Welcome to the January 2024 Cosmic Weather Forecast by Curtis Lang with Jane Sherry.
As we approach 2024's first Full Moon, there's a refreshing Aquarian vibe in the frigid air here in Winston Salem. We welcome a New Year that promises to be a bridge and a portal into a completely new and different Cosmic Climate lasting for decades to come.
Preview 2024-2026: Major Astrological Shifts Define an Energetic Portal into a New Age
Over the next three years a series of major outer planet movements will create an energetic incubator giving birth to a new set of celestial weather patterns we've not seen in our lifetimes.
These novel starscapes will coincide with vast changes in the collective consciousness, reshaping our Zeitgeist (the defining spirit or mood of a given period of history as reflected in the ideologies and belief systems of that time).
Pluto, now in Aquarius through September 1st, will go retro into the sign of the Sea Goat, then forward again, and exit Capricorn for good November 19th, after which Pluto remains in the sign of the Water Bearer until 2043.
Neptune will leave indecisive Pisces, its natural home, and enter strong-willed Aries, which is incompatible with Neptunian energies, in March of 2025.
Night Sky, Photo by Yun Xu on Unsplash
We provided a preview of these powerful celestial transits in our October blogpost entitled Halloween 2023, Taurus Full Moon Eclipse, Scorpio Solar Festival Cosmic Weather Forecast.
To recap briefly: The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was from 1778 until 1798. During that time, Western colonization, revolution and reform engineered historic global transformations. Britain colonized Australia, the Industrial Revolution introduced large scale machine manufacturing to England, the American Revolution created the United States, the French Revolution ended the rule of the aristocracy, and progress was made toward the gradual abolition of the international slave trade, which was made illegal in America in 1800, and in Great Britain in 1807.
The American Civil War decimated our country's youth between 1861 and 1865 when Neptune was last in Aries, so in 2025 and beyond, we can expect events that resonate with that tragic struggle. Neptune and Aries are polar opposites, so a clash of energies can be predicted amid a fog of war, whether hot or cold.
On February 20th of 2026, Saturn will conjunct Neptune at one degree of Aries, the primal birthing point of the Zodiacal round.
Fire and water will combine, creating a steamy, heated collective mood and a foggy collective consciousness.
The Pisces/Aries cusp represents the most polarized energy in the Zodiac, and is inherently difficult to navigate while maintaining one's equilibrium.
Something will be born in the collective consciousness, and yet the birth will be shrouded in an astral fog, so exactly what is being born will be extremely unclear at the time, and only in hindsight will we be able to understand the importance of that moment.
There will be a strong impulse to empower social structures that reinforce spiritual and religious beliefs and practices. In other words, religious fundamentalists all over the world will work zealously to demolish the barriers between church and state.
This could also be a time when we witness tireless group work around the globe in support of humanity's transition to a more mature, balanced relationship with the web of life on this beleaguered Ocean Planet.
An upwelling of Oceanic feelings, epitomized by Neptune in Aries, can imply the overwhelming of the individual consciousness in the collective astral glamours of a group mind. That same energy can allow us to transcend our narrow egoistic mental maps of the world and experience a true Unity with the web of life around us and with Mother Earth, who cradles us all in her embrace.
With Saturn, the planet of institutions and communities, also in Aries at the same time, there is a potential for the creation and expansion of large communities of like minded believers to gather in cohesive, potentially aggressive formations, which might then clash with one another over religious and spiritual beliefs.
In short, beware of religious wars, like those in the Middle East, which could escalate and expand exponentially.
Saturn leaves Aries in 2028, but Neptune remains in Aries through 2039, so it may be years or decades before the true meaning of the 2025-2026 transits will be revealed.
In addition, Uranus enters Gemini on July 7, 2025 and will remain in that sign until it finally moves into Cancer to stay in 2033.
Uranus in Gemini unleashes unexpressed creativity by fostering self-confident individuality, and can enable sudden, unexpected visions and direct experiences of Higher Worlds in those prepared for the experience, and sometimes in those woefully unready to ground the rush of energy being channeled into body and mind.
