Often in our pandemic news we hear a lot about the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and how pandemics recur every so often. If pandemics have a cycle then so do post-pandemics.

After the Pandemic of 1918, which officially lasted a couple years until spring 1920, we had the Roaring 20s, a period of economic growth with women smoking and showing their knees. It lasted a good nine years until the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. That lasted until the start of WWII which was apparently good for the economy. Then there were the 1950s which in movies and TV was happy and blissful until the contentious 1960s when cultural revolutions occurred in many countries in many different ways. Then the 1970s were a general slump until the 1980s and 1990s brought more sustained growth and the rise of corporate power. Until 2008 the world economy crashed again due to greed and over-leveraging but was recovering until . . . the pandemic of 2019-2020.

Yes, quite a nutshell for a hundred years of history. But if there’s one thing I’ve astrology has taught me is that life is about cycles. When will the pandemic end according to astrology?

Saturn entered Aquarius at the very beginning of the pandemic and its cycle though a sign is two and half years. That seems to correspond to the biology of it.

But to think it will “end” is to forget about cycles. Looking at the 20th century, we see continual ups and downs of the economy and the culture. Experiencing this 2020 pandemic first hand as an American, it’s now clear to me why this happens in my country — the culture is extreme, a type of manic depressive culture. We’re being treated for the depression, but not for the mania.

With the pandemic, the extreme accepters are afraid to leave the house for fear of dying. The extreme deniers believe it’s all a conspiracy of some sort. Our politics follows our culture and is split into two polarizing parties.

Highs and Lows

This year the outer planet energies have been in mostly earth and water – Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto in earth-sign Capricorn; Uranus in earth-sign Taurus; and Neptune in water-sign Pisces.

Earth and water signs are more introverted whereas the fire and air signs are more extroverted. Earth is practical; water emotional. Fire is spiritual and air social. Saturn, the planet of contraction, moving into air-sign Aquarius put fence around social interaction.

Earth and water are more prone than fire and air to pessimism (called “realism” for earth signs) and brooding. Fire and air are more optimistic and tend to bounce back or move away from problems much faster than earth and water.

If the history and cycles of the 20th century are repeating, this low, depressive state will be followed by a euphoric manic state. Astrologically, that begins in 2023 – 2025.

This heavy earth and water energy will be transitioning mostly to air and then some fire. Saturn has already entered Aquarius although it is currently back in Capricorn moving retrograde. At the end of September Saturn will go direct and in mid December it will be back in Aquarius. At just about the same time, Jupiter will also move into Aquarius. The conjunction of these two planets is a traditional astrological harbinger of change in rulers. It’s also social unrest.

The push and pull of social distancing will continue throughout 2021. Jupiter is expansive and Saturn contractive so we will have the “highs” and “lows” of social interaction, politics and cultural trends.

It will take a couple more years, 2023, before Pluto starts to move into Aquarius. The great wave of authoritarian power grabs we are experiencing today will start to shift into Aquarian ideals which are about community and technology. While Aquarius is idealistic, it is not emotional so this is about sharing ideas, not hugs and kisses. Expect more community but also more selectivity.

In 2025, Uranus moves from earth-sign Taurus to air-sign Gemini. The seven-year cycle of Uranus in Taurus from 2018 – 2025 is body, earth and money volatility. When Uranus moves into Gemini, we will see sudden shift and volatility with communication, media and neighborhoods. Gemini rules the lungs so as some news has reported, this illness may leave lasting lung issues. Mask wearing may contribute in some way to lung issues or breathing issues.

Also in 2025, Neptune and Saturn will move into fire-sign Aries. Aries rules the self and is self-assertive and athletic. If Uranus in Aries from 2011 – 2018 brought us the selfie, Neptune and Saturn in Aries will probably having us build statues of ourselves. Neptune in Aries also can glorify war and sports. During Neptune’s last transit of Aries the US had a Civil War.  With Neptune in Aries combined with the Aquarius energy, I’m expecting more but smaller nation-states and redefined interdependencies.

The Roaring 2020s

For those that are waiting for all the illness and negativity to end can look forward to the mid-2020s when we’ll certainly have more parties and probably more fun. We may also have more communities, ones we choose rather than ones we are born into.

But as history and our cycles have shown, when we go too high or too low, the other side awaits us. Cycles describe energy; our suffering from that energy is based on how we entered into it and how we react.

The current lineup of planets in Capricorn sent shudders of fear through astrologers as they watched it approach. Yet if we lived in more harmony and balance on this earth, the same energy might have been less painful and allowed us to evolve social structures more quickly which is what that energy describes. Pluto forces, it does not ask, so now we must change these structures under duress.

Balance is the lesson of astrology. Balance evens out the highs and lows, which are a part of living.