Growth and challenge are unavoidable aspects of life. Nature reveals this to us constantly. Yet we discover it first more personally, in the natural cycles of maturing from child to adult. In a ‘good enough’ childhood, we are supported to take the steps we need to as they come along – the arrival of a sibling, starting school, the first night away from home, falling in and out of friendships, the tentative steps towards first love. We discover there is a safe stable space we can rely on when life gets tough, people we can turn to when challenges feel too difficult. ‘Home’ becomes much more than the place we live; it represents a place of security, comfort & belonging – in a ‘good enough’ childhood.
How many of us received this kind of safe holding space as children? Many of us enter adulthood still trying to find it. It may take a lifetime to discover a stable sense of security within oneself. It may take a lifetime to create the comfort of belonging with others. We may even discover that ‘home’ is not a place, it’s a feeling, or even deeper, it’s a knowing of ‘I belong’. ‘Home’ is known as a stable connection to oneself and what nourishes it.
Astrology mirrors to us in so many ways the smallest, most personal and the largest collective to planetary cycles of life. Anyone inspired to explore it can find comfort in understanding, ‘I am part of life’s evolutionary movements’ as well as undergoing their challenges with more awareness. Over the last twenty plus years, we’ve all become aware of the intensity of these cycles both personally & collectively. It feels like we’re in an endless washer cycle.
The question ‘How much more can there be?’ is both natural & pertinent. There are resting places within these evolutionary cycles, albeit short ones. And you’ll be happy to hear that 2025 delivers a fundamental shift of energies that are utterly and fundamentally new. It’s the big shift point within a plethora of them. It’s where what’s been falling apart becomes fuel for an active renaissance.
As an overview, in 2025 we are moving from earth & water element energies (embodiment and feeling frequencies) to fire & air elements (rising inspiration & innovation frequencies). If you recognise the different interplay of earth & water (for example fertile yet sticky mud) and air & fire (free & uplifting enthusiasm), you might see the uprising of an entrepreneurial & spiritual renaissance. Movement is easier, enthusiasm & opportunity is more tangible and achievable. Values shift towards living spirituality & compassion, from letting go, grieving & victim mentality towards conscious participation. These are the planetary movements supporting this shift:
Lord of the Underworld Pluto moves fully into air sign Aquarius for 20 years – shifting the processes of deconstruction to innovation. A grass roots revival replaces the outmoded model of capitalism & false power held through greed.
Mystic Neptune crosses the equinox point from Pisces to Aries (a once in 164-year cycle shift – heralding a spiritual renaissance, a collective awakening to living with more compassionate values, acting to take care of collective need.
Awakener Uranus moves from earthy Taurus to airy Gemini for 7 years – innovation through new forms of technology, education, communication & business that serves the people rather than consumerist values.
Wise Elder Saturn crosses the equinox point from Pisces to Aries (a once in 29-year cycle, Saturn also aligns with Neptune) – activating the foundation of new social structures based in altruism, courageously confronting our societal challenges.
These are just the basic cycle shifts without the planetary interplay which is truly heartening. Apart from Pluto, moving fully into Aquarius very soon, these activations take place in spring and summer 2025, stabilising in 2026.
Before we get to that point, we are called to explore what’s closer to home. Just like the child about to venture into the big wide world, we are called to examine what is stable and resourceful within ourselves – our self-knowing, our rootedness in a sense of belonging, our knowing of what we can trust (primarily within ourselves) and our connection to what’s truly of value to us as individuals.
This inner personal process is guided by the warrior planet of will, intention, action, Mars, moving retrograde through the signs of Leo & Cancer from early December to late February 2025 (now to late April including the shadow zones). We are evolving our individual consciousness, child to adult, through the energies of Cancer & Leo.
As Mars is involved in three oppositions to Lord of the Underworld Pluto through its retrograde, we are involved also in the shifting of collective structures (Capricorn to Aquarius). One both feeds and challenges the other. Societal shifts impact who we are becoming personally, as who we are individually has the potential to influence societal change. It’s a double whammy.
In the natural zodiac, the sign progression of Cancer to Leo is where we mature from being emotionally dependent on the comfort & security of home and family (‘mother’ in the broadest sense) to growing adulthood. It’s where we discover, ‘I am an individual with creative potential, and this is what matters most to me’.
The usual progression of planet Mars through these two signs would indicate a maturing process involving the courage to be oneself, to step out into the world with confidence, initiative, and authenticity. With Mars retrograde in these two signs (a six-month process including the shadow periods) it can feel like individuality is rocked by emotional vulnerability – insecurity, depression, a vague sense of unease about one’s place in the world, the inability to find direction, a lack of vitality – and/or by external circumstances – family demands, financial or security issues, an unwanted change of direction, intended life changes not landing.
Mars is where we feel our ‘get-up-and-go’, our capacity to decide, intend, motivate, and act. When Mars is retrograde, the outward facing arrow of its symbol points back towards oneself, to the inner world. It highlights where there’s a lack. What is ‘close to the bone’ in terms of how we feel about ourselves is highlighted. Old vulnerabilities surface and can be mirrored by those close to us, especially family or ancestry. How we feel underpins everything. The birth-chart houses that are ruled by Leo & Cancer show the area of life where this is uppermost. For some of us, it will be mirrored in working life, for others in family relationships, spiritual connection, health and so on. For all of us it involves where we feel most vulnerable and need to find a deeper rooting in self-security.
