Astrology of January 2010 by Henry Seltzer (www.astrograph.com)

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The Astrology of January features Saturn, Neptune and Pluto, with the retrogrades of Mercury and Mars also a factor. The mid-month Solar Eclipse completes the set of two that began with the Lunar Eclipse of New Year's Eve, and emphasizes both the concrete practicality of Saturn and the dreaminess of Neptune, which are normally antithetical. Saturn and Uranus form another pair of opposite-themed planetary archetypes whose opposition is still active even in this month of its greatest angular separation and which will become much more potent over the course of 2010. Meanwhile, Saturn and Pluto continue their square dance, moving even closer to an exact 90-degree aspect after mid-month, when Saturn changes to backward motion and begins to close the gap once again. They are never further than 1 1/4 degrees away from exact square all through January, culminating on the 31st when their distance moves to exactly 90 degrees. They will be within a 2-degree orb all through February.

This is tough love on the part of the universe. Saturn with Pluto reminds us that something in the structure of our lives has got to experience radical change, even dissolution, applying equally to the cherished structures of our society. Throw in the Uranus entrance into Aries in late May, where it will oppose Saturn in Libra and square Pluto in Capricorn, and you've got quite the witch's brew.

Uranus in square with Pluto is redolent of the rebellious attitude of the pivotal sixties, when they were last in major aspect, and in fact these themes of rebellion may well be coming back over the course of the next few years, along with the accompanying backlash repression, and with violence possible on both sides. Uranus square Pluto will be a definite factor for the first nine months of 2010, and will perfect in June of 2012, although fading somewhat in its influence during the late fall and winter months of 2010-2011.

In the current month, Mercury remains retrograde right up until the day of Solar Eclipse on the 15th, when it turns direct. The Mercury retrograde period is good for reconsidering everything and reflecting on where life is leading us at this time, not so good for taking drastic unplanned action. Mercury remains in its retrograde shadow for the entire remainder of the month, so that things will not entirely straighten out until February. To complement this introspective time, making it more so, Mars is moving backwards still, all through January and February and even into March.

The Solar Eclipse of Friday, January 15th, taking place late evening on January 14th on the West Coast, is powerful, and brings the outer-planet energies of Saturn, Neptune and Pluto fully into play. Then the Full Moon at month's end conjuncts retrograde Mars. The mid-month Solar Eclipse is also exactly conjunct Venus in Capricorn. Venus is ruled by a stationing Saturn, and in turn rules the sign of Libra where Saturn currently resides, in what is termed a mutual reception. Since the degree of Venus matches the eclipse degree there is a strong emphasis over the final two weeks of the month on the Saturn – Pluto square that remains within a degree of exactitude. Neptune, in the same degree of Aquarius at the time of the eclipse, is exactly semi-sextile the eclipse degree – to the minute. Neptune with Saturn brings the ideal and the concretely real into contrast. At this important juncture, we will therefore be taking a good hard look at our dreams, attempting to see whether they are viable in the chaos of this new decade. The answer is yes, but painstaking and dedicated action is the key to bring them into fruition, and careful discrimination is required to determine which ones are worthy of the effort.

The Coming Changes of 2010-2012

For Transits to the U.S. Chart See Henry Seltzer's Zodiactivism Blog »

January 7th Last Quarter Moon
The Last Quarter is traditionally a time of recognition of all that has gone before in preceding three weeks of the lunation cycle. This is when consciousness arises regarding what had transpired, and how the insights gained might apply to the next time around. This month is a thoughtful time, and these first two weeks especially so, with both Mercury and Mars in retrograde. It is interesting that the Sun and Moon aspect retrograde Mars at this time, reminding us that action is at a relative standstill now and that introspection is the rule of the day, as we attempt to think our way out of the chaos of the last decade even we enter this new one. Coming as it does between two eclipses, this configuration is dramatic in its own way as a mediating influence, a preparation for the powerful New Moon to follow in a week. The fact that the Sun and Moon are in square is indicative of a point of tension in the process of development that is still unfolding from the moment of the previous New Moon of mid-December.

January 14th Solar Eclipse New Moon
This powerful Capricorn New Moon and eclipse is exactly conjunct Venus rather than Mars, emphasizing relationship in all its forms. There are also ties to Neptune, exactly 30 degrees away, practically to the minute, and to Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. A stationing Mercury conjoins Pluto, also in Capricorn, while the mutual reception between Venus and newly retrograde Saturn in turn serves to emphasize the Saturn – Pluto square which is very strong right now. Additionally Eris, the new planet beyond Pluto named as recently as 2006, is also powerful at this time, being almost exactly square to the nodal axis at the time of the eclipse. This indicates the presence of a fierce feminine warrior energy in these times that will emerge in many different ways in the months ahead, and not always pretty ones. At its best, this energy champions the underdog and opposes the arbitrary allocation of power to outmoded patriarchal institutions. As all the outer planets come into play over these next few weeks and months we are enjoined to take the highest possible viewpoint on our situation. We might remember equally that all things must pass, and that this is our moment to make a difference. We are called at this time to service as an opportunity rather than an obligation, and we win when we think of ourselves not as victims of a world gone astray, but rather as cogs in the machinery of positive change that is still possible and now more necessary than ever.

