Some of you may be happy to know that the Astro Journal for 2024 is almost ready for publication. I’m currently proofing and tweaking and it should be available early in November – more news when I have it. Meanwhile, this post is a tiny preview of what’s to come, including a heads up for the atrocious energies that take us out of 2024 and into 2025 when everything starts to shift.

Overall, 2024 isn’t a bad year. We’re in a transitional period so things may feel uncertain and confusing but there are also plenty of opportunities for healing and new beginnings. The first half of the year is dominated by the planets all being bunched up in a handful of signs in a bundle formation within 120 degrees or less. It starts in February and only begins to spread out at the end of June.

This happens because the outer planets are in Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus. So during those seasons when the faster moving planets enter those signs they clump together, while the Moon sweeps around the zodiac and forms aspects to the various clumps in each sign. There are also periods when you can see teams forming in a series of stelliums in each sign.

A bundle formation isn’t bad per se but it can be stressful because it concentrates the energies in a limited area of your chart. The narrow focus on particular signs can create a lack of perspective or you can choose to work with the energies and do something productive with them. So how you experience this will depend on your attitude and the shape of your chart and where the bundle falls.

For example, my chart is concentrated mostly in Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio so I’ll be experiencing a lot of oppositions to my natal planets in the first half of the year. Great! Here’s the Full Moon for 24th February 2024 where you can clearly see the teams lining up, with poor Neptune on his own:

And check out the New Moon on 8th May 2024 where the planets are squeezed into a 68-degree wedge from 17 Pisces to 25 Taurus, if you ignore Pluto on his own in Aquarius:

Pluto spends 2024 toggling between the end of Capricorn and the start of Aquarius and finally enters Aquarius for good in November. He goes into Aquarius early in the year on 21st January then goes back into Capricorn for a final goodbye from 1st September and re-enters Aquarius on 19th November. So this is your last chance to deal with any Capricorn issues that Pluto has dredged up and get ready for a deep dive into the Aquarius part of your chart. More on Pluto in Aquarius here.

Neptune reaches the final degrees of Pisces in 2024 and Saturn in Pisces slowly closes in for their big conjunction in 2025–26. They get as close as 10 degrees in the summer of 2024 and both start moving into Aries in 2025 so next year will be the final full year for these transits. More on Neptune in Pisces here, and Saturn in Pisces here.

Uranus almost reaches the final degrees of Taurus in 2024 and will start to toggle into Gemini in 2025. So again, this is the final full year for this transit. More on Uranus in Taurus here. The big news for Uranus next year is the conjunction with Jupiter.

Jupiter remains in Taurus until May and the Jupiter Uranus conjunction happens on 21st April, the start of a new cycle. This could be a positive moment of release that brings new opportunities in the Taurus area of your chart. We may see breakthroughs in many areas, including science, technology, politics and the economy, and a big push for freedom and hope. More on Jupiter Uranus coming up next year but you can read the old posts here.

A month after that conjunction, Jupiter enters Gemini and the amount of hot air in the world will increase exponentially. This could be a great time to learn new ideas and study subjects that expand your mind and horizons. You may want to read more books (always a good idea), or you could just talk endlessly at people. There will probably be lots of pontificating and proselytising during this transit. More on this next year.

The Moon Nodes remain in Aries (north) and Libra (south) with the eclipses mostly falling on the Aries/Libra axis. But since the north node enters Pisces on 11th January 2025, the eclipses begin to shift onto the Pisces/Virgo axis next year. The final Aries eclipse will be a partial solar eclipse in March 2025. Next year we have:

• Annular Lunar Eclipse in Libra on 25th March 2024
• Total Solar Eclipse in Aries on 8th April 2024
• Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces on 18th September 2024
• Annular Solar Eclipse in Libra on 2nd October 2024

The eclipse on 8th April is one of many that have been visible across the US over the last several years. There was a total solar eclipse on 21st August 2017 and the path of that eclipse was crossed by the solar eclipse we just had on 14th October 2023 in Libra. The eclipse on 8th April 2024 also crosses these paths, forming quite the pattern. You can see how it works on this map:

This image comes from the Great American Eclipse website which has lots of information and maps showing exactly where the eclipses will travel and when. Eclipses mark endings and new beginnings and can bring sudden events and changes, as well as things being hidden or revealed.

