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Aires   (March 20 - April 18)  Fire.  Ruling planet Mars.    Top

It's time to clear the decks for the sake of future possibilities, Aries. This month represents a good period to be straightening yourself out on whatever has been holding you back, and to eliminate behaviors that you are ready to shuck for the New Year. This is a big year for you in terms of public commitment, and very specific advances in your prospects will take place as this first month of the year unfolds, but constructing a new edifice requires a strong foundation, based on getting your private life in order. You are secretly quite busy behind the scenes rebuilding that now.

As the month and the year begins, you are feeling the pressure of change in the way that you show up in the world and manifest your energy in terms of career and professional life. This is a time for you to be stepping out in style, or at least in substance. Communication with others around you is also emphasized, and a great deal of self-reflection that may well provide the basis for new ways of thinking about your career goals and your future plans in general.

The New Moon of the 8th represents a very exciting time for you, a chance to spring-board into a new relationship with your work in the world, and with co-workers, just as the New Year really gets rolling. Relationships with business partners are also up for renewal at this time, and take on something of a philosophical cast, contributing to your understanding of the way the world works and how your portion of that fits into the bigger picture.

The First Quarter Moon taking place on Tuesday, January 15th, represents a time of piecing together what will work in terms of this larger viewpoint and what just won't. Sometimes the fragile shoots of our ideas become trampled under by the busy feet of surrounding commerce, and that could be the case with some of the brave new plans that you have been gathering together over the previous week.

The Full Moon, taking place a week later, on Tuesday, January 22nd, represents a culmination of those parts of the plan that prove themselves viable, and introduces a particularly strange and magical span of time, when Mercury is getting ready to turn retrograde at the same time as your ruler Mars changes into direct motion. You are really caught in the middle of this double retrograde cycle for the next ten days, right on through to the end of the month, and may fall victim to illusory plans of your own perhaps unconscious motivation. You might do better to adopt a "wait and see" attitude regarding everything that happens during this dicey period.

Taurus   (April 19 - May 19)  Earth.  Ruling planet Venus.    Top

Your year is all about getting your life to better conform to your most cherished inner values, Taurus. You are making a big move this month for greater clarity of purpose. In the midst of massive changes in the way you think about intimate connection, and also about how well your beliefs support your understanding, or else fail to line up, you are exploring embryonic intimations of a new self-assurance. This is based not so much on past successes and failures or on anyone else's idea of what makes sense for you, but on your nascent and growing reliance upon your own inner voice.

As the month and the year begin, you are feeling your way through to a more solid sense of self. This is a serious, and yet also a joyful business for you, with Jupiter highlighted in your sector of higher mind.

With the New Moon of Tuesday, January 8th, the philosophical underpinning of your life is undergoing a sea-change. You may be drawn to educational initiatives, or foreign travel, but the real basis is your urge to break out of previous ruts and enlarge your current framework of understanding. There is a way that the future is wide open for you now, and another way that you must use the traditions and even the limitations of the past as guidelines for your present journey. The main thing is to realize that you are on one.

The First Quarter Moon one week later, on Tuesday, January 15th, represents a moment of tension in your process, an idealistic and searching time when you may feel keenly the twin desires of living within the past while simultaneously transcending it.

The Full Moon of the 22nd and the days immediately following also represent a powerful period for you, when you will be challenged to move beyond previous conceptions, and when you must be ready to seize the opportunities as they present themselves. This late January timeframe is fraught with idealism and illusion, potentially deception and confusion. This period of time, when Mercury is beginning its retrograde in your career sector, and when also Neptune is very active there, could be difficult to navigate, so that you benefit from keeping your head up and your eyes wide open, and from carefully weighing each possible outcome.

The ensuing five-week period is not a good time to push the river; that will come later, with the New Moon of March 7th. The change that you seek will come about naturally if you allow it to work itself through in your life. You cannot get to a better sense of security without going through transformation of your ideals and values. This Mercury retrograde period prepares the way for you to emerge out into the world again in a radically different fashion.

Gemini   (May 20 - June 20)  Air.  Ruling planet Mercury.    Top

This is a year for forging new territory, Gemini, and right now you are making the important mental leap that precedes breakthrough. During the first part of January the New Moon pulls you forward into new versions of yourself by the circuitous route of your intimate connections with others. Then the last ten days of January are profound for you, as you engage in spiritual explorations of your soul center. Your ruler Mercury will be retrograde from the end of January for three weeks or more. You are gathering your energies, through at least the end of February, for pushing off into the strangely familiar unknown.