As a transpersonal planet, Uranus governs the unstoppable momentum of the collective unconscious in pursuit of its freedom from mental constraints of any kind.
Dolphin Psalm, Magic Lantern Drawing by Jane Sherry
During this quality of time, everyone is their own prophet, their own mage, their own high priestess, and will have to learn to take responsibility for their self-expression.
Groups will rebel against authorities, power structures, and conventional social norms in every area of life.
We will all be inundated with a tsunami of novelty. New ideas, new technologies, new social relations, and new ways of being in the world will all suddenly appear in fully constellated form.
The last time Uranus was in Gemini was from August 1941 through June 1949.
In 1941, World War II was in full swing.
A global existential crisis crystallized a universal multi-polar power struggle between competing alliances of nations, polarized ideologies, rival economic systems, and militarized religions.
Uranus with rings, courtesy NASA, Webb Telescope photo
Suddenly, in a Uranian flash, pre War ways of being in the world were rendered utterly irrelevant.
Women were transformed from homemakers to managers and factory workers.
Russian peasants became generals fighting against entitled Prussian aristocrats.
Everywhere new possibilities arose.
Everywhere the shock of the new overcame the habits of lifetimes.
The atomic bomb eradicated entire large cities in Japan.
A holocaust engulfed European Jews as the world stood by and dithered for years.
And after it was all over, by 1949, as Uranus prepared to exit Gemini, Israel was admitted to the UN, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, ending America's monopoly on nuclear weapons, oil was discovered under the Caspian Sea, the Berlin Crisis put a war weary world on the precipice of yet another World War, and NATO was formed as a response to the emerging Communist Bloc.
The Cold War had begun.
This time around, as Uranus transits Gemini between 2025 and 2033, the structural integrity of NATO, BRICS nations, the UN, Israel, Russia, and America will be severely tested.
It remains to be seen whether these structures survive the Uranus in Gemini transit intact.
Pluto, Painting by Franz von Stuck, 1909, Public domain
Back to the present, Pluto and the Sun just entered Aquarius, on January 20th.
Pluto in Capricorn has been transmuting the elements of my Capricorn Sun the last fifteen years, while the planet of the Lord of the Underworld simultaneously restructured the emotional scripts ascribed at birth to Jane's Capricorn Moon.
Are we glad that's over? You betcha!
Jane and I are celebrating the end of the Pluto in Capricorn era, which began in January of 2008, as the Global Financial Crisis and the onset of the Great Recession triggered an economic upheaval that required many years of government intervention to avoid a total global financial meltdown.
Unfortunately the bank and Wall Street bailouts combined with a decade of ultra low interest rates resulted in a series of huge investment asset bubbles in financial markets that drove massive wealth consolidation worldwide.
That process would eventually create a new 21st Century financial order, featuring the creation of a new class of Multi-Billionaire Pluto-crats.
According to Forbes magazine, in 2023, some 2,640 American billionaires collectively control $12.2 trillion in assets. The 3 million people who make up the wealthiest 1% of Americans are collectively worth more than the 291 million that make up the bottom 90%, according to a report by CBS News.
Pluto in Capricorn saw the most extensive upward distribution of wealth since the 1890s in this country, resulting in the immiseration of the working classes in America, and triggering a hostile reaction among the electorate.
Those who were burned by Bro Billionaire Mojo elected Donald J. Trump President in 2020 and their simmering anger is still only gathering steam as I write this newsletter.
But when Pluto entered Aquarius a few days ago, Plutonic energy that was empowering the Billionaire Bros and the Tech Overlords was transformed into a new vibration, and a new energy signature was born.
Plutonic energy that had been empowering the brute Capricornian acquisition of wealth and power by a small group of individuals and corporations at the expense of the rest of humanity and the entire web of life on Earth, is now focused on something completely different -- the Aquarian collective consciousness.
Ascended Master Teachers Collage, Courtesy Wikimedia
Виктория5551, Kingtooth, Abhishek.thakur19, Kitakitzcom, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tuning into that Aquarian vibe now, it is clear that the focus is on the expansion of collective consciousness, so that all may enjoy the realization that we are indeed the ones we have been waiting for.
