[This is a cross-post adapted from my latest newsletter share, which you can find here.]

2025 is poised to bring rapid technological advancements with artificial intelligence, an increasing need for global response to climate change, continued escalation of geopolitical conflicts, and deepening societal faultlines, with much of that all but written in the stars.

Let’s talk about general global forecasts for the year to come. We’ll cover the following:

• Planetary Year of Saturn, then Jupiter
• Year of Hexagram 44: Improper Meeting
• Jupiter in Gemini & Cancer
• Start of a New Age: Pluto in Aquarius
• 2025 Tarot Triumph of the Year
• Navigating Financial Uncertainty
• Reclaiming Personal Power in Difficult Times

Planetary Year of Saturn, then Jupiter

Calculation of planetary years goes back to Hellenistic astrology where each of the Sacred Seven planets were assigned periods of rulership. Like planetary hours, the rulership goes in the order: Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, then cycles back to the Sun again.

Planetary years express the general psychic climate of a period of time, which is approximately one year, but varies, since it is calculated by orbital motion. They’re used to predict global trends. Then planetary rulerships over the zodiac signs are used to assess how the planetary years will affect different people.

As we enter 2025 and until March 19, 2025, we remain in the Year of Saturn. With Saturn in Pisces at this time, Piscean energies reign. Stern, malefic, and traditionalist Saturn in Pisces can put a damper on compassion, empathy, and cause people to choose pragmatism over intuition, creativity, or vision.

Saturn shifting between the end of the zodiac, Pisces, and the beginning of the zodiac, Aries, plus the start of a new Plutonian Era in Aquarius means that 2025 is going to feel unstable. Many different tectonic plates are shifting beneath the feet of society. There is more intensified push and pull between left and right, progressive and conservative ideologies. Ideological extremism continues because the world is not yet at a phase where it can stabilize, though the people are desperate for stability.

From March 20, 2025 until the end of the year, we transition into the year of Jupiter. This period is going to code very Thor, Zeus, or per Babylonian astrology, Marduk. It’s a time of leaders wanting to show strength by being action-oriented; shoot first, then ask questions later.

Jupiter enters Cancer on June 10 where it stays direct until November 2025. Jupiter in Cancer is, globally speaking (and thus the influence will vary at an individual level, based on your natal Jupiter’s relation to transiting Jupiter) the focus is on home, family, and traditions. Globally society will swing toward traditionalism, conservatism, and be more resistant to change.

Economically, domestic industries will fare better, and may even encourage growth in the housing market, home goods, and real estate investments. We will also see a stronger interest and shift toward sustainable resources and environmentalism in general. Industries related to food and agriculture, especially coming off of the planetary year of Saturn that reigned in the first quarter of 2025, will also be given a heightened focus.

Jupiter in Cancer can also bring greater global awareness to maternal health, mental health, and family wellness.

Year of Hexagram 44: Improper Meeting

The 64 hexagrams of the I Ching correspond with the 60-year sexagenary calendar system, with the 4 remaining hexagrams attributed to the Four Directional Guardians. The Year of the Wood Snake (January 29, 2025 through February 16, 2026) corresponds with the 42nd year of the 60-year cycle, which corresponds with Hexagram 44: Improper Meeting.

“One in bad faith is inserted into a position of power and begins to gain influence,” is the theme of Hexagram 44: Improper Meeting. (For more insight into Hexagram 44, check out my book I Ching, The Oracle, pages 622 through 627.

Hexagram 44 expresses interactions, encounters, and events that lack benefit, sincerity, and authenticity, and warns of deception or manipulation at play. It is a time that is more conflict-driven, more antagonistic. One side may end up exploiting the other.

Line 1 of Hexagram 44 suggests that globally, civilization is not headed in the right direction, and encounters social and civil setbacks. That said, the economy seems to hold up on its own, noting Line 2, “A bag of fish. There is no blame.” However, focus on the domestic economy rather than international trade. See: “There are no gains to be had from inviting guests.”

