2020 versus 2021: Why This Year Will Feel Different

Art by Stephanie Law

2020 started off with the heavy energetic signature of Saturn and Pluto coming together in Capricorn.  Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008.  Capricorn is the practical, down-to-business earth sign that rules big systems like financial and government.  Pluto is transformation - but through destruction and creation.  First Pluto exposes, strips, shakes the foundations to see what is rotten.  We've been watching it happen.  Saturn came into Capricorn in 2018, and is strong there because it rules that sign.  While Pluto represents power, Saturn represents authority.  Saturn's transits through a sign is like an inspection or audit - Saturn is all about rules, limits, and boundaries.  It also rules karma and when at work in our lives can come through as fear, restriction, limits, isolation, and even illness and depression.  With such a strong influence from Saturn and in challenging aspect, contraction became a main theme of 2020. 

However, it is natural law that things must balance, and so it is only natural that after contraction will come expansion, and to an equal degree, and Jupiter is the planet that rules expansion.

Jupiter spent 2020 in Capricorn as well, and typically Jupiter brings blessings, luck, and abundance, but it was severely debilitated all year, as it is weak in Capricorn and also was "under" Saturn because Saturn is strong there and they were traveling together, so Jupiter was not of much help.  On top of all that, the second half of 2020 was dominated by Mars spending an almost unheard of amount of time (six months - three times longer than a normal Mars transti) in its own sign of Aries, and thus challenging Saturn and Pluto.  Mars and Saturn are malefics - planets that bring adversity - and squares are challenging - and they were both going through retrogrades which are slow downs and reviews, so all of this compounded the already difficult energies.  

With the retrogrades bringing slow downs and reviews, and the square aspects bringing challenges and obstacles, Saturn bringing restriction, and Pluto bringing transformation, the energetic set up was a pressure cooker - transformation through limitation and restriction, which can feel very much impossible, and at the very least uncomfortable.

Saturn rules time and traditions.  It rules over the structures and routines of our daily lives that hold us and create the containers that allow us to make things happen in the real world.  That can feel supportive, or it can feel restrictive. 

Coming out of 2020, we are bound to have a much better understanding of where we need to be responsible in our lives and what traditions or ways of doing things are feeling irrelevant, disconnected, meaningless, and outdated.

2021, in contrast, begins with the main energetic signature of Saturn coming together with Jupiter, the bringer of gifts and blessings, in air sign Aquarius.  This immediately starts out this year on a more positive note, and sets us up with the energy of Aquarius, and more broadly the element of air being the main energetic signature of 2021.  Although Jupiter will still be "under" Saturn in Aquarius, it will be better positioned to bring gifts over 2021, especially as it gets away from Saturn when it spends time in Pisces where it is very strong.  Now we begin to expand again after the deep contraction of 2020.  

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Access the magic of 2021! 
The Know to Flow 2021 Special Edition Overview is out now. 
​Get it here.

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