The Astrology of January 2024: The Burden Of Dreams

Reflecting on 2023 I notice a certain materialism in retrospect that I had not highlighted as much from the outset. Saturn in Pisces ruled by Jupiter in Taurus ruled by Venus wherever she happened to be. Being immersed in the atmosphere of being surrounded by certain things. People acquired expensive objects, opened stores or worked in retail, and grounded themselves in their possessions. Some of this plays into the move into an Air Period in two ways: the normalization of the Earth element and proliferation of mercantile dynamics. As the digital sphere complexitfies into diverse and interoperating nodal network ecosystems we are able to understand real, material things with substance in a way that becomes less perverse. We continue in 2024 our progression into the post-capitalist world of commerce, getting much closer to seeing “money” as a language rather than a quantification of paper units, which brings goods of value back into a trading market with social and cultural nuance, as would the exchange of animals and territory in archaic societies come along often with other inter-clan negotiations, agreements and relations be commemorated and performed via exchange of tokens. A post “economy” world has been proposed, where like people centuries ago could not fathom the separation of Church and State, never mind a world without religion at its basis, we today tend to be unable to grasp a world without economy, even though humanity operated without money as we know it for hundreds of millennia. What is required is a language which can articulate complex mass collaboration and negotiate peer to peer exchanges in decentralized ways, which is a focus of what we call crypto and web3. What is being developed in those sectors is the beginning of a paradigm shift out of the world of industrialized manufacture and the money which holds extraction societies together, although it is more likely we don’t end up with one solve for the monumental crisis which is “late-capitalism”, like crypto wallets replacing billfolds in our pockets. It is more likely that the conversation has only just begun, but is beginning to loom tsunami size and as the levee done broke it can’t be held back. Pluto In Capricorn’s recession bank bail outs were a thing of 2008. As Pluto enters Aquarius properly in 2024 we will for the next 20 years come to understand what being decentralized in the extreme really means, rather than it being a 2020s-ish buzz word.

(above: Arlene Ladell Hayes)

This is not to say that “crypto” in its current form will overtake federalized economies, but that in a process of multiplication of exchange avenues and an exponential adjustment to accounting ledgers the centralized system we’ve lived for far too long having begun to splinter will not be able to be reassembled as it had been in tact. One result is we will likely see soon as we begin to have multiple economies we will have multiple internets, and this doesn’t stop at economies being digitally based— we will be literate in negotiation and network in a wide variety of ways as a species with new cultures emerging that network and negotiate in unique ways that fit the needs of their locality, circumstances and agendas. Thinking “crypto” will remain digital is a misnomer of how we exponentialize everything, a symptom of the step by step stacking chronological and linear tendency of the Earth period we just left. Things move horizontally now and exchange omnidirectionally from many poles at once or in tandem, sweeping up into activity here and then falling into nothing and reassembling instantly elsewhere setting something else completely abuzz. We saw people organize in such a fashion in Chinese protests in 2020, as we also saw DAOs do similar feats remotely in 2021-2. The paradigm of self sovereign peer to peer exchange, nodal network ecosystems, decentralized autonomous organizations, tokenization and native currencies we will find will be able to migrate out of the internet and off device into the real world without much friction, and for the old way of policing populations, here in lies the problem: we may not need the internet or phones or computers to not need money. It’ll only take a few internet blackouts to find this out. Having to swerve around CBDC/digital ID control attempts will also accelerate the process. Having to negotiate exchanges with non-humans will move this along quickest of all.

January 2024 front loads the year with some of these considerations by moving the Pluto game piece into the Aquarius square at the end of the month. Not only that, but 2024 begins with Jupiter being recently direct at early Taurus, but getting going in forward motion and proceeding all the way to 20 degrees Gemini before he pauses to take stock on how much things have changed. It’s interesting how what we begin to gain coherence of after a year of coming to truly understand the value of real good stuff is endless combinations of options of how to talk about making exchanges. Not only that but the following year sees Jupiter in Cancer, where there is simply more than enough resources to go around. 2024 is far from without challenges, don’t get me wrong, and 2025 is clearly a step change into an anxiety inducing episode to say the least— but by isolating Jupiter’s activity we can see an end of an ah ha process unfolding. That Jupiter plans to hit up Uranus on his way out of the Bull suggests some commodity and productivity hot-rodding and technologizing which seems significant to entering telecommunications oriented Gemini harmonized to Pluto placing the behind the scenes power into decentralized networking. A lot of opportunity in hyper encrypted Dark Internets will likely ensue, probably related to the CBDC attempts which fall short, likely with a lot of societal decay baked into them.

Prateep Kochabua

Bringing it back to where we came from and to where we have arrived we find January’s drama set across Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus. The energy and excitement for ideals, what must be built to fortify, how to progressively update society, how to immerse in the mood of the world, initiating the next round of activity, and effort put into material reality to get stable momentum going. On another level, how the civilized world blends in virtuosity with and negotiates the non-human in all its forms, the hub around which the world turns, life on earth is governed and the dead are situated, where the intelligence is sparked far outside of and in suspension of mundane reality, brought forward to release previous forms and   embrace the rebirth process, reconnect to the animate world, move with primary directives, invigorate from the compost you find of your previous incarnation, fall into the synergistic pattern of a living, thriving, intuitive ecosystem and ward away destabilizing forces so as to pervade and thrive. Feedback amongst these archetypal functions expresses, reverberates, modulates and offers up a program of forms which host our existences.

