2018 in an astrological nutshell

Saturn in charge

Here is a longer version of an article already published in early December 2017 in the Uki Village News.

Hallo and welcome to my thoughts on 2018 astrological trends. What a change a year makes!

2017 has been, as widely predicted by the astrological community, a year of surprises and unsettled conditions for many of us individually and collectively for the world. With Air and Fire Signs highlighted by the transits of Uranus (Aries), Saturn (Sagittarius) and Jupiter (Libra) 2017 could be described as a time of speculations, aspirations, or just a lot of hot air stimulating changes but no putting them into practical, realistic frameworks. A Donal Trump Year, one may call it.

The Earth Signs will come into play big time in 2018 instead, with Saturn entering Cardinal Earth Capricorn on December 20 this year and remaining in Capricorn until December 2020 (a once in thirty years event), and Uranus making its first ingress into Earth Fixed Taurus on May 16 2018 (a once in 84 years event).
Uranus will briefly return to Aries in November 2018, and to Taurus, for good between March 2019 and July 2025/April 2026.

The Water Signs will also come more to the fore with Jupiter now in Scorpio (until November 2018) and Neptune still transiting Pisces (until 2025).

This evolution into the Earth Signs signifies a general tendency toward doing rather than speculating. This will be a reality check to ground our ideals and take action on matters that are important to us. In particular Capricorn Saturn will not tolerate procrastination, guiding us to put in the hard work, commitment and integrity necessary to restructure our lives, at home and work, in business, finances, politics, ecology, streamlining our plans and making more efficient, practical choices.

The Sign change of Uranus, from Fiery Aries to Earthy Taurus, will be even more momentous and long lasting (ending only in 2026). I predict that the beginning of this shift (between May 2018 and March 2019) will not be a timid one though! Uranus is in fact the planet signifying abrupt and radical changes and Taurus is the most Fixed of all Fixed Signs, resisting changes via its conservative outlook and sheer inertia. The combination therefore spells if not disaster certainly a breakdown of many outdated tendencies in ourselves and our world, and drastic upheavals that will confront us with difficult choices, make or break situations, ultimately proving constructive and beneficial. Taurus holds sway over our Earth resources and the way we use and abuse our wealth, natural and financial, so Uranus transit in Taurus will bring eventually some form of breakdown of our present ways of doing business and using/abusing natural/financial resources. Economic and currency revolutions are indeed possible between 2018 and 2026. A reminder that the last period Uranus was in Taurus, between 1934 and 1941/42, the world experienced the greatest financial breakdown in history and the start of a most destructive global war. Of course history doesn’t have to repeat. Many other factors contributed to the advent of global war in the late thirties. But the astrological correspondences should be a warning that peace is not guaranteed unless we are constantly prepared to uphold it, even fight for it.

However the years 2019 and 2020 could be fertile ground for a global recession, general financial difficulties, more unemployment etc. This will be because of the combination of Uranus in Taurus and Saturn in Capricorn, the same Saturn’s Sign that witnessed the Great Depression of 1929-1932 and the Banana Republic Recession during the Labor Keating government in Australia, early 1990 to 1991. A crisis could be more likely for Australia due to the fact that the Sun and Saturn are also in Capricorn in the Australian January 1 1901 Horoscope, the Birth Chart of the nation. Click HERE to view the 1901 Swearing in Horoscope of Australia.

This together with the restructuring and streamlining of governments all over the globe between 2018 and 2020 (Capricorn Saturn) makes for exciting if difficult times, hopefully a promise of real renewal for our social and natural environment.

Last but not least is the effect of Jupiter in Scorpio (until November 2018), another Sign that has a lot to do with resources, finances, the uncovering of secrets and redressing injustice done. Issues pertaining to these areas will be highlighted by Jupiter too.
An effect that has already made its appearance is the power of expansive Jupiter in Scorpio to dig out stuff that has been hidden and kept secret for a long time. We are seeing this in a big way in the proliferation of disclosure of famous people’s sexual misconduct (Scorpio also relating to sexual stuff), facts that are helping to uncover the same in the everyday world of people. The truth about financial and sexual misdemeanor and even war crimes and abuses is coming out in a very public way.
It is liberating to be able to talk about issues that have been festering in the dark forever, a sign, among others, that consciousness is rising on this planet.