Welcome to the Age of Air: In Depth Musings Upon the Effects and Interactions of the Outer Planets.

 

   The synodic cycles, as well as the relationship of the orbits between any two planets is relentlessly fascinating. This is an opening salvo to a much larger work which will require some in depth historical research which is really low on my agenda right now, but I will have to get to eventually if someone else hasn't already picked up on this.

      Since the dawn of sentient life on Earth, the outer rim of our active, visible solar system was Saturn. The relationship of Jupiter to Saturn has always been the prime historical determining factor of mundane astrology. Their conjunctions in 20 year increments set the stage for kings and conquest as the eternal struggle between Saturn and his rebellious Son play out in the heavens.  The karma of Saturn's own youthful rebellion ever-present in his paranoid future fears.   

   From a larger perspective, these conjunctions take place within one triplicity (the three signs of any given element) for 200+ years at a time. This is well known and studied. As of 2020 we have officially entered the Age of Air.

   The conjunctions spin in a trine pattern retrograde around the Zodiac, moving backwards from one air sign to the next, a few degrees further along numerically each time. What I didn't realize until this week was that in every Age, they will normally make 3 conjunctions in each sign, one in each Decan consecutively.

   This is remarkable. The decans describe the narrative arc of each sign like a three act play. To view each historical 20 year period as playing out that Decan's themes would be an incredible journey through time and add profound layers of depth to our understanding of our society's evolution.

   If there are any serious history nerds reading this, hit me up.
   I was born during the intro to the Age of Air when Saturn and Jupiter conjuncted within Libra before regressing back into the Earthen Age for one final 20 year period.  As such I feel like I have some role to play as herald for this new age, something like a crazed John the Baptist ranting about conjunctions in the air tirplicity.  As such, I made a design for a shirt you can buy to help me spread the good word. 

 

                                                                                   Welcome To The Age Of Air

   We are in the beginnings of a completely new era. An era where the accentuation is upon ideas and communication.  The era of Earth coincided with a movement away from the mystical, away from an understanding of the deeper implications of existence, and that which is beyond measurement, into an obsession with the practical details of reality. We built a society out of tune with nature, vast concrete jungles which served a practical purpose as we killed the old gods and set up a network of electric streetlights which block the stars. A practical and rational idea to provide the safety of clear vision at night, but severs us from our connection to the mystical beyond.   The first ingress into Air Sign conjunctions saw the Internet and home computers come into common usage, ushering in this era of greater connectivity and communication.

   Well beyond Saturn, in the throes of our rational revolution, we discovered new planets, and even planetoids beyond our Earthly imagination. The most prominent of these is Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. All three have been used in verifiable ways by most modern astrologers.  In determining their meanings, the luminaries on the vanguard of modern astrology dug through the historical data with these planets mapped into new ephemerides, and noted powerful patterns amid their mingling. The cycles of the outer planets form prominent patterns of societal upheaval.  What is beyond the bounds of Saturn, our Celestial Father who sets the boundaries of respectable rule and order, brings in a more mystical, dangerous and disruptive energy from beyond.  

   Uranus to Neptune is a roughly 170 year cycle.  Uranus to Pluto (due to Pluto's eccentric orbit) is between 111 to 143 years.  Pluto to Neptune is a nearly 500 year orbit.   Within the past century and change we've seen all three of these conjunctions happen, with Uranus to Neptune and Uranus to Pluto happening within 3 decades of each other.  The mid-sixties saw the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, while the early 90's saw the Uranus- Neptune conjunction, (the X-files conjunction as far as I'm concerned!).  

   Uranus to Pluto was a shocking revelation of the power structures and biases of the time. One could not imagine a more literal representation of the Civil rights movement than this. Uranus to Neptune saw a shocking return of the mystic into society, the New Age movement becoming mainstream, and the continual erosion of faith for the endless march of progress in Western society.  So much more could be said about these, but what shocked me was that these two conjunctions happened within a VERY tight trine of each other, both in Earth signs, both within the mid-degrees of their respective signs, Capricorn for Uranus - Neptune, and Virgo for Uranus - Pluto.

   While contemplating this, consider that these outer planet energies accentuating Earth signs are all about breaking up a rigid, and stable security in our understanding of material reality to make way for new ideas as the Age of Air returns. In the nascent days of this airy age we see a superfluous abundance of novel ideas about culture and how we should live. Society is undergoing a revolutionary re-calibration, which is in general not a comfortable time to be alive, but is rarely boring. Many of the ideas gaining popularity and being passed around will not survive the real world test of the coming generations, though some will.   We are on the precipice of a new age, and there is nothing safe about that.  Those in control reared to adhere to an Earth-bound mentality where everything is solid and stable are desperately trying to cling to power, and causing frightening earthquakes as they throttle about.  They won't survive, though we likely won't be around to see their ultimate fall, or help to rebuild something new; something better.

    The point of all this is to remind people that every single birth and every single project started carries within it the energies of that astral moment.  These revolutionary energies are saved within the charts of those people born then, who carry that energy forward with them, ideally to manifest through time the highest possible promise of that moment. Both the Uranus - Neptune conjunction and the Uranus - Pluto conjunction are alive and well all around us.  As the ages shift, and society undergoes a seriously disturbing moment of retooling, everything we do now forges a crystallization of that moment which can carry on into the future and alter reality permanently. Choose your steps wisely.  

   

     It's worth mentioning that the Neptune Pluto conjunction took place at 9 degrees of Gemini, an air sign, about halfway through the Earth era, triggering a sort of prelude to the Age of Air. These great outer planet conjunctions colour the flavour of the degrees they meet upon for the remainder of thta cycle.  I'm very interested to see how the Jupiter Saturn conjunction of 2060 taking place in the first few degrees of Gemini will manifest the promise of Pluto and Neptune.   If we get overly optimistic with it we can imagine that it is a dissolving of brutal power structures ushering in an era of greater intellectual freedom. A boy can dream now can't he? My 80's are going to ROCK!  er... I'll Air on the side of caution.

   If you want to dig deeper into the meanings of these conjunctions, think laterally, or in 6 dimensions at once might be better. The Uranus Pluto conjunction took place on the star Asterion.   Read about it and let your mind wander.

    The conjunction of Uranus and Neptune was a multi-stage event which happened across a few degrees, so you can look into Sheliak and Dheneb.

   One final note; as I'm researching every degree of the Zodiac this year as the Sun highlights it (a massively rewarding project which I've been referring to with the regrettable title of the FOWLonic Degrees... it's a place holder... leave me alone!), this is what I wrote about the first degree of Aquarius, where Jupiter and Saturn crossed into the Age of Air together in December of 2020, hand in glorious hand. 

 0 Aquarius: Shocking new beginnings. Nothing will stop the influence of this degree from breaking the bonds of its ancestral ties to grab onto the eagle's talons and rise. A powerful desire to find something better than what one was born into, even at the expense of any inheritance of value. One sees a better future kicking stones in the dirt, and may find a clan of others of like mind within a new society. The degree of the Great Conjunction heralding the Age of Air. The remnants of Plutonian danger can be felt within this degree, but are trumped by the exhilaration of discovering what could truly be. No adventure comes without danger, and many trials await. There is power to push past all with glee here. Most will not understand, but it is of no great concern; finding those that do is all that matters. One may ride the eagle straight to Olympus bearing a bloody hand.