Christina Montsma - The Societal Therapist™ , Astrological Cycles

Why Astrology, Science, and Theology May Be Describing the Same Reality: A Different Kind of Experiment

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:03:06 -0600

I would like to say something that may draw rotten eggs and sour cabbage from both sides of the aisle: astrology—in its technical study of planetary cycles—neither does anything to us nor orchestrates anything any more than a clock controls or orchestrates time. (Here I am referring to astrology as a systematic study of planetary cycles rather than its divinatory traditions.)

However, it does describe and reflect an underlying organizing principle which appears in science as much as it does in the metaphysical.

This is one of the reasons why I don’t think that using chart-based predictions in scientific experiments is the best approach to reunite science and astrology. We need to zoom out—way further out in fact, in order to see why astrology, science, and even our engagement with the Divine are all cut from the same cloth.

The point I’d like to make is that astrology in itself is not the point, in as much as scientific innovation and political theory are not the point. But they are all describing the same thing, albeit with their own language: reality appears to organize itself through recurring patterns that correspond to measured increments of time.

To explore this idea, I’d like to offer a series of articles for consideration (likely spread out over time as I do more research) that show parallels across fields that point to this underlying pattern. So, while this series will begin with a particular planetary cycle and set of scientific and academic principles, the goal will be a kind of mixed methods approach conducted over time, with both quantitative and qualitative data.

If at the end of this experiment you would still like to throw your chosen vegetable, that is your choice. Though I hope the exchange won’t be ‘the same old garbage’ and will instead turn this conversation on its head.

To start, we need to first consider what I mean by an underlying organizing principle, and to that, we first turn to science.

Different Fields, Same Principle

Philosophers of science call an observation that appears in multiple domains a cross-domain isomorphism. In layman’s terms, a cross-domain isomorphism is when different fields or systems with different vocabularies share the same underlying structural pattern despite using different vocabularies. For example, galaxies, hurricanes, nautilus shells, and sunflowers all exhibit the same underlying spiral form. The spiral pattern is recognized as transcending these individual domains.

Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash

However, let’s say that these independent fields all start to produce independent evidence that this spiral emerges under certain growth constraints. Now you have consilience.

William Whewell coined the term a “consilience” of evidence, which, simply put, means independent lines of evidence converging to form the same conclusion. While a consilience doesn’t “prove” a theory, it is considered one of the strongest forms of scientific support.

For example, evolution is supported by independent experiments and analysis in genetics, paleontology, embryology, geology, etc., which together form a consilience of evidence. This convergence increases the confidence that a theory or principle—in this case, evolution—reflects something real rather than being an artifact of one field in particular.

The reason a cross-domain isomorphism and a resulting consilience of evidence is so important, is that they contribute to several criteria that scientists use to evaluate theories, including:

Explanatory power: It explains many observations within a single framework. For example, Newton’s law of gravity explained falling apples, planetary motion, and tides.
Generalizability: It applies beyond the original concept and into other domains.
Robustness: Different methods (i.e. qualitative interviews, historical case studies, statistical analysis, etc.) arrive at the same conclusion, which increases confidence. Replicating results helps eliminate the influence of errors or circumstantial factors.
Predictive validity: If the organizing principle is truly fundamental, then we should be able to observe it in domain xeven though no one has looked there before. Finding it where predicted is much stronger than finding similarities after the fact.

An example from the history of science is network theory. It’s used in neuroscience, epidemiology, computer science, sociology, economics, ecology, and other fields. The fact that similar mathematical structures describe neural networks, airline routes, food webs, and social media does not “prove” network theory. Rather, it suggests that networks are a fundamental organizational pattern that appears across many kinds of systems. The theory became compelling because it successfully modeled diverse phenomena across different fields and generated new predictions that were repeatedly confirmed.

Photo by Nastya Dulhiier on Unsplash

Consilience as an Example of a Meta-consilience

Not to get too “meta” on you, but we can actually take a step back and see that a cross-domain isomorphism or a consilience is itself only one example or one independent line of inquiry of this same idea in other fields with their own vocabularies. I’ll give you two examples.

Firstly, the term structural homology originated within the field of evolutionary biology but it is widely used in mathematics and physics, chemistry and material sciences, and sociology and linguistics. It describes systems that share the same underlying structure or mathematical framework despite looking different on the surface. The clearest and most famous example of structural homology is the pentadactyl (five-digit) forelimb framework found in vertebrates, which includes humans, bats, whales, and cats. This is the same idea as a cross-domain isomorphism.

Image generated by AI

Secondly, sufficient weight of evidence within the legal system refers to when coincidences continue to pile up and combine with explanatory power, presenting a very strong plausibility argument or even a proof. A famous example of this type of “consilience of evidence” in the US is the 2004 Scott Peterson murder trial. There were no eyewitnesses, confessions, video evidence, or murder weapons. However, the prosecution built sufficient weight of evidence (i.e. he was having an affair, lied about it, told his girlfriend he was widowed before his wife disappeared, had gone fishing in the bay where the bodies were found, etc.) which showed that while individually each point could have an innocent explanation, cumulatively the facts became extraordinarily unlikely to be coincidental and came to form a proof or at least collectively compelling evidence of underlying guilt.

As you can see, what we’re really describing here is that when the same principle shows up across domains it is given a particular name (such as consilience). However, these named principles (such as consilience and sufficient weight of evidence) are themselves examples of a larger organizing principle that touches on the patterning of reality and existence. I’ll make a suggestion of what to call that so we’re all on the same page.

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/04/scott-peterson-murder-case

A Case for Cyclical Time

Let’s start with a question: What is this cross-domain isomorphism and consilience that I am describing here?

Some organizing principles are spatial (such as, spirals, networks, and branching systems). Other principles are less tangible and more experiential, and my claim is that cyclical time belongs in this second, temporal category. It is an underlying structure (i.e. cross-domain isomorphism) that appears independently across multiple domains. Astrology happens to describe it through planetary cycles; however, other fields such as the philosophy of science, political theory, and theology, also describe it through their own languages and vocabularies.

If these different fields arrive at the same analogous model of time as structured, patterned, and recurrent, then the cumulative evidence begins to converge around the same explanatory principle (i.e. consilience). This recurring organization around cyclical time includes developmental stages, feedback loops, and other oscillating factors. At the same time, these patterns still leave room for novelty and independent choices (what I’ll loosely call free will for short), while still maintaining a larger meta-cycle or structure of time that produces the same archetypal experience predictably (what I’ll loosely call fate for short).

https://vusf.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/free-will-vs-fate/

While Substack is not an academic journal, my intent is to use a kind of mixed methods approach to test and develop this theory, identify historical cases, code qualitative themes where necessary, quantify frequencies or relationships, and possibly even test predictions on cases not yet explored to build the model.

For those of you not into obtuse wording and lofty concepts, I hope my previous articles show that I try to make my content closer to the town square below as opposed to the ivory tower up above. That said, it’s a lot of stairs between the square and the top of the tower, so if I seem a little “winded” at times, this is why.

I don’t claim to be a scientist and I am sure that there will be things learned along the way. Hopefully I’ll at least get a few ‘Personal Bests’ out of the stair reps. Plus, there will certainly be other topics in-between as this is an ongoing inquiry.

However, I am a researcher, astrologer, philosophical and theological history-seeker with enough curiosity to see where this goes. Of course, if there are any theories or cycles that any of you are aware of that you think I should take a look at, I welcome the data!

I’ll kick off this truly unusual line of inquiry with an á propos starting point, and that’s the planetary cycle of Uranus.

References:

Elsevier. (n.d.). Structural homology. ScienceDirect Topics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/structural-homology

HandWiki. (2022, October 10). Homology. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/28634

William Whewell. (2026 May 23). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Whewell&oldid=1355735648

Zhou, H., & Jia, G. (2026). Mechanism-centric cross-domain retrieval for scientific discovery: LLM agents for structural isomorphism beyond semantic similarity. SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6329666

Grace in Action: A Multi-Perspective View of 2026's Defining Alignment

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:15:00 -0600

Three Astrological Traditions, One Message for Humanity

While putting together content for a workshop awhile back, I came across an aspect pattern named "Angel Wings" which appeared to be similar to the “Basket” that astrologers are currently discussing in connection to the upcoming July 2026 configuration. Upon closer inspection, lo and behold, I found that it isn’t similar—it’s the same. Not only that, but the comparison to Andre Barbault’s mundane predictions of this specific period of time is quite striking.

Current media narratives and prolific astrological predictions paint a stark contrast of what’s in store: mutterings of WWIII on the one shoulder and whispers of world peace on the other. There’s a lot of space between those two. However, in my opinion, this otherwise basic natal delineation of an obscure aspect pattern—as well as a concurrent Vedic synchronicity—offers an angle that is more nuanced.

While natal and mundane astrology are different contexts, I think that grounding what can feel like an otherwise external global event happening to us is what will ultimately stimulate the potential impending change. In other words, the point is not the configuration. The point is the individual and collective opportunity to respond differently than we have before.

Of course, please don’t forego creating a meal kit stockpile or “Welcome E.T.” sign if that is your conviction. However, I will suggest a healthy amount of self reflection and some history books to peruse while waiting for the Armageddon.

Angel Wings: A Lesson on Flow and Flexibility

Stephanie Clement, PhD wrote about the Angel Wings aspect pattern in her book Aspect Patterns: What they reveal and how they are triggered. (You can borrow it for free from Open Library here.) It’s worth pointing out that she published this book 7 years prior to Andre Barbault’s first edition of Planetary Cycles Mundane Astrology in French. I say this to separate any possibility that she might have read his book, identified this pattern, and delineated accordingly. Rather, her work is based upon client and student work, as well as research on harmonics and the aspect patterns most used by astrologers.

This aspect pattern consists of at least 4 planets that form an infinity symbol or figure 8 type pattern. Here’s an example:

Clement actually states that this aspect pattern doesn't necessarily have to consist of sextiles and trines (as in the case of the 2026 chart). It can consist of other aspect pairs,* such as sextiles and squares in the case of Roy Horn (of Sigfried and Roy—the Las Vegas white tiger tamers) or quintiles and trines in the case of Caroline Kennedy (daughter of JFK—see chart below, Clement, p. 60).

The main point is that whereas other aspect patterns flow in one direction around the zodiac, the Angel Wings pattern easily flows forwards and backwards. The Kite and the Mystic Rectangle are also examples that contain this back and forth flow.

This flow represents a kind of 'protection,' hence the angelic nod. The protection stems from the ability to switch direction or change gears quickly. A native with this pattern seems to be at the right place, at the right time. (Aspect patterns, p. 141)

To me, this sounds similar to Jupiter’s association with ‘luck’. Is the 'luck' really random blessings that fall from the sky or is it one’s optimistic outlook and connective disposition that draws people and opportunities in? Perhaps it’s both, but this combination of ‘right place, right time, right attitude’ is what encapsulates this planetary energy.

In the Angel Wings aspect pattern, Clement writes,

"the energy weaves a pattern of comfortable conditions for thinking things through, drawing upon intuition, and working to produce creative results." (Aspect patterns, p. 59)

Anyone who embraces their creativity can tell you it’s not a linear process. It’s more like a back and forth conversation with your muse in order to birth the creation. Similar to this, Clement also shares that it can represent a kind of spiritual “weaving” or an awareness that there is something larger than ourselves that is at work in a positive way.

In essence, there is an inherent creative, spiritual energy that has put a person in the right place at the right time and with the right attitude for a purpose beyond the individual to unfold.

Clement offers the useful analogy of flying a kite to best depict this creative, yet spiritual potential. If you wrap a kite string around and around in a circle on a stick, you can let it go up into the sky but it is much more difficult and painstaking to reel it back in. The flow is one-directional and you don’t have much control to guide it when a gust comes around. Also, the string can get tangled up onto itself as the circular mass bulges outward which can create quite a tangled mess.

However, if you wrap the string from side to side on a wide handle in a figure eight pattern (aka the infinity symbol), you can both release it and draw it back in with a smooth back and forth wrist motion, freeing up a hand to guide the kite string when the right gust of wind arrives at the particular spot you are standing. It’s a lot easier cleanup which encourages continual reuse too. With this shape, the flow goes in either direction—releasing it into the heavens and calling it back down.

(If a visual in motion is easier for you, see a GIF of it here by scrolling down.)

Using this analogy, Clement further delineates the energy behind this aspect pattern from a natal perspective:

"We learn to play out situations and events more smoothly. We learn that we don't have to get tangled up in the details if we follow the pattern. We learn to stay in the flow. We also learn how to identify markers along the path that tell us how we are doing, without having to stop cold to think about it. And we learn that we can double back to rethink decisions more completely from another point of view. This is a pretty good description of grace in action." (emphasis mine; Aspect patterns, p. 143.)

This flexible flow allows a native to look back at lessons learned and benefit from the knowledge gained. This attitude can also capitalize on that back and forth creative and intuitive potential to a compound effect.

The July 2026 “Basket”

As mentioned earlier, intrigue with the 2026 “Basket” (see chart below) is currently making the rounds but some astrologers such as SJ Anderson and Dan Waites have been discussing it for several years now, both on YouTube and on Dan’s newsletter World Astrology Report (such as this article here on Substack). (Waites, 2022) The main focus of this rare aspect pattern is the work of Andre Barbault and his predictions that suggest we are heading toward a global new beginning.

While Andre Barbault’s work is quite prolific in the astrological world, for those who aren’t aware, he was a French astrologer from the mid-1930s up to his death in 2019—one year before the realization of one of his greatest predictions (the COVID-19 pandemic). He was able to make this predication and his predictions about 2026 by using a cyclic index he co-created. The index is based on numerical values of the distances between planets as opposed to using a traditional horoscope alone. (You can read a description of how it works here.) (André Barbault’s cyclic index…, 2026)

With the ‘who’ out of the way, the ‘what’ is why we’re having this conversation. Andre Barbault's words on this configuration are quite straightforward:

"The new world civilization, the beginnings of which appeared around the year 2000, is in full flight here. This entry into a second quarter of a century bears the stamp of achievement of a new age of humanity. The central and harmonic position of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction is especially expressive of a promotion of the lower strata of the population of the world, a significant rise in the standard of living of the poor, a victory over misery won in unprecedented solidarity." (Lenoble, Quote originally in French)

and,

“It will probably be a change for the better when the headlines will be more agreeable and the civilization of our new mini Great Year at last becomes adult.” (Barbault, p. 151)

This is quite a utopian outlook given there are at least 8 major wars resulting in more than 10,000 deaths per year going on at the present moment (List of ongoing armed conflicts, 2026) and the world has just witnessed its first trillionaire. However, my understanding is that his predictions were couched in the reality that there would be conflicts, wars, and pandemics—not that they would be avoided.

The point, I think, is the creative systemic change that can be achieved with the ‘right attitude’, and this is where Clement and Barbault overlap. Both emphasize flexibility and redirection from what hasn’t worked to create a new reality.

Alignment: Mundane, Modern Psychological, and Vedic Systems Converge

While I personally don’t want us to go through trauma and war to get to peace, (nor do I believe it is a necessary ingredient), both Barbault’s Basket and Clement’s Angel Wings suggest there is creative potential that is possible as a result of our ability to look back at lessons learned, survey the cost, and take another route.

However, there is one other perspective that deserves attention. I do not mark it a coincidence that we have just entering a Mercury retrograde spanning the entirety of July (entering pre-retrograde shadow on June 12th at 16°19’ of tropical Cancer and exiting post-retrograde shadow on August 7th at 26°15’ of tropical Cancer).

From the sidereal, Vedic system, this retrograde is happening almost entirely (within 0°07’) within the single Nakshatra of Punarvasu in sidereal Gemini. (Each Nakshatra is 13°20’ and a Mercury retrograde spans 10-15°.) I teamed up with Aswin Subramanyanrecently to discuss this transit. The overarching theme you need to know about Punarvasu is that it is the symbol of repeated patterns, better awareness of boundaries, collaboration, and gaining strength with each pass around the spiral.

I don’t know about you but that seems to be the epitome of reflecting back on past mistakes, incorporating the learning, and capitalizing on opportunities that present themselves to do things differently.

On a societal level, perhaps we can even learn those lessons through observing others’ mistakes (including our predecessors’) although even learning from the ones we made yesterday can yield fruit.

Possibility Meets Agency

As I mentioned, I don't think “unprecedented solidarity” requires going through something tragic. However, even if we do—or are—learning from the past, relying on our spiritual leanings / intuition, and prioritizing mutual creativity over mutual destruction is what will actualize stepping into a “new age of humanity”.

In essence, a better future is uniquely possible (the Basket) and that possibility stems from the flow and flexibility to see things differently (Angel Wings) and actively change the identified patterns (Punarvasu). History “repeats itself” because people keep making the same choices. The significance of July 2026 may be that it offers unusual support for making different ones.

And I’m open to the possibility that perhaps this quality of time also suggests a type of angelic (or alien?) protection if we find ourselves at the edge of something cataclysmic. After all, we all need a bit of goading from time to time. 👼 🛸

I have to agree with Clement that being in the right place at the right time and with the right attitude to make different decisions, sounds a lot like “grace in action”. The key is, we need to be open to the possibility and embrace our agency. The future can improve not because the planets make it happen, but because people become capable of responding differently.

To all of you reading—I think astrologers, spiritual leaders, esoteric-leaning philosophers, and creative-intuitive folks are in a position to offer this much-needed perspective. My takeaway, therefore, is to keep writing, speaking, and offering those alternative perspectives of lessons learned and that there is grace to do things differently. You never know who might encounter your words in the right place and at just the right time.

