Now is the time to envision the future we want to experience. The sky’s the limit. There’s no room for holding back.

There’s no denying that the effects of Pluto, having moved into Aquarius this past November, are thunderously under way.

This shift only happens once every 248 years, btw.

So it’s expected that we’d be feeling a bit, ahem, wobbly right now.

The last time Pluto — planet of death, rebirth, transformation and the underworld — hung out in the humanitarian-focused, progress & innovation-driven, head-in-the-clouds zodiac sign of Aquarius?

Was in the 1780’s.

Y’know…

The era of the French Revolution and, yes, right around the American Revolution, too.

The mystics warned us.

The astrologers have been telling us.

The spiritual gurus have all been laying out the possibilities for months — years, even — about what this very potent, possibly painful yet momentous reality might entail.

They told us it wouldn’t be pretty.

But now, curiously, they’re all saying, “Get imaginative.”

For the past few weeks as I’ve been hearing them tell me this through podcasts and webinars, I’ve wondered to myself, “WTF? How’s that gonna help? What, we’re supposed to deny what’s happening before our very eyes, and let our heads wander up in the clouds? I don’t think so!”

But I’m starting to understand.

Because something tells me this shift doesn’t have to be quite so horrifying as it seemingly is, right now.

And that we actually hold a TON of power to determine what happens next.

What a numbskull I was to have had my doubts that astrology is actually real AF. To have questioned whether Pluto in Aquarius could actually be that bad.

Pshaw!

Despite the fact that I work, primarily, in the “woo” space as a Human Design analyst and paradigm-shifting parenting coach, which largely depends upon the ancient wisdom of astrology, I am, first and foremost, a practical person;

skeptical by nature, a doubter with a boisterous B.S. Detector, and highly resistant to jumping on bandwagons or getting caught espousing flighty fantasies.

I’m a realist, yo.

So I really didn’t wanna believe that the predictions would come true.

I had hoped the effects would be less…obvious.

Less…real.

Yet, here we are. It’s February of 2025. And, I dunno about you, but at least my reality seems to be crumbling.

It’s all right here, all of it, in plain sight, precisely what Pluto in Aquarius has been promising all along;

what it has always had in store for us,

and it’s not so very differently this time from the way it was last time we found ourselves here,

when all those hungry French peasants were destined to eat cake:

The crumbling of our institutions.

The rise of individualism.

Advancements in technology.

(At the end of the 18th century, we had the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, which brought about the steam engine, the parachute, the Spinning Jenny, the power loom and other technological innovations,

whereas now, we’ve been shepherding in AI, crypto, space exploration, and who knows what else is coming down the pike…)

Pluto, lurking in Aquarius, has and always will bring forth into the light that which has been hiding in the shadows.

And ohmystars, are the shadowiest parts of our societies rearing their ugly heads.

Proud Boys, e.g.

Notably, however, this shift also promises to bring the decentralization of power.

So, I daresay the authoritarianism that seems to be trending in certain circles at the moment is unlikely to last.

If Pluto in Aquarius has anything to say about it, one single orange-toned blowhard — even if he does have friends with money and power — can’t be in charge of everything.

Nor, however, can one big powerful institution, it seems.

And so it is that we are beginning this transformative shift away from what we thought we knew for sure —

where we could rely on certain systems to work in a certain way, and we knew what to expect from them, lousy and inadequate or not —

and we move into a new period, which is, right now, kinda sorta unknown, but not entirely a mystery.

What do we do with this?

How, exactly, do we operate day by day while we watch, dizzyingly, one side of our government make meaningful strides to effectively tear down the institutions we’ve all come to rely on,

while the other side of our government dumbfoundedly reacts to it — flat-footed a bit, hanging onto decorum and procedure, clawing to maintain any semblance of the status quo, and until recently, scattered in their messaging and slow to respond?

I believe this moment presents us with a choice, and also, an assignment.

We can get mad as hell, and surely we are already there.

We can cling to the way things have always been done,

demand that nothing changes,

that our systems go right back to business as usual,

the way we’re comfortable with —

even though so many have had to settle for morsels as long as they got some piece of the pie.

Or we can dare to think differently.

We can use this uncomfortable-as-hell moment to reimagine our existence and our future in a totally different way.

The concept I’m getting at is better articulated by Astrologer Steven Forrest at his blog, so I’ll let him say it:

“People are arguing a lot on Earth today. What if everybody is wrong, you included? Let’s remember that if humanity gets this passage right, it will shock us. The answers that are trying to emerge do not exist yet. Nobody has them. Pluto in Aquarius is about creating them. Get ready to be surprised, in other words. Get ready to realize the Earth is round when all along you’ve been thinking it was obviously flat as a pancake.”

This perspective gives me, thank Gaia, a fair dose of hope.

We don’t know all there is to know.

New solutions are still forthcoming.

The possibilities are actually endless.

We don’t have to settle for what the crazy-town Fascists are dishing up.

