It’s the beginning of the new calendar year. Looking ahead into 2024, I made some notes.

By David A. Wheatley
​​https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html​

Israel and the Palestinians

​In October 2023, transiting Uranus was within a couple of degrees of conjuncting Israel’s natal Sun. It has since fully conjuncted it and will remain so off and on until early 2025. This is a defining moment for Israel to demonstrate what makes it unique because Uranus is the planet that reveals if one has a unique character and what it is. It’s not what’s written down in the history books; it’s what happens in the moment of question when it has to be demonstrated. Uranus brings what seems to be sudden - but in fact, was merely unseen - events that change consciousness.
 
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.

​The first part of 2024 is going to feel hopeful. All the planets are finally moving direct; evolution is rolling along. On January 20th, the Sun conjuncts transiting Pluto on the same day that they both leave Capricorn, giving a sense of moving forward.
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.

​Pluto’s work in Capricorn was to exalt emperor-like authority in concentrations of power, be it in one person or one group that cultivated it for its own sake:  Abuse of power. Capricorn is about structure, the edifice of local and national government power, the rules of the road, the bones of our body and our society. Pluto in Aquarius will bring immediate new themes of recognizing that central authority isn’t always the wisest rule to follow.  The theme of Aquarius is that ‘laws should adapt to people, not people to the laws’, whereas Capricorn allowed ‘one way or the criminal way’ by subverting the rules, begging to be caught. Capricorn structures authority to be unanswerable. It should be a perfect system, but no system is.
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

There are positives and negatives in the charts of Biden and Trump in the 2024 election season. Biden has more positives in the coming year so far as being in the positive at election time. Trump faces two tough squares from Saturn to his natal Uranus and Sun beginning in April and lasting the rest of the year. Saturn will station and go retrograde in a square to his natal Uranus first, then later in the fall for a longer period going back and forth in a retrograde motion sitting on a square to his natal Sun. I don’t see Trump staying in the race himself, though he could broker his value to another Republican candidate. The drag on his life energy from Saturn’s squares to his Sun and natal Uranus will hurt his health psychologically as much as physically. Remember, the planets do not do things to you; they channel and help manifest the consequences of each person’s efforts. In the aspect of his natal Uranus, there are two contrary forces working against each other in a struggle that depletes him.
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.  

​The USA has also been in an 18-month opposition from transiting Neptune to natal Neptune in the 9th house of ideals and philosophic beliefs.
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.

There’s an eclipse at 29 degrees 50 minutes of Aries on April 8th, whose shadow path crosses the USA from Texas, arcing northeast over the Great Lakes region of the USA and Canada. This will be a dramatic event visually, and because of its visual power, it will stimulate people’s imaginations, nurturing the symbolism within our psyche. The impact of the shadow is a magical experience, but the impact of it touching on aspects in a natal chart is greater.
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

In the US natal chart, the eclipse on April 8th is square to natal Pluto; that planetoid is having its “return” to its natal US birth chart placement in 2024.  Adding the eclipse placement to an existing major planetary return to its birthplace is a “finger of god” fateful moment in the nation’s chart. A magic wand has touched something (natal Pluto), connecting the present moment with the nation's birth moment, specifically in regards to Pluto. Natal Pluto is in the US 2nd house of material values suggests an importance emphasis there. 
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.  

In April of 2024, transiting Jupiter catches up to transiting Uranus in Taurus; they conjunct and combine their energies.
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?

​There’s considerable speculation from people, including Astrologers, that the duo entry of Saturn and Neptune into Aries were powerful astrological indicators in the past when nations began major wars, even world wars. Astrologers often learn about the chemistry of planetary combinations from observing transits in the past. But things are never the same and we can’t expect same results from aspects.
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

Neptune is very strong in Pisces, and weak in Aries. Saturn is a subterranean operator psychologically speaking in Pisces, but up-front rude and impatient in Aries. Saturn works somewhat hidden in Pisces and doesn’t reveal its conclusions as the observant therapist until Saturn enters overt Aries and acts on what it observed. Saturn in Aries doesn’t explain itself. It’s pretty cut and dry in seeking to act in daily life based on what it saw going on in the deeper, concealed world of the other-conscious realm of Pisces. Saturn provides a structure for what Neptune created in Pisces to manifest, but Saturn also edits it. What happens when Saturn gets into Aries is the swift implementation of what is useful and what can work, cutting out what isn’t useful, salvaged from the elaborate dreams of Neptune in Pisces. What works in Pisces may not work in reality; Saturn will decide this time. Dreams need help to make it in the Arian real world and be applied.  What they amount to in this reality may be disappointing to some, even depressing, to learn that their Neptune-stimulated inspiration was a delusion.
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

