MEETING OUR TIMES

Anthroposophy NYC Blog

The Corona World, Part II

We Are in This Together! Earth, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter in 2020

Author: Jonathan Hilton

In Part I of this article, we looked more generally at the nature of Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter (click here to read Part I, if you haven’t done so yet). In Part II, we attempt to understand their extremely rare gathering. Before starting, it can be tempting to fall into the old astrological way of seeing these events as causality, as the outer forces making things “happen to us.” This is not the approach of astrosophy. Most importantly, we must mature as human beings and begin as best possible to see ourselves as partners and co-creators with the higher beings of the stars. They await us. Whether we can become conscious of this or not, we are participants in the macro-consciousness of the cosmos of stars. The modern path of self-knowledge and spiritual development serves this goal. Secondly, it can be tempting to feel powerless in the face of world powers of opposition, but it is important to remember, especially at this time of Easter, that there are greater forces of love and goodness in the world that only await our earnest striving. In this sense, the forces of opposition work to serve us, if we meet them in the right way and transform them. It may sound trivial today to speak of the power of love in the world, as this word is tossed around so often with no real understanding of it. But we can know that it was the force of love incarnate on the Earth that worked and continues to work for its transformation into the future. We have access to that force of transformation when we unite with it consciously. It is not some lofty future goal. And that force reveals itself through sacrifice. In whatever circumstance we are, destiny presents us with the opportunity to accept and embrace it with full consciousness and love.

What does all this planetary activity mean in relation to 2020?

Saturn meets Pluto in January, including during the Holy Nights, which sets the tone for the entire coming year. World karma meets Pluto. Old forms are being shaken and destroyed. A correction to bring about re-alignment with our true evolutionary plan is underway. We are being driven into separation, “social distancing,” confinement into our own selves, on a global scale. This can bring about deep questions about who we are as individuals and as members of a global humanity. We are being confronted with the consequences of our own doing, which includes many factors: our abuse of nature and our environment, the consequences of the materialistic perspective on who we are as human beings, the surge of technology that envelopes our globe with increasing density through the new 5G web of satellites.

On April 5th, Palm Sunday, we have the first of the triple conjunctions of Jupiter with Pluto, recurring until mid-November, through the Presidential elections in the USA. Perhaps we have all read many new articles, voices calling for a “new way of thinking” about our life on Earth, asking questions about what new social, economic, environmental systems must be created to truly share in our humanity in new ways. It can arouse us to seek expansive new visions about where we want to go and what our future will be. It can also serve to expand systems of power and control. Perhaps we all are coming to a realization through our separation that in truth we can only become human through community with others. We miss human connection, human contact, shared life together. Jupiter meeting Pluto can either bring about a revolution in our thinking and in our ideals, or enhanced tenacity and expansion of authority. So as 2020 unfolds, we will see also unfolding the conflicts between the old and the new. On the one hand, there will be great efforts to create more control, more laws, more regulation, more security to hold onto the past structures out of a materialistic world view. On the other hand, there will hopefully, and this is up to us, be new voices heard that speak to our evolving humanity and our need to create forms and systems that align more truly with our spiritual nature, our globally shared human condition to address economic and social inequality, and our relationship to the healing of the Earth. As an interesting side observation, for those who remember, Jeanne Dixon predicted Armageddon in 2020.

As 2020 progresses with these meetings of Saturn/Pluto and the threefold meeting of Jupiter/Pluto, we will be confronted with all the challenges of our archetypal Sagittarian quest to realize what it means to be a human being. This will culminate at Christmas in the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter entering the stars of Capricorn. This Great Conjunction, addressed in my previous article (you can read it by clicking here), wants to be realized as a world annunciation, a new awakening. We are, over this year, in the preparatory process of a world initiation or breakthrough. It is just a beginning, as a seed event for a process over the coming 20 years, until the following Great Conjunction initiates a new theme. We are accustomed to quick solutions, a pill to take away the pain instantly, or a google search to get an answer in seconds. But time in the world does not flow like that. As the old saying truthfully says, “healing takes time.” Again, it is up to us to answer the questions coming from the stars. It will not happen automatically.

