Three months into 2020 and the rollercoaster is indeed doing the rounds.
As I indicated in my read for 2020 back on January 1, this is the rollercoaster year, the big wake up — actually a double helping of wake up — 20 being The Awakening, only there are two of them. (Re-read it.) We simply cannot avoid this, not this time. Let’s go into more detail about the 4 energy that lies behind 2020. In other words, if the world in a 4-year was a person what would they be like?
First up, they’d be hard to understand, an enigma, because they make their own rules, and these rules can be outside societal norms. Marked individuality colours every thought and action. If there’s a different way to do anything, they will pursue it. They live in the future, caring little about the present. They are light years ahead. Their behaviour is unconventional, questing, curious. The incredible, the unproven, the untried all appeal. To be told a thing is impossible only intensifies and spurs their resolve to prove it is possible. The phrase ‘mission impossible’ is a lure.
An advocate of change in every area of life, from politics to art, their approach is fixed and stubborn when there’s an attempt to mould them into a particular pattern. Because prophets are often unrecognised in their own time, and because they live far into the future, their grandest visions are often ridiculed or ignored. They are attracted to social reform, and strong on freedom and tolerance. Money means little to them, likewise class distinction. They have no desire to impress anyone, and they ignore all context. They are consumed entirely by their imagination and remain uninterested in what is swelling around them.
Oh, and they’re unpredictable. It is a rollercoaster, but you can’t see the whole rollercoaster, so you never knows what’s coming, nor when it’s peaking or troughing.
Get the picture? Yep, hard to know what approach to take.
One way would be to face it head-on, but not in the usual way. We can’t afford to let it see us coming. We have to play its game. We have to do the unconventional. It is not business as usual. Everything our instinct is telling us to do falls flat. (Which is why, for example, central banks and governments throwing the kitchen sink at the financial system means nothing; the 4 has long moved on while our leaders are putting their finishing touches on their blueprints.)
When the 4 is all over the shop — and blissfully happy to do that — we could invoke its numerological opposite, which is the number 1, which reflects Leo energy, a fixed Fire sign. This is bold, forceful, powerful energy. Like the coronavirus or Covid-19, 1 energy is less inclined to take prisoners. While 4 is off playing and ‘causing mayhem at every turn’, 1 has the task of balancing that by choosing an aspect of that play and going with it: taking on the unconventional and directing it, nudging it and taking it in a new direction, one that is inventive and novel and one that will fascinate it. A direction that anchors it in the immediate. That requires vision and courage and unwavering will. True leadership on every level. However, we can’t let it see what we’re doing. So it will also require strategy, game play, the tools of the magician, the use of misdirection.
Some of us may rise to that and take on that challenge. However, most of us can’t or won’t feel able, simply because we're not that kind of a warrior. So, for the rest of us, we might more usefully spend our time and energy anchoring ourselves in our communities. We can make them stronger, we can look after each other. When work and school and daily activities are significantly curtailed, there will be plenty of time. There’s nothing on to distract us from each other, apart from binging movies and TV series, I suppose. That might wear thin after a bit.
Resilience is a bit of a buzzword, it’s true, but it might just be the way to ride this rollercoaster. Figure out what’s important, shed the frivolous, link up, strengthen the bonds between us on the one-to-one level, and across our various communities, whatever shape they take.
Either that, or swallow The Art of War and go into the battle of the century and out-trick the 4. I’m not saying you can’t take that on. Just know you will need to fill your backpack with at least cunning wisdom, steely determination and capacity to think on one's feet. Perhaps Rewatch The Matrix (and sequels) for tips.
And the reward for our efforts should we not hide under the covers and pretend it isn't happening? Understanding, knowledge and freedom, which will set us up in 2021 to transition to a new way of being in the world. Although we will have the opportunity to reinvent the world, first we need to figure out what that might look like. The actual groundwork happens in 2021.
In general, for all of us, no matter what role we choose, the days of the month to be especially careful are the 8th, 17th, 26th, and to a lesser extent, the 4th, 13th, 22nd, 31st. Take bold action on the 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th. As you act boldly, be wary of a lack of self-belief on the 10th and deceit on the 28th.