Pandemic Echoes: Reflecting on the Jupiter-Saturn Cycle of 2020
Lessons from the Monarchs
Coming Home
Jupiter, the great bringer of blessings and expansion, has officially migrated into tropical Cancer, where it's an honored, guest for the year ahead. As the Great Benefic, Jupiter concerns itself with the well-being of all. Jupiter is in the sign of its exaltation, expanding and creating a stronger feeling of connection to one’s roots and home. This brings us to an interesting crossroads following the Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction of 2020.
Life is self-inflicted.
Cancer New Moon 2025
Moon, Sun and Jupiter stand together for current lunation cycle. This powerful alignment forms a SQUARE aspect to the Saturn-Neptune in Aries. The Saturn-Neptune cycle is a much longer cycle that is currently giving us sneak preview of what’s to come beginning in February of 2026.
You can’t hate anything away. Love it away.
Navigating the Current Jupiter-Saturn/Neptune Square
A 'square' in astrology signifies dynamic tension and a call for action – a crucial turning point where these energies demand our attention. In this configuration we have the added emphasis of Neptune in Aries standing with Saturn. This Jupiter-Saturn square links us back to the onset of the PANDEMIC in 2020 because at that time, Jupiter and Saturn were conjunct and at the start of a new 200 year cycle in the AIR signs. Now Jupiter and Saturn are 90 degrees apart in their “first quarter” phase. (phases: first quarter, full, third quarter, and back to new.) This tension may or may not be “personal” for you, but we are all feeling it. We're also seeing it reflected in world affairs, which adds extra confusion and uncertainty due to an increase in internal and external conflicts where the fight over the eternal “homeland” takes place. Mars in Virgo adds a tablespoon of neurosis and a dash of unrealistic demanding fanaticism.
On a personal level, this intense square urges us to reflect deeply: How have you truly changed since the pandemic? What have you integrated, and what has completely transformed? I recently had the opportunity to explore this in a group discussion with about 25 people from different ages and walks of life. Each person's story of internal and external change was remarkable. While some are still navigating the effects, no one was left unaffected.
We turn a new chapter at this point in the story with this Jupiter-Saturn square. New circumstances challenge us and demand action, but we may unwilling to see things differently.
I am the miracle I am waiting for.
2025 is also the Chinese “Year of the Snake,” an appropriate time for shedding an old skin, a transformation process from the inside out. Skin shedding requires turning inward, shutting down the metabolism and relying on the resources one has already gathered. There is a “stopping” of normal activity. Then, the organism must simply let the natural processes of transformation unfold in this state of rest. Choosing not to adapt is no longer a viable choice.
Illusions on Pause: Neptune's Retrograde Reflection
As we begin the inside-out transformation, it is a time of uncertainty and waiting. Neptune is also about to go retrograde on July 4th, poignantly reminding us of the old terrain we have already covered, giving us an opportunity to reflect on the past. If we have unrealistically idealized the past, or we keep putting old narratives on repeat, then the internal pressure becomes quickly unavoidable. Neptune’s retrograde may have us wavering back and forth in uncertainty for a time, but it may also become obvious what changes are needed.
The world cannot be changed without changing your thinking.
Gifts in Disguise: Embracing Transformative Change
Where the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries is transiting in your natal chart highlights the areas of life where new opportunities are emerging, often through tension. Meanwhile, Pluto in Aquarius acts as the powerful engine in this 'locomotive pattern' – a driving force for change propelling us towards deeper, ongoing personal transformation. This is a transformation point that ultimately contributes to the greater good on a societal level and where we are applying that on a personal level.
We may not believe that what we are receiving from this Jupiter in Cancer year as a “gift,” but if we can accept change adeptly and adapt, it could mean the difference between a growth process with easier integration or a long and difficult one. Eventually life forces change.
Change promotes healing. Impermanence is a Natural Law.
The Supergeneration and the Lesson of the Monarchs
I recently took a hiatus back to the plains of Kansas to the annual gathering at the Sunset Spiritualist Church Camp. While there I had several encounters with monarchs on my morning walks: monarchs that were newly hatched, drying their wings, other monarchs feeding on the fragrant milkweed or flying playfully in the open prairie sky. I even found and kept one monarch that had died. The monarch’s earthly journey to the forests in Mexico relates directly to the Sun’s seasonal path over the the course of the year. This amazing species employs four to five generations to produce what is known as “the supergeneration,” the group that will make the 3,000 mile journey from as far away as Canada to their home to the Mexican forests, but not every generation is called upon to make this sacrifice.
This powerful image of multi-generational migration and cooperation hints at one of nature’s mysterious success stories. The concept of a 'supergeneration1', as seen in monarchs, compellingly demonstrates a single generation making striking, even extreme sacrifices of its individual, biological needs in order to adapt for its species' collective survival.
Generations do experience things differently. Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, Gen Z’s, and Gen Alpha’s each experienced the pandemic differently, depending on their life stage, but Covid interrupted and pushed us all – individually and collectively. Institutions also experienced different challenges: governments, hospitals, schools, and businesses. (Pluto in the final degrees of Capricorn.) It will be interesting to see how the generations born after 2020, those born with Pluto in Aquarius will be different from their elders in their views and experiences. Considering the current wars, the on-going environmental degradation and climate change, human migration and border issues, and more, humanity seems overdue for its own version of a supergeneration that is willing and ready to sacrifice for the survival of future generations.
Maybe I have too much faith and hope in the young, but as John Robbin’s said, “It’s never too late to love.”
The remaining portion of 2025 will be a time to rethink our outmoded collective zeitgeist and collective fantasies (Neptune). Keep going!
What has changed during this first quarter square of Jupiter and Saturn since the pandemic? How are you being challenged to embrace a new story? Share your thoughts in the comments:
(Learn more about monarch “supergenerations” here. )