2025: A Liminal Year

“Let go & let God”

Well, I’m just gonna say it.

2025 started out horrifying and has only gotten worse.

In America, this year kicked off with two terrorist attacks, which quickly became blips on the radar as historically destructive wildfires swept through LA. There was a rare snowstorm in the south, and then there was the gut punch of Donald Trump’s inauguration, with his smarmy billionaire friends giving tepid Hunger Games behind him.

Now there’s a slew of executive orders ultimately designed to crash the country — and oh yeah, two literal plane crashes on US soil in less than a week. Hey friends. It’s here. The US Pluto Return is here. Pluto in Aquarius and the fall of western hegemony is here. Pluto is removing the Helm of Hades, opening our eyes wide to what’s been here all along. Are you ready?

2025 is a liminal year. As I’ll explain, collapse is happening fast but slow, and this year in particular represents a bit of a dream space, a time when things will be obvious but hidden at the same time. People who choose to remain in denial about the irreversible changes happening will find signs that support their worldview, but people who have seen and accepted the bigger picture will know that this is an illusion.

What that means is that there’s time to orient yourself, to pull back your investments from what is false and to start finding a new path.

Most of this article won’t be political — it’s my offering for how to use the year’s big astrological currents and thresholds to your own personal advantage. There’s some really empowering astrology coming up in 2025, some transits that can catalyze the inner work you’ve been doing for years into a new, authentic external expression. The veils are dropping away as Neptune enters Aries, and it’s time for many of us to step into a purpose we might not have been able to see before now.

The intention of this breakdown is to help you grab the steering wheel of your life as 2025 unfolds. As an individual, you can orient inside of collapse, figure out which way is up even within the avalanche. Together — well, in my dream world this type of astrological strategy will inform movement and resistance at the highest levels. Since we’re not there yet, maybe this offering can have a more subtle collective impact on how yall — my totally badass readers — make your choices at this crucial bend in the space-time continuum.

Astrology is a map — it’s not the same as going on the journey, and it can’t tell us *exactly* what will happen at any given point. But it can let us know the direction the wind is blowing, the quality of the terrain, the places that might be more dangerous and those that might offer respite or, in the case of this year, that might offer opportunity, advantage and agency. I hope this article helps you lean into the contours of the year, and get wise to how you might work with the timelines.

As you know if you saw Doomer Astrology 301, I’m feeling weirdly hopeful as the darkness closes in. This is not just any old collapse — it’s a collapse happening during an adapt-or-die moment, a period of evolutionary awakening for the whole planet. We get to activate our powers, the powers I know are already online for so many of you. May this offering, and everything you experience in 2025, help to alchemize the expression of your true self — right on time.

There are many reasons that 2025 is a liminal year. Uranus, Saturn and Neptune all change signs this year — but all three are only partway through their transitions as the year ends. Jupiter completes a square to Saturn in June, but moves into another square in the fall, this time with Chiron, which won’t finish until mid-2026. Numerologically 2025 is a 9 year, and so is associated with the Hermit in the tarot, also a liminal, away-from-the-world type of energy.

What that means is, take your expectations away from fruition this year. Think of it as a chance to have all three eyes wide open, taking in a new reality that’s been shrouded in fog until very recently. You have a little time before the haze fully clears. You’ll keep moving toward your goals, and maybe even make big moves at the mid-year cardinal square, but you can rest the grasping part that expects all your intentions to manifest immediately. Use the year to take in the truth around you and trust the longer timelines at play.

