2023 was the year of earth bending; 2024 will be the year of fire bending.
One of the slickest perspectives given by Astrology is called the Mercury Elemental Year.
This is a relatively unknown approach - it was only after seven or eight years of studying Astrology that I even heard of it, and I still hardly hear it mentioned amongst Astrological circles, but I find it profoundly illuminating.
It works like this: As Mercury takes their thrice-yearly retrogrades, they end up spending as much time in one element as they do the other three. For 16-24 months at a time, they slow down, take their retrograde, and slowly speed back up in signs corresponding to the same element. Then they zoom through the other three signs, before repeating the process.
You were born into a Mercury Elemental Year - there’s about a 50% chance that it’s different than the element that Mercury was in when you were born, but it is important for the ‘vintage’ of the year you were born in, nevertheless.
This past year, the Mercury retrogrades have been in Earth signs: Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, although at this moment, in this Mercury Rx, it’s transitioning into Fire signs. Through the summer of 2025, the element of Fire will be highlighted.
The person who wrote the textbook on this Mercury Elemental Year is named Gary Caton. I’ll quote his Hermetica Triptycha here, on the significance of the fire elemental years:
“Fire is hot becoming dry and is the most volatile and least dense of the four elements. The basic nature of fire is to rise (hot) and separate (dry). Thus fire serves to answer the basic human needs for individuality, energy or spiritedness, intuition or instinctive knowing, faith and optimism. Fire changes and moves quickly, constantly seeking out and devouring new material and has the ability to destroy or leap across barriers. Likewise during fire years we need to find new sources of creative fuel and inspiration and use this fire to burn off any accumulated detritus in our lives and to purge falsity in ourselves. Fire years are great for realizing our uniqueness and individuality, creatively or spontaneously going after what we want, learning to become competitive and seeking to reach the top, seeing and creating our future and illuminating our highest spiritual truths.”
What does this inspire in you? How can you creatively, artistically, and magically work with fire in your own life? I’m excited to connect with fire through more fire kasina practice and agnihotra, through more time in the sauna and in cold exposure, and generally by working with intention and desire in a more dedicated manner.
Another aspect of the fire element is illuminated through anthroposophy: warmth, which is the central focus of the healing process in anthroposophic medicine. Warmth is thought to be the carrier of our I, our sense of individuality, and the incarnation of our higher self. There’s a concept of a “warmth body” that organizes and animates our organism's other elements. Fever is understood to help this I incarnate, and it’s an essential element of the immune system: distinguishing between self and not-self. It’s a moral-spiritual force, a connection to the Good. Last year, I interviewed a wonderful anthroposophic doctor, Adam Blanning, on Warmth and the Wim Hof Method, in case you care to read it.
I’ll also drop in here a verse for healing given by Steiner, which is sometimes given to patients in anthroposophical hospitals.
In my heart
Shines the power of the sun
In my soul
The warmth of the world is at work.
I want to breathe
The power of the sun
I want to feel
The warmth of the world.
Let the power of the sun fill me
Let the warmth of the world penetrate me.
This fiery element will likely be a significant determining factor for the year ahead. Mercury will be retrograde in Aries in April, the month we have our total Solar Eclipse and the exact conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus. To boot, in June, Jupiter will enter Gemini, which Mercury rules. I reckon that this will intensify and accelerate the Mercurial, quick-shifting, trickstery element of the election season, which will be shot through with fiery zeal. There will be some hot, blustery winds blowing around, and it will take a lot of steadfastness to keep our own sacred flame steady and bright—to not have it blown out or burn too bright.
There will be a couple of particularly strong periods highlighting these fiery winds. The first happens in August when Mars will meet Jupiter in Gemini while Mercury is going retrograde. Altogether, it speaks of an extra zesty, exciting, and potentially confusing period, with lots of big energies swirling around. There could be incredibly powerful, catalyzing ideas in the air, which could sweep us off our feet, but that may or may not be a good thing. That month, a square between Saturn and Jupiter starts, which will likely cut these big ideas and expansive optimism down to size. It’s a time in which we will be confronted with an intense moral seriousness or a need to reconnect to the essentials and priorities, and that fiery, hot air may be frustrated or start to combust. It’s also worth mentioning that the total Solar Eclipse in April will happen alongside a Mercury Rx and that Mars, a planet naturally associated with the element of fire, will be going retrograde starting in December.
Alright - my second glance at 2024 turned into a musing on a particular element, which means I’ll continue this series next time! In the meantime, I’ve got a coupon for those interested in looking at their astrology for the coming year—you can plug in the code “NEWYEAR” at checkout to get 25% off Long-Term Forecast or Full Readings at my site.
And now, the forecast for the couple of weeks ahead for my lovely paid subscribers, featuring a discussion of Jupiter and Mercury’s station direct, Venus’ entry into Sagittarius and square to Saturn, the Sun-Uranus trine, Mars’ entry into Capricorn, the Mars-Jupiter-Saturn alignment, and the New Moon in Capricorn.