|
by Pepe Escobar
December 21,
2020
from
AsiaTimes Website
Spanish
version
Italian version
The Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
is upon
us and there is no looking back.
Image:
Twitter
We are
all in the gutter,
but some of us
are looking at
the stars...
Oscar Wilde
Today all radio stations on Planet Earth should be playing
this
song.
What the aptly named Fifth Dimension immortalized in their
spring of 1969 psychedelic soul classic is now literally true:
This
is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius - the Grand Conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn on December 21st at 0° in Aquarius...
Aquarius starts just as some dodgy, self-important elites gear up to
impose a
Great Reset on most of the planet - following a very
specific, reductionist and exclusionist political agenda...
Yet the
real deal is not the Reset:
it's the Mutation...
So we're all into something much bigger than any
neo-Orwellian
scenario.
To shed much needed light into what seems our current,
interminable darkness, I posed selected questions to
Vanessa Guazzelli, a respected astrologer, writer and speaker in astrology
conferences worldwide, as well as a practicing psychoanalyst and
psychologist.
Let astrology fertilize geopolitics.
Let the sunshine in...
The astro-cartographic map
of the Great Mutation
All that is solid
mutates into air
PE (Pepe
Escobar): Arguably not many
people around the world are aware that a
Jupiter-Saturn
conjunction this December 21st seems to represent the ultimate
game-changer - defined by serious astrology scholars as the
Great Mutation.
Could you please elaborate on what this 'Mutation' really means,
astrologically, as it seems to take place every 200 years?
And
bringing it back to everyday life and politics, are we permitted
to infer geopolitical parallels from what the stars are telling
us?
VG (Vanessa Guazzelli): By 'Great Mutation' we refer to when the Jupiter-Saturn
conjunctions change elements, which happens every 200 years as
you mentioned.
Jupiter and Saturn are in conjunction,
astrologically, by ecliptic longitude, every 20 years, not that
long a period. However, they keep on intersecting in signs of
the same element for 200 years, with the possibility of another
40 years of transition, indicating a greater cycle.
Jupiter and Saturn are what we call social planets and are to be
considered in regards to politics and geopolitics. When the
Jupiter-Saturn conjunction starts to effectively happen in the
next element, it marks the Great Mutation, denoting,
important
socioeconomic and cultural changes...
That's what is happening
now.
Vanessa Guazzelli.
We come from a two-century period of conjunctions in Earth
signs.
The emphasis has been on matter and the more tangible
dimension of life:
material boys and girls in a material world.
As we now move on into the element of air, as they conjoin at 0º
of Aquarius, a call for sublimation takes place.
All that is solid mutates into air...
Things and procedures can be
less material and more digital and, to some extent, virtual.
But
not only that.
Shared ideas and ideals gain yet more importance.
More than what we materially have, with whom and what for is
what matters most.
Collaboration and
cooperation are, now more
than ever, the winds which make the world go around.
This is indeed a highly significant astrological aspect and
configuration happening on December 21, at 18h20 UTC. In parts
of Asia and Oceania, it will be already past midnight, on
December 22.
This is not only the Great Mutation but a Great Conjunction,
when the two farthest visible planets conjoin not merely by
longitude but also by latitude (ecliptic coordinates), by both
right ascension and declination (equatorial coordinates).
That
means they are not just aligned in the same direction but
really, really close to each other in the sky as seen from
Earth, almost as if they were one and the same star.
Last time the two heavenly bodies have been that close was in
1623, but that was not a Great Mutation, just a regular
conjunction in terms of ecliptic longitude.
Astrologically, the
fact that all these enhancements happen together at this time
intensifies the significance of what this conjunction now
indicates, how powerful a mutation it marks.
In everyday life, it also speaks of an increase in technological
development, digitalization of things and procedures, including
crypto-currencies and digital money as a sort of "sublimed"
money, from matter to a lighter, less material "substance" which
can quickly circulate through air.
At a more personal level, we tend to lose interest in social
contexts which are not in tune with our ideas and ideals, and
we're pulled towards groups, associations and projects in the
same wavelength as we are.
It is not a time to merely rely on
institutions to take care of people, but a time to discern for
oneself and then connect with others with shared interests,
ideals, purposes.
The air element is where we open space and make room for the
Other, be it in respect for differences or to collaborate and
cooperate towards shared interests and projects.
Co-op's, where
every participant gets a fair, proportional share, in a joint
enterprise, is surely a way to go.