As the month and the year begins, you are strangely preoccupied and yet quite comfortable as well with the challenges that are being thrust upon you. Your way of thinking about your situation is going through a turn-about over the course of this monthly period, and you might as well just relax and go with the flow.
With the New Moon of the second week of the month, taking place on Tuesday, January 8th, in your intimacy sector, you are moving through some big emotions and transforming at the core of your personality. There is epiphany in the air for you right now, a brand new way of looking at the day that releases you from the past. It is an exciting prospect, but one that you perhaps cannot fully embrace, since also the weight of prior circumstance sits heavily with you during this period. This both holds you back from flying too high and helps in providing a solid anchor for your emotions.

The First Quarter Moon of a week later, on the 15th, is emblematic of this dilemma; you may feel somewhat stuck at this time. You do best when you keep feeling for your inner guidance and witness all your experiences with as little reactivity as possible.

The Full Moon another week later, taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, brings everything to a head in some ways, and represents another turning point. Your ruler Mercury is slowing down to begin its retrograde period in your sector of higher mind, and consorting with Neptune as well, so that new ideas come into your thought stream. Starry-eyed idealism as well and even illusions, all are possible. As you go through the last ten days of the month, this energy gets stronger.

Mercury retrogrades on the 28th, with the Last Quarter Mon taking place on the 29th. Mars returns to direct motion in your sign on the 30th. During the next several weeks, lasting through the end of February, you want to keep in mind the possibility for deception as well as for greater contact with the numinous energies of cosmic awareness within you. You ignore their voices at your peril, since these have been an important part of your deeper self all this time, and seek their outlet.

Cancer   (June 21 - July 21)  Water.  Ruling planet is the Moon.    Top

There have been a few difficult days in the lead-up to the New Year, Cancer, and no doubt you are in some ways still reeling. You have been self-reflective and internal all during that time, and this month promises more of the same, especially in the later part. The New Moon points the way to better and more fulfilled interactions with significant others, while the focus shifts back to yourself after the Full Moon in your sector of resources and values. These last ten days of the month, with Pluto entering your relationship sector and Mercury retrograding, could be the most difficult, and ultimately beneficial, yet.

As the month and the year begins, you are investigating different aspects of yourself and the way that you reach out to others around you. Interactions with the significant relationships in your life are highlighted this entire month. Your ruler, the Moon, shines by reflected light, and you as well have the capacity to identify yourself through the actions of others at times. This current star shape may help you to see more clearly into these patterns.

This is indeed a big month for relationship adventures, starting with the New Moon of Tuesday, January 8th, when you will feel the energy of a fresh breeze blow through this important area of your life. You will likely initiate a process of discovery and reassessment at this time that will eventually take you further down your own path of personal evolution.

The First Quarter Moon that comes along on Tuesday, January 15th, provides some kinks in your path of fulfillment, and represents a time when barriers to connections may seem to outweigh the positive message. This is only a test; if this had been a real emergency you would have been notified.

The Full Moon that follows another week later on, taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, is climactic in some ways in regard to your development and provides much food for thought over the remainder of the month. You are entering into a potentially confusing as well as enlightening time in these last ten days of January, as Mercury retrogrades in conjunction with mysterious Neptune in your intimacy sector.

You are definitely on the high road at this time, but you may find yourself wondering about your destination. It is not a good time to be asking pointed questions regarding your fate; better to silently witness without reactivity or course corrections for a while, perhaps as long as five weeks, as you wait for the river to clear.

Leo   (July 22 - August 21)  Fire.  Ruling planet is the Sun.    Top

You are getting clearer this year on what you want to be when you grow up, Leo. This month you are strongly invested in your inner world and in mystical partnership that provides you with the clues you need to find your own way through the labyrinth. You get a boost with the Capricorn New Moon, and then blast-off occurs two weeks later with the Full Moon in your sign. The last ten days of the month are increasingly filled with reflection and partnership-oriented information. Now, more than ever, you are enjoined to follow the path with heart; that is the only one that matters for you right now.

As the month and the year begins, you are riding the wave of transformational energy for new creative output in your life that was signaled by the Jupiter – Pluto conjunction from last month. This month's focus on life plan and discipleship to your higher purpose follows as a natural outgrowth. Once you have a more integrated understanding of who you are, then it is logical to consider what to do with that understanding in terms of achievement in the world of events.

