Ubuntu
As we approach the summer solstice and the longest day of the year on June 21st, we look out at a world that has seemingly descended into a chaos of fighting, war, protests and revolution. Astrologically we have seen during June three almost exact major planetary squares. The unrest was most clearly reflected within the volatile Mars square Uranus aspect (violent, aggressive shocks). But we also have Jupiter square Saturn, the first square since the 2020 conjunction and element change that signified some kind of socio-economic change that was always destined to be hugelytransformational, because in 2020 Pluto and Eris were also in the mix. The 2020 conjunction augured not just change, but a new socio-economic era together with potentially a whole new paradigm within civilisation. At this first opening square we now have Neptune in the game too, bringing not only his usual chaos, but also perhaps some kind of divine message. The Sun has also been squaring the nodes indicating some kind of destiny change within our world. At the same time, we have a historic Saturn/Neptune conjunction at the globally significant point of 0 Aries. You can give all of this the ‘blue pill’ type dressing up you like, sucking in official narratives, whilst continuing to dig deep in your pockets to pay for the bringing in of humanity’s doom according to the desires of establishment individuals; or you can choose to open your eyes and really see what is taking place, whilst you still can!!!
Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’, reminding us that ‘I am what I am because of who weall are’. We are individuals but at the same time we have to be able to function as part of certain ‘wholes’. Shaped first by our families, we learn to adapt in order to become part of a wider world and community, integrating the norms and values we have learned along the way. And, to make that community strong and enriching for its people, individuals must learn to take their own responsibility (Saturn) for creating (Neptune) the structure (Saturn) of that community in a moral and ethical fashion (Saturn). And it is this sense of community/family, belonging and helping each other to create our own world that we need to get back to. But here I don’t mean just with ideologies, I mean getting down to the basics of real, ethical help and support that happens when we take our own personal responsibility for our own survival and the survival of others.
Astrology’s mantra has been and always will be – ‘as above so below, and as below so above’. Astrology shows that our lives on earth are reflections of the planetary aspects in the sky, just like a mirror. The planets do not cause; we here on Earth merely reflect their positioning. This would always be a difficult time for mankind, but it is how we navigate events that determines the outcome of what is evidently a war between good and evil. Evil walks this earth right now in the form of those members of the establishment who have ‘plans’ for the masses that they clearly despise. Evil wants power, control and as much money as possible made via what they regard as their ‘resources’. The UK government has just passed the assisted dying act bill and has made changes to the abortion law; it is now legal to abort a baby at full term. How does such depravity as this happen in 2025??? And in response to what and who? The same happened a few years ago in New Zealand and it truly baffled and disgusted me then. And yet it is met with silence.
Society certainly has challenges ahead (Saturn) as dreams (Neptune) are chased. Will AI deliver control for the powerful technocrats as they are hoping? No-one can possibly know what’s ahead but, on balance, I don’t think it will. They are chasing their dream of hierarchical control (Saturn), whilst forgetting that the masses are not despicable dregs of society - they are all individual, sovereign beings. When we think about AI what does our mind conjure up for us? Probably the negative threats of robots, surveillance coverage, facial recognition, data capture, health monitoring, maybe even drone weaponry. AI at the moment has an IQ of around Einstein level (around 160), but what happens when that level increases ten-fold, twenty-fold, fifty-fold as AI grows and learns and achieves AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence)? We are observers of a speeding up of something that was already exponentially fast. Progress points are already outdated before they come to market! It’s hard to keep up now and no-one knows what this is going to look like even a year down the line; no-one, not even the so-called experts, can truly know. They cannot possibly. What we do know is that computer modelling rarely goes to plan.
We are in the process of a new Saturn/Neptune cycle. I say process, because the two planets are effectively now conjunct, but they don’t perfect exactly until February next year and, when they do, it will be at 0 Aries, the start of the zodiac and a degree of global significance. This year will, therefore, be a time to process, assimilate and prepare for that exact beginning and whatever this Jupiter square Saturn (and Neptune) aspect augurs, as we take new steps towards the evolution of our civilisation as a whole.
