While going through the archives, I remembered that I gave this to you back in January of this year. As I told you then, every January for over 30 years I’ve done a talk on my take for the year. So today let’s take a new look at the main action beats for the year.

These are my notes from the January talk at Astrology Arizona. Of course more could be said about each of these. We’ll begin with the main areas of focus for 2023.

Quick Beginnings With Maximum Productivity

2023 is a mixed year, combining the past and the future as competing energies overlap at the dawning of a new 20 Aquarian era. We’ve now ended a 200 year Earth era, where all the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions except one have been in Earth sign. The December 2020 Grand Mutation conjunction at 1 Aquarius began a new 200 year Air sign dominance in human history, which we last knew in the 13th and 14th centuries. We now pick up where we left off in the early 15th century with the first Air sign conjunction since 1405.

In 2019 and 2020 we built Capricorn structures which will serve us for many years to come. In 2021/2022 we’ve used those structures to move into a vision of a better future and a better view of a greater good. Jupiter’s 2021 transit of the promise of Aquarius heralded what Saturn has crystallized in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Jupiter’s transit of Pisces between May and July of 2021, and again from January through early May of 2022 brought us vast feelings, an expanded connection to the collective field, and quick endings before launching a new adventure in Aries. We got a glimpse of things to come between May and October before getting one last look back at what was ending and what we wanted to see made manifest in the future in November and December 2022.

2023 brings the rapid fulfillment of the transfiguration phase of Aquarius in February and March before Saturn enters Pisces followed immediately by Pluto entering Aquarius since 1777. At the same time, Jupiter is racing through Aries before it enters Taurus in May. So the first part of the year is primarily Aquarius and Aries focused, while from the Spring forward we find Pisces and Taurus as the primary energies.

Once this happens, Saturn will no longer be in its home sign of Aquarius, and in Pisces will be disposited by Jupiter. While Jupiter is in Aries in March, April, and early May, it is disposited by Mars in Gemini and Cancer. From May forward, while in Taurus, Jupiter is disposited by Venus in various signs, primarily Leo because that’s where Venus goes retrograde. This year Venus will be in Leo from early June to early October, making Leo a powerful behind the scenes force in all things ruled by Jupiter and Saturn for almost half the year! Many will re-evaluate what they like and why they like it with Venus RX in Leo. Let go of pride.

As We Begin the Year

When Mars and then Mercury go stationary direct, we’ll have NO planets retrograde until Mercury goes RX in late April. That gives us about 90 days of total forward motion by the rulers of all our houses.

Last year’s Jupiter conjunct Neptune at 24 Pisces certainly foretold the major flooding and rains which have been continually triggered in a huge way since last March. However, it also opened a new enhanced empathic connection with collective consciousness, the Earth, and life itself. That conjunction was the last of the Neptunian expansions of the previous Age, lasting until 2035, when Jupiter conjuncts Neptune in Aries. Given the favorable sextile to Pluto, we’re looking at a 12 year cycle of productive reorganization of the collective opening a greater compassion with many things ending quickly.

When Jupiter entered Aries in May 2022, it began new self-initiated expression of greater truths for all of us in the early Aries sector of our charts which rapidly expand the first 4 months of 2023. This also heralds Neptune’s entry into early Aries in 2025, foreshadowing where collective consciousness is heading. Jupiter’s position in the last two degrees of Pisces in November and December will be the same span Neptune will occupy between April 2024 and March 2025. So late 2022 gave us a glimpse of long term atmospheres to come.

With Jupiter accelerating in Aries, racing through the fire to break on into Taurus in May, many beginning will take off quickly over the first 4 months of the year which should stabilize quickly as Jupiter moves deeper into Taurus.

The entire first third of the year is one of dynamic change. Everything is in direct motion by late January, accelerating through February. Saturn moves through the Transfiguration zone of 29/30 Aquarius in late Feb and early March, entering Pisces in early March. Then 2 weeks later, Pluto leaves Capricorn and begins its initial entry into Aquarius.

This will begin to sprout the seeds and bring to life the larger evolutionary pulses set into motion at the Grand Mutation at 1 Aquarius in Dec 2020 which opened the door to a 20 year Aquarian era. The focus is on a shared vision and spiritual touchstones which will outlive us. Pluto the purifier will bring the appearance of “pure forms” of those Aquarian ideals which began to grow in 2020.