Line 5 of Hexagram 44, nearing the last quarter of 2025, down comes the “Wrath of Heaven” as the Mandate of Heaven “brings a downfall.” The year 2025 ends with a deadlock, where powerful, equal forces lock horns and are in opposition.

The key message here is to exercise caution and discernment, because what appears to be fleeting or insignificant encounters can prove to be dangerous. This hexagram consists of the trigram Heaven over Wind, which represents an inferior or seemingly insubstantial force daring to approach and challenge a superior and noble force.

There will be destabilizing powers at play, creeping into positions of status by cunning ways, and not by merit.

Jupiter in Gemini & Cancer

Jupiter is by far the largest planet in our solar system, and so its impact on earth is, well, global. In the astrology of most cultures and traditions, Jupiter has the biggest metaphysical impact on us. It changes signs every 361 days, give or take, and so tends to correspond with the luck, prosperity, and fortunes per year.

When Jupiter entered Gemini in late May of 2024 where it stayed for the rest of last year, geopolitical flare-ups intensified. Jupiter is in detriment in Gemini, which weakens the natural beneficence of Jupiter.

With 2025 beginning with Jupiter in Gemini, the likelihood of political conflicts, disagreements, propaganda, and general interpersonal misunderstandings that were heightened in 2024 will continue. It’s like people aren’t as present. They’re here, but they’re not. No one’s “feeling it” this year. There’s a fatigue and exhaustion in the air. Luck is unreliable. Either you work hard and force the situation to be in your favor or it’s just going to be gamble.

On June 11, 2025, Jupiter enters Cancer, where Jupiter is in exaltation. This is when the beneficence of Jupiter is augmented. All matters Cancerian are favorable in terms of luck and good fortune.

The focus will be more on home, family, and fostering deeper emotional connections, which is a nice change from the political flare-ups often characterized by a detrimental Jupiter in Gemini. This could also just be a matter of people becoming more introverted, less interested in external “other people’s” affairs, and prioritizing personal “domestic” affairs. People are putting up walls and taking care of their own.

The hospitality industry, to some extent healthcare, homeland security, and industries associated with the home or nourishment tend to thrive while Jupiter is in Cancer. Agriculturally this can be a good omen for harvests and food production, with greater likelihood of food security (this is globally speaking). The restaurant industry is also likely to make a comeback, and will fare better under Jupiter in Cancer. This is in general a time of more stability than, say, when Jupiter was in Gemini.

Start of a New Age: Pluto in Aquarius

Between 2008 and 2024, Pluto waffled back and forth across the cusp or boundary line between Capricorn and Aquarius. In 2025, it gains a more solid foothold in Aquarius and stays in Aquarius for the next 20 years, until 2043.

That means this period 2008 – 2024 while Pluto is waffling, there was a worldwide instability and the swing of the pendulum at a greater momentum and frequency, volatile between two extremes.

The last time Pluto waffled at the cusp of Aquarius was between 1777 and 1798. It was during that time that the United States Constitution was drafted and signed. Over in Western Europe, this was the Storming of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution. The Reign of Terror in France begins and we see the rise of Napoleon. Likewise, rebellions against the Qing dynasty’s Manchurian emperor and against white imperialism raged across China as the majority Han tried to take back their nation from outsider influences.

This volatile period of Pluto swinging back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius is going to be a fight against long-standing institutions (the Capricorn energy) and implementing a new world social order that commences after 2024, to last until 2043.

The year 2025 is when that new world social order commences, to reign until 2043, one characterized by Pluto in Aquarius. Is this the “Age of Aquarius” that New Agers love to talk about?

Pluto’s long stay in Aquarius, beginning this year in 2025, brings a transformative era marking revolutionary changes to society’s social structures. We may see a decentralization of power, because Pluto in Aquarius can be disruptive to traditions and centralized authoritarian structures, favoring systems that distribute power more equitably. We see grassroots activism, a rise in the influence of local and community governance, and citizens demanding greater voice in political processes.

