Saturn and Pluto Conjunction: An Historical Example - Making the Most of January, 2020!

When I was in London last August, I became curious about the biography of Queen Victoria and I fell in love with her birth chart – her astrological “horoscope.” I followed it through her life, her love for Albert, the various ups and downs of her reign, and I visited her monuments, palaces and gardens to get a feel for who she was.

Please – let me say this first: I am no historian of the Royal family! Nor do I know all the history about what really happened between Queen Victoria and the man she eventually called her “Munshi.” I also realize it was a relationship just begging to be deconstructed and analyzed within the context of colonial rule and all the nine yards of what that implies…But…

As synchronicity would have it, I noticed a similarity between the Queen’s story and the sky now in terms of evolutionary astrology. It just seems suggestive to me of what – maybe, just maybe - some folks might be experiencing, if their chart is being stimulated by the current sky – the middle of January, 2020.

Most of my astrology friends know that this week there is a rather rare conjunction, Saturn and Pluto, a phenomenon that happens about three times a century, happening now in the sign of Capricorn. Queen Victoria was born in 1819 during one of these rare occurrences; she has Saturn and Pluto conjunct in Pisces in her 11th House in her birth chart.

Now there is much one could say about Queen Victoria’s chart, yet alone about her long reign and what was happening in her life astrologically. Most telling is the fact the Queen was a “triple Gemini,” born on the New Moon in Gemini, when the luminaries (Sun and Moon) were just over the horizon, in the Queen’s 12th House.

Anyone who has ever been intrigued by the life of Queen Victoria knows she expressed many “Gemini” qualities; she loved to learn, wrote correspondence constantly during her entire reign, and had a natural curiosity (which she shared with Prince Albert) for facts and invention.

With a stellium (a bunch of planets) in the 12th House, and Pluto, Chiron and Saturn conjunct in the 11th along with Jupiter in the 10th, Victoria was clearly a lady defined by public duty that required a loss of self in her role within the institution of the monarchy.

Her Pluto, Chiron and Saturn together suggest a wound and blockage, a Piscean sensitivity, to her need to let go and abandon ‘self,’ due to her office and responsibilities, and with the difficulties she experienced with father figures (Saturn) early in her life. Given the conjunction is in the 11th House, perhaps, later in life, she might be able to claim that wound and make it part of her personal power.

Cut to 1887, the year of the Queen’s Jubilee (she was 68). Queen Victoria met an Indian servant, Abdul Karim, who eventually became her close confidant, advisor and teacher. Astrologers sometimes look at a technique called ‘solar arcs’ to help a person work with their evolving self – who they are becoming. The summer the Queen met Karim, whom she later called her “Munshi,” the Queen’s natal Pluto, Chiron, Saturn conjunction had reached - by solar arc, exact by degree in her chart – the Queen’s natal New Moon (Sun and Moon conjunction).

The Gemini heart and soul of Victoria were being given a chance by the universe to transform (Pluto) the wound (Chiron) and move her into a more mature voice of the elder monarch (Saturn), a Queen more openly accepting and respectful of India’s diverse and unique heritage.

The Munshi offered Victoria a chance to see the world differently, to embrace Indian culture, to try cuisine in the form of exotic curries, and to learn Urdu – a difficult task she apparently seemed to love. She was not only exploring what Indian culture had to offer, but was experiencing and growing into a new level of acceptance, an acceptance of a people very different from her own.

I must say my own Gemini Moon just loved seeing her lesson books filled with Urdu script – known as Hindustani at the time – in a special exhibition at Kensington Palace this past summer!

Needless to say, the Queen’s new understanding and open acceptance of what was seen as an “inferior” culture was not well received – by Royal family, staff, and essentially her whole household…

Eventually, a few years later, solar arc Saturn, Chiron and Pluto reached the Queen’s Gemini ascendant – her rising sign, how she “dawns on the world” - her close friendship with Karim Abdul created escalating tension, opposition, and stubborn resistance (Saturn) and power struggles (Pluto) from the Royal court. Even her own son, heir to the throne, questioned her sanity, refusing to see beyond the commonly-held perceptions of colonial subjects, the set notions due to the racism in British society at the time, of what most English people believed about the people of India.