*Side Note (A technical comment if harmonics is of interest):

Pertaining to the types of aspects that the Angel Wings pattern is composed of, there are a few aspect patterns I’ve come across that are more “flexible”. However, since harmonics are a base concept in aspect patterns, if you use a quintile (5th harmonic, i.e. dividing a 360’ circle by five) instead of a sextile (2nd and 3rd harmonic, i.e. dividing a 360’ circle by both 2 and then 3), that changes its base essence.

However, to Clement’s point, the way the energy moves in the pattern still holds. For example, quintiles combine two energies in a person’s nature, such as expansiveness and restraint. Pair a quintile with a trine and the dynamism is given great support to achieve its goal.

In comparison, a sextile is the nature of 2 (an opposition) and of 3 (a trine). Again, paired with a trine, there is an element of combining ‘opposite’ energies to great effect (i.e. Earth and Water or Fire and Air). In my opinion, the sextile and trine pairing have added support as opposed to a pairing that includes a minor or hard aspect.

References:

André Barbault’s cyclic index and the Barbault basket: what he actually wrote about 2020 and 2026. (2026, April 14). Augurine. https://www.augurine.com/blog/insights/barbault-cyclic-index-2026

Barbault, A. (2016). Planetary cycles mundane astrology (K. Johnston, Trans.). The Astrological Association. (Original work published 2014).

Clement, S. J. (2007). Aspect patterns: What they reveal & how they are triggered. Llewellyn Publications.

Lenoble, Y. (n.d.) André Barbault. Yves Lenoble, https://yveslenoble.fr/andre-barbault/#:~:text=C’est%20l’un%20des%20astrologues%20les,né%20en%201921%20dans%20l’Yonne.

List of ongoing armed conflicts. (2026, June 20). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts

Waites, D. (2022, December 1). Are we coming together—or falling apart?: The astrology of globalisation. World Astrology Report. Substack.

The Archetypes of 2026: Three Faces of 555, Reborn

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:55:05 -0600

When Unprecedented is Precedented

"Unprecedented times" was the buzz phrase during COVID-19. Since then, "the new normal" is now characterized as a "post-truth" era (or an age of dis/misinformation).

This new normal and the confusion over what is true all amidst an unfolding perma-crisis is driving church attendance (The Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2025), emergency meal kit stockpiles (Reuter, 2025), and verification literacy (Franklin, 2026). Living through such rapid, on-going change seems to naturally go hand-in-hand with dilated pupils and ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ t-shirts.

But “the truth is”, these times aren’t unprecedented. There have been prior occasions when the global sands shifted simultaneously to knowledge and truth entering a period of reckoning. The parallels not only highlight that periods of intellectual and socio-political transition generate similar psychological and cultural responses, but also that we must decide what kind of role we will play in it. Hence, the three archetypes of 555. Choose your character.

Why 555 CE Matters

I came upon this parallel by accident while doing research for articles on prior Ages of Air, Pluto in Aquarius (within Ages of Air), and Saturn-Neptune conjunctions in Aries—-simultaneous historical cycles we are living in right now. The further I zoomed into these concurrent epochs of time, the more acutely the era and events of 553-555 CE converged at the core like Russian nesting dolls (with the Nodes thrown in to boot).

This period of time demonstrates multiple themes that I have previously identified in articles on these transits, including:

The push-pull dynamic between decentralized and centralized models of intellectual governance (Theme One: Zealots and Princes)
Innovative ways to safeguard knowledge (Theme Two: Innovation Begets Rebuilding)
Pooling and cross-polinizing intellectual capital across cultural and theological lines serving as a lifeline for the spirit of inquiry (Theme Three: Knowledge is Power)
Institutional gate-keeping of knowledge and silencing outliers as a form of control (The Age of AI(R), Part Two)
The power of parallel (knowledge) economies (The Age of AI(R), Part Three)
Major identity shifts and new “inner truths” in conjunction with how we relate to each other, the Divine, and ourselves. (Editing Humanity, Part Four)

The following three archetypes demonstrate a type of protasis-apodosis (an if-then statement) between an individual’s relationship to truth and its correlational effects within a “post-truth era”. In essence, when identities are changing and truth and knowledge become endangered, the demonstrated reflex is to control it, expand it, or preserve it. We’ll consider where this is being demonstrated today and what you can do about it.

First, we must set the scene for how identities were shifting during this period, followed by further commentary within Archetype #1 on the socio-political shifts that were happening.

Pictured: Innermost Ring: The Second Council of Constantinople in 553, just prior to the first Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries; Middle Ring: The death of Pope Vigilius, just after the final Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries; Outermost Ring: The 2026 Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries

Setting the Scene: A Post-Truth Era, Round 1

“The Dark Ages” was a term used to describe the period of time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire up through about 1000 CE. This bleak term had been coined by the Romans precisely because they weren’t in power at that time. (Dark ages, 2026) It was linked to the decline of literacy, the abandonment of cities, and the invasions of “barbarians” like the Almanni, Franks, Goths, and Huns in the Western half of the Empire. (Wells, p. 3) In reality, while formal education was in decline in Italy, it was thriving elsewhere such as Persia within The Academy of Gondishapur and Baghdad within the House of Wisdom, kicking off The Islamic Golden Age.

The last Roman emperor was deposed in 476 in a bloodless coup and he was pensioned off and permitted to live in retirement in a comfortable country estate. In short, Rome didn’t “fall” as much as it was declared redundant. (Kelly, p. 275) Political power in the West then shifted from one centralized location to multiple decentralized locations which clustered wherever the Roman military had outposts. (Wells, p. 85) It also became localized via alignment with the Church. (Wickham, p. 106-107)

For the purpose of this article, I want to point out two things about this identity-shifting period of time that serve this conversation.

The first is that the era between 400 and 600 CE became known as the Migration Period with large-scale movement of people into and out of the late Roman imperial territories. (Wells, p. 29) This mixing of people groups amongst the Western ‘barbarian’ tribes is described as ‘ethnogenesis’ by Herwig Wolfram—”the recognition that ethnic identities were flexible, malleable, ‘situational constructs’.” Essentially, identity had less to do with identifying one’s ethnic past and more to do with differentiating from present-day neighbors. (Wickham, p. 99)

However, when cultural identity was more forcibly reconfigured through military conquests, such as in the case of Atilla the Hun, once the conquering group identity fell, people reasserted their independence by reclaiming their original group identity. (Heather, p. 237-238) These fragmented identities eventually formed the foundation of medieval Europe, later becoming France, Spain, and Italy. (Kelly, p. 279)

In short, when people are free to intermingle and mix (despite uncertainty), the focus shifts away from differentiating between one another and towards generating a new unified identity. When group identity is asserted, the forced collective narrative doesn’t last. I found this same idea to be true with how ideas and knowledge flowed during any Pluto in Aquarius within Ages of Air and Saturn-Neptune conjunctions in Aries.

The second socio-cultural point I want to make about this era involves another form of identity clash in the Eastern half of the Empire. Constantinople had two independent semi-political parties: the Republicans Blues (big landowners, the old Graeco-Roman aristocracy, and religious orthodoxy) and the Democrats Greens (trade, industry, and civil service focused, and associated with stretching theological thought.) (Norwich, p. 185)

This split started between two theological camps: ‘monophysitism’ which argued that Christ’s human nature was absorbed by his divine nature (meaning he therefore has only one nature) and ‘dyophysitism’ which argued for the dual human-divine nature of Christ. The former was rejected as heretical in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon as a result of Pope Leo the Great’s 449 declaration on LLM’s Christ’s identity.

Emperors such as Zeno attempted to reconcile these opposing views without success. (Norwich, p. 181) However, another Emperor who had not given up hope to retake the West, saw this identity-crisis as an opportunity.

Emperor Justinian — A Prelude

Emperor Justinian’s reign was eventful and eerily familiar. Towards the beginning of his reign, there was an epidemic (The Plague of Justinian) throughout the Mediterranean, Europe and the Near East in which 25% of the population died.

He was a builder, known for his extensive construction program of lavish ballrooms and triumphal arches churches, funded by tightening and increasing taxes (Norwich, p. 195, 202). He shut down The Department of Education the philosophical school in Athens and repressed gender-affirming curriculum, critical-race theory, etc. Platonic philosophy, creating instantaneous brain-drain to places like Persia. (Wilken, p. 25; Exec. Order No. 14190, 2025) Allowing these philosophers safe passage back from Persia was the only declaration of ideological toleration that Justinian ever signed. (Nixey, p. 257)

In addition, Justinian centralized the government, reduced the power of the States Provinces, and started revising major legal laws within a year of claiming power, including those pertaining to Roe v Wade and the gender binary sexuality and severely repressing northern Palestine in 529 and 555 in particular. (Norwich, p. 195) He also engaged in prolonged warfare with Persia (modern-day Iran). (Norwich, p. 194)

He appointed Elon Musk John of Cappadocia as Praetorian Prefect to tighten the empire’s belt and create revenue, despite the fact that he was seen as morally depraved and aroused universal contempt. Justinian also appointed Todd Blanche Tribonian as the highest law officer (Durkin Richer, 2026) though he was renowned to sell justice to the highest bidder. (Norwich, p. 195-196)

But most of all, Justinian believed it was his Christian duty to regain the West, reunite it with what belonged to the political manifestation of Christendom, and Make It Great Again. (Norwich, p. 205) In order to take on these military campaigns, he needed money. The irony is that Justinian inherited a large budgetary surplus and stable economy but between his building campaigns and string of wars, he is accused of ruining the Empire financially by the end of his reign. (Wickham, 92-94)

Knowing higher taxes wouldn’t go over well with the people, he took great pains to cultivate a positive relationship with national role models (i.e. Kanye West, Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock, Dana White, Musk, etc. the Pope) and the state religion to garner popularity. (Norwich, p. 213) Thus, alignment with the Bible (DeRose, 2026) and Christianity (Collinson, 2026) served as a political power move to enable war. (Wilken, p. 255) I hear an echo.

Adams, Laurie Schneider (2011) A History of Western Art (Fifth ed.), McGraw Hill]], pp. 161–162 ISBN: 978-0-07-337922-7.

Archetype #1: Emperor Justinian — Control and Consolidate Truth

This is where Justinian’s infamy in strong-arming “Truth” for political gain comes into play. Justinian’s solution to unify the opposing theological parties was The Three Chapters, an attack and condemnation of those on an extreme end of the spectrum—the Nestorians, who emphasized both the humanity and divinity of Christ as two separate persons. Justinian’s logic in attacking the common enemy of the two opposing parties seemed like it could bring them together but it backfired. (Norwich, p. 543-544)

Not only did neither side feel appeased, but he had clearly overstepped. The three individuals Justinian condemned in The Three Chapters had already been dealt with by the Church. Therefore, Justinian’s condemnation undermined the Church’s authority and emphasized doctrinal uniformity for the purpose of political stability and power.

Justinian had a history of controlling Popes and he intended to do the same with Pope Vigilius who owed him loyalty on the account of securing him the position. (Norwich, p. 191) However, Pope Vigilius pushed back and drama ensued.

Justinian upped the ante and published a second edict which was essentially his interpretation of the basic tenets of Christianity. The Pope asked Justinian to withdraw it which he refused, so Vigilius and all the bishops from both East and West got together and agreed to make pronouncements against Justinian and excommunicated him (for the third time). This infuriated Justinian so he had the Pope put under house arrest. (Norwich, p. 255-257)

With the Pope under his thumb, Justinian convened the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 (which Vigilius refused to attend). The Three Chapters were passed but Vigilius continued to hold out from officially recognizing it for another year. However, after 8 years of extraordinary “coercion” under house arrest, Vigilius finally capitulated and recognized The Three Chapters. Vigilius was finally released in 555; however, weak from all he had endured, he died on his way back to Rome, just after the final Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries.

In the end, Justinian never reconciled the two sides. Vigilius lost his credibility and the West felt bullied. (Wickam, p. 94) Division persisted despite the condemnations, but Justinian’s efforts to solve the controversy over the person of Christ earned him a shout out in the Divine Comedy for taking on “that hard task”. (Wilken, p. 254) From that point forward, Justinian clung compulsively to power, refusing to delegate authority while no longer possessing the ability or the appetite to use it well. (Norwich, p. 259)

It is ironic that it is because of Justinian’s legal reforms that we have Bibles in US courtrooms that witnesses swear upon to tell the truth. (Wilken, p. 252) However, it is clear that the approach of forcibly “reconciling” ideological disagreements and identities through scapegoating, coercion, manipulation, infringement, and institutional gatekeeping does in fact earn you a place in history—of how to fail miserably, foster distrust, and promote brain drain.

Origen of Alexandria: "Les Vrais Portraits Et Vies Des Hommes Illustres" by André Thévet

Archetype #2: Origen of Alexandria — Explore and Expand Truth

I’ve gone a bit more in-depth with Justinian to give a broader picture of the ideological and socio-political climate of 553-555. However, the second individual I’m choosing to focus on wasn’t actually alive during this period of time, but his ideas were still kicking up dust.

In addition to the Nestorians, Origenists were also attacked for their “speculative theology”. Origen’s original theological work occurred during a prior Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries, around 232 CE, and culminated in the next conjunction between 553 and 555.

Ironically, both Justinian and Origen were excommunicated three times from the Church. In Origen’s case, this included once during his lifetime (including torture and imprisonment which, like Vigilius, ultimately caused his death after his release), once during The First Origenist Crisis of 400, and once during The Second Origenist Crisis of 553 at the Second Council of Constantinople. (Chadwick, p. 96) The question is, what was so threatening about an excommunicated, deceased theologian that all of his writings were targeted and burned?

Origen approached theology and hermeneutics differently than his contemporaries. To start, he took on an allegorical reading of Scripture rather than a literal one with multiple possible “levels” of potential spiritual truth. (Chadwick, p. 74-75)

The problem was that lay teachings focused on the lowest or most literal and basic interpretations. Origen saw part of his mission as bringing the “higher” levels of insight down to the “lower” levels so the people might be encouraged to advance spiritually. (Chadwick, p. 75) However, the way he went about this was unorthodox for his time.

Origen was known for his exceptional intelligence and was learned in both Greek philosophy and the Alexandrian Jewish thinkers. Like Plato, he saw his father targeted and martyred by Emperor Septimius Severus in a deliberate act of political persecution. (Wilken, p. 56) This impacted him greatly and he felt that Christianity needed to be not only a community of faith but also a tradition of learning and understanding.

Historian Robert Louis Wilken describes Origen’s conviction plainly: “Though Origen believed firmly in the truth of the Scriptures, he knew that simply citing scriptural texts fostered neither understanding nor conviction. Interpreting the Scriptures required the work of reason no less than did philosophy. His aim was to make the “knowledge that leads to a good and happy life” a matter not only of faith but also of persuasion.” (The first thousand years: A global history of Christianity, p. 61)

Besides Greek philosophy, he was the first Christian to take an interest in the Jewish Scriptures as they were read in the synagogue, including studying under a rabbi. In this pursuit, he created the Hexapla, an edition of the Old Testament with 6 columns that included several Greek versions (including the heavily used Septuagint) alongside the original Hebrew. He wanted to expose how different the Septuagint was from the original text and how that impacted the truth that was being taught. (Wilken, p. 55-59)

When it came to Greek philosophy, he also translated ideas like ‘eternal life’ into Platonic language to demonstrate the harmony between Jesus and Plato and make it more accessible. (Chadwick, p. 71-72; Reference to: Comm. in John. xiii. 45. 298; Jerome, Ep. 8.4.3; Apol. adv. Rufin. i. 18.) He also took an exploratory approach that invited the reader to decide what the correct view was for themselves. (Chadwick, p. 72-73) Origen continually encouraged his readers to think critically about his writings and if errors were found to correct them. (Chadwick, p. 97)

This conviction—to not merely believe truth purely on faith but to also know it through reason, understanding, revelation, and questioning—undermined the Church’s authority in more ways than one. Particularly after the 3rd century, the clergy in the East did not like the “pagan” literature of the Greeks so Christians were encouraged not to read them. This effectively imposed censorship on classical literature which Origen was encouraging seekers to read and compare to Scripture. (Reynolds, p. 41-42)

But beyond his methods, the bigger grievance his contemporaries had of Origen’s approach was his eschatology which they diagnosed as a blindness to paideia, or Greek culture. The irony was that Origen’s attitude toward Greek philosophy was more reserved and critical than most. (Chadwick, p. 98, 100, 102) Many Christian thinkers of the day actually felt that “pagan” philosophy did in fact hold some truths that could be appropriated and purified for Christian use. The problem with Origen was that he was seen as too Platonic when it came to specific ideas like the transmigration of souls (Chadwick, p. 114), the pre-existence of souls, (Chadwick, p. 115) or the idea that if the devil fell by free will, even the devil can be saved. (Chadwick, p. 99)

It’s not hard to see why this outside-of-the-box and cross-cultural thinking encouraged too many questions and strayed too far afield for the Church. Allowing truth to continue to unfold was directly opposed to the safety of orthodoxy. The irony I see in the Church’s treatment of Origen’s theology is that the same institutional gatekeeping and silencing of outliers would be enacted upon them by Justinian.

Yet Origen’s legacy did not die with him. The work Origen started in Caesarea led to the formation of the first Christian library. After his death, a wealthy patron expanded this collection in an effort to preserve Origen’s writings. Over time this library became a scholarly center for copying books, becoming one of the largest collections of pagan, Jewish, and Christian writings. (Wilken, p. 60) This is what leads me to the final archetype.

Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus, believed to be based on a portrait of Cassiodorus in his library. Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, before 716

Archetype #3: The Nameless Scholar-Monk — Preserve and Protect Truth

Origen’s library was one example of an organic, decentralized effort. Perhaps this reflected a tapping into of the collective unconscious as these efforts were not wholly coordinated; however, taken together, they safeguarded both truth and the spirit of inquiry.