January 23rd First Quarter Moon
The First Quarter is traditionally a time when the rubber meets the road in terms of changes that must be made, a time when the tender shoots of our impulse must be tested against the potential of the world to destroy these impulses or else to validate them as viable. This testing period can be a time of tension as we potentially face off against each other and the world and sort out the true possibilities. A note of hope is granted now, since Jupiter is newly arrived in Pisces, symbolizing grace in action, and since the Sun and Venus aspect Jupiter from the sign of Aquarius, which can be optimistic also, a look forward to the future.

January 29th Full Moon
This Leo Full Moon conjuncts retrograde Mars, and as a configuration represents the climax and fulfillment of the cycle that was began mid-month. This is the flowering of the impulse from that decisive moment. This is not however the time for action, but rather the time for greater awareness and recognition of our situation. This is because Mars is still retrograde, lasting well into March, and Mercury, though in direct motion once again from the 15th (right after the eclipse that took place in the same sign of Capricorn) has a ways to go before it recovers its lost Zodiacal ground on February 4th. What is most appropriate is that we continue to meditate on our situation, dire though it might be, and continue also to have faith in our process of evolving consciousness as individuals and as a society at large.

The indications for each Sun Sign over this month are given below. Be sure to check out your Rising Sign as well, if you know it. You can now log in to My AstroGraph, or sign up for a new account for a free calculation and interpretation of your Sun Sign, Moon Sign, and Rising Sign. Please note that dates given in this column for astrological events are based on U.S. Pacific Time Zone (UTC +8), for other locations dates may need to be adjusted depending on the number of hours of separation.

Aries (March 21 - April 19) Cardinal Fire. Your ruling planet is Mars.

This is the first month of the rest of your life, Aries. Partnership has been problematic lately, but also revelatory of important lessons. You are ready to make a fresh start somewhere, and yet you seem to be spinning your wheels. If you are contemplating life and love these days not with the attitude of fixing anything, but rather just marveling at the complexity of your process, then you are on the right track. The end of this month and the first half of February will be a better time for action.

As the month begins, you are continuing to enjoy a dreamy and introspective time, a time of inner stillness that is perhaps slightly antithetical to your normally outgoing nature, but which on closer inspection has as well its rich rewards in terms of increased self-knowledge. Your role in the drama of outer world events has been changing lately, partly as a result of a more serious attitude toward partnership, home and family. This is especially true right around the beginning of the year, so that your New Years resolutions this year might have involved taking better care of familial relationships, including members of your extended circle or tribe. With the Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, it could well be that relationships with significant others in your life are again emphasized. You are in an interesting position now, yielding to the wisdom of mentors and partners that you look up to, but also taking a stand for yourself in a positive way, although with perhaps a tendency for too great a forcefulness in response to perceived threats to your autonomy. You are occupied at this time in finding the way that relationship truly works for you and enhances rather that stifles your sense of your own individuality. On reflection, the lessons of the past few weeks are perhaps more fully available to you now than earlier. There is a way that these ruminations can be seen as the perfect build-up to the powerful Solar Eclipse in your sector of outer accomplishment, taking place late Thursday evening or early on Friday, January 15th, a time when you are making a fresh start on career goals from a spiritual standpoint, and when also may see your way clear to new manner of relationship interaction. This is also a time when epiphanies could abound, especially those that come to you concerning your true place on the cosmic wheel. At this important turning, inner and outer events conspire to allow you a glimpse into the working of the universe on your behalf, always, even if appearances seem to belie it. For many months now you have been feeling the undertow of a call for further inclusion of Spirit into your plans and into your life. This has been true all through 2009, and stronger most recently. In the week following the New Moon you are called more directly to action, but action of an interior kind, progress on the inside. The First Quarter Moon of Saturday, January 23rd, is an optimistic time when you feel as though you could move mountains. The future unfolding before your eyes is bright, but the real action might have to wait for a few more weeks until Mars turns direct on March 10th, far off as that might seem. By the end of this current month you will at leas have a better handle on where you are heading with your life right now, and why.

Taurus (April 20 - May 20) Fixed Earth. Your ruling planet is Venus.

You are riding high this month, Taurus, surfing a wave of thought that takes you out of one distinct phase and into another. Dreaming large comes easily to you these days, but by month's end you will be ready to turn ideas into action. During this first half of January, and leading up to the Solar Eclipse of the 15th, which will more or less knock your socks off, you must be content to take it all in, foreign perspectives as well as your own native brand, as grist for your mill of transformation. Everything has its season and its time and yours is fast approaching.

