Astro Forecast 1.29.25: A New Moon Bound by the God of Death + Bonus Horoscopes
Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto manhandle our Lady Luna and set a grim template for the years and decades to come.
What is happening?!
Aquarius has ushered in a new moon and a new lunar year. Here in Seattle on January 29th, in this foul year of your lord 2025, we awoke to fog. The deciduous trees lost their leaves months ago and now stand nude and shocked, like trafficking victims covering their naughty bits with medical gauze. Their knees and elbows are sharp enough to tear holes in the mist, but instead the fog envelops them, soothing their boney branches and muffling their misery at being stripped of foliage, dignity and protection. This is rage dulled by a soft focus lens.
We all tottered to the windows upon waking because my kids and I love the fog; we are a household of gothic governesses at our core, delighting in the way our neighborhood crows hide in the mist and ca-caw to each other in some avian variation of Marco Polo. Corvids understand the value of subterfuge - these are creatures who hold grudges, after all, and who plot revenge with their entire murder in order to deliver cold, feathery justice. We could learn something from them, I bet, if we pulled our heads out of our own digitized, electronic asses for two seconds and looked, really looked, at what the fuck is happening in our streets, neighborhoods, and cities, but Aquarius is not a sign content with simple nature or simple answers. Aquarius is every scientist with his hands on dinosaur D.N.A. thinking, “What could possibly go wrong?”, because progress by its very definition is good under the eye of The Water-Bearer, and he is too busy with his imminent ascension to greatness to notice the destruction he’s wreaked on the ground behind him.
I like our world so much better when it is snuggled in a thick blanket of fog. It makes our ugliness more palatable, the way a spoiled, angry toddler will fool you with an angelic visage at rest. Low cloud cover gentles the sharp edges of human settlements, brightens the dull cadmium of factory produced townhouses, and caresses the royal blue dust bins that dot our cement curbs. If I squint, I might convince myself that I’m in a Henry James novel and should expect creepy children to start talking to me about ghosts any second, but there’s really no need for the angst of Victorian cosplay. We are shuttling quickly backward in time already, embracing the repressed sexuality and murderous Puritanism that lie at the core of America, once imagined as a shining city on the hill by people escaping tyranny and theocracy. That illusory beacon is dimming by the second, like a tree in fog, and pretty soon what started as blip in the weather will turn into a shroud.
Planets are making major moves in the sky this week, and events spawned by this new moon, which also happens to kick off the year of the Wood Snake in Chinese astrology, will be setting the tone for Pluto in Aquarius over the next twenty years. If last week’s Pluto/sun conjunction was the pistol shot galvanizing a race to the bottom, then this week’s moon is the fast-talking broadcaster giving us a preview of the projected winners and losers.
The moon, sun, Mercury, and Pluto are meeting up in the (mostly) introductory degrees of Aquarius, which means weird, initiatory ideas about collectivity and innovation are being broadcast far and wide. What once may have been unthinkable is being forcefully normalized through constant, bludgeoning repetition. If you hear enough times that immigrants are causing your groceries to be expensive and your job to suck, eventually it will become an undeniable truth; something that simply is and always has been, like the low buzz of an ancient refrigerator. Even if that is not a conviction you hold, the fog of avoidance and plausible deniability is so attractive that wrapping oneself in it and going on about one’s merry way (while simultaneously leaning on the tried and true excuses of good Germans, i.e., I didn’t know they were doing that, I don’t pay attention to politics, I didn’t vote for either, etc. etc.) is a no-brainer for anyone peripheral to the current enemies of the state. Immigrants, disabled people, trans people, homeless people, and non-white people will not be offered that protective veil; their reality is crystal clear and projected on our high definition screens. Everyone else will keep the vaseline on their lens and the mist wrapped around their heads, going about their day safe in the knowledge that nothing evil is happening, and if it is, they didn’t know about it, and if they did know about it, they didn’t know the full truth of it, and even if they had known the full truth, what could they possibly do about it anyway? This is the comfort of denial and obfuscation, the soft blanket of fog that we curl around ourselves to avoid terror, despair and accountability. We restrict ourselves to short term thinking, to the safety of the present, and the fluffing of our own egos. If things were truly so terrible it would be happening to us, we reason, and since it’s happening to them over there, we have nothing to worry about.
