The reset of the cosmos: the shift from earth to air
Generated with Midjourney
The reset of the cosmos: the shift from earth to air
DECEMBER 18, 2020The way we’ve been living for centuries is no longer sustainable. Our industries and systems are buckling under the weight of overconsumption and overproduction. We’re facing a sand crisis, mass species extinction, rising sea levels, and a widespread sense of burnout. If we want to continue living on this planet, a seismic shift is needed. Fortunately, that shift has begun. The stars are aligning to offer us a new path forward: we are leaving the long-standing Era of Earth and stepping into the dynamic Era of Air.
The Great Conjunction and Jupiter-Saturn cycles
The Era of Air officially begins with the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 0° Aquarius on December 21, 2020. Great Conjunctions happen every 20 years, when these two largest planets in our solar system align at the exact same degree in the same zodiac sign. Every Great Conjunction marks the start of a new Jupiter-Saturn cycle. What makes this Great Conjunction at 0° Aquarius so significant is that it marks a larger elemental shift: the start of a series of Great Conjunctions in air signs.
For the previous two centuries (with one notable exception), these conjunctions took place in earth signs, defining what we now call the Era of Earth: a time focused on materialism, industrialization, and physical resources. Now, we enter the Era of Air, which will unfold over the next 200 years through a sequence of Great Conjunctions in air signs. This era signals a collective turn toward technology, communication and information. In other words: we are witnessing the shift from the Era of Earth to the Era of Air.
Jupiter-Saturn cycles have always played a powerful role in shaping global cultural, political, and economic developments. In Western mundane astrology, these two planets are known as the Great Chronocrators: the timekeepers or rulers of the ages. It’s extremely rare to experience two elemental eras in a lifetime. When we shift from the Era of Earth to the Era of Air, our world will be turned upside down. The cosmos will have a reset. Of course, this transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It unfolds gradually, over time. In my humble opinion, witnessing this shift is a unique and exciting experience!
The shift from earth to air has already begun
The seeds of the Era of Air were planted a few decades ago by Jupiter and Saturn. This transition began with a sequence of three Great Conjunctions in the air sign Libra, which occurred in 1980 and 1981. For the sake of convenience, I treat these as a single Great Conjunction, one that marked the first return to an air sign after a long sequence of conjunctions in earth signs. It served as a preview of the new era, offering a glimpse into the themes of the Era of Air. Notably, this first Great Conjunction in the element of air coincided with the birth of the internet, a defining invention of the air element, centered on communication, networks, and the flow of information. There’s no doubt that the internet will be a central force, if not the protagonist, in the Era of Air.
The misuse of the element of earth
We can’t consider the Great Conjunctions of the 1980s as the true beginning of the Era of Air, because one final Great Conjunction in an earth sign followed. In 2000, Jupiter and Saturn aligned at 22° Taurus, marking the last Great Conjunction in the element of earth. This event coincided with the tech bubble, a dramatic stock market crash triggered by the collapse of many early internet and tech startups, which effectively slowed our transition into the Era of Air.
Rather than moving forward, the two decades that followed saw an intensification of earth-element themes and a clear misuse of the earth itself. The Era of Earth, which began with the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840) and the rise of capitalism, brought tremendous material growth and prosperity. But by 2020, its shadow side has become impossible to ignore. We are now running out of fossil fuels, sand, and other essential resources, even as global demand continues to rise. Fossil fuels, of course, are also a major contributor to global warming. Meanwhile, overconsumption, overproduction, and a surge in plastic waste have pushed us, and the planet, beyond sustainable limits.
Huge pile of unused shared bikes in a vacant lot in Xiamen, Fujian province, China by Reuters (2017)
Beyond raw materials, the element of earth is also associated with values such as practicality, productivity, security, materiality, stability, persistence, control, ownership, and institutions. As the Era of Earth drew to a close, we began to see the shadow side of these qualities, and most notably, greed rising to the surface. It's widely acknowledged that corporations like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon have grown too powerful. Business has become increasingly focused on securing monopolies and maximizing control, all under the guise of delivering faster, more efficient services. Take Uber, for example, a company that has rarely turned a profit, yet continues to dominate the market. In other words, the capitalist system that once promised prosperity now reveals deep cracks. What once served growth and stability has, in many ways, become unsustainable and exploitative.
