From sweeping technological tweaks to heightened curiosity, 2024 is a year spilling over with fresh ideas. Learning how to match your creativity and excitement with focus, structure, and forethought will be the key to flourishing over the coming months....

From sweeping technological tweaks to heightened curiosity, 2024 is a year spilling over with fresh ideas. Learning how to match your creativity and excitement with focus, structure, and forethought will be the key to flourishing over the coming months.

Here are the five major astrological shifts that you need to know about.

1. Pluto in Aquarius

Robots, revolutions, and aliens — oh my! Pluto — the planet associated with power, wealth, secrets, mystery, death, and underworld journeys — continues to dance between futuristic Aquarius and traditional Capricorn throughout 2024. It won’t land in Aquarius “for keeps” until November 19th. When it does, it will remain in this sign for two decades. Since 2008, the transformer’s tenure in Capricorn has illuminated shadows in our global financial systems, political institutions, and relationships with authority. But from this year on, it will be up to Aquarius’ systems-oriented genius to devise innovative solutions for the ethical, economic, and social problems of our time.

We got a teaser of what’s to come when Pluto dipped into Aquarius from March 23rd to June 11th of 2023, amid breathless conversations about the possibilities and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. While some argue that AI will be a boon for humanity, others worry that it is already a threat to equality and workers’ rights. The last time Pluto passed through Aquarius was from 1777 to 1797, a period that featured both the French and American revolutions. This time around, we’ll likely be asking: Will new innovations be wielded to shore up the power of a few global elites, or will they be used to uplift the global majority? And, as a zany side plot, will UFO sightings or “extraterrestrial interference” scramble the airwaves? To be continued.

Pluto transforms whatever it touches from the inside out, guiding us through a collective death and rebirth cycle. Our deepest understandings of the reaches of the known universe, our technological capacity, and our commitment to honoring our interdependence with one another hang in the balance. The future? It’s still uploading.

2. Mercury retrogrades in fire signs

Mercury retrogrades are notorious for being periods when technology, travel, and communication go a little haywire. But the gift of these transits is that they encourage us to review, reassess, and rework what isn’t functioning. Fun fact about our messenger planet: it retrogrades through signs of the same element or element combination each year. In 2024, the fire signs — Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius — are up to bat. August’s retrograde in Leo will actually start in the earth sign of Virgo, as a leftover from this year’s earth-sign retrogrades.

Mercury retrogrades in fire signs run hotter than usual and include an influx of confusing ideas, emotions, and circumstances alike. During these potentially irritating periods, we’ll be nudged to refine how intentionally we wield our enthusiasm, creativity, and initiative. From leaving more unsaid to mapping out the practical details of our projects before committing to them, navigating these transits skillfully is all about noticing where you’re flooring the gas pedal too much, too soon, or not enough. The usual Mercury retrograde advice holds up here too: backup your work, double-check your emails before pressing “Send,” and select your words carefully. And if you have to book travel during these periods, try to buy refundable plane tickets. It won’t hurt.

3. Jupiter in Gemini

Jupiter, the planet of wisdom, expansion, growth, abundance, and luck has been holding court in verdant Taurus for most of 2023. From this fixed earth sign, the greater benefic has been stoking cravings and adding lushness to issues connected to money, material goods, sensuality, and embodiment. Jupiter exchanges its bull horns for a slew of DMs, open tabs, and bustling projects when the bountiful planet enters chatty Gemini on May 25th, 2024.

Jupiter isn’t naturally comfortable in Gemini — traditionally, this mutable air sign is said to be its place of detriment. Jupiter favors the big picture, grand ambitions, and truth with a capital “T.” In Gemini,  it gets distracted by shiny new aspirations, activities, and relationships. The difference between Jupiter and Mercury-ruled Gemini is like the difference between writing one long novel versus a thousand split-second hot takes on social media. With Gemini, focus can be a problem. To make things trickier, Jupiter will form a tense aspect called a “square” with Saturn, the planet of limitations and challenges, on August 19th and again on December 24th. This friction could correspond to inner or outer roadblocks showing up on our roads to success. It could feel difficult to pick a plan, and real-world obstacles or slowdowns will rear themselves more than usual.

