Astrologer Jill Dearman wants to assure everyone: This is no time to freak out. Our current era, Dearman notes, officially started in November 2024 when Pluto transited from Capricorn firmly into Aquarius, where it will stay until 2044. “Pluto is all about revealing and transforming our darker, more destructive parts, so we can let them die,” explains Dearman. “The world is very chaotic right now, but it’s a transition time, so of course it’s chaotic.”
Pluto just spent 20 years ransacking its way through Capricorn—think government systems, hierarchies, and “old boys’ networks” dying off. “However, Aquarius is a sign of invention,” explains Dearman. “It’s an opportunity to see what’s not working, individually and collectively.” Instead of trying to patch up broken systems, Pluto in Aquarius incites destruction that makes way for revolutionary renewal. “It’s like we’re on a turbulent airplane ride going to a place we’ve never been to before,” she says. “It’s rough, but don’t be fooled by the turbulence; where we’ll land will be much more open-hearted and generous.”
Dearman marked Pluto’s transit into Aquarius professionally with a new book, Super-Powered Astrology (W. W. Norton), helping readers uncover their astrological superpowers to proactively build the world they’re envisioning. She also marked the era personally, moving with her daughter to a Queen Anne farmhouse at the center of Woodstock, a town founded in 1787—another significant Pluto in Aquarius moment. Sitting on an acre near the millstream, Dearman’s rambling, village farmhouse was “born” in 1870, with Neptune in Aries, Uranus in Cancer, Pluto in Taurus, and Saturn in Sagittarius. “It was built during the turbulent post-Civil War era and the Victorian mystical revival,” Dearman says. “Its chart creates an attachment to home, but also a push towards a broader understanding of different cultures and beliefs.”
The 1800-square-foot, four-bedroom home has remained a place where residents can expand their definition of home, and its function. Beginning as an apple farm, it became a boarding house for artists, then was divided for an extended family, and then became an Airbnb. Now, Dearman has carefully rejoined the spaces to serve as home, a rehearsal space for budding rockers, and a spiritual center and salon.
Dearman hopes it will become a welcoming setting for seekers to better understand the cosmos, together. “The house naturally invites gathering,” she says. “Neptune recently returned to Aries, so the structure is having a beautiful full-circle moment, reawakening its pioneering, esoteric soul.”
Everywoman’s Astrologer
Dearman took a decidedly down-to-earth path to the celestial arts. Born in Queens to a cab driver and a secretary, she first came across Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs when she was 11. “I immediately understood the language and the symbols,” she says. “I wanted to dig deep, so I started studying and reading everything I could. I was always a kind of savant at it.” By the time she got to SUNY Purchase, she was already helping classmates with their birth charts. Her college roommate, who just happened to be the school newspaper editor, suggested she try her hand at writing horoscopes.
After college, Dearman began working as an HIV counselor, but continued writing horoscopes and birth charts on the side. “It was when the internet first popped, and I was writing for major women’s magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and Redbook,” she says, of her dovetailing interests of writing and astrology. Her columns evolved into Queer Astrology for Men and Queer Astrology for Women, both published in 2009 by St. Martin’s Griffin. In 2009, she also published the writing manual Bang the Keys with Penguin. The success led to more than a decade of writing mystery fiction, as well as teaching writing at NYU.
During that time, Dearman met her wife, Anne Kastor, a physician and one of the founders of the Brooklyn Free Clinic, in New York. The two had a daughter and lived in Brooklyn until Kastor died of cancer in 2013. “She was a great doctor and teacher of doctors,” explains Dearman. “Eventually we renamed the clinic, The Anne Kastor Brooklyn Free Clinic for her.”
Shifting to Superpowers
By 2019, Dearman was burned out on New York Cityand ready for a change of scene. “I’m a third-generation New Yorker, but I’d always thrived upstate ever since my sleepaway camp days,” she says. “For 20 years I’d been coming up to Columbia County for one reason or another.” She decided to rent a weekend home in Hudson. The next spring, when her daughter began remote schooling, the two began living in Hudson full-time.
Dearman continued writing fiction until a cosmic call beckoned. “I had this download from the universe where I got a very clear message,” she explains. “It seemed like the universe was telling me, ‘Okay, you’re good at fiction, but you have a very specific talent for astrology, and soon the world is going to need that.’” She finished the novella she was working on, then dove into what would become Super-Powered Astrology. “I knew this big Pluto in Aquarius moment was coming in 2025,” she says. “All the old systems would be falling by the wayside. I wanted to help people survive and thrive during this unique astrological epoch.”
As she shifted her focus back to astrology, she craved a different living environment. “We loved Hudson, but all the artists and writers there tend to be introverts,” says Dearman. “I kept thinking, ‘Where’s the community?’” Her daughter began attending the Rock Academy in Saugerties, and soon both mother and daughter began spending a lot of time in Woodstock, making friends and growing their community. It inspired Dearman to consider her next step. “I had a dream of offering astrology retreats, and regular salons, and creating a space that could serve as a house of wisdom, where people could discover their purpose during these wild times,” says Dearman. “As soon as I decided on Woodstock, we found our magical home.”
Synchronicity by Design
The magical farmhouse had been modernized in 2021 by architect Brenda Bello, but was still divided into two apartments. Out front, a deep covered porch with cedar floors and spindled columns runs along the street, tying the spaces together. “It provides a lovely opportunity to meet human and canine neighbors,” says Dearman. “The structure has always been a supportive civic fixture and a cornerstone of Woodstock’s identity.”
Inside, she reunited the separated apartments into one unified design, with an eye toward gathering. “Every room has its own name and identity,” she says. “I wanted the house itself to become part of the story.” She named the home’s main living room the Synchronicity Salon. The adjacent kitchenette doubles as a tarot reading space.
The larger Cosmic Kitchen is accessed through a newly installed farm door, creating an easy flow throughout the first floor. The home’s formal, street-facing dining room is large enough to seat up to 10 people and houses Kastor’s childhood grand piano. “It’s the ideal space to sit around and talk about astrology,” says Dearman. “So I called it the Constellation Room.”
Upstairs, Dearman enlarged the primary bathroom to accommodate a soaking tub and converted one of the four bedrooms into an office. Her daughter painted another bedroom black and red and redecorated in a combination of Art Deco and Gothic style—with a little Ozzy Osbourne thrown in. Dearman also soundproofed the finished basement for band practice and extra hangout space.
Out back, the home’s sense of welcome was extended with a built-in communal dining table and bench, named the Orchard Table. “The backyard feels much bigger than its footprint thanks to the mature trees and the way the landscape unfolds into distinct outdoor spaces,” she says. “We’re creating places for conversation, shared meals, music, quiet reflection, and simply lingering outdoors.” A nearby wood deck was put in specifically to give guests somewhere to gather. The yard is another extension of the community-building Dearman moved to Woodstock to find. “My hope is that guests feel as though they’ve stepped into another world,” says Dearman. “If someone leaves feeling a little more energized, a little more hopeful, or with a new way of seeing their own story, then the house has done its job.”