Venus directs the show in more of a collaboration with Jupiter than she has all 2023, as Venus has made it to Jupiter’s sign, Sagittarius and while Jupiter has recently stationed direct in Venus’ Sign of Taurus. Jupiter, since May of 2023, had been trying to bring about material coherence, grounding opportunity and basic abundance in the stubborn and slow moving sign of Taurus, but in order to get a rhythm going and get a groove on effort put into real things of value and methodically preparing the grounds for productivity needed to be leaned into to get anything growing. Venus’ condition was flowing down to this Jupiter and attracting him to what he fancied working with. Pleasurable distribution of refreshments looked good at first, then a long and drawn out re-evaluation of authentic desire and self expression ensued, followed by a period of criticizing love and beauty, which led to a rebalancing of the equalization of how our life looks, sounds and inter-relates, sending us headlong into primal urges and animalistic attractions. Jupiter, having turned retrograde as Venus turned direct in Leo in early September, has spent all Fall trying to understand what he gained since May and how he feels differently about what he wants. December 2023 saw the Sun, Mars and Mercury in Sag, but with Venus embedded in Scorpio opposed to Jupiter, fixations and obsessions around survival instincts and limitations to a basic outlook. Attending to these primary forms is a necessary part of the process of understanding what is needed for our lives beneath the surface or at the foundational level. With Venus in Sagittarius Jupiter is able to see where he would like to go with what he has firmly planted in the soil and bring this satisfying stuff onward towards more ideal pastures rather than simply stick around home base to play it safe. Jupiter’s direct march from here through Taurus should eventually feel like the mounting momentum of watching crops erupt after a laborious period of plowing, tilling and toiling. Some surprise epiphanies, likely related to warding away and planning around disaster avoidance could advance the plot considerably in April when Jupiter conjoins Uranus, and that he slingshots almost all the way across Gemini from there looks like pathway options bifurcate and proliferate considerably going forward. January’s energy is the energy hitting what has been prepped and planted beneath the surface and can receive the inspiring imaginings of what this basic material can be ultimately turned into. The ideal or the energy of the ideal, the thing that turns us on ultimately, we can see now see in the future and make a savings account for so that there’s funds on hand to sponsor our desires.

Gregory Amenoff

With Venus in Sag energizing the mounting momentum of Jupiter in Taurus, adding some excited gait to the Bull’s normally plodding steps get’s transferred to what Saturn demands we let go of to lighten our loads and reconnect with a more flowing, immersive existence, which then lubricates the strategic chess moves of the Sun and Mars and later Mercury moving through Capricorn focusing on territorial advantages, out maneuvering obstacles, foundational constructs, attempting formidable works, managing systems, designing legacies and clinching together check mate inducing stratagems. That these very real and concrete steps are taken to follow our revived hearts through towards animating the substances of value available to us towards revolutionary methods and autonomous initiations come spring make for a resolution worthy start of the year. We can see the foreshadowing in the New Moon’s trine to Uranus in late Taurus, where Jupiter will end up in April, Venus will end up in May and Mars will end up in July. Jupiter doing only a sign a year is of importance here, and that the first month of 2024 includes a New Moon which picks up on this harmonic means radical shifts, new rhythms, sudden changes, experimental plans and all things urgent and turbulent to the baseline are coded into the calendar— Not at all surprising for a year in which Pluto begins spending a lot more time in innovative yet alienatingly cutting-edge Aquarius.

Last time Jupiter and Uranus were conjoining across the Pisces—Aries border incidents including Wikileaks, deadly ethnic riots, the first Instagram post, the first iPad hitting stores, a collection of destructive earthquakes, and most notably the self immolation enacted by Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, which incited the Arab springs and revolutions across North Africa and Middle East. Jupiter’s expansive expression fusing with Uranus’ turbulent, radical and urgent one can lead to sudden earthquakes and literal revolutions as well as revolutionizations, as in technological breakthrough developments and paradigms shifts in tandem. The self immolation which incited Arab Spring is beyond apt for Aries, as is the identity oriented progression spiraling from Instagram and the like. The Jupiter in Taurus conjunction with Uranus will express via different archetypes, so prepare for shifting and shaking to occur in the basics, in money and commodity, but as this is late Taurus, in risk management fused with opportunity in volatility. Market grabs and literal or metaphorical looting during the riot is more than likely, but simultaneously look to the new emerging drops of the moment and see what looks like a game-changer for the future of stuff, how we have it and how we hold it. On January 11th 2023 send an askance eye across whats being built and skrye for some 2024 theme running clues in the wheel spokes.

