If turkeys vote for Christmas and, therefore, their own destruction, we should all be worried. I use this as an analogy that can run through many areas of life - particularly in today’s upside down world, where something presented as being for our own good can leave us worse off, with less freedom to question how we got there. Very few people knowingly choose their own undoing. In general, we want to feel safe, belong, believe we are doing the right thing and just get on with living our lives. But sometimes it just happens, without our joining the dots.
I talk about all of us standing on the threshold of a new civilisation in almost every blog I write these days. I keep talking about it because so many people seem to be waiting for the pre-2020 old normal to return. But new means new. We will never go back to the familiar everyday routine we once had. We are carving out the new. And at the beginning of a new cycle life can feel extremely rocky.
We are under the auspices of two main astrological cycles. In December 2020 Jupiter and Saturn met, kicking off a new 200+ year era of conjunctions in Air signs. This began the AI and the increasingly technological revolutions (both a characteristic of Air). However, it was marked just before this by conjunctions of Saturn and Pluto, and Jupiter and Pluto, with all three planets being technically conjunct, although not absolutely exact. This rendered the aspect much more powerful than it might otherwise have been. Saturn and Pluto conjoined augur harsh times, whilst Jupiter and Pluto in the mix added the feel of expansion and huge transformation to everything.
But then in February 2026 came a new Saturn/Neptune cycle that is defining a new set of rules for now. These rules, however, won’t last forever because many of these may prove to be unsustainable (Neptune), totally divorced from reality and based on illusional ideologies. It’s the fact they met at 0 Aries, a point with global influence, that makes this Saturn/Neptune conjunction so powerful. That means that the two aspects I am mentioning here have huge power, reflecting events that will have a huge potential effect on our lives. And with a new era inevitably comes new rules.
Saturn and Neptune are such different energies, neither having much understanding of the word ‘compromise’.
But, of course, the planetary aspects do not cause, they merely reflect.
And it is this Saturn/Neptune aspect that reflects the Trump wipe out in the midterms. Many may say it is well overdue. But with this aspect comes a new era. It also sadly brings a fudging of the truth. And here propaganda can easily find its entry point. it can work through selective truths as well as outright lies. Show us one part of a story, omit the inconvenient context, and we can be led towards a conclusion we might reject if we had the fuller picture. We can feelinformed, whilst being carefully steered. It is a form of mind control based on fear. Mind control sounds dramatic. But here I mean the attempt to shape our judgement through fear, repetition and pressure to conform. Persuade people that asking a particular question makes them ignorant or morally suspect, or subject to ridicule, and some will stop asking it. Others will continue to wonder privately, while agreeing publicly. Once people learn which question will get them laughed at, some will stop asking it.
This inability to see clearly will make our lives difficult for now. Probably until we hit the culmination of this cycle in 2042 when the two planets oppose each other. And of course before this we have the start of the next Saturn/Uranus cycle in 2032, when the new, (Uranus) really embeds itself (Saturn) into everyday life.
And, of course, for ultimate success – get ‘em young! For my whole life I remember how climate change has been used as mind influencing. On that basis, if it were true, I should now be dead – burned to a crisp. Just recently though, I was shocked to see young children used in highly provocative adverts. They were very strongly berating parents and adults for their misbehaviour, to the point of ripping off their over clothes to reveal revolutionary type attire and march into battle. Now many people get rich on the back of this stuff, because basically they are peddling fear porn. And fear is a powerful motivator.
A health treatment can help us, but it can also cause side effects, sometimes serious ones. Accepting a known risk for a greater benefit can be a rational choice. But that choice depends upon understanding the likely benefits, the possible harm, the alternatives and the consequences of doing nothing. These are central to informed consent, and we should be able to discuss them. One addition might be ok but, when more and more things are added, which one tips the balance? For instance consider the recent mandated addition of folic acid to flour in order to protect women in early pregnancy. But how will it affect older people and the rest of the population, for whom it may mask symptoms of other illnesses. Someone on little money may consume a lot of flour – toast, sandwiches, rolls, biscuits, pasta - without knowing they are overloading on the addition. How will it affect them?
Then there is apathy – remarkably accurately described by a Saturn/Neptune conjunction. Saturn brings us up against reality. Neptune can leave us wondering what on earth is real and whether there is any point objecting. (Saturn – reality. Neptune – confusion, deception, illusion.). When we feel disillusioned, we will go one of two ways – revolutionary (Uranus) or apathetic/can’t be bothered (Neptune). The trend at the moment in the UK leans more towards apathy. In France, with their more Mediterranean, emotional characteristics, we see a leaning to the revolutionary.
We may at times see a restriction we consider outrageous, an obvious double standard, or someone treated unfairly - we say nothing. Perhaps we are tired. Perhaps we already have enough troubles of our own. Maybe we fear the consequences of speaking. These pressures are real; particularly for those whose income or security is already precarious. Yet the consequence of widespread silence is that those making the decisions encounter less resistance.
We tell ourselves that somebody else will object. Meanwhile, each unchallenged decision makes the next one easier to introduce. What once caused outrage becomes familiar, and familiarity begins to pass for acceptability. We can end up living with conditions we would never have consciously voted for; having accepted them one small concession at a time.
Nobody owes us agreement or freedom from criticism. But campaigns to punish people merely for expressing an unpopular opinion create a precedent that can be used against their supporters. The people applauding today’s silencing have no guarantee that tomorrow’s acceptable opinions will include their own. This is where the turkey analogy becomes uncomfortable. We can help build the very conditions that will later constrain us. We can demand controls over other people and discover that those controls also apply to us.
We can interrupt that pattern by insisting on evidence, defending the right to question and paying attention when someone describes a cost we have not had to bear ourselves. That requires the willingness to be uncomfortable, and sometimes to admit we were wrong.
Before the turkeys vote for Christmas, they would do well to read the menu.