Astrology: Happy New Year! (yes, now)
By: Janette Dalgliesh – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
The stars don’t care a button for human calendars, so 31 December and 1 January don’t have any inherent built-in astrological significance.
But OMGosh! – the astrology that’s coming up over the next week couldn’t be more perfect, as we prepare to move into a brand-new decade.
There’s pretty much something new every day in the lead-up to the very end of December, ready for a fresh new dynamic in 2020.
Venus into Aquarius – 20 December
This happened a few hours before I hit ‘publish’ on this article (exact times below).
Venus is the goddess of love and desire, who helps us to understand who we are by knowing who we like to hang out with, what we find beautiful, and our core values.
Air sign Aquarius brings intellectual curiosity to help Venus get crystal clear. And Aquarian ruler Uranus – captain of our inner rebel alliance and the god of unexpected change – loves nothing better than to smash old paradigms and break free of old limits.
It’s time to give ourselves permission to acknowledge and prioritise our own true desires.
It’s also time to release ourselves from the old assumption that we can only be happy once our desires are fulfilled.
We tap into our own unapologetic desires, purely to enjoy the liberation of being able to say “I want That Thing” and not from a sense of “I won’t be happy until I have That Thing”. Our desires help us know who we are and what we value. They are not responsible for our joy.
Moon into Scorpio – 21 December
It’s time to acknowledge and appreciate the heavy emotional release work we’ve all been doing in 2019. It’s not a time to look back with regret, or wonder if we’ve done enough. It’s a time to claim our growth and the healing done for now.
Seek out those moments where you wrapped words around shame, set or maintained maintained a strong boundary, had a difficult conversation, made a difficult choice. If you have trouble remembering, scroll back through emails or your calendar for clues and reminders.
Sun into Capricorn – 21 December
Also known as the December Solstice, this is – like all solstices – a turning point.
In this most ambitious of signs, Sun brings illumination to how we make things real, especially around governance, law and order, reliable foundations, truth and information as the basis for trust.
Personally, it spotlights both how we can be the authority in our own lives, and how we build our public legacy from a place of agency, because we knowing what we’re doing.
My favourite mantra for this is “I’m the best there is at what I do, and I’m getting better every day” because it acknowledges our expertise at being ourselves, while leaving room to grow. After all, nobody on the planet is better at being me than I am.
Go full out, reviewing and appreciating what’s been achieved in 2019: the foundations you’ve been building for the future. Claim your heroic achievements, even if they seem to be merely surviving (they’re not).
And if basking in your own achievements is a new way of thinking for you, buckle up buttercup – I’m not letting you off the hook for this one!
Write it out, put it around your house on sticky notes, send it to yourself in emails, tell it to your dog. Revel in the glow of accomplishment!
Moon into Sagittarius – 23 December
With Moon in Jupiter-ruled, optimistic Sagittarius, it’s time to bask in a sense of freedom, scenting out fresh new horizons of possibility.
Even if 2019 has been a year of letting go of everything, or a year of feeling overwhelmed by everything, Moon in Sagittarius helps us claim freedom as a core part of the solid foundation upon which to build a future.
This is no time for second guessing our progress or looking back in doubt. This is a time for celebrating, on purpose, with defiance if we have to.
Even if you don’t yet have all you want (remember, fulfilment of desire is not the boss of you, nor is it your source of joy), remember the work is done, for now.
And you are free.
New Moon Annular Solar Eclipse – 26 December
For my fellow science nerds, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon seems smaller than the Sun, so as it passes between us and the Sun, it blocks most of the Sun’s light leaving a tiny edge, so the Sun looks like a ring – in Latin, annulus.
The New Moon Eclipse happens at 4° of Capricorn, where there are feelings of ambition, of achievement desired, of creating a public legacy in some way.
If you’ve been holding back from your own yearning ambitions, from being big in the world, now’s the time to allow a little wiggle room and let in the fresh air. After all, with Venus still in Aquarius until 14 January, it’s like standing on the mountain top and feeling the breeze in your hair.
It’s the perfect time to set your intentions for 2020.
In fact, as Kim Falconer suggests, if you like to do any kind of New Year ritual, whether it’s resolutions or words of the year or magical practices or a big to-do list – the eclipse itself is astrologically the best time to do it, rather than waiting until our Gregorian calendar flips over into 2020.