Know that there is a Source that provides the focus for this Aquarian consciousness.
Know that the Source in Shamballa is now continuously disseminating powerful energy currents that will empower those expressing Aquarian consciousness, traveling along the First Ray of Will and Power.
Know that the First Ray energies are now emanating more strongly from their Source in Shamballa, as we approach the sacred moment of the Aquarian Solar Festival.
"The 1st ray is the most powerful force in the world today," says Sarah McKechnie in A talk given at the Theosophical Society of Edinburgh, 30 September 2010. "It expresses the Will of God in world affairs, which is the will-to-good. A study of history shows the progression to unity and synthesis in all departments of human living. Unity in multiplicity is the Eternal Plan – unity in consciousness, multiplicity in form. The 1st ray also expresses as a destructive element. 1st ray energy streams from Shamballa and lies behind the present world crisis, for It is the Will of God to produce certain radical and momentous changes in the consciousness of the race which will completely alter man’s attitude to life, Alice Bailey said."
To remain attuned and engaged in effective action during the current world crisis, we all need an infusion of First Ray energy.
"Courage is . . . an aspect of the 1st ray, but true courage is not a fighting courage or any sort of struggle to be what is called brave. It is the courage of sure knowledge, held steadily and without questioning in the midst of difficulty and discomfort," McKechnie explains.
"Perhaps the words of great servers can add a human dimension to the quality of particular rays," McKechnie continues. "Goethe, I think, touched upon the dynamic, initiating power of the first ray when he said: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now. And the courage of the first ray lies behind the Christ’s promise: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Rejoice this Full Moon because we are all in this together, and together we will ascend through the fog of uncertainty to meet our challenges in these apocalyptic years to come!
Will the Aquarius in Pluto Age, lasting through March 2043, accompany a social, political and economic revolution in response to the financial excesses of the Pluto in Capricorn cycle just ending?
Will people power overcome Bro Billionaire Mojo?
Will there be an Externalization of the Spiritual Hierarchy through the vehicles of those people of goodwill attuned to the vibrations of what we call Aquarian consciousness? Theosophists and some astrologers seem to think so.
One thing is for certain.
The conflicted, paranoia inducing and spooky US Pluto Return, which has taken place with Pluto in Capricorn since February 2022, will begin to dissipate as Pluto enters Aquarius, and over the next several years, as the full effects of that Pluto Return are felt, it is quite likely that the United States will see the manifestation of a new social contract and a new set of legal and political frameworks for its democracy.
Whatever may come, an Aquarian vibe of some kind will permeate the collective consciousness and America's political life in the years to come.
The upcoming changes have been on the way for quite a while.
The incoming Aquarian impulse represented by Pluto's change of signs this month actually began at the time of the December 2020 Solstice when Jupiter was conjunct Saturn at 1º Aquarius.
Jupiter Meets Saturn: A Red Spotted Great Conjunction, 12-23-2020
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA APOD Image courtesy Damian Peach
At that time we entered a 200 year cycle in which all Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions will be in Air signs.
The last 200 years saw a series of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Earth signs, so the Grand Conjunction of December 2020 represents a turning away from the dense, rational materialist mindset of the last 200 years and an entry into an age of increasing interest in subtle energies, individualized spiritual practice, and in group psychic phenomena.
This shift in consciousness will accelerate efforts to massively reduce humanity's ecological footprint before Mother Nature reduces that footprint on our behalf.
We will see increasing awareness of values that transcend the last 200 years' laser like focus on material gain and the domination of nature. Values like honoring the Earth Mother and all her manifestations. Values like honoring the sanctity of human life and ending war. Values like collective responsibility for the weakest, poorest and most vulnerable of us.
The Aquarian personality exhibits fearless individualism along with strong desires to participate in collective action toward common goals.
The Uranus-ruled Aquarian mind is often characterized as rational and highly intellectual with a predisposition toward the scientific method, but Aquarius also tends to conform to the collective consciousness of any group with which they strongly identify, and this can lead to slavish conformity to ideas which are out of touch with reality, to one degree or another.
