January 1, 2023 — 2023 is a significant year, igniting entirely new energies and chapters, both personally and collectively. Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, and the lunar nodes are all changing signs. Our interests, emphases, and concerns are shifting. Looking ahead, we may feel anxiety or anticipation, shaken by rumblings of change and the exciting unknown. This is a year for love, miraculous growth, healing our confidence, and dissolving divisive tension and stuck patterns that have held us back from progress. All the while, we can rest easy knowing that we are moving into calmer waters.

In many ways, 2023 promises to feel easier than the past few years. We are pulling away from the Saturn-Uranus square that defined 2021 and 2022, causing considerable frustration and disharmony. This happens as Saturn switches signs, entering Pisces in March. The Fish are ready to soften strict, weighty Saturn, helping us return to unity as we reel in addiction, insanity, and our disconnections from reality.

Jupiter moves into Taurus in April, encouraging us to slow down and enjoy life. A few months later, the south node departs complicated, traumatic Scorpio and moves into loving Libra. Our karmic work begins to center on relationships and peace, rather than our deepest shadows.

By far, Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius in March is the defining feature of the year. Humanity is ready for massive shifts as we complete Pluto’s twenty-year journey through Capricorn. Looking back, we have challenged and rebirthed systems, structures, and traditions, which has felt quite heavy. This year, we begin to revolutionize humanity and embrace the future, egalitarianism, the rise of the people against authoritarian rule, and—for better or worse—technology. Innovation and authenticity are key, and we would do best over the next two decades if we beat to our own drums and found ways to reinvent society, small and large. It’s time to question everything and find our own novel approaches to the ways that we love, help each other, earn money, eat, build community, and so on.

What would enlightened society look like, and what can we do personally to contribute to it? 

Like drops in the ocean, we can join together and co-create the next iteration of society, founded in compassion, gentleness, and respect for the Earth, ourselves, and one another. Possibilities are opening up and profound change is springing forth from our united hearts as we become tender warriors—strong and soft, loving and crystal clear, all at the same time.

2023 ASPIRATION

In this year of profound change and increased calm, may we step into our true confidence—separate from what other people think. May we allow ourselves to feel our deepest feelings as we love more courageously, become more intimate and authentic, and ultimately co-create a kinder world.

Key Transits of 2023:

March 8 – Saturn enters Pisces
March 12 – Jupiter conjunct Chiron at 14° Aries
March 23 – Pluto enters Aquarius
April 20 – Solar Eclipse at 29° Aries
May 5 – Lunar Eclipse at 14° Scorpio
May 16 – Jupiter enters Taurus 
June 1 – Jupiter conjunct North Node at 3°Taurus 
July 12 – North Node enters Aries, South Node enters Libra
July 23 – Venus turns retrograde at 28° Leo
October 14 – Solar Eclipse at 21° Libra
October 28 – Lunar Eclipse at 5° Taurus

2023 TRANSITS

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS (2023-2043)

As the most important transit of the year, Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius on March 23 promises to alter our lives significantly. For anyone with planets or angles in Aquarius, this will be one of the most important transits of our lives, transforming us from the inside out. Pluto changes signs once every 20 years or so, and when it moves into a new sign, it begins to activate a different area of our charts and lives. The first hit is the most pronounced—we will feel it hard on both personal and collective levels.

Pluto spends only three months in Aquarius in 2023, then retrogrades out and returns in 2024. This first stint will provide a powerful glimpse of what’s to come over the next twenty years. Pluto is the planet of destruction, death, and rebirth, sparking crisis that leads to complete alchemy. After Pluto hits, we are never the same. As the focus of our transmutation shifts, we will feel volcanic eruptions confronting us with new shadows that are ready to become conscious—and new pain that is ready to evolve into wisdom.

In Aquarius, Pluto will rebirth humanity and democracy. The sign of the Water Bearer rules community, the future, technology, rebellion, authenticity, equality, and the pinnacle of human potential. These are the areas of life that will be flung into the cauldron of evolution. As Pluto moved through Capricorn for the past twenty years, we’ve been rooting out power structures, hierarchy, traumas from the past, and the status quo. Authoritarian and conservative regimes gripped for control. Now we are catapulting into the future, and innovations and inventions are likely to abound, as well as the return of democracy and the rise of the people. AI, corruptions in technologies, plutocratic and oppressive rule, and wealth connected to the tech world are examples of what’s ready for deep scrutiny and adjustment. As we continue to fight humanitarian ideals, they are becoming an undeniable part of our shared fabric of existence.

On a personal level, Pluto in Aquarius will activate a particular house in our natal charts, calling for total transformation in that area of life. Unconscious material is surfacing for the purpose of looking our demons in the eye and liberating from them. This work is intense but deeply necessary on our spiritual path as we pursue healing and wholeness. We are ready to become more multidimensional, intuitive, and egalitarian, considering the whole more than our egos and selfish desires.

SATURN IN PISCES (2023-2026)

Saturn enters Pisces on March 8, two weeks before Pluto ingresses into Aquarius—in other words, the most important transits of the year occur just two weeks apart. Saturn’s shift will be a welcome relief. For the past six years, Saturn has been transiting the two signs it rules—Capricorn and Aquarius—and the energies of this stern planet have been exaggerated. Heaviness, hard work, conservatism, loneliness, frustration, and brittleness have ruled the day. As Saturn transitions into Pisces—the oceanic sign of compassion, oneness, and transcendence—much of Saturn’s harshness is ready to soften. 

