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

Your presence in the world is opening up these days to a new dimensionality, and your workplace is changing along with you. You are both more limited and more out there than ever, reaching for an uneasy balance. The first half of the month is a great time to visualize new possibilities into being. Just be careful what you wish for, because your sincere desires, although complex and somewhat amorphous, are very powerful now. The mid-month New Moon is also a nexus of potential transformation, although with Mercury in retrograde you may be taken even further to the inside of your mind. You are seeking a blend of inner and outer, mystical and practical, and grounding this synthesis into a newly self-realized and lasting creativity. Embrace the oneness.

As the month begins, with a Full Moon in your sector of creativity, you are being pulled in two directions, both forward and backward, both inside yourself and out into the world. You are full of plans right now, and activity, and yet contemplative also. The past is very present for you at this time, both as a series of troubling patterns to be transcended, and as a foundation and a springboard into a more vibrant future. You sense that the only way through is forward and that the only way forward is when you take into account the biggest picture viewpoint possible.

Throughout this month you are settling into a pattern of limited control over your circumstances, trying to sense where the actual boundAries may lie. They are both further out and closer in then you might have previously imagined. It is strangely comforting to realize that there is really only one way to go.

The second weekend of the month, beginning on the 10th, represents another powerful time of transition for you, when you are starting to get clearer on just what does and does not work for your situation. Relationship with others in your life, including intimate partners, will help you tell yourself the story that your higher wisdom wants you to hear. How closely you listen is up to you.

When a few days later, on Tuesday, the 13th, you are taken even further to the inside. You are centering yourself in a very deliberate way at this time, steering between outer world simplicity and spiritual complexity, and it is important to keep smiling. Circumstances may conspire to defeat your best-laid plans, but there remains a higher good that will come out of them in spite of everything.

The New Moon of the 17th also represents a bit of a paradox. On the one hand it is enjoining you to move forward with new plans, but with Mercury retrograding through your sector of dream images and secret depths, there will be a decidedly un-worldly component right now to all that you do and visualize. You benefit when you trust your intuition totally. You may from time to time get steered wrongly by the pressures of consensus thinking, but never by your interior vision, when you can feel it clearly. "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." Yes, but how? It is usually more of a gut reaction then we are customarily prepared to admit.

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

It's a long road that has no turning, Taurus. This month you are seeing new possibilities in your home and family setting or perhaps putting down some different roots, or perhaps changing your dwelling space. It's bringing you into a whole new way of looking at your working life day, as plans that you have made earlier do a summersault after mid-month. New priorities in your public presentation reflect deeper level changes in the dark and relatively unknown world of your private life, including a fresh take on core emotional issues that have been perhaps too long neglected.

As the month begins, with a Full Moon in your home and family sector, you are absorbing some new information regarding your past and the patterns that are associated with it that may not fully serve you in the present moment. As you mature you also out-grow old ways of regarding your existence, and it may be time for you to take on a new look. You are entertaining some very different plans lately that you can really live with, and the question is when to start acting on these ideas. No time like the present, as they say. In the week that follows you will be increasingly drawn to experiment with new visions for your future, surprisingly so.

The weekend of the 10th and 11th may prove challenging for you, as you wrestle with the unfolding possibilities. Not everything that you conceive can come to fruition, and the knowledge of limitation that wisdom brings is also very present for you as you work through this all in all quite amazing cycle of development and growth.

A few days later, on Tuesday the 13th, , and things may appear in a very different light. You are working through issues of self and other at this time, figuring out where the boundary lies, and taking a philosophical perspective.

The Mercury retrograde period of time, lasting into the next three weeks, and its aftermath through late March, can be a self-reflective period of time, and that seems to suit the energies of your present cycle. You are struggling to integrate not only new ideas, but a spiritual approach to your life in general, and perhaps could use a contemplative break from activity. It may be best not to push the river for a while.

The New Moon energy that comes in on the 17th may give you incentive to make things happen in the area of career and public responsibility, and symbolizes another break-through in finding your way forward into your future, but you benefit when you avoid tackling any radical departure in direction until after the retrograde has passed. You are forging a new contract with the divine inner side of life, and there are times when you must make your approach slowly. The universe, like a bellows, is always emptying, always full, and is more than willing to meet you halfway.

