Driving home one day and seeing a cell tower, I finally understood critical mass.

Thoughts move quickly and cell towers became critical mass when I wondered, “Who decided all this?” While I’m rarely an early adopter, I was early to both eReader and iPhone having people approach me in airports to ask how I liked these devices.

That feels like yesterday and was about 15 years ago. Today I’m far behind in technology compared to others. And I’m uninterested in keeping up.

Critical mass is a physics term and business term, according to a search:

• Physics: the minimum amount of fissile material needed to maintain a nuclear chain reaction
• Business: the minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture

In the New Age movement since my entry in the 1980s, critical mass was often thrown out as the method to raise awareness: when that critical mass was reached, we might stop destroying ourselves and instead focus on peaceful, harmonious existence.

La-la-land, I thought. But now I see the power of critical mass and fully agree that it can be achieved for any purpose, business, physics, or human awareness shifts. It’s simply our choice. This is what we choose.

Critical mass chose cell towers.

Critical Mass Trends

Critical mass may have a mathematical calculation for physics or business, but I don’t know that it has one for human consciousness. The news isn’t going to report on raised awareness.

From an astrological perspective, critical mass trends are seen in the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. With long cycles, these planets describe both the build-up of critical mass shifts and the shifts themselves.

In the 1990s – 2000s the shift was through Capricorn and Aquarius with both Uranus and Neptune transiting those signs. Capricorn supports social structure, rules, and traditions. Aquarius then rebels against such for new group consciousness and new ideals and goals.

Uranus brings sudden changes and Neptune idealizes. Our heroes have changed from astronauts and cowboys to techies who sit in enclosed spaces all day thinking about data and systems. Unlike astronauts and cowboys, they also think about Capricorn control.

Pluto recently entered Aquarius for a 20-year journey. Uranus brought sudden shifts in technology, Neptune brought idealization and critical mass to technology, and now Pluto will destroy and transform.

Uranus recently moved into Gemini, an air sign that is compatible with air-sign Aquarius. More change is coming in the next seven years to anything related to communication and learning.

Neptune has moved into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac and a fire sign which brings idealization of self and self-assertion. Calls for equality and vigilantism are two extremes of this energy. I’m imagining some technological vigilantism in addition to those who use the old-fashioned weapons.

Air and fire creating critical mass brings both optimism and enthusiasm. Air and fire live in the world of possibility and with enough earth element bring those ideas into reality. Without earth, much stays in the realm of possibility and creates the dreamer or the talker-but-not-doer.

Without earth, we also become divorced from our body and earth. Pluto in early Aquarius has brought a great deal of physical destruction in its early degrees not because Aquarius is violent in any way – it’s quite civil and organized – but because it ignores the physical and emotional effects of ideas in action. Aquarius is seeking the perfect universe, perfect society, perfect plan – if it makes you uncomfortable physically or emotionally so be it.

Critical mass of the next 15 years will be in the “air” which also means our heads, our thinking. What we think and what we do may not be in sync, a common enough habit of being human but particularly wide a gap in the next 15 years. Possibility may outweigh probability, and the optimism of air and fire may ignore the problems that arise from perfect plans which involve imperfect people.

After the years of Pluto-in-Capricorn lockdown and restriction, air and fire want to play, have fun. The excessive and heavy earth energy of that time has fueled the desire to enjoy life – fire is joyful by nature. Air is motivated by interest and stimulating experience. More interesting ideas and gadgetry are on the horizon.

Spiritual Critical Mass

During the Capricorn/Aquarius transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, we fed our life’s data into “the machine.” Now the machine is presenting it back to us – at a cost sometimes.

Sending our data into the processing machine and having it return like a boomerang to tell us what we think is a fascinating way to examine the entire workings of the mind. We send the thought out, it returns and agrees with itself since it sent out the original thought. Our returning thought reinforces our existing beliefs.

Confirmation bias is only a part of this dynamic. Our value systems drive beliefs so some “confirmation bias” may involve the response to challenged values.

What’s different here is that we can see how our mind works – not what it thinks.