Happy New Year! We all hope it will be truly joyful. Once the dust settles, the good news is that we will achieve significant results both individually and collectively. The inconvenient truth is that the road ahead remains challenging.
Over the next twelve months, the three most powerful planets—Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—will move into new signs. Pluto will settle into a long-term residency in Aquarius. The lunar nodes will shift from Aries to Pisces. This represents one of the most radical archetypal changes possible. Pisces is communally inclusive and relatively peaceful, although it can often be somewhat somnolent. Aries embodies the sign of war and intense self-focus. Saturn will also move into Aries this year. Uranus will enter Gemini, the same sign it occupied during the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II, as well as during the drafting of the US Constitution. I will provide a more detailed forecast of these transitions as the year unfolds.
The year begins with a loud whimper and whine that can evolve into a bang. On January 11th, the Lunar North Node enters Pisces, while the Lunar South Node transitions into Virgo. This shift marks the beginning of a significant transformation. Planet Neptune will serve as the year’s focal point, alongside Pluto in Aquarius, as Neptune takes on the role of the ruler of the Lunar North Node in Pisces for the next 18 months.
Neptune embodies the unseen realm that exists solely in dreams, fantasies, and delusions. It is associated with transcendent reality, unconditional love, and ultimate truth. At the same time, it represents betrayal, deception, and martyrdom. As the ruler of the lunar north node, we should anticipate expressions of all these conditions within ourselves and in the world at large.
We should expect the unexpected. The saying “man plans and God laughs” will take on a more profound significance. This does not mean 2025 will be a “walk in the park.” Instead, it suggests that historical events are unfolding, sometimes in a state of crisis, that are transformational and stem from unseen forces. Distillation occurs as coarser elements rise to the surface or precipitate out, removing toxic contaminants.
The Lunar South Node in Virgo will support this process. Mercury, the fastest-moving planet in the sky, will usher in the new year in Capricorn. It will then move through the zodiac, spending a month in each sign and concluding in Sagittarius by December. Rapid developments prompt change and growth, urging us to reconsider what we know. This dynamic has served as the mental backdrop since 2016, beginning with the first Trump presidency, followed by COVID-19 in 2020, and now Trump.2.
Several wildcards are in play. The first is the cautiously optimistic emerging resistance from Trump’s party against his threatening agenda. The second, perhaps equally serious threat, is the covert machinations of other international players.
The remedy for weathering any incoming storm is threefold. First, we must nurture ourselves and our four bodies: emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual. Health and illness originate in the emotional body, while the universe is mental, not physical. Please pay close attention to the thought forms you release into your environment.
Secondly, take care of your body by engaging in physical exercise. There are many options: join a gym, walk daily, reduce sugar intake, consume alcohol in moderation, and especially avoid processed and GMO foods. Grounding daily is essential.
Identify a spiritual practice that speaks to you. If you find prayer or meditation challenging, spend time in nature, where divinity is most evident.
Diversity is incredible, but unity is even more significant. Consider that there is only one “one” of us on this planet, a single organism called humanity, whose roots are all interconnected beneath the surface like a grove of redwood trees, a school of fish swimming together, or a flock of birds flying in formation. We can achieve this. We must contemplate how many more “Trumps” and “COVIDs” we must experience to manifest that.
Pluto into Aquarius/Saturn Stations Direct/The US Election
On November 1st, a Scorpio New Moon sets the stage for the month. Ruled by Pluto at the final degree of Capricorn, no compromise should be expected. Karmic necessity is the agenda. Emotions are running high. The future rushes headlong to meet us. These winds of change have their agenda. Though we might initially appear to be moving backward, the world is about to take a giant step forward. Beware of physical aggression and emotional distress. Find your center of gravity, and buckle your mental and emotional seatbelts to ride out the storms on the horizon.
Five days later, on November 6th, the US Presidential Election will hold us captive. Do not fall prey to uncertainty or blatant malfeasance. The world is watching the transfer of power in the United States with bated breath. The ship of state will pass through the narrows resembling Scylla and Charybdis. Regardless of the outcome, the boat will rock. Six thousand years of misogyny, patriarchy, elitism, persecution, egocentrism, and antipathy are the skeletons that have come out of the closet. Find refuge in the dream that creates a future different from the past.
On November 15th, Saturn ends its apparent backward motion and slowly begins to move forward. Seven hours later, a Taurus Full Moon occurs. The emotional turmoil will reach new heights. Both of these events can activate new realities that help stabilize the chaos. Sixty years ago, John Kennedy and Martin Luther King awakened the dream. Complacency has generated an epidemic of narcolepsy that has overtaken us. We are about to be roused from our somnambulance.
Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.
—Winston Churchill
On September 2nd, a New Moon will grace the sky at 11° Virgo 04’ at 9:55 pm EDT. Those born under the sign of Virgo are often tasked to navigate their lives with critical discernment and demand for perfection. Even those spared a prominence of Virgo’s razor-sharp cutting edge must work on themselves even if the 6th House seems devoid of resident planets. There is still a sign on the cusp and a planet that rules that sign. We can grow forward along our evolutionary path by responding positively to the crises on our doorstep, or we can go kicking and screaming. Better to bow to master Mercury and let him have his way.
A double kite formation consisting of two (not so) minor and two grand trines is at the core of this lunation. Pluto and Neptune at the 29th anaretic degree of Capricorn and Uranus retrograde in Taurus forms a kite that engages Venus in her native Libra conjunct the lunar south node. Capricorn and its ruler, Saturn, are strict taskmasters. Their dynamics can be suppressive, repressive, and oppressive. They represent authority and demand that we recognize it. Like Pluto, in their way, “they take no prisoners.” However, they teach mastery and skills that we need to learn and better navigate 3D reality as we age and mature. Pluto, Venus, and Goddess of War and Strategy Pallas Athene in Scorpio (ruled by non-negotiable Pluto) form a kite with Uranus. The two “kited” crosses comprise two-thirds of a “Star of David” configuration. The archetypal dynamics of this chart are closely engaged, each supporting the other. Asteroid Astraea, the Greek Goddess of Justice, anchors one arm of the grand trine.
The oppositions to Neptune and Pallas are the resolution points, the “deus ex machina” to the “tri-bunal.” When events seem to be going sideways, engage with that which is greater than yourself, what is spiritual, metaphysical, transcendent (Neptune), to find solutions to difficult emotional situations and people that want to overwhelm you. Allow the impulses from your right brain (Jupiter), higher mind (Pallas Athene), and the seemingly impossible ideas and solutions that arise intuitively (Neptune) to pollinate and grow. Injustice is a viral variant out of control. (Astrea).
The Virgo Moon,
Applies to an Earth/Fire Grand Trine:
(Last Quarter) waxing square to dwarf planet Ceres
(First Quarter) waning square asteroid Hygeia retrograde.
Applies to a (Gibbous) waxing Opposition to Saturn in Pisces retrograde.
Separates from a (Gibbous) Sesquisquare to Eris in Aries retrograde.
