2020: Time to choose love over fear

One of my friends teased me the other day about my comment on the big astrological events in this coming year, 2020. She noted that astrologers so often hype the ‘intensity’ and importance of the placement and interactions of the planets. While I know she is quite accurate, I also know that 2020 marks some major endings – and new beginnings.

The longest cycles, and therefore those with the most impact in our lives are marked by the slowest planets. In other words, while we may well notice the monthly conjunctions of Sun and Moon, in general the influences of the Moon’s 28-day orbit of the Earth pass quickly. This coming weekend, however, two of the slower moving planets in our Solar System come together to initiate a new 35 year cycle: Saturn (29 year orbit) conjoins Pluto (248 year orbit) on January 12th in the tropical sign of Capricorn. 

While the meeting of the two planets happens every 35 years, the last time it happened in this part of the sky, Capricorn, was in 1518, the time of the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the American slave trade, as well as major Spanish exploration and colonization. Add in the planet Jupiter with Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, and we have a line-up not seen since nearly 2000 years before the time of Christ, when the city of Babylon began.

Do a quick Internet search on “Saturn Pluto conjunction” and you can find legions of astrologers offering perspective and predictions. I’ve written bits and pieces about this intense Capricorn energy over the past year using words such as destabilization and restructuring. We are certainly seeing these energies at play in our country and the world. The historic events I mentioned above exemplify colonisation and control, combined with disruption and destabilization.

My sense of this week’s coming culmination is that there may well be a consolidation (Saturn) of power (Pluto), or at least a crystallization (Saturn) of some of the themes lurking in the shadows (Pluto). The tension is between an old, control-based system of working, governing, and living (the dark side of Capricorn) and a new (and ancient) way of honoring our subtle senses, our intuition, our deep connection with the life force in every creation, and our innate natural wisdom. The latter qualities are the constructive expression of the sign Cancer, the polar opposite of (shadow) Capricorn. The signs work in polarity, and each sign has a more constructive and a more destructive expression. Constructive Capricorn gives the ability to bring into form, and to act in support of longevity and sustainability, while constructive Cancer honors sensitivity, feeling, and the past. Both signs honor the Earth, each in its own way.

In my view, we are at a crossroads of sorts in how we treat each other and our planet, based on whether we live from fear or love; from what we don’t want versus what we deeply desire. We’ve seen the result of acting from fear: walls; military build-ups; hoarding of wealth in one form or another. Often, greed stems from the fear of not having enough.

For those of us with a lot of Capricorn energy in our charts, we may have had a number of opportunities to see how fear drives us over the past year. In my case I’ve noticed the attraction of ads and marketing hype promising to ‘grow my list’ or ‘reach more clients’. Fear makes me think about what I can offer to make money. But love and desire help me offer what lights me up, which ends up being more sustainable as well as more effective.

A new offering that is lighting me up at the start of 2020 is an astro-writing salon, beginning in February. I’ll be offering astrology prompts in a weekly online salon to those wanting the container and context for their writing.

For my part, I have a lot to write, from accounts of epic journeys both inner and outer, to a story of money and its redemption in my life when I chose love over fear.