by Robert Wilkinson
Today we light this subject from two angles; one medical/historical, one astrological.
So what is this Coronavirus? From the CDC,
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and now with this new virus (named SARS-CoV-2).The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a betacoronavirus, like MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. All three of these viruses have their origins in bats. The sequences from U.S. patients are similar to the one that China initially posted, suggesting a likely single, recent emergence of this virus from an animal reservoir.
Early on, many of the patients at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. Later, a growing number of patients reportedly did not have exposure to animal markets, indicating person-to-person spread. Person-to-person spread was subsequently reported outside Hubei and in countries outside China, including in the United States.
From another source,
Coronaviruses are common in animals of all kinds, and they sometimes can evolve into forms that can infect humans. Since the start of the century, two other coronaviruses have jumped to humans, causing the SARS outbreak in 2002 and the MERS outbreak in 2012.Scientists think this new virus first became capable of jumping to humans at the beginning of December. It originally seemed like the virus first infected people at a seafood market in Wuhan and spread from there. But one analysis of early cases of the illness, published January 24th, found that the first patient to get sick did not have any contact with the market. Experts are still trying to trace the outbreak back to its source.
The emergence of the new virus is consistent with the around once-a-decade spread of a human coronavirus seen since the start of the century: SARS spread in 2002, and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), also caused by a coronavirus, circulated in 2012. Coronaviruses are common in animals and can be found in most wild species. But before SARS, the coronaviruses that infected humans only caused mild respiratory illnesses. Public health experts and virologists learned a lot from fighting both SARS and MERS in the past 20 years that can apply to the current outbreak.
The type of animal the virus originated from is not clear, although one analysis found that the genetic sequence of the new virus is 96 percent identical to one coronavirus found in bats. Both SARS and MERS originated in bats.
We are told the incubation period is “within 14 days of exposure to the virus” and the symptoms are cough, fever, and shortness of breath. Remember too there is a 99% survival rate so far, and it seems that it may run its course in a body in two weeks. As we speak, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have been discharged from the hospital and are bunkered in at their home after a week in the hospital. So it's not an inevitability that those who contract it will die.
From the Johns Hopkins site,
COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, a city in China, in December 2019. Although health officials are still tracing the exact source of this new coronavirus, early hypotheses thought it may be linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, China. Some people who visited the market developed viral pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus. A study that came out on Jan. 25, 2020, notes that the individual with the first reported case became ill on Dec. 1, 2019, and had no link to the seafood market. Investigations are ongoing as to how this virus originated and spread.
Since then we've found patient zero may have reported symptoms on November 17. That's why I believe Beijing is entirely responsible for all the problems caused by this virus, since they allowed it to spread. The government in Beijing is the friend of nobody on Earth. They should be condemned by the entire world for allowing this to spread unchecked as they punished those who tried to sound the alarm.
So there are several types of Coronavirus, and we’ve had pandemics of it before. The first known began in China in 2002, the second began in the Middle East in 2012, with other outbreaks since then. The first was SARS, which was the first time Beijing covered up the epidemic by punishing those who spread the word, allowing it to become an epidemic. Now it's happened again. Regarding the original SARS epidemic, this is from the NIH,
In November 2002, a form of atypical pneumonia called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) began spreading rapidly around the world, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the ailment “a worldwide health threat.” At the epicenter of the outbreak was China, where the outbreak of SARS infected more than 5,300 people and killed 349 nationwide…With hindsight, China’s health system seemed initially to respond relatively well to the emergence of the illness. The earliest case of SARS is thought to have occurred in Foshan, a city southwest of Guangzhou in Guangdong province, in mid-November 2002. It was later also found in Heyuan and Zhongshan in Guangdong. This “strange disease” alerted Chinese health personnel as early as mid-December. On January 2, a team of health experts was sent to Heyuan and diagnosed the disease as an infection caused by a certain virus…
Then, as now, Beijing kept it all secret until February, when the nation was in a panic and they finally had to acknowledge it was a problem and do something about it. By May 7, 18,000 people had been quarantined in Beijing. Free treatment was offered to SARS sufferers anywhere in the country. These momentous measures appeared to have worked. The epidemic started to lose its momentum in late May, and on June 24, the World Health Organization lifted its advisory against travel to Beijing. On August 16, with the last two SARS patients discharged from the Beijing Ditan Hospital, China for the time being was free from SARS.