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

You are redefining the way that you connect with others, Gemini, studying your outreach. Communication is the name of your game right now, as it often is, but with an unusual dimension added. You are partaking of a wild idea of universal oneness along with also a more serious cast of mind than usual; it's quite a stew. Through it all may percolate some absolutely new ideas, which if you are not afraid to plunge into them may lead you toward a better understanding of where in this life you are ultimately headed.

Your ruler Mercury is retrograde after the 13th and your process will not complete until a month or more after that has passed but you will enjoy all the stages along the way.

As the month begins, the Full Moon in your communication sector marks a poignant time for you, when you are pulled toward practicality and as well feel the rush of numinous influence, asking you to take a wider view of your life both mentally and emotionally. The time period of this New Year has been fraught with change and challenge, most explicitly in the way your working world has been transforming, at times with lightening speed.

As you head into this month's retrograde period, there will be implications for that same public side of your life's adventure. Leading up to this mid-month period of time, you are finding fresh impulses in higher mind activities such as traveling, teaching and learning as well as in your workplace. In taking a new philosophical stance, you may find that you are drawn to practical solutions while maintaining a starry-eyed idealism concerning potential positive outcomes. This is something of a paradox for sure, but one that you can handle. It is especially important right now to trust your inner vision no matter what so-called evidence may seem to be leading you away from it.

The Last Quarter Moon weekend of February 10th and 11th represents another crucial time of challenge and inner reflection, and so does the moment of the actual retrograde of your ruler Mercury, taking place on Tuesday, February 13th. During the retrograde period, which lasts until almost the end of March when you take Mercury's retrograde shadow into account, you will have the impulse for reflection and introspection. Since it comes mainly in your sector of outwardly directed activity, you may also run into unexpected obstacles that will have the effect of compelling you re-think your priorities.

The New Moon of February 17th brings with it a strong impulse for making big changes in your life, although you would be smart to take your time in coming up with any radically new course of action until a month or more has passed, since the nature of the retrograde almost guarantees that plans begun during the latter half of the month will have to be re-done, or at least reconsidered, in late March. When you take everything into account, this is a vast and yeasty time of enlightened development for your presence in the world, both spiritually and physically.

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

You may be feeling somewhat stuck lately, Cancer, perhaps wondering how to think your way out of some kind of financial rut or other habit of mind that has kept your affairs on hold these last few weeks. The answer lies within. A period of intense contemplation follows the beginning of the Mercury retrograde period and the mid-month New Moon in your intimacy sector. You may well emerge out of your brown study next month with new keys to unlock the mystery. The inner knowing that you can come to when you go deep inside is the picture that is worth a thousand words of external chatter. Why is that concept so easy for the soul to grasp and yet so difficult for the little mind to understand?

The month begins with a Full Moon in your resources sector, placing emphasis on this area of your life. You are feeling great stamina and persistence in the accomplishment of your goals at this time, but it may also seem to be tough going. You are inspired to a higher vision and mired down in earthly circumstance, all at once. Relationship with others is a strong and active part of your life at this time, and helps you to go further toward changes in life direction that you are ready for in one way although perhaps not entirely sure of in another.

This is an essentially fortunate period of time for you, in spite of all appearances to the contrary. You are transcending old patterns of intimacy and in all ways forging new ground for yourself which, when regarded from a longer perspective of time, will seem to be largely beneficial.

The Last Quarter Moon that comes along late on Friday evening, the 9th, may bring some of these contrasts further out into the open, as you strive to affirm your higher vision for yourself and your possibilities while still staying true to the sense of responsibility and even burden that also accompanies your journey at this time.

When on Tuesday the 13th it brings new thoughts into the mix, revising and reaffirming your sense of things at the most mystical level. This is an important time of reflection and inner contemplation. You are revitalizing yourself from the standpoint of belief system changes at the deepest level, and will go through several different stages in your thinking as Mercury weaves back and forth through your sector of higher mind.

Mercury leaves that area of your life on February 26th, and re-enters on March 18th. You are very other-oriented during this entire period, and you benefit by taking time out for yourself during the latter half of February. When the New Moon dawns at the inception of the third weekend, on Saturday February 17th, it dawns on a new sense of self.

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

You are entering into a time of renewed commitment, Leo, as you widen the circle to include others in your life more fully. A mystical pattern of connection this month with potentially life-changing partners is sometimes confusing and yet ultimately rewarding. There will be the inevitable slowing down of your individual momentum, as well as other complexities to deal with, especially with the extended meditation represented by the Mercury retrograde period, beginning on February 13th, that takes place in your sector of intimacy and personal transformation. But enlightenment comes to you through significant partners at this time, and you really can't afford to miss out on that, or to avoid signing up.