Can we see such challenges faced by Queen Victoria as a lesson for our own times? Of course, the current Saturn / Pluto conjunction occurs in a very different sign – Capricorn – but perhaps we can take a look at these archetypes together as a moment of potential – approach it with a willingness to work hard and with discipline on personal transformation, despite the obstacles we may face.

Maybe it might help to consider how this conjunction hits our own birth chart. Because let’s face it; our friends and family so often don’t want to see us change. They like the picture of us they have come to know. The Queen met that power of resistance and she embraced Karim anyway. A relationship fraught with colonial overtones, certainly…But I sure do respect her courage.

Saturn and Pluto Together: Here's to Maya Lin's Story, Now Let's Take it On! January, 2020

Every year, at about this time of year, I teach about the great American sculptor, architect and designer Maya Lin – I’ve been doing it for twenty years. My students and I explore how she went up against formidable odds, first entering, and then winning, a national contest for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial commission in Washington, DC. in 1981-82. A Chinese American, Maya was only 21 years old when she won the competition as a Yale graduate student. Much of the difficulty Maya experienced occurred after she was granted the commission, when she was forced to deal with the anger of some of the veterans, the obstacles and the restrictions imposed by some of the opponents, who not only hated her design, but attacked her over her identity – her age, her gender and her Asian heritage.

As synchronicity would have it, it wasn’t until this year that I noticed Maya was responding to a Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter time in her life, and how she was learning (Jupiter) to grow and mature (Saturn) in her abilities to speak out and stand up for her beliefs (Her natal Mercury and Mars).

There is a lot of chatter on social media about these three planets and a current astrological event happening. Some of it is kind of scary or I guess I should say sensationalized too. I do think it looks to be a difficult time, but for each person a different journey, depending I suppose on how you respond to your birth chart. There is a conjunction coming up this winter of the planets Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn at 22˚. Jupiter will be in Capricorn too. The conjunction will be exact mid-January. The last time the two came together in the sky was in the early 1980s, in the sign of Libra.

I’d like to put a positive spin on it by sharing a realization I had this week about Maya – about this famous artist and her fight for her memorial – a story I find personally encouraging anyway.

Maya designed a simple, abstract site-specific artwork, one not quite like any other war memorial ever before. She envisioned two walls coming together at an angle, as they descend into the earth of the Washington Mall. Most moving, I feel, is to visit the monument and gaze upon the smooth, black granite, and see yourself reflected back on top of the names of those deceased. She transformed the collective’s notion of what a great war memorial could be. It has since inspired countless other examples of public art. Maya Lin’s work has left a lasting legacy, but it was her response to a challenging time – a time of Pluto and Saturn and Jupiter – that helped her evolve and transform into her soul’s journey as artist.

You see in 1981-82, during the height of the battles over the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, all three planets were transiting Maya’s natal stellium in Libra. The day her design was chosen, April 30, 1981, Saturn and Jupiter were conjunct her natal north node of the Moon providing a time of grace in her life for both maturity and challenge along with opportunity to discover her soul’s path. Meanwhile, transiting Pluto was conjunct her natal Mars and Mercury. During the first major wave of criticism and outcry in October, 1981, Sun, Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto by transit formed a wide conjunction with her natal Mars at 19˚ Libra, Jupiter and Pluto both were at 24˚ Libra, exactly conjunct Maya’s natal 24˚ Mercury, while Saturn was at mid-Libra between Maya’s Sun at 11˚42’ and Mars at 19˚.

The most emotional and tense arguments over Maya’s design involved her now-famous public speech in defense of the memorial which occurred mid-February, 1982, with both Mars and Saturn conjunct her natal Mars, while Pluto continued to conjunct her natal Mercury. Phew! I like to watch an old news clip of Maya Lin as a young woman going up in front of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in a room filled with members of congress, veterans, journalists, and activists. I am always amazed by her courage and determination to defend her design.

All of this occurring in Libra – the sign so much about negotiation and balance with others as well as aesthetic appreciation and finding harmony and beauty in life. Maya’s intentions were so Libran; to create a memorial that would bring a sense of peace and healing over the losses of war, rather than a grand statement of military victory. It is like the universe was asking Maya to reconsider her thoughts not only about art, but also about how to mature and learn personal strength, and transform her own voice in defense of what she cherished in art and held true.