Now for the 2012 MERS outbreak. Also from the NIH, written a couple of years ago
In June of 2012 a man in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was admitted to a hospital with severe pneumonia. A novel coronavirus (CoV) related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was isolated from this patient and shown to be the etiological agent (1). Further studies showed that it was related to several bat CoV, including HKU4 and HKU5 and it was named the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV) (2). Retrospective studies showed that the same virus was also responsible for an outbreak of respiratory disease in Zarqa, Jordan in April 2012. Since these initial outbreaks, MERS-CoV infection has been identified in 1728 patients (12 May 2016), with 624 associated deaths…In the summer of 2015, an outbreak of 186 MERS cases occurred in South Korea. This outbreak stemmed from a single patient who had returned from the Middle East.... The 2015 MERS outbreak in South Korea was halted by placing approximately 17,000 individuals under quarantine. 36 patients succumbed to the infection, with a case fatality rate of 19%, substantially less than that reported in the Middle East…
Dromedary camels are primarily present throughout Africa and the Arabian peninsula and camels at all sites were shown to be seropositive with rates as high as 80% in some populations (reviewed in (48). Surprisingly, serum samples from as far back as 1982 in Africa and 1992 in Saudi Arabia were positive for MERS-CoV antibodies. This suggests that MERS-CoV has infected camels for an extended amount of time and raises the question as to why MERS was not detected in patients in Saudi Arabia before 2012. Of note, camels from Australia, Canada, USA, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan are seronegative for MERS-CoV (48). These data all point to a likely transmission of MERS-CoV to camels in Africa many years ago with subsequent spread to the Middle East.
From this it’s clear that SARS was only a pandemic because Beijing refused to allow people to know to self-quarantine. Once they did it was over in a few months. MERS is still a problem in the world today; even though we don’t hear about many cases, it’s clear that it too is only stopped by quarantines. There are no vaccines for MERS, indicating there probably won’t be a Covid-19 vaccine anytime soon.
Some Astrological Markers
In the SARS epidemic which began to be known in mid-November 2002, we see Sun, Mercury, and Venus retrograde all in Scorpio. Late October and early November had the Sun, Mercury and Venus in Scorpio square Neptune in early Aquarius, followed by the Sun and Mercury squaring Jupiter in mid-Leo and then squaring Uranus in late Aquarius.
That was followed in late November and early December with Mercury and the Sun conjunct Pluto in mid-Sagittarius and then Venus direct conjunct Mars in Scorpio with both square Neptune by mid-month, around the time the Sun opposed Saturn in late Gemini. Between mid and late December Venus and Mars both squared Jupiter retrograde, and then in January both quincunxed Saturn and squared Uranus. By June the virus alert was lifted, and by August it was considered over.
Since these coronaviruses are lung related, I note we had a Solar Eclipse at 23 Sag conjunct the NN and opposed Saturn in Gemini conjunct the SN in mid-December 2001, and another Solar Eclipse at 20 Gemini conjunct Saturn and the SN in June 2002.
In the MERS epidemic which began in June 2012 but was traced to a virus found in April 2012, we see in April that early on Venus in Gemini was square Mars retrograde in Virgo and then quincunx Pluto in Capricorn while Mercury in Pisces was quincunx Saturn in Libra, followed by Sun opposed Saturn. It seems to have spread while Jupiter in late Taurus quincunxed Saturn most of May while Venus went stationary retrograde in late Gemini.
By June Venus retrograde was quincunx Pluto while Jupiter in early Gemini exactly squared Neptune and Mercury in Cancer first formed a T-square with the Uranus in early Aries square Pluto in early Capricorn, and then squared Saturn in late Libra when the Sun replicated the T-square at the end of the month. As it never really stopped, we don’t have an end point. However, it seems to affect those who are around Middle Eastern camels and dromedaries, so don’t do that if you can help it.
We had a Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius conjunct the NN in late November 2011 which was square Mars in Virgo just as Mercury went retrograde at 21 Sagittarius. That was before the April outbreak, and we had another Solar Eclipse at 1Gemini conjunct the SN and in close square to Neptune in early Pisces in late May 2012. We also had a Lunar Eclipse at 15 Gemini/Sag in early June which was conjunct Venus retrograde in Gemini with everything square Mars in mid-Virgo.
In the current Coronavirus pandemic the first officially reported case of this Coronavirus was on December 1, 2019, though another “first case” is suspected to have been known by November 17, which makes this another Mercury retrograde event! Mercury retrograde has been associated with various viruses over the years, including Ebola outbreaks.
Mercury went direct at 12 Scorpio on November 20th, the first of two times that degree will bookend 2020, since it will go retrograde on that degree in October. Just before that "maybe first case" in November was discovered, Venus had squared Neptune the same time that Mercury RX trined it.
