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by David A. Wheatley The rendezvous of Saturn and Neptune at zero degrees of Aries wasn’t consummated before they both went retrograde, pulled away from each other, and back into Pisces. By the end of the year, they will move forward and will finally meet over a period of several weeks, from late February into April, before separating again for the final time in this conjunction. Saturn moves more quickly around the Sun and will pull away from Neptune, spending around two years in Aries, leaving Neptune there for more than a decade. At the time Saturn and Neptune finally make the stage under the lights with the band playing, the interstellar object or comet AI Atlas will arrive at Jupiter in mid-March. ESA, the European Space Agency’s JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer probe), is currently enroute to Jupiter to study its icy moons, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. An attempt will be made to study Atlas from nearby. At the time of this writing, ESA has just released its images of Atlas as it cleared passing by the Sun. These results are still being examined. Atlas’s coma appears to be bluer, but it still does not have a tail typical of comets within this solar system. An appeal has been made to the US government to allow NASA to release any information that was not previously made public due to the government shutdown. A comet more familiar to this solar system, A6 Lemmon, made its perihelion at the Sun on November 8th. Lemmon has a conventional tail; it has always had a tail as it approaches the Sun. Another recently discovered comet, V1 Borisov - not to be confused with the Borisov comet known to be the first interstellar comet on record (also found by Gennadiy Borisov in Crimea) - was discovered in recent weeks, located between Earth and Atlas. This new discovery, V1 Borisov, also did not have a tail, just a coma, like 3IAtlas. V1 Borisov was closer to the Sun on its orbit than Atlas ever was and had a trajectory more conventional than 3IAtlas. But after little more than a week of being discovered, V1Borisov has disintegrated. Since I began researching and writing this, it has disappeared and is presumed to have disintegrated. More details may emerge in the coming days, but it can no longer be found. I know, there will be people saying it was a spaceship and it simply relocated or turned on its cloaking device. Maybe so. Atlas is now speeding away from the Sun and will make its closest position to Earth on December 19, and by close, I mean 180 million miles away. That’s not so close. More often than people realize unless they monitor such things, asteroids pass much closer to us, between the Earth and the Moon, so 180 million mikes away is not something to worry about. Many Earth-based facilities will be trained on it at that time, gathering data. Atlas continues on to possibly intersect Jupiter in mid-March. Jupiter’s gravity is formidable; it can affect something like Atlas and alter its trajectory, as it did the Shoemaker-Levy comet in 1993, first pulling it apart and then pulling the pieces into a series of crash landings or crashes on Jupiter. Table of Asteroid Symbols, 1864 Astrology increasingly includes planetoids and asteroids in chart analysis. Comets don’t get the interest from Astrologers that asteroids do because asteroids can have a genesis and composition to those of a planet, can have rotation on an axis, and sometimes a degree of gravity. Asteroids are solid objects, and some have great mineral wealth. It is believed that asteroids are responsible for transporting water in the form of ice to a planet like ours, if not microbial life as well. Comets are dirty balls of ice, sometimes with a rock nucleus, and usually burn up upon entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Monitor asteroids' proximity to Earth and solar weather here: https://www.spaceweather.com/Asteroids in the natal chart: https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/asteroids-astrology-online-calculatorAtlas is currently making aspects to individual natal charts. At a minimum, Atlas is a stimulator, an energetic catalyst. It’s activating energetically every planet, asteroid, or invisible point in a chart by aspect as it moves through our solar system, through our psychic body at twice the speed the Earth goes around the Sun. It’s an incredibly rare event arriving with another incredibly rare event, the Saturn Neptune conjunction, sextile Uranus and Pluto, itself a one in thousands of lifetimes event. The projected trajectory of Atlas towards Jupiter has changed a little since it interacted with the Sun. I haven’t seen a comparison between the former and the latter trajectory except that it remains close to Jupiter. 3IAtlas was physically energized by huge solar flares erupting after it passed out of sight behind the Sun. Ionization of Atlas’s particles of dust must have taken place in the repeating waves of above-average-powerful solar electromagnetic plasma from solar flares, if not simply because of close proximity to our star, the Sun, which is the first star Atlas has encountered in millions of years. Three or four huge flares exchanged electrical charge and plasma between the Sun and Atlas as it passed behind the Sun from our point of view. These flares blasted Venus with a 100% impact and Mars with something less. Astrologically, Venus and Mars are vital parts of our astrological psyche, but they have been impacted by solar flares before; that isn’t so uncommon. As an energetic body in the solar system, Atlas has moved in and out of aspect with Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto as well as other planets and asteroids in our personal charts. This is an alien visitor to our solar system and it's an energetic body not normally in our astrological body or psyche. When we began to get a glimpse of Atlas as it pulled out from behind the Sun, its coma was more light bluish. It still did not develop the conventional tail. Estimates of how much mass it may have lost to grow brighter and discharge material from its body, are not settled. Typically, a comet loses from one quarter to one third of its mass due to interacting with the Sun in closer proximity, breaking down into particles that form the coma and tail. Some comets break apart. Atlas does not appear to have lost mass in its close interaction with the Sun. Oumuamua, in 2017, the second interstellar object to be observed passing through our solar system, passed much closer to the Sun than Atlas did. Oumuamua was not a ball of ice; it was an elongated potato-shaped rock that emitted no tail or gas as it passed between the planet Mercury and the Sun. Atlas has been in the darkest reaches of space outside this solar system, or any other, for millions of years. Approaching this star, our Sun, it was exposed to something that it had not been close to perhaps ever in its existence or at least in some millions of years. China released its low-resolution imagery of Atlas in the first week of November, and we learned and saw nothing new. It’s really up to NASA to release what they have on record, but it is being held back due to the current government shutdown. That may provide more illuminating physical data. The sunspots that erupted in huge ways on the far side of the Sun during Atlas’s passage on that side had been facing Earth the week before Atlas disappeared behind the Sun. While facing Earth, the sunspots erupted mid-range M-class flares. These are not disruptive to Earth-based technology, except such as when they interfere with ham radio operators. The Sun rotated these unstable sunspots around to the other side, facing the passing 3IAtlas; they erupted with G5 peak level X-class flares. G5 is the highest level of solar eruption impact to impact us on Earth, and we haven’t experienced such an event since 1859, when the only technology on Earth was telegraph wires, which were fried. Today, satellites in orbit would be damaged and likely unable to sustain orbit under their own power. Earth-based technology, unless it’s sufficiently shielded, would be damaged, and power grids would be expected to fail. Those sunspots that blasted Venus and Mars about ten days ago are rotating around to face Earth again in the third week of November. Large, powerful sunspots can sustain themselves for a few rotations of the Sun. However, we can’t say what level of eruption they might produce, if any. I’ve been monitoring the Sun’s weather for about 17 years, almost daily, and on multiple occasions, I’ve seen huge, unstable sunspots quiet down into a docile state when facing Earth, and erupt with ferocity as soon as they are facing away, as if someone is at the switch. This mechanism is not fully understood. As of Saturday, the 8th of November, 3IAtlas began erupting with multiple eruptions and subsequent jets from escaping gases. This gives the impression, without looking at it, that it has multiple tails, but in fact, the angle from which we might be able to see it is still not ideal to determine if it has a tail trailing away from the Sun, which comets typically do. We are witnessing erupting jets in many directions. Atlas is departing from its close approach to the Sun (which wasn’t really THAT close), where it got bathed in large solar flares that ionized Atlas’s coma dust, and it was reduced in size in order to produce the enlarged coma. There weren’t multiple jets outgassing or a tail in its initial closer passage with the Sun. However, since departing the Sun, something has instigated a change. Since its interaction with the Sun, releasing more of its particular dust particles and now out-gassing, Atlas is leaving behind traces of its entire history of travel in our neighborhood of the solar system, dating back to its origin. We will pass through those particles of cosmic interstellar dust in the New Year. The arrival of Saturn and Neptune in Aries together has been talked about at length, and mostly it remains to be seen. The aspecting accents of Pluto and Uranus, rounding out the full outer planet interaction, will bring us through next year and be with us through 2028 technically; however, the reverberations will unfold for years after. The next two to three years will shape the future. USAThe USA faces a Uranus Return to its natal chart placement in late 2026-28. The USA birth as everyone knows was formed in revolution, Uranus’s specialty. A Uranian Return revisits this spirit of upheaval and need to evolve in unexpected ways. Uranus’ specialty is surprises that force innovation, often stressful, and often with consequences we didn’t plan on, which can be good and bad. It’s a time of renewal in the US chart, a Uranus return to its natal position. The values and goals of the initial revolution face a review. How did we do? The collective psyche determines how the existing form should be reformed or dissolved, if possible. Or give birth to something else. Clearly, the US can use some reformation. Many previous periods of tumult and change, such as the Saturn/Neptune opposition in the Civil War aspect. And for other nations as well, making a 90-degree square in the Crimean War of 1852-53, which also involved Uranus conjunct Saturn square Neptune. By the time Saturn is done in Aries and moves into Taurus, Uranus is in the midst of its return for the US presidential election year. Saturn in Taurus slows everything down that was stirred up while it was in Aries, probably because of hard times. USA - RELATIONSHIPS Next year, when Saturn and Neptune finally splash into Aries together, they will make a 90-degree square to the US natal Venus at 3 degrees of Cancer in the US 7th house of close relationships, both business and personal. This will be a confusing, discordant time, a lack of control, and a tendency to react with a hard, militaristic attitude. The Police state. Relationships with others are a reflection of our relationships to the parts of ourselves. Our identity, ego, personality, soul and mind are confused and fall back on the Saturn in Aries character, the overbearing parent, and combined with Neptune in Aries as the holy warrior, believing in the sacredness of a thing whether it has it or not. Seeking refuge in old values that stress control, which often leads to a breakup in relationships, pushing the other person away. Sometimes, the only way to get over the cause of discordance is to break up and reform after a period of introspection. Relationships need to struggle sometimes to find the nuggets of great value. Saturn first, then Neptune in the next several years after squaring the US natal Venus, will square natal Jupiter and finally the Sun. All in the 7th house. This is an extended period of struggle, several years of it. During this time, after Uranus has completed the return to its natal place in 2028, Uranus too enters the US natal 7th house, bringing its sometimes brilliant, sometimes erratic, and insane attitude of sudden change into the US 7th house. Expect the US to undergo an extended period of reform for years to come. Things will not settle down or return to normal, a thing of the past not to be seen again. USA - WORKPLACES Meanwhile, with Pluto in Aquarius making a 120-degree trine aspect to Uranus in the US 6th house, AI will reinvent the workplace. This begins in earnest in the fall of 2026 and lasts for two years. New technology will also bring things like fusion energy generation and expand medical technologies with the sextiles to Neptune from Pluto and Uranus, though the way this happens is most likely under the pressures of problem-solving. USA - WORKERS Next summer, Mars will conjunct Uranus in the US 6th house. Mars will conjunct Uranus while it’s in Gemini four times over a number of years. This is a worker revolt, probably for a few reasons, that ultimately reshapes many parts of American society. It will surprise a lot of people who, for example, are terrified of the new mayor-elect in Manhattan. What if his ideas produce something really good? With Mars on Uranus in the 6th house four times over many years, this is a series of stages introducing new ideas for working people, not just due to AI. New ideas providing wages for work. New labor laws. IsraelIsrael’s natal chart places Venus close to the same placement as the US natal placement of Venus, facing the same 90-degree squares from transiting Saturn and Neptune, but in Israel’s chart, this is in the 9th house. This is a severe (Saturn) discord and hard-hearted management confronting beliefs of the national ideal. A need to restructure it. Neptune repeats this stressful focus with inner self-doubt, dissolving the beliefs people thought were permanent. A depressing time forcing introspection, repair and new clarification of higher values. Uranus will conjunct Israel’s natal 8th house Mercury in two years. A radical new movement. It will surprise many people - a brilliant shift: new plans, discoveries of a positive nature, long-term, upsetting for some short-term, but inevitable. Israel will have a long period of stressful Pluto transits to its natal Moon, Pluto, and Saturn in the 10th house. Pluto will reveal some ugly truths to the world from deep in the national psyche, discovering a need for deep purging. These things are ultimately positive opportunities for growth but can also be over the top violent and destructive. But whatever is destroyed will be rebuilt, once the creatures in the basement are let out into the sunlight. Addendum More information, with the best photo yet (though still not terrific), has provided further evidence that 3IAtlas has an anti-tail in addition to "jets" produced by outgassing. The anti-tail continues to be opposite the usual or expected tail of a comet in relation to the Sun. The jets produced by outgassing in any comet can be in any direction, determined by the eruption of materials in the comet interacting with the recent and ongoing passage by the Sun. Avi Loeb, a notable astrophysicist, has calculated the mass of 3IAtlas based on these latest observations and what is required to produce outgassed material to be over 50 billion tons at 10 kilometers or larger. He also suggests a smaller mass and size if the comet is manufactured technology. His latest commentary can be found here: https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-remarkable-large-scale-structure-of-anti-tail-and-tail-jets-from-3i-atlas-242c534cf7b3 Michio Kaku, a well-known theoretical physicist, suggests that the 3IAtlas is an object 7 billion years old, dating back to the early moments of the physical universe. Part of his reasoning is that for something to have amassed its large size in the voids of space outside existence in a galaxy or solar system, as comets conventionally are. https://mkaku.org/home/tag/3i-atlas/ The implications of 3IAtlas from an Astrological perspective grow more remarkable considering the potential age and existence of Atlas from the voids of space, entering into our spheres of consciousness. Especially at this time, with a rare Astrological event involving the outer planets, as mentioned. There are more than 8 billion human souls alive on Earth today, more than at any time in our species' existence that we know of. Human consciousness and life on Earth, as well as other life forms in the physical and nonphysical solar system, are in a rare moment of evolution. Comments welcome.
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Anyone in pain or those working in healing practices should consider attending the next Somatic Healing workshop. I have taken this class, and it has been so powerfully helpful in my own experience of healing from severe, treatment-resistant pain. My story: To heal severe sciatic pain that developed after I had knee replacement surgery in January of 2024, the regular medical treatment modalities that I tried did nothing to ease the pain, even temporarily, much less permanently. I tried physical therapy and four pain injections for the disabling sciatica, but nothing worked. My life was dampened and limited by unmanageable pain. Then, David Quigley suggested I try Somatic Healing and Alchemical Hypnotherapy to resolve the pain. Initially, the improvements following my Somatic Healing sessions were quite minor and short-lived. However, David taught me how to practice techniques such as “Hypnotic Movement” on my own every day, trusting that my body knows how to move in order to heal. Some were almost microscopic movements, while others were very deliberate stretches or large loosening movements performed while riding my stationary bike. Every day, I called upon my Inner Healers to help guide my work and to encourage me when I would rather just lie in bed. Slowly, the periods of no sciatic pain grew longer and longer, until I have now had no sciatic pain for over two weeks. I am so pleased with the relief from pain that I venture to say my relief is permanent. If the pain does come back, thanks to all that I learned in the Somatic Healing class, I know what to do for myself, and that my body and my Inner Healers will help guide me back to a pain-free life. by David A. Wheatley The tail end of August was one of those times for those who advocate a connection between solar flares and Earthly earthquakes. There were a couple of solar flares, around M2 in their intensity, which is strong but not unusual or threatening. At the time, the Sun was aiming the flares directly at Earth, and there were a couple of almost simultaneous larger quakes, in Afghanistan, a 6, and in Nevada, a 4.8. These are not huge quakes, though over 1,600 people died in Afghanistan, and they are not huge flares. Nevada has such size quakes from time to time and had more slightly smaller quakes days prior to the 4.8, which suggests that the 4.8 is an escalation of prior tectonic activity, not necessarily related to the flare. The one thing about this flare worth mentioning is that the usual blast of light from a flare, plus the electromagnetic wave of plasma that comes later, was prolonged over a couple of hours. The flare wasn’t a momentary eruption on the Sun; it was an hour-long sustained broadcast, which is not uncommon. The microwave emission from it was huge, much greater than normal. Flares send out electromagnetically charged plasma, which takes longer to arrive than light; light takes 8 minutes to get here. The plasma, as electromagnetic matter, is what provokes auroras, and for those who believe in it, earthquakes from stirring the core and ultimately the mantle of the Earth. I don’t deny a physical relationship between solar flares and stimulating earthquakes, but I think there’s much more to it than simple cause and effect. From the Astrologer’s point of view, not the astronomer who deals strictly in cause and effect, my emphasis is always on the alchemy of the planets, not the chemistry. The planets and the solar system are the body of the psyche, not just physical planets. I’m much more interested in what is active in the subtle universe than the physical one, because from the Astrologer's point of view, everything happening in the physical universe is dependent on the subtle one. What usually isn't mentioned when the press reports on flares are radiated microwaves, another frequency of radio bursts outside our physical senses. It was mentioned for this M2 flare because it was an above-normal sustained blast of microwaves. The microwaves are a sustained "noise" from the Sun, from which we are mostly physically shielded here on Earth. Why was this different from another M2 variety flare? What amplified the Sun's broadcast of microwaves? I can’t ignore the presence in the physical and non-physical chemistry from the interaction within this solar system and the 3IAtlas comet making its approach to Mars by the end of October. 3I Atlas is a physical interloper in the solar system. The latest measurement I’ve read is that, at its core, it is said to be 50 km wide, far larger than the prior two interloper comets that passed through from outside our solar system. Its corona is a staggering 700,000km wide, and growing as it approaches the Sun. The present measurement of the corona is closing in on half the size of the Sun itself, and it will grow larger in the next two months. The corona is largely carbon-based dust, mostly composed of graphite and diamond particles. These particles within the plasma cloud around the comet are capable of carrying an electromagnetic charge of electricity; both graphite and diamond dust can channel electricity in a laboratory. These physical properties are amazing from an astronomical point of view, and the speculation on what we will learn in the months to come is breaking new ground in the physical science of astronomy. Astrologically, for most of us, the effects may be subliminal in our psyche. We will observe effects in human behavior and be somewhat at a loss for analytical data (compared to the physical sciences such as astronomy) to describe in Astrological terms what this comet is bringing into our psyche. It will probably be long after the impacts work their way through our lives that Astrologers will be able to distinguish the comet’s impact compared to the usual Astrological impact of planets and planetoids we are familiar with. But I don’t mind speculating. The comet is not yet in its closest proximity to the Sun. Around October 29th, it will form a line of conjunction/opposition from the far side of the Sun. Atlas will be in opposition on the far side of the Sun to Earth, with the Sun and our Moon in between us. At that precise time, with the Moon between us and the Sun and Atlas, it will be a New Moon phase for those who follow the daily complexions of the Moon. The Sun is at the peak of its cycle now for solar storms and flares. About two weeks ago from this writing, the far side of the Sun released a massive outburst from a sunspot, directed away from Earth. It directly impacted both Mars and Atlas. Prior to that, in the last few months, the Sun seemed to be relatively quiet or fading from a solar peak. Some astronomers said the southern hemisphere of the Sun peaked last November, and the whole body of the Sun was in decline from the peak earlier than expected. But in the last month, the daily number of sunspots has climbed again to between 10 and 12, with more potency than we have seen in several months. I wonder about this as a stimulating interaction with the approaching comet Atlas to the Sun. Following that speculation, I wonder about greater interaction between the Sun and Atlas as its already huge corona expands upon closing the distance to the Sun between now and late October. I wonder about the catalytic potentials in the physical universe and the energetic exchanges in the subtle universe. Click on the image below to observe 3IAtlas predicted trajectory through the solar systemAfter the close approach to the Sun in late October, Atlas, moving as it is faster than any planet in our solar system, will fly out for the closest approach of its journey to any planet in our solar system, to Jupiter. The close fly-by of Mars in October doesn’t compare to the closeness of its approach to Jupiter. Strictly speaking of it in terms of proximity, Atlas will be much closer to Jupiter in March of next year than it will be to Mars in October. Jupiter is about 20 times larger than Mars and has the strongest gravity with the largest gravitational field of any planet in the solar system. Mars can fit inside Jupiter’s mass over 9000 times. That’s really big. We describe conjunctions in Astrology as concentrated properties of subtle energies within our psyche between planets; the planets being physical manifestations of soul properties within our psyche. Conjunctions and oppositions in particular are concentrated and always amplified by Jupiter which expands whatever it