But constraints can also spark clarity and motivate us to streamline our passions, which allows Jupiter’s aid to flow at full force. Using limitations to refine our ideas helps us get to the point — and become more powerful communicators. Once you’ve decided which people, places, and plans are worth your attention (and commitment), let your curiosity run wild. Cerebral cross-pollination leads to unexpected inspirations, networking opportunities, and plain old fun. Versatility is its own virtue. Get buzzing.

4. First eclipse in Pisces

Eclipses are astrological wild cards, ushering in surprise events, plot twists, and opportunities for catharsis. Most of 2024’s eclipses occur in either assertive Aries or peace-keeping Libra, but this year also kickstarts the first of a new series of eclipses along the Virgo / Pisces axis.

The first eclipse in Pisces on September 17th activates some of the seed lessons of this series. Expect themes related to the imagination, mysticism, codependency, boundaries, and sobriety (from delusions or addictions) to rise to the surface. Noticing where you’re overly susceptible — to others, unhealthy habits, the news, etc. — can clarify which boundaries need reinforcing. If escapist cravings are on the rise, check in about what you’re resisting in the present. It will also be helpful to notice whether you could use a dose of self-compassion or inspiration to wiggle free from places where you’ve become too logical, rigid, or stuck.

Eclipses are never predictable, but they often trigger necessary shake-ups, growth, and healing experiences. Consider the Pisces eclipse the cosmos’ way of reminding you to sync up with your own mysterious inner currents and stay open to where they’re trying to direct you.

5. Mars retrograde in Leo and Cancer

2024 closes out with Mars stationing retrograde in Leo on December 6th. When Mars, the planet of action, aggression, and vitality treks backward, it prompts us to run an audit of our own relationship with anger, motivation, and our capacity for self-advocacy. Anywhere we’ve been suppressing our frustration or personal power will be activated. Likewise, if we’ve been letting our uncontrolled irritation run the show, this is a period for counting to ten and reining it in.

Because this transit is occurring in the sign of the performer, there’s a heightened desire to be witnessed in our expressions. Our outbursts and tantrums crave an audience, so creatively grappling with rage will be fulfilling at this time. Annoyed stuck-in-traffic poems scrawled on the back of receipts, anyone?

Retrograde Mars will then scoot into Cancer at the beginning of January 2025, stirring up our inner warriors and fierce mama bears, as well as the tender parts of ourselves that need protection.

Listening to the wise messages concealed within our more blazing emotions dials us back to our strength. Learning how to channel heat in ways that are healthy, direct, and compassionate to all involved (including ourselves) is the gift this transit has to offer us.

3 ways to learn more:

1. The CHANI app

To learn more about how these events will impact your chart, listen to your weekly reading as these transits happen, and check out the Transits tab of the CHANI app throughout the year. This area is updated in real time to reveal how the planets engage with your natal placements. Visit the Weekly tab to find altar suggestions, rituals, journal prompts, guided meditations, and a reading specific to your sign every Sunday. We’ll also send you free Current Sky horoscopes every time a planet enters a new sign.

2. Your 2024 Year Ahead

Your 2024 Year Ahead is free in the CHANI app if you’re a premium subscriber. This resource delivers your astrology reading for the entire year in a series of audio recordings by Chani Nicholas. Specific to your sign, these readings break down exactly how the transits will impact your life across each quarter of the year.

The 2024 Year Ahead also includes workshops for the four key themes of this year: healing, focus, connection, and courage. Each workshop features journal prompts, altar suggestions, rituals, and guided meditations, so you can make the most of 2024’s astrology as it unfolds.

3. Your 2024 Guidebooks

Your 2024 Guidebook is a 100+ page digital resource with sign-specific forecasts, rituals, and affirmations to help you navigate the coming year. This coming year is packed with powerful astrology, as discussed above, and it will impact you in different ways depending on your rising sign. Because of this, each guidebook is uniquely tailored to reflect the areas of life for that sign, meaning no two are alike. In your guidebook, we examine each astrological moment in detail and provide exercises to support you through every twist and turn.

Your 2024 Guidebook and your Year Ahead workshop are great companions to one another. You can refer back to them throughout the year and use them in conjunction with all of the horoscopes, weekly workshops, meditations, and other content that we’ll be sharing with you throughout 2024.

We wish you a healing and expansive 2024.

Looking for more intel? Read your daily horoscope:

Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra 

Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces

Then download the CHANI app on iOS or Android for additional horoscopes, meditations, affirmations, readings for the current Moon phase and sign, and more.

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