As the month begins, with a dynamic Full Moon in your sign, the balance point between self and other is fully emphasized for you. This comes at a time in your cycle of development when you are seeking balance at many different levels: outer form versus mystical attachment to the divine inner Self within, and as well the past versus the present. You are taking up the next stage of addressing and integrating the residue of the past in terms of old patterns of relationship with significant partners, and the boundary of exactly where the other person leaves off and you begin.

The time of the Last Quarter Moon, on the 10th, and the days leading up to it, also represent a period of definite growth and new insight. The Last Quarter Moon is traditionally when you begin to find out about the initiatives of the past three weeks, what is viable and what simply doesn't work. There strength to be gleaned either way.

The Mercury retrograde period begins on Tuesday, the 13th, and lasts six weeks or so in total, including its . This is another period of time when the difference between the good news and the bad news is subtle and not easily distinguished, for there is wisdom in the suffering. Going to the inside as the retrograde seems to incline, while difficult in terms of outer achievement, missed schedules and mechanical breakdowns and all, can be extraordinarily good for your soul.

Over this entire monthly cycle, you are making an attempt to steer your course by the inner firmament as well as the more visible outer one. You will only succeed on terms that matter when you accomplish both. Leaving either the mystical or the purely physical side of life out of the picture is not really an option right now, although you may sometimes wish that it were.

The New Moon that comes along in your relationship sector around the 17th of the month is similarly perverse; starting your motor up while you still must keep a low profile in order to take full advantage of the quality of the time. You are beginning an initiative whose eventual outcome will be seen only with the passage of time, a beginning that is also an ending, as your previous existence little by little slips away.

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

You are changing at the core over this monthly period, Virgo, in ways that are essentially about service to others and to the greater collective that surrounds you. Be careful at this time not to embrace the self-critical martyr within you. Partnership considerations may lead you to sacrifice yourself for others and the question is whether the ultimate responsibility is to them or to yourself. The answer must be, as always, a little of both. After the Mercury retrograde period begins in mid-February, you may find yourself re-thinking your position.

As the month begins, you are feeling the manifest cosmic destiny of your life unfolding, and on a mostly positive note. You are very involved with your personal past for this entire monthly period, but hopefully not to wallow. You are concerned at this time with transcending it. If you are on the beat of your life's rhythm, you are feeling your way forward into wholeness by whatever means necessary, and that includes taking the residue of past experience and deciding its best use for your life going forward. How can you re-tell your story in such a way that it serves you in a positive fashion to take you into a place of empowerment? As the 19th century poet Tennyson remarked: "All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move."

The Full Moon that begins the month also reminds you of the deeper part of yourself that lies unseen at the center of things, behind and beyond your conscious mind. You are likely to be focused on others at this time, especially when your ruler Mercury moves into your relationship sector on February 2nd, but the connection with Spirit inside you may be the most important one of all, underlying the rest.

One signpost along the way to the mid-month New Moon is definitely to be found in the Last Quarter Moon weekend beginning on the evening of the 9th, when you are pulled once again to a more mystical perspective. The symbolism of this configuration chimes with your physical world ambivalence at this time. You are confronting the question of what part of your process from the end of last month is viable going forward, and what must be abandoned for the sake of your broader future.

Your ruler is in your opposite sign on February 13th, symbolizing the Other, and you may find yourself thinking about the partners in your life and reflecting on exactly where these significant relationships are serving you, and where they may be in need of adjustment.

The New Moon of the following weekend, taking place on Saturday the 17th, represents a fresh start, and also encourages you to take a deeper look inside yourself than usual in attempting to discover the underpinnings of daily events. When you do you may suddenly see the power and the beauty of the process that is uniquely yours, making cosmic sense out of surface confusion.


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

Your commitment to your goals is increasing right now, Libra, even as you allow yourself to space out and travel to the inside of your mind. Those goals however are changing, both in the way that you put yourself out there, and in the way that you make your statement of service to the larger collective. Reaching out to others around you becomes increasingly important as the month unfolds. You have been experiencing a mystical component of yourself lately, and your creative artistic side is soaking it up. You may be feeling fuzzy in the head but fuzzy is no problem for your heart. To be there for others is the share you're giving; to be all in this life that you can be is the reward you're taking.

