Midlife Transits

My local news is all about swine flu these days. Seems like the national news is too.

The traditional astrological symbol for flu and pandemics is Neptune. For example, during the flu pandemic of 1957, Neptune in Scorpio was in a bad mood with Uranus in Leo. Deaths peaked when they were about 9 or 10 degrees from a square, which is when global events associated with outer planet squares usually hit crisis points (8-10 degrees from a square is more dangerous than the exact aspect usually).

This year, Neptune has moved into place for the triple conjunction coming up later in May. The conjunction is a global phenomenon and therefore lends itself to global events like pandemics.  I’m really not familiar with pandemics resulting from Neptune conjunctions, though, and I have to say a flu pandemic is not exactly what I wanted from this one. I was hoping for much more jolly stuff  since optimistic Jupiter will be involved. The addition of Chiron to the mix is a wild card, though, and not one that happens often enough for me to have any personal experience with it.

Maybe it will all turn out to be relatively mild if Jupiter rides in to the rescue later in May. If not, then I suppose we might have a very unusual late spring/summer spurt of illness, because Neptune will be at this degree until mid-July. Usually, illness is more likely to spread during the school year.

To me, if this a manifestation of Neptune and Chiron in cahoots, it seems a bit mean. The poor globe is already reeling from an economic downturn; this seems like the last thing we need. Give us some happy news, planets, we’ve got more than enough difficult aspects coming up.

And in celebration, early-bird horoscopes for May have been posted. Yes, you can ask questions and make comments.

By the way, in many of the sun sign horoscopes I mention a triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron in the sign of Aquarius. It occurs toward the end of May. I mention it because I’m all excited about it.

Whether it’s worth getting all excited about remains to be seen. Still, semi-newshound that I am I have seen flurries of activity relating to this conjunction all over the place.

These flurries of activity mostly relate to experty-type experts on various economic matters getting cautiously optimistic about the economy. In my astrological brain, they are getting cautiously optimistic because a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction just wants people to get optimistic and have hope again. Jupiter, by the way, deals with the economic matters.

So in my reading, the recent stock market upticks and whatnot are signs that Jupiter/Neptune is kicking in.

The downside is that Neptune is a notorious liar. It promises hope and then does its darndest to eventually deliver disappointment. That’s why cautious experty-type experts are keeping  a mindful eye on Pluto in Capricorn. When they keep their mindful eye on Capricorn they say things like “it’s still a long road to recovery.” Because that’s Pluto in Cap’s opinion, and Pluto is usually right.

So…I think Neptune and Jupiter are going to try to do their darndest to give us all a necessary break from gloom and doom. They’ll let us enjoy the summer, before Saturn in Libra squares off with Pluto in the fall and puts us in a bad mood with world affairs again. Sort of like that; there is some play in the dates.

Neptune’s already at the degree he will station at–26 degrees. Jupiter will hover around this degree, so will Chiron. Uranus will hover at the same degree in Pisces. If you have planets at 26 degrees figure that they will be energized, hopeful, surprised, and confused. So will the rest of us probably.