For thousands and thousands of years, astrologers have observed the dance of the cosmos and recorded how the happenings out there affected the goings on down here. Before we explore the magic movements of this new calendar year ahead, a little side note: You have self-determination. Mercury, the Moon, they don’t make you do a damn thing. They highlight available activations and personal evolutions.
Each of us has a natal chart, our own personal attunement to existence that speaks to how we innately receive and express the data of life. How you are attuned – aka the specifics of your chart – will speak to how the planets, our star and energy points in the sky now, interact with you. But you always have self-determination. Astrology is a tool for self-knowledge and empowerment. And as the astrology of the last few years has shown (and the years we are entering) to know your own mechanics, to attune to your own energy, to call back your power into yourself…is the current medicine and the magic. An individual who is attuned to themselves and seated on the throne of their own wisdom has much more vitality to bring to life and the collective than someone who is not. We are in a period were becoming conscious of your own personal magic, grounding into it and utilising it is the evolution at hand.
In this current maelstrom of collective energies and this quickening of time and cycles that we seem to be in, there is a major guidance system worth connecting to; your own. The natal chart shows us the specific signatures of your intuition and now, more than ever, is a time to consciously connect to your own intuitive language. Be it your instincts, your visions, your emotional knowings, often our intuition is so natural and maybe even so obvious that you may overlook it. This is a year to tap into your own ancient wisdom.
Key astrological events in 2023:
How we start our calendar years, astrologically speaking, is always of note. Mars usually takes six to eight weeks to move through a sign, however, its hanging out in Gemini for seven months. It moved here in late August 2022 and since late October it has been in retrograde. On the 13th of January it will turn direct and continue to hang out here until late March 2023. This is a very strong celestial spotlight looking at how you do or do not align your words with your actions. Do you keep your own word and do the things you say you will? This is about being clear and direct in our communication (with self and others), being in energetic congruence with self and being very intentional with your will power (Mars). Your words are spells. Your willpower is your wand. Are you being intentional with both?
The nodes speak to where we have our eclipses and for the first half of the year, they remain in Scorpio (South Node) and Taurus (North Node) with a solar eclipse in Taurus in April and Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio in May. The themes continue from 2022 – building sustainable foundations and habits in life, becoming aware of where we are overcomplicating our inner worlds and relationships, hearing (and heeding) the inner calls to shed the skins we have outgrown.
From July, this energy will shift into Libra (South Node) and Aries (North Node) giving all of us the opportunities to assess who we are individually versus who we are amongst others. The healing balm is in Aries (ruled by Mars); the more we can truly tap into our own wants, needs and desires (not always as easy as it sounds), the less we will self-abandon for social harmony. This is an evolution of the people pleaser archetype.
All our Mercury retrogrades will be in the Earth signs this year. After two years in Air signs, this shift into the Earth element is bringing us into reflection of our 3D world, not our ideas, not our opinions but how we live, functionally, practically. This is about practical magic. It’s looking at your desires and dreams and again, how you align your practical action with your word.
Saturn will move into Pisces this year on March 7th, meaning that for all of you born between May 21st 1993 - Jun 30th 1993 and January 28th 1994 - April 7th 1996, your Saturn Return will begin. The Saturn Return cheat sheet is essentially, full responsibility is full power. For all of us in the collective, Saturn moving through Pisces feels like entering itno a time of tapping into our own intel, of learning how to turn a vision, a dream, into reality. Pisces is everything beyond time and space. Saturn is time and space. This is a confluence of the imagination meeting practical know-how.
We will have a taste of Pluto moving into Aquarius from late March until mid-June. It has been transforming Capricorn (society) since 2008 and this small window into Aquarius will be a palpable shift, giving us a taste of what’s to come for the next two decades when it moves back into Aquarius in January 2024. The last few years have felt like such a strong dislocation and shedding of the old, without the new necessarily in sight. We’re getting ready to ride (and create) the new waves now. Tap in to yourself and saddle up.
