Tough and uncertain times are here in the United States and around the world. On February 24th of this year stock markets took their first big plunge since 2018 and the U.S government first realized that the Corona Virus could indeed invade our shores. On that day, Saturn, planet of restriction and discipline, came to an exact conjunction with the Pluto of the United States Sibly chart---27 degrees Capricorn. 

     April features a Full Supermoon at 19 degrees Libra on Thursday, April 7th-- the same day as a potent Mars square (or challenge) to Uranus. Not only do the Full Moon and the Sun make a square to the conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto but Mars, planet of motivation and aggression makes a square to Uranus, planet of sudden and often cataclysmic change. There is a climate of challenge and upset in early April when the aggressive nature of Mars in Aquarius confronts the more well-heeled elite as represented by Uranus in Taurus.  Political uprisings and military upsets are likely this month around the world. Seismic activity is also on the rise, especially during the Full Moon week of the 5th to the 11th. A growing number of heroic men and women doctors and heroic ship captain, Brett Crozier, commander of the U.S. Aircraft Carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, have risked their jobs to speak up against inhumane conditions for their workers. Crozier was relieved of his command as he send a letter to various contacts in the Navy which was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. In his letter he pleaded to disembark his men in Guam when 100 of his men infected with COVID-19 became extremely ill. Due to his speaking up against the Navy refusal to allow disembarkment, he was relieved of his command. This week, under public pressure, 1,000 of the total 5,000 the sailors on the ship were allowed to disembark and are now being housed in hotels in Guam. They bid him a huge chanted farewell of “Captain Crozier” as he disembarked and was relieved of his command.  Avoid public places on this Full Supermoon Day. Clashes with authority figures both on the world stage and in our own lives are extremely likely. If you have an astrology chart, look for the location of 19 degrees Libra. The house that it falls into will tell you which area of life experience may bring intense conflicts. 1st House: physical body, entrepreneurial work, survival issues; 2nd House: finances, personal values, physical beauty, feeling of being valued or not being valued; 3rd House: communications, short journeys, siblings, neighbors & friends; 4th House: family of origin, your physical house or home, deep emotions; 5th House: creativity, children, romance & risk taking; 6th House: daily work, diet, exercise and house pets; 7th House: marriage and business partners, diplomacy, grace, legal matters & the public; 8th House: sexual partners, shared resources, taxes & inheritance; 9th House: higher education, foreign or long-distance travel, philosophy & religion, large animals & publishing; 10th House: career, authority figures, position in society, management of resources; 11th House: charities, friends and people of like mind, unforeseen change, improvements & upgrades, adopted children, aunts uncles & cousins; 12th House: endings, meditation, disillusionment, change via dissolution, music, poetry, dance intuition & faith.

Outer planet Jupiter/Pluto conjunction cycles have been found to be key to major pandemic outbreaks such as the Bubonic Plague, the 1918 Spanish Flu, HIV and now the Corona Virus. Every thirteen years Jupiter brings largest planet expansion into contact with the intense bid for power and catharsis of Pluto. 

During 2020, Jupiter and Pluto will begin a new 13-year cycle in Capricorn. Together, Jupiter and Pluto are carving great wounds into the body of the planet’s economic system. It is as if, through this crisis, they are excavating the roots of our current conservative political and economic circumstances. My hope is that under the transformative influence of Jupiter/Pluto and against the backdrop of the COVID-19 global crisis, we, the common people can collectively work together to regenerate a vision for the future. United against a common enemy, citizens of all countries are invited to participated in a search to find a cure on sites such as theGlobalHack.com. 

Historically, the Jupiter/Pluto conjunctions where a pandemic occurs have a 13-month trajectory. The current exact conjunction cycle began October 17th of 2019 and will finish November 12, 2020. Many of the pandemics described below took place over a two-year period. Is it possible that with our improved technology we can reduce the viral cycle to 18 or even as few as 13 months? 

What is interesting and potentially uplifting, is that the conjunctions of Jupiter/Pluto in season intiating cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) seem to wreak the most havoc on the human immune system and cause civil unrest & disobedience. There are also relatively long periods that occur between the cardinal sign Jupiter/Pluto conjunctions. For example, there are 39 years between 1981-- the outbreak of HIV with the conjunction in Libra and 2020--the outbreak of COVID-19 with the conjunction in Capricorn, the next cardinal sign. For the United States with its “birth chart” of July 4, 1776 and its natal Pluto in Capricorn, the Capricorn conjunctions are likely to be the worst for our country. Most of us will no longer be on the planet when the next two conjunctions will have taken place: February 5, 2033 in Aquarius and October 10 of 2045 in Pisces. 

