Start of a Great Year

A couple of days ago, I spent the day working on a friend’s ranch. We were installing an automatic door on her chicken coop. When I mentioned this to my sister, she laughed, picturing chickens walking up to a door like the ones at a store, which slide open in front of you and close behind you. This automatic door wasn’t quite like that. It’s a door that opens at dawn and closes shortly after sunset.

After we finished for the day, we sat on the back porch, sipping wine and enjoying the rising moon and the setting sun. About 30 minutes after sunset, we headed out to feed the horses, and that’s when I saw it: Mercury conjunct Saturn hovering above the southwestern horizon. It looked just like this:

When I saw the display, I immediately guessed it was Mercury and Saturn. Since the real sky doesn’t come with these handy labels, I then thought it through. I was aware that Mercury Retrograde was imminent, which also meant it was right around its greatest elongation for evening viewing. I also knew that Saturn, in late Sagittarius, would sit just above the setting sun, currently in early Sagittarius. Just to be sure, I checked my astrology app to confirm.

The next morning, before heading out for the day, I poked around some star charts and felt inspired to share my findings. Some of what I’ll present here I discovered days and even weeks ago.

Today is December 1st. In 30 days, most of the globe will celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of the next. What most won’t celebrate is the ending and beginning of a much greater ‘year’.

Each planet in our solar system (or any system) has its own cycle or ‘year’. The planet I find most interesting in this regard is Saturn. Jupiter’s cycle (around the sun or around the zodiac) is about 12 years. The average human life span will therefore see about seven of those. Saturn, the next planet out, takes a full 29 earth years to travel the zodiac. A good number of people will experience two Saturn Returns, but not that many will make three. The often more than one but almost never as many as four cycles adds to the intrigue.

The other interesting thing about the planetary cycles (including our own) is how they are nearly perfect numbers. Nicola Tesla, among others, have noticed the magical nature of 3, 6, and 9. In fact, I wrote all about that in my second novel: Scribe to the Pantheon of Rome. Consider, for example, that you cannot divide 10 by 3 evenly, so 10 (or a base 10 number system) is not as good as many think.

A circle is divided into 360 degrees. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9 are all factors of 360. Only 7 doesn’t fit in evenly! The Zodiac, being based on a circle, also contains 360 degrees.

Now notice these observations:

• An earth year is 365.26 days, which is really close to 360.
• Mars takes about 1.88 earth years to go around the sun, which is fairly close to 2.
• Jupiter’s year is 11.86 earth years, which is super close to 12.
• Saturn’s year is 29.46 earth years, which is pretty darn close to 30.
• Uranus’ year is 84 earth years, which is only 6 shy of 90.
• Neptune’s year is nearly twice that of Uranus.
• And Pluto’s year is 248.59 earth years, which is a small chunk more than 240: a round base-12 number.

Now some might say: “If the Universe is so perfect, why are all of these cycles off. In a perfect world, wouldn’t everything be even round numbers?”

I don’t think so. Cycles that are off just a little create much greater variation than cycles that are exact multiples of each other. For example: if an earth year was exactly 360 days, and we divided that into 12 months of 30 days, and divided a month into 5 weeks of 6 days (or 6 weeks of 5 days), then your birthday would always land on the same day of the week year in and year out. Same with Christmas and New Years and July 4th. If the Planetary cycles were perfect, conjunctions would happen at regular intervals and not be so special.

But the way things are now, each cycle overlaps other cycles unevenly, which creates nearly infinite combinations.

Anyway, all of that is an aside. The point of today’s post is to recognize that a major cycle, much greater than an earth year, is about to flip. On December 19, 2017 at 10:48 pm CST, Saturn will enter its sign of rulership for the first time in about 30 years. In my mind, New Year’s Day for Saturn is when it ingresses 0 0 Capricorn.

Now, that’s interesting enough, but what really caught my attention is how the rest of the planets are celebrating. For example, the sun follows Saturn into Capricorn less than two days later at 10:27 am CST on 12/21. It then conjuncts Saturn 5 hours after that on the same day. This means earth’s yearly cycle is almost exactly synchronized with Saturn’s 30-year cycle this time around.

Next, Mercury stations retrograde tomorrow one degree from Saturn. Furthermore, it conjuncts Saturn twice in a span of eight days—once going forward (left) and once going backward (right).

Last, Venus conjuncts Saturn in that first degree of Capricorn on Christmas day, which is only one week after Saturn enters Capricorn.

Even the moon is in on the action, conjuncting Saturn just 1-1/2 days before Saturn starts a new cycle and only ½ a day after the moon starts her own (the New Moon or when she conjuncts the sun).

If you look closely at the charts I’ve included here, you’ll see interesting alignments among the other planets too, all happening around this time: Jupiter trine Neptune, Mars quincunx Chiron, Mars opposite Uranus, moon conjunct Pluto in one chart and conjunct Chiron in another.

Last but not least, check out this moment in time on the day of and hours before Saturn enter’s it sign of rulership. Notice the arc-minutes!

Saturn brings to the table a sense of responsibility. He always asks us to step up and take care of those things that need attention. Saturn will pass through Capricorn for 3 full years and enter Aquarius on 12/16/2020. Incidentally, Jupiter will enter Aquarius only 1-1/2 days later—another huge synchronization!

There is one last chart I want to share. During Saturn’s time in his sign of rulership, Jupiter will enter his own. This chart shows the moment Jupiter enters Sagittarius next year.

Notice all of these goodies:

• Saturn in Capricorn, which he rules.
• Jupiter in Sagittarius, which he rules.
• Neptune in Pisces, which he rules.
• Venus in Libra, which she rules.
• Mars in Aquarius in mutual reception with Uranus in Aries.
• North Node of the moon in Cancer, which is the sign the moon rules.
• A Grand Trine including Jupiter, Chiron, the North Node, and the Moon

Furthermore, look at how many points are on a cusp: Jupiter, the Moon, Venus, Chiron, Mars, Uranus, and the Lunar Nodes, most of which change signs within hours or days before or after Jupiter does.

Capricorn is the cardinal earth sign. Saturn in Capricorn will facilitate the shifting and evolving of earthy structures and systems such as corporations, financial institutions, and governments. Cardinal energy is about getting things started.

Next year, when Jupiter enters Sadge, it will expand the evolution started by Saturn, kicking things up not just one notch, but a number of them. The mutable signs like to go with the flow, but none more than Sagittarius. It’s mutable fire, which makes it an honorary cardinal sign!

Abraham says: ask and it is given. Strong negative emotion is nothing more than asking in a stronger way. I would say 2017 was a year full of asking. I’m thinking 2018 could be when the answering gets  started, And then 2019 will grease the wheels of all of that. 2020 is a date that sounds far in the future, but it’s only 25 months away. I do think a lot will change between now and then!