The second approach for a deeper understanding of this great planetary conference is to look back in history for lessons from previous similar meetings. In all my research as far back as 1700, for which I have astronomical data, there have been no other conjunctions of these three planets together. However, there are two dates and planetary events that do relate directly to this one, which can shed some light. Every Great Conjunction has a Great Opposition as a direct predecessor, which points already to the themes of the Great Conjunction to follow. These are 30 years prior when Saturn is at the same position as the future Great Conjunction and Jupiter then comes into opposition. One could say that in the opposition, they look across to each other in preparation for their future meeting. The predecessor to 2020 occurred in 1989/90 when Saturn was previously in the body of the Archer and Jupiter was opposite in the Twins. What occurred then? Two events stand out. One was the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a dramatic breakthrough event that opened up the world in new ways. The second was perhaps more subtle but more significant in laying the foundation for much that is happening today. This was the Savings and Loan crisis of 1989, which ushered in the 1990 recession. The Savings and Loan Crisis was the most significant bank collapse since the Great Depression of 1929. By 1989, more than 1,000 of the nation’s savings and loans had failed. This paved the way for the elimination of many small banking institutions and the predominance of large banks. This crisis was a consequence of Reaganomics. Ronald Reagan came into office during the worst recession since the Great Depression. His solution was a roll-back of many government regulations on financial institutions. He was an advocate of laissez-faire economics, and believed the free market and capitalism would solve the problems. His policies followed along with the “greed is good” mindset of 1980’s America. In this context, it is interesting to quote a reference Steiner made about the Anglo-American impulse in relation to the Asuras:

“An economic life like the Anglo-American, which should end in world-dominion; if the effort is not made to bring about its permeation by the independent spiritual life and the independent political life, it will flow into the third of the abysses of human life… in the physical realm, illness and death; in the cultural realm, the illness and death of culture. The Anglo-American world may gain world dominion, but without the Threefold Social Order it will, through this dominion, pour out cultural death and cultural illness over the whole earth, for these are just as much a gift of the Asuras…” (Dornach, 15 December 1919).

The second and perhaps most significant historical event related to these present star events occurred in 1930/31. Significantly, this was the time of the discovery of Pluto, bringing it into our consciousness for the first time. Also, significantly, this is the only time in my historical research in which there was a relationship between all three planets, Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto, and it occurred as a Great Opposition. Saturn was at the same location as it is now in the Archer, and was opposite Jupiter, which was conjunct with Pluto in the Twins. It was a threefold Great Opposition over the course of 1930-31. This is indeed a rare “coincidence” that another powerful relationship between Jupiter and Saturn in opposition in the same zodiacal line as now would occur also conjunct Pluto. What happened in this year? Perhaps most world shaking was the rise of Nazism in Germany, with Hitler being appointed Chancellor on January 30, 1933, to secure power. Here we have a historical picture of the destruction of old forms and the creation of an expansive new vision for the world… but of course a vision based in the darkness and evil of the old racial/blood forces. It was also the time of the Great Depression begun in 1929. This is another example, particularly in America, of the destruction of old norms, economic structures, and the creation of an expansive new vision by FDR in the New Deal.

Another event, significant and explosive in its own way in science, was the theory proposed by Georges Lemaître (who was born with a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction in Twins). He called it the Big Bang Theory, which he developed as an argument against a divine creation. His paper was published in 1927, but was not really noticed and gained public recognition until it was translated into English in 1931, at the time of this Great Opposition with Pluto engaged.

However, unseen but perhaps spiritually of the greatest significance for humanity, was an event described by Rudolf Steiner. This event was happening on the non-visible plane bringing the potential of a new spiritual awakening for humanity and the new revelation of the Christ impulse in the world. It is the time frame of which Rudolf Steiner spoke about as the reappearance of Christ in the etheric realm, that sphere of life surrounding our globe. Here also we have a world-shaking possibility of renewal. Rudolf Steiner also said, in 1924, that before the reappearance of Christ in the etheric realm, humanity would have to face the Beast rising from the abyss in the year 1933. This is the year Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. I bring these events up because first of all, this is the only time historically that had this potent relationship among Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto, and it was in the Archer/Twins line. This was a Great Opposition.

This year, we are encountering these relationships in what will lead to the Great Conjunction. What can become a spiritual awakening of supreme importance for humanity can also be met with equally immense opposition. As mentioned in my previous article (you can read it by clicking here), this Great Conjunction 2020 repeats every 60 years as it slowly processes along the zodiac. The four previous ancestors were all in the stars of the Archer: 1961, 1901, 1842, 1782. For this article, I will not go into the history of these Great Conjunctions, except to point out briefly that the previous ancestor Great Conjunction was in the Archer in 1961. What new “annunciation” impulses began then? John Kennedy was elected President. Some of us may recall the mood of youthful idealism that swept him into office. America foresaw a new era with a fresh start, led by a youthful idealist President. Also at this time, the first sit-in’s by African-Americans at lunch counters began birthing the civil rights movement of that era. “The sixties” began. The predecessor to this 1961 Great Conjunction was in 1901, just at the end of Kali Yuga. Willi Sucher speaks much about this Great Conjunction in relation to the beginning of the public work of Rudolf Steiner, another new impulse of annunciation in the world. The Great Conjunction 2020 will inaugurate a new conjunction thematic impulse as it now steps into the stars of Capricorn for several future cycles of conjunctions, and as I mentioned in my previous article on Saturn in Capricorn (you can read it by clicking here), I believe this Great Conjunction carries the potential of a world initiation.

