I think by now many of you know about the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that happened at 0 degrees of Aquarius on the 21st of December 2020. This conjunction heralds the consolidation of the Air Triplicity in our world for the next 200-ish years. I am not going to go through all the history of how this is calculated or not. Fellow astrologers have done a better job than I would. Worth listening to Nina Gryphon YouTube series, read Susan Ward article, Lee Lehman presentation and Oxford Astrologer post to name a few. What I am trying to do here is making sense of astrology and time through the lens of modern mainstream medicine. The following dates are just a summary to help in the unfolding of the story.
The Earth Triplicity came in with the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on 17th July 1802 in the sign of Virgo. This was dipping the toes because the next Great Conjunction on the 19th of June 1821 was back in Fire Aries. Earth came back to stay with the Great Conjunction on the 26th Jan 1842 in Earth Capricorn. Therefore, consider the time frame between 1802 and 1842 as a transition time between two great eras where you get a mix of both with the element on the going out trying to control the element coming in to reign.
Same thing happened for this time when we changed from Earth to Air. On the 31st of Dec 1980 we had the first Great Conjunction in Libra (we had three of them between 1980-81 because of the backwards and moving forwards of the planets). Then back in Taurus Earth on the 28th May 2000. Now back in Aquarius Air on the 21st of December 2020. Again, the time between 1980 to 2020 is a mix bag of competing elements.
Looking at the history of medicine as it is told by mainstream historians, modern medicine as we know it took it roots just as the first Virgo Earth triplicity kicked in 1802. Many chemical companies started at that time and some of them have become the major players in the pharmaceutical industry as we know it today. Big Pharma has its roots in the 1800s with the explosion of chemical knowhow from laboratory to industry that eventually enabled the mass production of drugs. We cannot have modern mainstream medicine as we know it without the mass production of drugs since all treatments rely heavily on them.
Many great advancements have been made in understanding how the body works to extreme detail. Modern medicine’s main virtue is the ability to look at the detail. Modern medical doctors look at how the body works the same way as a mechanic would look at a car. That is the gift of Earth element being able to divide reality in bits and pieces so that they can be examined nudely and crudely. Human physiology was already well known in the 18th century but in the 19th century it was brought to a whole new level. Germ theory, the Pasteur one (there were other competing theories that were never considered) still studied today, was discovered in the 1800’s. Following Earth logic, if we have germs, the next step would be how can we kill them. For that we have Lister stepping in with the first antiseptics in surgery that were then applied in other areas such as obstetrics. By the end of the 18th century many disease-producing microorganisms would be identified. X-rays were discovered at that time too.
Earth as an element is cold and dry. By cold we mean that its aptitude to move as in kinetic energy is low. Just envision the molecules of a gas. The hotter it is the more movement there is. The colder it is, the less the movement, until we arrive to perceived stillness. Coldness is the ability to sit still while the rest of the world crashes around in frenzy.
On the other hand, dryness is the ability to dissect everything to the least common denominator. Dryness is hard core classification. And here we have the explosion of the classification of the world around us in different classes of matter. You name it there is a classification for it. Is it living or not? Metal or mineral? Bacteria or virus? Human or not? There is a classification box for everything. Earth needs to categorise everything or else its ability to understand matter is not possible. Dryness also gives the ability of detachment because only with detachment separateness can be perceived.
Combine the two qualities of cold and dry and you can understand why mainstream modern medicine as we know it has evolved this way. Modern medicine is the epitome of Earth. Divide, divide, divide until you cannot do it anymore (for now). Just look at the 1001 medical speciality we have in our hospitals. Every doctor is an expert in that single small part of the body. We have the heart specialist, the head specialist, the reproductive organs specialist, you name it you have it. And each one of those special areas has further sub special areas.
We have managed to amass huge, specialised knowledge, our forebears would not even have imagined 200 years ago. The only thing is that these specialists do not talk to each other. Remember cold and dry. There is not much desire to communicate with the other specialists. Earth honours the detail forgetting the whole, and in the case of medicine the whole is a human being. Hence what we have in mainstream modern medicine is the glorification of detail, the attention to a single minimal part, the “cure” of the symptom but not the cause, in complete oblivion to the whole being that is holder and manifester of such symptom. Repercussions are not considered or labelled as side-effects. It is now the norm to have patients on a poly therapy consisting of lists of drugs that seems more like a shopping list for Christmas day except that it is done for entire lifetimes. Each specialist taking care of their own drug or two not bothering to talk with the other specialists or even the patient. Dryness does not bond nor communicates.
Lost has become the art of treating the whole of human experience because humanness is not only made of body, but also the mind and the soul. But Earth cannot measure, classify, and dissect, the mind nor the soul so it can’t be scientific. So there goes the race to keep life at all costs even if it is just literally making the lungs breath, for as long as possible even at the cost of the quality of life. Earth does tend to have huge issues with letting go.
In Italy there is a sarcastic joke depicting a surgeon that comes out from the operating theatre and proudly says: Surgery was a success, pity that the patient died.
