The Return of the Earth Element

On Dec 16 Lynn made the following point: “There has been a serious dearth of the earth element over the past six or seven years, resulting in an environment that lacks stability and structure. With Saturn now in Virgo and Jupiter and Pluto moving into Capricorn that situation is being remedied to the extreme. We will see a more conservative approach to all things, not necessarily political conservatism, but a conservatism that demands restraint and patience rather than the reckless and impulsive actions which have dominated the Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius era.”

All the inner planets from the Sun through to Mars have, of course, been making their regular passages through the earth signs. But the planets from Jupiter outwards are increasingly less personal and more concerned with collective trends. And none of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have been in earth signs since Neptune finally left Capricorn in late 1998. These are the truly collective planets, and we have been without earth in this respect for a long time now. Pluto is not yet in Capricorn, and won’t be established there till later this year.


So it is no surprise, for example, that it has been impossible to establish an international agreement on the environment and climate change. The earth element is concerned with the facts on the ground (to borrow an unfortunate Israeli expression). If earth is lacking, then these facts don’t count for very much, they don’t impact. The Kyoto protocol was agreed in 1997 – the last gasp of Neptune in Capricorn – but has since proved impossible to implement.

Incredibly, in 2003 the US went to war in Iraq without a proper plan as to what to do afterwards, and without reasons that could be backed up by facts. During the 90s, with Neptune and Uranus in Capricorn, the US had been able to restrain itself.

Since 1998, we have had 2 financial bubbles: the dotcom bubble of 2000, when stocks prices in the newly established dotcom sector went way over the top, causing a hangover for the US economy, that Bill Clinton urged Americans to spend their way out of (not exactly a down-to-earth solution); and now there has been a credit bubble, in which banks have lent huge amounts of money in irresponsible ways and passed the buck all over the world, so no-one knows who is liable; and in which consumers have also built up large amounts of debt.

The downside of earth is that the imagination can get stifled, everything becomes defined by what seem to be fixed practical limitations and traditions. This time of no earth has also been the period in which the internet has taken off in all sorts of ways that couldn’t have been predicted, unhampered by too much legislation or financial limitations (it can still be pretty much free to get your stuff out there). So this has been a positive outcome, the imagination has had free rein. It can be seen as the result of the mutual reception between Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius, which still has a few years to run.

But I think we urgently need the earth element back, even though it may mean, for example, that we get charged to set up a blog, or to continue running a successful one.

The reason we need the earth element back is because of the huge crises around the corner – energy needs, environmental degradation, nuclear proliferation – any one of which could threaten our survival. These issues need addressing, and we need the earth element to do so. We need to be able to address facts. Politically they are now on the agenda, but not much has been done practically, and nor have any of these issues yet seriously interfered with our everyday lives. Life is still carrying on as normal, but it’s only a matter of time before it won’t be able to carry on as normal – because the price of energy has soared, because of flooded cities and crop destruction and hurricanes, or because a nuclear armed Islamist Pakistan is holding the Middle East to ransom.


OK, that’s all a bit alarmist, but there are these huge issues that we can all see, whose time is almost upon us. If anything can force us to see sense collectively, it is Pluto in Capricorn: the empowerment (Pluto) of practical sense (Capricorn). As Uranus comes up to square this Pluto in a few years time, we will find some surprising solutions to our collective problems.

I am quite optimistic about Pluto’s passage through Capricorn, because it is so timely, and because the Ingress Chart looks so good: Pluto conjunct the 2 Benefics, Venus and Jupiter, and trine to earthy Saturn in earthy Virgo. OK, we will probably get over-conservative and cautious, but at least we will be doing more of what is necessary to ensure our survival.