As the world turns

As the world turns | Daily Tribune

The last 25 years can be characterized by speed — our society and world in maximum overdrive and immense transformation.

This acceleration can be looked at from the perspective of the celestial planets’ energies forcing transformation on all. It’s like the cosmos whispering through the cracks of our human journey.

This is because the very foundation of our society/world, like tectonic plates of the earth, has been slowly but surely shifting.

The great destroyer

The planet Pluto (AKA the great destroyer) is mainly responsible as it went through its slow march through the constellations of Sagittarius and Capricorn (1995-2024), tearing down illusions and forcing us all to rebuild structures from their foundations.

We saw the millennial shift bring fiery idealism expanding our global consciousness — the internet connecting souls across borders, yet Pluto’s shadow exposed cultural dogmas and imperial overreach.

Then, Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, and the heavens demanded accountability: institutions of finance trembled; medical, academic, religious institutions had to rethink their formats; governments faced reckoning; and the very bones of society cracked under Pluto’s ruthless truth.

We learned that progress without integrity is but a hollow tower — and from its rubble, new ways of being began to stir. It was like a demolition crew (until 2024) for our nation, perpetually in overdrive engines roaring through political upheavals, natural disasters and digital revolutions. EDSA’s People Power faded dreams gave way to Duterte’s strongman Pluto, shattering illusions of democracy even as TikTok rewired protest into a viral dance.

We became experts at crisis whiplash — typhoons, pandemics, inflation — each disaster met with sardonic memes and our usual bahala na grit surrendering it all to “Bathala” or that unseen God-force. The same Plutonian forces that exposed corruption in high places also birthed drag queens winning global stages and jeepney drivers morphing into crypto traders. Wild.

Rude awakener

Uranus (rude awakener) in the sign of Taurus (Earth) has thrust the Philippines into nature’s relentless maximum overdrive — of typhoons, eruptions and quakes that mirror Pluto’s unyielding push for transformation.

From the mudslides of typhoon “Ondoy” (2009) to the supercharged wrath of “Yolanda” (2013), each disaster exposed both the fragility of infrastructure and the ferocity of Filipino resilience. Volcanoes like Mayon and Taal spat fire and ash on cue, while somewhere in our subconscious, we know the “Big One” looms beneath our feet like a cosmic time bomb.

Climate change turned seasons into chaos — the rainy season arriving as biblical floods, and the heat scorching cities into urban kilns. Yet we Filipinos continue to stand, embracing our bayanihan spirit, rebuilding with one hand while scrolling disaster memes online with the other. It is truly unbelievable how the Filipino’s sense of survival through upheavals isn’t just about instinct but humor and creativity — creating crazy online posts of an archipelago’s upheaval, akin to performance art!

Stern disciplinarian

Saturn (the stern planet of discipline) showed our growing pains and the merciless pandemic that stripped bare the fragility of systems and pushed our human spirit. The lockdown revealed both our bayanihan” spirit with community pantries; innovations of home businesses that saw new micro-entrepreneurs arise, sari-sari stores going digital with Gcash, and a conscious relook at our relationship with nature.

We were all forced to grow up fast — millennials inheriting a world where ‘stable jobs’ meant gig economy hustles, and OFW mined bitcoin or got paid with NFTs.

As Filipinos, we improvised any diskarte possible to earn a living, and adapt into the new norm. Now we face the Aquarian innovations of this era — cryptocurrency, AI, climate tech… I hope our society we will move into addressing these more strategically!

Illusionary planet

Around us now is planet Neptune’s energies (the intangible, dreamy, illusionary planet) In the constellation of Pisces (2011-2025). All boundaries are blurred — between real and virtual, self and collective, compassion and escapism.

Suddenly, everything seems like a weird hallucinatory “teleserye” or even a reel — where history blurs with Marcosian reboots and illusions that suggest things will be different.

We continue our “hugots” and let K-pop and entertainment drown out any political noise or intellectual discourse. Our poor are resigned to poverty as long as they have a cell-phone and WiFi! Our Gen Zs enter the doorway of the Age of Aquarius now use hashtags, memes and hack-a-tons in their attempt to find some deeper meaning in all these illusions and systemic collapse. They are rethinking marriage, children and even their gender! Meanwhile, others look to nature, new forms of lifestyles, finding like-minded communities and collectives hoping to build on something more meaningful.

Soul cry for meaning

Today we all swim in an ocean of disinformation and divine longing, where art, advocacy and activism merge as the soul’s cry for meaning. Through this all, we must understand that the stars do not dictate but that the cosmic energies invite us to understand the cycle of our times.

These past 25 years has been both cathartic and alchemical — a crucible where fear and faith collide; where the seen and the unseen are coming together; where truth founded on the spiritual are shattering mirrors of material illusions; where societies as a collective, and each person in particular, is now shedding skins like snakes.

Well, I will say goodbye to the past 25 years, and hope that the storms we have gone through be the wind propelling us forward. We have crossed the threshold of the Aquarian Age (officially here now), and the baby has been born.

We enter the next phase with an Aquarian electric hum calling us to rewrite the rules, to merge street-smart survival but with our national dream intact. Can we, please can we… carry forward only that which nourishes and strengthens us as a people…our spirit of innovation and creativity, a relational heart and adaptability known the world over, our stubborn optimism and resourceful improvisation that outlast every disaster.

But let it be merged now by processes that focus on productivity and competition, good governance, the need for continuous improvement and having the ability and stand to see them through.

Let the good times roll now (albeit still bumpy and chaotic for the next two years), as we awaken in spiritual consciousness, knowing the best is yet to come!