The general thesis of the documentary The Astrology of Pandemics is “It’s all Pluto’s fault!” The tiny planet gets dragged in the film, which resembles something you might see in a junior high school science class or on The Learning Channel. It’s not so much a movie, or a documentary even, in the conventional sense. Rather, The Astrology of Pandemics is more along the lines of an instructional video.
To boot, it never pretends to be a documentary; it refers to itself as a video and utilizes one of those A.I. narrators that make every word sound eerily robotic. But if we are to evaluate the film on the basis of what its intentions are, i.e., to be an informative video concerning how pandemics throughout history have been influenced and dictated by the placement of planets within the zodiac, then we must deem it a success. It does what it sets out to do.
“…how pandemics throughout history have been influenced and dictated by the placement of planets within the zodiac…”
Now I have never studied astrology in any meaningful way other than to constantly proclaim how I uncannily align with my astrological sign (Gemini). Nor am I much of a proponent of conspiracy theories. Personally, I tend to gravitate towards a more scientific, “If I can’t see it, it’s not real” approach. With that said, the material expounded upon in The Astrology of Pandemics is certainly compelling. In its New Age-y kind of way, the short makes a persuasive argument regarding the interplanetary influence on the occurrences of pandemics throughout history.
The Astrology of Pandemics is divided into four chapters. Chapter One, History of Pandemics, uses a high-level approach to familiarize the viewer with some of the most catastrophic pandemics in history, including the Plague of Justinian, the Spanish Flu, AIDS/ HIV, up to and including COVID-19. Chapter Two, The Astrology, does a serious deep dive into the relationships between lunar eclipses, planets (particularly Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto), and the timing of the onset of pandemics. Chapter Three, The Astrology of COVID-19, examines how all of this astrological information translates specifically to COVID-19. Chapter Four, The Great Conjunction and Post-COVID-19, discusses the significance of where the planets meet in the zodiac and their corresponding introduction into the cycles of the elements, as well as the positive and negative effect this interconnectivity has on humanity.
The movie dates itself by referential statements such as “the next Great Conjunction will happen in December 2020 in the sign of Aquarius.” Regardless, the film is enthralling in the same way a Nova special is. While it includes a lot of “whoa!” moments, one really has to be an adherent of this school of thought to really go and seek it out. For true believers, the movie will reinforce one’s every inkling that COVID-19 might have been preordained by the cosmos. For the rest of us, The Astrology of Pandemics is a neat thing to watch as we are flipping around cable on a lazy day. It’s absorbing enough to be the sort of show that causes us to walk away, storing some cool factoids to impress others with in the future.
"…the general thesis...is 'It's all Pluto's fault!'""
