Lunar Eclipse Reflection: from 1989 to now 🌕
“Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists.” – Rebecca Solnit
The Saturn-Neptune conjunction that we are living through concludes a cycle that begin in 1989, the year the “World Wide Web” was conceived at CERN. Saturn and Neptune joining in the sky is often described as a time of disillusionment and bubbles bursting. Saturn governs the structures and confines of our material reality, and Neptune as an archetype aligns more with the divine ocean of oneness that exists beyond the world of form. When these planets meet, as they are now, all that connects and divides us has the potential to transform. In 1989 their meeting in earth sign Capricorn coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, among other revolutionary movements. Uranus, the outer planet governing disruption and technology, joined them in Capricorn at that time. From then to now, our world has dramatically transformed through the widespread adoption and innovation of internet-based tech, beginning with that vision of an online network connecting all of humanity.
For many millennials, we were raised in a fever dream of techno-optimism, and became among the first to adopt these new tools as they emerged. Accelerations in tech during this time often aligned with turning points in the Neptune-Saturn cycle, such as Mac’s personal computer launching in 1998 (opening square) and the iPhone in 2007 (Saturn-Neptune opposition). In 2016, the cycle’s closing square, the real-world consequences of this new technology became more obvious through the US presidential election with heavy influence from “fake news” and internet bot-farms.
Now, in 2026, many of us are deeply aware the dire and fearsome consequences of tech run amok: our government contracting artificial intelligence companies to bolster its endless thirst for war and ceaseless quest for total surveillance of its own people.
Driverless cars impeding first responders ability to save mass shooting victims. Our own degraded attention spans, fascism shaped by twitter, betting markets on war crimes, and so many other absurdities and horrors.
This is not the future we were promised, but it is one we were warned about. It is easy to linger in disbelief, it is more painful and terrifying to accept that this is our gruesome reality. This confluence of late stage capitalism, unchecked technological advancement, neoliberal imperialism, and aggrieved white supremacist patriarchy have landed us in a world that is hardly recognizable and whose contemplation easily leads one to madness, rage, escapism, and despair.
This is the disillusionment of the Saturn-Neptune cycle laid bare, and the return meeting of these planets tells us another seed is being planted, right now.
Knowing what time it is on our cosmic clock, as another cycle begins, my heart is heavy. So long as we are held captive in the imaginations of ruthless, egomaniacal billionaires, finding the way through this morass to a living, thriving future feels like speculative fiction. The overarching story is a continuation of the violent patriarchal death cult that has held humanity hostage for centuries. But there are other places to look, too, away from that storyline, and into the crevices, crooks, and cracks from which old ways and new ways are sprouting, still.
Halfway through the cycle of this spread, I hear it asking,
what helps you stay present and attuned to this world, as it is right now? What lifeforms and life ways help you to practice and cultivate hope in the future? What are you seeing more clearly, in this moment, about the world? From this vantage point, where are you willing to travel? What seed are you seeking to nurture into being?
The Lovers card at the base of this spread invites us into a foundation of love – for ourselves, for each other, and for the world. To truly love a world that is being so abused and tormented by our systems is to have our hearts broken again and again. And so we try to distract ourselves from this love, and from the truth of what our societal structures our doing to our world (seven of swords). To love the world is to confront our grief for all that we cannot save, and to acknowledge our own complicity in the systems that are brutalizing this planet.
What would you do differently if you immersed yourself in your love for the world?
The Hermit knows how to walk the path where no one’s gone before. It’s his courage that is necessary, to overturn the technofascist imagination and find our way home to the abundant, thriving future that is our birthright. The Hermit walks a lonely path but this is not work we can do alone. The King of Swords is the clarity of what moral responsibility looks like for each of us. The clarity that the world can be otherwise, if we nurture these seeds. The Queen of Pentacles balances our ability to tend to our own needs with our midwifing of the dream. The King of Swords is clear about the treacherous path ahead, but together, we can find a way.
These technological innovations could be wielded so differently, towards our most pressing crises of climate change, poverty, and social inequality, instead of in profit-driven domination. A reorientation of our systems toward the cultivation and preservation of life seems far-fetched, but so did robot wars 37 years ago.
