(Relative) Calm Before the Storm

Astro Notes for New Moon in Capricorn cycle (December 30, 2024-January 29, 2025)

I’m writing these notes on New Year’s Eve — Happy New Year everyone! — with a weighty, yet excited sense that we are on the precipice of an historically significant passage of time.

Pluto moved into Aquarius in November, where it will stay for the next 20 years. Between now and mid-July 2025, all the other outer planets -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — will also have changed signs. When any one of these heavy-hitting outer planets change signs, there is a distinct shift in the zeitgeist, a new chapter in the collective narrative. With all five of them changing signs within a cosmic blink of the eye, it suggests a period of unprecedentedly rapid, concentrated, and consequential cultural change. Although I feel like a broken record on this point, it bears repeating that this has never happened before in recorded history.

At the start of this year, however, there appears to be a relative calm before the storm.

This month’s cycle is still colored by Mars moving retrograde, a period that occurs every two and a bit years. When Mars moves retrograde, it’s generally a time more conducive for reflecting inwardly on our strategies for action rather than making large strides forward in the outer world. We’re still mostly in behind-the-scenes planning, rather than out-in-front doing mode throughout this month’s cycle. There are big questions being decided for each of us about how we want to situate ourselves for the ride through the rapids just ahead.

We started the cycle on December 30 with a New Moon in Capricorn, with a supportive sextile from Saturn. It doesn’t get much better than this for making New Year’s resolutions!

As the beginning point of the monthly cycle, the New Moon is always the best time for setting intentions for the phase ahead. With the New Moon in Capricorn, our intentions carry real weight, for the Sea Goat loves nothing more than to set meaningful goals. And Capricorn means what it says. Add to that picture Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, being in a harmonious sextile with the New Moon, and it’s clear that we have cosmic support this year to set powerful and realistic New Year’s resolutions that we can actually achieve.

Even though for many of us the start of the year entails a more sedate time, the first week could present an unexpectedly intense trial. From January 1-5, Mars moving retrograde to Leo forms an opposition to Pluto in Aquarius. Mars represents our personal will or drive; in Leo this can be felt pridefully. In opposition to Pluto, the principle of power and transformation, we might encounter frustrating delays or reversals in our plans and ambitions, or power struggles in our relationships. And those roadblocks might sting our pride a little. (Or a lot.) We may be forced to see something we don’t like about how we wield our personal power. The higher road for navigating this transit will be to transform that pattern rather than act it out.

One of the most important transits of the month — if not the year — occurs on January 12, when the Nodes of the Moon change sign. The position of the Lunar Nodes is significant for signifying the general evolutionary direction of humanity for the 18 month period they take to move through a sign. The North and South Nodes are always exactly opposite each other, and are linked in meaning. Simply stated, the South Node signifies the traits and tendencies that no longer serve us and that we are attempting to outgrow; the North Node symbolizes the qualities that represent our healthy growth edge. Knowing the position of the Lunar Nodes is actually a useful life hack, since the universe will tend to reward those people, organizations, and initiatives that embody the North Node attributes at any given time.

Since mid-July 2023, the South Node has been in Libra and the North Node in Aries. Libra is the sign of the peacemaker and diplomat; Aries is the sign of the warrior. During this period, it could be said that “fortune favored the brave” and that those embodying the noble attributes of Aries — courage, forthrightness, daring — broadly won the day. In contrast, Libran traits during this time -- such as the tendency for fence-sitting -- were often judged negatively as lacking bravery to take a definitive stand, or were otherwise seen as inadequate to the needs or temperament of the times.

On January 12 the South Node moves into Virgo, and the North Node into Pisces. What this symbolizes is that, for the next 18 months, Piscean values of sensitivity, compassion, mystical transcendence, and universal love will tend to be seen by humanity as the ideal traits to cultivate, while Virgoan tendencies to over-think, over-analyze, and over-think will be seen as more problematic.

We encounter a spirited Full Moon in Cancer on January 13. The Moon is conjunct Mars, which is in a trine to Neptune in Pisces. The Moon is at home in Cancer, at her most nurturing, caring, and loving. Yet Mars brings a potential feistiness and irritability to our emotional expression — or we may simply feel energized to act on our feelings and intuitions. With Mars in Cancer in a trine to Neptune in Pisces, the Full Moon could also be an ideal time for us to actively channel higher energies for personal and collective healing.

