I’m awed by this moment we’re living in. In my six decades, I’ve never seen the whole
world sharing one danger, one fear, one set of solutions. Of course, we’ve had other world-wide problems
– the climate crisis, especially – but there have always been large groups of
people successfully ignoring them. Not
this time.
A month ago, I wrote about the virus in
my column, but without any sense of immediacy. At that time, the prevailing wisdom was that
we should all wash our hands for twenty seconds, and not touch our faces.
My wife and I went to Toronto after
that. She went to meetings, and I rode
the subway, wandered through the Royal Ontario Museum, met a friend, and went
to a market. I took a little bottle of
disinfectant with me, and remembered to apply it every once in a while. I saw three
people wearing masks on the subway, but mainly, life was normal. But as the days went by, the news became more
and more dramatic. Things started to be
cancelled. Doors started shutting. Broadway
went dark. Norway closed its
borders.
So we cancelled our plans for a family
dinner, and decided to head for home three days early. The highways were emptier than usual, and we
crossed the border without incident. Popping
into our neighborhood diner for a late dinner, we made it home just before
midnight.
That was two weeks ago, and it’s the
last time we left the house. I imagined
that, if we had to withdraw from social contact, we’d do it gradually. But no, it was abrupt. First,
it was just advisable, and we were just being good citizens. I’m in the vulnerable age group – over 65 – and
have had a few bouts of bronchitis in the last year, so my wife is pretty
protective of me. The fridge was empty, and I wanted to go off to the store,
but she convinced me to just have groceries delivered.
Then, a few days ago, it went from advisable
to compulsory. Now, here in Maryland, if
you go wandering off into the street, you can be fined. All over the world, people are dealing with
similar restrictions. I look at photos. Here’s an empty Times Square, the bright
lights signaling to nobody at all. Here’s a coyote, hunting in the quiet
streets of San Francisco. Here’s my
local DC Beltway, usually jammed at this hour, now a wide-open pathway.
So what’s it about, astrologically? It must be the Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto conjunction
- something I’ve never seen before, just like this pandemic. Jupiter makes a conjunction to Pluto every
twelve years, and Saturn makes one every 28 years, but I’ve never seen these
two cycles coincide before.
Pluto is about deep transformation, and there
is a lot of this happening. People are
rediscovering their partners and children, developing new routines which include
them. My wife and I have started taking
late afternoon sunshine breaks, something we never would’ve done if we weren’t
both working here at home. We sit out in
the front yard and talk over the progress of the day, and remark on how the
leaves are starting to come out on all the trees.
The earth itself is being transformed,
as the pollution clears. People are redesigning
lives without commuting, without travel, without zipping off to do errands at
any time. Families are walking around
their neighborhoods. I recently learned
that a woman from church lives just three doors down from me, and I had no idea
she lived so close until I saw her walking her dog. If this went on, I might actually get to know
all my neighbors.
Jupiter expands and enlarges, while Saturn
contracts and limits our lives at the same time. It’s a heady mix, at once closing off plans
and projects, and simultaneously opening up new vistas. And Pluto intensifies it, and takes all of us
further than we can comfortably go.
Although there are hopeful things, there
are also enormous waves of fear, grief and loss moving around the globe. As the old structures fall, many people have
no idea how they will survive. Some
idealistic folks are hoping that an economic collapse could mean rebuilding it
in a different way, with a stronger safety net for everyone, while others are
looking for the money-making opportunities that are part of every disaster. But much of the political discourse has
quieted down now. It seems less relevant
in the face of this worldwide existential threat.
How long do I think it will last? Jupiter and Pluto are exactly conjunct in
April, again in June, and for the last time in November. Jupiter and Saturn are conjunct in December,
before they both begin the new year in a new sign, Aquarius. It looks to me like that’s the real
shift. I think there will be movements
towards normalcy in the summer and fall, but this could be followed by another
wave of illnesses, especially if we start everything up too soon.
But for many years to come, we may feel
a certain trepidation when we hug each other, a little anxiety about what viruses
are lurking. I don’t expect that to go
away for a long time. We won’t go back to the normal we knew before. Our economy won’t fit back into the same
groove, either.
And as for 2021, it does look like a
year of revolution. During a fire, there’s
great destruction, but afterwards, fireweed grows. And the phoenix rises.