Of course, this January, 2020, the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto is in a very different sign, Capricorn. And to make the most of understanding the time for you is to consider where and in what house the conjunction lies in your birth chart.

On November 10, 1982, Saturn and Pluto met up for the exact conjunction at 27 ˚ Libra; both planets had moved just 3 degrees from Maya’s natal Mercury. That day marked the start of several days of official dedication ceremonies of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with much public fanfare and celebration.

Difficulties that truly transform. What can I say…I love Maya’s artwork and admire her artistic career, but most of all I respect her courage, along with the patience and endurance she had, to ride with Pluto and Saturn to get there.

Not everyone is a “Maya Lin,” but we all got our challenges and fears. Such transits bring them to the table for us to see, allowing us to work on ourselves so we can be stronger...nothing to be afraid of; more to accept and to claim, and, well, to try to make the most of.

A Full Moon Firing Squad!!!! Cancer and Capricorn in January 2020

Wishing everyone the best this FULL MOON in CANCER during the penumbral eclipse, January 10th, 11:21 AM PST. The eclipse will not be visible here in California. But this lunar time carries a lot of potential punch astrologically. It all depends upon where this particular area of the sky plays out in your own birth chart.

A Cancer Full Moon, in general, can be a sensitive, emotional time, a time to turn inward, heal, protect and nourish ourselves and our family; a good time to send healing thoughts to our Nation, to our world. Memories of what brought comfort or pain from years past can arise, allowing us to remember, so we can feel through the emotions, to restore or to release.

Somewhere in your life you have been wrestling with either a blockage or a necessity to work hard to mature, to grow through, and to transform into something new. Some people feel this quite strongly now if they have planets, Sun or Moon, or important degrees in their chart at 18-24˚, especially in the Cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn. Look to see where the current Saturn and Pluto conjunction, at 22˚Capricorn, falls in your birth chart for guidance.

At this Full Moon, things may become particularly challenging. Try to ride with compassion, try to greet others with kindness and a spirit of patience and understanding, rather than falling into the possibly whiny or needy, side of a Cancer Moon. Try to support others, because remember they may need it too. Pluto can bring power struggles.

Some structures, some ideas, somethings need to come forward and die now in order to build anew. What makes this Full Moon emotionally volatile is the lineup of planets accompanying the Sun at this moment in time. While the Moon is in Cancer, the Sun is in Capricorn, along with Mercury (perceptions, ideas, communication), Ceres (what nurtures us and how we nurture others, mother child bonds, loss and grief), Saturn and Pluto, all tightly together, lined up like a cosmic firing squad –Mercury, Sun and Moon act as potential “triggers,” faster moving bodies, align briefly, pushing the longer, slower Saturn and Pluto transformations, which have been in play since before the Holidays.

Why not take some time and find the Saturn / Pluto conjunction in your own birth chart and consciously try to address it?

Where is your soul work calling? Synchronicity will make it play out. Better you try to claim it, rather than let the universe claim you…

Maybe making them conscious will make us stronger, make us better players in the larger scheme of things.

Eclipses, of course, are common phenomenon. Astrologers seem to disagree as to the impact of different kinds of eclipses – some choosing only to place emphasis upon total eclipses. But I think this eclipse is worthy of note, even if it creates only a subtle, shadowy effect upon the Moon, simply because of the synchronistic alignment with such a powerhouse in Capricorn. Eclipses can have lasting influence in the months ahead.

The sign of Cancer, with its natural tendency to protect family and clan, can lend itself to patriotic fervor and a desire to withdrawal into national – and personal - boundaries. Meanwhile, Saturn and Pluto come together in the sky roughly three times a century; the last time it happened in Capricorn was in the early 16th century during the Protestant Reformation, a notable time of societal change, a paradigm shift. Let’s pray for PEACE and do what we can to discourage war. Capricorn, as a sign, is associated with political structures and government, among many things. Let’s work hard (Saturn) to truly make the slate clean and to build again (Pluto) ourselves and our Nation, so to make a new world less concerned with “us” and “them,” boundaries and walls, and more concerned with a living, breathing, beautiful planet.

Hope you have a good Full Moon meditation!