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by David A. Wheatley, January 1, 2026 The Year of the Horse Overview of Charts: Ukraine, Russia, Vladmir Putin, Donald Trump, USA ERIS PREDICTIONS A year ago, I looked at the natal chart for Ukraine and wrinkled my brow. Astrologically, 2025 was going to be a tough year for them to survive. And they have. Vladimir Putin and Russia’s chart also had perils, but Putin’s chart was fortified by his natal strengths. (Later in this article, I have included a forecast looking at this situation.) 2026 will be the Chinese year of the Horse, the Red or Fire horse to be specific.Chinese astrology is different from Western and Vedic astrology. Chinese astrology is a repeating 12-year cycle of animals in one of the five rotating elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Metal. In the Western traditions, there are only four elements; the same but without Metal. In Chinese astrology, the fifth element, Metal, could be equated with ether, the plane or environment of subtle energy and intuition. This is a step away from the other four tangible elements from the 3D world of physicality. In traditional Chinese medicine, Metal is associated with the lungs and large intestine, largely because these organs are involved in eliminating toxins and in purifying or refining the processes of other elements in the body.  The Fire Horse is action-oriented; like all fire, it consumes in the act of expression. It transforms the substance it contacts back into molecules and energy, which can be used to serve other purposes. The Fire Horse acts to define itself as independent, acting for its own interests generally. In reality, no individual exists entirely independently, and the belief that there is such a thing as independence is a matter of degree. Fire requires oxygen; it isn’t independent. The Fire Horse is absorbed with its own expression, which can blind it, and it can miss opportunities in what is being passed by. The possibilities for turbulence in the Fire Horse year are high. Wildly fluctuating energies manifested in every area of life are possible, including in the investment world. Surges up and down. Opportunities. Other than the Wood Horse, all Horse elements are characterized by energetic outgoing energy in motion. The Wood Horse is the more stable of the five elements, but 2026 is not a Wood Horse year. All the Horses are admired by others. Horse energy tends not to stand still and is restless to fulfill itself in motion. The Fire Horse is visually admirable. It’s said to be full of passion but can also manifest as self-absorption. A horse that might not saddle well. In such a year, the direction things take place in the world seems erratic. There’s lots of activity and things seem to be happening, though it's hard to define if the purpose has good legs under it. Plans seem patchy. Activity may result in something remarkable if not startling or upsetting, even without an intention to be any of those things. Passion can be connected to a higher purpose; it can inspire action, but it can also trample things in its path. In Chinese tradition, the Red Horse year can bring fundamental change with turmoil. The last Red Horse year was 1966 and brought Mao’s Cultural Revolution and a long struggle. Revolutions follow a crisis, and the dust doesn’t settle for a while. If there were a war over Taiwan that went badly for Beijing, that could be one example, or a large natural catastrophe undermining confidence in national leadership, and a change of leadership direction. Individuals born in 1966 are mostly Fire Horses, although the Chinese lunar-based calendar only overlaps and is not identical to the Western 12-month Julian calendar. Looking at the last two Fire Horse Years, 1906 and 1966, might be a guideline:1906 saw the first powered aircraft. US intervention in Cuba. The British Empire faced violent uprisings in Egypt and South Africa. Earthquakes in 1906: The 1906 Ecuador-Colombia Earthquake (January 31): Magnitude: Estimated 8.8. Tectonic Setting: A megathrust earthquake on the boundary between the Nazca and South American plates. Impact: Generated significant tsunamis and caused widespread destruction in coastal Ecuador and Colombia. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (April 18): Magnitude: Around 7.9. Epicenter: Near San Francisco, along the San Andreas Fault. Impact: Lasted 45-60 seconds, causing immense shaking, but the subsequent fires (due to broken gas lines and water main breaks) caused most damage, destroying over 28,000 buildings and leaving 250,000 homeless. Casualties: Estimated 3,000+ deaths. Felt Area: From southern Oregon to Los Angeles and inland to Nevada. Other Notable 1906 Earthquakes: A significant M 6.7 aftershock occurred west of Eureka, California, on April 23, 1906. 1966 was a year of protest in the USA about getting deeper into the Vietnam War. It was the rolling out of Mao’s Revolution in China. It was the beginning of Miranda Rights, Civil Rights, and the Medicare Act. A political leader was assassinated in South Africa in the struggle against the apartheid system. Earthquakes in 1966: Xingtai, China (Mar 8): A magnitude 7.2 earthquake caused extensive damage and over 100 fatalities. Hualien, Taiwan (Mar 12): An 8.0 magnitude earthquake resulted in some deaths and injuries, according to Wikipedia. Tashkent, USSR (Apr 26): A shallow 5.2 magnitude quake caused serious damage to the city center, destroying buildings and leaving many homeless, though casualties were relatively low due to the earthquake's nature, according to YouTube. Parkfield, California (June 28): A magnitude 5.6 earthquake on the famous fault, known for its predictable recurrence, caused little damage due to sparse population but showed clear fault rupture. Turkey (Varto - Aug 19): A magnitude 6.8 earthquake led to nearly 2,400 deaths, making it the deadliest of the year, notes Wikipedia. Peru (Oct 17): An 8.1 magnitude earthquake caused destruction in coastal areas, killing over 100 people, injuring thousands, and resulting in significant damage, with maximum intensity reaching MMI IX. As I have said many times, the entry of Saturn and Neptune to Aries is a big shift from Pisces.In Pisces, we seem to have a lot of time for decisions and consequences to find their shape in reality, if they ever do. But in Aries, decisions and consequences will take shape more quickly, perhaps because the need is immediate. UKRAINE  2026 is a much better year for Ukraine. In the last two-plus years, Pluto was conjunct Ukraine’s natal Saturn. This is really tough in any chart. The grinding down of Pluto to expose the raw essence of what is of value. Pluto exposes corruption that was hidden. It has to expose it to erode old structure and to clarify what is worth saving. As 2026 begins, Pluto begins to transit away from natal Saturn in Ukraine’s chart. This destructive pressure eases off. Transiting Venus conjuncts Ukraine’s natal Neptune and Uranus, and later its North Nodes. This is a feeling of hope and sudden new historic possibilities, probably in the form of a peace agreement, followed by what seems like the laying down of an historical concept of a new future. Venus brings an atmosphere in which a hopeful peace is possible. Venus also makes a sextile to Ukraine’s natal Pluto at this time, possibly in the 9th house. This is a powerful support from a foreign power to the belief in the Venus inspired hope. But Venus by itself is overpowered by Pluto. This reminds me of the myth of Persephone (Venus) who strikes an agreement to ward off a war among the gods because Hades (Pluto) had abducted her, coveted her, was obsessed with possessing her beauty. This is Putin, obsessed with possessing Ukraine. In myth, Persephone injects herself into her parents’ arguing and haggling with Hades, and volunteers to surrender part of her freedom, allowing Hades/Pluto to dominate and possess her for part of every year, thus Hades wins. Venus isn’t enough to make the outer planet Pluto bend to its influence and for it to last very long. The charm illusion will break down unless other factors fortify Venus. This past summer, U.S. President Trump began efforts to build a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. At that time, Jupiter was in opposition to Ukraine’s natal Uranus, Neptune, and nearby its North Nodes. Jupiter in opposition often brings unrealistic expectations, but it does bring an opportunity if one has the ability to step into it. Mars in transit met up with Jupiter to put some energy behind the hopes for something to materialize between President Trump meeting Vladimir Putin and the expected imminent talks with Ukraine. The moment passed, and neither Trump nor Putin stepped into history. Jupiter went past this point and, since then, turned retrograde. Jupiter will repeat this hopeful sextile aspect to Ukraine’s natal Uranus/Neptune from mid-January into February. Such aspects, when repeated because of retrograde motion, are a further evolution and amplification of the same themes. The process of talking about peace will again rise to a more hopeful level in early 2026. It’s part of an extended Jupiter transit because of retrograde motion. There is more meat on the bone in the retrograde created second transit than in a single brief transit by Jupiter and or Venus. The opportunity is there if, in the next and final passage of Jupiter, the energies available are steered in the right direction, navigating around autocratic human ego. Jupiter has a better chance of making a peace agreement happen, but one cannot underestimate the longer-term influence of slow-moving Pluto. There’s still doubt that peace lasts or that it was ever meant to last. Transiting Saturn during the past year’s travel through the end of Pisces has been opposite Ukraine’s natal Mars. Saturn’s retrograde motion there and back, and then finally departing from this aspect again by late January, finally eases off some of the destructive actions in Ukraine from Russia, and Ukraine’s daily drone attacks in Russia damaging and destroying costly infrastructure there. This suits a ceasefire action. A great example of how Saturn (structure) and Mars (aggressive action) combined to teach about the costs of them getting caught in old historic patterns. Western media has not sufficiently covered the extensive destruction of Ukraine’s ingenious drone warfare targeting Russian military and industrial facilities. One has to research it on your own in foreign non-US media, to learn more. Russia has been bleeding resources due to a high rate of losses to repair or replace men and equipment. The Russian economy is choking. Meanwhile, Russian missiles target civilians and their residences inside Ukraine. Commencing late February into March, transiting Saturn and Neptune both make a sextile to Ukraine’s natal 1st house Saturn from the 2nd house. This feels like relief is finally coming for Ukraine. If it isn’t a peace agreement, it is definitely an endorsement of resources to sustain Ukraine and fortify its war efforts. If there is a peace agreement, this is a commitment to rebuild and repair. It could be both. It is definitely a completely different and more hopeful feeling than what’s prevailed over the past couple of years. RUSSIA Looking at Russia’s chart, it would be best to end the war soon because what’s coming in its natal chart by transit over the next several months is very difficult. The transiting of Saturn and Neptune into Aries by April (and for the next couple of years) makes a tense square aspect to Russia’s natal Sun. This is a two-fold depressing influence on Russian vitality, both in spirit and in daily life. The square from Neptune robs Russia of belief in a better future. The square from Saturn reveals the hardships of daily life for the foreseeable future. Should the war not be settled, the cost internally is a huge drain of vitality, and a belief that it will never end, because while Saturn departs this aspect at the end of 2026, Neptune will maintain the depressed psychological state for two plus years. Pluto has been and will be in a semi-sextile aspect to Russia’s natal Sun, which is an irritant, a stressful suppression of expression by the powers that be. The sextile aspect is facing a reality that things could have been better if one had acted sooner. Having bad timing. Pluto departs this aspect in February, and it feels like the lid has come off, suppressing the general population's feelings, a deep sigh of relief. But it returns by retrograde motion in the Spring. Pluto exposes deceit, lies, and criminal behavior. This is the kind of pressure that leads to rebellion. A semi-sextile aspect wants to be positive, but it gets there by irritating methods. While the semi-sextile from transiting Pluto is a constant pressure for change, transiting Pluto is about to conjunct Russia’s natal Saturn. This resembles in feeling the kind of thing that forced the Soviet Union to dissolve. Pluto brings the darkest material from the past to the surface, which must be dealt with, and natal Saturn is the structure of the nation’s identity. Under the darkest pressure, Saturn brings destitution if necessary to generate change. For the next two to three years, Pluto by transit will force Russia to face what it’s been hiding in the basement. Peace agreement or not, life in Russia is going to get very difficult and painful. The risk of a nuclear accident or deliberate nuclear strike is higher with Pluto transiting to conjunct Russia’s natal Saturn. Pluto is the planet of the atomic age, and its nature is to obliterate existing structures, break them down into raw materials, and rebuild them. Saturn is structure and almost always interacts with structure in our bodies or externally in our lives by wanting to refine or simplify it, make it more efficient. Thus, both Saturn and Pluto don't hesitate to obliterate existing structures if they are an obstacle to growth; we experience this as frustrating, to say the least. Mars transits into join by conjunction transiting Pluto as it conjuncts Russia’s natal Saturn, in late January 2026. An accident or nuclear event at that time is a possibility—also, possibly a plot in Russia to shift power, violently. With the state of Russian infrastructure in poor repair as it currently is, an accident within Russia is possible. Jupiter’s transit in Cancer prolonged by retrograde motion opposes Russia’s natal Uranus and Neptune in February 2026. This is not helpful either. Again, it refers to opportunities that are not in the control of the government, of people who believe they have control. Even if Russia were to end the war soon, it faces a long period of struggle for many years, rebuilding what took decades to establish but was lost in the war. VLADMIR PUTIN The above modern chart for Russia, coming into existence after the fall of the Soviet Union, has natal Saturn in the 6th house. This is a real-world sickness. For years, there has been non-stop chatter about Vladimir Putin’s health being suspect. Saturn in particular in mid-December, and recently Neptune, are or were square to his natal Mars. In the chart for Putin that most astrologers work from with caution because of the uncertainty of his birth time, his natal Mars is in the 2nd house. The subject of these planets in aspect would circle around stresses over material matters—money, financing. And the news for Putin and Russia in general is that Russia’s resources are being depleted, and its equipment for fighting in a war is not being repaired. Early in 2025, Russia sold a record amount of its gold reserves to China, almost a trillion dollars. Over-budget expenses exceeded $200 billion per month in 2025. They are running out of cash. Putin has been clawing back support money from oligarchs and requiring corporations to contribute to financing the war. Ever the poker player, he plays his hand like he’s ready to do this forever. But Russia is emptying its resources, and pressure will ultimately fall back on Putin. And at the same time, it was announced that Ukraine has secured long-term financing to continue to survive in its war with Russia. These are the stresses associated with Saturn squaring Putin’s natal Mars. Putin’s major source of income, selling sanctioned oil, has forced Russia to sell at a discounted price of around $35 per barrel when the world market price is a little over $60 per barrel. The realities Saturn forces one to face are unpleasant. Around Putin’s base of power, Russian banks are moving rapidly towards failure. A large proportion of businesses cannot afford the higher interest rates on their loans. This recalls the situation that forced the collapse of the Soviet Union, except that Putin is no Gorbachev. In mid-December, transiting Mars and Venus conjuncted Putin’s natal Mars, which on their own is not bad news, but when natal Mars is being squared by transiting Saturn, the interaction with transiting Venus and transiting Mars are catalysts for facing the realities of spending money or arguing over money you don’t have. Neptune in the past could have masked an analysis that is now revealed to be in error. People lied to Putin to keep from falling out of windows. In June of 2026, transiting Saturn will oppose Putin’s natal Mercury, Saturn, Neptune and Sun. Unfortunately, no one is certain of Putin’s birth time and so we can’t be sure of the house positions, but going with the chart most referred to in astrological practice this grouping of natal planets is in his 12th house, with his natal Sun in the 11th. Saturn opposing natal Saturn isn’t always as difficult in later years as it might be in youth. It depends on how well one has adjusted to meeting life with maturity and is able to recognize reality and responsibility. If one has been in denial of reality, the opposition of Saturn to Saturn is an unpleasant wake-up, recognizing limitations that one refused to acknowledge. Even confinement. If, as some astrologers believe, the house position is correct, it’s potentially a revelation that Putin’s thinking and beliefs have been wrong and he therefore won’t achieve the results he believes in. The results may be depressing, with Saturn being the instigator. The Sun in the 11th house suggests he has made influential connections to others, but the 11th house people one connects to are not family or friends that you surround yourself with and from whom you can expect some loyalty. They have no allegiance to Putin. In this circumstance, Saturn can make one feel very isolated and alone. DONALD TRUMP President Trump in 2027-28 faces a growing opposition from transiting 6th house Pluto to his natal 12th house Pluto. Granted transiting Pluto’s orb of influence is large, at least half a dozen degrees. Trump’s natal Pluto is at 10 degrees of Leo. Pluto begins in 2026 to creep on conjuncting his natal Pluto. It will culminate in late 2027-28. This is definitely a health issue, the wearing down function of Pluto, typical of old age. The 6th house is physical vitality and the effect one has on others around them in the workplace. After a lifetime of whatever habits a person has subjected their physical body to, the yield shows up by the time Pluto transits to oppose one’s natal Pluto, especially along the 6th and 12th house axis. With Pluto in the 6th, the environment he creates around him is wrapped around coveting power: the power to shape things according to the 12th house psyche, which, for this man, has natal Pluto. What’s coming with the opposition in the next few years is the culmination of a lifetime of coveting power. The deeply obsessive nature of Pluto to dominate has a self-destruct component. Pluto is transformation. If one doesn’t manage it inwardly, Pluto brings it in an externalized form or a person into one’s life. Unless one can see how they created it, one will feel victimized. Pluto must work through others if you won't admit to needing it to transform you and work with it. There is no escape, not even death. Pluto keeps everything and saves it for your next visit to Earth. Pluto is Hades realm, it is hell, which reminds us that the Lord of Hell is a teacher with a dirty job to do. In late March of 2026, transiting 8th house Saturn begins an opposition to Trump's natal 2nd house Neptune that lasts late into December. Indecision and confusion, frustration in sorting out reality. This experience leads people to conclude that the president's mind is deteriorating. Major decisions under this influence go poorly. Because Neptune is in his natal 2nd house, unsurprisingly, it is a lifelong flaw in making good decisions around making money and investment. No wonder he has had so many bankruptcies; he deals with reality, but not the one everyone else does. Saturn in opposition to natal Neptune is another loss from fantasy being interrupted by reality. As the Lord of Karma and architect of structure in all things, Saturn often conflicts with Neptune. These two planets represent very different, almost opposite perspectives. Having Neptune in the 2nd house in a natal chart doesn’t bode well for a person to be a successful investor unless they are appealing to Neptune’s higher values, service and charity to others. Just prior to beginning his first term, Trump was required by a court of law to pay restitution to a charity his corporation defrauded. This is his pattern. He seems unable to appeal to Neptune’s higher ideals of selfless service. This is another loss coming up from investment because of a belief in something that doesn’t serve the greater reality of the psyche, service to others without ego. If this same aspect were in the chart of someone whose nature was to be of service to others, the mingling of Saturn and Neptune in opposition would bring a selfless problem. Because Trump is president, his losses will flood into the lives of others left in the wake of his inability to be of service to humanity. Follow this leader, and you live in his reality. Soon after this begins, transiting Saturn squares his natal 11th house Mercury, extending losses to those who followed him. Either they also experience a loss related to him, or he loses them perhaps because of (Mercury) words, speeches, or agreements made. Information like the Epstein files shared among his followers (11th house). Saturn, as Lord of Karma, brings things from the past into the present. Saturn delivers the harvest of what we have built or failed to build. Following that, transiting Saturn makes a trine aspect to his natal 12th house Pluto, sustaining his faith in himself, maintaining his ability to deny reality - in his personal psychology - that he’s made some bad economic decisions. These transits from Saturn repeat themselves due to retrograde motion the following year in 2027. July of next year will be a positive period for the president. His White House building project will at least satisfy him in transforming his immediate world, with transiting Jupiter conjunct his natal 12th house Pluto. This is a special moment of being fulfilled, transforming his current residence into a projection of how he sees himself. Jupiter’s transit is also semi-sextile to his natal 11th house Mercury. This is an undercurrent of displeasure and even protest among former supporters who feel that the resources they believed would benefit them directly were diverted. They wanted their lives transformed. The semi-sextile aspect is an irritating one. What should be a time of celebration is a reminder of frictions. Uranus, while moving into Gemini fully, will remain in Trump’s 2nd house, bringing him promises of windfalls of income. He won’t waver from his beliefs that his method, though conflicted by the normal ethics of being president, is not conflicted because his successes are proof of his virtue. Making a profit is validation of everything. In the first week of February 2026, Trump will experience transiting 6th house Mars in opposition to his natal 12th house Pluto. This is a bad week for his health. In June of 2026, transiting Jupiter in the US natal chart's 8th house will spend a couple of weeks in opposition to the US natal 2nd house Pluto. This is a big power struggle about resources, money, a big grab for more. It could be one of Trump’s war scenarios over something like oil in Venezuela or Greenland’s territory, preceded by Jupiter semi-sextile the US natal Mars in the weeks before. That’s a heated argument, a consequential falling out and possibly another over the top aggressive expression of American "strength". USA The US natal chart will soon experience the transits of Saturn and Neptune in Aries together and separately in a stressful square aspect to the US natal 7th house Venus. Historically, the US has had close relationships or friendships and partnerships with many nations as a world leader and advocate for a shared capitalist democracy that others believed would also benefit them. And it did in many ways. But this is a peak of tension, of breaking off relationships. I would not be surprised, for example, if the US left NATO. It had already alienated many traditional allies in 2025. The square to 7th house Venus is the departure from established partnerships. Neptune in the square is the illusion of a friendship, but it is revealed to be a disappointment. Saturn is leaving the relationship and its obligations. Saturn cuts ties. Saturn will do the dramatic part decisively, in March, and move on. Neptune's inspirational qualities that supported the partnership initially will dissolve as it leaves Pisces and enters Aries. The square aspect remains in place for over a year, during which time no clear reconciliation is likely. In 2028, Saturn will transit into opposition to the US natal 10th house Saturn. This is a year of introspection and worry about the voting structure of the nation, last seen in the year 2000, the last time transiting Saturn was in a strong opposition aspect to the US natal Saturn. This was the election in which Al Gore conceded defeat to President G.W. Bush, but if the same circumstances were to happen today, it would not be resolved by one side conceding after only a few weeks of recounts and hanging chads. These fears will return; however, unlike events in 2000, Saturn will not actually complete its opposition to the US natal Saturn until well after the election in 2028, not until at least April of 2029. I would say the outcome of the election will not be clear until April/May of 2029. In the months between the 2028 election and that time anything can happen and I will look at that astrology some other day. ERIS Hubble image of Eris and its moon, Dysnomia Eris is a planetoid, similar to Pluto, only further out, and takes even longer to go around the Sun for one of its years. Eris, in myth, is the sister of the war god Ares, and Eris is in Aries now, as it has been for longer than most of us have been alive. Eris will have a rendezvous meeting with Saturn when Saturn arrives in Aries in late Spring, early Summer of 2026. Eris is almost the size of Pluto and is considered, like Pluto, a dwarf planet. It's a little smaller but denser than Pluto, and it has a Moon (Dysnomia). It's a legitimate dwarf planet that should be regarded as Pluto is, as a recent addition to known objects in the solar system. Astrologers are not yet fully versed in what Eris is all about. The discovery of Eris initiated the argument about whether Pluto is a planet or an asteroid. A planetoid. It was hailed as the missing tenth planet when discovered, but it didn’t satisfy astronomers that it was a large enough body to have the gravitational influence on other planets they expected to find in the tenth planet. They continue to search. Eris is a war goddess like her brother. Its orbit is three times as far from the Sun as Pluto’s orbit, a 560-year orbit. In general, if we award to a planet greater power in our psyche by how slow it is and therefore how long it remains in an influential aspect with another planet, we have to consider that Eris, who is like her brother Ares a warrior deity, has a lot of influence on our psychological spiritual nature, but in psychological dimensions we don’t fully understand yet.  