touches in our natal charts. My feeling is that March of next year will be the greatest manifestations of Atlas in our lives. It may set the table in the Fall of 2025, but it engages in its main course in March of 2026. We have a few months to learn about its effects before it arrives in Jupiter’s neighborhood. If this was not enough to boggle the mind (and maybe that’s the point), we are already in rare times because of the movements of the other outer planets, planets beyond Mars, and the asteroid belt. As many Astrologers and I have commented, I can’t find a precedent in human history, looking back a few thousand years, when Saturn and Neptune conjuncted at the beginning of Aries, plus augmented by a sextile from Uranus and Pluto on either side. Can’t compare it to anything. The zero degrees of Aries, which is the 30 degrees of Pisces, is a unique sensitive point as it commences the Zodiac. Just as Pisces has within it the essence of all prior 11 signs, the beginning of Aries is a rebirth of life cycles within this solar system, having the Zodiac’s 12 signs as the backdrop for a frame of reference. Adding the cherry on top of these incredible moments noted by Saturn and Neptune, the cherry being the Atlas comet, forces an Astrologer to rely on intuition more than data. Saturn and Neptune entered Aries a few months ago, but presently begin their retrograde back into Pisces. They are not done with their work in Pisces. For both of them, their passage through Pisces has been confusing for some people and inspirational for others. Pisces is the kind of place Neptune prefers, borderless and vague, lacking structure. Pisces is the kind of place Saturn least prefers because it lacks gravity, wishy washy borders lacking a firm foundation. This has been the era of fake news because to Neptune, all news of the mundane world is fake. Nothing here is real to Neptune except what inspires the spirit to reach for the skies because to Neptune, reality is in spirit; the physical world is the dream. Reaching for the skies means nothing to Saturn; it stops you and insists on getting a ladder. Build your way to the stars. This is a confusing blend and could result in the classic Tower of Babel scenario. Actually, as agents of our higher mind, these two really need each other, but they have to work together. Build a road to spirit, but don’t rely on physical engineers to understand how the energy of spirit flows. Understand how the energies of the psyche or metaphysical psychology work, and then build the path. This is where we are at now, needing to make a step in this direction. Saturn and Neptune retreat from dipping a toe into Aries now, and tidy up some of the unfinished business as Atlas makes its close passage to Mars, Earth, and the Sun primarily for the last quarter of 2025. Saturn and Neptune begin to leave Pisces for the last time in November and December, respectively. By the time they are at an exact conjunction in Aries in the second half of February 2026 through March 2026, 3I Atlas will arrive at Jupiter, which will be around 15-16 degrees of Cancer. Jupiter arrived at 15-16 degrees of Cancer in late August of this year. It will eventually go retrograde and finally direct back after retreating in Cancer to arrive at this same degree mid-March of 2026. We are in the extended version of Jupiter setting up at this degree, beyond which it cannot pass until the work of the next several months has passed. Anyone with natal planets placed in any sign around 15-16 degrees will be most impacted. There are also aspects like the semi-square or half-square, which are 45 degrees and also very relevant. When any planet goes retrograde and does some back peddling before finally moving forward, it spends time in one area and grows more potent because it’s slower moving and stays longer in one area. Jupiter grows more potent as it slows down into retrograde for the entire time. Its usual effect is to inflate, expand, and magnify in its exuberant willingness to grow. Expand the mind. If one is caught in a narrow, self-centered focus, this expansion can make for a bad fit; we can make assumptions that are misplaced exaggerations. Later on, we realize that we needed some perspective to get the best out of it. But it can also propel one across a threshold of optimism into a new world. Anyone with a natal aspect that falls around the 15-16 degrees of any sign with an orb of an additional 2 degrees before or after will have some kind of interaction with Atlas moving very close to Jupiter next year. Jupiter is already there, Atlas won't arrive until March, but since Jupiter is there now, the story is already unfolding. It's a bit of a wild card, not knowing what kind of spice Atlas is in the Jupiter soup. The natal House location of any planet in the natal chart will suggest an area of your life where this will manifest, plus, of course, all other aspects in relation to where Jupiter's transit is in your chart. These planetary aspects are all amplified with Jupiter's months of slow motion and the eventual meeting with the comet next year. It comes at a time when Saturn and Neptune are cleaning up and leaving dreamy Pisces and entering Aries where things have to work, we have to know, and they have to work now. Pisces is in no hurry, things can marinate. Aries wants what it wants now. Neptune entered Pisces around the time of the Great Recession in 2010-2011. Saturn entered much later, in 2023. This all sounds interestingly ominous, and maybe for some people a little scary because big changes are messy and sometimes scary. Losing control can be the key to success for an artist or athlete, but madness to a brain surgeon or a dentist. The 3rd Interstellar Atlas comet is estimated to vary in size, depending on who is making the estimate, between 20 and 50 km. 20 km is about 12 miles. For comparison, if a one-mile-wide comet hit New York City, the crater would take out the whole city plus part of New Jersey, the fire cloud would spread 100 miles, and the sound of the impact would be 900 miles. It would generate an earthquake of 9 on the Richter scale. That's calculated upon the average speed of a comet, which is usually faster than an asteroid but not nearly as fast as Atlas is moving. It's moving so fast we couldn't send a rocket to catch up to it from behind. Presently 66 k per second, and will be moving quicker as it gets closer and passes by the Sun. It doesn't have a tail as comets do; it's got a gas corona around it and in front. It's outgassing 145 tons of water per hour. If it's interstellar, the assumption is that it's very old to have been able to outgas that much water and survive any length of time. It produces gas, dust, vapor, and plasma when approaching a star like our Sun, so maybe it's spent most of its existence in space, not exposed to a star. To lose that much water per hour means it had to have been very large in the past, wherever it came from. There's a discussion going on to repurpose the Juno Satellite, currently in orbit around Jupiter, scheduled to be mothballed this month. It still has fuel and can be standing by to study Atlas when it arrives at Jupiter in mid-March. While the distance between the comet and Mars is .19 units, (one unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun), the distance between Jupiter and the comet is 0 units. That means it could be very close without hitting it, or hit it. Here are some interesting new details since I completed the above initial commentary on 3IAtlas. There is a growing belief that it has a companion comet or second component very close by. This is very speculative, but the people who want to see it as an alien probe are quick to believe the second component is a sister ship. Further speculation is that when Atlas passes about 29 million miles from Mars in October, it might send the secondary component or probe to survey Mars. For comparison, the distance between the Earth and the Sun is 93.6 million miles. Notable comets that made a dramatic visual drive-by in the last century are accompanied by stories of alien or other-dimensional life. Comet Kohoutek in 1973 inspired stories of being a spiritually relevant vessel passing by to take on passengers before the End Times. Kohoutek fans, hopeful for that, were disappointed but get another crack at it in 2028 when it returns. There’s always a chance they may be right. Earth passes through the Taurid meteor stream twice per year, in the Summer and late Fall. This stream is believed to have brought impacts on Earth multiple times in the past millions of years and is monitored by NASA for anything that might be a future impact. Atlas is not in a repeating orbital pattern within the solar system. As everyone knows, it’s from outside the solar system. In recent days, Atlas has begun to produce a tail, more typical of a comet. It should not be surprising that it didn’t have a tail up to now because when it was spotted and broke into the news cycle, it was still out past the orbit of Jupiter where we don’t expect to see comets. They get noticed when they get closer to the Sun, interacting and producing various gases with the comet. Once inside the orbit of Mars in the coming weeks, it is more likely that a growing tail will emerge, towards the latter part of October. Some observers say the slowly growing tail resembles an exhaust stream, and the glow up front resembles headlights, not a chemical reaction as it approaches the Sun. The Mars Rover can take a high-resolution photo of Atlas from Mars’ surface when Atlas passes by, a much closer view than from Earth, and looking through the thin Martian atmosphere. Thin compared to Earth’s atmosphere. More interesting to me is that the Juno satellite sent to survey Jupiter in 2016 can be reprogrammed to get a closer examination (about 50 million miles away at best) as Atlas passes Jupiter. That would happen on March 14, 2026, calculations show. I like that date for human consciousness to be directly interacting with the remarkable visitor into our solar system through human technology. Jupiter is at 16 degrees of Cancer at the time of this writing. After its retrograde motion which begins in November, Jupiter will return to this same degree of Cancer and then go into direct motion to arrive at the meeting with Atlas mid-March at 16 degrees of Cancer. This happens at the same time as the exact conjunction of Saturn and Neptune, which is an epochal moment for us all, as noted by Astrologers today. Almost every time I read a report on the size of Atlas, the size has changed. The core days ago was said to be 50 km across, and today another source said it’s 20 km across. Either way, it is much larger than most comets. As it passes through the asteroid belt on its way in towards the Sun, passing Jupiter’s orbit and before it gets closer to Mars, its size of 20km or 50km or even more could bang into debris in the asteroid belt, altering orbits of either body. Atlas is not going to hit the Earth, but if a one-mile comet made of heavy or dense ores hit any large city, for comparison, you get a forty-mile-wide crater and a less than 100-mile-wide scorched Earth fireball with an earthquake around 9 on the Richter scale. This is a reason to watch for comets and asteroids, 50km, 20km or even a small one at 2km wide (just over one mile). The earlier source I quoted on the size of the Atlas cloud of its out-gassed aura said it was as much as 700,000 km in diameter. Today I read it is smaller, only 350,000 km in diameter, but it’s growing. Maybe it will reach 700,000 km in diameter as it gets closer to the Sun. I don’t know why two scientists report such big differences in dimension. Another phenomenon of this comet is how much water is being released as it approaches the Sun, and its cloud or coma increases in size as it produces a more substantial tail. It's outgassing an estimated 145 tons of water per hour. That’s a staggering amount of water to lose per hour, suggesting that it was much larger at some time in its earlier history. It's very old to have been able to outgas that much water and survive any length of time. Comments welcome.
David can be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation. Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page. Messages from Spirit Guides and Guardian Angels - |
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| I have worked as a licensed Clinical Psychologist for 33 years in the field of Humanistic Psychology. Recently, I discovered Alchemical Hypnosis, and am fascinated by its relationship to my work as a Humanistic Psychologist. Alchemical Hypnosis has enlightened and inspired my work as a Psychologist, adding profound levels of understanding, magic, imagination-based explorations of one’s inner helpers, and daily access to inner healers and spirit guides. There are similarities and differences between these two methods of working with clients to heal and improve their lives. | |
Alchemical Hypnosis is similar to Humanistic Psychotherapy in that it also considers the client from a very positive perspective. The client becomes the source of healing in an Alchemical Hypnosis session. With the help of the Alchemically trained therapist, the client enters into their inner cosmology through a process of hypnosis, which is a method of helping a person become more and more deeply relaxed and open to whatever comes up from the unconscious, be that thoughts, images, characters, feelings, or even tastes or sounds, and then we make a relationship with this inner character.
For example, when working with a client who had a trauma in their early life, we might need to revisit that trauma for a moment or two. All of us as children had day-in and day-out disappointments, like when our parents let us down or when siblings were mean to us. In this case, I take the person down with hypnosis very gently and safely to their deep inner world where techniques are used to meet this little, hurt inner child who experienced the problems or traumas. We can rescue that inner child and create a different story and memory of the event by bringing in a protector, hero, or new inner parents, who can save the child and give them the loving protection they need. This Alchemical “Inner Child Rescue Technique” helps change the traumatic memory into a positive one. Inner characters, such as a new inner mother, a new inner father, or even an animal protector, know how to give the child the love they need and validate what happened to them. Then the client is taught how to access these positive characters every day to help create feelings of safety in their inner and outer worlds. Self-hatred from experiencing severe abuse is often transformed into self-compassion and deep understanding.
Alchemical Hypnosis utilizes the imagination in a way that is not used in most psychotherapeutic environments.
You might say these are imaginary fantasies, but they are much more powerful than that. When a person works with their inner guides on a daily basis, learns their names, and develops a history together, they can call upon the individual guides to help them in certain situations in their outer life, such as needing to see a hostile boss or meeting someone they are attracted to but afraid to speak with.
Alchemical Hypnosis can be used effectively for addictions.
When combined and used sensitively by trained professionals, Humanistic Psychology and Alchemical Hypnosis can create incredible experiences of self-learning, self-acceptance, and self-love.
The academic education offered through the Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis is the best teaching program I have ever had the opportunity to participate in. If you are a mental health professional, I urge you to consider taking classes through the Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis. It will add so much meaning to your work with clients and increase your ability to help them make rapid, lasting change.
Patricia S. Alsup, PhD, May 2025
Patricia S. Alsup, PhD, Psychologist I offer telehealth and accept most insurances and cash.
You can find me listed on STAR Behavioral Health Providers at starproviders.org, a community of licensed civilian mental health providers trained in military culture and best practices.
I can also be found on growtherapy.com and goodtherapy.org
Saturn and Neptune conjunct about every 36 years in different signs. Neptune takes about 165 years to make one orbit of the Sun, not as long as Pluto (248 years) and a lot quicker than Saturn, which takes a little more than 29 years for one go-around. Saturn does it more frequently, between 27 and 29 years, much quicker than Neptune.
Neptune is very nonphysical; it’s our line of connection to other dimensions of consciousness outside the body of our solar system, usually beyond our listening range. The expanse of what Neptune is capable of bringing into our consciousness is almost alien to the lives we lead. It doesn’t subscribe to the beliefs and values we adopt from parents and the culture around us after birth, but it can inhabit them, and use them as vehicles to talk to us from spirit world to Earth world. Because Neptune is outside the orbit of Saturn, it isn’t restricted by Saturn’s natural sense of imposed order and structure, the way Jupiter is made to fit into human comprehension. People who meditate are approaching Neptune’s state of consciousness, at least going part way to reach that ocean of being whose size can easily wash over us, but usually, like the oceans we know, it lies there lapping the sandy shore without menace even though it could overwhelm us at any time.
While they are within a degree or two of each other this year, they reach their perfect conjunction in Aries in February 2026. In July of 2025, they are within one degree of perfect conjunction before retrograde motion pulls them apart in Aries. Saturn entered Pisces in 2023, and leaves it in 2028 after retrograding back and forth, including transiting over the entry to Aries where Neptune crawls along. The entire time, these two planets continue to share and influence one sign, formerly Pisces but shifting gears in a big way in Aries. They were within ten degrees of each other for years, which in a natal chart of any individual is a valid orb of influence for a major outer planet transit to be considered conjunct.
Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus co-shared Capricorn beginning in 1989 through 1991.
- A major recession in the USA ends with steep costs to the economy.
- Savings and Loan crisis USA, Dow Jones loses almost 7% in one day.
- Polio is considered eliminated, thanks to the vaccine.
- End of the Cold War, Berlin Wall comes down.
- Persian Gulf War.
- Unification of Yemen.
- The beginning of cable news.
- Internet launched.
- US invades Panama.
- Tiananmen Square protest in China.
- The first presidential election in Brazil post-military rule.
- Major new car brands, Lexus and Infinity, launched.
- The Soviets leave Afghanistan.
- Military coup in Paraguay overthrows dictator.
- First woman bishop in worldwide Anglican church appointed in the USA.
- Bomb planted on Pan Am flight explosion/crash.
- Flight leaving Honolulu decompresses, passengers blown out of plane on takeoff.
- Curfew in Kosovo, unrest over intimidation of Serbs, leads to war.
- Electromagnetic storm causes power outage at Quebec hydroelectric plant, 6 million people in US and Canada without power, also in Sweden.
- Exxon Valdiz oil spill.
- Israel surrenders Taba territory to Egypt, ending seven years of dispute.
- A failed coup in Haiti.
- Soviet sub sinks in the Barents Sea.
- Motorola presents the first micro-sized portable phone.
- The last golden toad is seen in Costa Rica.
- Nelson Mandela is eventually released from prison.
- Menendez brothers shoot parents.
- Major hurricane Hugo devastates the Caribbean and the US.
- Lebanese civil war ceasefire.
- 6.9 earthquake rocks San Francisco, 63 people killed, alters baseball World Series.
- Romanian revolution.
- Germany united.
- Hubble telescope launched.
- Saddam invades Kuwait, Gulf War.
- Lech Walesa leader of Poland.
- 7.7 earthquake devastates the Philippines.
- President Bush Sr signs Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Mt Pinatubo erupts in a huge explosion.
- The dedication of resources to post-world war paranoia by creating sprawling spy agencies.
- The Soviet experiment with mind control.
- Joseph McCarthy’s cultist anti-communist obsession dominate Republican party.
- Eisenhower’s warning about the rise of the military industrial complex.
- Not the internet, the invention of television going into people’s homes.
- Transistor portable radios.
- Annexation of Tibet by China.
- Queen Elizabeth ascends the throne of England.
- Death of Stalin. Putin born.
- Hydrogen bomb developed.
- Rumored Eisenhower meeting with aliens.
- Polio vaccine developed and distributed.
- Humans climb Mt. Everest.
- Discovery of DNA helix.
- Einstein's work on Relativity.
- Mexico Constitutional Republic founded.
- WW1.
- Spanish Flu (that began in the US) 70-100 million deaths.
- Women’s movement reaches new prominence.
- Russian Revolution and Communism.
- Use of the German Zeppelin in war. (new technology)
- Ford manufactures its first million cars.
- Puerto Ricans gain US citizenship.
- Historical events contribute to fame of Lawrence of Arabia.
- German U-boats off shore USA.
- Restoration of Poland.
- The Red Scare; domestic US terrorism, deporting of feared communists in the USA.
- Louis Pasture develops the anthrax vaccine.
- Widespread corruption in Washington government appointments.
- Establishment of time zones in North America.
- Standard Oil has a near monopoly on oil and gas.
- Married women in Britain can own property.
- Britain gains control of Egypt.
- Krakatoa erupts with huge explosion.
- President A Jackson authorized to use force to enforce tariffs.
- Cholera epidemic.
- British Empire abolishes Slavery Act.
- Karl Marx dies.
- Neptune discovered.
- Webster/Ashburton Treaty establishing the border between USA and Canada mostly along the 49th parallel. Native people’s tribes are not consulted.
- Mexican American War.
- Mormons arrive in Salt Lake City.
- Notre Dame reconstruction.
- California Gold Rush.
- First Communist Manifesto.
- California separates from Mexico.
- Great Famine, Ireland.
- British banking panic crisis.
- Influenza epidemic worldwide.
- Numerous worker revolutions in Europe.
- Seneca Falls women’s rights convention.
- Napoleon invades Spain.
- Multiple Spanish American colonies declare independence.
- US government annexes Florida.
- War between US and Britain (US and Canada).
- US slave revolt.
- New Madrid earthquakes 7-8.
- Major Indian Wars in America.
- Discovery of iodine.
- Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin born same day.
- Russia wins war with Sweden and establishes Finland.
- Holy Roman Empire dissolved just prior to the conjunction; Austria attempts to reclaim it in 1809-1811, Napoleon defeats them but fails to consolidate authority.
- American Revolution
- Slavery not supported by British courts.
- Banking crisis in Scotland, Amsterdam, and the Thirteen Colonies of British North America.
- Poland partitioned.
- First functioning calculator.
- Quebec act, extends Quebec into Ohio valley and imposition of religious politics (Catholic prayer in schools).
- American boycott of British goods.
- Steam power impacts manufacturing in Britain.
Commonalities: Crumbling empires and popular uprisings.
- Sack of Rome by Visigoths 410 BC
- Rome defeats Macedonia, end of Macedonian regional rule 167 BCE
- 122 BCE Hadrian's wall
- 196 CE Han dynasty falls.
- Athens sacked by Germanic tribes 267 CE
- Fall of Holy Roman Byzantine Empire by Ottomans, Constantinople. 1453
- Martin Luther excommunicated.
- Austrian attempt to reassemble, Ottomans gain victory
- 1668 Spain Portugal declaration of restoration.
- Poland 1772 broken up.
- 1848 Paris working class revolt. King Louis abdicates.
- Poland partitioned by Prussia, Russia and Austria. Reestablished 1918. Re-invaded/seized by Hitler/Stalin. Poland reestablished post WW2.
- Berlin Wall falls, Soviet Union dissolved. 1989
Peculiar relationship between Neptune and Russia on the conjunction of Neptune and Saturn.
- 1989 Soviets gone.
- 1917 Russian revolution.
- 1809 Russia seizes Finland.
- 1774 Ottoman war with Russia, Russia seizes Crimea.
Among the themes repeating often in the centuries of Saturn/Neptune meetings are:
- Volcanic eruptions. Nature gone wild.
- Epidemic or pandemic.
- Invention of new medicines.
- Financial market meltdowns.
- New technology that shapes society.
And themes that maybe aren’t as consistent:
- Women’s rights movements.
- Morality, legal ethics and slavery.
- Right wing cult like tendencies (McCarthyism), attempts to force religion into schools.
- American presidents enforcing tariffs.
- American wars with British, Canadian and/or Mexican nations.
- United States of America annexing or invading neighboring lands, (Canada, Panama, Florida). California joins/is acquired by US government.
- Russian wars with neighbors, Poland, Sweden, Finland, and now Ukraine.
A Continuing Evolution
Developing vaccines to deal with epidemics and new discoveries in medicine is another area that might seem like it’s repeating. In fact, it seems like a significant part of vaccine evolution in medicine is asking for a repeat lesson. Unfortunately, with Neptune/Saturn, the evolutions have come with epidemics.
In some past Saturn/Neptune meetings, Uranus was either conjunct or in aspect, as it is now. Uranus, at the end of Taurus and soon the beginning of Gemini, will this summer be in a sextile aspect with Saturn/Neptune and trine to transiting Pluto. The encouraging news is that while the angst of evolutionary change is taking place, innovation and growth can come of it long term.
