Astrology of 2019 global forecast

The astrology of 2019 in global terms is dominated by the cardinal energy led by Capricorn and expressed through the resonant signs Cancer, Libra and Aries.
We are all affected by these four signs as shown in their impact upon a person's full birth chart. People born under Capricorn Cancer Libra and Aries and especially those born in the range from the 5th-13th of their month will experience effects that will be growthful, testing and challenging -hard work, hard times, character-building stressful and potentially, ultimately very rewarding.
2019 will be a huge year in politics, business, banking, infrastructure. All the bedrock infrastructure -the physical material built and natural, as well as the societal structures that manage our life conditions are all up for major transformations.
In addition it is clear that increasingly severe weather conditions will play a significant role in the restructuring of environments and will affect human-made constructions.

Responsible management is the mantra for 2019 across all potential aspects of our existence -ignoring this in our natural environment is indeed perilous -echoing the warning recently delivered by Sir David Attenborough. But also in our societal and personal environments the warning signs are clear that many behaviours are unsustainable and are overdue for self-management.

There will be significant impacts upon homes, families, housing, homelessness in terms of addressing the necessity for responsible management. Governments globally are required to rise to the challenge of governing humanely not driven by the misguided culture of business agendas.

Some conditions will improve immensely, others deteriorate majorly - extremes of thriving or being annihilated are on the table depending upon how closely the zeitgeist or spirit of the times is being adhered to or resisted by individuals, societies or collectively as a species.

Some businesses will reach a pinnacle of success while others that are not on the requisite page will fail.
Career peaks are also on offer for those most positively affected.

Relating is a key issue - relating in general to other humans, other beings in general as well as personal relationships, marriages and partnerships - also in the context of business or work dynamics/partnerships. We have to learn how to get on better and if efforts fail, how to terminate what's not working.

Families, kinship, heredity and ultimately the human family being under focus is intended to bind us not separate us. A lot needs to be resolved.

The Aries factor involves the challenge for all of us to manage personal egos, selfishness and seek out balanced mature role models to emulate instead of wanting to remain ever juvenile. The Aries part in all of us needs to learn how to mature willingly and to discover the benefits of experience and being unashamedly the supportive, mentoring senior. Most cultures still revere the wisdom of their elders but this is declining in many Western nations and is not to be encouraged.

Key stress points in the year are around the early January eclipse [which has a minimum 6 month influence period] ; mid April, July - 2 significant eclipses [also with 6 month effect period], mid October and late December.
The first and last quarters or 3 month periods of 2019 have the strongest overt expression of potentials

further content is added here to the initial 

quick summary
also read more detail in The Biggest Challenges in 2019

update January 4 2019
The Oxford Astrologer Christina mentions in the podcast for January 2019 another important expression of the Capricorn energy in 2019, coupled with this starter eclipse for the year being a Capricorn New Moon joined by Saturn and Pluto: the patriarchy will continue to be in the throes of transformation [my words] - this now long-institutionalised male system of privilege and power will undergo sustained challenges which will demand a sharing of our world.

update December 31 2018 The New Year period

• 2019 opens with the building energies of the first eclipse [January 6] in Capricorn. As typical, extreme energies are whipped up in the window period of an eclipse and for at least half a year ahead. The window opens then closes within 3 days of exactitude = allow 3 days either side of January 6.
• A Capricorn New Moon eclipse highlights the need to increase your level of self management -not expecting parents, partners or society to be the only moderating forces. The responsibility is yours. Stepping up, showing leadership, mentoring are further ways to go with this flow which is relevant to all of us. This type of growth will be assisted if your beliefs expand to recognise that we are all connected, all in this together, all have to play our part.
• 2019 opens ominously due to the influence of Uranus in Aries in a strengthened state as it turns direct once again. The capturing of Venus in Scorpio and the lunar nodes on the Capricorn-Cancer axis will be a period to watch = Jan 4-6. Relationships suddenly altered -some starting with great passion and intensity some ending with the same fervour. This extends from family, personal to local national and international relations. Some people's lives are at risk in the intensity of influences affecting masses of people. For others it will be just the risk of one person. [ New Zealand boy racer gatherings at the end of 2018 have lots of the January eclipse themes already emerging - antisocial behaviour posing a dilemma for Police in terms of when & how to step in ]
• The Capricorn elements of the eclipse are strong and will express in some contexts as authoritarian responses to mass anarchy, random violence, aggressive assaults. This is not the time to risk being caught up in out of control group bravado or antisocial behaviour: the System is poised for tough crackdowns though some reticence initially may spring from Neptune's voice of light-handed = soft tolerance. [these two planets are closely linked in this period] But firm responses will be better than letting Neptune and Jupiter get fully loose expression.
• Adding in Jupiter and Neptune means there is huge scope for faith based conflicts, acts based on religious extremism, clashes of beliefs, differences of opinion. These planets combined can also promote excess alcohol, excess drug use and general lack of boundaries. Some will break all their limits and rules others will be ready to face the necessity for self-management, lines in the sand, boundaries, temperance and restraint.
• Issues impacting homes, housing, families will be significant through all the themes associated with this eclipse
• With Venus connected tightly to Uranus during this last segment of Uranus in Aries this eclipse also foreshadows the material/financial/economic changes already poised to have global impact during the years of Uranus in Taurus and so some further signposts are likely to emerge in the early period of 2019 confirming the mood of change.