Applies to a (1st Quarter) waxing squares to dwarf planet. Sedna Retrograde in Gemini and Jupiter in Gemini.
There are some tricky twists and turns on the road ahead. Unified, high-octane energy is woven through this celestial pictogram, remarkably intensified by the retrograde conditions of many of the planets, especially the outer “heavies,” Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Watch out for blindspots (Neptune), sudden, unexpected (Uranus) events initiate (new moon) karmic/evolutionary (lunar nodes) changes.
Pluto, now retrograde in Aquarius, is poised to re-enter Capricorn for the last time on September 1st, the day before the new moon. It will station direct again on October 11th and re-enter Aquarius on November 19th, where it will be resident until 2043-4.
Mars rules the lunar north node, our karmic potentials going forward: control anger and impulsive action, something we need to do even in calmer times. Make conscious choices. Act on what best supports your personal growth. Venus rules the lunar south node, our karmic history from the past. Identify what your critical priorities are if complex events unfold. What values are most important and must be held as sacred? Every crisis is an opportunity for change. Actively and consciously support that process. We do not have to repeat the same mistakes as the past (lunar south node). We can choose to make different, conscious choices to avoid repeated trauma. (Lunar north node/Uranus)
An underlying remedy to navigate emotional turbulence will be nurturing ourselves in healthy ways, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Take long walks. Spend some time in nature, especially in places where there is no city light. Read poetry. Soak in hot tubs and mineral springs. Help others. Volunteer. Nurture yourself.
Every crisis is an opportunity for change. We are passing through an evolutionary vortex energetically exposing our karmic necessities.
A full moon will occur at 27° Aquarius 15’ on August 19th at 2:25 EDT. It is called the Sturgeon Moon. The Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing Native American names for full Moons in the 1930s, and these names have become widely known and used. According to this almanac, the Algonquin tribes in what is now the northeastern USA called this the Sturgeon Moon after the large fish that were more easily caught this time of year in the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water.
This full moon is also a supermoon. As it’s used today, the word supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. According to Nolle’s definition, a full moon or new moon is a supermoon when it’s also within 90% of its closest point to Earth.1
At the full moon, Uranus in Taurus will perfect to a fixed element T-Square in that celestial moment. Uranus is the game-changer, manifesting what is unexpected, often traumatic, but usually progressive with long-term positive effects. Pluto retrograde in Aquarius squares the Sun and Moon, forming a partile (exact) fixed element T-square. Pluto, along with Neptune retrograde in Pisces, forms a “finger of god” Yod formation focused on the Leo Sun. These powerful outer planet dynamics create deep emotional rhythms, swirling pooled eddies of fears and memories of holocausts past. Human behavior echoes these tremors with “stranger than fiction” reenactment.
Saturn retrograde in Pisces opposes Venus in Virgo. They both square Mars-Jupiter in Gemini, forming a mutable T-square. Clashing views and opinions challenge ideas, beliefs, values, priorities, and authority itself.
Pallas Athene in Scorpio completes a fourth angle to the Pluto-Sun-Moon T-square, forming a fixed grand cross. Fixed crosses correlate to the long-term build-up of unreleased tensions.
Pallas is also the focal point of a “finger of God” Yod formation from Mars and Chiron retrograde in Aries. Mars is just beginning to separate from a new phase conjunction with Jupiter in Gemini. Mars is the god, and Pallas Athene is the goddess of War. Jupiter pulls their strings from “on high,” expanding and directing their roles. These two powerful Yods will act as a trigger mechanism to release the pent-up energetic stresses that have been building over time.
Mars and Jupiter are conjunct fixed star Aldebaran, which is linked with integrity and honesty. Aldebaran is one of the Royal Stars of Persia, called the “Watcher in the East.” Aldebaran was a great military god who gave victories to his followers, but only if they followed the strict procedures of his worship.2
This angular pressure from the Grand Cross and the Yods, as well as the potential for conflagration from the fire energy embedded in the explosive nature of Aries and Mars, the amplified erratic nature of Pluto at 0° Aquarius, the expansive dynamics of Jupiter are a recipe for a firestorm of disaster.
Guns are drawn and ready to be fired around the world. In the Middle East, the situation is ripe for explosive release between Israel and Iran, with the US engaged militarily as well. The incursion of Ukraine troops into Russia is still unfolding, and given the unpredictability, egotism, and intractability of Vladimir Putin, the situation is a powder keg. Threat-filled Chinese posturing vis-a-vis Taiwan and the South China Seas is also a ticking timebomb.
In the United States, with the US election only months away, the potential is rapidly developing that the outcome for Kamala Harris to deliver a historical turnout and potential win. It no longer seems to be so much a question of who will be elected. The burgeoning outcome presages the “firestorm” threatened by Donald Trump as the aftermath.
It is important to remember and hold onto the truth that these metamorphoses are the karmic necessities, the harbingers of a major planetary evolutionary shift. As human beings, we do not grow through mental exercise. We learn through direct emotional experience. It will be okay in the end. If it is not okay, it is because it is not the end.
The Cancer New Moon occurs on July 5th, 2024, at 6:57 PM EDT. The lunation occurs midway through the Moon’s native sign and generates powerful emotional currents that initiate a new cycle of self-understanding. This cycle asks us to question our values and priorities, challenging our ideas and opinions set in stone. This lunation empowers our individuality and authenticity, potentially realigning our relationships with ourselves and others.
As the recent and distant past converge, they bring to light realities we can no longer ignore. This convergence will prompt us to recognize the need for enlightened self-care in dramatic ways that offer no opportunity for compromise. Be vigilant for erratic actions by others and be prepared to find mental, emotional, and perhaps physical refuge to avoid the turmoil. This is a time when self-care is not just a luxury but a necessity, a comforting anchor in the storm.
The antidote to the upheaval is to seek shelter from the storm in the people, places, activities, and visions that comfort you. The earth beneath our feet, physically and spiritually, is changing. So are we. Visualize a vessel of clear white light that radiates, surrounds, and protects you. Dream where you want the future to take us. Visualize your part in the journey.
“Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off that spark in one another.”
—Kenny Ausubel “Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature”
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
On June 20th, the Summer Solstice occurs at 4:51 pm EDT. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is the longest day and shortest night of the year as the Sun reaches its zenith, its highest point in the sky. It is the celestial moment when the Sun is most powerful. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun reaches its nadir, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. We can feel a tangible shift as we reach the astrological midpoint of the year. This cardinal point opens our inner space through our emotional bodies. It is time to go inward, opening your heart space to ourselves, our family, and everything that nurtures body and soul. Midsummer is the Pagan holiday that dates back centuries, celebrating the changing seasons. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” tells how love can make us behave strangely, captivated by our heart’s desire. We can all feel this emotional stirring as we pass through this celestial moment.
At the Solstice, the Sun enters the sign of Cancer under a restless Sagittarius Moon. Venus and Mercury seek sanctuary within the Moon’s protective and nurturing embrace. Luna’s energies undulate, deeply embedded in the swirling experiential Sagittarian events that awaken our minds and hearts. Discussions revolve around values and priorities, spanning a spectrum of personal and sometimes discordant expressions. Our hearts and heads are charged with active agendas, often in conflict.