As the month begins, with a Full Moon in your sector of societal connection, you are seeking a balance in your life between finding out what's best for those around you and discovering what's ultimately right for yourself. This is a very special year for you, when you are called to deeper understanding of your own and others' needs, and when you are more ready than ever to sign up for your actual mission here on spaceship Earth.

Perhaps you've noticed that it seems to be a climactic time for everyone right now. For you the spiritual imperative is becoming more apparent with each passing day, together with your determination to exercise your stock option on your own life first and foremost. There is a wonderful magic inherent in whatever you start now, especially when you align with your highest intention for yourself. Discernment is your ally in this time of change. When you find the path that has your heart engaged, nothing can stop you.

The first week of the month is potentially a time of rather amazing realizations, when your path suddenly seems clear before you in spite of the obstacles. On the weekend of beginning with Friday the 9th, there may be further difficulties to contend with, some question of whether you can make certain goals into practical reality.

The Mercury retrograde period of time that begins on Tuesday the 13th is another powerful nexus of energy and of opportunity. This has the added factors of limitation and holding back from what you feel can be concretely accomplished, and also the influence of the Mercury retrograde itself, sowing confusion, missed connections, and perhaps deep introspection into the mix. You are seeking a balance at this time between spiritual ideal and practical necessity, and between self and other.

The second part of the month, after the retrograde period begins, highlighted by the exciting New Moon energy of the following weekend, of Saturday, February 17th, is a different kind of time, one that allows you to reflect more deeply on your journey of self-discovery.

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

This is your month to shine on the home front, Scorpio. Communication outreach to those around you and digging down into the deepest core level of your being leads you to a more active presence in the world of responsibility, also. The monsters within your psyche aren't so scary once you get to know them, although few go down to discover that as far as they are able. You will see what you will see. The mid-month New Moon represents a fresh start on redefining yourself yet once again, while remaining somehow steady in your public statement. Embrace the paradox.

As the month begins, you are at the apex of an exciting lunar cycle stemming from the end of January. Transformation is in the air for you, especially in the way that you approach your sense of security, including finances and your material needs in general. You may be in the process of finding that security means something different for you than what you have always thought.

This start of the month Full Moon in your career sector has you digging under the covers of your psyche, looking within yourself for clues to revitalizing your past, finding some way of re-telling your story. You may in fact encounter information that will shake you up in some unexpected fashion, revising the way that you see yourself at the deepest level, and with vast implications for your outer presentation also. Inner and outer are two different sides of the very same coin, the treasure of your interior world made manifest.

As you go through your month, the Last Quarter Moon of Friday evening and Saturday morning, February 9th and 10th, is likely to be a significant moment. This is a time when you get to see what does and doesn't make long-term sense for you, as you begin to step off the ledge into a new way of thinking and feeling. You are reaching for greater presence as you make your public statement to the world around you.

The Mercury retrograde period of time that begins a few days, on Tuesday the 13th, is also revelatory, and could bring important feelings to the fore regarding the special relationships in your life, and how these either hinder or support that effort.

The New Moon of the following weekend, February 17th, is an interesting one for you, representing opportunity and change. In some ways, you are cementing in the on-going transformation of your values, and in some ways leaping yet another tall building on your way to a fresh start for the inner work that has been at the forefront of your attention. It would be unwise at this time to make any dramatic alteration of your basic direction right now. It's not a time to push the river. The universe has in mind for you its own plan, which is really your plan, could you but see your life from the height of a similar perspective.

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

The gears of your change machine are still revolving this month, Sagittarius, maybe more powerfully than ever. As you emerge from a winter of transformation you are feeling yourself continuing to blossom, stretching for serious fun and fully engaged spontaneity. Communication outreach is important right now, and connects you to a larger center. In some subtle ways, while remaining committed, you have it in you to really lighten up. You are digging down into the depths of your unconscious for both personal and professional wisdom, entering into a simultaneously joyous and paradoxically heavy lightness of being.

As the month begins, the Full Moon in your sector of higher mind presents you with plenty of food for thought. You are being stretched both philosophically and personally, as reflected in your outreach to others around you. There is some fuzzy thinking that is going on right now that can be frustrating, but perhaps this is only symptom of a deeper meaning. You are in the process of coming to terms with a multi-dimensional form of thought that in one way represents a radical departure from a hard-nosed reality orientation, and yet in another way remains in perfect harmony with it.