The New Moon arrives in the second week of the month, on Tuesday, January 8th, giving you a fresh incentive for your sense of purpose and as well bringing you epiphanies regarding your process and with respect to significant partnerships in your life. You are at this time stretching for an ideal, and in that stretch may ignore matter-of-fact considerations, but these also form a large part of your arc of development in this monthly cycle.

The time of the January 15th First Quarter Moon emphasizes the restrictions and limitations of Saturn, so that the practical side of your situation in fact comes back to haunt you. At this time you may be forced to choose between what you want versus what you truly need.

The Full Moon a week later, taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, marks an important time of realization for you, when partnership with others becomes one focal point in your unfolding self-realization. Throughout this month, you are engaged in a process of finding your way further into the world and recognizing the part that you are expected to play within it.

The Last Quarter Moon of the last week of the month, taking place on the 29th, is accompanied by the changing retrograde status of both Mercury and Mars, on the day before and the day after, respectively, and in concert with the shifty energy of Neptune. This makes for a magical time that can also be very confusing. You may find that idealizations you have been forming come to either a greater or lesser status of reality, so that outright self-deception is one possibility.

You also may find that you are bringing your ideals closer to realization by your actions during this late month timeframe. As the Mercury retrograde period unwinds over the next month or so, it is best to watch and wait whenever possible, and not to push too hard for desired outcomes which could turn out to be illusory.

Virgo   (August 22 - September 21)  Earth.  Ruling planet Mercury.   Top

You are thinking about your next phase, Virgo, attempting to find in yourself the shape of the key to fit the lock of your future. All month long you are in the process of reinventing yourself into your changing circumstances. This is an obviously appropriate time of the year for such an activity, and yet this setup poses a few extra wrinkles around the end of the month when your ruler Mercury retrogrades. As you struggle to complete even the simplest of tasks, your progress in fulfilling your intention is both more difficult, and also more ultimately rewarding, than you could have ever imagined.

As the month and the year begins, you are reveling in your creativity with a sense of serious-minded optimism, feeling ready to push off into a new voyage of discovery that takes you to further shores of yourself than you have previously explored.

The New Moon of the second Tuesday of the month, taking place on the 8th, represents a fresh start for you, along with the New Year. Your self-expression is important to you right now, and leads you to questions and concepts regarding your place in the world generally. You are enjoying your creativity in this current timeframe, and seeking a better understanding of your highest sense of purpose for yourself moving forward.

Your sense of idealism is high and also your sensitivity to practical considerations. There is a way that you have exhausted your possibilities for staying stuck in old behaviors, and are ready for a greater feeling of involvement in the world around you. These next two months represent an important transition when you will untangle some snarls in the fabric of your existence with regard to an ultimate destination that wavers and changes but that you can sense is there.

The First Quarter Moon of the 15th brings up the practical necessities inherent in what you are attempting, and may give you pause.

Then, a week later, the Full Moon in your sector of dreams taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, puts you in closer touch with your inner voice and the power of Spirit to guide you through. These last ten days of the month may make for a bumpy ride, since your ruler Mercury is changing to retrograde motion, in conjunction with Neptune, and ideals as well as illusions could come up for you. The period of the retrograde, lasting up to five weeks when you take the retrograde shadow into account, is a good time to watch and wait and attempt to find yourself amidst the changing circumstances that surround you.


Libra   (September 22 - October 22)  Air.  Ruling planet Venus.    Top

Your clock seems to be running backwards, Libra, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Your outreach towards others around you, normally so powerfully motivated, is muted at this time by deep inner reflections that take you right to the very core of your being and back out again. You are approaching existence from an internal and reflective place right now, plumbing your depths for the gold of deeper connection with Spirit and significant others in your life. The year to come is primarily a joyful one for you, with plenty of outreach and positive change, once you get past the dragons still guarding the mouth of your treasure store.

As the month and the year begins, you are perhaps enjoying some peace from the recent rush of activities. This is an essentially contemplative time for you, when you will be delving down into your root psychological experience, and your tribal and familial connections, in order to investigate what makes you tick from the inside out. Communication is the name of your game right now, and you are likely to be sharing with others around you whatever pearls you pry out of these subterranean vaults. This month is extremely transformative one for you, and this exercise in self-discovery is a necessary precursor to further revelations.

