Dark Vision - A World Living in Fear
Tunnel Vision: Jupiter and Pluto Conjunct in Capricorn 22-24 degrees on the 5th of April, 30th of June and 12th of November 2020.
Jupiter is our vision of the future and Pluto is the lord of the underworld. Their conjunction throughout 2020 heralds a period of fear and a dark vision of the future.
Jupiter is the preacher, the priest, the media. Pluto is death and darkness, survival and control. We can expect to suffer from fear propaganda, a crisis of faith and a loss of hope. This aspect gives us tunnel vision and a kind of obsession with darkness borne of terror. The abuse (Pluto) of the legal system (Jupiter) is also a potential indication here.
The good news? Such a loss of hope can urge us to look more deeply to find meaning in our lives. To face what we have been afraid to face and give birth to a new, stronger and uncompromising vision. Morally bankrupt structures and ideas are exposed, as is any kind of hypocrisy at this time. Sexual, racial and biological matters come under the ethical scrutiny and we have a rebirth of social norms.
Lastly, Jupiter-Pluto can also open huge portals for the influx of wealth, especially through corporate and governmental structures (Capricorn) (*). Babies born at this time will have a potential signature of wealth in their horoscopes (as does Bill Gates, who was born under the previous triple Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in Leo).
(*) NB added 2022: Indeed, we saw a mass wealth transfer away from bottom and middle and up the corporate pyramid of Capricorn all the to the very top 1% during the pandemic and as a result of it.
The Jupiter-Pluto Cycle
While the Jupiter-Pluto cycle is not particularly long - it happens every 13 years or so - it is very powerful in 2020 because it's active all year long: Jupiter and Pluto meet three times this year, in April, June and November, something that hasn’t happened since the mid-50s (1955-56).
Another reason the 2020 conjunction is special is that it folds into the bigger cycles of Saturn-Pluto and Saturn-Jupiter, which are also seeded in 2020. Again, this is something that has not happened since 1980-82.
So, we have all the power of the 50s’ and 80’s rolled together in 2020, signalling the end of both the post-war and post-modern era.
Jupiter is our vision and Pluto brings darkness. Pluto activates our fears and survival instincts, while Jupiter maximises everything he touches. When Jupiter and Pluto meet just once (as they have done e.g. in December 2007 and December 1994) you have but a brief moment of dread. Before you have time to think too much it passes and you continue on your merry way. But when Jupiter and Pluto take a whole year to complete the conversation, horror lingers. That’s when old hopes, ideals and visions (Jupiter) have no choice but to die in the midst of crisis (Pluto) and allow new ones to be born. Ditto for the economy and the whole philosophical, moral, religious and ideological underpinning of society.
Jupiter-Pluto 2020: Mass Horror, Righteous Power & Covid-19
Jupiter-Pluto is like a powerful magnet disturbing the fabric of reality.
Jupiter-Pluto gives us tunnel vision, fanaticising our views and colouring what we see with fear.
Our thoughts are magnetised, captivated by dark imagery, catastrophe, threatening visions. Here we literally have a survivalist mentality supplanting all else. Paranoia is a powerful manifestations of this transit, as is the spreading of mass terror via the media in a sort of mass-hypnotic-nightmare. Constant reporting of the Covid-19 death toll, constant visions of coffins piling up, these sorts of things leave an imprint in the brain. The proliferation of conspiracy theories is another manifestation, as people’s survival reflexes (Pluto) are fused with their need to find meaning (Jupiter) in what’s happening. All this creates a deadly moral outlook that, in and of itself, can establish a dangerous foundation.
One really dangerous manifestation of Jupiter-Pluto is the exercise of righteous power. There is a ruthless edge to Jupiter-Pluto. We saw it in the establishment of the Nazi party in the 1930s (Jupiter-Pluto in nationalist Cancer). We saw it with the AIDS homophobia of the 80s (Jupiter-Pluto in relationship sign Libra).
Now in Capricorn, righteous power is given to governments, banks, institutions and other ruling bodies.
Governments and corporations suddenly have Carte Blanche via Covid-19 to use whatever means necessary to 'ensure our survival'. And that includes curtailing our freedoms. Needless to say, this sudden moral acceptability of totalitarian control (and just as we're on the brink of the USA Pluto return) sets a dangerous precedent.
Jupiter-Pluto on a Personal Level
A key experience of Jupiter-Pluto is the horror of meaninglessness and the loss of faith. When everything you once believed is torn asunder, there’s no hope to be gained just by looking around you.
With all superficial hopes stripped away, it’s time to dig deep within to find true meaning and purpose in your life.
Pluto is the lord of the underworld and the word also means "wealth" in Greek. And true vision from within makes you indestructible. But descending down there requires you to face your fears, as well as any taboos and hypocrisies that prevent the light from coming in.
The first time you come into contact with this energy is the scariest and that’s the April 5th Jupiter-Pluto meeting.
Subsequent conjunctions may lack the element of surprise, while still activating certain fears. At the June 30th conjunction, Jupiter and Pluto are both retrograde, facilitating the introspective process. By November 12th, with Jupiter-Pluto meting for the final time, both direct and strong, you could find yourself fearlessly ready to fly in the face of taboos and turn over a new leaf.