When a collective is composed of individuals who are attuned to their intuitive guidance, and aligned with Higher Self, Higher Mind and Higher Purpose, collective Aquarian consciousness manifests as the will to good, grounded in group activities designed to optimize social structures of all kinds.
When an Aquarian collective is composed of individuals whose energies are concentrated in the lower chakras, and who are subject to the promptings of the egocentric personality, collective Aquarian consciousness manifests as authoritarian communitarianism, of one kind or another, often designed to advance the interests of a particular group at the expense of other groups.
So, given the historical record and what we know of the Aquarian archetype, what can we expect this year and in years to come with a strong Aquarian/Air component to the collective consciousness?
To understand the significance of Pluto in Aquarius, it's helpful to review what astrologers had to say about the last few Pluto transits, and to compare their forecasts with events occurring during the transits in question.
As Pluto was set to enter Scorpio, where it traveled from 1984 through 1995, astrologers expected that cultural attitudes toward Scorpio ruled sexual mores would undergo transformation, and at the height of the Cold War many emphasized the danger of nuclear war, the ultimate Plutonic event, since Pluto rules plutonium, used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
The AIDS epidemic gutted gay communities in the middle and late Eighties, and there was a definite sea change in the way the risk of sexually transmitted diseases was perceived throughout the world.
Scorpionic change ended the freewheeling libertinism of the post birth control pill Sixties and Seventies, for good or ill.
Condoms became a new fashion accessory.
Reagan-Gorbachev Summit, 12-9-1987, courtesy Wikipedia
Series: Reagan White House Photographs, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989 Collection: White House Photographic Collection, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Instead of nuclear Armageddon, the United States and Russia entered into arms treaties that de-escalated the Cold War nuclear arms race, and set the stage for the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
So this was Scorpionic death and transformation for one of the two cold war belligerents.
When Pluto entered Sagittarius, the sign of the spiritual seeker, in 1995, many astrologers expected to see hard times for religious fundamentalists of all stripes.
Instead, mainstream Protestant churches imploded and fundamentalist religious groupings exploded into political and cultural prominence.
Prior to Pluto's entry into Capricorn in January 2008, many astrologers suggested that the over-arching social, political and economic structures in our globalized society would undergo a reformation as revolutionary as that of the Protestant Reformation. Perhaps economic globalization would crumble.
Instead, the role of the financial sector, which caused the Global Financial Crisis, expanded, inequality skyrocketed and a new class of Global Plutocrats emerged to command the global economy and ultimately, to rule our world. This newly emergent post-capitalist world order is called Techno-Feudalism.
Although the Ukraine War and the polarization of the world into competing blocks of nations, pitting the Anglophone world order against the uprising of the BRICS countries, has been said to herald the end of globalization, the fact remains that global supply chains and economic interdependence between the major powers involved in this 21st Century Cold War 2.0 are indispensable to the current global economy.
No matter what happens politically over the next few years, the globalized economy is here to stay. China, America, Europe and the rest of the world cannot get along without one another.
Pluto Flyaround, courtesy NASA
We do live in a global village.
Now that Pluto has entered Aquarius, is this a signal that humanity is going to unify in the village square? Will we enter an Age of Love and Light?
As we have already pointed out, we are indeed entering a 200 year cycle in Air signs that is conducive to the spread of Aquarian ideals, and has been seen by many astrologers as the gateway into the fabled Age of Aquarius.
At the same time, the most obvious, blatant symbolism associated with Pluto in Aquarius and the incoming 200 year Age of Air, involves the simple fact that humans have loaded Earth's atmosphere with carbon dioxide, which is the cause of global climate change.
Although the depletion of Earth's soil, the pollution of the oceans and waterways, and the impact of over fertilization all contribute to our current global environmental emergency, I am willing to bet that accelerating climate change will be the number one issue humanity has to confront during the next years, decades and centuries to come.
