Start Your Engines

Astro Notes for Aries Season 2023 (March 20-April 19)

The astrological year begins when the Sun enters Aries. Despite our adherence to the Gregorian calendar, the March Equinox is the real beginning of the annual cycle. If you’ve been fretting over your stalled progress during the last couple of months, don’t worry. That’s all about to change.

Aries season — and thus the whole astrological year — kicks off with an incredibly auspicious New Moon on March 21 at exactly 0 degrees Aries. It’s hard to imagine a more potent symbol of new beginnings than a New Moon falling on the very first degree of the zodiac. It’s like the cosmic reset button. If you’ve been gestating a creative project or vision through many months or even years of darkness and struggle, this may well be the moment you get to finally press go.

Aries is an interesting energy. Most people tend to associate the sign of the Ram with its fiery, feisty side. This is not wrong — Aries is ruled after all by the God of War. But there is also a purity and innocence to the first sign of the zodiac. Aries corresponds developmentally with new born infants. It is associated with the first signs of Spring, the first shoots emerging out of the seed, the first buds on the trees, the first birds singing. If Pisces is the surrender to the Mystery that occurs at the end of a cycle, Aries is the rebirth out of the Mystery that takes place at the beginning.  

The link between the two sides can be explained by the paradox that a true warrior has an innocent heart. A person with an innocent heart recognizes an act of sacrilege in a way that a more scheming, sophisticated person cannot. He doesn’t overthink his response, but acts instinctively in defense of life. Although in modern times we have understandably grown weary of war and aggression, this kind of fighting spirit is essential, for it gives us the courage to carry out our sacred assignments against all odds. Indeed, given the imminent explosion of AI and its associated risks, we’d better embrace the archetype of the sacred warrior  — and soon — if we are going to rise to the challenge and opportunities of our moment.

Speaking of AI…..on March 23, just two days after the New Moon, Pluto enters Aquarius. Woah. Pluto has been in Capricorn since early 2008. Its ingress into Aquarius is undoubtedly the most significant transit of the year. When Pluto changes sign, it usually makes an unmistakable entrance. In 2008 we had the Global Financial Crisis. And now, as Pluto prepares to change sign again, we are seeing another run on the banks.

Pluto will be in Aquarius for just a couple of months this year before heading back into Capricorn for the remainder of the year. It will enter Aquarius again in January 2024, then move back into Capricorn in September before returning to Aquarius for good in November 2024. It will then stay in Aquarius for a full twenty years.

Pluto’s function is to ruthlessly dredge up from the shadow all that is out of alignment with reality for purification. Its movement in and out of late Capricorn between now and late 2024 will create a kind of ‘rinsing’ effect whereby any patterns within ourselves or our world that are out of resonance with the zeitgeist of the coming age will be forced up to the light for transformation. While intense and difficult, there is an immense opportunity here for massive personal and collective evolution — if we lean into the hard work of owning and integrating our shadows.

Pluto in Capricorn has exposed much darkness and corruption in the governing institutions of society. It has revealed what is not working in the established structures of politics, media, health, and finance. Pluto in Aquarius will involve the radical transformation of all aspects of society. Pluto in Aquarius signifies revolutionary social change. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius coincided with the American and French Revolutions and the birth of the modern period. By the time Pluto leaves Aquarius, the world will be a very different place indeed.

Much of that transformation is likely to be connected to the exponential growth of AI. Aquarius rules technology, so AI will undoubtedly be a core theme of the next twenty years, for better or for worse. Of course, many of us are concerned about the ‘worse’ part.

There is no getting around the dark side of exponential technology. Yet it is important to remember that Pluto’s function is to expose the dark to the light of truth for purification. Pluto in Aquarius will shine a powerful light on all that is corrupt and unethical in the realm of technology. That’s a LOT of darkness to bring to the light. It will be a wild ride for sure. But it may be the messy yet transformative process that allows us eventually to harness the more creative and humanitarian possibilities of AI, which would represent the more exalted potential of the Aquarian archetype.

Meanwhile, until the end of March we are still within the influence of the Jupiter-Chiron conjunction I focused on in my last Astro Notes for Pisces season. This aspect is separating now, but there is still a window for integrating our core wound on a deeper level than ever before and realizing how it can be transformed into our greatest gift.