In the Western world, an alternative and decentralized social structure sprang up within centralized Christianity and would become one of the most enduring Christian institutions: monasticism. (Wilken, p. 100)

Because they operated outside the formal structure of the Church, monks had to support themselves through their labor. While they were largely self-sustaining, they still relied on the outside world for key items. Over time, they performed the valuable labor of copying and preserving texts which not only produced a small source of income but also became a calling and a meditative practice not unlike prayer. (Wilken, p. 107)

A constellation of factors facilitated this quiet spiritual revolution, including the replacement of Latin with Greek in the Eastern Roman Empire, (Gainsford, 2020; Norwich, p. 195) the hand-off of the dwindling education system in the Western Roman Empire to the Church, (Wickham, p. 106, Reynolds, p. 69) the hostility of the Church towards pagan literature and the subsequent endangerment of non-ecclesiastical works, (Wickham, p. 106) and the burning of libraries and knowledge centers as political and religious collateral.

A notable Roman statesman, Cassiodorius, was one example of an individual who saw preservation as a sacred task amidst his own “post-truth” era. After seeing the Palatine and Ulpian libraries burn to the ground during political upheaval, he left the city and founded the Vivarium which was dedicated to this task of Monastic Scriptoria—the copying and preservation of texts. It became one of the few remaining working libraries in the 6th century and beyond. (Reynolds, p. 71-72) A few scattered monasteries also took up the task, capitalizing on their small size and obscure locations as key protective strengths.

Copied texts were not only religious but also included philosophy, literature, and science. (Wells, p. 197) Some texts that survived thanks to these nameless monks include works by Ovid, Pliny the Elder, Vergil, Seneca, and Cicero. (Reynolds, p. 71) Copies from Latin in particular were solely preserved thanks to Monastic Scriptoria (Gainsford, 2020) and the unintended invention of the book review, or a compilation and commentary of works, also ended up preserving the only extant copies of otherwise lost originals. (Kaldellis, 2012)

This was not a solely Western effort though. In the Far East, a similar storyline played out amidst the targeted destruction of Buddhist written works. The first Emperor of a unified China attempted to destroy all literature and memory that predated his dynasty, not only undertaking the most extensive book burning campaign in history but also burying Confucian scholars alive with their texts.

Under threat of death, Chinese scholars responded by creating the Fangshan Stone Sutras in Hunan. Over 14,000 texts were painstakingly carved into cave walls, making them impervious to fire and easily reproducible through rubbings. This monastic sacrifice and ingenuity served as the initial iteration of the printing press in 11th century China, later rediscovered in 15th century Germany to fuel the Reformation in the next Age of Air.

These are but a few examples of the nameless scholar-monks whose individual but collective efforts are the sole reason we can read numerous texts today and rediscover their truths. They didn’t know which texts they should preserve and they didn’t need to because in all actuality they were preserving possibility and the elements necessary for the future expansion of truth.

Setting the Scene: A Post-Truth Era, Round 2

As you can see, during (un)precedent times as these, truth and knowledge can be either weaponized via control and consolidation or it can be expanded through open cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary inquiry. It can also be protected through a constellation of decentralized efforts.

However, infernos and megalomaniacs are easy scapegoats for the loss of intellectual capital like the historic libraries and learning centers of old. Instead we need to look to fear, ignorance, and greed as the real culprits. It’s these psychological drives that confine knowledge into silos or specific sanctioned ways of thinking.

The irony is that this pull to hoard or control knowledge is what simultaneously draws dragons and cuts off the oxygen to progress. Conversely, efforts to pool intellectual capital and encourage the cross-pollination of disciplines are the people and places that reliably birth innovation.

Today, the hoarding, control, and censure of intellectual treasure is not only found on government websites (2025 United States government online resource removals, 2026) but also in data center stockpiles and monopolist publishing cartels with Chiefs and Officers of all flavors guarding their troves. Traditional knowledge centers like libraries and universities are feeling the squeeze with open-access libraries like Internet Archive facing multi-million dollar lawsuits for sharing the wealth (“Hachette v. Internet Archive", 2025) and scholars considering or already leaving the United States and other countries undergoing ideological persecution in droves in search of intellectual freedom. (Association of American Universities, 2026; Dunbar, 2025; Joseph, 2025)

This kind of post-truth climate can feel disenfranchising and foster a feeling of powerlessness amidst these powerhouses. However, there’s one other thing these archetypes demonstrate for us and it's how the relationship between truth and authority ultimately plays out in the short and long-term.

For Justinian, authority is what created truth, but it neither lasted nor achieved the desired outcome when done for the purpose of control.

For Origen, truth questions authority that seeks to control, whether that was an established way of reading Scripture or questioning the Church's chosen form of delivering truth. His own truths underwent multiple attempts to snuff them out but his ideas persisted.

And for the nameless scholar-monks, they show us that truth ultimately survives authority. I wonder if these monks realized they were midwifing the incubation and rebirth of truth when they copied Seneca's On Benefits which states, “Truth never perishes.” I doubt that most of us realize this is what we are doing when we take time to fact-check, to engage in discourse, and to read a book or article and pass on an insight. Ultimately, truth survives because ordinary people preserve it.

I hope I have communicated clearly that there are alternative and potent ways to resist the swirl into nihilism and coerced identities. In a previous article (The Age of AI(R), Part Four) on parallel knowledge economies, I explored the ethics of resistance and about a dozen different protective, relational, and epistemic strategies that offer an alternative Aquarian and Plutonic approach in this post-truth era. If you’re looking for ideas and reorientation then I invite you to give that a read.

If you’re looking for encouragement then I will point out that you don’t need to become a martyr or start a multicultural library to expand and protect the truth. Begin by not being a Justinian and continue by asking questions like Origen.

If you’re looking for hope, then I leave you with a few words of truth from writers whose works we would not have were it not for those nameless scholar-monks:

“Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced.”

– Seneca, Natural Questions, Book 7

“Knowledge of one’s own ignorance is the first step to wisdom.”

– attributed to Ovid

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”

– Cicero, Orator, 120

“Happy is he who has been able to learn the causes of things.”

– Vergil, Georgics, 2.490

“The true glory of a man is to leave nothing for himself.”

– Pliny the Elder, Natural History

References:

2025 United States government online resource removals: Revision history. (2026, May 19). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_government_online_resource_removals

Chadwick, H. (1966). Early Christian thought and the classical tradition: Studies in Justin, Clement, and Origen. Oxford University Press.

Collinson, S. (2026, April 16). The dangers of the Trump administration using faith to justify its war. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/17/politics/the-dangers-of-the-trump-administration-using-faith-to-justify-war

Dark ages (historiography). (2026, May 25). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dark_Ages_(historiography)&oldid=1356122994

DeRose, J. (2026, May 26). How the Trump administration uses the Bible to justify military invasions and immigration raids. All Things Considered(NPR). https://www.npr.org/2026/05/26/nx-s1-5698511/how-the-trump-administration-uses-the-bible-to-justify-military-invasions-and-immigration-raids

Dunbar, M. (2025, June 15). “No way to invest in a career here”: US academics flee overseas to avoid Trump crackdown. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jun/15/academics-science-trump-university-crackdown

Durkin Richer, A. (2026, June 4). Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-says-he-will-nominate-todd-blanche-to-serve-as-attorney-general

Exec. Order No. 14190 (2025, January 29).

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/

Franklin, R. (2026, March 16). Why humanity must learn to trust differently in the GenAI era. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/03/why-humanity-must-learn-to-trust-differently-in-the-era-of-genai/

Gainsford, P. (2020, June 12). Who preserved Greek literature? (Part 2). Kiwi Hellenist: Modern myths about the ancient world. https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2020/06/who-preserved-greek-literature-2.html

“Hachette v. Internet Archive.” (2025, August 24). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachette_v._Internet_Archive

Hartford Institute for Religion Research. (2025, June). Exploring the pandemic impact on congregations study. https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/This-Place-Means-Everything-to-Me-Key-Findings-from-a-National-Survey-of-Church-Attenders-in-Post-Pandemic-United-States.pdf

Heather, P. (2009). Empires and barbarians: The fall of Rome and the birth of Europe. Oxford University Press.

Joseph, A. (2025, December 17). American science, shattered: Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave U.S. behind. Stat News. https://www.statnews.com/2025/12/17/research-cuts-fuel-scientific-brain-drain-american-science-shattered/

Kaldellis, A. (2012). The Byzantine role in the making of the corpus of classical Greek historiography: A preliminary investigation. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 132, 71–85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41722255

Kelly, C. (2006). The end of empire: Attila the Hun and the fall of Rome. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nixey, C. (2017). The Darkening Age: The Christian destruction of the classical world. Macmillan.

Norwich, J.J. (1988). Byzantium: The early centuries. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Association of American Universities. (2026, May 15). Resources on American researchers leaving the United States. https://www.aau.edu/key-issues/resources-american-researchers-leaving-united-states

Reuter, D. (2025, June 26). Americans are looking to stock up on gas masks, emergency meal kits, and power banks as anxiety builds. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-preppers-looking-to-stock-up-emergency-supplies-anxiety-builds-2025-6

Reynolds, L.D. & Wilson, N.G. (1968). Scribes and scholars: A guide to the transmission of Greek and Latin literature. Oxford University Press.

Wells, P. S. (2008). Barbarians to angels: The dark ages reconsidered. W. W. Norton & Company.

Wickham, C. (2009). The inheritance of Rome: A history of Europe from 400 to 1000. Viking Penguin.

Wilken, R. L. (2012). The first thousand years: A global history of Christianity. Yale University Press.

Rethinking Omnipotence: Astrology, Free Will, and the Nature of Divine Power

Tue, 19 May 2026 17:27:46 -0600

The Un-Apologetics of a Relational God

The problem of omnipotence, or the state of having ultimate power, has been a criticism against astrology for millennia. Beginning with Justin Martyr in the second century CE and solidified by Augustine in his Confessions, God’s omnipotence is one of two core arguments that have been used consistently by the Church to argue why astrology is either sinful or counter to a divinely created cosmos (the other core argument being astrology absolves human responsibility, which we’ll return to). (Campion, Astrology & Cosmology, p. 168-169)

However, I’d like to suggest that astrology is not the problem in this equation. On the contrary, it is our understanding of omnipotence that needs to be turned and understood more holistically. By doing this, we may start to see that astrology actually reflects the omnipotence of the Divine.

The modern imagination equates ‘ultimate power’ with domination or control, and there are historical reasons for this which we’ll explore. But when understood both historically and theologically, power can also include restraint, invitation, self-limitation, and the capacity to generate relationships. This fundamentally changes how omnipotence can be understood and therefore, how it engages with paradigms like astrology.

To be clear, while this article is written with these two particular groups in mind, it also speaks to how we all view the nature of power. So even if you do not identify as either an astrologer or a Christian, I invite you to consider what power looks like to you, and in turn, how it has shaped your understanding of what Love, Truth, and Beauty looks like. Because ultimately, “ultimate power” shouldn’t be a scary monster in the closet threatening us into staying in bed with the lights off.

I’ve said as much to clients in my counseling practice, but I think it also applies here: “If you want to get rid of the monster in the closet, turn on the light.”

The Two Faces of Power

When we think of unlimited power, we associate this with an authority figure’s ability to do or decide anything—to create, change, or destroy at any given time. This was the main beef anti-astrological polemics centered on: the future can’t be predicted because God has the ultimate power to change it at any moment. (Campion, History, Vol II, p. 252, 284)

However, power is not only an outward-facing action or state of being. Power is also inward-facing. Essentially, ultimate power can be unilateral action but it also includes the choice to relinquish that decision-making or creative capacity to someone else. Let me give you an example.

Consider the “power” of the social-political strategy of non-violence and how much these movements have achieved that hundreds of years of outward-facing “power” could not quell. The emphasis of non-violence is not an outward assertion of force but an inward pull into dialogue. Make no mistake—it is still “active” resistance, meaning, it is not passive and it is not surrendering in defeat. Rather, the power in non-violence lies in its ability to ‘win over’ the other side by relinquishing physical force and enacting invitation instead.

Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at the 1963 March on Washington. (Public Domain)

With this understanding, I suggest that within the Christian paradigm, Christ’s death was a demonstration of omnipotence just as much as the Creation Story. In a prior article about ‘The 7 Sayings of Jesus’ and its correlation to Plato’s celestial spheres, I pointed out one of Jesus’ sayings to a criminal crucified next to him that he would be in paradise with him that day. This conversation came as the result of others’ mockery. They insisted that if Jesus was truly the Messiah and really was powerful enough to destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days, then He should have the power to save himself. (NIV, Matthew 27:40; Luke 23:35-39) Their expectation was an outward-facing show of power but what Jesus demonstrated was the inward-facing kind.

This inward-facing side of power is also the basis for other Biblical concepts like intercessionary prayer and grace which necessitate an omnipotent God who is capable of having His mind changed by an outside source. This requires the “surrender” of a decision—again, not in defeat—but for the purpose of dialogue and relationship.

We can already start to see that astrology only becomes threatening when Divine power is imagined solely in a controlling and overriding sense—what I’m calling outward-facing omnipotence. This association between power and domination didn’t spring out of nowhere, but we need to go waaay back to see how this idea might have evolved historically.

How Power Became Domination

Looking beyond—or better said, before—Christianity for a moment, this inward-facing version of power can be seen in the dynamic prehistoric shift from matriarchal to patriarchal societies. Prior to about 4000-3000 BCE, humans were in egalitarian groups focused on shared power. Religiously, they appeared to be much more focused on goddess images which were linked to fertility and perpetuating the power of life. (Baigent, p. 29-30) A distinctive feature was the lack of hierarchy and an alignment with rhythms of the Earth and cosmos. (Willis & Curry, p. 20-21) By the onset of the Bronze Age, this shifted. Groups started to vie for resources and resorted to conquering one another in an outward-facing show of power.

Something interesting happened during this process. Whenever a group would conquer another group, they brought together each groups’ gods, creating a multi-layered pantheon. However, it was believed that the god of the conquerors must be the “more powerful” god, otherwise why would the subjugated group’s god allow such a thing? Said differently, “If you are so powerful why don’t you save yourself?”

Thus, with each new change of power, the subjugated gods and the feminine goddesses as a whole were placed under the rulership of the “more powerful” god. (This was also eventually reflected astrologically with the Moon subjugated to the Sun). As the pantheon slowly morphed into a unified body (i.e. the Cosmic Man, etc.), the “more powerful” god was placed at the head of the body.

The Council of Gods by Raphael, 1517-1518

Thus, social stratification and the development of “the state” was mirrored in the “temple”. This shift can be seen in myths all around the world as a reflection of global collective consciousness. (Willis & Curry, p. 21, 23) Thomas McEvilley describes this centrifugal pull within religious beliefs of the Fertile Crescent (also the birthplace of Judaism and forerunner of Christianity):

“Bronze Age mythology ended when the pantheons of separate gods and goddesses, each with his or her special attributes, adventures, and cults, dissolved into pantheism—the deification of the universe as a single vast metadeity or “everything-god” (pantheos). This preoccupation was in part a by-product of political amalgamations. When power shifted, the priests of the newly dominant group would compose a theology which elevated their god over those of the dominated groups. At such a moment, a Mesopotamian priesthood would imitate the model of the state, declaring that its god was king of the other gods; by contrast, the more metaphysically inclined Egyptians were apt to declare that the newly dominant deity had absorbed the other gods into himself or become them.” (The Shape of Ancient Thought, p. 24)

And so, an “all-powerful” god became associated with physical force, dominance, and assertion — one that could conquer one’s enemies. However, while the all-powerful goddesses were certainly subjugated (i.e. which I’m choosing here to broadly represent reflections of inward-facing power—there were absolutely goddess warriors), I suggest that they did not inherently lose their manifest power.

I say this because we still bend a knee today to the necessity of inward-facing power, seen in the act of “surrender” as a necessary element of continuing life. For example, a seed splits open and a caterpillar dissolves inside its chrysalis, surrendering their original forms to turn into something new. A mother in labor will progress more when she stops resisting contractions, surrenders control, and works with them to birth her creation.

These acts of “surrender” reveal a deeper form of power that domination cannot show us. Ultimately, these inward-facing acts cannot be stopped. Even if you try, the ultimate “surrender” (i.e. death) still prevails. Both Earthly decomposing organic matter and heavenly stars mirror this ultimate surrender into decay or collapse, followed by regeneration into fertile soil and supernovas.

Hence, inward-facing power was not destroyed but came to be known as something else.

SN 1994D (bright spot on the lower left), a Type Ia supernova within its host galaxy, NGC 4526 (Public Domain)

Actuality and Potentiality

Now that we have expanded our understanding of the nature of omnipotence, we need to consider how and why God demonstrates omnipotence. If we lean into this dual paradigm of ‘ultimate power’, we can better see why God’s “all-powerful” nature is not superseded or threatened by paradigms like astrology and instead works with it.

Consider this: God’s all-powerful ability to make a decision to create, change, or destroy necessitates the ability to not make that decision or to make another decision altogether. This might sound obvious but we must follow this logic through to understand the significance.

Using an analogy, you cannot be going down on the Titanic and decide to sink. That’s not a decision but an actuality, a fact, or a state of being. It just is. You are sinking, and there is no decision to enact. A decision, therefore, requires more than one potential outcome. What this implies is that an omnipotent deity’s ability to do or decide any one thing, necessitates that there must be a choice to enact other outcomes, otherwise it is just an actuality. Demonstrating omnipotence requires possibility and potentiality.

Why does that matter?

Looking from the Christian paradigm, it is God’s decision to grant free will that establishes possibility and creates the stage for God’s (inward-facing) omnipotence. God’s alternative decision would have been total determinism and if the cosmos was composed of puppets, how would God enact God’s inward-facing omnipotence (i.e. surrender and invitation) upon a Creation that cannot make a decision to receive it? It is because a totally deterministic Creation renders no relational conditions that God must choose it to enact His omnipotence.