The reason I mention it is that I would expect that when Saturn catches up with it in 2026, we will learn something more about it and about ourselves in how their meeting manifests. The meeting of a warrior goddess attitude with the Lord of Karma, Structure, and Time, feels like the boiling over of antagonism between patriarchy and matriarchy. It could very well be the moment the Epstein files reach their maximum impact on attitudes of men towards women. There's a huge divide in parts of the world, including in the US, that's far more complex than simply equality between male and female. In myth, Saturn/Kronos overthrew his father Uranus to bring his reality into existence and to bring dimensionality into consciousness. Saturn was told by the Fates he would suffer the same destiny and be overthrown by his children. Putting aside the steps he took to prevent that, he couldn’t avoid his destiny and eventually one of his sons, Zeus/Jupiter, gathered his brothers and allies together to overthrow his father and bring his expansion of the mind into being in the metaphorical Golden Age of Greece. There’s a repeating drama in the telling of the mythical ages of Man, of the younger generation having to overthrow the older who won’t surrender power to them. Eris isn’t the younger generation in the meeting with Saturn, and it isn’t Mars/Ares, the war god; it’s a feminine agent deep in the psyche we are barely aware of, that is, according to myth, not in a happy attitude with its place in the pantheon. There are areas of mutual benefit between Eris and Saturn while conjunct in the sign of Aries. We can hope that Saturn incorporates Eris’ chemistry into a structure useful for our society; one that is likely necessary. Perhaps realizing we are living in a habitat that is changing and becoming more challenging to be sustained in because of climate changes. I expect this realization to come about because of threats to our habitat; Eris and Saturn both have reputations for learning the hard way.  Everyone alive today has Eris in Aries; to learn exactly where Eris is in your natal chart and by transit, click here to go to the Astrodienst ephemeris. Saturn transits into a conjunction with Eris for all of 2027 into 2028.The last time Saturn conjuncted Eris (which is in Aries for decades) was during much of 1968, beginning in March and by direct/retrograde motion for several months. Here's a list of the goings on at the time: Prior to the conjunction, out of the orb of influence: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Feb 19: The beloved children's show premiered on public television. Saturn moves within the orb of influence:
The good news overall is that while huge change and a lot of messy turmoil are in the wind, after a period of upset and discord, what remains for several years is a very positive evolutionary and flowing aspect between Pluto and Neptune, which for a little shorter period will include inventive Uranus. The upsets unravel in February, and by the summer, we are finding our footing. There’s always problems to solve. T CORONAE BOREALISIn the summer of 2024, NASA announced that a star named "T Coronae Borealis" was going to go nova, and it would be an interesting thing to observe in the night sky. It’s been about to happen for two years, but hasn’t. Two years in the life of a star that exists for billions isn’t “late”. I think NASA will let us know when it happens. PREDICTIONS FOR 2026 I expect as many as three wars involving the US: Venezuela, Taiwan and Ukraine though saying this I don’t think the US is involved with boots on the ground or water. Trump will stay out of Ukraine as a Putin ally and distance the US from NATO, to our later regret. The EU has to take its fate into its own hands; having seen wars with Russia before, the EU should know what to do and do it without the US. The US cannot be relied upon. Russia has never had a robust economy and is going to be in quicksand this year. Putin’s Russia may be ready to emulate the Soviet Union in its bankruptcy, but Putin will by force of will never back down, he will refuse to save his people. The US is poised to be involved in the case of a war around Taiwan. I don’t think China will do as well as they believe once they cross the line. I think the cost will be too high and they will fail to achieve the results they expect. This throws world markets into a tailspin for a while. China has deep economic problems and internal rivalries as well. War would push social and economic crisis into the background for a while but not solve them. The outbreak of war in Venezuela is a dark step in the region and will make more enemies than friends in the short term. In January, a cluster of planets, including Mars, will be in Capricorn, opposing Venezuela’s natal Sun. This is the timing of maximum pressure, and for an outbreak of war, or a resolution to avoid it and make some kind of deal. A deal is possible that leaves Maduro installed. This cluster is inconjunct the natal 7th house Mercury/Venus in the natal chart. Don’t be surprised if this happens, but even a new leadership will be beholden to President Trump. It depends on what he is offered. None of these wars will last long. By mid-summer, I expect most of the destructive business is behind us, leaving a mess. But, because tensions are being released, great changes are possible now. The US economy will be revealed to be in much hotter water than advertised. The government shutdown in 2025 obscured numbers for those months, and since that will finally begin to be revealed by mid to late January, it will alarm markets and stir outrage in the political world at how out of control and how much decline is unfolding rapidly in the US economy. There’s going to be a lot of fast footwork to spin the news and resolve some of the mess. Things will remain at a stressful level for months. It’s not that the economy is terrible; it's that the government providing the information in the US is as manipulative about it as the government in China. Markets are averse to hysterics and fake information; they will surge all over the place, down and up, and down, most of the year. Volatility will cause increasing damage and lead to worse employment conditions. The Epstein files continue to come out, and the ugly truth is subject to great efforts to control/suppress the information, manage it, and on the other side, to bring it out. The information is damaging all year. As usual, the cover-up is also damaging. Many scandals of the last decade that were suppressed with Saturn in Pisces will come out in the next few months. The US government is shaken beginning late in January; people within the government begin to use privileged information against each other, and to reveal long-held secrets. Revelations. Confirming some conspiracies, tarnishing others. New personnel replace the old. Would not be surprised if this happens because Trump is no longer the president for health reasons. July 4th: something more remarkable than an MMA fight on the White House lawn will happen—a surprise. Neptune and Saturn often seem to be involved in a pandemic and or a vaccine to overcome it. In late 2019, they were in sextile with each other from Capricorn to Pisces. COVID-19 was pronounced a threat to the world. By April/May of 2022, the Covid 19 pandemic was being managed and people had returned to their work and regular life as Saturn was in Aquarius, semi-sextile Neptune in Pisces. The virus continues but does not currently pose a threat. I don’t think this year will be an exception. Another national or world-class virus would further undermine confidence in American leadership and erode America’s stature in the world. Later in the year 2026, the US has an election. Wars have never halted an election in the USA; there won’t be a viable excuse to alter the election this year. The election produces divisions and no ability to change much. A Democratic Party-dominated Congress is unable, by itself, to change the country's trajectory. More division, escalating partisan activism. Christian nationalism dominates the new Republican Party. The world's most well-known superpowers - China, the USA, and masquerading as a world power, Russia - continue to be diminished. More of the superpower nations’ secrets from the last 30 years since Neptune and Saturn last conjuncted come out, and all of these three governments are diminished. During the military turmoil of 2026, internet integrity fails and is assaulted. This is frustrating, but not all bad. Be prepared with backups and batteries. I expect a declaration that the Arctic is going to reach a minimum level of sea ice and commence a major climate change for the whole planet that we will never be able to reverse. It almost doesn’t matter. The Arctic came very close to this in 2025; it only has to come close to be a problem. Everything about a warming Arctic Sea accelerates. The planet turns off the summer air conditioner, which is the Arctic. Uranus moving into Gemini initiates months of seismic shifting. Late May early June some major events erupt. That's a likely time for an internet failure. Volatile energy all year doesn't support good health, psychologically, because long-held tensions and toxins are coming out in the collective psyche. Later, this period will be seen as a positive necessity. A domestic terror attack is highly likely during the last quarter of 2026 or early 2027. Comments welcome.
David can be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation. Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.
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by David A. Wheatley  Our Solar System Every physical body in the solar system is inherently part of an energetic body that hosts our psyche to varying degrees, not reliant on importance or size. The physical size of Pluto compared to Jupiter, even though Pluto is considered a far smaller planetoid or other names, doesn’t factor into the importance of the qualities inhabiting it. The planets are the marquee members of the solar system, along with the Sun and Moon. Other planets have “moons” too, and the sheer quantity is more than a human mind can grasp from an Astrological point of view. There are an estimated 2 million asteroids in this solar system, in addition to comets flying around. Comets pass by or impact the Earth in groups; often, a disintegrating larger comet or asteroid leaves debris behind, and the Earth passes through these debris fields regularly, which is why they can be forecast. They are also in orbit around the Sun. But Astrologers are only beginning to chart the planetoids or larger asteroids and incorporate them into the body of the chart of the psyche that Astrology is mapping. It’s important to remember that every component of the solar system and the planets, Sun, and Moon in particular, are not external objects projecting their influences on us. They are the hosts of specific internal energies within us, acting on each other in a body that is multi-dimensional, yet we only know to exist in the physical 3rd dimension. Our Astrology charts address these energies somewhat simplistically as if they are external objects affecting us.  The Milky Way Atlas is said to be a comet from outside the solar system based on its trajectory of entry and its composition, which is unlike that of comets in our solar system. But here it is. Atlas has entered our 3D physical universe body and interacts with various parts of it, some more than others, over Time. There’s a list, I believe, of around 13 Atlas anomalies at present. These properties do not conform with established norms for comets or suggest that they conform instead with manufactured hardware. Maybe a Trojan Horse. I’m settled with the idea of Atlas as a living body, just as the Earth and other planets, etc., are sentient as Astrology sees them. What they are made of is a secondary matter. But I am also entertaining the real possibility that Atlas is a manufactured object on a calculated trajectory. Its trajectory is among the many anomalies that don’t comfortably fit for a comet. From a scientific perspective, Atlas’s trajectory suggests it originated outside the solar system and that this is a one-time visit. But if it’s manufactured, its trajectory is also manufactured to suggest, through straightforward calculations, that it came from outside the solar system, yet not identify which outer planet, known or unknown, it could have come from. Earth-based observation noticed it on its inbound journey as it was approaching Jupiter’s orbit, though Jupiter was far from that location in its orbit around the Sun. Atlas has made its closest approach to the Sun, behind the Sun from our point of view, and by some means described as not dependent on the gravity of the Sun for its acceleration around it, and is now heading for a close passage of Jupiter. This trajectory will take it precisely where it needs to be to avoid being grabbed by Jupiter’s enormous and powerful gravity field and to avoid being influenced by the gravity field of the Sun. It’s a very precise trajectory that seems too perfect to be luck. But we have no proof of anything otherwise. I’ve seen recent, higher-quality photos with attributes that definitely begin to resemble something manufactured, but this is not clear proof, as science requires.  Another remarkable thing about 3I/Atlas is that when it arrives close to Jupiter on its way out of the solar system, or perhaps back where it came from, it is precisely when Saturn and Neptune make their conjunction at zero degrees of Aries. This happens slowly around mid-February of next year; the two outer giant planets remain close into April, after which Saturn begins to pull away, as it is the faster-moving of the two. In this same period, Saturn and Neptune are sextile to Pluto in early Aquarius, and sextile to Uranus in Gemini. Saturn and Neptune are thus at the midpoint aspect of the 120-degree trine of Pluto to Uranus. The midpoint of Uranus and Pluto, at zero degrees of Aries, is powerful. Midpoints like this are highly sensitive in and of themselves, whatever their degree. The zero degree of Aries, being the 30th degree of Pisces, like all zero degrees of any sign, is a heightened point of potency for any planet crossing it. The symbolic value of this happening at the zero point of Aries, as the first sign is, in the language of the psyche, very symbolic. It’s a beginning of a life cycle of some kind. It’s a change of expression as a planet moves from one sign to the character of expression in the next sign. Now it’s Saturn, which has been in Pisces for a couple of years, and Neptune, which entered Pisces in 2011. Astrologically, this specific event of outer planets conjuncting at zero degrees of Aries is rare enough that no one can say it’s happened in 10,000 years. I take it as a period of a major new cycle and change in humanity’s collective psyche. Because of the timing of Atlas arriving at Jupiter as Saturn meets up perfectly with Neptune and then presumably passes on to cross Saturn’s orbit soon after, I don’t believe this is an accidental thing. It’s happening just as a comet, Atlas, brings a new element into the mix of who we are: something from outside our solar system we are led to believe, introduced into our psyche at the commencement of something evolutionary. Jupiter in Astrology is the planet that wants to expand us. It wants to expand the mind, our feelings, ideals, and our spirit. Jupiter is only restrained by being inside the orbit of Saturn, because Saturn is structure and that limits expression to what is real or possible according to Saturn. Saturn sets the rules and makes us face reality and karma. Neptune in Astrology is very much like Jupiter, except that it is outside the orbit of Saturn and doesn’t usually have to deal with the parental Saturn imposing limits. Where Jupiter wants to bring spiritual belief to us, belief in the gods and angels, that must be in a structure (religion) that Saturn allows. Sometimes history has shown how, between Saturn and Jupiter, religion is oppressive (too much Saturn) or too loose (too much Jupiter). Neptune isn’t restrained by the structures of belief and will take one on a transcendental journey outside the structures and mundane moralities of Saturn and Jupiter. This is not always workable or constructive for human beings, though it may be inspirational. Saturn and Neptune do not mix well most of the time. Ideally, they can, but it isn’t always in our hands to orchestrate. Thus, in history, Neptune and Saturn have brought confusion as well as inspiration. Many life-saving vaccines and processes to make substances we consume safe to eat emerged when Saturn and Neptune were together. Neptune inspired; Saturn crafted the inspiration into something we can apply. Sometimes, though, they brought revolution and the end of empires, which is the fantasy of Earthly power meeting mortality. Yet, this time we have a very positive supporting cast in the sextiles from either side, by Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius. Uranus encourages bringing something outside our prior conception, often called unusual because it was not expected. Pluto brings the power to transform, something from our distant past into use in the present. The inner planets make aspects to provoke manifestation spread out over the entire time, mainly during the months of March and April, when they bring these energies down to Earth, where we experience, feel, and analyze them. And what does Atlas bring into this moment?Atlas, as a manufactured probe from another civilization, probably located in the outer solar system, would be a tremendously impactful line crossed; nothing would be the same again. It would not mean that aliens are landing, it would mean that there’s someone else in the neighborhood taking a look at us in our version of civilized. Cringe. Taking a quick look at the transits apart from Atlas, the retrogrades of Saturn and Neptune back into Pisces are ending as they begin their final run up to their conjunction. Saturn went Direct or forward motion in late November, as Neptune will in the second week of December. Pluto is already Direct and Uranus will be Direct in early February. While this is a phenomenal thing to witness for Astrologers, I think this has taken up so much oxygen that Astrologers are missing something more meaningful about to begin, which is that Saturn moves on from its meeting with Neptune, and by early April, it’s beginning to fade. Uranus remains in aspect, affecting us with Neptune and Pluto, for a couple of years. Neptune and Pluto remain in aspect starting at this time well into 2032; they remain sextile to each other and this very long-term aspect will be shaping our lives more than anything else. Neptune and Pluto are in a positive sextile aspect as Neptune reaches Pluto’s Aquarian degree of about 3 degrees, in late April. They begin their mutual remaking of our psyche and don’t quit for several years when they each reach about 16 degrees of Aries and Aquarius respectively. At that time Neptune begins to depart from Pluto as it moves a little faster. I’m not thrilled by Neptune in Aries in general; it’s not a good environment for Neptune to be at its best. It favors things like the Crusades. Holy Wars. Self-righteous violence by those devoted to serving the god of Aries, who is Mars, the god of war. I’m counting on Pluto and Uranus to modify this behavior, but remind myself that Pluto is the underworld, the god of death, transformation, as in life-death issues. But on a higher note, it’s also about being in touch with our ancestors and past lives, and about patterns of behavior that need cleaning up. Uranus in Gemini will involve endless talk or chatter. It may involve the cutting off of things like the internet, which at first seems like a bad surprise but could turn into a good one in unusual ways. That’s Uranus. These outer planets bring the big changes in life that often seem stressful because they are huge changes, even though they are improvements. Someone stuck in a self-abusive behavior pattern would at first feel that being forced out of it was a terrible thing. Later on, they get it. Earlier this year, Saturn and Neptune, backing out of their brief moment in Aries into Pisces, gave us the chance to experience again some of the follies and joys of their recent years in Pisces. These two outer planets in Pisces brought us blurring of reality and fake news, for those who couldn’t tell the difference. Now these two outer planets leave Pisces and their Aries character will take shape. Saturn in Aries will be able to get out its scythe and chop out the rot that grew wild while Saturn was swimming in Pisces and unable to sort out reality. Unfortunately, Saturn in Aries is not a patient place to do the sorting out; it’s in a hurry to clean up the mess and move on. Aries' way of dealing with clutter is to throw it out, even if it’s valuable. Neptune’s power for inspiration (by real divinity or by fake) is left behind in Pisces. It loses that magic in Aries. It inspires the Mars-like way of a campaign to defeat the enemy and slay the dragon. Neptune is reduced to a cheerleader by comparison to the soldier in shiny armor with magical weapons. The only good thing is Pluto and Uranus on either side. These two are the reassuring knowledge that the roller coaster is securely tethered to the rail as you fly along. You don’t really know what to expect ahead, but at least the metal box you are riding in can’t fall off. Comments welcome.
David can be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation. Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page. 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 3I/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.
