Your January 2024 Horoscope Calls For Reinvention

The baton is passed, the guard is changed, the transfer of authority well underway. Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008, forcing a reckoning with the old monoliths of power. When the planetary engine of metamorphosis enters Aquarius, on Jan. 21, our grieving over the collective death of the father is nearly complete. But beyond battling Cylons, Terminators and Necromancers, where does this cosmic staff turnover leave you? What are you supposed to do with your body, your plans, your desires?

Jupiter is now direct in Taurus, the sign of bodily autonomy, and Venus enjoys her bon vivant placement in Sagittarius until Jan. 23. It will require audacious optimism, outrageous fashion choices, and shocking declarations of pleasure to break the static and prove that you can laugh, create, and inspire, while the old guard sits and grimaces, with their arms folded. Stop reading op-eds about our grim future, and start expressing its possibilities through movement, style, and action.

Now that we’re done sitting shiva for dear old pater, what would you like to do? Mars enters Capricorn on Jan. 4, followed by Mercury on the 14th. If the weight of the past were suddenly released, if you were no longer terrorized and oppressed, what ambitions would you finally embrace? With a new moon in Capricorn on the 11th, and a sun-Pluto cazimi to wrap up the season on the 20th, there’s nothing keeping you from facing the scorching, primal power of your calling. No one is holding you back anymore. That role that you’ve long avoided is here. You have the authority and skill to make a plan and execute it. So what are you waiting for?

Aquarius season launches on Jan. 20, just as Pluto makes its generational shift into the water bearer’s youthful domain. Aquarius is all about ethos, of serving a higher good. With Pluto here, we may well see neoliberalism complete its metamorphosis into tyranny. But, then again, certain luminaries, like you, may arrive with a clear sense of their values, holding their own complicated selves in service, without subscribing to utilitarian, one-size-fits all morality. As we head towards the Leo full moon on the 25th, meditate on what is important to you — and not your judge, jury, and executioners in the digital town square — so that you can be a pumping heart of originality and complexity in this wild new epoch. As of this Pluto transit, the roots of the past have been ripped out. It’s time to fertilize something new.

ARIES & ARIES RISING

The last Mercury retrograde hit Capricorn, in your 10th house of career and ambition. Meanwhile, Jupiter retrograded in Taurus, in your second house of earning and self-worth. What needed to be finessed and fine-tuned, before the new year could begin in earnest? With both planets in direct movement (and forming supportive trines with one another), and a stackup of planets arriving in Capricorn, it’s time to launch your attack. What have you learned about your finances and income, and what do you need to sustain your bigger ambitions? Which dreams do you feel ready to leave behind, now that we’re in a new year? This is about as good a new beginning as the stars can provide you. If you’re still clinging to old projects, it’s best to leave them in the dust, so you can focus on firing off in the present.

TAURUS & TAURUS RISING

It’s been a disillusioning few months, or years, with Pluto in your ninth house of advancement, study, gates, and gatekeepers; and Neptune in your 11th house of audience and public life. Many dreams of arriving at your destined career or community have been eroded, or even blocked. But what if you’ve been liberated from chasing outdated institutions, or fitting in where you don’t really belong? As the sun enters Aquarius on Jan. 20, followed by Pluto on the 21st, you’re invited to recruit your inner visionary, and consider that your place in the world may not be what you thought it was. If you haven’t found your tribe yet, why not create something new? The community and career you’re destined to build will be of great purpose in the new world order. To embrace it fully, you’ll have to stop looking back.

GEMINI & GEMINI RISING

Venus is in Sagittarius until Jan. 23, in your seventh house of public visibility. Venus in Sagittarius is the placement of gals-about-town, It Girls, and provocateurs. All eyes are on you. With a full moon in Leo on the 25th, in your third house of self-expression, you get to put it out there, even if it feels gaudy, ostentatious, or delusional. It’s time to recruit a whole new cast of characters for the year ahead, built on new dreams and desires. Much of 2023’s internal metamorphosis has begun to register to others, whether you’re aware of it or not. Now, you have to dare yourself to claim the spotlight, and live up to the grandeur they all see in you.

CANCER & CANCER RISING

Last month, you focused on your boundaries and limits, on trusting yourself around others. Now, we get to fly. On Jan. 4, Mars joins the sun in Capricorn, in your seventh house of others, followed by a new moon in the goat’s domain (on the 11th) and the arrival of Mercury (the 14th) and Venus (the 23rd). What’s more, the sun and Pluto form a cazimi on the 20th in Capricorn, closing out fifteen years of healing, grieving, and processing in your relationship arena. This month promises to be combustive and not without confrontations, but it’s all in service of a new and healthy sphere of lovers, partners, and friends. Step with full presence into every breakup, sexual adventure, creative collaboration, and familial conflict. The time of new love is at hand. So why are you hiding?