On March 25, Mars enters Gemini. Mars changing signs would not normally make my astrological highlight reel, especially in a month with such an epic transit as Pluto moving into Aquarius. But Mars has been in Gemini for six long months. That is a ridiculously long time for Mars to be in one sign. It’s probably safe to say we’re all very much over this transit by now. Dear Universe, I think we’ve got the lesson, thank you very much.

It’s a dramatic time. A bold time. We’ve all been roughed up quite a bit over the last few years. We’ve all had to endure so much. If you’re still standing, and your vision is intact, get ready. The real race is just about to begin.

Precious Portal of Healing

Astro Notes for Pisces Season 2023 (February 18-March 20)

We’ve entered Pisces season, the final season of the astrological year. It’s a time of wrapping things up, bringing things to completion, and letting go into the mystery before a new cycle begins again with the Spring Equinox in March. This year, in addition to the Equinox, March brings several of the most powerful and dramatic transits of the year. In March, everything changes. There is therefore in the air a sense of needing to tie up loose ends and complete lessons so we can be ready for the big changes just around the bend.

Pisces is the final turn of the astrological Wheel of the Year. It represents the last stage of life, or any creative process, when there is a release of attachment to form and a surrender to the mystery. It is less about doing than being. From the perspective of the world of accomplishment, Pisces can seem like a realm of loss. But from the perspective of being, it is where we gain everything.

Pisces is the ocean that dissolves all boundaries that keep us in the illusion of separation. It is the awareness of the consciousness that underlies everyone and everything. As such, Pisces carries the energy of universal compassion. Pisces heals through the recognition that we are all ultimately part of the one reality, the one mystery. We are never alone, never truly separate.

Pisces season this year brings a very special and poignant opportunity to heal our deepest wounds. On March 12, Jupiter is conjunct Chiron in Aries. Chiron is the archetype of the Wounded Healer. The position of Chiron in our chart represents the location of our core wound. We all have one somewhere, it’s part of the cosmic design. Jupiter expands whatever it touches. When Jupiter meets Chiron, our very deepest core wounding will come to the surface – you can count on it.

Yet the magic of Chiron lies in the fact that our core wound is — very precisely — also the location of our deepest healing gift. And while Jupiter may magnify our wound and even blow it up out of all proportion, it is considered the Great Benefic in astrology for a reason. Jupiter’s encounter with Chiron brings with it a tremendous opportunity for healing our core wound and uncovering our deepest healing gift.

Although the Jupiter-Chiron conjunction is exact on March 12, the transit is operative for several weeks on either side of that date. So if you’ve been feeling a lot of emotional vulnerability lately — even to the point of desperation — know that you’re not alone. We’re all being initiated into a deeper level of service than we’ve known before. And the way through is to embrace the place of our deepest shame and inadequacy with as much compassion as we can muster.

But the Jupiter-Chiron conjunction is not the only big event taking place this Pisces season. On March 7, Saturn enters Pisces after being in Aquarius for the last two and a half years. Saturn is the sober taskmaster who assigns us lessons in maturity. Over the last two and a half years, we’ve all been asked to grow up in a particular area of our lives and put things in order there. (The particular area is shown by which house Aquarius falls in in our charts.). These lessons are now drawing to a close. However you did on your ‘exam’, when Saturn moves into Pisces on March 7, you will feel the focus shifting to a different area of life and new life lessons. The next two weeks thus represents a final chance to complete your current lessons and submit to the universe your Saturn in Aquarius ‘assignment’.

On the collective level, Saturn entering Pisces will be felt as a notable shift in the zeitgeist, a fundamentally new phase. Saturn began its journey through Aquarius in March 2020, coinciding with the beginning of lockdowns and the global pandemic. When Saturn moves into Pisces, it will also mark the beginning of a new era. With Saturn in Pisces we will likely be challenged to fully deal with our emotional reality and outgrow our escapist tendencies. There will no doubt be a lot of reckoning with the emotional trauma of the last few years. On the positive side, that process may lead to a collective spiritual maturing that will enable us to move forward more in alignment with reality.

Toward the end of March, Pluto enters Aquarius. Now this is BIG. Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008. So this represents the beginning of another MAJOR cycle, one that we will be in for the next 20 years (more or less). I’ll have much more to say about this next month. For now I’ll just note that we are all likely sensing this transit subliminally like an approaching earthquake.

