2023 will be another hugely eventful year of change, bringing surprises, endings and new beginnings both in world events, and in our personal situation.
The World card is a card of completions and endings. These are unsettled times, at least until 2025. Change is always unsettling and we are at a major turning point, the end of an era and the beginning of a new age.
The Fool card says we are turning a new page, bringing new challenges but also opportunities. We are witnessing and experiencing some kind of new birth, and birthing can be difficult. 2023 will be yet another hugely eventful year of surprises, endings and new beginnings in world events and in our personal situation.
Sometimes we can feel trapped or stuck. We are not in control of all the events that shape and direct our lives. At other times we need to take a leap of faith in order to get anywhere. It may not be comfortable. It may be frightening even, but the rewards are worth it. Later, we are glad that we did it.
The zero stands for new beginnings. We take a big leap. Sometimes this means taking a chance, making a leap in the dark. The Fool card advises us to be brave this year and jump in, but the little dog is barking. This is a reminder that there is a difference between courage and foolhardiness. Do not disregard advice, and don’t ignore warning signs, but The Fool card has been drawn in its positive mode, representing offers and opportunities. Fortune favors the brave. Go for it in 2023!
Background: a review of our Psychic Predictions for 2022
The study of great events in history has revealed something fascinating- that astrology is really on to something and always has been, even before science and astronomy caught up.
Large planetary cycles correlate and reflect changing patterns in human behavior when we are observed as a collective whole. Empires have risen and fallen, revolutions, wars, mass movements of people, epidemics, technological and medical breakthroughs. You name it. They have been tracked and mapped in time against the ancient meanings of the major planetary movements.
Predictions need a background- a context for interpretation. We have been living through especially turbulent times since the spring of 2020 when the planetary giants Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus formed a tight, unfriendly square and the covid 19 pandemic took hold on much of the world.
Saturn is the planet that rules pandemics. Taurus rules the throat- the point of entry for the disease. Uranus in Taurus brings upheaval of the world’s money. It disrupts the things that were normal and usual. It ushers in ‘the new normal.’
This is where we are at, and it will continue for some time, the astrology suggests, until 2025/2026.
Before we look in more depth at the astrological weather in 2023, and how this might look and feel for us, let’s take a look at the context and remind ourselves of a few of the predictions we made for 2022.
2022
2022 has been a tsunami of a year, dominated by war, civil unrest, mass migration by land and sea, catastrophic flooding, and all things to do with the breaching of boundaries and borders. This has included the travel and spread of new variants of the coronavirus, traveling by land, sea and air, breaching our auto-immune defences.
We predicted major upheavals to do with the blurring and breaching of boundaries and borders. These were predicted in the Tarot by the appearance of the Hanged Man. This card is ruled by the zodiac sign of Pisces and it has a powerful Jupiter, Neptune and Mars influence.
Jupiter= ambition
Neptune =water, dreams, lack of borders
Mars = aggression, fire, war
Ukraine
We predicted major issues to do with borders and boundaries, with a watery theme. The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February happened in Pisces season. The maritime city of Mariupol was devastated. Then Russia blockaded maritime grain shipments for a short period, threatening food supplies to many parts of the world including Africa and the Middle East.
Queen Elizabeth the Second
We predicted the passing of a much loved national figurehead to come in Leo season or after (Leo is late July-late August. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 passed away 8 September in Virgo Season.) The reader did not name the person. That would not be right or ethical, but it was the Queen of Pentacles who was seen in the reading. This card rules the Earth signs, Capricorn, Virgo and Taurus. Her Majesty, RIP, was a Taurus subject.
But the Queen was not only a national figurehead. She was a global figurehead, the Head of The Commonwealth.
“The Commonwealth is made up of 54 member states from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. The member states are home to a total of over 2.4 billion people.”
The Queen represented a link with Britain’s past, domestically and globally after the end of Empire, a link to the generations who lived through the Second World War. That emotionally powerful symbolic link is broken now. Here again, is the World card, meaning the completion of a cycle or the end of an era.
Flooding
We predicted a higher-than-usual risk of major flooding in 2022. Heavy rains caused a disastrous landslide in Peru in March 2022. Pakistan experienced unprecedented monsoon flooding June-August affecting millions of people. Australia has also experienced unusually severe flooding in 2022, from February to late April and then again from October onwards and is experiencing more flooding at the time of writing.