The New Moon of the second week of the month, taking place on Tuesday, January 8th, will be the starting point for your next phase, when your creativity is also stimulated to arrive at new combinations of old tricks. Relationship is on your mind at this time, with perhaps some rethinking of your priorities in this area.

Any conflicts of self and other, or between idealized versus realistic expectations, could be exacerbated at the time of the First Quarter Moon in your partnership sector which comes along another week later on the 15th.

The Full Moon in the next week, taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, heralds an exciting last ten days of the month for you. Your propensity for romance is high at this point, with also the possibility of some illusion or confusion as Mercury begins to slow down in your sector of self-expression.

The actual date of the retrograde is the 28th, and from that moment onward through the next few days, including the Last Quarter Moon taking place on the 29th, is a very interesting and important period. This is a time when you want to remain as alert as you can to everything that is happening around you, and when appearances can be deceiving. Mars stations on the 30th, and your ruler Venus is conjunct the positive energy of Jupiter, so this is a very optimistic as well as potentially problematic time for you. The glass of your experience is both half full and half empty, and it is really your vision that decides how you choose to take it in.

Scorpio   (October 23 - Nov 21)  Water.  Ruling planets Mars, Pluto.   Top

This will be an amazing year for you, Scorpio, one of learning from and also teaching others. Your communication antennae are alerted right now to the possibility of intellectual and verbal contact, but even so, the deeper issues of your world and your soul-level connections are likely to predominate. Especially after the Full Moon, in the last ten days of the month, mystical ideas will turn you on and color your outreach. You see deeply, as always, and have ultimate goals firmly in mind. In this transformative time for all humanity, you have much to share with your fellow woman and man.

As the month and the year begins, you are likely to be feeling some degree of pressure for evolutionary change in your life, in keeping with the season. This month represents a powerful transition for you, when you are caught in an immense shift of values. Your optimism is high these days, and matched with also a high level of determination.

The New Moon in your communication sector, taking place on Tuesday, January 8th, implies that you are likely to share your feelings with others around you, and that in this cycle of change you will apply your analytical powers to the task at hand. This task could be to move yourself beyond your present limitations. Since your ruler Mars is still retrograde until the end of the month, you may benefit by taking your ideas for what you want to accomplish as provisional rather than final right now. There will be further and more definite changes later on this year. Your connection with your peers is another way you have of working things out at present.

With the First Quarter Moon of the 15th, you may perhaps encounter some difficulties in the development of your thoughts, and your communication with others around you. You are also fully feeling the strength of your convictions at this time, in spite of obstacles.

The Full Moon of the following week, taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, represents another turning point. This is a time when partnership with others in your life becomes particularly important as you continue your own process of self-unfolding. These last ten days of the month are an important, as well as a potentially confusing period, when you are more aware than ever of the psychological depths that underlie your actions, and when these very depths pose some challenges also to your understanding, which affect your family and tribal relationships. Integration is the key at this time.

Your ruler Mars is turning to direct motion in your sector of personal transformation on the 30th, and Mercury is entering its retrograde period that lasts three to five weeks. This entire next month is again a provisional one, rather than a time for definite decisions, as Mars regains its lost ground, and as Mercury turns direct and does also. Your best use of this fallow period of time is to take it onward into your next phase, which you are now only beginning to see in its full import.

Sagittarius   (Nov 22 - Dec 20)  Fire.  Ruling planet Jupiter.   Top

In the aftermath of a big December, the New Year is coming in with just the right mix for you of intensity and calm, Sagittarius. You are still in the midst of the whirlwind, just circling a little more gracefully these days. Career issues are very much an important part of your progress lately, as hard work pays off, and personal transformation is still at the forefront of your long list of accomplishments. Toward month's end, relationship and communicative outreach become more self-reflective. If you use the Mercury retrograde period wisely, you will regroup for the next push toward self-revelation that comes with the March timeframe.

As the month and the year begins, you are all about financial and other forms of security. A good reading on your security needs might confirm that it isn't strictly material or monetary concerns that drive you right now, although of course the validation of a healthy bank balance does quite a bit to ease your mind.

In any event your ruler Jupiter resides in your resources sector at this time, and the New Moon of January 8th takes place there as well. Pluto will enter this sector on the 25th, accompanied by Venus, so it really is a very active time for you in this area of your resources, values and finances. At the New Moon you might want to take the time to tune in and attempt to see what financial considerations and the resources that you have at your disposal truly mean for you. There is likely to be some movement with these issues as the month unwinds.

