More Details: Sunspots, solar flares, earthquakes

12/12/2024

Plus: Looking ahead to 2025 – retrograde planets; Lilith; Neptune into Aries; Saturn on Trump’s chart; the US chart; Chiron moves into Taurus in 2026

by David A. Wheatley

One of the scenarios that could fit the next 18 months to two years of Astrological expectations is a mega solar flare. It fits because it changes human society everywhere and is not something humans are consciously responsible for, just as the effects of the outer planets are usually out of our control because we are not aware of their potency as we unconsciously create human drama. We experience an event and wonder what caused it without being aware that we did. We don’t know what causes a solar flare apart from an erupting unstable by polarity sunspot. What caused the sunspot?
As I’ve mentioned before, there are inconsistencies that undo the idea that earthquakes are a result of solar flares. At the time of this writing, there was a 7 quake off California a week or so ago, and while we were in a peak period of the Sun’s solar cycle for a week before the quake and will be days after, the Sun was and is unusually silent, with no flares during the sunspot cycle peak time. So, toss out the idea about sunspot's connection with earthquakes. From the Astrological point of view everything happening in the solar system is connected, but what the Astrological relationships are, and the chemistry they stir up to create a sunspot and eruption of it, are not known. What is chartable, though, is the impact they make in our lives.

The only mega solar flare we have recent memory of is the Carrington Event of September 1-2,1859.
https://www.worldatlas.com/space/the-largest-solar-flare-in-recorded-history.html
Such an “event” can last for hours, days, or a week. The Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun takes hours to arrive at this planet, generally several hours to a day, depending on the speed of the ejected matter. When it encounters the Earth’s magnetic field and interacts with it, only a very strong flare like the Carrington flare penetrates the Earth’s magnetic field. In the Spring of 2024, the Earth experienced a few above-normal flares as strong as an X9, but a Carrington Event mega flare was believed to be an X45. In its day, it wiped out the high tech of the time, the telegraph wires. Today, that would penetrate the Earth’s normally protective magnetosphere on the way past frying our satellites to impact surface infrastructure such as the electrical power grids, along with any sensitive, insufficiently shielded circuitry from which it would take months and years to recover. The impact and recovery would be uneven across different locations. Present-day technology would be unevenly affected, but things like the internet and cell phone service would be off. The equipment to provide service and the phones themselves could be ruined and require replacement, not repair. Any facility that has replacement equipment is also subject to impact; recovery could take months, or years in some places.
The current solar cycle is expected to peak in July of 2025. As of this writing, there is speculation that the Southern Hemisphere of the Sun has peaked, but not the Northern Hemisphere. In the eleven-year cycle of the Sun from peak to peak, wax and wane and wax again, the cycle we are in has consistently exceeded the projection for potency. Assuming the northern hemisphere reaches its peak in 2025, the Sun can still generate powerful CMEs from flares as it declines from the peak. We have years to go before this cycle is calmed down.
Any flare can be followed in seconds to minutes by a rapid succession of other flares from the same sunspot or other sunspots. This extends the impact. Multiple flares ejecting matter from the Sun can mass into a single wave from the Sun before arriving at this planet, adding up to a stronger impact. Sometimes they arrive in a series of one wave after another, which we have seen in this cycle with extended hours and days of aurora borealis shows. It’s possible a series of major flares, though not at the level of the Carrington Event, add up to become something comparable.

