Astrology of Monday, December 21

The Great Convergence of Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius has arrived on the day of the Winter Solstice. The solstice is one of the great Cardinal points of the Zodiac. The Solstice heralds the slow return of light to combat the darkness of winter. Someday, spring will come.

A new 20 year cycle is beginning, but this Convergence carries more weight than that. After 200 years of Convergences in the element of earth (materialism, rapacious greed and use of the world's resources as though they were infinite), we also begin a 200 year cycle in air element (big, revolutionary ideas; technical development; new societal structures for the common good). Ideas, information will be the centerpieces of the convergences to come for 200 years.

That sense of renewal and re-set is here today. Past is prologue, and it is helpful to track back to when Saturn and Jupiter last converged in Aquarius, all the way back to 1405. Europe had cut itself off from the wisdom of teachings in Asia and the Middle East during the Dark Ages. Before the convergence, the Plague had swept through Europe. A total disruption of society was made possible which had been unthinkable. Reminds me of the Pandemic we currently face. So much that seemed impossible suddenly became possible, even necessary. It is much like our need to combat climate change by substantially changing our way of interacting with Planet Earth. as total disruption and devastation sweeps the world.

Just 50 years into the Convergence, the Byzantine Empire fell. As a consequence, Greek philosophers flooded into Italy, and a classical revival was underway. (The Golden Age of the Greeks was also the result of a Great Convergence in Air signs). The Renaissance was begun. A more humanistic period full of new ideas!

Will this movement into Aquarius herald unparalleled joy? Most likely not. Every front has a back, as my mentor Steven Forrest, often said. Every sign has an up-side; every sign has its own shadow to bear. A shadow might be the "cost" of new technology - loss of privacy, i.e. facial recognition software, etc. But we have choices in Aquarius that were not part of the options menu when Jupiter and Saturn were in Capricorn.

Ideas, equality, structures to serve for the betterment of humanity are all possibilities. Democracy and freedoms are much more attainable now. But never forget that each of us has choices to make about who we shall be and what we value. Jupiter gives us visions of what can be; Saturn can concretize those ideas into reality. The stars inform; but don't compel. We may feel that we cannot take government for granted; that part of the responsibility is on our shoulders. And that is Aquarian, too.