When the lighted ball drops over Uptown Kingston on New Year's Eve, the astrology of 2014 will be in place and waiting for the first standout astrological feature of the new year: the Capricorn New Moon on January 1.
Let's start with the party and then go to the astrology. This will be the second annual New Year's street festival held Uptown. The first time out was a beautiful event, a true success, not needing to make any allowances for being a new event. Between the efforts of local entrepreneur Maria Phillipis (owner of Boitson's restaurant who organized the outside party), Teri Rossin and her brilliant crew at Backstage Studio Productions (aka BSP Lounge, which handled entertainment), and many business owners who helped out, the festivities came off flawlessly.
This year the theme will be an old-time formal soiree. Whether you come in full dress or come as you are, you will see many of your friends and neighbors dressed in their very finest, most creative outfits, designed once again to evoke an early 20th-century aesthetic. I am not especially into fashion, though I thought this was a lot of fun.
Cafés, bars, some restaurants and BSP will all be open extra late. There will be parking in the lower municipal lot off of Schwenk Drive, though you might want to make a reservation for dinner someplace and come out a little early. Please designate a driver and plan a safe route home, off the beaten path if you can, in advance.
From what I can reckon, this is an outdoor New Year's Eve party that's exactly opposite what you would get at Times Square in Manhattan. You will know people, the crowd will be a modest size (measured in the hundreds, not the tens, of thousands), there will be places (with bathrooms, even) to hang out indoors, and you will be close to home. You can enjoy the festivities and even sit down if you want to.
The Capricorn New Moon—and the Cross
Unlike most years, the astrology of the next year of our lives begins exactly on January 1. It's unusual for the civil calendar to align exactly with astrological ephemeris, though this alignment is a message for us about 2014.
On New Year's Day is the Capricorn New Moon. This event is a hologram containing the story of the next few seasons, because it aligns with the long-standing 2012-era aspect, the Uranus-Pluto square. This is generational astrology that is influencing very nearly everything, ranging from global events to the most intimate affairs of your private life.
The New Moon is part of a grand cross in the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. These may be the four highest-energy signs,
The Uranus-Pluto square (which I've been writing about in Chronogram at least since May 2009, to give you an idea of its significance) involves two slow-moving planets, and most of the time it disappears into the environment. A square is two planets arranged in a 90-degree meeting—one of the highest-tension aspects that there is. We get it as the sensation of "everything, all at once," of weeks so concentrated that they feel like a month of activity happened, of months that go by so fast they feel like eight or nine days, and the sensation that there is simply no way to get control.
Those who are not fully on the ride may feel like life is blowing by them; like they are left on the shore as a rushing stream of events goes by. Those who are on the ride may be feeling like they've never participated so fully in so much experience. Those who are hesitating may have no concept of how to get involved, or how to have an impact, or how to even make contact with those who are doing so. Pay attention and you will find your opening. Don't judge your role—just live it out.
Uranus and Pluto together are like a mix of revolution and evolution. They can spur incredible upheavals. Yet they can also be subtle, dropping back from awareness and acting more like an invisible part of the environment, but influencing everything nonetheless. They have a long arc of influence, arriving in stand-out phases of history that most people don't notice until they're over.
Remember that Uranus and Pluto can only be seen with special equipment, such as telescopes or space probes. In a sense, we have to go to them. Astrologically, that property means they represent a nonordinary state of consciousness.
