Today’s Great Conjunction
Yass! Today marks the day we’ve all been waiting so breathlessly for, the “Great Conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. Early in the morning, the Sun entered Capricorn, heralding the longest night of the year, the winter solstice, and shortly after that, the two largest planets in the solar system aligned as they do every 20 years. But they haven’t trysted in Aquarius in 200 years!
Not to rain on anyone’s tie-dyed parade, but this isn’t the official kickoff to “the Age of Aquarius” as some people are saying (that’s probably still a couple hundred years away). It is, nevertheless, the dawning of AN Aquarian age, in which we can shed the heavy, dense, patriarchal, conservative Capricorn mantel and step into the shiny, multicolored, free-flowing, futuristic, lightweight garments of open-minded, humanitarian, idealistic, globally oriented Aquarius.
If nothing else, this Great Conjunction holds out the promise of a better, brighter, more harmonious way of coexisting. And if that’s not music to your ears, you might need to get them candled.
Jupiter and Saturn are neighboring planets in the middle of our solar system, and both relate to time and growth. Jupiter is about expansion, idealism, optimism, social justice and global consciousness (that’s the short list). Saturn gets a bad rap for being the Debbie Downer of the zodiac, but if you consider his job description, you can appreciate how he regulates or modulates Jupiter’s growth and speed and, yes, curbs his enthusiasm.
I liken their interaction to driving a stick-shift car: The right foot (Jupiter) hits the gas and wants to go-go-go while the left foot (Saturn) operates the clutch, helping control and adjust the forward motion. Just as we need sleep and rest, and farmers need to let their fields go fallow, downtime is a vital part of growth. Like in the yin yang, each side contains the seed of the other.
Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus, is about finding innovative solutions to problems. It can also be revolutionary—in a humanitarian way. I feel like this supercharged conjunction in global, hopeful Aquarius is giving us the vision and courage to stand in our highest values and principles and extract ourselves from the dark, heavy energy of the past several years.
But the planets won’t do the heavy lifting for us. They’re symbols, way-showers, indicators of what we can and are aspiring to become. This is happening to each of us individually—what it activates in your chart gives you clues as to how it might play out or, more accurately, how you might choose to enact it—and it’s affecting us as a global community.
We make choices every day about what to do, how to act, what we stand for and how we show up in the world. And we are part of larger systems where our voice might be smaller, but collectively, the message can be deafening. Why do birds flock together or fish school in the water? Strength in numbers.
It’s hard to predict the future, and never harder than this past year when all bets have been off. But we can all be inspired by the potential of this Great Conjunction at 0º Aquarius and tap its “fresh start/rebirth” energy. Every positive action contributes to the whole. Each loving, compassionate, conscious step we take advances the collective. A rising tide really does lift all boats.
Need some help sailing through these next few months? This is a perfect time for a first-time reading if we’ve never worked together, or a follow-up if we have.
