Astrology and the human condition

Oh, welcome back to Ask Steve Judd. I'm Sue Brain and good morning, Steve. Lovely to see you on this gorgeous, yeah, kind of gorgeous morning. Anyway, it's cold January and we've decided we're going to explore the human condition because it seems to be coming up in all sorts of different ways, some very heroic and some definitely not. So, Steve, where would you like to start on this? Well, I find it interesting that as we start, as we speak now, the moon is at 29 degrees, 59 minutes of Cancer. It's going to oppose Pluto in the next two, three hours. And well, moon opposite Pluto is one of the most difficult aspects in a natal chart. So any child being born now is going to have tremendous potential for psychological growth and development and influencing others in a positive way as they age. But they're also going to have to deal with a lot of fear and phobia and potentially paranoia as well when they're young. And if you take that away from the idea of a child being born now and look at what it means for the world, I suggest that where we are right now, it's very easy to talk about the undercurrents, what it is that makes people do things which they wouldn't normally do, driven in a compulsive or obsessive way to do things, sometimes brilliantly, gives incredible stamina and resilience and determination, but it can also be for the negative. Well, and that's Pluto digging up the unconscious. It is Pluto at play here, the hidden, that darker part, the power struggles, the control issues, the paranoia. Absolutely. And boom, the moon's just moved into Leo. Great. Yeah. And I think the moon has played a very strong part, the full moon in Cancer. We were just talking about this before we started recording, which was with beautiful Mars next door to it. But there was the moon, the mother, the home, right next door to Mars fire. And look how that's played out. It was literally within two days of the fires really taking hold and people's homes being destroyed. Well, in the short term, the full moon was conjunct Mars and now the moon is opposite Pluto and the sun will be opposite Mars over the next 60 hours, comes to exactness in about two and a half days' time. Morning, Kat. But in the background, yes, at the moment, sun and moon hitting Mars and Pluto. Yeah. So it's like a sudden crescendo. Yeah. But in the background, we are still in Mars opposite Pluto. Which is really the sign of bipolarism, isn't it? It's about the violent baby who will kick and scream and fight to get whatever it is they think they want. And if they still can't get it, then they'll fight themselves. They'll bite themselves and sabotage themselves. It's extreme behaviour. It's extreme behaviour. And we're seeing this in the world in so many different ways in this time. Yes, it's interesting how it's becoming more potent, isn't it? And I know Mars is moving, is in Cancer and it's going to come back again into Leo. And I think that crossover from into Leo is going to be again, I think it's April, isn't it? It is, yeah, something like the 26th of April. I think that's going to be a very pokey time as well. Just one for the listeners' diaries. Mars is opposite Pluto for the final time around the 27th of April. But on the 27th of April, there's a new moon. And that new moon is going to be at three degrees, four degrees, five degrees of Taurus, square Mars and square Pluto. So that 25, 26, 27, 28 April period is scary. Yes, it is, isn't it? I mean, is it more scary than things are now? We're just in chaos. I think that's what it is. And I think it's shocking chaos. And the planet is doing its job, which is like, you've got to pay attention. Things are not going to remain the same. Things are going to change. They just are. And the planet is driving that change. Yes, because we need the planet. The planet doesn't need us. Absolutely. Let me show you something. Look, listen, you'll understand this. Most people would just think, what the hell is that? Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Right. That is the guts of what I do to work out what's going on over the coming year for each side. And then I distill it into about five or six different lines. And then I distill it further. And it's pretty clear to me that with the absolute extreme intensity of astrological configurations that we're heading into now, that the period of, well, starting now with the nodal reversal from Aries into Pisces a couple of days ago, this is the first shot. But particularly from late March through to early August, we're heading into a really crazy time. And then it'll plateau for six months until February, March of next year. But this is the transition of the planets into all the big changes that are going on that people like you and I have been talking with each other about for a long time now. This is the start. This is the great shift in 2025. Yeah. Well, the actual result, what's fascinating is that the Saturn-Neptune, when the Saturn-Neptune gets at their closest, they're still going to be quarter of a degree apart. The Uranus-Pluto trine is going to be