New Vision, New Leadership and Back to Earth in 2022 

By Gil Dwyer

 

The next New Moon will occur at 4:33 am on the 3rd of January at 3 degrees Capricorn which references: A Fire Worshiper Meditates on the Ultimate Realities of Existence. This speaks to the subjective quest for ultimates beyond the interplay of life and death processes and to the will to transcendence.  Saturn is still in a fairly tight square with Uranus, with Uranus forming an expansive trine with the Moon and Sun at this New Moon. 

You may recall that 2020 was marked most painfully and transformatively by the January 2020 Pluto-Saturn conjunction and the overpowering focus on structures and boundaries, power and control wrought by the various combinations of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter and the  Nodes  doing the karmic work here. That tumultuous year ended with Jupiter and Saturn coming together in the first degree of Aquarius marking a highly significant event and the birth of a new 20 year and 200 year astrological cycle. This new cycle is in analytical and communicative air and takes us away from the materialism of earth and the industrial revolution, the fallout from which is now manifesting as a climate emergency. 

Transformative Pluto is now the only outer planet in earthy Capricorn where it will remain until 2024, continuing to restructure the balance of power in the world, and keeping a focus on accountability. The other planets involved in these transformations have all since moved on.  

And yet during 2022 we will have a bit of a break from the sheer intensity of the past two years. With expansive and lucky Jupiter meeting visionary Neptune in the sign of their traditional rulership, creativity, faith and humanity are highlighted.   This may be a time for new, visionary leadership to emerge.  Neptune has been in its home sign of Pisces since 2011, where its influence is particularly powerful. It will reside there until 2026, reminding us that nothing is very permanent.  It is helping us to find compassion, the higher octave of love, and to understand our connection to all things. 

While in 2022 we will continue to meet significant challenges and we all know now that we’re not yet done with COVID, this next year will tend to be more hopeful and optimistic. Jupiter, the planet of abundance and hope will be making its presence felt in an ethereal way, while deepening the emotional tone and heralding spiritual awakening. It will be in transcendent Pisces from the 30th of December until the 11th of May and then again from October to December.  This ethereal transit, with Jupiter in the spiritual sign that it co-rules, has the power to deepen our emotions, heighten our creativity, and encourage exciting spiritual awakenings. Then from May until October, Jupiter will highlight powerful new beginnings as it briefly visits Aries, bringing an innate understanding of the importance of courage and faith in oneself. This will provide an opportunity to think big, start new endeavors and take a leap of faith. 

On the 13th of April 2022 and for the first time in 150 years, Jupiter and Neptune form their exact conjunction in Pisces, remaining close together for most of April. Around this time we can expect more clarity, an atmospheric shift towards a global perspective and the perhaps cathartic understanding that we are all in this together. At this mystical renaissance we will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fully embrace our spirituality and creativity. 

Venus, which began its retrograde journey on the 20th of December 2021, continues to give us opportunities to reassess our relationship values and self worth until the 30th of January, when it once again goes direct. On the 4rd of March Venus, Pluto and Mars all join forces bringing a very directed need to give of one’s most profound emotions at the same time as one is undergoing a thorough transformation, where the urge is to penetrate to the core of experience. This desire to penetrate beneath the surface of our desires will assist in the process of understanding what has lasting power in our life and what we have to rebuild entirely.  On the other hand from the end of October until early 2023 Mars will be travelling retrograde, giving us a chance to reflect on what really brings excitement and passion into our lives, while presenting us with empowering opportunities to review, reassess, and revise the paths that we’re on.  By the end of 2022, thanks to these retrogrades, we’ll all be feeling much clearer about what we want from love.

The importance of the transiting Nodes to the zeitgeist has been glaringly obvious recently, with the North Node in Gemini from May 2020 predicatively having brought significant new information and curiosity and especially reminding us that the truth is only as valid as the facts it rests upon. At the same time we have been challenged to let go of the teacher or preacher (South Node in Sagittarius) whose truth is absolute. The transit of the lunar nodes, points where the moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic, speaks to our inherited collective karma. We are being challenged to learn the new lessons of the futuristic North Node while releasing the resisting energy of the past through the South Node. Achieving a balance between these two opposing lunar energies is one of the critical jobs our souls face. On the 24th of December 2021 the North Node will move into Taurus, where it will remain until July 2023, bringing a whole new collective karma narrative with a focus on values, power, resources and money and especially on calling us back to earth. With the North Node moving to earthy Taurus we may witness a revolution in relation to food security. Issues of sustainability will be ever more pertinent especially with the asteroid Ceres, mother of agriculture, joining up with the North Node at this time. 