The first reported case on December 1, 2019 could be considered the inception of the spread of the disease and information about it. At that time we had Sun square Neptune, Mars in Scorpio septile Jupiter at the last degree of Sagittarius, and Mercury in its shadow zone semisquare Venus. By mid-month Venus conjuncted Saturn and Pluto (setting up future cycle triggers) while Mercury was quincunx Uranus. That’s important since the virus has gone pandemic during the time Jupiter in Capricorn has transited the Saturn and Pluto positions of the outbreak.
I’ll here remind you that we’ve had several important outer planet aspects made these past 110 days. The outbreak began with Uranus biseptile Pluto and semisquare Neptune. We had Mars in Scorpio forming septiles to Saturn and Pluto in early January followed by a biseptile to Neptune, just before the Sun, Mercury, and Saturn conjunctions with Pluto in mid-January.
These multiple conjunctions with Saturn and Pluto are all being triggered by Mars at present, with the most intense focus (RIGHT NOW!) associated with Mars and Jupiter biseptile Uranus and conjunct Pluto, triggering the Grand Irrationality I’ve been speaking of these past months. As Venus in Taurus is trining Jupiter and Pluto through the end of the month and Mars will be past the conjunction with Jupiter and Pluto by the end of March, we should have a practical understanding and handle on the “earth” part of the pandemic. You’ll note the current transits in Pisces have corresponded with Asia getting a handle on it in their countries. That holds promise for when Mars transits Pisces in May and June.
However, Jupiter will go retrograde in May, as will Venus in Gemini in close square to Neptune. That would imply a “return” of the Jupiter/Pluto intensity, with things getting a bit scattered with the Sun and Venus retrograde both square Mars conjunct Neptune in early June. That would seem to be a “distributing” effect rather than a “containment” effect. This coronavirus could mutate at that time, or spread through a new part of the population.
Of course, squares can be a time to “turn the corner” so it’s equally possible that we’ll find a variation on a vaccine which worked on a previous form of the virus. We should begin to see this initial phase of the pandemic wane in the US by July/August when planets in Cancer oppose the planets in Capricorn associated with this outbreak. Of course, it could also mutate and find a different host population by then, leading into the nonstop squares between Aries and Capricorn dominating the last half of this year.
I associate this pandemic gripping our nation with the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse at 29 Leo which crossed over the entire US. We then had a Solar Eclipse at 11 Cancer in July 2019 which occurred near the Mercury SRX conjunct Mars with both sesquisquare Jupiter and square Uranus, forming a “Hammer of Thor” configuration. Major friction “hammering us into shape” by that one!
The Christmas 2019 Solar Eclipse was conjunct Jupiter, favoring the “expansive shutting down” of Capricorn (social participation in society). Because the pandemic occurred under the beams of the subsequent Lunar Eclipse at 20 Capricorn/Cancer, it’s clear that the festivities indicated by 20 Cancer have been shut down! And yes, that Lunar Eclipse happened at the Superior Conjunction also conjunct Saturn and Pluto with Mars biseptile Neptune mentioned earlier.
Here's I'll note the 2002 SARS epidemic began with the NN in Gemini. The MERS epidemic began with the NN in Sagittarius. This one began with the NN in Cancer. I'd say there will be significant developments when the transiting NN enters Gemini in May, especially since we have another Solar Eclipse in Gemini happening at 1 Cancer at the Solstice!
You can certain see this is a formula for things (and people) getting incredibly compressed with many things ending. This compression of planets has become obvious when you go to the stores and see massive crowds all buying all they can in a panic. Sounds like Jupiter conjunct Pluto to me! Of course this will affect the supply chain for months to come, with the restrictions of Capricorn obvious across several industries. That’s why we have to be “good Saturn” and take the long view, accept the limitations and disciplines we need to, and wait for the Aquarian energy to begin to be made manifest in a few weeks.
Just remember that Saturn will go stationary retrograde on a degree of a “cosmic visitation” which will mobilize us all into action due to potentially devastating “natural events.” At least by the time this year’s done we will all have a vision of a better way to live in community, and have learned one of the most valuable lessons Capricorn Doctor Benjamin Franklin once offered us: “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
We must learn cooperation, and let go of the need to make a profit off human suffering. We must learn a more effective way of being connected, or our isolation will drive many to despair. This will change the way we learn, we live, we interact, we teach, and we assemble. Fear is useless in dealing with this pandemic; courage, perseverance, maturity, discipline, and vision will carry us to the other shore.
Here I’m reminded of the poster issued as the UK was preparing to be bombed mercilessly by the Nazis for months to come. As it was once famously written, “Keep calm and carry on.” And to paraphrase something famously sung, “We will get by, we will survive.” It’s time to reconnect with Self, with Source, with the Earth, and with our Oneness.