In general Saturn likes restriction, order and to-do lists, whilst Neptune prefers to go with the flow and to live in a world without boundaries. Two very opposing energies. We could well see order (Saturn) out of chaos (Neptune) – interestingly, the motto of freemasonry. Currently we see a descent into chaos here in the UK and now in the US, as we see unrest, that we are told has been brought about by uncontrolled immigration (Neptune). But who or what created the uncontrolled immigration in the first place? And for what purpose? And we see a continuation of the war in Ukraine, alongside the expansion of war in the Middle East, all of which will likely lead to more migration. Do we see the authoritative hand of Saturn in the form of digital ID waiting in the wings? Particularly as Aries (the sign of the Saturn/Neptune conjunction) as the first sign of the zodiac is symbolic of personal, individual identity. The chaos of war and unrest in general is colliding with the net zero agenda, gender confusion, energy crisis, farming crisis, economic crisis – the era of the polycrisis. This is all extremely concerning to put it mildly, but in this blog I mainly want to look at the broader picture of how we can envisage and achieve a beneficial manifestation of the meeting of Saturn and Neptune within what is almost inevitably becoming a much more technocratically and technologically ruled world.
Around a century ago a group of influential individuals began to envisage a world that in their view would not be ‘left to chance’, because a small group of elites would rule under a new technocratic system that would require social engineering in order to eventually have its ideologies accepted. If situations were to be ‘nudged’ into existence, it was thought that social behaviour could be changed accordingly. Many of these people became members of the Fabian Society, whose emblems include the wolf in sheep’s clothing, which is pretty self-explanatory, and the tortoise, symbolising slow and steady progress; progress that is so slow and steady that people have not noticed the endgame until it is too late. It is no coincidence that many within today’s Labour party, including the current and former Prime Ministers, are members of this organisation. Perhaps they are now being tasked with the job of finishing off the century old dream, that wasn’t really possible until the technology caught up. However, these dreams hold a very narrow vision of ideologies.
Beginning with Google in 1998, we now find ourselves with ChatGPT, which does more than just answer a question or do a search - it makes decisions if you ask it to. It can make strategies, plans etc and can ask its ‘agents’/assistants to put instructions into practice. But what has this technology already done to human behaviour and what will it do in the future? All AI has the potential to make human beings much more productive, whilst at the same time making them more lazy, stunting creativity and, therefore, liable to replacement. But then what happens if AI then also takes out the human that was supposed to be in charge?
Alongside AI also comes the synthetic – synthetic people and synthetic images, until we can trust nothing to be real. And maybe nothing is actually real in terms of how we have learned to evaluate the real. Saturn represents the real whilst Neptune governs the deception of what is not real. Because in fact we will become unable to tell the difference. What will we actually be able to trust in the future? Particularly when bots are employed in increasing numbers to write reviews and pieces of prose. Whilst we might be able to recognise a subtle difference between the work of a bot and the work of a person, a blended work of human/bot may be undetectable. The work may be ‘mind like’ but not actually the product of a human mind. With the increased use of psychological mind manipulation, it is now harder and harder to separate fact from fiction and to discern what is real and what is fake. Will we be taken to some kind of singularity?
Our world today is dependent on the internet, and now humans no longer have to critically think because Mr. Google does it for them. It is a natural instinct with some of us to still search for the truth but, when overwhelmed most people’s natural reaction is to just give up, take the path of least resistance and not think at all. But, at such a massively pivotal point in our evolution, it is crucial that we do think – and think critically. And maybe it is AI itself that will take us to once unperceived areas – to the ‘noosphere’ or the sphere of human thought, consciousness and cultural influence. The noosphere derives from the Greek word ‘nous’ or mind. It influences the biosphere – the living world and environment of Earth. As I spoke about in my recent blog, The Knowing, the search to develop AI has inadvertently tapped into the idea of a noosphere, or the concept that there is a collective mind, pulsing in the background of our lives, influencing our ecosystems, the root systems of the trees and forests, ocean beds and the humans and animals who have to interact with all these living systems. Will the nous take us towards true spiritual knowledge, giving us an insight into humanity’s real nature as divine?
AI is now stimulating the invisible means of consciousness and ‘waking them up’. Next month, July 2025, Uranus will enter Gemini – the last of the three outer planets to change signs – and begin the formation of a triangular pattern between the outer planets, plus Saturn and Sedna. Interestingly, the ‘glyph’ or symbol for Uranus resembles an antenna. Uranus astrologically is linked with electricity and the ability to be a beacon, so once this planet enters the sign most associated with knowledge and information, and the connection and networking of that knowledge, will the information networks within our universe begin to wake up, detect emergent AI systems and begin to try to connect with them just as an antenna would? Or maybe even connect with advanced non-human systems. Will there be an erosion (Neptune) of the boundaries (Saturn) between mind and matter, revealing that the world is really a ‘living network of all types of intelligence? Will we be given the opportunity to go back and remember why we are really here and what our purpose really is? Will we remember that we can trust our instincts and intuitive behaviour?