The trouble with my favorite version of Seattle, the murky, soft-focus land of drizzle and grey mist, is that it never lasts. Even here, buffeted as we are between the mountains and the bay, the sun burns off any low pressure cloud cloak by around noon each day, and what remains is reality under the glare of harsh overcast; nature’s version of institutional fluorescent lighting. Our winter light is especially harsh - it spotlights the shoddy fabrication of our architecture and bestows upon all organic life the glamorous pallor of a corpse prostrate beneath a coroner’s lamp.
Gutter debris, errant salt dust, and the muck of decayed flora come into stark relief, and humans fare no better; I made the mistake of gazing at the train windows while waiting on a rail platform the other day and jumped back in fear of the human-sized harpy staring me down. My blood pressure spiked immediately and I wondered if I would have to throw a punch, something I’ve pondered more in the past three months than I had ever in the last forty years of my life, because it is normal now to be afraid of your neighbors, your fellow citizens, and even your own family. This woman is going to kill me, I thought. She wore her ghastly, sallow skin like a loose sack that billowed and bunched everywhere above the neck and had eyes like piss holes in the snow, black with rage. It was a full three seconds before I registered my own reflection.
Why would this affect me?
This moon is ruled by Saturn, the dour time lord who demarcates important boundaries and loves to discipline the lazy and the overconfident. Saturn operates very differently depending on his choice of traditional chariot, be it Capricorn or Aquarius. He can pivot between his consequence-driven, feminine earth sign and his more extroverted, masculine air sign, the latter of which rules our current lunar iteration. This means we can expect the forces that influence our lives over the next month to exert archetypal masculine energy - extroverted, ambitious, and unyielding. This approach is a boon for those of us in leadership roles, and we could make a lot of progress and inspire people around us with an invigorating, no-bullshit approach to obstacles, deadlines, and goals. The buzzy energy of inventors, scientists, and shit-disturbing executive board members can certainly be harnessed in more positive ways than, ahem, some people have wielded it, especially those who have been canonically shoe-horned into the role of innovative genius without displaying a speck of talent. Herein lies the rub of collective astrology; a transit may indicate that great strides toward collectivism and innovation will be made, but whether or not these are positive developments for humanity depends very much on where you’re standing. What Amnesty International defines as progress, for instance, is probably quite different than what a despotic, criminal oligarch would define as progress, and I have a sinking suspicion about which entity will manage sweeping achievements this month. The tyranny of the majority by a minority is probably just getting warmed up, and the fog of confusion and delusion will burn off rapidly, giving us a crystal clear, if ugly picture of where everyone stands.
We do not live solely in a macro verse, thank the true gods. These lunar influences will also manifest in small ways, often personally, and they have the potential to be life-changing thanks to a lucky bump and some mutual-ish receptivity between the moon, Jupiter and Saturn. The area of life that broadcasts the intent of this moon most loudly will vary for everyone, which isn’t the astrologer’s way of hedging their predictions, I swear…it’s just that natal charts are complex and astrology, like medicine, affects different people differently. For this reason, my tendency is toward deconstructing very broad astrological trends for the collective or getting extremely granular in one-on-one sessions with clients, as opposed to practices involving daily or weekly horoscopes per sign. As a rough template, however, the following areas are the places where each sign will notice both Aquarian and Plutonian influences over the next month. In hellenistic astrology, your rising sign is key to your house placement and thus the most accurate horoscope, but I promise I won’t come to your house and shriek at you if you choose to read your sun sign as well. This time.
ARIES: Given that your ruler is currently retrograde in Cancer, I anticipate fiery friend break-ups or friction in groups that could cause you to pivot to a different social scene entirely. Despite upheaval in your close community, there’s no need to smash anyone’s teeth in; you’ll encounter so much potential in a new group that you’ll totally forget about the old one who pissed you off.
