The Astrology of a Lockdown: Then and Now
Your Wholesomely Foreboding Apocalypse-Enabling Red Flag Day for August.
AS WITH ALL WHOLESOMELY FOREBODING UPDATES, YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO ENJOY BOTH THE LOOSHTUBE AND STACK VERSIONS IN ORDER TO GAIN THE FULL PISCEAN EXPERIENCE
While July has been a dicey month, all things considered, one of its few unarguable winners has been Astrology — indeed, with the United States pretty much a write off, we might even say that the real MAGA legacy of The Orange Moonchild will be Making Astrology Great Again.
Not unlike our recent Mars-Medusa Head Shot shenanigans, the programmed release of the Chinah Virus into the Simulation back in 2020 was also a huge confirmation of the Archetypal truth of one the oldest and most universal forms of pattern recognition.
In fact, one of the most fascinating parts of my Skyclock initiation has been working backwards and finding out how said community both predicted (very well) and reacted to (not so well) the Wuhan ‘Flu aka the 1st Horseman aka the final chapter of *cue 12 Monkeys Theme Song* THE GERM CONSPIRACY.
The start of 2020 was on pretty much every major Astro radar, thanks primarily to an eye-wateringly ominous series of Celestial events.
The underlying Archetypal context for our collective entrance into the year of clear vision was a planned 1-in-35ish-year reunion between the cheery and light hearted combo of Saturn and Pluto.
Saturn-Pluto Opportunities: Revelations of the Adversary; Mastering the Darkness; Survival Lessons.
Saturn-Pluto Challenges: Abusive Authority; Absolute Control; The Grim Reaper’s Shadow.
Our Initiation began across Christmas and Boxing Day (a day or so before the first official “sequencing” of the ‘Rona), with a near-total Solar Eclipse: Conjunct Jupiter and Trine Uranus to 1 Degree.
Still over a Degree apart then, Saturn and Pluto would go exact on the 22nd Degree of Tropical Capricorn on the 12th day of the year: the same day that Chinah shared the QUOTE genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus UNQUOTE with the world.
The Natal Chart for the 12th of January is truly a thing to behold (and is absolutely Archetypally worthy of the 1st Horseman/Seal): literally on the day of the exact Conjunction, the Sun would also tick over to 22 Capricorn, with Mercury also less than a Degree away on the other side.
Aside from that unholy 4 way, and the lingering Jupiter-Ketu Conjunction just behind it, the 12th is also notable for slightly unsettling lack of traditional aspects (even Neptune and Pluto, basically Sextile since the Boomers were born, had temporarily moved out of a 6 Degree orb). Interestingly, every Planet was also in Direct motion, make of that what you will.
As Saturn slowly moved onwards into its new Plutonic Cycle, Jupiter would slughtly less slowly approach for its own Death and Rebirth in the first week of April. However, in a SHOCKING Malefic twist, an onrushing Mars would overtake Jupiter and join Pluto first, on the 23rd of March — the next day, as pre-prepared lockdown measures were being jammed through illegally around the world, it was announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would be postponed.
What is also notable about the chart above is the rare configuration of every Planet being on one side of the Lunar Node axis. This is known as Kala Sarpa Yoga in Vedic Astrology: a notoriously extreme and inauspicious arranngement that Moonchild aficionados will recognise as being present during the Blood Moon birthday of The Chosen One.
This especially Serpentine (= Sarpa) arrangement would continue until the final day of March, when the Moon crossed over the South Node… which also happened to be the day that Mars moved on to exactly Conjunct Saturn (and with Jupiter and Pluto now within half a Degree).
Essentially, then, the Revelation of the Lockdown was unleashed onto the world within the framework of this Mars-Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto Archetypal Hot Mess.
From a purely Basic Astrobitch perspective, the Double Malefic Mars-Saturn combo — landing rudely on the first degree of the Tropical Aquarius Collective — seems the most likely culprit.
Mars-Saturn Opportunities: Caution in the Face of Danger; Tests of Stamina and Endurance; Headstrong Discipline.
Mars-Saturn Challenges: Aggressive Authoritarianism; Fighting for the Adversary; Resentment.
Indeed, their recent April 10 Conjunction was the basis for me flagging the potential for the reemergence of lockdowns across the April 2024 Eclipse period.
In hindsight (and even when combined with a Mercury Retrograde) it was the Expansive and Exaggerated sense of Liberation and Revolution from the approaching Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction that likely ensured no such Mars-Saturn Aggressive Restrictions would be possible.
Well, Jupiter has now moved on from Uranus, as has Mars from Saturn… which brings us to our next iteration of Mars-Saturn, the first Square of their new cycle, which will have tightened to within a degree on August 14: the day (checks notes again with a Deep Sigh) that Mars becomes Conjunct with Jupiter in Tropical Gemini/Sidereal Taurus at EXACTLY Midday Moonchild time.