The First Quarter Moon taking place on the 15th will likely be a time of testing and consciousness of inherent limitations. This is traditionally a time when the rubber meets the road regarding initiatives from the beginning of the current cycle, and in this case implies that a certain degree of practical concern and real-world consideration must enter your equation. You are poised for success in worldly affairs these days, but also with a large dose of hard work implied, and the effort to achieve the recognition you seek will be fully up for you in this mid-month timeframe.

The Full Moon of the following week, taking place on Tuesday, January 22nd, represents another point when you might feel the pull of cosmic forces that are hopefully nudging you in the direction that you needed to go in any case. There is increased communication within your circle as well as surprising development in and around your home base. You are firing on all cylinders right now and may want to take advantage of the moment. The ambition that fuels your level of achievement these days is stronger than ever, and better integrated with your basic nature.

After the end of the month, when Mercury is retrograding in your communication sector, it will not be advisable to push forward with new ideas or even finalize agreements, although you can't stop the presses entirely of course. Just be patient during the five weeks of the retrograde period and enjoy the fruits of your labor. These last few days of January are a holy time period for you, good for meditating on where in the world you are currently heading.

Capricorn   (Dec 21 - Jan 19)  Earth.  Ruling planet Saturn.   Top

You are literally in a process of being re-born this month, Capricorn, a big kick-off to an exciting year ahead. Significant relationships and your career priorities also take on a whole new meaning for you as your birthday month unwinds. The New Moon in your sign is powerful, but even more so is the Full Moon two weeks later, just preceding the entrance of Pluto into Capricorn and the retrograde of Mercury in your resources sector. During these last ten days of the month, you benefit entirely when you stay as true as you can to your inner voice. Finances fluctuate, and new lessons of self and other emerge to complicate the picture.

As the month and the year begins, you are feeling your oats, while your birthday time of the year continues. This is an enormous month for you, and you are no doubt exhilarated by the charge in the air that exists for you right now.

The New Moon in your sign that comes on Tuesday, January 8th, of course represents a time of energy increase and joie de vivre for you. You are coming at life in some very different ways right now than you have in the past, seeing your world through different lenses than before. There is a fundamental optimism to your approach right now, at the same time that you are also getting serious about your mission to transform yourself utterly.

The First Quarter Moon of Tuesday, January 15th, is a crux of process for you, when you might come up against the flaws in your mission statement and attempt course corrections in response. When the Full Moon in your sector of personal transformation arrives on Tuesday, January 22nd, you may feel a sense of stabilization and support from others, and have a better sense of where you are headed.

Then the Last Quarter Moon of Tuesday, January 29th, is a powerful time for you as well, drawing you into increased consciousness of your entire situation. These last ten days of the month are both transformative and potentially confusing for you. You are being led, slowly, toward a new perspective, over the next five weeks of the Mercury retrograde cycle. There are changes to the way you see yourself fitting in to the surrounding social matrix that will manifest as you adjust to a new sense of yourself. This is a time of great change and the challenge is in staying alive to all your possibilities. You benefit when you refuse to prematurely discard, or accept, any one concept of your future.

Aquarius   (Jan 20 - Feb 18)  Air.  Ruling planets Uranus, Saturn.   Top

This is a year of transformation for you, Aquarius. You are constantly changing in any case, but this year's changes align more fully with your inner goals and core ideas of Self than ever before, especially with Mercury is getting ready to retrograde in your sign by month's end. The time leading up to January 20th is a period of anticipation for your coming out party, a gathering of your energies. After that, you are more ready to share your thoughtful and self-reflective vision of these times with others around you.

As the month and the year begins, you are in an entirely mystical place. You are changing in your concept of where in your life you are heading at this time, and in your present state of reality, and of what that reality might actually consist of anyway. The New Moon in your sector of dreams, taking place on Tuesday, January 8th, gives you a fresh burst of energy. You are exploring the vast and yeasty spaces behind and beyond your conscious mind, and may be literally taken out of yourself. You are engaging in very specific self-transcending actions and attitudes over these next few months, and this month's cycle of change represents a significant chapter in that genesis.

The First Quarter Moon of the following week, coming along on Tuesday, January 15th, traditionally signals a time of trial, when the ideals and concepts initiated at the New Moon are put to the test, and their viability in the world of manifestation assessed. In this case, since Saturn is emphasized, the result is that this is a time when the concrete meets up with the ideal in your psychological makeup. This is one crux of the process of the serious arc of development that you are engaged in right now.