David can be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation. Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page. 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 system After 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. by David A. Wheatley Mars moves into Libra on Friday night-Saturday, which is usually a mild placement for Mars. It forms a couple of trines, to Uranus on one side and Pluto on the other, which sounds interesting. Mars also forms an opposition to Saturn/Neptune at the same time. These larger powerful planets all overwhelm Mars; they determine more what will manifest with Mars than Mars determines itself. Mars in Libra is not dynamic, though it could be very productive while there, putting energy into Libran-style reconciliation without destruction. Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus are very tight, though not perfectly in aspect this weekend; they are within two degrees or less of perfect aspect. This is a huge shift in a martial arts kind of way, meaning not a lot of resistance, and the realization that there's a predetermined current to flow with. Determined by the larger planets. After the coming months this year of retrograde by the major planets, the perfect conjunction of Saturn/Neptune and aspects to Pluto and Uranus will finally happen, overlapping the first few months of 2026 and for the following 18 months. We might learn something this weekend and for the weeks ahead that helps us understand what to expect next year. Tremendous evolution can take place, by necessity. This could be a breakthrough in many areas of life, though it isn't all so easy; it might seem easier, suddenly, than anyone supposed it would be. One of those times when circumstances make decisions for you. Something still feels awkward and tense, like the ghost of a weight carried in the past, but now that the difficult step has been taken, we have to learn to live with it. Within a couple of days after this weekend, Venus will be in conjunction with Jupiter in Cancer. This brings a feel-good five days, suggesting a glow from having made it through a juncture that we expected would be difficult. Mercury has been retrograde since mid-July; it's now finally moving forward from 4 degrees of Leo. Mercury is going to be helpful soon, slowly moving direct into a sextile with Mars in Libra. A very constructive discussion can take place that was held up since earlier in July. Mercury, having been retrograde, is moving more slowly and Mars is moving faster; their sextile, which usually might last two days, is extended into the middle of August, by which time Venus and Jupiter have separated and are not involved by aspect with other planets and therefore not inflating optimistic air into the balloon. The removal of Venus and Jupiter post-conjunction means we have to deal with reality now. A conversation is likely to happen in multiple places that appears to promise a better world; however, there's a hidden agenda under it all. In recent weeks, a large earthquake happened on Russia's eastern shores, followed by a volcano. Other large but less powerful earthquakes occurred in recent weeks before the event in eastern Russia. Powerful things are happening in the heart of this planet that I won't detail now, but the thing is, they are progressive changes from the point of view of the planet, however inconvenient to the human ants on the surface. These huge planetary energies in aspect with Earth are bringing new conditions for life on Earth, which ultimately support "life on Earth". But they will be disruptive and force us to adapt. This weekend and for the rest of the month, the combined aspects involving Pluto and Neptune promise to reveal hidden plots. Putting a nice glow on them from the Jupiter-Venus conjunction next week will be unraveled later in the month when Venus, by itself (no Jupiter), opposes Pluto and sextiles Uranus, trine to Saturn and Neptune. This is probably related to Epstein. Comments welcome.
David can be reached at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation. Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page. by David A. Wheatley  USA Chart, July 4, 2025 It's notable that while people interested in Astrology are swimming in the Saturn/Neptune dance stretched out over these days of our lives into next year, the shifting conjunction spilling from Pisces into Aries is a major shift in the USA natal chart as well. These two planets, at times contrary, must be integrated into complementary forces in our collective and individual psyches. In the US chart, they are moving from the third house into the fourth. Relying heavily on the accuracy of the well-known and accepted Sibly chart for the USA, I would say the two titans are knocking at the door in the first couple of degrees of Aries, and it isn't until next year that they make the crossing fully into the US fourth house. We feel them acting out in the close proximity they have had in recent months, even years. But the rubber meets the road when individually and then together, both Saturn and Neptune move into the US fourth house to stay in 2026. Saturn will enter the US fourth house in March 2026. Neptune, in May/June 2026.  The first decan of Aries, the first ten degrees, is ruled by Mars. Everyone familiar with Mars in mythology can expect the cartoon simplistic characterization to be true in the first decan of Aries, being ruled by Mars. Aggressive, outgoing, not concerned with planning or consequences. This is a productive attitude in some circumstances, but usually or specifically when there is a crisis or a need to act with little time for long-term studies and strategy. It's also the style of those who don't use qualified team players, don’t take good advice, and act rashly, then make excuses after suffering losses. Saturn, in this period of passing through the first decan of Aries, is the harsh version of Saturn. In the US fourth house, this is a depressing passage in which past shortcomings come home to roost in the domestic landscape. Very likely hard times. Saturn teaches us to prepare and do the homework, and if we don't, when the test arrives, we might fail. Facing the consequential reality will be harsh as Saturn enters the US fourth house. Saturn’s approaching entry into the fourth house erodes security, and survival instincts become policy. Neptune entering under these circumstances adds confusion, falling short of our ideals. Neptune brings a disorientation or missed diagnosis, and mistakes happen. As I mentioned in the past, Neptune/Saturn history together frequently comes with a pandemic/vaccine crisis or the need for the invention of a vaccine. They frequently come with revolution and war. A struggle for clarity in the contest of Saturn's tendency to surgically chop away at excesses and Neptune's ability to confuse us with inspiration going in all directions: a lack of discernment. In the first decan of Aries, the emphasis on Mars-like style of behavior is a deer-in-the-headlights moment, followed by scrambling for solutions. Blaming someone else for acting on the projection of our own mistakes onto others. This isn't a learning moment; it's a struggle to survive moment long after the learning was ignored. Uranus in a new sign, while still in the sixth house This July, Uranus moves into Gemini and by angle be involved in a sextile to Saturn/Neptune in the US fourth house. Uranus does not change houses in the US chart when it changes signs; it remains in the US sixth house where eventually, a few years from now, it will make a Uranus return to its place at the time of the US birth. A cycle of life. The sixth house concerns daily work and the daily expression of energy; the quality of life we create in our daily habits, or lack thereof. And it concerns the health of the collective expressing the energy. The opposite house does something similar, but it's the psyche body that the 12th house expresses. Uranus in the sixth house isn't as concerned with impact on the psyche; it's reinventing the workplace for short-term gains, without much attention for the psychological consequences.  This is also a continuing adjustment to AI in the domestic labor force. This is a favorable angle or aspect to Saturn/Neptune, so one can expect a positive upgrade in the workplace to happen. It’s positive for the USA chart: increased production, refinement of quality, new ideas, and lower operating costs. Put aside whether it's a positive for the individual. The contrasting consequences between the collective nation and the individual will come when Uranus transits into a conjunction with its natal position in a couple of more years. Uranus is individualism. The USA's founding independence and its many freedoms were/are advances from the country of origin from which many early Americans came. This will have to be revisited. Uranus last conjuncted itself in the US chart at the beginning of WW2. America had to fight for independence from the forces of Nazi Germany and Japan. As with Uranus, the challenge will be sorting out the priorities between individual and collective benefits. It's possible that at that time, instead of the science fiction scenario of high-tech supremacy, people decide they are better without it and prefer a society not literally but styled more like the Quakers. That fits Uranus well, just as much as going all-in on high tech. Without a doubt, there's a strong tendency in the USA to move backwards and call it forward. Uranus, conjuncting its own natal position for a couple of years, stimulates the initial impulse to be independent. It invigorates the initial definition of character that the nation was born with and likely reforms it. The movement of Uranus in the US Chart, leaving Taurus and entering Gemini, changes the character of Uranus' forms of expression, even though it remains in the same house.The differences in Gemini should be dramatic. Taurus is a Fixed, Earth sign. It grounds the old abstract sky god Ouranos or Uranus and leashes his usual lightning bolt way of acting out. Moving into Gemini drops the shackles, Gemini being a Mutable, Air sign. Mutable is flexible compared to inflexible Fixed sign Taurus. Perhaps, as some say, Gemini is too flexible, a sign with dualism in its symbol, the twins. It all depends on your point of view of whether the glass is half empty or half full. Gemini wants to talk about it. Uranus in Gemini means some wild ideas will be floated; people may say some nutty things. Some of it truly is nutty, will not be helpful, and some of it will be brilliant. Can you tell the difference? Unleashing Uranus in Gemini, by contrast with being in Taurus, gives Uranus freedom with the head spinning lightning-like strike seeming from nowhere. A volcano erupting, an earthquake, an asteroid, an uninvited guest, something provoking wild swings, if not a crash in stock markets. A cyber-attack is very likely to paralyze technology. A solar flare, knocking out GPS satellites. Some of these things seem negative but Uranus’ point is to bring sudden change where energy was stuck. Uranus is an evolutionary force that conformed in Taurus but will experiment in Gemini—breakthroughs in physics, new sources of energy like hydrogen, and possible large power failures. Uranus in Gemini brings abundant talk and negotiation, though this doesn't in itself bring resolutions. Other planets' influences will work out the real-world details; Uranus doesn't stick around to iron out how things actually work. It's a butterfly, not a snail. Uranus in Gemini does a lot of talking and not all of it adds up, but some new tangents will be born. Uranus makes a couple of semi-sextiles to the US natal positions of Jupiter and Venus, starting at the end of this year and running through 2028. The semi-sextile is a constant stress without being enough to stop you; it makes it necessary to do more than you thought. It's not a block, it's a hurdle. The semi-sextile to Jupiter and Venus both dangle an attractive, shiny object on the national stage. This is likely a new political idea or party, an unorthodox proposition that has a certain appeal. Because Uranus is in Gemini, this definitely seems exciting; everyone will be talking about it. Relationship changes within, and outwardlySaturn first and then Neptune will make a 90-degree square to the US natal Jupiter and Venus. Pluto will make an inconjunct angle from Aquarius around the same time to natal Jupiter and Venus in the US seventh house of relationships. These titanic outer planets are going to work together on remaking relationships outwardly, with other nations, because of inner changes within the US itself. Our most important relationships outwardly reflect inner truths and values - the state of our psychological health. These are long-term, permanent developments that rework the essence of what the US believes to be philosophically beautiful and unique. The form it takes can be very different from that of the USA over the past 250 years. Because it's attempting to satisfy the Uranian uniqueness of a whole country made up of very different groups, what can be made is a new form of government that's customized to suit each region in a federation, more like Europe than the existing single two-party contest for power under one nation. This would take years and endless dialogue and negotiation to reach something workable. This is a revolution without war when it involves Jupiter and Venus in a seventh-house divorce settlement. In specific terms, in light of the war in Iran, the coming July 4th will be the next level descent into an internal struggle. As it happens sometimes in marriage relationships, partners reach a point of no return and begin consciously moving towards a breakup. The USA will both celebrate and mourn itself this July 4th. The consequences of recent events will become more crystallized, shaped more than expected by Vladimir Putin's influence with Iran. Movement towards greater conflict and turmoil, not less, will result in the next level of internal disintegration of the US fabric. The very least it can require is an internal do-over. Saturn will sheepdog the general population into the consequences of what's become of the USA's political system. Saturn's way isn't pleasant and involves struggle, sacrifice, and some measure of deprivation. Neptune's influence is intended to provide a soul to being, but entering Aries the method is confusing. Neptune in Aries may inspire holy wars and holy warriors in America. We'll learn about spiritual and physical health by deprivation. Uranus is about to stir up restless desire for doing things another way, and being defined nationally in another way, pulled apart in different directions. Uranus will be active in Nature, forces that are out of our control. Finding humility in the throes of Nature on top of our own mess. These are the forces of evolution on a path that didn't have to be this way, something partners walking away from divorce often say. Uranus enters Gemini on July 7th, preceded by a day or so by Venus entering Gemini. This overlapping conjunction makes July 4th seem fabulous, exciting, and attractive. There's a strong desire to live and spend today because tomorrow may never come. Enjoy it.  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. by David A. Wheatley  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. In general, we equate the slower movement of planets with increased exposure to them and more impact, yet Neptune is too subtle for most of us to notice. Mostly, that’s because Neptune is very remote in consciousness, far removed from the five senses we project with into physical life on Earth. Sensitivity, not of touch, sight, or sound but of the psyche, is how we notice Neptune. In the most simple terms, its mystical environment and playground is in our psychology and not to be underestimated because it seems nonphysical or unreal. What’s going on in the psyche 24 hours per day can go unnoticed because our outward-looking consciousness is focused or distracted by the distractions of the five senses. Neptune is not inactive; it’s just not easily noticed. 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. Saturn and Neptune are not often a good or easy mix. There’s a lurching back and forth searching for something workable from either extreme until they find a workable way to express that, which in this case, they both cooked up while in Pisces. In Pisces, Neptune was the lead dancer, but Neptune is a tough partner to dance with because it doesn’t follow a known choreography. With both planets in Aries, Saturn will be the lead partner and Neptune has to find a synchronicity to fit in, to get its content of spirit into the forms Saturn is providing. 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.  Taking a look back at years when Neptune and Saturn were transiting conjunct is a great way to get some idea of how their chemistry mixes, and for all humanity, to consider the many repeated themes coming out of their union regardless of what sign they were in. The sign does have a great influence on the style of what they produce. Unfortunately, the history of these two planets in Aries has been during times of major wars, but not all wars are military. The struggle for dominance that can lead to war is a struggle that these two planets make by the clash of their nature. One planet wants structure and regiment; the other wants formless free expression. They are far apart in character. Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus co-shared Capricorn beginning in 1989 through 1991.
A prior Saturn Neptune conjunction in Libra was in the early 1950s, trailing off by November of 1954.
In 1914-19 the conjunction began in one sign and extended into another, from Cancer to Leo.
In the 1880’s
1844-1849 Aquarius/Pisces
1809 to early 1812 Sagittarius
1772 – 1775 Virgo
Commonalities: Crumbling empires and popular uprisings.
Peculiar relationship between Neptune and Russia on the conjunction of Neptune and Saturn.
Among the themes repeating often in the centuries of Saturn/Neptune meetings are:
And themes that maybe aren’t as consistent:
For much more detail, check out this amazing review of the Neptune/Saturn conjunctions over the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLto1i-Cxk A Continuing EvolutionOne may easily wonder with so many repeating themes about Astrological influences and to what extent we have free will or are compelled to repeat human behavior strapped to the wheel of planetary cycles. Many of the repeating events and themes are continuing evolution; less so repetition are the issues of slavery and women’s rights. These issues progressed over time and continue to right now, with resistance to change making the tensions greater over a longer period of time. They seem like they are repeating, but they are really continuing. 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 In this month of April 2025, we are seeing the final of three transits between Mars and Pluto in opposition, which began on the US election day 2024 with Pluto in Capricorn and Mars in Cancer. Around New Year’s 2024-25, Mars opposed Pluto in retrograde, this time with Mars in Leo and Pluto in Aquarius. The change of signs for this opposition shifted the energy of both Mars and Pluto. It was a significant shift of style, auguring the shift of how Pluto works with power from Capricorn to Aquarius. In Capricorn, Pluto drew power to a center, and in Aquarius, it began to break down the power center and make it necessary for power and authority to be forced into multiple hands. This will continue with Pluto in Aquarius for two decades. 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. 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. by David A. Wheatley  We are there at a period so many people in the Astrological world are commenting on. Neptune moving into Aries is one thing, and out of Pisces another, though it will later retrograde back into Pisces in the fall of this year and stretch this period of major change that it’s sharing with Saturn and Uranus out into a few years of changes followed by decades of adjustments. There’s a struggle associated with the Neptune shift from Pisces to Aries, and retrograde motion will deepen and extend it. This initial entry is a huge event, and we now have clues about some parts of it as to the impact here in the mundane world. Neptune is a planet that embodies properties usually outside our daily consciousness. It’s not often that we have a Neptune experience over months or more and recognize it as such at the time. But we won’t have to wait to recognize these shifts, all of them piling up on each other. In fact, because of the transits of Mercury and Venus earlier in March and February, we get some conscious recognition of the themes Neptune and Saturn’s shifts are bringing. Neptune and Saturn in these two signs are very different and we are noticing it. We won't have to wait long to discover what Neptune is changing, but we will not fully know why for years. Uranus enters Gemini in July, and in June, Jupiter enters Cancer. These large outer planets bring things that seem to happen to us more than changes instigated by us. It feels like things are happening to us and to our environment when the outer planets express their influences. We don’t believe we can do anything but adjust to them, we are not in control, but we look around for ways to take control. The inner planets, inside the orbit from Jupiter to the Sun, are very much involved in bringing events into our conscious lives where we think and feel the differences unfolding around us. As I have noted in a prior writing, Mercury and Venus are doing a direct and retrograde motion transit in Pisces over transiting Neptune and Saturn from February into April. These two inner planets in transit, plus the Moon's North Nodes in Aries/Pisces going back and forth in their retrograde motions, provoke experiences in our daily lives. Mars is not involved up close with Neptune and Saturn as much as Venus and Mercury are. Mars is still very much involved with Pluto, which changed signs in recent months into Aquarius, where it will remain for a little less than a couple of decades. The distinction of Pluto leaving Capricorn and entering Aquarius is a shift from corporate style, top-down-CEO-Capricorn-directed government to a more Aquarian power distribution. You may not see where we are going yet, but that's because the existing structure of authority will be transformed completely to suit Pluto in Aquarius. Power will be taken away from a single authority and shared by multiple authorities, governors, and regional spokespeople more than a central government. Pluto moves slowly but in a big way. We also have two eclipses in the month of March; see my previous post plus more below. Neptune - Inspiration or Delusion  The transit of Neptune into Aries is taking place on April 1st, depending on your time zone. (April Fool’s Day for those with some appreciation of tempting cosmic humor.) If it was possible to isolate and view reality from Neptune’s point of view, life is the Fool of the Tarot deck, both the Fool at the beginning, the number zero card, and the Fool at the end, the 22nd card of the Major Arcana deck. The zero card Fool is blissfully ignorant of life because he is newly born and knows nothing by experience. True innocence. The number 22 card Fool, at the end of the journey, has experienced some of everything and is not attached to any of it; Neptune is both of these cards. 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. As I have described before, Jupiter is inside the orbit of Saturn, so while Jupiter brings expansion and development of higher ideals in the mind it is limited by the structures of Saturn, the usual limits of our psychology. Neptune is also a planet that brings expansion, but it is outside the orbit of Saturn and is beyond the limits of Saturn that Jupiter is restricted by. To our consciousness, a lot about Neptune is abstract because it connects to consciousness outside this solar system, our soul’s connection to a higher mind, as some people call it. But for a lot of us, interpreting the inspirations of this higher mind is not clear. Similar to dream interpretation, the reality of Neptune can only be grasped in our Earthly mind by symbols and by the effects or influences of this remote level of consciousness, by Neptune. You don’t see gravity, but you see what it does. The inspirations of Neptune are often misinterpreted as they are filtered through individual human psychology. What may have been intended as inspiration could also be bent into delusion. It depends on the psychological state of the person experiencing it. It's difficult to talk about this period as one planet doing something; the combination of them is beyond comprehension in a simple description. A Neptune-inspired opportunity to evolve as we have now is intended to bring more of Neptune down into daily consciousness and become part of our lives. But there are concepts we hold that get in the way of a clear perception. Neptune will be inspirational in positive and negative ways, but even the negative, though costly, will educate us. For some people, learning by bad choices is the only way to go, in keeping with their individual evolutionary needs. People can believe they hear an inner voice, but is it a higher voice? Or is it a voice from their psychology? Either way, Neptune is pulling all the strings to motivate our spirit. It is possible and it can be productive to follow an inspiration directly to fulfillment or take a detour because you misinterpreted it to accommodate your preferences. Following the inspiration always leads somewhere, to the mountain top or be filtered in our psychology, and like bad GPS, it takes us not to the utopia we imagined but to a dead end. Sometimes, you only know by trying. 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. I’m reminded of the story of Saint Christopher, patron saint of travelers. He had the gift of knowing which road to take as a result of getting his directions wrong frequently until one day, he had traveled almost every road and, therefore, was a good advisor for anyone seeking direction. Neptune leaving Pisces to enter Aries means our inspirational sense of direction will change from the “anything goes” of Pisces. Neptune in Aries reduces the quantity and quality of inspiration, making it serve a shorter attention span in seeking satisfaction.  Neptune leaving Pisces will help make things clearer by introducing fewer choices. This isn’t about believing in what feels good, which is what fuels Fake News. In Aries, it’s about serving a more specific purpose with some immediacy; simplifying by necessity. Neptune in Aries is a very different character and this shift, technically beginning April 1st, will be such a shift that we are bewildered and can only get a handle on it spread out over time. It’s a disorienting shift because what we learn as it leaves Pisces is that the vision of the world and ourselves that we thought we had in hand is not the shape we believed it to be. The mists of Pisces are gone. The clarity of Aries will at first hit you in the face; it will be awkward, embarrassing, and disappointing. 