As the month begins, you are exploring your relationship to the divine in yourself and in others. Of course this amounts to a life-long experiment in growth and self-knowledge, but lately it has been more of a focus for you. Over this end-of-the-year period there has been a call to higher-mind pursuits that speak to you more clearly than any other aspect of your existence. You have been swimming against the current lately, entering into an undersea world of your own making. You are discovering some hidden part of yourself in the course of this month's voyages, and with that discovery, new perspectives dawn; and that changes everything. The Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, brings relationship ideas to the fore, possibly with a sense of conflict between the partners where adjustment on one side or the other, or on both, proves necessary. If you have been doing your homework properly you have much to gain from this last week of the lunation, since you are taking in all in, everything that has taken place between mid-December and now, as grist for your mill of transformation. Then the Solar Eclipse in your sector of higher mind, taking place late Thursday or early Friday, January 15th, brings new perspectives yet again to bear on your situation. You are wide open at this time to the gods of change, you really just can't help it. And they are ready and able and even willing to assist you to wind closer to the finish line within your heart, but only to the extent that you are able to make at least the slightest move toward them. Rapidfire epiphany is possible. It may be that what it has taken months and even years out of your life to begin to budge is suddenly gone in an instant, or at least partly vanishing in fits and starts. There are old tapes and residues of woundings from your ancient past that have been coming to the surface of your consciousness over these past six weeks or so, and that have really been dysfunctional habit patterns that you were more than ready to outgrow for far longer than that, that are yielding to the new gaze that you are now able to direct toward them. The first step is awareness, and it needs to be no more than that, just a simple recognition of "there you go again." The other steps will follow in due course as long as you keep your vision lifted to the highest and your mind open to the wonder. This all takes plenty of faith in the universe to sustain you in spite of everything but that is exactly what you are cultivating these days. With the First Quarter Moon of the following week on Saturday, January 23rd, you are ready to make a shift. You will likely spend the last week of the month exploring the possibilities of what has come to you over the first two. By the Full Moon that nearly ends it, taking place on Friday, January 29th, you are finding a better balance of idea and action.

Gemini (May 21 - June 20) Mutable Air. Your ruling planet is Mercury.

This has been a slow turning of the year for you, Gemini, with plenty of chances for a thoughtful time to relax and to think over where you are truly headed. By the second half of the month your fallow period is nearly over, fading with the retrograde of your ruler, Mercury, and along with the mid-month Solar Eclipse comes a mandate for action. This won't be change fast and furious, but instead there could be a gradual easing in, as you feel the shift inside. Your ideals will guide you into the exactly correct place for you to be. The collected walls of the past start to break down like the river ice when spring begins to bend it, slowly at first and with true compassion for what has been.

As the month begins, you are feeling the quiet of this season even more strongly than usual. This is a slow span of time for you with your ruler Mercury retrograde and Mars as well, especially since they aspect each other as the retrograde really begins to take hold, right around the first. You can use this period most wisely in terms of assessing life direction. Something is shifting deep underground in your psyche, has been for at least a year, and the time has come to pay serious attention. Issues of intimacy are also up for you at this time, and contribute to your feelings with regard to your own personal development. There is a way that intimacy with significant others succeeds in a different way once you begin to get more clear regarding your own issues. The Last Quarter Moon of January 7th is a time of relative tension in your process, and may serve to punctuate these feelings and to reinforce certain aspects of them. This is a time when realizations dawn and when also there may be additional conflicts that you experience between being there for others and existing for yourself and yourself alone. You could feel a growing sense of isolation at this time, but this can morph into a positive attitude of independence that helps rather than hinders your evolving relationship modality. The Solar Eclipse and New Moon of Friday, January 15th, represents both a culmination of developments in the first two weeks of the month and a striking off into new territory that nonetheless parallels the themes that have engaged you as you worked through these issues from the previous lunar cycle. This is a time when you are gathering up the received intelligence of your bones, the wisdom of the cells of your body itself, to make the case for vital reform that was already underway but that has potentially been side-tracked. You will store up the energy of this current month and use it as a springboard over the next several weeks, so that you may well look back at this mid-month period as the time when everything truly changed. The issues that are included in your current mix of transformational possibilities include staying as independent and creative as you can while still remaining in connection with others, communicating from your heart, and at times with silence, when you feel inside yourself that nothing constructive can be said in words. There is the distinct possibility that you are taking Spirit more fully into account as you go through your daily round of activity. The First Quarter Moon of the following weekend, taking place on Saturday, January 23rd, represents a time of further testing and trial, when also you will experience a shift in the psychic weather that surrounds you now. Although still struggling somewhat to fully understand what you have been going through and what are still in the midst of, you are in the process of coming out of the woods, emerging into the light of a new day. All this work leads to better integration and even breakthrough by the time that the end of the month is reached.

