Your New Year (Conjunction Junction)
Choosing when to renew your cycle of purpose and function.
When is the start of your new year? Have you boarded the 2025 train yet? 2025 may have officially begun, but when is YOUR train leaving the station?
Have you ever felt like January 1st just doesn’t feel like the start of the new year? Although it’s understandable how it starts the calendar year, you may feel like your individual clock is set differently. There’s a hard pressed “New Year” switch nudging you to work against your internal clock in order to follow an external timeframe.
Sure, we have the countdown on NYE ringing out the previous year. Celebration and retrospectives are often valuable additions to the process. For the most part, it seems okay to have these things placed for us to ritualize the changing of the guard for Father Time. But do you really feel like you’re off to the races on Jan 1? I know I don’t.
I find this an instance when the Gregorian calendar seems a bit “off.” Yes, for our collective scheduling it works. But what if your new year hasn’t felt like it’s begun. Are you allowed to honor your own cycle? How can you lean into this without totally taking yourself off-grid?
A New Moon, an Equinox, or a Meaningful Marker
For some, the new year starts on a different day than January 1st. There's an acceptance that such a reframe is doable and workable within your process. You don’t have to make a whole new holiday for it, as there’s likely some event that already signifies this kind of new beginning for you. A day, or period of days, that acts as a marker to usher in when your shift to the new year really takes place.
I know many individuals who feel much more aligned with the Zodiac procession. Beginning the year with Aires, and sensing the Vernal Equinox as a time for which they feel a shift in annual energies. Is this your new year? Or is that too far along into the calendar year?
For those who feel that’s too far along, here’s a suggestion for you to connect with the first new moon of the year. For 2025 that happens to be on January 29th. Interestingly from today, January 22nd, until this month's new moon - there will be a conjunction of the Sun and Pluto within the sign of Aquarius.
Conjunction Junction
I remember as a kid, “conjunction” seemed like a pretty big word for a simple thing. Well, that’s because we’re first taught about conjunctions through the lens of grammar. Those little words we use to hook up words, phrases and clauses. Then at some other point in life we get familiar with conjunctions through the lens of astrology.
In astrology a conjunction is an aspect where two celestial bodies are aligned in a similar position. The days in which they’re overlapping or very near each other (within 10 degrees) it can feel like blended energies. Which in turn amplify each other, rather than cancel each other out. Taking our grammar conjunctions to a whole other level, ha.
So with today’s notable conjunction occurring with the sun and Pluto in Aquarius, it feels like a great time for a new year to begin. Even though I don’t have any strong placement of Aquarius in my natal chart, I feel strongly drawn to the generational shift we’re experiencing with Pluto in Aquarius (Since Pluto left Capricorn on Nov 17, 2024).
I see this as a great time to begin because this highlights the conjoining of personal (Sun) and collective (Pluto) energies. Some of us have a strong calling to understand the flow of the collective. Some of us have concern about the collective but compartmentalize this to prioritize more personal callings. If you’re looking to honor a calling that encompasses both, then this week is the perfect time.
What’s Your Function?
Continuing with the School House Rock references (my Millennial and Gen Z friends may have to check out this YouTube vid), let’s talk about function. The new year brings declaration of chosen resolutions. From articulating intentions to redefining purpose, you’re giving word and phrase to your wishes and desires. All. Good. Stuff.
But what does that actually look like for you each day? This is where we flesh out function. What roles are you choosing to play? What tasks and functions are you engaging daily to move you toward the life you’re creating? Both directly and indirectly.
You're doing some version of this already! Let’s refine. Get some universal backing. The Aquarius fixed air will bring some steady, consistent air to keep your sails going. You’re reminded that even the smallest action you’re taking each day amounts to something bigger than you, even if a drop in the water-bearer’s bucket. Your individual creations add to the whole. Your contribution matters!
Ask me about how this current Pluto shift from Capricorn to Aquarius affects you and your personal astrology chart!