Either we will manage to reduce our carbon emissions, or the planet will reduce our numbers so much that carbon emissions will be reduced.
Either way the horrifying results of a rapidly warming world will be with us for centuries or millennia to come.
Aquarius is associated with scientific breakthroughs and innovative technologies, so it is probable that with Pluto in Aquarius, humanity will attempt to utilize completely new technologies to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, whether by capturing it and storing it underground, or by cooling the atmosphere itself through unproven techniques such as cloud seeding.
The more desperate we become, the more our Plutocratic leaders will be tempted to deploy completely experimental technologies, turning our world into a vast science experiment run by the very people who have been destroying our environment.
Catastrophic failures of these experimental technologies designed to reconfigure our atmospheric ecosystem could also be hallmarks of Pluto in Aquarius.
Pluto in Aquarius is an ideal time for the global plutocracy to enlist a host of other new technologies to solidify their iron grip on suffering humanity during our ongoing environmental emergency.
Artificial Intelligence is being designed to install a high tech panopticon in the workplace, similar to the digital straitjacket placed on Amazon drivers, and eventually to replace up to 40% of the global workforce while crapifying customer service centers, medical systems, and the Internet itself.
This is also Pluto in Aquarius.
Financial ecosystems surrounding digital currencies created by high tech Plutocrats such as Sam Bankman Fried have proven to be rife with fraud, just as the private sector currencies of 19th Century America were mainly scams, con games and failed experiments.
Digital currencies issued by central bankers and backed ultimately by the might of a nation state have just as many pluses and minuses as privatized digital currencies.
Digital currencies created by central governments may track every penny you spend and receive, and they could allow governments to add and remove currency from your account at the push of a button.
Governments could create geographical constraints on your digital dollars. Say if you were an immigrant, your digital dollars could only be spent in the state where you live. You couldn't send the money to relatives overseas, for instance.
Money would become a tool of digital control.
Governments could simply disable your digital dollars if you posted what they consider "misinformation", or "disinformation" anywhere on the Internet. The possibilities to use digital money as a system of instantaneous command and control are virtually endless.
Digital currency of all kinds is also very Pluto in Aquarius.
As Wall Street Titans like Blackrock begin to offer Bitcoin ETFs, and as central bankers launch Digital Currencies, we can expect these financial technologies to explode in usage in the near future, with Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius.
NateNate60, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The People's Bank of China has already launched a digital currency platform, while the Bahamas have launched a digital Sand Dollar.
Several major US banks, including BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, PNC Bank, Swift, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo are actively participating in Central Bank Digital Currency testing.
These few examples of near future Pluto in Aquarius technologies will be eclipsed in importance I am sure, by innovations being incubated in corporate computer centers and laboratories as yet unveiled to the public.
Maintaining the political, military, and economic status quo in America increasingly requires taking existential risks, and both private and public sector actors are increasingly ready to enlist us in their experiments as they face the potential demise of neoliberal capitalism, the American Empire, and perhaps even the ecosystem itself.
2024 Overview -- Potent Jupiter Alignments Dominate Celestial Weather Patterns
Welcome to 2024, a year when Cosmic Weather patterns are dominated by a series of planetary alignments with Jupiter, the Celestial Guru and traditional planet of good fortune.
On April 21st, Jupiter and Uranus conjunct at 21º Taurus. The effects of this powerful, positive conjunction should begin to be felt from the beginning of March to the first days of June.
This could be a spring to remember!
The Sabian Symbol for 21º Taurus is A Finger Pointing to a Line in an Open Book, an obvious reference to bibliomancy, the art of obtaining intuitive guidance by opening the Bible to a page at random, and randomly selecting a line of text.
Those of us who are open to guidance from the Universe should be on high alert this spring for signs and messages regarding our material and spiritual goals and our significant relationships.
This is an auspicious planetary alignment that speaks of unexpected good fortune and of self-directed magical workings designed to manifest our deepest desires in a way that is beneficial to all concerned.
Consummation of the Magnum Opus, drawing by John Augustus Knapp
In late spring, we see a Jupiter/Neptune sextile is at 29° Taurus/Pisces on the 23rd of May. This energy symbolizes a time of expansive consciousness when we can open ourselves to accelerated spiritual development.