about one degree apart when it's at its closest this year. The Saturn-Pluto sextile won't be exact this year. It's all going to be exact in February, March, April of next year. But it's all getting to within one degree this year. So it's like a wave, but it doesn't quite peak. Yes. It's a giant swell that's yet to crest. Yes. But it's making people do some damn stupid things and some heroic things. Yes. I have to balance some of the positives here. I note this morning that there are signs of an end to the violence in the Middle East. God, let's pray to God there is. We're on a Mars-Pluto opposition. It's probably not going to work. I wish it would. No. Not good, judging by the impact it's having on both Israel and Palestine. Yes. All it's going to take is one right-wing member of the Israeli military or one hardcore fundamentalist on the Islamic side to take one action and that'll blow the whole thing out of the water. And doing one action that blows things out of the water is a very trademark thing of Mars opposite Pluto. Yes, absolutely. It's almost like the violence of Mars is just being fed by this. It's all about control and power. And I want your land and I want this and I want that and I don't want you. And there is so little compassion, isn't there? There's so little give and take with especially, I mean, I'm not a politician, by the way, but this is my understanding of what's happening and has been happening in the Middle East for, I mean, really since the states were formed. Yeah. And we have to take responsibility. All of us have to take responsibility for what's happening. We are part of the human condition. We're not separate from what's happening. We're not. Well, I think on the long run, one of the positives of all these big changes that's coming up is that we are seeing the death knell of organised religion. Yes. And that's got to be a good thing from an astrological perspective, because most of the war in the Middle East has always been about religion. Yes, yes, yes. It's also been about land. But anyway, yes. With the land grabs, I mean, the last time that someone really tried to take over other people's land was 1939. And that didn't work very well. So many people, God, suffered and died. And but, you know, I think this is, you know, I was thinking, Steve, I've just been reading for my to cool my brain. I read historical novels. And I think Philip, I've just been reading one of Philip Gregory's historical novels about the Tudor, the Tudor time. And they were dreadful to each other then. They were, they were dreadful to, we've always been fighting. The humanity has always been fighting itself. So what's the root of that? Well, this is a big philosophical question, isn't it? I think it's greed. I want what you've got, or I have and you haven't and you're, you know, and you're my surf. I'm better than you. I'm better than you. This sort of hierarchical thing. And we haven't begun to deal with that. We as a species have a competitive urge. That is what makes us want to go faster, bigger, better. And it's fine in the context of an Olympic Games, for example. Yes. But when it comes to warfare, but then if we didn't have that competitive urge, would we as a species have survived? Well, this, you see, this is it, isn't it? I mean, this is, this is, it's such as it's such a conundrum. We're so, I look at humanity and we are utterly brilliant. We're so creative and original and well, of course, we're original. And we're so able to think out of the box. And we're so able to be in the box and not think out of the box. And again, it's this major polarization. And I wonder, I'm just wondering at the moment, this is astrology coming in again, whether this Mars Pluto is saying, listen, this is, it's so in our faces with the fires. So, and with the Middle East, is this Pluto showing us how can we do this differently? Does it have to be aggression all the time? You talked to me before we started about a few days ago about citizens arrest in Los Angeles, where four guys jumped on a guy who was carrying a flamethrower. Yes, he was. That's what the news said. Yes. So why do people go out and start fires or add to existing fires? Are they doing it for YouTube hits? Are they doing it for, what is it that makes people do things like this? Are they so disenchanted with the way they've had, what they see as having had little chances? I deal with so many clients and the vast majority of the people I deal with strive. They face their chances and they do their very best to deal with them. And two or 3%, they can never break free of the, my life is so hard. Poor me, I've been such a victim. Everything goes wrong for me. And they can't seem to shift out of it. So they seek to apportion blame. And so many times when I'm discussing big philosophical issues, like we are today, people will turn around and say, oh, yeah, but it's the Israeli. Oh, it's the Palestinian. Oh, it's the Russian fault. And you can't see outside the blame game. I mean, everything is playing out the human condition. This is how I see the world. And every single act that happens, we are