Like a stoker opening the door of a blast furnace, Jupiter in Aries is ushering us into 2023. The new year and month begin with the big gas giant barreling forward in the most assertive mode (cardinal) of the most assertive element (fire).
If you have natal planets in Aries, you know how impatient that part of yourself is. It wants to get going. Right now.
For about a year, Jupiter (goals) will be trying to light a fire under our loftiest aspirations. Simply musing about them won’t cut it. Big plans will not be held at a safe, conceptual distance. They will rush into your consciousness where angels fear to tread.
The first sign
As the first of the twelve signs, Aries is the spark that ignites the whole zodiac. Is it any wonder that it has more
oomph than the other eleven? Its job is to push non-being into being. Like a woman giving birth, planets in Aries wield the force of concentrated initiation.
In what part of your life are your ambitions champing at the bit? The house where Jupiter is passing — 1-5° Aries, during January — will tell the tale. After having stationed direct in November and re-entered Aries at the winter Solstice, Jupiter is ready for a growth spurt.
Those with natal planets in the first degrees of cardinal signs will feel it especially strongly. Whatever your feelings about getting ahead in life, they may feel about as subtle as a ramrod.
Tweaked and ready
But as always, the sky has more than one thing going on. Complicating the Aries mood this month are three planetary retrogrades. As January begins, Mars, Mercury and Uranus are still moving backwards, until the 12th, the 18th and the 22nd respectively.
The Mars cycle, especially, is an important one to track. It is rare for Mars to stay in one sign for this long, which is our signal that it has more than the usual amount of work to do.
Mars (action, assertiveness, ego) turned retrograde in late Gemini at Halloween, and will have backtracked all the way to 8 degrees before heading 
forward again. Wherever Gemini falls in your natal chart is where you’ve been experiencing this stopping-and-restarting action. Come the 12th, the review phase is over.
For months, our desires have been biding their time, like a horse recuperating in a dark stable. Now it’s out and ready to run.
Earth to Air
Another factor mitigating Jupiter’s impulsiveness is the presence of Capricorn. The month begins with the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Pluto in this workaday earth sign. Together they are scattering loose soil upon the Aries fire. Pay attention to the pragmatic logistics (Mercury) that underlie your plans. Keep in mind your responsibilities (Capricorn) to other people (Venus). Be aware of the boundaries that come with socializing. 
A Venus-Pluto conjunction on New Year’s Day ushers in the entire year, suggesting that intense interpersonal commitments will be a key theme of 2023. When Venus conjoins Saturn on Jan 22nd, we may get our first round of feedback about how well we’re doing.
Big changes ahead
By then, Venus will have moved into Aquarius (1/2-26) and so will the Sun (1/20). See if you can detect the shift in the mass vibration, between dry, practical Capricorn and abstract, mental Aquarius.
These changes pave the way for the most impactful transit of 2023: Pluto’s entry, in March, into Aquarius for the first time in 250 years (details in this webinar).
At the Venus and Sun ingresses, try to pick up the new scent in the air. They are heads-ups about the Pluto ingress ahead. They are expressly timed to give us hints about how to respond — with optimal grace — to what’s coming.
