![]() by David A. Wheatley 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. Pluto has just begun to depart its two decades of work in Capricorn and bring a new angle on the power of Pluto by entering Aquarius. Pluto in Capricorn was about the obsession with concentrated power to transform by edict overwhelmingly. The shift into Aquarius is not about top-down power; it’s about power sharing or power taken and distributed. The first one is voluntary; the second one is by initiative. The old model for Pluto won’t work in Aquarius. If it survived the transition of Pluto into Aquarius as it did in Russia, it only survived to face a forced breakdown while Pluto is in Aquarius. A similar reality faces Trump, who seems poised to assume and concentrate power around himself. Things won’t cooperate as they often don’t for incoming presidents. Circumstances will break down the lines of authority and distribute them, taking power away from a central authority and being custom-fit for more regional and local challenges. It’s conceivable that Trump’s attempt to control more leads to the dissolution of presidential power. At the end of Cancer and moving into Leo, transiting Mars opposed transiting Pluto as it left Capricorn and entered Aquarius last November on election day in the US. Normally the opposition from transiting Mars would last a week or so, but Mars turned retrograde after passing out of the opposition and moved backwards into aspect and into Cancer again by the end of December. On April 3rd, 2025, Mars moves direct and is for the final time in this series opposing Pluto for the last time. Mars's final opposition in this series is a change from its first opposition in the series, taking place in Leo/Aquarius, not Cancer/Capricorn. Same two planets, same aspect, different signs. What’s the difference?For Pluto, it’s a shift from feeling like power is in your hands (Capricorn) to realizing you do not have control over the power; very likely, the power has control over you. For Mars it’s a shift from Cancer to Leo. Mars in Cancer is ready to defend its position, what it believes it owns. Mars in Leo isn’t just defending; it wants everyone to know that it’s putting a flag in the ground and taking what it wants because if you don’t seize what you want, someone else will take it. Mars in Cancer would go to war if attacked, Mars in Leo will start the war. Mars opposition Pluto is jockeying with and presuming to be one of the powerful players, challenging others to put up a fight. Unfortunately, this is the mindset of a bully, both successful and unsuccessful bullies. ![]() Individual people cannot attain and keep the power Pluto brings within their control because most of Pluto is the proverbial iceberg beneath the surface; its natural realm is the unconscious. Would-be operators in the conscious 3D world will never have what it takes to hold this power though they believe otherwise as if they are immortal gods. What they learn is that they are being used by this power from the unconscious. The psyche is always using us, getting us to where we need to be through the deception of the ego. Pluto’s power is manipulated from the unconscious, and what’s in the unconscious are stored memories from past experiences, things we may have tried before, once or many times, and the emotional impact of failure and success. Trying to repair the failure feeling, ego will try again and again to turn failure into success. Whatever lesson was to be found in failure, if it hasn’t been learned, will mount up a greater effort to get past the crushed ego and appeal to us on other levels of realization. It’s always up to us to see things for what they are, see ourselves for who we are, and make choices because of it. The Mars-Pluto opposition is for the benefit of those who need to repeat an experience they’ve suffered before, something that they insulated themselves from realizing and letting go of or acting differently on. Mars finally moving direct and making a final opposition to Pluto as Pluto finally settles into decades in Aquarius, commences setting the themes for Pluto in Aquarius. The next year will be the shifting of all the major outer planets into new signs AND because of retrograde motion, they will as Pluto has done, go back and forth on either side of the relative sign cusps. It will take a year to find a new rhythm because of things happening in 2025 to force changes. The one thing that seems certain is while evolution requires the growth to come, at first it isn’t welcome and no one likes the shape it comes in. Much later on, the major planets make very favorable aspects to each other. Along with the major changes we are forced to make are long-term benefits. Long-term the shape of things results from what happens in 2025 into early 2026. The structures of life with Saturn erecting them in Aries, not Pisces, is to pioneer in a new direction. Gone are the vague borderless facts of Pisces, though borders as people think of them now are also gone. In 2024 around the world there was a huge cry for more defined borders. Saturn in Pisces undermines the psychological vitality of borders. In Aries, to simplify things as Saturn quite often does, it eliminates borders. There are fewer borders to watch. Not likely, this is something many people thought they wanted; this is something they realize is a new reality and because of a realization of survival needs is going to become the new normal. 