Jumping into the Abyss

It is time to talk about the conjunction that will be formed by Jupiter and Uranus at Taurus 21°50′ on Saturday, April 20 at 7:27 PM in California, 20:27 hours in Mexico City, or on Sunday, April 21 at 04:27 hours in Santander.

The orbital period for Jupiter is of 11.86 years, taking nearly one year to transit a zodiacal sign, whereas Uranus needs 83.75 years to complete an orbit around the sun or about seven years per sign. Therefore, on average, they will come together every fourteen years to begin a new cycle of visionary development. An exact fourteen-year cycle would place each conjunction in the same degree of consecutive fire and air (“masculine”) or water and earth (“feminine”) signs, like Aries and Gemini or Scorpio and Capricorn. As a matter of fact, in recent past we have had many consecutive conjunctions alternating between fire and air signs, once again emphasizing the masculine (Yang) aspect. The conjunction is keyed by Uranus, the planet that breaks with the status quo (Saturn) when it can no longer meet our personal or collective evolutionary needs. On the other hand, Jupiter is the visionary that focuses the rebellious and reformer attitude of Uranus.

Conjunction’s Symbolism

To understand the personal significance of the conjunction, we need to remember that Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, the planet that puts us in touch with our three dimensional reality on a day-to-day basis. While Mercury symbolizes our rational mind that operates on sensory perceptions and conscious thoughts, Uranus works with our intuition, extra-sensory information (telepathy and the like), and symbols derived from what Carl Jung called our Personal Unconscious. Uranus represents the inner guide to our personal destiny, the “voice of our soul” speaking not by methodical reflection and reasoning but in flashes of inspiration. The process of Uranus goes after the truth, identifying any roadblocks (Saturn) that try to impede its journey, so they are taken care of. In doing so, it may resort to revolutionary ideas, for Uranus lives in the world of ideas. Considering Uranus as the Mercury for our higher (subtler) level of consciousness is a very good mental image. Both planets deal with ideas, one in a mostly rational manner and the other intuitively.

The co-worker in this relationship cycle, Jupiter, refers to the process of relatedness at the highest level, everything that expands the reach of our relatedness is likely to fall in the realm of Jupiter. The diversity enabled by traveling and the knowledge obtained through philosophy and higher education are examples of activities where abstract relationships must be formed, activities belonging to Jupiter. Law stems from the relationships between human beings and, at a higher level, religion is concerned with our relationship with God. Both are concepts belonging to Sagittarius, the sign ruled by Jupiter. At a personal level, it will represent the desire to succeed in one’s public life, typically our career, at the psycho-mental level of individuals acting as members of society. For persons acting as conscious individuals, Jupiter will symbolize the desire to view one’s Path toward our personal destiny. Jupiter represents the visionary that can see as far as our relatedness goes, even to some conceptual Absolute.

What happens when the “inner guide to our personal destiny”, as I called Uranus, gets together with the visionary that can “view” the Path to such destiny? I would like to point out that our conscious mind is not involved in that question. This is why the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus has been compared to the feeling of jumping into the abyss. Both planets look ahead and are focused in the future, neither one having time nor interest for the past. Any activity (or activities) they initiate in unison calls for an act of faith, we are to follow our inner voice, or a hunch, and act as our heart tells us. Of course, as usual the devil is in the details and we must look at the chart to find them.

Historical Context

This is not the first time we have a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus while Pluto is transiting through Aquarius. As a matter of fact, several of such conjunctions happened during key revolutionary periods. José Millán called them moments when there was a “democratization of military power” in the sense that the masses gained access to the same type of weaponry available to those in power. Two examples come to mind: the conjunction of 1775, also in Taurus, which served as prelude to the American Revolutionary War, and the following conjunction in Leo, on June 29, 1789, just two weeks before the French Revolution began.

The article about the solar eclipse mentioned that the current (ending) relationship cycle of Jupiter and Uranus began with a triple conjunction. By itself this is not that unusual, it simply indicates that both planets began to move in the retrograde direction shortly after forming an initial conjunction. When moving back, the faster planet is able to “catch” the slower one before both change direction again and the process is repeated. What made that triple conjunction uncommon was that they initially met on June 8, 2010 in the first degree of Aries (at 0°18′) but the other two conjunctions occurred in Pisces: on September 18, 2010 at Pisces 28°43′, with both planets moving retrograde, and on January 4, 2011 at Pisces 27°02′, which marked the proper beginning of this cycle, as shown in the enclosed chart. Incidentally, it broke a long series of conjunctions alternating between fire and air (“masculine”) signs, but not before having that initial conjunction in Aries! Looking ahead, after this conjunction in Taurus, we will have two triple conjunctions. The first in Cancer in 2037–2038, and the next in Virgo in 2051–2052, both being “feminine” (Yin) signs.