The Full Moon in your opposite sign follows another week later, on Tuesday, January 22nd, and is powerful for you, symbolizing the notion that significant others in your life must play a role in what you are attempting. This realization becomes even more acute as the last ten days of the month unfold.

The Mercury retrograde period that is initiated at this time, exact on the 28th, as well as the Last Quarter Moon of the 29th, ushers in a period that is reflective and quietly optimistic. You are enjoined at this time to take other voices into account, including the powerful but subtle voice of angels within your soul that implicate you in the working out of Spirit in your life. Opening up to this cosmic perspective is tricky and you could easily be deceived as to what is actually happening, but the rewards are great, and to put it another way, it's the only game in town.

Pisces   (Feb 19 - March 19)  Water. Ruling planets Neptune, Jupiter.   Top

You are thinking about your future, Pisces, but quietly. This monthly period is a very internal one for you. The New Moon near the beginning of January represents the best chance you'll have all year to conjure new realities into being and actively plan for your future, but with Mars retrograding through your home and family sector and with Mercury getting ready to go into backwards motion also, it is likely to be a very dreamy time for you, disconnected from the external realities of daily life. Your finances may suffer but your soul-level rapport with the cosmos will remarkably improve.

As the month and the year begins, you are facing a potential clash of real-world practical considerations versus your own deep process of change that can become over-idealized at times, but that in many ways speaks more clearly than the mad rush of events. You are in the midst of a cosmic progression that will not fully complete until early March.

The New Moon that comes along on Tuesday, January 8th, in your sector of group activity and societal connection, is powerful for you, and leads you to taking a fresh look at where you are heading right now. This is an excellent time for ritual and for setting your intention for the coming year.

What you wish for during these two weeks, preceding the Full Moon, is very likely to come to pass, so wish wisely. The small voice of Spirit is very active for you right now, and is well able to assist you to the extent that you can tune out the demands of the mundane world all around you and allow its subtle guidance to come into your life. As Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter put it so well back in the sixties, you must "bend your ear to hear the tune, and close your eyes to see."

The First Quarter Moon a week later, on the 15th, presents a contrast, by stressing real-world considerations, to the pure bliss of ideation. Practical partners might also help you to define your purpose at this time, and there could be some tension in the mix.

Then the Full Moon in your sector of discipleship to your higher purpose brings further ideas and openings to the fore and encourages you to let your thought patterns bloom.

The Mercury retrograde period that follows, exact on the 28th, leads you to further considerations and increased consciousness of your situation at large including the psychological roots of your very being. This lasts for three to five weeks and allows you to better understand your situation. Over this entire period you will be coming to a different concept of self which may surprise you in its eventual outline as you begin to discern it.

Aires   Taurus   Gemini   Cancer   Leo   Virgo   Libra   Scorpio   Sagitt   Capric   Aquar   Pisces   Overview   Top

Overview of the Planets this month:                                Top

The Astrology of January features a great deal of relationship material, as both Mars and Venus become involved with the transformational energies of Pluto. In the chart for New Year's Day (2008-01-01), which presages the quality of our life experience during the whole of 2008, Mars, still retrograde, and now in Gemini, exactly opposes Pluto. The retrograde of Mars implies that we will be thinking through the various aspects of our assertive and desire natures, allowing the energy to build for necessary changes we may need to make. We may for example feel impelled to act in certain ways, and then take the opportunity look beneath the covers of our actions to feel out the potential for aggression and even violence that remains inherent in us, as with most other life forms on this earthly sphere of "harmony through conflict." If we keep our heads at this time and seek the underlying reasons for our actions, we may find in the end that we are well rewarded for our perseverance.

This year also introduces a powerful period of several years of change leading up to 2012. Uranus will square Pluto more and more closely during these years, and, starting late in 2009, with a T-square from Saturn thrown in for good measure. This configuration repeats the revolutionary theme from the sixties which has never entirely vanished from our society.

The important Jupiter - Pluto conjunction from last month is fading, but is still very much with us, although Jupiter has already crossed into Capricorn. The January 8th Capricorn New Moon exactly semi-squares the Uranus/Neptune midpoint, so that the transformational energies of all three outer planets are powerfully invoked with the turning of the year. What this configuration is telling us at the deepest level is that the energy of our personal lives and our planetary culture needs to radically evolve in these climactic times, which are prologue to the great changes that lie ahead for all of us these next five years here on spaceship earth.

