2020 will be a year of Sobering, Structural, Transformation. Our materialistic society will have a reality check not seen since the early 1500's. Saturn conjunct Pluto Transit is a time of great change, hard work and serious business. You will need patience and determination as you face extra responsibilities with less time and resources to get the job done! You may experience loss, hardship or disappointment as you learn what it is that you must let go of or change. You may feel pressured or burdened by someone in a position of authority or a government department or large corporation. This may place a strain on your finances or force you to give up a hobby or family time. It is possible that a change in circumstances restricts your ability to enjoy other areas of life until you address the particular issue.

Anything that has outlived its usefulness must be discarded. You cannot leave things as they are and resist the powerful forces that are at play. You must act responsibly and you may even have to be ruthless in taking out the garbage.

It is best to approach the coming change by accepting the inevitable and do what must be done. If you ignore what soon becomes obvious, or stubbornly refuse to change, you risk complications that will make your life extremely difficult. Even worse would be to take short cuts or cheat. Immoral or unethical behavior such as lying, manipulation or breaking the law would have serious consequences that would further restrict your options and freedom.

Accept change and go with the flow. Listen to your intuition and listen to the advice of professionals. This is a time for a deliberate, well-considered change. Once you let go of the limiting factors in your life you can use determination and perseverance to build new structures in their place. This is a slow, evolutionary process that builds new foundations on which to prosper in the coming years.

Saturn transits are never easy, simple or swift. Saturn reveals its wisdom and its ways, slowly. The lord of time takes no shortcuts and causes serious issues for those that do. The taskmaster isn’t a fan of the cult of youth, fast fashion, quick bucks, or breaks for getting ahead without paying the price. Saturn helps us to cultivate patience. It honors experience over praise. Moral fortitude needed to do the right thing over getting ahead no matter the cost.  

In Aquarius for a little over 3 months, Saturn will then retrograde back to Capricorn come July (staying there until December of 2020). Saturn will then settle into Aquarius for good come the close of 2020. Comfortable in and ruler of both Capricorn and Aquarius, Saturn is high functioning and dominant for an extraordinary amount of years (2017 – 2023). This timeframe highlights the rules, boundaries, borders, and structures we live within. Saturn always comes bearing the hard truths we need to know in order to mature. 

Most of the world has been running on cheap, fast, and unsustainable solutions for decades now. The drain on our environment, on our relationships, on our psyches and selves is undeniable. We bail out banks and big business before those at the highest risk of being swept under: the chronically ill, the entrepreneur, the single parent, the student, the teacher, the caretaker, the nurse, the survivor, the artist, the healer, the activist, the undocumented, the elder, the disabled, and the marginalized among us.

We are a world out of balance, in desperate need of a social reorganization. 

In Aquarius, Saturn seeks to build innovative social structures. This air sign is known for its intellectual rigor, humanitarianism, and thoughtful visions for the future. In Aquarius, Saturn focuses on the needs of the group, bringing forth rules, regulations, and systems change for the masses.  

The last time Saturn was in Aquarius (1991-1993), apartheid was dismantled. Before that, Saturn was in Aquarius from 1962-1964, when the Civil Rights Act, which banned school segregation and employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, sex or national origin, was signed into law in the United States. And before that, Saturn was in Aquarius from 1932-1935. The Great Depression had begun in 1929 causing unemployment to reach 25%. These years of Saturn in Aquarius saw the beginning of FDR’s New Deal, which brought social security, government infrastructure and banking regulations to the US. 

While none of these measures are perfect, while none were a remedy in and of themselves, they were all attempts at creating social structures that centered the needs of the collective over the individual. 

Saturn is back for more. 

While we don’t know how the coming days, months, and years will unfold,  we do know that we must wash ourselves clean of any misconceptions that we can remain in this system and be successful. As we move through these enormous challenges ahead, we need to prepare space internally and externally for new solutions to come forth. We need to be patient with our process as the external systems crumble, for they are all we have known. Even when we want a new world, letting go of the old can be unnerving. As structures and systems show their incompetence, our internal worlds will need time to adjust, refocus, and realign with what can carry us the distance. We can and we will find new ways to organize and care for one another, but it will take a Saturnian effort to do so. It will take our determination, dedication, and patient persistence. Today, and for many more days to come.

Jupiter returns to Aquarius for the first time in 12 years. When expansive Jupiter's energy combines with visionary Aquarius, its all about looking ahead, thinking big, and embracing all of humanity. Thinking in new ways to get people working together.

Jupiter’s effects are to expand our experiences, our knowledge, and our understanding. Jupiter represents optimism, growth, generosity, joy, and abundance. In Sagittarius, Jupiter urged us to increase our cultural and spiritual awareness, to expand our higher minds, to broaden our experiences, and to have faith in the universe. In Capricorn, Jupiter urged us to define goals, seek out tangible results, act ethically and maturely, and to take a disciplined and step-by-step approach to realizing our goals.

Aquarius is an Air sign. With an Air sign Jupiter, we are mentally adventurous, ready and willing to learn, into “mind expansion”, and less attached to our values than with other signs because we are generally quite impartial and open-minded. We are able to see many sides to any given argument.

With Jupiter in Aquarius, we attract the most good fortune when we are tolerant and fair, inventive, impartial, and cooperative. We are at our best when we have freedom of choice, when we break a few rules, and when we think outside of the box.

