February Horoscopes

Astrology of February
Current Configurations
Past Months

Aries	Libra
Taurus	Scorpio
Gemini	Sagittarius
Cancer	Capricorn
Leo	Aquarius
Virgo	Pisces

February 2009

Current Astrology

	The Sun is in Aries
	The Quarter Moon is in CancerThe First Quarter Moon is in Cancer: All day
	Next Mercury Retrograde Apr 21 - May 14

February Horoscopes

by Henry Seltzer

The Astrology of February features Saturn and its opposition to Uranus, along with Chiron in Aquarius and also with the personal planets: Mercury, Venus and Mars. Two eclipses complete the picture, counting the late January Solar Eclipse that began the current cycle and the powerful Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse of the 9th.

Mercury is just coming out of retrograde as the month begins, and will take another few weeks to truly stabilize. We might expect a degree of introspection, missed connections and mechanical breakdowns to continue to be the norm until at least mid-month. Mars is now newly in Aquarius, as of the 4th, and moving into conjunction with the positive vibes and expansionist energy of Jupiter by mid-month. Mars with Jupiter makes for an exciting time, when anything seems possible and when our gambling nature rises to the surface, countering the conservative tendencies of Saturn, also firmly in the picture at this time. Late February therefore represents a tug of war between expansionist and reactionary tendencies. Not only the energies of Jupiter and Saturn are poised as polarities, but the equally antithetical archetypes of Uranus and Saturn and as well Neptune and Saturn, presage a time period that along with its streak of wild optimism and starry-eyed idealism, has its myriad difficulties also in allowing that optimistic assessment to come to pass. This is the essence of the human condition and we will see its manifestation clearly in our individual lives as well as in the drama concurrently being played out on the national stage.

Venus is also extremely active this month, as she enters Mars' own sign of Aries on the 2nd, in tune with the First Quarter Moon, and where she sextiles Mars for the first three weeks of February. Venus remains in Aries, or within one degree, for an amazing 12 weeks as she moves all the way back to the very beginning of the sign, briefly dipping back into Pisces, before straightening out in April and entering Taurus on June 6th. Venus slows during the later part of February as she prepares to make her retrograde station in the first week of March, and relationship energy correspondingly slows and becomes more purposeful. Next month she will disappear as the Evening Star around the time of the Spring Equinox, March 20th, only to reappear as the Morning Star with her Heliacal Rise on April 3rd. This interval before reappearing as the Morning Star was known to Mayan astrologers as Venus' symbolic descent into the underworld, and affairs on earth assumed a reckless and ungoverned aspect during this time. This coincides with the approaching end of President Obama's first 100 days in office, and this period may well bring surprises and disappointments along with hoped-for progress. This only makes sense as we as a nation still have a lot of work to do, and many missteps to set right, before we can hold our own with a changing world society.

The Full Moon Eclipse of Tuesday, February 9th conjuncts and opposes Chiron, as well as Neptune, and we may find that some aspect of our childhood wounded nature comes up at this time for healing. We will likely feel uneasy with the outer world and more at home in the nonphysical at this time. On a more positive and socially active note, the Aquarius lineup at the time of the Lunar Eclipse is quite impressive, and tilts the astrological energy toward friendly interaction of all kinds, while maintaining a strong concept of individual selfhood into the bargain. This might be a difficult time for business as usual as the economy takes further tumbles, but it is a great time for interpersonal relationships and group dynamics, so that pulling together has never been more necessary, or more fun.

Transits to the U.S. Chart

Last month we remarked that it was likely that "idealism, deception and illusion" would flourish in the mid-January timeframe, possibly connected with this country's military. That was because the transiting positions of Saturn and Neptune were strongly aspecting US Mars and US Neptune, triggered by the January 10th Full Moon. It turned out to be largely the military of US ally Israel that was hugely implicated. As the whole world knows, in a somewhat cynical move, Israel took advantage of the presidential interregnum in this country to begin bombing Hamas in Gaza with the result that over 1200 civilians were killed, many of them women and children, and billions of dollars worth of infra-structure destroyed. The bombing stopped the weekend before the Obama inauguration. The puzzling thing is that to date the new president has yet to decry the violence.

Of course the idealism at this optimistic moment in American history concerns President Obama himself – can he really move mountains is the unspoken question in everyone's mind, world-wide. For more information on this question see my recent Zodiactivism blog.

Regarding media manipulation and deception, it is interesting to note the following (from an LA Times story dated January 10th):

There's also almost always some variation on the theme of, "What would America do if Mexico was launching rockets at Texas every day?" An Israeli reporter said he recently heard the Mexico analogy three times in one day from a military officer, a government official and a civilian analyst.

"As a reporter, that's a bit unnerving because you realize you're dealing with someone who has been fed responses," said the reporter, speaking on the condition that his name or publication not be printed. "It's very clear Israel has heavily invested in its [public relations] machine since the Lebanon war."

In the current month these themes are of course still very much with us. Saturn and Neptune are slow-moving planets, only a degree or so different from their January positions, and the Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse of February 9th triggers both US Mars and US Neptune once again, so we will likely see this general theme repeated. In addition, since the January 26th Solar Eclipse was exactly conjunct US South Node, while it also aspected US Mars and US Neptune, there are long-term implications from these configurations that will be with the activities of this country for many months to come. When a person's South Node is triggered, it is time to get your act together, to "put aside childish things" or else fully face the consequences of not doing so. And the same holds true for a country. "Put aside childish things" - these were the very words spoken in President Obama's inaugural address on the Tuesday preceding the eclipse. We'll have to wait and see if he and the rest of the American nation can pull it off.