Cancer (June 21 - July 22) Cardinal Water. Your ruling planet is TheMoon.

This is a very special month and year for you, Cancer. Although you are famous for being nurturing, like everyone else you sometimes have trouble compromising with a partner, preferring to remain wholly in the driver's seat. This and other factors in the way that you do relationship with significant others could radically change over the course of 2010. You are coming into a new understanding of what partnership can provide for you starting on the very eve of this month and year with the powerful December 31st Lunar Eclipse in your sign. Strictures and limitations on the home front could constrain you into reluctantly accepting the medicine that turns out to be just right for you. What a surprise!

As the month begins, you are roiling in the wake of the New Years Eve eclipse, or else surfing it. This month continues the saga of home and family concerns coming to the forefront, and this recent configuration in particular might serve to highlight these factors. Relationship with others comes to the fore in a multiplicity of ways, not least of course the connection with significant partners in your life. You have been growing, slowly, in this area, accepting new stability and accountability. It may be that in taking on new responsibilities you feel the restriction implied, the closure into family space that greater interdependence can represent. It might also be that your feeling for family life is a transforming landscape under the influence of the changes that are wrought in the partnership connection. In any case it is likely that something is surely shifting, and that feelings regarding your independence are subsuming themselves into a matrix formed by reliance and connection with others. It's not that you are losing yourself however; in the highest possible manifestation of these trends you are gaining perspective on your life in a way that enhances both polarities of togetherness and individuality. The Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, could signal a time of increased tension in your process of resolving and balancing these issues. This is traditionally a time of increasing understanding regarding your current stage of development, as additional insights emerge based on the experiences of the past three weeks, including the end-of-year holiday period. Then, a week later, the Solar Eclipse in your opposite sign taking place late Thursday or early Friday morning, January 15th, is powerful for you and encourages you to make a fresh start in matters of relationship and partnership interaction. Mercury is still retrograde, although turning to direct motion this same day, and you might be rethinking all your priorities, with a spiritual component in mind. You are looking deeply into the well-springs of your life and as you do, the concept of home and family emerges as a center post for all that you say and do, individually as well as jointly with significant partners. Resistance is natural at this time, since the needs of pure ego are also strong in you and must be given their due; but in the end an amalgam of individual and group or family needs is not only possible but even necessary. There is a tremendous amount of idealization that is also potentially present in your thoughts and feelings at this time, with the accompanying danger of succumbing naïve illusion. The final two weeks of this month, punctuated by the First Quarter Moon of Saturday, January 23rd, represent a working out of these ideas in practical terms; a gradual sense of adjustment. Your priorities for the future are beginning to shift as well. A new and essentially positive viewpoint is coming into focus, as you are aware in your very depths, and there will be corresponding course corrections. By month's end you are coming to a better balance of self and other that takes everyone else in your life more firmly into account, in a new sense of integration.

Leo (July 23 - August 22) Fixed Fire. Your ruling planet is TheSun.

This New Year is not all fun and frolic as much as you would like it to be, Leo. Through the uncertainties of this turning you are reinventing yourself yet again, and somewhat closer to your soul's desire. This begins with your work in the world, and the extent to which it matches what you might consider your true calling, and crystallizes into a serious commitment. By the end of this month's journey you will find yourself enjoying relationship with significant others in your life in an entirely new way that embraces soul-level purpose and deliberate speech as added factors. Partners in your life are helpful to you right now because they serve as a vital projection point for everything that you aspire to in your heart of hearts.

As the month begins, you are rethinking your priorities as is always appropriate for this time of year, now made even more so by the retrograde of Mercury through your sector of discipleship to your higher self. Mars is also retrograde in your identity sector, throughout this month and next, so that things are slowed down for you in more ways than one. Since the retrograde period is better for reflection and introspection than it is for direct action, it might be best to wait to make any sudden moves, but your aims and your concrete plans for the future are likely to be shifting. You are feeling a call to be of direct service to others at this time, and also to take an idealized view of partners that you have right now more firmly into account as you do so. Collaboration is your strong suit at this time. The Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, might introduce a moment of tension into your process of growth and change, particularly with regard to balancing individual with partnership efforts as you act creatively in career or some other form of outer achievement. You are engaged at this time in a summing up of what has gone before, over the past weeks of transition into this new year and decade, and sorting out the positive factors. With the Solar Eclipse that comes along a week later, taking place late Thursday or early Friday, January 15th, you are ready to make a fresh start in terms of higher purpose, or at least to begin thinking about your life in a new way. The question might come up at this time of what is your life purpose, really? Does it involve pure pursuit of pleasure or is something more fundamental involved, a sense of mission? The thought might also come that career is not necessarily in lock-step with financial concerns. There is an emerging sense within you of true vocation, something that you know that you love to do for the very sake of it, and which moves the world a little further along in its spiritual development because of your high regard for it. What the world needs is to be inhabited by spiritually alive human beings, so that you support its goals when you fully give yourself to whatever is alive in you. These thoughts represent the core of your ruminations at this time, as you ponder your life direction. This continues over the last two weeks of the month, punctuated by the First Quarter Moon of Saturday the 23rd. At this time you might find that partners come more fully into the picture, a joyful complication that could also produce creative sparks for your process of increasing understanding. With the Full Moon of Friday, January 29th, you are more able to integrate partnership and individual contribution into a greater harmony.