Before we look in detail at how the current cycle began, let me go down memory lane to the prior conjunction on February 15, 1997, which was the last in the series of alternating fire and air signs. That cycle began in the Uranus-ruled sign of communities and networking in the broadest sense, at Aquarius 5°56′. A year earlier, on November 10, 1995, Pluto had entered Sagittarius to push for the economic globalization that characterized the turn of the century, and in which the Internet played a major role.¹ Sagittarius and Aquarius, Jupiter and Uranus working through their signs with Pluto in Sagittarius. Tons of Yang energy.

The “Full Moon” phase for that cycle, when we could “see” its fruits, occurred on August 29, 2003 and propelled the meteoric rise of the early social networks. Myspace had just been founded on August 1, and Facebook followed six months later, on February 4, 2004. However, the waning phases of that cycle coincided with the entrance of Pluto into Capricorn in late 2008, which unleashed the global financial crises and the Grand Recession of 2009. It was time to balance the excess of Yang energy with Yin, and that will happen for decades to come. Under such sobering realization, the current cycle began just three hours after the new moon in Capricorn, as it can be seen in the chart above.

A Preparation Cycle

Pluto in Capricorn had the unenviable task of pointing out that the hierarchical and patriarchal institutions are at odds with the current dawn of the Age of Aquarius. Until 2024, when it would enter Aquarius, the best we could do was to learn from the past and reflect on what Pluto would be showing us. It is not surprising that the conjunction happened in Pisces, the sign that extracts wisdom from all endings. The Sabian symbol of its 28th degree has the image of a moon-lit garden with all kinds of plants and vegetables, a diversity able to fulfill all basic needs. It is worth noting the symbol’s keyword: abundance. We have witnessed in the last thirteen years how obsolete the patriarchal way of relating has become. We must change our ways and focus on nurture the sacred feminine in every one of us with the garden’s abundance.

The 2011 conjunction chart has Pluto next to the North Node in early Capricorn, located at the top of the chart, which further emphasized the importance of the times we were living. With respect to the closing of that cycle, which is what we are living this week, I want you to note the exact trine formed by the conjunction at 27°02′ with Venus at Scorpio 27°01′, a strong emphasis on relationship needs, alongside a wide (6°) sextile with Mars at Capricorn 21°07′. Venus also formed a square with the conjunction-ruler Neptune at Aquarius 26°50′, itself conjunct Chiron at Aquarius 27°48′.

By comparison, in the 2024 conjunction chart of this weekend, we have Neptune at Pisces 28°37′, one degree away from where the conjunction happened in 2011. Not only that, Neptune will be in opposition to Moon at Virgo 29°40′, a day into the Gibbous phase when we make a final push for actualizing the seed potentiality present at the new moon. It is worth noting that both Venus and Mars form aspects with the Jupiter–Uranus conjunction: a semi-sextile and a sextile, respectively. I will come back to these influences shortly but for now I want to note the impetus to align the energies of Mars and Venus. We must rethink how we use the desires of the sacred masculine (Mars) so they align with the needs of the sacred feminine (Venus). The fact that the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus will occur in Taurus, the sign most concerned with productivity, will ensure concrete results.

Sabian Symbol

The symbol for Taurus 22° has the image: “A white dove flying over troubled waters”, further explained as the spiritual inspiration that comes to the individual in the overcoming of crises. Its key phrase is: Reward to the Faithful. This is a symbol of guidance taken from the story of Noah and the Ark. Noah met his and mankind’s crises courageously and following God’s promptings. Once the test was completed, he received a message from the Holy Spirit announcing a new Dispensation. Rudhyar writes: “This symbolic scene can be applied to personal crises resulting from emotional upheavals or from the irruption of unconscious forces and impulses into the consciousness”, provided the crisis has been faced in the right mood. Just like Noah followed blindly the white dove to dry land, so we must follow the intuitions that will arise from this conjunction with absolute faith in the future.

A Parade of Conjunctions

Jupiter is only the first of several planets that will form conjunctions in Taurus with the slower Uranus in the month of May and beyond. If we ignore Moon for the moment, given that she orbits the entire zodiac (and a bit more) on every lunation, the Jupiter conjunction will be followed by Sun on May 13 at 23°06′ and Venus on May 18 at 23°24′. A week later, on May 25, Jupiter will enter Gemini, an important event that we’ll discuss in a future article. Finally, the two remaining personal planets will form conjunctions with Uranus as well, first Mercury on May 30 at 24°08′ and Mars on July 15 at 26°19′. All together, these conjunctions with Uranus will help us uncover freedom and truth in our lives. Although a “typical” Jupiter–Uranus conjunction, if there is such a thing, forces us to assimilate (Jupiter) a societal shock (Uranus), this particular one may feel more like a manageable “growth spurt”, evolutionarily speaking, by virtue of occurring in Taurus. Of course, we will come back to these topics in future articles.