Big change is on the way. Big challenges. Big opportunities. Use this next month to deal with any unfinished business from the old cycle and to find support to help heal your core wounds and uncover your deepest gifts. That way the new energies rising in you will meet the new energies rising in our world, and you’ll be able to catch the huge wave of opportunity rolling in.

After the Storm, a Rainbow

If you’ve experienced a sluggish start to 2023, you’re not alone. We entered the New Year with both Mercury and Mars in retrograde, which threw a big wet blanket over our forward momentum. Mars represents our initiative, drive, and energy; when in retrograde it makes forward progress more difficult. With Mercury (the planet of communication) in retrograde at the same time, it was likely a frustrating time for many, requiring us to let go of our action plans for a more internal and serious time of reflection, consolidation, and review.

At the start of the month, in addition to Mercury being in retrograde, it was also in a triple conjunction with Pluto and Venus in late Capricorn. Pluto brings an intense drive to get to the bottom of things, to confront whatever is out of alignment with reality, even (or especially) when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient. With Pluto conjunct Venus, this confrontation with reality may have occurred in the context of our relationships. We may have felt compelled to look honestly at what is not working in a close relationship and hopefully talk about it (Pluto conjunct Mercury) with the other person. The positive potential of this transit is that, once the difficult conversations have occurred, there can be a sense of re-alignment in the relationship at a new level of honesty and openness. This all took place, of course, in the context of Capricorn season (December 21-January 19) which, being ruled by Saturn, already brought a more solitary, inward, serious, goal-oriented focus to this time of year. It’s the time of year that we tend to become filled with determination to clean up our acts — to begin that new exercise program or diet, set up a more disciplined routine, eliminate bad habits, or just generally aim to strive harder to make progress on our important life goals.

Capricorn also represents the current rules and norms of society which, for better or worse, tend to determine success in the eyes of the world. With Mercury in retrograde in Capricorn, we may have been reflecting on the extent to which we measure up to those standards and (with Pluto also in Capricorn) getting (ruthlessly) honest with ourselves about where we may fall short and what we are going to do about it. Alternatively, we may have been questioning our own relationship to those societal standards and how much we want to measure our value in those terms or not. Either way, with all the retrograde action stalling progress, Plutonic intensity driving us to look at our shadows, and general Capricorn seriousness, it’s been a heavy start to the year, one with every potential to have activated our inner critics. On the plus side, we may have unearthed a new level of determination within ourselves to stay in integrity with our deeper purpose in a way that could make all the difference to our ability to achieve what we truly want in 2023.

Thankfully, Mars started moving forward again on January 12, as did Mercury on January 18. With these two personal planets moving forward, we may have felt that the wheels started slowly to turn again. Yet some of the wheels may have seemed still stuck in the mud. On the same day that Mercury turned direct (January 18), the Sun was conjunct Pluto, re-activating the themes from earlier in the month of looking into the dark and sitting with uncomfortable feelings and truths. With this past Saturday’s new moon in Aquarius, however, we have finally experienced a noticeable shift. This new moon is significant because it offers a glimpse of the colorful new Aquarian energies that will arrive in force when Pluto moves into Aquarius in March. The seeds that we plant at this full moon are powerful because they may be ‘fertilized’ by Pluto when it enters Aquarius (which it does not only in March this year, but also twice in 2024). It would thus be well worth our time to place a special focus on our intentions at this new moon as they may bear abundant fruit in due course.

Venus is conjunct Saturn in Aquarius at the time of the new moon, which can admittedly bring a sense of emotional coolness and constraint. Yet it also offers an opportunity to create something that will have enduring value. By the end of the month, the Sun will be in a harmonious trine with Mars, Mercury in a trine with Uranus, and Venus will have entered Pisces, where she is exalted. Thus the heaviness we have had to endure at the start of this month will give way to considerably lighter and more dynamic energies as the month progresses. Everything changes in March, when Pluto enters Aquarius and Saturn moves into Pisces. When two heavyweight outer planets change sign in the same month, you can guarantee a tremendous shift in the zeitgeist. We will not miss it. January can be seen as a transition month that involves wrapping up and integrating many of the lessons of 2022. The new moon in Aquarius is the turning point. We are finally starting to open toward the creative energies of the dawning age, rather than being subsumed with the death of the old.