Transiting Mars and Pluto opposition wraps up
Now, soon, from the 24th of April to the 29th, Mars in Leo will make its last of the series of Pluto oppositions. Whatever was cooked up in the first two meetings will be resolved in the third. On the 23rd of April, the Sun will be at the 90-degree square or midpoint of the opposition in Taurus. This is a point of high-tension expression. What happens around this date won’t be finished at this time; it is merely the beginning of something. While Mars seldom sticks around long enough to finish what it started by stirring the pot, Pluto is an evolutionary planet and grinds away slowly at its tasks. A flare up of some kind merely begins something, and it hearkens back very probably to the US election day. My guess is there is some question about the election. Pluto is the underworld; it works in the shadows. It extorts, bribes, arm-twists, and psychologically bends others to break rules. Mars simply likes to stir things up, a happy accomplice in crime.
Saturn and Neptune, virtually conjunct, are sextile to Pluto and trine to Mars in their opposition. This is a much bigger event than the opposition by itself. A short simple description of these combinations is that there may be hidden criminal behavior to be revealed in an angry expression after which necessary knowledge is exposed. With Neptune no longer in the sign of ‘anything goes’ and Saturn moving out soon, we’re going to learn multiple secrets that alter our perception of reality. When Uranus in early summer begins to shift into Gemini, we will again learn a great deal more, and some positive clean-up will begin to take shape. New knowledge also comes from new technology this summer. But I also feel like it isn’t a holiday we chose; it’s coming under the pressures of great need.
My general impression is that these next two weeks of April are a pivotal period after which a major change has happened, and we feel like we are living in a different world.
David can also be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.
We also have two eclipses in the month of March; see my previous post plus more below.
Neptune - Inspiration or Delusion
April Fool’s Day is an old tradition in different parts of the world for different reasons, but the joke or festival was originally about how we humans place importance upon certain days and then, once a year, escape our customs and values. When the New Year which had been celebrated at Easter, was changed to January, it retained the symbolic importance of a new start. It first begins as the rebirth of life, the rebirth of Osiris in ancient eastern Mediterranean cults. Birth is bringing an innocent into the world but in Osiris’s case he was reincarnating as himself, both Fools of the Tarot Major Arcana in one. In India, there was a celebration of life slightly preceding April 1st, in which people for a day stepped outside their caste and freely associated outside the usual structural restrictions of culture with colorful and unusual costumes. Stepping outside the usual rigidity of Time and Space, stepping outside Saturn’s structure of our lives.
It's difficult to talk about this period as one planet doing something; the combination of them is beyond comprehension in a simple description.
In what is happening Astrologically, I have tried to stress for a year now that Neptune in Pisces is a fantastic sign to be in for the inspirational voice, but it arrives in our ear through our brain and through our psychology. It is bent by our desires, fears and hopes, by the limits of comprehension and subject to interpretation, by the agenda we may have been born with to pursue.
30 degrees of Pisces is also zero degrees or the beginning of Aries. What makes it very real for us are the transits of Mercury and Venus in the weeks before and, in particular, for the full last week of March and the beginning of April. On March 3-4th , Mercury is conjunct Neptune at the tail end of Pisces. We got a peek inside the fog, to see something that we didn’t see before, a hint of new or clearer information. In February, Venus conjuncted Neptune and we had some clue of things then. It was the Trump tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. Venus is all about negotiating, buying and selling things we value, and trade. The stock market didn’t like the news about these tariffs and dropped over 700 points at the close, though it was worse earlier in the day. With the Mercury transit in March comes the terms of tariffs: how much will be applied, and how much the retribution tariff will be. In April, because of retrograde motions, any policies or agreements will be triggered again, when both Venus and Mercury transit over Neptune again, but in Aries not Pisces. In Aries, the likely result is taking action with clear consequences and impacts. In Aries, there’s a more specific requirement than there was in the Piscean lack of order. In the Pisces laboratory, the result of an experiment is a reliable fact. But in Aries, instead of trying to find a definition, we have a more specific goal to use tools to achieve; we don't care so much about what is real or fact. We need more specific tools for a more specific purpose, and we need them now.
In March, there are two eclipses.
The total lunar eclipse at 9 degrees of Aries is probably highly sensitive for anyone with any planet or asteroid at 9 degrees of Aries, Libra, Cancer, or Capricorn because both Mercury and Venus moved forward to this degree before turning retrograde, going back into Pisces, and then by mid-May they move direct and over 9 degrees of Aries again to complete this extended cycle over Neptune, Saturn and their transit into Aries.
The March 29th solar eclipse at 29 degrees of Pisces is on top of Neptune and Saturn and conjuncts the Moon’s North Nodes, a very potent point on the ecliptic of the Sun’s path as seen from Earth. The North Nodes help us understand our purpose, if not for life, then certainly in the moment we are in. The incredible pile of planets at the end of Pisces moving into Aries, with the Nodes moving from Aries back into Pisces, suggests we are going to learn defining truths whether we like them or not. We will learn over the weeks leading up to the beginning of April that we face a changing world we hardly recognize because it’s changed so much so quickly.
While we have much clearer knowledge and feelings about what we have learned (Mercury and Venus) we are consigned to live with the uncertainty (Moon’s Nodes retrograding back into Pisces). We will learn a lot in the last week of March leading up to the beginning of April. We will face a changing world we hardly recognize since the end of 2024. So much changes so quickly, though the indicators have been present for months.
Some Astrologers note how some of these transits historically coincide with wars and civil strife. I’m not convinced of this, but I am convinced that we are in a period of profound internal disorder, which for some people will only manifest externally. We are all more vulnerable to anything that adds to the feeling of not being in control. The growing disorder and confusion will continue to break up world order, from events manufactured by people and by forces of nature. We already have a major war, forcing long-standing changes in the Western world. We could have more wars, trade wars escalating to society-altering challenges. Aries is always ready for a fight, but even if it’s just in a hurry to get what it wants, Aries energy is not patient; it reacts and survives. Very different from Pisces energy, which allowed contradictions to coexist.
This is an unsettling time condensing huge change into a few months.
As these major transits have moved into tighter moments, we have had weeks of the current US administration chopping up agencies, firing people, shutting down or slowing down government work, disemboweling intelligence agencies, threatening judges, and defying court orders. Issuing contradicting, barely informative reports of their results. Court challenges that will slow the process down. Creating vulnerabilities to domestic and foreign terrorists and hackers. On March 14th a government shutdown over the budget is to be faced.
While these things are occurring while both Saturn and Neptune are in Pisces, it's not going to be very long before we get a look at the new reality and, thus, in a short period of time, learn that humanity is not in control as it thought it was. The hidden agendas will be more clearly seen. In the chopping up of government and in the budget are many things hidden from the public, but we will see them all more clearly very soon. The accounting of what has been cut is vague, and some of the numbers are already seen to be obscured; the mists of Pisces make it hard to define what we are seeing. In April we will know a lot more, but the full accounting won’t be known for months. The changes (which is not a word people who lost their job would use) will have ripples for months all over the country and the world. People and their families are going to suffer. The alleged purpose, to make government more efficient, is one of those theories that in Pisces looks great, in the laboratory. But in the real world of Aries, when the mist is blown off, we see something that had been concealed in fog.
The money saved, as advertised, is a moving target; we don't have any way to know what the results will be. Making changes in a structured, complex government spontaneously by people outside the government who simply say, "Trust me," is asking for chaos. The expenses and losses coming out of this method will be evident later.
Last year, the USA came out of a Pluto return.
History buffs, you know this painting is not from 1776, it's from the war of 1812. The banner wording makes it relevant now. This second Pluto transit through Aquarius is just beginning for the USA, and the country will face similar patterns as it did following Pluto’s first transit through Aquarius. Those decades were not easy. They brought struggle and internal civil strife. The Founding Father and first President George Washington was offered the role of King in America but turned it down in deference to setting the young nation on the road to democracy, and we are doing it again. He guided the US into and through the Civil War and the fight for racial equality, which we still struggle with today. We will face more revisions. Some States will favor one set of issues and some States will prefer another in all social issues, as we did before. It is possible that instead of forming a union, Pluto in Aquarius this time further defines individuality and States wish to break away from the US government as the US once broke away from Britain’s empire. Time will tell, but we should be prepared for this possibility. Pluto will break down to dust that which refuses to transform and use the dust to make the new cement structures.
Among the issues stirred up in recent weeks is the assertion that Canada should become an American state whether it likes it or not.
Eventually, both Saturn and Neptune will be conjuncting Canada’s natal 1st house Pluto. Saturn first, in the Spring of 2027, Neptune years later. The first transit from Saturn is not a happy one; it’s prefaced by Saturn’s transiting squares to the natal Sun, Moon, and Uranus in the 3rd and 4th houses in 2025-26. These are economically challenging surprise expenses, plans begun with great optimism during the summer of 2025, with Jupiter making a series of conjunctions in Cancer, that end up not delivering as much as was hoped. By late 2025 through ’26, Pluto will oppose Canada’s natal 5th house Mercury. This suggests a leadership that's unable to avoid a depressing challenge from a powerful threat and a need to be creative in strategy. Uranus moving in by transit to sextile Canada's natal 2nd house Mercury, is a very positive inventive economic strategy. The way to undo the potency of Pluto's coercions is with an economic lure, an economic inspiration outside the usual boundaries. Uranus by transit also squares Canada's natal 6th house Mars. This is another dimension of Mars economic aggression.
Pluto works over the long term, so it will be something like a war or longer-term depression. Saturn conjunct natal Neptune is a time for reflection and answering doubts about identity. In a few years, it is followed by transiting Neptune conjuncting natal 4th house Neptune in 2030-31. This is a time of rebirth of national ideals, rediscovering the beauty of the home country.
There’s abundant scientific projection that by 2030 planetary changes related to climate have or are occurring. It’s possible that large shifts in population are happening, mostly from the south (USA) to the north (Canada) and national identities are being redefined.
Mexico’s natal chart shows a similar pattern.
Mexico's natal chart. Astrodienst. In the US chart, an extended karmic period of crisis, rebirth and new values
USA natal chart. Astrodienst. The final climax in the cycle of retrograde Mars opposing Pluto occurs in late April
It was Pluto’s last caper before leaving Capricorn at the tail end of the work it had done while in that sign for two decades. It is ironic that it was on the US election day and that the man who won has many Plutonic traits and the criminal characteristics of Mars opposite Pluto.
Pluto is the reformer but does it in a harsh way. For a people to learn about the virtues of a good legal system, it has to see crime. To learn about the costs of oppression, people have to be oppressed. (Some people know this already, maybe from another life experience, so some may not experience this.) Pluto brings darkness in order for us to bring light into the darkness and discover what the darkness is in us and what needs to be brought out where the light is.
The change of sign is important; Pluto in Capricorn in November was the same old mob-style crime in the dark. Pluto in Aquarius is not individual Pluto, it’s group Pluto, affecting a group of people together who experience some of the darker aspects of Pluto’s lust for power. What Pluto does is use that power to destroy. The final climax is when Mars makes its final of the three oppositions in the retrograde transit in late April. At the same time in late April, transiting Mercury will sextile the transit of Pluto and trine the transit of Mars. This is good news about the completion of the Mars opposition to Pluto transit. The news could be related to the election last November when Mars first opposed Pluto. The good news favors the collective (Aquarius), not the individual (Pluto in Capricorn).
David can also be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.
It’s finally here, 2025, with a multi-planet shifting of trans-Jupiter planets from one sign to another within a very short period of time.
We are still within the envelope of Mars's opposition to Pluto, which began around the US election day in November of 2024. If you are one of those with doubts about the election results, you will have reason to continue wondering as Mars in Leo retrogrades back across into Cancer and repeats its opposition to transiting Pluto. This also applies to people who supported Trump, who will not be satisfied with the results either for different reasons in the coming months. Mars transiting opposite transiting Pluto is on a cusp; it’s shifting on an axis between two opposing signs, Cancer and Capricorn, and Leo and Aquarius. The opposition begins on one axis, and because of retrograde motion, it will finish on another in another two signs. This kind of split personality, for a major aspect repeating in different signs, is also going to be true for Saturn and Neptune. They will conjunct in Pisces and in Aries between March of 2025 and a year later in 2026. This is twice the work of adjusting to big changes happening on sign cusps. You think you got it in one sign and then have to do it again in another.
Same two planets, same aspect, different signs. What’s the difference?
Long-term the shape of things results from what happens in 2025 into early 2026.
Aquarius is about an individual or group of individuals who don’t identify with a national flag as people once did. It’s an Air sign ruled by Uranus and Saturn oddly enough, two planets of a very contrary nature. It’s considered the sign of new technology and innovation. Pluto entering Aquarius will very soon be in a trine aspect to Uranus in fellow Air sign Gemini. Once we hurdle 2025 into early ’26 we will begin to build new structures with new tools for a new world.
Pluto_Hades_by_Arcosart This incredible process of picture framing by Mars/Pluto from the day of the American election in 2024 into Spring of 2025, hosts the contents of the picture produced by the major outer planets shifting signs. Beginning now but not completed until later in 2026. Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus all shift signs during this one year, but because of retrograde motion, they waffle back into Pisces and Taurus before settling in forward motion, giving us humans an opportunity to adjust.
Any sudden change in the lines of communication or thought feels like a crisis, but it leads to a reinvention and improvement of technology over an extended period of rebuilding. Cell phones will eventually be replaced by something better that maybe you don’t have to hold in your hand. Some people believe this will lead to the beginnings of or more frequent use of telepathy. I have my doubts about that, but we will definitely have something new and more advanced up and running by the summer of 2026.
Mars opposing Pluto will present us with an argument. A struggle or fight between the forces that want to hold onto all power as they imagined it, and the reality being that this dynamic of administering that power is done; it was done as Pluto left Capricorn. A new way will be formed that distributes power and or power is taken by others upon the necessity of doing so, as the central power of the patriarchal corporate model breaks down. It’s not going away; this is only the loosening of the ropes from the top down. Circumstances will force decisions and the power to make them into diverse authorities in diverse places. The autocratic form of governing is going to fail. Economic support for it will weaken it.
Interdimensional Contact
The updated version of that is people today shorn of magical trappings trying with consciousness-raising techniques if not new equipment making contact with other dimensional beings. I believe this has already happened, but it isn’t established in the mainstream media or acknowledged by elected “leaders” that humanity today is in touch with Aunt Mabel from the fifth dimension, and she has a recipe to share that cures cancer and radiation sickness.
In later January there’s what some in the general media refer to as an alignment of planets involving Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. It’s wonderful to be able to see them in the night sky, but I will let NASA’s explanation suffice for the very loose use of the term, alignment.
"Now, these events are sometimes called 'alignments' of the planets, and while it's true that they will appear more or less along a line across the sky, that's what all planets always do," NASA said. "That line is called the ecliptic, and it represents the plane of the solar system in which the planets orbit around the Sun."
In Astrology, an alignment is an intersection, a line that bisects us here on Earth with another planet, planets, asteroids, or a number of abstract points such as the Moon’s Nodes. Planets being in the sky is itself not an alignment for astrological purposes. Visually though, all the planets are on or slightly above/below the ecliptic or plane circling the Sun, all the time. This is not a noteworthy event; it’s routine. What’s noteworthy is that they are visible in the same general area of the sky but not conjunct except when as noted. As I’ve described above, the Sun, Venus and Mercury will intersect with the same degrees that Saturn and Neptune will around zero degrees of Aries. The Sun enters Aries every year at approximately the same time/day on the calendar. Because Mercury and Venus are closer to the Sun than the Earth, in an astrology chart they are never far from the Sun at any time of year. They move in front and behind the Sun depending on retrograde motion, but never very far away from it. Conjunctions between the Sun, Mercury, and Venus are frequent. Add the even swifter moving Moon, and the inner planets are often busy interacting. Our consciousness is present in these “inner” planets, inside the orbit of Jupiter. Mars is an inner planet that, when it moves retrograde, slows and lingers in aspect, making it more potent than any other inner planet.
Some of us process more by feeling followed later with more information by analytical examination (Mercury). In our personal charts, for an aspect in someone’s natal chart, a fairly wide 8 degree orb for conjunction has to be applied. Anyone with a planet, asteroid, or abstract point between 26 of Pisces to 4 degrees of Aries is getting the royal impact and will be living it for a very long time, years, in fact, may already be feeling it intuitively. The closer to the zero degree of Aries, the stronger it will be. Same applies for opposition and square. Other aspects around a 6 degree orb.
Any normal aspect near the zero degree point of any sign is heightened in intensity. These are on high octane.
On March 20, the Sun is moving across the same Saturn/Neptune conjunction into zero degrees of Aries and onward. Our feelings and our thinking are getting wrapped around what the dialogue is all about. We’re synthesizing things into our consciousness and have shared thoughts with others; we may have a plan. It’s part of our lives; it’s happening.
We have learned things we didn’t know while Neptune and Saturn were in Pisces.
A little later in March, both Mercury and Venus, at several degrees into Aries, turn retrograde and back up to once again conjunct the transits of Saturn and Neptune in the last two weeks of March. Saturn and Neptune are going to retrograde back into Pisces, in late March, prior to Saturn and Neptune making their grand entrance into Aries. Neptune enters first, on April 1st, with Mercury and Venus retrograded back into the last few degrees of Pisces, conjunct transiting Saturn. While there’s some confusion over what’s going on, we also have time that we didn’t want but probably need to work on the many subplots in our lives. While it’s very useful to know what house these events are taking place in your natal chart, these are worldwide events. I have seen charts of individuals in which this period is not highly influential. It’s possible; I’d even say they are on the sidelines and sitting it out. But in general, the whole world is having an evolutionary leap.
On April 18, Mars is at zero degrees of Leo, a trine to our hyper-sensitive grouping at the beginning of Aries. Now that we’ve had a little opportunity to look at things, maybe we send personnel in motion or pick a direction to set in motion.
On April 18th, Mars makes its last of three transiting oppositions to transiting Pluto from early Leo to early Aquarius. This is the months-long dance between these two that began during the US election, and will have something to say again in April. Because it has spanned the cusp of Mars entering Leo and Pluto Aquarius in three passes, it repeats the cusping of Saturn/Neptune and, later in the summer, Uranus into Gemini. In the second week of June, Jupiter crosses over into Cancer. It was lost in the chatter of Gemini. In Cancer, Jupiter will bring people together to secure the homeland’s historical standards, sharing them. Familiar trusted people will assemble to chart a sensible path. Things are still a mess, but there is some sense of a plan.
On April 30, Venus after retrograde motion, also arrives at zero and one degree of Aries meeting up with Neptune. This is a mix of feelings. What’s real? Things are not settled even though we think we know all there is to know. With Mercury and Venus, we are getting two chances over weeks to get it, don’t feel alone about not getting it right away. This is a mess; that’s how the conscious mind looks at it. There are months ahead to see how this works. Saturn is knocking at the door and some clarity is coming. In the last ten days of May, Saturn is catching up to Neptune and reaching the beginning of Aries. There’s dialogue that’s reassuring just because people are talking, a semi-sextile from the Sun entering Gemini.
Total Lunar Eclipse
If you don't have a professional astrological chart cast with your birth time and place, or want simply a chart with less detail cast as a solar birth chart (date of birth without time and place) you can have it done for you here: https://www.astro.com/
Saturn will be at a little over 22 degrees of Pisces, and Neptune will be at 29, so we can’t call this a conjunction, though Saturn is within a close orb of connection. As a group, it's definitely a cluster in the last decan or ten degrees of Pisces. Both Mercury and Venus have already passed over this degree by the time of the actual eclipse - Venus at the end of January and Mercury at the end of February. These transits will be relevant times for anyone who has anything going on around the 24-degree mark of Pisces before the eclipse physically happens, and the effect will last weeks, if not months. On a chart, the degree has to be within two degrees or less of the eclipse to register.
How can a transit like this have an impact before the physical eclipse, manifesting the energy of the eclipse?
All the planets and spheres are placeholders in the physical universe for deeper energies in more dimensions. They manifest in the physical 3D world as planets with properties of their role moving within the giant clock gears called the Solar System. We live on the gear called Earth in this giant, in a physical body, attempting to become better acquainted with the greater dimensions of our being. Our psyche exists on many dimensions, and only a small portion of it can manifest in Earthly consciousness from moment to moment, spread out as we pass through time, as the clock gears turn. An eclipse is a tight focus of lunar or solar character, a laser-like concentration of both, with a stronger lunar or solar emphasis tied to the house position and connection to a natal planet, if any. A solar eclipse emphasizes a longer term, from several months to two years, of heightened solar energy. A lunar eclipse emphasizes for a shorter period of time all associations with the Moon raised a level, influencing the planets and houses in our chart it relates to. All eclipses, if tight enough by degree, can put us on a tangent or side road we didn't plan on, relevant to the house the eclipse is in. A lunar eclipse tends to be shorter but more impactful as it brings our home and culture from the subconscious out from behind your usual presentation and concept of yourself. You might find yourself resonating with a totally new kind of partner under a strong lunar eclipse, feeling like you need to change the way you live and present yourself to the world. You discover a new side of yourself to express to the world. It can be something you had been suppressing.
