2018: Navigating the Year Ahead

My intention in writing this article is to give you some navigational tools for the year ahead rather than a ‘forecast’.  I’ll leave that to the Mundane Astrologers who look at social/political/and economic trends.  Neither will I spend excess writing time looking at what is wrong, and what is likely to continue to be wrong with the times we are living in.  We get news thrown at us every single day from all directions about that subject.  I’ll primarily address that LOW ROAD by interspersing a few images which say volumes in words.  What I’m most interested in is how we can best take THE HIGH ROAD in 2018, and how the planetary energies in their cycles may inform us as to the best, most positive, use of their influence in our lives.

Over the next three years there will be a special emphasis on the sign of Capricorn.  I’m showing you the three New Year’s charts in a row so you can see this emphasis between now and 2021.  Each of these charts has been drawn up for the stroke of Midnight on January 1st in Washington DC.  Can you see the themes in these charts?

 In 2018 we have Saturn, rising first, before Venus, then Sun, and finally Pluto all in Capricorn.

 In 2019 we have Sun rising first, then Saturn, then Pluto, and the South Node all in Capricorn.

 By 2020 we have Mercury, rising first, then Jupiter, then the South Node, then Sun, then Saturn, and finally Pluto all in Capricorn.  Massive Capricorn times are ahead!

What is the primary quality of Capricorn in its lowest form?  I’ll just quote Dane Rudhyar here:  “The State rules supreme; and its symbol of power, Caesar, multiplies itself in effigy through the ubiquitous and all-corrupting power of money.”

What is the primary quality of Capricorn in its highest form?  It is a seed state of high consciousness not easily understood in mundane terms.  Dane Rudhyar became such a master during his Aries lifetime as he initiated astrology into a more conscious and comprehensive form of knowledge.  I am able to understand it best by my observance of the qualities I most admire in my Capricorn friends:  integrity, responsibility, working for the betterment of the whole, and often a desire for solitude combined with discipline.  Mr. Rudhyar put it this way:  “(Capricorn) It symbolizes in the individual human being that mysterious stage of being and consciousness of which the perfected Yogi or Seer is the most characteristic representative:  viz. the man (or woman!) who, though they live alone, has made of their personality a vast cosmos over which they exercise a special kind of control, and, though they be a mendicant, are rich with the wealth of all society and a participant in the power and glory of transcendent Hosts…………the recluse Hermit; the lonely Wanderer on the heights of snow-covered peaks; the solitary Individual…………This is the mystery that dwells within the unconscious depths of the noblest among natives of Capricorn.  They bear within themselves a living seed; yet know not yet the meaning of that seed.”

Dane Rudhyar wrote his beautiful book The Pulse of Life back in 1943 during World War II.   Since that writing many of us now have a more conscious awareness of what it means to be a group of seed-state peoples carrying a vision of greater spiritual awakening and love through the tumultuous speed of change since WWII.  I would suggest that such ‘seed-state’ peoples are everywhere in all races, creeds, and walks of life.  Capricorn lives within each of us somewhere in our natal imprint even if no planets are there.  It still holds a place in our charts as a ‘house’, an area of life experience.  THAT is the place to focus on for each of us as the sign gets an enormous emphasis these many years ahead.

Pluto in Capricorn continues until 2023.  Pluto entered this sign in 2010.  In 2018 Pluto will traverse 18+Capricorn to 20+Capricorn.  It is now well past the mid-point phase of 2016-2017.

 It is headed for the final decanate and thus some heightened intensity surrounding issues of the ‘state’ and power.  

Individually, however, it continues to be a year of transforming our relationship to what we perceive as our own responsibilities in life.  What are we responsible for?  Who are we responsible to?  Where can we further transform ourselves by becoming more disciplined, structured, and—yes, responsible?  Perhaps further organization is in order.  Perhaps a greater application of careful perseverance is called for.  How sure-footed are we in our steady path ahead.  What are the highest goals that we can aspire towards on this path?  It’s still a year of digging deep within ourselves to bring up into our consciousness the aims of our higher, more noble selves.  The following implications for each sign include both Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn:

If you have Sun, Moon, or Ascendant in Capricorn this will continue to be a deep-felt urge or need.  The hard work is at hand.  There is no escape.  It must be faced or else.  

If you are another of the Earth signs, Taurus or Virgo, it’s a natural unfoldment operating more or less unconsciously because nothing impels you.  You get more choice in the matter. 