TAURUS: It gets noisy for you in the tenth house of work and public image, Taurus - you’re either in the mood to be a huge ball-buster in order to achieve a professional goal, or you may have to work with a figure like that in order to get where you want to be. Put down the muffin and assert yourself; if that leads to a new job, so be it.
GEMINI: Black holes and revelations will jabber at you from your house of exploration and philosophy, Gemini, and you love that kind of shit. Pluto in Aquarius might be telling you to ditch your previous degree and change fields, but this is also a nice signature if you are thinking of long-distance travel or permanent, unexpected relocation, so get that passport updated. I hear Canada is taking American asylum seekers…
CANCER: Your karma and unseen debts might take a turn, Cancer, and I would keep an eye out for unique new developments involving a partner or spouse’s material security. Try not to freak out if there is disruption or an abrupt transition due to some past conflict - you’ll feel better once it’s reconciled.
LEO: Pay attention to close friendships and lovers, Leo, because this moon, like Michael Jackson, is about to be startin’ somethin’. Lions with partners could feel that it’s time for a status change like co-habitation, divorce or marriage, but knowing Aquarius, it’s more likely to involve polyamory or a sentient, non-binary porn bot.
VIRGO: This new moon is an early valentine for Virgo, as it is activating your house of service and labor. An innovative form of systemization might gas you up and have you getting your boring tasks organized and complete in record time, but only after an old system experiences embarrassing failure. It’s also possible that you will lend your skills to a very left-field pursuit, opening up possibilities for you when it comes to your day job. As a side note - be diligent with healthcare appointments. (As if you’d be anything else.)
LIBRA: The joy of the sun energizes you next month, Libra, and that includes the start of something new in the realms of creativity, hobbies, and children. Aquarius wants you to reach for the stars, which could mean delving into a craft that you’ve often thought about but lacked the confidence to attempt. Unexpected pregnancy or changes with child status could also occur, but since fur-babies count as kids these days, you might go the more exotic route and adopt a Gila monster or something. They are rather aesthetically pleasing.
SCORPIO: Expect upheaval in your house of roots, Scorpio, so checking in on the parents may not be a bad idea. Those of us with aging relatives might be looking at care or relocation, and this could be an auspicious moment if you’ve been looking into retirement communities for elders. There may also be revelations ahead regarding your ancestral past, considering the retrograde of your ruler through Cancer.
SAGITTARIUS: Mercury, the moon, the sun, and Pluto are all activating your third house of neighbors and communication, Sag, so if people thought you verbalized weird shit before this lunation, they haven’t seen anything yet. This lunation could also manifest literally as new community projects or spaces that cause disruption near your home or business.
CAPRICORN: The second house of money-making and prosperous labor is comfortable for Capricorns, and any crazy new financial ideas will be vetted and assessed in record time once you get your goatish eyeballs on them. In short? You might experience disruption in one stream of revenue, but a new opportunity could more than make up for it.
AQUARIUS: How you feeling, Aquarius? Unmoored? Trapped in a liminal space? Ready to ditch gravity and shoot yourself out of a canon? It’s not only alright to feel crazy, it’s totally understandable during an existential crisis, which is the nicest way to interpret both Hermes and Hades lurking in your first house of self. You’ll be going through an intellectual, spiritual transformation, but don’t forget to take care of your body as well - watch for shin splints if you’re a runner, and be mindful of your circulation and blood pressure.
PISCES: Hello, gentle fish, and welcome to the twelfth house of endings, shadows, dreams, and secrets; for Pisces, it’s probably just referred to as “My living room on a Tuesday.” Get ready for an old secret to bubble to the surface that involves you or someone close to you; it will spark a kind of clarity that has eluded you in the past. The outed truth might destabilize your life for a second, but the fresh start that presents itself afterward will be more than worth it.
When do I have to deal with this?
Any dutiful werewolf will tell you that twenty-eight days out from the new moon is one complete lunar cycle; the issues highlighted by Luna and all of her complex aspects will accumulate weight and resonance for two weeks until they bloom at dreaded the full moon. This part of the lunation is also the moment when shadows and perversions of the moon’s intent burble to the surface, resulting in increased E.R. visits and drunk tank denizens. Once the full moon reveals our obstacles and shortfalls, we spend the last two weeks composting lessons and establishing equilibrium until the entire process begins again with a different moon, zodiac sign and rulership. The Aquarius lunation exerts the longest lasting consequences of this week’s astrology, given its entanglement with the sun and Jupiter, but Venus and Neptune also have a little moment that we shouldn’t ignore. We have to get our jollies from something.
