Reflections on Vocational Astrology in a Pandemic Era

by Greg Bogart

With Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto transiting in Capricorn in 2020 this is an appropriate time to focus on vocational astrology—the art of skillfully guiding ourselves and our clients in the world of work, to aid career decision making, but also to cope with career setbacks and defeats, workplace stress, burnout, unemployment, changes of occupation, and retirement. The field of vocation is one of the key areas of our societal life where the services of astrologers can be most impactful and will probably be in greatest future demand. This knowledge is especially valuable in times of crisis when astrology can help us understand what’s happening to us.

In the past several months, our world has been greatly changed by the Coronavirus. 2020 features immensely powerful, stressful transits—notably the March conjunction of Mars-Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn, and later in the year, Mars retrograde in Aries square Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto. The transit of Mars conjunct Pluto and Saturn transit marked the inception of the pandemic. Pluto signifies viruses and infectious disease. Mars can be an inflammatory influence. The Mars-Pluto conjunction initiated the spread of this nasty infection. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction represents imposition of strict controls, our need to endure difficult circumstances, to simplify and strip down to the basics.

As I write this, Saturn has just entered Aquarius for a few months, so we’re suddenly faced with developing a new consciousness that demands we think and act as a collective, as cooperative groups. I view this transit as a signal to engage in intelligent group organizing, and committed social activism. Right now, we have to bear down and accomplish whatever we can at home. I have faith that good can come out of this if we’re able to stay healthy and respond with calm, poise, and equanimity. Jupiter will be conjunct Pluto in Capricorn throughout 2020, which denotes the emergence of strong personalities capable of taking on big tasks of management, organization, and positive leadership.

During this time of great uncertainty, clients will likely call us asking for guidance, and some of them are likely to be in a state of anxiety and fear, so that our ability to help depends on our having achieved a calm center. This equanimity comes from understanding in realistic terms the current transiting situation affecting all of us and also the implications and possibilities of one’s personal transits and what they’re asking each of us to do here and now. I won’t pretend to have all the answers regarding how to cope with this crisis.

Many of us astrologers are in the fortunate position of being able to continue doing our work by phone, Skype, and Facetime; our work doesn’t require meeting with someone in person. But the tensions are enormous for those who are unemployed, whose businesses are closed or failing, and people who aren’t positioned to work from home. Thus, we’re faced with new challenges regarding what to tell people about how to cope with this situation.

Right now, we see the results of our prior actions and works, which determine whether or not we’ve developed a seaworthy ship, with sufficient structure and security to weather this stormy transition. To a large extent, our situation is conditioned by what we’ve already done and set in place. Specifically, have we established an occupational identity that can be adapted and sustained in our current conditions, and if not, have we saved enough money to pull us through this shutdown period? Have we cultivated friendship and family, and established a relatively stable, comfortable, nourishing home environment? If not, this is a difficult time to quickly play catch up on these building blocks of material and social adaptation. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction represents enduring a period of adversity, and it either brings out our strengths or it exposes weak points in our systems.

In my opinion, our best leverage to move forward is to focus on wherever there’s the most energy by transit, especially the current transiting position of Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in Capricorn. This is where we can do something constructive to advance in our enterprises. Right now, each of us faces the task of cultivating maturity in response to adversity and challenge.

My wife, Diana, owns a business that involves daily contact with customers, and they’ve been forced to close down during the pandemic. Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto are transiting in her 6th house. She has eight people who work for her as employees and contractors, and she has been working tirelessly to locate emergency small business funding to pay them while the business is shut down. She is working hard out of a sense of responsibility for the employees (Saturn-Pluto in the 6th house).

From July 2020 on, in particular, with Saturn retrograde in Capricorn conjunct Jupiter and Pluto, it’s a time to give serious consideration to the kind of practical decisions we may require in order to secure our safety and survival. In the chart of Tara (chart 1), a young social activist and environmentalist, we see a conjunction of Mercury-Neptune in Sagittarius in the 11th house. She has tremendous social idealism with many visions of the future; but right now Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn in her 1st house shows that she needs to do something practical for her professional advancement, specifically to get focused on passing the exam for her acupuncture license, which she has been putting off for two years. This is the credential she needs for her material sustenance, to support being an activist. She needs to complete the construction of her professional persona and identity. She already went to school to study Chinese medicine; now she needs to prove her competency and be awarded the license to practice. With the outer planets in Capricorn, this isn’t the time for procrastination.

Vocational Astrology Starting Points

In offering occupational guidance during this crisis, the basics of vocational astrology still apply as always, and we can find orientation by examining:

• Natal Sun’s house and sign
• Saturn’s sign and house placement
• Planets closely aspecting the midheaven or ascendant
• Planets aspecting the lunar nodes
• Planets in the 6th house or 10th house
• Placement and aspects of the midheaven ruler
• The final dispositor of the MC (using Noel Tyl’s midheaven extension process, a method I’ll demonstrate later.)