Virgo (August 23 - September 22) Mutable Earth. Your ruling planet is Mercury.

You have been in a brown study lately, Virgo, mulling over your choices. It is possible that your deep thinking has had to do with family in the largest possible way, the sense that this concept connects you to your human roots in terms of legacy, domicile and tribe. Concerns that have surfaced lately may also have to do with unmet security needs, or with finding that you have to be yourself no matter what. In any case the tide is turning for you to exercise your own individuality during the course of this current monthly cycle, and something stuck might begin to give. The Solar Eclipse of January 15th is the push-off, and by month's end you'll see your world as more fulfilled and more whole.

As the month begins, you are feeling strongly the retrograde of your ruler, Mercury, now in full swing, through your sector of creativity. You are likely to be redefining yourself and your creative output in some way over the course of this monthly cycle. There have been major changes going on in these areas over the past year and now you are coming to a recognition point of greater awareness with them. It's a question of not only participating in powerful change for yourself, but also of having the confidence in these changes, and in having the courage to consider leaving forever a part of your past behind you. Just like the caterpillar in his cocoon you are not yet ready to emerge, but also like him you are all liquid promise of the butterfly to come. The Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, is a time of recognizing some of this in more concrete terms, a summing up of everything that has gone before. You are very aware of your priorities and your security needs at this time, which partly seem stuck and yet in some sense are also a changing landscape, and of the spiritual reasons for reassessing them. Money has been scarce lately but then you also have the joy of making that work for you, the character-building chance to rise above. The Solar Eclipse and New Moon that takes place on late Thursday, early Friday, January 15th, is pure energy for forward motion although you must remember also to hold back, respecting that Mercury is still in its shadow period for the remainder of the month. The rule of thumb is to charge forward with what you are already involved in, but to be slow to make radical departures from existing plans. Obviously this entire month is a great one for journaling, and for meditating on your situation. You are very idealistic about your goals and your true life purpose at this time, as you have been for many weeks now, and this is exactly the right note to strike and to continue striking in order to see you through. It is more important that you do what you love with no money than that you do what you do not with plenty of it. The release of energy accompanying this powerful fresh start has implications for your finances, which might get a much-needed boost at this time. It helps that you are adjusting your concept of what you consider to be enough for you to get by on, similar to the world energy crisis and its push for conservation. The final two weeks of January are more peaceful, punctuated by the First Quarter Moon of Saturday, January 23rd, which represents a new sense of integration and fortunate connections with helpful partners for your own journey. There will be plenty of food for thought engendered by the climactic mid-month eclipse event. As the retrograde of Mercury winds up on this same day, and Mercury begins to move direct, and to make up its lost Zodiacal ground, slowly, over the next 20 days, you are storing up the psychic potential to really let your arrow fly in the months ahead.

Libra (September 23 - October 22) Cardinal Air. Your ruling planet is Venus.

It's an interesting transition to the New Year for you this time, Libra, and one that is full of surprises. Lately there has been confusion as well as enthusiasm, and sorrow as well as joy, with most of the issues revolving around changes you are making at core level. The choices come down to decisions that spring up out of pure necessity versus those that are more intentional as you continue to search for a better fit to your true calling. This month represents one stage of further unfolding. Communication with others and self-assertion are big items for you as your plans begin to come together with some sort of clarity toward month's end.

As the month begins, you are trying to see your way clear to the changes that you feel inside you, ready but not entirely willing to come bursting out. This has been a powerful year for you, especially in these last few weeks, and you are more than ripe for a change. With Saturn moving through your identity sector, your transformation involves a strong sense of self-reliance and even of limitation. You may be on your own these days, but you are up to the challenge. The New Year's Eve eclipse in your career sector was powerful for you, and signals movement in that area as well, as the new decade dawns. Kicking off the second weekend of the month, the Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, represents a time of reevaluation and improved understanding of where you are actually headed in your life right now. There have been numerous epiphanies lately regarding your life path – with many more still to come. This is in some ways a confusing period of time, when action is called for but from the chime of your inner wisdom rather than from any more surface connection or especially in syncing up with the false values of consensus reality that surrounds you. You are striking out on your own unique path right now, and in the words of grateful dead lyricist Robert Hunter, "if you fall, you fall alone" but you can't let that stop you. The Solar Eclipse and New Moon that follows a week later, taking place on late Thursday or early Friday, January 15th, is powerful for you and opens you to a larger viewpoint on your life and your adventure. This is a time when it becomes obvious that you aren't in Kansas or even the past anymore, transformationally speaking. There is a momentous series of changes that you are in the midst of and, in spite of all the trials that you have already been through, in some ways you have only just begun. It's as if Morpheus is standing right there in front of you offering you the red pill and you have no real choice but to take it. It helps to remember that the universe is operating for your own best interest in all this, and that in truth you have nothing to lose but your chains. The past is prologue. By the time that the First Quarter Moon comes along a week later, on Saturday, January 23rd, you will be ready for a next big step forward. Although you are available to transcend prior identities you are still in some ways dwelling on the past all this time, although that will shift during the first few days of February with the end of Mercury's retrograde shadow period. You are making a real move forward now at least with your heart right now and later with your mind. The Full Moon of Friday, January 29th, is also powerful for you and signals a further reevaluation of your priorities. You can start to see the doorway into the future that is opening up before you.