playing out the human condition. And for me, some of the human condition is not great. Others, it's fantastic. Oh, I'm going to hate myself for saying this. From an evolutionary astrological perspective, and I am not an evolutionary astrologer. I love it. I don't. But from an evolutionary perspective, as an astrologer, this is what the movement of the outer planets into a whole new paradigm is saying. It's saying, okay, you're now going to get the chance to transform, to regenerate, to rebirth, to upgrade or not. Now, again, there's two sides to this. Is this a collective thing where we say, okay, well, we've all got to do it together, otherwise it's not going to work? Or is it going to be that some people are going to take their chances and move forward and the poor me's victims, martyrs are going to gradually fade away like the dinosaurs? Well, Dolores Cannon was very good on this. I don't know if you've ever heard of her. She's a bit way out. She died quite a few years ago now, but she wrote several books about, she was a seer and she saw this time coming and how the humanity would be split into two. The people that wanted to really take response, I'm going to say, use this language, take responsibility for themselves and really enter into a consciousness, I hope that's the right word, of doing things differently or maybe going back to ancient ways where the nature was at the core of their respect for life and their respect for their mortality and others that didn't. There would be a very big divide between the two. I used to think, what a load of rubbish. I don't anymore. No, I kind of agree with you. Is that not a perspective of age? You don't get any practice in growing old. There's no training programme. You're suddenly there and you think, oh, how did that happen? And then you realise that, yeah, I'm seeing things differently now. Is it because I'm old or is it because I'm experienced? I didn't used to think like this when I was 25, but then I've think that's generational. And I think there are some young people I've met who are stonking and they seem to have got the plot already. There's a lot that haven't, but I do, and I think the celebrity culture has done a huge amount to damage young people's, what do you want to call it, growth, because it's so overwhelming for them that they don't look like them and feeding their self-esteem and self-worth. But the young people I've met who are definitely grounded and they want to make this world a better place, they do. And I have faith in them. But the leaders, I think the big thing is, Steve, we don't have a leader. And I was thinking last night, I don't know how you're thinking about this, but of all the sort of people who have riven to the top, like the Mandellas, you know, what an amazing man, or even Princess Di. She was an icon in her time. She did great work, fatally flawed like the rest of us, but we don't have. Where are our leaders? Head above the parapet, you're going to get shot at. Wherever there's been leaders, they get sniped at, shot at, taken down. There's always the odd exceptions, such as Mandela. But it seems to me that in this day and age where the cult of personality is all, although it's about to crumble massively, it seems the best thing one can do is not so much lead others, because as soon as you start telling anyone else how to live, you're in trouble. But instead, to catalyse others into making decisions for themselves, raising people's intelligence so that they can see the reality of the situation. When I found out a few weeks ago, it might even have been you who told me, but at least 20% of Americans can't read properly or write properly. I'm thinking... The land of the free. Why? I mean, they can press buttons on their phone. But you know, Steve, we've got that here in the UK. I know. How can that possibly be? We're in a country where we've prided ourselves on our education for hundreds and hundreds of years, but a large percentage of the population can't read or write. How are we neglecting these people? But then this is the human condition. The structures that we've lived in for hundreds of years, which have provided us with security, comfort, faith, have now become redundant. It is time for a total rethink of the whole of the ideas of the giant monoliths in the world, such as religion, state, border, politics, economics, finance. Do you know what I find? This is a big teaching. I trained with Elizabeth Ross' organisation years and years ago, and I remember one saying that the human condition is like a table, and you need the four legs, and you need your emotional welfare, you need your physical welfare, your mental welfare. And your psychological. Yeah, but if you don't grow your spiritual welfare or your psychological welfare, your table just is a three-legged table. It's not a four-legged table, it's tips over. And for me, the sadness, and I think this is, I was looking up the Cree, one of the famous Cree quotes, the Native American Indian Cree tribes. They were saying, when they were looking at what was happening, this is only the 1700s, 1800s, not that