Three brief examples of aspects to the midheaven and ascendant should suffice...

Saxophonist and genius jazz improviser John Coltrane (September 23, 1926 @ 5pm, Hamlet, North Carolina) had Venus in Virgo square his midheaven. Microsoft founder Bill Gates (Oct 28, 1955 @ 10pm, Bellevue, WA) has Uranus, planet of science, technology, innovation, computers, and media, conjunct his Ascendant. NBA basketball superstar Stephen Curry (March 14, 1988 @ 1:51pm. Akron, Ohio) has Mars square his Aries Midheaven, symbol of a warrior and competitor. In addition, Curry has Sun conjunct north node, Ascendant ruler Saturn in Capricorn squaring the lunar nodes, and Uranus conjunct the south node, signifying his great self-discipline and self-control and his unique, zany style as an athlete and person, all of which contribute to his great popular appeal.

Now let’s consider the 6th house / 10th house distinction. The 6th house, its dispositor, and planets placed in the 6th house concern the place and conditions of employment, the relationship between employer and employee, regardless of which side of the equation a person is on. The 6th house concerns the workplace and situations of training where skills are developed, whereas the 10th house defines or influences our calling or ambitions, a sought-after social rank, status, or achievement. An example of this is “Eddie,” whose chart features Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn in his 6th house. He’s always at work, supervising a staff of over 120 employees.

Case Study: David

An unemployed man named David (chart 2) consulted me just before his second Saturn return. He’d been out of work for several years and was quite discouraged. Natally, he had Neptune and Saturn in the 6th house and transiting Saturn was currently conjunct natal Neptune, passing over it several times. He said his situation felt hopeless. It seemed that no one was interested in hiring a 58-year-old man without a college education. A recovering drug addict and alcoholic, sober for more than a decade, he was struggling with loss of faith (natal Saturn conjunct Neptune).

For someone with Saturn in the 6th house, being employed is very important to a sense of stability and security; it’s a necessary component of the life structure. David had been working since age 15 (his first Saturn opposition) and had held innumerable jobs. I contemplated the meaning of natal Saturn in Scorpio in the 6th and asked if he’d ever done any work involving energy, chemistry or chemical reactions, given that Scorpio symbolizes transforming energies. I was just guessing here, using the symbolism to stimulate my intuition.1 He said he’d once worked for several years in a chemical factory. Keying on Saturn’s conjunction with Neptune, I suggested that he apply to work at the local electrical and water utility companies, where the focus was on energy generation.

I counseled him that during the remaining months of Saturn retrograde and its station near natal Neptune his situation might continue to be ambiguous, unclear, formless; it might take some time for things to clarify and take form, but nonetheless he could apply for positions. Astrologers understand that Neptune symbolizes uncertainty and we can counsel clients, when appropriate, to anticipate it, to yield to it and allow it.

Referencing David’s Taurus Sun in the 1st house, I believed he could project the identity of a reliable person, solidly built, with practical skills, a man who could be counted on. I suggested that he turn to the universe in an attitude of humility and spiritual devotion and approach the job search with a commitment to prayer, service, and discipleship, asking the universe to provide the sustenance he needed so he could be of service. This last comment, keyed on Saturn conjunct Neptune, was crucial, he told me, because it helped him surrender inwardly and maintain inner calm during several subsequent months of uncertainty.

After Saturn turned direct in Libra and made its final pass over Neptune, he applied with the local electric and water utilities, got some interviews, but they kept him on hold for several months while nothing happened. When Saturn entered Scorpio and passed over natal Saturn for the first time he started working on a temporary basis. After Saturn turned direct in Scorpio, he was hired permanently by the water utility district, and within two years he was promoted three times. Recently, as Saturn entered Capricorn, he was promoted to a management position with increased salary and retirement benefits. David tells me that he has never forgotten the precise insights that astrology provided to guide his job search at a critical phase of life.

Lifespan Career Perspective

It’s helpful to establish a lifespan perspective on career development. For astrologers, attunement to the cycles of Saturn is a key to our analysis of life cycles, which is essential for career counseling. Vocational psychologist Donald Super said that careers develop in five stages across the lifespan: growth (of capacities and interests in childhood and adolescence; typically at our first Saturn opposition), exploration (of possibilities, information-seeking about various jobs, job-hunting—typically in early adulthood at our Saturn ¾ square, our Saturn return, or at later stages), establishment (getting started and established in an occupation), maintenance (sustaining a job or career path over time), and disengagement (retirement or unemployment, when you must let go and move forward). All of these phases can be linked to important phases of the Saturn cycle insofar as it governs slow establishment and maintenance of life structures.

