AstroCast: October 15 – 28, 2020

“There is often no worse defeat than a meaningless ‘victory’; and the greatest of tragedies is a crisis that has been in vain. We endure suffering, catastrophe, insanity of a sort perhaps, the personality ploughed under, the structures of the ego shaken loose and the net result nothing: no growth, no rebirth, only a panicky or self-satisfied reorganization of this same ego along the same old lines, yet with the ghastly feeling that it all happened in vain. Humanity is today sickened by such a collective feeling, a mixture of guilt, hopelessness, and deep soul fatigue… The only solution is a new type of psychotherapy – and astrology – centered around the deliberate arousal of the creative factor in every individual.

Dane Rudhyar, Astrology and the Modern Psyche (1976)

Dane Rudhyar’s concept of what the purpose of a crisis might be blew my mind. It completely reoriented how I approach crisis, which often correlates with powerful outer planet alignments. Quite simply, rather than going into fear or denial of an unwanted reality causing great disruption in my life, I have learned to neutrally embrace what comes, to deal with it directly and consciously seek to discover what I can learn from the experience, and in the process strengthen my ability to withstand these periods of increased intensity so I can function more consciously through them.

So, 2020, definitely an amalgamation of crises the world has never seen. Our society is in the throes of a plutonic transformational process of radical deconstruction and reconstruction on many levels that is reaching a crescendo in sync with the outer planet movements over recent times. For those who are stopping to wonder what the hell is going on, to me it feels like the “cosmic intelligences,” as the planets are known in transpersonal astrology, are responding to a great cosmic need for a total reboot of life at all levels.

What really matters in such a time is how we, as individuals, approach the shocking disruptions we’ve been experiencing all year. One person I know has been unable to work during the pandemic, and now can barely make his rent and feed himself at the same time. He blames the politicians for his plight, but when I ask what he may be learning from this experience, he turns his bitter and resentful anger on himself for all the bad choices he made that led him to this point. Another person I know has been struggling with alcoholism for some time and exhibits a similar behavioral pattern that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. His state also alternates between the binary set of deflecting responsibility on others and self-flagellation, neither of which helps one to reverse out of a negative emotional spiral.

With three weeks until the U.S. presidential election, Saturn is playing a crucial role as the current transits represents an increasing pressure for accountability – if we have not risen to the call to act responsibly and with integrity. Furthermore, Mars in Aries, which represents the emergence of the true creative individual, is in a long series of “crisis of action” squares to Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, and is asking us to apply that sense of responsibility to ourselves as well as our society in all our actions. Now in the middle of the second of three passes as Mars retrogrades back through these alignments, we may be reflecting on our motivations and where they have landed us.

The Aries/Capricorn cardinal pressure is further intensified with the Sun in the sign of Libra creating a cardinal T-square alignment that peaks with exact squares between the Sun and the Saturn/Pluto conjunction October 15 through 18. On October 16, the New Moon in Libra, a thinking air sign that at its highest expression teaches us how to harmoniously engage with others while standing our ground, creates a powerful six-planet configuration packed with the impulse to initiate action. Yet with Mars retrograde, if we try to force something that may not be ready to move, or worse act in desperation, it could have unintended consequences. The chart for the New Moon imprints these aspects in the new lunar cycle, which governs the next 28 days, including the U.S. presidential election day, suggesting there may be an explosive or implosive release of tensions during the cycle.

One of the most significant transits right now is Mercury turning retrograde on October 13 at 11 degrees Scorpio. It will traverse back to 25 degrees Libra, asking us to revisit unspoken or incomplete truths in our relationships. Game-changing information could be revealed as retrograde Mercury forms the Inferior Conjunction with the Sun in Scorpio on October 25. At its highest expression, Scorpio and its ruling planet Pluto want only that which is authentically representing the core of our Being to express. If that isn’t happening, a crisis in one’s life could occur as a necessary condition for releasing the creative soul within.

As discussed in the last AstroCast, there is a strident call at this time to focus on that which is most important and to willingly do only what needs to be done. This is the third Mercury retrograde of 2020 and the tenth retrograde total for 2020. We could use this last deep dive of reflection to reach the true ground of our inner spiritual nature. It is my hope that this review will correlate to all of us coming to a profound knowing that we deserve the best future we can consciously create for ourselves. It is our destiny to fulfil the cosmic need of this moment to restructure our pandemic disrupted lives with greater authenticity, personal integrity and pioneering creativity. Significantly, Mercury stations direct on election day, November 3, which represents yet another shift in perception. Perhaps the Messenger of the Gods’ vibration being so powerful as it pivots in the sky on that fateful day, will inspire us to want our collective American voices to be heard so decisively as to manifest the greatest voter turnout in history.