Venus’s transit over this same degree is the power of attraction in it. Attraction to someone or something or to yourself from others; a heightened aura or feeling that you or other people are unconsciously attracted to. A feeling to acquire something you adore that alters you in some way, a departure from your usual. You don't care as much about acquiring debt. A Venus transit over an eclipse with a corresponding conjunction, opposition, or square in a natal chart is an irrational belief that you or someone else must feel a certain way, above all else.
Mercury moving over the same planets and degrees with the eclipse combined or overlapping with Venus is a compelling knowing, a conscious plan based on a feeling. Together, Mercury and Venus are, in the world of magic, the essential combination to work magic and influence the laws of physics with human will and emotion.
Probably more significant is the position of Uranus at the time of the eclipse. It is at 24 degrees of Taurus. This is an exact sextile to the degree of the eclipse in Pisces. It means the wild card is in play. Anything can happen with Uranus. A sextile is a positive aspect, but Uranus is a trickster. It can do something upsetting that turns out to be fortunate; you just couldn't see how at the time. Uranus functions best by doing something unexpected; you don’t see it coming, or even if you did, you couldn't believe it. Because both the Venus and Mercury transits are spread out over months over the degree, the eclipse becomes a period of time, not a day, a week, or even a month.
It's going to be part of what is already an unpredictable time beginning in February, escalating, lasting for months, and made more intense by the eclipse.
David can also be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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Plus: Looking ahead to 2025 – retrograde planets; Lilith; Neptune into Aries; Saturn on Trump’s chart; the US chart; Chiron moves into Taurus in 2026
As I’ve mentioned before, there are inconsistencies that undo the idea that earthquakes are a result of solar flares. At the time of this writing, there was a 7 quake off California a week or so ago, and while we were in a peak period of the Sun’s solar cycle for a week before the quake and will be days after, the Sun was and is unusually silent, with no flares during the sunspot cycle peak time. So, toss out the idea about sunspot's connection with earthquakes. From the Astrological point of view everything happening in the solar system is connected, but what the Astrological relationships are, and the chemistry they stir up to create a sunspot and eruption of it, are not known. What is chartable, though, is the impact they make in our lives.
https://www.worldatlas.com/space/the-largest-solar-flare-in-recorded-history.html
Such an “event” can last for hours, days, or a week. The Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun takes hours to arrive at this planet, generally several hours to a day, depending on the speed of the ejected matter. When it encounters the Earth’s magnetic field and interacts with it, only a very strong flare like the Carrington flare penetrates the Earth’s magnetic field. In the Spring of 2024, the Earth experienced a few above-normal flares as strong as an X9, but a Carrington Event mega flare was believed to be an X45. In its day, it wiped out the high tech of the time, the telegraph wires. Today, that would penetrate the Earth’s normally protective magnetosphere on the way past frying our satellites to impact surface infrastructure such as the electrical power grids, along with any sensitive, insufficiently shielded circuitry from which it would take months and years to recover. The impact and recovery would be uneven across different locations. Present-day technology would be unevenly affected, but things like the internet and cell phone service would be off. The equipment to provide service and the phones themselves could be ruined and require replacement, not repair. Any facility that has replacement equipment is also subject to impact; recovery could take months, or years in some places.
The current solar cycle is expected to peak in July of 2025. As of this writing, there is speculation that the Southern Hemisphere of the Sun has peaked, but not the Northern Hemisphere. In the eleven-year cycle of the Sun from peak to peak, wax and wane and wax again, the cycle we are in has consistently exceeded the projection for potency. Assuming the northern hemisphere reaches its peak in 2025, the Sun can still generate powerful CMEs from flares as it declines from the peak. We have years to go before this cycle is calmed down.
Any flare can be followed in seconds to minutes by a rapid succession of other flares from the same sunspot or other sunspots. This extends the impact. Multiple flares ejecting matter from the Sun can mass into a single wave from the Sun before arriving at this planet, adding up to a stronger impact. Sometimes they arrive in a series of one wave after another, which we have seen in this cycle with extended hours and days of aurora borealis shows. It’s possible a series of major flares, though not at the level of the Carrington Event, add up to become something comparable.
Also at that time, Pluto was semi-sextile Uranus from Taurus to Gemini. A semi-sextile aspect is irritating; friction is generated, not flow. Neptune was in late Pisces, a couple of months away from entering Aries, where it is now at the time of this writing. These transiting conditions are not that uncommon or remarkable enough to lay the Carrington Event on, but they or other combinations like them could provide conditions in which a strong flare is formed.
I wouldn’t look for Chiron and the Moon’s Nodes to cook up a major flare when opposed by Saturn and Mars. I don’t know that Neptune (about to enter Aries from Pisces) is in any way associated with solar flares, we might find out soon. Neptune entering Aries has a reputation for anxieties that result in wars, and around 1859 that applied. I do expect that an irritating semi-sextile between Pluto in Gemini and Uranus in Taurus is capable of breaking down and rebuilding the telegraph lines suddenly.
We are looking for something happening on Earth, though, not on the Sun. What happened on Earth was the loss of telegraph wires. This was frustrating for those relying on rapid communication, but in that period of time, the flare went unnoticed otherwise by people around the planet who no doubt enjoyed the aurora borealis far to the south, where it’s never seen. To be more precise about the aspects at the time of the Carrington Event or past mega flares we would need to look at charts centered as if we were living on the Sun. But in terms of the effect on Earth the aspects in 1859 are appropriate for the limited impact on a world with barely any technology.
We would need to rebuild a technology that didn’t simply restart the same monstrous problem of making the climate more stressful for life to continue. In today’s Astrological charts, I would expect to see something well above normal in planetary aspects to each other for an event as Earth-shattering as it would be now.
Looking back...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cataclysmic-solar-storm-hit-earth-110000679.html
The positions of the planets around that time are interesting to note. Tree rings do reveal annual events in the tree’s environment, but not month by month. For this speculation, I have to guess when it might have happened according to the tensions generated between the planets Sun and Moon. There are no known records for me to consult on where other Solar System bodies were (such as asteroids or other planet’s satellites/moons), but we haven’t commonly used those in Astrological charts until recent decades. We should have enough to work with using the known planets plus Pluto, Sun, and Moon. Solar Flares occur on the Sun; we look for impacts here on Earth for something happening somewhere else.
The outer planets, starting with Saturn, move slowly, and it’s possible to look at a whole year and know generally where those planets will be for that year. You can get a good idea about someone you just met if you know their age, thus their year of birth, and where the outer planets were when they were born, if, of course, like me, you have a good memory of where planets are from looking at many people’s charts. For this, I used an ephemeris generated by Astro.com. The Astro.com site also will generate a natal chart for you and give you many useful free options, as well as more in depth choices for which you have to pay. They generously publish a planetary ephemeris online going back centuries. Going back this far, their published records are less detailed but good enough for conjecture.
In 663 BCE, Pluto was at 10 of Aquarius, Neptune was at 0 degrees of Scorpio, Uranus was at 20-30 of Aries and about to change signs, Saturn was at 16-24 of Scorpio, and Mars, the best candidate always for a catalyst, moved from Virgo through Libra and Scorpio.
Narrowing it down further, in 663 BCE, when Mars was at 24 degrees of Libra, it was opposite Uranus at 24 Aries and trine Pluto in Aquarius. When Mars was in Scorpio around 24 degrees, it was conjunct Saturn and inconjunct Uranus in Aries, with Pluto in Aquarius.
When Mars was at 10 degrees of Scorpio, it was square Pluto in Aquarius. At that time, Saturn was retrograding backward, very possibly to around 10 degrees of Scorpio, adding a Saturn/Mars conjunction and Saturn Pluto Square. This latter grouping is potentially pretty serious ear-splitting rock and roll.
What the planets provide is a character of expression for energies that Science observes in the physical universe, but for this Astrologer, are believed to be generated in a dimension more natural to the energy itself. Expression in our dimension falls under the laws of physics. Where the energies naturally exist without being put into the containers of physical planets, the laws of physics can’t manage to explain. Trying to place a major event like a mega flare in time by planetary aspects is something that can’t be confirmed, but it’s a fun, intuitive exercise.
Lillith moves in Scorpio early spring of 2025
The importance of this asteroid can’t be ignored as it moves into Scorpio from benign Libra. Lilith refused to submit to her companion Adam’s authority and left the Garden of Eden to live her own life. He then went to his patriarchal god and ordered another female who would be subservient to him. The attempt by the Christian right-wing to make women subservient in many right-leaning male-dominated countries today while Lilith the asteroid was in Libra, won’t flow so smoothly with Lilith in Scorpio. Using the original metaphor, Adam had two wives, and one left him. The world can have both women in it, the problem is the men who insist on one set of rules for all women. No choice. Lilith in Scorpio is Artemis or Athena, a goddess with military prowess and wisdom. Lilith will be in Scorpio for around nine months.
In March of 2025, both Venus and Mercury do a retrograde station over the same degrees.
Neptune enters Aries on March 30th, 2025
Venus conjuncts Neptune at 29 degrees of Pisces on Feb 2-3, then conjuncts Neptune again in retrograde motion on March 26th and then again when it goes direct on April 30th. This extended period of motion spreads an experience out over weeks, one that, if Venus were moving directly, would only last a mere two days. Thus, it gains the potency of a transit more like Jupiter. Mercury is on a similar-style path with its retrograde motion and finally completes its extended three conjunctions with Neptune in mid-April, almost on the same day that Mars makes a trine to 0 degrees of Aries from 0 degrees of Leo on April 19th. It’s an Astrologer’s favorite meal to see these three inner planets plus the Sun all so in sync on bringing us an awareness in our conscious lives, tied into the affairs of the outer planets which are usually remote and difficult to put a finger on.
Mars puts something into action from its transit in Leo, but the doubts about the altered perception of reality remain. Reality waits for Saturn to enter Aries in late May. Saturn, soon after entering Aries, goes retrograde and its business here is deepened and extended by retrograde motion. We learn that reality isn’t telling us the whole truth, but at least we know this. There’s work to be done over time; nothing will happen quickly enough. All of it will be a mess until Saturn and Neptune work out the adjustments from years in Pisces. Some people are going to be very upset and frustrated, but be grateful that this is spread out over weeks and months because it would be worse if it were concentrated into a short period of time. Saturn’s retrograde motion prolongs this episode of reality adjustment through at least April of 2026. It will end its retrograde motion in November of 2025 and move direct, across into Aries from Pisces, for the final time in February of 2026.
With Neptune there’s always the possibility that we face a health problem that reaches across borders. The problems we will face and solutions we may try will take over a year to sort out. Neptune goes retrograde in September of 2025 and backs into Pisces one more time. It goes direct and crosses into Aries again in January of 2026. These extended transits back and forth usually mean we have a very complicated knot to untangle and it takes time to do it. This seems like prolonging the pain, but stretching things out like this allows us the opportunity to be somewhat careful and not wholly destructive, not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We will need this time to reorient our heads and be clear about what is in our hearts. Patience will be at a premium.
Transiting Saturn on Trump’s Chart
The square to the North Nodes is a decision that feels debilitating to historic or established values, but that is something his supporters voted to support about him. The square to his natal Sun suggests this decision will cost him in popularity including among his supporters.
The same series of squares has transiting Saturn square his natal 4th house Moon. Maybe he decides to be president from Mar-a-Lago, not the White House. A week later transiting Saturn trines his natal Saturn/Venus, putting a happier face on it, but Saturn and Venus never do better than a somber happy face.
On the US chart...
Neptune is on a similar journey approaching the end of its time in Pisces. Neptune’s transit into Aries will be inconjunct Trump’s natal 12th house Mars and square his natal 10th house Sun, Uranus and North Nodes. That’s a lot to run up against. There’s definite disorientation around this transit. Energy (Mars)is short-circuited from within the psyche (12th house) in sudden shifts and fits. He will have difficulty staying on subject and public speaking should be kept to a minimum to avoid embarrassment. This is not new to the presidency. Ronald Regan needed careful management in his second term as his mental faculties declined. Transiting Neptune will also trine Trump’s natal 11th house Saturn/Venus. If he is in public, best to be in a crowd where a wandering speech pattern is normal.
This period of squares from Neptune that muddies things up, and the Saturn transit later that chops them up in the editing process, forces structural changes in how the US relates to its allies.
I recall a description by Picasso explaining that he arrived at the final success in his creative process after first going through the birth of a great idea, then destroying it or breaking it down and reforming it. I understand this as an artist, but in daily life, it can be very messy.
Some Astrologers expect humankind to contact aliens within the next several months or a year. That would be nice; hopefully, they’re not the kind that sees us as lunch. A more likely scenario is humans attempt the beginning of a nuclear war and aliens prevent it, then we know they are here. I don’t like the idea of graduating into a space federation by failing and nearly killing everyone. I also don’t like the idea that we can’t solve our own problems without nuclear war, and if not, we shouldn’t be admitted into anything.
Some Astrologers are calling for humankind to make an extraordinary leap and suddenly, two years from now, have limited telepathic abilities. Part of this belief is that it is alien technology that gave us cell phones, and this was training for being in near-constant contact. It’s too big a bite for me to swallow, and I don’t want to know other people’s thoughts unless they tell them to me. I know I don’t want someone telepathically sending me a message at 2 AM as some marketers for Bitcoin do on my phone.
Reinvention and changing lifestyles
David can also be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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I began mentioning these shifts over a year ago. I've mentioned them frequently. And now almost all Astrologers are describing in states of awe what is about to happen in our lives. Anyone looking around the internet will notice Astrologers doing features covering these events, stressing that it’s a bigger, more impactful series of Astrological events than happened by comparison to planetary transits through the Covid years. Most describe what's coming as more impactful, just to give you a point of reference.
My preference for the US election was clearly to have Harris stay in the White House. To me, this would be a smoother transition through the upheaval coming down the road at us regardless of which party is in the White House. Pluto entered Capricorn with the economic crisis of 2008. That crisis was met with the big banks and big government working together, two typically powerful Capricorn-sized institutions pursuing stability and structural strength through top-down mandate and cooperation. Insecurity and fear inspired hope and faith in these large institutions saving the day, and they did. New legislation was crafted to regulate the new economic environment but was later erased by the erosion of special interests. Capricorn works through structure, focusing resources and power for a wide spectrum of good and evil through a design. Pluto covets and uses amassed power to transform, and if necessary, to steam-roll whatever and whoever is in the way. Put Pluto and Capricorn together, and you have a great potential to build something long-term. Governments and big banks started Pluto’s passage through Capricorn. The Supreme Court opened the door for big money to engage in politics, and mega-wealthy men have done that. Big money and big government, managed by a range of intentions and self-serving politicians. Planets do not make people do anything, I like to remind people, but the Pluto component of our psychology as the agent of the unconscious can manipulate our behavior by hidden unconscious programs based in fear and greed. Pluto is the personal and collective unconscious, which, by its nature, we are subject to influence without knowing we are. Because the collective unconscious is a shared body of powerful experiences and the feelings along with them, what Pluto stirs in one person is often shared in others. This shared human experience conveys a number of things and, among them, often overwhelming fears. Pluto uses these shared fears to manipulate us in order to purge what we prefer to hide. The ugly truth.
Ultimately, Pluto’s darker side brings pain and suffering, sufficient to bring a purge ..... and a rebirth.
The style of power that Pluto applies in Aquarius is not the top-down variety with a chief executive or king at the apex of the pyramid. The style more typical of Pluto in Aquarius will be to break that central control structure down into multiple power- sharing regions. To the extent there is resistance to this unavoidable evolution, there will be struggle, suffering, and loss. But ultimately Pluto wins, and if it has to make life miserable to do that, it does. A bad centralized pyramid-like powerful government shows us that it would be better to weaken the power of the central government. Spread the power around, lower the sway of a single authority, and distribute it to a multitude. The Pluto forces mounted to create change will always increase to whatever level necessary to break the existing structure down. Resisting transformation gives increasing power to the agents Pluto uses to scare us into evolving. As the martial artist knows, it’s better to use the energy than to be pushed around by it.
Aquarius reinvents Pluto's relationship with power
Pluto leaving Capricorn in this circumstance brings its own stresses as all big changes do. Add to this the pressure from the oncoming train called Saturn entering Aries. What Saturn brings is a dramatic change of character from Saturn in Pisces to the shift into Saturn in Aries. It’s an abrupt change in Saturn’s ability to execute its universal function, to edit. In Pisces, Saturn was reduced in ability, similar to how Neptune will be reduced in power when it leaves Pisces and enters Aries. The pent-up gravity of Saturn in Pisces wanting to do its thing but being largely unable while in Pisces will make a huge contrast when it crosses over into Aries, where it is fully able to wield its scythe. There’s a kind of cosmic whiplash coming from Saturn in four to five months' time. On some level of consciousness, our internal Saturn saw the waste and indulgences of Neptune in Pisces but couldn’t do much about it. Pisces is an amorphous environment with no specific gravity; it’s the mysterious realm of the psyche. An ocean of dreams.
Saturn defines and applies boundaries, edits out superfluous details, and covets a stark, efficient reality. Neptune in Pisces swam in space with no limits, no up or down, no borders. Inspiration and illusion for all, according to shared needs.
Saturn in Aries becomes the holy warrior with an executive attitude toward following orders.
For an artist, Neptune in Pisces is uncensored multi-dimensional exploration. For some people, it’s an escape from mundane life. To some, they’re getting in touch with their traditional family religion or even a new charismatic life coach or shaman. Trying to tune into something inspirational, to connect with the Neptune we are all carrying within us. For people who need a little help sorting out reality, it’s fake news and a poor ability to distinguish between inspirational fantasy and delusion.
Neptune leaving Pisces…..isolate that idea by itself, and Neptune entering Aries….. is another kind of Neptune. In Aries, Neptune is in its Fall, the place where it functions least well in the Zodiac. It recedes in human consciousness and the soulful content it brings with it is put to sleep. In Aries, the beautiful illusions of Neptune are made to wear work suits to carry out the orders of Saturn, now in command in Aries.
Saturn normally works in a completely opposite way from Neptune. Saturn contracts and confines, Neptune wants limitless expansion. Neptune was the dominant of the two for years while it was in the anything-goes sign Pisces. Now it will be Saturn giving the orders in the impatient sign of Aries.
Keywords
Inspired by the book, Astrology by R. David
1975 Coles Publishing, Toronto Canada
Neptune in Aries: Impatiently expects illumination. Focused on a single mission. Perverse ideas. Subversive. Fanatical.
Saturn in Pisces: Moody. Indecisive. Endless hope. Isolation. Faith without judgment.
Saturn in Aries: Sense of duty. Sacrifice to achieve. Difficult to satisfy. Lacks depth. Frustration.
Pluto in Capricorn: Ambition. Persistence. Conservatism. Obsessed with recognition. The compelling need to achieve self-discipline.
Pluto in Aquarius: Awareness of Truth. Power of synthesis. Altruism. Humanitarianism. Obsessed with detachment. The compelling need for freedom of expression.
Uranus in Taurus: Determined. Love of ease. Constructive. Unyielding. Revengeful passions.
Uranus in Gemini: Mental agility or genius. Can’t sit still. Spontaneous. Irritable, impatient.
War
Many Astrologers expect an epochal shift as all these planets change signs simultaneously; together bringing huge changes. Some say it will be through another world war. I think the emphasis should be on the magnitude of changes and adjustments we have to make. A world war is possible, but humanity playing with its political games and military might is a distraction from a greater challenge that is not waiting for our attention. It’s entirely possible that no army is able to wage war, and all are immobilized by something like a solar flare or another natural phenomenon. No human wars. This planet is at war with us.
NASA: Earth Will Continue to Warm and the Effects Will Be Profound
Reducing Greenhouse gases does help, but at the same time, reducing higher altitude aerosols actually lets in more Sun right away and heats the planet rapidly, in turn supporting the feedback loops that continue the cascading phenomenon of a warming planet.
With Uranus entering Gemini in a year or so and making a trine aspect to transiting Pluto, it will become necessary and possible to put some ideas together for cooling the planet as well as new technologies to replace the over-extended old technologies from decades ago, like the internet. Some of the upgrades in technology will come as old systems break down.
Revisiting old familiar, unfinished themes.
The USA has natal Pluto in its second house; there’s a powerful unconscious drive for power and wealth wrapped around what kind of evolution Americans want. The American attraction to power through wealth combined with other factors remains a motivating force in the second cycle of Pluto after its first Return in the last two years. But as it was following the birth of the nation, Pluto then moved into Aquarius as it is now, trying to invest a humanitarian component into an essentially natal Capricorn patriarchal Pluto. Americans have to see a profit factor in being humanitarians; inventing ways to benefit mankind has to pay off. That's the American way with a second house Pluto. If it doesn't pay, move on to something that does.
There were people who believed if Trump lost the election, his followers would mount another coup, and possibly there would be violence. No one believed Democrats would mount a coup if Trump won, Democrats have accepted their fate. Up to now.
