Monday, December 28, 2020

More details on the current Saturn-Pluto conjunction

This graph shows the motion of Saturn and Pluto through the zodiac from January 2019 to February 2021. I have plotted data only for the first day of each month (midnight GMT) because I'm just kind of lazy like that.


And this one shows the "orb" (angular distance) between those two planets over the same period. Planets (other than the Sun and Moon) are generally considered to be in conjunction when the orb is 8 degrees or less, though some astrologers are more generous. As before, I've only plotted one data point per month, which is why the curve isn't terribly smooth. As noted below, the orb actually reached zero in mid-January 2020.


Here are the most important times and dates (for Washington, D.C.).
  • The conjunction began (entered 8 degrees of orb) at 6:45 a.m. (EST) on January 15, 2019.
  • At 12:00 noon (EST) on January 12, 2020, there was perfect conjunction of the two planets at 22 Cap 46'34".
  • The conjunction will end (exceed 8 degrees of orb) at 3:05 p.m. (EST) on January 7, 2021.

2 comments:

Bruce Charlton said...

I've just come in from looking at the stars and planets - and it struck me again that in astrology there is excessive focus on the angles, and on constellations.

On the patterns made by multiple objects, rather than on the being that is each of these heavenly lights.

A Romantic Christian 'astrology' would, I think, want to *know* (by direct knowing) each of the planets or stars as an individual Being.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Well, I don't think those things are mutually exclusive. The meaning of a conjunction, for instance, or any other aspect, depends entirely on the respective natures of the individual heavenly bodies involved. A conjunction of Saturn and Pluto won't mean anything to you unless you first know Saturn and Pluto as individuals. And a being's interactions with other beings are not really separable from its individual nature.

The problem with astrology -- the thing that makes most people dismiss it as obviously nonsense -- is that the "relationships" it is based on are illusory. Planets in conjunction, or stars in the same constellation, aren't actually close to each other any more than the Moon is ever literally "in" the trees or the clouds. The other problem is that the motion of the planets is so mechanical, so perfectly predictable, that it's hard to see how it could somehow also be the meaningful activity of conscious beings.

I tend to see astrology as just another branch of synchronicity. For whatever reasons, good or bad, we have assigned meanings to various heavenly bodies and configurations -- and we can thus expect events on earth to coincide with the ascribed meanings of the heavens much more often than they "ought" to by chance, just because that's how the world works.

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