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. ![]() By April, it should be clear that the centralized power running the US nation (and any other nation or group association) is probably criminally dysfunctional. I say criminally because Pluto works with no regard for the laws of man. Pluto does not know right or wrong; it knows what it wants. What it wants is to find release, to liberate what’s been locked up in the unconscious. Often, structures in the conscious 3D world are in the way and have to be moved, bulldozed, and blown up to make way for what’s coming. Because Pluto is unconscious, it seldom can enact its agenda directly the way swift Mercury can present an idea in a conversation. Pluto is metaphorically lord of the underworld; it presents its idea from below, upsetting what’s built above. If Mercury is the Tower of Language, communication, of Babel, Pluto is the foundation upon which it is built. If Pluto, from its subterranean vaults, is connected to the ephemeral airy sky god Uranus via a lightning bolt, chances are good that the Tower is coming down and will be rebuilt in a new way so this doesn’t happen again. If the internet world of 2024 crashes, it’s going to be rebuilt in a way, perhaps as it always should have been. Until then, a little struggle makes foreign borders an abstract not a part of anyone’s reality. Your new borders are as far as you can exchange with others from your hometown base. Some cities still have working phone booths; bravo for you if you live in one of those, but who do you call? 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. ![]() With Uranus leaving the Fixed Earth sign of Taurus and entering the very different hyper-flexible Mutable Air sign of Gemini, Uranus is unshackled and ready to interrupt human lines of communication with nonsensical chatter. Is it nonsensical, or is it above our head brilliant? Uranus will celebrate gaining liberty with some earth-shaking, big-time cyber hack. The shift of Uranus from Taurus to Gemini is not going to be subtle. Uranus is a primordial sky god, parent of Saturn/Kronos. Uranus is the original owner of the thunderbolt made famous by his grandson Zeus or Jupiter. Air sign Gemini is Mutable, unlike Fixed sign Taurus. In the new playground Gemini, Uranus can flash his lightning bolt often. The early trine to transiting Pluto promises a sudden new connection between the rarified realm of the sky and the underworld of Pluto. Whether it's a solar flare, a man-made EMP-generated disruption, or a massive cyber-attack, Uranus is getting out of jail giddy in the summer of 2025. 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. Saturn and Neptune entering Aries comes about in the frame created by transiting Mars opposing transiting Pluto. Saturn is born again when it enters Aries, following the aimless Saturn in Pisces transit of the past couple of years. Entering Aries, Saturn is finally once again working in the real world. Saturn in Aries is in a hurry; it doesn’t have time or patience for a complicated, sophisticated plan. It’s become apparent in recent weeks that as Saturn and Neptune leave Pisces, something was happening during that period that we are just learning about. Saturn’s haste in Aries probably stems from necessity. Neptune’s influence is convincing all sides that they are holy warriors on a mission. 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. Neptune is leaving its favorite sign, Pisces, and entering its least supportive environment in Aries on April Fool’s Day 2025. Neptune is always a background influence in most people’s lives; they do not realize how powerful the background influence is. Neptune is, however, getting a haircut when it enters Aries, along the lines of Samson getting a haircut. The influence of highly spiritual Neptune in Aries is reduced to a simple need - to inspire the troops. The horizon on what we can be inspired to do goes from Neptune in Pisces' multidimensional consciousness to a Neptune in Aries crusade. Along with the foresight potential of Neptune in Pisces, when it enters Aries, Neptune gets less respect. People are not going to trust their intuition because of the overly wide spectrum of Neptune’s vision in Pisces. When it enters Aries, there’s an intuitive blindness thing happening; decisions will be made that are not based on reliable science or intuition. ![]() Under these circumstances, bad medical advice is very likely. Hasty decisions aligned with ideology are neither good science nor intuitively satisfying. This will erode confidence in the authorities. When Neptune retrogrades back into Pisces, we will have this contrast again; good science and intuitive decisions made by those who KNOW will provide good guidance. But Neptune and Saturn in Aries will at first provide bad leadership because of baseless faith in them. We will fall down and learn the hard way that we have been misguided. Saturn and Neptune have a history of peak importance to countries like the Soviet Union or, possibly this time, for Communist China. These two planets meet up every so many decades, though not at the zero degree of Aries which hasn’t happened in known Western history that anyone has found. Each time in recent decades and centuries, it was a period of creation or calamity for socialist or communist leaders. The Berlin Wall went up and came down on a Saturn/Neptune meeting. It’s possible another wall is proposed to go up in Ukraine soon, or the red line established by the Russian invasion into Ukraine falls down. Socialist/communist manifestos were erected under the meeting of these two outer planets. This is the inspiration of the divine focused on a government that aspires to control people and their possessions, and it leads to the dissolving of said governments. Pluto in Aquarius isn’t strongly pro or anti-socialism. Pluto supports the creation of multiple leaders and multiple member organizations that allow for individual expression. Interdimensional ContactMany people speculate that this time of remarkable astrological events is the opening introduction to aliens interacting with humanity openly. It’s possible; the astrology supports a major shift in our SELF consciousness. If, as some suggest, humanity has been hurried into the technological age (post-Industrial Age) by alien tech since WW2, one major reason aliens would bring the planet into a cyber age is because they can control our society better if we are dependent on technology they helped design. In order to communicate with another dimension of consciousness we need to have a bridge to do that. In the 1920’s and 30’s, old-school magicians and eventual science fiction authors attempted to contact and bring over into this dimension beings from another one. They claim to have had some success in their line of communication. Some believe that their attempts and limited success alerted other dimensional beings that we are here and should be surveyed, as many feel we have been. 