AstroCast: January 4 - 19, 2015

After giving us some New Year fireworks, the planets back off their defiant positions and enter into cooperative alliances that beam down a feeling of motivation and opportunity. After all the violent posturing of late, we could use a little sweet-talking to persuade us to view the New Year in a more positive light. High valued prospects abound. We simply need to attune ourselves to the notion that we do have the ability within to create the appropriate conditions for them to manifest in our lives. It begins with thought, or more specifically, our choice of thoughts. Do we allow fearful and limiting thinking to crowd out mental states that foster joy and abundance? Really, it is just that simple. Why then does it appear to be so difficult sometimes to make the choice that aligns with divine right order? Why would we choose to keep alive those thoughts that produce chaos and all other conditions that fall under it like confusion, depression, anxiety, and the malaise that plagues so many of us – a general disconnect with life? It’s what we know. The need to know what to expect puts us in a comfort zone. We’re lulled into disenchantment. Before us this next couple of weeks are many celestially set up opportunities. But they won’t concretize by themselves. First we must act, and that begins with clearing out the negative thoughts and creating strong intentions. We can only perceive opportunity when we are not blinded by fear of the unknown and its sneaky subsets of worry, doubt and powerlessness. The theme of emergence set up at the Capricorn New Moon requires that we become fully present with life, ignoring memories of past mistakes and sidelining projections of a future gone wrong. Only then can we become clear on what we need to do in the here and now.

The Full Moon on January 4th provides an opportunity to assess our experience of the current lunar cycle and see where we are emerging into a new vision of what it means to be accountable for our actions. With the Moon strongest in her home sign of Cancer as she is the brightest when full, she asks us to honor our feelings and emotions as we work to reduce entropy and take on more responsibility, matters close to the Capricorn Sun’s heart. The Moon represents the matriarchy and divine mother, the socio-spiritual feminine archetype that makes choices based on compassion for self and other. She provides comfort and security as she teaches the importance of connectedness. The practical and ambitious Sun in Capricorn is a natural organizer and manager whose mature nature provides a solid, reliable foundation from which to develop the necessary skills for thriving in the world. He represents the archetypes of patriarchy and the divine father stoically organizing the collective into a productive, well-oiled machine. This annual Full Moon pairing signifies the extremes of each archetype that play out somewhere in each of our lives, imploring us to achieve balance between sensitivity and accountability. Put in non gender-oriented terms, Capricorn provides form for Cancerian essence. With this Full Moon, may we assume the responsible choice to consciously build solid foundations and structures for the space that is created therein – space where living beings safely dwell and infuse with the soul of life.

Also on January 4th, the opportunity to improve our interactions with others is presented when Venus in Aquarius sextiles Saturn in Sagittarius. Together this planetary pair in a harmonious alignment brings a sense of responsibility and maturity to relationships, inspiring us to respond ably according to what maintains stability. While Venus in Aquarius can be rather detached and Saturn in Sagittarius requires a good deal of freedom, commitments may still be in order if they serve a philosophically universal purpose.

Mercury follows Venus into Aquarius later in the day on the 4th, and remains in this eccentric air sign through mid-March due to his forthcoming retrograde, which commences on January 21st (more on that in the next AstroCast). During his extended stay in the home of the radical, we may feel like breaking out of the mold of convention to think and act differently, and groove on others doing the same. Mercury in Aquarius is rationally cool and therefore capable of observing from a neutral point of view, refraining from judgment of that which is not like him. In fact, the more peculiar the better! The challenge for him in this air sign is not to look at life solely with a scientific mind removed from the action, but rather to participate fully as a unique contributor to the evolutionary process.

For the next couple of weeks Mercury and Venus will be travelling in tandem, separate yet together in independent Aquarius, bringing a breezy pleasantness to our manner of relating that is also highly tolerant. Coming within a degree of an exact conjunction during this period, the planet of perception and the planet of love in nonconformist Aquarius inform each other’s celestial encounters with the general theme of unity in diversity. Mercury’s sextile to Saturn becomes exact on January 5th to bring keen intellectual efficiency into the process of determining how best to stabilize our relationships. This is the moment for a reality check to notice what is working and what isn’t. It’s fine to express our individuality as long as there is authenticity and purpose to it rather than just to put on a gratuitously bohemian show.