We are going to see the start of a reshaping of global alliances. Who are friends and who are enemies in terms of geopolitics will start to change this year and continue to shift like tectonic plates until 2043. Pluto in Aquarius is auspicious for forces of civil rights and social reform, however, so we are going to see more radical and revolutionary political thought taking dominance in the people. Ideologies centered around community, socialism, and collectivism hold more power and seem more favorable during this Era than ideologies of individualism, meritocracy, or capitalism.

We may also be seeing an emergence of a virtual or “metaverse” reality that rapidly advances in 2025 and accelerates until a new reality is affirmed by the end of 2043, because Pluto’s transformative force drives integration of virtual and augmented reality into everyday human life, creating possibly immersive digital worlds that will truly manifest once Pluto is in Pisces. Pluto in Aquarius, right before Pluto enters another new era of Pluto in Pisces, will bring a period of society reevaluating its former boundaries between virtual and physical, and grappling with how all these new advancements of AI will shape human consciousness itself. Pluto, once it enters Pisces after 2043, is when the new understanding of consciousness is realized.

2025 Tarot Triumph of the Year

The year 2025 is assigned Key 9 of the Major Arcana, which traditionally is The hermit card, the archetype of The Sage. Collectively 2025 is about Truth and Wisdom. We subconsciously seek truth and wisdom, taking on the quest for understanding. The elders, the teachers, the philosophers, and the scholars of our society take center stage.

Key 9 as guidance for 2025 tells us to remain objective, to be deeply committed to truth and objectivity. Harness the ability to see beyond surface appearances. Be contemplative and introspective this year.

The Hermit teaches us to develop a strong ethical foundation, to appreciate both theoretical and practical wisdom, and to hold the capacity for perspective.

To let The Hermit card guide your personal growth in 2025, in addition to your personal Tarot Year Card, focus on the following:

• Cultivate diverse learning experiences in 2025.
• Practice critical thinking and analysis. Engage with different perspective and world views.
• Develop emotional intelligence.
• Practice mindfulness and self-reflection.
• Share your knowledge with others. Mentor those seeking guidance. Foster safe and inclusive learning environments. Share wisdom through writing and teaching.
• Maintain intellectual humility.

Your Tarot Card of the Year

While Key 9: The Hermit is the global designation for 2025, how you in particular might be affected, as indicated by your date of birth, is expressed in your Tarot Year Card, which you can learn more about here: Tarot Year Card (from Archetypal Tarot by Mary K. Greer), https://benebellwen.com/2021/12/24/tarot-year-card-from-archetypal-tarot-by-mary-k-greer/

Here’s how I approach Archetype assignments to the 22 Majors:

Thus, for example, while the world is collectively going through its Sage life lessons era, I myself will be going through a Lovers era, since my 2025 Tarot Year Card is Key 6: The Lovers, corresponding with The Romantic. The themes for me, per that Archetype, will be balancing and reconciling Passion with Purpose. The Romantic as an archetype is a reaction against Enlightenment rationalism and industrialization, and so it’s about embracing Emotion over Reason, about Nature over Artificial Constructs, and indulging in one’s imagination rather than cold logic.

These above global forecasts were excerpted from the 2025 Metaphysician’s Guide that is a free companion book with the 2025 Metaphysician’s Day Planner. Since they’re excerpted snippets, they are just big-picture highlights for the year. If you would like more in-depth detailed explanations, check out the Metaphysician’s Guide.

This next subtopic is a bit of a tangent from the subject line, but from what I’ve been seeing in my community, and from reading the signs, it’s probably going to be either helpful net new insights to you or a helpful reminder.

Navigating Financial Uncertainty

The trend of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer continues. If you’ve found yourself temporarily (tell yourself that – always train your brain to frame your circumstances in a way that leaves open paths of positive change and hope) on the unfortunate end of that stick, here’s a roadmap for those with limited resources to start working toward financial stability immediately:

Short-Term Strategies

If it doesn’t spark joy…

Sort through your semi-valuables that at some point you got on a whim but really, if you’re being honest with yourself, is not serving you in any way. It’s not sentimental and you really probably can live without it. Anything you bought on an impulse buy probably fits into this category. Gather these items and sell them.

