My dear colleague Marga has mapped the development of Covid-19 with the planetary transits. In this guest blog she presents her conclusions.
These are astrological notes that I took during the months of lock-downs and unlockings, originally published in June as facebook posts, in reference to the main facts and tendencies of Covid-19 pandemic all over the world. I also inserted links of relevant information excerpted from the media. I am now editing and integrating information for people who are not so acquainted with the HD system and also adding more references to facts and events.
It all started when, while reading an article, I realized that the beginning of the outbreak in Italy happened during the so called Incarnation Cross of Contagion, last February 14th.
Incarnation Crosses in Human Design are fixed configurations of the Sun/Earth binomial on the HD Zodiac wheel during the solar year. They’re calculated at the actual position of the Sun on a given day and at 88° of Solar arc – roughly 3 months before. Considering the Zodiac wheel, the Earth is always organically opposite to the Sun. So we have basically points in space-time that make a specific configuration for each moment of the solar year. The Crosses always occur more or less at the same time in the year, lasting 2 hours to 4 days (according to a fixed structure), and they bring a special climate, imprinting life with their peculiar energies. Each Cross happens 1, 2 or 4 times in a year, in the different seasons, with shifting of the reciprocal positions of the Sun and the Earth and following a predetermined pattern ruled by the motion of the Sun.
Another important observation I made it’s that on February 13th, one day before the Contagion Cross, planet Saturn had entered Gate 60, Limitation (26°22′ Capricorn to 02°00′ Aquarius), after 30 years, and it seemed particularly relevant in a moment in time when all the world was basically locked, limited, restricted… And even if I am not an expert of transits, I decided to go deeper into planetary positions, to see if they could really explain, or describe, what was – and still is – going on.
Marga Eleonora Scroppo is a Human Design reader, Life Coach, musician, and former professional poker player. She currently lives in India.
So here is the timeline more or less as I originally presented it, with some clarifying notes.
Phase 1: China
17 November 2019: first case tracked down in Wuhan
We all know that word about a new disease, that was killing people in China, spread all over the world around December 2019, but of course it is pretty obvious that it often takes a while before a new virus gets isolated and identified. I did some research and from an article on The Guardian I learnt that, “The first case of someone suffering from Covid-19 can be traced back to 17 November, according to media reports on unpublished Chinese government data. The report, in the South China Morning Post, said Chinese authorities had identified at least 266 people who contracted the virus last year and who came under medical surveillance, and the earliest case was 17 November – weeks before authorities announced the emergence of the new virus”. (excerpted from Https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/first-covid-19-case-happened-in-november-china-government-records-show-report )
Emblematically, on this very date, we entered the Incarnation Cross of Contagion (17/11 to 20/11).
As of course a virus does not come out of the blue, I have been wondering if the previous Cross of Contagion – 18/8-21/8 2019 – could have been relevant, even though it was really impossible for me to retrieve such information. But, while looking for something else, I came across this headline:
“Virus might have emerged in august”
Https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/virus-may-have-emerged-in-august/article31798472.ece
So, there it was! Another little piece in the planetary puzzle, even though hypothetical…
We have 4 crosses of Contagion every year: February, May, August and November. They probably beat the clock of seasonal flues in different geographical areas with no much fuss, but this time something went differently. Maybe the interplay of Neptune in Pisces (63 cusp 22) and Mars surfing from Virgo (47) to Sagittarius (5 cusp 26)? Or the transit of Mars in Leo (29) during the August 2019 Cross of Contagion (29-30; 8-14), followed a few weeks later by the opposition to Neptune? Neptune, according to traditional astrology, is connected to viral and bacterial infections. And Mars is connected to immunity. Some astrologers do say that Neptune/Mars relationship (opposition in September 2019, square in January 2020) has played a role into it.
Another interesting event: on the 20th of January we had the Fixed Cross of Restriction (a fixed cross happens only once in a year), in Gate 60.4 and, 2 days later, the Chinese government enforced the lock-down in Hubei region.
Phase 2: Italy and the rest of the world
14 February 2020: first Italian (and European) cluster and acknowledgement of possible community transmission in Codogno, Lombardia. The rest is history, we all know what happened. Literally something that will be remembered in history books…
And on the very same day we entered the Incarnation Cross of Contagion (14/2 to 17/2) again… The day before, 13/2, Saturn had entered Gate 60, the Limitation or Restriction, reinforcing the climate set up by the Cross of Restriction on the 20th of January. Around this time restrictions started to take place everywhere, culminating in lock-downs and travel bans all over the world a few weeks later. On the 12th of March WHO declared Covid-19 a worldwide pandemic.