Arthur Dove

Mars trines Jupiter on January 11th, Mercury trines Jupiter on the 19th, Mercury trines Uranus on the 28th, the same day Venus trines Jupiter, and then Mars trines Uranus on the 29th, so this is pretty good reference to the idea of what is being bolted together in January runs of parallel rails as what Jupiter and Uranus are coming together for in early spring. Venus’ ingress into Capricorn changes the tone considerably, but after her projections and high saturation splashes which lace and enliven the mundane matter we likely are so to the task that we begin to simply enjoy the act of building and achieving what we were inspired to construct, the phase when we go from mood boarding convincing us to set up preliminary groundwork to being full fledged suited up for the construction site and feeling like we’d rather not be away from the project. Mercury and Mars’ conjunction on the 27th also references mid April, as it squares Chiron and the North Node in Aries, where the ignition impulse despite how uncomfortable is unavoidable. Mercury fuses with Mars for some heated discussion around how things are, can and cannot be changed and what from a technical level this means for the state of the work in which we are invested. They previously met in Sagittarius on December 27th, in Scorpio on October 29th and almost in Virgo at the end of August but Mercury turned around in Virgo before he could make critical contact. The Virgo session was logistical and disappointing, the Scorpio session was inflammatory and deeply stirring, the Capricorn session is likely the moment in which things are framed up for a revolutionary opportunity to later occur, such as the bones of the Trojan Horse being erected on its chariot wheels. That the Sun ingressed Aquarius simultaneous Pluto only one week earlier, we can see the shift of power and focus which might engender some serious “wait, I have an idea” said before making history.

Roy Aurinko

1/1/24:

-Venus square Saturn: desire for propulsion towards exciting pleasures clashing with obligations to accept the ebb and flow of reality. Could be productive in that Venus is ruling Jupiter and Jupiter ruling Saturn, so Venus activated to move towards higher desires directs Jupiter to see more momentum oriented methods and Saturn to be more immersive.

-Mercury stations direct: Thinking around how to follow through with pursuits to the end and organize around arriving at goals becomes more situated despite remaining confusion, we’re sounding convincing.

1/4/24

-Mars ingress Cap: Territorial tactics kick into gear and the long game interlocks with the immediate maneuvers. Chess like on the ground stratagem. Strategic awareness of the terrain. Relentless step by step advance over ground. Using position to advantage.

Pat Hartman

1/6/24

-Sun square Chiron: Vision of monumental works and great constructions in tension with performance anxiety and discomfort in direct action.

1/9/24

-Mars sextile Saturn: Tactical maneuvers and good ground sense working hand in hand with release of control, obligation to immerse and responsibility to the whole while enacting flow state strategies and frictionless constructions.

1/11/24

-New Moon in Cap trine Uranus: Seeding of strategy and management in harmony with radical and revolutionary methods, especially those in place to avoid disaster.

-Venus trine Chiron: Love of velocity and moving towards what excites you harmonized with awkwardness in autonomy and independence of action.

Clifton Pugh

1/12/24

-Mars trine Jupiter: Tactical maneuvers and good ground sense in harmony with coherence of preparation and philosophy of value in effort.

1/13/24

-Mercury ingress Cap: Real thinking, analysis of terrain, exchange of property, contractual language, negotiating boundaries, drafting deeds, ground designs, foundational blueprints

1/19/24

-Mercury trine Jupiter: foundational design communication in harmony with coherence of methodology, philosophy of preparedness and value of real things.

-Venus square Neptune: Desiring obtainment of holy grails and pleasure in ceaseless questing clashing against fantasy, projection, illusion and hallucination. Good for imaginative immersion, creative animation, romantic fantasy worlds and exotic vacations. Influences The Sun, Mercury’s and Mars’ activity working, building and designing exciting, imaginative and mystical futures. Although, without care can suffer from Fitzcoraldo syndrome

Gregory Amenoff

1/20/24

-Sun conjunct Pluto: Ominous outlook looking to big powerful leaps over the ledge leaving everything which had been previously built and historically constructed. A final look at the old empire.

-Sun ingress Aqua: Orientation to new ideas, conceptual outlook, hypothetical focus, pioneering vision, decentralized objectives.

-Pluto ingress Aqu: Power shift into future mental frameworks, syndicates, networks, progressivism, and conceptual reality.

1/23/24

-Venus ingress Cap: Enjoying construction, appreciation of how things are made and mechanical soundness, pleasure in restriction, value of status, desire for property

Marlene Dumas

1/25/24

-Full Moon in Leo: Blossoming of exhibition, display, attention, performance

-Square Jupiter: Display of image clashing with coherence of real substance

1/26/24

-Sun square Jupiter: Focus on hypothetical concepts clashing with understanding of reality in the moment

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1/27/24

-Mercury conjunct Mars square Chiron-NN: Tactical thinking around building formidable structures in tension with uncomfortable pull into uncomfortable impulsivity and awkwardness of direct action

Arthur Dove

1/28/24

-Mercury trine Uranus: Strategic thinking and systems management harmonized with revolutionary methods and volatile precautionary plans. It’s so crazy it might work.

-Venus trine Jupiter: Love of property harmonized with materialistic philosophies, pleasure in foundations harmonized with coherence of methodology and momentum building.

1/29/24

-Mars trine Uranus: Constructive action harmonized with revolutionary methods and experimental plans.