On a personal level, we’ve also lost ourselves in the extremes of the earth element. There's a constant pressure to be productive, busy, and efficient. As if happiness and success can only be earned through output. We, the burnout generation, order lunch through apps and eat it at our desks. We've become productivity junkies and datasexuals, tracking everything from our steps to our sleep, even scheduling #selfcare rituals down to the minute, just to cross them off our to-do lists. In our obsession with optimization and control, we’ve started treating ourselves like projects to be fixed. But we are not projects. We are human beings. We are allowed to simply be. And yet, at the end of the Era of Earth, it seems we’ve forgotten that.
2020 as a bridge toward the Era of Air
The element of earth is known for its resistance to change, slow pace, and tendency to cling to the familiar. But the pandemic shattered any illusion of stability, forcing us to let go of old patterns. In doing so, it became a powerful bridge to the new world. We’re not at our final destination yet, but the pandemic undeniably accelerated shifts in habits, values, and perspectives. Suddenly, many of us had time to pause and reflect. We began to recognize how our obsession with productivity often comes at the expense of our personal well-being and growth. We remembered the joy of blue skies, the need for stillness, and the importance of balance. Perhaps most significantly, we realized that mental and social health are just as vital as physical health. #skinhunger
One of my favorite developments during this time came with Saturn’s entry into Aquarius (March 22 – July 3, 2020). As isolation grew, so did our dependence on community. We adapted quickly to new tools, Zoom meetings, virtual gatherings, and online collaboration, and began to form meaningful connections in digital spaces. Trust began shifting away from traditional institutions and toward networks of mutual support. It’s no surprise, then, that the element of air is associated with concepts like community, communication, social connection, information, intelligence, knowledge, technology, innovation, online spaces, and collaboration. They're becoming the foundation of the new era we’re stepping into.
Virtual event “Unleash The Power Within” by Tony Robbins (2020)
Earth ➜ Air
In a nutshell, the shift from the Era of Earth to Era of Air, which has already begun, looks like this:
Infrastructure & Technology
✷ Physical ➜ Digital
✷ Fossil fuels ➜ Wind power, solar power
✷ Farmland ➜ Vertical farming, cellular agriculture, 3D printed food
✷ Low-rise and mid-rise rectangular architecture ➜ Sky-high curvy architecture
✷ Physical storage ➜ Storage in the cloud
✷ Overproduction ➜ On-demand manufacturing, 3D printed products
✷ Fixed materials ➜ Living and responsive materials
Health & Biology
✷ Body ➜ Mind
✷ Organs of donors ➜ 3D-bioprinting
✷ Coffee ➜ Brain-boosting devices
✷ Physical health ➜ Physical health, mental health and social health
Society & Values
✷ Ownership ➜ Sharing, the library economy, communal living
✷ Monogamy ➜ Polyamory, ethical non-monogamy
✷ Individualism ➜ Collectivism
✷ Excluding marginalized communities ➜ Including marginalized communities
✷ Focus on status and money ➜ Focus on community well-being
✷ Competing each other ➜ Helping each other
Systems & Economics
✷ Physical events, shops and dates ➜ Virtual events, shops and dates
✷ Cash ➜ Contactless payments, cryptocurrency
✷ Capitalism ➜ *insert new system*
✷ Profit ➜ Purpose
The list goes on.
Paris Smart City 2050 by Vincent Callebaut Architectures (2015)
Welcome to the future
The full arrival of the Era of Air is still unfolding and the final preparations won’t be complete until Pluto enters Aquarius. Pluto, the slowest-moving planet in our solar system, symbolizes deep transformation, power, and rebirth. Its movement marks generational shifts, and it doesn’t rush. Pluto first dips into Aquarius on March 23, 2023, but will retrograde back into Capricorn several times before making its final ingress into Aquarius on November 19, 2024. From there, it will stay in Aquarius until 2043.
