January, 1, 2020 — Astrologically, 2020 is one of the most significant, life-changing years in human history. Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto will form conjunctions in Capricorn for the first time in nearly four thousand years, beginning a whole new age in humanity. This year presents profound shifts, as the planets insist that we release outworn paradigms and beliefs, making room for an age of greater freedom, high-mindedness, truth, and egalitarianism.

Pluto is the planet of death and rebirth; Saturn is systems, structures, society, and karma; and Jupiter represents our beliefs, and he’s a magnifying lens, exaggerating all that he touches. Joined together, these planets are speeding up our evolution, pushing us into deeper insights and transformation, which come when we are able to face the reality of who we are, with honesty and forgiveness. We can own our mistakes, then drop into our inner stillness, peace, and fortitude that are available to us, always.

In fact, self-awareness and feeling at home within ourselves are key to riding the waves of change. So much is upending as we experience little deaths throughout the year. But it’s forcing us into the deep work of thinking for ourselves, finding our own ground, and trusting what we feel. Fear and shame have kept us oppressed and susceptible to manipulation. Now, we are rising out of these limiting habituations, breaking out of the conditioning that has kept us from freedom, liberation, and lasting joy.

Our shared reality is shaking up, and incredible work lies ahead. We need to rebuild our lives and the world with open-hearted care and an understanding of our interconnection. It’s time to muster the courage to confront and fight corruption and deception, without hardening our hearts. The good news is that Jupiter and Saturn are in Capricorn and Aquarius this year, and the North Node will move into Gemini in the spring. Integrity, truth, and divine justice are ready to prevail. Karmic rectifications are upon us, and if we insist on lying, cheating, or harming others, our lives could explode.

But no matter what happens externally, we can feel the strength of our spines, our connection to the Earth, and the tenderness of our hearts. This is the axis of transformation in 2020—our secret weapons as the planets strip us bare, thrusting us into a fresh new year, decade, and age.

2020 Aspiration

In this year of profound change, may we release the past and step into our unknown future selves. With compassion and intelligence, may we work together, taking responsibility for our lives, relationships, and communities, while dissolving the belief that someone else will save us. May we celebrate the dying parts of ourselves, which are making room for a fresh and liberated new paradigm.

KEY TRANSITS OF 2020

Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter Conjunctions

Saturn-Pluto conjunctions form about once every 38 years, marking a powerful moment in our collective rebirth. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, representing systems, societies, and governments, so the Saturn-Pluto conjunction is particularly potent in this sign, sparking karmic explosions and massive restructuring in our personal lives and the collective sphere. Circumstances are arising to force us to work through and liberate from anything oppressive that’s still holding us back—whether it’s emotional patterns, addictions, or a culture that we’ve inherited.

Throughout the rest of 2020, we will experience multiple conjunctions between Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter, helping us purify outmoded beliefs in order to establish new shared ideologies. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction on January 12 marks what many astrologers are calling the paradigm shift, beginning a new age in humanity. The last time even Saturn and Pluto conjoined in the sign of Capricorn was 1517-18, beginning the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the door of the church in his village where he served as a priest. Luther’s intention was to peel away corruption from a monopolized power by showing that we could look to the Bible, not the Pope, as our ultimate governing force, and that we each have individual power to read and interpret scripture, not just the Catholic priests. Now, we’re moving into a similar time of individual liberation, when we’re unshackling from steep hierarchy and oppression, finding access to our own wisdom and connections to the divine, without patriarchal intervention from any organized religion or abusive leader.

Intense conservatism often arises around Saturn-Pluto transits, but it’s the precursor to revolution. For those of us resisting change—frozen in fear of the unknown—our journeys will be painful. On the other hand, 2020 will elevate iconoclasts, rebels, and leaders of change, who are willing to buck against oppression and the status quo.

With Jupiter and Saturn forming a conjunction at 0° Aquarius in December 2020, revolution and fresh egalitarian energies are on the horizon, in the world and within ourselves. But first, we have deep resistance to face, battles to fight with open hearts, and old karma to reckon with and transmute. We can celebrate the excitement of change as we look at the blank slate of what’s to come—which we ourselves have the chance to discover, write, and create. The message is clear: No one else will save us.

Lunar Nodes Move into Gemini and Sagittarius

After a year-and-a-half stint along the Cancer-Capricorn axis, the lunar nodes shift into Gemini and Sagittarius on May 6, 2020, where they will remain until January 18, 2022. The North Node is our highest evolutionary potential. While in Cancer, we’ve grown into much greater emotional maturity over the past eighteen months, understanding that repression isn’t sanity or strength, and that we don’t need to pathologize our emotional expression. The Cancer North Node has empowered the feminine, helping to usher in a more matriarchal age. Saturn and Pluto’s North Nodes are also in Cancer, and we’re truly beginning to inhabit an era of greater kindness and caring, where we prioritize relating to all beings as if they’re our own mother or child, over empty achievement or individual wealth.