Speaking of Mars and Jupiter

They began their current cycle in late May 2022 with their conjunction at 4 Aries, promising us freedom and enjoyment in the life area this conjunction happened. That is a source of a long term adventure for each of us, which Jupiter expands in January as it returns to this degree. Mars makes a waxing square to that degree in early April, an opposition to it in early September, and a waning square to it in early January 2024, these mark the changes in that 2 year cycle.

As Mars has been in Gemini since August 2022 and remains there until it enters Cancer in late March 2023, that has been the primary point of aggravation, redirected energy, blunted momentum, or a return which had to be confronted before certain things could move forward in 2023. It brought us to a new way of seeing, understanding, or communicating, and gave us alternative views wherever we have 9-26 Gemini in our charts.

As Mars moves forward, it will make many of the aspects it made with Jupiter in December and early January. It begins with a bielftile (65+ degrees) through all of January and February, and then moves into a quintile for all of March and early April, mirroring the retrograde quintile in December. Mars then binoviles Jupiter from mid-Cancer to mid-Aries in mid-April before activating a HUGE shift in energies when it enters Leo in mid-May when it makes a square in late May from 1 Leo to Jupiter at 1 Taurus with Pluto at 1 Aquarius.

This is an extraordinarily powerful T-square with the potential for extreme things to happen in rapidly escalating movement. The problem and the solution are seen at 1 Scorpio, the willingness to find a deeper connection with Self, Life, Source and each other. 1 Scorpio is the void helping us to integrate the energies of the oppositional awareness of things erupting from the Mars opposed Pluto, driven to manifest by Jupiter a 1 Taurus.

This promises major upheaval and breakthroughs in the nations and people who have planets or points near 29-30 Aries, 1-2 Taurus, 29-30 Cancer, 1-2 Leo, 29-30 Libra, 1-2 Scorpio, and 29-30 Capricorn and 1-2 Aquarius. Also affected are 14-17 Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

In January 2023, Mars is in mid-Gemini. It occupies the last decan of Gemini in March, putting pressure on late Mutable sign positions. It enters Cancer just after the March Equinox and stays in that sign through May 20, putting pressure on the Cardinal signs. It’s in Leo putting pressure on the Fixed signs the last 10 days of May through July 10 when it enters Virgo.

Mars is in Virgo from July 10 through August 27 and in Libra from August 27 to mid-October. It’s in Scorpio from mid-October to late November, and in Sagittarius from late November through early January 2024. So in 2022 we got an experience of Mars in Sagittarius to Mars in Gemini, in 2023 we get an experience of Mars in Gemini to Mars in Sagittarius.

Where Mars transits our charts, that’s the life area where there will be new initiatives, or a need to “attack the problems of life,” or even deal with agitation or aggravation. A Mars transit over a planet indicates the end of a 2 year cycle and beginning of a new one. Wherever you have Gemini through Sagittarius will be activated by Mars this year.

That means in 2023 Mars will be outside the span occupied by the outer planets, and when the Moon is between Capricorn and Taurus, Mars will be the nozzle for all the other planetary energies. It will be how we get a handle on things, the cause we must address, or the specific focus to express in that moment and circumstance.

That also means that this year breaks from the past year, when we had no Mars oppositions to the outer planets. This year Mars makes an opposition to Pluto in May, an opposition to Saturn in late July, an opposition to Neptune in late August, and an opposition to Uranus in mid-November. Each of these will bring spiritual realizations on how to activate their energies, or use them to take the initiative or cut through an obstacle.

Eclipses

This year we have the usual 4 Eclipses. The first is the April 20 Hybrid Solar Eclipse at 30 Aries. This is only visible in Argentina, parts of Chile, and not visible anywhere else on Earth.

Then, two weeks later, on May 5 we have a Penumbral Lunar eclipse at 15 Taurus/Scorpio. The whole eclipse is visible in Madagascar, Yemen, Somalia, eastern Iran, all of central Asia over to Japan and western New Zealand. It’s visible at Moonset in the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. It’s visible at Moonrise in Africa, the Middle East, all of Europe and Scandinavia, and all of west Russia.

On October 14 we have an Annular Solar eclipse at 22 Libra. That will be visible in all of North, central, and South America (except for the southernmost parts of Chile and Argentina). The most intense path cuts from Oregon through Utah, NM, all of SW Texas, through the Yucatan, through Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, down through Colombia and finally east through northern Brazil.