Mars begins the last leg of his two-year journey around the zodiac when he jumps the Aquarius mothership of the collective and dives into the ocean of Piscean galactic consciousness on January 12th. Mar’s courage here is more apt to be needed to face inner demons or otherworldly spirits rather than foes in the earth dimension. He may also face confusion about how to assert himself in this pacifist realm but once he surrenders himself to the subtle yet profound vibrations of unconditional love that Pisces represents, he will find the clarity he needs to become a spiritual warrior in the dreamtime.

As Mars adjusts his footing to ultra fluid, Venus and Mercury in Aquarius enter into a sparkling sextile with Uranus in Aries January 13th to 14th. As the ruler of Aquarius, Uranus amps up the spontaneity quotient of the Venus/Mercury alliance to fling the doors of perception wide open, allowing for unexpected and impactful synchronicities in social, artistic or technical realms. Bright ideas elevate conversations that are less about pleasing others and more about breaking through to new ways of being.

While the social scene livens up, an undercurrent develops that tests our ability to manage internal drives in the face of external road blocks, as it encourages us to refine how we go about getting what we desire. In the process we may develop a sense of initiative that is as disciplined as it is aligned with a mystical purpose. January 14th to the 19th, Mars segues from a square to Saturn in Sagittarius to a conjunction with Neptune in Pisces, activating the applying square between Saturn and Neptune that began developing in earnest when Saturn entered Sagittarius in late December. While it falls short of becoming exact this time around, the Saturn/Neptune interaction will be in range until Saturn retrogrades into Scorpio around mid-June. Saturn and Neptune are at odds when it comes to boundaries and with Saturn in the sign that rules all things foreign, immigration and the protection of our borders will remain a heated topic of national discussion. It is sure to be a major election issue next November when these two heavyweight planets are re-engaged and only three weeks shy of their first exact hit. Mars translating this aspect will energize debates about limits and obstacles of all kinds. During this time, we may also be compelled to look at what actions must be taken to turn our dreams into reality. Saturn tells Mars that unfocused impetuosity or brute force will give him little momentum to build favorable conditions with long lasting effects, and more likely create only chaos. Furthermore, Saturn says it takes a lot of knowledge, planning and groundwork to develop the framework from which Mars can earn the freedom he needs to take calculated risks rather than reckless ones. Neptune in Pisces (mystical to the eleventh power!) gives Mars the ability to be the whisperer, able to tune into the nature of that which he desires so he can attract it simply by his magically magnetic presence.

Just what it is that Mars – and the rest of us – wants, and how much of it we want, is likely to be influenced by another powerful aspect occurring on January 19th. What we may reap from the bountiful opposition between Venus in Aquarius and Jupiter in Leo is the absolute joy of loving, as long as we can appropriately channel the impulse to expand on all things beautiful, delicious, artistic and otherwise intrinsically valuable without over doing it. In order to neutralize the temptation to project our faith in something or someone that may ultimately be revealed as volume over value, we would do well to adopt the philosophy of being who we truly are without a thought to what pleases someone else. Then, when our attention is drawn to others facing us, our hearts can open freely in the magnificent aura of true love.

Here’s the data:

*Times where noted are Pacific Time Zone.  

**Degrees where noted are rounded to the nearest whole degree.

January 4th – Venus sextile Saturn at 1° Aquarius/Sagittarius at 6:15 a.m.

January 4th – Mercury at 0° Aquarius at 5:08 p.m.

January 4th –  Moon opposite Sun (Full Moon) at 15° Cancer/Capricorn at 8:53 p.m.

January 5th – Mercury sextile Saturn at 1° Aquarius/Sagittarius at 2:21 p.m.

January 12th – Mars at 0° Pisces at 2:21 a.m.

January 13th – Venus sextile Uranus at 13° Aquarius/Aries at 12:12 p.m.

January 14th – Mercury sextile Uranus at 13° Aquarius/Aries at 2:25 a.m.

January 14th – Mars square Saturn at 2° Pisces/Sagittarius at 10:11 p.m.

January 19th – Venus opposite Jupiter at 20° Aquarius/Leo at 5:44 a.m.

January 19th – Mars conjunct Neptune at 6° Pisces at 4:09 p.m.