Financial astrology specialist Ray Merriman considers 2019 will put all the ducks in line to create the classic bursting of the Jupiter-Neptune bubbles [illusions, blind optimism etc] with a hard awakening courtesy of all the Capricorn energy in play - which he sees then unfolding in 2020.
Astrologers of all kinds know that huge change is on the horizon regarding our material/financial/economic behaviour, infrastructure and models due to the background layer of Uranus in Taurus and it is clear that major change just like a single "accident" is never down to one single factor - or in this context one astrological influence. Many ingredients synergise as in a chemical process and eventually the trigger energy unleashes the whole shebang. The question is which trigger effects this and when is that trigger because it is clear as day that the necessary ingredients are very much converging as 2018 closes.

update December 29 2018
Other than individual profiles of public figures, this site also covers globally relevant forecasts. One style of interpretation used for mass readings where individual birth times are not the focus - these group forecasts are based on the Sun or Zodiac Signs and though not a first choice method for many astrologers and not a focus of this website, the method has its uses.
For some very useful content visit Sally Kirkman's astrology site - some paid and some free material which includes the use of sun sign predictions and forecasts for the year ahead. This approach uses the birth zodiac sign as the rising sign to create a chart wheel from that starting point.

This sample with Aries at the left side would be a Sun sign wheel for that sign. Just rotate this image to place your sun sign in that left side "rising" position. Now this is the Sun Sign wheel for a person who is Libra

Using this method all the current planets are placed in the relevant areas of life [houses of the chart] and this alternate system [ie a birth time is not needed] is capable of providing another layer of information if you also have the more precise option of a chart based on your time of birth. For those lacking a known birth time this "Sun Sign" method provides meaningful indicators.

update Dec 18 2018
The Justice minister for the NZ government has been in talks with Google over the disclosure of a defendant's name in a recent high profile murder case -despite name suppression being in effect in NZ. This example reflects the emerging responsible management theme which will gain much greater ground in 2019
The other news regarding NZ govt agencies using private investigators to investigate citizens in ways that posed "an affront to democracy" represents another alarming feature of the current era where over-use of power by state agencies is a significant threat -and is clearly seen to have elements that revisit the 1930's in Europe - a dedicated post on this site examines the repeating cycles that generate this match

update Dec 17: in 2019 New Zealand is set to explore integrating "wellbeing" into the government budget.

the UK, Korea, Mexico, Israel and Austria... have all been

 exploring the wellbeing frameworks within their economies

This development clearly represents a transformational potential unfolding at the level of national politics within a democratic system and is in tune with the highest capacity of government: to nurture citizens in pursuit of the best possible quality of life.

Astrological notes:
Saturn and Pluto remain in close conjunction for most of 2019.
Saturn will range from 11-21 degrees and Pluto from 20-23 degrees over the course of the year.
Their midpoints need to be given attention -ranging from 16-21.5 degrees as much of the action is likely to occur when these two power players are closely merged.
The closest conjunction of the two is under 2 degrees at New Years Eve December 31.
Both Saturn and Jupiter are both in direct movement for 6 months of 2019 - Jan, Feb, March and Oct, Nov, Dec.
Their potency is most overt in those months.

Jupiter and Neptune in the mutable indicators Sagittarius and Pisces are major indicators of water related weather and climate effects in 2019.
Uranus in Aries until early March ramps up the heat, fire, combustibility aspects.
Uranus in Taurus expresses as changes in land and soil as a consequence of the workings of Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus already in process. Changes in land stability with subsequent landslides and earthquakes will continue to be notable.
Saturn and Neptune in close contact for most of 2019 offer a perfect opportunity to combine compassion with pragmatism = a benevolent government. It's about balancing out so the practicalities of Saturn are not so rigid and the looseness of Neptune is kept within clear boundaries. The same principles will apply to people in 2019 -the relevance depends upon your inherent nature: -some need to loosen up, some need to be more constrained.