long ago, that if you don't understand what you're doing to the planet, to the land, there will be nothing left. The big lesson for you is you'll have to learn you can't eat money. It will feed you. And I think it's that, isn't it? We don't have faith in something greater than us. We think we're great, but we're not. And that's what we're being shown at the moment. I could summarize the whole thing in one short sentence. It's too many people. Oh, this is awful. I am thinking of relaunching my side career. I'm thinking of letting my evil twin brother come back out again. It's been about five years. And I just thought, I think there's some old videos out there of me doing this. So I googled the caustic astrologer. And I found three videos on YouTube from like 12, 13 years ago, which is when I started. I look so young, so thin, so thin. Oh, don't go back there. And I was saying, well, easy answer to solve the world's population problem. Let's just shoot all the Virgos. Or let's just annul all the Aquarians, send them into space, you know. And I was doing every sign of a zodiac. And I'm looking at it now and I'm like, blimey, I said that. Wow. I'm glad no one's picking up on that these days. But you know, I'm thinking of letting him back out again, because we need a bit of caustic savagery at the verbal level to make some people wake up and smell the coffee. Yes. How do we, for me, how do we come together? And I think what's happening for me is that all the astrology is going into fire and air. And I'm not sure that fire and, well, actually, air loves to communicate. It does. It loves to learn and communicate. And fire loves inspiration. I do feel that perhaps when Saturn meets up with Neptune in Aries, leaders may come to the surface who are different. Let's hope so. I hope they're not warmongers. That's all. We've had enough. No, I'm really finding myself in the last six months rethinking my whole, for years I've been terrified by Saturn conjunct Neptune at zero degrees of Aries. And now I'm feeling a lot more positive about it. I kind of feel that both Saturn and Neptune are going to come into Aries and go, oh, thank God, we're out of that morass of feeling sorry for ourselves. Right. Now let's do something. Yes, I do too. I really, actually, I really do. And don't forget, you know, the nought degrees Aries is the world, you know, the degree of so-called the world stage. So something's going to play out. On the world stage. And I hope, I hope and pray it's spiritual leaders who are different, who are not religious. But, you know, we're talking about people like Zach Bush, who has come out and said he's going to run for president. I hope it's people like that, that are different and they're looking at how do we do politics differently. That's my prayer. Well, this is the end of the dinosaurs, but they are going to go down fighting. Yeah. I don't just mean the personalities. I mean, the structures they stand for. Yes. They've been great. I'm not, I'm not criticizing, but they've been great. But it's time for them to move over and let new structures come through. Based on the old, but more flexible, more adaptable, more futuristic, more innovative and less based on control and greed. Why were you dreading the Saturn Neptune? What was going on for you around that? Because my thought process is where, well, Saturn Neptune happens every 37, 38 years. And we know the history of the Saturn Neptune conjunctions with the rise and fall of socialism and communism and things like that. But that's well documented. It's happening at the same time as Saturn Neptune is sextiling Uranus and sextiling Pluto, which is a bonus. But it's happening at zero degrees Aries. That's not happened before. If you, if you want to find out the last time it happened, you have to multiply 37, 38 year cycle of Saturn Neptune by 360. Because that'll give you the average time that Saturn Neptune conjunction will happen at zero degrees Aries. So we're looking at least, at least 10,000 years ago, pre-civilization, as we understand it as being, as we understand it. Do you know that's interesting? Yeah. So, and it's at zero Aries. And so it's terrifying and it's exciting. I feel trepidation and anticipation. We were saying earlier about how a lot of astrologers and a lot of astrologers are reporting the same thing that everyone's uneasy. Everyone's sitting, oh, something's coming. And this is getting stronger. And yeah, it is. And it's, and the more the resistance is to change, the more the powers that be try and maintain the old structures, the more chaotic it's going to be. But the long, the medium, it's not even the long term here. Now the medium term suggests that the, it's inevitable, but change is going to occur. And you're probably not going to like me for this, but I think the greatest leveler of all is the internet because we've never had anything like the internet in human history. And it's only been around 35 years. Yes. I've been, I've only been online 25 years. I had my first email in 98, got my first website in 2001. Yes. There's no one alive under 35 years old who