Less the 12,000 years ago the last Ice Age drew to a close, or more accurately, a glacial period ended. A new glacial period is likely to begin in one to two thousand years’ time, so humanity is enjoying a nice, warm interglacial interlude. This has been great for the world population, enabling a massive increase in agriculture-based civilizations. In CE 1 the population has been estimated at two hundred million, and now it is well over seven billion – a 350-fold growth.
Hunger
With this massive population increase, it would be logical to conclude that starvation would be prevalent on 21st century Earth, but it is not. Starvation today is local, and mostly due to droughts, wars and political mismanagement. Countries like India and China can feed their populations, parts of Africa not so well. Over the last three centuries, food availability has improved due to mechanization, fertilizers and water-management. Today we consume on average twice as many calories as we did in the 18th century. 90% of the world lived in poverty then, only 10% today. (Note 1)
Population Explosion
But the population is increasing exponentially, isn’t it? It is increasing, but the birth rate is falling. In 18th century Europe less than one half of children reached adulthood, so families had on average five to six children, and ten to fourteen was not unusual. If the fertility rate falls below 2.1 then populations start to decrease, and the decrease is exponential. Quite a few developed nations, like Japan, can expect their populations to halve by 2100 at which time the global fertility rate is expected to be 1.7. and there will be a lot more old people than young. This is why developed nations today are trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to encourage families to have more children. World population will peak at 10 billion, then fall.
Global Warming
Thankfully the planet on which we live is currently warm. But it is getting warmer, mostly because of the release of CO2 into the atmosphere, which in turn is largely due to the burning of fossil fuels over the last two centuries, intensive farming practices, and deforestation. Whilst the average world temperature has increased by over a degree in the last 200 years, it continues to increase, which is why the current COP26 climate conference is desperately trying to limit further increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. A 2-degree increase would bring acute heat stress to a billion more people than today, and large areas will, in theory, become uninhabitable.
COP26 Opening. October 31st. 12.00 pm. Glasgow (AS 26 SG)
COP26 Climate Conference
The horoscope for the start of the climate conference is relatively positive. Prince Charles opened the conference, which is probably reflected by the Sun on the MC (and Charles himself is a Scorpio). The Sun also reflects the many Heads of State in attendance, and the square to Saturn may well represent their current efforts foundering on the rocks of social realities, whilst the coming opposition to Uranus reflects the precarious situation for many nations.
Nevertheless, Venus rising on the Galactic Center indicates the visionary nature of COP26, and the exact Mercury/Jupiter trine, with Venus sextile both, shows the beauty of people gathering from all countries in the world with the noblest of intentions. The state of the Earth itself could be shown by the Moon in Virgo in the 8th house, wounded and suffering as the apex planet in the Saturn-Chiron yod. Clearly the dominant Sun and Mars in Scorpio also shows powerful and secretive elites, who may not have the purest of agendas. But, in the long run, this will not matter.
The End of Fossil Fuels
Change will come because of survival needs. Governments and the titans of industry respond late, but they must respond. With countries vowing to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles within the next decade, people will stop buying them even earlier. The car industry will mobilize everything to retool their factories. In 10 years most cars will be electric.
Oil-producing lands must either diversify or suffer, because the market for oil will plunge, though not immediately because renewable energy sources are still unreliable. In places like the Middle East and North Africa, which suffer from desertification, the potential for solar power is immense. Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer based in Saudi Arabia is already building massive solar plants. To charge millions of car batteries, electricity generation must also be transformed. Changing the electricity grid is difficult in the short term, and the transition to renewable energy already causes problems when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow. Ultimately, with energy storage, nuclear and hydroelectric plants, and hydrogen production these issues will be solved within a few decades.
Looking ahead to the second half of this century, transport, housing and industry will have been revolutionized. Cars will be charged wherever they park, and their batteries will form an interconnected national and international power bank, available for all. It is easy to imagine that new buildings will adhere to high standards of insulation with solar roofs which contribute electricity to this shared grid. International transport, when virtual meetings are insufficient will look a lot different to today, with both electric and hydrogen powered aircraft.
The Age of Air
So what are the astrological factors that make this transition inevitable? The first reason is the new cycle of conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in Air signs. The end of the last cycle in Air was in the year 1424. Subsequently the conjunction cycle fell in Water signs, and the period from 1424 to 1643 was partially characterized by religious turmoil and matters of the soul. The next cycle was in Fire Signs from 1663 to 1842, which could be described as a period of international exploration. The last cycle started in 1842 and definitively ended in 2020, when the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction began on December 21st at 0 degrees Aquarius.
These periods are debatable, because there is always a “maverick” conjunction in the coming element before the last conjunction in the current element. For example Jupiter and Saturn conjoined in Libra in 1980, which presaged the transition to an Air society. Likewise it could be argued that the last Earth sign era began in 1802 with a conjunction in Virgo.