Whilst Mars is moving in these intimate inner worlds, its aspects colour what is unfolding. The major of these aspects involves three oppositions to Lord of the Underworld Pluto as it moves from Capricorn to Aquarius. This amplifies the personal/collective nature of the evolutionary process we’re all in. Oppositions in astrology highlight the intensity of extremes of difference – positions, viewpoints, qualities & energies. Difference can be attractive yet intimidating. There’s an unknown quality to it. We don’t know and cannot predict how its tension will play out.
With oppositions there is only one path from ‘here to there’. We are funnelled towards what is most different to what we know or feel comfortable with. Often, especially with Pluto, this feels like being caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s a feeling of cannot go back yet challenged to go forward. It might be the knowing of what is most needed yet not wanting to do it. It’s the unavoidable facing of what is demanded for our growth.
Much as we may resist it, it’s this tension of opposites that grows us. It’s like the child’s first day at school – feeling daunted (maybe scared, maybe a little excited) everything is unfamiliar, not knowing if we have the resources to get through the day, now knowing who or what is reliable.
Eventually, what was unfamiliar becomes safer, or bearable; we discover resourcefulness in the face of uncertainty, we learn to hide our vulnerabilities and cope, or we do both. As we go through this current process, these vulnerable places of maturing may open up to reveal their secrets – what we thought was a given about our self suddenly feels rocky, confidence wobbles in order to find deeper roots.
Both Mars & Pluto (joint rulers of Scorpio) represent power. Mars is our sense of personal confidence & power, the capacity to act & react on our own behalf, to defend or fight where necessary. Pluto is authentic power, our courage to face and embrace unavoidable aspects of life: serious illness, separation, divorce, grief and inevitably, death.
Pluto is the power discovered within deep change and the embrace of pain. As with a mother giving birth, a Pluto experience changes us irrevocably. When Mars & Pluto interact, especially by opposition, there is something worthwhile to be claimed through facing a tight squeeze of some kind.
Personally, this indicates a passage to power of authentic individuality; on a societal level, it involves no longer playing victim to our collective systems & structures, to external authority or power. It means making deeper conscious choices, claiming more effective response-ability. It’s about growing up when we’re already adult. The following pointers may support your reflection and engagement of the energies that are actively brewing now and take us through to April.
– What do you know that is close to home, close to the bone in you & your life? Your vulnerability, the place in yourself or your life that you don’t feel confident or effective in? How might you approach & befriend that aspect of self or life with new eyes? Where do you need patience & compassion, befriending yourself in new healthier ways?
– What do you know is unavoidable, yet you keep avoiding it or distracting yourself away from it? How might you approach this with deeper emotional intelligence?
– How is your ‘mothering’ relationship towards yourself? Cancer is the sign of self-nurture, food, emotional connection, intuition, comfort & belonging. It’s the foundation of individuality. Which if these qualities need actively uplifting? How might you mother yourself more consciously without indulging emotional neediness? What supports you feeling ‘at home’ in yourself?
– Where do you still affirm & energise victim consciousness? Give power away? What needs clearer cleaner response-ability?
– How might you set healthy boundaries to truly take care of what is ‘close to home, close to the bone’ for you? Reflect on what your priorities are. Draw in your energy, taking good care of what’s needed right here, right now. I described this recently to a client as what happens when you’ve delivered your new baby – it really is about taking care of what’s needed right now.
– Explore how you may habitually use your Mars energy of power & will, assertiveness, self-confidence in unhealthy ways through anger, force, criticism, or power plays. Or where you’re afraid to engage it in healthy self-protection and action.
As these Mars-Pluto oppositions unravel power themes within us (exact 3 November at 29 Cancer/29 Capricorn; exact 3 January with Mars retrograde, 1 Leo/1 Aquarius; exact 26 April with Mars direct, 3 Leo/Aquarius) there are supportive aspects from Awakener Uranus in Taurus & Mystic Neptune in Pisces/Aries. These are underpinning the challenge with opportunities for profound insight & new values, kindness and compassion, and once Mars is moving forward, with authentic action to claim the harvest of growth.
This upcoming New Moon at 9 Scorpio on 1 November (ruled by both Mars & Pluto) sets the scene for the process. Collective events could be part of this unfolding yet it’s how we react/respond to them that’s key.
Many friends and clients are already feeling the incoming energies. Although the major planets involved are Mars & Pluto, the Sacred Feminine plays a huge role in the unfolding of Mars retrograde with Venus (our creative loving Feminine) and Earth Mother Ceres (Crone energy, unattached mothering, honouring the natural cycles) very involved as Mars stations retrograde on 6 December. More to come on this later.
The Astrology
New Moon at 9 Scorpio 1 November
Mars opposes Pluto at 29 Cancer/Capricorn exact on 3 November
Mars station retrograde at 6 Leo on 6 December, station direct at 17 Cancer on 24 February 2025, shadow period 6 October to 2 May 2025
