As we kicked off with “monthly” reports in 2024, going forward, we’ll be rolling out Quarterly Astrology Reports with the intention of offering practical advice on HOW to work with the complex shifting energies we live in!
Simply Life, Lighten Yourself, Remember Your Gifts
Things are happening very quickly.
Timelines are shifting.
History is moving.
This is so you can be a participant in how the world is shaped, as opposed to “just settling for” the world shaped around you.
Q1 Key Considerations as we Dive In
So the past three years which we talked about as a “Dark Night Of The Soul For The Entire World” is over, and we’re into the next 3-year cycle. Think of the past 3 years as your training period, now it’s time to make all your actions count, in the next three years.
Think of the past 6 year spread as pumping the brakes on generational routines, then wrenching the wheel to a different direction;
Which means the next 6 years (starting with this year, into the next 3) as a matter of gaining momentum, and hitting the gas pedal in the direction we want to go, as we each settle into our societal roles for contributing to the whole of a better world.
What did you learn, what came to light, what needed addressing, what changes needed to be made? What notes did you get for shifting from “doing what society trained you to do” into “what can you do that is both of value and improves, heals, repairs the world we live in?”
What to expect from 2025 overall:
“Plan Your Work….”
Q1: This is the time of year when we step up to the starting line that is “The End of Winter / Beginning of Spring.” - Take whatever you learned in the past three to six years, and use that to inform what you need to positively engage in this year (and in the years to come), lay as much groundwork as possible, as quickly as possible, if you’re doing this pivot “last minute” as opposed to having built towards it for the past three years
Q2: This is the time of year when we blossom into what expansion we have positioned for ourselves -and just like “pollen season” as nature is “in bloom” we too should be covering as much ground as the pollens that race through the air. - Whatever structure you have in place, it’s time to actively move through that structure, with as much momentum as possible. Built a new business? Start connecting to clients. Set yourself up to do more art? Set alarms throughout your day & week to Actually Do Art. etc
Q3: Quarter 3 wraps up with Mabon, from the Pagan Wheel of the Year; a holiday to consider what you’ve grown and harvested this year, what you’re stocking in your larder, so you can trench in for the long winter, to emerge healthy next springtime - Assess what looks deliverable now that you’ve engaged in the structure you built for yourself, based on the lessons of the past 3 years. Q3 is about wrapping up what CAN be completed at this time, and preparing for reflection, and if it’s directly related to income, get everything ready for a few months of either passive income, or bringing in resource –and setting up for a few months of letting income be on “autopilot” either by establishing passive income, or having systems set up that require less emotional investment “to do what they’re supposed to do.”
Q4: In Winter, everything “Goes Inside;” plants wither (conserve energy until the springtime hits), animals go into hibernation, even the weather urges us to “Go inside; stop Going Out There.” This is the point that nature (the universe) wants us to do our best shadow work & self-reflection. Historically, we cite this time of year as the height of “seasonal affective disorder.” Sure, we can say that. Or we can recognize that the 5 to 7 planets in retrograde at that time of year are asking us to complete homework assignments that will make us more powerful, if even just turn them in, high marks or not - This is always the time to look back, look forward, incorporate lessons learned through the year (or YEARS, if applicable) and plan course corrections if need be. The intentions shift here is to recognize that it is SOCIETY that prompts us to “go outside (even in terms of Social Obligations to holidays)” and it is the nature of the universe to intentionally “go inside” and do healthy self-reflection and self care during this time.
How to Engage With the 2025 Astrological Weather of Quarter 1:
“...Work Your Plan”
People keep asking “when is this period over? When will I be out of the Woods?”
To respond in context of this idiom:
We’re actually near the edge of the woods, but if we don’t walk forward, in the woods we’ll stay.
In the transition from 2023 into 2024, one of the big assignments was to practice letting go of fear, and connecting to the kind of courage that is foundational to conviction. This prepared us for that aggregate spike in confusion & fear as the 2024 Retrograde season gained momentum, painfully affecting those who were passively interfacing with the world (also seen with people who were actively interfacing with the world , but without informed alignment to inherent tools of a person, juxtaposed to what work a person intended to do -think a person struggling as a carpenter, because they only have surgery tools in their kit)
As such, we treat “the negative aspects” of Retrogrades and Planetary Alignments NOT as a reason to be afraid, or to glumly explain “why everything feels bad,” but RATHER as warning signs posted near quicksand pits. That being said, as a general practice, we should read these more challenging signals as either indicators to move with caution & intent through these points, OR to use intelligent planning around mitigating possible upcoming pain-points.