China and Taiwan
We predicted a risk of escalation of tensions in the Strait of Taiwan in the second half of the year. This later manifested in the wake of Nancy Pelosi’s official US visit to Taiwan, 2 August 2022. This was seen as a formal recognition of Taiwan’s independent sovereign status, subsequent to China’s signing of the China- Solomon Islands Security Pact signed in April 2022.
This agreement has been viewed as a significant potential threat to the US and its allies including Australia, paving the way for the presence of Chinese military installations in the Solomon Islands.
So what about 2023?
An Overview of 2023 – Psychic Predictions
Change is the only thing that is constant, but there are quieter periods of change, and then there are dramatic or traumatic periods of change. It is clear that we are not going back to ‘normal’ any time soon, taking January 2019 as a benchmark of the previous ‘normal’.
We talk about history in terms of ages and eras- The Greeks, the Romans, The Ming Dynasty, the Renaissance, and so on.
The big story in the astrology of 2023 is Pluto in Aquarius. We are leaving an age of Capricorn and entering a new Age of Aquarius. It starts in spring 2023 when Pluto leaves Capricorn and goes into Aquarius. It will only stay there for three months, and then we go back into Capricorn for a while. But it will go back into Aquarius in 2024, and this time it will stay there until 2044.
This 20-year planetary transit means big changes to the organization of society, to the global economy, to the mining industries (this means not only fossil fuels, but lithium and cobalt) to crypto-currency, to science and digital, space and medical technology.
Pluto in Aquarius can unseat plutocrats, rulers whose power is based primarily in personal wealth/plutocracy (this includes Putin and Lukashenko, the dictatorial president of Belarus.)
Pluto was last in Aquarius in 1778-1798. This was a period of revolutions. It brought sweeping changes-sometimes with a great deal of violence. It brought the Industrial Revolution in Britain. It brought the French Revolution. It brought American Independence. It brought the start of the movement for women’s rights. The next twenty years will be bringing social changes on this kind of scale.
The World in 2023
The risk of severe flooding in 2023 is looking lower this year when compared with the risk of flooding we detected at the beginning of 2022. We may notice more solar flares, with possible effects on the earth’s magnetic shield and satellite technologies,
The covid pandemic is not over yet. We are witnessing a new wave this coming winter, and this will likely continue into January and February 2023 (Mars in Gemini.)
The risk of a there being a nuclear accident or attack instigated by the Russian President cannot be discounted, but is not looking likely to happen, and the risk diminishes further after the end of March. There will be no asteroid striking Earth.
Technology
Aquarius is the sign of technology. Pluto in Aquarius will mean exciting new developments in mining technologies, digital technologies, crypto-currencies or space tech. Some of this we will see in 2023. There may be an event or an accident involving a satellite or something similar. But we will not be hit by any asteroid.
Pluto is the planet of death and regeneration. This includes genetics. Pluto in Aquarius says that there will be exciting discoveries in medical science. We have recently seen the first cloning of red blood cells in a lab setting. There will be more like this in 2023.
Manufacturing will enter a new phase in those countries which closed down their manufacturing in favor of globalism, choosing instead to rely on cheap imports of goods manufactured elsewhere.
The war in Ukraine and China’s attitude towards Taiwan, the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, has shown those developed nations that this was a serious mistake. They must rebuild their own manufacturing capabilities back again as fast as possible, and in 2023 they will be using new, robotic technology to do it.
Migration
We will see more urgent issues in 2023 to do with mass migration, particularly in the spring. This is not only in Europe, but is partly in consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though it is also the aftermath of extreme weather events, such as the floods in Pakistan in 2022. There will also be issues to do with shortages in food production.
Attached to these events, exacerbated by them, there will be ever greater numbers of people on the move in 2023 as shown by the people in the boats in The Six of Swords card below, with critical legal and political developments in respect of uncontrolled channel migration in the UK, possibly taking effect by mid-late spring when Saturn (law and order) goes into Pisces (the sea).