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. ![]() The timing of manifestation for these large outer planets in personal charts depends on the movement of the inner planets, inside the orbit of Jupiter. Mars, Mercury, Venus and the Sun bring vast expressions of higher consciousness into our daily lives. We look to the inner planets for the roadway of these larger-than-life planetary energies to enter into our conscious lives. Many astrologers also note the position of the Moon as a vehicle for outer planet expression, but I am careful with these because of how fast the Moon transits in and out of aspect in a matter of hours. If the Moon joins into an aspect already being activated by Mercury, Venus, the Sun, or Mars, I consider the Moon’s position more carefully and note its phase (full or new Moon). By itself, the few hours of a lunar transit can be inadequate; you might be asleep when it happens. The Moon, added to any other inner planet’s transit, becomes a major layer of content to be aware of. Pluto is the unconscious, individual and collective spanning life and death. The Moon is the subconscious patterns and material we inherit and learn from those in our families and lives. With a rare black moon and the peak of the year's first major meteor shower already behind us, January is shaping up to be an exciting month for stargazers in 2025. Per NASA, stargazers can enjoy a sweeping view of Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in a planetary parade happening each night all month long. While spotting multiple planets in alignment isn't entirely rare, this occurrence doesn't happen every year, so it's worth checking out, the space agency said. 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. Early in February, Venus is at 29 degrees of Pisces, and it moves over both Saturn and Neptune, sparking chemistry with them as they all sort of enter Aries in a sloppy series of group transits. Thirty degrees at the end of one sign is zero degrees of the next one. It’s not a hard-edged line between signs, so if Saturn is at 29 degrees and moving forward, it’s also at the entry of the next sign. Venus crossing over more quickly from Pisces into Aries and over Saturn introduces us to how we feel about what is happening. We may not know the details but we are aware something is developing. Saturn and Neptune don’t try to surprise us in order to intervene in our lives, we get clues about something coming before it arrives. Venus’ conjunction with both Saturn and Neptune is big hit of anticipation, preparing us for what’s about to be enacted. Venus and Saturn is a sobering moment, usually not jumping up and down good news but not necessarily all bad. Venus and Neptune is hopeful with Neptune in Pisces. Venus in Aries is more of an instant need to satisfy, more conditional. Something is good if certain conditions are met. 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. Early in March Mercury moves over the same territory into Aries. Real information is at hand. Now we need to talk about this. What are we going to do? What can someone tell me about this? I need more information. Who you gonna call? 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 16 the retrograde motion Mercury being over, Mercury is moving direct at zero degrees of Aries for the second time in weeks, along with Neptune at zero degrees of Aries. This is a few days of holy crap. Speeches, proclamations, agreements, new borders. Agreements made under Neptune will change, Neptune doesn’t believe in borders, rules or strict definitions. Any agreement made will be broken. 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 EclipseOn March 14th there’s an eclipse of the Moon by the Sun, a total lunar eclipse close to midnight EST. It's visible over a path arcing across the US and going off into the Atlantic Ocean right after midnight. This takes place at 24 degrees of Pisces. There’s a lot going on around 24 degrees of Pisces as well as other signs at that time. 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? Because the planets, the Sun and the Moon, are physical universe manifestations of bigger, more potent concentrations of the psyche, both personal and collective. They are more than physical objects. Backing physical reality is the natural realm of the psyche, and in these other dimensions the concept of time as we know it does not apply. The energies mingle and intertwine, spread out over what we think of as time, and manifest multiple times, as if many months are a single moment. 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. Mercury’s transit over the degree of the eclipse is a greater awareness of a relation between transiting Mercury and any natal planet at the same degree of any sign. It’s more powerful for a conjunction, opposition or square, slightly less for trine, sextile etc. The house position is very helpful for indicating what area of your life this conscious attention is directed. 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. Comments welcome.
David can also be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation. Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.
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