Mercury and Venus are stressed by the lunar nodes, creating a “skipped step” condition. It seems that every day brings news of catastrophe, carnage, or courtroom drama, which lays bare the truth that our collective values and priorities ignore the potential of looming future cataclysms due to inaction, lack of oversight, and regressive public policies and attitudes.
Pluto retrograde casts an angular shadow across the Sun as he inches back, seeking some Capricorn sense of security and control. For a few weeks from early September to mid-November, Pluto will re-anchor our intentions and self-empowerment as it idles over the final degree of Capricorn one last time before returning to Aquarius, parceling out Uranian energy for the next twenty years.
Neptune, in the final moments of his native signs of Pisces, exhibits angst and disillusionment. Its difficult relationship with the Lunar stellium in Cancer adds to the emotional stress. “When are we going to get our priorities straight?” Our higher minds and intuition are awakened as the god of water and the sea connects with strategists Pallas Athene, Uranus, and Sedna. Pluto empowers Neptune with highly individualized self-expression, while Vesta overlays the need for sacred authenticity. Astraea reminds Neptune of the injustices that abound in our awareness.
Neptune’s square to the Sun in the final zodiacal moments of Pisces and its opposition to the Lunar South Node illuminates our decline towards a historical, social, and political precipice. Fate already hangs heavy over the moment. The Lunar South node ruled by Mars chants a choral message again, asking, “Isn’t it time that we stopped repeating the past as the future?” Eris rattles our cage with contentious questions that evade answers.
Take time to escape the summer “heat” or the brutal Arctic cold, depending on your earthly latitude. Seek refuge in the natural world. Immerse yourself in your favorite healthy pleasures: bike, hike, camp, rockhound, wildcraft, paint en plein-air, and find refuge among family and friends. The storms will continue to rage around and eventually subside, but we can now weather the storm by finding shelter in our favorite people, places, and things.
“There are no sidelines. There’s no one sitting this one out. This is no hoping that someone else is going to come in and save the day. There is no cavalry. We are the cavalry.”
On May 25, 2024, a significant celestial event unfolded as Jupiter embarked on a transformative journey, entering the sign of Gemini. This marked the beginning of a twelve-month internship, a period that holds profound implications for its impact on our time.
As the ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter shares a unique and powerful bond with the sign of Gemini, forming an archetypal singularity. This bond, a polarity that encapsulates our mental nature, spans from the data and facts we collect to our expansive beliefs. Gemini, the student and the learning process, and Sagittarius, the teacher and the knowledge dissemination process, mirror this polarity. Gemini represents our neighborhood and local community, while Sagittarius encompasses the larger world and the diverse belief systems within any large group of individuals.
As Jupiter approaches the Sun and Venus in Gemini, opportunities for new growth and self-actualization will arise, as well as focus on real priorities and more thought-out agendas. Some help comes from Neptune in Pisces to dream new realities that replace outworn actualities.
At the ingress, Pluto, retrograde in Aquarius, embeds Jupiter with a powerful energetic boost of individuality and creativity. The frequency also carries a sense of aloofness and distance. Jupiter peers into Pluto’s rearview mirror to assess the past. How has power been exercised? How has individuality been expressed? Has creativity generated anything new, or does it just seem like overworked same-old, same-old?
The Moon in Capricorn casts an emotional crisis-laden light that pressures Jupiter to work to restructure the shape of things. The proximity of Jupiter’s recent meetup with Uranus tells us that we should continue to expect an increase in erratic, individualized behavior politically and with the weather. Jupiter is aligned with nature in all its aspects, including climate. The Moon in Jupiter’s native sign will redouble the intensity of our collective experiences.
Challenging aspects to the lunar nodes say that the fate of the future is being ignored due to involuntary adherence to the past. What we call destiny hangs in the balance. We are repeating the mistakes of the past, not working on what needs to change, and preventing progress from occurring. Too many realize that the “dream” has gone dark from their perspective.
Pallas Athene confronts her father (Zeus/Jupiter), offering strategies for new breakthroughs. But commitment is required to become effective. This Jupiter transit has the potential to create the building blocks for the future that address the increasing potential of horizon extinction events that we face as neighborhood, nation, and planet.
The second part of my Pluto Paradigm series, “Pluto in your Natal Chart: Houses 1-6,” is on the Kepler College YouTube channel. Find out what Evolutionary Astrology has to say about your natal Pluto placement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYN_AhpZcZM
As Spring whispers its emergence in the north and Autumn pipes retreat in the south, we feel Gaia’s energy shift and reverse gears. We feel intoxicated by the sight of tender emerald sprouts poking up through the ground or the musty heady smell of falling leaves.
In the heavens above, the stars and planets mirror the terrestrial changes heralding the advent of a new dawn. Birth is a challenging process. It is a painful delivery and a mystical birth. In a way, death is much easier. It just happens. Birth is another story altogether.
Astrologically, we are moving through the birth canal. There is the release of blood and the shadows of past trauma. As April unfolds, we will be visited by both.
On April 1st at 27° Aries, Hermes stands still, preparing to begin his backward march. Dane Rudhyar calls this celestial marker, “A large audience confronts the performer who disappointed its expectations. The necessity for mature preparation and self-criticism.”
At this degree, the Winged Messenger will trace his steps back to 15° Aries on April 25, activating complex personal geometry with Saturn in Pisces and Pluto in Aquarius. Saturn is uneasy in watery, boundless Pisces. Too many emotions flood the senses, weakening mental constructs, which will have a positive outcome. Pluto is enthusiastic in Aquarius, churning deep currents of emotional growth. Who we are becoming, individually and collectively, is directed to overcome what has become stagnant. The overflow of the Sun conjunct the lunar north node, and Chiron and Eris conjunct the Mercury station in Aries is the celestial petrie dish for self-actualized evolutionary growth. The planetary lineup of Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Neptune in Pisces is the fertile, watery abyss awakening new consciousness and connecting to Spirit.
A last-quarter “crisis in consciousness” Moon opposing asteroid Vesta and Astraea sets up a Cardinal Grand Cross squaring the lunar nodes. A “Finger of God” yod formation pointing at the Moon intensifies the necessity for resolving a “skipped” evolutionary step. Emotional distortions harbored from the past must be examined and reintegrated as a positive understanding of the potency and purpose of crisis and trauma. Authenticity and addressing injustice are high on the agenda.
An Earth Grand Trine to the Moon conjunct Ceres from Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Taurus and Juno Rx in Virgo speaks to reviewing our commitment to nurturing the process of becoming. Ceres carries karmic history with the Moon and lunar south node. Ceres evokes the mythology of Demeter and Persephone: divine Mother, her molested daughter, and the sexual misconduct of an older family member. Rape has many manifestations. Sadistic rape. War rape. Rape of the land. To name a few. We have been seeing evidence of this around us.
