Karena, Author at Magic of the Moon Astrology & Tarot

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

The New Moon in Libra today provided the catalyst for the beginning of eclipse season. And this Solar Eclipse has kick-started a domino array of energy that will continue for at least the next year and a half – and for some of us, the energetic currents may have caused permanent shifts.

Let’s talk about what was unique with this eclipse! Eclipses are not rare – in fact, every six months we get eclipses. Typically, we get one solar eclipse and one lunar eclipse every six months (when the Sun and the Moon’s position coincides with that of the Moon Nodes, meaning that the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth are all on the same plane and one of these bodies has the ability to “block” another one from our sight. So if eclipses occur every six months, what is so special about this one in October of 2023?

To answer that, it’s important to understand that the energy of the planets has effects regardless of whether we can see them. i.e. We will all feel Pluto when he passes through important points in our birth chart, even though we can’t see Pluto without a powerful telescope. However, historically in ancient times, the focus of astrology was on what people could observe and see in the sky. In those days Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto weren’t even factored into astrology because they weren’t visible with the naked eye and thus weren’t discovered yet. So, even though these outer planets provide excellent nuance to our understanding of astrology, astrology actually works really well without them – just using the planetary bodies that people can actually see in the sky!

If we take this one step further, when we boil astrology down to its most basic parts, what do people identify with? Their Sun Sign. When someone says, “I am a Scorpio”, “I am a Libra”, they are not referring to the position of their Moon, or their Venus, or their Mercury. They are referring to the position in the sky the Sun was in at the moment of their birth. If we think about what is most visible in the sky, we would all agree that the Sun is it! Many of us can live for years, decades, or even our whole lives without consciously being aware of where Venus is or where Saturn is. But we are all absolutely aware of where the Sun is at any moment – that’s what defines for us whether it’s morning, afternoon, or the middle of the night!

In this same way, eclipses are important because they are so visible. They were viewed as powerful and impactful to ancient people because there was no way to ignore them. As people watched, the Sun or the Moon disappeared from view. Ancient peoples had stories for what caused this, but regardless of the exact story, everyone believed that this was an important and powerful time when there were battles in the sky causing the Sun or the Moon to be temporarily hidden. From a visibility perspective, however, not all eclipses are visible! Many eclipses occur primarily over oceans and are visible to very few people – 70% of our planet is covered by water after all! And many other eclipses aren’t profound enough to notice. So if there is an eclipse that covers 10% of the Sun, we are unlikely to notice. The Sun will be a little less bright, but unless we are carefully noticing how bright it seems outside, we won’t notice. It is really the exact eclipses when the Sun or Moon have a big percentage of them hidden that are the most visible and impactful. These exact eclipses (also called “total” or “annular” eclipses) occur when the Sun and Moon are very close to the Moon Nodes. Most eclipses aren’t exact enough to notice.

Coming all the way back around to our eclipse in October 2023, this eclipse is unique because it is an annular eclipse (meaning that it is exact – the Moon can’t quite cover the Sun, so there was a ring of fire around the Moon as it moved on top of the Sun, but the Sun and Moon nearly exactly lined up with the Moon Nodes) and it was in a highly populated area and thus physically visible over much of the Americas. This gives this eclipse a higher potency and impact.

In addition, this eclipse was opposite Chiron (the asteroid that represents the “wounded healer” archetype, and square Pluto (the planet that represents deep, transformational change).

Put all together, the energy of this eclipse brings a powerful, immovable force pushing us toward change and healing. This is not an explosive energy (the way it would be if this eclipse were in Aries). This energy is more about weighing the pro’s and con’s of the state of our lives right now. It is the energy of leaning on others to give us a different perspective on where we need healing and where we are actually happy and fulfilled vs “going with the flow” of life without really living and experiencing it at its fullest. In the classic Libra sense, this energy will help us weigh the scales and show us where it is absolutely “worth it” to make meaningful, lasting changes in our lives with all of the transformational force of Pluto and the desire to heal our deepest wounds of Chiron.

This eclipse encourages us to let go of what is no longer helping us. Let go of hurt, bitterness, or fear that have prevented us from healing. Let go of what we realize is deeply unsatisfying to our souls. Often this has the feeling of swinging on a trapeze. We have to let go of the bar that is behind us before we can reach out for the bar that is ahead of us. That moment of transition where we find ourselves holding onto nothing and suspended briefly in the air is terrifying. But without that moment of nothingness, we can’t forward – we are stuck swinging back and forth endlessly on our single trapeze bar. We have to let go of what is behind us to focus on what is ahead, and our consciousness needs to move from what we are currently holding to what is awaiting us on the horizon. And once our eyes are fixed on that, we need to make the leap. That leap is the theme of this eclipse.

As you are able to, spend some time and intention and focus on areas for transformation, healing, and growth for you over the next 18 months (and possibly beyond!). There is a Lunar eclipse at the end of this month in Taurus, which will close out the eclipses for another six months. If you use these next few weeks to set strong intentions, you can use the grounded, determinedness of the Bull to really start moving those changes forward in small steps. If you leverage this energy, you may be shocked next year to realize how far you have come with small, but intentional steps. Sending love & light as you start on a new path of growth that your future Self will be grateful for!

Photo by Marek Okon on Unsplash

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Author: Karena

Dec 2023: The World is Changing

Oct 2023: A Solar Eclipse in Libra