Episode 70: Why the Real New Year Starts in Aries

Every year we’re told the new year begins on 1st January.

But in astrology, the real beginning happens somewhere else entirely.

When the Sun enters Aries, it marks the astrological new year. A moment aligned with the Spring Equinox, when day and night are perfectly balanced and light begins to grow again.

In this episode, I explore why Aries begins the zodiac and how the twelve signs form a beautifully structured journey through the human psyche. Rather than being random personality labels, the zodiac signs represent twelve archetypal stages of life. A curriculum we move through every year as the Sun travels through the sky.

You’ll hear how the zodiac is organised through masculine and feminine energies, the four elements, and the three modalities, creating a repeating rhythm of initiation, stabilisation, and transformation.

I also share how the astrological new year differs from the Gregorian and Chinese new years, and how you can work consciously with this moment of renewal, including why I personally wait for the Aries New Moon to set intentions for the year ahead.

If astrology is a map of the soul, Aries is the first spark...the courage to begin.

In this episode we explore how the zodiac helps us refine the human experience, one sign at a time, every year.

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You can check out our respective websites and social media here:

Becky:

www.instagram.com/therosealmanac

www.therosealmanac.com

Laura:

www.soulsanctuarystudios.com

www.lauraclaytonwellness.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:02

So, welcome back to the podcast today, and I'm going to be sharing some stuff around the astrological new year, which is imminent as we're recording this. So, Equinox, which is usually about the 20th of March, can be the 21st, is the beginning of the new astrological new year, is when Aries season starts. Um, and I think it's worth just also going back to say on the 1st of January every year, we we're told it's this new beginning, it's the beginning of the Gregorian calendar, but nature doesn't really agree with that because for us in the northern hemisphere, it's the middle of winter, and even if you're in the southern hemisphere, it's the middle of summer, it doesn't feel like the start of anything. And so in astrology, the real energetic beginning happens on equinox, which is this point when day and night are equal. In the northern hemisphere, light begins to grow again, and you know, life starts like the little chicks are born, the little bunnies, and it feels like those spring shoots are moving up through the earth. So that is what we say is the true new year. Um, and I think I'd love to give a bit more context of the zodiac because we have these 12 constellations, 12 zodiac signs, and they're sort of treated like they're a bit random, like, oh, I'm a Sagittarius, and that means this about me, you know, I'm an adventurer, and all of this kind of quite surface level stuff. But the 12 signs are so perfectly structured to give us this curriculum for being human because every sign represents a part of our psyche, and what we go through in our year, our 365-degree cycle, is the sun visiting in a way all of these 12 signs. So we have a month in each sign of the zodiac, which is really inviting us to refine different parts of ourselves again and again every year. It's like this circle, but it's more like a spiral. Every year we visit the same energy, maybe in a slightly different way because other planets are in different places, but it's how we grow and how we get more wise. So, yeah, it's a window to see through which part of your life, part of your humanity is being refined in that moment. And the signs alternate between masculine and feminine energy. So we talk about strength and softness, yin and yang, uh, stir and sukkum a lot on this podcast. And the signs are structured. So Aries is a masculine sign, and Taurus that follows is a feminine sign, and so that goes for the whole 12 signs, and this idea of when we're in a masculine sign, it's about expressing our energy more outwardly, which makes sense, right? With Aries season and the new shoots, and then the feminine signs are often more about feeling and integrating. So the zodiac is constantly asking us to act, then reflect, like we move forward and then we rest or we integrate. So it's this perfectly balanced cycle, and Ares is like step one of that cycle. Um, and the other way that the zodiac is structured is through the four elements. So every sign is either fire, earth, air, or water, and they're always in order. So we start with a fire sign, Aries, which is about well, it's like that ignition, that tapas energy. Then we move into an earth sign, which is about building from that original spark and creating a sense of stability with earth. Then we move into air, which is then perhaps like having an idea or communicating about you know what has just gone by, and then it's water, which is about emotion and intuition and deep feeling, and then we go back to fire again. So we have these four elements that repeat three times, always in the same order. So again, it's this evolutionary pattern, and the other thing is also every sign has a modality, so it's either cardinal, which means it's an initiatory energy, a fixed modality, which means it's well, it's fixed, it's a sustainer of that energy, and mutable, which means it's adaptable. So every sign is a combination of one of the elements and one of the modalities. So yeah, that's kind of how the zodiac wheel is built. It is this living map of kind of transformation, and Aries is the beginning of that cycle, it's the beginning of the circle after the kind of cold winter months. Like Aries is the raw life force that is coming back to life again. And I suppose that's the first sign of the zodiac, it's like not um not kind of a polished energy, it's the energy of the first breath of courage. That's why Aries is brave, is because it doesn't have the experience, and when we don't have the experience, we haven't been hurt by something, and so we're we we try something, we don't wait until everything is perfect, and that's why it marks the start of the astro astrological new year. Um, and so I think we feel it in the northern hemisphere, like we might feel more energy, we can see the days are getting a bit longer, we might have a desire to start something new, or maybe a bit more clarity about a direction we want to take. And you kind of said this before we began recording today. You were like, I don't know why, I feel like something shifted, and like the pressure feels off. And it could be that you're already tapping into that new area's energy of like a whole year ahead, in a way, even though you know you might not consciously be uh thinking that and like okay, I've just got to take the first steps, and this is like our life force returning back to us, um, and that happens on our birthday every year, but it also happens at the beginning of every season.