Saturn “kites out” the grand trine, emphasizing that the way forward is by taking responsibility for what we do.
A total solar eclipse occurs on April 8th at 20° Aries. It will be visible across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Its pathway will run from Mexico to Maine. This is the new moon event that initiates the next lunar cycle. The Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Chiron, Eris, Hygeia, and the Lunar North Node span the sign of Aries.
Mars, the ruler of the Aries array, is in Pisces. His fire never goes out. In water signs, it simmers below the surface or boils over. The archetype of Pisces is programmed for deep feelings and emotions. It is not always the most balanced. Boundaries are obscured or absent altogether, making us feel off balance and on shaky ground. Saints, saviors, and martyrs populate the cast. So do those who would betray, abandon, and misinform us. With a crisis-producing inconjunct from the Moon to Mars and Saturn, hidden agendas and aggression are possible.
Neptune is at Pisces’s anaretic (very last) degree and is the baseline for Mars and Saturn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Some essential evolutionary changes must now occur for progress and resolution.
The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Taurus makes a difficult angle to the Moon. Self-serving agendas can populate unexpected events and rattle personal boundaries for security and self-reliance. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on April 20 is the major outer planet event of 2024, second in importance only to Pluto’s transit of Aquarius. This heavy outer planet cycle underscores and sets the evolving base note for Pluto over the next twelve years.
The Ceres-Astraea opposition sets up a Cardinal Grand Cross. Asteroid Astraea’s karmic burden involves the Sun and the lunar north node. Astraea was the virgin goddess of justice. During the Golden Age, she dwelt upon the earth with mankind but was driven away by the increasing lawlessness. Zeus then set her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. Astraea was closely identified with the goddesses Dike (Justice) and Nemesis (Rightful Indignation).
Neptune is at Pisces’s anaretic (very last) degree and is the baseline for Mars and Saturn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Some essential evolutionary changes must now occur for progress and resolution.
An Earth Grand Trine from the Moon in Virgo and Ceres in Capricorn trines Jupiter and Uranus at their conjunction. Self-reliance, self-nurturing, and work on the self is the recipe for success through this timeframe. We need to ask ourselves some hard questions. Who am I becoming? Where have I not taken responsibility for my deeds and actions? What do I need to work on to be a better me?
An almost Star of David forms as Mercury stations and amalgamates the frequencies of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ceres, and Astraea. This portends an open channel for deep personal examination, responsibility for our choices, and the direction our lives are going. However, these are trines, not squares or oppositions. We must consciously work with them to activate their potential. If we don’t wake up to what is happening, this opportunity will drift by in the wind.
An eclipse season is an approximate 35-day period during which at least two (and possibly three) eclipses will occur. Typically, there are two eclipses in one eclipse season and two eclipse seasons in one calendar year. Eclipse seasons typically have at least four eclipses per year. Eclipse seasons repeat in cycles of 173.3 days (somewhat shy of six calendar months).
To see a lunar eclipse, the moon has to be above your horizon. So it has to be night, or close to night, and that only happens for half of Earth at once. A total solar eclipse can be seen only from a narrow track along Earth’s surface. The accompanying partial solar eclipse can be seen only in areas adjacent to that track. The moon’s orbit is inclined by 5 degrees to the ecliptic (Earth’s orbital plane). The new or full moon usually swings too far north or south of the ecliptic for an eclipse to occur.
Twice every month, as the moon circles Earth in its orbit, it crosses the ecliptic (Earth’s orbital plane) at the nodes. If the moon is going from south to north, it’s called the moon’s ascending node, and if it is moving from north to south, it’s called the moon’s descending node.
Eclipses are evolutionary release valves. Karmic energy that has been resisted or denied demands an outlet. Lunar eclipses are intense emotional releases. Solar eclipses are the intense unfolding of self-actualized soul-intended life changes.
The Lunar Nodes
The south node correlates to the past, what has come before. It is the composite of our previous lunar personalities and our emotional bodies. The north node points towards the future. But it is a “probable” future. More than one potential future stretches out from the present. The choices that we make in the present direct the future. When we repeat the choices of the past as the present, the past repeats as the future. If we make different choices, we create a future different from the past and the present.
“In your terms, there are unlimited probable future events for which you are now setting the groundwork. The nature of the thoughts and feelings you originate and those that you habitually or characteristically receive set a pattern, so you will choose from those probable futures those events that will physically become your experience.” —Seth Speaks (Channeled by Jane Roberts)
Pisces New Moon
The new moon on March 10th at 21° Pisces signals the onset of the first eclipse season of 2024. There is a sense of dormant incubation to this new moon. This current full moon feels like a powder keg preparing to explode in astrological and mundane times. All the planets are sandwiched between Jupiter and Pluto, packed into a wide 1st quarter, “crisis-in-action” square of latent compressed and unresolved emotional energy. Mars and Pluto in Aquarius are the flashpoints, flint on steel. The pressure of this karmic “hand grenade in a steel box” will continue to strengthen until the full moon lunar eclipse on March 25th, when the energies will be unleashed.
Libra Lunar Eclipse
A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse occurs at 1:00 a.m. MST at 5° Libra. Eclipses occur in 18-year cycles known as Saros cycles. It is part of Saros Series 113, which last occurred in 2006. That year, the International Astronomical Union defined a “planet” for the first time since Galileo, demoting Pluto to dwarf planet status. Ironically, it was also the year that NASA sent its first probe to Pluto. This eclipse will be visible and most energetically active across North and South America, Western Africa, and Eastern Australia.
A lunar eclipse can occur only when the full Moon is within 11° degrees of either lunar node. A solar eclipse can occur only when the new Moon is within 17° of either lunar node.
A full moon is a point of release. A lunar eclipse is a full moon on steroids. Often, something has been building for months or even years. Something major in life comes up for review and revision. The balloon is up. A flag is raised.
Libra is about balance and equilibrium, establishing a rapport between opposing forces, opinions, and personal perspectives. At this full moon, the relationship goddess Venus, the sign that rules Libra, resides in Pisces and is sandwiched between Saturn and Neptune. Libra mirrors our relationship with others. More importantly, Venus, as the ruler of Taurus, mirrors our relationship with ourselves. Both sides of this astrological equation are active. “How do I love me/thee? Let me count the ways.
Mars, the ruler of the Aries array, is also in Pisces. His fire never goes out. In water signs, it simmers below the surface or boils over. The archetype of Pisces is programmed for deep feelings and emotions. It is not always the most balanced. Boundaries are obscured or absent altogether, making us feel off balance and on shaky ground. Saints, saviors, and martyrs populate the cast. So do those who would betray, abandon, and misinform us. With a crisis-producing inconjunct from the Moon to Mars and Saturn, hidden agendas and aggression are possible. A waning trine from the Moon to Pluto in Aquarius does nothing to relieve the pressure. Instead, it cries out for an outlet to release the heavy emotional burden. It is false to think that trines and sextiles are good and squares, oppositions, inconjuncts, and sesquisquares are bad. The facilitating aspects can make us couch potatoes. They come and go unnoticed. The hard aspects get us up off the couch.
