Is there an omen in the alignment of the planets?
What kind of year will 2021 be? Astrologers claim they can garner information about what is likely to happen by studying the relative movements of celestial objects. While I’m not a follower of astrologers and/or their horoscopes, a headline on a newspaper did catch my eye.
The headline advised that astrologers claim that 2021 is going to be “a time of great change”. You may well ask: what, if anything, does that mean? It could mean anything, especially with on-going COVID-19 pandemic uncertainty and the unknown impacts of Brexit continuing to loom ominously over us. The article went on to report that the astrologers evidence for their claim was ‘ The Great Conjunction’.
For those not familiar with it, ‘ The Great Conjunction’ was an alignment of the planets Jupiter and Saturn that occurred on Monday 21 December, the day of the winter solstice just before Christmas. As the sun set, its rays lit up the two gas giants as they rose together above the horizon in the south-western sky. The conjunction was forecast to happen just 10 degrees above the horizon, that is, about the width of your fist held at arm’s length.
Together the two planets were forecast to emit a bright light that some claim was the source of the Star of Bethlehem that guided the Three Wise Men, the biblical Magi, to visit the baby Jesus after his birth at Christmas time.
Like athletes running in their lanes around a track, the planets move around the Sun each in its own orbit. ‘ The Great Conjunction’ is a rare astrological event that occurs when Saturn, that is farther away, and Jupiter, that is nearer to us, align on our line of sight appearing to merge into one.
In my neck of the woods, a view of the conjunction on the solstice was marred by early fog and low cloud followed by rain but a few days later there were stunning views of the two gas giants pulling away from each other in a spectacular evening sky on Christmas Eve. If you missed it, there is probably no joy in telling you that the next Great Conjunction is forecast to occur on Christmas Day in the year 2874.
While I don’t believe in omens, I hope that the astrologers are right, I hope that 2021 will be ‘a time of great change’, that the change will be for the good of people everywhere, and that we all enjoy the New Year whatever changes it may bring.