The thing that really struck me about this planetary position is what the traditional I-Ching hexagrams narrative – on which HD Gates are based – has to say about it:
- Line 1: don’t go out of your home, not even to the courtyard.
- Line 2: don’t go out of the door of your home: danger!
- Line 3: the one who cannot restraint himself will complain.
- Line 4: restriction fulfilled.
- Line 5: better to sweeten up the restriction.
- Line 6: bitter restriction: perseverance will bring disgrace.
Saturn slowly moved through these lines, pacing the different phases and moods of the lock-down, and became retrograde on the 11th of May. Then it lingered on the 6th line, “bitter restriction: perseverance will bring disgrace” with all the problems and conflicts that everywhere people were facing, tired and exhausted of being quarantined. Jupiter had entered Gate 60 on the 20th of April, complicating a situation that was already becoming very tense. While Saturn is at home in 60, because it has itself an energy of restriction and limitation, Jupiter is at total unease, because it wants to expand and freaks out in restraint. It also gives a sense of confidence and optimism, that in this case can translate in the idea that it’s ok to let go of any kind of restraint, including mask and social distancing, creating a false sense of being safe, especially since it also turned retrograde on 15th of May, at the same time when we entered the next Cross of Contagion (15/5-18/5), starting a “phase 3” of openings and increasing infections in the states of India who had, up to that point, limited the spreading of the virus, and of exacerbation of the situation in the Americas and in Russia.
Phase 3: India, Brazil, US, Russia
Between the Cross of Contagion of May and the following one in August (17/8-20/08) the countries who were very affected in Phase 2 saw less infections and restrictions. While US, Brazil, Russia and India took the stage with massive rates of infections, with different problems to face and different attitude of the people towards the issue of restraint (self-quarantine, mask, SD etc.)
This phase saw a temporary relief of Gate 60 with Jupiter moving out on the 6th of June, retrograding in 61, and Saturn slowly stationing and retrograding on the 6th line of the Gate, detached and distracted enough not to take anything seriously about Limitations… with Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus screaming from the Channel of Awareness (61-24), and Neptune in Pisces stirring the waters of Information/Misinformation from gate 22. It was indeed a tough battle…
Phase 4: The Second Wave
Soon after the Cross of Contagion in August, on the 24th of the same month, Saturn too regressed to 61, leaving a long moment of interregnum, till it turned direct again on the 29th of September, indicating that the climate of Limitation would return by the time it entered 60 again on the 4th of November, pacing through 60 again and aligning with the last Cross of Contagion of 2020 on 16/11-19/11 and bound to make its final exit from 60 on the 3rd of January 2021. Also Jupiter is bound to return to 60 on 2nd of December and complete its tour of the Gate on the 28th of the same month.
So I guess we will not be really free of restrictions and limitation – and of the virus – until the beginning of the new year, but if the dance of Saturn and Jupiter in and out of 60 and around the Crosses of Contagion provides indeed a description of what has happened, we can say it is likely that we will be free of it by the beginning of the new year, with a wake to the Cross of Contagion of February 2021 (13/2-16-2). Neptune will be lingering in Pisces for a long time, but it has made peace with Mars during the June conjunction and the fact that the sextile will be during the Cross of Contagion on February 13th makes us hope for the best. The next square from Gemini will be in April 2021, but it will be a wading square, probably just the wake of Covid-19… I am not a champion at predictions, but it all makes sense to me and we will all see how it will actually play out very soon…
Till then, the call is to caution, patience and wisdom… other strong Saturn themes…
After that, Saturn will move to 41.1, the start codon Gate, marking a completely new phase. The last time this shift from 60 to 41 happened was December 1991 that saw the end of the USSR after a whole 30 years of Restrictions that affected the whole world and that became so symbolically evident in 1961 with the building of Berlin Wall with Jupiter in 60 (barbed wire phase), soon followed by Saturn (cement and concrete phase). And the story of human Limitation can surely be traced back, analyzing all the 29-30 years cycles of Saturn starting in 60 and ending in… 60. But that’s, maybe, for another article…
Marga Eleonora Scroppo
Disclaimer: these are just notes and not an exhaustive analysis of the whole Human Design astrological picture during this time. I hope that someone more expert than me will take on the task and fill in the blanks.
