eagerly doing what he does best in such situations. How much of it is real and how much of it is hype? How could the world find itself in this extraordinary predicament – dropping the concerns of a pandemic, overnight and before its over, to gather in incendiary mobs, burning down the small businesses of the people they purport to fight while they wait for the Murder Hornets to arrive?

Sometimes it takes a sustained blow like this to force us to see the absolute madness of the status quo and the very real dangers of throwing it out before we know where we really want to go. The death of civilisation, as we know it, is miserably married to global financial ruin. All this is on the menu of the mainstream media, as is another far worse wave of the only virus to attain mythic dimensions in the collective psyche for more than a hundred years.

Stonehenge at the moment of Summer Solstice