At that time, the shape of the nation will change as each State or region, if it follows the Uranian model, will seek to define itself in a more unique way, and States with shared values might decide to form a new kind of union. Aquarius likes power shared more locally in a community, so I expect to see the national government yield to greater regional or State independence in regions where people are free to have the kinds of laws and social norms they prefer. Not the United States anymore.
Human psyche is at the edge of expanding again
Astronomers describe Pluto as an asteroid or planetoid. It rotates on an axis and orbits the Sun. But so do other similarly sized asteroids like Eris, also located in the further reaches of the Solar System. In the early 1800’s many of the well-known asteroids today (like Juno or Vesta) were considered planets, but science demoted them as they did Pluto in more recent years. Physical science applying these designations doesn’t affect their trans-physical importance which is far greater than the physical size. The planets, asteroids, moons, etc., are physical manifestations or hosts for energies projected from the psyche; their size and type label caters to a filing system.
When Saturn and Neptune move into Aries, they make a 90-degree square with the US natal chart 7th house, Venus.
Post-election, the Saturn reveal
I thought Trump would be facing Saturn’s judgment post-election, and he has. With Saturn swimming around in Pisces' amorphous body, Saturn is not grounded enough there to apply its power of judgment. However, it will leave Pisces and an impotent Saturn in Pisces will be replaced by a ruthlessly efficient Saturn in Aries as it marches off to war, intolerant where it had been tranquilized before. Things begin to unravel in late May as Saturn enters Aries; a crisis comes in June-July of 2025. Same timing for Neptune.
For those who care about a court of law, Trump will not face what he would have if he lost the election. But as time goes by, the disgrace he brings to the White House is going to lead to a very positive evolution, the nation falls apart and after a tremendous struggle to define itself as a multitude, not a unity, Saturn will reveal what it saw while it was stuck behind the curtains in Pisces watching, and reveal hidden details.
As it enters Aries next summer, transiting Saturn will oppose Trump’s natal Neptune, not a good influence for someone suspected to be at the door of dementia. He’ll have a little trouble getting his story straight for an extended period. But at the same time, transiting Jupiter is conjunct his natal Mercury, and his support group will cover for him. People who are old enough might remember Ronald Regan, in his second term, had his staff and wife masking his faded mind. Transiting Uranus squaring Trump’s natal 12th house Mars most of this year into 2026 indicates very much that he has a problem with an inconsistent energy level and his cardio vascular system. He might have a sudden heart-related breakdown at any time. In two to three years' time, transiting Pluto in his 6th house will oppose Trump’s natal 12th house Pluto. This is definitely a health issue, both psychological and physical. He won’t finish four years in office as the functional president.
Ukraine
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Old school ideas of pyramid-like power structures are Pluto themes in Capricorn. One characterization is the irritating power obsessed power assumed male dominant power tripping, and then the pushback. We saw a ‘Me Too’ rebellion from women collectively pushing back. Corporate, government and dictatorial/military power structures under pressure to change. Self-declared Kings insisting others fall in line and stop complaining. Discussion began and legislation passed in 2010 in the USA called Citizens United. This decided that business entities and corporations had the same opportunity to donate large sums of money to politicians as individual citizens do. Everyone knew then that putting this kind of cash in the food trough would attract every pig. Everyone knew and had railed for years before this to curb political power with term limits, remove the ability of politicians to raise their own salaries, regulate lobbying. Everyone knew. But it passed because the male-dominant Supreme Court began to align itself with an old male-dominant lifestyle, which they decided was consistent with the Constitution. The right to an abortion was taken away by a “supreme” order from the top down. The right to shoot someone in self-defense if you feel afraid, even though they don’t threaten you - another order handed down from above. Police as authority figures crossing the line of law enforcement into execution. Individuals seeking power to express their personal hellish Plutonic horrors and enter a place like a school where they dominate by using a firearm to seize the power of life and death. Those are all Pluto in Capricorn in an extremely unbalanced side of the Lord of Hell. Pluto revealed an ill unbalance in a dark abuse of power. A number of things will break all that down and reform them after Pluto enters the air sign Aquarius where power structures will transform.
Many people did not know that when politicians are fundraising, after the campaign is over they could dispense the money to other campaigns or, what’s happened under Trump, hang on to the money they raised for future uses, creating a nice slush fund to pay some bills. Donations that become a form of a bribe. This is the kind of honey the ‘Pluto in Capricorn bees’ want to nurture. There’s a move afoot to create an ethics code for the Supreme Court Justices who passed Citizens United because of abuses on the part of some Justices. The extent of their gift collecting/bribe went how far? Only intrepid reporters are finding out, the Supreme Justices aren’t required to reveal it.
The world always has autocrats or dictators pretending to be wanted by the citizens. In the period with Pluto in Capricorn the powerful have thrived; even the US has flirted with having a dictator. Russia’s charade elections kept Putin at the head of a long table. But with Pluto having exposed the manipulations of Pluto in Capricorn, it’s going to be a different tune with Pluto in Aquarius. This doesn’t mean problems are cured and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s a shift of how mankind manages power, and collectives like countries or individuals will find that they need to work in a different dynamic than the one that worked in the last 17 years. How does such a shift take place? The resistance to it requires the forces of inspiration and evolution to be greater as the curtain is pulled back on the energy supporting the old pattern. The resistance can be sufficient to bring civil disorder or even the breakdown of the society’s structure - whatever it takes for transformation to happen. New patterns begin to form; might as well get on board.
Americans again have the opportunity to reform government with what it's going through now. At this time, the description of the two choices paints two pictures of a very different future depending on electing the man who would be king or the woman who would lead and raise up the nation.
Since 2016 I’ve had a personal bit of amusement imagining that Trump is the reincarnation of King George from 1776. This time he’s over here on the western shore of the Atlantic Ocean, spitefully breaking apart the thing he couldn’t have, like a kid fighting over a toy. He is serving planetary evolution in the world, like him or not. It isn’t that he’s so important that he needs to be King of America, it’s that there are so many people in 2024 America who want a king.
Resisting evolution leads to angst and lost opportunity. The nation as a whole will evolve or devolve. The shape of the nation is going to change with Pluto leaving Capricorn, and entering a sign with a very different character and part of life where the power Pluto is always associated with will be a collective, not a single person atop a pyramid.
With Neptune in Pisces since 2011, the ability of people to dive head first in the Kool-Aid pool and/or be inspired in ways they wouldn’t allow themselves to be before had also arrived. Neptune in Pisces is the blurring of the edges of reality, the blurring of a boundary between consciousness and the stored experiences in the unconscious. Some people are very clear about the material in these two distinct realms, but many are not and project their own psychology onto what’s there.
Be it a spiritual quest in Pisces or belief in a teacher, a guru, a political movement, or something dressed up as a beautiful psychologically fulfilling desire, Neptune in Pisces removes critical judgment and uses our psychological needs to determine what the shape of reality is. Rational thinking in Pisces is frustrated. Seeking psychological satisfaction is the determinant of what is upheld as real. For those on a spiritual or creative path, this is a wide-open opportunity to plunder the unconscious and clean it up, seeing what works. Without discretionary guidance, Neptune in Pisces is an invitation to go on a trip and believe what you see. What you will see is yourself, which is educational, to say the least. But if you are scrambled going in, what you get with Neptune in Pisces is scrambled too.
When Neptune enters Aries next year the shift in our conscious Self will be dramatic
The three major planets that escorted us through the last fifteen or more years to where we are now are all making big changes beginning with Pluto later this year, after a dramatic exit from Capricorn a few weeks after the delayed outcome of the US election. In late Winter, playing in the same symphony of planetary changes, Neptune leaves Pisces in April and Saturn leaves Pisces in May. They are virtually conjunct at this time.
No need to launch a battleship
We already know that Pluto leaving Capricorn and entering Aquarius was the tumult of the American War of Independence. When Neptune last entered Aries, in the 1860s, we had numerous wars in America including the Civil War and the Indian Wars. When Uranus, which moves more quickly than Pluto or Neptune, last entered Gemini, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. Here are the three major outer planets repeating transits in signs that previously brought evolution by conflict, by wars.
Call me an optimist, but I’m not sold on the outcome being a military war. However, I do recognize that war would very much and very quickly sober up the people who drowned in the Pisces Kool-Aid, a cosmic slap across the face to wake up, as Saturn and Neptune leave Pisces and enter the overtly more aggressive, more impatient Aries. There are other metaphorical battlefields we can wage a metaphorical war on.
Uranus will enter Gemini and retrograde briefly back into Taurus to re-enter Gemini in 2026. This extends the nervousness and optimism into an entire year and a half. Uranus in Taurus is in a Fixed, Earth sign, which is to say, very stable and for a sky god chained to the ground, very subdued. When it gets into Air sign Gemini, the chains fall off and Uranus can throw its lightning bolts, its flashes of brilliance all over. The Earth will shake, remembering that lightning not only goes from the sky to the ground but from the ground to the sky.
These challenges are meant to spur changes that otherwise might not happen. What’s upsetting is that in a short period of time, there is no choice but to embrace the necessary change.
Ukraine
More powerfully, Pluto by later next year transits into a conjunction with Ukraine’s natal Saturn. This is a major reconstruction in practical terms of infrastructure but also in deeper layers of the society and its government. Neither Pluto nor Saturn are warm and cuddly. It would be easy to see these two dismantling the structure of the government and having another one inserted, but this could be interpreted as winning or losing the war. I believe it is from the war ending, and Ukraine is independent of Russia. Both Pluto and Saturn are ‘no frills’ in their reconstruction planning. They deal with the lowest common denominators and foundations upon which a future can be built. Pluto likes to start fresh and so it removes the existing foundation to build a new one. Saturn likes to keep things simple and focus on the essentials. I will have to look at Russia’s chart, perhaps they are also going to experience an internal rebirth.
Russia
Russia has a looming problem with transiting Saturn next Spring, when Saturn arrives in early Aries and goes back and forth over that area for a year. It will oppose Russia’s natal Saturn in Aries and square its natal Moon. This is severe austerity. The square to the Moon is sometimes called tough love, which Russia is a proud supporter of. This is internal pressure forcing an existence under the most difficult circumstances with a lot of self-denial. Denial of normal needs in life. Russia has proven it can do this. Not a problem. The Saturn opposite Saturn however means this isn’t under their control. Saturn often represses emotions, and in Russia’s case, the natal square between Saturn and the Moon means for them it’s normal. These aspects must simply mean they are doing it again.
Russia’s Descendant, opposite the Ascendant, is going to be conjuncted by transiting Uranus. In traditional Astrology, this often coincides with the breaking up of a relationship. For a nation, not a person, this could apply as Russia finally accepting that Ukraine doesn’t want to be married; it’s time to get the divorce. The exact timing on this is April-May next year, which is a potent time in the whole world.
USA
Just because Pluto moves on doesn’t mean that the problems it raised are gone. The problems have been here since the beginning and still are here. But like an election, the process is experienced nationally and a mandate emerges now as to our internal feelings about this long national obsession. Everything is out in the open. It will take several years of experience in another frame of mind, with other unconscious influences through Pluto, to give us some perspective on what we are still going through.
As Carl Jung remarked, while working on processing material that emerges from the unconscious to change our consciousness, the unconscious body is also changed, or reformed. It goes both ways.
Jupiter has in recent weeks conjuncted the US natal Mars, an uplifting hopeful positive period. This will last through the year as Jupiter turns retrograde and extends this period of positive optimism. Further into next year, after Jupiter enters Cancer mid-summer, it will conjunct in succession: the US natal Venus, Sun, Jupiter and Mercury. There will be an extended period of positivism expansion and growth injected into the nation through the Spring of 2026 just from this alone. Constructive things are going to happen with this influence. These Jupiter aspects are all attitude-shaping. They help set up an attitude of feeling positive about life. This attitude produces its own luck; things seem to work. It doesn’t mean the world is perfect. It’s a vitamin to optimism that in spite of everything, we are confident and know what we have to do. Jupiter can convince everyone that things are all going to be fine and this attitude makes it so. The downside to Jupiter transits like this is feeling so positive that we don’t make the effort that’s required while opportunity passes. I don’t think that will happen. The fast pace of events in the world will bring pressure to improve the quality of life.
The clock is ticking.
A quick look at some other charts:
The square aspects (to the natal 10th house Sun and Uranus from 8th house transits of Saturn and Neptune) suggest he is depressed and his energy is low, and he will have to liquidate investments from his past to pay in the present. His ability to invent distracting excuses will fail to get him out of trouble. Uranus can invent, but Saturn doesn’t do nonsense. Neptune, which will take longer to finish with the square on his natal Sun and Uranus, is going to continue to scramble his ability to focus and sort out his fabrications from reality. He could be diagnosed (Neptune) with a degenerative brain (Uranus) disorder.
Right now through December, Uranus in transit is semi-sextile Trump’s Sun and Uranus (stresses) and sextile his Saturn and Venus (supportive). There is some positive in that. But Uranus is very much square his 12th house Mars. The square is friction, frustration, impatience…. unsteady or fluctuating energy. Over the period of three to four months, the square aspect brings erratic swings in energy, low-performance periods being not helpful in a campaign season.
Saturn will inconjunct his natal 2nd house Jupiter next year, late Winter. Tough decisions that negatively affect his financial worth will be made.
In late Winter 2026, Saturn moving along in Aries will oppose Trump’s natal Neptune. This is corrosive acid on his made-up version of reality, his Neptunian dream world. His natal Neptune is in his 2nd house of material acumen so expect that his fortunes are revealed to be far less than stated and will be reduced even more by unavoidable costs and penalties.
At the moment, Uranus is still conjuncting her natal 12th house Jupiter. This is her challenge, to respond to the sudden catapulting into the presidential race. Is she karmically and psychologically prepared for this? It appears that so far she has answered the call very well. Uranus is also square her natal 3rd house Mars, suggesting a need for caution in her words because she can’t charm people while talking like the prosecutor she once was. Fortunately, Uranus is also trine her natal 4th house Uranus/Venus, and from there she can bring the charms of a mature woman with the intuitive gift of timing, knowing when to speak as a prosecutor and inspirational leader.
Kamala will have a square from transiting Pluto as it enters Aquarius, in fact it’s effective even now. The Pluto square from her 8th house is squaring her natal Sun and Mercury in her 5th house. This is something from her past being brought out to use against her this election season. While she may not be prevented from winning an election because of it, this issue won’t go away for a year or so. Because it’s 5th house it might concern her children, something they said or an affair that involves them. Because it’s Pluto doing it, there may be something “dark” or negative that is imagined can be used against her.
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The Mars-Uranus conjunction that brought the excitement and horror of a political shooting is important on its own at 26 degrees of Taurus. It was opposite the waxing Moon at 26 degrees of Scorpio. The presence of the Moon adds a degree of irrational subconscious crazy to eccentric Uranus, always ready to fight Mars. Really a rocky opposition spread over a couple of days, July 15-17. The Republican convention will be bizarre. I read somewhere that speakers have been instructed to continue on without altering their prepared remarks to include talk about the shooting. Trump will not abide by that. He will lionize himself as Jesus back from the dead.
Or something privately normal that when it's exposed to sunlight, it's obviously a mistake to have let it come out. Mars here is a false belief that nothing can go wrong or that something has gone wrong when the opposite is true.
Then, a couple of days later, Mercury makes an inconjunct to Pluto. An acceptance in common consciousness and a decision must be announced that what was unthinkable, is about to happen. Neptune is hanging at 29 degrees of Pisces, and this is a positive trine to the Moon, sextile Pluto. Not everyone will be able to grasp the significance of this influence at the time it happens, but months or years later, reflection will shine on this reality-altering decision. It favors women.
Mars on Jupiter in mid-August builds a feeling of success. It will be trine the natal US chart’s Saturn in the 10th house, broadcasting a mature, reassuring impression. This kind of energy is easy to piggyback on to success, an easy sell. It gives people what they think they want.
Mars retrograde is a slower, more powerful Mars in an oppressive power struggle with Pluto's darker side one last time before it leaves Capricorn. It's a final attempt to extend something related to obsessive top-down corporate CEO-style Capricornian power. Pluto exemplified this while in Capricorn, but it will not be able to beat the clock; time will run out.
This is unsettling for many who found comfort in following a single beacon. Pluto in Aquarius recognizes differences and exalts them whereas in Capricorn it compelled people to think in terms of forcing others to agree with them.
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We have now passed the major conjunction last month of Jupiter catching up to Uranus in Taurus, but that doesn’t mean their conjunction is past having an effect.
Major conjunctions, and some that you might think of as minor, energize natal characteristics if not accentuate them, and this heightened state doesn’t stop as the conjunction wanes. Usually, the new threshold makes some internal changes and tweaks which remain closer to the surface of our daily consciousness for weeks or months after the conjunction and, in the case of the outer planets, years. Some outer planet conjunctions influence a generation, distinguishing those born when the energy of the powerful conjunction is spent. Some the events that make the news - like 9/11 for example - come on a major aspect such as a Saturn/Pluto opposition beginning weeks beforehand, eclipses as recent as a month before, and a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction months before - all playing long-term roles in the charts of the USA, New York City, President Bush and most of the rest of us. Everyone knows the reverberations of that event rippled around the world for years.
Innumerable astrological discussions focusing on 9/11 are available online for those interested. One of my favorites is by Liz Greene: https://www.astro.com/astrology/in_wtc_e.htm
The relationship from Pluto to Uranus in a trine (yet to happen from Aquarius to Gemini) ushers in a profound period of innovation, new technologies, and brilliant ideas. I believe these rapidly unfolding challenges and changes are not made by casual whim; they are decisions made under pressure — forced evolution. Initially, things will be upsetting, but years down the road, the results will be for the best.
A front-row seat to a recurrent nova event
This star last erupted in such a manner in 1946. I don’t know during which month it happened then, but among the notable events in 1946 are:
Founding of the United Nations. The recognition of Austria reborn post-WW2 divided into four occupation zones. President Truman signs and initiates the Atomic Energy Commission. The invention of the first digital computer. The invention of Tupperware. The establishment of Pakistan began with violent protests. A Military Tribunal was formed to try former Japanese leaders post-WW2. The Baby Boom began. Jordan was recognized. Italy became a Republic. The French-Indochina war began, lasting several years. Churchill names Russia’s Iron Curtain. Truman signs off on the end of WW2.
Pluto’s last retrograde visit to Capricorn, and the Pluto Return on the US chart
Capricorn applied its hallmark determination with Pluto passing through on a dark obsession with power and its uses to acquire more. What Pluto did here was bring what was hidden in the shadows out in the open and allow it to break down established power structures, including the legal system and government. If necessary, Pluto breaks the established structure and replaces it with something else for the collective to experience. For the USA, and therefore by extension much of the rest of the world, this is obvious in the growing political and social tumult in the US over the last fifteen-plus years. Pluto’s ongoing work has come to its latest climax in the US with a Pluto Return this year. That is, Pluto returning to its natal placement at the time of the inception of the USA. The Pluto Return will be completed, as will the breakdown of whatever is necessary from Pluto being in Capricorn, by the end of the year when Pluto finally departs Capricorn.
Pluto trines with transformative Uranus as its emphasis goes Aquarian
The obvious vehicle for challenging transformation in the US is Trump.
At the same time, transiting Mercury is over his natal 11th house Mercury - he fully believes and speaks with the confidence he’s groomed his entire life, preaching once again to the choir (11th house) but unable to gain the power he imagines over powerful people (the judge, the legal system). The Mercury aspect to Mercury is going to create a sea of chatter around Trump, he’ll be texting up a storm, in which he feels like he’s in control and can talk his way out of something and dictate how reality should be, but the Mars square to his natal Pluto says no, you are not in control. It’s very likely his attempts to manage events makes things worse under this aspect, saying too much. It’s long past the point at which his lawyers would have said, “Don’t irritate the judge”.
In the weeks after these two harsh aspects, transiting Jupiter in Trump’s tenth house moves into a sextile to his natal Pluto, suggesting some powerful people propose ways of modifying the rules and rescuing him. Mars, fresh from its hostile aspects, makes a sextile to his natal Saturn, suggesting that there are attempts to make legal guidelines more amenable to Trump and to his supporters. I don’t think it removes the impactful consequences of the initial Mars squares, but it modifies the framework normally applied to persons in similar circumstances to something less severe.
Everybody probably has some understanding of lovely Venus and stern taskmaster Saturn. It’s very unfortunate for anyone to have their natal Venus conjuncted by Saturn. Venus is, among other things, the ability to attract and spend material resources. Saturn being conjunct at birth promises material gains from parents, family legacy, and a famous name. But it also makes the appetite and ability to be loved go wanting. One strives to be loved and will go to an incredible extent, if necessary, to have it with Saturn hovering over Venus. One believes it has to be earned by doing something remarkable because just being yourself is not enough; one is not worthy unless one performs miracles, and thus, one either has to do remarkable things or convince others that they have done so.
The transiting semi-sextile from Mars/Jupiter to Trump’s natal Saturn/Venus shows his irritable side as he insists on convincing others (11th house) that he is more worthy than anyone for their love. But what if it isn’t enough for him? He will show the hunger and frustration that comes from not having enough. He will not accept anything less. This could be a bit of a crisis for him, losing it in a public rant.