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. A total lunar eclipse on March 14th at 23 degrees of Virgo is visible in North and South America. The partial Solar Eclipse is on March 29th at 9 degrees of Aries. 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.  We're going to gain some clarity about things we believed to be true while both Saturn and Neptune were in Pisces, and likely were not what we thought they were. Heads will spin. What we learn will define life for years to come. The element of surprise isn’t a big factor with Neptune and Saturn moving into Aries; that will come later with Uranus moving into Gemini in July. We already see the writing all over the wall with Neptune’s big move, and the price we pay for it comes with Saturn’s move into Aries shortly after. Uranus comes along and reminds us that we are not in control. That isn’t all bad, though, because our belief in the control we thought we had created a mess. Uranus will innovate, but this is the kind of innovation that comes from fixing something broken. 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. Reflecting back to Pluto’s first passage at the nation's birth, when it left Capricorn in the early years of America's history, the US was finally established as independent from Britain in 1776. Britain was the oppressive Plutonic empire of the day, with a king issuing edicts against which Americans rebelled to form its democracy. Pluto then as now entered Aquarius, and it was in the 12 years after Pluto left Capricorn and spent years transiting Aquarius that the Constitution was crafted. This transit of Pluto is Aquarian, forming shared power in a democracy. We are once again facing breaking away from a king, but this time, it’s a challenge of our own making, and we will be forced to make changes to the Constitution because the laws as written centuries ago have been shown to be severely lacking. Once again, we have to redistribute power and reform democracy. 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.  Canada’s natal chart indicates some of this is more serious than first thought. Saturn has been transiting over Canada’s natal South Node for a few months, now passing. But Both Neptune right now and soon Saturn are transiting over Canada’s natal Chiron at 26 plus degrees of Pisces in the 3rd house. Ultimately, this is a healing experience, and indeed, Canada’s reaction to being threatened by American annexation has been to pull together and realign its trade agreements with other nations, reducing a dependency on the USA. 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. Along a similar timeline, transiting Saturn and Neptune in Aries will square Mexico’s natal 11th house Uranus beginning this Spring. This is trouble with bringing people together domestically and internationally in the conventional way. Mexico will be forced to innovate, and it will succeed. In a couple of years along a similar timeline approaching the Spring of 2027, Mexico will have difficult economic times for reasons mostly to do with itself, not foreign nations. Some difficulty nurturing people, feeding people, crop growth, probably climate-related, needing some adjustment and altering ways of life. In the US chart, an extended karmic period of crisis, rebirth and new values  USA natal chart. Astrodienst. Later into the summer of 2025 and for the following two years, transiting Saturn will be opposite natal Saturn in the US chart from the 4th to the 10th house. Everyone in the world will know these are hard times in the US, and everyone will know why: it’s self-inflicted. There will be confusion in two years when Neptune opposes natal Saturn. Both transiting Saturn and Neptune will square the US natal Venus, Sun and Jupiter in the next two years, in the 7th house. This clearly indicates restrictions, austerity and tensions at home and with foreign nations. Also beginning in about two years, and lasting for 2 or 3 more years right up to 2030, transiting Pluto will conjunct the US South Nodes in the 2nd house. This indicates an extended karmic period of economic crisis, crash, rebirth, and rediscovery of new values. Karmic periods are meant to reveal past mistakes. The final climax in the cycle of retrograde Mars opposing Pluto occurs in late AprilA very interesting transit happening now, at the same time as the Saturn/Neptune transit enters Aries, is with an ongoing retrograde Mars. It went retrograde late last October and entered into an opposition with transiting Pluto on election day 2024 in the USA. 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. Mars in opposition to Pluto does it in a crushing way, a rather primitive direct expression of anger in a grab for power. Because this opposition fell on election day 2024, I was expecting something criminal to take place. Maybe something criminal did take place and we learn of it in late April 2025 when Mars makes its final opposition to Pluto in this series of three transits. Mars went direct and crossed the same opposition to Pluto in January, but this time, Pluto was in Aquarius. This last opposition is with Pluto in Aquarius so any criminal activity could be with technology. 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).  In late June 2025, Jupiter transits into Cancer, and in July, Uranus transits into Gemini. Over the summer, Jupiter makes a few very positive and hopeful conjunctions to US natal planets in the 7th house. This is excellent energy for expanding a positive relationship with foreign nations. Uranus entering Gemini remains in the US 6th house of work and health. Uranus brings boom and bust. In Taurus, where it’s been for a few years, Uranus has been somewhat tame, with few wild swings. In Gemini, Uranus is in an Air sign and unshackled. Fortunes will be made or lost between now and then; more positively after the summer. 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.  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.  Pluto_Hades_by_Arcosart 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. Plus: Looking ahead to 2025 – retrograde planets; Lilith; Neptune into Aries; Saturn on Trump’s chart; the US chart; Chiron moves into Taurus in 2026by David A. Wheatley  One of the scenarios that could fit the next 18 months to two years of Astrological expectations is a mega solar flare. It fits because it changes human society everywhere and is not something humans are consciously responsible for, just as the effects of the outer planets are usually out of our control because we are not aware of their potency as we unconsciously create human drama. We experience an event and wonder what caused it without being aware that we did. We don’t know what causes a solar flare apart from an erupting unstable by polarity sunspot. What caused the sunspot? 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. The only mega solar flare we have recent memory of is the Carrington Event of September 1-2,1859. 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. The positions of the outer planets are the most relevant to charting an Earth-shaking event, possibly activated by a transiting aspect from Mars. Mars is a good bet among the inner planets (inside the orbit of Jupiter to the Sun) to activate the chemistry of any aspect in a dramatic way. The inner planets come along swiftly by comparison to an outer planet’s movement, and while the outer planets are in aspect, the swift inner planet catalyzes what the larger, slower outer planets bring together in any aspect. During the Carrington event of 1859, Saturn was at 18 degrees of Leo. Mars had just passed Saturn at 24 degrees of Leo; Mars had crossed 18 degrees of Leo days prior to the event, probably adding its energy to the sunspot that produced the flare. Both Saturn and Mars were exactly opposing Chiron and the Moon’s North Nodes on the 1st and 2nd of September in 1859. The Nodes and Chiron were conjunct and therefore opposed by the transits of Saturn and Mars, contributing to the formation of the sunspot. 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.  In today’s world, a solar flare of comparable potency would make a far greater impact, basically setting everyone’s level of technological lifestyle back to 1859. Today, we would look for something in planetary transits impacting life on Earth on a much greater scale than was present in 1859. Today a year or 18 months of being set back to a more primitive technological society would go a long way towards reducing Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That would be something truly rare and outstandingly powerful in Astrological aspects. 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...An ancient tree ring revealed that in 663- 664 BCE2, the Earth was hit by a mega solar flare. The impact on the atmosphere is recorded in a tree’s life, in year after year of growth. In this way, we have a record of such events. 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  While the major outer planets get a lot of attention this year from Astrologers, there are other things going on. In late March 2025, Lilith moves into Scorpio. Lilith is an asteroid that’s come into our consciousness since it was discovered in 1927 by a French astronomer. It was actually named after a composer, Lili Boulanger, is roughly 23 kilometers in diameter, located in the heart of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a good spot to hide from the mythological womanizers and, at times, abusers of women, Mars and Jupiter, Ares and Zeus. Lilith was co-opted by Astrologers and others to become the symbol of the liberated woman; liberated meaning having freedom from a man’s presumed authority over women. I can’t help but mention the United States will have a convicted abuser of women as president in 2025, along with fellow accused abusers of women either in cabinet positions or circulating around him. 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.  We know both Saturn and Neptune will be doing their duet as they move into Aries. Of course, retrograde motion is an illusion; the planets do not go backward, but from our line of sight on Earth, they are in the corner of their orbit where it looks like they are slowing down and going back a few degrees. They are actually more powerful because they are moving slower. The slower the planet moves, the longer it dwells in whatever influential aspect it’s making and, therefore, the more powerful it may be, which for Mercury and Venus is sometimes a problem. People are not accustomed to dealing with what these two planets' functions are when amped up unless they are retrograde in the person's natal chart. In that case they might do well when periodically Venus or Mercury turn retrograde. These two planets bring the bigger psychological planet’s schemes down into everyday life, into our consciousness. Between Venus and Mercury, the magic of life literally happens. In this case, everyone is going to be very, very aware of what will manifest with Saturn and Neptune moving into Aries, Neptune first. I refer you to my prior article about that, but note, please, that we will all be a little lost with Neptune because Mercury and Venus are going to bring it down into our daily lives. Before that happens, Mars goes retrograde and backs up to where it was on the US election day, conjunct Pluto as it moves into Aquarius. The really important difference is on election day, Pluto was in Capricorn when Mars opposed it from the last degrees of Cancer. By retrograde motion on January 6th going backward and then on April 19th going direct, Mars will oppose Pluto again, but this time from early Leo with Pluto in Aquarius. Mars played the game Pluto had been playing for 20 years in Capricorn the first time, but in January through April 19th, it’s going to contrast something (about the recent election day in the US) because Pluto and Mars are in different signs. Pluto in Aquarius is just getting started there with a whole new agenda (see my last article), and Pluto usually starts with a breakdown or flaw in something to begin an unraveling. It's probably something to do with technology. Neptune enters Aries on March 30th, 2025 The Sun enters Aries and conjuncts Neptune, slowly moving over the 30-degree mark of Pisces, which is the zero-degree of Aries on March 20, 2025, and ten days later, Neptune crosses into Aries. Because it moves so slowly, we don’t have a crisp, clean line to see when Neptune is in one sign or the other. Besides that, Neptune always blurs all lines and boundaries. But the Sun touching Neptune over a day or two as it passes into Aries is one more aspect, along with Mercury and Venus conjunct Neptune at the same time, bringing the experience into our daily lives. We’re going to learn something important, although we’ll doubt it’s real. A curtain is pulled back but we won’t be sure about what we see behind it. 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 In mid to late February 2025, new president Trump has a number of Saturn transits to planets in his natal chart. In his 7th house, Saturn in transit is inconjunct Trump’s natal 2nd house Jupiter. This is likely when some major economic decisions emerge from his cabinet with some positive expectations on his part. (What they consider positive.) Transiting Saturn is also square his natal 10th house Sun and North Nodes. There are a lot of problems with others outside his circle about these decisions, and it immediately lowers his standing across all parties. Something like slashing Social Security. Senior citizens of both parties don’t like those words; neither do their children, who would feel obligated to take action, as would politicians of all stripes who want to be re-elected. There will be a lot of hand-wringing. 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...Transiting Saturn is trine the US natal 7th house Sun now and will be for a couple more months in its retrograde and then direct motion. This is a positive indicator for relations with allies, but within a month’s time, transiting Saturn will square the US natal 7th house Mars, and that’s depressing news for allies. If an announcement is made in mid to late February that affects allies - like a peace plan for the war in Ukraine - it’s welcome news. But the actual plan, as revealed later when transiting Saturn squares Mars, isn’t good news for allies. It draws clear lines of Saturn-inspired restrictions on (Mars) military support, for example. In terms of the US chart, this is a negative; it’s a square aspect. Saturn is also making an opposition to Neptune in the US natal 9th house at this time. This is an indicator of not living up to the national ideals or higher standards established when the nation was born (natal chart), which is when Neptune was at this degree in the 9th house. This is the direction of the country for now. Saturn opposition Neptune by transit is a period with a confused sense of direction, confusion between the established national credo and a new direction that conflicts with it. 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. Saturn edits, simplifies, and shows naked realities. Saturn usually creates an environment of austerity, no frills. Saturn restricts or denies investment of energy. These new conditions will last a long time as these planets move slowly and in direct/retrograde motion in these transiting aspects for a few years. Ultimately these transits bring a necessary evolution, even beneficial. But these powerful outer planets affect the whole world, and everyone is forced to go through the meat grinder. Pluto and Saturn processes are seldom pleasant, even though they can create something new and wonderful from the ashes of their initial breakdown and austerity phases. Collectively we can’t get to the new creation without going through the destruction. 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. To finish up with my original meandering supposition, a solar flare may not seem as devastating as a nuclear war, and war is on many Astrologer’s agendas for the coming year as the agent of sudden upsetting change, a war that reshapes our current living arrangements. A flare that knocks out the technology around a nuclear power plant creates a very hazardous situation with results similar to that of a nuclear dirty bomb. There are something like 440 nuclear power plants in the world; even a limited number of those having a meltdown is a tremendous toxicity event. Conventional war does not use nuclear weapons, but conventional weapons can still cause a nuclear power plant to fail. 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 July 1, 2026, Chiron moves into Taurus, almost at exactly the same time Uranus leaving Taurus moves into Gemini. Their semi-sextile will take a long time to work itself out, two to three years, because of retrograde motion. Chiron is, like Lilith, an asteroid; it’s about 135 kilometers wide and located between Saturn and Uranus. Chiron also moves slowly and will be a part of the Pluto Uranus trine over these years of repair, rebuilding, and healing technology. Uranus in Gemini in a trine with Pluto in Aquarius is the kind of years-long positive reinvention needed to develop new technologies rapidly. That is, rapidly compared to the centuries it took for mankind to do it as we know it now. But this “rapidly” will not be fast enough for most people who depend upon technology now. Lifestyles will be altered greatly. 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. by David A. Wheatley  The year 2024 is winding down; the seasons are moving into winter in the northern hemisphere. The struggle of ideologies in the US is shifting back into a targeted and aggressive form of what it was before Biden took office. Pluto is now moving into Aquarius where it will be for a couple of decades. There’s a planet-sized unconscious move happening and the post-election new reality in the US, as one small section of what is to come, is reverberating all over the world, for different reasons with different conclusions. But everyone and everything is entering a new world much broader and deeper than politics. This is only the beginning of all the outer planets making dramatic shifts within us, beyond the parameters of our conscious minds, outside our ability to control or even understand as things unfold. The psyche orchestrates out of sight, and we dance to its tune, trying to manage and mold huge forces into a shape we can work with. The huge unsettled feeling of change right now with Pluto shifting signs will be joined in less than 6 months by Neptune and Saturn, bringing more changes in our psychological states. 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. Astrologers don’t like to make predictions about elections, though they’ll make them about everything else. They have their reasons, but mostly, it’s not to lose the interest of anyone who sees things differently. Trying to please everyone, Astrologers online are running a business. 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.  But wouldn’t life be nicer if we cultivated growth without having to enter the darker side? 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 Aquarians are individuals; they have unique ways of inventing with new perspectives, not from the corporate model. Going from Capricorn into Aquarius, Pluto, which obsesses about gathering power to transform, will do things differently in Aquarius than in Capricorn. Pluto in Aquarius isn’t going to build up the central power model; it’s going to promote individuals and groups of individuals for whom the big government model is an obstruction. At the same time, Pluto in Aquarius probably starts out in an environment with a bad central powerful government, inspiring people to move away from it by making it oppressive. Aquarius reinvents Pluto's relationship with power from Capricorn. Power is distributed into the hands of multiple individuals or authorities to “others”, and fosters a customized regional shared 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. Neptune is now going into Aries, where the theme is not freedom to interpret but to define realities hammered into solid form. Greeted by Saturn in Aries, Neptune will face severe boundaries and limits it didn't have while in Pisces. Saturn will attempt to correct what it considers a mess made in Pisces. Pisces, as the sign of the psyche, is material with value connected by association, not by practical use. Saturn can’t put material with value by association together while in Pisces. In Aries, it’s a different story. The spirit content appeal of Neptune in Pisces is in being whatever the individual psyche wants it to be. Saturn begs to tackle the job of organizing the backlog left in the 12th house/Piscean dimension; that's its nature. But it couldn't do it while in Pisces, and in Aries Saturn is impatient to tackle it. But it can't because it takes time to unravel respectfully, and in Aries, things are urgent and must be done today. Saturn is reduced to an observer in Pisces. Neptune in Pisces believes in every fiction. But moving into Aries, off comes the pretend costumes, and on goes the suit of armor with marching orders to send spirit into battle. No idle wandering; now it’s taking orders. Saturn in Aries becomes the holy warrior with an executive attitude toward following orders.Who gives the orders? The psyche, always. 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 |
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By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
A quick note to highlight the imminent arrival of Mars transit to transiting Pluto at zero degrees of Aquarius.
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
A quick note to highlight the imminent arrival of Mars transit to transiting Pluto at zero degrees of Aquarius.
Zero degrees of a sign is the beginning of that sign, and at the same time, it is 30 degrees of the prior sign. There’s an overlap of sign dominance, though in the case of Pluto, it casts its shadow forward and interacts with a sign a few degrees before it arrives and casts its shadow behind where it’s been a couple of degrees as well. It’s not a hard line between signs, especially for a powerful, slow-moving body like Pluto. For Mars it’s more defined but still blurred. For Mars approaching zero degrees of a sign, entering a sign when it’s conjuncting Pluto doing the same thing at the same time, the combination of the two planets adds up to blur their orb of influence together. There's an opportunity for a unique expression of their combined chemistry over a few days and on the actual day of numerical conjunction spread over the 14th-15th of February.
It’s hard to find another such event when these two planets entered a sign so precisely together, at zero degrees. A quick check appears to indicate these two planets last met at the beginning of a sign over a century ago, and as for entering Aquarius together, I lost track, not finding it as far back as 150 years; it’s probably many centuries in the past, very rare. This is really Pluto's show, and Mars is adding some octane to it. Mars and Pluto share some common traits in character but work at two very different rhythms. Pluto grinds along over years and digs really deep; Mars does it all in a matter of days; it doesn't have the staying power of Pluto on its own. Together, Mars is the catalyst to ignite something Pluto might otherwise stretch out over time. Mars makes Pluto’s impact, or in this case, an announcement that it’s now in Aquarius, a bigger splash.
The planets inside the orbit of Jupiter are considered the inner planets. They move swiftly compared to the outer planets, and unless by slower retrograde motion, they provoke something rather quickly by comparison, which really means more directly. We notice the impact of the inner planets in our daily lives, and when combined with a major outer planet position, the inner planets bring a tighter focus into our awareness. We are more conscious of them and what they provoke. Our consciousness dwells in and around the inner planets more than the deeper psychologically profound outer planets which we might struggle to reveal.
When Mars catches up to and conjuncts Pluto at zero degrees of Aquarius this time, rare as that is, it will be joined in doing so by all the other inner planets - Mercury and Venus, as well as the Sun - all within a short period of time. They all get a whack at it because Pluto moves so slowly. This is a big Welcome to Aquarius for Pluto by those planets that touch our Earth-based consciousness more directly to distant Pluto. We will notice. Events and announcements are forthcoming.
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.
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.
Mars and Pluto together are belligerent. Not negotiable. Venus adds a dimension of abuse when dominated by Pluto and reinforced by Mars. Mercury implies the importance of how this is communicated, revealing the obsessive-compulsive Pluto influence. If it were Saturn instead of Pluto, the conversation would be practical and sharp, like it or not. With Pluto, we feel the weight of nebulous old patterns that were not friendly in the past and still aren’t. We might see what needs to be improved but feel powerless to do it. Very likely, opinions expressed in the public arena at this time are not so rational, revealing the obsessive-compulsive. The value is that we can observe them, learn from them and refine those old patterns, not mindlessly repeat them.
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 That’s the Astrology. In the Astronomy, the Sun erupted in recent days with two major solar flares. The first one was the strongest flare in several years but was not Earth-directed. It was directed at Mercury, Venus and Mars. The second flare on February 2nd was directed at Earth, not the other inner planets. The Coronal Mass Ejection of material exploding out into space from the Sun will arrive at Earth around the 12th of February. What this means is a lot of charged particles will stir up the Earth’s electromagnetic field and affect animals, including humans, in subtle ways. It’s a higher-octane period in which the tendency to react and not think carefully is likely.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page.
By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
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Annular Eclipse on Oct 14th
There’s an annular eclipse of the Sun by the Moon on October 14th. It will be visible in the US, Central America and parts of South America. In the US its path enters on the northwest Pacific coast and arcs southeast across southwestern Texas. More importantly, the event is at approximately 20 degrees of Libra. Anyone with natal planets at 20+/- degrees of any sign but especially in Libra, Aries, Cancer or Capricorn will notice an effect of the eclipse but depending on their natal planets and houses involved the impact may be anything from subtle to dramatic. Anyone with planets at 20 degrees of other signs may be touched by it, but don’t expect much.