The positions of the outer planets are the most relevant to charting an Earth-shaking event, possibly activated by a transiting aspect from Mars. Mars is a good bet among the inner planets (inside the orbit of Jupiter to the Sun) to activate the chemistry of any aspect in a dramatic way. The inner planets come along swiftly by comparison to an outer planet’s movement, and while the outer planets are in aspect, the swift inner planet catalyzes what the larger, slower outer planets bring together in any aspect. During the Carrington event of 1859, Saturn was at 18 degrees of Leo. Mars had just passed Saturn at 24 degrees of Leo; Mars had crossed 18 degrees of Leo days prior to the event, probably adding its energy to the sunspot that produced the flare. Both Saturn and Mars were exactly opposing Chiron and the Moon’s North Nodes on the 1st and 2nd of September in 1859. The Nodes and Chiron were conjunct and therefore opposed by the transits of Saturn and Mars, contributing to the formation of the sunspot.
Also at that time, Pluto was semi-sextile Uranus from Taurus to Gemini. A semi-sextile aspect is irritating; friction is generated, not flow. Neptune was in late Pisces, a couple of months away from entering Aries, where it is now at the time of this writing. These transiting conditions are not that uncommon or remarkable enough to lay the Carrington Event on, but they or other combinations like them could provide conditions in which a strong flare is formed.
I wouldn’t look for Chiron and the Moon’s Nodes to cook up a major flare when opposed by Saturn and Mars. I don’t know that Neptune (about to enter Aries from Pisces) is in any way associated with solar flares, we might find out soon. Neptune entering Aries has a reputation for anxieties that result in wars, and around 1859 that applied. I do expect that an irritating semi-sextile between Pluto in Gemini and Uranus in Taurus is capable of breaking down and rebuilding the telegraph lines suddenly.
We are looking for something happening on Earth, though, not on the Sun. What happened on Earth was the loss of telegraph wires. This was frustrating for those relying on rapid communication, but in that period of time, the flare went unnoticed otherwise by people around the planet who no doubt enjoyed the aurora borealis far to the south, where it’s never seen. To be more precise about the aspects at the time of the Carrington Event or past mega flares we would need to look at charts centered as if we were living on the Sun. But in terms of the effect on Earth the aspects in 1859 are appropriate for the limited impact on a world with barely any technology.

In today’s world, a solar flare of comparable potency would make a far greater impact, basically setting everyone’s level of technological lifestyle back to 1859. Today, we would look for something in planetary transits impacting life on Earth on a much greater scale than was present in 1859. Today a year or 18 months of being set back to a more primitive technological society would go a long way towards reducing Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That would be something truly rare and outstandingly powerful in Astrological aspects.
We would need to rebuild a technology that didn’t simply restart the same monstrous problem of making the climate more stressful for life to continue. In today’s Astrological charts, I would expect to see something well above normal in planetary aspects to each other for an event as Earth-shattering as it would be now.

Looking back...

An ancient tree ring revealed that in 663- 664 BCE2, the Earth was hit by a mega solar flare. The impact on the atmosphere is recorded in a tree’s life, in year after year of growth. In this way, we have a record of such events.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cataclysmic-solar-storm-hit-earth-110000679.html
The positions of the planets around that time are interesting to note. Tree rings do reveal annual events in the tree’s environment, but not month by month. For this speculation, I have to guess when it might have happened according to the tensions generated between the planets Sun and Moon. There are no known records for me to consult on where other Solar System bodies were (such as asteroids or other planet’s satellites/moons), but we haven’t commonly used those in Astrological charts until recent decades. We should have enough to work with using the known planets plus Pluto, Sun, and Moon. Solar Flares occur on the Sun; we look for impacts here on Earth for something happening somewhere else.
The outer planets, starting with Saturn, move slowly, and it’s possible to look at a whole year and know generally where those planets will be for that year. You can get a good idea about someone you just met if you know their age, thus their year of birth, and where the outer planets were when they were born, if, of course, like me, you have a good memory of where planets are from looking at many people’s charts. For this, I used an ephemeris generated by Astro.com. The Astro.com site also will generate a natal chart for you and give you many useful free options, as well as more in depth choices for which you have to pay. They generously publish a planetary ephemeris online going back centuries. Going back this far, their published records are less detailed but good enough for conjecture.
In 663 BCE, Pluto was at 10 of Aquarius, Neptune was at 0 degrees of Scorpio, Uranus was at 20-30 of Aries and about to change signs, Saturn was at 16-24 of Scorpio, and Mars, the best candidate always for a catalyst, moved from Virgo through Libra and Scorpio.
Narrowing it down further, in 663 BCE, when Mars was at 24 degrees of Libra, it was opposite Uranus at 24 Aries and trine Pluto in Aquarius. When Mars was in Scorpio around 24 degrees, it was conjunct Saturn and inconjunct Uranus in Aries, with Pluto in Aquarius.
When Mars was at 10 degrees of Scorpio, it was square Pluto in Aquarius. At that time, Saturn was retrograding backward, very possibly to around 10 degrees of Scorpio, adding a Saturn/Mars conjunction and Saturn Pluto Square. This latter grouping is potentially pretty serious ear-splitting rock and roll.
What the planets provide is a character of expression for energies that Science observes in the physical universe, but for this Astrologer, are believed to be generated in a dimension more natural to the energy itself. Expression in our dimension falls under the laws of physics. Where the energies naturally exist without being put into the containers of physical planets, the laws of physics can’t manage to explain. Trying to place a major event like a mega flare in time by planetary aspects is something that can’t be confirmed, but it’s a fun, intuitive exercise.