While the North Node tells us what aspects of our lives we need to be valuing and claiming (perhaps reclaiming) the opposite South Node points to the time for letting go. In this instance we are letting go of deeply emotional material to do with how we share energies with or merge with others in relationship. With Scorpio this will be a particularly deep cleanse and the transformation may feel like digging out deeply embedded roots. This can be a painful process involving considerable resistance and yet the South Node is telling us that it’s time and the loss is temporary.

The Saturn-Uranus square, that by now familiar tussle between the old and the new and freedom versus control, was the most important transit of and dominated 2021. It last became exact on Christmas Eve 2021. Under this transit, we are working out just how radical we want to be. Ideally this will help to produce a creative combination of practicality with progressive ideas and new methods of achievement. The Saturn-Uranus square will continue in a less acute form to herald conflict between conservative and radical ideologies. Issues around cyber-security, civil wars and social unrest are all possible outcomes of the dissonance linked to this fixed square. On the positive side we can expect an awakening to humanity’s connection with mother earth, suggesting the opportunity for progress on addressing climate change and a focus on breaking out of destructive old habits while creating healthier new ones. Uranus, the Great Awakener, remains in Taurus until July 2025, continuing to bring changes in the way we conceive matter and material things (money, the body and the earth) as well as in our values. 

Coming together as they did at the end of 2020, Jupiter and Saturn represent the social planets and the cycle of the Great Timekeepers sets the backdrop for our worldview and greatly influences cultural achievements and social standards. While Jupiter ignites vision, truths, values and beliefs, Saturn follows on with the authorization to turn Jupiter’s visions into reality and its structures upholding and working for these beliefs. While faster moving Jupiter is now in Pisces bringing an air of optimism, Saturn will remain in Aquarius until March 2023, speeding things up with implications for the mind, body and metabolism, making it particularly important to take good care of our nervous system. The Aquarius cycle will ideally bring more attention to culture, progress, and global emancipation. 

Chiron, the wounded healer, with much to teach us about being human, will remain in Aries until 2026, continuing a healing cycle centred on courage and the need to embrace our uniqueness. While healing the wounded masculine, Chiron in Aries is asking us to take on the power of individual choice and heal wounds associated with competition and identity. It is also assisting in healing our willpower while simultaneously becoming more aware of our instinctual responses. 

In the area of communication, the four Mercury retrogrades of 2022 straddle earth and air signs, although Mercury retrograde is mainly spent in the air element. The restless and flexible nature of air will set the scene for a focus on assessing our relationships, figuring out how to better relate to people and working on eliminating negative relationship habits. Be prepared to talk through problems or frustrations you have with anyone. Perhaps there will be particular opportunities to develop our intuitive and telepathic powers. The earth element in turn may help organise revelations into a solid form. The four eclipses of 2022 include a partial solar eclipse in Taurus on the 1st of May, a total lunar eclipse in Scorpio on the 16th of May, a partial solar eclipse in Scorpio on the 25th of October and a total lunar eclipse in Taurus on the 8th of November.  

The first-ever United States Pluto return (a 248 year cycle) which has been building for a few years now will become exact in February 2022 continuing to also wield its change-making energy on the Government and on a societal level, During this rare alignment, we can expect to see a rebirth when it comes to authority, power dynamics, and foundational structures in this country. While Pluto’s influence can feel particularly intense, it is always transformative.

In Chinese astrology from the 1st of February 2022 Water Tiger Year will begin. This follows on from a metal rat year and a metal Ox year, which have been said to be linked to COVID toxicity spreading at a rapid speed. There is a suggestion that the water tiger will attack COVID aggressively, while washing off all illusions thus enabling knowledge of how to exist and win over this situation. Here’s hoping and allow love to lead the way!

 

About Gil Dwyer

Gil is an astrologer, editor and writer, with a Sagittarian passion for understanding what makes people tick. She believes that astrology can help to set the soul free and is a rich and wonderful way to explore the lifetime journey towards living the authentic self. Cosmic*Intelligence*Agency, Agent 25 first learnt to construct a natal chart by hand in the 1970s, holds a Diploma in Applied Astrology from the Chiron Centre which she finished in 2012 with the thesis Weird, Shocking and Unconventional: A Moon-Uranus Tale. She also has an Honours Degree in Sociology and a long history of social research, policy and planning in public health, women’s health and Aboriginal health and welfare. Gil has been doing a fortnightly astrology blog for Kundalini House since 2017 and has been a keen Kundalini Yoga and QiGong student and member of Kundalini House for five years.  (gil.dwyer@gmail.com).