The first eclipse in the sequence in 2017 followed the election of Trump as US president with his Leo ascendant conjunct the eclipse at 28 Leo. This was followed by the highly contentious 2020 election when Mars was retrograde in Aries. The final eclipse in the sequence in 2024 will precede an election that’s likely to be beyond contentious and potentially explosive, if it even happens at all.

And that brings us to the worst part of 2024. The year ends badly with Mars going retrograde opposite Pluto on 6th December. In fact, Mars will be in orb opposite Pluto from the middle of October 2024 to the end of January 2025, right through the US presidential election and inauguration.

The first exact alignment happens on 3rd November 2024, two days before the election, with Mars at the end of Cancer. He then slips into Leo while Pluto is still in Capricorn and about to go into Aquarius for the final time. Interestingly, Mars entered Aquarius the day after the US election in 2016 and enters Leo just before the election in 2024, exactly opposite where he was at the start of the eclipse sequence.

So Mars will be opposite Pluto and hardly moving for months, stirring up the worst shit imaginable. It could make what happened during the last election in 2020 look like a teddy bear’s picnic. And it’s not good news for the Israel-Palestine situation either.

Mars Pluto alignments are incredibly challenging with the potential for intense power struggles and volatile emotions that could be dangerous on a personal and collective level. But these energies can also be used to regenerate and renew something that needs to be changed, starting with its destruction followed by a renewal once this alignment and the Mars retrograde is over.

The second exact alignment of Mars and Pluto happens on 3rd January 2025 when Mars is retrograde and opposite Pluto in Aquarius. Mars goes direct in February 2025 while in Cancer and then returns to oppose Pluto for a final time in April 2025.

We finally make it out of the maelstrom and go straight into the Saturn Neptune conjunction which reaches an 8-degree orb in March 2025. It will actually be conjunct by degree in the summer of 2025 so we won’t have to wait until 2026 to see which structures are likely to dissolve from under our feet. More on Saturn Neptune here.

Despite the way 2024 ends there’s lots of support for making positive changes earlier in the year. It may be a good idea to get any important things done before October when Mars enters his retrograde shadow and make the most of the helpful Jupiter transits and other alignments. Aside from the Jupiter Uranus conjunction, Jupiter will also sextile Neptune, trine Pluto, square Saturn and sextile Chiron.

Meanwhile, the outer planets are now in their ‘minor grand trine’ configuration and are slowly moving closer to their exact alignments. More on the minor grand trine here, but in the meantime, here’s a summary:

The Uranus Neptune sextile almost reaches a 1-degree orb by September 2024 but the first exact aspect will be formed in August 2025. These alignments represent periods of disruption and transformation of the visions and ideals that underpin culture. They bring new ideas that transform society through cultural renaissance and scientific breakthroughs, but also the idealisation of technology and mass delusion. More on that here.

The Uranus Pluto trine reaches a 3-degree orb by September 2024 and the first exact aspect is in July 2026, although they’ll be trine by degree in 2025 but not exact. These alignments represent periods of revolutionary and radical cultural change and technological innovation that transforms society. They bring a greater desire for freedom, political upheavals and scientific breakthroughs, as well as cultural awakenings in multiple areas. More on that here.

Finally, the Neptune Pluto sextile reaches a 1-degree orb by the summer of 2024 and the first exact aspect is in July 2026, although they’ll be sextile by degree in July to September in 2025. These alignments represent periods of transformation of religion and our ideas and beliefs about reality which influence how we structure society. They can inspire faith through uplifting ideas, but also delusion and escapism. More on that here.

Stay tuned for news on Astro Journal 2024…!

Images: Starry; Spinning

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