Here is a run down of the most deadly Jupiter/Pluto pandemics in recorded history AD. 

From 1346 to 1353 the Bubonic Plague, also known as the “The Black Death,” killed 60% of Europe’s population via an infection that circulates among rats. At its peak in 1347, Jupiter and Pluto were conjunct in Aries. As an interesting parallel to our current times, in 1346 Jupiter moved from Aquarius into Pisces – in as it will again in late 2021. Aquarius rules large groups of people and Pisces rules hard to diagnose viral infections. 

The last outbreak of the Bubonic Plague, from 1770 to 1772, was known as the Russian Plague. It is estimated that there were between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths in Moscow. On September 15th 1771, a plague riot broke out as residents revolted against the government convinced that the outbreak was the doing of the state. The Jupiter/Pluto conjunction in 1771 was exact at 17 degrees Capricorn in September. A thousand people died a day in Moscow and over 20,000 died in a month. 

The Spanish Flu outbreak worldwide in January of 1918 lasted until December 1920 took place with a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction in Cancer. During that global pandemic a third of the world’s population were infected quarter of the world’s population (50 million people) died. The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus. The second was the swine flu in early 2009.  Jupiter and Pluto were both in the last degree of Sagittarius in late 2007 (1 degree prior to Capricorn) and were both in Capricorn, although not conjunct, in 2008/2009. 

The HIV outbreak took place in October and November of 1981 when Jupiter & Pluto were conjunct in the sign of Libra. The astrological equation for that deadly outbreak was sex = death and for the first time we became aware that having sex could kill us. By December 1994, the year of the next Jupiter/Pluto conjunction in Scorpio, HIV had become the leading cause of death amongst people between the ages of 25 and 44. 

Now let’s take a look at the 2020 transits and what they may portend for the course of the virus.

In 2020, The first conjunction of Jupiter/Pluto on April 4, 2020 at 25 degrees of Capricorn will take place with both Jupiter and Pluto direct. The second conjunction on June 30, 2020 will also take place at 25 degrees of Capricorn but with both planets slowing down in retrograde and potentially giving us a break from the virus. If Governor Cuomo of New York observes his 5 weeks past the peak rule to relax stay at home restrictions and the peak takes place between April 6 and April 17 as he has indicated, then perhaps life could get back to normal around June 1st in New York. Since other states are 2 weeks behind New York’s peak, if we extend that five week grace period to 2 weeks later, then mid-June may be the time when much of the country will finally be able to relax restrictions.  Finally, after Jupiter and Pluto both station direct again in the fall, they will form their final conjunction of the series on November 12, 2020 at 23 degrees of Capricorn. As Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases since 1984 has stated, it is likely that we will have another outbreak in the fall. Perhaps that will begin sometime around November 12th when Jupiter and Neptune make that final direct conjunction. 

The initial overview of the Covid-19 changes to world health, politics and economics reaches a first crisis point on April 4th, just 3 days before the extremely intense Super Full Moon in Libra. An important turn of events or “revisioning” will take place in June and July when Jupiter and Pluto are retrograde. This potential plateauing or downturn in Covid-19 cases will allow for a realistic plan for how to proceed against the virus for an expected return to the Northern Hemisphere in the fall.  Once we reach the final conjunction November 12th, we may have learned how to adjust to a 21st Century approach to a global pandemic. Then and only then, will we be able to fully understand how to work together effectively against Covid-19. 

The New Moon on Wednesday, April 22nd takes place at 10:26 p.m. EDT at 4 degrees Taurus. Today is Earth Day and a Taurus Moon, representing the beauty of Nature could not be more appropriate as spring begins to bloom in the Northern Hemisphere. This New Moon is closely conjunct Uranus in Taurus at 7 degrees Taurus. Uranus in Taurus is in the process of decentralizing our financial system over the seven years that it is with us until April of 2026. There may be a connection to banking and finance (Taurus) OR to scientific discoveries (Uranus) during the week of the 19th to the 25th. New Moons wipe clean the slate of the past 28-day cycle and begin it over again. Uplifting new starts can occur with New Moons, even in these most daunting of times. On Sunday, April 5th, during his daily press conference, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo outlined the four things that could help reduce the length of the virus cycle: an approved rapid testing program; a receptor antibody treatment; an approved hydroxychloroquine treatment or a vaccine. Could one of these possible solutions represent a New Moon discovery to be found sometime between April 20th and April 23rd? Only time will tell.