Six Keys to 2025, the Year of Flux and Doubt
Titania, Bottom and the Fairies. Henry Fuseli
This year it’s going to be very hard to know what to hold on to and what to let go, who to rely on and who will vanish, how to move forward or when to stand still in this year of change and change about. This is because all the planets are changing signs, with the notable exception of Pluto who changed signs last year.
And then, of course, the big outer planets, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn , will all move back again in the autumn.
As those planets are moving to and fro, changing their minds about how to proceed, and creating turmoil as they go, here are some thoughts about how to get a hold of 2025.
Keep this in mind — much of the action is around 0° Aries, the first degree of the zodiac, and 29° Pisces, the last degree. So there will be many beginnings and endings, false starts and endings that just won’t end. This does depend on where you see the big changes happening in your life, which is likely to be different for all of us, although, for sure, politics and climate change are going to have an effect on every person living on this planet in 2025.
1. Doubt
The film Conclave came out at the end of 2024, and it distils something essential about the year to come. This is a year of doubt.
Ralph Fiennes, in the character of the cardinal in charge of the conclave to choose the next Pope, delivers this speech straight from Robert Harris’s book.
“… let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. … Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
This is an incredibly powerful idea. He is talking about doubting one’s own certainties, allowing oneself to sit with doubt, to sit in that in-between place of mystery. And this is where we are in 2025. The planets gather in that place of mystery, the end of Pisces, before bursting into the one-pointed decision of Aries, but some return to the mystery in the autumn, unwilling to let go.
2. Create Options
It’s going to be really difficult to guess which horse is going to win the steeplechase this year, so spread your bets.
Better yet, create more options for yourself if you can, and plot how things could work out through each eventuality. Game through ideas, starting now as part of your preparation for the year ahead, keeping in mind the following points of fluctuation, which are coming immediately.
• Mars is retrograde until the end of February, giving us all a chance to rethink and retool. This is in Cancer, the sign of home and family, homeland and tribe, housing and cooking.
• Mercury and Venus will both be turning retrograde in March — over that 0°-29° Aries-Pisces point.
• Uranus and Jupiter turn direct in February beginning the straight march out of their respective signs. Uranus will change signs in July and Jupiter in June. These are both planets of release and liberation, big ideas.
3. Experiment
One of the advantages of the kind of upheaval we are likely to see in 2025 is the chance to experiment. You may be able to try out different approaches to work, love or travel, for example. You will know which area of your life needs to be shaken up or re-examined.
Know that, for the most part, you will be able to change your mind, and besides, the landscape is changing so fast around you, that your experiments may start in one place and complete in another.
4. Expect Surprises
Uranus, the planet of surprises himself, is rushing forward from 30 January until 6 September. The surprises he brings are likely out of your control. They may come at you sideways — unless you have many planets in Taurus or Gemini, in which case maybe you are going to upset the proverbial applecart, or even just surprise yourself. This is also a planet of sudden inspiration, shocks of all kinds including falling instantly in love, and unusual behaviour or thoughts.
In July he moves into Gemini, one of the signs associated literally with thought itself. As he hurtles into the future, Uranus may be leaving behind a shoe or a hairband in his tumultuous rush. But he will come back into Taurus in November to pick up the pieces.
On a macro level:
While in Taurus, Uranus is finishing off innovations or changes to do with food, buildings, money, the soil, the garden. Some examples during Uranus in Taurus: cryptocurrency, rewilding (earth and innovation), many practical technical innovations including more sustainable energy sources.
While he is in Gemini, he will be making nice with Pluto in Aquarius. On a macro level, this looks like accelerated innovation in the air and communications (think satellites, drones, AI, aerial warfare) – which may not be successful at first. Things might get broken, or not work. The thing that looks most likely to succeed may be the dud. Think of AOL in 2000.
On a personal level:
Where are Taurus and Gemini in your chart? What innovation, change and liberation have you seen in your life since 2018? Interestingly, with Uranus, you can sometimes experience a pulsing current, like electricity being turned off and suddenly on. Either this area is totally dead or it’s buzzing.
The personification of philosophy from the Consolation of Philosophy.
5. Be Ethical
The moral compass is spinning. We are, as my friend Sophie put it, entering the upside-down. This terrible loss of direction may be temporary for some. It’s partially to do with Mars Retrograde, which finishes on 24 February. But it is also to do with Pluto in Aquarius (until 2043).
Our values are being challenged. And as we go through the year, it may be useful to ask yourself a simple question every now and then: “what is good?” Often there is a simple answer, but there will be grey areas. What at first seems clearly good, may have unexpected repercussions, so be prepared to change tack.
It’s been instructive to watch the moral collapse of the tech-bros, although they were always a handful of over-cooked bucatini when it came to ethics. Of course, they are likely to end up eating each other during Pluto in Aquarius (the Lord of Death in the sign of Techbro), perhaps with lashings of arrabiata. This power struggle is only just getting started.
And it is important to acknowledge the ethical struggles for all of us — as we grapple with our changing world. As Jupiter, the planet of philosophy, travels through Gemini until June, ethical questions could loom large, and then, when Uranus enters Gemini in July, things may be turned on their head. Ideas that seemed certain a month earlier may go out the window. So this may be a year when constantly questioning yourself works well. You may actually be ready to change some core beliefs, or look at them in a completely new way.