remembers what it was like for the internet. That's true. It's still in its teething stage, but it's growing. Do you know, Steve, something's just struck me, and I know you're really attuned into the ancient civilizations, but if we go back, let's say 10,000 years, I'm really interested in Göbekli Tempi, which is this huge, ancient, ancient site on the Syrian border with Turkey. And they don't know how old it is, but it's an awful lot older than, you know, maybe it does stretch. Maybe that this big shift of Saturn and Neptune at nought degrees Pisces is the end of a civilization. They disappeared. Nobody knows where they went. All of these ancient sites, they're now beginning to understand. Aztecs, gone. Nobody knows where they went. The Mayans, gone. Fabulous, fabulous civilizations, gone. Well, I don't believe that another ship's coming down to lift us off. Where did they go? I know where they went. They're still here, just in a different dimension. That's so possible, isn't it? We're about to make an evolutionary leap that's going to open our consciousness to a much vaster frequency and wavelength than we've previously experienced. We're going to become more and more aware of what's really going on, how we're destroying the planet, how we're being cruel to each other. And these things will stop. It's just a question of whether they will stop in time before we destroy the planet. Yeah, there's a race on now, isn't there? God, we're cheery today, aren't we? Mind you, the moon is opposite Pluto. Yes, and we're allowed to be a bit dark. A bit bipolar today. So can I declare war on Canada and Greenland? Oh, yes. Absolutely. Help yourself. Absolutely. Bizarre. Bizarre. Bizarre. Totally bizarre. Do you know what? I don't know. I think we've talked about this before. I'm not absolutely sure. I call him Trumpy. I don't know. I think he's going to get inaugurated, but something's going to happen in April. Before the middle of April, yeah. I call him President Trusk. But I think, you know, when Uranus goes back over his MC, I'm not sure. This is not a forecast, but I have a funny feeling Elon Musk, they're going to change the constitution for birthright in America. It would never surprise me that if Elon Musk didn't at some point, at least stand, it would never surprise me. I don't know that there'll ever be another election in America the way it's always been. I think that like Russia, America is about to fragment. It's too big, too unwieldy. Yes. China's going to go the same way because they're really trying to expand their territory, but they're having problems feeding people and the youth in China are getting well uppity. Yes. Because they're being banned from accessing a lot of things on the internet and they're upset about it. And you can't, no matter how strong the old guard are, you can't upset too many of the youth because the youth are the future. It's their world. It's their world. Yeah. Yeah. So the best thing we can do is leave knowledge behind for them to continue growing with. And just be an example of just holding the light and just... And that's what our ancestors did for us. They coded that knowledge in stone circles, in papyrus, in carvings. They did their best to send knowledge down through the millennia in various shapes and forms for us to interpret. Yeah. And the story of mortality, that's the gift they gave to us. But whether or not we've... Well, we just haven't taken it on board, have we, really? But anyway, we are in a major learning process, that's for sure. I'm just conscious of time, Steve. Is there anything you'd like to say to finish off this? Well, yeah. I've done a lot of live streaming in the last few days. I've been reaching out to a lot of people, thousands of people. And one thing's coming more and more obvious, that we are heading into what I see as the most concentrated time of compressed change in human history, or at least in the last 10,000 years. And it is going to be fairly brief. It's going to be short, it's going to be sharp. And there's two phases. One is basically now through to early August of this year. And the second will be much briefer. It'll be mid-February to late April of next year. And then one way or another, we're going to be able to then make realistic forecasts for the long-term future with a much better degree of comfort than we can now. But the decisions made, especially in the next few months, are going to impact big time on the world for a long time to come. So as individuals, especially the people watching this who have a modicum of astrological knowledge, the message is clear. Stay strong in yourself, stay centred, stay grounded, and be the voice of common sense to all the people around you who are looking for someone to sort of talk to in these times of craziness. As astrologers, we have a duty and a responsibility to be the voice of reason and common sense. Well said. And on that note, we will be back at some point, we don't know when at the moment, but we will be. And we wish everyone whatever you need, I think that's what I'm going to say. Lots of love. Lots of love. Take care. Bye.