Energy boosts of such potential mean much for the person but only as a secondary factor. It comes closer to the truth to say that they are linked to turning points or points of tension in the life of humanity and of great collectives such as, for example, the various nations, or organisations like the church, the UN, the EU, NATO and so on. At this scale the results are easier to discern.
For us, and I’m referring to Europe, 1518 opened a decade marked by certain developments whose impact was definitive for the development of the modern world. Selectively, I will mention the spread of Martin Luther’s teachings – that is of the positions of Protestantism, as well as the strengthening of the Spanish crown through the conquest of lands in South America. Both events challenged the then power of the Roman Catholic Church, the authority par excellence in West at the time.
On the first instant the blow was dealt by the critique on the corruption which characterised the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and the sharp contrast between the teachings and the practice, namely between the ideal of Christianity and the uncontrollable materialism; οn the second instant, through the strengthening of the Spanish government’s position against the claws of the holy inquisition. In the same period, Erasmus published a book criticising the church, and the Bible was translated in the modern languages, stripping off a bit more of the church’s lustre as the “exclusive” interpreter and mediator between the “Word of God” and the masses.
These were years of great strife as wars between nations or opposing factions reigned in Europe and South America. In the latter case, the Spanish conquest dealt the final blow to the Aztec civilisation. Countless human lives were lost to a bubonic plague pandemic in Europe, and due to the slaughter and disease that the Spanish expedition visited upon South America.
However, amidst this rife with conflict scenery, Magellan ventured on the exploratory mission which was destined to pave the way for the circumnavigation of the globe, Erasmus published a textbook for the upbringing of children, and, for the first time since the beginning of the Middle Ages, people started to conceive the possibility of bettering their lives beyond the vision of a dreamy afterlife.
These points are stressed because they constitute peak occurrences in the period following the Saturn – Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, and because the sign of Capricorn is inextricably linked to the concept of crystallisation and supreme materialism in any human expression. The immorality and profit-mongering of the Roman Catholic Church, the inhumanely enforced “idealism” of the holy inquisition, the slaughter for the acquisition of lands and recourses, the polarisation in groups vitalised by different ideas, the barbaric conflict between and mutual extermination of all the aforementioned, on account of whom were to finally sit at the head of the table, the natural pestilence, all are clear indications of crystallisation, callousness and extreme materialism.
A point worth highlighting is that Capricorn, from a certain perspective, is linked to ambition, achievement, recognition, the top. And these always mean some sort of fulfilment, the attainment of a purpose, an end – in its dual meaning; because it is evident that a completion, a crescendo, encompasses the concept of an ending and of a death. Something comes full circle so that something else may begin, anew.
In Capricorn there is always to be found a zenith of maturity, ability, ambition, effort and all the power that imbues anything which manages to become an institution, either in the personal or collective life. It is often said that the top is a lonely place or that is easy to reach it but difficult to stay there. As life is an ever-happening process and has (or should have) consecutive peaks, there really is no dwelling at the top. There is the (wise) apperception of a cycle’s completion, of the harvest it yielded, and its (wise) abandonment so that all that was gathered or learned may be put to good use in a coming, better, fuller cycle.
Wisdom however does not characterise humanity and consequently neither does its nations and organisations, nor its average representative. So usually this natural process is distorted. The top product, be it an institution, civilisation or person refuses to forego or accept the cycle completed and insists in directing progressively more energy, resources and efforts to deny the facts. They have the power to do so because they are at their heyday. Still, no cycle remains incomplete. Whatever begins, is incorporated or born, at some moment ceases, is dissolved or dies. In order that existence continue, what evolves must be willing to undergo a process of essential transfiguration. Thus it can continue existing as something new.
In the opposite case, whether it be a civilisation, nation, institution, relationship, job, phase of human life, existence cannot essentially continue. It may seem as though it continues but in reality, fixation at a stage or plainly, the effort to stop time, uses up resources that in the end neither have the ability to revitalise, nor to give creative breath and maintain the brilliance of achievement, recognition or popularity. These resources though are still spent and amassed reinforcing the covetable form, intensifying its rigidity, its inertia and its crystallization. Finally, they emphasise the absence of liveliness, the spirit missing from the form, and lead to a fragile monstrosity that at some point collapses under its own weight. The problem is that the larger the monstrosity the thicker the cloud of dust that its fall stirs up.