Trump could have chosen to not run for president a second time and thus avoided expensive losses. He could have continued to enjoy his life and his brand and remained an influential person in popular culture. But he needs to overcome the specter of political losses he and his brand suffered. He needs to escape judgment. He needs to win which for him equates to being virtuous, inflating the size of his crowds, his popularity, his achievements, and the value of his real estate holdings.
If you think his fate is to win the presidency and escape the jaws of the legal system, then you want to see this period of time as him flying like Superman over it all and triumphant; Trump the next president and presiding over all manner of changes in the way a government works and how the world revolves when the US is no longer the central dominant influence.
If you see him as rising to these heights of power through lying and cheating, your expectation is that he is fated to be torn down as most American icons often are when their inner workings are exposed to the world. You see the necessity of changes but essentially the triumph of law and order as we thought we knew it to be.
The reality here is that Trump is a Uranian individual. He follows the often-erratic Uranian path that has no sincere attention for the concerns or values of mere mortals. This is one of the things that gives him appeal to those who sympathetically want to also be Uranian rebels for its own sake, to be defined by their willingness to be purely Uranian and simply be contrary, erratic; being purely Uranian, divorced from the influences of the other planets in the solar system as if Uranus was the only influence, but that is not the way it is. In mythology, Uranus was a sky god who was not limited by form or function. His sibling Saturn/Kronos brought dimension, form and function. Saturn brought the perception of up and down, of gravity, of no longer existing in the vastness of space without a grounding Earth under foot upon which to build. Most of us would call that reality. You can fight gravity, but it ultimately wins. So, too, Trump is going to reach the end of his tether as the year winds down. Saturn is going to close the walls around him by transit, and as the year ends and Pluto moves on and begins work in Aquarius, Trump ceases to be a tool of Pluto in Capricorn. Can he be a tool of Pluto in Aquarius? It’s possible; he is Uranian, after all. But I don’t see how he changes that much in one month. Uranus does not exist alone in the astrological chart, and among other powerful factors in the psyche, both individually and nationally, is Saturn.
The effect on the US chart is something I will address another day.
As Saturn moves into the transits described above, it enters Trump’s 8th house. Saturn in the 8th house is initially bad news for anyone who’s been hiding and fudging income and assets. I would expect he also gets a letter from the IRS telling him how much he owes from unpaid taxes, plus fines. That’s a typical impact of Saturn in the 8th house unless one has kept affairs in order in which case one has nothing to fear. For Trump, this is the worst case for Saturn entering any house among the 12.
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“Of course?” Despite the many thousands of extensive studies proving beyond any reasonable doubt the many common elements of the soul's journey beyond this life?
The powerful scientific and religious communities - motivated by a lust for power and greed - feed terrifying falsehoods designed to keep us ignorant of the facts discovered in this research.
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We’ll discuss: The facts about reincarnation. The six realms of life and what every soul needs to know about these realms. The process of letting go of the body and our Earthly attachments. The after-life review: maximizing its power and avoiding pitfalls.
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What are the effects of an eclipse on a person's astrological chart?
Thanks to ancient chroniclers of this phenomenon, there are records of eclipses going back centuries. One of the best and earliest was Confucius, who noted eclipses of his day but also had access to records kept before his time and included these records in his notations. The earliest record in China dates to around 2205 BC. Subsequent records in China and elsewhere suffer an adjustment in the calculation for precision by astronomers on the messy business of old calendars we have to adjust for. The dates that far back are not exactly as given. However, this is not so critical given that modern astrology has been more careful to delve into what an eclipse can potentially stir up in a natal chart.
Sepharial (1864—1929)
(At the end of this article you'll find an opportunity to download a free pdf or purchase a copy of the book.)
In more recent decades, more astrologers have studied their effects and meaning, but not many. Some astrologers treat them with the same importance as a normal transit by the Sun or Moon. I tend to see them as more important than that, but less dramatic than astrologers of centuries past who expected earthquakes served up for every eclipse.
The desire to feel a connection to the divine, or at least to phenomenal nature and the universe hidden behind the veil between physical and nonphysical, keeps human beings fascinated with an eclipse. The shadow of the Earth on the Moon or the Moon on the Earth still feels magical, and in those moments of experiencing it, we are transported just a little to something that feels out of this world. We are reminded about the scale of the solar system.
More exact = more potent. Subtle energies are laser-like.
An eclipse that makes a conjunction or opposition to any of the outer planets in your natal chart, beginning with Saturn, is making an aspect to a slower-moving planet and thus will impact millions of people who have that slow-moving planet in the same place. Though it may affect people in different houses of their chart and life, the important thing is any astrological event that affects a slow-moving planet and thus affects millions of people or even a generation of people will be an event in the world that affects your personal life. If the eclipse is conjunct or opposed to a natal inner planet, beginning with Jupiter and inward towards the Sun (Mars, Venus, Mercury, Moon), the chances are the impact is more personal and not shared widely.
Another key to understanding the impact is to consider the Decan of the sign in which the eclipse occurs.
Both upcoming eclipses are in the first decan of Libra or Aries. This makes it more focused as purely a Libra and Aries event. (Had it been in the second decan the eclipse would be in Libra with an Aquarius touch, and Aries with a Leo touch.) Fortunately, for this description, we are looking at an eclipse in Aries and Libra in the first decan with the same sign decan influence. In traditional astrology of centuries past, an eclipse in the first decan of Aries that’s true to the potential of Aries is associated with battles and war.
A lot more depends on the transiting planet that will come along and catalyze the degree of the eclipse by conjunction and what that transiting planet brings. Modern astrology doesn’t go to the extreme of literal wars, metaphorical maybe, but it’s one possibility on the spectrum of what Aries nature can produce. If the transiting planet is one of the inner, swifter moving planets, the whole episode of the effect will also come and go in a shorter period of time. If it’s an outer planet like Neptune that catalyzes the energy inherent in the eclipse, it moves along slowly, and the effects will stretch out over a longer period, possibly as much as two years.
The lunar eclipse in March is an annular eclipse, not technically a total eclipse. The Sun is in Aries and the Moon is in Libra, 180 degrees away, with planet Earth in between. The solar eclipse is when the Moon has swung around to be in between the Earth and the Sun, hence the Sun and Moon are in the same sign, still in Aries. This is a more intense focus, this time in Aries. The total solar eclipse in April takes place at 4 degrees 28 minutes of Aries, in the first decan of Aries and thus is purely an Aries event.
Consider the Catalyst.
These two eclipses are not equal in potency, lunar and solar, but as we should know by now, the impact of something more subtle or less dramatic should not be underestimated, nor should we over-estimate the impact of an event that seems more visibly dramatic, comparing lunar and solar events. The Moon is smaller by far than the Sun but very close to us. The potency of an eclipse depends heavily on the connections made in a natal chart. In this case, these eclipses fall within a degree of each other, simplifying the task of trying to understand the impact. One might as well simply focus on the impact of a power surge on a natal planet’s position and not get hung up on whether it’s a lunar or solar eclipse; both the Sun and Moon are involved each time in a different order of conjunction with Earth. The lunar eclipse takes place along an axis from Aries to Libra, and the more intense laser-like focus of the solar eclipse takes place in one location, more or less the same degree in Libra. But, as it is with any event in a chart, you have to look along the axis at the opposite point in the opposite sign to fully appreciate the importance.
Any chart with a planet or abstract point within two degrees of where these eclipses are happening in the zodiac (in Aries or Libra) is going to see the eclipse play out in their life.
The eclipse effect is not the same as a major planet’s transit, which proceeds on a mathematically predictable path year in and year out.
If exact in your chart, the laser-like potency of a total solar eclipse can spin your head around.
In recent weeks a software glitch cut phone service for AT&T customers, on the same day that three extraordinarily strong solar flares erupted. It didn’t matter to the people who lost phone service what the cause was, solar flare or software. At the time of the AT&T failure, the Sun was semi-sextile (mild stress) to the upcoming eclipse degree in Aries, and the planetoid or asteroid Ceres was in Capricorn at the midpoint of the upcoming eclipses - a mild square to the two points at either end of the March lunar eclipse axis in Libra and Aries. Ceres is an Earth mother nature goddess. Generally, she is nurturing and supports all life. In a square, it might be Earth mother goddess with a complaint, discordant with supporting life. The explanation is there was a software problem at AT&T, the service failure was not a result of the three X class solar flares. It’s possible the energetic discord behind the AT&T software issue and the flares are one and the same, registering on the Sun at the same time as impacting AT&T in a software glitch. I am told some phone carriers in Central America also were down at the same time as well. We will have the opportunity to watch in the next few months as the two eclipses are rolled out and whether there are coincidentally solar flares of similar magnitude simultaneous to any astrological event, or software glitches. A major flare such as we had is a tremendous quantity of energy capable of affecting our technology or our brain. The largest of the three flares was an X 6.3.
Impact of the eclipses on the US natal chart.
The eclipses make minor connections on the natal chart of Israel.
Transformation must take place; Pluto is calling for it. How does Pluto in transit work? Usually, it grinds down what it touches and then, using the same raw material, it rebuilds over time. Following that, transiting Pluto opposes Israel’s natal Saturn, another version of structural rehab taking place under pressure over several years.
For individuals and nations, it is pointless to resist what is being called for when Pluto makes a hard aspect bringing deep fundamental change. It’s more painful to resist. Better to go forward and shape the changes than be shaped by them.
The Moon's North Nodes in any chart point to where one's individuality is evolving to. It's a fateful indicator of a destiny one must work towards, around or reject. In the 7th house, this indicator says that relationships are the pivotal area of one's destiny. For Israel, one can easily speculate about relationships not just with the Palestinians but with other nations sharing their neighborhood and with other nations sharing the world, such as the USA.
Jupiter always expands how and what one thinks or is thought about, and Uranus flashes into reality something bound up or concealed, blocked out. Why there were obstacles is not the point now; this conjunction suddenly brings something out in the open, perhaps in the form of a major announcement or event that, like a flash of lightning, illuminates the landscape in a new way.
Jupiter isn't into acts of terrorism; Uranus would be if combined with Mars and/or Pluto. Jupiter and Uranus do something more like releasing pressure and expanding everything. Suddenly, things happen, or things happen rapidly regarding Israel's relationship with its own integral parts or its neighbors: a new alignment. Jupiter's impacts are impressive, but not without some limits.
The North Nodes are an abstract point, not a fixed point in physical space like a planet. The chemistry of late April will expand understanding, formulating something new never seen before. Ideas are also abstract; documents and agreements are abstract ideas shared with hopes for a future relationship. This is likely a key moment for some agreement catching people by surprise, (Uranus).
Siblings.
The abuse suffered by the Jewish people, citizens of Israel, is a healing process struggling to happen just as it would be for siblings who were abused by their parents and then visited abuse upon each other. There is a lot of psychological damage that was done for generations and is being done to all these people in a generational way, as it happens to individual children who suffer abuse from bad parenting and then perpetuate it on their descendants and each other.
Astrologically, I look at the chart for Israel and also read a parallel recitation for the Palestinians with their perspectives. There is a Palestinian entity and territory but not yet a nation. It's like they were delayed in being born, so we have a chart that is workable for now, but one day, when they have established themselves as a sovereign nation, it will have a new birth chart. Whether an individual or a collective, the struggle for identity with so much complicated history asks human beings to raise their game to a higher level.
The upcoming struggles facing Israel in its chart with huge challenges from Pluto and Saturn to natal positions, especially to that of the natal Moon, are no less intense and wrenching than what their sibling, the Palestinian people, will be struggling with. As it is with individual people, born twins, there are minor differences in erecting a natal chart to distinguish them, but for general commentary, if one were to rely on a natal chart without a birthtime, we would consider the charts of these two entities as close to identical. This is a major reason why it is so tragic that they can't, as siblings should, help each other.
Without a doubt I believe they are being forced in the immediate future to work in real terms towards being neighbors, with the status of two nations. As mentioned, the unfolding transits will push them to work together because there is no other choice. As I said above, it is pointless to fight the processes that Pluto insists on. The way to reduce the stress and be constructive is not to resist but to take the reins and try to help the child be born.
Impact of the eclipses on Ukraine's natal chart.
Astrodienst - chart of Ukraine
By late spring, Jupiter begins to square Ukraine’s 7th house (relationships) natal Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. It’s a square, implying that an abundance of probably vital support is finally coming, though as a square aspect in this case, it might seem like the order is being filled late, a setback. Jupiter also trines Ukraine’s natal 8th house Mars at the same time. Powerful forces and effort are streaming in to add strength to their struggle. Jupiter also makes a trine to natal Uranus and Neptune. This is the turning point for the year. Unfortunately, Jupiter's opposition joining Uranus to oppose natal Pluto in April indicates a Russian surge and setbacks for Ukraine that might have been less costly if they had been resupplied earlier.
Impact of the eclipses on Biden’s natal chart.
Trump has no relation in his chart to the two eclipses.
On Vladimir Putin’s natal chart.
In May of 2025, transiting Saturn is square his natal Mars from then into the following year. This will be very frustrating for him. I can’t say more precisely in what area of his life it frustrates him because of the uncertainty of his birth time. Transiting Saturn simultaneously makes inconjunct aspects to his natal Pluto, Sun, Saturn, Mercury and Neptune. This will be when he must make critical decisions and likely will be negotiating and manipulating. His natal chart describes a man capable of charm and deception. A trine to Uranus at that time suggests a wild idea of his, the cat using up another of its nine lives.
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Eclipses Astronomically and Astrologically Considered and Explained, by Sepharial
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A quick note to highlight the imminent arrival of Mars transit to transiting Pluto at zero degrees of Aquarius.
Mercury caught up to Pluto on the 5th of February. Venus arrives on the 17th. Mars arrives on the 14th. The Sun arrived in late January.
Anyone with natal planets (or significant abstract points like the Ascendant) within a few degrees of early Aquarius/late Capricorn or any other sign would feel this event, aimed more specifically and defined by the house positions of their natal points where Pluto is transiting now.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the lower right. Credit: NASA/SDO Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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Israel and the Palestinians
Israel’s natal Sun is in the 8th house, a house of transformation ruled by Pluto which often includes the transformations of life, death and if it applies, rebirth. The natal position of the Sun is in opposition to Israel’s natal Chiron at 21 degrees of Scorpio. Uranus' arrival in conjunction with the 8th house natal Sun is in opposition to Israel’s natal Chiron. These astrological events produce the sudden attack in southern Israel and then the horrifying purging in Gaza of Hamas by the Israeli military.
Chiron is a significant indicator in a chart of a deep psychological wound, which everyone is aware exists in one dimension or another, and surfaces needing attention. The chart for Israel is based on its founding in May 1948, which is also the birth of the modern Palestinian people’s incomplete nation. Israel and the Palestinians were a twin birth in 1948. The chart for the Palestinian people has their natal Sun and Chiron at exactly the same place, though as it is with twins, their birth times may be different, and thus the position of the Sun and Chiron may be in different houses. But they are locked into shared experience astrologically. They are locked into the need to address that deep wound represented by Chiron, shared by both since birth. Both twins may feel they own the deep scars exclusively but as almost everyone knows, the healing must include both of them. People ask, when will a healing ever happen here? Is it ever possible? I believed from the start last October that something along the lines of healing can come out of what’s ongoing in Gaza presently, partly because these times are different and partly because this is a Uranian challenge to meet.
Tremendous change can happen still in all directions.
Uranus’ transit to the Israel/Palestinian people’s natal Sun continues through this year. It is difficult to see, but both the participants and the world around them are at a place they’ve never been before, and depending on the wisdom that current leadership provides, it is possible this year to take a new direction. Or not.
I believe something is possible there that has not been possible before. I think it can largely take shape in 2024. A major turning point is in April, and then periodically over the summer (July) there are astrological moments supportive of constructive change, with more in the Fall.
Over the next several years, Israel’s chart has a Uranus return and Pluto opposition to its natal Moon and Pluto, with something nearly identical for the chart of the Palestinian people. Tremendous growth is possible, but it will be hard and painful. This is how Pluto works; it brings to the surface the pain imprinted in the past and what needs to be regenerated.
The tremendous growth possible there comes with the same sped-up necessities the world in general is feeling because of a seldom or never-before-seen movement where all major planets move from one sign to another within a short period of time.
Major planetary movements are already underway and will lead us to great opportunities over the next two years. They come with tension, pressured by necessity more than by plan.
In 2023, we had only three months of Pluto dipping a toe into Aquarius, leaving Capricorn where it’s been for 20 years. In 2024, Pluto retrogrades back into Capricorn but for less than three months, flipping the script from 2023. Those three months are the wrap-up of Pluto’s twenty years in Capricorn, affecting us all. It comes at the peak of the US presidential election cycle, finishing the turmoil brought out of the darkness for regeneration in the light where we can see it. On December 20th, Pluto is finally done with Capricorn. The election will not be resolved on election day; no surprise to anyone. One last time, Pluto displays the drama around those who seek power and control for self-gain. Nevertheless, Democracy and societies around the world are wounded by individuals attempting to be king-like, and it will take years to craft positive reform with Pluto in Aquarius.
Transiting Mars stirs the pot on three occasions through the year 2024 with a conjunction, then a square, and finally an opposition to transiting Pluto spread out every few months. Each time Mars and Pluto mingle this year, they play the same old song poking at fears within the collective unconscious.
The days when Mars is antagonistically related to Pluto in 2024 are days when strong arguments or violence are possible. Mars will be in different signs on each occasion, different kinds of assault. It’s the last hurrah on the familiar fear theme from Pluto before it moves into a new sign with a new emphasis.
Mars is almost always willing to raise its fists and fight, break the china and ruin the furniture, but Pluto is willing to burn the house down.
Pluto in Aquarius. One size does not fit all.
The passage of Pluto through Aquarius, as far as leadership goes, will contrast with its time in Capricorn by emphasizing that one size does not fit all. The collective has many leaders, not one. We will face major problems with Pluto in Aquarius, problems that can only be met by the necessity of working together. Pluto usually begins its work by pointing out where things are corrupted by human obsession for power, around any and all human temptations. Pluto is usually a wholesale operator; it goes all the way in breaking down existing obstructions to establish a healthier psychology for life.
Pluto in Aquarius will also be a clearly defined next generation or two of technologies that, together with Uranus entering Gemini beginning in 2025, will bring phenomenal new technologies into being. The reinvented and the new will make many current technologies as obsolete as the corded phone. It may be necessary for existing technologies to fail, be corrupted, to be replaced. (A solar flare, terrorism, hacking - all the mechanisms Pluto chooses to use.) The criminal element operates with Pluto at heart; corrupting technology we rely on now and crippling it might make it necessary to redesign something better. Once Uranus is in air sign Gemini, in a trine aspect to Pluto in Aquarius, we will jump far ahead of our current standard of technological ability year after year.
This is Pluto transforming what doesn’t work that well and is likely broken into something better. The transformation presents itself first as a problem to be solved that leads to innovation. Recent announcements about fusion and solar energy and energy from other cheap sources will replace fossil fuels in a relatively short period of time, because we only have a short period of time. The discoveries will have to be shared planet-wide with all humanity because it is a planetary problem.
US Election
Uranus wants to operate without limits and Saturn wants energy contained and limited. Uranus wins some victories, but Saturn usually wins the war. Trump’s frustration comes from Saturn restricting his spontaneous nature, limits he created by his actions. Saturn is not finished with this process until April-May 2025, suggesting to me that he remains in court battles and is not self-pardoned in the White House. Later in the year 2025, he has more positive aspects from Saturn, suggesting that perhaps the penalties for his lost legal battles are not as severe as one might expect for anyone else. But for him, it looks like he has to take a road he doesn’t want to take beginning in April of 2024. I don’t believe he will be the Republican party candidate. I have thought for a long time that the next president would be a woman. The square to Trump’s natal Sun suggests his health and vitality will suffer greatly in 2024.
Biden has some challenges of a different nature. He experiences some drag in his life from a close relationship, which I might guess are the challenges around his son. A number of inconjunct aspects in his natal chart lead me to suspect that it’s possible he also suffers a loss of vitality, maybe even withdraws from the race later in the year because of his health. This would support my belief that the next president is a woman of either party.
The US is having a Pluto return in 2024. That alone is a once in 250-years event.
Neptune in the 9th house indicates the great importance of a higher purpose to the nation’s identity. Whether or not it has one, it believes it does and acts like it. Because natal Neptune is in Virgo, there is fortunately some discernment and self-examination that goes along with the belief in a higher purpose. The current ongoing opposition from transiting Neptune to natal Neptune muddles up the nation’s belief in itself. It’s confused. This confusion is around serving a higher purpose and defining what it is. The problem with Neptune here is: it doesn’t do definition well. It admits to all definitions; they are all real. What is fake news? From a Neptune point of view, it’s all fake. Neptune is the reality of multidimensions, not just this three-dimensional Earth.