Between 1980 to 2000 we were thrown momentarily in the Air element. And in mainstream modern medicine we find the explosion of imaging diagnostics, with ultrasound being taken to 3D and 4D levels enabling surgical procedures that were not possible before. Also, the routine use of computerized axial tomography (CAT) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Electronic microscopes techniques where hugely improved. Also, recombinant DNA technology techniques enabled the first human insulin to be manufactured in a genetically modified bacteria (that is the bacteria became a human insulin factory). Other hormones and medically used substances quickly followed in being synthesised by modified genetic organisms. Following in the genetic manipulation techniques, gene therapy (that is the correction of a faulty gene in a human being) became reality, so did genetically modified organisms being used in agriculture and food chains. That 20-year period saw also the first time use of robotics in medicine and surgery such as laparoscopic surgery.
In 2000 we had the last conjunction in Earth that brought us to 2020. Hence these last 20 years we have seen the mixing of Air and Earth elements together with Earth trying to control Air. Now let us stop a minute and think about it. We are trying to control Air. Can we control Air? Hardly. Can we lock Air somewhere? Yes, but with much energy expenditure and it is not fool proof. However, Earth where you put it stays, even sand the most mobile of Earth will stay put for some time. The change between Earth and Air is the change between two incompatible elements which will make the transition to Air more difficult. That is there is no bridge to connect the two. Change must happen by clashes.
When there is a change over between eras usually the one who is losing power will try with all its might to control the budding new force. This is especially intensified by the fact that the Earth element does not let go easily. Reason it out a minute. To create something in the Earth element, it takes time and patience, a lot of it. Now comes this new Air force and it is trying to change all that Earth force has been building and preserving all these centuries. Do you think for a moment that Earth will simply say “Of course come on Air, please make yourself at home in what was once my home. Feel free to make of it what you want.”? Hell no! Hence the upcoming years will be war between the two, with Air slowly but surely winning.
What are the qualities of Air? Air is hot and moist. The exact opposite of Earth which is cold and dry. Hot means that is it high on the level of kinetic energy. It does not stay still, it moves around. Hotness bring a certain need to go out in the world and react to it. Wetness brings the desire to connect with others putting emotions in the mix too. Air is lighter than Earth so it has the possibility to look at things from a bird’s eye view. And what you can see from any height above Earth becomes more spatially then object oriented. That is, we see the forest not the single tree. Or we can see the highways interlinking than a single dusty road.
If we go by what happened in the aftermath of the first Air conjunction in 1980s we will see a huge increase in manipulation of genetic material of all living beings. Think about it. Standing by what we know today in modern mainstream medicine, genetic material is information, it is the coding software of the human body. Air is all about transmission of information and interacting with it. Technology and robotics will have a rapid increase in usage not only in our everyday life but also in medicine.
Air lifts Earth. Air molecules give a free ride to dust, air pollutants and other living organisms that are light enough to be flown around. Take what happened in the 1980s-2000s. We took 2D flat diagrams (which is nothing more that information in picture format) and thrown it up spatially creating 3D, 4D diagrams which render the body not as a flat identity but as Earth expanding in space.
Now what we have read above is the history as told by mainstream modern “Earth” medicine itself. As we said several times the dominant force will always try to repress that which destabilises the dominant way of thinking. Thus, modern mainstream medicine since its conception has always suppressed that which does not conform to the rigorous scientific method, which Earth itself has created, and that is all about classifying, take a tiny part of “reality”, objectively think and act on it and ignore the rest.
What is another kind of medicine that is more Air like in quality? Well for a starter a medicine that sees the interconnectedness of all. Cells are part of organs, that are part of systems that are part of a body which is part of the mind which is a manifestation of the soul which is then connected to our Universe and beyond. As above so below. As the Universe so the Soul. What you do to the cell or molecule you will be doing on the soul level too. The other way round works too. What you do on soul level you will be doing on your body too. Which if you think about it, it is the premise of any holistic kind of medicine…which modern mainstream medicine has suppressed with all its might.
Another type of Air medicine is frequency medicine which can take many forms. From the use of sound waves, electromagnetic waves, to homeopathy to flower essences etc. The modulation of frequencies in what we call matter can bring healing (or destruction) to both the physical body and the etheric. Air brings an increased awareness that we are not made of inert body cells but that our bodies are mainly composed of space that can interact on energy levels with all that is around us because our molecules are simply vibrations that have taken a certain kind of frequency. Air medicine might finally bring to the forefront that electromagnetic waves created by technology does interact not only with the biology of our body but also with the body’s own electromagnetic field.
Air medicine could allow for the incorporation of quantum physics discoveries causing finally a new paradigm shifts in chemistry and biology as applied to healing. Mainstream modern medicine might stop being monolithic to being more spatial.
With all this said I am very well aware of my biases, being a holistic health practitioner, it is obvious that I would like to see a medicine that incorporates within it, various modes of healing without ostracising any. I am also aware that Air is not utopia. Advancement in medicine be it in its chemistry, biology, physics, and technology if not used with ethics then more harm can be done then good. And we do not need to go in the future to assess this. We have more than enough examples in these last few years and present days when science as scientism has been used to control and cause harm. Any Element has its proclivities what we do with its tendencies is a question left to our own free will and ethical coherence.
With hope,
Hilary
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