The Moon on the lunar south node carries a heavy emotional payload from the past. The Aries Sun on the lunar north node activates sudden, impulsive, knee-jerk responses.
The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Taurus makes a difficult angle to the Moon. Self-serving agendas can populate unexpected events and rattle personal boundaries for security and self-reliance. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on April 20 is the major outer planet event of 2024, second in importance only to Pluto’s transit of Aquarius. This heavy outer planet cycle underscores and sets the evolving base note for Pluto over the next twelve years.
A Ceres-Astraea opposition sets up a Cardinal Grand Cross at both eclipses as the pair square the lunar nodes. Any celestial body squaring the lunar nodes creates what is known as a skipped step condition. Ceres carries karmic history with the Moon and lunar south node. Ceres evokes the mythology of Demeter and Persephone. Divine Mother, her molested daughter, and the sexual misconduct of an older family member. Rape has many manifestations. Sadistic rape. War rape. Rape of the land. To name a few. We have been seeing evidence of this around us.
Asteroid Astraea’s karmic burden involves the Sun and the lunar north node. Astraea was the virgin goddess of justice. During the Golden Age, she dwelt upon the earth with mankind but was driven away by the increasing lawlessness. Zeus then set her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. Astraea was closely identified with the goddesses Dike (Justice) and Nemesis (Rightful Indignation). — https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Astraia.html
At the Libra Lunar Eclipse, Mars’s opposition to Juno draws a mutable grand cross in the sky, squaring an opposition between Pallas Athene and the minor planet Sedna. This celestial mix pulls together elements that speak to fidelity and commitment (Juno) to our free spirit (Mars), accessing higher knowledge (Pallas Athene) and increased consciousness (Sedna).
Aries Solar Eclipse
A total solar eclipse occurs on April 8th at 20° Aries. It will be visible across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Its pathway will run from Southern California to Maine. This is the new moon event that initiates the next lunar cycle. The Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Chiron, Eris, Hygeia, and the Lunar North Node span the sign of Aries. The leader of the pack is Mars conjunct Saturn in Pisces, detailed above. Neptune is at Pisces’s anaretic (very last) degree and is the baseline for Mars and Saturn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Some essential evolutionary changes must now occur for progress and resolution.
This eclipse will be visible across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Its pathway will run from Southern California to Maine.
How To Navigate The Eclipses
Overall, the Fire signs Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius can navigate these turbulent waters by allowing themselves to openly express what they need to do to help themselves grow and move forward. Set a controlled backburn to limit the damage and voice an alternative dialog when necessary
Earth signs Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn can safely navigate this eclipse by finding their self-authority and self-nurturing. Commit to your sense of self-worth and individuality. Express your authenticity. Become your mother or perhaps your father.
Those with primary planets in Water signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces will be okay if they practice self-care adhering to their values and priorities. Follow your heart-centered vision.
Air signs Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius will find safe passage by self-empowering. Practice self-care. Allow what comes to you intuitively to override what you think is the rational solution. Pay attention to whatever comes to you out of left field, even if it feels bizarre.
Ceres is approaching the south node of Pluto. I will have more to say about the planetary nodes in another article. Put your effort into caring for those you love. Begin with yourself. We chose to be born in these times. It is not what happens that makes the difference. It is how we respond to it. Carpe diem.
These guidelines are based on the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Knowing the actual details of a natal chart yields a much deeper understanding of how these celestial events will personally impact you. Whenever we look at any transit, the impact will depend on the consciousness brought to the event. More self-awareness can potentiate a wider range of expression. Less self-awareness will limit the ability to navigate the transit without intense karmic necessity. In all cases, the degree of intensity of the event will correlate directly to what we each need to grow forward. I encourage you to contact me for a personal eclipse reading that will focus directly on what is impacting you now.
This month is saturated by hyperactive Aquarian energy, even later as the Sun moves into Pisces. We generally perceive the deep waters of Pisces as soothing and comforting. This month, the primal energies around us are not likely to be soothed by calm waters. Besides inner calm, Pisces also brings uncertainty, overwhelmed with confusion, and teetering on a precipice. This month’s cosmic energies will be a heady mix of Aquarian non-conformity, Uranian disruption, rogue behavior from Eris, and Plutonian karmic release.
As they transit through Capricorn, all three personal inner planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, will experience a stressful last quarter square with Eris in Aries. Eris is a “no holds barred” personality. But her anger is not random or without forethought. Her unbridled wrath is calculated, carefully considered, and consciously directed at whatever she perceives as injustice, inequity, or intolerance.
On February 1st, Mercury in Capricorn perfected to a “crisis in consciousness” square to Eris, a term coined by Dane Rudhyar. Mars in Capricorn follows today, February 5th, as Venus in Capricorn squares Eris on February 11th. Capricorns often come across as staunchly confident and in control, but insecurity and bouts of depression can sometimes undermine that confidence. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn works our agendas, seeking to accomplish and establish our program of directives and goals. Saturn, currently in Pisces, has the potential to get lost in insecurity. Each of the inner planets whose proximity is closest to the Earth will lay the groundwork for future development. Some will be forward-looking, some will not.
Each planet has a wide range of expressions within the scope of its archetype, from distortion to enlightenment. Mercury expresses through our voice, its timbre, our vocabulary, and the narratives we tell ourselves and others. Venus maintains the agenda of our essential values and their resulting priorities. Mars initiates our choices, conduct, and behavior.
As the trio of personal planets move into Aquarius, one by one, they will conjoin Pluto, Mercury today on February 5th, Mars on February 14th, and Venus on February 22nd.
Aquarius interrupts and disrupts the status quo, intending to replace the existing platforms and structures created by Saturn that are deemed outmoded. The conjunctions to Pluto initiate new self-empowering policies and agendas. There is potential for power struggles over agendas and methodologies.
The squares to Eris will produce crises that demand the resolution of unresolved issues and circumstances for matters close to us personally and collectively. The “glancing blows” to Eris could quickly become confrontational. Be careful of things said or done in anger or from feeling compartmentalized or ignored. The proximity of Eris to the Aries Lunar North Node potentiates the need for continued effort and attention to “work in the self.”. Eris’s impact will most likely be unexpected and challenging, dramatically capturing our attention.
A New Moon occurs a few days later on February 9th at 21° Aquarius. Uranus underscores the lunation in Taurus. The transit of Uranus through Taurus, Venus’s inner expression, corresponds to our relationship with ourselves and what is essential for survival. Its current transit has delivered non-negotiable awareness and crisis after crisis since the 2020s began. An Air Grand Trine links the luminaries with the Lunar South Node and the conjunction of asteroids Vesta and Astraea in Gemini. News headlines and conversations swirl around issues regarding personal authenticity and perceived injustice. A waning last quarter square from the Sun and Moon to Uranus “rattles our cage,” encouraging increased attention and self-reliance regarding maintaining whatever we deem essential for ourselves and the world.
