Monday, May 31, 2021

Remembering the Sky: Jupiter and the May 26th eclipse in action



 

“The greatness of the human person consists in this: that we are capable of the universe." --Thomas Aquinas 

 

 

When Jupiter first took the plunge into Pisces waters this past May 13th—the sign it co-rules with Neptune—it sounded a resonant wake-up call, like the behemoth cosmic “whale” it is. The ingress was momentous enough on its own, considering the likelihood that it would exacerbate existing Neptune-in-Pisces dynamics in ways both positive and negative: the pandemic and associated vaccination campaigns, including those driven by the incredible compassion of dedicated healthcare workers on one hand; rampant misinformation- and conspiracy-based political wranglings and power plays on the other.  As we saw in the last post here, Jupiter played a significant role in the cease fire between Israel and Hamas, opposing Palestine’s Virgo Chiron and t-squaring its Sagittarius Ceres. We discussed the connection that astrologer Faye Blake sees between Ceres and democracy in regards to this configuration and since then, I’ve encountered more convincing examples of this connection. More on this in a bit. 

Since the last post, Jupiter has also played a role in this past week's Sagittarius lunar eclipse, as the ruler of Sagittarius and squaring the Moon-Sun axis (Sagittarius-Gemini). “Lord” of the eclipse is a role Jupiter would surely embrace, especially from its dignified mutable “throne” in Pisces. Clearly, all of this Jupiterian activity is of both domestic and international importance, and examples abound: we’re already seeing pressure applied to the Japanese government to cancel this year’s Summer Olympics due to their current COVID resurgence; not surprisingly, eclipse Jupiter (1°+Pisces) conjoined Japan’s 27°+Aquarius North Node and opposed their 0°+Virgo Vesta—will the Olympic “hearth” be lit this summer after all? 

Then there’s the upcoming G7 Summit (June 11-13), which is sure to be influenced by this Pisces Jupiter. In the noon chart for its opening on June 11th in Cornwall, England, Neptune (Pisces) is set to square that chart’s Sun-Mercury (Gemini); Jupiter co-rules that while also squaring the noon chart’s Gemini MC1. This summit is likely to highlight the importance of climate change-related initiatives and policies to the world economy, which perfectly suits the collective concerns of these two key Pisces points. The Guardian is reporting that G7 nations will be called upon to “forge a global plastic pollution treaty,” which also suits the Neptune/Pisces emphasis—fossil-fuel based products like plastics are co-ruled by Neptune and Pluto, so hopefully Neptune’s conjunction with Pisces Pallas and Pluto’s opposition from Capricorn to Cancer Mars will inspire collective corporate action at the highest levels on behalf of human needs and for the sake of economic and climate justice. This seems pretty much in line with the following from the Guardian:  

“NestlĂ©, one of the largest creators of plastic waste, has joined the supermarkets Aldi, Iceland and the Co-op as signatories in an open letter that supports a binding worldwide treaty to tackle plastic pollution. 

The letter, also supported by the TV presenter Chris Packham and activist groups Surfers Against Sewage and A Plastic Planet, says that only a global approach will start to tackle the problem. 

‘Some 300m tonnes of plastic waste [are] produced every year,’ the letter said. ‘Less than 10% of all plastic has ever been recycled. The rest piles up in landfill, is incinerated, or ends up littering our natural environment for centuries.’” 

The sheer magnitude of the plastics challenge speaks to Jupiter and Neptune working in tandem in that most collective of signs, Pisces. The fact that major corporations are taking the lead in this issue suggests that at least part of the corporate world is willing to do the right thing here, but governments need to step up with guidance and support.  

Jupiter & Neptune are especially pertinent to plastics polluting beaches and oceans.
 

So Jupiter in Pisces, especially as entwined as it is with Neptune in their co-ruled sign, speaks loudly to the continuing battle against COVID, which has recently produced a new wave of infections in India, now struggling with the loss of hundreds of physicians needed to fight that battle. COVID has also rebounded in the most unexpected of places in the past weeks, Taiwan, and the challenges don’t stop there. From the Japan Times:  

“Taiwan is being squeezed by a resurgent coronavirus on one side and a yearlong drought that is disrupting agriculture, industry and power supplies on the other. Only one of those forces is likely to go away. 

The dual stresses can be seen at home in sliding stocks, power and water shortages, and abroad as Taiwan’s chipmakers struggle to fill a global deficit of semiconductors. While the government works to rein in the COVID-19 outbreak, the water and energy strains highlight longer-term challenges from the island’s unusual vulnerability to climate change.” 