Lillith moves in Scorpio early spring of 2025

While the major outer planets get a lot of attention this year from Astrologers, there are other things going on. In late March 2025, Lilith moves into Scorpio. Lilith is an asteroid that’s come into our consciousness since it was discovered in 1927 by a French astronomer. It was actually named after a composer, Lili Boulanger, is roughly 23 kilometers in diameter, located in the heart of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a good spot to hide from the mythological womanizers and, at times, abusers of women, Mars and Jupiter, Ares and Zeus. Lilith was co-opted by Astrologers and others to become the symbol of the liberated woman; liberated meaning having freedom from a man’s presumed authority over women. I can’t help but mention the United States will have a convicted abuser of women as president in 2025, along with fellow accused abusers of women either in cabinet positions or circulating around him.
The importance of this asteroid can’t be ignored as it moves into Scorpio from benign Libra. Lilith refused to submit to her companion Adam’s authority and left the Garden of Eden to live her own life. He then went to his patriarchal god and ordered another female who would be subservient to him. The attempt by the Christian right-wing to make women subservient in many right-leaning male-dominated countries today while Lilith the asteroid was in Libra, won’t flow so smoothly with Lilith in Scorpio. Using the original metaphor, Adam had two wives, and one left him. The world can have both women in it, the problem is the men who insist on one set of rules for all women. No choice. Lilith in Scorpio is Artemis or Athena, a goddess with military prowess and wisdom. Lilith will be in Scorpio for around nine months.

In March of 2025, both Venus and Mercury do a retrograde station over the same degrees.

We know both Saturn and Neptune will be doing their duet as they move into Aries. Of course, retrograde motion is an illusion; the planets do not go backward, but from our line of sight on Earth, they are in the corner of their orbit where it looks like they are slowing down and going back a few degrees. They are actually more powerful because they are moving slower. The slower the planet moves, the longer it dwells in whatever influential aspect it’s making and, therefore, the more powerful it may be, which for Mercury and Venus is sometimes a problem. People are not accustomed to dealing with what these two planets' functions are when amped up unless they are retrograde in the person's natal chart. In that case they might do well when periodically Venus or Mercury turn retrograde. These two planets bring the bigger psychological planet’s schemes down into everyday life, into our consciousness. Between Venus and Mercury, the magic of life literally happens. In this case, everyone is going to be very, very aware of what will manifest with Saturn and Neptune moving into Aries, Neptune first. I refer you to my prior article about that, but note, please, that we will all be a little lost with Neptune because Mercury and Venus are going to bring it down into our daily lives.

Before that happens, Mars goes retrograde and backs up to where it was on the US election day, conjunct Pluto as it moves into Aquarius. The really important difference is on election day, Pluto was in Capricorn when Mars opposed it from the last degrees of Cancer. By retrograde motion on January 6th going backward and then on April 19th going direct, Mars will oppose Pluto again, but this time from early Leo with Pluto in Aquarius. Mars played the game Pluto had been playing for 20 years in Capricorn the first time, but in January through April 19th, it’s going to contrast something (about the recent election day in the US) because Pluto and Mars are in different signs. Pluto in Aquarius is just getting started there with a whole new agenda (see my last article), and Pluto usually starts with a breakdown or flaw in something to begin an unraveling. It's probably something to do with technology.