With the Malefics in tension, we might imagine a tension that exists between agendas that feel fundamentally irreconcilable. Jupiter, as the Greater Benefic, acts to clarify the Truth and Meaning of this tension… but as part of the Saturn Square, will likely do so in an Exaggerated, Unavoidable, even Harsh manner.
Jupiter-Saturn Opportunities: Disciplined Expansion; Higher-Minded Responsibility: Achieving the Seemingly Impossible.
Jupiter-Saturn Challenges: Internal Contradiction; Exaggerated Need for Control; Tests of Faith.
And with the Holy Warrior combo — the Archetype we would most expect to go into Battle for their Beliefs (and be unbearably smug assholes about it) — sitting squarely in the Horns of the Bull, it doesn’t particularly feel like an energy suited to compromise.
But the plot thickens.
THICKENS.
Luna — whose objectively mischievous purpose can no longer be denied — imposes herself onto an Apocalypse-Enabling Red Flag day in typically provocative fashion: 14 minutes away from a perfect Opposition to Mars-Jupiter, and thus completing a T-Square with a particularly Adversarial Apex.
Sometimes, the Celestial Geometry speaks so loudly that the Archetypes have to take a back seat — even more so when we factor in Venus, being a right fucking bitch in Virgo as she completes the Grand Cross.
How is that for a quite literal Celestial Red Flag?
When I *insert Ace of Bass* Saw the Sign — and knowing that three of the four 2020 culprits were intimately involved — I saw it as a Celestial Stop Sign — albeit one founded in the shifting foundations of the 4 Mutable Tropical Signs.
Actually: this will be an interesting Tropical/Sidereal moment, because if we shift things back 24ish Degrees, we suddenly find ourselves with a Fixed Grand Cross, in which case we have no choice but to imagine something akin to an abrupt screeching to a halt.
What about the final culprit, the Lord of the Underworld themselves?
Unlike early 2020, Pluto and Neptune are well and truly back into Sextile range. Also unlike 2020, they are now joined in a Minor Grand Trine by Uranus. The three Outer Planets will stay locked into this Grand Trine as they slowly and sequentially make their way to their new Tropical Signs: Pluto into Aquarius, for the final time (once it has finished overseeing the final United States Election in the final degree of Capricorn); Neptune into Aries, in tandem with Saturn of course; and finally, as we enter our new Golden Age of Air in 2026, Uranus into Gemini.
Instead of literal Celestial Stop Sign, perhaps we can see this Grand Cross as a point of initiation into the Archetypal dynamic of whatever this transition period holds?
That’s not to say that we will witness a literal initiation ritual at Midday Moonchild Time on the 14th: just like our recent Chiron-imprinted Eclipse, it might take a while for the true Jupiterian Meaning to emerge.
But it’s also not to say something won’t happen, potentially quite quickly and suddenly, on that day: because we will also have Uranus — still well and truly in the ballpark of Algol — doing gratuitously provocative and disruptive things (as Prometheus demands).
That Uranus Square Mercury in Retrograde looks particularly potent: something like an electrical storm of distorted revolutionary ideas, mixed with fast and hard judgements and a general sense of mental instability.
Interestingly, right on the cusp of Tropical Leo and Virgo, Mercury is also within a degree of the Fixed Star Regulus.
Which, in turn, puts it right on the Moonchild’s Ascendant: and, further in turn, to the surprise of no one, means we are compelled to finish with the August 14 Transits (True Sidereal) for the most famous Celestial Serpent of them all.
That would be Mars-Jupiter at the top of the chart, sitting right above his Eclipse-Activated Natal Uranus; that would be transiting Uranus, just to the right, still plonked on his Midheaven and creeping closer to an exact Square to that notorious Natal Mars Rising; and that would be Luna, lurking at the bottom, only a few degrees away from reaching the Sidereal position of that most notorious of Serpentine Moons.
THERE IT IS: your Wholesome Astrology Apocalypse-Enabling Red Flag Day for August.
Enjoy whatever twist The Clone Wars has in store for us next.
Thank you, Isaac. I appreciate the humor embedded in your writing. I don't really understand what I'm looking at with those beautiful charts but it doesn't matter.
What I do understand, increasingly, is that what is unfolding in our world can only be understood at a cosmic level. I think it's safe to say we need a very big Zoom Out perspective in which to view the current shit show.
Despite expected disruptions, all ultimately good. It's written in the stars, so, hey, let go cause it's gonna happen.
I like the Make Astrology Great Again, twist on MAGA. I find I listen more to astrologers lately myself.
Good toolbox to have on hand.
Best to you.
Hi Isaac- so glad you include the sidereal in your reports.