The Great Conjunction

One last thing to look forward to in 2020, besides this whole Annus Horribilis ending, is the conjunction of the two great planets, Jupiter and Saturn, on the winder solstice on December 21. The near approach of Jupiter to Saturn will be in the southeastern night sky and be visible by binoculars. The appearance under magnification might resemble Saturn appearing like a set of great horns upon the Great Lord of the Solar System.

I have not found an astrological significance to what such a great pairing can produce, although such an event must have produced a state of at least profound dread to ancient skywatchers. I have found a more prosaic, though no less ominous significance, in that a similar formation four centuries ago preceded the Maunder Minimum. This was the solar minimum that initiated a period of climate fluctuation, that probably devastated agriculture throughout the planet.

The fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China, the devastation and misery in Central Europe during the Thirty Years War, the collapse of Irish agriculture that drove that unfortunate island's first immigration wave, all of these were probably attributable to this climate change. It really can't be hoped in this era that we won't avoid the same fate, as Solar Cycle 25 reportedly began about now, at the start of winter. Already, grain crops and soybeans in China, the Midwest, the Pampas and elsewhere, have been gravely impacted. 

One can only hope we react to this current crisis and act according to real world information and observation, not doctrine and supposition.