​At the time of this writing, El Nino is very strong and forecasted to weaken by spring, falling into “neutral” by summer. This forecast is uncertain as always; the oscillation forecasts are often wrong. During the El Nino season of 2023, hurricane formation in the warmer-than-ever Atlantic basin was depressed by El Nino’s east-bound winds, decapitating storm clouds that could have become tropical storms or hurricanes. In a neutral or La Nina season, the prevailing eastbound winds cease doing that, and hurricanes form in much greater numbers. With seas warmer than usual, the forecast for tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic seaboard, and the Caribbean will probably blossom in 2024 from 2023’s numbers. Parts of the world that never had tropical storms are now having them, such as the Mediterranean Sea, eastern Africa, and South America. Storms are penetrating inland in the US, escalating the cost of home building and insurance in those areas to the prohibitive. Tornado season is no longer a few weeks in one area in the spring.
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

The actual Age of Aquarius is still decades away no matter what anyone tells you. But with Pluto entering Uranus’ favorite sign of Aquarius, their relationship is going to favor reinventing the wheel. If there is alien tech hiding in the hands of human engineers and scientists, by 2026 it’s in the hands of commercial manufacturing and AI has made many successful revisions and discoveries in things we thought we knew.
 
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

​We’re going to see transformation of the planet which we refer to generally as climate change. It’s going to accelerate over the next few years as Pluto moves into the sign of the water bearer, in a shorter time frame than until recently was thought possible. These changes threaten many animal and plant species and the environment in total with a harsh future; this is Neptune in Aries. Saturn is editing the stage and resetting it with what can survive. Most people imagine simplistically that cutting back on fossil fuels solves the problem, replacing those industries and jobs with green solutions. Civilization is a heat engine however it’s run; the planet has passed 8 billion in human population. Simply because 8 billion of us exist makes the planet hotter.
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. 

​Pluto is the planet of the atomic age. Small planetoid Pluto works on the atomic level. It stores in another dimension all human experience with the emotional impacts they made, a resource to be used in our growth, sometimes as a lever and sometimes as a blunt object. Pluto is a resource from which we can release reborn energy from within the atom for new uses. 
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

​In April of 2025, Saturn will square Putin's natal Mars as it approaches the extended meeting with Neptune. Neptune will have already been squaring Putin’s Mars since 2023. The Neptune square could be a sign of a serious longstanding illness. When Putin sent his forces to Ukraine, his chart showed him living under an illusion of greatness. Today, that aspect is in his past. Saturn is now forcing a clear view into his prior delusion. I know; we’ve been hearing about a Putin illness for years. The chart indicates something long-standing. It’s difficult to be precise with Putin’s chart. Astrologers are not completely confident we have an accurate birth time or place, but we have his year and day of birth and can work with that.
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.

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Ukraine

Modern Russia’s chart post-USSR has natal Saturn at 3 degrees of Aquarius. Pluto will be technically conjunct this position, even at the last degrees of Capricorn, but Pluto’s new lease on life will do a lot of internal upheaval as it closes on an exact conjunction to natal Saturn and squares natal Venus through 2025. Maybe Russia joins 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:

​In 2023, when Pluto briefly left Capricorn to enter Aquarius before retrograding back, a leading innovator of AI, formerly a Google lead architect, went public with his worry that AI was going to bring us to the fictional scenario of the movie Terminator, where supercomputers figured out that the biggest threat to the world was humanity. This idea won’t go away when Pluto is fully in Aquarius. Humanity can’t restrain the development of AI now that it’s started. For reasons of competitive necessity, AI is going to ascend as it is inserted into our technology. It’s going to review human activities and knowledge and upgrade them with dimensions of thought that we hadn’t considered. It’s going to study other animal and plant life and possibly discover forms of communication between them or make it possible for us to have a limited form of communication with them. For the people who objected to the “Me Too” movement, you’ll love it when plants and fish can tell us to back off. The same thing applies to communications with extraterrestrial life. AI will think of things and look at places humans have not. AI could make contact, not us. There’s no holding back the many tangents it can explore. There are also many applications for AI that are nefarious, but that’s to be expected since humans made it.

Outlook for world markets

​With the energy of tremendous expansion in Jupiter meeting up with Uranus in April, plus the injection of an eclipse at the same time, there’s volatility in world markets. The investment world loves stability, and for the first few months of 2024, they’ll mostly get that.  There’s a little shock in April, but very good after that.

Carrington Event

​In 1859, the planet Earth experienced what is known in the USA as the Carrington Event, the largest, most powerful solar flare recorded in modern times. At that time, among the major outer planets, Pluto was at 8 degrees of Taurus, Uranus was at 7 degrees of Gemini, Saturn was at 19 degrees of Leo, and Neptune was at 27 degrees of Pisces. Pluto in Taurus was in a sentagon aspect to its natal position in the US natal chart.  (A sentagon is a 100-degree angle between two significant points. It is life-altering.)
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.

​Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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