Physical to Digital
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The other morning, I heard a broadcaster on the stock market channel, MSNBC, say the phrase “physical to digital”. This phrase struck a chord in me as it summarizes one of the major transitions we are living through. The commentator was talking about a retail ‘bricks and mortar” company that has become an online store, in order to stay in business. Its physical location is now up in in the air, in a cloud somewhere, unseen. Of course, this trend predates the covid-19 epidemic, but the pandemic has greatly accelerated it.
Even for strictly “brick and mortar” businesses, an online presence seems to be essential now, not only for actual sales and visibility, but as a way for customers to find information about products, services and procedures for pre-orders and pickup.
An online presence demands technological expertise as reflected in the growth of the technology companies that work behind the scenes. Behind the face of the website, there are layers of technology employed that allow one click to result in merchandise appearing on your doorstep.
The discrepancy between the physical and digital is even seen in their respective “supply chains”. In my small hometown, there is a disruption in the physical supply chains, where not only is toilet paper scarce but it is more difficult to get supplies from a hardware store, books from a bookstore or tulips for Mother’s Day. This is in stark contrast to the rapid and speedy “supply chain” in the internal invisible realms that is connecting millions of homebound people on sites like Zoom.
It strikes me that we cannot see all that goes on in our daily lives because so much has become digital. Exaggerated by the lockdown, we no longer go to a store to see and feel and weigh something, instead we look at a picture on a magic screen and click to order it. Money has even become digital. We do not see it or hold it.
When did this trend begin? In the early 80’s you might say with the introduction of the first personal computer (Commodore) in January 1982. Or perhaps it goes back farther to the beginning of the use of radar and wi-fi during WWII. In any event we are heading full steam ahead into a digital age.
Why are we moving from physical to digital now and at such an accelerated pace? Astrologers would assign it to the December 2020 conjunction of the two major cultural-trend planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as they begin a new 200- year journey in the air signs (Aquarius, Gemini and Libra} As different ideas and belief systems take hold in the collective, a new beginning in our political, scientific, economic, social, and religious life will commence.
Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions have been seen by astrologers, priests and wise men dating back to the Babylonians 2000 BC, when natural phenomena, including unusual planetary activity were viewed as a message from the gods.
In 1802, as the Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum, there began a 200-year era of Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions in earth signs. When planets conjoin in earth signs, we might expect to see societal infrastructure, physical, as in roads, buildings, cities, water, electrical and plumbing infrastructures and political as in political parties and systems of policing and judicial and governmental systems: substantial wealth creation; extensive use of natural resources and an emphasis on the production of material goods, as was true in this period.
When this conjunction occurs in air signs, as it will in December, we might expect rapid social progress, significant intellectual and technological development and unfamiliar concepts entering human consciousness. The air element is about communications, social relationships that affect how we treat our fellow humans and ideas, in contrast to the accumulation of physical objects and use/misuse of our natural resources that were maximized during the earth cycle.
At this moment, we are developing our ability to communicate with each other without being physically present and how to purchase our necessities without leaving our homes. Air is invisible, unseen forces in its realm are operating out of sight -as if by magic- to accomplish these tasks. Rather than exerting physical force, we find ourselves using great mental energy to figure out how to operate within the reality of our current, complex situation.
There is also evidence of this shift in the pandemic itself, as it spread through the air. We can trace the beginning of the present cycle to 1980 when the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in air sign Libra first appeared, before returning to earth signs in May 2000. As mentioned above, the first personal computer appeared in 1982, along with the dawn of the internet and cyber space age and the AIDS epidemic, which was first declared a pandemic by the CDC on June 5th, 1981.
This painting of Hans Holbein the Elder depicts the High Middle Ages and the last time the Jupiter Saturn conjunctions occurred in the air signs, 1186-1405. This looks to my eyes to be a precursor to our digital and cyber internet age as it depicts the monks secluded hundreds of miles apart in their separate monasteries, translating and embellishing those beautiful scriptural and ancient texts that had recently come into Europe with the Arabian conquest. It was the monks transcribing, codifying and spreading the ideas that were contained in those ancient Greek and Latin texts along invisible links and supply chains that lead directly into the Renaissance.
Perhaps our current forced retreats to our own private “monasteries”-alone, yet together-will produce a social and cultural movement as significant as the Renaissance.
On a far more difficult note: The Black Death, which killed between 75-200 million people (1351-1397) was part of that earlier age. Jupiter Saturn conjunctions in air signs bring the circulation of new ideas and the enhancement of invisible connections, sadly they can also bring disastrous plagues.