All of this, at a time when China is putting more pressure on them, military and otherwise, and on the Biden administration for its expressed support of Taiwan’s independence.  

Taiwan is actively fighting back the current COVID resurgence.
No surprise, the ordeals being experienced in both India and Taiwan are reflected in their respective radix charts set against the May 26th eclipse chart: Jupiter is transiting India’s 1950 “Republic” chart’s 11th house (see Biwheel #1 below)2, trining radix Uranus (Cancer) and squaring the eclipse axis (outer wheel) that straddled that chart’s 3rd-9th axis, perhaps reflecting a role for both religion and media-driven politics in their shockingly heavy losses. The most haunting pictures I’ve seen have been of the mass cremations, an image that evokes their fiery Sagittarius 9th. The political dimension of the crisis in India seems focused around blaming Narendra Modi’s lack of leadership through it; interestingly, eclipse Moon almost exactly conjoins India’s radix Ceres (Sagittarius), which probably reflects current waning support for his “strong man” administration and the worry that Indian democracy is at risk under him.  

 


Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) Republic of India, January 26, 1950, 10:15 a.m. ST, Delhi, India3; (outer wheel) Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 4:43:43 p.m. ST, Delhi, India. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.  

China is employing controversial "gray-zone" tactics against Taiwan.
For its part, Taiwan’s current COVID ordeal is also reflected in transits to its 1947 radix chart (inner wheel, Biwheel #2 below). Notice that the eclipse axis also stretches across Taiwan’s 3rd-9th axis, only this time with the Moon over their 3rd, widely conjoining their radix Jupiter (Sagittarius). The axis itself squares transiting Jupiter opposite radix Mars (Pisces-Virgo), so an apt reflection of the perfect storm of mutable chaos and disruption they’re experiencing right now. With this 3rd-9th emphasis—not to mention the presence of their radix Mercury-Uranus opposition (Gemini-Sagittarius) straddling those houses—we can probably assume that there’s a concerted media-based effort afoot to sway public perception and opinion in regards to mainland China’s designs upon their independence. In the midst of a serious drought, will China put them in her debt with aid packages and other such “benevolent” tactics? Or will it opt for a military assault while the island nation is feeling especially vulnerable? How imminent a possible military incursion could be is under dispute. From DW.com: 

“Earlier this month, US Commander Philip Davidson of the Asia-Pacific region said he expects China to advance  towards democratic Taiwanin the next six years. I worry that they're [China] accelerating their ambitions to supplant the US and our leadership role in the rules-based international order by 2050,' Davidson said during a senate committee meeting earlier this month. ‘Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before that. And I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years.  

‘While we shouldn't ignore the risk of a Chinese attack, I believe an attack in the near term is unlikely. It remains a potential action of last resort if the Chinese feel that they have exhausted all their options,’ Bonnie Glaser, director of the Washington-based China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told DW. 

According to Glaser, Beijing has more pressing priorities domestically but thinks nevertheless, that ‘the biggest threat Taiwan faces in the next couple of years is China's gray zone tactics.’” 

These “gray-zone tactics” are designed to bully and intimidate those Asia-Pacific nations over which China wants to ultimately impose its regional dominance; unfortunately, the tactics are difficult to respond to because they go right up to the lines drawn by international law, but go no further. Transits suggest that Taiwan will be vulnerable between now and 2031, when Uranus returns to its radix late Gemini position, with Saturn trailing behind earlier in that sign, indicating the near-end of the 1988 Saturn-Uranus waning 3Q (this final quarter was first exact in February, 2017). Interestingly, Jupiter will be transiting opposite by mid-2031, in Taiwan’s Sagittarian 3rd house, so their rebellious spirit is likely to be roused into action.  

Eclipse Jupiter (outer wheel, Biwheel #2) also trines Taiwan’s radix MC (Cancer), which may bode well for their protection in the near-term, but the emphasis on their 3rd-9th polarity over the longer stretch does portend ideological change that may or may not support their democracy. Eclipse Neptune-Pallas squares Eclipse Mercury-Venus (Pisces-Gemini) and these two points conjoin Taiwan’s radix Uranus (Gemini), so they are experiencing the crunch of a major outer planetary milestone here, as well. If Uranus represents their founding liberation from Communist mainland China, the gradual tightening of transiting Neptune’s square may challenge that separation by undermining Taiwan’s independent democratic institutions. The ongoing and long transit they’ve been experiencing from Pluto (Capricorn) to their Aries Ceres has undoubtedly added to the challenges. Between that and the Neptune transit, the image of a mammoth whale swallowing a little Taiwanese “fish” whole comes to mind, but hope springs eternal. 

