Minimalism, maximalism, and the rhythm of life
How history can help us
Happy New Moon. If you’ve been feeling off lately, today is a quiet invitation to hit reset.
Give yourself a mini rebirth.
As the Zen koan says: “Everyday is a good day.” So you don’t have to wait for Monday or next week or next month.
You can begin again, right now.
With a breath. With a question. With a single step.
Beneath the surface, we’re entering a time of great paradox: slowing down and speeding up, simplifying and expanding.
And the cosmos is showing us how.
Last week we explored how the current zeitgeist will be shaped by a major planetary alignment between Saturn and Neptune until 2027.
TL;DR: the mood ranges from calm concentration to disillusioned skepticism.
But that’s only half the story.
While Saturn and Neptune deepen their entanglement, Uranus and Pluto are also aligning in the sky, until 2032.
So let’s break this down on an archetypal level:
Uranus signifies freedom, innovation, and breaking the rules.
Pluto symbolizes power, destruction, and deep transformation.
When these two planets align, they tend to shake things up.
Revolutions. Breakthroughs. Rebirths.
And they don’t just happen in one arena, they ripple across every domain, even your personal life.
As the graphic shows, in the 60s there was a revolutionary transformation of the collective psyche.
From women awakening to their power and freedom, to Yves Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear concept taking over fashion, the mood was one of liberation (Uranus) and intensity (Pluto).
And then a similar quality unfolded in the 2010s that seemed to mirror the 60s.
From the immense sea of choice that the dating apps provided to the resurgence in psychedelics, the disruptive power of Uranus-Pluto was embracing the collective zeitgeist.
While it may seem that the invention of dating apps is unrelated to the rise in streetwear, with archetypal perception one can see exactly how they are actually deeply interrelated.
History doesn’t always repeat itself. But there’s clearly a rhythm to it.
As the graphic indicates, all the major moments in the history of flight (including space exploration) have happened under a Uranus-Pluto alignment.
The last one (Mars Landing), is an artifact of anticipation. As there will be a major alignment between Uranus and Pluto from 2041-2052.
Since the current alignment between Uranus and Pluto (2021-2032) is considered to be a minor alignment, I didn’t think it would be the moment that a human would touch foot on Mars.
But perhaps Elon Musk will prove me wrong, and in turn, help us astrologers fine-tune our research into major vs. minor alignments (I’m trying my best to not inundate you with information, so I’m not going deeply into this subject right now).
But flight is just one theme. The interplay between technology and power under this alignment can be traced back and linked centuries a part:
Uranus with it’s creative innovation, and Pluto with it’s transformative power, has coincided with how information gets spread to the masses.
Guttenberg’s printing press was a revolutionary invention—suddenly you could share a piece of information with many people.
And the invention of Twitter, carried the same archetypal quality—a piece of information being shared instantly with millions.
So when you step back, you start to see culture as not just isolated moments, but repeating patterns.
We’re not just talking about fashion or apps or rockets. We’re talking about a deeper rhythm.
A cosmic engine that pulses through history.
Maybe all of this sounds abstract. Maybe you’re thinking to yourself: “cool, but what does this mean for me?”
Totally fair question.
But the reality is that the personal and the collective aren’t separate. They are reflections of each other, playing out at different scales.
As the Hermetic saying goes: “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul.”
Whatever the zeitgeist is expressing, your psyche is feeling too.
Some of this may feel a bit technical. But I’m committed to making things more simple, following in the footsteps of my professor, Dr. Richard Tarnas.
Abeer and I like to say that Rick (as his students call him) is the Steve Jobs of astrology because he stripped the field down to its essentials—no zodiac signs, no houses…just the planets and the angular alignments between them.
For the mega astrology lovers out there, you’re probably not going to like this…but I’d say the buttons and controls of the pre-iPhone era phones are like the houses and zodiac signs.
The iPhone was a minimalistic revolution—no buttons and no stylus. Just the screen and your direct human touch.
What’s wild is that the iPhone was released in 2007, under a Uranus-Pluto and Saturn-Neptune alignment.
Its clean design embodied the tone of Saturn-Neptune: simple and elegant.
Its disruptive impact? Pure Uranus-Pluto: radical transformation through technology.
And that’s what archetypal astrology is all about too: revolutionary minimalism.
So why is minimalism so powerful?
I think we can look to Einstein for an answer.
E = MC²
His equation on the relationship between energy and matter did not only penetrate a deep truth, it did so in an elegantly simple manner.
Just three variables and one equal sign to rewrite the laws of physics.
Einstein published this equation in 1905, also under a Saturn-Neptune and Uranus-Pluto alignment.
A minimalist equation (Saturn-Neptune) to carry the maximalist intensity (Uranus-Pluto) of the cosmos.
At the time, he was in a field that assumed it had everything figured out because Newton’s laws had ruled physics for 200 years.
So of course, when Einstein suggested that Newton’s equations were incomplete, he faced a lot of resistance and skepticism.
This is the archetypal story of science. The story of ideas. And the story of the evolution of consciousness.
Paradigm shifts have to face backlash because they need to be battle-tested—like any thing worth taking a risk for and implementing in one’s life, you need to know that it works.
So in a similar manner, astrology, as a field, went through its dark ages because it started to lean more into superstition—exact predictions and a generally fatalistic vibe.
It started to lose its edge and failed its test against scientific materialism.
But like any system that still holds something true, it is now being re-evaluated.
Just like fat.
In the mid 20th century, fat got a bad rep. All fat—not just the harmful saturated fat—was lumped together and demonized.
But today, fat has been reclaimed, especially with the keto diet.
Now we know not all fat is bad. There are good fats and bad fats. Good fats like avocados are incredibly healthy and help your body manage energy efficiently.
Astrology is making a comeback like fat did in the 2000s.
And here’s the important similarity: there’s good astrology, and bad astrology. Like in any field—good business, bad business; good design, bad design, and so on.
So if we can reclaim the wisdom buried in a misunderstood nutrient, we can do the same with a misunderstood cosmos.
Because your life is shaped by the same forces that shape the world.
You’ve lived through seasons of stripping down: surrendering, simplifying, clarifying.
And seasons of building up: expanding, experimenting, reinventing.
Minimalism and maximalism.
Saturn-Neptune and Uranus-Pluto.
These are archetypal waves moving through the world and through you. The more attuned you are to them, the more gracefully you can surf them.
If you’re curious to learn how you can co-create with these forces—minimalism through Saturn-Neptune and maximalism through Uranus-Pluto—join me at (R)Evolution Rising: Astrology for the Zeitgeist a FREE Online Summit from August 8-10th. I’ll be speaking on this very topic, sharing how to recognize these deeper rhythms and bring them into your own life.
Here’s a little sneak peek of my talk:
I’ll take you through the life of Coco Chanel, Mahatma Gandhi, the German design school Bauhaus, and the explosion of Jazz to better understand how we can live at the intersection of minimalism and maximalism.
In Mystery,
Somya Desai