A conversation with Founder and CEO of Astrology Hub, Amanda ‘Pua’ Walsh & Astrologer Adam Sommer
After seeing a blog post that Adam wrote on Capricorn, the word “pan”, and the way things are playing out currently from an astrological perspective, Amanda invited Adam to come on The Astrology Hub Podcast and speak to the community about it.
Amanda: So, let’s just start with the premise, the ideas that you were discussing in that blog post and how understanding some of the things that are happening astrologically can help us make decisions about our best responses in this time.
Adam: The way I’ve been seeing this as a long term, medium term, short term way of cracking it down astrologically. And they’re all converging at once.
Amanda: Let’s talk about the long term cycle.
Adam: So it’s the rarity of outer body transits, right? Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008, yet hasn’t been there since the late 1700s. And so that in and of itself is unique. And the great gift that Pluto gave to the world in 2008 was the economic crisis, the housing bubble bursting, Obama becoming president. That was a pretty chaotic time as well. And you see that when planets ingress, when they move into a new sign, there’s usually an episode that occurs and it sets the tone for that planet’s time in that sign.
So really the hub of the whole wheel, I think with the long term transit (which I lovingly have been calling this the boneyard) is Pluto. And then you have Saturn. Pluto and Saturn come together every 36 years or so. The last time they were together was in the early 80s and for this to happen like this in Capricorn, nobody’s ever experienced it on the planet.
There’s the rarity factor of it for those two coming together like this. And just those voices alone is enough to cause, in a big world sense, a lot of change.
But Pluto purifies everything it touches. And this is really important language. People throw around the transformation idea with Pluto, but transformation is an entire process. First, there’s a confrontation of what’s toxic, and then there’s the extraction of that toxicity. Usually, there’s a death figuratively, but also literally as well. There’s death and there’s the rebirth. It’s a whole sequence. And Pluto in a way helps us through that sequence.
Saturn is the Lord of time. Saturn’s always like, “All right, well what’s the reality of the situation? What’s really happening in the world right now?” And so, when the two of them come together, the reality is something has to be purified. And we all have known this. There’s so many ways that the world is toxic. And so those are the two big hitters within the story.
Jupiter’s now a huge part of the equation and he’s been in Capricorn since early December. Jupiter’s nature is warm and moist, it makes things grow. That’s why it’s a Benefic, right? That’s why it expands. That’s why it inflates: it makes things grow. And so, this issue that I just laid out with Pluto and Saturn, it’s growing exponentially because of Jupiter’s presence.
And then finally you throw in this Mars piece, right? And Mars is the one who brings the fire. He hasn’t touched Saturn or Pluto; he’s headed there now. And without spreading fear around it, it’s very important to look objectively at that and know that until Mars is through the boneyard, this is not even close to over. And so, we have to know our center. We need to know what our role is.
There is really two choices in life, isn’t there? There’s the choice of fear or there’s a choice of love. And so we’re all beacons.
It’s very important that we are in our center and we’re choosing the path of light and love with this. And seeing that opportunity. It’s a massive opportunity to purify, release, and then segue into the Nodes. I think that with the Nodes, especially Ketu in Capricorn, there’s this great remembering that is occurring there. Even listening to stories of our grandparents and what they went through in different stages. Cause this isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with collective fear before. I mean there’s been some serious world issues in the past hundred years and so there’s a lot that we can learn from those that came before us.
Amanda: When you’re talking about Saturn, Saturn can be associated with fear as well. But the message that I have gotten directly from Saturn has been, “I am not here to make you afraid. I am not here to give you something to fear. I am here to teach you about fear itself. I am here to teach you about how fear operates so that you can liberate yourself from the grips of it.” Not stay in it, not perpetuate it, not proliferate it… LIBERATE from it. But how do you do that? You have to first understand how it works, how it works in you, what triggers it in you, what sets it off.
And then when you bring up the Nodes, when you talk about the collective fear, the traumas that we’ve been through as humanity. And when you think about our ability to so quickly go into fear, there’s a lot of accumulated trauma in our cells, in our DNA. And so paying attention to where that might be triggered in you. Where is the purification of the karmic story and how can you work with whatever karmic story is being highlighted or illuminated for you in this time so that you can change the storyline?
We don’t want to keep perpetuating the karma. We want to change the storyline.
Adam: That’s exactly how I talk about the Nodes. Ketu is the old story and we very much inherit it. I think there could be a genetic component to it. There’s definitely the ancestral component. There is an inheritance with Ketu. So it’s releasing an old story wherever this is happening in your chart. This is a really easy way to see what the invitation is for you, right? Where is this happening in your chart? Do you have planets and Capricorn? Do you have planets in Cardinal signs? Because everything is getting hit by this. And that is the invitation of how it’s changing the story.