Scorpio (October 23 - November 21) Fixed Water. Your ruling planets are Mars and Pluto.

Sometimes less is more, Scorpio. This is definitely a confusing period of time all through the turning of the year, with Neptune highlighted in your home sector and with your ruler Mars running backwards. You have been sorting out security needs as your get up and go has gotten up and left and your work situation has gone into hibernation. What you do have at this time, and this is vitally important, is plenty of opportunity for reflection and for getting a better handle on where you are ultimately headed. This all starts to make more sense by the end of the month, when you will have a terrific chance to integrate inner and outer, in thought, word and deed.

As the month begins, you are feeling the retrograde of your ruler Mars through your career sector. Coupled with the ongoing Mercury retrograde period, this implies that you are in the midst of a time period which is more inwardly than outwardly directed. This can be a very interesting time of reflection. The interplay of ideas and idealized vision yield rich rewards that are not strictly material or even event-oriented, but have their currency in terms of awareness and re-orientation of considered motivation. Your communication with others is primary now, and reflects these deeper thoughts more than your outer surface existence, so that your conversation modality might almost feel entirely shut down. When you do speak it will be with serious purpose. This is obviously an excellent time to journal about new insights and to meditate on the direction your life is currently taking. There is a spiritual or unworldly feel to these ruminations, emphasized at the time of the Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th. This is a time when you might find some degree of tension in your process of awareness and growth, and when the realizations begin to really pile up. Then the Solar Eclipse of the following weekend, taking place on late Thursday and early Friday, January 15th, represents a time of transformation and an significant fresh start on seeing your way through to the bottom of your immediate concerns in a manner that involves others in your life as well as yourself. You are seeking a complex integration, whereby your own growth is enhanced rather than stifled by the presence of active partnership with others. Siblings and your circle of close friends could also become important at this time, as signposts of where you have been and where you are likely to be going, and as co-creators of your journey toward wholeness. Over the days that follow you will find yourself breaking out of existing boxes, and also honoring the necessity of some form of limitation at a more profound level. There is an idealistic conception deep within you that has been going on for weeks now centered on home and family as one focus of a solution. You have perhaps been recently sorting through conceptions of the past for their fit to the present, rearranging your thinking on which of your day-to-day habit patterns to take with you into the developing concept of your future and what to discard as no longer productive. The First Quarter Moon that comes along a week later, on Saturday, January 23rd, symbolizes important new directions in the area of home and family concerns, as you continue to shape the idea of exactly what part of your vision for connection is truly viable. With the Full Moon of Friday the 29th you are attempting an integration and a grand design for the future that takes self and other, as well as private and public works, into account.

Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21) Mutable Fire. Your ruling planet is Jupiter.

The turning of the year has been a trying one for you, Sagittarius, but rewarding in terms of self-knowledge and of getting your priorities straight. Security, both emotional and financial, has been on your mind lately, big time, and this trend continues and even intensifies in the course of this first month. Through this focus you are forced to decide on what is the ultimate meaning of money for you, as an unadulterated plus or as a shield from seeing where your true values really are. This is a thoughtful process. A shift by the last week of January will suggest viable alternatives as homey concerns take precedence over merely financial well-being.