Capricorn is a Cardinal sign which demands action.  Opposite Cancer this action will and must involve others.  Anyone with a lot of Cancer energy must respond to those representing Capricorn and Pluto.  Aries and Libra must deal with this energy as a more or less internal conflict which is a challenge.  Aries feels it as a crisis of consciousness while Libra feels it as a crisis of action.

The two Water signs, Scorpio and Pisces, find it to be an opportunity to delve deeper or merge more deeply as the Earth container of Capricorn lends a base from which to either grow (Pisces) or release (Scorpio).

The two Fire signs of Sagittarius and Leo feel the heavy weight of this Earth energy and must push ahead in spite of obstacles (Sagittarius) and make the necessary physical adjustments (Leo) demanded of them.

Finally, the two Air signs, Aquarius and Gemini, must bear this weighty time by being willing to relinquish their freedom (Aquarius) or make the necessary psychological adjustments (Gemini) to the restrictions that Pluto in Capricorn demands.

Keep in mind that the air signs Aquarius and Gemini, and the fire signs Sagittarius and Leo form 30 degree or 150 degree aspects to Capricorn.  These aspects tend to be applicable in very narrow orbs.  So the orbs to pay attention to are between 16 and 22 degrees of the sign.  The Cardinal signs are decidedly impacted the most:  Capricorn, Aries, Cancer, and Libra.

Neptune continues in Pisces until 2025.  It moves from 11+ degrees to 14+ in 2018.  It is approaching it’s mid-point in Pisces.  This passage is an incredible opportunity to spiritualize ourselves wherever Neptune is passing, especially if over our personal planets.  Neptune both dissolves and refines whatever it touches.  It can also confuse and tantalize with an infinite variety of allurements which lead to addictions and entrapments in fantasy.  Chaos is often the result.  So which will it be?  Are we going to keep reaching for true visions, clarifying and testing them for truth as we go?  Are we going to keep connecting ourselves with both the natural world of this Earth, as well as the inner world of our Souls?  Taking time to enjoy nature is very Neptunian.  Taking time to explore our dream-life is also very Neptunian.  

Meditation and Contemplation need the grounding and depth of Pluto in Capricorn, along with the discipline of Saturn in Capricorn.  Neptune in Pisces will thrive in 2018 as they provide the earth container for the more watery experiences of this energy.

Earth and Water signs will have an easier time compared with their Air and Fire contrasts.  Both Capricorn and Pisces require quieter stillness as a rule.  Mutable signs like Gemini can quickly become dilettantes with this combination, while the far-seeking Sagittarius can get lost in the maze or fog of Neptunian deceptions.  

We are living through both chaotic and wondrous times!  Whatever your sign placements, make sure you’re not falling for a con game.  Continue to be vigilante.  Trust what you already know to be true.  Keep your own counsel privately if at all possible.

Uranus ends its seven year passage through Aries in 2018 and enters Taurus on May 15th for a new seven year revolutionary time span through the spring of 2026.  This is the transit creating the most buzz amongst astrologers.  It was last in Taurus from 1934 to 1942 approximately.  Those years were both the aftermath of the Great Depression, but also the beginnings of World War II.  So we all need to get ready for the possibility of a repeat at a different level, of course.  The cyclical nature of time will be revealed with this one.  

Most astrologers are in agreement that money matters will have changed dramatically by the end of 2025.  Cryptocurrency looks to be the next trend in means of exchange.  It’s likely that the entire banking system may change dramatically.  So this is one of the major areas to focus on coming up fast.  Taurus doesn’t like shake-ups.  Taurus likes stability.  But the shake-up time is going to be big, and we’re all going to be in it together.  The real key is to stay flexible!!  Uranus demands a response that is willing to be inventive and experimental.  Not so easy for the sign of Taurus or for those energies that we have in Taurus, or the house where Taurus dwells.  Rigidity and stubbornness, however, won’t be enough to withstand the changes ahead.  

Going Within

The best analogy here is Yoga.  Taurus has a great deal to do with everything physical including our bodies.  Uranus in Taurus may mean a time of learning time-honored ways of staying limber and flexible through postures and slow stretches.  The same goes for money matters in a way.  What are the time-honored ways that people have stayed solvent in times of great change and stress?  How far can you stretch your dollar?  That’s but one suggestion.  How can you turn in a new direction, just as you would one of your arms or legs practicing yoga?  I’m suggesting here that we all look to ways that str-e-e-e-tch us as we change with the times, rather than allowing things to jerk us around.  For the young, this will be much easier.  Youth brings a natural flexibility.  For us oldsters, it is going to be much more of a challenge.  But the times, they are a-changing big time where the economy is going to be concerned.