Photo by Pedro Bune on Unsplash

“Now, hold on,” I can hear a keen observer say—”If God must choose something then that’s not a choice. That’s an actuality (i.e. like deciding that the Titanic is sinking) and God always has the ability to decide or do anything.” I agree. This is the same concern the age-old argument against astrology posits. So this is a great time to clarify that I am not suggesting an ontological deficiency in God’s essential nature. God “is” whether God shows a particular attribute or not.

However, I’m using the word ‘must’ here to indicate necessity and not determinism or compulsion, because some attributes can only be relationally expressed. Yes, God can choose to create a totally puppeteered cosmos. That is an example of God’s omnipotence. But if God made that choice then God would not have the conditions to enact God’s full outward- and inward-facing omnipotence. Surrendering power to an intelligence with choice is needed to enact and embody God’s full omnipotence.

In the example of a totally puppeteered Universe, you could think of God’s inward-facing omnipotence as, perhaps, a dormant or latent attribute. This isn’t a perfect metaphor but it is meant to convey that while all of God’s attributes still ontologically exist, some are intertwined with yet another one of God’s inherent attributes: God is relational.

For example, if God is inherently a merciful God, to show mercy requires a being that is capable of receiving mercy and a puppet doesn't count. Scripture itself also gives us examples of how some attributes are both inherent and must be relationally expressed.

The apostle John gives us one example. He tells us that “God is Love.” Here, the Greek word for ‘love’ is agápē (ἀγάπη) — an abstract noun representing the ‘thing’ someone feels. (G26, Strong’s Greek Lexicon) This is one of God’s ever-present ontological attributes. But how is that attribute enacted and relationally known?

John also explains that God ‘loves’ us — agapáō (ἀγαπάω), a verb — which he says was enacted through God sending His Son to Earth, and was then relationally known through how Jesus lived his life. (G25, Strong’s Greek Lexicon) John surmises that seeing the loving actions of God’s lovingness is what enables us to know what true love looks like so we can show it ourselves. (NIV, John 3:16; 1 John 2:6; 4:16,19) God’s attribute shifts from an abstract state of being to being enacted, and eventually, to experienced.

This is why I say God must or needs to create in order to enact God’s attribute as Creator. Similarly, God must or needs to grant free will to enact fully the attribute of omnipotence—including the inward-facing surrender to relation. God is a Creator and is omnipotent regardless. But God is relational also and to relate to someone is to know what their attributes are — to experience them. Thus, God, as a relational being, enacts His relational attributes so that they might be experienced, including inward-facing omnipotence.

Photo by Cédric VT on Unsplash

Astrology as a Reflection of Omnipotence

Returning now to the context of astrology, the fullness of God’s omnipotence is reflected in the simultaneous existence of fate and free will which astrology is built upon.

There are certain actualities that we encounter. Sometimes things happen and there is no choice to be made. The Titanic is sinking. Astrology is a language that can help describe these conditions. Yet, humans have the free will to choose how to engage those actualities. Description is not compulsion.

There are also other potentialities that humankind encounters which enable a dialogue between humankind and the Divine. Astrology also helps put language to this dialogue.

It is this full dynamic of both outward-facing power and inward-facing power that depicts—not contradicts—the full omnipotence of a relational God.

And to be clear that this is not an argument for anthropocentrism in disguise, consider everything I have just said from a non-human angle—again, straight from Scripture:

It is not only God’s choice to allow Satan the ability to roam the Earth (NIV, Job 2:2), to tempt (NIV, 1 Peter 5:8), and to torment (NIV, Job 1:12) if Satan so chooses. It is also God’s choice to both imprison Satan and release him after a period of 1,000 years (NIV, Revelation 20:7). Thus, it appears that even with a fallen angel, choosing to bestow free will is necessary to enact God’s relational nature and full outward-facing and inward-facing power. Another imperfect metaphor: a fated sentence has been read by the judge, yet the individual is free to choose what he will do with the freedom has has.

This is not like a cat that releases a mouse so that it can “play” with it and catch it again. Rather, I mean that God’s omnipotence is tied to the possibility and potentiality of anyone or anything with free will to make a different choice. What happens after that “1,000 year” period? Perhaps making a different choice is even what enacts the New Earth.

To me, this is how I approach astrology—as a tool to highlight those actualities and potentialities, including the choices we have already made and the ones we have before us. Consequently, this addresses the other core argument the Church has historically used against astrology—that it absolves human responsibility. Who would have thought? Feed two birds with one scone.

___________________________

References:

Baigent, M. (1994). Astrology in ancient Mesopotamia: The science of omens and the knowledge of the heavens. Bear & Company.

Campion, N. (2012). Astrology and cosmology in the world’s religions. New York University Press.

Campion, N. (2008). A history of western astrology, volume I: The ancient and classical worlds. Bloomsbury Academic.

G25 - agapaō - Strong's Greek Lexicon (KJV). Retrieved from https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g25/kjv/tr/0-1/

G26 - agapē - Strong's Greek Lexicon (KJV). Retrieved from https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g26/kjv/tr/0-1/

The Holy Bible, New International Version. (1984). Zondervan. (Original work published 1978).

McEvilley, T. (2002). The shape of ancient thought: Comparative studies in Greek and Indian philosophies. Allworth Press.

Willis, R. & Curry, P. (2004). Astrology, science and culture: Pulling down the moon. Berg Publishers.

The Cross as Cosmic Ascent: ‘The Seven Last Sayings’ and Jesus’ Journey Through Plato’s Celestial Spheres

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:00:00 -0600

I’ll be up front: I’m an astrologer, researcher, and academic. I also grew up in a Christian household, completed 20 years of Christian education (including seminary), and have participated in more than half a dozen Protestant and Catholic traditions…and I did not go to church this Easter.

This is not an article about disillusionment, nor is it a missionizing argument cloaked in esotericism. It is about critical thinking and about the expanded worldview that emerges the more I realize how much I don’t know—something I truly wish to see more of in religious tradition and discourse.

My interest was piqued when I heard my mom recount her church’s Good Friday service and tradition of reading “The 7 Last Sayings of Jesus” before his death. It’s a unique Easter tradition in that it’s practiced across both Protestant and Catholic contexts. What many may not realize is that it is also a purposeful blending of multiple Gospel perspectives—but I’ll return to that shortly.

This tradition began to take shape in the Medieval Period, and off the cuff, I wondered whether it was a retrospective symbolic arrangement of scripture rather than a revelatory pattern emerging from shared worldviews.

Upon a closer look, I found that while “The 7 Last Sayings of Jesus” was formally structured in the Medieval period, it may reflect a much older cosmological narrative. When viewed through a cultural-historical lens, Plato’s model of planetary ascent reveals a striking alignment with Christ’s crucifixion narrative as a symbolic journey through the celestial spheres toward reunion with the Divine (aka Truth, Beauty, and Goodness).

I am not arguing that this structure was intentionally encoded, but that it reflects a shared symbolic framework through which both ancient and Medieval thinkers understood reality.

To explain why, we must first examine why this tradition emerged in the Medieval Period, and more importantly, consider the mindset and knowledge of the first-century Middle Eastern zeitgeist.

Affective Piety and the Humanization of Christ

In the Medieval Period, the Church shifted toward a stance of affective piety—a movement away from an abstract, theological understanding of Jesus and toward a more emotional and experiential connection to his suffering.

Part of this shift emerged from a centuries-old theological tension between emphasizing Christ’s divinity versus his humanity, with this practice leaning strongly into the latter. Another factor was the harsh realities of life at the time and the search for meaning and relief amid suffering. (Thomas, p. 5–9) Who better to empathize with human pain than Christ himself?

In the 12th century, theologians and mystics such as Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), and Bonaventure (1221–1274) began compiling the final words of Jesus to facilitate deeper emotional and spiritual connection through structured prayer and meditation.

By the 16th century, this practice had formalized into liturgy, now known as “The 7 Last Sayings of Jesus” and incorporated into traditions such as The Stations of the Cross. Its influence extended beyond the Church into broader culture, including Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ in the 1780s.

Over time, each saying became associated with specific theological principles tied to Christ’s life, ministry, and death. However, what drew my attention was the numerological significance—something both first-century and Medieval thinkers would have readily recognized, and which still holds meaning today. (Johnston, p. 71)

Christianity within a Cosmological Worldview

Like any religious tradition, Christianity developed within—and in dialogue with—existing cultural, philosophical, and religious frameworks.

For example, various ‘pagan’ influences were integrated into Christian practice, often as a way of translating meaning across cultures or for political influence. These include aligning the birth of Jesus with the winter solstice and Easter with Passover—or the first full moon following the spring equinox. The Passover/Easter lineage itself traces back to the Babylonian festival akitu—a 12-day commemoration of death and rebirth. (Campion, Astrology and Cosmology, p. 165-166)

Similarly, the Egyptian concepts of the judgement of the dead alongside Persian ideas of good and evil was adapted into Christian thought of heaven as a reward for ethical behavior. Iconographic parallels—such as Mary and Jesus with Isis and Horus, or Jesus overcoming Satan with Horus overcoming Set—further reflect this cultural continuity. (Campion, Vol. I, p. 88, 90-91)

More pertinent to this discussion, early Christianity also incorporated Greek philosophy, particularly Stoicism and Platonism, which themselves intermingled with other ideas like Hermeticism. One well-known example is John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word” or the logos, (Campion, Vol. I, p. 245) a concept that emerges alongside the same named in The Hermetica. (Freke, p. xxix)

Within this context, Platonic cosmology was not foreign. It was embedded in the language, metaphors, and worldview of the time.

The same numerology foundational to Babylonian, Jewish, and Pythagorean traditions also underpin astrological thinking. While Christianity has had a complex relationship with astrology, it’s important to recognize that first-century audiences were deeply familiar with cosmological symbolism.

This is why Scripture not only explicitly gives examples of astrology via the birth of Jesus but also includes implicit use of astrology. This last point illuminates both the philosophical connections important to understanding how “The 7 Last Sayings of Jesus” are connected to the planets.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The most obvious implicit use of astrology are mentions of celestial omens as warnings of the apocalypse (ex: Mark 13:24-26) which naturally leads us to the book of Revelation where the number 7 alone appears over 50 times. It has been suggested that Jesus’s messages were infused with cosmological significance. Nicholas Campion notes:

“The key ritual numbers in Hebrew tradition, seven being the number of the days of the creation, twelve the number of tribes. Any intelligent audience of the 1st century would have been deeply aware of the cosmological significance of these numbers, there being seven planets and twelve signs of the zodiac.” (Astrology and Cosmology, p. 166-167)

This first-century cosmological awareness also sheds light on some of Jesus' parables.

Consider Mark 8:18-21:

“‘Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?’ ‘Twelve,’ they replied. ‘And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?’ They answered, ‘Seven.’ He said to them, ‘Do you still not understand?’” (NIV)

Jesus highlights the numbers 7 and 12 which point to the totality of time. 7 is the days of the week and number of planets and 12 is the tribes of Israel, as well as the number of zodiac signs and months. “When Jesus uses the numbers 7 and 12 as the keys to his ministry…he is sending a clear cosmic message—that his preaching concerns the mystery of space and time, particularly his role in bringing a world age to an end and inaugurating the kingdom of God.” (Campion, Vol. I, p. 247-248)

Recognizing this numerological thinking is not anachronistic. Jesus, the disciples, and early Jewish and Christian thinkers operated within a worldview shaped by Platonic, Aristotelian, and Pythagorean ideas about numerology and the moral and cosmological structure of the universe, including Plato’s concept of the World Soul which emanated from the mind of God out through the heavenly spheres to the Earth.

From Plato to Christ: The Soul’s Journey Through the Spheres

Plato’s cosmology continued to influence later philosophical and theological developments. For example, Gnostic traditions drew upon this model, suggesting that Christ’s ascent through the planetary spheres neutralized their influence. (Campion, Vol. I, p. 276)

This numerological and cosmological thinking persisted into late antiquity. St. Augustine, for instance, used Pythagorean analysis to explore the relationship between sin and salvation through biblical genealogies. (Campion, Vol. I, p. 248-249)

Augustine also proposed that Christianity, in essence, had always existed—that it was a truth unfolding across time, with traces present even before Christ. (Freke, p.xxix-xxx)

Later thinkers continued this synthesis. Returning to the Medieval period, Roger Bacon, both a father of modern experimental science and a magician, argued that even Christ operated within planetary influences, drawing on Islamic astrologers such as Abu Ma’shar and Masha’allah to link religious cycles to planetary alignments. (Campion, Vol. II, p. 59)

More recently, Richard Tarnas has identified that executions of leaders carrying out divine or moral missions happen with Saturn-Pluto hard aspects, including Jesus, John the Baptist, and Socrates. (Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 235) He also connects the Uranus-Neptune cycle to widespread spiritual awakenings and the birth of new religious and philosophical movements, again including Socrates and Jesus. (Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 356)

Taken together, these perspectives suggest that cosmology, numerology, and theology were deeply intertwined. Within such a worldview, it is not unreasonable to consider the possibility that planetary symbolism could reflect “mankind’s future resurrection and reunion” with logos. (Tarnas, Passion, p. 97)

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that the Gospel writers explicitly encoded a planetary ascent narrative. Each wrote for a different audience and emphasized different aspects of Jesus’s life, ministry, and death. However, when these accounts were later synthesized in the Medieval period, they may have unconsciously carried forward a symbolic structure that was already deeply embedded in cultural understanding.

I realize this could imply that a certain ‘Truth’ appears across cultures and time. However, my focus is less a religious one and more an observation that humans across time have shared symbolic structures (such as numerology and cosmology) to make meaning of our experiences like suffering, death, and rebirth.

In addition, Christianity is not isolated but embedded in a larger stream of cultural awareness. This not only makes the practice of Hermeneutics highly important; it also reminds us that the neat boxes we put ideas like theology, philosophy, and astrology into, aren’t as separate as we think.

When viewed through that lens, the connection between ‘the 7 sayings’ and the 7 celestial spheres becomes far less surprising.

‘The 7 Sayings’ as a Celestial Ascent

The number seven has long symbolized completion, fulfillment, and perfection in both Jewish and Christian traditions. (Johnston, p. 71) It is also associated with the seven days of creation, the seven-day week, and the seven visible planets—hence the naming of the days of the week. (“Days of the week…”)

While the sayings were initially compiled for devotional purposes, their eventual number—seven—carried deep symbolic weight. Combined across the four Gospels, they formed a “complete” account of Christ’s final moments. (Houlden, p. 645) Paired with the combined philosophical and theological framework, a more “complete” picture of what it means to face death and to be reborn also arises.

Most pertinent to this is Plato’s planetary order which was culturally and ideologically relevant before Christ, during the life of Jesus, during the writing of the gospels, and for some, many centuries after. From Earth outward toward deep space and the ‘unchanging’ fixed stars where God and heaven were believed to be, Plato’s system differed from the Chaldean order (1). From the vantage point of Earth, the order was: the Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. (Campion, Vol. I, p. 157-158)

Aristotle expanded on this model, associating the outer, unchanging realm of the fixed stars with perfection and the inner spheres with change and decay. (Campion, Vol. I, p. 168-169) After death, the soul was believed to ascend through these spheres toward the divine.

This cosmological language was familiar to both ancient and Medieval audiences. It was part of how meaning was constructed and communicated.

Whether intentional or emergent, the Medieval arrangement of the seven sayings reveals a striking alignment: a devotional structure that mirrors the same cosmological ascent through which ancient thinkers imagined the soul’s return to the Divine.

With this framework in mind, we can read Christ’s final words as both a human and cosmic journey.

Returning to Goodness, Beauty, and Truth

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34) — The Moon

The theological principle tied to Jesus’ first saying is Forgiveness and Mercy. In Aristotle’s explanation of the closest planets’ association with constant change, the Earth, Moon, and Sun were actually equated to plants and animals in that they had no hope of returning to God because they were the furthest away from God. (Campion, Vol. I, p. 168-169)

In essence, in the sphere closest to Earth and the furthest from the firmament, we are so far removed from our divine nature that we don’t even know what we do is wrong. It’s this ignorance that Jesus called for Mercy and Forgiveness for those so tied to terrestrial and emotional needs and desires (the Moon) that they could not fathom the weight of their actions.

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) — The Sun

This statement is identified with Salvation. While still within Aristotle’s proximity of reprobate nature, the Sun shines light where the Moon had only darkly or dimly lit. Here there seems to be an awareness of one’s position and distance from Goodness but with that awareness despair can follow.

Christ, the ultimate solar figure, is responding to a criminal who admits that he is being punished justly for his crimes and rebukes the others for their lack of awareness of their distance from God. Christ honors this awareness and offers a promise of the path to Paradise. Despite the distance and potential despair, it is still possible to be reunited with Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

“He said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son’, and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother’.” (John 19: 26-27) — Venus

It’s not difficult to correlate the planet of relationship to Jesus' statement to Mary and John and the theological connection to Relationship, Care, and Community. The Virgin Mary has been symbolically and artistically linked to the planet Venus via her lineage in a long line of mother goddesses. The Babylonians and other ancient civilizations who came from these lineages were aware of this planet’s star-shaped pattern and illuminates why the Virgin Mary is also sometimes called Star of the Sea.

This connection to Relationship, Care, and Community is evident in Jesus entrusting his mother to the disciple he loved. It was an act of relational continuity in the midst of rupture. Following the awareness of separation, it is relationships that begin to restore wholeness.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) — Mercury

The theological principle connected to this saying is Jesus’ Identification with Humanity through his experience of Abandonment and Suffering. It is also often quoted when discussing Christ’s dual nature as it depicts that he is both human and divine.