This is an essentially optimistic period of time for you, when you are moving past previously held barriers of perception, a time when sudden breakthrough is possible. In spite of appearances, the world is formed of soft fluffy substance, shaped by the diamond hard bodies of your thoughts and intentions, a concept that is becoming familiar as this monthly cycle unfolds.

The Last Quarter Moon of the 9th and 10th represents a time when collisions might occur between your ideas about the world as it might be and your conception of the world as it is. This can be stressful, as can the communication mishaps that are another hallmark of this time-period for you, especially later in the month, but in an a flash the apparent contradiction may vanish as you see that everything is entirely dependent on your point of view. It's a difficult exercise to hold both ideas together, simultaneously, in your brain, but well worth it for you in the long run if you can manage it.

The Mercury retrograde period of time that begins a few days later on the 13th creates more uncertainty and reminds you of the limitations of pragmatic real-world approaches, as missed communications become even more the norm.

When the New Moon dawns in the morning hours of Saturday February 17th, you are one stage further along to the metamorphosis implicit in this monthly exercise in patience and expanded thinking. As difficult as some aspects of this period may be, there is a cosmic beauty in it also. It helps to realize that there is a big-picture viewpoint from high above the fray in which everything looks much different, and even sane.

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

You are reaching out and simultaneously reaching in, Capricorn. Active communication connection this month helps you to get centered in your own process, and in a new way, as you go about finding pathways to other dimensions right there in the midst of your daily life. The angels are appearing for you in the woodwork. Whether you will it consciously or not, you must eventually accept the evidence of Spirit moving through your world. You have achieved the practical concerns of necessary limitations but through it all runs the feeling of a forceful presence, still unseen, but, as the poet says, with ah! bright wings.

The month begins with a Full Moon in your sector of intimacy and personal transformation. And you are in for an exciting time. You are coming to grips with some startling as well as enlightening information these days and taking new perspectives into account as part of an on-going transmutation of spiritual values.

You have been finding lately that as much as the outer world of prestige and achievement calls to you, the still small voice of Spirit inside is more compelling, and paradoxically holds the key to the riches of the outer world as well as to unlock the doors within that lead to the gold on the inside. It does not glitter like its physical world counterpart but it has its own way of glowing and takes you through the barriers that prevent you from truly knowing yourself at deeper levels. As you have been finding out these past few weeks, you are on the way to an increased sense of dimensionality in this life.

The second weekend of the month, beginning on the 9th, presents you with some unique challenges and opportunities as well for greater growth and renewed understanding. You have hitched your wagon to an internal star these days and whether you are ready or not, or entirely comfortable or not, that's just the way it is. You can go gladly and willingly or painfully and slowly but there is no real question any more regarding the direction of movement. When you come to the crossroads, best to thoroughly look around and take it all in, don't make any snap decisions about the final outcome or the eventual meaning for your life until you get there.

This precept is even truer during the Mercury retrograde period that begins on the 13th and lasts well into March. At that time you are encouraged to take all perspectives into account, public and private, self and other. It's all part of the great stew that the universe is cooking up for you. You find yourself thrashing around inside it and then you realize that it is also inside of you.

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

You are involved right now in an important growth-spurt, Aquarius, in this your birthday time of the year. What is up for you right now is a more heart-felt presence in your universe. There are old patterns of the way that you engage the world around you that are up for review and ultimately transformation. The mid-month New Moon in your sign represents a new turning point, and the very end of the month brings some different parameters into your equation, but what is at stake over this entire period is nothing less than your life. Like a bud on the vine your process of awakening is everything.

As the month begins, you are feeling the energy of an important and powerful Full Moon configuration, taking place in your opposite sign, and thus in your relationship sector. The Full Moon energy is always about balance, and showing the world what we've got, and, broadly, about relationship with others in our lives; for you this month, even more so. You are being asked to more fully participate in your own spiritual evolution, and to do so with the help of significant partners. That includes sorting out what part is their stuff and what part is yours in your daily interactions with each other.

Your spiritual mission, should you choose to accept it, and you haven't really any other choice, would seem to be in getting the point of compassionate feelings of oneness with others without losing your perspective and abandoning your own ship. This is a paradox, true, but paradox only creates confusion at the level of the rational mind, and rationality only takes you so far. This is the difficult lesson that you are in the process of learning, and like all important process, it may take a while. If you refuse to become discouraged, that's another side of the paradox. Life is totally impossible, and entirely wonderful with all things possible, both at once. You are stretching right now in more ways than one.