After doing 50+ year-ahead readings for private clients, I feel like I know the astrology of 2025 pretty well, and I’ve started to see it as being divided into three parts:

1. the retrograde-heavy first third of the year, very much about introspection and finding alignment
2. the final square between Jupiter and Saturn, symbolizing a big opportunity for action and agency, in wide effect approximately May through August
3. two squares between Jupiter and Chiron that take place during the fall, inviting engagement with karma and healing

PART 1 — RETROGRADE CITY

The entire first third of 2025 is a series of inner-planet retrogrades, which are likely to show up as blockages and obstacles if you try too hard to push your life forward. Mars is retrograde in Cancer until February 23; just a week after it stations, on March 1, Venus goes retrograde in early Aries, followed by Mercury on March 15 at almost the same degree. Venus doesn’t station direct until mid-April, and it’s not until May that all three planets start to emerge from their retrograde shadows. So broadly speaking, we’d all be very, very wise to have low expectations for any big external results or changes to manifest. The astrology wants us to surrender, turn our gaze inward, make internal adjustments and upgrades, and be ready for the opportunities that will show up in the middle of the year.

There’s also another important influence to be aware of. The Jupiter/Saturn square, which peaked twice in 2024 with Jupiter in Gemini and Saturn in Pisces, is still in effect, and will remain so until the final peak on June 15, 2025. That third peak is exciting because it’s in cardinal signs, but that comes later — for now, we’ve got to deal with the mutables. Mutable signs are the ones that happen as the seasons change. They represent energy that is constantly in motion, and can be hard to predict or manage.

With Gemini’s windy air and Pisces’ enormous water, the energy of this transit is like a rushing river or a hurricane. It describes the vast collective changes taking place, and the powerlessness we feel to do anything about them. It also may be pulling you towards personal changes that feel intimidating or overwhelming. This influence will be with us until the beginning of June, and it will keep inviting us to surrender to life’s currents. During the extra-long retrograde season though, don’t be surprised if it has you feeling fragmented, pulled in multiple directions at once.

MARS RX IN CANCER

I can’t really think of a more appropriate archetypal combination than Mars retrograde in Cancer for the hibernation instinct that typically takes over in the winter. Mars, normally focused on external goals and achievements, turns inward when it’s retrograde, asking us to excavate our deepest desires and check whether our plans are in alignment. Our motivation, focus and action power often feel less accessible during this transit, and dips in physical energy levels are common as well. Meanwhile, Cancer is the sign related to the home space, to nurturing and nourishment and rest. Even not retrograde, Mars in Cancer tends to be a homebody, someone who achieves goals in a subtle, intuitive way… ideally in the garden, the kitchen, or while lying in bed.

On some level it’s nice to have archetypes that match the season so precisely, but this also feels like too much. If you’ve been heavy — physically, emotionally, spiritually, or anything else — a big piece of it is this particular transit.

It also goes deeper than simple tiredness. Mars represents our personal willpower, which is currently being overwhelmed by the onslaught of the mutable energies, like a single swimmer in the hurricane. Mars in Cancer has strong themes of protection, a mama bear instinct which is currently directed inward. All this combines to make us extra-susceptible to nervous system collapse, a freeze response. The facts coming in are despair-inducing, and Mars in Cancer metabolizes slowly. In the meantime, it’s very normal if your system is receiving what’s happening right now as a message to play dead.

I’ll offer some advice: first, whenever you can, give into it. Lie in bed until the last minute, or stay there all weekend. Second, grieve. That’s an activity that fits perfectly with Mars rx in Cancer. And third, interspersed with the bedrot, keep moving your body by stretching or walking or anything else, to move the energy through.

VENUS & MERCURY RX // PISCES & ARIES

Mars stations direct on February 23. But before it’s even begun to move forward, Venus and then Mercury go retrograde. Both planets station in early Aries and complete their retrogrades in late Pisces, with Mercury tucked between Venus both in time and in zodiacal location. So they’re really part of the same process — a process that crosses the line between the collective and the individual, and between life and death.

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac and Pisces is the last. Aries symbolizes initiation, the breakthrough of birth, the personal willpower of the seed that cracks itself open. Pisces symbolizes the vast collective, where individuality disappears and the material realm blurs into the dimensions beyond the veil. Planets crossing this threshold go through their own death and rebirth, giving us a glimpse of the mystery through their eyes.