Neptune enters Aries on March 30th, 2025

The Sun enters Aries and conjuncts Neptune, slowly moving over the 30-degree mark of Pisces, which is the zero-degree of Aries on March 20, 2025, and ten days later, Neptune crosses into Aries. Because it moves so slowly, we don’t have a crisp, clean line to see when Neptune is in one sign or the other. Besides that, Neptune always blurs all lines and boundaries. But the Sun touching Neptune over a day or two as it passes into Aries is one more aspect, along with Mercury and Venus conjunct Neptune at the same time, bringing the experience into our daily lives. We’re going to learn something important, although we’ll doubt it’s real. A curtain is pulled back but we won’t be sure about what we see behind it.
Venus conjuncts Neptune at 29 degrees of Pisces on Feb 2-3, then conjuncts Neptune again in retrograde motion on March 26th and then again when it goes direct on April 30th. This extended period of motion spreads an experience out over weeks, one that, if Venus were moving directly, would only last a mere two days. Thus, it gains the potency of a transit more like Jupiter. Mercury is on a similar-style path with its retrograde motion and finally completes its extended three conjunctions with Neptune in mid-April, almost on the same day that Mars makes a trine to 0 degrees of Aries from 0 degrees of Leo on April 19th. It’s an Astrologer’s favorite meal to see these three inner planets plus the Sun all so in sync on bringing us an awareness in our conscious lives, tied into the affairs of the outer planets which are usually remote and difficult to put a finger on.
Mars puts something into action from its transit in Leo, but the doubts about the altered perception of reality remain. Reality waits for Saturn to enter Aries in late May. Saturn, soon after entering Aries, goes retrograde and its business here is deepened and extended by retrograde motion. We learn that reality isn’t telling us the whole truth, but at least we know this. There’s work to be done over time; nothing will happen quickly enough. All of it will be a mess until Saturn and Neptune work out the adjustments from years in Pisces. Some people are going to be very upset and frustrated, but be grateful that this is spread out over weeks and months because it would be worse if it were concentrated into a short period of time. Saturn’s retrograde motion prolongs this episode of reality adjustment through at least April of 2026. It will end its retrograde motion in November of 2025 and move direct, across into Aries from Pisces, for the final time in February of 2026.
With Neptune there’s always the possibility that we face a health problem that reaches across borders. The problems we will face and solutions we may try will take over a year to sort out. Neptune goes retrograde in September of 2025 and backs into Pisces one more time. It goes direct and crosses into Aries again in January of 2026. These extended transits back and forth usually mean we have a very complicated knot to untangle and it takes time to do it. This seems like prolonging the pain, but stretching things out like this allows us the opportunity to be somewhat careful and not wholly destructive, not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We will need this time to reorient our heads and be clear about what is in our hearts. Patience will be at a premium.

Transiting Saturn on Trump’s Chart

In mid to late February 2025, new president Trump has a number of Saturn transits to planets in his natal chart. In his 7th house, Saturn in transit is inconjunct Trump’s natal 2nd house Jupiter. This is likely when some major economic decisions emerge from his cabinet with some positive expectations on his part. (What they consider positive.) Transiting Saturn is also square his natal 10th house Sun and North Nodes. There are a lot of problems with others outside his circle about these decisions, and it immediately lowers his standing across all parties. Something like slashing Social Security. Senior citizens of both parties don’t like those words; neither do their children, who would feel obligated to take action, as would politicians of all stripes who want to be re-elected. There will be a lot of hand-wringing.
The square to the North Nodes is a decision that feels debilitating to historic or established values, but that is something his supporters voted to support about him. The square to his natal Sun suggests this decision will cost him in popularity including among his supporters.
The same series of squares has transiting Saturn square his natal 4th house Moon. Maybe he decides to be president from Mar-a-Lago, not the White House. A week later transiting Saturn trines his natal Saturn/Venus, putting a happier face on it, but Saturn and Venus never do better than a somber happy face.

On the US chart...

