Where do I start with this year? It’s going to be a real doozy, folks! The Capricorn Party of planets dominates the sky, especially for the beginning of the year, which will likely start with an historic Impeachment trial. At one point, All the planets will be in Capricorn except for Uranus and Neptune! I’ve never seen anything like this before and neither has the world. Print this article to use as a reference for the important events and dates for the upcoming year. Just so you can see what I’m talking about, here is the wild chart for New Year’s Day, 2020.
This will be a major year of transition because of this powerful grouping of planets in Capricorn. The slowest planet of all of them, intense Pluto, will still be in Capricorn until 2023. He is the elder in the group and his job is to transform everything. Remember the famous phrase that absolutely explains him, “Death and Rebirth”. Saturn is also in Capricorn and makes it much stronger since he is associated with that serious sign. Capricorn domain is: government, the elite, corporations, rules and the status quo. Saturn’s job is to keep things stable. That might be a little battle with the transformer, Pluto. To add some spice to the mix, Jupiter has just entered Capricorn to make it an even more exciting party. Jupiter always makes an event bigger, louder and will definitely stir things up.
One very important thing to note is that in one year from now, right before the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2020, both Jupiter and Saturn will leave Capricorn and will enter the revolutionary sign of Aquarius. The wild thing is that they both enter Aquarius within two days. Saturn will enter Aquarius on December 17th and Jupiter will follow on December 19th! So this intense year starts with Capricorn and ends with Aquarius! We are seeing a big shift in energy to wrap up 2020. It might be hard to wait, but the change is coming!
In addition to the normal Mercury retrogrades, Venus and Mars will also be doing their more infrequent retrogrades this year too. That doesn’t happen every year, so it will make the year more exciting, as if it needsed any more excitement.
Another unusual thing this year is the number of Eclipses. Most years have four Eclipses during two eclipse seasons with one Lunar and one Solar Eclipse each. Not this strange year. There will be six eclipses this year, also adding to the unusual year.
The Chinese New Year starts on January 25th and is the year of the Metal Rat. Typical Rats are spicy, juicy and often resort to wheeling and dealing with bickering and arguments. The element Metal brings emotional speech and actions. We’ve had that behavior recently and it looks like we’ll see more of the same. I’ll be writing an entire article on the Chinese Year of the Metal Rat for the Aquarius newsletter.
Here are the most important celestial events of 2020:
Planetary alignments
- Saturn joins Pluto on January 12th. This will intensify the powerful Lunar Eclipse on January 10th. This will very likely be a peak in the Impeachment trial. Everyone will feel a bit heavy, even if you are not focused on politics. With this many planets in serious Capricorn, we will all feel somber, focused and quiet.
- Jupiter joins Pluto three times since Jupiter will be doing a retrograde across Pluto. The three dates, all in 2020, will be: April 5th, June 30th and November 12th. Since Jupiter always makes things bigger, this will agitate the year.
- Jupiter joins Saturn on December 21st. This will be a very important joining because it happens as they both enter Aquarius! Saturn enters Aquarius on December 17th and Jupiter enters Aquarius on December 19th. With Saturn having an orbit of 30 years and Jupiter’s orbit of 12 years, they only join each other every 20 years and now is their time. Aquarius is all about diversity, equality, global unity and change. So the year ends with quite an amazing transit of change.
- Mars will join Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn the last couple of weeks in March. That might bring some fireworks to the year’s unfolding. Mars always moves things forward fast.
Mercury Retrogrades
Retrogrades are always good times to rethink, regroup and reboot. Mercury turns retrograde three times a year for three weeks each time. These are perfect times to go through your closets and junk drawers to clean things out. It is also good for releasing old emotional patterns and routines. One hint: the sign Mercury is retrograding through is the area to release.
- February 17th – March 10th. Most of this retrograde will be in Pisces, the sign of emotions and spirituality. You might feel more sensitive than normal during this time. Observe how you feel so you can release old emotions.
- June 18th – July 12th. This retrograde will be in the sign of Cancer. Old family patterns could easily emerge during this time.
- October 14th – November 3rd. This is what I call a Hybrid retrograde and will start in Scorpio and end up in Libra. Relationships will be the main focus of this retrograde. If you want to change things with your partner, this is your time.
Venus Retrograde
Venus will be retrograde from May 13th – June 25th. This entire retrograde will be in Gemini. Venus is of course about relationships, but it is also related to art, music and creativity. Since Gemini is all about the mind, this is a great time to finish any writing or important correspondence you are working on. If you are thinking about moving or taking a long holiday, this might be your time. You will look at your life differently once you return.
Mars Retrograde
Mars will be retrograde from September 9th – November 14th. Mars will be doing the entire retrograde in its own sign of Aries. This will make the retrograde much, much stronger. Since Mars likes to go fast, especially in speedy Aries, it will be like he is forced to slam on the brakes for over two months! Will Mars just be frustrated or will he find another path to move forward, regardless of the obstacle? Tempers could flare. The world will need to count to 10 before acting on anything! Interesting to note that this Mars retrograde spans the US Presidential Election.
Eclipses
Eclipses are time to release, similar to retrogrades, and sometimes the release happens right on the day of the Eclipse. This is an unusual year with Eclipses. Since there are so many Partial Eclipses, there are more Eclipses than normal. The usual number of Eclipses is four per year and this year has a whopping six Eclipses. Why am I not surprised that even the Eclipses will be different this year.
- Lunar Eclipse on January 10th at 20 degrees Cancer. Even though this is only partial, this will be a very intense Eclipse since the entire Capricorn Party will be part of the Eclipse. Only seen in Australia, Asia and Africa.
- Lunar Eclipse on June 5th at 15 degrees Sagittarius. This is only a partial Eclipse and will be see in most of Asia and Europe.
- Solar Eclipse on June 21st at 0 degrees Cancer. This is a Annular Eclipse, which means there will be a ring of light around the Moon and won’t be total. Only seen in SE Europe, Middle East, most of Asia and Micronesia.
- Lunar Eclipse on July 5th at 13 degrees Capricorn. This is also a partial Eclipse.
- Lunar Eclipse on November 30th at 8 degrees Gemini. This is also a partial Eclipse and will be seen in most of Africa, W Europe and New Zealand.
- Solar Eclipse on December 14th at 23 degrees Sagittarius. This is the only Total Eclipse of 2020 and will be seen in South Africa, South America and Antarctica.
Visible Planets
Since Mercury is so hard to see, I’m listing visible times for Venus through Saturn.
Venus in the evening from January – May 28th
Venus in the morning from June 11th – December 31st
Mars in the morning from January – October 13th
Mars in the evening from October 14th – December 31st
Jupiter in the morning from January 10th – July 14th
Jupiter in the evening from July 15th – December 31st
Saturn in the morning from January 31st – July 20th
Saturn in the evening from July 21st – December 31st