Aquarius is opposite to the centralizing sign of Leo.
Geopolitically, that is to say, it is not the time for a
hegemonic single star to rule the world, but a time of many
stars illuminating the entire sky.
It is not a time for a single
empire.
There can be empires, if in plural.
The strength of
powerful nations now lies, more than ever, in the quality of
their partnerships and alliances in mutual respect, as equals.
Any power which loses sight of that crucial key will see it, in
the short or long run, backfire.
Some are more powerful than
others and some will be more prominent than others.
Nonetheless,
they are not alone.
It is time for a multipolar world - now that
is the Mandate of Heaven.
Regarding the Great Mutation's astro-cartographic map, which
shows the lines of planetary positions on the face of the Earth,
it is interesting to notice that the IC (Imum
Coeli) lines
of Jupiter and Saturn go through Beijing, indicating the relevance of China in
the foundation of this 200-year cycle, for
the IC is the root of
an astrological chart.
On the other side of the globe, we see the MC (Medium
Coeli) lines of the two
planets going through South America (Venezuela, Brazilian
Amazon, Bolivia, Argentina), showing the value of the
continent's resources in this new cycle.
What the Davos
crew is up to
PE: Our current,
turbulent juncture seems to be pointing towards increased
bio-security and what some serious systemic analysis defines as
techno-feudalism.
All this implies hyper-concentration of power
- and not only power exercised by the geopolitical hegemon,
the
United States.
Should we now expect a serious mutation of the
world-system - as studied by
Immanuel Wallerstein, in the sense
of serious changes to our capitalist system?
Immanuel Wallerstein.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
VG: Yes, we should. We are at the very turning point of the
world-system.
Along with the Great Mutation, another immensely
significant aspect in the 2020s is the Saturn-Neptune
conjunction, in February 2026, at 0º of Aries.
This is precisely
the first degree of the whole Zodiac, also called the Vernal
Point - crucial in astrological interpretation.
Saturn and Neptune conjoin every 36 years, which is a relatively
short historical cycle.
However, as with the
Great Mutation, the
way it occurs and where in occurs in the Zodiac can lead us to
broader historical perspectives and indicate more expressive
historical moments.
If we go back up to 7,000 years ago, this conjunction has
occurred at the Vernal Point only in 4361 B.C. and 1742 B.C. If
we look up three thousand years ahead, the closest it gets to
the Vernal Point is 3º of Aries in 3172. Quite rare...
So this
conjunction at the first degree of the Zodiac, 0º of Aries - the
very beginning - is not that small a deal.
-
Neptune impregnates and conceives
-
Saturn refers to the concrete
structure of reality
-
and 0º of Aries means new, springing up
Saturn-Neptune on 0º Aries means
a new conception of reality...
Aspects between Saturn and Neptune, by historical observation,
are associated with socialism and communism - these movements on
Earth coincide with the transiting contacts between these two
planets in the sky.
It has already been proven in mundane
astrology historically.
Moreover, this does not just tell us
about the past, for it is in fact just about to begin:
upgrading and advancing, reconfiguring itself in yet new forms
of socialism.
According to Wallerstein, during the structural crisis which
characterizes the final period of a world-system, a bifurcation
of the system can tilt to one of either directions, or to
multiple systems.
Before passing away last year, he did consider
us to be right in the middle of the structural crisis of
capitalism, which lasts 60 to 80 years.
I'd say at this moment we are past the mid-point.
It could,
initially, go towards multiple systems in two branches:
-
on the
one hand, the freshness of the Eastern winds inspiring socialism
and multipolarity through
the Belt and Road Initiative and the
integration of Eurasia and its partners
-
on the other hand, the
whirlwind of
the collapsing empire and its Western allies as a
terminator cyborg operated by
the perverse 0.0001% who are so
lifeless they cannot conceive other people's right to exist...
When I first heard about it in June 2020, it astonished me how
they set the "Great Reset" for January 2021, so close to the
Great Mutation at the end of December 2020.
I doubt this is a
mere coincidence or "synchronicity"...
J.P. Morgan is known to have
affirmed that millionaires don't need astrologers, but
billionaires do.
Possibly aware of this great transition,
the Davos crew seem to
be actually trying to reset the system they already rule with
their own settings and revive the dying system as a cyborg from
hell.