Transiting Saturn is trine the US natal 7th house Sun now and will be for a couple more months in its retrograde and then direct motion. This is a positive indicator for relations with allies, but within a month’s time, transiting Saturn will square the US natal 7th house Mars, and that’s depressing news for allies. If an announcement is made in mid to late February that affects allies - like a peace plan for the war in Ukraine - it’s welcome news. But the actual plan, as revealed later when transiting Saturn squares Mars, isn’t good news for allies. It draws clear lines of Saturn-inspired restrictions on (Mars) military support, for example. In terms of the US chart, this is a negative; it’s a square aspect. Saturn is also making an opposition to Neptune in the US natal 9th house at this time. This is an indicator of not living up to the national ideals or higher standards established when the nation was born (natal chart), which is when Neptune was at this degree in the 9th house. This is the direction of the country for now. Saturn opposition Neptune by transit is a period with a confused sense of direction, confusion between the established national credo and a new direction that conflicts with it.
Neptune is on a similar journey approaching the end of its time in Pisces. Neptune’s transit into Aries will be inconjunct Trump’s natal 12th house Mars and square his natal 10th house Sun, Uranus and North Nodes. That’s a lot to run up against. There’s definite disorientation around this transit. Energy (Mars)is short-circuited from within the psyche (12th house) in sudden shifts and fits. He will have difficulty staying on subject and public speaking should be kept to a minimum to avoid embarrassment. This is not new to the presidency. Ronald Regan needed careful management in his second term as his mental faculties declined. Transiting Neptune will also trine Trump’s natal 11th house Saturn/Venus. If he is in public, best to be in a crowd where a wandering speech pattern is normal.

This period of squares from Neptune that muddies things up, and the Saturn transit later that chops them up in the editing process, forces structural changes in how the US relates to its allies.

Saturn edits, simplifies, and shows naked realities. Saturn usually creates an environment of austerity, no frills. Saturn restricts or denies investment of energy. These new conditions will last a long time as these planets move slowly and in direct/retrograde motion in these transiting aspects for a few years. Ultimately these transits bring a necessary evolution, even beneficial. But these powerful outer planets affect the whole world, and everyone is forced to go through the meat grinder. Pluto and Saturn processes are seldom pleasant, even though they can create something new and wonderful from the ashes of their initial breakdown and austerity phases. Collectively we can’t get to the new creation without going through the destruction.
I recall a description by Picasso explaining that he arrived at the final success in his creative process after first going through the birth of a great idea, then destroying it or breaking it down and reforming it. I understand this as an artist, but in daily life, it can be very messy.

To finish up with my original meandering supposition, a solar flare may not seem as devastating as a nuclear war, and war is on many Astrologer’s agendas for the coming year as the agent of sudden upsetting change, a war that reshapes our current living arrangements. A flare that knocks out the technology around a nuclear power plant creates a very hazardous situation with results similar to that of a nuclear dirty bomb. There are something like 440 nuclear power plants in the world; even a limited number of those having a meltdown is a tremendous toxicity event. Conventional war does not use nuclear weapons, but conventional weapons can still cause a nuclear power plant to fail.
Some Astrologers expect humankind to contact aliens within the next several months or a year. That would be nice; hopefully, they’re not the kind that sees us as lunch. A more likely scenario is humans attempt the beginning of a nuclear war and aliens prevent it, then we know they are here. I don’t like the idea of graduating into a space federation by failing and nearly killing everyone. I also don’t like the idea that we can’t solve our own problems without nuclear war, and if not, we shouldn’t be admitted into anything.
Some Astrologers are calling for humankind to make an extraordinary leap and suddenly, two years from now, have limited telepathic abilities. Part of this belief is that it is alien technology that gave us cell phones, and this was training for being in near-constant contact. It’s too big a bite for me to swallow, and I don’t want to know other people’s thoughts unless they tell them to me. I know I don’t want someone telepathically sending me a message at 2 AM as some marketers for Bitcoin do on my phone.

Reinvention and changing lifestyles

July 1, 2026, Chiron moves into Taurus, almost at exactly the same time Uranus leaving Taurus moves into Gemini. Their semi-sextile will take a long time to work itself out, two to three years, because of retrograde motion. Chiron is, like Lilith, an asteroid; it’s about 135 kilometers wide and located between Saturn and Uranus. Chiron also moves slowly and will be a part of the Pluto Uranus trine over these years of repair, rebuilding, and healing technology. Uranus in Gemini in a trine with Pluto in Aquarius is the kind of years-long positive reinvention needed to develop new technologies rapidly. That is, rapidly compared to the centuries it took for mankind to do it as we know it now. But this “rapidly” will not be fast enough for most people who depend upon technology now. Lifestyles will be altered greatly.

Comments welcome.
David can also be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.

0 Comments