At the time of the January 22nd Full Moon, Pluto in late Sagittarius is joined by Venus, still opposed by Mars, so that our relationship energy is fully up for us at that time, and ripe for reanimation. Mercury retrogrades in Aquarius a week later, on January 28th, and conjuncts Neptune as it does. In fact, from January 21st until the end of the month, Mercury is never more than two and a half degrees from Neptune, making this last ten days of January mystical and full and rife with foggy perceptions.

This is especially true considering that Mars is stationing direct at this time as well, exact on January 30th and in close aspect to Mercury/Neptune. The combination of Mars with Neptune is powerful, and means that, chameleon-like, we can be what we want to be, or at least feel that we are. It is a time of potential deception, as Neptune imagination takes over our normally more earth-bound will power, and also a time of powerful conception, when we can dream big and see these dreams actualized in the physical world. Deceit or manifestation – It is up to each of us to choose how we handle this energy.

We are preparing this month also for the transition of Pluto into Capricorn, exact on January 25th, which is sure to make waves in the very structure of our lives as we think we know that structure, but which supports us in our quest to move beyond our current limitations as long as we can let go of the past. Earth too is changing, along with the surrounding cultural milieu. The truth is that we will survive the next few years and be the richer spiritually for the experience. There are definitely some very scary things on the horizon, but the retreat into fear makes as little sense now as it did in WWII when Churchill famously stated that the only thing to fear was "fear itself."

Current Moon Configurations

January 8th New Moon
The New Moon in mid-Capricorn sextiles Uranus and is exactly semi-square the Uranus / Neptune midpoint, indicating that the energies of these imaginative planets may come to the fore at this time. All three outer planets, including Pluto, are about transformation but the actions of these two is more subtle. Uranus is the awakener, sometimes quite suddenly, while Neptune dissolves existing structure and opens us to the vast inner dimension of greater reality, the spiritual truth that we are all one. Together they represent the opportunity for the numinous to enter our lives more fully. This pull toward spiritual epiphany thus counters the earth-bound nature of the sign of Capricorn. Mercury also enters Aquarius this same day, where it will retrograde at the end of the month.

January 15th First Quarter Moon
The First Quarter Moon forms a sesqui-yod with Saturn, meaning that each luminary makes a sesquiquadrate or 135 degree aspect to it as they square each other. Strong aspects to Saturn emphasize its symbolism of limitation and concrete reality. Saturn is in any case the ruler of Capricorn, where New Moon has taken place, but the powerful other-worldly energies of the outer planets offset this practical side of the New Moon cycle, until now.

January 22nd Full Moon
The Full Moon again aspects Uranus, by semi-square and sesquiquadrate, and there may be surprises. Also at this time, Venus is in close aspect with Pluto, while Jupiter trines Saturn. Venus with Pluto implies that we will be taking a closer look at all our relationships at this juncture. This is either a hopeful or a difficult time, depending on how you take it, either Jupiter acting on Saturn, or Saturn acting on Jupiter. The good thing about it is that you get to choose.

Pluto enters Capricorn on Friday evening, January 25th. This event heralds a sixteen year cycle of cosmic challenge, so that the exact date of this ingress is not that important, although its symbolism will reverberate through our society over the next two decades.

Mercury retrogrades on Tuesday the 28th. The last few days of January are packed with dramatic planetary aspects, and this Mercury retrograde in conjunction with Neptune is only one. The close Mercury-Neptune conjunction is also trine a stationing Mars in late Gemini. We can tune into the otherworldly nature of this glimpse of higher reality, which is really beyond our conscious understanding, or we can shut our eyes to what we might see. In any case we could find ourselves deceived by the appearance of things. The action of Mars on Neptune is to bring the numinous possibility closer to the surface of life, confounding the mundane realism streaming past us, while Neptune's effect on Mars is to let us seem to be what we think we are within each changeable moment.

January 29th Last Quarter Moon Last Quarter Moon Chart
The Last Quarter Moon forms a sesqui-yod to Mars just as it is standing still in the sky, about to change into direct motion the next day, and still in aspect to Mercury and Neptune, and brings out Jupiter's trine with Saturn as well. We will be feeling closely connected to the surrounding social structure at the same time that we are driven to transcend it.

Text ©Copyright 2008 AstroGraph
Used by permission
Web design ©Copyright 2008 Walter Zajac
www.psychicwalter.com

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