2024’s bookend mutable square between Jupiter and Saturn will be perfecting as the Sun enters enterprising Capricorn. This pattern of an aspect that represents a point of conclusion merging with one that signals a new start is a fitting one for the solar cycle ahead and for the planetary shifts on tap for 2025. In the short term, this mixture of dissolving mutable energies and initiating cardinal ones includes Venus’s transit of Pisces, Mars’s retrograde back into Cancer and Mercury’s dance between Sagittarius and Capricorn. More broadly, newly direct Neptune is picking up steam as it contemplates its March 2025 Aries launch. In addition to Neptune’s initial exploration of pioneering Aries, the new year will see Saturn also ingress into Aries and fellow outer planet and global influencer Uranus venture into Gemini, following a seven-year-stay in rooted Taurus. Add Pluto’s recent sign change from yin Capricorn to yang Aquarius, and the annual change in calendars from one year to the next, so familiar to the Capricorn Sun, takes on much greater significance than usual.
2024’s second Jupiter Saturn square will be exact at 14º 01′ on December 24th. Though this square is the second of three in this series, it is their last one in mutable signs. On January 2nd, Mercury will exit the zone of its recent retrograde in mutable Sagittarius as Venus ingresses into mutable Pisces, under a blockbuster Mars Pluto opposition. Mutable signs conclude their respective seasons, and the Messenger planet entered the Rx zone back on November 7th. By January 2nd, making determinations about the issues presented during that retrograde cycle should be easier. Some additional insight may be gleaned with Mercury’s square to Neptune on January 6th. Celestial support from relational Venus in compassionate Pisces will be on offer through February 3rd. After what could be a contentious square to Jupiter in mutable Gemini on January 14th, the planet of love is on course for smooth sailing. Venus will conjoin Saturn on the 18th, sextile Mercury on the 19th, trine Mars on the 25th, sextile Uranus on the 26th and conjoin Neptune on February 1st. That Venus Neptune conjunction is packed with heavenly guidance for finding positive paths forward, ones that will serve all well when Venus enters intrepid, enthusiastic Aries.
On the trailblazing side of this month’s forecast, the cardinal action is itching to get started. Ambitious Capricorn is of course the zodiac’s cardinal earth sign. Accomplishment is its aim, and its Saturn rulership gives it the discipline to succeed. As the Sun crosses the Solstice threshold, those residing in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the returning light of the Sun and look forward to lengthening days. New year’s resolutions and big picture plans for 2025 will receive a strong dose of pragmatic inspiration from December 30th’s new Moon at 9º Capricorn 44′. While Saturn rulership can bring a certain heaviness to Capricorn’s character, fleet-footed, lightning-fast Mercury will travel through the sign from January 8th-27th. During this transit, nimble thinking can lead to enduring solutions. Another opportunity for breakneck breakthroughs arrives on January 13th with a Sun Uranus trine and full Moon at 24º Cancer 00′. That full Moon will be closely aligned to excited, energizing Mars, which will re-enter cardinal Cancer on January 6th. On January 19th, just before the Sun heads into innovative Aquarius, Mercury, from Capricorn, will sextile Venus in Pisces. That Mercury Venus connection at the end of a Sun cycle which sees Mercury emerge from its retrograde shadow on the same day Venus enters Pisces, shift from a mutable sign to a cardinal one and connect to Venus as she readies herself for her Aries entrance concludes one chapter, while setting the scene for the next, in a riveting novel. We’re here for it!