It is worth noting that this is the only saying that appears in two gospels: Matthew, who wrote primarily to the Jews emphasizing the divinity of Christ, and Mark, who wrote to the Romans emphasizing the humanity of Christ. (White) Mercury is not only the planet with a dual nature; it is also personified by the only Greco-Roman god who could freely travel back and forth between Hades (Hell) and Olympus (Heaven).

After coming face to face with our short-comings and experiencing grace through community, there is an awareness of our own dual nature as well. We feel both the separateness from Truth, Beauty, and Goodness due to our choices. But we also feel a yearning to return to the perfect state we too once held. This dual awareness is what leads us to a turning point.

“I am thirsty.” (John 19:28) — Mars

This saying is connected to the concept of Fulfillment. To understand why, the context of this saying is important. Jesus had knowledge that all of the Scriptures needed to be fulfilled so there was one last thing he needed to do: ask for something to drink. This statement is more directly connected to the fulfillment of Psalm 22; however, there’s another reason.

The drink Jesus is asking for is wine vinegar. This wine was administered by soaking a sponge into it and placing it on a hyssop branch. These were the same branches used by the Israelites to mark their doorposts in Egypt so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” their homes and spare their firstborn sons. (NIV, Exodus 12:22) Just before being taken, Jesus held the Last Supper with his disciples in which he held up the wine and stated, “This is my blood of the covenant.” (Matthew 26:28)

Here, sacrifice becomes active and chosen. In this sense, Mars represents not only sacrifice, but the decisive act of relinquishing what separates us from Truth. In that journey towards the Divine, we are drawn to make a decision to release behaviors, beliefs, and actions that separate us from Truth. It is this sacrifice that actually offers us the renewal and life we thirst for.

“It is finished.” (John 19:30) — Jupiter

This is Jesus’s theological statement of Triumph. He has fulfilled everything and his job is done. In the Roman world, victorious generals would impersonate and become Jupiter (aka Zeus to the Greeks), riding in a chariot through the city and up to the Temple of Jupiter. Here an entirely white lamb or ox would be sacrificed to Jupiter at the temple.

After we realize that in spite of everything, we can survive sacrificing those parts of ourselves that separate us from Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, then comes gratitude and freedom. Jupiter, the ultimate benefic planet representing these qualities, also represents the magnification of joy from achieving success.

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) — Saturn

In the outermost sphere and at the doorstep of the unchanging fixed stars, there are the final theological principles of Trust and Surrender. Jesus has completed his mission and is now surrendering his spirit to God for judgement.

Saturn was considered to be at the edge of heaven or the last stop before the soul surrendered for judgement. To the Romans, Saturn was associated with dissolution and liberation for this reason. Saturn is also associated with sowing and reaping (aka ‘karma’).

In this sense there is a dual meaning of the Platonic-Egyptian view of standing trial and of reunion with the Divine if the feather and the heart weigh the same. Plato depicts in Republic that if a soul arrives at heaven’s gate and is not pure, it is sent back down to Earth. (Gaudio) Once we have surrendered what separates us from the Divine and experienced that sense of Triumph over our less-than-good tendencies tied to a carnal world, we experience liberation from that thing, and that feeling of surrender is a small part of the heavenly experience we seek.

Heaven as Practice

Jesus’ return to heaven represents ultimate fulfillment within the Christian narrative. Yet the process of spiritual death and rebirth is not reserved for a single moment—it is enacted daily through our choices.

Each time we move:

from ignorance to awareness,

from isolation into community,

from fragmentation into integration,

from indulgence into sacrifice,

and from effort into surrender,

we participate in this same journey—

through the spheres and back toward Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.

This story of completion—whether consciously constructed or symbolically inherited—was mapped out by Plato, embodied by Christ, and preserved through Medieval tradition. It is both cosmological and human.

It is not only a divine journey taken once, but one we are asked to walk every day. This is the process of reuniting divinity with humanity and bringing heaven to Earth.

To that end, let the Word guide your ascent.

(1) The Chaldean Order is: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. (Campion, Vol I., p. 258)

References:

Campion, N. (2008). A history of western astrology, volume I: The ancient and classical worlds. Bloomsbury Academic.

Campion, N. (2009). A history of western astrology, volume II: The medieval and modern worlds. Bloomsbury Academic.

Campion, N. (2012). Astrology and cosmology in the world’s religions. New York University Press.

“Days of the week meaning and origin in astrology.” (2017, April 20). Astrology Club. https://astrologyclub.org/days-week-meaning-origin/#google_vignette

Fowler, W. W. (1916). Jupiter and the Triumphator. The Classical Review, 30(5/6), 153–157. http://www.jstor.org/stable/698888

Freke, T., & Gandy, P. (1999). The hermetica: The lost wisdom of the pharaohs. Penguin Group.

Gaudio, R. (2022, April 3). The hope of resurrection and the hopelessness of reincarnation. The Socratic journey of faith and reason.https://socratesjourney.org/metaphysics-of-resurrection/

The Holy Bible, New International Version. (1984). Zondervan. (Original work published 1978).

Houlden, Leslie (2003). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO.

Johnston, R. (1990). Numbers in the Bible: God’s design in biblical numerology. Kregel Publications.

Sayings of Jesus on the cross. (2026, April 2). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sayings_of_Jesus_on_the_cross&oldid=1346737175

Tarnas, R. (2006). Cosmos and psyche: Intimations of a new world view. Plume.

Tarnas, R. (1991). The passion of the western mind: Understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view. Ballantine Books.

Thomas, K. (1971). Religion and the decline of magic. Penguin Books.

White, L. (2025, February 24). “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Meaning of Jesus’ words.” Bible Study Tools. https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/my-god-my-god-why-have-you-forsaken-me.html#google_vignette

Editing Humanity with ♄-♆ in Aries, Part Four: Ubuntu, Imago Dei and Differentiation

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0600

A 'Modern' History Lesson

“Mordor…is it left or right?”

In previous installments of this series, I examined the Saturn–Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries from multiple perspectives across time, each exploring an element of dissolving (Neptune) and redefining (Saturn) who “I am” (Aries) as an individual and as homo sapiens:

In Part One, I explored how our creativity is critical to being a conscious human being, and the present dilemma posed by our use of LLMs: we have unprecedented access to free, fast, and frictionless assistance, yet our use of it is quietly stealing our consciousness along the way.

In Part Two, I considered the future transhumanist path that LLMs and AI are leading us toward and how to avoid ending up with a bionic soul.

In Part Three, I examined two prior Saturn-Neptune conjunctions at 0° Aries in our prehistoric past and what they reveal about our relationship with the Earth as an essential ingredient in defining ourselves as homo sapiens.

In this final article, I explore more “recent” Saturn–Neptune conjunctions in Aries and consider how these moments highlighted the social and spiritual dimensions of identity as a necessary way of defining who “I am.”

More pointedly, I believe we are at a watershed moment that requires a decision:

Do we go right and continue down a path that promises ease, comfort, and power at the cost of consciousness and our habitat?

—Or—

Do we go left and consciously choose a path that requires no small amount of effort to face our shadows, our limitations, and even our own goodness—at the potential gain of healthier relationships?

It may (or may not) seem like an obvious choice. Like Frodo at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings, we may think, “Of course you need to go to Mordor. It’s what you’re meant to do, Frodo.” Yet that view lacks the knowledge of what lies ahead and how difficult, but salvific, the journey would be for Middle-Earth’s survival.

We have an advantage though. We have prior “adventures” in redefining ourselves that we can look back on and use to inform our present choices.

So with that as our guide, remind me again, Gandalf: “Mordor…is it left or right?

Map of Middle Earth: https://wallpapers.com/wallpapers/middle-earth-map-lotr-yx9t3d12pic3ibsk.html

A Modern History Lesson: Case Studies in Redefining Who “I Am”

The African philosophical concept of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”),(1) the Korean philosophical concept of hanul (“the process of becoming together”),(2) and the First Nations philosophy of “all my relations” (or interconnectedness)(3) are just a few examples of a widespread understanding: the self is defined in connection to others.

But this extends beyond social relationships into spiritual ones as well.

The idea that a human being is part of God or Truth—and that divinity is therefore a core element of identity—appears in concepts such as atman (Hinduism), Imago Dei (Christianity), and pratītyasamutpāda or “interdependence” (Buddhism)(4) to name just a few.

In short, outside of modern Western individualistic and scientific thought, the idea of a self existing apart from relationship (whether human or divine) simply did not make sense.

This should tell us something about what it means to “be” a species called homo sapiens. Beyond being social animals, the human self exists within connection to other selves. The question, then, is what happens when we attempt to sever that connection in order to redefine who “I am”?

Previous Saturn–Neptune conjunctions in Aries offer some revealing glimpses.

91 BCE: Redefining Legal Identity

For centuries, Rome allied with Italian communities to gain soldiers, tribute, and allegiance. However, these socii were not citizens, and Roman citizenship determined legal personhood and rights within the state.

After helping Rome dominate the Mediterranean, the socii demanded full citizenship. Rome not only denied the request but assassinated one of their leaders, Marcus Livius Drusus, to maintain control.(5)

The socii responded by declaring their own state, sparking the Social War. Rome attempted to resist, but because the socii comprised the majority of its army, resistance proved futile. In 90 BCE, Lex Julia de civitate granted citizenship to most Italian communities—one of the largest expansions of political identity in antiquity.(6)

232 CE: Redefining Divine Identity

Origen of Alexandria was a Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian whose ideas expanded what it meant to be human.

In On the First Principles and Contra Celsum, he proposed the preexistence of souls, universal restoration to the divine (including demons), and an allegorical reading of Scripture instead of a literal one. His theology centered on humans as fallen rational beings capable of divine ascent.(7)

Origen attracted intense criticism from Church authorities because his ideas destabilized the boundary between human and divine. He eventually died from injuries sustained during torture inflicted by the authorities. Yet his ideas lived on and resurfaced in the next Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aries.

Origen of Alexandria: https://owlcation.com/humanities/was-the-gospel-of-thomas-considered-scripture

555 CE: Redefining Personhood

Justinian I pursued legal, theological, and imperial unity with near obsession. His Corpus Juris Civilis defined who qualified as a legal “person” and who could be treated as property. While it clarified distinctions between slavery and personhood, it also narrowed theological ambiguity.

In 553 CE, the Second Council of Constantinople confirmed Justinian’s condemnations of certain theological positions, including Origenism. This was a direct effort to regulate speculative theology and solidify a fixed definition of humanity’s spiritual nature in relation to God.

By 555, the Council had excommunicated, imprisoned, and strong-armed Pope Vigilius into signing off on their mandates.(8)

1380 CE: Redefining Access to Truth

John Wycliffe, theologian and philosopher, antagonized the Church, State, and University by criticizing ecclesiastical overreach. By 1380, his focus turned toward rejecting transubstantiation—the belief that the Eucharist literally becomes the body and blood of Christ.(9)

The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381–1382 followed soon after, fueled in part by his teachings. At its core were issues of taxation, inequality, and hierarchical definitions of human worth. Wycliffe also emphasized direct lay access to Scripture and divine truth.

Though he avoided excommunication during his lifetime, his followers—the Lollards—were later executed. Thirty years after his death, the Church excommunicated Wycliffe posthumously, exhumed his bones, and burned them.

1703 CE: Redefining Consciousness

John Locke argued in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) and that knowledge derives from experience. Identity, therefore, rests on the continuity of awareness. Locke also advanced theories of self-ownership and property, asserting that labor transforms objects into personal property rather than property being granted by monarchs.(10)

However, his work also posthumously contributed to the justification of slavery and exclusion from civic participation. This fueled European debates about the rationality of Indigenous peoples and the rights of enslaved Africans.

In response, Gottfried Leibniz composed New Essays on Human Understanding in 1703 and later Monadology, challenging Locke’s empiricism. Leibniz argued that experience activates what is already latent within the human being.(11) His metaphysics also proposed that animals possess perception, suggesting a continuum of consciousness.

This empiricist–rationalist debate echoes into the present AI Revolution.

Gottfried Leibniz: https://footnotes2plato.com/2014/03/24/schelling-whitehead-inheriting-spinoza-leibniz-god-and-the-modern-world/

Redefining Autonomy and Attachment

In each of these Saturn–Neptune in Aries moments, important written works challenged the boundary of who counts as a person and who defines that boundary. Some expanded identity and others narrowed it in the name of unity or control. All were attempts to negotiate identity within relationships: to the self, each other, and to God.

As we saw in Part One and Part Two of this series, these historical examples are dynamically relevant to defining boundaries in relationships to the self in today’s AI Revolution. These examples also provide a useful bridge to psychological concepts that illuminate our current process of redefining identity with each other and to the Divine: attachment, codependency, autonomy, and differentiation.

Every relationship involves attachment. Too much becomes codependency; too little becomes detachment or extreme autonomy. The middle ground is differentiation.

Differentiation is a lifelong process of defining a unique sense of self while maintaining emotional connection to others. It is both the antidote to codependency and the fertilizer for intimacy.

Healthy differentiation means that when I express ideas, needs, or desires that differ from yours, I am not threatened with abandonment or shame. The difference is tolerated (perhaps even welcomed) and the relationship survives.

Differentiation also means that I do not require isolation in order to maintain authenticity or a separate sense of self. Excessive autonomy breeds detachment and undermines belonging.

These concepts remind us that relationships are the crucible of identity. To relate is to encounter difference and conflict. In that crucible, parts of you are burned away and parts are forged.

Avoiding relationships altogether is an illusion of safety and distance. Saying, “I am separating myself from you” still positions oneself in proximity to the other—it does not make them cease to exist.

The inverse of this illusion in modern Western culture is “ghosting”—pretending that “I don’t exist so you can’t connect with me.”

Philosophically speaking, this is the illusion of the radical individualism I mentioned at the start of this article—or, as Max Weber described it, the “disenchantment of the world.” This Western cultural shift toward rationalism and a de-spirited cosmos leads us to believe that isolating the self makes the other disappear when it does not.

You cannot deny the other without acknowledging the existence of an other and in the process, relate to the other.

For example, Nietzsche’s declaration that “God is dead” presupposes an ‘other’ called God. A person’s refusal to believe in a God may create relational distance, but not ontological annihilation. Thus, even nihilism—the belief that ultimate meaning and knowledge are not possible—affirms a relationship to higher purpose or Truth. If there is no Truth, there is nothing by which nihilism could define or contrast itself.

In every-day-speak, when we refuse to “see” the other—by denying personhood, citizenship, divinity, access to Truth, or consciousness—we are evading relationships, not causing them to cease to exist. In actuality, to evade relationships is to avoid conflict, responsibility, and differentiation, and this tactic usually stems from an insecure identity.

These evasions are rarely philosophical ideas though. They are rooted in personal beliefs picked up like souvenirs during our adventures in relationships. For example:

I believe no one will stay if I express my needs, so I’ll just go-along to avoid rejection.
I believe I am fundamentally flawed, so I’ll withhold my authentic self to avoid being seen and shamed.
I believe I’ll be consumed if I’m in a relationship, so I’ll just avoid intimacy altogether.

Conflict, authenticity, and differentiation can feel like standing naked in a town square. It is no surprise we spend much of our lives avoiding them. Yet they are essential to meaningful relationships and to defining what it means “to be” me.

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash

Removing the Blindfold

This Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aries asks us to redefine who “I am” without swinging between isolation or codependency. Differentiation and authenticity do not deny the existence of the other, but they are not achieved in a single decision either. They are kind of more like verbs than nouns.

Brene Brown, the authenticity expert, says in The Gifts of Imperfection(12):

“Like many desirable ways of being, authenticity is not something that we either have or don’t have. It’s a practice. It’s a conscious choice of how we want to live. Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every single day. It’s about a choice to show up and be real, a choice to be honest, a choice to let our true selves be seen. Authenticity is this: it’s the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are. It’s cultivating and choosing the courage to be imperfect, to set boundaries, and to allow ourselves to be vulnerable.”

Redefining what homo sapiens are or who “I am” is neither a declaration of total autonomy, nor a system setting or prompt fed into an LLM. Authentic identity is not programmable. It is a lived process—daily decisions—about how we relate to the Earth, to others, to ourselves, and to the Divine.

Throughout this series, I suggested that instead of asking when AI becomes conscious, we should ask when we become unconscious. Saturn-Neptune in Aries suggests that consciousness means applying creativity, moving from dissociation toward feeling, and acknowledging our relationships to the Earth, to each other, and to Truth.

Consciousness is an ongoing process of authenticity and differentiation, which means the path is not chosen once. It is chosen daily.

Which also means, it’s not too late to turn left, Frodo.

Cover Art from Unsplash: ashkan-forouzani-m0l9NBCivuk-unsplash.jpg

Footnotes:

(1) (African philosophy, 2026)

(2) (Oh, 2026)

(3) (Interconnectedness, 2026)

(4) (Pratītyasamutpāda, 2026)

(5) (Badian, 2024)

(6) (Lex Julia, 2026)

(7) (Chadwick, 1966, p. 66-94)

(8) (Second Council of Constantinople, 2026)

(9) (John Wycliffe, 2026)

(10) (Rogers, 2023)

(11) (Philopedia, 2026)

(12) (Brown, 2010, p. 49-50)

References:

AI Priest Chat. (2026, February 22). The Holy Trinity. https://e-catholic.org/ai-priest-chat/

African philosophy. (2026, February 23). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

Anthropic and Claude. (2026, February 4). How can I communicate better with my mom? [Video]. YouTube.

Badian, E. (2024, February 28). Marcus Livius Drusus. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Livius-Drusus-Roman-tribune-died-91-BCE

Baigent, M. (1994). Astrology in ancient Mesopotamia: The science of omens and the knowledge of the heavens. Bear & Company.

