Gregorian vs. Vedic New Year
There is more than one beginning to the year, depending on where you live and what the focus is. The tropical New Year is used for agricultural purposes, the Lunar Year for festivals and religious celebrations, the Fiscal Year for financial purposes, etc.
The New Year occuring January 1st is based on the Gregorian Calendar, which is a tropical solar calendar whose months are ‘shackled’ to the solar year. It is based on the earth’s position relative to the Sun. This is helpful for regularity and planning but is totally divorced from the cycles of the moon which are significant for cultural celebrations, tidal changes, fertility cycles and mental and emotional fluctuations.
A culture whose calendar does not consider the Moon will tend to discount the areas of life under the influence of lunar cycles. Holidays tend to migrate in these calendars, and often lose some of their original meaning.
The Vedic calendar is a luni-solar calendar, which integrates the phases of the Moon with the movement of the Sun. It uses an intercalary month (occurring about every three years) to keep the solar and lunar cycles in harmony.
In this calendar, the solar New Year is in the middle of April when the Sun enters the beginning of the Zodiac in Aries, after having spent one month in each sign. There is another ‘start to the year’ in mid-January when the Sun enters Capricorn and the gods are said to awaken from their six month slumber which began when Sun entered Cancer.
2025 in Review
Last year’s major transits where defined by Saturn’s movement into Pisces at the very end of March and Jupiter’s movement into Gemini in May. We are only at the front edge of Saturn’s impact in Pisces, so whatever life changes you’ve experienced since the end of March may be just the beginning of themes which could be developing over the next two years.
On the world scale, Saturn’s entrance into Pisces signals the next stage in the development of virtual technologies and AI. We can expect life-changing evolutions in these areas over the course of the next two years, likely with some major issue surrounding them cropping up when Saturn enters the gandanta between Pisces and Aries in the spring of 2027.
Jupiter in Gemini brought support for that sign, which governs hands-on learning, communication and exchange of information, writing, skills and sports and recreation. Some of the developments here moved so quickly (May-October) that there may have been what felt like missed opportunities or goals left unmet. Between now and June of 2026 there may be opportunities to slow down and dig into the details of whatever was developing in these areas and to bring them to fruition in a more measured fashion.
The most notable eclipse this year was the solar eclipse which occurred with five planets in Pisces at the end of March—an event which is still shaping our experience today, and was especially impactful for those people or countries with significant planetary placements in the sign. It ushered in a time period of what has been experienced by many as overwhelm, but is related to a deeper understanding of what the actual work is ahead of us. It is as if the ocean has been unleashed, and many people were hit with a tsunami type effect in the spring, its intensity peaking through the summer, instigated by other intense transits. A sense of complete inundation was, for some, almost paralyzing. But Saturn’s direct motion in November coupled with Jupiter’s slower pace can help us all revisit the themes of last spring in a more centered way. When Jupiter enters Cancer in June, he will have a direct aspect to Saturn and prove very useful in the accomplishment of enormous goals and projects.
January Transits
Wading into 2026: New Year’s Eve and Day will see an exalted Moon in Rohini nakṣatra, which is associated with material abundance and earthly comforts. Whereas both Thanksgiving and Christmas had a complex Moon in Aquarius, influenced by anxiety-causing Rahu and in a nakṣatra associated with natural law and punishment, the New Year has a much lighter, social and optimistic energy.
Looking into January, we see a collection of 4 planets in Sagittarius, all of which will migrate into Capricorn over the course of the month.
Any conglomeration of planets suggests an imbalance, or a tendency toward extremes. Sagittarius is a sign concerned with meaning and purpose, and planets here will be sorting these things out. In the negative, planets here can become dogmatic in their views and lead toward self-righteous thinking and behavior, and an unhealthy fixation on the bigger picture or world stage.
While it is a positive time to sort through your personal priorities, re-calibrate your moral compass, and to decide what is worth fighting for, we will all need to consciously bring in the themes of the opposing sign Gemini (where Jupiter currently resides) in order to temper the potential myopia that so much collective karma in Sagittarius can bring.
Opposing signs have a way of balancing one another, and the active interchange of information and ideas that occurs in Gemini can continually refresh and inform the purpose(s) behind the battles being fought in Sag. Jupiter in Gemini, in particular, tends to bring support and positive guidance from social interchanges and interactions. If you get to feeling overly consumed with the big-picture questions in your life early this month, it may prove helpful to involve yourself in casual social situations or recreation—activities that might appear to be ‘a break’ but could actually serve the purpose of resolving some of your bigger conundrums.
Come mid-month, when the migration to Capricorn will be well underway, it is time to get to work, begin to implement plans and to translate beliefs into action. This may feel like some heavy lifting, but it is an excellent opportunity to manifest abstract or as yet ethereal goals.
There will be significant transits to Capricorn well through February, even as the previously mentioned herd of planets make their way into Aquarius that month. I will go deeper into this next month.
Dates of Significance
Auspicious Dates