Case Study: Doris

Doris, chancellor of a large city’s Public Schools district, told me, “I don’t want to do that job anymore.” She was burned out, exhausted, wanted to test the waters and see about finding a new job. Noting that she was 54 years old and that transiting Saturn was in her 2nd house, opposing her Sun in the 8th house, I recommended that she makes the most practical, realistic decision possible, and I asked what might that be. Doris informed me that her pension would be fully vested in just two more years. I asked, “Wouldn’t your overall financial position be stronger if you stay on the job until you reach that point of earning your full pension? Then you can do whatever you want!” That fit the meaning of transiting Saturn opposite Sun—making a pragmatic decision, supporting career maintenance, but also planning for the upcoming stage of disengagement.

I can see that our present situation would be a very difficult moment for young adults trying to enter the job market or for unemployed people trying to reenter the market. But the advice I would now give someone in the exploratory information-gathering phase is no different than I’d offer during so-called normal times—which is that we must act from within our natal pattern and the tendencies and potentials it indicates, to the best of our abilities.

Another factor that has been affecting people’s vocational lives even prior to the pandemic is the nature of how organizations have changed. To reduce costs, they cut full-time jobs and add part-timers with no benefits and lower salaries. They target workers over 45 or 50 and try to get them to leave so younger, cheaper workers can take their place. This is a challenge for people in the career maintenance phase, as it interrupts the natural career cycle. Many working people today find themselves in a precarious environment defined by a new corporate culture utilizing ruthless management strategies reflecting the recent Uranus-Pluto square.

Astrology can help us come to terms with this situation because we have an archetype that explains it—Pluto, the impersonal power principle. During Pluto transits it’s not uncommon to encounter corruption, the assertion or abuse of power, and reptilian, cold-blooded actions or policies. Pluto brings the awareness that it’s a rough world out there; we have to be tough and resilient, to be survivors. Reflection on astrological symbolism can help us navigate major career transitions, recognizing that our secure life structures sometimes need to change, and predictably do so under the influence of transits of Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus to natal Saturn, which are some of the key transits for career crisis and transitions.

Career Crisis – Case Study: Bradley

A crisis is a sudden, disorienting situation that’s disruptive and causes consternation for the individual, and requires finding new ways of adapting to respond to a problem that arises suddenly. Transits such as Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto aspecting natal Saturn are common indicators of career crisis because these transits challenge our structural security. Bradley, age 62, (chart 3) is a highly skilled corporate consultant and trainer. His chart features Saturn in Scorpio square Pluto in the 4th house. Brad had rough experiences growing up with a violent, tyrannical father, and in his adult life with several of his bosses, with whom he had vehement disagreements and power struggles.

When he consulted me, Brad had been unemployed for three years since a traumatic event during his second Saturn return in the 6th house (house of employment). At that time, he presented a report to the CEO and the Board of Directors of a Fortune 500 company but his recommendations for organizational changes were rejected, he was fired by the Board, and he lost standing (reputation) and a great deal of money. His reputation took a hit. During this Saturn return, square Pluto, Brad met inflexible authority, the archetype of the dictator. And he needed me to hear that story.

I noted that at the time of that crisis, his progressed Sun was conjunct his midheaven, and I asked him, “Did you do your best on that report and in the way you stood behind your findings and recommendations? Did you give that CEO and board of directors the best professional advice you could give them at that moment?” Brad affirmed this. I said, “Then I think you’ve already achieved success, you did your job well. So why don’t you stop beating yourself up about getting fired. It happens to everyone at some point. It has certainly happened to me. One of the lessons of Pluto is that sometimes situations come to an end and we need to disengage and move on.” That was a crucial moment, when Brad felt empathically seen and validated. This interchange set in motion the emotional release he needed to return to work, to get established again. Sometimes assignments come to an end and we need to disengage and move on. This is a spiritual perspective that emerges from consideration of astrological symbolism. Brad started a new job a few months later, when transiting Jupiter conjoined natal Saturn in his 6th house.

Vocational Chart Analysis and the Spontaneous Discovery of Meaning 

Most of the examples in this article were written before the pandemic, but the operating principles remain the same; all the stories illustrate coping with change and transition. What I hope these examples show is that vocational astrology not only involves technical analysis of a chart to guide occupational choices. It’s also a process of counseling people and being able to spontaneously elicit meaning from their situations at moments of heightened intensity and urgency.

A pandemic makes us aware of death, and this makes us reflect on what we need to do now, while we’re alive. We have to strive to fulfill our birth pattern despite difficult circumstances. If we’re true to the law of our own nature, so we’re in harmony with nature, and we’ll flow on the right path. The impersonal perspective of Pluto brings realization that some of us, and some of those we know and love, will be swept into death, so we need acceptance of that inevitability and from that recognition we savor each breath, each ray of light, each day’s freedom to exist. We have an opportunity to try to do something useful with our lives, actions, and commitments.