Transiting Neptune opposing the US natal Neptune moves beyond the opposition angle by February of 2024. The fog will begin to clear, but as it took time to gather, it will also take time to move off.
Pluto moves into Aquarius on the same day as the Sun, on January 20th, 2024. It will be in Aquarius most of the year, retrograding back into Capricorn, barely, in September for about three months. In 2025, it will make a trine aspect to the US nation’s natal Uranus in the 9th house, one of many hopeful positive major aspects to come. In later 2025, transiting Uranus will be moving close to a trine with transiting Pluto, echoing the prior mentioned Pluto/Uranus aspect, commencing a period of remarkable and rapid innovation but obviously because of the natal aspect I mention in the US chart, the US will be very involved in bringing new technologies and inventions into being for the world. More on this later.
Taking a look at the US natal chart progressed to 2024, Neptune remains progressed in the first house, maintaining the confusion domestically for those citizens who muddle up reality and delusion. It’s all the same to Neptune. Progressed Neptune is opposed to the progressed Moon in this chart, in the 7th house. The confusion is spilling over into relations with worldly allies. The first house is the Self, and the opposite side of the axis is the 7th house, where we learn who we are by how we relate to close partners. Saturn, which I would look to for some grounding, is in the 2nd house of material interests. That’s definitely down to earth, but it also suggests some restrictions in the flow of money, which we could easily see in how Congress attempts to manage the nation’s accounting, possibly bringing a halt to budget negotiations before the election.
Uranus and Venus are in the 9th house in the Progressed chart, suggesting unusual ideas coming into the election season from outside the country.
Disruptive and seductive Pluto is in the 5th house. Children united with deep feelings could form a union as profoundly transformative agents of change. Youth will play a big role in the election.
Eclipse on April 8th; a dramatic visual event.
The usual pattern of an eclipse is that if it makes precise aspects in a chart, it will alter one’s path - a new tangent - though the process it takes one on may not be long-lasting as much depends on the aspect it makes over days, weeks, or months. Anyone with natal planets, asteroids, abstract points or any luminary in their chart within a degree or two of 29 degrees of any sign should take note. Conjunction or opposition are the most impactful aspects to it. Lacking a conjunction, opposition or square, the other aspects are reduced in their influence.
For Israel, the eclipse makes two trines, to natal Jupiter and Mars, 11th house and 3rd house. If they call an election for the Spring or early summer, this brings very uplifting results, taking action on new thinking. The assault on October 7th, 2023, was a Uranus transit influenced by an eclipse. This eclipse in April 2024 could be dramatic as well. I’ll share more details later in the year.
It’s possible that Joe Biden’s natal Moon is conjuncted by the eclipse. It’s “possible” because birth times in any chart are often not precise, and the Moon’s position can move meaningfully in a short time. As it is, the eclipse is a little over 1 degree away from his natal Moon in his 5th house, suggesting that news about his son significantly impacts him at this time. News coming on an eclipse like this isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it leads to a change in plans.
The eclipse's power can boost potency to whatever it touches in a natal chart. Coincidentally, Kamala Harris’ natal Moon is within a few degrees of Joe Biden’s natal Moon; it may even be identical. As said, birth times are often imprecise, so their natal Moons' degree might be closer or further apart. But as it is, her natal Moon is close to the eclipse by 2 +/- degrees in her 11th house. This gives her heightened potency among the growing circle of both personal and professional people around her. People will pay attention to her. The trajectory she had imagined is suddenly changed. A Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in April is square to Kamala’s natal Mars in her 3rd house. This is a little challenging, but can also be a spur to her 3rd house strength of conviction in being able to speak and measure with the strength of Mars under duress. I have no doubt she is more than able to defend herself as Mars is always ready to do. She will be challenged starting with this conjunction in April aspect squaring her Mars. As the Jupiter-Uranus duo moves forward together only a couple degrees apart, they will square her natal 9th house Saturn, possibly while abroad or speaking at a university event, suggesting taking on responsibility that she wasn’t planning on, perhaps standing in for president Joe Biden at some event or even assume his place in the presidential run. It’s not something she planned for.
A “finger of god” fateful moment
Pluto in the 2nd house denotes having the influence of materially powerful people, and on the negative side, powerful criminals, as Pluto also rules the underworld. Pluto seeks to reform that which needs regeneration and renewal, which means there’s a constant reminder that material life in the US is a huge part of the national ID. Pluto returning to this natal position is a call to refresh the original inspiration for a national material standard of living. It also calls out to reform corruption in powerful places and people. These themes won’t be played out until after the 2024 election and when Pluto is completely and finally moved into another sign. Pluto leaves Capricorn but will remain in the natal US 2nd house for many years to come. The struggle in America for the refinement of values is nowhere near complete. The peak of the Pluto return in the US natal chart, I believe, is March-April of 2024.
Astrological events coming in the second half of April manifest in almost every area of our lives.
Uranus has been subdued during its years-long transit of the earth sign Taurus, with only occasional outbursts when another planet came along to provoke it. Whatever Uranus has had to keep under its hat while in Taurus, the cork may pop when Jupiter catches up to it on April 20th-21st. There are so many ways for this to manifest. It’s essentially a tremendous short two to three weeks period of unexpected expansion, explosion, or advancements.
In early May, transiting Mars catches up to Jupiter and Uranus at the tail end of the aspect, followed by the Sun, Mercury and Venus doing the same. This registers very positively in most people’s lives and in the charts of nations.
In the chart of Israel, this conjuncts its natal Sun. A breakthrough will come to them.
It’s a square and an inconjunct aspect in Putin’s chart to his natal Pluto, Saturn and Sun. Bad news for Putin. It’s good for Biden, though Jupiter loving excess, he might say too much according to his advisors. In Kamala Harris's chart, it is also good news, but she too has to be careful not to say too much. It’s mildly stressful for Trump.
Within a year or two, we will see new technology rolling out more frequently when Uranus and Jupiter enter Gemini, making trine aspects to Pluto in Aquarius. Some of this is probably because of AI. I know for example that AI has discovered several hundred new chess moves that grand masters never thought of, so grand masters of chess are now learning them from AI.
War? Will the past repeat itself?
In 1941 Jupiter, Uranus and Saturn were conjuncting in Taurus as they will be this coming April. The US declared war in December of 1941 and to top it off, Mars arrived to conjunct Uranus and Saturn in January of 1942 as American soldiers shipped out.
Some fear the advent of Neptune transiting in exact tandem with Saturn moving together into Aries in the Spring of 2025 off and on through summer 2026, will come with war in Europe as it did before. But the astrology, while similar, is not the same. I think there will be echoes of similar themes from the early 1940’s but not necessarily world war.
There are a number of well-known opportunities for existing wars to escalate or new wars to inflame the world. There are also “wars” other than military wars, including metaphorical wars like the war on drugs, etc. With the climate problems we face, humanity is slowly becoming aware perhaps too late that it needs to move to a war-like level of commitment, to make the sacrifices and pay the costs to slow the march to the cliff’s edge.
Neptune and Saturn in Aries
What no one likes much about Saturn in Aries is how pressured the environment of discussion is to examine what’s actually real. We feel pressured to hurry up and make decisions. ‘Hurry up or get out of my way so I can be helpful’ is Saturn in Aries.
What is Saturn hurrying us up for? The answer is all the major planets are on the move within a couple of years, condensing what might more often take decades of change into a brief period of two to three years. The infrequent meeting of Neptune and Saturn in a conjunction happens approximately every 35 years.
Neptune takes a long while to circle the Sun and pass through a sign. Once it’s in Aries, it will be there until 2039. Saturn will be in Aries two and half years more or less.
Pisces is the 12th sign, Aries the first. Pisces is WE - all our levels of being connected to the psyche. Aries is ME - down to earth seeking to meet my needs. All valid. To some extent, the heated divisions and current fragility of American society are a victim of Neptune in Pisces. When Neptune entered Pisces, it joyfully dove into the deep end of its native etherical environment. While there, its presence blurred lines of definition in our beliefs, in our psyche. Pisces is Neptune’s natural home sign: Belief in anything, everything. One of the confusing examples for the human mind about this sign with Neptune there, is evident in the turmoil around what is fake news? The answer is all of it is fake. From Neptune's perspective, this 3D Earth mundane world is a pale 3D physical reflection of what is real from Neptune’s point of view. You may have heard that Australian Indigenous people say life on Earth is the dream, that when we leave here we wake up. That’s a Neptunian point of view. Here in 3D Earth world we are focused outwards where the five senses craft survival in this physical 3rd dimension.
Neptune’s presence in our consciousness recedes further into the background when it enters Aries. Saturn in Pisces is a therapist taking notes quietly, but get ready for the edginess of Saturn’s scythe in Aries. In Aries, Saturn is full steam ahead and Neptune is subdued. Does Neptune influence Saturn when they are conjunct as they will be? Yes, fortunately, it softens edgy Saturn somewhat, but here on Earth, Saturn becomes the more dominant of the two, focused on getting its job done. Saturn in Aries may seem callous, which is why this conjunction has come in the past at times of war.
Saturn hasn’t lost what it was exposed to while in Pisces with Neptune, but Saturn sees things from a point of view that doesn’t accept everything as valid the way Neptune can. With Saturn, the emphasis isn’t creative; it’s functional; what works? What can we build a solid foundation on? There’s a sharp contrast for us all when Saturn takes the steering wheel upon entering Aries.
Pluto, moving into the Air sign Aquarius, is no longer dragging its weight through the Earth sign Capricorn. The regeneration of what Pluto can do after exposing the corruptions of years past is no longer restrained by the chains of power in Capricorn. In Aquarius, Pluto’s power is spread out into the hands of many, not one. In mundane terms, I expect State rights in the US to contribute to the country dividing up into regions, as the federal government becomes less dominant or more symbolic as the common head of a divided union. Not in 2024, but soon, Uranus will be in the Air sign Gemini, interacting positively with Pluto in the Air sign Aquarius. The prior incompatibility of these major planets, one in Earth and one in an Air sign, is gone. The pace of evolution is going to be much quicker; it has to be. It’s not evolution for fun; it’s evolution for survival. Pressure.
In April of 2024, Jupiter joins and amplifies Uranus in Taurus. Then in early summer of 2024, Jupiter then moves into Gemini to get everyone involved in the dialogue stirred up after it met up with Uranus in April. Jupiter is a potent agent for expanding the mind with a philosophical or thoughtful intent. In Gemini, Jupiter’s influence ramps up communication. Jupiter wants a deep, extended conversation but it’s difficult to find one in Gemini, which is more accustomed to multitasking and chatter. This works for AI better than for humans. Intuitive higher-minded innovators may now find their suggestions are more welcome but required explanations are saved for another day, when Jupiter moves into Cancer.
The Environment and Climate
Some astrologers are calling for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in 2024. Uranus is in an Earth sign which sounds like a good combination for shaking the Earth. But Taurus grounds the lightning rod of Uranus. When Jupiter conjuncts Uranus in April, their combination is capable of producing eruptions and quakes galore for the weeks they are conjunct. Jupiter expands what it comes into contact with.
Neptune in Aries isn’t good for the environment. With Neptune moving into Aries, human beings in a bit of a panic will sacrifice the environment for goal-getting. Some of this will be because there isn’t time to fully study and develop ideas as the scientific method prefers.
Fortunately, later on in 2026 and beyond, the trine from Uranus in Gemini to Pluto in Aquarius will bring a steady stream of innovations, which I hope are not bad for the environment. We will have new forms of energy generation with Uranus trined to Pluto from Gemini to Aquarius and more efficient, cleaner manufacturing thanks to AI. We are going to see a new era unfold over the next 20 years for those who survive them.
More about Pluto entering Aquarius
Pluto entering Aquarius also comes with its usual manner of disruption in order to bring out the best. Pluto typically brings us to interrupt the track we’re on to get us on another, by wrecking something we use now. Pluto as a faculty of the unconscious recognizes all kinds of pathological behavior and uses it. In general, our psyche uses every flavor of human behavior to get us where we need to be. This includes disasters. Pluto stores every experience or how we perceived them from birth, plus inherited tendencies and even from past lives. When we knock on Pluto’s door, we’re entering the psychological basement storage room for everything.
The entire Industrial Revolution spanned two and a half centuries; that’s one cycle of Pluto. Over that time, one idea or invention replaced another. Now it’s starting over where it began, in Aquarius. Many things we live with that were once considered wonderful will be replaced by new versions. Some of these former new ideas have a downside, as we found out. We’ll want to do better.
Planetary transformation
Aerosol Masking (also known as Global Dimming) is another byproduct of the Industrial age that complicates the Greenhouse Effect. Simply put, reducing industrial and natural gases in the atmosphere will allow much more sun/heat in, to be trapped by the Greenhouse effect and raising the global temperature by 3-5 degrees within a short matter of weeks, which accelerates all the feedback loops pushing a hotter planet. Going electric is no magic bullet. Things will get worse before they get better. This complex atmospheric problem needs more study, but we don’t have decades to solve this riddle.
Saturn doesn’t have the power to alter landscapes that Pluto and Neptune do, but Saturn is more obviously active than Neptune or Pluto in our 3D lives. Saturn is our ability to estimate and act on whether we have enough or too much about anything that we believe to be of value. Saturn is very useful in moderation and confining in extremes. Neptune does not have clear lines of function and action, as we have seen.
Neptune and Saturn will be together for around a year, spilling into Aries, arm in arm. Saturn will get its work done and leave within two years. Neptune will stick around in Aries like a loaded file cabinet with content that gestated during its time in Pisces, now available to petitioners.
Saturn has an agenda. The absence of a strong Neptune as it moves into Aries might by itself unleash gross insensitivity, but to do so with the celestial cop standing there is just going to land you in cosmic jail. Again, I don’t expect world war.
The real world war is for survival and this war should get everyone’s attention.
As Pluto enters Aquarius if there is to be a war, nuclear technology will be employed. If there isn’t a war, nuclear technology will be employed in the form of new technology like fusion reactors. That is inevitable; recent news says we are getting close to having it. The atomic planet Pluto will bring nuclear physics into our lives.
Aquarius is the water bearer, bringing the essence of etheric energy hovering in other dimensions into this one, including divine inspiration in the form of new ideas, new inventions. Planet Earth is at war with us; armies of people will be migrating and rebuilding over the next 20 or so years. A war with an Aquarian emphasis and not a Capricorn emphasis is fought in cyberspace. I expect this will happen, and for a period of time, the technologies we rely on for internet connections won’t work. We will have to invent a better system, and we will. It’s never been established that an internet assault on a government is an act of war, and yet it’s happened many times on a large scale and no military war came from it.
It’s also possible that a cyber war is initiated not by human actors but from the impact of a solar flare. The impact might be inconsistent across the globe. Satellites may be knocked out, too. During the initial days of such an event’s aftermath, conventional military warfare may happen, though major militaries are very much dependent on sophisticated technologies that would be knocked out by a major flare.
Some suggest that a Saturn/Neptune meeting in Aries occurred during the American Civil War. Yes, Neptune was in Aries, but Saturn was not there at the same time. I checked.
Astrologer Steve Judd has pointed out that in 1939 when Britain declared war on Germany, Pluto was crossing over from 29 degrees of Cancer into Leo. It is now opposite where it was at the start of WW2 - crossing into Aquarius. Neptune was at 24 degrees of Virgo. Neptune is now opposite where it was when war was declared in 1939. Uranus in 1939 was at the same degree/placement when Britain declared war, in Taurus. Uranus will be there again in April of 2024 when Jupiter conjuncts it. It’s an interesting coincidence of planets in signs but the outcome isn’t likely to be the same as the positions of the planets are not as they were in 1939. The present-day connections to the positions in 1939, etc, point out that some of those ripples in the cosmic pond are still reverberating.
Some of the same players and influences are present but different. I would say they have evolved. They have learned from past experiences. The unity of the allies from WW2 is now the unity within NATO.
Jupiter magnifies whatever planet it conjuncts. Jupiter isn’t today in the same placement it had in 1939, but when the US declared or entered WW2 in December of 1941, Jupiter had arrived at the same placement it will occupy in April of 2024 when it meets up with Uranus. There are echoes of the past, and we can see alliances made from 1941 still present today. They may preclude a war this time. Both Pluto and Neptune are opposite where they were 84 years ago and since that fateful day in 1941 Uranus has completed one full orbit of the zodiac, which it always does every 84 years. In September 1939 when war was declared, Saturn was crossing over into Scorpio in a 90 degree square to Pluto’s degree at that time. This time Saturn will eventually be sextile Pluto in the sky, much more amenable to resolving problems than a square. The remarkable dance of planets in synchronistic sign placement merely means that there are undercurrents operating all the time and powerful aspects in our planetary defined psyche making ripples in the cosmic pond, waves that continue to reverberate decades later.
It doesn’t mean we’re going to have wars, as before. It does mean there are evolutionary struggles to be had between the same planets, the same components in our collective human psyche.
Vladmir Putin
Jupiter and Uranus conjunct Putin’s natal Jupiter in April of 2024. This energy also feeds into his delusion of greatness and often carelessness. He will continue astrologically to believe in his own greatness, which runs against stronger forces in his chart and helps him avoid reality. The best thing that could come from this is calling himself a great hero as he signs a peace agreement that otherwise looks like two years of his folly. Putin has had a warning - last year, Uranus opposed his natal Venus and we heard rumors at that time of an illness. In February of 2024, Saturn will square his natal Moon, and while the position of the natal Moon is not certain within a few degrees because of uncertainty around his birth time/place, it happens close to or at the location of the chart I have for him regardless. The effect is the feeling of loss, even depression. Whether he loses a woman in his life, a major piece of real estate in Ukraine, Mother Russia, or simply is depressed and unable to sleep, this puts a grim filter on everything he plans. While he entered the war in Ukraine under the false belief in his invincibility, according to his chart that false support is astrologically gone by the end of 2023, and he will face a reality not to his liking. By 2027, Putin may still be alive, but he won’t be in power. There’s too much working against him, especially with Saturn opposing Saturn, Mercury and Sun in his natal 12th house of hidden enemies.
Ukraine
Another way of looking at the war in Ukraine is perhaps offensive to Ukraine, but it can also be looked at as a revolutionary war of Russia. Historically, until recent times, they were one country. In the present day, an evolutionary war is taking place. (Drop the first “r”.) Ukraine is pulling itself out of the Russian body and Russia is resisting. It’s a civil war. This has been going on for a long time. The Crimean War was between European powers trying to maintain the status quo that the Ottoman Empire had maintained, contesting this with the rising Russian powers in the same area in 1853. Russia, the Ottomans and the Europeans relied on the transit of trade routes in the area and on the Black Sea. Oddly, that war had ties to the land of Palestine, arguing over influence and the rights of Christian Palestinians in the eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman rulers were the dominant Middle Eastern power at the time, though their empire was in decline.
In April of 1852, Saturn and Uranus were conjunct in Taurus. This April, Jupiter and Uranus will make a conjunction in Taurus, a different combination. Pluto was located in late Aries during the Crimean War, square to its position today in the recent two to three years we just lived through. Pluto departs that position fully in late 2024, suggesting that the resonance there of conflict that we’re living through today will be over at the end of 2024. One might speculate that when Pluto clears this degree, today's war will pass into history. The Crimean War over a century ago exhausted Russia’s economic ability to continue expanding or even maintaining its territorial claims in the region. They settled for peace, unable to compete with the European powers of the day and the Ottomans. That war ushered in the use of new war technologies of the era, including the telegraph and the ability to report and pass strategies quickly.
In early March 2024, Saturn transiting in Pisces makes a sextile from its position in the second house to Ukraine's natal Uranus in the 12th house. This is a surprise gift, probably of money, as Saturn has just entered Ukraine's 2nd house. Natal Uranus in the 12th house suggests this gift exceeds what was expected. Karmically, it is due. Any gift they get now has to be stretched because a long-term passage of Saturn in the 2nd house suggests some budgetary limits for the foreseeable future, which are a little tougher than they already were.
Pluto’s move into Aquarius in 2024 conjuncts Ukraine’s natal Saturn. This is a year or two of testing and likely hardship, but ultimately can produce something amazing as Pluto is the phoenix that rises from the ashes to fly again. Saturn doesn’t punish; it demands dedication and discipline, which we can see is present in Ukraine. Given that these qualities are present, it conveys success. By April of 2025, transiting Saturn is sextile Ukraine's natal Uranus and transiting Uranus is trine natal Uranus. Most of 2025 is a very positive year for them. The trine from transiting Uranus to natal Uranus is a huge lift up, as is the sextile from transiting Saturn. Good things will happen quickly.
In late summer 2025 a third transit from Jupiter follows the positive transit aspects from Saturn and Uranus. Altogether I believe this period leads them into a new partnership, probably with the EU and or NATO. The specter of this happening should motivate Russia to end the war in an attempt to prevent this, as part of a negotiation.
Russia has an election in March of 2024. If it was an honestly staged event, a woman would win. Though the Russian establishment will block the existence of an even playing field, she will still achieve a success alarming to Putin and therefore a problem for her.