Now, with the North Node moving into Gemini, the emphasis is on objective truth. The South Node represents the places where we need to untangle from old karma. In Sagittarius, this means the karmic load has become heavy around lying, deception, and rigid dogmatic beliefs. Journalism, the media, and politics are ready to alter as we purify this axis and learn to open our minds to greater curiosity, meaningful dialogue, and a much better ability to listen.

Eclipses of 2020

Six eclipses arrive in 2020, when there are normally just four in a year. Eclipses bring great change, intensity, and sometimes chaos, speeding up our entry into new chapters and frequencies. With the eclipses falling along the Gemini-Sagittarius axis during the second half of the year, the political sphere is ramping up with even greater intensity, moving toward profound change. We are likely to experience a flurry of information and words that are difficult to sort through. However, as the nodes square Neptune for much of the year, our path is obvious: We need to strengthen our stillness and meditation, calling on our own heart and clear intelligence to uncover truth for ourselves.

Venus + Mars Retrograde

Venus and Mars both retrograde in 2020. Venus retrograde occurs in Gemini from May 13 to June 25. Then Mars retrograde occurs in Aries from September 9 to November 14. Venus is the planet of love, values, art, and the feminine, while Mars represents our carnal desires, anger, and masculinity. Our inner feminine and masculine are up for periods of reflection, review, and recalibration, as love, dating, and sexuality shift into new iterations. With Venus in Gemini just after the North Node moves into the same sign, communication is key. The feminine is supported in sharing her voice and stories more freely, and communicating without shame. Our values are orienting toward more objective truth and education, rather than cherrypicking facts that support our established narratives and prejudices. As Mars retrogrades, we’re diving deep into our anger and sexuality. We might ask:

Is our anger asking us to establish better boundaries? Is it stemming from unprocessed grief? Is our sexuality an expression of our fear, shame, traumas, or the need for dominance and control?

Mars is forming important transits throughout the year, and we may experience necessary protests and expressions of anger from people who are fed up with oppression and witnessing the destruction of Earth for the sake of greed. But this time, our anger is not coming from mindless aggression, ego-fortification, or machismo—it’s coming from love.

By the end of these retrograde cycles, the way we relate to love, sex, anger, gender, and dating may have altered radically, as we begin to move toward a future age marked by less divisiveness and greater truth, authenticity, care, and equality. It’s time for our inner feminine and masculine to work together in harmony. Externally, this means an empowerment of the collective feminine, and a softening of the masculine. As always, both sides live within each of us. This isn’t an issue of man versus woman, but of all humans becoming more whole.

The Great Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction

The Great Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction arrives on December 21, at 0° Aquarius, the zenith of the sign that represents the future, technology, and enlightened society. We are now constructing new ideologies and structures in the world, as we begin a cycle of Saturn and Jupiter in air signs, which will remain until 2159. Over the next decade and hundred-year cycle, we are ready for exponential growth in humanity, for technological innovation and ideological revolution. In fact, revolution is sparked with this transit. If the world is not matching our hunger for change, then people may hit the streets or revolt against the status quo in even greater numbers, pushing for the shifts we are all consciously and unconsciously craving.

In many ways, these are exciting new times and energies, though scary and uncertain. By this point, we will have undergone tremendous work in unshackling from the past, and now we’re ready to inhabit the future more fully. It’s time to feel freer, more liberated from our ruts, individually and collectively.

Uranus is Aquarius’ ruler, and he’s in Taurus for another five years. This is the sign of money, the economy, food and farming, and the Earth. As we more fully inhabit the Aquarian age, these are the areas of life that are up for the biggest change. The ways we relate to finances, the allocation of resources, agriculture, and environmentalism are ready for massive breakthroughs. It won’t happen overnight, but the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0° Aquarius is the seed beginning to sprout—a bright green shoot rising from the mulch of our collective karma. It’s fresh hope transcending patriarchal oppression in an age of rampant materialism. It’s a glimmer of a more enlightened society.

This new vision requires each of us to step up and offer our part. As we’ve established already, no one will save us. The Aquarian age shows us that in order to achieve Piscean oneness and transcendence, we must first individuate and make sure that all beings have their basic needs met, just because they breathe. We are in this together, which means there is no giving up on anyone. There is no leaving a single soul behind. If you suffer, I suffer. If I have wealth or power, I share wealth or power. It’s time to unite from a place of compassion, penetrating intelligence and wisdom, and trust in ourselves.

We can do this. Together, anything is possible.