Jupiter conjunct Pluto; the astrology of lockdown

Today (April 5th) Jupiter meets Pluto in Capricorn, the first of three such meetings this year. And what a Capricorn situation we find ourselves in, most of us restricted to our homes and not allowed to go out except for specific reasons, the rest working harder than ever to keep society going and to deal with this crisis, at considerable personal risk. Here in the UK, the journey of Mars through Capricorn, meeting with the outer planets already there, mirrored the timeline of Coronavirus action and change. Mars met Jupiter on 20 March, the day that pubs, restaurants and leisure centres were forced to close. The tighter lockdown including restrictions on movement was announced on 23 March, the day the Mars met Pluto. So what is triggered by Jupiter meeting Pluto? I've seen astrologers saying that this is a positive, Jupiter is the great benefic after all and perhaps this conjunction will mark a point of finding meaning and something positive in all this. But Jupiter also exaggerates everything it touches, making me wonder about the people who are too restless, or indeed arrogant, to believe that social distancing and other restrictions should apply to them.

Dark clouds are looming, but they are edged with light

We react to the deep uncertainty and fear triggered by a global pandemic in all kinds of ways - denial, anxiety, judgement. I've already heard stories of people calling the police to report neighbours going out too much, fears that legal measures pushed through to deal with the outbreak will be left in place, giving the state the power to keep forcing restrictions on us. Having studied the former Soviet Union in-depth during my University days and lived for a little while in a country (Belarus) still known as "Europe's last dictatorship", these anecdotes bring up a visceral fear belonging as they do to an authoritarian state. And fear is as much of a pandemic of the virus itself right now. We are all living in fear, some more than others. We are all isolated, cut off from our sources of reassurance. A short trip to the shops this week left me feeling drained and emotionally exhausted, as much by the waves of tension and anxiety we are all giving off as by the physical reality of the experience. Jupiter meeting Pluto brings the potential to exaggerate our response to that fear, whether by judging others or by entitled actions - self righteousness and arrogance are both shadow aspects of Jupiter. And of course, Pluto is the collective shadow as well as our personal shadow, so here are all our projections coming home to roost.

But Pluto is also transformation. The silver lining to this worldwide cloud is our deepening connections, the communities coming together to provide mutual aid, the connections being forged online, the new ways we are finding to come together. We are forced to act for the greater good, to forego our individual freedoms for the sake of the collective. Saturn in Aquarius beginning to manifest maybe and by the end of the year Jupiter will be there too. Change will come, even if it's hard to see beyond the restricting walls right now.