January 25: Leo Full Moon
A new tarot archetype is activated at the start of each year. 2024 is the Strength card VIII in the tarot Major Arcana (2+2+4=8), which corresponds to the sign of Leo.
The Strength card asks us to make friends with what scares us, to embrace the parts of ourselves we have previously forsaken, and to find the willingness to become who we are born to be. Our individual destiny is interwoven with the larger tapestry of time and the massive shifts in the sky over the coming years portend big changes here on earth. The Leo Full Moon at 12:54PM ET on January 25, opposite the newly arrived Pluto in Aquarius, draws us into the steely strength we’ll be cultivating for the next 20 years.
Pluto entered Aquarius at 7:56PM ET on January 20, just hours after the Sun’s ingress, initiating us into a 20 year transformation process. This is significant for all of us Gaia-beings alive right now but there is a larger unfolding that spans generations and reaches far into the future.
The Sun-Pluto meeting at the start of Aquarius season on Jan 20, 2024, activated the great conjunction of Jupiter-Saturn at 00° Aquarius on December 21, 2020. This is a sensitive degree because it marked the end of the Great Chronocrators200 year cycle in earth signs, and began a new multi-century era in air for the first time since the 12th century.
Pluto is associated with transformation but its method of evolution is death. The God of the Underworld strips away what is no longer conducive for growth so that new life can thrive. We tend to fear these transits because Pluto brings experiences of endings and annihilation–whether on the physical plane or an ego / identity level. To make the most of Aquarius season from January 20-Feb 18, identify the house in your chart with Aquarius on the cusp. This is the area of life that Pluto has come to transform. 2024 is a year of research.
Pluto’s first pass into Aquarius was from March 21-June 11, 2023. Consider what transpired during that time as the initial survey. It might have brought abrupt endings in order to clear space for what will now be developed. Folks with early Aquarius birthdays between Jan 21-23, will feel it most intensely this year as Pluto doesn’t get very far into the first decan.
Pluto stations retrograde at 02°06 Aquarius on May 2, 2024, and re-enters Capricorn on for the final act of the USA Pluto return on September 1, where it will remain during the presidential election. Goddexx help us. There are collective fears that we share, which are universal to all humans and form the basis of our survival drives, what we consider our “animal nature”, and those that are specific to each of us based on experiences of trauma.
Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930, which coincided with the rise of fascism, and is connected with the atomic bomb and weapons of mass destruction. We have evolved as a species over the last 100 years but the Pluto return of the USA, which has been active since Summer 2015, has exposed the ugliest parts of our relatively young nation. These outer planetary cycles are often moments of turmoil and civil unrest. The collective changes awaken our personal issues, which is why Pluto is viewed as an activating agent responsible for our soul’s development through metamorphosis.
The Moon at 05°15 Leo gives us a clear view of what we are encountering collectively. Pluto is connected with taboos, compulsion, secrets, and power. An addictive behavior that has always been lingering could suddenly get magnified. The Moon in Leo is granting us the strength to look honestly at what has been hidden. The journey to the heart of darkness requires great courage.
The Strength card is not the usual depiction of physical prowess that patriarchy valorizes, but the sweet caress of one who sees beyond the surface, and can transcend their own fear based reactions, into the soul of another. Let strength be defined as the quiet, gentle power that allows you to make love to parts of yourself and the world that desperately need it.
The Sun in Aquarius wants us to develop ourselves intellectually so that we show up with greater integrity in our interactions. There is support from Jupiter in Taurus, creating a fixed t-square with the Leo Full Moon, for anchoring our desires for a better future in the world we actually live in—the earth, as opposed to blasting off on a d*ck rocket like Elon Musk. Jupiter’s environmental agenda will pop off around April 20, but notice where and how you feel called to commune with Gaia until then.
The Sun in Aquarius is elevating our thoughts so we can communicate with greater clarity, but the Mercury-Mars conjunction is giving us barbed tongues. Mercury returned to Capricorn on January 13, and passed its retrograde shadow on January 20.
We’re out of the woods of retrograde December, but if there’s anything that doesn’t feel quite right in Capricorntown, the conjunction of Mercury and Mars at 17°18 Capricorn that peaks on Jan 27, will blow the lid off it. Venus in Capricorn in a trine with Jupiter in Taurus is balancing some of the grouchy earth energy with true romance on January 28.
The Leo Full Moon may excite you or frighten you, but either way, it reveals something massive that used to feel minor, and grants you the power to forge a new path. Trust the start of this new way forward. You’ll be trudging happily along this route for the next 20 years.