This is a time when soaring imaginative flights provide inspiration for all your creative projects.
Needless to say, this would be an excellent time to have a vacation in nature, and to meditate upon the unity of human beings with the four elements, the Devas and the Nature Spirits who optimize the natural world through the activity of morphogenetic fields in fields, forests, waterways, lakes, oceans, mountains and airy promontories.
On the downside, there could be a massive increase in willful Neptunian obfuscation by political players in the run up to this year's elections in the U.S.
There are national elections in 60 countries worldwide this year, involving 2 billion voters, and the prospect of a global Jupiter/Neptune inspired tsunami of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation looms large in the collective consciousness of humanity.
This aspect indicates an opportunity to establish a harmonious balance between your personal desires, hopes and fears, and the forces of the collective unconscious represented by the Plutonic realm, which often interfere with the pursuit of our spiritual and material goals.
This could be a time when heart and head work together to create an optimized reality in your world.
In August and again in December of 2024, we will experience the first square aspects between Jupiter and Saturn in the 200 year long series of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Air signs which began with the Grand Conjunction of December 2020.
On August 19th, Jupiter at 17° Gemini squares Saturn at 17° Pisces.
This mutable square pits the expansive, feel-good energies of Jupiter against the no nonsense, restrictive energies of Saturn.
You might want to travel across the world in search of new friends and fresh experiences, but Saturn says stay in your safe playpen, and it's hard to make a choice.
With these two giants in mutable signs, it's likely that your mind will go back and forth in an indecisive loop, trying to decide.
In the end it all comes down to which one is stronger, faith in the Universe or fear of the unknown.
The same energy repeats itself on December 24th, with the Jupiter/Saturn square at 14° Gemini/Pisces.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump, November 2020
In the political sphere, in America, in 2024, these Jupiter/Saturn squares signify culture clashes between the Biden Establishment and the Trump Revolutionaries who seek to overthrow the current regime.
The first of these two Jupiter-Saturn squares occurs in the heat of the Presidential campaign, and the Christmas Eve square occurs a month and a half after the election.
So this could indicate that controversies surrounding the electoral process begin far in advance of the election and continue through Christmas at least.
If there ever was a setup for a Constitutional crisis, this is it.
So from September 1st to November 19th, Pluto retrogrades back into Capricorn for the final time in our lifetimes. The climax to America's Pluto return will coincide with the two most powerful planetary alignments of the year, the twin Jupiter/Saturn squares in Gemini/Pisces. Donald Trump of course, is a Gemini.
With these aspects I suspect there will be crosstalk going on 24/7 on all channels, omnipresent on the Internet, choking chat inboxes and generally taking up all available bandwidth. Most of that talk will be designed to manipulate our emotions and control our minds.
I am certain that we will be stunned by the sheer number of attorneys brought to bear in this political battle royale. It's not often constitutional law freaks have an opportunity to become superstars, but this year they'll have a shot on primetime TV all day and all night long.
So if you have mantras, rituals, or prayers for protection, be sure to use them liberally during the late summer of 2024 on through year's end.
Rites of Passage, Magic Lantern Drawing on Paper by Jane Sherry
This year is a year of decisions, a portal, a gateway into an entirely new energetic continuum, and our choices will resonate for years to come.
The United States is the only developed country that appears to be incapable of conducting a free and fair national election to select the country's leader which will be accepted as valid and binding by the voters in both major parties.
"A majority of New Hampshire Republican primary voters and two-thirds of Iowa caucus attendees said no, Biden was not the legitimate winner of 2020's election," Dr. Michael Bitzer reports in the January 24th edition of the Old North State Politics website. "And not surprisingly, 70 percent plus of those respondents voted for the former president, who has made the 2020 election a core campaign theme of his third attempt for the White House."
American internal political instability could constitute the greatest risk to the current global political and economic system visible in 2024.
