It’s Time to Stop Blaming the Year
Each December I see countless angry posts on social media, declaring the old year a dumpster fire or some other oddly specific visual metaphor for disaster with a laundry list of unfortunate occurrences all thanks to the calendar date. Midnight on New Years Eve brings high expectations which live about as long as our holiday vacations and then the daily grind returns with its daily stream of bad news.
I’m not saying the last few years haven’t been particularly wonky but I can certainly say it wasn’t the fault of the numbers on our pages.
2020 and 2021 both brought unique challenges through their astrological aspects and numerology. We’ve seen old cycles end and new ones begin all under the banner of staunch archetypes and rigid energies. And 2022 brings its own. A quick glance at the ephemeris or forecast from any serious astrologer might send up alarm bells, warning that the new year might be just as disastrous as the last.
But this doesn’t have to be true: the energy is only one part of the year.
What we do with it is totally up to us.
It is absolutely possible to make the best of a bad situation.
After the first Saturn/Jupiter Pluto conjunction of 2020, the world was thrown into the turmoil of Bad Air and Home Imprisonment. Many took the time to reevaluate their daily lives, to get back into alignment with their highest selves and weed through the unpleasant influences in order to clear space. It was a 4 year, aligned with the Emperor, a time for stability and sovereignty. But for those who simply waited in the purgatory, it was an endurance test of increasing rigidity and a return to reliance on parental authority. This was a theme continued in 2021 as the Hierophant, the annual archetype, set some on a journey of higher understanding while others fell to the promises of false messiahs. As a 5 year we could have expected instability and conflict, but continued clashes between Saturn, Uranus and Mars brought a particular breed of confusion and division to our lives.
2022 will bring a new eclipse cycle, continued Uranian weirdness, a conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune, and an extended trip through Gemini by Mars. Like any year really, there will be peaks and…
