Crossing Over New Moon
January 11, First Lunation of 2024
New Moon at 20 Capricorn 44
January 11, 2024, 3:57am PST, 6:57am EST, 11:57am GMT, 10:57pm AEDT
During this Luna cycle, Pluto is crossing over the great divide from Capricorn into Aquarius, and will be there most of this 2024. This is an intense start to not only a New Year, but a new Era!
For added profundity, this New Moon squares the Nodes of the Moon, our collective Destiny Line, indicating a major turning point in our evolutionary process, with inevitable choices to be made, whether we perceive this or not. We “cross the great waters,” as the I Ching describes major moments of change. It is as if the world is turning inside out, and will never be the same again. We face onward into fresh new dimensions of experience as we redesign our global society.
This is Pluto’s second entry into Aquarius:
We had a brief taste of Pluto in Aquarius from late March to mid-June of 2023; this will be a longer, more profound visit. In part, this is indicated by the Sun ushering Pluto in Aquarius on its own annual entry into Aquarius. The Solar Life Force welcomes and fuses with Plutonian regenerativity. After a short retrograde into Capricorn in September-October with a two and a half month clean sweep of old business, we enter full on into this 18-19 year transit, lasting a whole nodal cycle. The Aries/Libra eclipses of 2024 come around again in 2042-43 as Pluto begins into Pisces. Destiny is at work.
Pluto in Aquarius sounds odd on the tongue (and Pluto in Pisces even more foreign), but we will become well-acquainted as we live through the next phase of transformational themes in the sphere of our global social sphere. With a 248-year orbit, Pluto has not been in Aquarius since the late 1790s.
It is worth noting that in 1983-84, as Pluto was entering Scorpio, it was then square to this upcoming transit in Aquarius. Those of us who lived through that time may have some recalled experiences from that quite intense time. Those born with Pluto in Scorpio will start into their generational Pluto square natal Pluto.
Going back even further, elders born in the late 1930s (1938-40) will be experiencing a fairly rare generational Pluto opposite Pluto. From 1979 to 1999, Pluto was near perihelion, when it is closest to the Sun and moving faster through the signs. During this time, Pluto was actually closer to the Sun than Neptune! When Pluto is on the other side of the zodiac, farthest from the Sun, it moves slower, with little likelihood of a Pluto oppositional transit.
With Pluto on my Ascendant, I have been both fascinated and daunted by its powerful energy. In 1986, with Pluto in an active square with my Venus, I wrote my Master’s thesis, “AstroMythology and the Psychological Value of Symbolic Language,” analyzing myths three goddesses who descended into Pluto’s dark realm. I have pulled out that work to review and refresh in relation to this new transit, with Pluto now coming to conjunct my Venus.
What does this Pluto sign change mean to you and your generation? I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion about that in the astrology world. As enter this amazing, higher mind-altering phase, I will share some of my insights and invite you to share yours.
Pluto is obviously the major headline of this Lunation cycle. By the January 25th Full Moon, Pluto will be in Aquarius, shifting some key planetary dynamics. I will share more on this first New Moon of 2024 in the next few days.