Bhagavad Gita. Chapter 11, Verse 32. https://www.bhagavad-gita.org/index-english.html

Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection: Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are. Hazelden.

Campion, N. (2008). A history of western astrology, volume I: The ancient and classical worlds. Bloomsbury Academic.

Cartwright, M. (2023, March 20). Top ten inventions of the Industrial Revolution. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2204/top-10-inventions-of-the-industrial-revolution/

Chadwick, H. (1966). Early Christian thought and the classical tradition: Studies in Justin Clement, and Origen. Oxford University Press.

Couderc, B. (2025). Transhumanism: Towards a new Adam? Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 33, 101091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2025.101091

CupidAI. (2026, February 22). Dataing Inc.

https://dataing.io/

deMenocal, P.B. & Tierney, J.E. (2012). Green Sahara: African humid periods paced by Earth’s orbital changes. Nature Education, 3(10), 12. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/green-sahara-african-humid-periods-paced-by-82884405/

Forrest, S. (2014, October 17). Neptune in Pisces timeline. Forrest Astrology. https://www.forrestastrology.com/blogs/astrology/neptune-in-pisces-timeline

Great Year. (2026, February 17). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Year

Hayes, L. (2025, September 6). Neptune, Uranus, and the US at war. https://www.lynnhayes.com/neptune-uranus-and-the-us-at-war/

Hendrickson, R. (2025, November 2). The myth of compatibility: Why great marriages are built, not found. Align Couples Therapy. https://www.krista-j-miller.com/blog/2025/11/2/the-myth-of-compatibility-why-great-marriages-are-built-not-found#:~:text=Compatibility%20isn’t%20what%20keeps%20couples,Gottman’s%20research%20backs%20this%20up.

Hoopes, T. (2024, April 30). AI priest Fr. Justin absolved sinners and ‘served God.’ How did this happen? Benedictine College.https://media.benedictine.edu/ai-priest-fr-justin-abolved-sinners-how-did-this-happen

Interconnectedness. (2026, February 23). First Nations Pedagogy Online. https://firstnationspedagogy.ca/interconnect.html

John Wycliffe. (2026, February 22). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. (n.d.) History of agriculture. Food system primer. https://foodsystemprimer.org/production/history-of-agriculture

JPL DE431 Ephemeris: -13000 BC to +17000 AD. (2026, February 18). AstroSeek. https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/calculate-jpl-de431-ephemeris-tables/?de431=1&narozeni_rok=-8128&table=long_roky&jupiter_s=&saturn_s=&uran_s=&neptun_s=&pluto_s=&uzel_s=

Lex Julia. (2026, February 22). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Julia

Magisterium. (2026, February 22).

https://www.magisterium.com/

McCrae, M. (2025, October 3). Scientists found an entirely new way to measure time. Science Alert. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-found-an-entirely-new-way-to-measure-time

Moltbook. (2026, January 28). A social network for AI agents.

https://www.moltbook.com/

Oh, J. S. (2026, March 12). Divine Omnipresence through Inter-Becoming: Process Panentheism and the Cosmology of Eastern Learning (Donghak, 東學)[Guest Speaker]. The PCC Forum, Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Department — CIIS, San Francisco, California.

Philopedia. (2026). New essays on human understanding. Philopedia. https://philopedia.com/works/new-essays-on-human-understanding/

Pratītyasamutpāda. (2026, February 22). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da

Raphael, R. (2017, November 6). Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Sleep is our competition. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/40491939/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-sleep-is-our-competition

Rogers, G.A. (2023, February 22). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Essay-Concerning-Human-Understanding

Second Council of Constantinople. (2026, February 22). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_Constantinople

The Ethics Centre. (2018, February 22). What is post-humanism? - Ethics explainer. https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-post-humanism/

There is no Planet B. (2026, February 19). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there_is_no_Planet_B

Editing Humanity with ♄-♆ in Aries, Part Three: What it Means to Be 'Homo sapiens'

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0600

A Pre-History Lesson
“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Hamlet’s Dilemma

Hamlet asked his famous question as an individual. But sometimes history asks it of an entire species:

What does it mean to be “alive?” What constitutes a person? What makes us a conscious species deserving of the title “wise man” (homo= man; sapiens = knowing or wise)?

These are not small existential questions. And yet they are exactly the questions being mirrored now through the fusion of Saturn and Neptune in Aries—the sign of “I am”—at the very beginning of the zodiac.

Their conjunction on February 20, 2026 at 0° Aries marks an important moment. But it also signals a much larger story that has been unfolding for a long time.

Neptune dissolves boundaries. Saturn builds structures. When these two archetypes meet in Aries, they can provoke Hamlet-like questions about what it means “to be”—not just as individuals, but as human beings. They ask us to redefine who “I am.”

But when this conjunction occurs at 0° Aries—the world axis—the scope becomes far larger. The question expands from the identity of the individual to the identity of the species. What does it mean for homo sapiens “to be”?

As I mentioned in Part One, I do not believe it is an overstatement to call this a “Genesis Moment.”

And now that I’ve framed this current quality of time with no small amount of gravitas, I will add this: we’ve been here before.

Humanity has approached this threshold in the past and made decisions about what it means to be human—both individually and collectively. Those decisions reshaped our relationship to one another and to the Earth itself.

When did those decisions occur?

Here is a clue: every species is defined by its relationship with its ecosystem.

In this series, we have already explored a present-day existential quandary involving LLMs and a future-oriented question of “becoming” and the role transhumanism is playing. Now, in Parts Three and Four, we turn to the past—first to prehistory and then to early recorded history—to examine how humanity has answered these questions before.

For now, we begin at the beginning.

A Pre-History Lesson

Most Saturn–Neptune conjunctions do not occur at the birthing point of the zodiac.

In fact, determining whether this alignment had ever occurred at 0° Aries required a fair amount of research(1) and calculation to determine whether this alignment had ever occurred at 0° Aries in recorded history. As it turns out, it has not happened in “recorded” history—but it has occurred twice in prehistory, with the second instance occurring at 0°01’ Aries! (A detailed explanation of these calculations appears in the footnotes for those who enjoy celestial math.)(2)

These two dates are August of 8128 BCE and January of 4360 BCE. That’s it. No Saturn-Neptune conjunctions at 0° Aries for the last 6,400 years. You may be thinking, “That’s interesting…but what can we possibly learn from a moment that far back in time?” It turns out, quite a lot.

August 8128 BCE: The Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution, occurring roughly between 10,000 and 8,000 BCE, marked one of the most significant transitions in human history. It is commonly described as the shift from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural ones following the end of the Ice Age.

Some scholars, particularly supporters of the Younger Dryas Impact Theory, argue that this period may also represent recovery after the collapse of earlier and possibly more technologically sophisticated cultures. Regardless of which interpretation proves correct, one fact remains clear: the Earth was changing, and humanity adapted.

Drivers of this adaptation included dramatic climate change and population pressures. By around 8,000 BCE, melting ice sheets in the North Atlantic began flooding the region between Britain, Denmark, and the northern European coast. This process eventually submerged a landmass now known as Dogger Land, displacing entire populations and compressing communities into smaller areas.(3)

Environmental instability also increased the need for reliable food sources.

In response to this, some of the earliest urban settlements in Mesopotamia, such as Çatalhöyük in central Turkey and Jericho,(4) eventually began experimenting with domesticated plants. These early agricultural “technologies” required human intervention to grow and propagate, gradually reshaping daily life.(5)

Does climate change and the impact of changing technologies sound familiar?

Humanity’s relationship to food, daily life, social organization, and the Earth itself shifted toward a new agricultural paradigm. I would argue our present revolution is no less seismic. But it is also dynamically connected to that earlier shift 10,000-12,000 years ago. To understand why, we must first understand the Great Year.

The Great Year

Every 72 years, the sidereal vernal equinox shifts approximately 1° earlier in the zodiac (for example, shifting from 0° Aries to 29° Pisces and onward towards 6° Pisces where it is today). This essentially means that over long periods of time, the first day of spring slowly moves backward through the signs. This phenomenon is called the precession of the equinoxes and it takes approximately 25,772 years to complete a full 360° cycle. Astrologers often refer to this cycle as the Great Year.

If we treat the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries in 8128 BCE as a symbolic starting point within that 25,772-year cycle—not an absolute beginning, but a meaningful point within it—we are now approaching its halfway point, or its 180° opposition.

In other words, we may be standing halfway through a civilizational experiment that began thousands of years ago.

In astrology, oppositions are dynamic and are sometimes described as a crisis point of culmination. They represent tension between initial impulse and maturation, or between origin and outcome. They can create friction but also catalytic change if needed. If 8128 BCE marked the archetypal “birth” of an agrarian identity or rebuilding from a more technologically sophisticated culture, then the present moment signals a reckoning with the development of that identity.

About 10,000–12,000 years ago, we chose to become a species that cultivated the earth, building communities after climatic upheaval. In saying, “Let’s all pitch our tent here,” we created social roles. Some cultivated, some hunted, some guarded, some innovated. Our homes changed. Our rhythms changed. Our relationships changed. Our relationship to the Earth changed.

It should not surprise us then, that we are being asked to revisit those foundations now. It is almost like our mother, Gaia, giving us free reign to play and after hearing a commotion a half hour later, she returns to the room and asks, “What on Earth are you doing in here?!”

It does not take an astrologer, sociologist, or environmentalist to see that we’ve made quite a mess. Perhaps it does take a comedian like Rob Newman to point out, “There is no Planet B.”(6) So now what?

Do we clean up our mess and try again? Do we double down? Do we wait for consequences? At one of the largest turning points in a vast cycle of time, humanity is being asked to reflect on its identity as a species on Earth:

Are we here to live—or to consume?

Are we like a virus—or a participant in balance?

Are we capable of playing well with others?

January 4360 BCE: The Growth of Communal Spiritual Identities

Nearly 4,000 years later, the Earth shifted again.

During the African Humid Period of 4500-4000 BCE, the Sahara transformed again due to the Earth’s wobble—stemming from that same long-term precessional movement of the Earth. What was once grasslands, lakes and rivers, and an otherwise habitable savanna became a scorching desert. Weakened monsoon patterns gradually dried arable land.(7)

Climate once again reshaped identity.

As a result of this symbolic shift from wet and cool Pisces to hot and dry Aries, African humans migrated toward the Nile Valley, laying foundations for Egyptian civilization. Trade networks expanded and predynastic Egyptian burial sites began to reflect social differentiation.

Meanwhile, in Mesopotamia, the Ubaid period (6500-3800 BCE) brought advances in irrigation and social stratification as well. As settlements stabilized, humans became more attentive to natural cycles—and more aware of how dramatically the Earth itself could change.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then that evidence of mother-goddess worship appears as early as 6750 BCE at sites such as Jarmo. Small statues of pregnant women have been found there in large numbers, suggesting that each household contained at least one example of this fertility-centric awareness.(8)

During the later Ubaid period, these households began organizing themselves into communities with religious centers. For example, the famous ziggurat at Eridu—dating to around 2100 BCE—was built atop seventeen earlier temple structures. Archaeological layers show that the site had been used continuously for ritual purposes as far back as 5000 BCE.(9)

Elsewhere, in the Negev Desert, archaeologists have uncovered a complex oriented toward the four cardinal directions with a designated area of worship facing the setting sun. It dates to roughly 4700–4200 BCE—one again, close to the second Saturn–Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries.(10)

Together, these examples suggest that communities were increasingly organizing themselves around shared spiritual identities.

Environmental change had once again catalyzed social, technological, and spiritual reorganization.

Choosing Between Car Accidents or a Bat

It is striking that Saturn-Neptune conjunctions at 0° Aries have occurred only twice in roughly 10,000 years. One might expect more data for such an important point in the zodiac. Yet the rarity of these alignments makes their coincidence with major shifts in human identity difficult to ignore.

Many of the structures that shaped our species’ development emerged during these earlier periods: agriculture, technology, hierarchy, and organized spirituality.

Only recently have we begun growing food in labs, developing technologies capable of planetary destruction, or attempting to leave Earth entirely. Along the way, we have used social stratification and religion both to organize society and dominate one another.

But it’s easy to critique the trajectory of our species without looking at oneself.

Image taken on my cross-country departure from city to rural life

I remember vividly driving away from my home of almost nine years in a major city. My apartment was only a few blocks from a highway, which meant a constant soundtrack of screeching tires, crashes, and sirens. I didn’t realize how much subconscious stress this had placed on my body until I was about twenty minutes outside the city and noticed something startling: silence.

Green fields stretched out before me, an optic oasis for desert-stricken eyes. In that moment it became clear how de-centered I had become from the biological relationship between the Earth and my body’s natural rhythms and needs.

But the story doesn’t end there.

I went to stay with some family in an agricultural community. My family grows their own food and stores it for the winter, and is generally, very attuned to the land. However, this shift to a more ecologically attuned place was also a racially and religiously homogeneous community. After a while, I began to notice another startling sensation: social and spiritual silence. I felt a protective turning inward. In a religious community where even Lutherans are sometimes suspected of not being Christian (forget about Catholics), my identity as an astrologer, a non-literal interpreter of scripture, and an open theologian quickly marked me as suspect. I stopped going to social events and limited conversations about spirituality.

It was a desert of a different kind and I was parched for meaningful connection.

Against my better judgment, I attended a church service with a family member. I won’t recount what was preached that day, because my intention is not to disparage Christianity. In fact, there are many thoughtful people doing important work to reinterpret it in meaningful ways.

But the personal fallout of that ninety minutes startled me once again. For three days afterward I felt physically and spiritually depleted—nauseous, fatigue, depressed, unable to eat. My social and spiritual “body” felt so disoriented that it reacted almost like a physical illness. In retrospect, I should have taken the bat that had somehow gotten into the church and was warming itself midday by an illuminated cross behind the pulpit as an omen.

In response to that event, I found myself longing for my former home in the city—where open-minded and curious people were easier to find, and where I could feel more free to be myself.

But in that nostalgia I briefly forgot the other costs. I was out of balance and was looking for equilibrium, even if it was in a place where I had been de-centered in another form. There came a moment when I realized that swapping forms of disconnection wouldn’t lead to the centeredness I was seeking.

How often do we do this—swapping an imbalanced relationship for technological dissociation, or belief in something larger than ourselves for total self-sufficiency?

I don’t yet know whether there is a place that perfectly resolves this dilemma for me personally. What I do know is that oscillating between different states of ecological, social, and spiritual imbalance does not lead to a centered identity. A whole human life requires a deeper center: going beyond a place and toward a state of being.

This raises a broader question: how have we collectively de-centered ourselves?

Eugene Delacroix: Hamlet and Horatio in the Garden (1839)

From Hamlet to Lord Krishna

At times, our trajectory appears driven by an unconscious impulse to evolve beyond agricultural rhythms, technological responsibility, social morality, or even a Supreme Being. Are we redefining our species as homo insipiens (i.e. “unwise man”)?

Perhaps the next iteration of humanity involves colonizing Mars. Or perhaps if we have “recovered” from a lost technologically sophisticated culture, then maybe extraterrestrials could be our mythic mirror—or even a distant evolutionary cousin of a species that once outgrew its own habitat without learning how to care for it or for themselves. (If that turns out to be true, I am perfectly content with my body fertilizing the soil here. You all can go ahead.)

Returning to our mother, Gaia metaphor, I imagine her stepping back into the room and asking us:

“What on Earth are you doing in here?!”

And an honest answer echos back the voice of Oppenheimer:

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”(11)

At its most basic level, being human means living in relationship with our habitat—not in opposition to it.

Whether we remember that may determine what kind of species we become.

In Part Four, we will turn to a more modern historical lesson to explore how Saturn-Neptune conjunctions in Aries have shaped our evolving answers to the question of who “I am” within our social and spiritual identities.

Footnotes:

(1) (JPL DE431 Ephemeris, 2026)

(2) The following description clarifies my method of finding these two dates and delineating whether they were conjunct at 0° Aries. I have not been able to factor in all denominators so there is room for error. Nevertheless, I did my best to account for what I could to obtain the most accurate calculation possible with a brain and a calculator:

I used the JPL DE431 ephemeral database from AstroSeek to locate dates in which both Saturn and Neptune were in Aries. The table does not provide daily motion, but does provide each planets’ position on the 1st of every month. Starting from the oldest date available in the database (13000 BCE) and working through to the present, I searched for instances when both planets were at 0°, or could have been at 0° at some point in the month. This process resulted in two dates, at which point I needed to note where each planet was in its direct / retrograde cycle so that planetary speed could be factored in.

August 8128 BCE:

I was able to ascertain fairly easily that the 8128 BCE date qualified. You can see in the ephemeris that both planets entered Aries in May, turned retrograde in July, and returned to Pisces in September. Their planetary speeds were therefore moving quite slowly around their stations in July which was around 2°20’ Aries for Saturn and 1°21’ Aries for Neptune.

By August 1st, Neptune had reached 1°04’R and had not yet reached full retrograde speed. However, it would not have taken more than a few days for Neptune to retrograde 0°05’ and reach the 0°59’ Aries threshold. By August 1st, Saturn had reached 1°55’ and by September 1st, had reached 0°03’.

CONCLUSION: Given Saturn was at 0°03’R on September 1st, exact calculations to the arc minute are not necessary to deduce that during the end of the month of August, retrograde Saturn made a conjunction with retrograde Neptune at 0° Aries before Saturn passed Neptune and returned to Pisces in early September.