 

Biwheel #2: (inner wheel) Nationalist China (Taiwan), December 25, 1947, 12:00 a.m. ST, Taipei, Taiwan, China;4 (outer wheel) Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 4:43:43 p.m. ST, Delhi, India. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.

India's PM Narendra Modi has lost support lately over his COVID response.

 
So it’s clear that both India and Taiwan are struggling not just with resurgent COVID, but also with challenges to their respective democracies. As noted, many blame the current crisis in India on right-wing nationalist PM Narendra Modi’s ineffective response from the first days of COVID’s spread. From the BBC: 

“’Modi leads India out of a lockdown and into a Covid apocalypse,’ declared a recent headline in the UK Sunday Times.  

The Australian newspaper re-published the story with a scathing summary: ‘Arrogance, hyper-nationalism and bureaucratic incompetence have combined to create a crisis of epic proportions, critics say, as India's crowd-loving PM basks while citizens literally suffocate.’ 

It earned a rebuke from India, but there's no denying the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cherished image has taken a bad hit.” 

In fact, many see Modi’s response as being typical of such governments—people across Brazil are protesting the right wing Bolsonaro regime’s shoddy COVID response and many are demanding his impeachment for the more than 460,000 dead. At 6°+ and 7°+Gemini respectively, Brazil’s 1822 radix Jupiter and Moon5 are in the May 26th eclipse’s line of fire; hence the popular (Moon) uprising.  

 


Back in the U.S. 

Of course, here in the U.S., the Trump administration oversaw a similarly disastrous response early on that we have thankfully (and hopefully) turned around under Biden’s far more dedicated approach, but not without close to 600k dead to show for it. Could it be that populist, often isolationist/nationalist “strong man” leaders are just uniquely doomed to fail in this type of crisis? From the Washington Post: 

“’This COVID epidemic may actually lance the boil of populism,’ Francis Fukuyama, the acclaimed political philosopher, told the BBC last year. ‘I don’t think there’s any correlation between being a democracy and doing well or poorly [in dealing with the coronavirus]. But there’s definitely a correlation between being a populist leader and doing badly.’”

From a U.S. perspective, it was also important that when Jupiter ingressed Pisces it was still just separating from the Sibly Moon (Aquarius) and within orb of conjoining nearby Sibly Ceres, which falls tightly square Sibly Uranus.  

Interestingly, this Jupiter-Ceres conjunction will be perfecting just in time for our Sibly Pluto return in February 2022. Given Faye Blake's recent article on the TMA blog, explaining why she equates Ceres with democracy, we might be able to look forward to this February 2022 conjunction with less trepidation than usual. I cited Blake's views on this in the last post here, but let's revisit the gist quickly: 

"She [Ceres] is between Mars — the last personal planet, our will, and the first social planet — Jupiter, laws, strategy and vision for groups, including countries. She is the go-between of the will of the people and political systems. As such, she negotiates and sticks up for all underdogs against the powerful ruling classes. She said “NO” to Jupiter and Pluto in the myth in order to get what she wanted. In my view, she represents a strong, wise, feminine archetype."  

Saying "no" to Jupiter and Pluto, especially in combination, is no small feat, of course: these two wield considerable "top-down" power, not the kind of power naturally associated with democracy. In fact, that kind of power relies on a diligently-maintained balance between leadership (Sun) and People (Moon), lawmakers (Saturn) and the Courts (Jupiter), so we can see how the eclipse that just transpired on May 26th comes into play. It’s no secret that American democracy is under siege from Trump-inspired GOP state legislatures. In a stunning, coordinated effort across all GOP-led states, bills are being rammed through that would basically pre-rig coming elections by effectively allowing the GOP to choose who gets a vote and who doesn’t.  

Court challenges are bound to follow these efforts, of course, and we can probably expect a volatile summer, with protests (Uranus) focusing intensely on what really does amount to a “return to Jim Crow laws” regarding voting. I expect that the closer we get to the exact Sibly Pluto return in February 2022, the more these voting rights issues will test our democratic (small “d”) resolve. No surprise, these challenges are all tied into that May 26th 5°+ Sagittarius-Gemini eclipse axis (see Biwheel #3 below): eclipse Jupiter conjoins Sibly Ceres in Pisces and together they square eclipse Moon-conjunct-Sibly Uranus (Gemini), and with that Uranus disposing Sibly Moon (Aquarius), grass-roots unrest can be expected.  