'Wall Street Bubbles - always the same,'
1901 cartoon by Keppler, depicts J.P. Morgan
as
a bull blowing soap bubbles for eager investors.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The nefarious potential of the Aquarian emphasis is the
control
of society through technology, be it techno-feudalism or, gods
forbid, techno-slavery.
On the brighter side of the Force,
Aquarius is about a social project to sustain life and meet the
needs of the people.
Both dimensions or systems might co-exist
on Earth for a while...
Western powers - not to mention the Masters of the Universe, as
you say, who pull their strings - seem to have a long way to go
before reaching a state of real and respectful cooperation.
Perhaps more ancient civilizations found in the East have a
deeper, more consistent root from which to draw the wisdom and
maturity necessary in such challenging times for humanity.
Often remembered for the food and goods traded along the route,
the Silk Roads involved in the past and involve nowadays the
exchange of ideas.
It is interesting to observe the strong
Aquarian edge activated in China's astrological progressions
when the Belt and Road Initiative was first proposed by
Xi Jinping in Astana, in 2013, and how it connected to the degree
of the Great Mutation (progressed Venus and Jupiter conjunct AC
at 1º Aquarius).
When some years before that
Vladimir Putin gave his historical
speech in Munich, proposing the Eurasian Integration, in
February 2007, there was a Saturn-Neptune aspect - an
opposition.
When at the 70th UN Assembly, both Putin and Xi
delivered long, strong and synchronized speeches affirming the multipolarity of the world, in 2015, there was also a
Saturn-Neptune aspect - a square.
The next Saturn-Neptune aspect will be the conjunction, in
February 2026, inaugurating a brand new cycle and we can expect
it to be related to these previous movements, keeping in mind
the cycle points towards multipolarity and new forms of
socialism.
The Black Moon
spell
PE: Could
Covid-19,
on a certain level, be interpreted as the - unpleasant -
preamble towards a Great Mutation?
After all the new social (un)reality
represents a system upside down:
-
near-total economic
devastation, especially of small businesses
-
canceling of
constitutional rights
-
governments practically ruling by decree,
with no popular consultation
-
global corporations censoring any
manner of informed dissent
-
whole societies practically under
house arrest
-
most of the planet reduced to a sort of
totalitarian theme park...
VG: Oh, Covid-19... - we could have a whole conversation just on
the implications of it at so many dimensions, and how it can be,
to some extent, astrologically tracked.
It definitely can be
interpreted as the unpleasant preamble, perhaps aiming to the
Great Reset, one could ponder.
An unprecedented worldwide collective experience - and
experiment.
Nevertheless, serving to shake it all up,
transforming our very perception of time, preparing for the
conception of a new time.
To all those paying attention, a call
to be yet more alive, more vivid, against all odds...
A
nearly black moon.
Image: Getty/AFP
The very dichotomy which has been so emphasized between "either
caring for life or caring for the economy" in and of itself
shows how absurd a world it already was.
How many people so
easily got caught into separating one thing from the other, as
if it was a means to resist the system and finally say no to the
demands of capital accumulation.
To eventually see, indeed,
small businesses devastated, poverty increasing drastically,
whilst
billionaires concentrate wealth to yet more bizarre
levels.
Something fundamental to consider is how it has affected the
human body.
The pandemic was declared with
Black Moon (the
lunar
apogee) in Aries and that indicates the importance of being
sharply present and responsive as Michael Jackson danced, Bruce
Lee moved and Maria Zakharova responds.
In October, Black Moon, this astrological point representing the
visceral and instinctive dimension of existence, moved into
Taurus, highlighting the importance of being aware of how the
life force in us is conditioned or channeled, shaping how we
perceive our own existence.
For instance, how the
confinement of
the body might - or might not - confine our psyche.
What are the psychological effects of the lack of touch or the
physical experience of constantly having
our mouths covered?
How
those situations affect our psyche, is not irrelevant.
Both René
Descartes and Wilhelm Reich had Black Moon in Taurus.
How are
mind and body related?
Are they a cartesian dichotomy or are
they intertwined as bio-energetic unity moved by libido?
This is an important underlying issue in our collective
until
July 2021...
The fate of
the American empire
PE: Astrology in
History is full of fascinating stories about celestial
interpretations opening the way to a crucial political or
military move.
For instance, right before the Mongol conquest of
Baghdad in 1258, the Great Khan, Hulegu, asked the court
astrologer about the prospects ahead.
