The Collective Psychosis of Our Time

A friend and I were talking earlier today about how mad these times feel. She reminded me of something she asked a couple of months back: “When will the energies ease up?”

I told her then, and I still believe it now, that I don’t see any ease coming this year on a global level. Some astrologers promised softer energy months ago, but I could never understand that. I knew it wasn’t true. Maybe towards the latter part of December, once we are out of the post Saturn Retrograde shadow, but even that is not a given.

After this conversation with her, I said what had been sitting at the back of my mind for weeks: “It feels like the world is going through a mass psychosis.” And then I remembered - that is not just a metaphor. It is something Carl Jung himself warned about. It’s something I also came across in my metaphysical studies: the idea that entire societies can lose their footing in reality.

Welcome to the psychosis of the 21st century. Many people sense it: a kind of madness spreading through society. Not madness in the clinical sense, but a collective possession of the psyche. Wars, outrage, and ideological crusades consume attention. People cling to polarised narratives as if their very identity depends on it.

This isn’t new. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, warned that societies could fall into mass psychosis when individuals surrender critical thought and become swept into group hysteria. He called it collective possession - when the unconscious takes hold of masses, and reason evaporates in favour of emotional storms.

What we’re witnessing today looks very much like what Jung foresaw.

Jung studied how archetypes and symbols operate in both individuals and collectives. He believed that just as individuals could become “possessed” by complexes, entire nations could be possessed by an archetype - war fever, holy crusade, or ideological mania.

He saw it in Germany during the Nazi era: rational people swept into irrationality, convinced they were serving truth while enacting atrocity. He wrote that when societies fail to integrate their shadow - their unacknowledged fears and desires - the shadow erupts collectively in dangerous forms.

That eruption is what we call a collective psychosis. How Collective Psychosis Manifests Today

1. Fixation on Narratives - Entire populations are pulled into singular storylines - whether it’s identity politics, climate panic, or the cause of the moment splashed across headlines. Each becomes a vortex where nuance disappears.

2. Emotional Contagion - Anger, fear, and outrage spread faster than reason. Algorithms amplify the most extreme voices, creating a bubble that feels like the whole truth.

3. Moral Possession - People act as though they are on a holy crusade. Anyone who questions the script becomes “the enemy.” The collective psyche no longer seeks truth, only validation.
   

History shows us the pattern with this: witch hunts, crusades, revolutions. Today, the stage is global, and the hysteria is constant. In esoteric traditions, concentrated focus creates egregores - psychic entities born of collective energy. Think of them as thought forms that grow stronger the more people obsess over them.

A cause, once infused with enough outrage, becomes an egregore. It starts to feed itself, living off attention like a parasite. Wars, hashtags, movements - all can become egregores, sustaining themselves by pulling more minds into the whirlpool.

This explains why some issues dominate the psyche far more than others. It’s not just morality or justice at play. It’s energetic entrainment. Astrology mirrors this perfectly. The skies right now show why collective psychosis is peaking:

1. Neptune in Pisces which we are just at the end of - myth making, illusion, saviour/victim dynamics. The line between reality and fantasy dissolves.

2. Pluto in Aquarius - obsession with collective identity, radicalisation, rebellion against authority but also new forms of authoritarianism disguised as progress.

3. Saturn conjunct Neptune in Aries (2025–26) - reality colliding with illusion. Discipline meets delusion, exposing how fragile our truths are.

Add in the volatile squares and oppositions we’ve been seeing, and you get the recipe for hysteria on a global scale.

Nikola Stojanović’s degree theory goes even further. Degrees like 18° (violence, shock) and 22° (tragedy, crime) being heavily activated in world charts show how easily mass consciousness tips toward extremes.

So who stays sane?

Not everyone gets swept away. Some remain grounded, even when accused of being “detached” or “cold.” These people often:

-Psychologically have stronger self-awareness and scepticism. They resist emotional contagion.

-Astrologically carry stabilising placements: strong Saturn (boundaries), Mercury (discernment), or Capricorn/Aries energy (independence).

-Spiritually incarnate with the role of anchor. Their task is not to heal everyone but to hold clarity while others are swept by the tide.

But resisting the psychosis comes at a cost. The grounded ones are often scapegoated, misunderstood, or cast as outsiders. Yet history shows they are the ones who carry the thread of truth through the storm. The danger of collective psychosis is that it substitutes conformity for truth. When masses are possessed, cruelty and censorship can be justified in the name of “justice.”

If you feel like the world has gone mad but you are somehow holding your footing, you are not crazy - you are awake. You are doing what Jung described as essential: standing apart from the possession of the 'group mind'. How to Stay Sane in a World Gone Mad

1. Limit the Feed: Social media algorithms are designed to amplify hysteria. Set hard boundaries - check news once a day, not twenty times.

2. Ground in Your Body: Walk barefoot, exercise, breathe deeply. The more you anchor into your body, the less you get pulled into abstract panic.

3. Question Absolutes: Anytime you see “everyone believes” or “the only answer is” - pause. Mass psychosis thrives on absolutes. Truth usually has nuance.

4. Keep Saturn Strong: Saturn is discipline and boundaries. Practise saying no, creating structure, and sticking to your own rhythm instead of being dragged by the crowd.

5. Diversify Inputs: Read opposing viewpoints. Talk to people outside your bubble. A closed loop creates delusion; diversity creates perspective.

6. Detach from Egregores: Don’t pour endless energy into movements or hashtags that drain you. Observe without feeding. Attention is fuel - choose where you give it.

7. Stay Rooted in Spirit: Daily meditation, prayer, or reflection keeps your compass tuned inward. A strong connection to source cuts through collective noise.

8. Use Discernment: Mercury represents clear thinking. Write, reflect, and process information before reacting. Practise responding instead of reacting.

9. Watch Emotional Contagion: Notice when your emotions spike because of what others feel. Ask: Is this mine, or am I picking it up from the field?

10. Protect Your Nervous System: Sleep, eat clean, rest. A burnt out body is easy prey for hysteria. A rested body resists possession.

The task is not to fix the collective storm but to remain sovereign within it. To ground yourself in reality, to discern what’s real from what’s hysteria, and to remember that existence is bigger than any single narrative. All the love, Zaya