What's Coming in 2024? An Astrological View

What’s coming in 2024? Well, from the astrological point of view, two new ingresses are getting underway - the long-term Pluto in community-minded Aquarius, and shorter-term Saturn in sympathetic Pisces (which arrived there in March 2023 but went retrograde between June and November). When reforming Pluto moves into Aquarius from January 2024, a new cosmic effect is underway as the Lord of Death and Rebirth begins to transform how we live – with no going back.

Aquarius is about the power of the collective (versus the individual) and as Pluto empowers (as well as destroys) the values and intentions of the Group will obscure those of the Individual. This means, for example, that lone voices (whether in politics, science or public discourse) will get drowned out. There will be no time for mavericks with their own ideas! Get with the Program! Then again, Pluto in Aquarius is often about improving the world we live in (think United Nations, NATO, the EU or even Greenpeace) though the powers that such groups have (and the measures they implement) will not be welcomed by all!

Certainly, history will see Pluto in Aquarius serve up its quota of notable ‘do-gooders’ who want to put things right, although some see such people as interfering ‘busy-bodies’ telling others how they should live. As a real example, the last time Pluto was in Aquarius in the late eighteenth century, social reform was in the air, with Christian campaigners (such as against slavery) trying their best to ease the suffering of ordinary people. We had the French Revolution (1789-1799), too, about which Wikipedia says: ‘Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while phrases like liberté, égalité, fraternité reappeared in other revolts …. and inspired campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage.’

I'll return to Pluto in Aquarius later, but when we look elsewhere at what's coming in 2024 we'll see the effects of Saturn through Pisces. In Mundane Astrology, Saturn symbolises rules and regulations imposed by outside authorities, and one could say that Pisces represents humanity as a whole, its heights and depths, all the way from its spiritual yearning to its greedy materialism (which is why Pisces is the most misunderstood sign). Saturn wants to set limits, regulate and create order; Pisces is happy to go with the flow and recognises no limits, only boundlessness. Like Scorpio, it wants to go over the top. What we'll see in 2024 is a tightening up of regulations in some aspects of daily life; maybe even more of a prevalence of so-called ‘political correctness’ as human behaviour in general is censured. Oddly, this won't necessarily prove a bad thing! Only the right-wing (and its media outlets) will be exasperated!

But Saturn in Pisces will also challenge our innate tastes and values in 2024 and it will manifest through things like censorship, calls for new laws in areas like the adult film industry, extending even to works of art. In short, excesses in public life – in particular the internet - will be under serious scrutiny. It is worth noting that, in the UK, Mary Whitehouse's 'clean up TV' campaign began in May 1964 when Saturn was in Pisces. She wanted to expunge anything she considered 'dirty' (in her words) from British television. Amazingly, we're likely to see more of her like in 2024, such as from the Christian right-wing in America. Thus, Bad Behaviour will come under the miscroscope in a severe way – so watch out politicians.

Another previous occasion when we had Saturn in Pisces was the seemingly endless political scandals during John Major's tenure as Conservative PM in the mid-nineties. Major talked about a 'back to basics' approach in public morals (Saturn) but was unable to stem the tide of ‘sleaze’ and lies (Pisces). (For which some Tory politicians resigned, whilst others even went to jail. And it turned out that Major himself was no angel - he'd been having an extra-marital affair with Edwina Currie.) Plus, when Major assumed office earlier in 1992 we were close to an eclipse - a sign of instability or an extreme kind of situation that cannot last, so it’s no wonder nothing turned out as he'd envisioned.

The PM at the time of writing (Rishi Sunak) also assumed his minsterial office on an eclipse, and we may see a repeat of what happened with the Major government. There is a total solar eclipse in Aries on 8th of April: a major trial may be in the news about a leader finally brought to justice as true Democracy has its day. This is what I mean about curbing excesses. As for the British General election and the November 2024 Presidential election in the US, I will deal with them in a separate article.

However, we can also see what's coming in 2024 through the lens of Uranus in Taurus. Uranus, the planet of innovation and technology, continues through this earth sign and will further revolutionise everyday commerce and online shopping, even the farming industry. We can expect further expansions in the Electric Vehicle business, and a massive increase in charging points (and extra car parks attached to retail outlets) in the United Kingdom. For one, the AI technology to improve supply chains in the retail sector will improve - anything to enable businesses and consumers to take advantage of the new innovations. Being more efficient via automation is a thing of the future, and digitally focussed employment will also compensate for any losses where AI replaces jobs.

Staying with the subject of AI, or artificial intelligence, this is one of the critical issues with Pluto in Aquarius. It’s obviously here to stay and many are excited about its possibilities, yet major concerns are always in the air, more so in 2024. The fears are that a robot may, one day, be able to - putting it simply - think for itself (or write its own code because it has been taught to think like a human). But (with Pluto in Aquarius and Saturn through Pisces) we’ll see serious debate and measures to regulate its growth. There’s always a mismatch between scientific advancement (knowledge) and human advancement (morals and spirituality)!

With spiritually-minded Neptune continuing through Pisces in 2024 the LBGT movement will continue apace and we are likely to see more and more countries relax legislation on so called ‘gay rights’. It’s been said that gay rights are simply human rights and this ties in with Pluto in Aquarius, the sign of ‘brotherhood’ and humanity, too. We may see some surprises in 2024 as LBGT laws are amended in even highly conservative countries (look to the second solar eclipse in Libra - the sign of equality - on October 2nd).

What's coming in 2024 is also Pluto in Aquarius delivering on matters of social justice (as Aquarius symbolises the so-called democratic process). We’ve seen this in recent times as Latin countries veer towards the ‘left’ – even the authoritarian demagogue Bolsonaro from Brazil (often described as a South American Trump) was defeated by a socialist. This phenomenon has been callled the ‘pink tide’ (of socially progressive leaders) which began in 1998 when Neptune entered Aquarius, and resumed in 2021, with Saturn in Aquarius – there goes that sign again!

2024 also sees a major conjunction: opportunistic Jupiter with revolutionary Uranus in April, which also coincides with the solar eclipse The last significant Jupiter-Uranus aspect (a trine) was when we had a breakthrough in vaccinations for Covid and the first jab in the UK on December 8, 2020. The trine wasn’t exact until the following month, though this is when most EU countries had the vaccinations properly underway. Thus, in science and technology, advances are going to make our lives that much easier: we’ll hear of new breakthroughs, particularly in healthcare, like cancer screening, eye operations and throat surgery. One Jupiter-Uranus alignment (in February, 1997) even brought scientific advances in cloning with the Dolly the Sheep!

On another tack, these two planets signify liberation, reform, revolution and human rights, and Jupiter-Uranus will provide the opportunities for this. (The last conjunction was late December 2010 to early January 2011, when we had the Arab Spring.) April 2024 may see drastic overturning of certain institutions in hot spots across the world, and we’re going to see how ordinary people in a group can rise up in protest and have real political power to influence the so-called Establishment.

With Pluto in Aquarius, protests from ordinary people, even new movements (witness Extinction Rebellion) are the thing. This we’ll likely see in the power of workers’ unions across the Western world. Inevitably, strikes will become a much more serious issue and a headache for Western governments in 2024. (The last Pluto transit brought about the first unions and the Labor movement in the US, in keeping with the egalitarian spirit of Aquarius.) Pluto in Aquarius is going to place the emphasis on shared interest over self-interest, transparency over secrecy and the ideal of openness and collective trust. Populist right-wing leaders or business-people with narrow, personal agendas -and we’ve seen quite a few of these with Pluto in Capricorn - will be on their way out.