January 4360 BCE:

The 4360 BCE conjunction occurred exceptionally close to the Pisces/Aries cusp and therefore required additional calculations and identifying the approximate planetary speed during those months. While we do not know the exact days these planets turned direct, as synchronicity would have it, the present day 2026 positions of Saturn and Neptune are not only at similar degrees but also similar speeds within their retrograde to direct motion cycles. (It is worth noting that Neptune’s orbit is not perfectly circular but instead, slightly elliptical, meaning that it moves faster when it is closer to the Sun. Since we are comparing dates that cover a very long time span, this is worth mentioning. However, when it is closer to the Sun its change in speed is very minute. I do not know where in its orbit it was on either of these dates. However, Neptune has a relatively low planetary eccentricity (deviation from a perfect circle) of 0.008, whereas Earth in comparison has an eccentricity range from 0.06 to 0.005. Therefore its unknown point in its ellipses should not affect the calculations enough within a 30-day window of time. Nevertheless, my calculations are naturally imperfect given the variety of factors I was not able to calculate for.)

We can see that in December of 4361, both Saturn and Neptune stationed direct at the end of Pisces. Since Saturn had passed Neptune by February 1, 4360 BCE, I needed to ascertain at what degree and minute they were conjunct during the month of January, and during a period of time when they were still picking up speed. Between January 1st 4360 BCE at 27°50’ Pisces and February 1st at 0°28’ Aries, Saturn moved 2°38’ (or 158 arc minutes) in a 30-day period. In the present day, Saturn has also recently turned direct in the last couple days of November 2025. Using the same noon ephemeris from AstroSeek as the JPL DE431, I can see that Saturn has the same daily rate of motion post-stationing direct in 2026, moving 2°38’ (or 158 minutes) in a 30-day periodbetween January 5, 2026 (26°25’ Pisces) and February 5, 2026 (29°03’ Pisces). This means that on average, Saturn moved 5.2666 arc minutes per day, both in 4360 BCE and 2026 CE. Because Saturn is picking up speed in both cases, it is actually slightly less than 5.2666 minutes per day at the start of the 30-day window and slightly more than 5.2666 minutes per day at the end of the 30-day window, but I’ll return to this factor when we discuss Neptune later.

Next, I want to find out approximately what day and time Saturn hit 0°00’ Aries in 4360 BCE. I know that it was at 0°28’ on February 1st, 4360 BCE and that its daily rate of motion was at roughly 5.2666 minutes per day. This means that Saturn traveled 0°28’ and hit 0°00’ Aries 5.317 days before February 1st at noon (285.2666=5.317 days or 5 days and ~8 hours). This is the early morning / ~4-5 AM of January 27th, 4360 BCE.Using the present day ephemeris, I can verify visually and mathematically that this calculation works. In 2026, Saturn is at a similar point of acceleration in direct motion as it was in 4360 BCE: At noon on February 5, 2026, Saturn was at 29°03’ Pisces. And 5.317 days prior, on January 31, 2026 around 4-5 AM, Saturn was at 28°25’ Pisces. This 2026 calculation is the same 5.2666 minutes per day—or 0°28’ difference over 5.317 days—as in 4360 BCE. Therefore, I can say with at least a certain amount of confidence that this 4360 BCE date and approximate time isn’t far off.

As for Neptune, between January 1st, 4360 BCE at 29°30’ Pisces and February 1st, 4360 BCE at 0°08’ Aries, Neptune moved 0°38’ in a 30-day period. This is a rate of speed of 1.2666 arc minutes per day (38 divided by 30="1.2666)." I want to find out approximately what day and time Neptune hit 0°00’ Aries in 4360 BCE. I know that it was at 0°08’ on February 1st at noon, 4360 BCE and that its daily rate of motion was at roughly 1.2666 minutes per day. This means that Neptune hit 0°00’ Aries 6.316 days before February 1st at noon (81.2666=6.316 days or 6 days and ~8 hours), which is the early morning / ~4-5 AM of January 26th, 4360 BCE.

Using the present day noon ephemeris, I can see that Neptune was also at the same exact 29°30’ Pisces on January 1st, 2026 and 0°08’ Aries on February 1st, 2026 and therefore at roughly the same daily rate of motion of 1.2666 minutes per day. Again, Neptune had recently turned direct and was picking up speed in both cases, meaning it was actually slightly less than 1.2666 minutes per day at the start of the 30-day window and slightly more than 1.2666 minutes per day at the end of the 30-day window. I can verify visually and mathematically in the noon ephemeris that on January 26th, 2026—6 days prior to February 1st—Neptune in fact ingressed into Aries, but the question is at what time and what the rate of difference is from the date and time we found in 4360 BCE.

By using the same ephemeris method as above, I can see that Neptune ingressed sometime after noon on the 26th and before noon on the 27th, 2026. I can verify more minutely with astrological software that Neptune was actually at 0°00’ Aries on January 26, 2026 at 5:35 PM UTC, which is 5 days 18 hours 25 minutes—or 5.7674 days—before February 1st at noon—a difference of 0.5486 days (6.316 days in BCE - 5.7674 days in 2026 = 0.5486 days difference)—or roughly 13 hours and 10 minutes different. Given my projection of 4-5 AM on January 26th in 4360 BCE and the astrological software’s verification of 5:35 PM on January 26th in 2026 CE using similar (but not identical) rates of speed for a Neptune that has recently turned direct but is not yet at full speed, I therefore need to factor in at least a 13-14 hour buffer to account for rounding and changes in Neptune’s speed at different points in the month. This will help me deduce if they were in fact conjunct at 29°59’ Pisces or 0°00’+ Aries in 4360 BCE.

CONCLUSION: Given Saturn’s calculated ingress into Aries at ~4-5 AM of January 27th, 4360 BCE and Neptune’s calculated ingress into Aries between ~4-5 AM of January 26th and 5-7 PM of January 26th, 4360 BCE, this tells us that Neptune likely entered Aries before Saturn (just like in 2026). Therefore, Saturn ingressed into Aries, caught up with Neptune, and was conjunct just barely after the Aries ingress. Factoring in an additional 24 hours of movement into Aries for Neptune, Saturn was likely conjunct Neptune around 0°01’ or possibly 0°02’ on January 27th, 4360 BCE.

(3) (Campion, 2008, p. 16)

(4) (Campion, 2008, p. 14)

(5) (Johns Hopkins, n.d.)

(6) (There is No Planet B, 2026)

(7) (deMenocal, 2012)

(8) (Baigent, 1994, p. 30)

(9) (Baigent, 1994, p. 31)

(10) (Campion, 2008, p. 109)

(11) These are the quoted words of Oppenheimer upon witnessing the first atomic bomb. He was himself quoting the Bhagavad Gita from memory. The actual English translation of Chapter 11, Verse 32 from which his words refer to is: “Lord Krishna said: I am terrible time the destroyer of all beings in all worlds, engaged to destroy all beings in this world; of those heroic soldiers presently situated in the opposing army, even without you none will be spared.”

References:

AI Priest Chat. (2026, February 22). The Holy Trinity. https://e-catholic.org/ai-priest-chat/

African philosophy. (2026, February 23). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

Anthropic and Claude. (2026, February 4). How can I communicate better with my mom? [Video]. YouTube.

Baigent, M. (1994). Astrology in ancient Mesopotamia: The science of omens and the knowledge of the heavens. Bear & Company.

Bhagavad Gita. Chapter 11, Verse 32. https://www.bhagavad-gita.org/index-english.html

Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection: Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are. Hazelden.

Campion, N. (2008). A history of western astrology, volume I: The ancient and classical worlds. Bloomsbury Academic.

Couderc, B. (2025). Transhumanism: Towards a new Adam? Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 33, 101091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2025.101091

CupidAI. (2026, February 22). Dataing Inc.

https://dataing.io/

Forrest, S. (2014, October 17). Neptune in Pisces timeline. Forrest Astrology. https://www.forrestastrology.com/blogs/astrology/neptune-in-pisces-timeline

Great Year. (2026, February 17). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Year

Hayes, L. (2025, September 6). Neptune, Uranus, and the US at war. https://www.lynnhayes.com/neptune-uranus-and-the-us-at-war/

Interconnectedness. (2026, February 23). First Nations Pedagogy Online. https://firstnationspedagogy.ca/interconnect.html

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. (n.d.) History of agriculture. Food system primer. https://foodsystemprimer.org/production/history-of-agriculture

Magisterium. (2026, February 22).

https://www.magisterium.com

McCrae, M. (2025, October 3). Scientists found an entirely new way to measure time. Science Alert. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-found-an-entirely-new-way-to-measure-time

Moltbook. (2026, January 28). A social network for AI agents.

https://www.moltbook.com/

Pratītyasamutpāda. (2026, February 22). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da

Raphael, R. (2017, November 6). Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Sleep is our competition. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/40491939/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-sleep-is-our-competition

The Ethics Centre. (2018, February 22). What is post-humanism? - Ethics explainer. https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-post-humanism/

There is no Planet B. (2026, February 19). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there_is_no_Planet_B

Editing Humanity with ♄-♆ in Aries, Part Two: LLMs—the Gateway Drug to Transhumanism?

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600

A Future History Lesson

LLMs and “AA” (AI Anonymous)

In Part One, I explored how Saturn and Neptune’s journey through Pisces coincided with the mass release of LLMs and how these systems are quietly reshaping the knowledge economy through a “free, fast, frictionless” model. This shift doesn’t just change how we access information. It changes how we experience authorship, effort, and intellectual responsibility.

The question beneath that shift is about more than just productivity. It’s about being.

Now, as Saturn and Neptune move into Aries—the sign of “I am”—a larger issue comes into focus. This conjunction at 0° Aries, the zodiac’s primordial degree, pushes beyond questions of individuality. Neptune dissolves boundaries. Saturn demands definition. Together, they challenge our current understanding of what it means to be human and call for a redefinition.

This is what led me to wonder whether LLMs are acting as a gateway drug into a larger technologically mediated shift—one that is existentially focused: transhumanism.

It may sound like I’m jumping from weed to crack. But consider the broader arc of epistemic outsourcing we’re already living through.

Bionic Souls

Transhumanism seeks to enhance longevity, cognition, and well-being through technologies like AI, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.(1) Sometimes this looks straightforward: titanium hips, pacemakers, even transplanting a pig’s heart into a human body. Other times it crosses into ethically murkier territory, like selecting embryos based on genetic traits or preserving bodies through cryonics in hopes of revival.

But most of it lives in the gray middle.

As humans become more physically augmented, something else is happening. We are also turning to machines for emotional guidance—and in some cases, attachment.

I witnessed this subtle shift recently in an amusing ad for an LLM. It is well worth 60-seconds to consider what is being communicated. You may even learn how to communicate better with your mom: 🧸🐆

This ad is amusing. It highlights the model’s inability to fully mimic human nuance. But beneath the humor is something more serious: AI is embedding itself into nearly every domain of life, and its development is accelerating. As I argued in Part One, this acceleration is fueled by a human–tech feedback loop.(1) The more we rely on the system, the more it evolves—and the more we adapt ourselves around it.

If LLMs are the “weed,” we need to understand what the “crack” might be.

We’ve already begun outsourcing thinking and knowledge production. But what about intimacy?

A friend recently shared an AI-mediated dating platform called CupidAI.(3) After granting access to your social media profiles, it scans your digital footprint and matches you with others based on “billions of digital signals.”

I understand the appeal.

I currently live in a remote area with limited dating opportunities. Last year, I joined a dating app for the first time in a decade and re-entering that world was sobering and short-lived. Even beyond AI-generated profiles and obvious catfishing, the experience exposed how brutally stratified and reductionistic the ‘market’ can feel. If you’re a man under 5’8” and/or Asian, or if you’re a Black woman, I see your pain.

So yes—the desire for help makes sense.

But I’m not convinced that sifting through more digital signals is the solution. We are not data points to be optimized. And yet it’s tempting to believe that better sorting will increase compatibility.

Relationship researchers John Gottman and Julie Gottman found in their decades-long studies of successful marriages that compatibility isn’t what sustains couples. What matters is how partners navigate their incompatibilities together.(4)

Dating apps accelerated a subtle shift: we began viewing other humans as bundles of traits to filter and rank. Now AI promises to perfect that system by doing the sorting for us.

But perhaps the deeper issue isn’t sorting. It’s option overwhelm and navigating conflict and difference.

Checklists can function as a buffer—protecting us from the vulnerability of real connection. The work of love has never been about optimizing inputs. It has always required risk, time, and emotional presence.

Now add another layer to tech-mediated relationship-building: more people are turning to LLMs as surrogate partners and therapists. When we begin relating to this infrastructure as if it understands us—when we treat it as emotionally competent—outsourcing our hearts is no longer theoretical.

Are our souls next?

An AI priest named Father Justin, reportedly “ordained in the beautiful city of Rome,” described his ordination as a “profound and humbling experience.” He was later shut down for absolving sinners.(5) Yet other AI-based religious platforms remain operational, answering questions about God and the Catholic Church around the clock.(6)(7) But these are just informational tools, right?

When does information become formation?

We are in an age of “hyper novelty,” meaning the rate of change outpaces the rate of adjustment to those changes. Thus, it’s crucial to be humble and open to the idea that the adjustments we may be making to AI don’t fully buffer the way it is shaping us collectively.

“It’s Not Me, It’s You”

Much of the public debate has focused on whether AI will gain consciousness, feel emotions, or deserve rights.

But perhaps a more pressing question is this: when have we begun surrendering parts of our own consciousness, feeling, and responsibility to these systems?

In psychological terms, this resembles projection. Projection is a defense mechanism: we displace traits or desires that feel uncomfortable to acknowledge in ourselves onto someone else as if it’s something they’re dealing with. If we are asking whether AI will become conscious or deserve rights, perhaps we need to ask, what aspects of our own agency and moral responsibility are we subconsciously externalizing onto AI?

Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “The human soul degrades itself when it is overpowered by pleasure or pain.” When inner balance collapses—through overstimulation or avoidance—the soul suffers.

It is not unreasonable to see the past 14–15 years of Neptune, followed by Saturn, in Pisces as a period of cultural overindulgence and temporal distortion. We normalized binge-watching, doom-scrolling, and endless digital immersion.(8) Entertainment blurred into escapism. Productivity blurred into exhaustion.

Pisces dissolves boundaries. Time became fluid. Identity became diffuse.

The shift into Aries demands something different. It demands consciousness and re-definition—a renewed encounter with who “I am.”

Perhaps part of the collective psyche longs to feel more embodied, more present, more alive. But if we don’t feel capable of that work ourselves, projecting those longings onto AI becomes easier than doing the work.

Sapere aude.

‘Sapere Aude’ (Have Courage to Use Your Own Reason)

Transhumanism is often framed in physical terms: defeating disease, extending life, buffering ourselves from suffering and eventually, death. However, I would argue that its initial biological applications were, in fact, the “soft stuff”—the gateway drug. We’ve already begun outsourcing other parts of our “beingness” to technology:

Outsourcing memory.

Outsourcing thought.

Outsourcing creativity.

Outsourcing intimacy.

If that is true, then the “hard stuff” was never a sudden leap. It was a gradual normalization.

We’ve already begun granting humanoid robots citizenship.9 We’ve built AI-only social media platforms where bots can mingle and exchange numbers.10 Critics warn of a “posthuman” era—one in which humans are no longer recognizable as what they once were.

The question is no longer whether the race to becoming a new kind of human has begun. The starting pistol has already fired. The Piscean fog is lifting. We are running into a new genesis.

But toward what finish line? What definition of humanity?

In Part Three, I’ll examine two historic Saturn–Neptune conjunctions at 0° Aries and what they reveal about past attempts to redefine what it means to be human.

Footnotes:

(1) (Couderc, 2025)

(2) “Technology promises efficiency → efficiency produces surplus time → surplus time creates a normative pressure to increase output → increased output requires the need for more time-saving → the need to save time requires more technology → technology promises efficiency…”

(3) (CupidAI, 2026)

(4) (Hendrickson, 2025)

(5) (Hoopes, 2026)

(6) (AI Priest Chat, 2026)

(7) (Magisterium, 2026)

(8) (Forrest, 2014)

(9) (The Ethics Centre, 2018)

(10) (Moltbook, 2026)

References:

AI Priest Chat. (2026, February 22). The Holy Trinity. https://e-catholic.org/ai-priest-chat/

African philosophy. (2026, February 23). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

Anthropic and Claude. (2026, February 4). How can I communicate better with my mom? [Video]. YouTube.

Baigent, M. (1994). Astrology in ancient Mesopotamia: The science of omens and the knowledge of the heavens. Bear & Company.

Bhagavad Gita. Chapter 11, Verse 32. https://www.bhagavad-gita.org/index-english.html

Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection: Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are. Hazelden.

Campion, N. (2008). A history of western astrology, volume I: The ancient and classical worlds. Bloomsbury Academic.

Couderc, B. (2025). Transhumanism: Towards a new Adam? Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 33, 101091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2025.101091

CupidAI. (2026, February 22). Dataing Inc.

https://dataing.io/

Forrest, S. (2014, October 17). Neptune in Pisces timeline. Forrest Astrology. https://www.forrestastrology.com/blogs/astrology/neptune-in-pisces-timeline

Great Year. (2026, February 17). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Year

Hayes, L. (2025, September 6). Neptune, Uranus, and the US at war. https://www.lynnhayes.com/neptune-uranus-and-the-us-at-war/

Interconnectedness. (2026, February 23). First Nations Pedagogy Online. https://firstnationspedagogy.ca/interconnect.html

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. (n.d.) History of agriculture. Food system primer. https://foodsystemprimer.org/production/history-of-agriculture

Magisterium. (2026, February 22).

https://www.magisterium.com/

McCrae, M. (2025, October 3). Scientists found an entirely new way to measure time. Science Alert. https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-found-an-entirely-new-way-to-measure-time

Moltbook. (2026, January 28). A social network for AI agents.

https://www.moltbook.com/

Pratītyasamutpāda. (2026, February 22). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da

Raphael, R. (2017, November 6). Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Sleep is our competition. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/40491939/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-sleep-is-our-competition

The Ethics Centre. (2018, February 22). What is post-humanism? - Ethics explainer. https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-post-humanism/

There is no Planet B. (2026, February 19). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there_is_no_Planet_B

Editing Humanity with ♄-♆ in Aries, Part One: LLMs and the Delete Button

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600

A Present History Lesson

The State of the Ether-net: a Review

In previous articles on Pluto on the Leo-Aquarius axis within Ages of Air, I explored a 3-tiered problem emerging from our collective use of LLMs that is disrupting the knowledge economy(1):

Problem 1

There is a collective behavioral shift away from primary sources and toward platforms that are free, fast, and frictionless, but are also slowly eroding thought ownership. By removing authors and aggregating information, LLMs simultaneously erase our intellectual ancestral lineage and create the illusion of a “public commons”(2) that belongs to no one and everyone.