Pluto’s transit in Capricorn, which began in January 2008 is descriptive of the above process on many levels. The events of the ongoing environmental, economic, social and political crisis are clearly showcasing the last stages of a civilisation fighting for its life by abusing “energy” shots. These are an expression of the catabolic aspect of Pluto in Capricorn energy, specifically the process of form death through ultimate crystallization.
We observe
– massive movements of capital in order to preserve the banking system and a civilisation whose wellbeing is based on unrelenting consumerism
– emphasis and cultivation of the separative message of political, religious and national ideologies so that armed conflicts may appear as necessary to preserve life, when they are basically necessary as fields for profit
– the legalising, under the above status quo, of incommensurable expenditure on arms and its presentation as necessary for survival
– in consequence, the negation to direct funds toward resolving the issues of hunger, housing, education
– the aforementioned perpetuating in its turn, issues of bad physical and psychological health but creating other fields of profit through “smart” crops and pharmaceuticals
– last, the crown jewel of the set, marketed as the solution to all, the selective access to the club of the “chosen ones” of money, who manage to remain unafflicted by all described above while everyone outside is left in the cold to die
– the perpetuation in this manner of the antagonistic relationship of human to human, of immoral individualism, of the indifference to all that is happening outside the four walls of one’s own house
This is an artificial situation because at the moment humanity has both the knowledge and the means to resolve it but it has been lacking – at least up to now – a substantial degree of awareness to mobilise its love and willingness to do so. On this issue of required awareness, the energy mix of the Saturn – Pluto conjunction in Capricorn comes to play a decisive role by intensifying the process described in the above paragraph to the max. The ground has been laid by Pluto’s transit in this sign, which began in 2008.
Both planets are considered “reducers” and so they are. However the reduction they instigate does not concern the useful and required for the continuation, evolution and wellbeing of life, but exactly the opposite. It concerns the “dead (or heavily diseased) tissue” in the body of humanity, the body of the individual and in the expression of both as life processes and ways of organisation of said life. In their synergy over these last two years and climaxing in the conjunction of January 12, 2020, Saturn is the principle that showcased the problem, highlighting its restrictive and energy-consuming character through the direction of ever increasing resources in already crystallised forms. Pluto is supplying, time and again and continuously, that catalytic tension which focuses on the structural flaw of a crystallised form, and can cause its collapse or demand continuous patches to “close the hole”. Any similarity with circumstances observed on the individual or global level is not coincidental.
When the combination of these energies affects softer and ductile “bodies”, whether it be the human physical body, or a flexible organisation, or the products of any being that is not afraid of or welcomes change, it accelerates to a great degree any transmutation of the form to another, better suited to the present need. Therefore, in 2020 and until 2024, when Pluto will leave the sign of Capricorn, in the stage of life are expected to be seen side by side with the intensification and repeated demonstration of the inadequacy of present forms, the rapid emergence or reinforcement of organisation- and thought forms oriented toward principles other than that of materialism.
As the sign of Capricorn concerns above all the result of the thought processes on everything that we see materialised in our external environment, it leaves little to no room for counterfeit reformations. That is, changes more conservative than those required or possible on a case-by-case basis, will not be supported. The external makeover of the “known” which remains one and the same, is a beloved marketing technique whereby an age-old ideology, organisation, process, situation is superficially retouched in order to retrieve its lost “appeal” and appear relevant to the needs of the times.
Examples abound, from the renovations of organisation and business spaces but not of their fundamental functions, methods or objectives, to the purchase of new clothes or a new haircut or something of the sort when someone wants to “freshen up”, but without the corresponding attention to addressing or eliminating the reasons that make them feel “stale” to begin with. In relationships, personal or group, it is the superficial exercises in relating, usually the “doing things together”, whether they are called a couple’s joint life, another child, or, on another level, international games, without even the slightest alteration or revision of the personal or group aims and motives on either side.
Naturally and certainly there will be such attempts and they will increase in number and they will give a passing air of “renewal” and optimism to the people and groups who prefer them, maybe a reassurance that nothing more is needed and that they may go forward with the devices which may have worked and they have preferred in the past. Their success, should there be any, will be fleeting precisely because through the Capricorn – Saturn – Pluto mix, the thought, the motivation, the purpose standing behind the appearance of any new form, organisation, relationship, ideology, will be evident and easily discernible – more so than even before in the history of human civilisation, without much examination or effort on behalf of the observer. It might be fitting to say that any masking out will not last long or be as thin as tissue paper.
