Weekend Entertainment Guide 1/24/25 + New Moon 1/29/25
LA fires, TikTok ban, Nancy Mace
Well, the dog has caught the car. That’s my take on President Donald Trump’s chaotic second term to date. I do already see the conjunction between the Sun and Pluto in Aquarius in his new inauguration chart playing out in the surprisingly heavy influence of Big Tech. I think some of Trump’s supporters were expecting something different, but the hard part of successfully getting your candidate into power — and this is always hard, no matter what party you belong to — is that you eventually have to deal with the reality of whoever that person is instead of luxuriating in your fantasies indefinitely.
Hot on Substack
Posts about the fires in Los Angeles
, my LA fire diariesIn a 42-minute podcast, Goldstein describes her efforts to stay out of the path of the Los Angeles fires. She found the Watch Duty app more helpful than the local government for getting accurate information as to what was going on. Goldstein acknowledges she has her own theories about how the fires relate to her personal transits, but she does not share them, choosing to not “astrologize” a simply intense human experience.
, Horoscope for January 20 - 26, 2025Fearnley, a Los Angeles native, confronts the challenge of whether to evacuate:
, Wildfire TrumpIn the immediate aftermath I was struck with a strange feeling of despair as I watched person after person pick up sticks and leave town for homes and families in other states. I had forgotten that Los Angeles is made up in large part by transplants.
Wildermuth looks to the California fires as a metaphor for the Trump administration:
If you require an authoritarian strongman to manifest your destiny, then that destiny was never yours in the first place.
And if a single authoritarian strongman can destroy an entire order of being, that order was never going to survive anyway.
Those putting their faith in Trump to recreate the world in their own image are making the very same mistake the faithful of the progressive/neoliberal order made. Cultural change cannot be forced or mandated through executive orders and policy papers, because culture is the field of human relations and not of law or police actions.
Posts about individual experiences of various transits
, this syringe kills fascists: a transgender account of venus rx & the outersMikinaak provides a personal account of gender transition in which Venus Retrogrades marked significant milestones.
, Breaking FreeSeitz describes the uncomfortable call to sovereignty provoked by transiting Uranus conjunct her Midheaven.
Posts via Astrologers’ Co-Op
Andrew B. Watt via
, Ocean’s Hunger, Earth’s Fecundity: The Nodes in Virgo and PiscesWatt comments on the possibilities for the 18-month time period with the North Node in Pisces and the South Node in Virgo.
Silverius Materi via
, Aquarius I: The Law of the LandMateri writes on the first decan of Aquarius and its associated tarot card, the 5 of Swords.
Posts about TikTok being banned and then unbanned in the United States
I never got involved with TikTok to begin with, but I can see how there would be drama over a social media app with expansive Jupiter in Gemini, basically the sign of social media, currently squaring restrictive Saturn. I’m glad other writers tried out competing app RedNote and shared their experiences with it, though I don’t plan on signing up for that one either.
, The Limitations of American ExceptionalismDale describes joining RedNote (Xiaohongshu), a Chinese social networking app, in the wake of the TikTok ban:
, Well, TikTok's GoneThe beautiful irony isn't lost on me - in trying to limit Chinese influence by banning TikTok, we've inadvertently created an exodus to an even more Chinese platform. Through Xiaohongshu, Americans are coming face-to-face with realities that challenge our long-held beliefs: affordable fresh food in China, accessible healthcare, modern megacities that look like they're from the future. It's forcing us to accept the limitations of our narrative about American superiority.
Dee delivers a pro-TikTok take and also talks about RedNote as an alternative.
, The Appistocracy Inaugurates TrumpKlippenstein, though writing from a non-astrological perspective, sums up the broader Jupiter in Gemini experience:
The power these apps command is so awesome that not even their owners are fully in control. Attempts to rename the companies consistently fail. To any ordinary person, “X” remains Twitter; “Alphabet” remains Google; and “Meta” remains Facebook. The rebrands fail because these apps have lodged themselves so deeply in our minds that unlearning our conception of them is about as realistic as unlearning a native language.
There’s a chart for that!
In The Unchecked Libidinal Energy of Politics: A Review of Nancy Mace’s Twitter Account,
, writing for , documents that Mace, representing South Carolina in the US House of Representatives, said some wacky stuff in the process of flirting with a correspondent on X. Of course, that made me wonder about Mace’s astrological chart.
Of course, Mace, time of birth unknown, has a Sun-Neptune conjunction in Sagittarius that transiting Jupiter in Gemini is opposing about now. That makes a lot of sense for her going wild on social media!
’s recent piece on Sagittarius quirks also feels relevant.I had ready access to Mace’s chart because I liveblogged the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention in my Substack’s paid subscriber chat during summer 2024. The chat threads include the charts of many speakers from both conventions, so they are great resources for anyone tracking US politics. To access the chat threads, start a paid subscription to my Substack and go to astrologybooks.substack.com/chat!
A word from our sponsors
Honeycomb Collective creates astrological almanacs that are personalized to your natal chart. Most astrology planners only show mundane transits, but your Honeycomb almanac is uniquely programmed to display your natal transits too! Your almanac is customizable to any timezone in the world, so you’ll always know when the planets are aligning relative to your location. Prices start at just $27 for a 6-month printed almanac with a free digital copy, or $10 for the digital version on its own. Visit honeycomb.co to learn more!
--
I want to keep Weekend Entertainment Guide free to readers in order to get astrology discussed as widely as possible. However, I am open to sharing my readership with paid sponsors. I charge $20 to run your text-based ad of 85 words or less in four consecutive Friday editions of Weekend Entertainment Guide. Feel free to include hyperlinks and promo codes for your product or service. Email astrologybooks@proton.me to inquire!
Free online event
Donna Stellhorn will give a presentation through Kepler College about 2025 being the year of the wood snake in Chinese astrology. January 25, 2025, 10 a.m. Pacific. Register here.
New Moon 1/29/25
This New Moon features a few conjunctions beyond the usual Sun conjunct Moon. Mercury conjoins Pluto earlier in Aquarius, giving depth and intensity to intellectual inquiries. However, Venus unites with Neptune and the North Node late in the sign of Pisces, insisting on a compassionate interpretation of whatever is found out. I am hoping to achieve that combination of curiosity and compassion with my book Changing of the Guards: Pluto on the Precipice, which is supposed to be released on Amazon sometime next week.
Thanks for the mention, and all the work you put into this digest! It’s an amazing resource 🫶