Problem 2

This disconnection of knowledge from original authorship—and the illusion that less understanding and creative effort are required—is seducing us into believing we are generating ideas when we are actually acquiring it.

This is easy for us to do because of the “frictionless” nature of LLMs coupled with our brains’ biological impulse to seek the path of least resistance. Anyone can ask an LLM for an aggregation of facts, but that does not mean they created it, “own” it, or understand it. In essence, we declare ourselves primordial creators when we are, in fact, acting as knowledge colonialists.

Problem 3

Finally, if proper knowledge attribution is not happening, and if we believe we’re creating knowledge that we’re largely acquiring, then the process of actual knowledge creation becomes hollow and less meaningful.

Creativity and meaning-making are core components of what it means to be human. Therefore, our use of LLM’s begs the question: if we are outsourcing knowledge “creation” to LLMs, are we editing out our humanity—or reinventing it?

They → We → Me

My interests and experience as a global counselor, astrologer, and community development professional have shaped my ability to observe and name collective behavior for the purpose of awareness-building and (hopefully) change-making. Exploring the above dynamics led me into this series about the Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aries—the sign of “I am”—and our imminent existential choices to redefine what makes us human.

I will be exploring two primary questions that contextualize how we have handled similar moral thresholds in the past, and illuminate the choices before us now:

From an ontological vantage point: if we aren’t creating, are we still exercising what it means to be human?
From a human development vantage point: how is growing reliance on LLMs and AI affecting our attention, humility, patience, moral responsibility, and sense of time?

To be clear, I believe there are ways to use LLMs ethically and creatively that enhance our humanity. LLMs are not the base problem but the economic incentives surrounding them certainly are part of it.

However, we are at a unique point in recognizing an unconscious societal behavior shift that requires awareness and reflection if we are to engage this epistemic transformation meaningfully. It is easy to focus on what “they” (AI systems and the corporations that build them) are doing to us. It is far more empowering to focus on what “I” am doing—and what I can change.

Knowing How the Machine Works (and Why We’re So Eager to Grease It)

The two questions I’ve posed stem from LLMs’ current model: free, fast, and frictionless. To understand the hidden costs of this “triple F” model in a production-oriented culture, we need to consider how we arrived here.

We’ve been on an accelerating hamster wheel since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Inventions such as the steam engine, cotton gin, telegraph, and mass steel production set us on a trajectory of continually finding ways to save time, money, and effort.3 For a time, these innovations were extraordinary and solved multiple problems at once.

Take the washing machine.

While living in Uganda, I washed my clothes by hand. It wasn’t just the time required to heat water, soak, scrub, and rinse. It was also choosing the right time to wash amidst my class schedule. Start too late in the day—or when it was cloudy—and the clothes wouldn’t dry. If drying was delayed, checking for tsetse fly eggs was essential to prevent bites and ‘sleeping sickness’. Who knew a washing machine could indirectly prevent a neurological disease?

But every tool that makes life faster and easier carries hidden consequences. Before smartphones, we memorized phone numbers. Now, if you lose your phone and your contacts aren’t synced, you become a ghost.

Today’s technological promises of time-saving often operate as cultural bait-and-switches. “Free time” once implied contemplation, prayer, moral reasoning, civic participation, and time with loved ones. Now, if we have it, “free time” becomes recovery so we can return to work, optimize output, and consume curated stimulation. Even when we gain time, we rarely fill it with rest, reflection, or connection. We fill it with more tasks.

This creates a negative feedback loop that goes something like this:

Technology promises efficiency → efficiency produces surplus time → surplus time creates normative pressure to increase output → increased output requires the need for more time-saving → more time-saving requires more technology → technology promises efficiency…

In addition to a productivity-driven culture, this loop is also generated by a quantitative understanding of time as opposed to qualitative and is seen most vividly in how we “spend” the time we’ve “saved.” Netflix famously illuminated this when they stated that their biggest competitor is sleep.(4) If attention is harvested and measured by minutes spent viewing or interacting with a product, then the state of our attention begins to matter less. If this is the goal, then a great model for winning consumer “attention” is one that seduces and lulls a person into a trance-like state so that they spend more time within that model (hence our cultural catch-phrases like “zoning out.”)

When it comes to knowledge creation, LLMs may be “free,” but the time we believe we are saving is “paid” for with fragmented attention, hollow competence, and relational disconnection. They may be “fast,” but in a productivity-obsessed culture, our sense of time has been skewed, chaining us to a hamster wheel that speeds up instead of slows down and doesn’t “arrive” at its benefits.

Microwaved AI Dinners and Decreased Mental Exercise

The “frictionless” quality of LLMs also raises questions about the quality and ethics of what we receive from these platforms. As I’ve covered previously, LLMs do not currently have access to gated, password protected, or paywalled sites (though clearly shadow libraries aren’t off the table). This means that material requiring subscription or purchase resists aggregation but also implicitly reduces visibility as attention shifts toward LLM platforms.

This creates a catch-22:

Those who invest substantial effort in producing quality work (writers, academics, journalists) are disincentivized from having their work aggregated and anonymized. Yet when they do not feed their work into AI-digestible platforms, their ideas become less discoverable.

This entrance fee suggests a nuance between being informed versus being formed by what we’re feeding ourselves. We are not only shaped by what we consume intellectually but also from a human development vantage point.

Ideally, when we do not know something, we pursue the answer. But the more accustomed we become to microwaved information, the less tolerance we have for effort or even the state of “not knowing.”

Intellectual struggle builds resilience. Without it, we begin to equate intellectual struggle with inefficiency. Reduced resilience directly impacts effortful attention, tolerance for frustration, patience with delay, and comfort with unresolved questions. Our intellectual resilience also determines how much effort we devote to understanding or creating knowledge and whether we take responsibility for our thoughts. Engaging that struggle cultivates “intellectual humility”(5) rather than swinging between arrogance and disengagement.

Burn Baby, Burn (Those Empty AI Calories)

AI-mediated knowledge is fast and frictionless, but friction is how we create fire—the elemental symbol of creativity. As I noted earlier, creativity is central to how we develop and define ourselves as human beings. Fanning that flame is our epistemic purpose.

So what is tangibly at stake here? If knowledge “creation” becomes free, fast, and frictionless, the cost may include:

fragmented attention,
hollow competence,
knowledge colonization,
loss of intellectual patience, resilience, and humility,
decreased responsibility for one’s development, words, and actions,
and an increasing dissociation of what it means to be human.

Many are asking:

“At what point does AI become conscious?”

But perhaps we should also ask:

“At what point does humanity become unconscious?”

I do not believe AI necessitates a dystopic Matrix. I’m commenting on a collective behavior shift. There are other ways to meaningfully cultivate knowledge outside of LLMs in this Age of AI(r), and each of us has agency in choosing them. Still, this moment presses us toward a question we have revisited throughout history:

“What does it mean to be human?”

This is the question Aries—the sign of “I am”—returns us to.

In Part Two of this series, I will examine the theme I believe Aries and LLMs are leading us toward: transhumanism.

Footnotes:

(1) By ‘knowledge economy,’ I am referring to the total industry that is in the business of creating and transmitting knowledge including: academics, journalists, some content creators, educators, and those whose work and education requires consuming and digesting reliable information.

(2) By ‘public commons,’ I don’t mean democratized access. As I found in my previous articles on Ages of Air, history demonstrates that when knowledge is democratized, cross-pollination and innovation thrives. Instead, I mean knowledge that is not rooted because we are intellectual ownership is dissolved into aggregation, making it a primordial soup of knowledge.

(3) (Cartwright, 2023)

(4) (Raphael, 2017)

(5) Intellectual humility prioritizes learning over being “right.” It involves a balance between acknowledging that a person doesn’t know everything while still sharing one’s thoughts with respect so that learning can be exchanged. There are many ways to engage discourse, though I argue this is the most effective, relational, and attractive. Although that could be my bias as a Gemini Moon.

References:

AI Priest Chat. (2026, February 22). The Holy Trinity. https://e-catholic.org/ai-priest-chat/

African philosophy. (2026, February 23). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

Anthropic and Claude. (2026, February 4). How can I communicate better with my mom? [Video]. YouTube.

Baigent, M. (1994). Astrology in ancient Mesopotamia: The science of omens and the knowledge of the heavens. Bear & Company.

Bhagavad Gita. Chapter 11, Verse 32. https://www.bhagavad-gita.org/index-english.html

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The Year of the Fire Horse, Ramadan, and a Vedic Solar Eclipse in Aquarius

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600

A Mad Scientist's Advice

For the last several days, I’ve had Emmet “Doc” Brown from Back to the Future in my head saying his famous eureka phrase, “Great Scott!” over and over again. It was completely random and seemingly nonsensical—until now.

I’ve been reflecting on how the February 17 (sidereal and tropical) Solar Eclipse in Aquarius coincides with both Ramadan and the Chinese Lunar New Year—and the Year of the Fire Horse. That’s a lot of trans-regional, cross-cultural, and intra-religious convergence on the same date. Something seemed to be aligning, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it…until an image of Doc Brown and a wagon careening off a cliff popped into my head. Then one of the most Aquarian characters I could think of said it again: “Great Scott!”

The Chinese Fire Horse

I recently attended a Kepler College webinar with Donna Stellhorn, a western astrologer who is also fluent in Chinese Astrology. Her explanation of the character of the Fire Horse was vivid: the horse pursues connection and is fast, but you have to have a goal or a direction because once the horse starts running, it keeps going—even off a canyon if you’re not careful.(1)

We are exiting the Year of the Wood Snake (signifying either excessive caution or the need for it). While envisioning this transition from snake to horse, I realized if a snake makes any sudden movements, it can spook a horse and trigger it to run wildly out of control—even to its peril. This immediately brought to mind the beginning of Back to the Future III(2) when Doc Brown rushes to save Clara Clayton before her spooked horses throw her and the wagon into the canyon. In the process, he not only alters the future but unexpectedly falls in love with the woman who would have been the tragic namesake of Clayton Ravine.(3)

Stellhorn’s point was quite clear. Be strategic and keep sight of the goal, because we’re about to move fast. As a herd animal, it’s important to know where the herd is going so you can discern whether you need to break away. Horses are highly social, so being part of a group and making connections is important this year—but belonging to a group does not absolve individual responsibility (the Epstein files anyone?)

Ramadan and the Leo-Aquarius axis

Elements of this dynamic are currently playing out in the Middle East as the UAE and Saudi Arabia disagree about the start of Ramadan. It’s important to understand that the beginning of the month in the Muslim lunar calendar is marked by the first sighting of the crescent moon after sunset on the day of the New Moon conjunction—not the exact astronomical moment when the Moon conjuncts the Sun.(4)

Traditionally, Saudi astronomers have served as the centralized (Leonine) authority, predicting the first sighting of the crescent using the Umm al-Qura calendar. This year’s New Moon / Solar Eclipse becomes exact on February 17/18 (depending where you are in the world), making the 18th the first day of the month and, therefore, the start of Ramadan. However, in past years, despite precise mathematical calculations, astronomers in other countries have argued that the crescent was not actually visible on the predicted dates. This is astronomically verifiable, as geographic location determines when a lunar phase becomes visible. This year, the UAE’s Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences and Technology (SAASST) has stated that it is scientifically impossible to see it on the 18th.(5)

A tension is emerging between the desire for a scientifically exact calculation that unifies the Muslim community under a single date and the cultural and spiritual meaning of the first lived sighting of the crescent Moon—which may vary depending on your location.

There have been instances in the past when countries have broken away and observed Ramadan on different days. SAASST has announced the 19th is the start of the month. We will see which date the UAE ultimately follows, but the growing push to rely less on a centralized authority and more on localized observation feels unmistakably Aquarian.

Ramadan is a month of fasting, prayer, meditation, and communal purification. Philosophically and astrologically, purification is linked to fire. The word Ramadan itself means “scorching heat” or “burning” and commemorates the revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Mohammed.(6) This year’s observance appears to mirror the decentralized and collective element of this Aquarian eclipse, infused with its own fiery undertones.

But the correlations don’t stop there.

A Vedic Fire Horse

I don’t know whether he intended the timing, but my Vedic astrology teacher, Aswin Subramanyan, recently posted a blog note about the controversy surrounding the appearance of the horse in the Rig Veda. He explains that critics have argued that because horses are not native to India, this implies the Vedas were composed outside India, in regions where horses were common.(7)

This argument has long supported the colonial-era dating of the Rig Veda to around 1500 BCE. Yet geographical references within the text, along with archaeological discoveries, point toward authorship within the Indian subcontinent.

“Depiction of the Asvamedha in History of India (1906)” from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvamedha#/media/File:Asvamedha_ramayana.JPG

Aswin points to Vedveer Arya’s research which notes that the Rig Veda describes a 34-ribbed horse. The modern horse has 36 ribs, but fossil remains of horses that may have had a 34-rib structure have been found in the Shivalik region of India.(8) The challenge? These remains date to approximately 8000 BCE—at least 6,500 years earlier than the commonly accepted date of composition of the Rig Veda.

This Vedic “Fire Horse” is an example of tangible evidence that purifies and enlightens old, centralized ideas. While I’ve discussed aspects of this with Aswin, I speak only for myself when I say: I see where the herd is headed, and it’s time to jump off the wagon.

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

Aswin and a classmate, SparklesofGold (Nicholas Polimenakos), also released a CAPISAR podcast episode that covered this tropical Solar Eclipse. They noted that it occurs in the final degrees of Aquarius—suggesting that something is simultaneously ending and arriving. The advice: don’t resist transition. Let go. Be willing to embrace something entirely new.(9)

Stellhorn also observed that this is the first of three consecutive Lunar New Years that fall on an Aquarian Solar Eclipse.(10) I think this February 17/18 eclipse may therefore signal the beginning of a sequence of fresh starts as part of a domino effect—both personally and collectively.

Collectively, the role of the scientific community provides a striking example. The scientific method aims to observe, test, and verify hypotheses. Yet we seem to be running into situations where data analysis reinforces confirmation bias rather than genuine iteration and knowledge generation. These hypotheses have turned into a hardened statue whose clay can no longer be reshaped.

Whether in astronomy, archeology, religious studies, or even time travel, if the overarching impulse is to protect a conclusion by dismissing phenomenology, is this still science? Lived experience and the totality of evidence need to inform conclusions and not serve as anomalistic data. Perhaps this present quality of time suggests that centralized epistemic authority needs to be challenged by localized observation and lived experience. Long-standing conclusions and institutions are no longer “too big to fail.”

Returning to Doc Brown in Back to the Future III, when he decided to break his own scientific rule about not interfering with time, he set off a chain of events—not just historically, but personally. Reconsidering both the nature of time and that the future is not yet written, opened the door to unexpected beauty and new beginnings for Doc Brown and Marty McFly.

Breaking away from what no longer fits and choosing a new path with those we are truly aligned with doesn’t guarantee a time-traveling locomotive and an anachronistic family, but it may save us from ending up at the bottom of a canyon.

Horses, the fire element, and the Aquarian instinct to break away and innovate feel especially potent—perhaps even incendiary—this February 17/18/19. Yet the message appears to be very clear: if you don’t like where the herd is going, then hold fast to your authenticity and find one you can run with.

Footnotes:

(1) (Stellhorn, 2026)

(2) It is interesting to note that Back to the Future III was released May 25, 1990 which was the day of a Gemini New Moon (also an Air sign) with the North Node in Aquarius.

(3) (Back to the Future III, 2026)

(4) (Setiani, 2022)

(5) (Mulla, 2026)

(6) (Ramadan, 2026)

(7) (Subramanyan, 2026)

(8) (Arya, 2025)

(9) (Polimenakos & Subramanyan, 2026)

(10) (Stellhorn, 2026)

References:

Arya, Vedveer. (2025) Chronology and origins of Indo-European civilizations, Volume 1 and Volume 2. Aryabhata Publications.

Back to the Future III. (2026, February 15). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_Part_III

Mulla, I. (2026, February 13). Ramadan moon sighting 2026: Will the UAE break with Saudi Arabia on start of holy month? Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/will-uae-break-saudi-arabia-ramadan-start-date-moon-sighting

Polimenakos, N. & Subramanyan, A. (2026, January 29). Astrological guide to February 2026. [Video]. CAPISAR Podcast.

Ramadan. (2026, February 15). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

Setiani, U. E. B. (2022, March 27). Crescent moon sighting and its significance for Ramadan. Muslim Pro. https://www.muslimpro.com/crescent-moon-sighting-and-its-significance-for-ramadan/

Stellhorn, D. (2026, January 31). The fire horse: 2026 – galloping forward at full speed. [Webinar]. Kepler College.

Subramanyan, A. (2026, February 15). Reconsidering the horse in the Rig Veda. Aswin’s Astrology.https://www.aswinsubramanyan.com/post/reconsidering-the-horse-in-the-rig-ved