Starcodes June 5, 2020 Heather Roan Robbins

Intensity! Recent solar flares turned the volume up on history. This year’s three Jupiter — Pluto conjunctions maximize our longing for freedom. Activating Mars conjuncts sensitizing but obfuscating Neptune in Pisces, which can both leave us in a cloud of confusion and stir anger over our vulnerability, or give us the imagination to find new solutions, if we consciously reach for them.

The Sun acts as a volume control on activity here on earth. When the sun’s flaring, humans are restless and search for new political answers. When it’s quiet, as it has been for an unusually long time recently, we humans may be extra creative but it’s hard to spark sociological and political change, even when we are ticked off. The Sun usually runs on an 11-year cycle of activity, from the solar minimum where there are few solar flares and sunspots, to a peak of activity which seems to excite molecules personalities and politics here on earth, and back to the trough.

The last solar cycle started as Obama came into office, we could feel change beginning to search, but that maximum peaked out at a relatively low level and the Sun got quiet again, and momentum for change dial the down. We’ve been an unusually long extended solar minimum for several years, as many people voiced outrage at the politics of the day, but not much actually occurred, which was remarkable considering the circumstances. A week ago the Sun threw the biggest solar flare in the last three years and sparked protests and a call for new and real answers around the globe.