LEO & LEO RISING

From Jan. 4 on, Mars burns hot in Capricorn, in your sixth house of the body. With a full moon in your home sign on the 25th, primal forces come alive, and the beast breaks out of the basement. No matter the weather, this is not a month for staying indoors. You need physical release, and, as Aquarius season lights up your seventh house of others starting on the 20th, you need to be seen. Find friends and mates who won’t fear you when the moon brings out your inner wolf. Seek out relationships that allow for a full expression of joy, rage, grief, and passion, so that you won’t have to hide your multitudinous awakening self.

VIRGO & VIRGO RISING

This month features a series of strong trines (supportive aspects) between fellow earth signs Capricorn and Taurus. Capricorn rules your fifth house of creative expression and embodiment; Taurus, meanwhile, looks to your ninth house of expanding horizons; namely, what do you want to do, and how do you get there? You have time to peer over the cliff and consider the voyage ahead. Who can help deliver you and your gifts to the promised land? How should you recruit them? Any dialogue between earth signs calls for rooting, solidity, and strength, so this shouldn’t feel manic. You’re the source, and you already have the support to make your dreams come true. It’s all about making the right asks, and ensuring that you’re representing yourself correctly.

LIBRA & LIBRA RISING

On Jan. 4, Mars enters Capricorn, in your fourth house of family and foundations. This may lead to volcanic interactions with loved ones. But this isn’t just another temper tantrum; there’s a bigger karmic shift going down. Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008 (save for a brief retrograde last year) and departs again for Aquarius on the 21st. Pluto is the god of the underworld, and has, for the last fifteen years, commanded a deep and harrowing exhumation of your roots. Whatever confrontations go down this month are meant to close one era for good. A new moon on the 11th, along with the arrival of Mercury (on the 14th) and Venus (the 23rd) bring optimism and constructive framing to these conversations. You have a chance at closure. It’s better to speak, than to die.

SCORPIO & SCORPIO RISING

This month features helpful trines between Capricorn, in your third house of communication, and Taurus, in your seventh house of others. The sun enters Aquarius, in your fourth house of home and rooting, on the 20th, followed by Pluto the next day. You’re invited to start the year feeling strong and supported in your day-to-day and relationships, to observe the space all your previous processing and grieving has created, and to slowly fill it with the right people, activities and projects. All this inner grounding will provide results, which begin to take form at the Leo full moon on the 25th, in your 10th house of career and big ambitions. You’re meant to be a leader. Make sure you’re surrounded by the right company as you step into your power.

SAGITTARIUS & SAGITTARIUS RISING

Hit the ground running with your eyes on the bag. Mars, Mercury, and the sun spend much of the month in Capricorn, in your second house of earning. With the big dreaming of Sagittarius season complete, now’s the time to lay the groundwork for a financially sustainable year. Of course, to sweeten the deal for your investors, Venus has arrived in your home sign, bursting with creativity, charm, and confidence. Get straight on the cash goal, then channel Venus for an original, audacious, thrilling pitch presentation. Email investors, schedule daring coffee dates, and push yourself to score. Show the world that there’s only one you, and that you deserve to be paid very highly for it.

CAPRICORN & CAPRICORN RISING

Last month’s Mercury retrograde may have put you through it, but now that you’ve debugged the system and foolproofed your plans, nothing should stand in your way. A tremendous surge of power and possibility burns bright in your sign this month, with Mars joining the sun in Capricorn on Jan. 4, a new moon in your home domain on the 11th, and Mercury turning up on the 14th. On the 20th, the sun and Pluto form a cazimi in your home sign, before moving into Aquarius. It’s likely that all this blazing creative momentum will dredge up grief about time wasted, dreams dashed, and grief unresolved. This is a good sign; whatever is coming up is ready to be addressed and healed while you’re on the move. Integrate this pain into what comes next, and it won’t have to sneak up on you again.

AQUARIUS & AQUARIUS RISING

The advent of Aquarius season is always worth celebrating, but this year’s arrival feels like the true dawn of a new era. It’s not just the sun that’s entering your sign, come Jan. 20, but Pluto as well, launching us into a 20+ year reinvention of the collective consciousness. You, of course, will be a figurehead in the year, and decades, to come. Your work is to get closure on everything that’s come before. On the 20th, before the sun and Pluto enter Aquarius, they’ll come into perfect alignment, or cazimi, in Capricorn, in your 12th house of processing, grief, healing, and closure. By definition, astrology is cyclical, meaning that nothing is ever truly dead and buried. But this is a rare moment to recruit the archetypes of life (the sun) and death (Pluto) to seal the sarcophagus on the stories which have come before and to earnestly embrace a new beginning. Get creative with death rituals, so that you can move forward, earnestly and with an open heart.

PISCES & PISCES RISING

Much of December’s Mercury retrograde went down in Sagittarius, in your 10th house of ambition and career conquest. What wrenches got thrown in your grand plan? The retrograde is over, and Venus has freshly entered Sagittarius, bringing delight and optimism with her. You’re more aware of your limits, shortcomings, and sore spots than ever. Your job isn’t to fix everything for instant success, but to incorporate it all into the bigger picture. Choose your lane, aim your arrow, and channel all of Venus’s creative exuberance to the right project, moment, destination, and arrival. What do you need to stay focused, and not spread too thin? Whatever the project, your main task is to have fun, and let yourself be an original.