Jupiter and Saturn Great Conjunction on Winter Solstice — The Dawn of a New 200 Year Cycle

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The Sun is lowering more and more on the horizon, while the shadows lengthen on the earth. The Winter Solstice, the time of the year when the Sun seems to stop is approaching. All life follow the light on its journey through the Underworld. And two great planets prepare to shine together as a single star in the zodiac sign of the dawn.

This year had to leave the scene with a grand finale. On December 21st Jupiter and Saturn will conjunct in Aquarius, starting a new cycle in the air signs that will last for about 200 years.

In this article we are going to talk about the threefold cycle through the Four Elements that these planets make in their journey across the centuries. We are also going to talk about the ending cycle of Earth, which led humanity to materialism, and the upcoming cycle of Air, that is going to bring humanity to live in a world of living images.

But first let’s take a look at Jupiter and Saturn, talking about their entrance in Aquarius and the astral forces that are going to be streaming down from this region of the sky.

Jupiter in Aquarius

On December 19th Jupiter is going to enter Aquarius. This is not unusual, since Jupiter changes sign once a year. In fact in 12 years Jupiter completes a cycle, visiting year after year all the signs of the Zodiac.

So what does Jupiter in Aquarius mean? First and foremost, Jupiter in Aquarius means that it’s no longer going to be in Capricorn. This is particularly important since Capricorn is a sign where Jupiter is very weak or—as we say in astrology—in its fall. Jupiter is the Great Benefic which brings optimism, expansion and growth. Did you see any in this 2020? Exactly.

Jupiter in Capricorn couldn’t help humanity, but in Aquarius it will. Specifically, in Aquarius Jupiter brings a strong humanitarian and idealistic impulse. It is also going to fuel the impetus for equality and social justice, especially during this pandemic where inequality has been increasingly evident.

People will start to wake up, and this is inevitably going to lead towards rebellions against the ruling powers. We will deepen this issue talking about the Saturn Uranus square (and to a lesser extent, the Jupiter Uranus square) in future articles.

Saturn in Aquarius

On December 17th, a couple of days before Jupiter, Saturn is going to enter Aquarius as well. This is a much rarer event because it happens about every 30 years. Last time Saturn was in Aquarius from 1991 to 1994. This time, it’s going to stay in this sign till March 2023.

As you can imagine this is a very important shift. Saturn is leaving Capricorn, from which he usually exercises control through authority and fear, to take on a very different task. Both Capricorn and Aquarius are ruled by Saturn, which means that in these signs the planet is very strong. However its effect is very different in the latter.

In Aquarius Saturn strips away all the unessential. Like a gardener pruning dry branches, Saturn in Aquarius eliminates everything that does not respond to a principle of reality. There’s no place for illusions here, at least not anymore.

On the positive, all the old structures that no longer serves humanity, or that are based on fake assumptions, are going to confront the scythe of the ancient God of Death. A large amount of forces are going to be released and employed for something else—something new.

The beginning of a new 200 year cycle in the Air Element

As mentioned above, the cycle of Jupiter and Saturn is threefold. Jupiter and Saturn make a conjunction every 20 years. But what’s peculiar about it, is that they are going to conjunct in zodiac signs of the same element for roughly 200 years.

Of course this process is not perfect: sometimes there are exceptions. But in general we can say that the usual 20 year cycle is part of a greater 200 year cycle. And since we have 4 elements, another 800 year cycle takes place.

In summary, there are three cycles:

• Every 20 years Jupiter and Saturn make a conjunction in the same element. So far, they’ve been making conjunctions in Earth Signs since 1842. We had the last one in Taurus on May 2000.
• Every 200 years the Jupiter Saturn Conjunction takes place in another element. Now we are transitioning from the Earth Signs cycle to the Air Signs cycle. Between one cycle and the following there are exceptions that represent a transition. In our case, a conjunction took place in Libra (Air element) on 1980-1981.
• Every 800 years the conjunctions go though all the four elements, in the order: Fire, Earth, Air and Water. This follows the same order of the elements in the Zodiac. In fact we have Aries (Fire), Taurus (Earth), Gemini (Air) and Cancer (Water).

Since 1842 the leading cultural paradigma was based on Earth Signs. This can be seen very clearly in the birth and development of Materialism. Earth in fact is the element of matter itself. This worldview got the better of the cultural and scientific scenario of the last two centuries. This is now going to change.

From the Physical World of Earth to the Soul World of Air

We are entering a time where the Air Element is going to be more predominant. As we have seen, with the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Libra (Air element) this process has already begun 40 years ago. But it mainly concerned technology and the communications revolution started in the eighties.

In my opinion, we are now entering a different stage of human evolution. As the Earth Signs cycle focused our attention and our efforts towards the development of materialism and the world of matter, the Air Signs cycle is going to the same thing towards the Soul (or the Astral).

To explain what I mean, I am going to briefly introduce the threefold nature of the human being, so please bear with me. Anthroposophy teaches us that there are three “worlds”:

• A Physical World, which relates to our Body
• A Soul World, which relates to our Soul (emotions and feelings)
• A Spiritual World, which relates to our Spirit (thoughts and consciousness)

The Soul World, is a sort of “world in between”. This because through our soul we take part to both the Physical and the Spiritual Worlds, alternately.

• When we die physically, we cross the Soul World to eventually enter the Spiritual World
• When we die spiritually, we cross the Soul World to enter again in the Physical World

The key point here is that the Soul World is a world of images. We experience that every night in a dimmed state of consciousness when we sleep. Dreams are the result of the human Soul crossing this world. So we can say that the life of the human Soul in the Soul World is a life in a world of images. And this is what in my opinion expects us.

Transhumanism vs Imaginative Consciousness

Some people might be rolling their eyes reading about a Soul World. They may be thinking that these fields of the human experience don’t exist. And that they don’t have anything to do with them. But regardless of what we believe to be true or not, what’s under our noses is that we are really getting closer and closer to this “life in a world of images”.

It all started with television and the explosion of advertising images everywhere around us. Now we have a device in our hands we spend hours on, constantly providing images. If we take this process further we are going to be soon living immersed into the images themselves.

This experience is expected for humanity. Much depends on how we will decide to cross it: undergoing it, or being an active part of the process. Because what we might choose to deny on one hand, technology will develop on the other.

And some day not too far we may be find ourselves connecting our consciences to a sort of virtual reality internet. This is not a very unlikely scenario, isn’t it? Besides, this is one of the goals of transhumanism, in the effort (as stated by the name itself) of going “beyond” what’s human. Or, we should rather say “below”.

So what can we do? We can consciously accompany evolution by developing a rich life of images within us. We can dedicate ourselves to the development of imagination, or more properly to what Anthroposophy calls Imaginative Consciousness.

Far from being just a simple form of daydreaming, Imaginative Consciousness is a higher state of consciousness through which we are able to stay awake in inner images. Did you ever try to focus on an inner image staying present? It’s damn hard.

Eventually, these images will be so vivid and clear to become a bridge for experiencing the Soul World directly. But not like in a passive sort of vision. Here, every part of the image speaks to us intuitively, like when we have a mathematical intuition. And we feel part of the process which creates images.

Going beyond subjectivity is a required step to perceive the Soul World, which is also known as the Collective Unconscious or the Astral World. For this reason, part of the inner work consists in discerning within fantasy from reality, the essential from the unessential. If you are interested in this topic you can learn more from Steiner’s book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds And Its Attainment.

If you made it so far, thank you very much for reading! And as always if you enjoyed this article please subscribe to the Astronomicon Newsletter with the bar at the top of the website to receive weekly updates. Happy Advent to you all!