We can articulate our own vision of what we really want in the world.

And it could potentially come true.

Isn’t that expansive?

Hear me out.

In Human Design terms, we’re undergoing even more transformation right now beyond what Pluto in Aquarius is bringing.

Let us go farther back in time than the 1780’s and all the way back to the early 1600’s.

Think Plymouth Rock, the Salem Witch Trials…you get my drift.

That was a timeframe that kicked off the epoch we are currently still in now and which will officially end in 2027.

It’s called the epoch of the Cross of Planning.

At its dawn, circa 1612 or 15 (??), it brought us colonization and colonialism,

the overpowering of indigenous cultures,

monarchies,

the execution of women — at least, those who practiced ancient medicinal techniques and higher consciousness —

baroque architecture,

significant scientific advancements,

collective systems and the establishment of large institutions,

and so on.

This 400-some-odd-year epoch is specified in the Rave Mandala through the energies of Gates 40, 37, 9 and 16, which blend together to showcase their various themes of: 

service to the tribe; establishing norms to hold communities together; bargaining with each other; hard work; determination; mastering skills; using our talents to achieve material goals; and deep, sustained focus on small details.

(Fwiw, the epoch that preceded the Cross of Planning was the Cross of Consciousness, characterized by awareness of patterns, progress and change, experiential learning, logic and analysis…)

Nevertheless, we find ourselves here, now at the middle-of-the-end of the Cross of Planning; and with Pluto in Aquarius.

So…either way you slice it, what we’ve always known and come to rely on is rapidly ending.

The Veterans’ Administration. The Treasury. The Department of Education. Health & Human Services. All of it.

They’re tearing it all down. Burning it beyond recognition.

And here you and I stand now: grieving and gobsmacked, baffled and whiplashed, and, admittedly, furious —

yet our fury seems to have nowhere to go — but into the social media echo chamber or perhaps into our local congressperson’s already-full voicemail box.

I won’t deny that I have found myself these last couple of weeks feeling stuck — in a deep, frozen, kind of hopeless despair.

I know many of you have felt the same.

So…how do we cope? How do we wake up ready to face each new day? What are we to do?

Most, on the left, say we fight.

And I don’t disagree.

(The Gate of the Fighter is my Conscious Earth. It’s damned stabilizing for me to put my fists up.)

Here’s the thing: While I know what most folks like me are fighting against —

White supremacy. Christian nationalism. War-and-fear-mongering. Injustice. Lies. Hate. The expulsion and horrific treatment of predominantly good-hearted, hardworking, decent human beings. Oligarchy. Fascism. Racism. Sexism. And so on and so on and so on…

I guess what I’m not super clear on is what we are fighting for, exactly.

As the Cross of Planning comes to a close and Pluto’s already doing its Aquarian thing, we sit at the precipice of a new epoch and, one might say, a new opportunity;

an epoch called the Cross of the Sleeping Phoenix.

This cross is made up of the energies from Gates 55, 59, 34 and 20:

55 – Abundance of spirit, focus on the self, and really big emotions;

59 – Sexuality and breaking through barriers to establish real intimacy;

34 – Power, productivity, and the ability to rally enthusiasm around a common cause;

20 – Contemplation & articulation, self-expression in the moment, spontaneity, urgency, Everything Right Now!

Many of the same astrologers and gurus in the woo space also add that this new era that’s upon us is calling upon the Divine Feminine to return.

Where those witches who’d been burnt at the stake for practicing consciousness and care will step back onto the scene,

and they’re potentially going to have beef with their persecutors.

Or maybe they’ll just be all flowy and divine;

sacred bosoms on full display;

infants openly suckling.

No one really knows.

Regardless…what do we do with this?

To which I counter with yet more questions:

Is it possible that we could move forward from this hyper-frantic state a little more proactively from now on?

Rather than simply responding with rage and reacting with fear, can we prepare a bit for what’s to come with our heads on straight and our hearts in check?

What if the rise of the Sleeping Phoenix does bring back the sacred feminine?

We’ve already been seeing her these past few years, oppressed just as much as ever, fighting against the destruction of Roe V. Wade, shouting Me Too into the void, and now, with her reproductive parts under threat…

How do we want this to go moving forward?

Can we make plans now to rein in this shift — which is no-doubt taking place before our very eyes whether we want it to or not — so that we’re more equipped to pivot and proceed whilst standing in our power?

What might that look like?

I don’t have the answers. But I do have a suggestion or two —

mind you, again, I’m not pie-in-the-sky kind of thinker.

It has taken me hours and hours and hours of self-reflection, toil, tears, hand-wringing, journaling, self-abuse by chocolate, sleeplessness and grief to arrive simply at this place where I might be able to even reframe the current situation and ask myself these questions.

But I wonder what’s actually possible if we can, collectively or individually, shift our perspective away from the perpetual chaos and anger, and begin to use the power of our imagination.

Like, this is what the astrologists are saying. I get it now.