The growing scale of migration is an emergency, not only for genuine refugees, but for those destination countries, and the strain on their infrastructure and their own populations, trying to accommodate the needs of unprecedented numbers of new arrivals.
Mars, planet of action goes into watery Cancer, planet of defence and protection of the home Mar 25, 2023 – May 20, 2023. We could see big news here to do with traffic at sea in the English Channel, or to do with events at sea in the Black Sea, the Strait of Hormuz os the Strait of Taiwan. This action, if taken will be defensive in nature.
China and Taiwan
The reader is seeing heated words and gestures, with possible further Chinese naval incursions or illegal entry of Taiwanese air space. What is not being shown is an attempt to launch an actual invasion in 2023.
The reader drew the Eight of Diamonds for China. Eight represents stability, Diamonds is money and government. President Xi is looking cautious this year, and seems anxious to maintain economic stability. He will avoid taking risks on anything that will seriously destabilize it the prosperity of China. Putin’s actions in Ukraine, by shrinking western economies are indirectly threatening China’s economic interests at a time when it is seeking to recover from the effects of the covid pandemic.
The UK
The Conservative government is having a tough time in January and February but Labour has also alienated its own electorate and has hard lessons to learn. The UK will carry on supporting Ukraine in 2023. The coronation of King Charles 111 is planned for May but there could be changes to this date. King Charles continues to have worries to do with “a child who is living overseas,” shown by The Sun card drawn reversed and the Three of Wands.
The UK could have a good year in terms of inward foreign investment (Jupiter in Taurus.) There could be ambitious long-term plans for improvements to our waterways after growing concerns about pollution (Pluto in Aquarius, Saturn in Pisces, Mars in Cancer.)
The national mood improves later in the year during a more buoyant optimistic Jupiter-Pluto alignment around August-September, possibly due to more popular government initiatives.
Russia and Ukraine
It may prove significant for the war in Ukraine, bringing big changes for the Russian President, whose natal ascendant is in Capricorn while the Ukrainian President is an Aquarius subject. This is likely to represent a key juncture for him, and possibly a hopeful opportunity for the ending of hostilities with Ukraine in a strong negotiating position.
A number of Vedic astrologers have said it looks entirely possible that the current president will remain in power in Russia until 2030. On the other hand, UK/Australian Astrologer Jessica Adams predicted on her website on 13 March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that Pluto’s temporary departure from Capricorn on 24 March 2023 will mark the beginning of the end for the current president as the man in power in Russia.
The Tarot does not show that the Russian President can stay in power until 2030. March–May does look like a critical time in the course of this war, as represented by repeated appearances of The Hanged Man (Pisces.)
The writer does not see that there will be a ceasefire sooner than this, but things may start to calm during this period by a series of steps and stages. Russia has already failed to annex Ukraine in entirety. Will Russia be able to hang on to all four of those illegally annexed territories in Ukraine? No. Ukraine will very slowly reclaim much if not all of this territory with the possible exception of Donetsk. Russia will now remain a permanent threat to Ukraine and therefore the stability in Eastern Europe.
Europe
The political solidarity of Europe could be tested this year, particularly around April and August, but there could be new ideas and proposals for reorganization within the European Union in May/June and Germany seems to be doing better after February 2023, going into economic recovery.
The US
2023 could mean a political change in the United States which is currently experiencing its first Pluto return. This is a time when empires and dynasties have risen or fallen. President Biden has come through the mid-term US Elections slightly better than predicted, not strongly, but securely enough for now. Rightly or wrongly, the reader is not detecting a second term for Donald Trump after 2024, and is not detecting Kamala Harris as a future US President. But America is still deeply divided at this time. Ron DeSantis, currently governor of Florida, is a man to watch in 2023 as a possible future contender for another Republic presidency in 2024.
The Chinese Year of the Rabbit (兔年 tùnián)
A Year of New Hope
Celebrated this new year throughout the Far East, we enter the Year of the Rabbit. This is a year of the black rabbit. Black represents the element of water in Chinese astrology. The Year of the Rabbit, as with all the animal signs in the Chinese zodiac, comes round once every twelve years.
2023 Chinese New Year Day is on Tuesday 22 January 2023. The first day of the 2023 Chinese Astrology Year is 4 February 2023. This date is different from the Chinese New Year Day, which is based on the Chinese lunar calendar. The Chinese Astrology Years starts at the time of the first New Moon following the winter solstice.