There are many benefits to this “lightening” of your load, beyond the immediate stream of income. You reduce clutter in your home space, which also has a positive influence on helping you reduce clutter in the mind. This then helps you with emotional and mental clarity.

First, set the goal. Second, gather your assets and resources. Third, plot the route

Calculate how much money you need per day to sustain your livelihood. Divide that number by 3. The resulting quotient is the price tag you need to set on a service or work product that you can start offering for sale immediately.

For example, let’s say you’ve calculated it out to be about $115 per day. $115 divided by 3 rounds up to about $40. That means you need to leverage your skill sets so you can offer services or a product you craft for at minimum $40 each. Perhaps you put together an online course you can sell, or odd jobs, freelance writing or graphic design work, etc. Then go full throttle at securing 3 such $40 bits of income per day.

An incredible account sticks to my memory. Recently this man came up to our front door and said to me, “Excuse me ma’am, but I see that the address number for your house painted on the sidewalk is fading and no longer legible. I’m looking for odd jobs so I can make enough money to feed my family and pay rent. Could I repaint your house number for $20? I promise it will be perfect, and beautiful, and look like new!” Of course I said yes, and of course, like many others on my street, most ended up giving him double or triple his original ask, because in times like this, anything you can do to help a neighbor in need.

So in terms of these short-term strategies, it’s all about digging deep to know what your skills and capabilities are, and then scanning your world to identify opportunities.

Long-Term Strategies

Fill gaps of knowledge

If you’re currently in between jobs or find that the self-employed path is preferable to corporate servitude, then you’ll need to map out your skills and figure out what profession the total sum of your skills is best suited for. Or, figure out what’s missing from your portfolio of skills that is holding you back from the profession you seek, and then map out an independent study plan for acquiring those missing skills.

Networking

Also, you need to start networking. If you’re an introvert or neurodivergent or socially awkward or all of the above, tell yourself you’re just gonna have to work harder than everybody else, and you know what, that’s fine with you, you’ll figure it out, because you always figure your shit out.

You’ll need to work actively on expanding your social network of people succeeding at doing the thing you want to do. Observe them, and copy their work ethic (not !! their identity or branding markers, or unique selling points…that’ll earn you industry enemies real fast). Observe how hard they work and commit to working three times harder.

Reclaiming Personal Power in Difficult Times

For those who need strategies for reclaiming personal power in the face of challenging geopolitical times, here is a checklist of four things you can do to reclaim personal power.

#1: Learn Martial Arts and Physical Self-Defense

Even if you can’t take private classes or work with a dedicated teacher to help you advance through degrees of learning, you can find lots of free videos online from generous experts showing you the basics of martial arts or self-defense techniques. Be proactive about learning them. Also, buy some weights and start working out. Make physical fitness and strength-training part of your daily routine. Literally make yourself physically stronger. Gaining this one attribute alone does wonders for confidence, for dispelling fear, and for personal empowerment.

If you are a person with a disability, look for adaptive martial arts and self-defense programs tailored to your abilities and needs. No matter what your physical circumstances are right now, there are ways to strengthen your core, build endurance, and enhance your situational awareness — sometimes the best self-defense is simply awareness. Actively learn methods and techniques for increasing mental preparedness, focus, and resilience, all key components to self-defense. When you have been training and thus you know you can stand your own ground, you will navigate this world more fearlessly.

#2: A Balanced Diet

Being honest with and aware of your body’s nutritional needs should be your top priority in 2025. Balance food that self-soothes with food that, medically speaking, has the nutritional values that your body needs to thrive. You’ve got to eat more leafy greens. “Eat the rainbow.” Are you eating natural foods in the full spectrum of ROYGBIV on a weekly basis. Are you being moderate with your consumption, so your body isn’t fatiguing itself out trying to digest all that you’ve eaten, and you’re only eating within what your body can healthily digest. But also are you eating enough so you have the energy to fuel success and empowerment.

