Only a few days left in this horrible, very bad year. Clearly, 2020 is a year that will go down in infamy. The New Year chart of 2020 showed us, using tertiary progressions, a waxing Saturn/Pluto conjunction that intensified throughout the year and was further energized by tertiary Sun conjunct natal Saturn during November then tertiary Sun conjunct tertiary Saturn and natal Pluto for all of December. This translates into a year filled with a building struggle for survival on multiple levels, with a cloud of hopelessness and stress pervading everything: the pandemic increasingly is overwhelming us; the economy is beyond stressed except for those at the top; and people are losing their homes, their incomes, and their access to food. At this point, the huge and pervasively threatening Russian hack of multiple federal agencies is merely icing on a very noxious cake. Truly, this year cannot end fast enough.
The good news, of course, is that the 2021 chart is nowhere near as horrid. There is some difficulty suggested in that goals will be impeded and need a great deal of compromise and forethought to be accomplished, due to tertiary Mars square to natal Saturn and then tertiary Saturn, from August through December. But there will also be tertiary Jupiter opposite the Moon during the same period, suggesting that people feel some sense of contentment and optimism. Again, there is nothing close to the dreadful, ongoing stress we found in 2020.
According to Joe Biden’s chart, December is also an incredibly stressful time for him. From December 18 to 26, transiting Saturn is square to his natal Moon. Moreover, his progressed Moon is square to natal Saturn from December 5 to January 2. The recently announced investigation into his son Hunter, compounded by threats of a special counsel looking into Hunter as a revenge tactic from the outgoing slimeball, is clearly weighing on and upsetting Biden. In addition, the Christmas holidays without son Beau must also be stressful. Moreover, with his understanding of foreign policy, Biden understands the huge challenge of the Russian hack and the tremendous difficulty in fixing the damage it created and responding appropriately. And of course, the spreading pandemic with its accelerating death rate will fall on his shoulders even with the hope that the new vaccines now bring. The Moon/Saturn combination is one of grief, loss, deep stress and anxiety. The good news here is that it will diminish after early January.
Despite the shift in energy implied in the coming 2021 New Year chart, we can still expect the end of December and the first half of January to be emotionally very upsetting in the US, likely at least in part due to the pandemic’s heavy toll, although natural disasters and Trump’s dark impulses cannot be ruled out as causative. The progressed US Moon is now square to progressed US Saturn from December 19 through January 15. In addition, from January 2 through January 11, transiting Saturn will be conjunct US progressed Moon and square to progressed Saturn. Again, the Moon/Saturn combination suggests intensified grief and struggle, and in the US chart it points directly to those within the US population. It should be noted that Hurricane Sandy and its immediate aftermath came during the transit of Saturn to progressed US Saturn in late October and early November 2012.
These are clearly very fraught days in the US. The waning days of a deranged and narcissistic ruler, with little to restrain him, is clearly a huge danger that should not be dismissed. Moreover, the burgeoning pandemic and the horrifying death rate show no sign of abating in the immediate future. For now, we can hold onto the reality that a new administration will be coming on January 20, and a massive cleanup following Hurricane Donald will commence, though it will take a great deal of time, patience, and strength to find our way through.