And then you flip to the polarity where Rahu’s at, or the North Node in Cancer, and it shows us something that’s I think even a greater invitation. How we master ourselves and how we work with fear versus love. How can we then be the one that transmutes the energy? That’s the key. How do we transmute it? Where is it happening for you? That is the big story, right? Find it in your chart, what planets are involved, because those are the ones that are being called to action to really show up right now.
Amanda: Okay, let’s go to the next cycle. Medium term.
Adam: The medium term, which has a lot to do with the Cancer North Node and Rahu. With Rahu, it’s in search of meaning, it’s in search of a better story. That’s what Rahu relates. It’s a dragon after all. I’ve done so much work with the Nodes in my short astrology career over around 12 years. And the main issue I first encountered was that all these Western astrologers are saying the South Node is past lives, North node is our destiny. In India they’re saying something very different that Ketu is the spirit world or ancestors and then Rahu was a hungry ghost for the material world.
And so I’ve tried very hard to find the middle ground. What are these Nodes? I think the concept of them being this dragon is the most helpful. Because if you think about all the great stories, right? There’s always something like a dragon or a serpent in it. And if we borrow from Joseph Campbell and his exhaustive comparative mythology where he realized that we’re all telling the same story in a mythic way, like the hero’s journey.
We’re all on this journey, but there’s also a confrontation with the dragon at some point in it, and this is true with all of us, everyone has Rahu somewhere in the chart.
And when the Nodes are moving around the sky, when the sun gets close, we’re talking about eclipse season, right? And eclipses change the story. They throw a wrench in the whole narrative, and this is both collective and personal, and the story changes. It’s the most reliable thing to understand about working with eclipses. That’s why in working magic, trying to do ritual, talisman work, all that kind of stuff with eclipses is a terrible idea. It’s working with chaos. And I think that word is really important to remember with this second term, medium timeframe.
This all began in the eclipse window. It all started around eclipses, right? And so you have Rahu and Ketu consuming the luminaries. That’s what they do. They eat the Sun in the moon, but they’re not whole. So they just like slip through the other side. That’s the imagery that the Jyotishis give us around what’s happening — changes the story. And dragons are a symbol of ultimate power and chaos.
One of the oldest stories that we have is of Marduk defeating Tiamat, this water dragon of chaos, and chopping up the dragon and creating the earth and the heavens. It’s one of the oldest stories we have and it’s keeping chaos at bay. It’s kind of like the human experiment. Like, can we create order just long enough and hold it before chaos comes back in? When eclipses happen, chaos enters. And it’s not bad. This is the great narrative that’s happening.
We’re all in search of stories that speak to our soul and that awaken us to face the dragon.
Because we’re not going to do it in our leisure time, facing a dragon is intense. We need to be inspired to face the dragon. We need to realize that our life is stagnant or whatever problems we’re going through. And then we identify Rahu in the chart and we get inspired, right? It’s like Gandalf comes around and gets Bilbo to go and face the dragon. Sometimes we need just chaos to enter for a moment for this to happen.
I do think that wherever Rahu and Cancer are at in the chart is showing you a secret. There, that area is where it shows up. And for you it’s your sixth house, isn’t it? Because your sixth house is Cancer. So the greatest expression of the sixth house is being of service: How can I be of service? How can I help? And through what you’re doing, that’s it. That’s the Rahu story. You’re riding the dragon.
Amanda: Riding the dragon. That’s cool. I’m thinking as you’re talking about what we hold on to that inspires us to face the dragon, and hopefully, eventually, ride the dragon. It’s the stories. So, in this time, why don’t we all seek out those stories? The stories that inspire us, that uplift us, that remind us. It’s time to remember who we are. It’s time to remember our power to create the reality.
Adam: All I’m doing, it seems as an astrologer, is helping people find themselves in their story and to introduce them to the dragon and the rest of the cast of characters and then inspire them to make alliances with everyone, right? To play out the highest expression of the story. Cause I think that’s what’s happening. We’re being dreamt in some sense. And great stories are worthy of constellations and so we want to have great stories and the only way we find great stories is by being brave and courageous and basically knowing where our resistance is. Like we need to understand our edge and our resistance — where we have that voice that wants us to be lazy and you have to conquer that voice.
That’s where Mars comes in. Mars is our capacity of pushing that aside and willfully moving forward. Training, practicing, being able to face anything. Because we are facing something none of us have ever experienced before. We need a lot of Mars. Mars isn’t just a troublemaker. We need that warrior vibe strong right now and that doesn’t mean stockpiling ammunition, it means showing up for your community and for everyone and being a beacon of good energy. Because it transmutes everything around you.