Case Study: Allen and wife, Cathy

As a final example, here are the charts of Allen and his wife Cathy (charts 4&5), who was just named a partner in a big, fancy law firm. The three planets in Capricorn are in Allen’s 12th house, which of course is the house of spirituality, inner life, solitude, and being momentarily cloaked, invisible, behind the scenes. It’s also the 6th house from the wife or spouse 7th house, so the 12th house signifies the partner’s work, workplace, and health.  Cathy is gone at the office every day and brings work home with her at night and on weekends. She is totally focused on completing her work on significant cases. She is meeting the Capricorn tests of accomplishment, career mastery, and advancement, with flying colors. Transiting Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto are in her 10th house, and after several years of feverish, nonstop work and much aggressive intra-office politics, in-fighting, and power struggles (while transiting Pluto squared her natal Mars-Saturn-Pluto in Libra), she was finally elected a partner, right as transiting Saturn reached conjunction to natal Venus in her 10th house.

Cathy’s health has been severely strained during the Saturn and Pluto squares to her natal Mars, Saturn and Pluto. She suffers from inflammation of joints, lower back pain (Mars-Saturn-Pluto in Libra, which rules the lumbar spine), and headaches—symptoms of the pressure she’s under in the workplace and the toll her stressful lifestyle is taking on her. Vocational counseling emphasizes her need for better work/home balance and a pressing need for more exercise and leisure time. She’s continuing her work from home during the pandemic.

While all of this is happening for Cathy, Allen is spending all of his time at home, caring for their infant and now toddler daughter. He’s working behind the scenes supporting his wife’s occupational success. With the three planets near her MC, Cathy’s career is at a peak, while Allen’s career in the music business is at a lull, a low ebb. The 12th house is the house of karma and its results, and Allen continues to earn money from royalties for past works completed, and he’s learning to trust the universe to provide. Cathy is succeeding as the main breadwinner and he is the nurturing dad, and family cook, dishwasher, handyman, and gardener (Sun conjunct Moon). He doesn’t have a big outer world career right now, but through the wisdom of astrology he has learned to be okay with that, knowing that part of the meaning of the moment is that it’s okay to be the selfless servant. He’s meditating daily, trying to hold the peace for the household and for the good of the world.

To close regarding this couple, I’ll comment on the fact that upon first glance at Cathy’s chart I might not have guessed she’d be drawn to the legal profession, other than interpreting natal Neptune in Sagittarius in her 9th house as a symbol of idealism about ethical and legal principles. Deeper insight emerges by following the Tyl Midheaven extension. Cathy’s Ascendant ruler Mars is conjunct Saturn, which rules her MC and is disposed by Venus in Aquarius, whose dispositor Uranus is in the legal sign of Sagittarius, in the 8th house of business and financial partnership. Uranus is disposed by Jupiter in Scorpio, disposed by Pluto, which is at the Descendant, signifying her alliance with several influential senior lawyers in their work representing powerful individuals and corporations. Pluto is conjunct Saturn, ruler of the 10th house, signifying her tireless work investigating the facts and her poised demeanor in court and conference.  

Conclusion

In this crisis period, we’ve enrolled in the advanced graduate course of life. This isn’t the time to be weak. It’s time to take charge of ourselves. Sometimes change is forced on us; the outer planets indicate this. As astrologers we strive to initiate a reaction from within our own natal pattern. Wise astrologers choose how to sound a tone in the universe—to be an emanating source, a creator. The current 2020 Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn and early Aquarius is an opportunity to take significant steps toward accomplishment in our personal enterprises and participation in progressive social evolution.

Endnote:
1 This is an important point. Sometimes we don’t know exactly what something in a chart means, but we have to contemplative the symbolism and try to imagine what it means. We’re not expected to know everything in advance. The meaning of chart symbols is a mystery to be discovered.

Published in: The Career Astrologer, June 2020.

Author:
Greg Bogart, PhD, MFT, has practiced astrology professionally since 1981 and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Greg is also a lecturer in psychology at Sonoma State University where he teaches courses on adult development, myth, dreams, Jungian depth psychology, and the psychology of yoga. In October 2020, Ibis Press will publish his newest work, Astrology’s Higher Octaves.  Greg is also the author of Astrology and Spiritual Awakening; Therapeutic Astrology; Planets in Therapy: Predictive Technique and the Art of Counseling; and Astrology and Meditation: The Fearless Contemplation of Change. You can contact Greg at 510.594.4329 or gbogart7@sbcglobal.net. Website: www.dawnmountain.com.

Images:
Boulder: Image by gentlegiant27153 from Pixabay
Builder: Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
Burnout: Photo by DANNY G on Unsplash

© 2020 - Greg Bogart - The Career Astrologer

All articles at a glance