Is Astrology the Key to Rediscovering Ceremony in a Modern World?
Exploring Rituals, Celestial Movements, and the Resonance of New Year's Eve; planning 2024 by astrological events
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s day on the civil calendar offer up a strange resonance to the old ways… to a natural order-keeping beckoning ceremony and ritual. But in a culture lacking in ceremony, astrology offers a toehold. Today as I sat on my couch at the threshold between this year and next year, I am reading my friend’s poetry. This poetry to me talks directly to that divine ceremony of losing one’s self to find one’s self which often happens inside a Saturn return. The way we are gummed up, eaten alive, screaming for the end as we grab to the edges of what we know and simultaneously dancing in the fire’s web, licking our fingertips in deep pleasure, and hearing the crash of each wave like movement towards ecstasy.
Astrology has always been our friend in keeping time. A practice keeping and noticing the relationship between the star Sirius and the Nile flood; bringing prosperity and religion into rhythm with each other. When the Nile flooded rituals of celebration and offerings were given to Hapi. This marked the New Year for the ancient Egyptians, not a matrix time capsule synced to a digital device but a predictable natural event. The ceremony between stars and rivers.
Ceremony is necessary to culture. It binds us to history, to ancestors, to meaning, to God. Yet, in our world, little of us know of many more than Graduation, Wedding, Funeral. In the personal realm, astrology offers us the ceremony of returns. Moments in time where a planet as it is making their way through space aligns with its’ place in our birth chart; like a double-faced clock - the second hand ticking until comes into place with the minute hand. The sun returns annually. Mars returns every two and a half years. Jupiter every twelve. Saturn every thirty. Give or take a retrograde.
Ceremony is more than a pretty dress or a cap and gown. It represents hard work and sacrifice. Ceremonies today are more surface level; a celebration more or less. The moon is always offering a cup of ceremony to drink at the new moon or the full moon. This is an astrological event that is spoken about in the passive-aggressive whisper of budding spiritualists. Yet, the moon’s phasic movement abounds more from us than woo-woo manipulations. The moon herself is an ancient piece of Earth’s old sister, Theia, whom over 4 billion years orbited into Earth and obliterating Theia. Her leftover rock, ash, lava, and cosmic dust were half absorbed into Earth and half congealed into the mass we know as our moon. This ancient cosmic event predates any human existence.
Today the moon is waning, conjunct with the constellation Leo. If we step outside tonight to view the twinkling stars we may notice our moon rising from the east; big and yellow if we are in the northern hemisphere. This is a ceremony; to observe, to note, to make sense of our otherworldly experiences. And this too is astrology both personal and collective.
As we sit here in our collective togetherness between 2023 and 2024 - some of us celebrating out - some of us celebrating in - astrology fingers a harp song as our earth turns, orbits, and tips like a ballerina’s swan song. Astrology aligns us to nature’s movements. Ceremony is a ritual observance. It need not be grand or flashy but demands our intention; like my daily walks. A morning cup of joe becomes thoughtful prayer. Sweeping the floors becomes a spell. All by turning our observational powers on. We can turn these powers inwards towards our own experience or outwards towards nature - noticing, wondering, exploring.
Winter, in my opinion, is not a time for setting goals or even intentions but rather a time for reflection; gathering our memories together and preparing for the future. Planning when to sow the earth, when to harvest, when to lay the ground. Thus it makes sense to me to look out at when the stars are moving, reflect on the year I’ve had, and invest time into staging the year I want to have. This is the ceremony.
2024 Astrological Events (Tropical)
Planning a collective ceremony can be a way to attune to the greater mystery in life. If you’re new (or even old) to astrology I wouldn’t recommend taking this all in at once. Think of this more of a reference sheet of timetables when planetary shifts are happening. Like small New Year’s celebrations these are times when you can plan to eat a certain meal, have a certain drink, carve out alone time, or sit in ceremony with a friend or a lover or go see your therapist. Ceremony is as intense as we need it to be but also as natural and normal as the seasons changing from Spring to Summer.
As you go through this list as questions pop in your head like, “Jem, what’s Juno?” “What does it mean for Venus to enter Capricorn?” “How would that impact me?” I invite you to leave a comment on this post with your question (free) or if you want a full chart analysis book a birth chart reading. (they're on sale). I’m also curious what are some of your favorite ways to be in ceremony both in conjunction with an astrology event or not?
