All Times Pacific: Astrology Jan 2-Jan 9
Friends, we have a quiet week of aspects, a good opportunity to recharge and get ready for the second week of January which will have few aspects but they are powerful. Today at 10:30 A.M. the new moon in Capricorn arrived not unlike a second beginning to the new year. Capricorn new moon makes this a good week for organizing, simplifying, and taking care of practical matters.
Monday Jan 3 and Tuesday Jan 4 are lunar aspects only but Monday morning’s moon Pluto conjunction might give us a sense of how we are doing in the areas of reform, repair, rebirth, sacrificing what no longer serves us, and embracing the greater good.
Wed Jan 5 Venus sextile Neptune is exact a lovely aspect indicating strong inspiration, romance, artistic enjoyment and creativity, or simply intoxication with nostalgia, fantasy, or near beaches, lakes, rivers or pools. A good aspect for charitable and compassionate actions. If you are involved with film, the arts, writing, or simply need to bring a little romance back into your life make an effort to enjoy the opportunity this aspect represents. It can be easy to miss with Venus still conjunct Pluto and Saturn still strongly square Uranus. The first can make us obsessive and morbid, the second is tense, representing the struggle between the past and future, between old and new. So take a moment to enjoy the beauty in the present. As Plotinus wrote, “We are not separated from spirit, we are in it.”
Thu Jan 6 and Fri Jan 7 are lunar aspects only but with Venus sextile Neptune Wednesday and sun conjunct Venus tomorrow this is a good time for art, romance, negotiations, and bringing Venusian harmony and beauty back into your life. It’s not easy for Venus to flourish when we’re in a pandemic and a political crisis that will gain momentum as this year’s U.S. Pluto Return election nears. Every little bit counts. By cherishing, sustaining, and supporting beauty, harmony, romance, music, art we do more than we know.
Remember that Venus is still conjunct Pluto, though. Pluto can indicate lethal consequences. Many are hopeful that the new variant, which promises to impact businesses and distribution in January as record numbers may call in sick, could represent the beginning of the end of Covid, which would become just another flu out there in flu season, like Swine flu, which still takes lives but doesn’t get headlines. That is quite possible. The current official future involves the best spring and summer we’ve had since this nightmare began but need for caution in fall. That aligns with the astrology fairly closely.
Saturday Jan 8 sun conjunct Venus is exact but again, this is Venus retrograde conjunct Pluto. The desire to crush out Venus is strong, to commercialize or vulgarize it, to reduce it to demeaning stereotypes and dismiss it as childish or antiquated. But the amazing beauty of nature is all around us, despite humanity’s best efforts. Take time this week to cultivate Venus in your own life. Help a girl or woman you love do something creative. Admire beautiful art. Create something beautiful. Beautify your surroundings. Perhaps read Plotinus On the Beautiful. Plotinus provided the closest thing to an explanation of why astrology works that I have found: “The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.”
Sunday Jan 9 Mercury sextile Chiron is exact giving us a brief opportunity to embrace healing through research, conversation, and gentle experimentation. Talk to someone you know who is good at well-being. Get advice about something that’s been troubling you. Look to repair bonds that have frayed.
As we live through this prolonged Venus conjunct Pluto here is an appropriate quote to ponder from Bell Hooks: “In the Mars-and-Venus-gendered universe, men want power and women want emotional attachment and connection. On this planet nobody really has the opportunity to know love since it is power and not love that is the order of the day. The privilege of power is at the heart of patriarchal thinking. Girls and boys, men and women who have been taught this way almost always believe love is not important, or if it is, it is never as important as being powerful, dominant, in control, on top-being right. Women who give seemingly selfless adoration and care to the men in their lives appear to be obsessed with ‘love,’ but in actuality their actions are often a covert way to hold power. Like their male counterparts, they enter relationships speaking the words of love even as their actions indicate that maintaining power and control is their primary agenda.”
Mars square Neptune Jan 11 with sun conjunct Pluto and the beginning of Mercury retrograde at the end of that week, may indicate the level of surge and disruption being predicted by scientists. Enough people may be missing work to impact how things work. It would not be a mistake to have contingency plans. If the variant behaves as it has elsewhere these disruptions will begin to disappear and there will be a bit more of a return to normalcy, probably around the second week of February when Saturn and Uranus are no longer square. The square returns as summer progresses and we may see disruptions again in late August when Uranus is stationary retrograde, with troubles continuing through October during which the square will be very nearly but not quite exact with Saturn stationary direct. The square ends near Christmas 2022 and we can hope that many of the troubles now occupying us will have solutions.
