Happy New Year, my friends!

I hope you’re feeling happy, healthy and hopeful as you embark on 2024. I, myself, am so grateful for each of you. Life moves faster with every passing year, making it more and more meaningful that I have your readership. Thank you! I’m imagining some new ways to guide you through 2024 and look forward to sharing more soon.

As for this month, our newsletter goes beyond a discussion of January. I found a tool to share that has helped me set the tone for the new calendar year. I’ll also give some general ideas about the flow of 2024.

Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet

The other day I happened upon an incredible episode of the Mel Robbins Podcast. The episode was called How to Make 2024 the Best Year: 6 Questions to Ask Yourself. I encourage you to listen whenever you have time. I love the framework Mel gives for guiding our thoughts about the new year. Resolutions are NOT standard practice for me, so I did hesitate before tuning in. But I’m glad I did. Mel’s list of questions is a fabulous way to illuminate your transition from 2023 to 2024.

I’ll give you a head start by sharing Mel’s first prompt: What were the highlights of the past year? What are you most proud of?

In fleshing out how to fully think through this prompt, Mel said something very apropos given the astrological timeline of 2023. She said: THE PAST YEAR WAS BIGGER THAN HOWEVER YOU FEEL IN THIS MOMENT. Wow!!! So very true.

This sentiment might resonate with many of you, given that our astrology in the first half of 2023 offered more ease than we were given the second half. With the intensity of late fresh in your mind, it would be easy to overlook how much you accomplished this past year. You might forget certain ways you really stepped up in 2023. You may short-change the value hidden within any difficulties you successfully faced. Please find some way to celebrate that divine spark within you that was courageous through every step of your 2023 journey.

2024: Life Leaps Require Adjustment

2024 is sure to be an interesting year. I’ve spent a month in my digital sky map, advancing the planets one day at a time x365 days, pondering what’s before us. Several things were clear. First, we have some rare and exciting alignments on the calendar – a Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in April and a Jupiter/Pluto trine in June. We’ll elaborate on that later, but I’ll briefly say this…

My year-ahead seminar last year was all about the fertility of 2023. Well, the seeds you planted and tended to in 2023 will sprout in considerable measure and unpredicted ways during the first six months of this year. I look forward to the stories of these “life leaps” you’ll be taking in 2024. (And remember, internal leaps are just as relevant as anything external!)

That said, you’re more likely to hit stumbling blocks later this year, as Jupiter squares Saturn in August and December. You might, for instance, find yourself under pressure trying to keep up with the pace. Or you may find yourself needing to account for cumulative life developments since December 2020 (when this Jupiter-Saturn cycle originally started).

Essentially, Jupiter square Saturn can feel like a harsh reality check, it can pressure-test our lifestyle, our professional endeavors, or bring tough confrontation with limitations. Hard choices and temporary sacrifices might be needed later this year to square important pieces of your life with one another. For now, just keep in mind that the second half of 2024 is when you’ll need to double down your determination, make adjustments, maybe even pull back and relinquish your freedom of movement for a little while. You might consider that now for long-term scheduling purposes, but you mustn’t worry about what’s to come too much since

YOU ARE BUILT TO HANDLE THE PRESSURE THAT COMES WITH YOUR CALLING.

And regardless of anything I say in our forecasts, it’s most important that you continue listening to the voice within. It will guide you. It knows the right direction. It knows what your spirit yearns for in any given moment. You can trust you to take care of you.

So how will January contribute to your inner and outer intentions for 2024?

A Month of Golden Opportunity

January begins sluggishly as Venus squares Saturn and Mercury retrograde concludes. Mercury retrogrades feel most pronounced at the beginning and end when Mercury slows down, stops, changes directions, and must push to get moving again. Like a U-turn on the expressway, it takes time to get your car going from 70mph in one direction to the other.

Many of us will experience a holiday hangover as festivities and celebrations conclude. The changes in tempo, activity and focus may be jarring. But a few days into the month, on January 4th, Mars enters Capricorn and your gusto should increase. Mars offers us grit and determination from the 4th until month’s end. It means business and gets things done.

The alignments between planets in January further support a tremendously successful jumpstart toward your 2024 vision. This time will be special in the way it combines inspiration with practicality – two things that are sometimes hard to put together. January gifts us with groundedness, an ability to see the bigger picture, gather necessary resources, organize, manage, and execute.

With the astrology for all of 2024 fresh in my mind, I firmly suggest that you DO NOT SLEEP ON THE POWER AVAILABLE TO YOU IN JANUARY. Interact with it purposefully. With Mars / Mercury traveling in harmony to Jupiter / Saturn, January is a golden opportunity to implement ideas and achieve fortuitous results. With your brain power picking up strength, it may be wise to do some “stream of consciousness” journaling too. Or try dictating your thoughts and feelings into your phone’s notepad. Those activities are sure to (1) reveal nuggets of wisdom and ideas you’ll go back to later on, or (2) further any inner work / emotional processing you’re doing.

I’d highlight January 8 – 14th for doing what’s most important. But really, the second and third weeks of January and January 27th through month’s end look pretty solid and supportive of our aims.

Offering Ourselves to the World in a New Way

Another feature of January is a new and full moon combo packed with meaning and opening us up to deep, compelling forces.

The New Moon in Capricorn January 11 happens precisely at the north bending, an important location of the sky in astrology. I could compare the north bending to what some people call an “energy portal.” With a new moon at this exact location, a strong influx of take-charge energy happens. What might that mean in the context of your life?

• You may notice assertive principles and ideas coming to you with significant, tangible consequences.
• You may feel required to press in a new direction, toward some new goal.
• You may adopt new principles related to how you work, manage your time, and have new ideas about how to sketch out a framework for something.
• You may start changing how you deal with authority figures or improve how you exercise the authority you hold.

The New Moon may also illuminate some action you’re being called to take that requires lots of dedication and stepping outside your comfort zone.

I find that interesting as I reflect upon other planetary events in January. As the Sun and Pluto move from Capricorn into Aquarius simultaneously, they create a potent and provocative Full Moon in Aquarius January 25th. Please note that by the end of 2024, Pluto will have finished it’s 16-year stent in Capricorn. That’s no small matter, and the tectonic plates of everyone’s life are undergoing the shift.

When I study the Full Moon configuration one message comes through very strongly: We are each being asked to put ourselves out to the world in some new way that may be uncomfortable but reflects our highest value and the way others really need us. Think about what that might mean to you, because it’s always been true for me that following my fear – doing what I’m most afraid of – is the best move I can make. It’s always the key to unlocking a new level of purpose and satisfaction in my life.

So whether your intentions for 2024 are inner, outer, or both, I wish you many blessings as you set out on this new chapter of life.  

xo,
Jules

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