I don’t want to leave out the environment in all of this.  Taurus has so much to do with the natural world.  It is the primo earth sign after all.  It is my hope that an awakening (Uranus) will occur through the hundredth-monkey effect.  God knows we can’t monkey around much longer with how to save and preserve our natural resources and keep sustainability alive and well.  Every aspect of the natural world will be shaken in these 7 years ahead.  So methods of farming may be revolutionized.  Do you like to grow things?  Get involved more than ever before!  During World War II people had Victory Gardens.  My mother gardened no matter where we lived and I’ve mentioned before that we had moved 14 times by the time I was 12 years.  She grew corn, peas, string beans, tomatoes, carrots, etc.  And she was an Aries.  So you see anyone can do it!!  No sign should say ‘I can’t”.  Gardening is basic to survival and perhaps big agriculture will also go through momentous changes ahead.

Finally, look at your values.  This will be a year of awakening to a new sense of what we truly find important in our lives.   I, for one, value deeply my grandchildren.  I want to see them have a world to live in that provides them with both sustenance and joy.  That means I have to walk my talk and do what I can to help build and sustain that world for them and their future.

 Which leads to the subject of waste. I guess most of you have read that China is going to start refusing America’s re-cycled waste shipped over there daily, because so much of it is tainted. So where can I lesson waste and excess as one more person on this planet?  These are things I think about and try to act consciously on.  Our daughter, for example, has pointed out how such a seemingly small thing as a plastic straw has such horrific consequences when multiplied by the millions dumped into our ocean waters where small creatures either get caught on them or suck them up and die.  So, no more plastic straws for me!!  Wendell Berry in his essay “Where Cities and Farms Come Together” wrote “…..we have created a society characterized by degrading urban poverty and an equally degrading affluence—a society of undisciplined abundance, which is to say a society of waste.”

Chiron leaves Pisces and enters Aries on April 17th.  This switch is the one exception in a very Yin energy year.  Out of Yin, into Yang goes the planetoid of the maverick healer.  In Aries Chiron will need to become even more the Sacred Warrior.

I work with Chiron a great deal and find it most significant in the charts of special healers who have often suffered wounding, much as traditional Shamans are said to have faced death first before helping to use their powerful medicine to heal.  

It will be interesting to observe this transition as Uranus leaves the sign of individuality, and personal best, to be followed by Chiron.  These past seven years saw the crisis of Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus in Aries.  All those attempts at championing human rights vs. ‘the state’ seemed so prematurely squashed like the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings beginning in 2010.  Chiron is NOT revolutionary.  Chiron stays mostly hidden until called upon to emerge and help.  But Chiron in Aries will refuse to conform.  You can count on that.  That recent movie, The Circle, showed the danger of conformity.  Self-reliance and individuality may continue but perhaps move underground.    

Wherever it moves through your life, ask yourself if you can Be Yourself in that situation or place.  I AM is an Aries statement.  Be that!

Saturn has entered Capricorn and continues on for the next 2.5 years approximately. Saturn will traverse 1+ to 11+ Capricorn in 2018. It doesn’t fully leave Capricorn until December of 2020.  As mentioned before, Saturn is back in its own rulership sign.  Saturn loves (if that’s the right word!) Capricorn.  Here organization and discipline can have full rein.  I’m watching myself with my Capricorn Ascendant.  It’s almost laughable how I’m plotting out my year ahead, my weekly schedules, my daily schedule.  I’m seeking more organization everywhere, including my kitchen drawers and cupboards.  I’m sure I’ll get more and more ‘obsessed’ with these themes as Saturn draws ever closer to Pluto.  Is Saturn really doing this to me?  I feel it is!  It just feels so natural and uncontrived in myself wanting to initiate (Ascendant) my plans and my need to be more systematic in everything.  It’s my proof in the pudding that Saturn is alive and well in me/ha!  

If you’re not the type of person drawn to Capricorn ways, then it may put a crimp in your style.  If you like to float along without a care in the world, you may hit a log jam somewhere ahead.  The earthiness of Saturn in Capricorn is just exactly what is needed right now.  It’s going to be a year of coming down to ‘reality’; at least the reality of being in bodies here on earth.  It’s a good year to organize wherever you find Saturn passing through.  It might be yourself, your body, your finances, your thinking, your home, your health, your career, even your spiritual life.  Planning and carefully attending to your responsibilities is where Saturn may prove the most helpful if you are willing to shoulder with discipline what you need to get done and do it without complaining and procrastination.  Saturn does not like to dally.  

