Here we are. Still alive on this planet. Stepping into a new year, ready or not. Although January 1st has no astrological or spiritual significance in any of my calendars, I still love it. I love the start of a new year like I love fresh snow or a new, blank page in a sketchbook. It may be entirely imaginary, but I love our capacity as humans to say: that other thing is over and now we’re starting fresh. We call a do over. Our real beginnings and endings are often murky — it’s hard to trace exactly when important phases in our lives begin or end — but this arbitrary calendar tells us: Now. It’s starting now. We’re taking a big collective step into the future. Even in this mess we’re all in as a world, it gives me a thrill of hope. I’m taken back to grade school in the 1980s when we had to hand write the date at the top of each papers. I remember the wonder I’d feel coming back after winter break and writing a brand new year at the top of the paper. Like ordinary time had become time travel. Like we were all about to learn a big secret.
So, I have clearly always been into some deep time witchery, but this year begins with cosmic support for this sense of awe and wonder about the future. Jupiter is in Aries, baby! Yes, Mars is still retrograde till the 12th, and yes, Mercury is still retrograde till the 18th, but Jupiter in Aries does not care. Jupiter is our collective optimism, our willingness to believe in something and to move toward it with a whoop of joy, and Aries is the sign that shoots that starting pistol they use to start races. When Aries says “Go!” Jupiter says “I’m already running!” and when Jupiter says “Which direction should I go?” Aries says “Yes!” which is all to say that we’re already barreling toward some kind of unknown future with more enthusiasm than we’ve been able to muster for most of 2022. For better or worse. The world is still a troubled place, but you and I know that. I’m leaning into the magic of newness and Jupiter in Aries is backing me up.
And, Mars and Mercury are still retrograde at the the start of the month. Jupiter may not care, but we ought to. This is because our optimism and enthusiasm (Jupiter) may outpace our actual energetic resources (Mars) and capacity to plan well (Mercury). At least for the first two weeks of the month, be careful about what you commit to and how hard you push yourself. If you are inclined to make any New Year’s resolutions, I recommend waiting till later in the month, maybe even till the Aquarius New Moon on the 21st — and I would also remind you that self-discipline is not a step toward wholeness unless it’s accompanied by self-compassion and self-understanding. In this time of newness and do overs, maybe focus less on external markers of progress and more on how you feel inside and how you want to feel in the new year. If you want resolutions to strive toward, let 2023 be a year where you strive to stop hating your body, to stop pushing away your feelings, to start developing more self-awareness and self-compassion. And if you’re feeling extra ambitious, recognize that your being is more important than your doing.
As the Sun moves from Capricorn to Aquarius on the 20th, it’s foreshadowing the dance steps Pluto will take later this year as it begins its slow sign change. Many themes of this year will come up on a smaller scale this month. In Capricorn, we’re holding the wisdom of our elders and in Aquarius the unborn worlds of our dreams. Moving from the old to the new, from the practial to the visionary, from the traditional to the revolutionary. But this isn’t just a one-way trip — we’re looking for integration between the two. That will be the deepest, hardest work of this year. For now, though, we can meet it as an exciting challange. A blank sheet of paper. Anything can happen this year.
For my full Year Ahead Forecast with significant dates and themes of 2023 and yearly forecasts for each sign, join me over on my Patreon for only $2/month (and yes, it’s totally okay to join for just January and then drop off if you’re not into it). My books are open for clients this month, so (get in touch). And if you want to generally know what I’m up to you can follow me on Instagram.
Aries
Welcome the new: You’ve been active, engaged, and busy in 2022. You’ve got a new role you’ve been playing, and it’s been an important one. But 2023 invites you back into your visionary self. Welcome a reconnection with your ideals, your activism, your communities and collectivities. Welcome a new perspective on what it means to face the future together. Welcome a different kind of wisdom that you only learn by being with the rest of us, figuring it out together, be willing to experiment and strategize. May 2023 reconnect you to the powerful promise of collective liberation, and the patience to stay with this vision even when it feels far off.
Taurus
Welcome the new: Let 2023 shine a spotlight on what you’re ready to share with the world. Welcome new opportunities to be as smart, as wise, as creative, as skilled as you are. May you be able to offer what is best in you for the benefit of all of us. May you receive gratitude and support for what you are giving us. Let what you’ve been learning in 2022 inform you, but don’t get stuck feeling you’re not done learning. We never are done. But you’re ready to put things into practice. 2023 invites you to show up and let yourself be seen.