The astrologer, Husam
al-Din, said that if he followed his generals and invaded
Baghdad, the consequences would be ominous.
But then Hulegu turned to a Shi'a astronomer, Tusi, a polymath.
Tusi said the invasion would be a major success. That's what
happened - and Tusi was admitted into Hulegu's inner circle. So
the Mongols - who built the largest empire in history - were big
fans of "celestial insurance."
Could "celestial insurance" in
our times end up predicting the fate of another empire - the US...?
VG: That's true, there are so many fascinating stories.
The end
of the Byzantine Empire and conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire was also marked by an
astrological prediction of the Ottoman victory related to an
eclipse.
The US Pluto return happens in 2022. That's massive. It's a
cycle of approximately 247 years.
Pluto has a sense of fate to
it. The return of the lord of the underworld also speaks of the
return of that which was repressed, hidden or rejected. It will
have three exact hits throughout 2022, and the final and
definitive of the next Pluto cycle has the planet of death and
regeneration facing Black Moon Lilith in Cancer, in opposition.
Karma is a bitch and hits home...
It is also a cycle related to power and power status. It won't
all be bad and some victorious moments will be there, but there
is a change in the country's position in the balance of powers
in the world which is not so easy to digest.
The power struggle
will be intense, both externally and internally, with
considerable risks of destructive manifestations.
The best way
to go through such a moment would be to purge - although it's
hard to believe "the swamp" can be so easily drained.
It is a call for a deep transformation, when all things under
the rug and corpses out of the basement are to be dealt with.
For the nation's people it is a
call for maturity (Saturn
conjoins Moon), compassion and a more humanly receptive
disposition (Neptune opposition), letting illusions dissolve and
realizing the empire is losing its hegemony and status, but the
nation will continue.
What nation should it be for its people -
as opposed to against other peoples?
This doesn't mean the American Empire will fall by 2022, but it
is collapsing and will undergo dramatic transformations in the
coming decade.
A Dystopian
Renaissance
PE: Amid so much
gloom, looks like you are introducing a very hopeful concept:
"Dystopian Renaissance".
That's the exact opposite of what is
being largely interpreted as our inevitable neo-Orwellian
future.
How would you characterize this
Dystopian Renaissance,
in terms of individual, collective, political and cultural
struggle?
VG: The concept emerges precisely to elucidate the extreme
complexity of our times.
Well, the renaissance part seems very
hopeful, doesn't it? But, there's the dystopian part to it too.
It is not a utopian renaissance, as we well know.
Perhaps in 200
years, when we reach the Great Mutation into water, the same
element as the magnificent Italian Renaissance, humanity might
be able to feel and better comprehend deeper dimensions of life.
Why not aim for Utopia next? But whatsoever may be possible by
then passes through right now.
It is now that, along with this special Great Mutation, a few
significant astrological aspects point to a real change of the
world-system.
It takes this crucial moment in time and this
period of air to elevate perspectives, to share ideas and ideals
and understand how enriching it can be to build,
"a community
with a shared future for mankind," as Xi Jinping puts it...
A highly enhanced turning point, opening new horizons, offering
the possibility of enriching exchanges in a multipolar world,
and with a call for socialism like we haven't known before.
Catalan Atlas,
detail showing family Of Marco Polo 1254-1324
traveling by camel caravan, 1375,
drawing by Spanish School.
Source: Wikimedia
Let's not forget this moment in time also resonates with the
13th century, when Venetian Marco Polo, traveling through the
Silk Roads to Asia, brought back to Europe the freshness of the
Eastern winds, with news from Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty,
including the "sublimation" of money into a lighter form, from
coin to paper.
At that time, there was a stellium (a concentration of planets)
in Capricorn just as we had in 2020, with the following
Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Aquarius (although not as a Great
Mutation), and Pluto's ingress into Aquarius as we will also
have in 2023/2024.
It is an absurdly dystopian context, but a
turning point for a new conception of reality and the
possibility for surprising new horizons.
A new world
system is in the air
PE: Giorgio
Agamben
has referred to that famous Foucault intuition in
Les Mots et les Choses, when Foucault writes that humankind may
disappear like a figure drawn in the sand being erased by waves
hitting the shore.
The striking image may apply to our present,
mutating condition, as we are about to enter a trans-human and
even post-human era, dominated by
artificial intelligence (AI)
and
genetic engineering.
Giorgio
Agamben argues that Covid-19,
global warming and, more
radically, direct digital access to our psychic life - all these
elements are destroying humanity.
