The 12 days and 13 nights marked by Christmas and Epiphany in the Christian calendar are the perfect time to reflect on where we’ve been, and to prepare for where we’re going. And it’s the time of year when I like to consider the big celestial phenomena coming our way, and dream into what they might mean. So get out your pen and paper ~ I’m going to share some dates.
Usually I start by looking at the first New Moon of the New Year, then I check out the eclipses. I like to consider the Nodes of the Moon, and also, the meteor showers. Then there’s the planets and the conversations they’ll be having with each other throughout the year. By this time I’ve got my star maps, my ephemeris, poetry books, I’ve been searching historical dates ~ all of my favorite things!
There’s a lot more going on that what I am about to share, but these are the things I’m musing about now, as the year 2025 rests its weary head, and 2026 springs to life:
January 6, and thereabouts: Venus and Mars are lined up with the Sun, opposite Jupiter int eh sky. So Venus and Mars are on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth, with Jupiter on the opposite side of the Earth from them. When Mars is closest to Venus, it’s furthest away from us, so there’s a tempering of his aggressive nature, but the thing that’s got my attention about this configuration is that Sun, Venus, and Mars are in the same degree of zodiac where, 33 years ago, Uranus and Neptune came conjunct. These two only come together every 170 years, so their meeting in 1993 was the first since they were both discovered. Uranus instigates change; Neptune amps up the idealism leading either to heightened spiritual consciousness or illusion. So 1993 was a seeding of future impulses, and now, 33 years later, Sun, Venus, and Mars sound the note in the same spot, opposite Jupiter, which wants to grow with the wisdom born of the last three decades experience.
Next up, February 20, and the meet up of Saturn with Neptune. This one has everybody talking. These two meet only every 36 years ~ the last time was in 1989. This way of looking at the year ahead and the phenomena requires self-study, so you can understand why I start digging into books, and journals and maps. What is it in my own life that reveals a relationship with these celestial events?
Saturn is Father Time, keeping us to our tasks, marking the boundary, not letting us escape our responsibilities. This energy can either feel confining or stabilizing. Neptune, as I mentioned earlier, seems to inspire a mood of idealism, which seems contrary to Saturn’s realism. So the big question is: will our dreams hold up to reality? Or, have we built the proper foundation of understanding in the physical world that we can step further into knowing the human being as a spiritual being, rather than as an adjunct to the machine?
Next up, I’m pondering the Moon’s occultation of Venus on June 17. Though the Moon never outshines Venus, it does occasionally block the goddess of love and beauty. It’s the place where this occultation will be visible that’s piqued my interest: the entire US, most of Canada, the eastern tip of South America. The question is: Is the Moon blocking the force of Venus, which is always associated with love, with beauty, with poetry; or is the Moon amplifying this force of Venus, fully taking the light of the planet and bearing it closer to the Earth than Venus ever can be? While the Moon blocks Venus from view for US, Canada and parts of South America, the two stand opposite Pluto in the sky. Astrologically Pluto is regarded as an energy of deep and final transformation.
The fourth and final thing I’m looking at (and remember, these are just my top hits! There are many more events that will take place and there’s time for sharing about those as the year unfolds): The Total Solar Eclipse on August 12th. This is a very short eclipse that will sweep south across Greenland, touch the western edge of Iceland, race south along the Atlantic and make landfall again over Portugal and Northern Spain. Though this eclipse will happen in the daytime, it’s notable to me that it occurs on the same date as the annual peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. The meteoric iron that streams through the atmosphere during such showers is like a celestial gift of strength for humanity, given at the time of year when, in the northern hemisphere, we’ve passed the heights fo summer and the outer sunlight begins to wane.
From Venus and Mars, through Saturn and Neptune, to the Moon’s occultation of Venus and this Total Solar Eclipse, the pairings and opportunities are so dynamic. For me, this poem by 14th century mystic Hafiz creates a nice way to contemplate what it can mean