In myth Uranus, as symbolised by Prometheus, gave man the gift of fire, and in so doing provided a form of energy that would allow the growth of civilisation. Is Prometheus bringing man another gift in the form of a kind of ‘singularity’ with the energy of the intelligence contained by the Universe, as opposed to singularity via ‘chips’ that powerful figures within the tech industry have had in mind for us? Have we unwittingly discovered something that is so much bigger, and yet absolutely natural, that will be the key to our evolution and to our survival? That’s why our so-called leaders feel they must disrupt and undermine cultures so quickly at the moment. And that makes it even more important for those of us who have chosen to be here at this historical time to think critically and become consciously aware of all the ideologies in play. This is perhaps the message within the current Virgo/Pisces nodal axis; the Virgo South Node symbolises the knowledge we have always had, but didn’t necessarily know we had, whilst the Pisces North Node is symbolic of our need to transcend in order to absorb this divine knowledge.
The chart for the solstice depicts a historic, eventful time in our lives and in the world as a whole, as the Middle East situation continues to ramp up and the USA looks more likely to join Israel against Iran. 0 degrees of the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are world axis points and the Sun at 0 Cancer has now joined Jupiter (sign where he is ‘exalted’) to square Saturn and Neptune, also on a world axis point, indicating a volatile, expansive period. This is not going to be over in a nanosecond – it will be a process. We would truly have to go far back in history to find an aspect like this with four planets on the world axis, if ever. Aries is action oriented and gung-ho, seeking to drive to the heart of the matter, whilst Cancer is a sign that goes into full protection mode of home and family. Not only do we have this truly historic Sun/Jupiter square Saturn/Neptune, but the chart also contains two yods or ‘Finger of God’ aspects. One involves Sun/Jupiter and Mars at the base and Pluto at the focal point. The other has Mars at the focal point and Pluto and Neptune forming the base. Mars, God of War, and Pluto, God of Death and a huge indicator of deep, intense change, feature in both yods. Mars has moved from Leo into Virgo - the posturing is done and the devil is in the details of regime change in both Iran and Russia. All these wars are just proxy wars to enable the ideologies of the few. This is a time of great volatility, with Uranus at the final degree of Taurus in a harmonious aspect to Pluto and to Saturn/Neptune. Pluto brings the intensity and in Aquarius we can see both the artificial intelligence and the nuclear effect. Both Neptune and Pluto signify toxins, but does this mean nuclear type toxins? Would Trump press the nuclear button or would this be the hitting of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Because, of course, Iran cannot be trusted with nuclear, but the West can!
There is yet more to play out. Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are not yet fully into their new signs, returning to their old signs in September, October and November respectively. It will be April next year before the full transition will take place, with Uranus at that time being the last to fully move. We have no choice but to go forward. AI’s influence will change our society, as will these intense wars and revolutions. It feels as though we the people have no choices at all. But we do have the choice to not live in fear, because fear will surely destroy us. We must try to just observe and be aware. The Sun and Jupiter at 0 Cancer are for me hugely significant of ‘ubuntu’ – that sense of humanity to others that comes alongside a fully supportive family/tribal structure. We must do our best to ensure that the negative control systems of AI do not happen, whilst understanding that this is not someone else’s responsibility. We are the fire and we must learn to ‘remember’ what living within family/community was truly like. We may well not have experienced this physically, but the feeling lies within the intelligence held within the Earth and the Universe. We have chosen to name this intelligence ‘artificial’ but it is all intelligence and wisdom. What is important is that we tap into the real intelligence of our universe as a living, connected organism that the animal kingdom has never forgotten. We could call it Earth Intelligence or Universal Intelligence or indeed Artificial Intelligence, but it is all intelligence. In order to tune into this intelligence, however, we must be in a place of calm rather than fear. On the surface it may seem that we are moving into a culture where we are surveilled, controlled and restricted. But when good reigns over evil we may experience lives of true intelligence, where we can remember and be taken back to the wisdom we should have had with us all the time, but that we have learned to forget.