When Pluto does finally settle in Aquarius, it’s going to be wild! The Era of Air will truly blossom. It will feel like a breath of fresh air, full of momentum, movement, and innovation. Mark my words. I believe the most transformative period will come around late 2027 to early 2028, when the North Node in Aquarius will conjunct Pluto in Aquarius. At the same time Pluto in Aquarius will trine Uranus in Gemini: a revolutionary combo! My prediction? Around that time, the world will begin to resemble the high-tech, sci-fi future we’ve long imagined. What a time to be alive!
Solarpunk-inspired commercial 'Dear Alice' produced by the animation company The Line (2021)
Community and communication
In the early years of the Era of Air, the spotlight is firmly on the air sign Aquarius. This is not only due to Pluto’s long transit through Aquarius, but also because of earlier influences from Jupiter in Aquarius (December 19, 2020 – May 13, 2021, and again from July 28 – December 29, 2021) and Saturn in Aquarius (December 17, 2020 – March 7, 2023). Aquarius is a sign that breathes activism, community, and social justice. It has a clear grasp of how societal systems function and where they fail. Aquarius understands that while we are all unique individuals, we are also equal and interconnected. This perspective will be essential as outdated structures and institutions, rooted in the values of the earth element, begin to dismantle.
As the pressure on global systems intensifies, the emphasis on community will not just be a trend, it will become a necessity. With the rise of climate refugees and widening inequalities, we’ll be called to show up for one another. The challenges ahead will require us to collaborate, organize, and reimagine how we care for each other.
Alongside community, communication and language are essential qualities of the element of air. In recent years, communication has become increasingly inclusive: closed captions on videos, the widespread adoption of pronouns like they/them, and wearable devices that translate sign language into speech in real time are just the beginning. This evolution will continue, bringing new ways to connect and novel forms of media.
When it comes to intelligence and knowledge, also ruled by air, we are entering an era where our minds will increasingly merge with technology. We’re already seeing breakthroughs: hacking the brain to treat diseases like Parkinson’s, helping paralyzed individuals regain movement, and developing brain-computer interfaces designed to boost cognitive abilities. Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is at the forefront of this mind-bending frontier. It’s as if we’ve stepped right into a Black Mirror episode. Freaky.
Film still from the dystopian science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror, episode "Arkangel" (2017)
Challenges in the Era of Air
While the Era of Air holds incredible promise, it is far from a utopia. Alongside its transformative power, this era brings complex and serious challenges, many tied to communication, information, and technology. We will face tech wars, bot armies, internet trolls, aerial warfare with drones, genetic modification, fake news, deepfakes, cybersecurity threats, and a growing lack of online privacy. These are not just sci-fi fears. They are very real concerns, reminiscent of Black Mirror episodes come to life.
One of my greatest concerns is that legislation won’t be able to keep up with rapid technological advances, and neither will many people. Those who aren't tech-savvy risk being left behind, vulnerable to confusion, exploitation, or even harm. To navigate this complex future, critical thinking, media literacy, source verification, and technology ethics must become top priorities in education worldwide. Equipping future generations with these skills is essential if we want to face the Era of Air with resilience and wisdom.
Looking further ahead, I predict that by the end of the Era of Air, Artificial Intelligence may no longer serve humanity, but control it. If left unchecked, AI could surpass our understanding, override our ethics, and reshape the world in ways we can’t reverse. It won’t come with flashing red lights or robot uprisings, but quietly, through algorithms that decide what we see, how we think, and eventually, what we do. If power continues to concentrate in the hands of tech elites and machines designed to optimize efficiency over empathy, the world as we know it may not survive. But even then, as with all cycles, something new will rise. The Era of Water, with its focus on healing, intuition, emotional intelligence, and spirituality, may be what ultimately saves us, if there's still something left to save.
Film still from the film “I, Robot” (2004)
This blog post was updated on July 21, 2025.