And since the shift in energy between 2019 and 2020 is going to feel like the shift from Saturn to Jupiter, using logistics and detailed planning is not the most potent place to start.
Reset the balance from Saturn (he’s SO 2019) to new-year-party-god Jupiter, by getting out of your logical, sensible left brain and into the intuitive, imaginative right.
Jupiter dances with lord of deep transformation Pluto three times during 2020, and by year’s end he’ll come into collaboration with Saturn in a fresh new space.
Now’s the perfect time to set things up so you can maximise the benefit.
The work of 2019 is done, and we are ready to open up to new influences.
Start with the dream and how you want it to feel, and dream big (this is jolly Jupiter, after all). Make that the focus for the eclipse. And then …
Mercury into Capricorn – 28 December
Messenger of the gods will be in this sign from just after Christmas, through until mid-January.
He’s right there at the peak of the Saturn and Pluto conjunction, supporting us to engage methodical thinking, bringing in practicality, order and logic, and helping us fine tune our systems and our communications.
Let the dreams emerge first, then bring in a little planning to set your feet upon the path.
Here’s the TL:DR walkthrough
Use whatever techniques work best for you at each stage of this journey: meditation, tarot, journaling, ritual magic, art, movement, music, a combination – or something else entirely.
- Venus into Aquarius – revisit your unapologetic desires list to include new desires, new ambitions, new possibilities, new excitements, and even desires that you know will never come to fruition but you want to acknowledge (my desire for a hug from my dad falls into this category)
- Moon in Scorpio – give yourself credit for the emotional releasing you have achieved, regardless of external circumstances. Flow oceans of self-compassion here, please.
- Sun into Capricorn – let Sun illuminate your sense of agency in your own life, your authority in how you get shit done. Take full credit for all the work done in 2019. Don’t breeze through this or dismiss it with an ‘aw shucks’ energy. Really revel!
- Moon into Sagittarius – pay attention to all the ways you’ve attained more freedom, a powerful foundations for a brilliant future. Then let Jupiterian optimism flood you with hope, regardless of circumstances. OMG, the hard work is done! I’m free!
- New Moon Eclipse – at the eclipse, or as soon as you can afterwards, focus on setting your intentions based not on the next logical step, but on something bigger – the summit of a mountain which you can’t yet see clearly, the canopy of a huge tree so far above, you can’t yet see the details. How do you want to feel by the end of 2020? Start there, while not knowing how it will be achieved. Go big!
- Mercury into Capricorn – allow methodical thinking to arise, so that the eclipse work of big sky daydreaming is followed by practical strategies.
In 2019, Saturn helped us make shit real and do the hard work. But he’s not good at imagining beyond what he’s already known. As we shift into the 2020 journey, you cannot yet see the whole path ahead.
Decide that you’ve done the Saturn-Pluto preparation and healing for now. Celebrate what’s been achieved, even if it feels like mere survival (it’s not).
And from that point of view, lean into the Jupiter energy and set your intentions for brilliant expansion in 2020.
Imagine you are allowing and experiencing more fabulous things than you can possibly think of right now, without needing to know the details and the logistics. How will that feel?
Trust that the practical how-tos will reveal themselves as the year unfolds.
2020 brings the start of a radically new astrological weather pattern. Now’s the time to plant the seeds.
Who else is excited??!
Exact times (US Eastern)
- 20 December 2019, 1:41 am – Venus into Aquarius
- 21 December 2019, 7:57 am – Moon into Scorpio
- 21 December 2019, 11:19 pm – Sun into Capricorn (December Solstice)
- 23 December 2019, 1:34 am – Moon into Sagittarius
- 26 December 2019, 12:13 am – new moon annular solar eclipse at 4 degrees Capricorn
- 28 December 2019, 11:54 pm – Mercury into Capricorn
Janette Dalgliesh has a simple mission in life – to wreak more joy in the world. A keen student of astrology, brain science and Law of Attraction, she serves her people through astrology consults, coaching, teaching and writing. If you’d like Janette’s in-depth insights into your own unique astrological chart, you can find her via Facebook, or at her website Resonant Joy. To get her Confluence Daily astrology articles delivered straight to your inbox (along with some tasty bonus extras) click here.
