The Great Conjunction in Aquarius + Winter Solstice—Pattern Reset
On December 21, the winter solstice (in the northern hemisphere), one of the most important astrological moments of our lifetimes will occur.
This signature is one of the major reasons astrologers have been looking at 2020 for decades—not knowing how necessarily, but recognizing this was going to be a very big, very intense, very disruptive, and pattern scrambling and resetting year.
This moment is the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Jupiter and Saturn conjunct (meet together in the sky) and meld their very different energies approximately every 20 years. They last conjoined on May 28, 2000. Making this a generational cycle at any time—however, this year they meet in an air sign, setting off a new pattern that will last for the next 200 years.
These planets also meet up closer to Earth than they’ve been in over 400 years! Get yourself outside tonight to see it with a telescope (or stream it here).
For the past two centuries, these two have joined in earth signs—ramping up the industrial revolution at the turn of the 19th century and coinciding with two hundred years of collective focus on the physical, earthly plane—including the destruction of our planet in the name of progress.
Now Saturn and Jupiter will connect in air signs until 2200. The last series of these planets meeting in air signs began in the 13th century (and contained the birth of the Renaissance).
A lot of astrologers are talking about socialism with this signature, and while I do see the tides carrying forward progressive values, I also think Aquarius is deeply interested in individual power and autonomy, along with innovation and the new, and also a strong desire to up-level the collective. So I think we’ll see forms of structuring our world and society which work toward mutual evolution through honoring individual creativity.
Aquarius is a very humanitarian and social justice oriented sign that, as mentioned, also really supports individualism. It’s open-hearted, open-minded, and very interested in human rights. It’s also a very queer-supportive sign and energy. And I think these are all issues that will be held in focus in the coming months, the next twenty years, and will find new expressions in the next 200. I think we’ll rewrite our ideas of gender and sexuality, among other things, through this cycle.
And I know that sounds quite utopic, but I’m not saying it will all be rainbows and butterflies. There will still be problems. There will always be obstacles and conflicts. But I also believe in progress and our continued evolution.
It is likely in the next two hundred years that our values will shift from the emphasis on material wealth and physical production to the valuation of ideas, innovation, and creativity. Things will go even more ethereal and online. The collective consciousness and likely the economy will shift away from tradition and rigid structure, along with things like manufacturing and industry, and move further into the realm of ideas and communication.
Think of the changes we’ve seen since the 1980s (when this conjunction did a forward leap into air signs before returning to earth for its last hurrah) in terms of computers, the internet, cell phones… Now imagine that on steroids. Buckle up.
Both of these planets are teachers, but they take very different approaches. Saturn is the energy of limitations and restriction, boundaries, and learning through hard work and patience. Jupiter is expansion, blessings, and learning through pleasure and fun. Together, they can balance each other and speak to deep and wise change.
And this is bone-deep, fundamental change that will ripple through our world for centuries to come.
This conjunction occurs at 0° of Aquarius, highlighting its role as a brand new beginning. Add the fact that it occurs on the winter solstice—witch’s new year—and you can see this is a powerful time for setting new patterns, intentions, and structures in your life.
Dream big with this energy, and use it to propel you into your personal and our collective future.
Ritual for the Solstice and Great Conjunction
On the night of the solstice, light blue and purple candles.
Draw three tarot cards: One for the past, and what you are ready to release and leave behind from 2020 and beyond. The second, for the creative dream and/or project(s) you are most ready and willing to commit to bringing into the world now. And the third, for guidance on connecting to your innate creative wisdom and power and moving forward into these new ideas and your next-level creative self.
Write down the creative and innovative visions you will commit to in the next year, the next twenty years, and what you want to plant that will continue to grow into the next two centuries.
Bonus Ritual: Click here for a breathing meditation ritual to release 2020, on The Thought Erotic—literary journal of sexual culture.
Speculative Writing Prompt for the Solstice—Air World
Write about a world that is centered on and steeped in the attributes and qualities of the element of air. Air is: mental, intellectual, logical, conceptual, social, inquisitive, communicative, impersonal, abstract, unbiased, dispassionate, fair, clever, versatile, and can also be spacy, ungrounded, detached, aloof, inconsistent, indecisive, superficial. What kind of world would sprout and grow under these conditions? What kind of beings would live within it? What would be some of their struggles and their gains?
Paint a picture of the world and then write a scene that takes place within it. See what you get. Have fun—air signs love a good thought experiment.