There may also be resource issues that are up for you during this monthly period, since this Full Moon is also accompanied by Venus and Mercury in your sector of finances and security needs.

Mercury will retrograde there on the 13th, and your take on material concerns may shift including how that all relates to your partnership issues. There may be fluctuations in your bank balance to deal with over this entire monthly period, and if so you may also recognize one more opportunity to rise above.

Along the way to the retrograde period, the Last Quarter Moon of the 9th and 10th brings you to some sort of crossroads, where you must decide how far you can realistically go in a particular direction.

The New Moon in your sign that takes place on the 17th of the month represents another equivocal situation. You are enthusiastic and more than ready to apply in serious fashion the impulse for change that has been coming down the pike toward you these last few weeks, and yet with Mercury retrograding through your resources sector you might also be wise to take a "wait and see" attitude right now. It's better not to push the river at this time; let your boat float quietly and observe every detail, saving them up for later analysis and more well-considered action.

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

The road is wide but the gate is narrow, Pisces. Coming off of an exciting time of abundant prospects, you are closing down and getting more focus on what you really want, accepting the contrast between the numinous possibility and the concrete fact. You are also finding in your recent mission statement some important elements of being there for others, and perhaps trying to figure out how much to give while still taking care of yourself. If your sacrifice comes from a place of resignation, it brings you down, but if on the other hand from a place of joyful service, it enhances your very being. Attitude is everything. It's nice at least to know that the choice is truly there for you to make.

Since February begins with a Full Moon in your sector of discipleship to your highest purpose for yourself, you are being put to an important test right from the very start of this month. You have been increasingly aware of responsibility as more than just a concept but rather an emergent reality that both energizes you and brings you to a certain crossroads of decision. The real question is: what in the last analysis are you responsible to?

The universe seems to be conspiring to nudge you in the direction of taking Spirit inside of you more firmly into account. This is of course changing the way you approach your career and professional existence, and the personal side of your life as well. Perhaps it is time to come fully out of the closet with your beliefs, and your hopes for a better world.

This month represents one crux of an important process that will put increasing pressure on you over the first six months of this year to make stronger and more powerful choices for yourself. It may help to remember that by empowering yourself you also empower others around you. The first seven days of the month are very energized and exciting, but underneath the party bubbles there is still that concern about life direction that overshadows everything.

The Last Quarter Moon takes place late in the evening of Friday the 9th, and represents a time of tension and potential trial for you ascertaining just how well you can sustain your conviction in the face of challenge. You will certainly benefit in terms of increased understanding of your true situation. This is when the rubber meets the road for the initiatives recently begun, and when there are hidden currents of ideas and feelings that may tune your attention to the deeper meaning.

When Mercury retrogrades in your sign, you will feel the shift in your thinking. There is a concern with balance at this time. The retrograde period begins February 13th and lasts for six weeks or more, counting its shadow period when it is regaining lost ground. Mercury re-enters Pisces around the middle of March. During this entire time it is best to reflect on where things are heading, rather than taking any dramatic action. If you silently witness your energy coming up and dropping away in various circumstances, you will get the clues that you need to maintain your footing in troubled waters.

The New Moon of Saturday, February 17th, and the entrance of the Sun into your sign two days later represent new beginnings for you, but in the thoughtful context of the retrograde period it may be best to watch and wait for now. The universe is calling upon you to take your best shot at being all that you can be in this lifetime, and you really have no choice but to listen attentively.

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

Overview of the Planets this month:                                Top

The Astrology of February centers on the Saturn – Neptune opposition that becomes exact by month's end, and that reminds us of the contrast between losing hope and our dreams coming true and that the distance between them may be only a hairsbreadth. The opposition is triggered by the Full Moon at the very beginning of the month, and by the Last Quarter Moon of the following weekend. It draws to within a degree by the time of the mid-month New Moon, while the moment of exact opposition takes place on the last day of February.

Neptune represents the numinous possibility, which can manifest as illusion, self-sacrifice for the greater good, and a meaning-full connection with all of creation, taking the spiritual truth literally that "we are all One."

Saturn represents the limitations of life in the physical, the necessary reality-check, and the potential for grounding our dreams into concrete manifestation. In their opposition they signal contrasting choices for either despair or higher wisdom, depending on how we choose to move through this polarity. It really is up to us, to each of us, to decide not only our own fate but the fate of the surrounding collective. We are suspended between heaven and earth, and our daily lives partake of elements of each. This opposition reminds us of the delicate balance, and not to neglect either side of the equation.

