Dec 2023: The World is Changing

The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. – J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings

We have just celebrated the Winter Solstice, and the days are ever so slightly growing longer. The seasons are changing as Winter gradually thaws to spring over the next several months, and the light progressively grows each day. Just as the seasons change each year as a result of the earth’s tilt respective to its axis around the Sun, so the larger eras change as a result of other planets moving in their cycles around the Sun. As we move toward 2024 and reflect on all of the change that happened during the past year, most of us would agree with the sentiment in J.R.R. Tolkien’s quote above.

This morning, a blanket of fog surrounded my house as I looked out the window at the pre-dawn world. I was reminded of the power of the Air element, and how different the world can look depending on the condition of the air (foggy, smoky, clear). Astrologically, we have been in the midst of big shifts to the Air element since early 2020 (the start of the pandemic), and we will get even more shifts to Air in 2024. The two big outer planet changes happening this year are planets moving from Earth signs to Air signs – Pluto to Aquarius, and Jupiter to Gemini.

At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions which happen every 40 years moved from occurring in Earth signs to Air signs. For the next 200 years, when Jupiter and Saturn meet, it will be in an Air sign, not in an Earth sign. What does this mean? Jupiter and Saturn are the two most outer planets that are still visible to the naked eye and so have been foundational throughout the history of astrology. The meeting of these two slow-moving giants every forty years marked a change in “tone” that astrologically-minded societies followed. This Jupiter/Saturn cycle moves us from an earthy world to an airy one. And that will be increased even further with specific planets moving from Earth to Air signs this year. The pandemic definitely “knocked us off our feet” and out of the earth element in early 2020. Our fears moved toward the Air – an invisible virus we can’t see, an enemy that we couldn’t easily face. Our interactions moved to Air – more video calls where we ephemerally talk into our computers instead of talking to people in person. As the Jupiter/Saturn cycle shifted, we have all moved from a more stable, well-understood earthy place to a more phrenetic airy place.

However, this is a 200 year cycle that has happened before – many times – during human history. So this isn’t the end of the world; it’s just the beginning of a new era. And the beginnings of new eras in which we have to adapt to changing energies is always a little challenging.

Furthering the focus on Air, after a brief time in Aquarius earlier in 2023 before dipping back into Capricorn, Pluto will be moving into Aquarius again in mid January, setting the tone for our entire year. The Plutonian depths will be plumbed in the areas of social and technological advances. What humans can do and what we can do responsibly have often been two very different things, and we will see a spotlight shown on that for the next 20 odd years. What lessons do we have to learn about the potentially “scary” underbelly of society and technology? What can we learn from that scouring of the depths that helps us move forward as better humans and better developers and users of technology?

For the past year with Jupiter in Taurus we have seen a lot of themes around material goods…. inflation and the rising cost of food, more difficulty purchasing houses because of high interest rates, labor movements in various sectors. Food, shelter, work…. these basic needs are very Taurean. What will Jupiter in Gemini look like? Rather than focusing on a rising cost of food, we will be focused on the rising cost of ideas. What ideas have we held that may not be relevant anymore? What have we outgrown that we just haven’t been ready to let go of yet? Likewise, what new ideas are emerging and just waiting to be embraced? Gemini is curious, and this will definitely be a time of rampant discovery. We may not know how to use all of the tools yet, but we will definitely develop the tools!

Whereas Earth signs anchor us downward into our feet, Air signs pull us up into our heads. Earth is about concrete things; air is about philosophical ideas. Earth is about slowness and denseness; Air is about speed and “airy-ness”. Unlike the Earth, Fire, and Water zodiac signs, the Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) all represent either human figures (the twins of Gemini and the water-bearer Aquarius) or human-made tools (the Libra Scales). Where other signs are more nature and animal-oriented, Air signs have always been very much about the human journey and the human collective.

It makes sense that there would be an astrological focus on Air instead of Earth this year. 2023 has been a year for many of us of emerging from several years at home during the pandemic, and we are learning how to be social and “in the world” again. After focusing on our basic earthy needs the past few years (health, our homes, the economy), we are ready to move into the world as humans and as thinking, feeling, talking, socializing entities. It also is striking to me that 2024 is an election year in the United States. This will likely bring people out in droves, attending debates, campaigning for their favorite candidate, and advancing their human ideas and opinions in a way very resonant with both Pluto in Aquarius and Jupiter in Gemini.

Air and all of the ideas and imagination around it are where technological and social advances come from. If we get past the hype around Artificial Intelligence and AI “taking over the world”, what we see is that we are actually starting to define what it means to be human. If AI can respond like humans, answer questions like humans, have conversations like humans…. what does it mean to be human? As we think about the ways humans have historically treated humans, does this Pluto transit give us an opportunity to think about what unites us as humans rather than what divides us?

Grounding rituals are important this year; otherwise we are likely to spend the entire year wrapped up in phrenetic, chaotic thoughts in our heads! But there is opportunity with air too… it has no weight, it has no baggage… it relentlessly moves. If anything in your life or in society has been feeling stuck, this is the time to shake it free! As with all astrological weather, the energies of 2024 offer us both challenges and opportunities. It’s time to get off the couch, move into the world, and shake things up! If we do this intentionally and thoughtfully we will be able to look back on 2024 as a year where we experimented a lot and learned a lot. 2024 can be a year that fundamentally changes us and shapes who we are as a society (Pluto in Aquarius) and what we believe in (Jupiter in Gemini). It’s an absolutely phenomenal time to set intentions and then get moving!

Photo by Claudio Testa on Unsplash