As the month begins, you are exploring concepts of self and other. A transformation of values is underway, whereby you are redefining your attachment to partnership and finding more spacious ways of remaining in relationship with significant partners in your life without giving up either your freedom or your depth of connection. Mercury is currently retrograding through your security sector which means that you are likely re-thinking your position with regard to both financial and emotional security needs. You might have been feeling a little stuck in this area. The basis of your feelings of safety is both far simpler and also more varied that you were previously ready to give yourself credit for. Once the pattern shifts, it opens you up to allow a sense of wonder to come through. The Last Quarter Moon, taking place on Thursday, January 7th, is a time of taking stock over the previous three weeks of revelations leading up to this first full week of the New Year and of furthering your understanding of your current situation thereby. This is a key moment in an ongoing reassessment of your viewpoint on many things, future plans among them. A subtle shift in your thinking is possible throughout these early months of 2010, thinking that in time will lead you to concrete action as a natural consequence. For now, it is best to watch and wait. The New Moon and Solar Eclipse of late Thursday and early Friday, January 15th, is powerful for you and is a call to a new valuation of everything that you feel and do. There is mystical information flooding your awareness at this time, and indeed over the entire month, that can open doors within your perception where that is possible for you. Previously cherished structures in your life could yield that have become calcified and that no longer serve you in your present moment. If so, your task is to let them go, without judgment. It is also possible that a change that has been brewing within you for many months now is coming to a crux of meaning for you that will illuminate the way forward. It could be that the timing is not right for total surrender but that you can see something hinted at of the way that lies before you. There might also be necessary restrictions imposed at this time, either self-limitations or those from outside your obvious control, that must be heeded, in order for the transformation in which you are presently engaged to really take hold in a concrete way in your life. Significant partners also play a role in this for you right now, as well as an almost fated sense of mission. Everything signals the future that is unfolding for you and it might look quite different for you than you had previously supposed. The remainder of the month will consist of a working out on your part of what is incipient at this mid-month time, with one crucial moment taking place with the First Quarter Moon of Saturday, January 23rd, when your ruler Jupiter also enters your sector of home and family. You are stirred to your core over the course of this monthly cycle, and the end is only the beginning. It's a question of faith at this point, faith in yourself and in your connection to the higher purpose within yourself, and faith in the ultimate power of the universe to sustain you whatever might lie ahead.

Capricorn (December 22 - January 19) Cardinal Earth. Your ruling planet is Saturn.

The spiral path up to the heights of your destiny keeps on turning, Capricorn. One moment you are up and the next one down as you negotiate the twists and turns. You are coming around the mountain one more time in this current monthly cycle, kicked off by a pair of eclipses that are dramatic for you, culminating with the mid-month Solar Eclipse in your sign. A magical perspective opens up, but you might be justified to remain suspicious of it. You are entering into a new mode of thinking about where your career is really headed, and how to balance your work and your personal life. Something there has to give and there is no time like the present for that to happen.

As the month begins, you are very aware of important others in your life, and the concept of partnership. You might be dwelling on the difference between self alone and self with other right now, as part of your own ongoing metamorphosis. Since the beginning of 2008 you have been at some stage of a sea change that will eventually claim your entire existence, remolding it nearer to your true heart's desire. Old and outmoded portions of yourself that have remained from the distant past and that no longer serve you are of course the most relevant to go, and the most likely. And still you might be tempted to cling to the old ways, in spite of the fact that they could be seen as dysfunctional habits in the light of your present day reality. It is advised to go quietly if at all possible, sparing yourself some of the pain of hanging on when change is in the cards eventually in any case. With regard to the current configurations affecting you now, foremost would be the Lunar Eclipse in your opposite sign that preceded the New Year by one day. Since your opposite sign represents the Other, and since there is so much activity during this time of the year on your own identity, there is likely to be a real tug-of-war going on right now for supremacy between these factors of self and other; of course in the best of potential outcomes, a cooperative spirit that emerges whereby significant partners in your life are helpful in getting your own boat more solidly down the river. All this is complicated by the Mercury retrograde period that you are in the midst of right now, as it travels backward through your identity sector, which signals a time of reflection and redefinition of your self-concept. The Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, is likely to represent a time when many of these considerations will come to the fore in your thought process. You might be feeling some tension at this time involving the conflict of public and private concerns, or business considerations versus your personal needs. In any case it will be a thoughtful time of great potential insight as you attempt to digest the information flowing to you over the last few weeks, since mid-December. Then a week later comes the powerful Solar Eclipse in your sign taking place on Thursday evening (west coast) and early Friday morning, January 15th. This is definitely a time for yourself and yourself alone, yet also a time of recognition for the important relationships in your life as well, and how these help to further the arc of your own development right now. This will be particularly powerful if you were born in the month of January, from the 11th to the 21st especially. The last two weeks of this month will be spent in working out what has come up for you during this exciting mid-month event, and in seeing what of the impulses that have arisen in you are wholly viable. You are likely to experience a burst of enthusiasm, and even perhaps begin to shout it from the rooftops, during the weekend of the 23rd, when the First Quarter Moon supplies extra energy. Even financial rewards could be part of the picture at this time. By month's end you will come to a greater balance of all your disparate parts and greater wisdom as well regarding your current choices.

Aquarius (January 20 - February 18) Fixed Air. Your ruling planets are Uranus and Saturn.

Mystical madness pervades your soul over this turning of the year period, Aquarius, but this is not a particularly bad thing. It is generally difficult to strike the right balance between inner truth and the demands of the outer world that are so constantly and insistently present, and for these first few weeks of the New Year you will have your chance. Ideas that you have had previously have scattered. You might feel like the wake of the hurricane that shakes everything up without any real idea of order to replace what was lost. Be patient and it will come to you. The beginnings of a new dawn can be felt over the last week of the month, as everything changes.