The Sun enters Aquarius on January 19. Aquarius season is our annual time of year to become more visionary, innovative, and idealistic. We can more easily open up to downloads about new structures and forms that are carrying the codes from the future. This can be a very exciting process. With Pluto having moved into Aquarius in November 2024, there is now massive support from the universe for novelty and innovation, especially in ways that bring liberation to humanity.

On January 20, the day of the Presidential Inauguration, the Sun is exactly conjunct Pluto at 1 degree of Aquarius. The Sun symbolizes leadership and authority, and Pluto represents power and transformation. No doubt it will be a day of high drama.

For many, the event will likely be experienced as a kind of crisis (Pluto), but for others the inauguration may symbolize a new kind of transformative (Pluto) or visionary (Aquarius) leadership (Sun), one that represents a rebirth (Pluto) of sorts for the country. The deeper meaning of these symbols will, of course, be revealed in time.

This New Moon in Capricorn cycle sets the stage for an extraordinary year ahead. With so much shifting in the cosmic landscape, this is a precious time to lay strong foundations for the transformative period to come. Capricorn is not into fluff; it rewards discipline, strategy, and showing up when it matters. Think of this as your chance to lay the groundwork for navigating the wild ride ahead.

Catching our Breath

Astro Notes for New Moon in Sagittarius cycle (December 1-31, 2024)

This is the first monthly cycle in which we have officially entered the Pluto in Aquarius era, with Pluto now solidly entrenched in Aquarius where it will stay for the next twenty years. Take that in. With Pluto’s move into Aquarius, we have arrived at an historic seven month threshold during which the cultural zeitgeist is poised to transform more rapidly and comprehensively than at any other time in our lifetimes. As I’ve mentioned in this space many times previously, this passage is marked astrologically by the movement of every one of the five outermost planets into a new sign.

But while we are now surfing the rapids of historic change, this month’s cycle offers something of a respite from the drama and intensity of recent months.

Arguably the most striking astrological feature of the cycle is Mars, the planet of action, turning retrograde on December 6. Mars only goes retrograde once every two and a bit years, so when it happens it tends to stand out. Mars will be retrograde from December 6, 2024 through February 23, 2025.

When Mars is moving retrograde, the universe asks us to be more reflective about how we assert ourselves and act in the world. It is prudent at this time to really think before we act. If we act impulsively, we could make a serious mistake that we will later regret.

It might seem during this period that we have lost momentum or are moving through molasses. If we keep trying to push forward, we’ll likely meet more resistance than usual. We may also be forced by events to acknowledge issues related to our anger, aggression, or sexuality, requiring us to contemplate and process these issues inwardly. Accordingly, the volume will tend to be turned down somewhat on the pace and intensity of outer events, giving us an opportunity to re-group, re-calibrate, and re-evaluate our current plans and strategies.

The other major transit of this month’s cycle is Jupiter in Gemini forming an exact square with Saturn in Pisces on December 24. This is the second of three exact squares between Jupiter and Saturn (the first was in mid-August 2024 and the third and final one will be in mid-June 2025). When Jupiter’s expansive outlook comes into a tense aspect with Saturn’s sense of order, we may feel that something needs to shift in the foundational structure of our lives. This is not mere tinkering with the details; we may want to make a big move that affects everything, like changing jobs or where we live. This drive to make a major structural change can arise in part because we are confronted with a limitation (Saturn) that blocks the realization of our ideals (Jupiter), forcing us to go back to the drawing board to re-think our fundamental approach.

Again, the focus is in the direction of thinking, reflecting, and planning rather than acting.

The Jupiter-Saturn square takes place in the mutable signs of Gemini and Pisces. The new moon on December 1 and the full moon on December 15 are also in mutable signs (Sagittarius and Gemini respectively). So there’s a lot of mutable energy this month. Mutable signs occur as one season gives way to another — there’s ‘a change in the air’. The underlying gestalt is about adjusting to changing circumstances, being adaptable, and making preparations for the approaching cycle. This dynamic is accentuated at the moment with the subliminal awareness that everything is about to change, calling for an even deeper inward preparation.

With the new and full moons occurring on the Sagittarius-Gemini axis of information, but at a time when outer action is relatively muted, there might be a lot of talk and ‘hot air’ without much real-world consequence.