Here’s where it gets really real: Mercury & Venus aren’t the only planets thresholding at this time. On March 28–29, they’re both conjunct Neptune at 29° Pisces, and on March 30, Neptune officially enters Aries. Picture a big old blob emerging out of the ocean into hot sand and scorching sun. We’re going to see something that was hidden before. Collectively, it will probably be scary, but on the personal level what I hope is that many folks will start to see the path of their destiny more clearly.

It’s very potent that Mercury and Venus will be right there to witness this historic Neptune transition. (The last time it happened was 1861, which sorry, you probably didn’t want to know). As personal planets, they’ll bring the more abstract nature of an outer-planet transit home to our experience as individuals. Both retrogrades will heighten our inner awareness, Mercury more in regards to thought and Venus in regards to emotion. Prepare for an overload of feels and mental confusion around this time — but you can also trust that the confusion will be short-lived and/or surface level. Neptune in Aries represents an emergency, a wake-up call, and it will naturally be disorienting at first, but on a deeper level it will be calling each of us in an undeniable way.

General best-practice for Mercury and Venus retrograde is to know that all might not be as it seems. Hold back on important decisions, signing contracts or making big purchases during this time, or if you have to more forward with something, understand that you might not have all the information. When Venus is retrograde, we tend to be hyper-aware of our own emotions, but have trouble tuning into others’ moods or frequencies. Some relationships may unwind, others may come more into focus. Pay attention to your embodied attractions and repulsions during this time, and let them lead you, even when it seems counter-intuitive.

There’s also, for better or worse, an eclipse in Aries on March 29th. So we might consider the end of March the first glance at the road ahead of retrograde city. We won’t fully exit until mid-April, when Venus goes direct. In May, Mercury, Venus and Mars all emerge from their shadows, and this is where a new kind of momentum might finally start to build. Before then, keep your nose to the grindstone, third eye open, and faith strong.

PART 2 — CARDINAL POWER

The most important transit of the year happens in my opinion on June 15, when Jupiter and Saturn complete their set of squares from the first degrees of two cardinal signs, Cancer and Aries respectively. Cardinal signs are the ones that happen at the start of each season, and unlike the mutables, they’re initiatory, autonomous and bold. While Cancer and Aries are two very different energies — and while Saturn dips back into Pisces by the end of the year, meaning some processes will be left undone — overall this transit represents a chance to stand up in the rushing river, to start to exercise more agency over our own lives.

Because of retrogrades, a lot of long-term astrological transits have three peaks. You can think of the trajectory as mapping to the hero’s journey: the first peak is the initiation, the call to action; second is the climax, where the hero fights the dragon; and third is the return home, a time of resolution and integration. The June square between Jupiter and Saturn is the third one, and the first two, which happened in August and December of 2024, were in mutable signs. So the energy change is enormous here, with resolution and initiation coming in at the same time.

Squares guarantee some tension, so don’t expect these energies to be peaceful, or times when everything is flowing naturally together. The vibes are more like using all your strength at the wheel of a great ship, putting in the hard work to stay on course through waves higher than your vessel… and ultimately, succeeding. Give your all, and you’ll have the strength to see the journey through.

Saturn enters Aries on May 24th, following Neptune but never quite catching up — they both station retrograde and come back into Pisces at the end of the year before finally officially conjoining in early 2026. Saturn stays in Aries over the summer, until Sept 1, which means it’s hanging out for three months on the Aries point, the first degree of the zodiac. This is the part that will be a grind. Saturn always asks us to work harder, to put in more effort than expected. The Aries point is powerful and pervasive, singular but also impacting the whole zodiac simultaneously. Aries is about survival, emergency, waking up, springing to action. I predict an electric current running through the collective around this time.

I also predict that you will have work to do, and that you’ll know what it is. The most important thing you can do to work with this energy is to buckle down. It won’t necessarily be directly related to your career or purpose: it may be to hit the gym consistently, show up fully for a struggling loved one, release an addiction or escapist habit, or anything else that requires discipline and effort. Do the work, friend. This is a crucial turning point.