It is worth repeating that said planetary energies concern the removal of preterite or diseased parts of the personal or collective life. These manifest externally as results albeit they start as perceptions from the plane of thought. Some ways of thinking may have been fitting in other eras but may no longer serve, others may have been wrong since their conception but people may simply not have had the required knowledge or ability on a large scale to understand that.
Present humanity is thinking and consciously deciding to a larger extent than ever before. This means it is in the position to identify the use of these specific energies (and any others) by those who think and act consciously, and to link motivations and purposes with their results. In this manner, any fake presentation becomes transparent faster and more easily, while it also becomes easier to decide what is worth supporting with time, money and energy. The veil that has covered and allowed the existence and thriving of actions with very very ambiguous motives in the past, is thinning perceptibly.
It is good to remember that the energies interacting with the planet, with humanity and its every person, are agents of an evolutionary procedure whose purpose is not to annihilate the person but to refine them so that they may be architects and participants in a better balanced existence. Humanity’s course through the ages testifies to that when it is viewed with a degree of objectivity and not through the lens of ephemeral passion, fleeting desire and passing ideologies, as it is a course leading to better health, clearer thinking, and better relations, despite the crises in any one century. For women, children and all vulnerable social groups who have up to recently been regularly treated as objects, assets or pariahs (to a much greater extent than today), this is clear.
“Whatever I love is ever born / whatever I love is ever at its beginning”* said a wise man. And this is the message at the heart of all that is currently happening on the planet. It’s worth therefore making a small reference to the increasing momentum and widening spread of the movement consisting of people who alone, and mainly together, are pursuing a healthier, more creative and better balanced life on every level.
It is expressed
– through the increasing appearance of scientists dedicated to the pursuit of solutions to restore the ecological balance and essential health,
– in the new approaches to education, mostly in the Scandinavian countries and Japan,
– in the mutual tolerance and in some cases cooperation between western and eastern medicine, laying the groundwork for holistic therapy, where holistic means treating both and equally the cause and effect
– in the religious tolerance which increases in inverse analogy to the ethnic homogeneity of a community
– in the concept of “corporate responsibility” becoming an everyday buzzword, and the effort of businesses to create better working conditions for their employees
– in the severe criticism regarding the use and allocation of money and the planetary material resources
– in highlighting the concept of “quality of life” as opposed to “survival” (despite distortions)
– in the gradual creation of a global community of citizens of the world, who share values and a very broad vision, free of national or racist dregs, allowing however for the preservation of national idiosyncrasy and distinctiveness
– in emphasising the concepts of “teamwork” and “cooperation”, of amity in place of antagonism
– in the demand for meaningful companionship and communication in personal relationships and the undertaking of steps to realise them
– in the realisation of the responsibility inherent in the parental role, in its conscious undertaking and the scientific (at least more scientific) approach to it, focusing on the child’s wellbeing
– in the demand to abandon roles and stereotypes in romantic relationships and the emphasis placed on the loving relationship of person to person, which is furthered by the LGBTQ movement
– in the sensitisation and the awakening of the supreme human virtues of compassion, kindness, generosity, courage, imaginativeness who are called forth by crises stemming from natural disasters, armed conflicts and murderous tragedies, such as migration, and the need to support victims of natural disasters, wars and mass murder
– in the crying demand for more appropriate legislation on the national or international level, so as to restrict the insolent “individualism” of persons, organisations, nations
The precipice upon which humanity stands, and which consists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, is the closing of a two thousand year journey and at the same time the prelude to the coming two millennia. It has precisely the characteristics of a precipice, the tension, the crossing of many different currents of force, ideologies and possibilities. Many ills seem impenetrable because they are backed by the full weight of the ages; many hopes appear faint and uncertain because they are at their dawn. It is a pulsating era and essentially miraculous for those who choose to harmonise with its vibration. It will not be transient. The great worker for human rights, Martin Luther King, was very much on point when he said in the last century that “we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”. A small note, that a fool, among other things, is “someone lacking in common powers of understanding”.
* Sun the First, Odysseus Elytis