In terms of planetary alignments, this year there will be a lot of “oppositional energy.” As, culturally, we have historically not paid much attention to Astrology, so what we are typically more cognizant of during these aspects is how “things feel hard,” which of course prompts retreat, escapism, shrinking away, playing it small. While self care is an important part of the formula, of course(!), it’s not the WHOLE of the equation: Remember that self-care is the part that gives you enough resource to refill your cups, SO you can complete the other half of the formula: Energize and Resource yourself enough SO that you can get back to meeting the challenges of elevating yourself, and the work you have access to.
WORLD
I’m just going to highlight some indicators focused in by the overlay of Astrological Weather & Percentage/Ratio of Momentum in the world, once we cover those bases, we’ll get a bit more granular in terms of things that are more likely to be on your “daily work table” - and thusly, things you’ve have a lot more direct influence over.
- Changes in leadership, especially (either overtly, or in more “undercurrent ways,”) with spiritual leadership taking more of a center stage position than it ever has before.
- Big advancements in technology (both actual AND spiritual), especially heavily influenced by the momentum of Jupiter in Gemini, this too should translate into a sense of “thinking outside the box” for your own personal sense of healthy expansion in your life.
- Funkiness around financial resources (especially under scrutiny in Venus Retrograde in March/April, being that Venus affects the undercurrent of Resource Energy, coupled with a preemptive increase in spiritual practitioners shifting from Devout Private Practice to Reputable Professional Practice) -and here, we’re looking at Venus retrograding through Aries and PIsces- a thing we should embrace, support, and invite ourselves towards in the years to come
PEOPLE
Let’s get the hard note out of the way, so we can build within safe parameters. Lots of fear & confusion from people around you. The way this works is for each person who (hyper)focuses on this, the more the volume is turned up on that noise. Be aware of it, but also make a point to not add to it, by looking for opportunities (or even JUST news) for positive change. When you see those opportunities, like sunlight breaking through on a cloudy day, leap at, embrace, and support those points, in whatever way makes sense to you.
Now more than ever, wake yourself up to an awareness of community, and in specific, filter it through the binary lens of who in your circles and community is pushing for a better world and who isn't. This helps navigating between who are your allies and who should not be allowed to hamper your efforts to your contributions to a better world.
In terms of relationships, we’ve already, in the past few years seen huge and sometimes unexpected shifts in relationships, both in terms of expectation, structure, and longevity. To boil it down to a succinct summation: The universe has been urging people to get in position to do their part to contribute to a better world, and a lot of pain-points in relationships has come down the universe saying “I need one of you to sprint, and I need the other to not hold back the sprinter.” The simple “litmus test navigation” on this navigation is to assess if you’ve been the more healthy or less healthy person in the relationship. If you HAVE been the less healthy one, the universe has given you the gift of illuminating what you need to work on so you can be a healthier partner in “iron-sharpens-iron” relationships. If you’ve been the healthier one, then it should be clear that it’s the golden hour for cutting loose, and opening up the throttle on how you can be the healthiest version of yourself you can be -so you can take your place in actively contributing to the world you know was always supposed to exist.
CAREER
Big shifts have been happening and will continue (through these next three years), as we collectively pivot from being told what is valuable enough "to do for a living" to filling un-met needs for what society is awakening to what is actually valuable to us as a society.
As such, more and more people are waking up to the idea that what has been "stable, but rote" is giving way to higher callings, and doing work that is more in line with personal belief systems in the world each of us actually wants to live in.
If you haven't yet felt called to shift career perspectives in such a manner, be on the lookout for those insights to come across your path.
RESOURCE
A bit of a piggyback on the "Career" section, if not already in the past few years, then DEFINITELY in this next year, and the next few years, put intentional thoughts towards what you're good at (even and especially if there previously hasn't been "a market for"), what others value about you, and especially HOW you can create a means of drawing in resource and abundance in this way that aligns with your vision of a better world.
How to support this new energy shift in 2025 and the upcoming years
I might be biased in this, but it’s a hill I am prepared to die on: FIRST is an accurate understanding of your natal chart, in useful, plain-English. This means (at bare minimum) an understanding how each pairing of Planet-In-Sign informs “what’s in your toolbox” and “how you’re wired.” This resonates with the adage found around learning styles, in that the monkey learns how to climb a tree easily, whereas tree-climbing for a fish is near impossible. If you’re a fish, learn how to swim. If you’re a bird, get out of the water, and take to the sky. How do you know if you’re a bird, fish, or a monkey?
Plain-English understanding of your natal chart. Beyond that, you can get into the aspects, the stelliums, and all that other stuff, but primary is learning your basics in a way that you can navigate effectively, even if you don’t know what stellium you might have. This is the sense of being shown the basics of a car first: Here’s how you turn it on, here’s how to go forward, slow down, stop, reverse. Blinkers, seat belts, automatic versus stick. Now that you know that, if you want to become an automotive engineer, or a race car driver, it’s up to you, and knowing what kind of car you have.