 


Biwheel #3: (inner wheel) U.S. (Sibly) chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA; (outer wheel) Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 7:13:43 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.  

This eclipse has also helped bring the horrific events of May 31-June 1, 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma into national awareness in ways we’ve never seen before. I covered this event in the context of America’s karmic heritage in regards to race and class in a post from one year ago (here), but there’s good reason for the issue’s re-emergence now, one hundred years after it happened. Very few survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre remain at this time, of course, and they and their families have never been even partially compensated for their losses and pain. Of course, calls are intensifying for that to happen, and the Biden administration is apparently on board with the idea—the president will be visiting Tulsa this weekend to meet with massacre survivors and their descendants.  

No surprise, the May 26th eclipse tied into that 1921 event chart like a key in a lock (Biwheel #4 below). Eclipse Sun, No. Node, Venus and Mercury overlay Massacre Sun, Mars and Pallas—all in Gemini, with Eclipse Moon opposite in Sagittarius. A PBS documentary entitled Tulsa: the Fire and the Forgotten showed documents beginning of the attacks on the black Greenwood business district at 10:30 p.m., May 31st, so that's the timing I'm using here. Notice how the eclipse axis squares the event’s Jupiter-Uranus opposition axis that spans the chart's 8th-2nd axis (Virgo-Pisces), a fitting placement considering the tragic loss of life and property that ensued. As with Taiwan’s similar opposition, this event’s Jupiter-Uranus opposition alone speaks to the importance of Jupiter cycles in resolving the issues at hand—transiting Jupiter widely conjoins event Uranus here, tying into that opposition.  

 


 

Biwheel #4: (inner wheel) Tulsa Race Massacre, May 31, 1921, 10:30 p.m. ST (based on historical accounts), Tulsa, OK; (outer wheel) Lunar Eclipse, May 26, 2021, 7:13:43 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast on Kepler 8.0, courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software. 

The possibility exists, of course, that Biden's visit will simply become a symbolic gesture that goes nowhere and solves nothing, but the 3Q phases of the two Jupiter cycles we’ve been discussing here might insist that something be done to right this historical wrong. Such demands are already manifesting: movements like the Poor People’s Campaign are calling for a so-called “Third Reconstruction” resolution in Congress that would: 

“...(1) acknowledge the deep harms we have suffered from systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the false narrative of white supremacist nationalist extremism and (2) commit to heal and transform the nation by addressing these interlocking injustices, beginning with those most impacted, with moral and just laws and policies.” 

Unfortunately, the bitterly hateful zero-sum thinking that spawned atrocities like Tulsa in 1921 (and others like it elsewhere) is far from healed in this nation, so it’s hard to know if a “third Reconstruction” will make any difference—when black families thrive in America, there always seem to be white Americans who resent that thriving, as if they had been robbed to make it happen. Even today, when Black Lives Matter protests happen in Tulsa, armed white militia men show up to intimidate everyone--much like a modern day KKK. And this aggrieved attitude and willingness to inflict terror and thuggery is how white supremacy and systemic racism have been and still are perpetuated—both topics the GOP and others are trying hard to smother with misinformation (Jupiter-Neptune in Pisces) these days, whether in our classrooms, through state legislatures, or in the halls of Congress.  

In fact, shameless gaslighting is being used to deny the reality of what we saw at the Capitol on January 6th and was used this past week to deny the need for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate that event. This ill-fated Senate vote was taken on May 28, 2021 at 11:24 a.m., with Neptune tightly conjunct Pallas, square Venus-Mercury (conjunct in Gemini) and trine Mars in Cancer. So undermining Justice (Neptune-Pallas) and the nation’s need to know the facts (Venus-Mercury) for the sake of a distorted and divisive partisan narrative (Mars-Neptune). A Capricorn Moon trined democracy-related Ceres-Uranus, conjoined in Taurus: the People deserved, and will likely demand better.  

 


Final thoughts about waning Jupiter cycles 

Yes, we’ve been focusing on the fall-out and potentials from the May 26th Sagittarius eclipse here, but because Jupiter rules that eclipse, it’s inevitable that our thoughts might turn to specific Jupiter cycles that are wielding a great deal of impact these days. For instance, we ignore the Jupiter-Neptune cycle at our peril these days: Jupiter was transiting square Neptune from Sagittarius to Pisces in mid-2019, which is a timeframe that U.S. intelligence, at Biden’s orders, is targeting as the possible origin point of the COVID-19 virus. The so-called “lab-leak theory” is gaining steam, as well, which could very well suit the 3Q phase of this cycle, which launched in January of that year, at 14°+Sagittarius-Pisces.  