This may also hold true on the Covid-19 front: with the initial April conjunction being the scariest time; July bringing a resurgence of the virus as both planets sneak up on each other whilst retrograde; and, finally, in November, a whole new chapter in the Covid-19 saga - perhaps even a vaccine.* Either way, news of the virus will be strong around those times.
Jupiter-Pluto: Great Riches
As noted, Pluto means "wealth." And Jupiter also signifies luck and abundance. When Jupiter and Pluto sail close, they have the ability to magnetise riches, display unshakable faith and mould reality. And People born with Jupiter conjunct Pluto in their charts have an incredible capacity to do that - witness Bill Gates, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
Jupiter-Pluto contacts simply have the Midas touch, capable of creating a vast fortune and finding treasure.
The world is primed for the creation of great wealth right now, right on the back of this 2020 crisis.
We're talking about real tangible wealth here, but but also wealth of spirit, knowledge and understanding. Such potential for post-catastrophic wealth-creation has not been around since the 50s when Jupiter and Pluto last met three times in a row - witness the great post-WWII economic growth and the flourishing of modern consumerism, all born at the triple conjunction in the 1950s. (think Disneyland, McDonalds, MadMen). Time to reboot this economy!
So dig down deep now, find your treasure in the rubble and the Pluto-Jupiter conjunction will keep giving, like the hen with the golden egg, for at least another decade to come.
If the 1950s (the last triple conjunction) and 1980s (the last time Jupiter-Pluto clicked with bigger cycles) are anything to go by, then this Jupiter-Pluto conjunction will affect us for sometime. The next Jupiter-Pluto conjunction is only brief and happens in 2033 in Aquarius. The next triple conjunction is not till 2106 (although the two sail close in 2045 and 2057-58). Jupiter-Pluto doesn't seem to synchronise with Jupiter-Saturn and Saturn-Pluto any time soon, although the mid 2050s do bring two out of the three conjunctions within 3 years of each other.
Postscript, November 2020: Tunnel Vision on Biology, Race & Sexuality
There's a case to be made that Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions are associated with pandemics:
Jupiter-Pluto in Cancer in 1918-19 coincided with the Spanish Flu; the mid-1950's triple Leo conjunction preceded the Asian Flu; the 1980s conjunction in Libra brought AIDS; and now, in 2020, we have the Coronavirus.
But clearly, we do not have a pandemic every 13 years when Jupiter and Pluto meet. Further research is needed to find out what these dates (and perhaps others, going back through time) have in common. Prolonged proximity between the planets is one answer. They may also be strengthened by proximity to a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in the same sign (this is the case in all four examples given here). The symbolism fits well enough, of course: Pluto's the lord of the underworld and Jupiter spreads everything he touches. So we have, literally, the spread of death being one possible manifestation.
But there's a deeper theme here. This is a time when a whole veil of social hypocrisy is lifted revealing an unpleasant layer underneath.
Jupiter-Pluto exposes society's underbelly, its taboos, posing ethical questions around our very biology, race and sexuality.
Pluto represents our very biology and the biological imperative to survive, whilst Jupiter is our laws and ethics. When the two fuse, biological imperatives pervert our morals and even change our laws - witness social distancing and the government-sanctioned fear and disgust with which physical contact is met with - not to mention simple biological processes like coughing.
Issues around race and sexuality - our very humanity - are also exposed with Jupiter-Pluto. During the big triple conjunction of the mid-1950s we had Rosa Parks refusing to get up from her seat, igniting the civil rights movement. In the 1980s we had rampant AIDS-fuelled homophobia, eventually leading to reform. And in 2020, we have the Black Lives Matter movement, a seed we are yet to see in bloom.
Covid-19 also raised its fair of moral and ethical questions stemming from our very humanity and biology. We had the debacle with care home mortalities, revealing a shocking ageism; and we had a higher mortality rates in ethnic minorities linked to socioeconomic background. And that's not even mentioning the bio-ethics questions raised by the new and speedily approved RNA vaccine.
Previous Jupiter-Pluto Conjunctions:
Dec 2007 Sagittarius (brief)
Dec 1994 Scorpio (brief)
November 1981 (brief but part of the 1980s superimposed conjunctions, setting up post-modern capitalist era: Jupiter-Saturn in Libra Dec 1980-Mar 1981-July 1981, Jupiter-Pluto Nov 1981, Saturn-Pluto Nov 1982)
Oct 1968 Virgo(brief)
Nov 1955, Feb 1956, June 1956 Leo (triple-conjunction), sets some foundational morals of modern world (potentially meaningful events: Vietnam war begins, Elvis hits the charts, First McDonalds branded store, Disneyland opens, Guinness Book of Records, Rosa Parks and other arrests lead to end of bus racial segregation in US, Second class abolished on trains, Ruth Ellis execution controversy seeds the end of the death penalty in the UK, Nabokov’s Lolita)
July-August 1943 Leo (brief)
May 1931 Cancer (but sailing very close throughout 1930-1931 till another near exact hit in November 1931. This coincides with the early exponential growth of the Nazi party and their dark ideals)
August 1918 Cancer (again sailing very close throughout 1918-1919 to near exact in February 2019, then drifts apart by summer. Spanish Flu.)
June 1906 Gemini (brief)