Social reform and positive, humanitarian action are what we value during this Jupiter cycle. Our attitudes and values concerning religion, moral conduct, education, and politics are progressive and original. We value freedom, individuality, fellowship, and group goals and visions. Still, as progressive as Aquarius is, it’s also a fixed sign, so there can be some inflexibility with this position.

Jupiter’s zeal can supersede moderation at times. It can expand the more negative qualities of a sign, just as it can expand the positive traits. Its zeal and enthusiasm is well-intentioned, but it can blind us to our immoderate behavior. In Aquarius, we can be stubborn and rebellious.

However, the “higher” vibration of Jupiter looks for perspective. Jupiter’s “perspective” isn’t a detached, analytical, or detailed look at any given situation, but an overview–a look at the “big picture”. With Jupiter, ideally, we are able to rise above pettiness, mundane concerns, inconveniences, and the like. Where Jupiter is currently transiting in your own chart is generally where you are inclined to find your “joy” at this stage in your development.

Jupiter zips through the early degrees of the signs, and spends more time in the last decanate of Aquarius due to retrograde motion.

Known as "the great conjunction"; the cyclical conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn that occurs every twenty years has been the preeminent method of demarcating historical eras in traditional astrology. When Jupiter and Saturn come together there is both the intensity of old forms dying as well as the fertility of new growth beginning to take shape. In the past century, their cycle has aligned with the transition in between decades, with the conjunctions and oppositions between Jupiter and Saturn marking the start of each decade. For example, there was a  Jupiter and Saturn conjunction in 1980, an opposition in 1990, a conjunction in 2000, and an opposition in 2010. Jupiter and Saturn will form their next conjunction on December 21 of 2020 in the first degree of Aquarius, and so most of 2020 will take place during the end of their cycle. There will be an atmosphere of anticipation building during the year of being on the precipice of a new era, while simultaneously old issues will resurface in need of resolution.

marks the start of a new roughly 200-year cycle during which Jupiter and Saturn will form conjunctions in the same element: air.

Together Jupiter and Saturn combine expansive and imaginative vision with the structure and discipline needed to both manifest results as well as strip away the inessential. While Jupiter signifies generosity and fortunate opportunities, it can also lead to egoic greed and delusions of grandeur that requires the contemplative focus of Saturn to trim the excess and strengthen what is ready to ripen. At the same time, we need the inspirational revitalization of Jupiter to mediate the negative side of Saturn that can bring fear over limitations and obstacles and lead to depressive stagnation. During 2020 we will be in a constant balancing act of tempering between Jupiter and Saturn, with a need to shift in between the synthesizing growth of Jupiter and the methodical reordering of Saturn.

Though the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn every twenty years is always important, their union in 2020 has special and extraordinary significance. Jupiter and Saturn have a pattern of forming their conjunctions in the same element of astrology for approximately two hundred years, such as occurring in water signs from the beginning of the fifteenth century until the beginning of the seventeenth century and in fire signs from the beginning of the seventeenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Since 1802 the Saturn and Jupiter conjunctions have been occurring in earth signs, with the final one occurring on May 28 of 2000 in Taurus. After the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius in 2020, there will continue to only be conjunctions between Jupiter and Saturn in tropical air signs until 2159.

Prepare for the year ahead with your 2020-21 Natal Chart reading!

Thus 2020 is at the end of a two-hundred-year era of Jupiter and Saturn uniting in earth signs. While the earth element signifies focus on material security and consolidation of resources that is resistant to change, the era of air will bring disruption to established orders and dramatic changes in collective ideas and the way we communicate. Vitally, not only will Jupiter and Saturn be uniting in Aquarius, they will also be forming a catalytic square aspect with Uranus in Taurus. At this pivotal moment in our journey, the lightning bolts of Jupiter and Uranus will not only bring down old societal structures but will also impel us to release old personal dreams and drama we have been attached to. There will be new challenges and unknown potential arising as we begin a new era of Jupiter and Saturn that we will need to make space for in our lives. During 2020 ask yourself what you need to leave behind and what you truly desire to carry forward.

What came to be known as Tecumseh’s Curse laid on US presidents who were elected in years divisible by twenty by an irate Shawnee Native American chief does spookily appear to hold good. Tecsumeh was angered by dirty dealings over native land by William Harrison who became president in 1840 – and died in 1841. And the mishap pattern did repeat – though the ‘curse’ itself may have been a retrospective invention and the catastrophes more connected to the recurring Jupiter Saturn conjunction, which comes round every 20 years.

Jupiter is associated with Zeus, the fiery and arrogant god of Olympus, who soars above all else, while Saturn, the grim reaper, symbol of mortality, cuts down to size. The combination of the pair can occasionally precipitate an Icarus-like fall – for those who fly too close to the sun, challenging the power of the gods, their wings melt and they plummet. It can indicate an attempt on the presidents life!

Aquarius energy cares about the whole, and its focus is on the greater good. It's the team player who gives all people a seat at the table, not just a privileged few. Beginning in 2021, we can expect an emphasis on inclusion, diversity, and the dismantling of oppressive systems; it's a time of leveling the playing field.

There's been hype around the Age of Aquarius for centuries. It's a new age of humanity coming together. From an astrological outlook, 2021 is the beginning of many Aquarius-themed transits. Beginning with the great conjunction, Saturn will remain in this sign for nearly three years and Jupiter for one year. Then in 2023, Pluto will enter Aquarius, where it will stay for 20 years. Although there's no proving it, given that there are so many planets moving through Aquarius, we can imagine that this new age is finally beginning.