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.
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
Beginning in late 2024, Pluto will move into Aquarius where it will stay for about twenty years. It’s been flirting with this move in the last year and will again in 2024 while retrograding back temporarily into Capricorn, making a profound change seem more gradual.
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.
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.
The Pluto Return in the US chart has to impact material values more than simply the economy, as some people suggest, because it is in the US 2nd House of material values. Of course, there are corresponding impacts on the economy, but ‘material values’ is a broader reference to the nation’s material values or simply values than it is specifically the economy. Naturally, economic well-being is directly related to our values, but there are other factors we would like to believe are more crucial to the nation’s values than the economy.
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.
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
I have mentioned before for those who are interested, while astronomers diminished Pluto from planet to planetoid or asteroid, it remains among the more potent bodies in Astrology. While as physical beings we appraise the planets as physical objects, their value in a greater dimension is non-physical and that dimension of the psyche is where Astrology values the planets. It’s not physical size, it’s psychological spiritual potency that makes a planetary body important.
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.
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.
There are other asteroids/planetoids of significance, discovered in the last century and more recent decades, and as they enter into human consciousness by discovery, they are more available as metaphorical analytical tools. Eris is close to the same size as Pluto and has an orbit that at times interacts with it. It was discovered in 2005 and as it enters human consciousness like other planets, asteroids and so forth, it finds its place in the Astrological psychology of associations; in the case of Eris with the emergent power of the feminine in our society and hopefully conscious lives.
But what’s even more incredible than Pluto’s Return and then changing signs, is that all the trans-Jupiter planets are going to change signs between 2024 and 2025All of them. |  |
I am not alone among Astrologers looking for a similar event in human history, when all the major psychological, metaphysical or spiritual planets change signs in a cosmically short span of time. If that happened in the past, it was before human beings were conscious that the planets beyond Saturn existed; therefore they were not integrated into the consciousness of Astrologers or anyone except perhaps in the parade of allegorical mythologies. In those times, lacking a level of consciousness to attempt making psychology a medical study, humanity experienced the psyche telling its stories in myth. The psyche wastes no opportunity to speak its language. Many mythological allegories tell psychologically valuable stories, and by coincidence (?) the planets/planetoids/asteroids have been named with synchronistic mythological associations. Each name carries a body of information.
What’s happening now and over the next few years with all the major planets changing signs and in relation to each other is a condensed version of what our psychological spiritual metabolism would probably prefer be spread out over a lifetime. A lot is about to happen in a short period of time.
Saturn recently entered Pisces, sharing temporary occupation of that sign with Neptune
Saturn is the rules and structure cop of the cosmos. Pisces isn’t a great habitat for Saturn, though some structure, definition and border-making may be overdue following Jupiter’s recent passage through Pisces. Neptune blurs the edges of definition, and some people are lost in such an environment. Neptune in Pisces creates a habitat in which imagination opens a magical illusory window into another reality, or weaves a delusion that does the same thing. Neptune doesn’t separate illusion from delusion. Saturn does that. Jupiter passing through Pisces two years ago amplifies it all. Finally though, Saturn is here to sort out the delusion from the illusion as it passes through Pisces and eventually rendezvous with Neptune.
Eventually, Saturn catches up to and conjuncts Neptune in Pisces in an extraordinary way. It catches up at the first degree of Aries, to commence a new cosmic cycle together. Neither Saturn nor Neptune are in a warm friendly environment in Aries. Saturn becomes more impatient, austere and thrifty; far more than usual. Neptune turns the lights off and goes rather quiet. Compared to its time in Pisces, Neptune’s higher-minded refinement is more remote in Aries.
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.
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
Uranus in myth is a primordial sky god, parent of Saturn (Kronos), grandparent of Jupiter (Zeus) and it naturally inhabits the sky environment as formlessness. No up or down, no dimension, just space filled with the inherent energy that Uranus could enter with intention and manifest momentarily as the lightning bolt. Once Uranus leaves Taurus it enters Gemini, a Mutable Air sign, in 2026. This is more like it, as far as Uranus goes. The restraints come off. Unleashed seemingly spontaneous energy flashes.
Uranus is not going to be subtle when it gets even one little toe into Gemini. It will probably enter with a series of flashes. As it approaches the beginning of entry to Gemini, Uranus will make a trine aspect to Pluto which has just wholly entered Aquarius. This is very fortunate long-term, though perhaps a bit of whiplash short term. Pluto in Aquarius trine to Uranus in Gemini is going to usher in a sustained period of remarkable innovation. While this no doubt excites the technology geeks, keep in mind that Pluto likes to break down what exists that isn’t healthy before it introduces what is better. So, while those who love technology will expect this to bring in super-advanced Star Trek devices to their hands, I expect first Pluto along with Uranus to cut off some of the technology we have for an extended period. It remains cut off long enough to realize the negative impact some technologies have had, and require a new way of integrating technology into our lives. Ultimately yes, I think we rocket far ahead of where we are now but even with this, it’s under the pressure of necessity.
We need brilliant solutions to major problems and this can happen with the trine between Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini. This should not give us the comfortable notion that we can solve problems because we are clever. I expect the situation to be more desperate than calmly analyzed. There are winners and losers, and probably some of the brilliant ideas have consequences we don’t like.
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.
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.
The history of Uranus in Gemini is popularly known as war-like. The US has Uranus natally in Gemini. Eventually, the US chart will have a Uranus Return at 8 degrees of Gemini, beginning July 2027 into the following year. The US fought both its War of Independence and the Civil War with Uranus in Gemini, making its Return from the natal position established when the US struggled through its War of Independence. The last time Uranus was in Gemini was for the duration of World War 2. The US emerged from each of these chaotic, painful episodes as a growing world power, and perhaps more importantly the whole world surged forward with inventions made in wartime to produce tremendous growth for decades after. Hopefully, we do not require a significant military war in order to be innovative this time. Other kinds of struggles challenge survival at this time; indeed, we are at war with ourselves in the battle to survive the consequences of the Industrial Revolution and a planet with 8 billion people on it. The planet Earth may seem to be at war with humanity. It’s probably more likely the USA has war or severe struggle on its mind when Uranus transits to conjunct the natal US Mars in Gemini, in 2031-32.
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.
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.
The meeting of Neptune and Saturn spans a couple of years during which time by retrograde motion they conjunct three times. Saturn catches up to the slower-moving Neptune for a conjunction about every 36 years. This means many people will have experienced it before, though in a different sign (Aquarius last time). What’s remarkable now is the synchronicity of movement - Saturn and Neptune are so precisely connected at the time and place of the midpoint of the Pluto/Uranus trine.
A lot is about to happen in a short period of time
Another important feature of these synchronistic planetary entries into new signs at the same time, is that they are all leaving feminine sun signs and entering masculine sun signs. This underscores my belief that a general decline in nurturing is likely, though the reasons may be that the problems to be solved leave little time for care. The emphasis on masculine signs for all these planets suggests to me an increase in the attempts of mankind to engineer society and the planet, for compelling reasons. The increase in masculine sign orientation does tend to suggest war is more likely than peace. The role that the atomic planet Pluto plays does suggest that both the riddle of fusion energy is solved but also possibly a war with at least some nuclear exchanges. The sky is the limit on a scale of possibilities with Uranus - a war waged from space. We thought drone warfare was going to replace conventional large heavy war machinery, but we have seen how quickly it became possible to shoot down and neutralize drone swarms and reduce their impact to minimal, compared to what was imagined. Is the next thing to shoot lasers from space or something else sky-oriented?
A decline in birth rates because of man-made toxins, exposure to radiation, psychological causes, wartime losses, weather-related crises, a water or food crisis….. you name it, is possible. It’s also possible that facing extraordinary challenges, we have extraordinary people with ways to avoid the worst of what’s possible and remove impediments to the growth that’s required.
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.
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.
I haven’t included the remaining outer planet, Jupiter, in this telling. Jupiter’s influence will contribute mightily to everything I have described, amplifying the moments it factors into and requiring our minds to expand to contain what we need to know.
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.
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.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
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.
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
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
Sometime before 2012, it became popular to associate earthquakes with solar activity. When sunspots and filaments erupt on the Sun, projecting charged particles into space that interact with Earth’s magnetosphere, the theory suggests they do more than create aurora borealis; they vibrate the planet from the core and produce earthquakes by rattling the tectonic plates. However, I’ve observed solar weather and earthquakes for over a decade here on Earth and have not found a strong correlation.
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.
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.
I see the Solar System as we see our body and its parts: A whole organism that we see in the physical universe which has a corresponding existence as trans-physical energy in a trans-physical universe. Our five senses are not adequate for the perception of the trans-physical. In any other Universes, not strictly limited to this 3D one, there may be a lot more going on which however we cannot observe by physical means, we can only observe by empirical evidence of how repeated phenomena in the physical universe affect us here on Earth.
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.
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
I decided to look more closely, to see if there is a connection between Astrological influences and earthquakes on planet Earth, in a purely physical way. The dates of major quakes are known, and with a reliable Astrological ephemeris charting the zodiacal position of all the planets daily, I made a list to compare stressful Astrological aspects with the dates of earthquakes.
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.
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
The common elements are that almost all quakes occur because of tensions with Pluto, Uranus or Saturn. Most people doing Astrology already know this.
- 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:
Iran. 19 September 2017 Moon conjunct Ceres, both square Jupiter and inconjunct Saturn. Jupiter opposition retrograde Uranus, both square Ceres/Moon.
Mexico. 24 August 2016 Mercury/Jupiter inconjunct retrograde Uranus. Mars just passed a conjunction with Jupiter, inflating the pressure as Venus conjuncted Jupiter.
Italy. 16 April 2016 Jupiter retrograde, square Saturn, inconjunct Pluto. Mercury direct inconjunct Saturn in aspect with Jupiter/Pluto.
Ecuador. 26 October 2015 Mars/Jupiter trine Pluto, Mercury square Pluto. Sun square Saturn. Mercury oppostion Uranus.
Afghanistan. 25 April 2015 Mercury conjunct Mars square Jupiter, inconjunct Pluto. Mars Semi sextile Uranus.
Nepal. 3 August 2014 Mars square Jupiter/Mercury. Saturn Inconjunct Uranus, Uranus opposition Chiron.
China. 3 August 2014 Mars square Jupiter/Mercury. Saturn inconjunct Uranus, Uranus opposition Chiron.
Pakistan. 24 September 2013 Saturn sextile Pluto. Uranus square Pluto. Mercury had recently aspected Pluto/Uranus.
Turkey. 23 October 2011 Pluto and Uranus in loose square, long term, just beginning.
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.
New Zealand. 22 February 2011 Jupiter semi sextile Mars, Jupiter square Pluto
Chile. 27 February 2010 Saturn square Pluto. Mars retrograde inconjunct Pluto, Moon opposition Pluto.
Haiti. 13 January 2010 Saturn square Pluto.
China. 12 May 2008 While changing signs, Saturn trine Pluto. Saturn inconjunct Mars also changing signs.
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.
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.
- 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.
Another note to consider is when Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto make any aspects they can take up to two years to be completely done thus their effects can ripple out over time for many years. During the period of time in which a tense aspect builds up over months, it is then released in a catalytic moment, which may be repeated during the time of the transit. The moment of release of tension usually corresponds to the catalytic planet coming along and bringing it all to a peak where the tension breaks out. If the catalyst is the Moon, the Moon can make a number of different transits within days of each other, but if the tension is already released, the cork is popped, and whatever fizz remains might or might not amount to another jolt of a lesser magnitude.
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.
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.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
As Summer 2023 begins, Venus is moving through Leo which is a great place for Venus to show off it's best for its own sake, feeling good about itself without much care for what's in good or bad taste. This is the place and time for dressing up or down, to parade whatever self-image one wants to indulge in.
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
As Summer 2023 begins, Venus is moving through Leo which is a great place for Venus to show off it's best for its own sake, feeling good about itself without much care for what's in good or bad taste. This is the place and time for dressing up or down, to parade whatever self-image one wants to indulge in.
A stretched-out version of a Venus Mars flirtation
Mars
Venus will spend a lot of time in this sign because it turns retrograde before catching up to Mars, which is also in Leo. Normally Venus would catch up (conjunct) and pass Mars because being closer to the Sun it moves faster around the zodiac. But not this time or place, not yet. Chasing Mars, Venus doesn't quite make the rendezvous before turning retrograde, although from July 7 to Aug 7 they come into a loose conjunction around 22 degrees of Leo. Anyone with a natal planet or asteroid in this area or in aspect to these degrees will feel the growing but never consummated union of Venus and Mars during this time. There's a large part of the planet's population with Pluto near this degree of Leo and in this spirit the Venus Mars dance will affect a great many people at the same time.
On their own the Venus Mars passage here by itself should be a nice period for summer fun. As a generational effect - where Venus Mars passes over millions of people's natal Pluto – there could be an obsessive (Pluto) infatuation with a rising social or political star. This isn't necessarily good or bad by itself, it's a phenomenon of the several months moment.
Without getting into the unknown positions of individual charts in aspect to the Venus/Mars chemistry, what happens between these two planets is playful here in Leo. This style is appealing but it doesn't have anything to do with whether the object of desire is a healthy choice. Attraction is its own infection sometimes; it doesn't need a reason.
On their own the Venus Mars passage here by itself should be a nice period for summer fun. As a generational effect - where Venus Mars passes over millions of people's natal Pluto – there could be an obsessive (Pluto) infatuation with a rising social or political star. This isn't necessarily good or bad by itself, it's a phenomenon of the several months moment.
Without getting into the unknown positions of individual charts in aspect to the Venus/Mars chemistry, what happens between these two planets is playful here in Leo. This style is appealing but it doesn't have anything to do with whether the object of desire is a healthy choice. Attraction is its own infection sometimes; it doesn't need a reason.
The courtship endures until February 2024
Venus and Mars won't actually consummate their conjunction until late February of next year, for about a week around Valentines Day. This is a long courtship to some. In the long-playing version of Venus Mars chemistry, from the summer of '23 to Valentines Day '24, there are benefits fertilized in this stretched out period that wouldn't normally have time to develop. Venus the faster moving planet normally buzzes up to, conjuncts and passes Mars in two to three weeks. As I've mentioned before, anytime a planet is slowed down by retrograde motion it gains in potency and Venus will slow down and retreat away from Mars. Their chemistry remains hanging until the retrograde planet turns direct and gets back or passes the point at which it was about to make a statement.
The chemistry of Venus Mars in the summer of '23 may start and end this summer for some, but for anyone patient enough or forced by circumstances to taking their time, the often romantic chemistry between these two could continue to slowly ripen for when Venus finally catches Mars, in Virgo. In Virgo both planets are tempered by what happens when the first date is postponed and then finally happens. Valentines Day may be an arbitrary holiday but it's part of the popular culture, something real in the psyche, and the timing here is itself fun to speculate about.
The chemistry of Venus Mars in the summer of '23 may start and end this summer for some, but for anyone patient enough or forced by circumstances to taking their time, the often romantic chemistry between these two could continue to slowly ripen for when Venus finally catches Mars, in Virgo. In Virgo both planets are tempered by what happens when the first date is postponed and then finally happens. Valentines Day may be an arbitrary holiday but it's part of the popular culture, something real in the psyche, and the timing here is itself fun to speculate about.
Another thing to be aware of is that Venus isn't just a goddess of Love
Venus
If you remember some of the love goddesses of myth, some of them are also great warriors and archers, characterizing multiple faces of beauty or love. Mother goddess love, young goddess love, the love of beauty one sees, feels, and to be inspirational with invisible qualities of beauty. Everyone needs to be nourished with the hope of this chemistry now and then. When combined with Mars, Venus could even be in love with war if other planetary influences support that, the sometimes temperament of Mars.
Lilith mingling
Lilith
Adding to everything I've mentioned thus far, the asteroid Lilith is also in Leo this summer, and both Venus and Mars will mix and mingle their energies with Lilith. Lilith is sometimes called the Black Moon, implying a darker character. Because she is said to be the first wife or consort of Adam, she was given a negative connotation as the "other woman" in the Biblical tale which inspires some people to assume that Lilith is dark and evil. Mythic tales are metaphors used by the psyche and from my perspective religion is myth too, used by the psyche. I don't expect religious tales to be any more or less valid than mythic tales.
So how does Lilith impact this summer chemistry between Venus and Mars? Lilith coming into the mix adds depth. Sometimes adding pain makes love plunge deeper into the soul. The idea of a rival whether it be a man or a woman is a complicated well known extra ingredient in a relationship that can be painful or make a struggle to consummate one's desire even more potent.
If one can sail these stormy seas, there's a constructive juncture ahead when Venus does finally catch up to Mars because it happens in Virgo, around Valentines Day 2024. There's something about meeting finally in Virgo that compels maturity and pragmatism. Leo is out for display and applause. Virgo brings a narrower focus on what actually works and how to pay for it. If Mars and Venus were to finally rendezvous in Aries for example, they would be mapping out a great vacation together and then going their separate ways.
Lilith is present at the outset of the summer when Venus begins to approach Mars. Her influence is there at the beginning of the Venus Mars flirtation but it doesn't last, it's just a test. Lilith heightens the power of initial attraction and stirs the crossing over of some taboos, breaks us out of our boundaries. Venus and Mars move on from this initial excitement and wind up finally meeting in Virgo where things get more real. Imagine if they wound up in Libra, there wouldn't be a meeting of the minds except to plan a party with lots of fine wine, eating rich food, and extravagant fashion. In Virgo they meet and see if there is a way forward in the future. Virgo asks what's of value, what is the value, and what's the cost or in more mythic terms, what is the sacrifice that is to be made?
So how does Lilith impact this summer chemistry between Venus and Mars? Lilith coming into the mix adds depth. Sometimes adding pain makes love plunge deeper into the soul. The idea of a rival whether it be a man or a woman is a complicated well known extra ingredient in a relationship that can be painful or make a struggle to consummate one's desire even more potent.
If one can sail these stormy seas, there's a constructive juncture ahead when Venus does finally catch up to Mars because it happens in Virgo, around Valentines Day 2024. There's something about meeting finally in Virgo that compels maturity and pragmatism. Leo is out for display and applause. Virgo brings a narrower focus on what actually works and how to pay for it. If Mars and Venus were to finally rendezvous in Aries for example, they would be mapping out a great vacation together and then going their separate ways.
Lilith is present at the outset of the summer when Venus begins to approach Mars. Her influence is there at the beginning of the Venus Mars flirtation but it doesn't last, it's just a test. Lilith heightens the power of initial attraction and stirs the crossing over of some taboos, breaks us out of our boundaries. Venus and Mars move on from this initial excitement and wind up finally meeting in Virgo where things get more real. Imagine if they wound up in Libra, there wouldn't be a meeting of the minds except to plan a party with lots of fine wine, eating rich food, and extravagant fashion. In Virgo they meet and see if there is a way forward in the future. Virgo asks what's of value, what is the value, and what's the cost or in more mythic terms, what is the sacrifice that is to be made?
The sacrifice in some way involves the ego, to surrender some measure of it in order to cross a threshold
Not that one can't have a party, because the next sign both Venus and Mars move into is Libra, however while in Virgo the adults in the room want to know who's paying and how much? The party is coming later.
From Aries to Virgo, the first six signs, there's an evolution of Self from total self-absorption as children are, to the maturation of Self in Virgo. Some part of Self has to be sacrificed to join with the universe, to join with another, to grow beyond oneself. In Virgo this can happen for real.
Symbolically in the northern hemisphere Virgo is the end of Summer, the beginning of the fall and what must eventually come to complete it - the harvest. Whatever has been developed over the sunny signs reaches its apex in Leo and begins a slow decline into the fall season when the Sun grows less a visible factor in the 24-hour daily cycle. Libra the Scales, the balance of Self and Others, the only sign not an animal or fish, is the opposite of Aries and the beginning of Self surrendering the idea of total uniqueness and realizing the benefits of being part of a whole. But only after the sacrifice of Self in Virgo is made, to surrender some of the ego.