We have the power to think beyond fearing and fighting against MAGA and neo-Naziism and ultra-conservatism and white supremacy and oligarchy and The Handmaid’s Tale…

*******AND INSTEAD******

To think up OUR OWN set of ideals and visualize our perfect reality,

so that we have something to put on the table when, eventually, they fail so miserably that they look at us with sheepish eyes and say,

“Well, shit. That blew up in our faces. Does anyone here have a better idea?”

We’re not gonna all agree on what that perfect ideal ought to be, that’s for sure.

But I think it’s a worthwhile exercise to at least consider new potentials and new possibilities.

So…

Let us have the germ of a plan in place for what tomorrow and tomorrow (and tomorrow and the days after that) might look like;

a vision in mind, at least;

some morsel of idea for what the future could entail,

which could potentially be wayyyyyy better than what we know now,

because if we’re being honest with ourselves (and really I’m talking to my fellow white people here), the systems we know and love have not truly, adequately served the whole.

A LOT of people have been left out of the conversation and not benefitted from the way things have been going.

Obviously.

So let’s take this opportunity — even as the institutions we hold dear are being burnt to a crisp — to not stand by and grit our teeth, but to imagine the reality we wish to exist within, instead.

One that is more just, more nourishing, more supportive, more expansive, more welcoming, more sustainable, more open, more suitable for us and our families to thrive in,

than the imperfect one that many of us are trying to hold onto in vain at the moment.

Because if we can’t articulate some kind of vision for what’s fair, good and right, we’ll be left with what they’re offering right now:

White supremacy and trad wifery. No public education or public health protections. Anti-LGBTQIA+.

Hate-filled, war-mongering, Christian nationalism —

all that stuff they see in their mind’s eye as their ideal vision for the future.

As Abraham-Hicks always says, the more you focus on what you don’t want, the more of that very thing you keep getting.

So shift what you’re thinking about to what you do want.

Imagine if we did that as a collective; a little bit each day. How powerful that might be!

If we can’t envision, imagine and articulate our perfect future, we don’t stand a chance at truly thriving.

We’ll have missed our chance to shape the world and determine our future.

This transformation is happening.

We’re not gonna stop it, no matter how hard we try.

But we can help to direct it, work within it, stand in our power through it all, and roll with the changes that come.

I’m no stranger to burning things down and starting over again from scratch. So I see what the R’s are trying to do. And their supporters think what’s coming will be better than ever.

Starting over has been my entire life story. And I know what a mess folks can make of their lives if they don’t mind all their P’s and Q’s.

So I’m not scared. I think they’re going to self-destruct.

But as far as we’re concerned, I’m looking for us to devise our plans.

So? I challenge each of us to sit with the following questions.

And these are just meant to get us all spit-balling here — by all means, come up with your own list. Get creative.

Journal. Play with possibilities. Let your mind wander and your imagination get weird.

Come up with a picture in your mind’s eye that feels expansive and supportive and nourishing and light, and start holding that vision every goddamned day from here on out:

• What does your ideal future look like?
• Who’s a part of it? What do you do all day? Where do you live? What’s your home like?
• How might communities function in a way where everyone thrives?
• What services, organizations, partnerships or collaborations might exist to support our needs and goals?
• What do your surroundings include: are the trees and wildlife flourishing? How do we care for the planet and the environment in this new reality?
• What does wealth mean in the new paradigm? How are people being provided for? What resources get shared, divided, earned or distributed? What makes a person abundant?
• What does community care look like: are there schools, churches, community centers, hospitals, nursing homes? Or will you invent some new model for meeting the needs of your neighbors?
• How are our children being nourished, educated, protected and loved? Who provides those services? How are they compensated?
• In what ways do we protect and care for our elders in this vision of a perfected future?
• How does a typical day-in-the-life of a just, supportive & peaceful world unfold in your vision?
• Are there buses and rail lines or hover boards and floating cars?
• How do we pay for stuff? Do we pay for stuff? What do we actually need in that existence?

I know this might sound ridiculous, but it’s really not doing us any good to keep focusing on all that we are losing right now.

Seems to me our institutions would be crumbling even if Kamala had won; they’d just be doing so a little more humanely, more slowly perhaps.

But here we are.

Let us imagine, envision, innovate, brainstorm, ideate, get our collective creative juices and our brilliance flowing,

so that, together, we can come up with an ideal that serves everyone —

more than just adequately but completely and fully.

We’ve got nothing to lose at this point.

Instead of clinging to the past and hoping everything will just go back to the way it was, we need to visualize what we want.

Spare no detail in your fantastical vision for tomorrow.

Right now, the sky’s the limit.

If you’re ready to discover your superpowers, want to get into alignment with your highest self, and learn how to stay grounded in these tumultuous times, I invite you to book a free consult so that we can discuss your Human Design and how I can help you navigate your path. Whether you’re a parent or just an adult child trying to find your place in this world or your role in the family, I’m here to guide you.