Amanda: We’re all concerned about making sure that the people around us are safe too. One of the best ways to do that is to be the light.
Adam: Yup. So simple, right? Like we hear it all the time.
Amanda: It sounds cliché but it’s the hardest thing to do at a time like now, especially when people are locked into that fight or flight response. Okay, so let’s talk about the short term cycle.
Adam: The short term one is our lovely magician, Hermes. Mercury. And the whole story really began to get everyone’s attention, I think, once Mercury went retrograde. It was happening before the retrograde that just occurred in Pisces, but it really wrapped up during this retrograde.
Pisces relates to the untamed wild. If you think about the great metaphors we use for it, like the ocean or the universe, you cannot contain either of them. They’re great, vast mysteries. And the same is true of the intelligence of nature and I really do feel that this is nature doing her handiwork. And we can’t pretend to understand why or what or how long the whole thing is. But trusting in nature’s intelligence, I find it very liberating in times like this. Gaia has an immune system too and we have been living very unsustainably for a very long time.
Amanda: I’m thinking about the magician and magic, and what you just said about words.
The term abracadabra, which means “I create as I speak.” And so that’s acknowledging the power, the magic of those words that we are choosing to utter into the universe.
Adam: I mean that really is my angle, Amanda, on this is. From that smallest timeframe and then working way back, Mercury is overlooked too often and these Mercury cycles are so powerful. They are so incredibly potent in how they work. And so we are in a Mercury in Pisces cycle now. Like, what idea do you want to get claimed with? So those are my angles on it. And as far as a timeline, I would say pay very close attention to Mars as Mars is going to cross all of them.
Mars Conjunction Dates:
March 19, 2020: Mars conjunct Athena in Capricorn
March 20, 2020: Mars conjunct Jupiter in Capricorn (Also the Equinox)
March 23, 2020: Mars conjunct Pluto in Capricorn
March 31, 2020: Mars conjunct Saturn in Aquarius
Adam: [On Mars conjunct Saturn] That one is interesting because that one’s going to happen in Aquarius.
Amanda: What do you think the shift into Aquarius is going to bring to the storyline?
Adam: It is hopeful. I mean every sign that follows the one before it is a response to what came before it, right? So, Aquarius is an attempt to innovate and improve. We’ll just say the system and there’s a lot of different ways that the system has to be improved, right? And so Saturn moving to Aquarius, it’s going to be there for 2 ½ years. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction is a big deal, that’s happening at the end of the year in early Aquarius too.
I think just the continuation of how online communities are evolving, like through podcasting and other networks. This is changing people’s worlds entirely. Just being able to listen to a podcast and feel, not that just you’re learning something all the time, but like feeling like you’re a part of a community is a huge need for people in the world. So many of us are isolated these days and I really do think that podcasts are a surprising solution, a digital way for that, for so many people.
That angle is big with Aquarius, Saturn and Aquarius and realizing: what is the vision of the future? What needs to be changed? And yeah, there’s the adoption of new technologies for sure that are going to help within that. But we’re in a black swan moment, Amanda. So it’s really hard to say.
Amanda: What does that mean? What’s a black swan moment?
Adam: It comes from this idea that black swans don’t exist, but then they discovered that they existed. The term is used in regards to an event that could not be predicted that happens and changes everything. That’s the idea of a black swan. Didn’t think it existed, didn’t think it was possible, it comes in and changes everything.
Amanda: What about the term boneyard that you’ve used?
Adam: I do use it lovingly in the sense that like, my main angle of saying it like that is around the ancestors. Of reconnecting with that lineage. But it’s also the metaphorical piece — so much is dying, right? So much we’re letting go of. The structure of our own personal lives and in this big world that gets what is toxic has to go. And it goes to the boneyard. It becomes food and hopefully like strong prayer for like our future selves.
But the main one is around ancestors because I think that this whole configuration has really been helping us get in contact with this whole concept of — what is it? Is it a vague concept? Does it mean that I’m half Irish, half German or is there something much deeper, much stranger that can only be accessed through dreams or visions and those types of states. Because it is real. And we walk with a lot of these ancestors and spirits. And their voices I think are very strong right now. And it is the dancing and the singing and the storytelling and just a way of living with nature.
I mean it’s always there, but right now it seems very alive. And around the purification side of things, seeing what needs to be removed and then, because of that, how do we move forward? What does this look like as far as our everyday lives? It’s been hard, we’re all going to be wavering and so it’s important to reach out to your friends and those that you know will raise up your vibes a little bit and share your fears. It’s important. Abracadabra.
Amanda: Yes, yes. Get your wand of light out. Abracadabra all over the place.
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