If Saturn in Aries is the lone figure at the helm of the ship, masculine and ferocious with muscles glistening in the storm, Jupiter in Cancer is the ocean herself, an abundance of water that makes its own rules, defines its own reality. The individual is a speck within its vastness. This energy is not malicious — rather, it’s awesome, in the spiritual sense of the word. The worthy sailor is one who approaches the ocean with respect, aware that she can bring him to his knees. Jupiter in Cancer will bring in a rush of emotion, connection and intuition. Our job will be to let it guide us while also holding down the fort with devotion to our Saturnian work.

Cancer means themes of home, protection, food, nourishment, safety, meeting basic needs. It’s about mothers and babies, the womb space, breasts, milk, mana. It can also relate to land, especially fertile land, land near water. At its best, it’s about deep emotional connection, stability and unconditional love. These are the energies we can call on when Jupiter enters Cancer, where it stays until June 2026.

A square indicates tension: two areas of the life or psyche that have conflicting needs or modes of operating. A key to navigating them is to be able to hold that tension, without collapsing one or the other points of the square. Early Cancer in your natal chart will be an area of the chart that’s expanding, probably without much effort from you at all. But early Aries will be the work, where it’s imperative you exercise Saturnian discipline. It might feel like you want two different things and you can’t have both. But go deeper: there is an unavoidable activation happening with so much cardinal energy around, and both points are charging each other up. Figure out how to give them each what they need.

After the square peaks, Jupiter moves on, while Saturn stations at 01 Aries on July 13. There’s another wild vibe change right around then too: Uranus enters Gemini on July 7. We’ll feel this in the weeks leading up to it. If the last two Uranus ingresses are any indication, we can expect a major weather event: in 2018, its movement from Aries to Taurus corresponded with the Kīlauea eruption, while its transition from Pisces to Aries completed on March 11, 2011, the exact day of the Japanese tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster.

I’ll be straightforward and say that this is probably when the stock market will crash. I can’t imagine Uranus leaving Taurus without it happening, and even though we technically have until April 2026 before the ingress completes, the sweeping changes being implemented by the Trump administration RIGHT NOW make me doubt we’ll make it that long.

If reading that panicked you — invitation to take a quick stretch.

On the personal level, Uranus in Gemini will relate to communication. Words will start to mean different things — reality could become even more fragmented than it already is. Our social media lives will get stranger; maybe a new app will show up. While Pluto in Aquarius does look like increasing tech surveillance, Uranus in Gemini makes me think it will be hard to fully implement. Get ready for a revolution in your own thinking, in the narratives you carry and the stories you tell, and in the way you share them with others. Get ready for creativity and out of the box problem solving. Get ready for more telepathy, perhaps evidence of or technology for telepathy. Remember, whatever the crisis, it’s time to step into our power.

PART 3 — CHIRON & A CLIFFHANGER

Saturn’s re-entrance into Pisces on Sept 1 describes a sea change. While whatever is initiated in the summer won’t dissipate, there might be a feeling of the path disappearing, becoming flooded or covered in mud. Neptune re-enters Pisces in late October, and the collective haze and denial may return.

However, Jupiter moves forward into a square with Chiron, which is tightly in effect October through December, and has a final peak in June 2026. Chiron is in late Aries, making this another cardinal square, another chance to assert willpower and autonomy. But the direction will be different — it will need to be toward healing. The moment feels vulnerable to me, like there could be some kind of collective pain. The universe will be asking us to lean into it, to bring love and compassion and gentleness to a karmic wound.

This will be true on the individual level, too. Jupiter will draw attention to the late degrees of both Cancer and Aries, amplifying Chiron’s long, slow journey through Aries (2018–2027). Chiron will be a place in your psyche that feels a little weak right now, somewhere you’ve lost your normal fire and spunk. Whatever’s happening in late Cancer will likely trigger that weak spot.