1.29.25 - 2.27.25: The new moon, sun, Mercury, and Pluto set the stage for the Age of Aquarius, and Jupiter in Gemini gives them a microphone and an amp…
Moon - A.K.A. Selene, A.K.A. The Triple Goddess, ruler of our earthly bodies and fortunes, also kind of two-faced and moody
Mercury - A.K.A. Hermes, A.K.A. Loki, ruler of tech, travel, and communication, has absolutely zero loyalty or discretion
Sun - A.K.A. Apollo, A.K.A. Helios, A.K.A. Ra, rules over our ideals and elevated authorities like kings and leaders
Pluto - A.K.A Hades, A.K.A. Anubis, rules over the dead, hell, chaos, and natural riches, a bit of a destructive asshole due to the chip on his shoulder (see below)
Jupiter - A.K.A. Zeus, A.K.A Odin, rules over hierarchies like government, order, luck, and abundance, has a bit of a Cold War going on with his brother due to bad blood over seniority, is also an enormous slut
As you can see from the planetary rap sheets above, these guys are all over the place. The moon is starting a new cycle while trine to Jupiter, which means that whatever activates over the next four weeks could expand in scope very quickly. What about Saturn, you ask? Don’t worry, he’s being his usual creepy lurker self in Pisces, which is yet another tether to the largess of Jupiter. The exponential consequences could be extremely positive, or they could…you know what? Let’s just leave it there.
Lest we forget, Mercury and Pluto also form a conjunction today that promises the divulgence of secrety-secrets, wild exaggerations, and plenty of public chatter about ominous matters. Never forget that whenever Pluto is involved, the decimation of long-standing hierarchies and protocol is always possible, including traditional forms of communication.
1.28.25 - 2.1.25: The sun in Aquarius and Jupiter in Gemini get together for a joyful, generous air trine
These two blowhards love flaunting their respective expansive natures, so this is a fantastic timeframe for clinching traditional achievements in school, government, the legal system, and other institutions. Like a couple of frat-boys-turned-country-club-presidents, Zeus and Apollo also lend power and luck to bosses, paternal figures, and leaders, which might bode well on the personal level, but could be extremely worrisome at the collective level. Trump is a Gemini, F.Y.I.
1.29.25 - 2.4.25 - Venus and Neptune in Pisces get romantic and deluded in a watery trine
Venus - A.K.A. Aphrodite, A.K.A. Astarte, A.K.A Frejya, the sexy, lonely lady planet who rules femmes, art, sisters, beauty, and money, often a scapegoat for the other gods’ emotional unavailability, because of course she is
Neptune - A.K.A. Poseidon, A.K.A. Aegir, rules over dreams, oceans, deep water, and the unseen, basically a really stoned, bearded old guy who likes art, baths and psych wards
For everyone in a healthy relationship, this is a wonderful aspect to take advantage of due to the trine’s fluidity and generous romanticism. Venus will make you want to deepen connections and Neptune will inspire you to be arty and soulful in the manner you choose to connect, so schedule that date night at home, my friends. Neptune wants your freak flag to proudly fly.
Unfortunately, this can be a messy aspect for codependency, toxic relationships, or mutual addiction, so exercise caution if you’re still seeking independence or freedom from bad people and habits. Anyone trying to end a relationship may have a hard time doing so under this aspect, because Pisces is a place of zero boundaries and vibrant illusions, easily convincing us that things are lovely when in reality we are being abused or manipulated. Neptune is the natural ruler of obfuscation because we will never see the bottom of his oceans; he can blanket the shores of reality in a poetic mist that fools us into complacency. I think we’ve had enough of that this week, don’t you?
We've had quite enough. I was distracted by my birthday, but now it's just real life 😭 Thank you Lovely 🌹