The most concentrated astrological action takes place from around December 5-8. In that window, Mars moves retrograde, Neptune turns direct, Venus forms an exact conjunction with Pluto, and there is a t-square between the Sun, Saturn, and Jupiter. This may be a confusing time, fraught with frustrating highs and lows, intense and conflicting emotions, indulgences and limitations. We may not know up from down for a while — a good time to breathe and remember ‘this too shall pass.’

Going with the flow this month means accepting limitations, breathing through frustration, and adopting a more reflective mood. I hope you are able to find time to hit the pause button on your inner pusher and enjoy the respite. It won't be long before we'll be back in our life-rafts, steadying ourselves for perhaps the most exhilarating ride of our lifetime.

And So It Begins

Astro Notes for New Moon in Scorpio cycle (November 2-December 1 2024)

(These Astro Notes are in the better late than never file, delayed because I was on retreat at the start of the month. My apologies for the lag.)

For months I've been pointing to the period from November 2024 to July 2025 as a time of extraordinarily concentrated cultural change, signified astrologically by the fact that within those seven months every one of the slower-moving planets -- from Jupiter to Pluto -- will change signs, something that has never occurred before in such a short timeframe.

I believe this period can be understood as the final stage of the epic birthing process we've been in since Covid (and the historic triple conjunction in 2020 of Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter) -- the last, messy, urgent push out of the birth canal that will deliver us into the dawning Aquarian era.

So here we go. It's November 2024, and our raft is entering the rapids. In just a few days' time, on November 19, Pluto will enter Aquarius, the first of the heavyweight planets to change signs. (Noticed any big changes lately?) Within seven months, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter will have followed, and we will be living in a different world.

Pluto entering Aquarius, on its own, is a seismic event. We had a taste of Pluto in Aquarius for a few months in early 2023 and for seven months at the start of this year. But this time there's no turning back. Pluto will now stay in Aquarius for the next twenty years. During that time society will be reshaped in every conceivable way. (The contribution you personally will make to that process is signified by where transiting Pluto intersects with your natal chart.)

Aquarius represents the need for a breakthrough into a new and better world. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius (1778-1798) it coincided with the American and French Revolutions, which overthrew the divine right of kings and ushered in the modern period. The time before that (1532-1553) involved key phases of the Protestant Reformation that challenged the traditional authority of the Catholic Church. We are on the cusp of a similar period of revolutionary transformation.

In our times, we are fortunate that at the very beginning of Pluto's transit of Aquarius it forms an auspicious aspect pattern known as a Minor Triangle with the other outer planets Uranus and Neptune. This pattern is particularly potent from mid-2026 to mid-2028, a two year window that arguably represents humanity's best opportunity in any of our lifetimes to make a quantum leap forward.

In the short-term, however, the road looks considerably bumpier. Earlier this month, just before the US election, Mars moved into an exact opposition with Pluto. A Mars-Pluto opposition normally lasts no more than a week. But due to an extended period of Mars moving retrograde, this Mars-Pluto transit will be in effect for the next six months.

Mars is the planet of action and Pluto the principle of total transformation. Taking place alongside the movement of all the outer planets into new signs, this exceptionally long Mars-Pluto opposition suggests a time of rapid, dramatic, forceful change. We are being expelled from the birth canal, ready or not.

Bringing our focus back to this month's cycle, the Full Moon in Taurus on November 15 is in a close conjunction with Uranus, the great disrupter and awakener. This is a very powerful combination, bringing together the earthy, stable, solid energies of Taurus with the Uranian principle of sudden, unexpected, disruptive change. Something like an earthquake -- whether literal or metaphorical -- could result.

A few days later, on November 19, Pluto enters Aquarius and the light of the future will arrive. There is no going back now, we must dive headlong into the currents of change.

On November 21, the Sun enters Sagittarius. Sagittarius supports us to elevate to a higher perspective from which the particular events of our world can be comprehended as part of a much vaster unfolding. It invites us to 'go vertical' to access a realm of wisdom and higher meaning. No matter how we might be reacting to recent political events, Sagittarius season is our opportunity to reconnect with our faith in the cosmic order.

Whether consciously or not, we've been preparing for this moment all our lives. We owe it to ourselves to meet it with as much higher understanding as possible.