Let Your Ego Die so You Can Live

The myth of the healthy ego was created by an unhealthy ego and has been sustained by unhealthy egos –unavoidably -  because Ego is an unhealthy mental disposition derived from a competitive survival instinct.

In our human existence we feel a compulsion to survive –to breathe, eat, sleep in order to pursue the life that we have emerged into but something else happens when we become alive in human form in a physical construction in a material world - we are faced with having to function in an environment that is unreal, merely a surface layer and in a form that is not who we truly are – and this has mental and emotional consequences in varying degrees from minimal to extreme in each of us.

Our truth is that we are not separate beings, we simply manifest as such in this world in order to discover that truth and we have been trying to learn this for thousands of years. Our origin is simply consciousness without form and that awareness is a collective energy field that operates in a different domain, a different dimension with a higher frequency. Our truth is where there is no labelling because there is no differentiation, it is oneness.

Being manifested out of that origin and into the world we know creates a different level of consciousness that is termed ignorance and unconsciousness and the challenge for each of us is to return to greater consciousness while still living in the everyday world.

This is where Ego needs to be recognised and understood because when Ego is in control of your thoughts and emotions you cannot achieve a higher consciousness. Fortunately it is easy to start this process: just begin to watch your own mind and your own behaviour and quickly you will also see Ego displayed in others.

The Ego is a survivalist strategy born out of the immense shock that arises to be manifested out of oneness and into a physically separate body during worldly existence. The transition period – gestation in the womb – involves being attached just to your mother. Once the cord is cut you face life as a physically separated being whose mission is to transcend through your consciousness that appearance of aloneness and separation – since in the bigger picture you are not separate or alone at all.

But who teaches us that? All the great spiritual masters over thousands of years have delivered this message but ignorance still clouds the interpretation and comprehension of their truth. The Ego particularly is not interested in the scenario of a connected oneness because it that is in complete contradiction of everything that feeds the Ego.

In our human discomfort due to thinking we are separate and thinking in categories and labels, races, classes, cultures, genders the mental constructs surrounding all these differences and distinctions are the breeding ground for competitive, diversive, conflicting and ultimately destructive and annihilating urges.

This process reveals the activity of the Ego at its most fundamental level –seeing others as competition, different, dangerous. In other words a threat, a source of anxiety.

To varying degrees living as a human is inherently a period of mental illness due to the fear and ultimately paranoia that builds in the mind when a person subconsciously believes they are disconnected. Most definitely there is unease, discontent, unhappiness, frustration at the conscious level in many humans but that can intensify if the disconnection is more severe, into murderous acts, mass killing and a range of antisocial criminal behaviours where there is no insight or awareness of what led to those acts.

Those humans who do feel more connected are easily more attuned to the natural world, more respectful of life and other beings. Others show strongly a greater propensity towards the sort of behaviour that snuffs out life. Through thousands of years it has been primarily those in male form who show greater disconnection but unless the present trajectory is altered, more humans in female form will follow this life-opposing disposition.

In the era of the Selfie we are not witnessing an upsurge in confident happy people. We are witnessing more Ego, more display of “look how beautiful/sexy/successful/rich/happy/influential I am – in general more “look at me” and the rise in body alterations from botox to butt lifts to extreme workouts says the same thing. More desire to be better than, to inflate an underlying deflated sense of self.

The pathways followed by Ego are mentally unhealthy because there is an inclination to become progressively more extreme when one fix after another –just like a drug –fails to satisfy that deep yearning for connection. You can never find what you are looking for if you are looking in the wrong place: most definitely the world of form with its experiences of loss and change is not where that search for connection is fulfilled. Only by accessing the sensation and the knowing that we are not inherently physical, that our body is just an outer layer, a vehicle that is inhabited by energy –not a personal energy but a shared collective energy we are all tapped into but mostly unknown, undetected – only by knowing this can we wake up from our sleep-life and remember we are connected to everyone, everything. 

Until then your Ego has full control of your mind but it will die gradually once you start watching it perform all the tactics and tricks used to get attention [which means pull energy from or control others ] –fame and notoriety are the same in Ego terms because both make you Somebody in your own mind. Even ill health, disease and disability can be hijacked by the Ego to command a lot of attention and control. Your sad life story can also be continually recited to try to inflate your significance.

It’s all pointless and best abandoned in view of the larger context of who you truly are. Each life is incredibly short and nothing more than consciousness is left when you disintegrate. You have the opportunity to tap into this consciousness before that occurs. This is not only of personal benefit but will spill over to benefit every person, animal, living plant you interact with while you are still in human form –  overall your higher consciousness has literally universal benefit – the whole of creation.

