The arbitrary significance of a year makes us wish for new beginnings and mark time recurrently. So many people scoff at the idea of a new year’s resolution while also celebrating the arrival of midnight. We’re a couple weeks out of that moment now, the precise dripping over into the year having a particular weight this time around, but now in the wake of our first new moon I am feeling the energy of beginnings still. We always get to choose to start again, whether according to a random marker of approximately a sun’s journey, or because we feel we need a fresh start. Every day could have the intentional weight of the hungover morning after new year’s, if we wanted it to.

I don’t think anyone actually thought that it was specifically 2020 that was making things so difficult. It wasn’t 2020: it was centuries of white supremacy, it was environmental collapse and neglect, it was raging capitalism and it was these three things hitting each other in the face at the same time. But it matters to us that we can package our experiences up into a particular calendar year. That we can say: ok, things will continue being shit after that year, but I commit to new coping mechanisms, or new kinds of patience, or the same old coping mechanisms and patience that will help me pull through this next round of slogging.

2021 keeps the lessons going. The year is characterized by a series of squares between Saturn and Uranus from the fixed signs of Aquarius and Taurus respectively. Saturn describes our collective need for security, while Uranus describes our collective need for freedom, while squares are a hard aspect between two planets: so when our desires for security and freedom are at odds with each other, humans tend to not know what to do.

The first of these squares happens from the end of January until mid-March, and begins alongside a Mercury retrograde also in the sign of Aquarius. The second is particulately tough, from the end of May into the beginning of July, and encompasses what I am noticing to be two of the most astrologically challenging moments of the year: June 4-8, when we have *another* Mercury retrograde as well as a heap of other squares, and July 1-4 (eep) when we have a T-square between Mars and Saturn to Uranus. The last closes our year off and begins on December 13th.

So what do we do with this information? On a global level, Saturn and Uranus in tough aspects to each other often correspond with times of mass instability — Uranus was last in Taurus during the Second World War, and was conjunct Saturn in 1941 and 1942 corresponding with many key events of that time.

I’m not here to make predictions, but it’s pretty obvious from our current context that the things happening to us right now will almost certainly be studied in the future and looked at as a Fucked Up Time. For the purpose of writing horoscopes that I hope can help and affirm my readers, I’m going to talk about what houses the Saturn-Uranus action of 2021 is going to take place in for you, and some words to hopefully offer some suggestions for how to work with that.

For all my readers, I advise that you pay close attention to whatever is going on for you in early February and mid-June: these two parts of the year will see the first two of three exact hits of the Saturn-Uranus squares, so whatever goes on in your life here will constitute the major lesson of 2021: they might not be the same occurrences or details, but the thematics will likely resonate.

For these horoscopes I talk more about specific degrees than I usually do because they’re for a whole upcoming year. Lots to talk about! I know that degree placement is real inside baseball, but to quickly guide you: first, check your chart. Your planets will have a little number beside them with a degree: that number is what I’m referencing when I mention them in the horoscopes.

Over on my Instagram I have a highlight talking about checking the degrees of your chart: click through if you want to learn a bit more about astrology today. Otherwise, read on and know you’ll get the gist.

Happy 2021!
Amelia

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