Although I have previously written up the chart for the Capricorn Ingress (also known as the Winter Solstice), I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the start of the Common New Year for midnight 1^st January.

Every New Year chart that is set for Westminster will have the same signs on the Angles and approximately the same degrees. The Sun is always at 9/10⁰ Capricorn. Sometimes it can be 9⁰ due to the rotation of the earth, but if we take the Sun as being at 10° Capricorn, this is normally the same year in, year out.

Invariably Venus rules the Ascendant due to the time and location of the chart, so we are interested in what she gets up to over the coming year.

This coming year is a year where she will turn, or go “retrograde.” This will happen in the sign of Aries where she is rather uncomfortable and is often not on her best behaviou! She turns Retrograde on the 1st March right through to the 13th April 2025, when she Stations Direct. Mercury the planet of communication also gets caught up in this retrograde period, so to me this suggests the Spring could see mixed messages, many rumours and a lot of Smoke and Mirrors! What fun!

In Mundane astrology we usually take the Moon as the indicator of the common people, although with Venus ruling the Ascendant degree, we also need to consider Venus as representing the people.

So let us start with Venus the Lady of the chart.

 This year Venus falls in the 5^th place where she has her “joy”. The 5^th is generally associated with sports, entertainment, pleasure, and matters to do with children or the birth rate. Venus is actually peregrine, and in aversion from her Dispositor or Ruler in whose bounds she is placed.  This indicates she lacks any “standing or authority”. Also, she is not in any applying aspect to the other planets, so we could see her as feral, a loose cannon. Furthermore, this is a rather barren Venus and we could correlate that with the drop in the birth rate which is not predicted to recover any time soon.

Due to her motion around the Sun she is never more than 48° away from either side of the Sun, with a range from 23⁰ Scorpio to 27⁰+ a few minutes Aquarius. This year she has reached the degree of 27⁰42” Aquarius. She came close to 27⁰ in 2000 but didn’t get there for midnight. In 2009 she hit the spot, and the last time she was at 27⁰ Aquarius was in 2017. Going right back to 1900 these were the only years where she reached this distance. 

As you are probably aware, Venus has a regular 8 year cycle so she will also reach 27⁰ Aquarius 1^st January 2033 and then in 2040/1 she reaches the giddy heights of 28⁰ Aquarius. I went back to every New Year from 1799 set for London and although she reached 27⁰, she was never near to 28⁰.  What does this mean? I have no idea as it to do with the astronomical cycles of both the Sun and Venus but, we can look back to events in 2009 and 2017.

January 2009 saw the Inauguration of Barak Obama the first African-American President. There was the global recession, and 2009 also saw the death of Michael Jackson. This was the year “Social Media” took off with Twitter (now X) and Facebook changing the way people interacted with one other. It was also the year that saw the much hyped swine flu epidemic which came to nothing. (Those who had invested in hand sanitisers did remarkably well!) The iconic Woolworths disappeared from our High Streets and here in the UK we were in a recession.

In 2017 the Bill to allow the withdrawal of Britain from the EU was given Royal Assent.  In April 2017 Teresa May called a snap General Election for June. This set up a year in the UK of issues around the Brexit deal (which are still not resolved or actioned 8 years on). There was a spate of terror attacks and the terrible Grenfell Tower disaster.

Globally we had the Inauguration of President Trump amid claims of Russian interference. (Apparently these claims were later found to be unsubstantiated and possibly emanated from the losing party). There was also the Total Solar Eclipse across large parts of America from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coasts. Other than the usual terror attacks and natural disasters, there was nothing outstanding about 2017 apart from President Trump turning America on its head.

In 2025 we will have the second Inauguration of President Trump.  Starmer is trying to over-turn the withdrawal from Brexit, and it looks as though in the UK we may be entering yet another recession. History is cyclical, but with different flavours!

So now let us look at the rest of the chart to see if we can find any Joy.

As previously noted, the Moon generally indicates the common people. She is in the sign of her detriment, as far from home as she can be and emerging from combustion. She has passed into the flames and is now emerging renewed. She is in the place relating to the Land of the people, and is also the planet who in this particular chart, indicates the Rulers, or the Ruling Party. There is a focus on the Land and we have seen this with the Farmers standing up to the Government and their desire to tax the land. The current Prime Minister has the fastest and lowest drop in “popularity” of any Prime Minister in the last 50+ years.

The next planet after the Moon and Venus is Saturn. Saturn spends around 2.5 years in each sign. He was in Pisces for January 2024, he remains there for this coming year January 2025 and will then revisit Pisces in January 2026. He has no, or very little authority in Pisces, so this indicates weakness in relation to the party in opposition to the Government, those who work the land, and it can also indicate those in command of the armed forces. 

Pisces is a mutable sign and we see there are aspects between Saturn, Jupiter and Mercury. These are “square” aspects and indicate tension and strife. Jupiter is the ruler of Pisces and Sagittarius, but he in turn is in a sign ruled by Mercury. There is a mutual reception between Jupiter and Mercury and a mixed reception between Jupiter and Saturn. No planet is entirely happy as the New Year opens. Mars is retrograde in Leo and shortly moves back into Cancer which does have the affect of cooling him down.

These configurations are global: what makes is personal to the UK is due to the earthly co-ordinates of longitude and latitude for London. Many other countries in Europe may share a similar rising sign, but not necessarily the same degree. Paris and Madrid have Virgo rising, whereas Bonn in Germany has 2⁰ Libra rising as does Moscow, but Italy has 6⁰ Libra.

Obviously events in the UK are shaped by what goes on globally, and, as we know, currently the whole world is in a state of flux. It doesn’t look as though things will rapidly improve to the satisfaction of the common people.

Buckle up, it looks as though we are all in for very bumpy ride unless we the people can come together and stand up for Peace and Harmony.

I wish all my readers a Happy and Healthy 2025.