The first day of the Chinese astrological year is also the first day of Tiger Month. If a baby was born before 4 February then the baby’s Chinese Zodiac sign is the Tiger, not the Rabbit.
You are a Rabbit if you were born in the following years: 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
Be aware, the dates vary depending on that first new moon date. If your birthday is in February you may need to check the dates in February for that particular year.
The Year of the Black (Water) Rabbit ends 9 February 2024 when we will enter a new Dragon year.
The rabbit is believed to be one of the happiest Chinese zodiac signs. People born in a Rabbit year are known for kindness, reliability, loyalty and also elegance and a certain air of mystery. People born in a year of the Rabbit are quick-witted, sociable, careful and inventive – occasionally ingenious.
The Rabbit is not confrontational. This Rabbit year is expected to be a little quieter overall than 2022, the year of the Water Tiger. The Tiger is outward, expansive Yang energy. The Rabbit is creative but with a watchful, wary, inward Yin energy. March, the Chinese Month of the Rabbit is therefore looking like the key month for launching new jobs, plans, projects and enterprises.
March-April 2023 is the optimal time for new opportunities. This is the time to make a push and to persist. “The early bird catches the worm”.
The diplomatic Rabbit brings hope of a ceasefire in Ukraine and an easing of tensions in other areas.
Economic and financial matters will start to improve from late February onwards. Astrologers in India are predicting a boom year of economic growth for India. The last Rabbit year, 2011, signified positive news for the economy, curbing inflation. Chinese astrology suggests that 2023 will be challenging but in general, calmer than 2022.
Lucky colors in a Rabbit year
These colours are lucky for everyone but especially lucky for rabbit natives: green, blue, black, beige, white, silver, gold.
In Summary
Buckle up for an eventful, sometimes bumpy ride in 2023, particularly until the end of March. But good-natured, creative and sensible Jupiter in Taurus from May onwards, and smooth and beautiful Venus in diplomatic Libra from November suggest a year that quietens down as we pass mid-summer.
Both Taurus and Libra are ruled by Venus, the celestial antidote to the aggressive Mars energy that has been ruling the roost since early in 2022.
How do we best navigate this year at a personal level?
The Two of Coins
You have got a lot on your plate, rushing to and fro. But you are coping, just about. Drop spare baggage but take your time. Don’t force the issue. Do not “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Delay making any big decisions until you feel confident that you have all the information you need, and you feel sure of the ground.
The Ace of Coins is a powerful and positive card of new beginnings to do with money, work and career. It can also be a new home. It can be a garden. This is about keeping at it, working steadily to build, to grow and to accumulate your resources. Its color is green; a bright beautiful springtime green, like fresh new leaves on a tree. The Ace of Coins or Pentacles says, take it steady but keep going. Your hard work pays off. When it comes to love and romance, the Ace of Coins says this one is serious. It is time to start building a life together. Here is Jupiter in Taurus again from 16 May onwards, and this is an excellent placement when it comes to attracting luck through hard work, patience and practicality.
The Ten of Cups is the card of a happy home and happy relations between family members. There will be times early in the New Year when we might be feeling more irritable than usual.
The Ten of Cups is ruled by the zodiac sign of Pisces, and by the planets Jupiter and Mars. Gently does it around family members this year, especially with siblings. 2023 is going to be demanding, even difficult at an individual level, especially in the first half of the year. But we are helped along the way by wonderful Jupiter in Taurus and lovely Venus in Libra.
Jupiter in Taurus is also great news for training, higher education and publishing, while Venus in Libra is good news for romance and creative and artistic pursuits towards the end of the year.
It really does look as though determined efforts will pay off, especially for Taureans, but also for anyone else all the way from 16 May 2023- 25 May 2024.
Wishing you a very happy, lucky, healthy, and prosperous New Year 2023!
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine, BA Hons, Cert Ed, is an intuitive Tarot reader, consultant, and variously published writer in the UK. She has been reading the Tarot professionally since 2006 and has been featured for this work in “Fate and Fortune” magazine. Katie-Ellen’s Website | Twitter
