HAPPY NEW YEAR to each of you as we enter 2023 and experience the first New Moon on January 21st in the sign of Aquarius. This zodiac signs corresponds to the person who is an independent thinker, loves challenging the status quo, and works to live authentically. Aquarius, as an astrological signature will be important not only in late January, and most of February but also for the coming decades, as Pluto enters a twenty-year transit through the sign of Aquarius this March.
This New Moon is conjunct Pluto, gatekeeper to the underworld or shadow realm, a place of both destruction and buried treasure. In Roman mythology, Pluto ushered souls into death, but also had access to great wealth through underworld access to diamonds and minerals. During this New Moon, both luminaries, the conscious self-aware Sun, and the subjective, unconscious Moon will be touched or linked to this powerful energy of Pluto, just before it gets ready to change signs. This next month promises a foreshadowing of what’s to come over the next two decades.
In 2008 Pluto entered Capricorn just as the U.S. entered the “great recession”, a period of sharp decline in economic well-being; considered the most significant downturn since the Great Depression of 1929. The economic slump began when the U.S. housing market went from boom to bust, and large amounts of mortgage-backed securities lost significant value. Young people and minorities were targeted by banks and then severely disadvantaged by the shadowy, or Pluto-influenced lending bubble which burst at the beginning of this transit.
Pluto has the capacity to reveal what has been hidden, particularly as it relates to abuse of power, and we’re in for some significant revelations over the next month and beyond. Just like the reveal about political figures like George Santos, and the legal investigations into January 6, this shift will gradually bring more Aquarian and “forward” thinking to government, business, and large institutions, beginning a collective shift away from the top-down, patriarchal, traditional thinking of Capricorn towards the more inclusive, “we’re all in this together” awareness of Aquarius. We can see hints of this happening already in this last mid-term election. Despite all the dire predictions of a red tsunami, it was the first time since 1934 that the president’s party did not lose a seat in the Senate during a mid-term election, and the first time a member of “Gen Z”, Maxwell Frost won an Orlando area congressional district in Florida, and more women were elected governor than ever before.
On a more Micro note, Mars turned direct on January 12, and Mercury on the 18th. On January 22nd Uranus will join them and all the of the planets will be in direct motion until the middle of May. This suggests a few months where we all experience an easier, more direct path in getting things done, fewer problems with technology and communications, and hopefully some improvement in the economy with Uranus moving forward in Taurus.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE: During most of January, retrograde Mars, the planet that rules conflict, action and frustration, has been sitting on my Nadir, or the house/home point in my chart, squaring (creating challenges) my Sun, (me). During the first two weeks of January, we’ve been on vacation in Phoenix, AZ. Shortly after we arrived at our Airbnb, we noticed problems with the stovetop and fridge intermittently not working. An electrician came by and made repairs only to have them stop working again. Long story short, the entire property had to be shut down because of an electrical problem which could create potential fire-hazard and we had to move. While the appliances were “on the blink”, we took a visit to the Desert Botanical Garden, and while there, a nearby water main burst and everyone had to leave. The next day we moved into another Airbnb and by the second day all the food in the refrigerator had frozen solid! The day Mars turned direct they brought in a new refrigerator, and no more problems since. We’ve traveled a lot over the years with a minor problem or two, but nothing of this nature. Mars retrogrades every 26 months, but not all retrogrades are equal.
Curious about why things are happening in your life, what the planets might explain, and when changes are coming? Now is the perfect time to schedule a One Year Forecast.