The winter solstice of 2020 also brought the “Great Conjunction” of the planets Saturn and Jupiter. The event was hailed by many as the return of the “Star of Bethlehem” which guided the magi to the manger cradle of the baby Jesus.  Although that designation remains conjecture, there is no disputing that 2020 was an extraordinary year in the life of our world.

As we begin 2021 with vaccines, the eagerness to return to “normal” is tempered by what we have learned during the past year. The failures of the U.S. in protecting and treating its citizenry during the pandemic and yet more graphic evidence of the nation’s devaluing of its black residents and persons of color in general cry out for change.  It is as though the guardians of our hyper individualistic political and economic order must in 2021 ponder the needs of the disadvantaged and discriminated and allow significant change to begin to take shape.

The poem following reflects on this time of “Kairos”, crisis, and chaos and what the “Great Conjunction” of 2020 might be messaging us.  

 The Great Conjunction
  
 Phenomenal but how interpret the orbits’
          coincidence?
 A tryst, a search, a studied return or a 
          reconciliation?
 Don’t ask Galileo since his lenses 
          were trained elsewhere.
 Your answer discloses clues of what you
          were looking for.
 Its appearance yet a visitation while longing
          for connection
 Fed by centuries of bearing us to a place
          of rebirth
 Or bearing us to our contemplation starving
          for a sign.
  
 On first sighting the illumination turned the lens
          back on us
 Turned where the ancient message belonged before
          we left the slime
 When the addressee remained unknown
          with no forwarding
 As we hurtled through the heavens fiddling
          to our end.
 The clock ticks toll louder ‘til defeaned 
          by the rage
 We find ourselves released to join the dance
          of heavens’ embrace
 Calling us to explore the wink of elements
          in our lives.
  
 What do the lights tell us now that we know
          they are two
 Their brief approach again creating
          that great light
 For the seers and all those who notice 
          such things
 And allows our access to all the darkness
          within
 our complicity in the scheme of things which ignores
          the magi
 who returned from the cradle of love 
          a new way
 Wondering if the babe will overcome 456 million miles 
          of separation.