art and astrology

The Saturn Pluto Cycle

-> empowerment of totalitarianism and oppression, mass death and destruction, traumatic crises, genocide, ethnocide, disease

1913 - 1916: Saturn conjunct Pluto - Eruption of World War 1

1921 - 1923: Saturn square Pluto - emergence of fascism and totalitarianism in Europe (Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler)

1930 - 1933: Saturn oppose Pluto - worldwide economic crisis, beginning of Hitlers dictatorship

1939 - 1941: Saturn square Pluto - beginning of World War 2

1946 - 1958: Saturn conjunct Pluto - Cold War

1981 - 1984: Saturn conjunct Pluto - AIDS epidemic

On September 11th 2001, Saturn and Pluto were within 2° of exact opposition. On that day, there was also a full moon (sun/moon opposition), forming a grand cross between these four planets. Astrologers speculated about terrorism and the pattern of destruction during Saturn/Pluto transits was again confirmed.

Saturn was also conjunct Pluto from 1348 to 1351, when the Black Death erupted.

The next Saturn Pluto conjunction will be in 2020.

This aged well.

A Portal of a Church, Ernst Ferdinand Oehme

At Target this lady told her son he couldn’t have a Wonder Woman doll because “that’s for girls” and then bought her daughter the same one. It got me thinking about how often I see people bar young boys from appreciating girls/women as protagonists and heroes, and my own experience with it as a kid.

I sit with my grief. I mother it. I hold its small, hot hand. I don’t say, shhh. I don’t say, it is okay. I wait until it is done having feelings. Then we stand and we go wash the dishes.

— Callista Buchen, from “Taking Care,” published in Thrush

~ Parade helmet and face mask.

Date: Late A.D. 1st century

Culture: Romano-British

Medium: Iron, silver, tin, wool.

Frantisek Kupka, Autumn Sun Three Goddesses, 1906.

— Arthur Rimbaud, from The Orphans’ New Year’s Gift.

Imi Knoebel (German, b. 1940), Stand by Me, 1993. Acrylic and aluminium on plywood, 116 x 116 x 13.5 cm.

“Pegasus Among Flowers” (1901) by Józef Mehoffer (Polish;1869–1946)

oil on canvas

National Museum of Poznań

In an unideal but not uncommon case, venus aspects (for the most part harsh ones like the square and opposition) can make the native project the qualities of the planet venus squares/opposes onto a potential lover/relationship. We are drawn to the people who bring the archetypal energy of the aspected planets into our life. At times that isn’t how the person really is, though, but rather shows what we project onto them because they fit into the mold we need. Often this is because, while we possess these traits already in some shape or form, they’re not honed or prominent enough within ourselves to feel like they suffice - if we even notice that they are part of us. A person with Venus square Mars, for example, might fully project a boldness they have lying dormant within themselves onto any next person who shows a crumb of that trait (usually in the case we are already attracted to them). Once we have fully embraced and actualized the traits our venus aspects already grant us we are less likely to search for them and wrongly project them onto others, and we can see people for who they are and what they can really do for us more clearly. But first we need to realize the things we love about others usually already exist within ourselves. And also, where there is potential for love for another, there is potential for love for the self.

Alice Shirley (British, b. 1984), Forests (Earth series), 2014. Gouache on watercolour paper, 90 x 90 cm.

Detail from Spring Scattering Stars by Edwin Howland Blashfield

American, c. 1927

oil on canvas

private collection

Torse de la déesse Vénus anadyomène («Vénus s'élevant de la mer»). Faïence, bleu égyptien, 12 cm. Période gréco-romaine, ca. 30 av. J.-C. - 300 ap. Maintenant dans le musée Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbonne. Torso of the goddess Venus anadyomene (“Venus Rising From the Sea”). Faience, Egyptian blue, 12 cms. Graeco-Roman Period, ca. 30 BC - 300 AD. Now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon.

“The Zodiac of Denderah in Egypt.” The life of the universe. 1909. 

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