Venus turning retrograde from 2 March to 13 April asks us specifically to look at our own values. What is more important: money or kindness? Who is more important? The leader or the people? Take a look at where Pisces and Aries are in your chart for this especially.
There is another question to ask, of course, one that we ask more and more frequently these days: “what is true?” The avalanche of information will continue unabated at least until June — or maybe even accelerate from February onwards — so it is up to each of us to learn to filter.
Mercury will be going retrograde in this same area also in March, so there is a double imperative to think about the values and meaning of Aries and Pisces, war and peace, birth and dissolution, the beginning and the end. What will you begin in 2025 and what must you complete?
6. Begin, but be prepared to U-Turn
There are some exceptional dates for starting a new enterprise, love affair or journey in 2025 — but not really until after Venus turns direct on 13 April (with some exceptions). Aries is the sign of the start of everything, and the following series of entries into Aries are like a series of ripples.
Remember though that Neptune and Saturn will return to Pisces in the autumn because they are not done with the old era yet. This may be particularly pertinent for those of us born with planets in Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn, but everyone will feel this return.
If you were born under the sign of the Ram, you may experience a whole raft of beginnings this year, so every single one of the following dates pings.
20 March — Sun enters Aries (although Venus & Mercury are still Rx) — good for Leo
30 March — Neptune enters Aries (although Venus & Mercury are still Rx) — good for Pisces
7 April — Mercury Direct
13 April — Venus Direct
16 April — Mercury enters Aries — good for Gemini and Virgo
25 April — Moon enters Aries — good for Cancer
30 April — Venus enteres Aries — good for Libra and Taurus
25 May — Saturn enters Aries — good for Capricorn and Aquarius
On the other hand Jupiter will carry straight through to Cancer, moving rapidly into the sign of the Crab and not turning retrograde until November, by which time he is at the far end of the sign.
9 June — Jupiter enters Cancer — good for Sagittarius and Cancer
7 July — Uranus enters Gemini — good for Aquarius and Gemini
And finally (pretty obviously) — it’s essential to stay flexible. We cannot prepare for all eventualities, but we can be ready for some, so keep your phone charged, your passport up to date and put a clean pair of knickers in your handbag.
In the immortal words of Dr Seuss.
“You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.”
With Aries intercepted in my 1st house, sounds like a wild ride ahead. No way to avoid fundamental change!
Exactly
Beautifully written and reassuring! Thank you from a Pisces Sun with Aries Rising.
I keep thinking – be like water.
This is reminding me of the uranus/pluto square years that hit me hard. Mars was retrograde for ages and I urgently needed to find a new home. Offers were falling through, there were scams, some places were ok but not right for me. That was when I learned to have faith things would work out, and they did. I am still where I moved to, it’ll be 10 years this year.
Pluto is still going through my 4H, even in Aquarius.
we’re ‘entering the upside-down’ – a good question is how do you know you’re not exiting the upside down and entering the right way up?
“what is true?” – to find that, you have to get out of your own way. My intuition is good, but hopes and fears can stop you seeing.
The surprises have started already. I know an Aries who suddenly lost his job out of the blue a few days ago. The reason sounded like office politics. He was shocked but after thinking about it for a couple of days, he’s asking himself if he wants to continue what he was doing or not. He has children to think about, but I was impressed. I think he’s doing it right, stepping back, being centred, giving it some thought.
Mars is retrograde through my 10H right now. I’ve stopped a lot of what I was doing and just resting for now. I don’t know what direction I want to go in next but I have a couple of courses I signed up for I was waiting to have time to do.
I’m Libra AC. You said in your video horoscope this is a year of relationships. I lost everyone in the uranus/pluto years. I started to feel better in myself a few years ago but that was when covid started. I don’t know how I’m going to make new friends or anything this year, but if it’s a year of surprises, then let’s see. My NN is in Gemini. Uranus through Taurus hasn’t been great, it opposed my Scorpio planets and affected my health. Looking forward to some improvement there. Regular sleep at least, and some routine back.
My Jupiter is in Cancer 9H. It’s retrograde, close to my MC. Be interesting if that brings anything.
My progressed Sun is in Capricorn now. That Saturn in Aries might help me. My Saturn Return in Pisces 5H was a bit uneventful but it has still been hard healthwise now it’s in my 6H.
My passport is up to date. 😊
Thanks, Christina x
“a good question is how do you know you’re not exiting the upside down and entering the right way up?” Very true!
thank you! to add to the unexpected category: there are blizzard conditions in south Louisiana today with snow levels not seen for over 100 years. Everything is closed and we’re all at home dripping our faucets to save the pipes with 3 days of supplies in case the power and water goes out. we can’t go anywhere bec of road conditions. Apologies for the terrible joke but it’s like hell is freezing over. Grateful to be distracted from the other stuff though and grateful it’s not a wildfire
The climate tipping point came — and now the strangeness is really taking off. We are having the coldest winter in 18 years. And I am reminded just how much I like the cold (but hate the grey).
Have you read any Sharon Blackie? She just wrote a piece on Substack about The Trickster which is very fitting for this year
I haven’t but I should!