Ultimately, following the 12 signs around, the evolutionary destiny of the soul arrives in Pisces, home sign of the Psyche, which is the Greek word for Spirit. In Spirit we are more a nebulous part of the Great Sea. Once one returns to the Great Sea the Spirit does it all again, beginning with Aries and the emphasis on Self. Planets and asteroids are all over the zodiac. One can't find a chart with all the planets and asteroids in Aries and moving sign by sign. Describing the signs in this kind of sequence is merely to illustrate a point about their distinct characters as planets move through and make aspects or relationships one to the other.
From Aries to Virgo, the first six signs, there's an evolution of Self from total self-absorption as children are, to the maturation of Self in Virgo. Some part of Self has to be sacrificed to join with the universe, to join with another, to grow beyond oneself. In Virgo this can happen for real.
Symbolically in the northern hemisphere Virgo is the end of Summer, the beginning of the fall and what must eventually come to complete it - the harvest. Whatever has been developed over the sunny signs reaches its apex in Leo and begins a slow decline into the fall season when the Sun grows less a visible factor in the 24-hour daily cycle. Libra the Scales, the balance of Self and Others, the only sign not an animal or fish, is the opposite of Aries and the beginning of Self surrendering the idea of total uniqueness and realizing the benefits of being part of a whole. But only after the sacrifice of Self in Virgo is made, to surrender some of the ego.
Ultimately, following the 12 signs around, the evolutionary destiny of the soul arrives in Pisces, home sign of the Psyche, which is the Greek word for Spirit. In Spirit we are more a nebulous part of the Great Sea. Once one returns to the Great Sea the Spirit does it all again, beginning with Aries and the emphasis on Self. Planets and asteroids are all over the zodiac. One can't find a chart with all the planets and asteroids in Aries and moving sign by sign. Describing the signs in this kind of sequence is merely to illustrate a point about their distinct characters as planets move through and make aspects or relationships one to the other.
Having said all that…
While this is going on Venus, Mars and Lilith all move in and out of aspects with other planets that affect their expression in this dance, until they finally meet around Valentine's Day 2024. There are significant interactions with Jupiter in Taurus where it's playing a game of catching up to Uranus. Because both planets move into retrograde motion, they don't actually make their very significant conjunction in Taurus until April of 2024. That's a subject for another day. From Taurus though, as Venus and Mars move more quickly through Leo, they make a stressful 90-degree relationship aspect to where Jupiter and Uranus are. Jupiter will inflate the excesses of whatever is going on, and Uranus could turn out to be someone completely unexpected. And that's why the stretched-out version of Venus and Mars flirtation isn't necessarily bad, giving us time to figure it out.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
There are many things in the public consciousness right now that concern us all. Probably close to or at the top is whether the US will default on its debt as June approaches. The circumstances are all in place for it to go either way in the political sphere and in the astrological sphere. But I think there are sufficient astrological circumstances to argue against there being a problem that politicians can’t resolve or at least avoid creating a crisis over the national debt now. The minimum we usually have grown to accept is that they postpone doing anything radical to a later date.
The political voices on the right are trying to use pressure over the possible default to extract concessions in the budget, a separate matter. Their problem is equating apples with oranges; paying the nation’s past due bills is not the same as arguing over future spending. This last point seems too rational to doubt, but being rational is not what it takes to win in politics.
The game is played differently by either side, by two different sets of rules, and because they are different the conversation strains to work its way to a resolution. The only thing that compels them towards avoiding a crisis is the looming upcoming election season: self-interest. This sounds like a criticism, but self-interest to be honest is a shared trait. If only we could expand our definition of self to include others with whom we interdependently exist.
The political voices on the right are trying to use pressure over the possible default to extract concessions in the budget, a separate matter. Their problem is equating apples with oranges; paying the nation’s past due bills is not the same as arguing over future spending. This last point seems too rational to doubt, but being rational is not what it takes to win in politics.
The game is played differently by either side, by two different sets of rules, and because they are different the conversation strains to work its way to a resolution. The only thing that compels them towards avoiding a crisis is the looming upcoming election season: self-interest. This sounds like a criticism, but self-interest to be honest is a shared trait. If only we could expand our definition of self to include others with whom we interdependently exist.
However, all that aside, astrological influences are the patterns we unconsciously follow from our psyche; the national psyche as well as the personal psyche. We can’t help but to navigate along their paths in front of us. They are strongly reinforced by the behavior and choices of everyone else in the world and we don’t individually run the place, life is a shared experience with shared influences good and bad.
Pluto in Aquarius
Pluto famously finally left Capricorn in March, barely getting a toe in Aquarius. It’s been hovering at zero degrees and some minutes of that sign and now sits almost stationary as it prepares to retrograde back into Capricorn to complete all the things it stirred up while there over the past two decades. Pluto in Capricorn worked through big government, corporate power, religious power, powerful autocrats and self-declared influencers. Pluto in Aquarius is going to be very different; it will work with collectives.
A shift from centralized power to shared power more specific to where it is needed.
Over the coming years Pluto in Aquarius in my opinion will see the end of self-styled pyramid structured power and the construction of many voices where there had been one or a few. The negative is a possible lack of coordination and a need to innovate to make things happen better, and the positive is a variety of structures that are not all the same tailored to the regions in which they form. One size does not fit all.
This won’t happen because people want to share power; that goes against the nature of most of those who have power now. It comes about from the inefficiency and old world plodding of power brokers disconnected from the people they had power over. Aquarian air sign innovation is going to revolutionize without having a war, but it will come under the force of Pluto which is to say we hardly have a choice. We have to evolve or get wiped out. This might sound exciting to some, but it’s terrifying to those who prefer to live in a world where they are told what to do and things seldom change.
Circumstances will force us to adapt within the next two years as Pluto fully enters Aquarius. Some of the standby support systems in a crisis, for example FEMA, won’t be able to get where the problem is and local authorities will have to take matters into their own hands. On a social playing field, State governments are going the way of carving out their educational systems and many other social norms by legislative mandate different from existing Federal or national standards. The result will eventually be people will gravitate to live in States or Countries where the society is shaped more as they want their environment to be. This kind of shift will happen all over the world for better and for worse. Pluto has two decades to see how this works, or doesn’t work and needs refinement.
With that in mind, it might fit to entertain the idea that the US is about to have an economic crisis over its budget. The breakdown of the power structure by crippling the economic power of the national ID. As I said though, Pluto has two decades to work on this. I don’t think this will happen now. There are many people in a position to express this Pluto designed breakdown within the existing structure of power. They are willing to go over the cliff for the buzz of the free fall without worrying over the landing as if, like Wiley Coyote, they can dust themselves off and try again. I can see the US economic influence on world economies being forced to endure a change through crisis, but I don’t think it will at this time.
Saturn brings some stark realities
Saturn entered Pisces in March as Pluto barely and briefly entered Aquarius. Saturn will stay in Pisces, a sobering influence. Saturn brings some stark realities to where Neptune and recently Jupiter have been. Saturn definitely tends to take the rose-colored glasses off and asks for responsible address to problems which are in need of being exposed. It’s the moment in an individual’s life when they realize, "Damn, this doesn’t work, I do need to see a therapist."
In the times prior to Saturn entering Aquarius, any preparations or advancements that could have been made to prepare for what the psyche knew was coming (Saturn in Pisces) pay dividends for those who meet their professional standards or even exceeded them. But for those who got side tracked or lazy, Saturn in Pisces is indeed when it’s time to go through the mess and attempt to sort it out. This is good for facing up to budgetary obligations on both sides, being realistic about having them or reducing them, and being realistic about meeting them. Saturn in Pisces isn’t about the fantasies, it’s about what is possible to do.
New Start with the New Moon on May 19th
The main reason why I think the US will pay its bills and end up in tough budget negotiations is because Jupiter enters Taurus mid-May AND Saturn is in Pisces. Might as well toss in Venus enters Cancer too, another attractive reason in the US chart as well as a general influence for everyone to feel optimistic and positive that we aren’t going off the cliff, not yet anyway. Taurus resonates with the Second house of material values, appreciation of the home as a nurturing healthy place. It generally favors financial affairs though one can be carried away with it, borrow to buy today and promise to pay on Tuesday but have trouble doing so later. Agreements can be made with Jupiter flying in to save us, though we have to count on Saturn to temper them with what’s really possible. Jupiter in transit now is going to sextile Saturn; they can work together now. Jupiter is going to be sextile transiting Venus as it enters Cancer, and this all feels pretty reassuring. A good group on the New Moon coming May 19th. A new start.
In the US chart, Jupiter is moving into the 5th House. This is a very positive placement for now. Jupiter inflates the intentions of heading in a celebratory direction, not a wake. It can be a little divorced from reality here in the US, which wouldn’t be out of character, and especially with Venus moving into Cancer which in the US chart is a seventh house rendezvous with natal Venus, Jupiter and the Sun. The New Moon on May 19th which follows two powerful eclipses in the prior month is trine (positively aspected) to transiting Pluto.
All these conditions are temporary though, so the good feeling which can come from this period won’t last forever. For real, Pluto will back into Capricorn in June to finish up its business and be done with Capricorn in November by 2024. As with all the court cases hanging over Trump, the autocrats in the world will all face the firing squad of changing times. Big centralized power is going to either evolve into something more power-sharing or go away. For those who gravitate to big daddy government, I am sorry. We will need each other more, to work together under pressure. Something more resembling a socialist form of government is coming though not by choice, but because groups of people organize differently, regionally and locally, by necessity.
Pluto forces us by changing the environment, literally.
Some people say Pluto is not even a planet, it’s a large asteroid. A planetoid. That’s fine, asteroids are significant. It isn’t about the physical size. In the psyche there is no physical, so physical size only has a value as a symbol of expression in the physical universe. As a major organ if you will of the psyche-body, Pluto is huge, bigger than Jupiter. We should measure the size of a planet and its influence by how slow it moves and Pluto is the slowest, excepting Planet Nine. When planets go stationary and then retrograde, they move at their slowest and therefore are at their most potent. As slow as it is all the time, Pluto is stationary and soon will retrograde back into Capricorn. In the next 18 months it will wrap up its two decades of work in Capricorn.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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By David A. Wheatley
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
https://www.bridges.academy/astrologycorner.html
Mars return by transit in the US Chart
Mars has been making a return to its natal place in the US natal chart, which is in a tense 90 degree relationship or aspect to where Neptune is in the nation’s natal chart. Because Mars began a prolonged retrograde late last year, this Mars return is magnified in importance because of the length of time it moves in a limited area compared to its relatively swifter movement when it isn’t retrograde. Transiting Mars first made the tense aspect to the US natal Neptune in October of last year. Now that it’s moving direct, and until early March 2023, it will repeat moving in and out of this transit aspect.
In the US natal chart, Neptune is in the 9th house, denoting perhaps ethical values/beliefs that are very high minded; perhaps a difficult reach at times to achieve and then maintain. The natal Mars position that transiting Mars is meeting up with three times is in the 7th house, denoting an energetic engagement of important relationships with other nations. This is a role that America historically claims to feel paramount about and has grown into. (There’s also a faction that wishes the US leadership to shed this value and it could happen for a period of time, but never last.) Altogether the importance of Neptune and Mars in the natal chart and in the transits to each other now suggests characteristics that other nations and individuals both within and without the USA identify with. This is probably more evident during wartimes - the provenance of Mars - supporting and nurturing alliances with other nations as well as being central in the conflict of values with others.
Neptune conforms to the higher values of the 9th house, which resonates something similar to Sagittarius. It is cultivating features of the Sagittarian duality: non-material ethics or a complete surrender to narcissism. Neptune being the planet of high-spirited ideals is also capable of great deception masquerading as high ideals.
When one creates the shell of noble causes one then has to fill it with content. The thing about Neptune is it doesn’t relate as something alive in our daily lives. It doesn’t usually get attention in the front of the stage; it works constantly and quietly behind the curtain. If it wasn’t working constantly we might notice it more. Neptune circulates where and when we resolve our intentions for action; it isn’t the action itself. Therefore it seems abstract, providing the platform and props for us to decide on how we will act to manifest our ideals. Mostly we don’t live in the abstract; we don’t have time for it. But Neptune with wile guides us into circumstances where we have to define and refine what we do believe in by our actions.
Mars is action.
Mars is content to take action in a vacuum of intentions, scattering energy. In this case, Neptune provides some soul and shapes intentions and goals. The Mars/Neptune relationship in the natal US chart suggests part of the character of the nation is to hold high values, or at times pretend to hold high values with the intention of deception. Neptune can go both ways. Because the influence is coming from amoral Mars, the inclinations of Neptune can easily create the facade of idealism on the public face, but the masquerade obscures self-serving. It plays on high-minded values in people. If those values are not fully formed or subject to negative psychological experiences and emotions, the results can be abusive and hurtful. Every one of us has at times lied to ourselves and others in big and small ways and sold our values short. It may be necessary to reveal that this capability is there.
Mars likes to be the hero and can be short on seeing consequences, in favor of gaining the immediate satisfaction of taking action.
Neptune; Mars This transit of Mars to its place in the US natal chart, while in aspect to the US natal Neptune, is augmented now (in early 2023) by transiting Mars being in aspect to transiting Neptune, while at the same time Neptune is in opposition to the US natal Neptune. (Transiting Neptune in opposition to the US natal Neptune’s position.) Neptune has been in this dynamic relationship for a couple years.
It’s confusing. As it always can do, Neptune muddies up what is real because everything is real to Neptune.
Looking at the Ukraine war in consideration of the Mars and Neptune transits to the US natal Mars and Neptune, clearly the US has circled the wagons with allies and drawn a few lines in the sand for others. The entire past year of war in Ukraine is linked to the relationships that the US has acted on pulling together. Another important feature of this time is that the US and the allies’ position has its own distinct version of reality from that of Russia. This is Neptune; both are real. Ultimately one will prevail over the other. As a guide to which one, I refer mention to the Jupiter transit last year in meeting up with Neptune in Pisces. Jupiter inflates everything and it resonates favorably with a 9th house Neptune as Jupiter is very strong in 9th house/Sagittarius. The two of them make whatever version of reality is subscribed to seem more real and more ethical. Jumping in with both feet without caution to upholds one’s sense of ethics.
It’s confusing. As it always can do, Neptune muddies up what is real because everything is real to Neptune.
Looking at the Ukraine war in consideration of the Mars and Neptune transits to the US natal Mars and Neptune, clearly the US has circled the wagons with allies and drawn a few lines in the sand for others. The entire past year of war in Ukraine is linked to the relationships that the US has acted on pulling together. Another important feature of this time is that the US and the allies’ position has its own distinct version of reality from that of Russia. This is Neptune; both are real. Ultimately one will prevail over the other. As a guide to which one, I refer mention to the Jupiter transit last year in meeting up with Neptune in Pisces. Jupiter inflates everything and it resonates favorably with a 9th house Neptune as Jupiter is very strong in 9th house/Sagittarius. The two of them make whatever version of reality is subscribed to seem more real and more ethical. Jumping in with both feet without caution to upholds one’s sense of ethics.
The ruling faction in Russia feels threatened by the advancing Western culture into Ukraine. For the ruling class of Russia, the destruction of Ukraine is not so unethical as it seems in the West; they can kill there without feeling guilty because they own Ukraine as far as they are concerned. It’s similar to a bad vision with bad values displayed by white power racists in America who feel no shame in abusing nonwhite people because they are a sub class of human being. Russia feels Ukrainians are a sub class of Russia. They value Ukraine to serve Russia as a satellite colony insulating them from Europe. Here we see plainly the god of war, Mars, brutally destroying and at the same time saving life under the influence of Neptune. Both sides of this clash of values believes it is behaving in a necessary and acceptable way.
Neptune is at work, blurring the lines, screwing up what is reality and challenging human beings to define and refine. Neptune as an agent of the overall psyche uses both roles as an education for those where fertile ground is present. They feel this so deeply that they are willing to make painful costly sacrifices in a way that Mars naturally knows too well, in a war. It’s a kind of psychosis, a schism of reality where simply crossing a border results in the world - and the war taking place - looking completely different on the other side.
Neptune is at work, blurring the lines, screwing up what is reality and challenging human beings to define and refine. Neptune as an agent of the overall psyche uses both roles as an education for those where fertile ground is present. They feel this so deeply that they are willing to make painful costly sacrifices in a way that Mars naturally knows too well, in a war. It’s a kind of psychosis, a schism of reality where simply crossing a border results in the world - and the war taking place - looking completely different on the other side.
Now that Mars is moving forward and out of this dynamic, we can expect this Mars/Neptune clash to fade and give way to other Astrological factors. Transiting Neptune is moving much slower but eventually on to other things. It will remain interacting with the US natal Neptune without Mars well into 2024. It will be a continuing factor in the national motivation to define and refine its values into the next presidential election.
March of this year is going to be a very significant month.
Anyone interested in Astrology will be aware that in March, Pluto leaves Capricorn where it’s been for nearly 20 years. It won’t stay long in Aquarius, the next sign. By June it’s moving retrograde back into Capricorn before finally leaving that sign (for another 265 years or so) to spend some time in Aquarius until 2044. We get some flavor of what the next two decades will be like during the next few months so far as Pluto is concerned. In March, Saturn also changes signs, leaving Aquarius and entering Pisces. March is a huge month in an astrological perspective.
My expectation is there will be much shifting or changing in our psyche in a short period of time.
My expectation is there will be much shifting or changing in our psyche in a short period of time.
Our collective human psychology has a few dynamic years of big changes ahead. As these two powerful planets change signs, by April we could be stunned at how much change has rolled out. We will also see a less conflict-style picture of reality, because the Mars/Neptune transits will be pulling apart (with some drama). This will be true on all sides. People and nations will make definitive decisions.
Saturn Saturn moving into Pisces is a contrast from how it was in Aquarius. Saturn was on its better behavior in Aquarius, contributing knowledge, learning, even if what we learned was very sobering. It was at least constructive in that air sign, helping find some points of clarity and making it clear how people who may not be the best friends but share some practical needs, can work together. Neptune and Jupiter both transited Pisces inflating hopes perhaps unrealistically.
Saturn’s advice is always the same: keep it simple, get organized and do your work. Moving into Pisces from Aquarius, Saturn is going to reduce the expansiveness of Neptune. Saturn is going to narrow things down, more of a bottom-line approach. Pisces is a water sign - feelings, state of mind, psychological factors we can use or trip over.
Saturn’s advice is always the same: keep it simple, get organized and do your work. Moving into Pisces from Aquarius, Saturn is going to reduce the expansiveness of Neptune. Saturn is going to narrow things down, more of a bottom-line approach. Pisces is a water sign - feelings, state of mind, psychological factors we can use or trip over.
Many issues that Pluto stirred up while in Capricorn are not resolved. Yes, Pluto will return there by June and spend its time through the end of 2024 wrapping up a lot of loose ends. Remember, Capricorn is structure in every way - government, military, corporate, school, neighborhood, your body’s structure, the structure of our society, the structure of ideas. It really wants things to work well, it just happens often enough that people become conflicted and confused following competing voices within themselves.
Pluto continues to break down and reform established structure using buried tensions within the individual and collective psyche. This will change as it enters Aquarius in a way that reminds people how we need each other not so much in close relationships but as good neighbors. It’s the 11th house of “Others”, Community. Pluto in Aquarius will point out how we exist in our community and how we could do it better. Unfortunately, Pluto tends to enter a place and break things down to their atomic level, completely. It rebuilds them much later after we dwell in our stew a while.
I suspect Pluto will begin a lesson on how much we will need to rely on others. To me this implies that the way we do it now - through automation - is going to be hampered. Aquarius is the new age of technology and Pluto coming in could cut a few connections.
Pluto continues to break down and reform established structure using buried tensions within the individual and collective psyche. This will change as it enters Aquarius in a way that reminds people how we need each other not so much in close relationships but as good neighbors. It’s the 11th house of “Others”, Community. Pluto in Aquarius will point out how we exist in our community and how we could do it better. Unfortunately, Pluto tends to enter a place and break things down to their atomic level, completely. It rebuilds them much later after we dwell in our stew a while.