On February 22nd, Venus and Mars will conjoin at 7° Aquarius, beginning a new two-year relationship cycle. The conjunction separates from a new phase conjunction with Pluto. Relationships can find new objectivity, reactivate, be re-empowered, grow, and transform. New ways of sharing and balancing power can be realized. Old habitual emotional patterns can be resolved and reworked. There is potential to learn how to nurture each other, our community, and the planet in new ways. A palpable sense of destiny permeates this celestial moment. Higher knowledge is available and accessible to help us grow emotionally and spiritually.
The full moon occurs on February 24th at 6° Virgo. The Moon anchors an Earth Grand Trine with Jupiter in Taurus and Ceres in Capricorn. Our work on ourselves is supported and encouraged, as is taking responsibility for our self-care. Tune into and pay attention to your still, small voice within. Sidestep and defuse power struggles as they arise. Maintain your balance when others trigger you. Speak compassionately and truthfully. Accept responsibility for who you are, the good and the maybe not-so-good. Work toward a future that includes increased self-awareness. Find homeopathic remedies to heal what needs to be healed: body, mind, and soul. Create new forms of self-expression that express your sacred inner space.
Spaceship Earth is currently headed “Where no man has gone before.” Beam us up, Scotty.
Mercury in Capricorn perfects to squares to the Aries/Libra lunar nodes on Saturday, January 26. Mars in Capricorn perfects to squares to the lunar nodes on Sunday. On Monday, Uranus in Taurus stations direct.
What these three transits have in common is activist Uranus, now the planetary ruler of Pluto in Aquarius. Mercury and Mars stabilize one angle of an Earth Grand Trine, Uranus anchors another, and asteroid Juno retrograde and Black Moon Lilith in Virgo occupy the third. Mercury separates from a partile conjunction with Mars. Both personal inner planets apply to a waxing first quarter trine to Uranus and a waning last quarter trine to Juno retrograde, which applies to balsamic conjunction to Lilith conjunct in Virgo.
We need to change our thinking, letting go of what we think is true and allowing a new understanding to take root. Then, we must make different life choices based on that new understanding. This is a non-negotiable agenda.
I speak frequently about the skipped step condition of a planet squaring the lunar nodes. Something from the past has been “skipped over,” placed on the back burner, avoided, or denied for various reasons.
The resolution for both inner planets rests with the Libra Lunar South Node. The past must not just be reconciled but healed. Forward direction must be irrevocably altered from the past.
A zero-tolerance condition commands that the past cannot be repeated. Progress must go forward under a new banner that signals peace, unity, and community. Ego self-interest must surrender to the needs of the collective. Man-made law must evolve into natural law. The dominance of mankind on the planet must recognize the greater dominion of the natural world, all the creatures that inhabit the forests, the oceans, the deserts, the plains, and the mountains.
Chiron in Aries receives a “glancing blow” crisis-inducing inconjunct from Black Moon Lilith. To a great degree, mankind is “exiled” from nature, mostly inhabiting terrain paved with concrete and asphalt beneath skies that are never dark due to artificial light.
Pluto in Aquarius has gale-force winds from Uranus at its back, with Jupiter out ahead in Earthly Taurus, encouraging forward progress. Pluto’s mission is inscribed with all these inner planet directives to create a sacred community on the planet. The crisis we are experiencing will continue to demonstrate that humanity is not necessarily acting as the most intelligent creature on the planet. The intent is to lose the compulsion to see the planet as something to be stripped of its mineral wealth for “instant gratification” and to recognize the Earth as an essential self-sustaining life-support system, a sanctuary that is the source of infinite life-giving sustenance.
There is no question that right now, it’s a crazy, mixed-up world. Every day, the so-called “reality” throws us another curveball. Most of us are surviving. Some of us thrive. Some are feeling under siege from too many directions. Trust me, I get it.
So, how are we going to get through it? And how do we work with the news that things will most likely worsen? Please don’t shoot me. Call me Hermes. I am just the messenger.
We must first understand, whether we think we deserve it or not, that we, as a planetary collective, have created the causes of the crises we are now experiencing. We have been making these militarized socioeconomic distortions as far back as anyone can remember. As a species, we learn and grow through direct emotional experience. That is precisely what we’re having right now.
I work with it facilitated by the technology of astrology. It is an inconvenient truth that too many people think that astrology is pseudoscience. Astrology works. The planets and stars tell a story of the past and the future. More importantly, they tell the story of the present. This moment. Now. Isn’t that all there is?
Everything moves in cycles, from the traffic lights on the street corner to your daily metabolic processes to the intricately woven patterns of the heavens above us. These are all essential cycles that we need to navigate what we call reality. It could be the shadow cast by reality. It could be all a dream, and we are the dreamers. Are we so wasted in the dream that we don’t know we are dreaming?
The Constellations, the luminaries, and the planets weave an intricate coded message in celestial braille. The messages can only be read by those sensitive enough and who are trained to read them. At one time in the distant past, everyone could read it.
As a nation, the United States is witnessing the most intense political divisiveness since the Civil War. The world beyond our borders is also erupting, heating up to levels not seen in recent history.
The transiting Libra lunar south node is applying to a waning, last quarter square to the US Sun in Cancer. The Aries lunar north node separates from a 1st quarter square to the US Sun. The lunar south node from the past holds us in its grip of past emotional behavior resulting from ancestral patterning and prenatal and early childhood experiences. The lunar north node holds the promise of the future but only a whispered promise. The decider is what we think, say, and do each moment.
The lunar nodes are the evolutionary pathway between the past and the future. The natal Sun correlates to the country’s leader in mundane astrology, the astrology of nations. The Moon relates to the welfare of the general public and the people at large.
“The transiting lunar nodes square a natal planet correlates to a crossroad wherein the choices made then correlate with its evolutionary path leading to its future in some way.—Jeffrey Wolf Green”
Transiting Neptune in Pisces separates from a waning full phase opposition to US Neptune. They have been in the orb since 2016 and will remain in orb until 2026. They perfected to the opposition three times in 2020 and 2021. Neptune correlates to the country’s zeitgeist.
The Oxford Dictionary defines zeitgeist as “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.”
We have observed and lived through the turmoil and political debate. It is not a coincidence that this transit coincided with the presidency of Donald Trump, the emergence of QAnon, the concretion of the ultra-right wing, the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and the extreme political polarization we are currently suffering. Not to mention COVID-19, which is still actively self-mutating.
Right now, the lunar south node is partile conjunct the US Moon. On May 14, 2024, the lunar nodes will station direct, partile (exact) to the US Moon. The default direction of the lunar nodes is retrograde. When the nodes station direct, it has the same effect as a planet stationing retrograde.
The Moon in Cancer is the ruler of the 10th House of the US Chart. The 10th House also correlates to the country’s leader. We can easily see the pressures on the US Presidency and the stresses and anxieties that permeate the general population.
Uranus is currently moving through the last degrees of Taurus and will enter the sign of Gemini. The United States is approaching its Uranus Return, the astrological moment when Uranus returns to the same zodiacal point it was when the country was born.