The October 28 Partial Lunar Eclipse at 6 Scorpio/Taurus will be visible in New Zealand, Japan, eastern Russia, Alaska, all of Canada west of Manitoba, and all of the western US up to a line from SE AZ to West Colorado to western North Dakota. It’s visible at Moonset in all of the central and eastern US and Canada, all of central and South America, and southern Greenland and Iceland. It’s visible at Moonrise for all points east of Iran, eastern Ukraine, St Petersburg, Finland and Sweden all the way to east Oz, Japan, and far eastern Russia.

The Spiritual Field – Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto

This year Pluto moves from 28 Capricorn to 1 Aquarius and back, continuing to purify us wherever it transits our charts. It’s at its 1777 position during the American Revolutionary War, so take note of the Plutonic seeds coming forth in May, when Mars and Jupiter make a powerful T-square with Pluto and shake the Aquarian energies loose in our world. That period in mid to late March is a major flashpoint in the spiritual field.

Neptune moves from 24 to 28 Pisces, moving us through the emotional and social level of the dream state into the mental spiritual level at “the end of the end” of the zodiacal cycle. Having achieved a new faith and way to touch and be touched, this year we take that kinesthetic awareness into a new level of existence, where there are powers utilizing creative imagination which allow us “to dominate circumstances” and find the abundance we seek. Stay aware of your interdependence within the larger field. This year Neptune occupies the same positions it did in 1859-60.

Uranus begins the year stationary direct at 15 Taurus, showing how we’ve awakened a new resilience since 2021, and this year it moves forward until it goes retrograde at 24 Taurus in August, showing an awakening to an expertise in demonstrating personal power or administering the power of others. This will again show us “the inadequacy of past knowledge” in meeting current challenges, and have to focus spiritual power. Follow your “self-dissatisfaction” and clear out your mind and perceptions. Allow a new spontaneity to arise and you’ll be at a pretty high level of function.

June through early December awakens a search for what has relevance to each of us in our society and culture as prelude to the dawning of a new day in all our lives these next 15 months. Accept the rewards which confirm your excellence, and move into being a good administrator of the assertive-aggressive energies in play.

Saturn begins the year at 23 Aquarius and moves through the end of Aquarius in late February and early March promising major transfigurations. It then moves into Pisces where it finally goes retrograde in mid-June at 8 Pisces, a degree of “hearing the call to renewal.” It then retrogrades back to 1 Pisces, where it goes direct in November and makes it back to 4 Pisces by the end of the year.

Saturn is teaching us about our individual spiritual management issues and rewards in January and February before entering Pisces and crystallizing what Jupiter promised in May through July 2021 and January 2022. Saturn in Pisces will be entirely different than Saturn in Aquarius, much more feeling, less mind, more connectedness, less detachment.

Mercury Retrograde Periods and Themes

This year Mercury again bookends the year with a specific theme, as it has the past six years. It went SD at 14 Sag in December 2017, and went SRX on the same degree in November 2018. That means throughout 2018 we got signs and signals all year related to our "ancestral wisdom" or “genetic wisdom.” I certainly found my ancestral wisdom in a variety of ways related to that degree falling in my 5th house. This spiritual power of course was expanded in 2019 by Jupiter.

Then in Dec 2018 Mercury went SD at 28 Scorpio, and in late 2019 Mercury went SRX on the same degree, indicating that 2019 gave us all opportunities to reflect on how connected we were with the magnetic force of the Earth, and how connected we were internally.

In Nov 2019 Mercury went SD at 12 Scorpio, which is the exact degree it went SRX in October 2020. That means 2020 was about learning how to interact with others at a higher and more refined or spiritual approach. We learned a lot through our interactive magnetism and needed a less casual approach to some interactions.

In Nov 2020 Mercury went SD at 26 Libra, which is the exact degree it went SRX in September 2021. That means 2021 was about learning how to use both hard and soft power in dealing with situations, especially those which involved repairing or reconstructing something. We paid a lot of dues and balanced a lot of karma in 2021.

In early 2022, Mercury went SD at 25 Capricorn, which is the same degree it went SRX in September. That means 2022 was a review of our relative “transcendent security” accomplished by that point, with an eye to how the long wave Jupiter/Pluto conjunctions at 25 Capricorn in 2020 have developed in our lives since then. Mercury went SD at 9 Capricorn in mid-January, setting up the theme for 2023, since that’s the same degree Mercury will go SRX in December 2023.

In 2023, Mercury will go RX in mid-April at 16 Taurus, giving us all a new look at how the old forms can’t confirm our new conditions of existence. Take a look back at what’s been awakened since 2019 to find that which is enjoyable. It will go SD in mid-May at 6 Taurus, helping us all become good bridge builders.