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So I love that bit because I mean, for me as well, from a yoga perspective, like this idea of connection and like something that I guess bothers me is how like disconnected we live. And I always have felt that like the new year feels, you know, the actual new year that we kind of celebrate in the calendar in terms of yeah, the 1st of Jan feels so abrupt and like forced, and like the only way I can describe it is like you know, when you're still asleep and your alarm clock goes off and you're just not ready, like that that is how I always feel on the 1st of January, like just um like stop pushing me out of bed for this date. Whereas like it makes total sense from a connection to like feeling connected to the earth, feeling connected to nature. Yes, like as the shoots sprout up, like okay, now I'm ready to, now I'm also ready to go. Um I really align with that energy, so it's really it's really nice to hear that back. Um, and so what would you say then about like obviously what you've described in terms of each part of the chart? This is going to affect us differently, depending on you know where the sun is visiting and what's in those different signs, but collectively, is there like a theme that we can kind of expect or like that we should be sort of ready in terms of expectation management? Like, how can we be best prepared for this phase?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Well, I mean, you can look at your chart and see where Aries is in your chart, um, and that will tell you the house that it aligns with, which is the area of life. So for me, Aries is my eighth house of um is about power, it's about money, um, and it's about actual like psychological insights as well. So, yeah, I actually find airy season, although it is this new beginning, I actually find it quite a tough time of year. But I think more generally, so you can look at your house, but more generally, I think it's like what part of your life do you feel needs a bit of bravery and courage? Um, and what are like the first steps that you want to take? So it's like seeing it as a threshold, you know, like the shoots are just coming through the earth. So it's about taking an aligned action rather than it being like this starting gun that's going off and we're on this massive race. The energy is just starting to build. So it's like, what seeds do you want to cultivate this year? And you might have already planted some seeds because we've kind of had the Gregorian calendar new year on the 1st of January, which is I think often think it's like getting your stuff in order, getting your house in order. Uh, and that might look like clearing things out, um, and maybe thinking about the year ahead. And you know, I think we've previously looked at like what is our word of the year and things like that, and that's a good place to start. And then we move into the Chinese New Year, which is the second um new moon, which is always in February, and this is more about collective fate, perhaps. Whereas I think then when the sun moves into Aries, like we've sort of got a third go at it here, like everyone we're sort of building on a little bit, is like different entry points because sometimes we need that, we need a few attempts before we sort of find our direction, and don't forget, we were in the year of the snake as well, which was a lot about letting go. So we had this kind of crossover of energy of being in the new year, and even in the Chinese New Year, after we've completed the year of the snake, we've been in eclipse, and Mercury's been retrograde, it hasn't felt like that forward motion energy. So I think it's just like notice where your desires are coming back to life. Um and I don't know, perhaps you're feeling like that inspiration of things that you want to do. So I think, yeah, maybe it's setting intentions, but maybe it's more I I always feel like Aries is more about action, like taking a small action, or maybe it's a big action. But if there's a small action that you can take towards something that you're really desiring, you're sort of showing the universe, and you know that you're ready, that you're committed. Um, yeah, so I personally am gonna wait till the Aries new moon, which is on it's towards the end of Aries season this year, actually, which is the 18th of April. So I'm gonna see what the beginning of Aries season looks like, and then probably be revisiting maybe my word of the year and intentions that I felt into at the beginning of the year and feel if they're still aligned, um, and what actions I'm now gonna be taking to move towards them.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Nice, and it sounds like we like with that sort of first breath, unpolished energy with Aries, like taking that first step and it not having to be perfect, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah, yeah, Aries is not about perfection, like Aries can be quite brash, quite messy, quite like I'm just gonna speak the thing, I'm gonna do the thing. Um Aries energy can be quite loud, but it has the courage, it has the courage to start something, to initiate something and to take the first step. And if we do that, like we only get you know, one month to work with Aries, one month to work with Taurus, it's etc. Like, and and we won't have that sort of opportunity again. So it's like take that opportunity, do something, and then like even if you don't know the full picture, like it trusting it will become clear.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah, love that. I've already got something in mind that he inspired me.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Oh, how exciting!

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, anything else that we need to know?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Um, I think Aries as well can be this energy when like individual energy is really important. Aries is about I am and it's about self. So these things that desires that we're feeling or things that we're gonna be brave and do are like it's almost in a way important to be a bit selfish with this energy and lean into like self-trust, taking up space, being seen, being heard. You know, it's like really doing the brave thing without asking permission from everyone else in the world or thinking if it's right for for everyone else. So that yeah, I would just say that also about Aries energy.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Nice, excited to see how it unfolds.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yeah.