I wrote this newsletter before the fires in Los Angeles broke out. We are watching a world burn before our eyes. The great City of Dreams, on fire.
So many souls are in distress, in danger, facing unimaginable loss.
Dear friends and colleagues have evacuated; some have lost their homes and a lifetime of memories. Others have lost their lives, their beloved animals.
All of us are shocked by the scenes of devastation. Our prayers go out to the people, plants, and animals who will no longer be the same after these fires.
The nodal axis is at zero Aries—the burning, hot, creative first degree of the zodiac. This is the degree where two planets, Saturn and Neptune, will cross over several times in the coming year. Their conjunctions mark the end of an old dream and the beginning of a new one.
We may only see the loss now, but something will be born of this great conflagration.
2025 – a new era
What a year this will be! We are entering a new era, and while this may feel daunting, it will awaken dormant energies, always a source of creative renewal.
When outer planets change signs, they strengthen an entirely different set of archetypal possibilities. We are in a time when all the outer planets—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—will have changed signs within a nine-month period.
This is an extremely rare event, bringing momentous shifts to our ordinary reality. Cracks may open under our feet, and we may scramble to recenter.
To guide us in this recentering process, Mars has just moved backward into Cancer. As it did, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada for nine years, resigned from his post—time to go home for a while.
If you are anything like me, you’ve felt a need to pull inward, to go quiet, to connect with inner resources. This interior process continues at least until February 25th, when Mars turns direct.
It’s as if we are called to a deep inner connection before the power of the incoming outer planet changes that will affect us all. We need to attend to our own safety and the well-being of those we care about during the beginning of 2025. Especially since the activation of Aries by first Neptune, then Saturn, is likely to demand powerful individual initiative.
Pluto is now in Aquarius for good, activating a dialogue between the good of the few and the well-being of the many. It has also drawn our attention upwards—to drones, satellites, and our current ruler of the skies, Mr. Musk.
While Mars was retrograde in Leo, it brought the fall of “crowned heads”: Assad in Syria and Yoon, who was impeached in South Korea after attempting to impose martial law. A huge shake-up at the king of luxury, LVMH in France, has seen the departure of both creatives and department heads.
There will be much attention on the way we are governed in the coming weeks and months. Right now, two individuals with prominent Mercurial signatures, Trump and Musk, are stepping into the reins of power. Mercury rules the spontaneous and inventive, the trickster and the fool.
Upcoming Events
I will be teaching a webinar for MISPA on February 2nd, titled:
Never Grow Up: How Jupiter and Mercury Defy Time
How many people do you know who are, in Marie-Louise Von Franz’s words, “charming, creative, affectionate but averse to any kind of emotional or material restriction”? Mercury is known for its affinity for the “in-between.” The planet and the signs it rules need to be in motion, to move from one place, person, or idea to another. In doing so, immense creative potential is set in motion, and yet often these individuals cannot “bear the weight” of permanence.
This may lead to depression, broken promises, and sometimes a wasted and infertile life.
Jupiter rules the other mutable signs, and while astrologically it is often seen as highly auspicious, another side of this planet is so skilled at self-congratulation and convinced of the superiority of its ideas that it turns its own myths into realities but remains unbound by the rules put in place for ordinary mortals. Unbound, limitless, and ultimately exhausting for others—and for themselves—these two planets can constellate different sides of the archetypal puer aeternus. How does this archetype show up in the charts of individuals? And what effect does it have on relationships? (Chart examples are welcome from those attending live; email us chart details by January 21st.)
For more information:
https://www.mercuryinternetschool.com/webinar/never-grow-up-jupiter-and-mercury/
As much as I love teaching online, I always look forward to in-person events. I will be with beloved colleagues in Orlando, Florida, March 7–9 for the Cosmic Patterns Astrology Conference. Florida will be wonderful at that time of year, especially for those who live in more northern climes.
This conference has three tracks: vibrational, financial, and psychological/hellenistic. I am thrilled to be teaching a pre-conference workshop on March 7th, titled:
The 7th House: Is It You or Is It Me?
Where we ask the perplexing question of whether the 7th house is something outside us or is coming from us. I love this work. You can read the description here
Who am I looking for? What do I see? Is the 7th house you, or is it me?
There is a tendency among astrologers to speak as if the 7th house is “out there,” waiting to be discovered. Nevertheless, the situation is more complex than that. The planets in the 7th invite us into a dance with each other—a dance of attraction, admiration, frustration, and rejection. Our first impression of what we see in them may not be accurate. Upon crossing the threshold, we may encounter the other as well as our own expectations; however, once we have entered, we will be profoundly impacted.
Sometimes astrologers refer to a house with no planets as “empty.” There is, however, nothing empty about the powerful cycles of allure and repulsion associated with the angle of the descendant, which marks the cusp of the 7th house.
I will also be speaking on the incoming Neptune-Saturn conjunction on Sunday, March 9th.
I am particularly happy to be returning to The Omega Institute this year in October. The Hudson River Valley is always beautiful but particularly so in the autumn. This is a magical retreat space, and I am looking forward to teaching with my fabulous colleagues Maurice Fernandez, Anne Ortolee, and Nadiya Shah. Maurice always organizes a creative, non-linear form of immersion and learning, with music and rituals to help integrate the density of astrological learning. The theme this year is: “Celebrating the Feminine in Astrology”
You can register here:
https://www.eomega.org/workshops/astrology-consciousness-great-shift
And if you are still reading, I will be teaching a very exciting series of webinars on the astrology of 2025 online for Caroline Myss at CMED. The link is not up yet, but the dates will be February 11, 13, 18, and 20. Mark your calendars.