The Great Conjunction of 2020

 

Are you ready for the Great Conjunction of 2020? That is when the planets Saturn and Jupiter seem to line up, as seen from Earth. The point of closest alignment happens to happen on December 21 which happens to be the Solstice. The last time this conjunction occurred was over 800 years ago and a previous occurrence was supposedly what the Three Magi took for an extra bright star which they followed to Bethlehem. They were probably early astronomers who were tracking the transits of the planets. Somehow over time they morphed into Kings from the East.

As Catherine Bateson observed, man constructs meaning as spiders make webs. Humans are the myth-making species. Out of the orbits of these two planets which have been plodding the same route from the universe began, their apparent alignment at this time will suggest many scenarios, especially in this age of conspiracy theories. Will it be seen as the return of the Christmas Star and whatever that portends? Will it announce the Second Coming? The End of the World? Or has Elon Musk secretly been manipulating planetary orbits? 

Certainly 2020 has been a momentous year and this may be a fitting finale signalling the end is near, alternatively a hopeful sign for the future, depending on your perspective. But then, guess what? The planets will be aligned again in another 29 years. Gosh darn, these heavenly bodies seem to have a mind of their own and will not conform to our little notional boxes.

Much is made of conjunctions in astrology, portending significant trends and events, Grand Conjunctions even more so. Jupiter and Saturn are heavies in astrological lore. In cosmic terms, they are not a thing, the alignments and ascribed relationships perceptible and applicable only from an Earth perspective. Human subjectivity makes out patterns and ascribes meaning to them. Some find Jesus in toast. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Planets are always and already in some kind of spatial relationship to each other but it takes someone to perceive a pattern and give meaning to it.

The Solstice is more of a thing. Viewed from any point of the universe, the distribution of light on the Earth's surface varies annually due to the angle of the planet's axis in its orbit around the Sun whether anyone records it or not. Similarly, molecules aggregate into RNA proteins that enter organisms and use their cells to replicate, until the organisms' immune systems neutralize it, or not. Covid-19 is not something to believe in or not. It is a thing, not subject to human interpretation that it is not real, that it was made in a lab for biological warfare, that Bill Gates, or villain of choice, has some nefarious intent. If a vaccine is successful in tamping down the pandemic, the combination of proteins we call Covid will morph until it is successful in replicating itself once more. This is called mutation. This is how biological evolution proceeds. We likewise can develop herd immunity in response.

Another year

Celebrate, then, the days of rejoicing and do not tire of them. For lo, none may take their goods with them and none who depart ever come back again.
~ Khemetic Book of Songs ~

The sorrel is drawn, dark and strong, biting with white rum and fresh ginger, the way i like it, served chilled, no ice, in wine goblets. I had the best intentions of making steamed pudding, the dried fruits soaking since September, and bun with stout, the Guinness standing in reproachful vigil in my fridge, but as John Lennon is credited with saying in my book - unabashed commercial, get it if you don't already have it - "Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans." (Editor General's Warning: This missive is all about The Book. If you are already weary of hearing me go on about it, stop reading now and close this window.)

Whatever your pretext for celebrating this Season, there seems to be some underlying organismic appreciation for having survived another annual cycle. At some cellular level we seem, at least in northern climes, to sense the return of increasing solar radiation, variously referred to as Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun, the rebirth of the sun, later conflated with the Birth of the Son by the Early Church fathers and adhered to unquestioningly by unsuspecting millions subsequently.

Beyond the reach of Graeco-Roman influence, the Chinese have for centuries referenced the moon rather than the sun to mark the end and beginning of years. However, The New York Times has reported official protest by a group of graduate students in China of the wholesale importation of Western Christmas practices into that ancient and now re-awakening culture. And well should they protest as the symbols and trappings have lost any real significance even in their sphere of origin, conscripted as they have been into the service of mammon. To my positivist way of thinking, rather than protest, or be anti-war, or anti-anything, they should propose, propound, pronounce.

Here is an admirable opportunity for them to co-opt, copy, as they are so often accused, a western solar-based cultural artifact and make it uniquely their own. As a northern country they have as much reason to mark the Northern Winter Solstice as any other northern culture. They could contrive, say, a sinicization of Santa Claus, transforming him into a Shaolin warrior-turned-monk who goes about doing good and bestowing gifts on the poor to expiate his former brutality and ruthlessness, so bringing him back into Harmony with the Way, an example for the benighted millions. The Eight Immortals could be persuaded to appear in concert this one time of the year. Those old Taoists were presciently, or in Jamaican parlance previous, politically correct, including one female, and a castanet-clicking drag queen or transexual, we're not sure which, among their Immortals.

Observing a secular festival based solely on geophysical considerations, avoiding decadent and imperialistic associations with the Saviour and Light of the World, Archangel Gabriel, and St. Nicholas, should sit well with Chinese authorities as they scramble to liberalize their economy and spread proletariat well-being. For this reason, sheep-herders washing socks by starlight would be retained as a grim reminder of serfdom narrowly escaped, with oblique references to rapacious capitalist innkeepers who would deny shelter to a working man with a wife in tertiary trimester. They can even keep the reindeer and winter wonderland as those are native features too of their northern country. Southern and equatorial cultures need to consider bamboo rafts drawn by dolphins or crocodiles. You get the picture.