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When I wrote my forecast of the 2020s (here) I only projected out to 2025. I always meant to finish it, and now here we are, in the future timeline. The conjunction from Jupiter to Saturn in Aquarius kickstarted the Age of Air, a 200-year cycle of innovation and decentralization. Pluto entering Aquarius in 2023 locked us firmly into the air element and a burst of revolutionary breakthroughs. Under the trine from Uranus to Pluto this brand new future fully unfolds, and it will be something completely unique and unlike anything we can imagine today.
Introduction: Beginning in 2023 when Pluto entered Aquarius, and intensifying in 2025 when Neptune entered Aries, we have been moving into a period of climactic change. This year Uranus entered Gemini cementing the energetic transformation of outer planets in new signs and new elements. All of these planets carry tremendous significance in the astrological realm, and these shifts into new dimensions of experience reverberate throughout our personal lives as well as globally.
I look at outer planets a little differently than some other astrologers: To me they represent transformational forces rather than operating within the framework of the personality. This has been mistaken by some to mean that because they are “generational” – meaning a specific cohort or age group has an outer planet in the same sign – that the outer planets do not operate on a personal level. In my experience, especially with clients, this is not the case. While everyone of a generation may have a planet in the same sign, they are in different placements in our natal charts and their influence, both natally and by transit, is experienced very differently by different individuals.
Uranus is a planet of modernism – it represents innovation and the disruption of the status quo so that a radical change can take place. It is associated with electromagnetic energy and the flow of electricity (this is why some astrologers wanted to call the planet Prometheus). It also opens the door to multidimensional awareness and offers insights and new information, breaking open the walls of scientific theory and creates a new vision of the world in which we live, and it is having an extremely powerful effect on our lives right now. Pluto represents decay, death and the clearing out of old debris to make way for a dramatic creative reconstruction. In psychological astrology he represents the Underworld of the psyche – the secrets that we hide from others and from ourselves, the dim recesses of the mind where our darkest emotions are tucked away. In the transformational astrology that I practice, Pluto shows up as what I call the “Will of the Higher Self” – the part of us that encourages us to transform our secret darkness into an awakened Self through wisdom and understanding. You can see why under the interactions of these planets things can get wild.
Because Uranus is co-ruler (with Saturn) of Aquarius, and Pluto is IN Aquarius, there is already an overlap in the energies of these two planets. Unlike the challenging square aspects of the 1960s (Uranus conjunct Pluto in Virgo), the alignment currently unfolding is a 120º angle aspect (trine), suggesting an easy flow of energies between the radical disruption of Uranus with the burn-it-to-the-ground-and-rebuild-better force of Pluto. Both planets are in air signs, signifying the intellect, communication, information processing, and decentralization. We are already seeing this under Pluto in Aquarius, but the addition of Uranus as a discordian force will likely take us into a world which is unrecognizable from the one that is familiar.
About trines: We think of trines as beneficial aspects that bring good things but really there is no good or bad in astrology. Challenging square aspects, and sometimes conjunctions, which are considered “bad” can force a problem to a crisis point so that it can be solved. Trines offer ease and flow between two planets and are considered “good” but can create a harmonious loop where we get to a stasis point without actual action to force us into a solution. In any case, outer planet alignments create dramatic transformational change on a collective level. Pluto forces the destruction of outmoded ways of living, and Uranus creates the magnetism force to change them.
The Age of Air: The changes that we are already seeing with the dramatic rise of AI under Pluto in Aquarius since 2023 will be facilitated by Uranus to unimaginable leaps in technological innovation. With Uranus and Pluto both in air signs, the 200 year Age of Air that began with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius in December of 2020 will carry even more potency. Air represents the intellect, communication, decentralization. The importance of ideas and concepts becomes more important than the facts on the ground. This new world is already facing tremendous challenges from air and water pollution, climate change and climate refugees, environmental hazards to soil and farmland – when ideas and innovation take precedence over human life and earth magic, this new future may not be that easy to adapt to, but change is inevitable and eventually brings a rebalancing where the world is in disarray.
The July kickoff: The first phase of the Uranus/Pluto trine is amplified by Neptune to form a Minor Grand Trine, and at the end of July Jupiter joins the dance. Astrologers are calling “Barbault’s Basket” – although astrologer André Barbault referred to this time period as being pivotal for mankind, he never actually called the formation a basket. (For more details see my friend Dan’s excellent video on the subject here.) In any case, Barbault became famous for predicting the 2020 pandemic with some specificity.
This basket formation is indeed quite rare, with all three outer planets in an exact alignment with Jupiter and Pluto forming the base. Because Jupiter forms an aspect of tension to Pluto, this is a fusion of dramatic planetary energies in which expansive pressures from Jupiter will push the harmonious elements of the Minor Grand Trine (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) into action. For this endeavor, Jupiter interacts with Uranus (sextile) for exponential awakening and breakthroughs in consciousness and technology, as well as Neptune for creativity and compassion. The portals of consciousness have broken open, and awareness is expanding on a collective level.
i should add that the trine from Jupiter to Neptune comes with a tendency to fantasize and we can be irrationally exuberant m. There are no grounding influences to counteract this so some care is required.
Jupiter is the planet of kings and rulers, and we are already in the midst of a few wars over dominance in the middle east. Under a Jupiter/Pluto combination there can be an entrenched sense of who is “right” – especially in fixed signs like we have here. This is the final opposition from Jupiter to Pluto in a series which began in December 2025 and the global political chessboard is being rearranged. I and other astrologers believe that the end of the superpower is over, and political alliances are being reframed with new partnerships being formed.
We have to remember that as everything is reshuffled for greater universal balance, by necessity not all of us will love all of the changes taking place. There is a greater consciousness at work here, but we are still to some extent the masters of our destiny and able to weave our dreams into the unfolding patterns of global experience.
Conclusion: Life unfolds on several different planes. There is the mundane plane in which we live our day to day lives, mostly without thinking about it. There is the emotional plane in which we react to events and situations over which largely we have no control. There is the mental plane in which we apply reason and communicate with others. Then there are the more transcendent planes, the domain of the outer planets. Uranus teaches us to awaken our minds to a wisdom that goes beyond what the lower mind can process. Neptune reveals the yearning of the heart for a connection to an experience of divine magic. And Pluto demands unconditional surrender as our fate unfolds. The potent combination of these three planets, activated by Jupiter in July, has the potential to create big changes in all areas of human life.
Wow! Quite a big bite to take in but so well explained and reflective of my daily experience. Thank you.
Your insights are invaluable to me in understanding the larger forces at work here. Thank you.
I’m wondering what went on during earlier, altho rare, episodes of similar alignments, particularly the grand trines. And is there any liklihood that our earth itself will survive us? I think. This indicates we need to work even harder to protect our waters, lands and vulnerable people. Seems an uphill battle right now.