The world has survived pandemics before; we will survive this one. The world has survived economic and supply disruptions before; we will survive this one. Because this is going to keep a lot of people off the streets and out of the stores for a while, it’s a great opportunity to get to know your neighbors and yourself, reconnect with your loved ones, get focused on those things which truly matter, and open to contact with your Higher Self, which never fears, never gets sick, and never dies.
© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson
The post I have been waiting for. Many thanks to you, Robert, for your careful consideration, your wisdom and insight.
Posted by: Esther | March 17, 2020 at 07:24 AM
This is an excellent comment from Gary Lorentzen:
I think, because this epidemic is a Saturn/Pluto phenomenon, it's going to become endemic in the population and we'll have to have vaccinations once a year for protection. The question becomes how long will it take to develop one?
Like previous Saturn/Pluto epidemics, it will take years to get it under control. The 1947 SA/PL conjunction coincided with the polio pandemic. By 1953 it was killing 50,000 children a year--I suppose because the conjunction occurred in Leo, children were the most vulnerable. It wasn't until Feb 1954 that an effective vaccine was introduced. It took almost seven years to develop one, but within a short time the infection rates dropped, and by the late 1950s, the pandemic was under control.
The 1981 SA/PL conjunction coincided with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It took more than a year even to identify what kind of virus it was and how it spread, and even now there is no vaccine, although there is a regimen of meds that makes HIV survivable. But, the fact is, HIV has become endemic in human populations and we had to learn how to protect ourselves and prevent its spread.
This CoVid-19 (SARS-CoVid2) will be no different. SA/PL in Capricorn seems to put the elderly at greater risk of death than other groups, but it's going to take a long time to figure out how to deal with it. If we can limit the spread now within a few months, we might be able to get a handle on it into the future. If we can't, and we develop an Italian Scenario here, it's going to take a very long time and it'll be just as deadly. Hopefully, we can follow Taiwan, S. Korea, and Hong Kong as our models for dealing with it.
Posted by: Robert | March 17, 2020 at 11:05 AM
Interesting.
Indeed we don't have to be passive and victims of this virus (orang other such natural event). Hard or difficult as it may seem there are many opportunities that are opening now. Certainly the world's priorities need to be reviewed (that includes our own), certainly health systems, social support policies, a review on how we deal with health, cooperation and interaction and transparency are a few of the issues that can be under our scrutiny.
The Sky shifts, so does our human condition and interrelationships. Time to get some control and responsibility towards a healthier human condition and social (global) interaction.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | March 17, 2020 at 12:08 PM
Great read TY!
Posted by: C Davenport | March 17, 2020 at 11:45 PM
Thank you Robert,
I've been a keen follower of your blog for several years but is the first comment I've left. I really appreciated this post as others have said.
I recently wrote an article in which the focus is on Chiron's cycle, particularly in reference to it passing through the first degrees of Aries during the 1918-19 Spanish Flu, followed by the same zodiacal transit for the Asian Flu of 1968. The first reports of Covid-19 coincided with Chiron being in the same first degrees of Aries at the beginning of 2020. As we may know, in Greek and Roman mythology Chiron is skilled in the healing arts, however he is unable to heal himself from a wound that was caused by an arrow dipped in Hydra venom. Again in mythology, the sea monster Hydra was considered so poisonous that merely breathing her breath would result in death. As I mention in the article, the medical scientific discoveries of DNA sequencing and genetic science were concurrent with the discovery of Chiron in 1977. (The biotechnology Genentech was founded the previous year.) There are several indications, as you point out, that through removing the genetic barriers between bats and humans, we may have opened a Pandora's Box of contagion.
Here is a link to the full article for you interest: Hold Firm to the Bow Rails --
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixm0xanjdb41t2w/Hold%20firm%20to%20the%20bow%20rails.%203-16.pdf?dl=0
Many thanks again Robert for all great material you produce.
Stay safe.
Posted by: Antony L Milner | March 18, 2020 at 02:27 PM
With regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve found myself wondering about its relationship to Uranus’s newly unfolding transit of Taurus. What surprises, disruptions, and revolutions does (or will) Uranus bring in this sign? Given that Taurus is associated with structure (literally and figuratively), stability and security (emotional and material), and even the pharynx/throat (which connects the upper and lower respiratory systems) - can we gain any insight about the disease, the pandemic, or its resolution from this transit? For me, the mandate to shelter in place - as well as quarantines and such more generally - feels like a sudden, disruptive transformation of our relationship to actual buildings and structures (homes, offices, schools, places of commerce and culture, etc.) with heavy a companying emotional and relational disruptions. Yet, Uranus also provides us with the opportunity to realize that (quoting Louise Ward) “Old personal attachments to ideas or people must make way for the Universal Mind’s new version of the Eternal Wisdom.”
Posted by: Layli | March 19, 2020 at 05:45 AM