The time is coming for the autocrats of the world to be on the decline with Pluto leaving Capricorn finally in late 2024. It’s very simple: people will need each other to survive, and that is Aquarian, not Capricorn. Pluto in Aquarius will bring reasons for people to need each other, sorry to say. Central power from a single government will prove less efficient in an era when various natural phenomena force people to relocate, communications and transportation of daily goods to break down, and law and order to rely on local officials.
Not all of this is happening in 2024, but coming soon:
Outlook for world markets
Carrington Event
During September of 1859 when the sentagon was in play, the world experienced what has come to be called the Carrington Event. This event characterizes the one to two days of impact from a powerful X-class solar flare directly hitting Earth. The electromagnetic surge, coming from what must have been a phenomenally powerful solar flare erupting on the Sun a few days before, hit the Earth's upper atmosphere and interacted with the planet’s electromagnetic field. At that time, there was almost no technology to be affected, only the telegraph lines. Witnesses reported that the lines conducting the surge from the Sun’s blast caught fire in many locations. The lines simply could not handle the powerful surge and fried.
Today, things are very different. We not only have a lot more wires everywhere, our entire civilization is wired and wireless with highly sensitive electronic devices and even more ordinary things which are vulnerable to surges from such an event, such as the power grid.
Astrologer Mystic Medusa has done some study of the Carrington Event with chart calculations for that event plus four other major solar geomagnetic events. The one thing she found in common was a tense aspect between Eres and one or more of the other outer planets. (Eres is a companion of sorts to Pluto, another planetoid of similar size to Pluto also located out past the orbit of Neptune.) No such aspect is likely this year. Mars, an inner planet, makes a square to Eres on February 6-8th. Perhaps we at least experience a major flare, though not at a Carrington level. The next outer planet to square slow-moving Eres will be Jupiter in the summer of 2025, along with Mars at the same time. That may have possibilities.
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This is the only time of the year we experience:
-All 13 Hearts
-The Joker
-All 13 Spades
The 13-day Season of the Heart:
-December 18th to December 30th
For these 13 days, and only these 13 days, the energy of the Heart is completely present in our collective consciousness. It’s a special time where we feel the energy available for hope, forgiveness, faith, compassion and healing.
On December 31st, the day of the fool, the Joker is in the house:
The deeper meaning of this important day is to provide us with a portal to integrate hidden aspects of our consciousness. Remember, the court Jester (or the fool) could choose who he wanted to be.
The 13-day Season of the Spade:
-January 1st through January 13th
This is the only time of the year when we experience all 13 Spades in a row, and the only time during the year that the entire spectrum of consciousness is available to us, where we can readily envision and activate the life we would love for ourselves.
It’s why we’ve always instinctively known that during these beginning days of January, we do our best to really focus on our life’s goals and direction. The ability to create is in the field of consciousness. It’s the energy we experience all around us in the quantum field.
🌱Get specific, focus on your dream as if it were reality! You can activate it!
🌱Pay attention only to that which you would love to experience.
🌱Allow for high participation and low attachment in your life.
🌱Entertain only the thoughts that have to do with the life that is seeking to express itself through you!
🌱You’ve got this!
🌱You can have this!
🌱Act as if you’re already living it in your mind and actions.
🌱The quantum field is supporting you, and now you know how!
In gratitude and praise,
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Clinton
Tools for Life
"Nothing is too good to be true!"
www.fb.com/52helpers
Click here to find out more.
Below, you’ll find two worksheets to download, each with thought-provoking prompts to help you add value to your reflection and, ultimately, to help you achieve any of your own development objectives.
One worksheet is for students or participants; the other is for instructors.
Some prompts will be more relevant than others, depending on the circumstances.
| reflective_practice_template_for_instructors.pdf | |
| File Size: | 63 kb |
| File Type: | |
| reflective_practice_worksheet_for_students_or_participants.pdf | |
| File Size: | 68 kb |
| File Type: | |
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Annular Eclipse on Oct 14th
There are a number of places online to get a proper natal chart done, for free. I can safely recommend that a reliable chart is offered at: www.astro.com
Traditional Astrology attributes some importance to an eclipse falling exactly on a natal point, modern Astrology gives a wider range of milder impacts. The effects of an eclipse can last for months, kind of like taking a detour on a long drive. It doesn’t alter where you are going but it could alter how you get there.
ALL the trans-Jupiter planets are about to change signs
This shift of a major psychological planet is all by itself a huge shared experience for mankind. Also, in the natal chart of the USA there’s a return of Pluto to where its natal placement is, coming in the first quarter of 2024. Some Astrologers think that the Pluto Return has already occurred, but in fact, if an adjustment is made for Pluto’s ponderously slow movement around the zodiac for the movement of the zodiac itself (precession of the equinoxes), then the Pluto Return will occur between February and April of 2024. This required adjustment only applies to features in the zodiac whose positions advance over centuries, longer than a human lifespan.
Historically, one of the easiest values to identify circulates around discrimination towards Native and African American people, and others. (All non-white people whom white people discriminated against after subduing Native peoples and engaging in the slavery and slave labor of people from other continents like Africa, China etc.). There are economic factors related to this issue both in the past and the present, but overall, the values at the heart of it go beyond economics and these issues still require work. Because of the inherent power around Pluto, these issues rose to become public issues years before the actual exact time of the Pluto Return. We have seen issues of racial inequality and our social conscience surface in the last several years, becoming a major part of the contest for social and political definition. Who are we? This and other issues are the levers forcing the needed regeneration of old unresolved historical values in a Pluto Return. Resistance to the evolution required gives Pluto the power to force us into harder and harder choices, digging deeper and deeper as necessary. If we want to make the road ahead less stressful, we can not only welcome the need to change, we could even be grateful for the agents that bring this to our attention.
Pluto, Agent of Growth
and the least destructive way to work with it
Pluto is the face of the unconscious, individually and collectively. We identify the unconscious in the psyche body distinct from consciousness, but without a doubt, it dwarfs consciousness in potency and can at times overwhelm it when awoken from its deep slumber. Consciousness dips into the unconscious body all the time to make associations, finding meaning and storage for what we can’t immediately process. It’s a many-dimensional part of the psyche where everything mingles outside conscious direction, but will respond to dialogue with consciousness as easily as throwing a ball against a wall, constantly bouncing back.
In the Astrologically defined psychic body, Pluto seeks to process what it feels and have that reenter consciousness, which we associate with Mercury. One planet closest to the Sun, one far, far away. As an agent of growth in our total being, Pluto is often described as a process of breakdown and rebuilding, or regeneration. What’s broken down are usually patterns we grooved deeply into our unconscious individually and collectively, even nationally. Eventually, the new reformed structure becomes deeply grooved and sometimes an obstruction to further growth, and when in this case the Pluto Return happens 255 years later, once again it’s time to tear down old structures and build new ones. Growth evolution or refinement, the new learning often requires unlearning what’s become the automatic programming of the past. Loosen them up or break them down, whichever is required, then rebuild.
Usually the power of Pluto, or the strength it requires to enact evolution in our consciousness, comes from our resistance to let it happen. The more successful manner of managing the often awesome tsunami that Pluto seems to often be, is to not automatically resist the momentum of changes. Better to work with it as a good director to share in the shaping of the outcome. This is the least destructive way to work with Pluto. Admit that it will substantially win, then work with it. Away goes fear and darkness. Awe may remain. Pluto was discovered at the dawn of the atomic age and is associated with atomic power, once again a reference to the gargantuan transformative power of something small.
Saturn recently entered Pisces, sharing temporary occupation of that sign with Neptune
To begin with, Saturn catching up to Neptune isn’t a comfortable reunion. These two gas giant planets are rarely good together in any sign. Neptune has no limits to the places it can refer or connect consciousness to. Saturn puts up fences and makes strict borders, which can be a comfort when we need borders in place. They can on occasion work together though and we should aim for that. Aiming high (Neptune), Saturn provides the structure to reach the heights we strive for. Or Saturn, which can’t help but edit out distraction, clears a path for what the mind could reach with Neptune, for those who are able. Aries is an expressive Fire sign. It’s usually not great for Neptune, the master planet of subtly. But in Aries, if it’s a spiritual Fire then we have another order of combustion. A spiritual fire does not consume air, it produces ether.
The most attention-getting transit among the major outer planets will be Uranus leaving the Fixed Earth sign Taurus where it was grounded and subdued
As these two outer planets blend their methods in this trine relationship, Saturn and Neptune will occupy the midpoint between them as they enter Aries. Saturn and Neptune will make sextile aspects to both Uranus and Pluto being in the midpoint. This dials them all up into one huge, massive operation within our psyche and here on this planet, a level of extremely rare planetary timing we have never seen.
Neptune was last in Fire Sign Aries the day after the American Civil War began. Saturn was in Virgo, where it eventually made a conjunction with the US natal Neptune in the 9th house of ideals and higher learning, learning from connections to foreign cultures. This time, Saturn is in an exact conjunction with Neptune entering Aries. If again Neptune contributes to a dulling of our ability to covet life so that brutal war happens, Saturn will leave us all hungry and miserable. Saturn brings karma, government structures will fall that do not serve as the overarching psyche requires, like cutting out a cancer. Saturn has no sympathy and loves efficiency, a perfect executioner. We could hope Neptune softens it in Aries, except that the history shows Neptune in Aries has brought a lot of war and suffering.
A lot is about to happen in a short period of time
Accelerated technological breakthroughs between Uranus in Gemini trine to Pluto in Aquarius should surprise no one familiar with these two planets and the signs they will occupy. Invention that inspires great optimism can compensate for coping with a changing environment. There are also the perils of inventions rushed to development before we know if they work, because we are existing and competing with the clock. Everything seems to be happening at once, and people feel out of control. I don’t think there’s time to indulge in the false promises of snake oil salesmen. Saturn and Neptune in Aries will remind us there really isn’t time to indulge in the delusions entertained while Neptune was in Pisces. Neptune in Aries tends not to be too concerned about environmental degradation, leaving that for another day with time for more reflection. The pressure of necessity will compel risk-taking.
Like the person waving the flag to start the race, Jupiter will conjunct Uranus in Taurus in April of 2024. This comes as Pluto’s return has unfolded, and as Jupiter makes a fortunate trine to Pluto shortly after meeting up with Uranus. Uranus remains mostly grounded in Taurus, but Jupiter amps it up enough to momentarily flash a bolt of lightning and make a change in the world. Jupiter/Zeus is also a sky god and his famous tool is also the lightning bolt. Things can happen in a flash. This is a break in tensions in the world after which whatever is expressed commences a release, that while it seems to happen in an instant, will take years to play out.
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Many of us are curious about links between natural phenomena.
It’s human nature to read patterns into things. Sometimes we see the existing pattern clearly and sometimes we project our beliefs into everything in our daily lives, believing that what we are objectively seeing is unconnected to us.
We try to see, at least.
Solar Activity and Earthquakes
Once in a while they coincide, by a small percentage of the total of either. Most of the time there are large quakes and no solar flares - or huge solar flares and ordinary quakes - as on any other day when there are no flares to point to.
The physical planets have non-physical bodies just as we do.
Everyone knows what an emotional impact is. It’s not physical but the power it has in our lives over time and space is incredible. An emotional event has the ability to expand or shut down our thinking - everyone knows this by experience. Even though you can’t see the emotional energy that makes the impact, you see and feel it inhabit our being by experience and would never deny it exists.
Many critics of Astrology do not understand the impact of bodies that are not strictly physical but share existence with the physical Universe, overlap it, and it’s this that we intuitively attempt to grasp in consulting an astrological chart.
The physical planets have non-physical bodies just as we do. They impact each other, though we cannot see this take place until there is an event in the physical universe that the energy inhabits. Our physical brain is not equipped to perceive anything outside the physical universe, normally.
It recently happened that the Rover explorer on Mars observed a massive sunspot and flare on the far side of the Sun. We would not see it on Earth; any matter projected from it would head towards Mars, not Earth. And yet, there was a large quake (7.1 USGS) on Earth two days later. I don’t see the two things as directly related, but I would believe that what affects Mars affects us, though a little more removed than when a flare from the Sun directly impacts and affects Earth.
Earthquakes and Astrological Aspects
My search was limited to using the major aspects such as oppositions, squares, quincunxes and semi-sextiles. These are the most potent and antagonistic for holding powerful tensions, the kind that might be earth-shaking. Semi-squares, semiquadrates, septiles and quintiles are other aspects that harbor tensions. These are often considered minor aspects and thus are not in common use, but they are not minor.
For this short article, I am looking only at the aspects listed from the planets, beginning with Mars and heading further out, as those are the planets that bring the pressures that could contribute to a major Earth movement. Mercury and the Moon sometimes provide the spark to release tensions held up in the Earth, releasing the pressure, however the larger outer planets have the potency to set up the stress behind a major earthquake.
I can tell you now without your having to read the whole article that yes, I found a high incidence of major Astrological aspects capable of creating major tension that I believe connects on the days of all the major earthquakes listed in a Google search for major quakes with a potency of 7 and up, over the past couple decades here on Earth. I didn’t do a natal chart for the locations of the quakes, though that might be interesting to do.
There are tectonic plates and fault lines all over the Earth on land and on the ocean floor, all being possible locations for the planet to release pent-up tensions. All the quakes listed here are considered major quakes, 7 and up.
The Planets as Catalysts
- Jupiter typically expands what it contacts and inflates whatever it touches; in this case from tense aspects, Jupiter increases them prior to them breaking out in an earthquake.
- When added to any combination, Mars is an explosive catalyst for larger outer planets.
- Mercury as a catalyst brings the expression of pent-up energies.
- The Moon is also a good catalyst, which we commonly know has the power to pull the oceans of the world in daily tides.
- Uranus is the sudden release of hidden forces with no warning.
- Pluto is the underworld in metaphorical ways and by nature, Pluto breaks down existing structure, turns it over and starts anew.
- Saturn brings restrictions and opposes a flow of energy that it tries to contain, but ultimately can’t. Structures get remade with Saturn, once they break.
- Neptune seems uninvolved in a recipe for earthquakes but did factor in where a volcano erupted in the Pacific Ocean.
- Venus is seldom involved but like Jupiter, it attracts and loves to make more of whatever it’s doing.
Here is what I noticed:
- A magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook the eastern Kermanshah region, killing more than 400 people. At least six people died in neighboring Iraq.
Mexico. 24 August 2016 Mercury/Jupiter inconjunct retrograde Uranus. Mars just passed a conjunction with Jupiter, inflating the pressure as Venus conjuncted Jupiter.
- A 7.1 magnitude quake hit central Mexico, killing at least 369 people and causing more devastation in the capital than any temblor since an earthquake in 1985 that killed thousands.
Italy. 16 April 2016 Jupiter retrograde, square Saturn, inconjunct Pluto. Mercury direct inconjunct Saturn in aspect with Jupiter/Pluto.
- A 6.2 magnitude quake struck a cluster of mountain communities east of Rome in central Italy, killing about 300 people.
- May 19 aftershocks Jupiter direct square sat. Mercury retro inconjunct Saturn.
- July 10 aftershocks Saturn square Neptune, Sun/Mercury opposition Pluto.
Ecuador. 26 October 2015 Mars/Jupiter trine Pluto, Mercury square Pluto. Sun square Saturn. Mercury oppostion Uranus.
- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hammered Ecuador, killing more than 650 people on the country's Pacific coast.
Afghanistan. 25 April 2015 Mercury conjunct Mars square Jupiter, inconjunct Pluto. Mars Semi sextile Uranus.
- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the Afghan northeast, killing nearly 400 people in Afghanistan and in northern Pakistan.
Nepal. 3 August 2014 Mars square Jupiter/Mercury. Saturn Inconjunct Uranus, Uranus opposition Chiron.
- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake ravaged impoverished Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and disrupting the lives of more than eight million.
China. 3 August 2014 Mars square Jupiter/Mercury. Saturn inconjunct Uranus, Uranus opposition Chiron.
- A magnitude 6.3 earthquake devastated southwestern China, killing at least 600 people in a remote area of Yunnan province.
Pakistan. 24 September 2013 Saturn sextile Pluto. Uranus square Pluto. Mercury had recently aspected Pluto/Uranus.
- Twin earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 6.8 magnitude, rattled southwestern Baluchistan province, killing at least 825 people.
Turkey. 23 October 2011 Pluto and Uranus in loose square, long term, just beginning.
- A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook southeast Turkey, killing over 600 people.
Japan. 11 March 2011. Moon, Mars and Mercury in daily transit caught up to and conjunct Uranus in late Pisces. Jupiter in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn makes two sources of major tension.
- Fukushima. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's northeast, killing about 15,690 people and injuring 5,700. The earthquake also triggered the world's biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
New Zealand. 22 February 2011 Jupiter semi sextile Mars, Jupiter square Pluto
- A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, killing at least 180 people.
Chile. 27 February 2010 Saturn square Pluto. Mars retrograde inconjunct Pluto, Moon opposition Pluto.
- An 8.8 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in Chile killed more than 500 people, wrecking hundreds of thousands of homes and mangling highways and bridges.
Haiti. 13 January 2010 Saturn square Pluto.
- A 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti's capital Port-Au-Prince and killed about 316,000 people. The United Nations estimated 80,000 buildings in Port-Au-Prince and surrounding areas were destroyed.
China. 12 May 2008 While changing signs, Saturn trine Pluto. Saturn inconjunct Mars also changing signs.
- A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan province, killing about 87,600 people.
Across Southeast Asia. 26 December 2004, Earthquake and tsunami. Pluto conjunct Chiron in Capricorn, opposite Moon in Cancer. Jupiter trine Neptune (support from Venus and Mars squares to Neptune.) Mercury was retrograde and turned direct sextile Neptune/Jupiter. Chiron conjunct Pluto.
- A 9.15 magnitude earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that barreled into Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and many other countries in the region, devastating villages and tourist islands and leaving almost 230,000 dead or missing.
Pinatubo volcanic eruption. 30 November 2021. Jupiter semi-sextile Pluto in Capricorn. Moon square Pluto. Venus conjunct Pluto. Moon had been opposite retrograde Neptune. Saturn semi sextile Chiron. Mars inconjunct Neptune.
- 12 November 2017 Iran/Iraq border. Mars moving into square Pluto in Capricorn. Sat trine Uranus. Mars sextile Ceres.
- 22 February 2011. New Zealand. ...Moon/Venus/Pluto in Capricorn square Jupiter in Aries, and Mars/Sun conjunct Ceres in Aquarius. Ceres like Pluto is a planetoid and is associated with Mother Earth.
- 27 February 2010. Chile. Saturn in Libra Square Pluto in Capricorn, squared by the Moon in Cancer.
- 13 January 2010. Haiti. Saturn in Libra Square Pluto in Capricorn, Mercury retrograde conjunct Pluto ( 2+ degree orb),Moon in Capricorn also conjunct Pluto.
- 12 May 2008. China. Saturn inconjunct Pluto in Capricorn, Sun conjunct Uranus in Taurus, Moon square from Leo.
- 8 October 2005. Pakistan. Sat inconjunct Uranus, Mars inconjunct Pluto, Moon conjunct Pluto, Mercury square Pluto two days before, holding tension.
- 26 December 2004. Across Asia. Pluto conjunct Chiron in Capricorn, opposite Moon in Cancer.
- 26 December 2003. Jupiter in Virgo square Pluto Sagittarius. Ceres retrograde sextile Jupiter inconjunct Pluto. Moon sextile Pluto.
Taking these dates and checking the natal charts of the places where the quakes occurred would be an interesting study, but it isn’t necessary. These major eruptive dates on Earth correspond to Astrological tensions with the major planets.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
| by Eva Goulette The first day of Spirit Camp is filled with excitement and learning as children are introduced to the many sacred tools we use throughout the week. Spirit Campers become acquainted with five sacred tools, and we spend much of our day designing, constructing, and crafting each of them while we are building a foundation of trust, compassion, love, and acceptance for our community. | |
By spending the first day of Spirit Camp creating our sacred tools, we have ample time for conversations, questions, answers, and getting to know one another. By the end of the day, Spirit Campers have developed friendships and built a camaraderie that will serve them well as we progress from day to day.
One of the first tools we create is a pouch that is used to hold birdseed. The children construct a design for both sides of their pouch and use markers to add color. Some campers choose to add a long ribbon to it so they can hang it around their neck like a necklace. Each time we go outside, children take their pouches with them. As we gather materials from the natural world (acorns, pinecones, etc.) to take back to our classroom for future craft projects, the children sprinkle a pinch of birdseed on the ground as a thank you to Mother Earth for all the wonderful gifts we receive from her.
On the first day of Spirit Camp, we introduce the importance of expressing gratitude for the bounty we receive from nature. That practice continues throughout the week, so by the end of the week, Spirit Campers have scattered birdseed over much of the property.
Birds love Dancing Jaguar’s Spirit Camp, too!
Eva presents a free webinar on July 27th, where you can learn more, ask questions, and discover all the benefits of becoming a Spirit Camp Teacher. Click here to learn more.
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