Astrology 2023: What’s Cooking in the Cosmic Cauldron?
Dear Friends,
Pour yourself a cheering drink and let’s welcome in the New Year with some astrological insight! I’ve focussed my January post on what I regard to be the main astrological event of the 2023: Pluto’s move into Aquarius. Pluto’s change of signs ushers in the start of a new zeitgeist. Join me to see what’s cooking in the cosmic cauldron! Happy New Year!
Pluto Ingress
Pluto was discovered in 1930 when it was traveling through the zodiac sign of Cancer. Because Pluto moves so slowly, since its discovery it has only journeyed through half of the zodiac and in March 2023 it will be dipping into Aquarius for the first time. When a planet enters a new sign it is called an ‘ingress’ and what happens during the moment of a planetary ingress is seminal, laying the foundation for what is to follow.
Pluto in Capricorn 2008 – 2022
The keywords for Pluto are transformation, power and perspective. With Pluto traveling through the earth sign of Capricorn for the past 15 years, we’ve certainly seen the radical transformation of both banking and governments, two areas of life over which the sign of Capricorn has jurisdiction.
For many of you with your Sun, Moon, Rising Sign (Ascendant) or Midheaven (MC) in any of the cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn – you’ve most likely seen radical structural transformation in your lives since 2008 as Pluto activated one of these sensitive areas of your chart.
The duration of a Pluto transit to a planet or angle in your chart usually lasts about two years. Some of you may have felt the effects of Pluto even though you do not have cardinal angles or luminaries in your charts. Transiting Pluto may have touched your mindset planet Mercury, your relational planet, Venus, or your action planet, Mars. Do you have any of these planets in a cardinal sign? Were there two years between 2008 and 2022 when it felt as if EVERYTHING happened to you and your life transformed?
The Pluto Experience
When your natal chart is activated by Pluto, you may experience a journey into the underworld – involving either literal loss or dying to the known – in order to emerge anew into the light. The Greek myth of Hades (Pluto) and Persephone (Proserpina) reminds us that no matter how barren and cold winter is, spring always follows, bringing new life and hope. Releasing the old to welcome in the new is an essential part of Pluto’s cycle.
Because Pluto deals with power and perspective, it may often activate power struggles in your life – at home or work – or bring about the formulation of a completely new outlook. The ultimate purpose of its cycle is to empower you to let go of the old, thereby inviting you to grow in wisdom and strength.
The whole idea of transformation is that we change form from the inside out. Picture dough, made up of flour, water and yeast, entering the oven in an indigestible form, and emerging later – after undergoing intense heat – as bread, ready to eat and give life.
Pluto into Aquarius
With Pluto gradually entering Aquarius in 2023, it is the turn of fixed signs to feel the power of Pluto. (‘Gradually’ because Pluto will continue to dip back on and off into the last few degrees of Capricorn until November 2024 until it finally enters Aquarius for good at this time.) The fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius and if you have your Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven in any of these signs, you are asked to pay particular attention to the second half of March 2023, as Pluto enters zero degrees of Aquarius.
Aquarius is an air sign. Air signs are linked to the mind, to thought, and to all things which travel through the air, such as wireless communication. Aquarius is about group consciousness, ideals, theory and invention (technology). The energy of Aquarius pulses outwards towards manifestation, as opposed to its sister sign, Capricorn, whose energy turns inwards towards self-reflection.
The last time (undiscovered) Pluto was in Aquarius was 1778 – 1798, a period of huge political and intellectual transformation globally.
Envision Your Highest Transformation
As Pluto enters Aquarius, I invite you all to find out which house(s) in your chart has Aquarius on the cusp and to pay attention to what is going on in your life during March of this new year and to try to apply it to what you know about the meaning of that house. Pluto will travel through Aquarius until 2045. What is the best outcome for the transformation of that particular area of your life? Start to envision it now!
On a mundane level, the highest expression of Pluto in Aquarius is technological inventions which work for the common good and upliftment of all, as well as decentralized government and radical new ways of sharing information and higher knowledge. I look forward to seeing how schools, universities, financial institutions and governments are completely restructured by 2045!
Saturn into Pisces
For those of you with predominantly mutable signs in your charts – Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces – don’t think that the cosmic cauldron has forgotten you! Saturn, planet of earthly laws and karma, will be leaving the sign of Aquarius (where it has been since early 2020) and entering into Pisces on March 7, 2023. This will affect all mutable Suns, Moons and Rising signs, inviting new structural changes over the next two and a half years. Saturn favors responsibility – so step up and shine!
All things work together for the good to those who love G-d (Romans).
Notable planetary events for 2023
- March 7: Saturn ingress into Pisces
- March 24: Pluto ingress into Aquarius
- Solar eclipses in Aries and Libra
- Lunar eclipses in Scorpio and Taurus
- May 17 – 21: Jupiter square Pluto at 0° Taurus-Aquarius
- June 19: Jupiter Sextile Saturn at 7° Taurus-Pisces – the first “testing” of the Great Conjunction in Air Signs of December 21, 2020
Wishing everyone a healthy and happy New Year and beyond!
May the Sun shine upon you,
Catherine