Though this is a lot to contemplate, I wish to include two more indicators for this time from the heavens. One has to do with eclipses and the other with an approaching comet.

Eclipses occur when either the Sun or Moon enters the lunar nodes. A lunar eclipse is when a Full Moon is in or near the node, and a solar eclipse when the New Moon is in or near the node. The lunar nodes in late 2019 and start of 2020 were also in the stars of the Archer/Twins line. There was a solar eclipse on December 25-26 (depending on time zone) in the Archer. This eclipse was near the Saturn/Pluto conjunction. Then a lunar eclipse occurred on January 10, 2020, in the opposite stars of the Twins, which was directly opposite Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto in the Archer. So both eclipses occurred in a relationship with Saturn and Pluto. These eclipses are complex to understand, but in general the lunar nodes are like doorways or portals from the lunar sphere to the cosmic sphere of the Sun and planets. Rudolf Steiner describes how in a lunar eclipse, when the shadow falls on the Moon, lower astral forces can stream into the Earth through the funnel of shadow from the cosmos; in this case, streaming from Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto in the line of direction of this eclipse. Whereas in a solar eclipse when the shadow falls on the Earth, lower destructive astral forces stream out from the Earth into the cosmos. So we have these additional eclipses during the meetings of Pluto with Saturn at the Holy Nights entry to 2020. I do believe an in depth study of these with the necessary spiritual effort could reveal further insights into the virus development.

The second element during this year is that a comet Atlas Y4 is rapidly approaching the Sun. It was discovered during the Holy Nights on December 28, 2019. It will come closest to Earth on May 23, 2020, and closest to the Sun on May 31, 2020, when it may be visible to the naked eye. A recent headline in Forbes Magazine was titled A Bright Comet with w Tail Could Adorn Twilight Just as the Coronavirus Epidemic Peaks. When the comet comes closest to the Earth, it will be passing through the stars of Perseus, the Greek hero who rescued Andromeda (the soul) from the devouring sea monster Cetus (the lower instinctual forces). Perseus and his story of the rescue of Andromeda is a representation of the being of Michael. In fact, the Perseids meteor showers in August, coming from that region, inaugurate the transformation in the cosmos that starts the Michael season and the changes in the Earth’s atmosphere. Rudolf Steiner (Helsingfors lecture, 1912) describes comets as having a “god-willed” mission to carry out the purification of the astral realm and bring a special impulse into human evolution. And in a lecture on March 5, 1910, Steiner describes comets as: “Something of an elemental nature, something that stirs up, and in a certain condition is necessary in order to rightly maintain the progress of evolution in the cosmos…”

So my friends, we have much to consider for this time well beyond a coronavirus pandemic. Truly rare and significant activity in our cosmos… that cosmos, in which we participate among those beings seeking to aide humanity in our quest and those seeking to divert us, but who also serve a purpose, eventually for the higher good. To place all the talk about the Asuras and the potential for great destruction in a context, I include here a quote from a lecture cycle, in which Rudolf Steiner speaks of the Asuras but concludes with his positive message:

“So we see how Powers work together in the world, how everything that appears to oppose the progress of mankind subsequently turns out to be a blessing… For everything in the great world Plan is good and the evil endures only for a season. Therefore, he alone believes in the eternity of the evil who confounds the temporal with the eternal; he who does not rise from the temporal to the eternal can never understand evil” (“The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers,” March 22, 1909).

We can ask in what ways is this coronavirus serving to awaken us, or distract us, or block us from the new spiritual potential awaiting our recognition and the world changes that can be inaugurated. There is the old saying “hindsight is 2020.” Perhaps we are entering a time when we will not only look back on 2020 to try and understand what has happened, but are entering a time when we can develop 2020 “present-sight” and act out of present understanding to shape the future.

I will close with a quote from an excellent article titled “The Coronation” by Charles Eisenstein, which I think is an apt way to look at our “new normal:”

“Now the question arises: Initiation into what? What is the specific nature and purpose of this initiation? The popular name for the pandemic offers a clue: coronavirus. A corona is a crown. ‘Novel coronavirus pandemic’ means ‘a new coronation for all’.”

Jonathan Hilton
April 6, 2020

Jonathan Hilton is currently the President of the Council of New York City Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America. He has been working with anthroposophy in various ways for over 40 years. His work includes a new approach to star wisdom, arising out of anthroposophy, as developed by Willi Sucher, with a particular focus on the cycle of the year as a path to the new Sun mysteries. astrosophy.com