This was a particularly potent waning square because both planets involved occupied their ruling signs while also co-ruling Pisces, so ”leaks” are more than possible. This may also have been the period during which Trump’s DOJ was (perhaps even illegally) obtaining journalists’ phone records in its quest to contain embarrassing leaks from the White House. Like contagion, information—and mis-information—flows like a river, catching everything not firmly rooted as it goes. This can work well for spreading both positive and negative ideas and sentiments, but unfortunately, the negative manifestations capture more attention at the moment.  

For instance, some defendants up on charges from the Capitol riot on January 6th are trying to use the hype spawned in the media by Trump’s “big Lie” about the election as an excuse for their actions, and while they can’t escape personal responsibility for their actions, they may be right that they were effectively “brainwashed” by Fox and other news outlets, not to mention their Twitter and Facebook feeds. Unfortunately, only they can switch off those sources of misinformation in their own lives, so they’re not likely to escape legal jeopardy on that basis.  

As noted earlier, it’s also been made clear lately that because Election 2022 is looming around the corner, the GOP prefers to cover up and suppress the truth about January 6th rather than deal with it—I can't think of a more stunning example of the passive-aggressive power of a waning Jupiter-Neptune cycle, especially with the planets playing tag-team in Pisces. 

The other currently waning Jupiter cycle is also quite consequential these days, as well: Aquarius Jupiter was closing in on its 3Q square with Taurus Uranus on January 6, 2021 (first exact later that month) and from the challenges Congress has experienced ever since, it seems that the basic tension and misguided revolutionary fervor underlying that purposely stoked insurrection have not diminished one little bit. Maybe this is to be expected, with the waning 3Q still very much in progress; in fact, I suspect we won’t see a softening of this agitation until at least 2024, when a new Taurus cycle launches.  

Other uses for both these cycles are certainly possible, of course: if Biden’s bigger-than-life jobs and infrastructure plans can make their way into law—the size being entirely appropriate while Jupiter transits its home sign, despite the waning cycle—the idea as I understand it is to “spread the wealth,” producing a wider base of grass roots prosperity upon which a renewed middle class can be built: wages should rise, building upward from a new $15 minimum that’s long overdue; much-needed opportunities for job training should be available to prepare people for the new-tech-related career-track jobs we’ve been hearing so much about; better and more accessible child-care services should help women get back into the labor market and resume their pandemic-derailed careers; and so on and so on. Pretty much all in keeping with the goals of that “Third Reconstruction” movement mentioned earlier.  

“Big is better” is the mantra with Jupiter, of course, and despite GOP efforts to demonize the scope of Biden’s plans, even they can’t deny that the need these plans are meant to address around the country is big, too. Well, they can try, offering Biden a counteroffer for his infrastructure plan that acknowledged only a fraction of the need. Of course, the major sticking point with them is whether the wealthy will be called upon to help a bit more than usual through taxes—Jupiter-Neptune isn’t the best cycle for curtailing greed or promoting shared responsibility, but to do otherwise will be to expand our national debt in ways that are simply irresponsible. Passing on the opportunity to serve the many urgent needs at the heart of these big infrastructure plans so that the wealthy can enjoy the benefits without having to chip in sounds like a non-starter to me.  

Finally, the U.S. is celebrating Memorial Day this weekend, but there are too many fallen heroes in this world right now to focus on the U.S. alone, so our deep gratitude goes out to all health care workers everywhere; family members who take care of their elders at the risk of their own health; activists who keep on hoping and working for the day when that famous “arc of history” will finally “bend towards Justice;” and all the everyday heroes--military or not--who keep the world spinning, despite mountains of obstacles and scant support. 

Most of all, we thank and remember all those heroes who put aside lies, hatred and division for Neptune’s higher angels, spirited Compassion and creative Light.  

 

 

Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. A graduate of the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane, collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs, U.S. history, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. She’s published articles on these topics in several key astrology journals over the years, including most recently, the TMA blog. See the Publications tab on this site for a list of Raye’s recent E-books on current topics, including the newly-released title, The Mundane Moon: an evolving cosmic story for “We the People.”    

For information about individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com. 

© Raye Robertson 2021. All rights reserved.