Another Mercury retrograde takes place this month, as Mercury begins to move backwards through Neptune's own sign of Pisces, turning retrograde within a few degrees of Uranus on February 13th, and remaining out of sync for the next six weeks or so. This is another potent retrograde period, when we might expect communication breakdowns and when we do better to turn within to contemplate the mystical possibilities of our situation. Since Venus and Mars are in perfect sextile on this day, and aspecting Saturn, this is also a powerful time of reflection on the many ways that we do relationship with others, just in time for Valentine's Day.

On Saturday, February 17th, the Aquarius New Moon closely sextiles Pluto and reminds us that in the natural order of the universe everything, including our relationship dynamic, must either transform or die. If we choose to change in the ways that we are prompted by the rush of events and by our own evolutionary mandate, we choose life.

Current Configurations

The Full Moon that takes place at the very beginning of the month, on February 1st, is a dynamic one full of spiritual import. For one thing, the Sun conjuncts Chiron, bringing our past patterns of wounding into greater conscious awareness for us at this time. And since the Moon itself, opposite the Sun, is in Leo and moving to its conjunction with Saturn, the past and its inherent limitations are even more emphasized.

All this while Saturn in retrograde nears its opposition with the vast and mysterious secret worlds within worlds represented by Neptune. It's a deeply reflective time that begins an even more deeply reflective month, as signaled also by the Moon's Sabian Symbol, "An old sea captain in his rocker." This symbol represents the past in contrast with the contemplative present.

The Last Quarter Moon of late Friday evening, February 9th, introducing the second weekend of the month, aspects both Saturn and Neptune quite closely. The Moon in Scorpio squares Saturn and Neptune, as the Sun, just past its conjunction with Neptune, opposes Saturn almost exactly. Venus is also exactly conjunct the North Node at this time, squared by Jupiter. This is a very spiritual configuration. In addition to the "crisis of consciousness" represented by the Last Quarter, when we must face the consequences of our choices over the preceding three-week period since the previous New Moon, and learn from them.

The Saturn – Neptune opposition, nearing its perfection, brings a dose of the same energy into the picture. Do we dare to ride out our dreams to their fullest extent, or must we give in to the necessity of practical limitation? The answer is, as always, a little of both. And if we do give in, can we rise above disappointment to a philosophical detachment or must we succumb to despair? And here the answer is entirely up to us.

Mercury retrogrades on the evening of Tuesday the 13th. There is a lovely Yod formation implicit in this chart, also emphasizing the closing Saturn – Neptune combination. Mars and Venus, in perfect sextile, both make an aspect to Saturn. This pattern calls out for balance, between the sexes, and between the warring portions of our psyche, as the Neptunization of Saturn continues to unfold. We may be faced with spiritual necessity but we are equally facing the spiritualization of the physical world.The New Moon is Saturday, February 17th. This is a dynamic New Moon, blunted by the Mercury retrograde period still in effect, which hints that we'd better go slowly and make no radical departure of judgment at this time.

Coming in the last degrees of Aquarius, the Sun and Moon are widely conjunct Neptune and opposite Saturn in Leo, and so still supporting their powerful opposition. Saturn stands alone, apart from all the other planets, therefore emphasizing the necessity side of the equation. The New Moon exactly sextiles Pluto, harbinger of transformation and lasting change, and is quintile Jupiter as well. The Sabian Symbol is "A butterfly emerging out of its chrysalis." Marc Edmond Jones calls it a symbol of uncompromising faith in the promise of existence. May it be so for all of us.

The First Quarter Moon of Friday, February 23rd, comes along a week later, to remind us that not all of our creations will have the room and stamina to grow. Mercury is in the midst of its retrograde, still in early Pisces, having just backwardly conjuncted the Sun that day, so in addition to the tension of the Moon's First Quarter, this day represents one peak of the entire retrograde period. We are enjoined to contemplate deeply all that we survey, to trust our own inner wisdom ahead of the voices of the crowd, and to look well before we leap into reactivity. We ourselves are the change that we must logically expect to see take place in the world around us.


Text © Copyright 2007 AstroGraph
Used by permission
Web design ©Copyright 2007 Walter Zajac
www.psychicwalter.com

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