The series of conjunctions in Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn represented the Age of Capitalism and the plundering of the Earth’s resources to create growth. Huge coal power stations were built to generate electricity. People were proud of them. These have caused massive pollution. For example in London in 1952 the Great Smog was directly responsible for 4000 deaths. Even today, coal is responsible for over 800,000 premature deaths per year globally (Note 2) Wars were fought for land and resources. In the new Age of Air, land is not the issue, but waves – of the electromagnetic variety – are. Wars become digitalized, hybrid and asymmetric with cyberattacks and disinformation. Nobody can afford a major war in this era, because the world is globally interconnected.
Aquarius
There is every indication that a vastly greater transition is taking place – from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. This is connected with the precession of the equinoxes, which rotates backwards through each of the 12 signs every 2160 years. People can argue about when this actually takes place, but it is difficult to argue that we are not in the middle of the transition now.
Firstly, there is every indication that the last Age of Pisces was characterized in the West by Christianity, because the whole symbology of this period is related to the Virgo-Pisces axis. This is the symbology of the loaves and the fishes, of Mary and Jesus, the bread and the wine of the sacrament, the headwear of cardinals which both symbolize the fish and are decorated with intertwined fishes. Christ carried the cross and was crucified for us – his suffering is our salvation. We carry the guilt. We need to be purified for our sins. Virgo-Pisces. Everyone went to church before, but how many people go to church today?
This is nothing at all like what life will be like in the Age of Aquarius, which activates the Leo-Aquarius axis. We have celebrities, selfies, massive sports events, and above all – Facebook. Everyone is “friends” with everyone else and we “like” them. More importantly, we are interconnected via social media, form groups across borders, and live in bubbles with people who share our interests.
This incredible explosion of connectivity took place with the World Wide Web, boosted by the entry of Uranus into Aquarius in April 1995 and the birth of the internet browser. Neptune quickly followed, entering Aquarius in January 1998, at which point mankind was able to create an online virtual reality which young people today comfortably inhabit.
The Transition from Warming to Cooling
This emphasis on the transformational power of the Air element became solidified with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius at the end of 2020, and a new global era was inaugurated at this time. It is too early to say what life will be like in this era. Initially humanity must repair the damage of the Earth Era, primarily the burning of fossil fuels.
It seems inevitable that glaciers and ice caps will continue to melt, sea levels will rise, and extreme weather events will increase. Studies reveal that a rise in global sea levels of 200 to 270 cm (6.6 to 8.9 ft) this century is plausible. This is a huge problem for many coastal cities like New Orleans and Shanghai. Bangladesh would be hit hard, along with many other countries – not least Pacific island nations. It is estimated that 200 million people are likely to be affected by the end of this century.
These changes happen comparatively slowly, and human ingenuity will counter some of them. A third of the Netherlands is below sea level, some areas as much as six metres, and they have developed different systems for coping with rising sea levels, which means that other countries can too – Holland exports their expertise all over the world.
Populations On The Move
With the phasing out of fossil fuel, global warming due to industry should stabilize and decrease, but the consequences of the Industrial Age may endure, as tipping points are reached, accelerating melting at the poles and in Arctic, and not least in the Siberian tundra, where large quantities of methane are being released. As temperatures get hotter in certain parts of the globe, people will move. Much of the Syrian crisis was due to increasing temperatures causing drought. In places like Gujarat and Rajasthan in India, Iran, North Africa and the Middle East, it is getting dangerous to be out and working in the daytime. There are droughts; crops are failing. This can lead to wars and strife.
However, with the population dropping in developed countries, new influxes of people help. The welcome that Germany and to a lesser extent Sweden gave to 1 million refugees back in 2015 may seem prescient, and they will be rewarded in the future, as their populations age. This influx of refugees took place when Jupiter in Virgo opposed Neptune in Pisces and is an example of compassion – and redemption – on a national scale.
The Year 2050
Pluto has yet to enter Aquarius, and when it does in March 2023 – and especially when Uranus enters Gemini to make a series of six trines from 2025 to 2029 – there will be dramatic scientific advances. This is when electricity truly transforms transport. This is also a time when global priorities become more important than national ones. These may be revolutionary times, which means they can be dangerous, but if this period unfolds relatively harmoniously, then scientific advances will ameliorate some of the difficulties brought about by climate change.
The dramatic effects of sea-level rise through accelerated ice melt will probably be most apparent in the period from 2045 to 2048 when Pluto is in Pisces and opposed by Uranus in Virgo. This is clearly a time when drastic measures need to be taken to handle drastic events. Nevertheless, if we are now entering through the portals of Aquarius, and a new epoch is beginning, then we cannot yet imagine the tools that will be available to use to make life on Earth a comparative paradise for a large but decreasing population of 10 billion who are well fed and well entertained. No longer weighed down by the guilt, hunger and sorrow of the previous Age, humanity will be more united than ever, living in an interconnected virtual and real world. So interconnected in fact, that we will not be able to distinguish between what is real, and what is virtual. And why should we? It is the mind that creates our version of reality, and Aquarius is all about the mind. That is the new religion.
We may not live to see it, but our children, or our children’s children, will.
Adrian Ross Duncan – November 10th, 2021
1. See: https://slides.ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-food-provision … An excellent representation of how poverty has rapidly decreased.
2. According to EndCoal.org: https://endcoal.org/health/