In the current transit, the Uranus return will perfect three times:
July 28, 2026
October 25, 2026, in its retrograde cycle
May 12, 2027
Uranus has an 84-year cycle. The last two conjunctions occurred twice in 1859 and again in 1860, leading up to the Civil War, and once in 1943 and twice in 1944, during the most challenging years of World War II. This is the inconvenient truth that the United States has been at war at each Uranus in Gemini transit.
“BRUSSELS, Jan 17 (Reuters) —A top NATO military official called on public and private actors in the West on Wednesday to prepare for an era in which anything could happen at any time, including fighting a war. ‘We need a warfighting transformation of NATO,” the chief of the alliance’s Military Committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said as he opened a two-day meeting of national defense chiefs in Brussels.’”
Uranus is about “coming of age.” There are three 28-year Saturn cycles in each 84-year Uranus cycle. This planetary pair initiates and maintains the self-actualizing process, the continual unfolding of “becoming” who we are, and the accompanying maturation process that teaches us skills, mastery, and responsibility as we age. Uranus is the planet that rules Aquarius. Beginning in November, Pluto will be in Aquarius for 20 years.
The War for Independence brought selfhood as a country. The nation was still divided into separate states, politically and economically. The end of the Civil War fused North and South and established the United States for the first time. The Second World War established the United States as a world leader.
The United States is again experiencing a growth spurt, though it is still nascent. As Pluto progresses through Aquarius over the next two decades, the United States of America will again morph into a new international economic and political entity. It is too soon to guess what shape and form the new union will take, but I sense it will be an “upgrade” intellectually, morally, philosophically, and economically. That is the progressive nature of the archetype of Aquarius. The archetype can also be regressive, so we will see a period of regression as a portion of the population works to make things go back “to the way they were.” The details are still working themselves out. But I know that our children and their children will build the New Earth. Some of us might not see it in our lifetime, but I have faith we will see it in the next.
1 The US chart is cast for the day the American Revolution began, July 6, 1775. On that day, the Second Continental Congress passed an act to “bear arms” against England. The day before, an act was passed to create a standing army and named George Washington the commander-in-chief. When colonies pass an act to “bear arms” against their mother country, they cease to be a colony and become a sovereign nation.
2 JWG Association of Evolutionary Astrologers message board
As the new year began, I wrote, “We felt the Earth move under our feet,” in some cases literally… in Japan, California, China, and Indonesia. The first week of the year, Jupiter and Mercury exited their retrograde condition and stationed direct. These powerful planetary reversals intensified the emotional and psychic dramas swirling around us. This pattern will continue and deepen as we move through the rest of January.
On January 20th, the Sun and Pluto meet up within hours of Pluto’s re-entry into Aquarius. On January 25th, the Leo full moon occurs. On January 27th, Uranus stations direct, initiating a four-month period in which all planets are moving forward until May 1st, when Pluto goes retrograde. We have already felt the intensity of this long presaged Aquarian birth. We no longer have to wonder what the “age of Aquarius” will be like. 2023 was the hottest year on record. It has been unfolding around us already as climate change, renegade self-mutating viruses, political antithesis, and threats of nuclear holocaust. Aquarius can be creative and sometimes enlightened, but it all comes at the price of disruption and upheaval. The elephant in the room is the Earth’s changes, which take precedence over whatever happens to each of us individually.
On December 31st, The Guardian reported no sea ice in Antarctica.
“Antarctic sea ice cover crashed for six months straight, to a level so far below anything else on the satellite record that scientists struggled for adjectives to describe what they were witnessing…last year recording what scientists think is the biggest heatwave ever recorded, with temperatures peaking at 39C above normal.
Looking ahead, a study published in Nature in March found meltwater from the continent’s ice sheets could dramatically slow down the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, a deep ocean current, by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions continued at their current level. Two months later, a paper by some of the same researchers estimated the circulation, which influences global weather patterns and ocean temperatures and nutrient levels, had already slowed by about 30% since the 1990s.”
Separate research by a different team of scientists suggested that accelerated melting of ice shelves extended over the Amundsen Sea in west Antarctica is locked in and beyond human control for the rest of this century even if emissions are significantly reduced.”
On January 20th at 8:45 am EST, The Sun will conjoin Pluto at 29° 59’, the very last gasp of Capricorn. Less than an hour later, at 9:07 am EST, the Sun will enter Aquarius. Aquarius ushers in a windswept storm of renewal that interrupts and disrupts the preceding pattern of events and circumstances. The Sun will continue through Uranus’s progressive and sometimes regressive agenda until February 18th.
Ten hours later, at 7:56 pm EST, Pluto will enter Aquarius. It will ride Uranian air currents until September 1st, return to Capricorn until November, and then occupy Aquarius until January 2043. Pluto transited Aquarius from March to June 2023, so we have already tasted what is coming. Arguably, the most important event of 2024 will be the US presidential election. There is a growing sense of anxiety that the sword of Damocles dangles over the future of democracy in the United States.
On January 25 at 12:53 pm EST, a full moon will occur at 5° Leo 14’. The Leo moon opposes Pluto fresh into Aquarius. We can feel uncomfortable, needing to make changes in our lives but not quite sure how to go about it, where to begin, and what to change without losing our sense of self. Venus in Capricorn feels insecure about how personal values are being upheld and how priorities are being addressed. Jupiter in Taurus tugs at our sense of security, making us restless and unsettled. Saturn in Pisces wants to make some revisions but is unsure how to proceed. We are reminded of something from the past that sheds light on a new creative approach. Eris embodies a sense of fate and destiny about how things are unfolding. Vesta shows us where we need to be more authentic. Asteroid Juno feels troubled by perceived infidelities.
On January 27th, Uranus will station direct at 19° Taurus 05’. A sense of fate and destiny hangs in the air as the ruler of Aquarius momentarily stands still and prepares to actualize a new paradigm in an edgy, emotional atmosphere. Saturn envisions the emerging standard, but the dream is still not lucid. Mercury begins articulating the new millennium’s parameters, postulating possible scenarios. Venus struggles to ensure that the values and priorities necessary for a successful transition are actively expressed.
All of these events share a series of common planetary conditions. All of them take place under the Sun-Pluto conjunction. The core frequency here is empowerment as the basis for self-actualization. This will have a wide range of expressions depending on the consciousness brought to the event. The spectrum ranges from efforts based on enlightened self-interest to the distortions of unenlightened self-interest. We should expect to witness or experience the entire range of celestial effects.
Chiron, the lunar north node, and Eris are chained together in Aries. The implications are that the immediate and distant future presages rogue behavior with the potential for wounding and resultant healing as an ongoing process.
Mercury and Mars are in a close balsamic condition in Capricorn, suggesting unresolved issues regarding the integrity and veracity of mental constructs and the range of choices they elicit.
Venus and Ceres are in tandem in Sagittarius. There is a need for a course correction in how we express and act on our values, especially how we nurture ourselves and others.
Saturn’s proximity to asteroid Hygeia is a warning sign to pay attention to the recurring patterns of mutating viral outbreaks. Proactive self-care and self-advocating for our well-being are the essential directions forward.