Japan, France, Italy, England, Australia, Germany and other advanced countries in the Anglophone West have no trouble conducting elections that are clearly accepted by the vast, vast majority of their voters. America is the outlier among the circle of its most crucial historical allies.
We can only hope that we can collectively find a way forward to reunite the polarized segments of our population sufficiently to allow our democratic experiment to continue.
Although I am not at all a Chinese astrologer, just before Chinese New Year I find it interesting to see what Chinese astrologers make of the year to come.
The Chinese use a system incorporating a 60 year cycle in their forecasts. 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon, and the previous Wood Dragon ruled in 1964, sixty years ago.
Last time around, the Wood Dragon belched fire around the world, major reforms were enacted in the US, and cultural creativity reached a peak.
Nineteen Sixty Four marked the first major escalation point in the Vietnam War, the birth of the widespread student anti-war movement, and massive demonstrations throughout the country.
Racism was rampant, and race riots tore big cities apart. Finally, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States.
The Beatles took the world by storm.
So if 2024 is like 1964, there is reason to hope that out of the intensely polarized political chaos in America, significant progressive reforms can arise from the ashes left after scorched earth partisan political clashes have run their course.
There is also reason to fear that America's wars in Ukraine and in the MIddle East are set to escalate dramatically.
If history is any guide at all, these wars are unlikely to result in victory for USA USA.
Pondering the risks of regional or global war in the near future, I'm reminded of political scientist Samuel Huntington’s controversial, yet influential, 1993 Foreign Affairs article, “The Clash of Civilizations,” which ends with the provocative phrase, “The West against the rest.”
Let us all do all that is within our power to aid those forces working day and night to seal the door where evil dwells.
Leo Full Moon, Aquarius Solar Festival Cosmic Weather Forecast
Horoscope for Leo Full Moon, January 2024
On Thursday, January 25th at 12:54 PM EST, we celebrate the Leo Full Moon and the Aquarius Solar Festival. The Leo Moon, Pluto in Aquarius, and Jupiter in Taurus align in a tense T-Square in Fixed Signs.
The Leo Moon has non-negotiable desires and a me-first vibe.
Pluto in Aquarius demands the dissolution of egoistic pursuits and the submission of the individual to collective consciousness, which in this case can represent collective unconsciousness, a descent into a collective nether world of fears, anger, and misplaced aggressions.
Meanwhile Jupiter in Taurus wants the Leo Moon to go for broke, and simultaneously stimulates Pluto in Aquarius in its quest to overwhelm individual hopes and plans completely.
Constellation of Leo, Hevelius Star Map, Public Domain
Something's gotta give. Most likely this energy signature indicates that some of our beloved relationships and pursuits are long past their sell-by dates, and must be discarded, lovingly placed into the netherworld nexus where that energy can be recycled for future manifestations of similar nature.
Beware of Aquarian peer pressure demanding conformity to any species of Plutonian group think at this time and for the next few weeks.
Hold fast to your own Leonine core.
Honor your inner truth and take baby steps to pursue your own heart felt priorities.
Despite all conflicts and obstacles, make it your intent to achieve your spiritual and material goals, for the best and highest good of all concerned.
Know that Moon in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius can gift us with a near psychic awareness, attuning us to the thoughts, feelings and dreams of those with whom we are connected, in all areas of life.
This Full Moon is ideal for meditations designed to send loving kindness and positive energy to the groups we belong to: family, friends, allies, partners and more! The energy will persist for a couple of weeks until the next new moon.
Jane and I send you all Love and Light at the time of this potent Full Moon, and we affirm that all of us receive the grace and guidance we need to achieve our loftiest spiritual and material goals!
Meditation Moment: Title by Ranjit Hoskote
About that
wherever the tumeric bird
circles and lands
you'll find
a king who walks on stilts
his acrobats doing cartwheels
before him
his soldiers trotting behind him
his cooks bringing up the rear
weighed down
by griddles and cauldrons
his tailors struggling to keep up
with his strides
the robe they're trying to measure him for
stretching into a sovereign earth-coloured shroud
Ranjit Hoskote, courtesy Wikipedia