2020 hasn’t wasted any time getting started.

• We kicked off in the days prior with the Dec 26 Solar Eclipse which was conjunct Jupiter at 4 degrees Capricorn.

• We then had the always eventful 2 week eclipse window leading up to the Jan 10/11 Lunar Eclipse at 20 degrees Cancer.

• The Lunar Eclipse was opposite the much-anticipated Jan 12 Saturn/Pluto conjunction at 22 degrees Capricorn.

• The Saturn/Pluto conjunction was joined by the Sun and Mercury.

All this combined is a huge way to start a new year, and new decade!  What does it mean?

Imagine a huge round table. You have head-honcho’s Saturn and Pluto seated on the left, accompanied by the Sun and Mercury. Jupiter is a little to their left, yet to properly join them but close enough to eavesdrop on the conversation and find out exactly who needs what. You have the Full Moon directly opposite the Sun, Mercury, Saturn and Pluto. In the centre is the Earth, with all round table discussions relating to Her and all who live upon Her, including You.

        The Moon moves around this table on a monthly basis, but for a few minutes during this month’s Lunar Eclipse she’s in the position described above, directly opposite the big head-honcho meeting. During the Eclipse they can’t see her as the Earth is right in between them. She can’t see them either.

        What happens when for a few brief minutes you no longer have the emotional pull of the Moon attached to your vision, attached to your view of how you think things are or should be?  It’s easier to let go. Someone slips out of a relationship, often blind-siding the other party. Yet was it really blind-siding? In hindsight, all the signs were there, but perhaps we didn’t want to see them. Someone slips away from life, right when their loved ones fall asleep or leave the hospital or let go themselves allowing the departing soul to exit. Someone is fired or walks away from a situation.

Something ends so that something new can begin.

Lunar Eclipses can be brutal, yet other times they can be subtle. What happens when you no longer have the ego influencing your eyes, ears and heart? A sudden realization or healing moment washes through you while you’re washing the dishes, and next minute you’re standing there in tears shedding old emotions from decades ago. The old energy finally leaves, taking with it patterns, wounds and issues that no longer have any place in your life.

        This Lunar Eclipse was in Cancer which represents home, mother, nurturing and emotions. What makes you feel safe? What gives you comfort? What soothes you?

Cancer can also be about hiding in our comfort zone. Has anything happened to close a comfort zone option for you, forcing you out into the big wide world? These events can make you confront your biggest fears “I’ll never survive without this job/relationship/home/safety net”. Yes you will – and actually, eventually, you’ll thrive. Sometimes we have to be pushed out of the mother’s nest. It’s never easy, but our Capricorn adult self is on the other side waiting for us saying “Time to grow up. You can do it.”  

Cancer is about family, so while some might be going through some sort of separation re family, others might be re-connecting. If you’ve always felt alone, you might suddenly discover family you didn’t know you had, or meet the person or people who become your family. Lunar Eclipses end what was, and usher in a new era.

The head-honchos are discussing the big year that is 2020, and in those brief moments when the Moon was eclipsed, the strong cords between your Ego (Sun) and Emotion (Moon) were dropped, allowing your true Essence (Sun) and genuine Feelings (Moon) to come through – usually in unplanned, unexpected ways. The usual attachments disappear. Any energy that had to go, used this window to go.

As the Moon moves across a little, coming into view again, it might seem not much has changed, but everything has changed. The head-honcho discussions continue with a new, changed environment.

2020 is the year of clear vision.
This year has a vibe around it of no B.S, no pretending, no hiding.  
Life is saying: here’s reality, here’s the world you live in
(be it your personal world or our greater world).
What do you think about it? Do you like it?
If you don’t like something, what are you going to do about it?

