From Earth and Water to Fire and Air
This year, 2025, we are getting a glimpse of what will solidify in 2026. Next week, on May 24, at 11:35 pm EDT/8:35 PM PDT, two days before the New Moon, Saturn ingresses into Aries.
Whenever a planet shifts signs, it signals a collective shift in focus. What makes this period, the end of 2024 into mid-2025, unique is that within the period of 8 months, all of the big boys of change are shifting together. Pluto moved into Aquarius on November 19, 2024, Neptune moved into Aries on March 30, 2025, and Uranus will move into Gemini on July 7.
Each of these archetypes symbolizes profound change on its own. Together, they are a force to be reckoned with, particularly when Neptune and Saturn are traveling together through Aries until Saturn enters Taurus in April of 2028 and we come back down to earth. As the last planet visible with our naked eye, Saturn is the boundary of our known reality. The three outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which are not visible to us without a telescope, take us beyond what we have known before.
Beyond the fact that they are all shifting at relatively the same time, the elemental shifts are what we will feel most deeply. Pluto was in Capricorn (an earth sign) and moved into Aquarius (an air sign). Uranus is in Taurus (an earth sign) and will move into Gemini (an air sign). Neptune was in Pisces (a water sign) and moved into Aries (a fire sign), and Saturn is also moving from Pisces to Aries. Together, they, and collectively we, are moving from water to fire and from earth to air. Fire and air are dramatically different from Earth and water.
Myths are passed down through millennia, they show how the psyches of the ancients experienced the world. From an astrological perspective, these stories bring to life the underlying precepts of how each part of the Zodiac was imagined. Concepts and experiences that resonate across time and space today.
In myth, all of the original Gods, from the Egyptian RA, to the Celtic Belenus (Beltane literally means the Fire of Bel) were Gods of fire; nothing made them; they emerged, and then they, in turn, created everything else.
Fire is the element of imagination and vision. The Sun and the stars are composed of fire, and the Sun quite literally gives us life. Ancient philosopher Hericlitus viewed fire as the fundamental principle of the universe, aligning with the principle of constant change and transformation we see reflected in the three Laws of Thermodynamics today. Fire is fertile, everything is generated out of it. It is the element of creativity, the concept of something springing forth from nothing, but it also has the power to destroy what it has created.
We are considered to be alive when we draw our first breath, and when our heart stops, we draw our last. Air is connected to life itself. In the Abrahamic religions, though man was initially fashioned out of earth, it was only when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” that man became a living being. In Greek Myth, that was the role Prometheus played. He fashioned men out of clay, and the Goddess Athena breathed life into them.
Prometheus was also punished for stealing fire and giving it to the humans. It was seen as a sin against the Gods because it meant that humans, like the Gods, could now create.
No myth stands alone; all of the stories are intertwined and reveal different aspects of each for the characters, who were seen as living beings, they weren’t just heroes of a fable. The Gods had the power to influence life.
Jupiter/Zeus wasn’t just a fire God who ruled Olympus and punished Prometheus, he was also a husband and father; he birthed Mercury, Apollo, Artemis, Pollux, Athena, Hercules, and even Helen of Troy, to name just a few.
There are many different versions of them, and many different ways that we can view them. That’s their power, they don’t have one “right” meaning, thus they invite us to reimagine possibilities.
In the same way, whether we acknowledge it or not, our experiences and stories are always interwined together. Our life is created out of them. We envision the possibility (fire) and then breathe life into that through our actions or lack thereof.
I like to think that I am reenvisioning my life, and this is not to imply that I am not deeply appreciative of the life I have had up to now; I am. But I can also see how my own internalized boundaries and stories (AKA as fears and reasons something won’t work)create patterns in my life that I have tended to reweave and thus reexperience, even though as I grow and change, my limits loosen and shift, and my experiences reflect that movement. At this point, I have begun to recognize fairly quickly if I am complaining about feeling stuck, I am at the very least on the precipice of repeating a pattern.
Sometimes, this is hard to see in ourselves, as the saying goes, a fish can’t see the water it is swimming in. However, we can often most clearly see this reflected in the collective. The infamous “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” we can see playing out in world events. Or in the friend we have who effectively keeps dating the same person over and over again. I'm sure you can think of numerous examples.
The failure to imagine something new and breathe life into it is at the root of all of them.
The fire Gods, no matter what culture, were also deeply connected to loyalty, which was usually reflected in oath-taking. When we take an oath, we are committing to a vision. It’s a promise for something in the future.
Think about it, when you take an oath, from the oath of office, to a wedding vow, it’s not about the present moment, it is about being loyal to something that does not yet exist but you intend to honor.
Isn’t that the magic behind any true change? Being loyal to an intention or dream, through better or worse. When bringing it to life is no longer easy. When it doesn't meet your expectations of what it was going to be. Committing to anything is, in essence, parenting something, whether either be a business, a relationship, an art form, a book…and as we all know, parenting is messy. Children don’t conform to timelines or expectations. They have a life of their own, and we are in many ways stewarding them, whether it is a literal child or a creative one.
And here is the kicker: For any vow to be successful, this also means the new promise takes precedence over past commitments.
Some commitments are obvious and easily defined. Particularly those in the outer world. If I have agreed to a monogamous relationship, there are clear understandings about that. Or something we may not think of as an “oath,” but we regularly honor. We agree to show up for a job at certain times and perform certain tasks.
It is our inner unconscious commitments that are often most invisible to us. This is why we find it hard to stay loyal to a vision. Unconsciously, we are divided, and this earlier “vow,” the one we have the most experience with, and a longer commitment to, is essentially in charge. We are comfortable with it and it is far easier to live in the comfort zone than it is, as Pema Chodron refers to it, the learning zone.
Fire and Air are encouraging us to breathe, envision something new, and breathe life into it. We are now entering the learning zone together.. Some of us will feel and experience it more directly because our charts are being activated. For each of us, the moment invites us to cross over the threshold into a newly imagined future.