#3: Mindfulness Practices

In other words, meditation. Yeah, that boogie word that elicits groans and eyerolls from a 21st century TikTok-conditioned audience. Hell, funny enough, in today’s world, even the ask of “Sit your ass down and read a book from cover to cover in one sitting” is “meditation.” So here are some tips. Create a playlist of guided meditation videos and dedicate time each day to work through some of those guided meditations. Sure, the Buddhist and Taoist purists are now critiquing me with “None of this is ‘meditation’ what nonsense are you feeding people.” 😉 Point well taken. But to me, it’s more important to offer meditative practices that people who have never meditated before can do beginning to end than loftily say, “Vipassana meditation for three hours a day.”

The recent trending sarcastic thing to say to people is “go touch grass” but actually, like, it’s not a bad idea. Draw strength and support from the divine earth. When you’re feeling powerless, get yourself a powerful ally. Be out in nature, in solitude. Find someplace where the majesty of nature as a Queen Mother is apparent, and you are little more than a subject. Hands and bare feet should touch earth, close your eyes, feel and sense the power of a sentient nature enveloping you, and regulate your breath and heartbeat so it is in unified resonance with what you can feel as the breath and heartbeat of this Queen Mother. Once you can intuit that there’s attunement, truly be vulnerable, sincere, and ask for strength, for help, for power, and for protection. When you have brought Queen Mother on as your powerful ally, nature’s forces will come to your aid in times of danger and need.

Here are some I’ve posted on my website in past years:

• Psychic Protection: Shielding Recitation, https://benebellwen.com/2017/05/08/shielding-recitation-ritual-free-mp3-download/
• 108 Recitations of the Vajrapani Mantra, https://benebellwen.com/2018/06/03/thunder-rites/ (considering that it’s going to be the planetary year of Jupiter in 2025, cultivating a personal practice of Thunder Rites or thunder magic might not be a bad idea for the coming year)
• Guided Meditation: Remote Energy Healing, https://youtu.be/Lnz0a0T0gE0?si=hLcHfI02CWpadRDH

And here are some external links to meditation videos I love (a lot!):

• Tina Turner – Lotus Sutra recitation (2-hr meditation), https://youtu.be/OBgN849_nOs?si=8RTlDqJzDzUaqhwu
• Tina Turner – Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (taking refuge in the luminous and mystic Law of the Lotus), https://youtu.be/isXLBHCDo4Y?si=lef-zStHo3F4t-E8
• Mei-lan – Streaming Source Energy (sound healing), https://youtu.be/YcR6FB0u6SY?si=xtDa3wl1p2i5hc0H
• Tinna Tinh – Heart Sutra (mantra to remove all obstacles), https://youtu.be/GgfmLuUGETc?si=cILXckywj53hAmr3

#4: Building Community, Hosting Conversations, Advocacy for Change

You can be part of the change you want to see in your world. There are people who don’t feel safe right now. Build a shelter, a community where there is belonging and shared purpose. Keep yourself accountable with daily small and random acts of kindness to people. If you have a platform, host the difficult conversations that others might be too afraid to have. Share perspectives. Gather bright minds and brainstorm solutions. Build safehouses, be that physical, virtual, or astral/psychic.

Be solution-oriented rather than condescending or critical of how people are feeling. Don’t tell people they are blowing things out of proportion, or they are worrying over nothing. Rarely do people “worry over nothing.” It’s you who doesn’t get it, who doesn’t understand where they are coming from.

I wanted to share these global forecasts for 2025 and general points on cultivating personal empowerment as food for your thought, especially as you begin planning for the year ahead.

Our community members and vulnerable populations have voiced their concerns, and these concerns are so big, so real that it’s hard to give a meaningful response. You feel the pain, and the gravity of that pain. And the reason for the gravity of that pain is because there is no easy solution.

This general overview is some of the immediately actionable items I can think of, that can and will fortify you. May it be of some use.