I suspect Pluto will begin a lesson on how much we will need to rely on others. To me this implies that the way we do it now - through automation - is going to be hampered. Aquarius is the new age of technology and Pluto coming in could cut a few connections.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
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Saturn Uranus Tango Saturn has been in and out of a tense (square) relationship aspect to Uranus for almost two years. Saturn retrograded back for the third and final episode of the tango with Uranus peaking in September-October of this year. In the last week of October, Saturn began to move direct after slowly moving retrograde back into the square with Uranus over the prior months.
Saturn in Aquarius first approached and squared Uranus in Taurus around the time of the January 6th insurrection at the Capital building in 2021. The two major outer planets reached their first peak of three meetings during former president Trump's second impeachment. The tension between these two planets in such a relationship work according to their very different natures - seemingly opposite to each other. Saturn likes structure. Uranus likes to turn structure on its head or even blow it apart.
| The best and easiest illustration to grasp Uranus is the Tower card in the Major Arcana of a deck of Tarot cards. Saturn is often depicted in a somber Grim Reaper Father Time illustration. They are both upsetting however both provide vital parts of evolving consciousness, evicting us from comfortable but retarding ruts, demanding we be responsible, inviting us to break out and try new ideas, acting out crazy bad ideas and paying a price for them. In the mix of these two different patterns established life structures are often stripped down, new ones built, with accompanying periods of frustration pulling in all directions as processes work their way through to us seeing more clearly the follies on one side and refining our goals on the other. |  Uranus  Saturn |
The third and final meeting in the square aspect came this Fall, at the time of this writing. At the same time, retrograde Mercury connected by aspect to the position of transiting Pluto, still not quite done with its work in Capricorn. Pluto begins a year or two of transition into Aquarius back and forth from Capricorn next year. This transition comes with other major planets also in aspect and changing signs, all amounting to two to three years of huge changes in our lives.
Altogether Saturn, Uranus and Pluto completions this year into next conclude some themes and begin to move us into new chapters. They reveal and release hidden information and insight into the events that turned up during transiting aspects during these recent years.
Altogether Saturn, Uranus and Pluto completions this year into next conclude some themes and begin to move us into new chapters. They reveal and release hidden information and insight into the events that turned up during transiting aspects during these recent years.
For example, the January 2021 insurrection happened at the first meeting of Uranus and Saturn. As we now are in the final months of that transit it is likely that the processes that unfolded because of it will lead to reforms that address the causes. It is likely we see Saturn in particular extract a price for them in terms of punishment. Saturn as Lord of Karma will execute its edicts that continue to play out in the years to come. Saturn also rewards the mature conduct of those who worked in a Saturnian way. That is, rewards for those who sought to restrict unrestrained behavior, behavior that undermined structure (Saturn) but at the same time refined it by adapting to the consequences. The Uranian component of this two-year transit was the energy that threatened and broke down existing order. It still hasn't fully registered on either side of the conflict that underlying reasons producing the event point to problems with the structure (Saturn) of reality or the genius (Uranus) drowning within it. Time will have to pass before the value from it sinks in.
Meanwhile things continue to move forward. Time waits for no one.
Saturn and Uranus will be pulling apart in the coming month and this aspect, while it continues to reverberate, will fade from the front of the stage. It will become a subplot and take a step back as other energies move to the front over the next couple of years.
Mars’ passage through Gemini is usually a short sprint, but because Mars turned retrograde it will spend a prolonged period in Gemini and grow in power because of its slower motion, taking on the weight of a larger outer planet during its retrograde period. A retrograde planet as the physics works out, is closer to Earth than when it's direct. This is one reason why the impact of retrograde planets feels stronger. Mars retrograding now happens between 7 and 26 degrees of Gemini. Anyone with a chart that has sensitive positions between these degrees will be impacted in overt ways. Mars is overt, not subtle. Similarly, anyone with planets in other signs at degrees in relation to Mars’ slow transit in Gemini (especially Sagittarius, Pisces and Virgo) will have to deal with this inflated Mars transit by aspect, as it retrogrades then moves direct early next year to complete this period by March of next year. Because this happens from Gemini, those affected can expect to give and take some strong words, inflammatory words. They will be expressed with emphasis inflated beyond what seems reasonable. Try to think twice before speaking if this astrologically applies to you.
No ordinary election
 On election day in the US this November there is an eclipse. The full Moon which famously calls out to indulgent self-expression is amplified by both Mars in its powered-up mode conjunct Uranus directly opposite the full Moon eclipse. The full Moon is already known to love acting out in crazy ways, breaking existing order. Mars with Uranus can give itself to exaggerated anger, way over the line - opposite an eclipsed Moon is an invitation for the irrational. This is a total eclipse of the Moon. A total eclipse can bring something forth from the irrational subconscious (hidden pattern of behavior) that sheds an aura of influence lasting months, some say for up to two years. Whatever its duration, under the circumstances this will be no ordinary election. Without hesitation one can easily expect if Republicans do not win, they will protract the finalization of election results for months. If they do win the results may stand within a more conventional post-election process. The aura of this election will warp reality either way for an extended period thereafter, as an eclipse can do. Expect a crazed atmosphere on election day setting the tone into next year. |  |
A change in character emphasis begins in March
But my larger interest for upcoming astrological influences is the changing of signs by major planets beginning in March with Pluto finally crawling up to 30 degrees of Capricorn which is zero degrees of Aquarius, the next sign. All major planets change character emphasis in our psyche when they change signs. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and can't be overlooked, but it doesn't carry the weight of the trans-Jupiter planets simply because Jupiter moves faster.
Pluto changes signs by direct then retrograde and direct motion in over two years, a huge shift for all of us. Many of the themes for its time in Capricorn don't come to an end as much as get less attention, while other areas of life gain more. As new concerns come into view, we relegate many former priorities to the back burner. The major planets bring into our lives from remote areas of our consciousness things we must deal with and might have been too distracted to manage or prepare for.
Thus, the shift of focus often arrives like an uninvited guest. We might greet that guest with joy or a long face, we might be grateful to be catapulted out of a rut. Or we might dread facing more problems to address. We can usually count on Pluto to drag the junk out of the basement that we ignored, stuffed away to deal with at a later date. That time has come. Moving into Aquarius the emphasis will appear to many as problems humanity can solve with technology. Problems with technology. Maybe for a while, technology that doesn't work. Can't work. The planet discovered at the time humanity brought forth the atomic age, Pluto, will be upgraded while in Aquarius but maybe because it doesn't work and has to be rebuilt.
Why doesn't it work? Temporarily, there can be many reasons for this. I won't speculate here now but I am expecting a reboot of the atomic age. It probably starts out from a mess, dysfunctionally crippled because of humanity, but sometime down the road humanity arrives at something better, like fission reactors instead of fusion.
Pluto changes signs by direct then retrograde and direct motion in over two years, a huge shift for all of us. Many of the themes for its time in Capricorn don't come to an end as much as get less attention, while other areas of life gain more. As new concerns come into view, we relegate many former priorities to the back burner. The major planets bring into our lives from remote areas of our consciousness things we must deal with and might have been too distracted to manage or prepare for.
Thus, the shift of focus often arrives like an uninvited guest. We might greet that guest with joy or a long face, we might be grateful to be catapulted out of a rut. Or we might dread facing more problems to address. We can usually count on Pluto to drag the junk out of the basement that we ignored, stuffed away to deal with at a later date. That time has come. Moving into Aquarius the emphasis will appear to many as problems humanity can solve with technology. Problems with technology. Maybe for a while, technology that doesn't work. Can't work. The planet discovered at the time humanity brought forth the atomic age, Pluto, will be upgraded while in Aquarius but maybe because it doesn't work and has to be rebuilt.
Why doesn't it work? Temporarily, there can be many reasons for this. I won't speculate here now but I am expecting a reboot of the atomic age. It probably starts out from a mess, dysfunctionally crippled because of humanity, but sometime down the road humanity arrives at something better, like fission reactors instead of fusion.
Pluto arrives in Aquarius before Saturn leaves, barely, but as Saturn enters Pisces, we will immediately miss it having been in Aquarius. We got the better side of Saturn while it was in Aquarius. In Pisces, Saturn casts a shadow over dreams. Faith is replaced by duty. Choice is replaced by necessity. This will be a good time for hard work; trying to find self-definition won't come until Saturn enters Aries years from now. Pluto in Aquarius will ask us all to work together, and by necessity with Saturn in Pisces. Neptune will leave Pisces in a couple years to enter Aries and like Saturn in Pisces, Neptune leaving Pisces will be missed as its subtle power goes to sleep through the sign of Aries except by specific aspect, by inspiration. Uranus will leave rigid Taurus and enter Gemini and fortunately for us all, while times may be topsy turvy, Uranus in air sign Gemini will make a happy aspect to Pluto in Aquarius, resulting in technological and scientific breakthrough ideas. These ideas will not restore lost fantasies of the past, they will reinvent the wheels of the future.
This all plays out in the coming few years.
David Wheatley, end October 2022
This all plays out in the coming few years.
David Wheatley, end October 2022
David A. Wheatley has been a Fine Artist/painter since first exhibiting in Soho, New York during the 1970’s. David developed other talents first as a Tarot reader then extending into Astrological theory, a practice which lead to the development of ideas in his book, 2012 Before and After. Working occasionally as a full time Tarot and Astrological counselor, David grew familiar with many other related disciplines through the years that add great dimension to astrological traditions, including psychological perspectives and the development of quantum physics. David currently resides in Florida.
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
Contact David at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation.
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
There are two astrological events going on that interest me greatly; one is somewhat under the radar and one is going to cover the radar screen completely.
The under-rated under the radar aspect is where transiting Neptune is now in relation to where it is in the US natal chart (or where it was when the US was “born”.)
We are in a unique period where there is a Pluto return at the same time as a Neptune opposition to its natal position in the US chart. The Pluto return is opposite natal Mercury along the 2nd and 8th house axis. This clearly indicates a period of a couple years of major economic/financial challenges filtered through 9th house idealism. The most tangible manifestation of this is how supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression is inflating the cost of living. That the causes are far away in another country is perfectly in keeping with the US 9th house position of Neptune. We remain in this moment into 2024. Are Americans willing to pay at the pump and more for everything else to help push back totalitarians in eastern Europe? This theme isn’t unique to the US but easy to see how this transit by Neptune is substantial in the US economy and therefore elsewhere. It doesn’t seem likely that western allies are going to back off this commitment however in America there are sympathetic voices to Vladimir Putin.
There’s also the darker side of Pluto in this. Being that Pluto’s return to its natal placement in the US chart is 2nd and 8th house, the 8th house hearkens back to investments made in the past and how well they serve us in the present. Investments of all kinds, not strictly financial investments. Diplomatic investments. Research investments. Emotional investments in our families and jobs.
Oil is something from the past, serving in the present. Oil is also involved in the powers that dominate corporate America (Pluto in Capricorn), and Russia. These powers could ease the pain of inflation, however instead are reaping huge profits and not spending towards creating a more stable market in which prices for other goods could ease. This pressure will be undone as Pluto departs the return and departs Capricorn for Aquarius within the next two years. It will ultimately be up to the American voters to decide what their values are in the 2024 election after which these giant aspects diminish. They will vote based on their values to complete the transit of Neptune opposing the US natal Neptune.
The purpose of Pluto stirring up corporate conspiracies and exposing corruption in governments isn’t to make them become virtuous. Their purpose is to provide on an individual level the opportunity to examine and then act on what we believe in, to provide us and our electorate the opportunity to manifest their beliefs. Pluto can set up and expose corruption; it can create then undermine it.
The individual and national or collective will to establish values and then act on them is why we need to go through these stressful events. We have to prove what we say. The need to revisit and examine values is work that is never done. Since Pluto for example will move on into Aquarius doesn’t mean it leaves the government or political leaders it exposed as corrupt or corporations cheating, all neat and tidy, all repaired. It just means that the recent cycles of transits - which span decades and generations - are complete, and the next round of rebuilding will in time come due for another generation. We will do it all again probably, for other souls who need to face the same kind of decisions. This is a major overhaul questioning the founding principles of the US; it’s the first Pluto return in its history. Finding out that some things don’t work means we have to rewrite the rules. We definitely learned in the last five years that there are those who will operate outside the old established rules because they were not encoded law. But we probably need to face a crisis of dysfunction before some people will believe it.
We are in a unique period where there is a Pluto return at the same time as a Neptune opposition to its natal position in the US chart. The Pluto return is opposite natal Mercury along the 2nd and 8th house axis. This clearly indicates a period of a couple years of major economic/financial challenges filtered through 9th house idealism. The most tangible manifestation of this is how supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression is inflating the cost of living. That the causes are far away in another country is perfectly in keeping with the US 9th house position of Neptune. We remain in this moment into 2024. Are Americans willing to pay at the pump and more for everything else to help push back totalitarians in eastern Europe? This theme isn’t unique to the US but easy to see how this transit by Neptune is substantial in the US economy and therefore elsewhere. It doesn’t seem likely that western allies are going to back off this commitment however in America there are sympathetic voices to Vladimir Putin.
There’s also the darker side of Pluto in this. Being that Pluto’s return to its natal placement in the US chart is 2nd and 8th house, the 8th house hearkens back to investments made in the past and how well they serve us in the present. Investments of all kinds, not strictly financial investments. Diplomatic investments. Research investments. Emotional investments in our families and jobs.
Oil is something from the past, serving in the present. Oil is also involved in the powers that dominate corporate America (Pluto in Capricorn), and Russia. These powers could ease the pain of inflation, however instead are reaping huge profits and not spending towards creating a more stable market in which prices for other goods could ease. This pressure will be undone as Pluto departs the return and departs Capricorn for Aquarius within the next two years. It will ultimately be up to the American voters to decide what their values are in the 2024 election after which these giant aspects diminish. They will vote based on their values to complete the transit of Neptune opposing the US natal Neptune.
The purpose of Pluto stirring up corporate conspiracies and exposing corruption in governments isn’t to make them become virtuous. Their purpose is to provide on an individual level the opportunity to examine and then act on what we believe in, to provide us and our electorate the opportunity to manifest their beliefs. Pluto can set up and expose corruption; it can create then undermine it.
The individual and national or collective will to establish values and then act on them is why we need to go through these stressful events. We have to prove what we say. The need to revisit and examine values is work that is never done. Since Pluto for example will move on into Aquarius doesn’t mean it leaves the government or political leaders it exposed as corrupt or corporations cheating, all neat and tidy, all repaired. It just means that the recent cycles of transits - which span decades and generations - are complete, and the next round of rebuilding will in time come due for another generation. We will do it all again probably, for other souls who need to face the same kind of decisions. This is a major overhaul questioning the founding principles of the US; it’s the first Pluto return in its history. Finding out that some things don’t work means we have to rewrite the rules. We definitely learned in the last five years that there are those who will operate outside the old established rules because they were not encoded law. But we probably need to face a crisis of dysfunction before some people will believe it.
Transiting Neptune opposite natal Neptune from Pisces to Virgo requires a brief bit of reflection on Neptune in Virgo’s character and as it is located in the US chart, in the 9th house. In Virgo, Neptune encourages belief in efficiency, establishing a reliable realistic base of optimism, not unrealistic pie in the sky ideas that lack planning. Writing down the Declaration of Independence and holding it up as something to follow for centuries is a Virgo kind of thing. With Virgo, on a soul level, is the acceptance that naivete is no excuse for failure. We have to begin to make concessions to the universe outside our personal bubble, finding the workable balance that is expected by the next sign, Libra. Virgo is the last sign of the first half of the zodiac where we begin to integrate more with everyone and everything else. The impetus that begins in Aries which was to have it our way acknowledges in steps sign by sign until in Virgo we arrive ready to lower the gate around our ego. This is the reality of the zodiacal virgin. She sacrifices some of her Self and in return the universe cultivates Itself within us.
In the 9th house is the possibility of noble well-informed intent with a religious sense of purpose, just as there is the possibility that these values are a load of croc. The problem in the 9th house is because we consider the belief to be sacred, we resist it ever evolving.
The burst of energy represented by the birth chart of the USA continues to be the chart of the lives being lived on this land at the moment, but it’s a very different set of circumstances. There is unfortunately a tremendous amount of tragic karma yet to be resolved that this country was built on. One of the things that helps to do that is recognition of the common interests of everyone living in it now to fulfill a shared variously defined idealism we agree to, and one of the realities of that is an economy that offers opportunities for its participants.
It’s a question of belief, not necessarily of reality.
Neptune thinks everything is real, it doesn’t separate fact from fiction. We have to sort it out and integrate what works down here on Earth because Neptune is far sighted and can’t see things individually up close isolated from each other. The expanse of Neptune’s perception is other worldly. It’s a valuable perspective to retain because we realize how silly some of our close-up obsessions are. But we live here on Earth to iron out some of the details, not spread ourselves thin across the seas of Neptune.
Neptune in transit opposing it’s US natal placement says hold on a minute, are we the majority in agreement of what we believe our valued goal to be? This is a period of confusion because not everyone agrees on what national value or ideals are, or what is fact or fiction. People don’t recognize how Neptune works or works in their lives because it is subtle, its impact seems vague. Neptune accepts everything one believes as fact, which is why people don’t recognize Neptune. It’s too obvious. Belief defines Neptune’s reality and we act on whatever it is.
The opposition from transiting Neptune in Pisces most of all dissolves the definitions of what is a valid belief or not valid. Belief was never fact; it was always a guess highly dependent on wishful thinking.
If we recognize that Neptune is a formless watery ocean that takes on whatever shape we pour it into, we also have to recognize that what we believe is going to look different depending on who’s looking at it. In that case we had better develop a common understanding of what we are looking at. Go from there. Up to now we had written and unwritten laws about what was a common national goal and standards of ethical behavior. But Neptune says, wait a minute, what happens when I remove that common belief? What happens when the doors swing open and anything goes? That’s about where we’re at.
In the 9th house is the possibility of noble well-informed intent with a religious sense of purpose, just as there is the possibility that these values are a load of croc. The problem in the 9th house is because we consider the belief to be sacred, we resist it ever evolving.
The burst of energy represented by the birth chart of the USA continues to be the chart of the lives being lived on this land at the moment, but it’s a very different set of circumstances. There is unfortunately a tremendous amount of tragic karma yet to be resolved that this country was built on. One of the things that helps to do that is recognition of the common interests of everyone living in it now to fulfill a shared variously defined idealism we agree to, and one of the realities of that is an economy that offers opportunities for its participants.
It’s a question of belief, not necessarily of reality.
Neptune thinks everything is real, it doesn’t separate fact from fiction. We have to sort it out and integrate what works down here on Earth because Neptune is far sighted and can’t see things individually up close isolated from each other. The expanse of Neptune’s perception is other worldly. It’s a valuable perspective to retain because we realize how silly some of our close-up obsessions are. But we live here on Earth to iron out some of the details, not spread ourselves thin across the seas of Neptune.
Neptune in transit opposing it’s US natal placement says hold on a minute, are we the majority in agreement of what we believe our valued goal to be? This is a period of confusion because not everyone agrees on what national value or ideals are, or what is fact or fiction. People don’t recognize how Neptune works or works in their lives because it is subtle, its impact seems vague. Neptune accepts everything one believes as fact, which is why people don’t recognize Neptune. It’s too obvious. Belief defines Neptune’s reality and we act on whatever it is.
The opposition from transiting Neptune in Pisces most of all dissolves the definitions of what is a valid belief or not valid. Belief was never fact; it was always a guess highly dependent on wishful thinking.
If we recognize that Neptune is a formless watery ocean that takes on whatever shape we pour it into, we also have to recognize that what we believe is going to look different depending on who’s looking at it. In that case we had better develop a common understanding of what we are looking at. Go from there. Up to now we had written and unwritten laws about what was a common national goal and standards of ethical behavior. But Neptune says, wait a minute, what happens when I remove that common belief? What happens when the doors swing open and anything goes? That’s about where we’re at.
The other more dramatic astrological event unfolding is...
...Mars in transit catching up to Uranus, in Taurus. The Moon’s North Nodes, which are moving retrograde as they often do, will back up and meet Mars as it arrives to meet Uranus later in July, together into August.