Switch from news feeds and news broadcasts talking about current events, to listening to podcasts, YouTubers, and other content creators who are talking about Astrology. A yardstick for “but who do I listen to?” should be that they’re not speaking from a place of fear (again, we’re past that, as of 2023), and more in a place of giving you more agency, and/or highlighting OPPORTUNITIES, as opposed to “making you worried” about aspects coming up. Again, the switch or shift is recommended here, not as a matter of hiding your head in the sand of Astrology, but rather so as to inform yourself of the upcoming “weather” -and “switch” as opposed to “incorporate” leans on the simple truth that traditional “news” is so pervasive that even if you try to completely ignore it, current events will still, rather loudly, wash up on your shore, but as they do, you’ll at least have more context, and eventually a sense of expectation -to the point of even prepared and resourced in the event of expectations, by “knowing the upcoming weather” and what to expect as a result of said “weather.”
Last but by NO MEANS least: Be intentional with Self-Care. The point isn’t to use self-care as an escape, but rather to refill your cups so you’re empowered enough to sprint to your next rally marker. Practice the exercise of “One Yes,” you’ll want to eventually pivot to mostly engaging in that which only requires “one yes” for you to participate in. Even if you have to engage in things that require “more than one yes (which is an indicator that you don’t actually want this)” at least you can identify the ratio of working towards what you envision, and what’s simply a bit of work to put behind you on the path.
In that, say no to experiences that burn you out, and don’t leave you with enough resource to engage with the world (or community, or with your immediate circles) in, and position yourself so that you get to say yes more and more to experiences that nourish, re-invigorate, and offer you enough resource (including time and spoons) to engage in positive and healthy ways with the world you exist in.
Part of this, as many who are already familiar with us at the Apothecary know, is the use of supportive herbal allies to bio-hack your system to trend towards Feeling Resourced, as opposed to Experiencing Scarcity.
The last note on this ties into the mechanics of bio-hacking the somatic system: GET. A. FULL. NIGHT’S. REST. ‘While our whole lives, that’s posited in such a way that we can write it off an de-prioritize it, we were never explained the real reasons why: When we short ourselves on sleep (by way of choice, usually due to personal scheduling, or by simply not being more supportive of giving the body what it needs to embrace good sleep), two crucial things happen: We start the day with the body feeling like it’s in crisis, even if it’s a subconscious / somatic feel, and secondly, it’s the last two hours of an 8-hour sleep cycle where our body gets to do the most repair. This is why weightlifters (for example) are maniacal about getting a full night’s rest: Without it, their bodies can’t recover enough to actually build strength, and instead, they’re taxing muscles that haven’t healed -technically causing more damage than building health.
These are just a few suggestions for how to offer yourself support so you can actively engage in the path you’re supposed to be on, but by no means is this an exhaustive list. Use this as a starting point, and see what else you can incorporate in terms of support!
You got this; you’ve been preparing for this longer than you might think
Let’s wrap with a few big shifts to pay attention to, and what they mean, in short. Next quarter, we’ll dive into the idea of working WITH Retrograde seasons, instead of lamenting them, and working against them.
Pluto (a slow-moving generational planet) has been in an earth sign, and is now finally moving to an air sign. Pluto is about power, Aquarius is about frequency.
Uranus leaves Taurus, enters Gemini; in Taurus, Uranus can be resistant to change, and we felt that in our bodies during the Uranus (in Taurus) retrogrades in the winters of 2023 & 2024. In Gemini, Uranus does its brilliant “wrecking ball of change” disruptiveness, and that should indicate that it’s time to turn those discontented feelings into positive and intentional actions & changes.
Neptune is finally leaving Pisces and Entering Aries. Think of the historical & generational shifts as more and more of the world became aware of, and began to engage with spirituality & alternative health support systems (Pisces momentum), and that in even more recent years (up to very rapidly happening within the past year, to even past few months), all of this is becoming more mainstream, more center stage, more incorporated into people’s daily lives.
Instead of being rooted, stuck, we have an opportunity to change the frequency, strengthen community, begin healing humanity,
Part of the shift in resources (from “Scarcity Mindset” to “Abundance Thinking”) is in assessing our own systems of using energy; thinking of how can we go from crude & heavy, to more streamlined, less wasteful, more efficient & effective; lightening ourselves - which of course opens up more resource for us to operate from.
All in all, think of this time as a Transition
from instinct to intellect,
from seeing the problem to fixing the problem
from practicing spirituality in private, to connecting with emergent spiritual communities.
Remember: Any of your astrologers can confirm that we’re not out of the woods yet, but we will be if we keep moving forward with conviction, determination, and being gentle to ourselves as a way of refueling to get back on the road that leads to a brighter future for all.
“The wheel turns, the struggle continues, but the command is always the same: Be true. Stand.”
With love,
Edie and the whole Twisted Thistle team!