Uranus and Sedna, conjoined, are both retrograde through this period as Uranus prepares to station direct. There is significant potential for accessing our higher mind and becoming more conscious as a result of the active multilayered planetary pressures.
On January 25th, a Leo Full Moon will occur at 14° Leo 05’. All of the above planetary conditions are embedded in this lunation. The Moon’s opposition to Pluto implies a balance between our emotional upheaval and powerful outer world circumstances must be reached. Mercury and Mars tell us that we must make more intelligent choices that reflect what is good for ourselves and our community.
We are being collectively reconditioned. The Fifth World surges forward around us, knocking down the old paradigms. It is not just Gaia that is morphing. Our lives are front and center to the current evolutionary remodel, and we must be present and awake for safe passage. Breathe. Wake up in this dream and consciously guide it forward. Our guides and angels are sending us everything that we need. Surrender Dorothy.
Please join me on January 20th as I present a free class for Kepler College titled “Metamorphosis Through Karmic Necessity.”
Thank you for tuning in. See you at the next astrological weather event.
As 2024 emerges, we will feel a shift in the field. Jupiter in Taurus stations direct today, December 30th, 2023. Mercury in Sagittarius stations direct on Tuesday, January 2nd. Jupiter is the current ruler of Mercury, symbiotically connecting the right brain (Jupiter) and the left brain (Mercury). Jupiter and Venus are in each other’s sign, known as mutual reception, blending and sharing their energies, though Jupiter in Taurus is uncomfortably saturated with earthbound elementals, cauterized and wanting to be tamed by the Sun in Capricorn at the station direct. Mars is in close company with Mercury in Jupiter’s experiential sign of Sagittarius, adding fuel and expanding the fire. Jupiter is still coming to terms with a powerful encounter with Pluto. Human interactions tend to be dramatic, vocal, raucous, and potentially explosive. Veracity, justice, commitment, and compassionate care will be on the agenda. Emotional support is available if we review our options and make different, healthier choices mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Observe and consider ideas and impulses that show up unexpectedly.
These frequencies will continue to unfold over the next few weeks. Expect emotionally charged situations as the Moon meets up with Mercury and Mars on January 9th and around the Capricorn New Moon on January 11th. The lunation is in close company with Pluto at the final degree of Capricorn. Perceived injustices make us feel somehow exiled. Our higher mind will get downloads from our higher self that speak to fidelity, commitment, justice, wounding, and self-responsibility issues. Listen to that still, small voice. And your heart.
On Thursday, December 21st, 2023, at 10:27 PM EST, a solstice will occur. In the Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice occurs. It is the year’s longest night as the Earth’s poles tilt away from the Sun. In the Southern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice occurs as the year’s shortest night occurs, and the poles tilt closest to the Sun.
Astrologically, the event marks the ingress (entry) of the Sun into the cardinal Earth sign of Capricorn. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn’s energy is generally generative, supportive, and formative. It can also be repressive, depressive, and compressive. Capricorn correlates to the 10th House of the horoscope. It is the domain of those with authority and social status, the CEOs, presidents, kings, and those who make the rules and set the standards by which society “should” live. In Evolutionary Astrology, Capricorn correlates to the consensus evolutionary state, the pressure for conformity.
Two powerful astrological configurations format the energy of this celestial moment. The lunar nodes are stationed retrograde, in a 90° square aspect to Pluto. The God of the Underworld is momentarily back in Capricorn, inching its way forward to its entry back in Aquarius on January 20th. The lunar south node in Libra applies to a waxing last quarter square to Pluto. The lunar north in Aries separates from a waning 1st quarter square to Pluto. In Evolutionary Astrology, this implies what is known as a “skipped step.” Some karmic necessity has been skipped over, resisted, avoided, or denied. There is increased pressure for change. This is a crisis condition. The degree of the crisis directly corresponds to the degree of resistance.
Something from the past is out of balance (Lunar South Node in Libra). The ruler of the lunar south node is Venus in Scorpio, Pluto’s sign. Events conspire to generate cataclysmic change whose intensity will be formatted by the degree of resistance to the skipped karmic necessity. Capricorn is about taking responsibility. Pluto is at the 29° anaretic (last) degree of Capricorn. This is a “ring not pass” condition. Evolutionary change cannot occur unless the issues still “hanging fire” as part of the need to take responsibility, Capricorn, are resolved.
The second powerful configuration is a focused Yod, “Finger of God,” from Mars in Sagittarius, and the lunar south node, focused by Venus, pointing directly at Uranus. Venus correlates to our values and the priorities they dictate. Mars relates to the choices that we make according to those priorities. Mars in Sagittarius seeks a new experiential adventure. The impulse is to connect with something greater than self, something transcendent. Uranus correlates to disruption and interruption. The lunar nodes correlate directly to our evolutionary/karmic trajectory—the inherent instinctual emotional nature from the past and our soul-intended direction in the future. Generally, the dynamic patterns from the past are recreated in the future. The pressures from these two planetary configurations pressure existing patterns to change. There is no guarantee that it will. It depends on the choices (Mars) made going forward.
At the ingress, a self-fortified Taurus Moon separates from a waxing partile (exact) 1st quarter facilitating trine to the authoritative Capricorn Sun. Jupiter in Taurus retrograde adds emotional weight to the moment. A strong sense of self-reliance takes hold, anchoring and stabilizing the moment and potentially hunkering down in accustomed behavior.
Mercury retrograde in Capricorn applies to a new phase conjunction to the Sun. Though it is not an acknowledged concept of the Evolutionary Astrology paradigm, some astrologers consider it a Cazimi condition.
“Cazimi is a Medieval astrological term that is used to refer to planets that are so close to a conjunction with the Sun that they are “in the heart” of the Sun. Cazimi is a Latin transliteration of the Arabic term kaṣmīmī, which means “as if in the heart.” The astrological significance of the concept is that it was thought to be an ameliorating and strengthening factor for planets. In Traditional Western Astrology, planets that get close to a conjunction with the Sun, especially within 15 degrees, are thought to be weakened because their light is obscured or overpowered by the light of the Sun. Cazimi has been introduced as an exception to that general rule so that it is no longer harmed when a planet is within a specific range of the Sun.”
The Sun applies to a waning balsamic sextile to Saturn in early Pisces, increasing the potential for opportunities for more numinous experiences as the season unfolds and for times to come.
The Sun applies to a waning semisquare to Uranus retrograde in Taurus. Disruptive events unfold that can shake our sense of safety and security.
The Sun separates from a Balsamic semisextile to Pluto, adding more intense pressure for some closure. This combination of balsamic energy adds a “dark of the moon”, mystical aura to the overall event. As the season unfolds, there will be a sense of the numinous, transcendent, and otherworldliness seeking to be embedded in the emerging forms and structures.
“The excitement of life is in the numinous experience wherein we are given to each other in that larger celebration of existence in which all things attain their highest expression, for the universe, by definition, is a single gorgeous celebratory event.“