So choosing to disable your Ego is the kindest most compassionate act you can offer this world - and it simply begins with seeing it perform because that observer is your higher consciousness being brought to the surface.

It may shock you to record how many instances of Ego you enact every day when interacting with others. 

Social media is a popular device for self-inflation. Fishing for compliments re your clothing and appearance is a vintage tactic. Talking about your problems, moaning and complaining all fit the Ego’s needs. Even arguing in order to win people over is a weakness of the Ego in its attempts to feel empowered. None of these deliver any lasting benefits: they are as useful as a hit of sugar.

To extract yourself from this addictive mental pattern means to witness and observe yourself and others closely and requires alert focus or simply being fully present. The more we multitask or converse without listening or drive without focussing or walk into a room and ask “What did I come in here for?” we show that we have shifted away from the reality of the present and allowed our Ego dominated mind to operate us like some remote controlled device. Learning how to focus just on each task, each person with full attention pulls the mind back to the only real existing input – anything else is a mental distraction regarding what has already happened/been said or what might happen/be said in the future – neither exist and by distracting your mental attention with past and future you miss whatever life opportunity is being presented to you immediately in the moment. You may discover that each of those moments is a precious opportunity – or you can choose to keep missing them because you cannot see the reason, the actual significance.

Living life with your Ego disabled opens up much greater depth of calm and contentment. The discovery of paradoxes like this is a joyful experience: knowing that we have misled ourselves terribly in our fearful attempts to adapt to the physical world – and yet it can be undone, our illusions and delusions and ignorant ways can be abandoned. We can live in the world but be not of it – as recommended by one of the masters of wisdom. The question is when will you reach enough suffering to decide that there is that other way.
It has been said that the Meek will inherit the Earth. Who are the Meek? The Meek are those who function in the world without Ego, whose contributions are for the collective good not for personal acclaim.

From an astrological perspective the two main axes of the chart reflect this distinction between outer Ego-based personality -which is the Ascendant or rising sign being on the horizontal plane and the other dimensional aspect of being which is reflected in the Midheaven sign which is on the vertical plane. By examining your birth chart you may see how this expresses or is yet to express if you have not yet accessed fully the potential of your midheaven sign - which often is connected not simply to the worldly possibilities of career or public life, but also to vocation, which means "calling" - the deepest urge from within to express your true essence in this lifetime. This is where your Ego-less contribution can be described and pursued through paths which match that astrological energy.

These thoughts are distilled from the writings of  Eckhart Tolle in addition to Buddhist philosophy and personal cross-disciplinary enquiry over recent decades

Theresa May = True Grit

 We know that Saturn is exalted or operates with great nobility in Libra -so the challenge of Saturn in Capricorn in 2018 to anyone with a Libra Sun between 1-11 degrees during the course of this year - is to function with the utmost grace and measured management of self and others whilst facing enormous opposing forces.
Libra is typically an accommodating, mediating energy that prefers peace over war, keeping the calm over causing any disturbance - but in the cold harsh winds of politics which is represented by Saturn - and Saturn in Capricorn can deliver a great freeze, a lockdown, a showdown, a complete impasse.
Theresa May received all this and more in the context of the Battle of Brexit: great disaffection, being widely criticised and disliked. But she stood firm and has passed the point of the last Saturn square to her sun for another 30 years..which she is likely to avoid.
Saturn on Dec 12 2018 was at 9 degrees -just a degree away from her birth Sun at 8 Libra. But though moving comparatively slowly, it is moving away from her, giving some release from the intense adversity.
Mars will oppose her Sun in mid January - which is an oppositional force which demands further skillful manoeuvering - but overall the worst is over...for some time.

Her astrological string of pearls is Pluto-Mercury-Neptune-Saturn all hovering at or close to 29 degrees in the range from Leo to Scorpio. This means that all 4 forces get detonated at the same time -for better or worse. Pluto next to Mercury gives a laser-like mental insight. Neptune next to Mercury brings in the collective vision, the capacity to see the Big Picture; Neptune next to Saturn puts that vision up against cold harsh realities but when merged these forces are formidable in their sheer determination. Bundled energies like this will always deliver periods of crisis in a person's life. Since November 2018 and including up to May 2019 all the New Moons in the 15 and 14 degree positions activate all the 28-29 pearls so this sequence of solar-lunar positions has reinforced and amplified the intensity of the crisis she has faced.
It is hard to suggest that any post-war leader in Britain has had even a whiff of such a Herculean experience.



BBC reporting