Other Influences

When looking at the upcoming-conjunction chart, we notice that Venus will be at Aries 19°40′, the same degree where we had the solar eclipse. Not only that, it will form a close conjunction with Chiron at Aries 20°08′, helping us assimilate the hurt uncovered at the eclipse in such a way that their conjunction may bring pacifist efforts in the world. Let’s remember that Chiron in Aries refers to the right to exist. In addition, Venus will form two more conjunctions that day: with Mercury at Aries 16°48′, who is still moving retrograde until April 26, and with the North Node at Aries 15°39′. These energies will enable us to engage in introspection (Mercury retrograde) about our evolutionary opportunities (North Node) and our right to exist as distinct individuals (Chiron in Aries), as they apply to our relationships at a personal level (Venus).

Before moving from the Jupiter–Uranus conjunction, let’s briefly look at Mars who, at Pisces 22°38′, will form a wide opposition with Moon in Virgo and wide conjunctions with both Saturn (Pisces 15°43′) and Neptune. These aspects call for restructuring (Saturn) our relationship with the sacred masculine. Rather than using its power to subjugate, it is time to put it at the service of the sacred feminine so as to return to the balance lost when we began the push towards individual achievements fueled by the power of the sacred masculine.

Discussion

I promised to take up the topic of the astrological ages in an effort to answer when the Age of Aquarius will properly begin, but the topic is more complex than it may seem at first glance because there is no agreement on the exact boundaries between the ages. The details are not important for the present discussion but the astronomy of how the ages occur is understood reasonably well, at least in terms of physics, even though a few mysteries remain. The same cannot be said about the astrological meaning, for instance when and why the ages represent phases of a more encompassing cycle, which would imply understanding the meaning of the entire cycle. Unfortunately, the concept of astrological ages has suffered from a lot of misinformation, starting with when they begin, astrologically speaking. Rudhyar published a detailed study in a book that has been out of print for decades. However, not all is lost, for I found a used copy and I’m now awaiting delivery. Once I read it, I will publish when we can expect the Age of Aquarius to start and why. My current estimation is between 2066 and 2068, when Pluto will enter Aries three times in two years!

In any case, there is little doubt that the Age of Pisces, which began the current cycle of the ages due to their retrograde motion, coincided with the arrival of Christianity. Its most significant contribution to humanity was not the redemption from some “original sin” but the realization that all humans have what Christianity calls an “immortal soul”, a divine component that makes all of us sons of God: distinct individuals entitled to various human rights by virtue of being “all equal” in the eyes of God. In our philosophy, we have said that such Christ principle to become the embodiment of our personal destiny (dharma), is the Day Force that grows from a seed at the winter solstice (Capricorn 0° and Christmas) to an integrated individual, Jung would say individuated, at the summer solstice (Cancer 0°). The point is that the Day Force represents the Yang (masculine) aspect of life, the sacred masculine.

We are within the final degree of the Age of Pisces (72 years), which correspond to Pisces 1°. Final degrees in astrology are called anaretic and carry the meaning of intense representation of the sign’s archetypes which includes their shadow aspects. The shadow of individuality is individualism and we are certainly living plenty of that. That said, Pisces is the confirming symbol of Aquarius, which in turn is the root symbol of the operative coupling “Aquarius–Pisces”. Final degrees of confirming symbols “prepare” for the next root symbol, so the Age of Pisces is making sure we are prepared for the Age of Aquarius. The entrance of Pluto in Aquarius is an example, but so is this conjunction in Taurus, the first of many in the water and earth “feminine” signs of Yin energy. The shift of consciousness will come by revaluing the sacred feminine and its relationship to the sacred masculine, a revaluation that must be done personally and collectively.

Wrapping Up…

If there are specific changes you would like in your life from who you were in January, 2011, declare them before the conjunction so they are included in the seed for the next cycle. Always declare in the present tense, as something already happening.

In any case, it would be very advantageous to reflect on how present is the sacred feminine lately. I will send the article about the full moon in Scorpio in a few days with more synchronicities.

The issue of balance between the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine within ourselves is one of balancing the Mars desires with the Venus needs. Neither the desires must be completely Yang, nor the needs be completely Yin. Our needs are the result of our value system, which in turn depends of our relationships, all Venusian concepts. Our needs should ideally reflect the needs of our evolutionary soul but, in either case, our desires impulse our actions to satisfy our needs. The loftier the needs, the loftier the desires, and the loftier the motivation for us to act.

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖

1. Ten days later, on November 20, 1995, the company I co-founded to enable large corporations to integrate their computing systems with the Internet, Active Software, opened its doors. ↩︎