AstroCast: February 4 – 17, 2021

The emphasis during this period is on the archetype of Aquarius, with the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn all in this fixed air sign, and the Moon joining them midway through for a few days. Forward-looking thinking, revolutionary concepts and liberating internal breakthroughs are the hallmark of Aquarius and its ruler Uranus, which squares the Aquarius planets. This is a fertile time to meditate on any unconventional ideas arising out of our psyche. Jupiter and Saturn will be in Aquarius the longest (approximately one year and 2.5 years respectively) and their conjunction at 0° Aquarius last December will remain in effect well into March. New seed ideas are being generated in this critical initiating phase of their 20-year cycle that correlates to the rise and fall of social movements. With the multiple urgent crises facing us globally, there is great debate on Aquarian issues related to the rights of individuals, and the push-pull between inclusive social cooperation and the need for independent thought and action. Aquarius is a progressive sign archetypally focused on implementing unique solutions to social problems that ensure maximum individual freedom.

While the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction is sowing the seeds that will set the tone for how society will move forward in the coming decades, the most prominent archetypal signature of 2021 is entering its first peak period now with the first of three squares between Saturn and Uranus in Taurus (exact alignments on February 17, June 14 and December 23). In effect the entire year, Saturn and Uranus in fractious alignment signals an intensification of the Aquarius/Uranian paradox of being both social and independent. As we’re already seeing in our polarized society, there is great resistance to any changes perceived to infringe on individual freedoms. With Uranus operating through the filter of Taurus, the emphasis is on sustaining what we value most, which is likely that which will sustain our life’s needs into the future. Of all the crises facing us now, climate change is widely considered our greatest threat and innovative ideas on how to address it are likely to come forward at this time.

But more than just sustaining our needs, there will be tremendous pressure to make the systems that deliver those needs more equitable. There has been a growing disrespect for the structures that ideally are established to maintain order and serve the needs of society. However, years of political infighting has weakened those structures, and many have collapsed under the weight of the pandemic crisis. But individual responsibility has also been lost or subverted. In a democratic society we all share the burden of supporting these structures that are supposed to serve us in order to free us to live creative lives, rather scrambling for oxygen, for example, that we seem to be incapable of delivering at the levels we need right now. Aquarius reminds us we all breathe the same air.

Yet rather than take personal responsibility, there are many living in a heightened state of fear that is driving them to grasp onto utterly outlandish conspiracy theories that displace the blame for our ills onto others. Their perceptions of what is real are too easily swayed largely due to a broken educational system that does not teach critical thinking. They have lost the greatest Aquarian ideal of truly thinking independently and thoroughly vetting the information they are staking their life on. The idea of restoring the “glories” of a past when white supremacy prevailed gives a false and limiting notion of empowerment that is only compensating for weakness of spirit. This is an indication of the dark side of the conflict between the archetypes of Saturn and Uranus. The resistance to change manifests as fixating, at all costs, on a past where one felt more secure, even if it means sacrificing being one’s own authority.

Venus in Aquarius triggers the Saturn/Uranus square February 5 to 6 to act as a feminizing referee of sorts that reminds us to play by the humanitarian rules of engagement. It may also remind us how important it is to allow ourselves and others to express authentically and find ways to make agreements on how we can balance the polarizing energies without stifling creativity. Venus moves into a conjunction with Jupiter on February 11, which often corresponds to graciousness, generosity, aesthetic flair and expansive love for others. In impersonal Aquarius and still in orb of Saturn and Uranus, those qualities may be directed to social causes or other situations that don’t require intimacy.

Concurrently as Venus moves forward through the Aquarius stellium, retrograde Mercury, the planet of ideas, perceptions and communication, backs into the Sun to form the Inferior Conjunction on February 8, marking the midpoint of its retrograde period and the “new moon” phase of the Mercury cycle where seed ideas are born. Then February 10 to 14, Mercury squares Mars in Taurus (actions, motivations), and follows on with conjunctions to Venus (values, attraction/repulsion) and Jupiter (philosophy, experiential learning). This heightened Mercurial activity during the retrograde review period may indicate significant shifts in how we are perceiving certain situations in our life that could lead to dramatic course changes.

February 9 to 11, the Moon joins the Aquarius stellium, one by one activating the Saturn/Uranus square, then Venus, Jupiter and Mercury before forming the New Moon with the Sun at 23°17’ Aquarius. This moment marks what could be the beginning of an electrifying new lunar cycle that reignites our ideals about the true value of democracy and how important it is to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The U.S.’s status as a beacon for this kind of individual empowerment has faltered greatly around the world since the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. We’ve experienced a loss of innocence and we can’t take it for granted anymore that democracy will survive. Can we each take responsibility to keep it alive in our hearts in whatever way we can?

The synchronicity of this highly concentrated, amplified Aquarian planetary activity at this specific moment in history is more urgent than we might think. The message of Aquarius, and in particular the Uranus/Saturn square throughout the year, is that our individual fulfillment is not an end in itself. We are being urged to move out of a self-centered approach to living. We exist in a mere blip of time along an immeasurable continuum of activity, yet what we do in that relative nanosecond is immensely important. The more we can pull out of the inertia of the past, the better we can fulfil our unique and essential cosmic need on behalf of the greater whole. We can become the agents of the future.