January
January 1 — Mercury goes direct in Sagittarius
January 4 — Mars enters Capricorn
January 11 — New moon in Capricorn
January 12 — Juno goes retrograde in Virgo
January 13 — Mercury enters Capricorn
January 20 — Sun enters Aquarius
January 20 — Pluto enters Aquarius
January 23 — Venus enters Capricorn
January 25 — Full moon in Leo
January 26 — Uranus goes direct in Taurus
February
February 4 — Mercury enters Aquarius
February 6 — Pallas enters Sagittarius
February 8 — Vesta goes direct in Gemini
February 9 — New moon in Aquarius
February 10 — Lunar New Year/Year of the Dragon
February 12 — Mars enters Aquarius
February 16 — Venus enters Aquarius
February 18 — Sun enters Pisces
February 22 — Mercury enters Pisces
February 24 — Full moon in Virgo
March
March 9 — Mercury enters Aries
March 10 — New moon in Pisces
March 11 — Venus enters Pisces
March 19 — Sun enters Aries / Spring Equinox / Astrological New Year / Ostara
March 22 — Mars enters Pisces
March 25 — Full moon lunar eclipse in Libra
March 29 — Pallas retrograde in Sagittarius
March 31 — Vesta enters Cancer
April
April 1 — Mercury goes retrograde in Aries
April 4 — Venus enters Aries
April 8 — New moon solar eclipse in Aries
April 19 — Sun enters Taurus
April 21 — Juno goes direct in Virgo
April 23 — Full moon in Scorpio
April 25 — Mercury goes direct in Aries
April 29 — Venus enters Taurus
April 30 — Mars enters Aries
May (my birthday month 🥳)
May 2 — Pluto goes retrograde in Aquarius
May 7 — New moon in Taurus
May 14 — Ceres goes retrograde in Capricorn
May 15 — Mercury enters Taurus
May 16 — Pallas retrograde enters Scorpio
May 20 — Sun enters Gemini
May 23 — Full moon in Sagittarius
May 23 — Venus enters Gemini
May 25 — Jupiter enters Gemini
June
June 3 — Mercury enters Gemini
June 6 — New moon in Gemini
June 8 — Mars enters Taurus
June 16 — Venus enters Cancer
June 17 — Mercury enters Cancer
June 19 — Vesta enters Leo
June 20 — Sun enters Cancer / Summer Solstice / Litha
June 21 — Full moon in Capricorn
June 29 — Saturn goes retrograde in Pisces (all my Saturn Pisces fam - I feel you)
July
July 2 — Neptune retrograde in Pisces
July 2 — Mercury enters Leo
July 5 — New Moon in Cancer
July 9 — Pallas goes direct in Scorpio
July 11 — Venus enters Leo
July 20 — Mars enters Gemini
July 21 — Full moon in Capricorn
July 22 — Sun enters Leo
July 25 — Mercury enters Virgo
July 26 — Chiron goes retrograde in Aries
August
August 4 — Venus enters Virgo
August 4 — Mercury goes retrograde in Virgo
August 4 — New moon in Leo
*big day August 4th*
August 9 — Juno enters Libra
August 14 — Mercury retrograde enters Leo
August 19 — Full moon in Aquarius
August 22 — Sun enters Virgo
August 24 — Vesta enters Virgo
August 26 — Ceres goes direct in Capricorn
August 28 — Mercury goes direct Leo
August 29 — Venus enters Libra
September
September 1 — Uranus goes retrograde in Taurus (again)
September 1 — Pluto retrograde enters Capricorn (again)
September 2 — New moon in Virgo
September 4 — Mars enters Cancer
September 8 — Pallas enters Sagittarius
September 8 — Mercury enters Virgo
September 17 — Full moon lunar eclipse in Pisces
September 22 — Sun enters Libra / Fall Equinox / Mabon
September 22 — Venus enters Scorpio
September 26 — Mercury enters Libra
October
October 2 — New moon solar eclipse in Libra
October 9 — Jupiter goes retrograde in Gemini
October 11 — Pluto goes direct in Capricorn
October 13 — Mercury enters Scorpio
October 17 — Venus enters Sagittarius
October 17 — Full moon in Aries
October 22 — Sun enters Scorpio
October 26 — Vesta enters Libra
November
November 1 — New moon in Scorpio
November 2 — Mercury enters Sagittarius
November 3 — Juno enters Scorpio
November 3 — Mars enters Leo
November 11 — Venus enters Capricorn
November 12 — Saturn goes direct in Pisces
November 15 — Full moon in Taurus
November 19 — Pluto enters Aquarius
November 21 — Sun enters Sagittarius
November 25 — Mercury goes retrograde in Sagittarius
November 30 — New moon in Sagittarius
December
December 6 — Mars goes retrograde in Leo
December 6 — Venus enters Aquarius
December 7 — Ceres enters Aquarius
December 7 — Neptune goes direct in Pisces
December 15 — Full moon in Gemini
December 15 — Mercury goes direct in Sagittarius
December 21 — Sun enters Capricorn / Winter Solstice / Yule
December 29 — Chiron goes direct in Aries
December 30 — New moon in Capricorn
Thank you so much being a part of this community. I love creating these writings each time I think I have nothing to say and then I sit down and work to craft something and it all just comes through. It is so magical.
Love you,
Jem