Saturn in Capricorn and Aquarius can be isolating. As we’ve forged new realities, many of us have broken apart. Saturn in Pisces will help us agree upon a new shared reality that is more loving and forgiving. We could also reign in conspiracies and addictions and make progress in healing our mental health. 

Pisces represents dreams while Saturn rules reality, so manifestation energy is high over the next three years. We can actualize our dreams—projects and efforts that we’ve been working on for many years could finally reach a beautiful culmination. After all, Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac. We are wrapping up a thirty-year period of effort and hard work, reaching the end of the Saturn cycle before beginning a new one in 2026. 

Saturn’s ingress also represents the final move away from his square to Uranus, which defined the past two years. We are now dissolving epic frustration, ongoing chaos, and discomfort. Overall, this will bring us much more ease, flow, and togetherness, melting our icy hearts and years of traumatic difficulties.

JUPITER AND CHIRON IN ARIES

A conjunction forms on March 12 between Jupiter and Chiron in Aries, giving us immense potential to heal ourselves, our bodies, and our sense of confidence. We are going to our deepest wounds and shining light on the places where we hold uncomfortable contractions that are ready to release. Since Jupiter exaggerates and Chiron triggers our oldest wounds, we may experience a healing crisis around this time that ultimately helps us liberate. We can allow our pain and vulnerability to rise, understanding that the more we feel and open to our discomfort, the more capacity we have for bliss and fulfillment.

JUPITER IN TAURUS (2023-2024)

On May 16, Jupiter moves into Taurus, slowing us down from Aries’ fiery initiation. Jupiter is the planet of expansion while Taurus is about pleasure, manifestation, money, food, and the Earth. The north node and Uranus have been visiting Taurus for a while, eliciting chaos, innovation, and disruption in the sign of the Bull. Jupiter should help to soften some of the Taurean calamity that’s been up for years now, however it could also magnify and bring clarity to some of these energies.

Jupiter’s initial ingress into Taurus squares Pluto at 0º Aquarius, so his entry into this new sign may not feel pleasant at first, sparking powerful and difficult alchemy. A few weeks later, Jupiter forms a sextile to Saturn, and we’re ready to reel it in and enjoy more steadiness. 

Jupiter conjoins the North Node at 2º Taurus on June 1, clarifying our beliefs and shared morality, possibly helping us to work less while feeling more abundance. Four day work weeks? More even wealth distribution? Prioritizing the Earth, environmentalism, and access to good and healthy food? These are all possibilities coming into greater fruition as Jupiter crosses the north node. We are learning to simplify and enjoy our lives more as we restore our relationships to our bodies, each other, and the Earth.

VENUS RETROGRADE

Venus stations retrograde at 28° Leo on July 23, turning direct on September 4, at 12° Leo. Venus retrograde is a rare transit, occurring every 1.5 years, and it holds much significance. Venus is the planet of love, creativity, and values. As she moves backwards, she’s calling on reflection and review in the areas of life she rules. Leo is the sign of romance, joy, self-expression, ego, and our hearts. During this period, we might ask ourselves—Where do we need to recalibrate love? Find more joy? Express our truth with more humor and playfulness? Where are we disconnected from love or invested too much in ego or emphasis on the superficial? We can now go deeper into our joy, sex, and connections, and we may notice a shift in music, art, and the ways in which we express ourselves during this period. We are ready to feel more passion and to love better.

NORTH NODE IN ARIES, SOUTH NODE IN LIBRA (2023-2025)

A major shift in energy occurs on July 12, when the lunar nodes move into Aries and Libra. leaving Taurus and Scorpio, respectively. Our focus is adjusting. Where are we now releasing old material and in turn, stepping into new higher potentials? With the south node in Libra, we will purify our connections, examining where we’ve been playing out relational wounding, codependence, or an overemphasis on pleasing and external validation. With Venus (Libra’s ruler) soon retrograding, we can look at our needs for approval with honesty, discovering how we can be truer to ourselves.

Meanwhile, the north node in Aries asks us to repair our sense of self and our true confidence, helping us feel more independent. How can we be ourselves without worrying what other people think? This transit reminds me of an old Buddhist text that says, “The warriors who trust themselves have no need to convince others through deception.” We can simply be who we are, and as long as we’re being kind and genuine, we can trust that anyone who has a problem with us has their own projections to sort through. 

With the one-two punch of the south node in Libra and Venus retrograding through Leo, we may find our relationships to love, sex, and social media changing. For the next year and a half, we can seek new ways to feel okay about ourselves. Rather than jonesing for the dopamine hit of likes or views, we can clarify our true interests, desires, and values, which are separate from anyone else’s opinions or judgments.

As we step into a more independent sense of confidence and self, we will see our relationships improve. Individuals on their own two feet of security, self-esteem, and fulfillment can come together in much healthier dynamics than people looking to fill their voids in one another.

As we heal ourselves and our interpersonal dynamics, we are building the foundation for creating enlightened society—one based on love and respect for all beings with ample potential for awakening. As we heal our hearts this year, we can simultaneously ask ourselves—

How can I contribute to the greater good? How can I surrender to the rise of hearts joining together to build a new world? And finally, how can life be easier, overflowing with joy, fulfillment, and pleasure?

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