Top 5 Astrological Events I’m Looking Forward To (Or Dreading) in 2023

You guys… we made it! Despite the months-long Mars retrograde, the prolonged Saturn-Uranus square and an explosive Mars-Uranus conjunction, somehow we survived 2022. 

But like everything in life, there’s always more — more eclipses, more retrograde periods, more life-altering planetary interchanges — that lay ahead. With just a few days left until 2023, now’s the time to set aside the trials and tribulations of yesterday’s astro weather and look to what comes tomorrow.

Let’s jump straight into it: here are the top five astrological events that I’m excited for… and dreading.

1. Mars Goes Direct

The year starts with a bang when Jan. 12 rolls around and everyone’s favorite astrological bad boy, Mars, goes direct. I don’t know a single person who is loving the archetypical hothead grinding his way through Gemini for months on end. If that’s you, seek help. (Kidding!)

Seriously, though, Mars is a planet about drive, impetus, and forward momentum. When he’s retrograde, suddenly the parts of our natal chart where he has rulership come to a halt. 

I know many people who are feeling like business is not moving ahead or conflict upon conflict is piling up in their relationships. Some of the most basic parts of our lives feel like they’ve run out of gas (or are suddenly up in flames).

If you’ve been applying for jobs and not getting any callbacks or dating dud after dud, only to swear off Tinder, your fortunes may just change when Mars gets his mojo back. He’ll still be in Gemini until March, but at least we’ll feel like life is progressing again.

Key takeaway: Drivers, rev up your engines. It’s go time!

2. Saturn In Pisces 

If you’re new here, I’ve been talking about this for a while. We’ve been living in a bit of a Saturnian situation for some five years now, with the planet of rules and structure transiting his own signs of Capricorn and Aquarius. These signs have a way of making Saturn energy extremely serious, stern and hardworking.

Saturn moves out of the realm of ideas (Aquarius) and enters into a mutable water sign, the realm of feelings and imagination. Pisces is dreamer energy — it’s about dissolving boundaries, spiritual ideals and transcendence.

With Saturn entering the emotional waterfall of Pisces, it’s a bit like Professor Snape getting elected president of the local knitting and crochet society. I just don’t see him sitting around with a ball of pink wool yarn clicking together socks with the gals and talking about his feelings. 

But time and time again, Saturn has made this transit and he’s always proven that there is concrete work to be done in the realm of imagination and creativity. In the mid-1990s, the last time he was here, Saturn gave us some of Whitney Houston’s greatest hits, Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky scandal, and figure skating’s greatest soap opera, the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding rivalry.

Key takeaway: Dreamer, time to get moving on realizing your best aspirations, but expect hard work and a little drama along the way.

3. Jupiter in Aries

This one is a bit of a cheat… Jupiter has been here for part of 2022 before retrograding back into his watery oasis in Pisces only to return to Aries’ hot and dry landscape in December. But now he’s here for good, at least for the first half of 2023.

Sanguine Jupiter is about hopes, dreams and aspirations, and as a member of the fire triplicity, he has some dominion over Aries despite it being ruled by the malefic of the opposite sect. 

Wherever Jupiter lands in your chart, that’s where you can expect blessings and a little luck. This is a sign about beginnings, the initial thrust of energy that comes when you’re stoked about a new project or relationship and you’re giving it all you’ve got. 

With Jupiter coming in wide-eyed and optimistic, you can expect that whatever part of life Aries covers in your chart you will see dreams and hopes becoming reality (or at least the initial phase of it).

If this is your 2nd House, for instance, you might be willing to take a financial risk that has the potential to pay dividends in the future. Or, if Aries is your 10th House, you may be willing to lay the groundwork for a new business that lets you become self-employed.

Key takeaway: Today’s tiny seeds are tomorrow’s flower bed. Get to planting!

4. Venus Goes Retrograde in Leo

The planet of relationships and creativity enters into Leo in June, marking the beginning of a months-long transit of this sign. 

Normally the Lesser Benefic is in and out of sign in about a month. But with her slowing down in Leo only to turn around and retrace her steps, the tiny dancer is going to stay on Leo’s stage for enough time to do some serious work.

She enters her retrograde period at the end of July. Fun fact: every eight years, Venus goes retrograde in the same sign. This means whatever might have been happening in your life eight years ago echoes forward to the present.

Famously the 2015 Venus retrograde period in Leo was when the Supreme Court made its landmark Obergefell decision, otherwise known as marriage equality. I still remember the celebrations in the street outside of the Stonewall bar on Christopher Street (I was living in New York City at the time). 

Retrogrades are about taking stock. It’s possible that people from the past resurface, you spend time coming to grips with relationship decisions you made that you may regret, you go through a period of reconciliation with people you had falling outs with.

This period will be especially unpredictable given Venus hitting a square with Uranus, the planet of instability and surprise, three times during her transit of Leo.

Key takeaway: The past is prologue when it comes to the people and places in your life.

5. Pluto Enters Aquarius

The Lord of the Underworld is entering a transition period, using 2023 to move from his spot in the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn to the mutable air sign of Aquarius. 

Given his slow movement and his frequent and long retrograde periods, he won’t be in Aquarius for very long. He’ll dip in around early March only to retrace his steps back into Capricorn in early June.

Despite the short contact time with the sign of ideas, invention and innovation, this period could still tell us plenty about what his more prolonged period in Aquarius will be about. 

If you have any planets at the early part of fixed signs (Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius and Taurus), pay attention to events that happen in the March to June timeframe. These could be clues to what Pluto’s 20-year transit of this sign will be about.

In Aquarius, this may point to inventions and innovations in technology that catapult society and the collective forward. Progress always comes with its share of death and decay — something has to die for the new to be born.

Key takeaway: Wherever Pluto is transiting is where there will be breakdown that allows you to ultimately breakthrough.

And there you have it. Those are the big highlights for the coming year. Now, if you want to dive deeper into what these transits will mean in the context of your own chart, why not hop on over to my “Book a Consultation” page and schedule a time with me. I’d love to help you time your life with the ancient wisdom and insight of astrology.