Uranus moved into the earth sign Taurus a few years ago. As I and others have commented, Taurus, a literally down to earth grounded energy, is not a great place for Uranus. Uranus was the ancient sky god, not grounded, represented in the Tarot deck as the lightning bolt that knocked down the Tower of Babel. Uranus is the iconic ruler of the new age sign Aquarius, and was the first planet discovered because of the use of new technology at the time, the telescope. It wants unrestricted movement. Taurus is all about nailing things down, securing all the hatches, no loose ends. The combination of these two is that the potential energy of the Uranian lightning bolt is held in chains until something provokes a moment of release. At that time, potentially long held pent up energy is released. The release can be as a one-time thing or a series of expressions over the period of the provocation. In this instance Mars is the catalyst. Mars is also not at its best in Taurus; it also does not like being contained. Mars tends to react with a careless impatience when restrained. This is a combination suited well to any kind of breaking out of restraint: breakthrough, eruption, breakdown, angry outburst, crash, breaking the rules without concern for the consequences good or bad, pushing through adversity, winning at all costs, frustration, earthquake, explosion.
If one has the ability to let this energy be expressed with discipline it can be used very constructively to achieve something long sought for, but this is no easy task. It’s drinking water from a fire hose.
The North Nodes add a little dimension to the events. They tell us that this is a hurdle that collectively and individually we have faced before and this time we have to make the step that’s been hard to do if we want to move forward in a healthy way. It’s an opportunity.
When late July comes around, and into early August, watch carefully not to lose your temper and if challenged to put the energy into finding resolution. Don’t throw something at the TV or break the Ming vase, although that would be better than taking it out on someone else or hurting yourself. Exercise but don’t try and set a record, unless you are a professional athlete in a competition. In that case you might win.
Uranus moved into the earth sign Taurus a few years ago. As I and others have commented, Taurus, a literally down to earth grounded energy, is not a great place for Uranus. Uranus was the ancient sky god, not grounded, represented in the Tarot deck as the lightning bolt that knocked down the Tower of Babel. Uranus is the iconic ruler of the new age sign Aquarius, and was the first planet discovered because of the use of new technology at the time, the telescope. It wants unrestricted movement. Taurus is all about nailing things down, securing all the hatches, no loose ends. The combination of these two is that the potential energy of the Uranian lightning bolt is held in chains until something provokes a moment of release. At that time, potentially long held pent up energy is released. The release can be as a one-time thing or a series of expressions over the period of the provocation. In this instance Mars is the catalyst. Mars is also not at its best in Taurus; it also does not like being contained. Mars tends to react with a careless impatience when restrained. This is a combination suited well to any kind of breaking out of restraint: breakthrough, eruption, breakdown, angry outburst, crash, breaking the rules without concern for the consequences good or bad, pushing through adversity, winning at all costs, frustration, earthquake, explosion.
If one has the ability to let this energy be expressed with discipline it can be used very constructively to achieve something long sought for, but this is no easy task. It’s drinking water from a fire hose.
The North Nodes add a little dimension to the events. They tell us that this is a hurdle that collectively and individually we have faced before and this time we have to make the step that’s been hard to do if we want to move forward in a healthy way. It’s an opportunity.
When late July comes around, and into early August, watch carefully not to lose your temper and if challenged to put the energy into finding resolution. Don’t throw something at the TV or break the Ming vase, although that would be better than taking it out on someone else or hurting yourself. Exercise but don’t try and set a record, unless you are a professional athlete in a competition. In that case you might win.
David A. Wheatley has been a Fine Artist/painter since first exhibiting in Soho, New York during the 1970’s. David developed other talents first as a tarot reader then extending into astrological theory, a practice which lead to the development of ideas in his book, 2012 Before and After. Working occasionally as a full time tarot and astrological counselor, David grew familiar with many other related disciplines through the years that add great dimension to astrological traditions, including psychological perspectives and the development of quantum physics. David currently resides in Florida.
Contact David Wheatley at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
Contact David Wheatley at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
What now and just ahead for Putin and Russia
Saturn, the leveler of visionary expansion, moves into tighter opposition to his Pluto
Still very much in the news internationally, there’s a lot of interest in the astrological charts of Vladimir Putin, Russia and the war on Ukraine. No one seems to have any doubts about the Ukrainian leader but those other charts stir endless speculation that fuel concerns for whole world. Each of those charts deserves an in-depth discussion but I won’t do that here and now, and will confine myself to an overview.
Putin had conditions in his chart going into February that instilled confidence to make a major decision to launch a war, that confidence coming from Jupiter transiting through Pisces. Jupiter inflates or expands where ever it touches, and when it caught up with Neptune in Pisces the chemistry was truly historic. I say historic because the last time Jupiter was conjunct, or caught up, with Neptune in Pisces was the first Crimean War, ending in 1856. Russia wanted the Crimean peninsula to have authority over shipping lanes in the Black Sea. Parts of Europe were against that, mostly France and Great Britain, as was the Ottoman Empire on the south side, Turkey.
Jupiter met up with Neptune again lately, this February through April. While together this time, they were joined by Venus, the Sun, Mercury and Mars. As I commented in an earlier review the expansive qualities of especially Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces are limitless insofar as the human psyche is concerned. Dreams and visions are very grand. But the reality came as soon as Jupiter departed. Jupiter has now entered Aries, where patience is short for expecting reality to equal the vision.
It’s fine to envision a destiny ahead full of celebration and adoration. It’s good to create a path for success by imagining it, but if this singular self-serving vision clashes with much greater numbers and many other dreams, the shake-out can be a let down.
Jupiter met up with Neptune again lately, this February through April. While together this time, they were joined by Venus, the Sun, Mercury and Mars. As I commented in an earlier review the expansive qualities of especially Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces are limitless insofar as the human psyche is concerned. Dreams and visions are very grand. But the reality came as soon as Jupiter departed. Jupiter has now entered Aries, where patience is short for expecting reality to equal the vision.
It’s fine to envision a destiny ahead full of celebration and adoration. It’s good to create a path for success by imagining it, but if this singular self-serving vision clashes with much greater numbers and many other dreams, the shake-out can be a let down.
Many people cultivate generating a positive attitude and envisioning their intentions as if that’s all they need to succeed. This would be true if one lived in a vacuum, where no one else and their intentions clashed with yours, as if the universe both seen and unseen is as pliable as a wet noodle waiting for our ego to shape it. There are innumerable intentions of living people, and those not living as well. The ongoing patterns in our societies established by our predecessors run on automatic pilot all around and through us. These are the customs, habits and expectations of a society. This is why doing charts for collectives - towns, cities and countries - can be informative. We can see currents flowing in the collective psyche that no one person has a handle on. We can see traditions and customs from the past run headlong into current trends and economic realities.
Pisces can be caught up in a universe of dreams that inspire bold moves. Aries doesn’t wait for evolution, it wants results sooner.
I did a painting years ago of an individual surfing a surging cosmic tide in the human psyche. It was a kind of a Rorschach test; do you see the surfer leading the wave or is the wave taking the surfer? We never have the full picture; it isn’t necessary, isn’t always helpful and is distracting. Our intellect often sees what we consider the full picture, but it is really only our picture. Our intellect dwells on itself, we are very subjective beings. Intuitive knowledge skips trying to intellectualize information in order to own it, to own all there is to know. Intuitive knowledge is knowing what you need to know without being held back by what you don’t know.
Pisces can be caught up in a universe of dreams that inspire bold moves. Aries doesn’t wait for evolution, it wants results sooner.
I did a painting years ago of an individual surfing a surging cosmic tide in the human psyche. It was a kind of a Rorschach test; do you see the surfer leading the wave or is the wave taking the surfer? We never have the full picture; it isn’t necessary, isn’t always helpful and is distracting. Our intellect often sees what we consider the full picture, but it is really only our picture. Our intellect dwells on itself, we are very subjective beings. Intuitive knowledge skips trying to intellectualize information in order to own it, to own all there is to know. Intuitive knowledge is knowing what you need to know without being held back by what you don’t know.
In his moment of decision Putin believed what his intellect told him to believe. All his knowledge told him his purpose and his abilities were wedded to destiny, that he was making destiny. It’s going to turn out that destiny is using him, and his delusion will inadvertently serve humanity.
Intuitively we accept in Astrological theory that in spite of what we do not know, there are innumerable patterns and repeating cycles that are reliable for grasping the outline of how our psyche works. The solar system is our psyche: an organic body filled with properties and value just as the human body is filled with organs and structure. For better and worse we are barely aware of how much the psyche knows. It works mostly behind the scenes leading us from pillar to post. There’s too much to know while at the same time be finite beings in an Earth body. “All knowing” is incompatible with our conscious abilities; we are designed to have most of our knowing outside consciousness and then to seek it by experiencing life. We rely on the imposition of limits and structure, embodied by Saturn, in order to build something constructive and useful with our small capacity Earth consciousness.
Putin’s vision of his place in Russian history is naturally a subjective one within his ego. He probably envisioned that he was seeing everything as it really is, though to launch a war under the umbrella of the conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces is guaranteed to be at the height of self deception. He sees everything rotating around him. What we know of his advisors is they were not giving him accurate intelligence reports; they were protecting their employment and telling him what he wanted to hear, reinforcing his delusion. From a cosmic view much greater than Putin's, the collective psyche is fine with that. It will use his conviction to act, as he is one small actor in a larger play. The collective psyche uses everything towards its own ends, including the delusions of mortals.
The visionary expansion Jupiter promised when it entered Pisces' realm of dreams and then conjuncted with Neptune is deflated when it enters Aries, followed by Mars and Venus also entering and leaving Pisces, and entering Aries. Aries wants to be real. Aries isn’t interested in the full story or details; it just wants to get things done.
Another factor is the influence of Saturn which always seeks clarity of vision. Saturn pushes away the flowery distractions to focus on organizing lines of energy in order to be more efficient... over Time. The Jupiter Neptune conjunction in Pisces inspired Putin’s belief in the fantasy he harbored, but the air has gone out of that balloon. This is a huge shift in the forces around Putin penetrating his dream and forcing adjustments. Part of this adjustment pushing into his vision began last year when Saturn began to move into the square aspect to Uranus. It ebbed off with the retrograde motion of Saturn, and returns over the coming summer months to peak in October. The Jupiter Neptune party was an interlude in the weakest months of the Saturn Uranus aspect, but it has done its job. The inspiration Putin acted on isn’t doing Russia or anyone else any good short term, but longer term it will produce a wave of very positive results for the region and the world.
Saturn respects hard work more than big dreams. Saturn respects careful preparation in a well informed context. Saturn respects disciplined long term effort more than periodic flashes of inspired surges. Saturn rewards what it respects with results. It always yields consequences, both welcomed and not. Saturn can become overbearing and suffocating, and in those moments other planetary tendencies can break the overbearing structure, (Uranus). This year got a lot of attention for Jupiter in Pisces but really the main act is Saturn in Aquarius locked in a square with Uranus in Taurus. Once this relationship has played out, the stage will be set for a major shift when Pluto finishes its work in Capricorn and moves into Aquarius. For now though we stand at the crossroads between the agents of order and disorder: Saturn and Uranus. The son and the father in mythology who while they see the world through completely different lenses and their conflicts create distress, ultimately will both make the next major steps in social evolution possible.
Vladmir Putin natal chart As May folds into the summer months, Saturn continues to grow in tension in Putin’s natal chart, moving into a tighter opposition to his natal Pluto. By the fall of the year the aspects orchestrated by Saturn's climactic opposition will begin to fade, whether or not its lessons have been learned or by how much. Saturn doesn’t wait for the individual to “get it” - there’s a lot of moving parts and if the individual doesn’t get it they can have a whack at it again some other time.
Earlier this year Jupiter transited Putin’s natal chart in a favorable relationship/aspect from Pisces to both natal Venus and Jupiter. These aspects contributed heavily to making his decision to "liberate" Ukraine. Putin is a Libra. He has Mercury, Neptune and Saturn in Libra at birth along with the Sun, conveying a belief that he can charm others, that he believes in the illusion of control as a masterful manipulator. Jupiter, working for higher purposes, inflated his belief in being the hand of destiny.
However, Jupiter’s series of aspects to his natal cluster in Libra, while a brief flirtation with Putin’s impending immortality, pales in comparison to Saturn’s over-arching transit in Putin’s natal chart. Saturn is in a growing tighter opposition to his natal Pluto. In the bigger picture any grasp he imagined he had over others is itself part of greater forces that incidentally remind him that he is not immortal, he is like everyone else a flicker of a flame in the hand of destiny, not destiny itself. There are much greater forces at work than individual intentions.
Earlier this year Jupiter transited Putin’s natal chart in a favorable relationship/aspect from Pisces to both natal Venus and Jupiter. These aspects contributed heavily to making his decision to "liberate" Ukraine. Putin is a Libra. He has Mercury, Neptune and Saturn in Libra at birth along with the Sun, conveying a belief that he can charm others, that he believes in the illusion of control as a masterful manipulator. Jupiter, working for higher purposes, inflated his belief in being the hand of destiny.
However, Jupiter’s series of aspects to his natal cluster in Libra, while a brief flirtation with Putin’s impending immortality, pales in comparison to Saturn’s over-arching transit in Putin’s natal chart. Saturn is in a growing tighter opposition to his natal Pluto. In the bigger picture any grasp he imagined he had over others is itself part of greater forces that incidentally remind him that he is not immortal, he is like everyone else a flicker of a flame in the hand of destiny, not destiny itself. There are much greater forces at work than individual intentions.
Putin’s natal Pluto is in his 10th house as Saturn transits from his 3rd house briefly and then into his 4th house, opposing his natal Pluto. Putin will learn true perspective in a very public way with natal Pluto sitting in his 10th house. His Tower of Babel collapse will make a spectacular splash in front of the world. Pluto brings major transformations. As a tool of life, the transformations Pluto brings sometimes come with death. There are many kinds of death, of ideas, beliefs.
This transit from Saturn opposite his natal Pluto will wane by the end of the year, as Saturn leaves Aquarius early next year and moves into Pisces. That’s two major events with Saturn that are peaked now and wane by the end of the year. This should tell us something about the transitions ahead early next year.
Along the way, Saturn moves into Putin’s 4th house, a changing emphasis for his chart from strategy and planning to trauma in his personal sphere. It is bringing the specter of Saturn’s cosmic scythe into his personal home, shaking the foundations of his self image. Saturn arrived there on the cusp of his 4th House in April, and by retrograde motion will hit again over the summer. This is a harsh reality hitting home. Putin will face severe limits and restrictions in his personal life and may even be confined to it. In the western world, politicians sometimes tell the public they've decided to spend more time with their families when they have to duck out of leadership. Putin will be sticking close to home, insulating himself.
This transit from Saturn opposite his natal Pluto will wane by the end of the year, as Saturn leaves Aquarius early next year and moves into Pisces. That’s two major events with Saturn that are peaked now and wane by the end of the year. This should tell us something about the transitions ahead early next year.
Along the way, Saturn moves into Putin’s 4th house, a changing emphasis for his chart from strategy and planning to trauma in his personal sphere. It is bringing the specter of Saturn’s cosmic scythe into his personal home, shaking the foundations of his self image. Saturn arrived there on the cusp of his 4th House in April, and by retrograde motion will hit again over the summer. This is a harsh reality hitting home. Putin will face severe limits and restrictions in his personal life and may even be confined to it. In the western world, politicians sometimes tell the public they've decided to spend more time with their families when they have to duck out of leadership. Putin will be sticking close to home, insulating himself.
Fears harbored by others reading into Putin have reached the contemplation of whether he would feel forced to use nuclear weapons, since Pluto is the planet of the nuclear age. On the atomic level, life is transformed with Pluto, discovered in the solar system at the onset of the first use of the atomic bomb. These fears inhabit the darker areas of the psyche but never forget: they are symbolic. There are many kinds of “death” where life continues, and many of them bring the positive side of Pluto which is regeneration into new life. The phoenix. However, Saturn is the major planet in the transits to his natal Pluto, and Saturn works with circumstances that impose limits, not rapid expansion which is what a nuclear bomb is. This is not the kind of aspect that supports the use of nuclear weapons.
What's happening to Putin over the summer is happening at home, his 4th house, and it's intensely personal.
Besides all this, Saturn is also transiting over Putin’s natal Moon’s North Nodes. The arrival of Saturn by transit stimulates a core belief he has held for a lifetime or even inherited from past lives: that he is important to the fate of his country. Pluto was on his South Nodes at birth. Saturn temporarily on the North Nodes tries to bring his perspective around to seeing in real terms what it is he can do with his life while he still has it. This is where we imagine our contribution to the society we owe allegiance to. A good student of history knows that if we don’t decide that, other people will. If Putin refuses to be conscious of or see the truth of it, life will use him anyway. He is being used by layers of intelligence within the collective psyche. For him this is a possible awakening that introduces added insights to what he had assumed to be his purpose. There’s still time to learn. He will be used as a force for positive evolution, though the method of the darker side of Pluto is extremely painful. He is incidental as all leaders are, though he imagined himself something greater as many do. Anyone born within several years of Putin has Pluto in Leo and can easily believe in their essential value to the world to an exaggerated level. While we might ridicule this fantasy, it’s also the belief in it that fuels some individuals to achieve great things. Who can say what the values are?
Jupiter by transit will oppose his natal Sun/Mercury/Neptune/Saturn early next year. If in the year that’s just passed he has gained realistic insights and perspectives, this transit could be very beneficial to us all. If not, then it’s likely he tries to do it all over again. But that would fail even faster. It will be a question for him of going out on a high note or repeating the past. If he is up to it.
There’s a belief in Astrological conversation that when Pluto finally departs Capricorn we will be done with autocrats, or even more ironically, plutocrats. Plutocrats are authority figures whose power stems from enormous wealth, generally acquired by disreputable means. For that to happen to all of them I think the world would have to change incredibly radically, in ways that drown the small fish as it swamps the big ones. There are autocrats in the public consciousness who may fall from power; Putin is certainly one of them. There are others with their necks in the noose now. Some of the countries neighboring Ukraine and Russia who still labor under autocrats pretending to be saviors will get caught in this wave when Pluto finishes up with Capricorn.
Often when a major planet changes signs, big things happen in the world and circumstances we grew accustomed to that are no more permanent than a flower bed disappear, and people seem amazed because they had grown accustomed to them. Pluto moving into Aquarius is an interesting subject for another day, it’s not done yet in Capricorn.
Often when a major planet changes signs, big things happen in the world and circumstances we grew accustomed to that are no more permanent than a flower bed disappear, and people seem amazed because they had grown accustomed to them. Pluto moving into Aquarius is an interesting subject for another day, it’s not done yet in Capricorn.
Zelensky continues to have a strong chart until a year or more from now when a threat or attempt on his life is in the air.
The astrological chart for Russia faces some interesting transits in the coming year but one in particular stands out to me. As Jupiter transits through Aries with a brief retrograde back into Pisces, it will move into Russia’s 9th house and oppose Russia’s natal Saturn, squaring both Mercury and Pluto, forming a grand cross. Jupiter’s move into the 9th house suggests a shift into admitting foreign influence from “others”, 11th house Pluto and 5th house Mercury. No doubt Russia will need some rebuilding after suffering the attrition of their ill-advised war on Ukraine. The only place it might come from is China and while I haven’t looked at the chart for China yet, most of us can easily imagine a growing investment in Russia from China. Several years ago China began building a gas pipeline jointly with Russia. It faces enormous obstacles and is not yet completed. Until this pipeline is completed the EU remains Russia’s best customer for its natural gas. Both China and India currently buy Russian gas which is shipped by tanker. Their interest in Russian gas is long term. Possibly this upcoming transit from Jupiter in Russia’s chart is in regards to an advanced state of investment with these countries and acceptance in Russia of foreign influence, particularly Chinese.
David A. Wheatley has been a Fine Artist/painter since first exhibiting in Soho, New York during the 1970’s. David developed other talents first as a tarot reader then extending into astrological theory, a practice which lead to the development of ideas in his book, 2012 Before and After. Working occasionally as a full time tarot and astrological counselor, David grew familiar with many other related disciplines through the years that add great dimension to astrological traditions, including psychological perspectives and the development of quantum physics. David currently resides in Florida.
Contact David Wheatley at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation
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Contact David Wheatley at [email protected] for a personal astrological consultation
Click here to return to the Astrology Corner index page
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