Would the Great Mutation
install a different paradigm - and lead us away from
post-humanity?
FG: The rapid development in technology will be something
seriously complex to deal with.
It will be amazing in many ways,
but not all pretty, presenting undeniable challenges, some of
which are already here and about to intensify.
What are the effects of technology and artificial intelligence
in both our organic and our subjective bodies?
Mind control with
bidirectional devices, both collecting information and inducing
commands is a work in progress.
Perverse levels of technological control of society are a
serious concern as Pluto, aka Hades, lord of the underworld,
will also transit in technological and futuristic Aquarius from
2023/24 on, up until 2043/44 - times of intense social
transformation, when technological advancements will blow our
minds and the very conception of science will change
considerably, but with serious risks of
trans-human and
post-human madness.
We cannot disregard our organicity.
We cannot disregard our
subjectivity, either.
Pluto is about transformation or
domination - in other words, quoting a recent article of yours:
"Here's our future: hackers or slaves."
We've got to go hacking not only in the objective sense - which
surely becomes more and more a desirable skill - but in the
subjective sense as well, finding lines of flight and keeping
Eros alive, the life force in us vivid.
Considering we're already here, living through dystopian times,
we might as well make the best out of this undeniably epic
adventure...
Instead of succumbing to fear and isolation,
overtaken by the doom and gloom, let's not forget Wallerstein's
observation on destiny versus free will - a very cool take, by
the way, which my experience as an astrologer observing
collective and individual cycles very much confirms:
Both exist...
During the stable period of a world-system, its normal life when
its structure is functioning well, even if there are some
fluctuations in it, it is very hard to change things in the
system, it tends to stabilization.
It's destiny:
you got to put a
whole lot of effort to get perhaps very little change trying to
escape destiny.
But when the world-system has reached its final phase, it can no
longer be rescued and there is a lot of instability.
The crisis
is not going away and the only possibility is change, in one way
or another - it's free will time.
In the structural crisis, Wallerstein says we have more free will, our actions have a
stronger impact and every little move counts to decide in which
direction the change of the system will go.
In our personal lives at this turning point in time, as Foucault
questions, we may also ask ourselves:
As humans, are we an
obstacle or obstruction?
Are we a way of imprisoning life - or
are we an opening, a line of flight?
In regard to Foucault's words you and Agamben bring to light,
please allow me to refer to the previous paragraph, just before
that final one in Les Mots et les Choses, when he states that by,
"taking a relatively short chronological sample within a
restricted geographical area - European culture since the
sixteenth century - one can be certain that man is a recent
invention within it."
The "man" he is referring to as the effect of a change in the
fundamental arrangements of knowledge a couple of centuries ago,
with the newer arrangements perhaps about to end, is within
European references.
That is neither the beginning nor the end
of man, nor its only interesting expression.
With huge, deep
appreciation for so much of European culture, perhaps one of the
things coming to a necessary end is Eurocentrism.
Nonetheless, of course, it is deeply worrying how faces are
being at the same time digitally traced by machines and hidden
from other humans by masks - especially the effects of that in
children. The current transition is not without epistemological
effects and effects on how we conceive man, humans.
But it's not
all said and done.
To counter the objectification of humans, it may be timely to
draw from the Tupis' conception of human beings:
tu + pi ,
seated sound.
A human being is a sound which has taken a seat,
has taken place and vibrates.
We got to keep our bodies, faces
and words vibrant.
For the native South American
Tupis, each
human being is a new music, a new word vibrating and co-creating
life with others and nature.
Albert Eckhout
painting of a Tupi man.
Source: Wikipedia
It seems that the deeper roots of aboriginal-indigenous wisdom
still need to be more fully acknowledged and reintegrated in the
Americas before the reinvention of the world in the West can
take place.
Now winds blow from the East and from Eurasia, inspiring new
forms of co-existence.
But
the
controllers of capital, wealth
and worldly power won't give it up without a fight - or a few
wars and a heavy load of social control via technology,
capturing bodies and minds.
What will it be, Great Reset or
Great Mutation?
Is there a way out? Yes...
And it seems to go along the
New Silk
Roads and the Eurasia Integration - literally to some important
extent, but symbolically as well.
The West can gain a lot from
opening up to the Eastern winds, the news and the ideas they
bring, stories of a community of shared future for mankind.
A
new world-system is in the air...
|
