The Era of Earth

This is quite the chaotic moment in history, eh? The drama unfolding on the political stage, a seemingly immanent global health crisis, the natural world rebelling: this is really only the tip of the iceberg and doesn’t begin to touch other longstanding collective issues which are so embedded in the fabric of our culture that there may be no extricating them without burning the whole thing down and starting again.

What is the best course of action when living inside a highly dysfunctional system? My first thought it: conversations with God, or the gods or goddesses or plants and animals. Conversations with those outside of the human field, anyway, because we seem to be the center of crazy. Times like these create the context for the birth of real spirituality, where non-human (and sometimes unseen) presences can be leaned on.

And then honesty, I think. And most importantly with oneself. Witnessing the whirlwind of corruption, collusion and greed on a global scale, I’ve been inspired to be very real with myself regarding the ways I may still be acting against my own nature in various ways. I think we don’t have the luxury of being lax and messing around anymore with the various indulgences that keep us numb and disconnected. There is work to be done in the world (Saturn in Capricorn for the next 2+years will not let us forget) and it seems to require getting beyond our personal hang-ups as much as possible. Anything that is an unnecessary energy drain must be eliminated.

This transit ushers in a change in eras. Jupiter will join Saturn in Capricorn at the end of March, and these two outer planets join in a sign only every twenty years. The element of the sign which they join in changes every 200 years. This is historically the way that changes in regimes and rulership as well as the dissolution of civilizations has been understood. These two planets have such a radical impact on the earth and its people because they are both heavy, slow moving planets and together they generate a tremendous amount of force to create change.

For the last 200 years Saturn and Jupiter have been conjoining in fire signs, and this year their conjunction moves to earth signs. It is worthwhile to take a gander back into the mists of history to understand what type of influence this most recent cycle has had on humanity so that we might know how things could change with the shift to a different element.

It was in 1790 (230 years ago) that the American Industrial Revolution officially began: a revolution which depended in large part of fire: the coal and iron industries explicitly relied on heat, but other burgeoning industries such as railroads and textiles relied on physical exertion by individual humans, which is the metaphorical use of fire through effort.

The second Industrial Revolution brought the expansion of electricity, petroleum and steel: all industries involving heat and extraction. It must be understood that all of the elements function in both the physical, literal sense and also metaphorical. So fire is the fire that we see when we light a gas stove, but it is also an extension of all the qualities we observe in physical fire to other areas of experience. Fire is illuminating, and much has been “seen” in the realm of science and technology, but fire is also destructive and we can see that the cost of some of this illumination has been high, particularly to the environment. Fire is sharp and directed (those with a lot of fire in their constitutions will want to always be moving forward and accomplishing tasks, and can become irritated when something gets in the way of their ‘progress’) and you can see that since the dawn of the industrial revolution the dominant cultural mythology is focused on ‘progress’ and ‘evolution’—these are linear concepts. With fire, the cyclic nature of time, life and natural cycles is easily neglected. Fire is too busy moving towards its (sometimes destructive) aim to notice the bigger picture.

Smartphones, the internet, and many of the modern conveniences we now enjoy were born in this last 200 year fire cycle. Life as we know it was shaped by the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.

But there is life beyond what we ‘know,’ and it is moving towards us now. Jupiter-Saturn in Capricorn will usher in this new era dominated by the earth element.

First and foremost, the earth element brings the focus to our planet: an effect which we are already beginning to see ahead of the actual transit (this is often the case, with effects of planetary periods and major transits felt before they actually take place). There is also a certain way in which the earth element tests our abstract ideas and philosophies against the actual body of nature. This is where the ‘rubber hits the road,’ so to speak, and anything that sounded like a good idea (such as the technologies born of the Industrial Age to save us all from ourselves) may in fact turn out to not really ‘work’ in practice, or to have unintended side effects. Overlooked outcomes and forgotten externalities come to light against the hard fact of nature’s laws.

This is true on an individual level, as we all find ourselves to be at the absolute mercy of our own earth, which is our bodies. The individual impact of these larger cycles in considered to be of less importance than the global, cultural changes it engenders, but its influence will still be felt. You might notice yourself suddenly embodying a vessel with all sorts of glitches and maintenance issues, which will force you to either take care of your own health or succumb to the inevitable deterioration that comes as a result of neglecting your ‘earth.’

Earth is also structure and stability, and these aspects of your life will become more significant with this new cycle. Like I said, all the flaws in our extravagant ‘plans’ and ideas come to light against the bare bones of earth. Everything will be tested and verified by Mother Nature herself in this new ‘earth era.’

With this, a certain amount of chaos is inevitable. There is a ‘changing of the guard’ happening and it is rare for that to be smooth. You can see already the chaos that has ensued in advance of the actual transit. Unintended consequences of so called ‘good ideas’ (many of them related to technology and science- products of the industrial revolution) seem to be surfacing everywhere, including in the case of biological warfare, which is quite possibly the cause of the Coronavirus epidemic we’re now seeing, and we can expect to see many more cases of failed or backfiring technology with the coming of the Jupiter-Saturn in earth signs conjunctions.

China is particularly affected by this Saturn transit because their country’s chart is Capricorn rising, with the moon placed in its rising sign and an angry mars aspecting from Cancer. This means that the whole country is in a Sade Sati transit, which is Saturn’s transit of the natal moon—a particularly inauspicious transit, especially when it’s on the rising sign.

This first conjunction in Capricorn has a particularly destructive quality to it because Capricorn is not only ruled by Saturn but is also considered to be a burial ground. It is moveable earth, meaning that it has the substance and power to create a substantial change, and that change is not always experienced as pleasant. There is usually a feeling of getting your hands a bit dirtier than you would’ve liked in this sign, or having to deal in matters you’d rather avoid. This conjunction will demand that we face head on the issues we’ve been avoiding, which may at times feel too big too approach.

There is not going to be much more wiggle room for ‘making nice’ and pretending that the elephants in the room don’t exist. The skeletons in the closet are getting rather antsy and the collective shadow is ready to surface. So, like I said: conversations with god(s), and honesty.