So where is the mountain you need to climb this year?  What do you want to try and achieve?  Get focused, plan ahead, and get started.  Just do it.

Jupiter in Scorpio moves deeper into Scorpio from 17+ degrees to 11+Sagittarius by the time it ends the year.  It won’t enter Sagittarius, however, until November 8th.  This means we have 10 more months to allow Scorpio to cleanse, purge, eliminate, and transform our lives wherever that Sign dwells in our birth map.  This is Scorpio’s year of high growth.  Especially those with Sun, Moon, or Ascendant there get a tremendous boost this year to initiate their energies into whatever they purposefully want or need to do.  

Scorpios are such amazing souls.  I’ve always been surrounded by people with this sign prominent in their charts, and I’m continuously amazed at their ability to control themselves in the face of endless distractions and temptations.  They usually possess an abundance of kundalini energy yet they are the least likely of all the signs to waste it.  Perhaps that is what gives the more evolved of the sign their immense power to creatively transform whatever they touch.  So here’s to Scorpio, well-spring of the life-force used wisely!  

No wonder this is the time when the swamp of powerful people who waste energy on their own ego-maniacal needs is getting drained.  We see this in the world of sexual exploitation, especially in the work-place. Once Uranus moves into Taurus we may also see it in the world of finance. May those elitist towers topple!  Bravo to all who rise now and say no more! I’ve used the above illustration of an awakening feminine force to illustrate this.  

Scorpio is also good at regenerating anew elements from the past.  With Saturn in Capricorn this is a good year to restore, rebuild, and re-cycle so much.  The antique businesses should thrive.  Restorations of all kinds should thrive:  art, buildings, movements, communities—–you name it.  And back to that subject of waste:  perhaps better ways of re-cycling our waste will emerge as it is literally thrown back on us here in America.

Since Scorpio is opposite Taurus, where the revolution is about to begin, perhaps a growing awareness of how the resources of the planet are used, and a movement towards greater sustainability will be revived.  We all need to participate in this movement in spite of the seeming backwards slide of ‘the state’.  Jupiter implies connecting with others and moving forward or expanding.  Once Jupiter moves into its own sign, Sagittarius, the momentum will grow.  This means it’s a good year to unite with those who share your values.  Merge with them and grow stronger in numbers.  Get organized.

MARS!!  Yes, Mars is important in 2018 because it moves into its Retrograde phase this year.  It will be in two signs:  late Capricorn and all of Aquarius from May 12th to November 16th.  That’s seven months!

These two signs cover many collective issues that impact the entire globe and its various environments.  Mars activates and triggers the energies it touches.  Where in your life cycle do these two signs fall?  These will be the areas strongly energized by Mars.  

It has been said that there will be extremely volatile and dangerous energies ahead.  That makes sense when we consider that Mars will be in square to Uranus in May and June, and again in August and September.  Considering the new upheaval from Uranus in Taurus, it won’t be the most stable of times.  So plan accordingly.  

Mars in Aquarius may well accelerate technology, space exploration, new inventions, and greater community involvements.  These are fields potentially fruitful of those of you who have interest there.  Mars has been opposite Uranus in certain months of the past seven years as it passed through Libra.  Mars was the trigger often for the Cardinal crises we got to experience, but they are both entering FIXED signs which are potentially much stronger in nature for both awareness and explosiveness.  These are probably some of the months when the economy will quake and reel with the changes beginning. They are also potentially dangerous months where nuclear energy and its misuse is concerned. They could also be months of amazing technological break-throughs.  Again, plan accordingly.

2018 in numerology is either an 11 or a 2.  I prefer to see it as an 11 year. 

2 + 1 + 8 = 11

My favorite numerology book is The Life You Were Born To Live by Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior.  He calls 11 Double Creativity and Confidence.  I paraphrase three of his statements about this number:

“….combine creative energy with higher principles and integrity…..find ways to apply your creativity in service of others, aligned with higher wisdom.”

“….combine creativity and material success…..learn to apply your power and express your energy with compassion and generosity”

“…..combine creativity and trust, learning to trust the creative spirit within you, and channel this energy to help build a more stable, peaceful world.”

I feel these statements cover beautifully the potential of working with Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, Uranus in Taurus, Chiron in Aries, and Jupiter in Scorpio.  2018:  a year to work with the vibration of 11.  

Wishing you the best in 2018!!  This final image says what is possible.  May it be so!

The Abundant Earth by Diego Riviera