SATURN/PLUTO

When two planets join, they give each other some of their influence. Pluto is about deep transformation, the death/life/rebirth cycle, collapse of the old, with the new rising like a phoenix from the ashes. Pluto prunes the excess from our psyche and our life, stripping us bare until we are left with only the most authentic version of who we are. Pluto helps us find our authentic power, and makes us see where we have been projecting our power outward onto others. With Pluto in Capricorn we’re especially seeing this with governments, corporations and other institutions. We have handed over our power (or had it taken from us) by those who don’t have humanity’s best interests at heart. We’ve waited for those very systems to save us from something that is in their best interests to maintain.

The 2020’s will be a decade for people – and humanity in general – reclaiming our power, which also means taking responsibility for what we are creating.

By great fortune, enter Saturn who is all about growth, building, creating and taking responsibility. Saturn represents Father, discipline and stability. This Saturn/Pluto conjunction is one of the best transits we could ask for because on their own they can each be pretty challenging. Together you might think it’s going to be a nightmare, but actually they’re going to help bring out the best in each other (unless you resist where your Soul is trying to take you, in which case, not so fun).

Saturn for example can sometimes manifest as being quite restrictive, (for your own good he says), but with Pluto there’s no time for holding back. Pluto is all or nothing, and he never chooses nothing.

Pluto can sometimes leave you crying in a heap, but with Saturn there’s no time for such sentimentality. Saturn is all “Right, have a cry then let’s go, chin up, there’s work to be done!”.

Might not be easy. Might require a lot of work and walking our talk. But with Pluto and Saturn on the job, one demolishing and stripping the excess while the other strengthens, solidifies and builds, we have the opportunity for major practical transformation of almost anything we set our minds to. Practical, actionable steps are your best friend this year. Don’t be wishy washy with your to do lists or wish lists.

Turn “I want to get fitter and healthier” into weekly meal plans, nourishing grocery lists, and a workout plan that is doable, enjoyable, maintainable, and fits into your life.

Turn “I want the world to change” into activism, starting with your own personal choices and decisions.

With Pluto and Saturn together, the rebuild is occurring while things are still being stripped away. In Australia we have started taking actions around bushfire recovery, regenerating and rebuilding, even while we are still experiencing ongoing devastation, destruction and loss. Saturn/Pluto is life in your face, no filter. It is life and death and rebirth, all at once. It is the Zen proverb: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

This year will be one of brutal honesty and tell it like it is, like it or not. Ricky Gervais served up a dose of some raw truths to Hollywood in his opening monologue at this year’s Golden Globes. The jury is still out with regards to whether he really went full rogue (bit hard to do that considering it all had to be input into a teleprompter) or was told to drop some nuggets of truth but leave out the bigger truths. Either way, it was a truth bomb the likes of which they’ve never had there before. It sent new people on an internet hunt to find out “What did he mean by that?”

There’s an interesting thing about truth.  Once you know something, be it about Hollywood, the environmental impact of your choices, how your food is processed, how your clothes are made, etc etc etc, you are then left with an often uncomfortable truth: how am I contributing to this or that? It’s one thing to have “them” have power over us without us knowing or realising. It’s another thing to have the curtain pulled back, see who is really running the show and at what cost to us and the planet, and then have to decide: what do I do now?

We can’t all suddenly decide to live off-grid overnight and completely disconnect from the world around us. None of us are going to make eco-perfect, soul-perfect choices all day every day. But the good news is: the more that the veils are pulled back, the more that truth is revealed, the more conscious, empowered and empowering we can be with our choices.

With Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, our old power structures are collapsing and transforming. Our old idea of authority is changing. The pyramid is being flipped upside down. Humanity is starting to ask en masse: “Where is our power? How are we not our own authority? “ And this needs to trickle down to individual questions: “Where is MY power? What can I do to reclaim my authority?”

On the surface this year might be one where it looks like there’s a lot of chaos, upheaval, anarchy, rebellion, protesting and unrest – but those are natural consequences of a humanity freeing itself. Those are necessary processes for the stability we’re all yearning for. Not fake stability that is actually control with a mask on. Rather, real stability that comes from every single one of us living our truth and owning our power.

Dana Mrkich