Gemini
Welcome the new: You have completed a metamorphosis. Let your old shape, that has been changing throughout 2022, fully fade away like a dream you don’t need to remember. Welcome a new sense of freedom and agency in 2023. Welcome expanding your horizons and building on what you’ve learned. This year reawakens an adventurous part of you and beckons you toward new ways of finding connection and meaning. May you feel your full sense of self this year, staying centered and whole even as you exlore the wild edges of your existence.
Cancer
Welcome the new: May 2023 bring you the deepest forms of healing. You are breaking through a wall, emerging on the other side more alive somehow and more complete. What 2022 has hardened, let 2023 dissolve. What 2022 has demanded, let 2023 transform. Whatever shell you’ve needed for 2022, let 2023 coax you deeper into the warm depths, trusting your energetic protection. It’s a year of taking new emotional risks, but only because you feel ready. Whatever you’re moving through this year, you’re not going to do it alone.
Leo
Welcome the new: You have been through a year of learning and striving, of trying to understand what isn’t working and why. Recognize what 2022 has taught yoy and let 2023 help you trust your new capacities. You know how to adapt and reconsider. Welcome moving toward a clear sense of yes. Welcome deepening into your deepest relationships. Welcome new or renewed commitments. Let yourself and your partners be imperfect, in progress, and also essentially able to say, I choose you. I choose this.
Virgo
Welcome the new: Let 2023 gather in all you creative ideas, all your far-flung relationships, all your impulsive desires and longings and collect them as an herbalist might collect seeds and roots in a basket — safe in one place to sort through, to clean, to process into medicine. If 2022 prompted yearning, 2023 is the year to act on what you’re feeling — to begin the process of sorting, cleaning, steeping, tincturing. Welcome making potential into actual. Welcome stepping into a year of meaningful activity, deeper embodiment, and stronger attunement to healing.
Libra
Welcome the new: May your home be all you need it to be this year, and may that strong home base help dislodge you from crash-position. Whatever your circumstances, you are searching for appropriate ways to expand out of your smaller sphere. Get creative if it feels impossible. Reach for connection. Tap into your heart’s longing and find a way to connect that feeling to an adventure, a romantic encounter, a creative outpouring. Welcome 2023 opening up your heart again and reminding you that you’re part of the larger world.
Scorpio
Welcome the new: Let the doubts, the uncetainties, and the petty dramas of 2022 fade. May this new year establish a place and a community that you call home, and strengthen that sense of mutual care and commitment. Let this year help you create a place where you can let down your guard, wash off the nonsense from the chaotic world, and be deeply fed when you get out of that psychic shower. Welcome a profound sense of belonging — to yourself, to your friends, to the Earth, to here and now.
Sagittarius
Welcome the new: May all your choices this year arise from a deep sense of your own inherent worthiness. May you have all you need to feel protected, nourished, and deeply held. May this foundation support you in reconnecting to the here and now. Welcome new friendships, new reading groups, new ideas, new ways of looking at the old and familiar. Let 2023 teach you how to laugh again.
Capricorn
Welcome the new: May you begin the process of releasing years of hard work. May you acknowledge what’s transformed for you since 2008, and how long you’ve been shaped by the need to keep uncovering and healing. Welcome the begining of the end of your long metamorphosis. Welcome reaching a place of calm, of capacity, where you can trust yourself and your choices. Let 2023 help you rebuild your confidence and strength.
Aquarius
Welcome the new: May you meet 2023 with confidence in your deepest values and the courage to keep sharing them. May you step toward transformation in meaningful ways, consciously and with support. Let your past guide you but not confine you. Let the future lure you and inspire you. You get to be a bridge in time. Let the newest thing be you, beginning a new way of being. Collaborate with your past selves, your future selves, and your loved ones here and now.
Pisces
Welcome the new: Let this be a year when you bring the expansive freedom of your dreams into your waking life. May you have the support you need to do let inspiration flow through you, and may your body be a strong vessel for that experience. May you become better friends with your physical form, or at the very least agree to a peace treaty and mutual protection. You are vast. Welcome your multitudes. Welcome a new conversation between your surface and your depths.
this is all so good, but what I really needed to read is this:
self-discipline is not a step toward wholeness unless it’s accompanied by self-compassion and self-understanding
I so look forward to all your readings, this one especially! I’m feeling really hopeful for what 2023 has in store. Thank you!