It will again go RX in late August at 22 Virgo, giving us a look back to see how we’ve lived “venerable standards” since Saturn’s station on this degree back in December 2008, impacting our decisions of 2009-2010. It goes SD in mid-September at 9 Virgo, helping us all find our creative uniqueness in practical ways.

The final RX of 2023 runs into January 2024, beginning in mid-December at 9 Capricorn, giving us a look back at how this theme has played out in our lives since it went stationary direct in early 2023. This degree gives us techniques of attuning to the invisible world and an ability to find a “harmony of fulfilled selfhood.” This is the theme bookending 2023. It will go SD at 23 Sagittarius in early January 2024, showing we’ll be preparing for an entrance into a new life.

Generic Friction

As you know from the newsletters, I recommend that we not take transit to transit conflicts personally. Every generic conflict challenges us to express our planets in healthy ways, even though there may be massive tension in the air.

The good news this year is there are NO frictional angles between Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Jupiter makes a semisquare to Saturn in March, a square with Pluto in May, and a semisquare with Neptune in July. It then retrogrades back to a semisquare to Neptune in late October and early November. These are all the frictional aspects made by Jupiter to the outers.

Primary Mars aspects include a square to Neptune in mid-March, and then a quincunx to Pluto in late March. The next frictional aspect is the very powerful T-square in the last half of May made by Mars opposed Pluto and Mars square Jupiter with Jupiter square Pluto. Mars then quincunxes Saturn in late May and early June, and squares Uranus in late June.

Mars makes a Yod, or Finger of God, forming two quincunxes to Neptune and Pluto in early July, followed by Mars opposed Saturn in the last half of July. Mars opposes Neptune in late August and then quincunxes Saturn in early September. Mars quincunxes Jupiter in mid-September, then forms another Yod with double quincunxes to Uranus and Neptune in late September and early October, followed by a square to Pluto at that same time.

Mars opposes Jupiter in late October, opposes Uranus in mid-November, and squares Saturn in late November. Mars closes the year with a quincunx to Jupiter in early December, a quincunx to Uranus in mid-December, and a square to Neptune in late December.

2023 Brings Long Term Aquarian Transformational Growth

To sum it up, 2023 is a year of new beginnings and structured endings, of idealism moving to compassion, and enthusiasm settling into a comfortable groove. This year anchors the Aquarian era coming forth and sprouts new seeds of widespread change, so remember to navigate the shift from Aquarius to Pisces, from Capricorn to Aquarius, and from Aries to Taurus.

This year, stay focused on finding what you need to secure your life’s new beginnings of the past several years, and be patient as you deepen your connection with your larger spiritual community and your connection to the World Soul. We are approaching the end of the Pluto in Capricorn era, so resist the hyper-coercion in the air, be discerning about your spiritual function in the larger group work, and remember this is the “pre-dawn” of an entirely new era in human development. Keep your eyes on the emerging 20 year Aquarian era in the context of this new 200 year era where we leave Earth behind and move into being more focused on Air and larger themes of interrelatedness, shared ideas, cooperation in building for the future, and a detachment from materialism and materialistic ways of looking at the world and life.

This year will have several qualities:

• January and February show Jupiter in Aries, Saturn in Aquarius, and Pluto in Capricorn.
• March and April show Jupiter in Aries, Saturn in Pisces, and Pluto in Aquarius.
• May And June show Jupiter in Taurus, Saturn in Pisces, and Pluto slipping back out of Aquarius into Capricorn.

This grouping holds until January of 2024 when Pluto moves back into Aquarius, giving us the relatively stable pattern of Jupiter in Taurus, Saturn in Pisces, and Pluto in Aquarius from January through late May 2024, when Jupiter enters Gemini and trines Pluto. Looking ahead, Jupiter will then square Saturn 3 times between mid-July 2024 and mid-July 2025. The first square is from 18 Gemini to 18 Pisces in August 2024. The second one is from 15 Gemini to 15 Pisces in December 2024. The third is from 1 Cancer to 1 Aries in June 2025.

Once Pluto occupies the first degree of Aquarius, it “raises from the dead” all which is associated with that divine transformational pulse. It was first set into motion in March 2020 when Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius; it was set as a long term world changing force in December 2020 when Jupiter conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius. Those long wave collective energies will take on a different dimension of importance in 2023 and 2024 with these initial appearances of Pluto in Aquarius. All of this prepares us for the long wave new era coming in 2025, when Neptune enters Aries and Uranus enters Gemini, promising an extraordinarily productive period in the spiritual field lasting many years.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson

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