Saturn is Chiron’s father in mythology, and there are some archetypal overlaps between them. But in this context, it will help to be aware of the differences, and what they tell us about how we might co-create with the astrology. While Saturn is stern, harsh and essentially abandons his son, Chiron is the gentle healer, the half-animal, the outcast and the abandoned one. He’s a genius with a good heart, but his story doesn’t have a happy ending. To work effectively with Chiron is to be still with a wound and learn its secrets. It’s not to try to force that wound to heal.

To pick up our ship metaphor again: Chiron is the captain of the Titanic. He knows the ship’s going down. A weak version of him would be sprawled on the deck. But a strong Chiron will show up for his people, offering wisdom, taking responsibility, helping folks to integrate the tragic reality. You don’t have to show up externally for anyone else, unless that’s your calling. But you can bring this high-vibe version of Chiron to how you show up for yourself, how you hold yourself in your own karma and personal predicaments.

Since Aries is about identity, I think a core theme of this transit is: who did you come here to be? Are you being that person? Chiron in Aries asks us to go deeper than labels and idpol. Who are you at the deepest part of your being? What do you absolutely know to be true? What would you put your life on the line for?

Chiron is a bridge, a force that helps us hold duality and integrate shadow into conscious awareness. This is where the healing happens, and just like a real wound, the ideal conditions for it are gentleness and patience. While Saturn might be the reps necessary to rehabilitate an injury, with Chiron the wound is always fresh, always sensitive and vulnerable. This is not the time to push yourself. It’s a time to rest, nourish, pray, and observe.

In November, Uranus moves back into Taurus, and perhaps the most liminal phase of the year comes in. If the market crashes earlier in the year, it might shoot up again around this time; if the jenga tower is still somehow standing, this could be when shit gets real. Either way, the media’s hypernormalization campaigns will continue to be effective, and another wave of complacency could take hold.

We’ll have to hold tight through the winter, and wait for the big wakeup call: Saturn conjunct Neptune at 00° Aries, on Feb 20, 2026. By the time we’re turning the corner into 2027, there will be a much fuller awareness that something irreversible has happened, and that we’re never going back again.

I’ll finish with one other piece of astrology, an axis of themes you can be working with throughout the year. In January, the nodes changed signs, with the south node now in Virgo and the north node in Pisces. They stay in one set of signs for about 18 months, so the timeframe of this transit corresponds roughly to the Jupiter/Chiron square and all three zodiacal ingresses. Eclipses happen close to the nodes, so these themes might be most alive in during eclipse seasons in March and September, but there’s also a flow you can work with all year long.

The south node by transit helps us to surface and release old karmic layers. Sometimes part of its process is that we enact the lower-vibe version of a sign, needing to work the toxic aspects out through our emotions and experiences. In Virgo, it could show up as impatience, rigidity, doubt, heavy criticism, argument for argument’s sake, and a feeling of weakness, low self-worth, the need to control small things in order to feel like you have any power at all.

Meanwhile the north node calls us to evolve, lean in, move past a growth edge in regards to whatever sign its in. Pisces is about surrender, allowing the edges of reality itself to blur. It invites us to expand our sense of what’s possible, while also knowing that everything material is an illusion. It’s about our spirituality, but not through the middleman of religion — Pisces is about our personal connection with the Divine.

The phrase “let go & let God” might be the perfect summation of this year’s nodal journey. The big shifts usually happen around eclipses, but this is a theme you can work with the entire year. Even if you’re not conscious of it, it will be operating in the background during all the other drama. And while Saturn in Aries is definitely NOT about surrender… the north node in Pisces might help balance the energy, reminding us that there’s only so much our little human selves can do to change the waterfall of history.

Thanks for reading! I hope this guide helps you plan your year according to the cosmic currents. If you can, buy me a coffee so I can keep putting out in-depth content like this for free. You can also find me on Instagram @collapseastrology :)