As the month begins, you are feeling the spaces behind and beyond your conscious mind. These are vast, as you know, and may contain more information than the rest of your body put together, only slightly less accessible to ordinary thought process. You have inhabited a thoughtful period of time since the December holidays began, reexamining all aspects of your existence, even of your relationship life. If you come from a place that is surface and merely mentally sound, you miss so much. That is what you are currently in the process of discovering, and this has been going on in some form for many weeks now, this sense of discovery of an aspect of yourself that has been difficult to access all but lost to the conscious light of day. You have the chance to come into closer contact with these lost parts of yourself now, in this current month of retrograde motion, when you are steered more to the inner world than to the outer. The Last Quarter Moon of Thursday, January 7th, serves to remind you of outer as well as interior obligations, and might possibly bring a moment of tension to your progression of unfolding inner wisdom. You are very involved with others in your world now, seeing them partially as extensions to your process, a way to mirror yourself in another's eyes and therefore see more clearly into your own. There are realizations that may dawn upon you rather suddenly at this time, having to do with the activity of others in your life, and that also might represent a summing up of the last few weeks. All this is preparation for the Solar Eclipse a week later, taking place late Thursday evening and early Friday, January 15th in your sector of dream imagination. This is a powerful time of fresh energy coming in, and all directed from the standpoint of your inner world. There are angels in the architecture as the poet says, that will speak to you now, and lend to you the dreaming wisdom that is theirs. All this year you have been transforming from the inside out, and this current month of meditative stillness is one important crux of that journey. It pays to heed the voices that come up for you at this time, and to test them against the validating process of your intuition, which is more powerful than you may know. Whatever passes the test should be honored and placed upon the alter of your inner seeking, so that you might study and refer to it frequently over the coming months and years. The First Quarter Moon of a week later, taking place on Saturday, January 23rd, will bring a different energy to bear upon this problem of self-transcendence, and one that is more outgoing and more fully engaged in the outer world of events and interactions. The final two weeks of the month in general represent a working out of all that has come before them during the mid-month period of time. The Full Moon of January 29th in your opposite sign is powerful for you also, and leads you to further considerations of the effect of significant partners on your own life's process. By the end of the month you will find a better sense of balance between inner and outer; and between self and other as well.

Pisces (February 19 - March 20) Mutable Water. Your ruling planets are Neptune and Jupiter.

You are still on the roller coaster, Pisces, and getting used to the up and down by now, although you'll still be happy to learn that the train is coming into the station. This is a paradoxical time of rethinking priorities and of arriving at new conclusions regarding your life direction but it all takes time. Over the last two weeks of the old year and the first two weeks of the new, you are like a bow pulled to the maximum, ready to let your arrow fly. Then the latter half of January, punctuated by the First Quarter Moon of the 23rd, is flight time. When you do let it go it will involve both your inner and your outer worlds in a new amalgam of meaning.

As the month begins, you are feeling your future calling to you. This month is huge for you, to the point where another world will open up for you before the end of it, and you will feel like you are not even the same person that you were when you started, in a good way. Kicking off the month and year, the New Years Eve eclipse in your sector of creative self-expression presents you with the feeling that you can really accomplish pretty much anything. There has been a long period of many months preceding this one where if you have been doing your homework you have been busy incorporating a strong sense of spiritual integration into your life, and this month is your well-deserved reward for all that heartful effort. The eclipse signals that paradigm shifts and great leaps forward are available now, and that it is your own unique self that they are available to, as you bring all your years of personal evolution to bear on this current moment. The Last Quarter Mon of Thursday, January 7th, is a time of assessment, when you are taking a look at where you have been over the past three weeks of this lunar cycle, and where you might be headed in the next. There could be some moments of tension that arise as you continue to rearrange your priorities and you day-to-day habit patterns. Then the Solar Eclipse and New Moon takes place a week later, late on Thursday evening or early Friday, January 15th, in your sector of group participation and plans for the future. This is the best chance that you will have all year to vision a more productive outcome for yourself. Your wishes are powerful now, and whatever you can conceive you can eventually achieve. This is also a call to service and to more direct involvement with like-minded associates, a potential antidote to feelings of isolation that might have been a factor for you lately as you explore changing realities. Your evolutionary progress toward your true goals, as you imagine them in your deepest levels of intuition, is getting a boost forward to the extent that you are open to receiving it. There is a way that you have hesitated at the brink of progress, weighing the potential deficits against what you want to believe is really possible for you, and this dynamic continues, but with greater confidence on your part in the transformation that could in time be accomplished. The final two week of the month represent the working out of the impulse that comes into being with this mid-month event. In the middle of this latter period you will get an energy jolt from the First Quarter Moon taking place on Thursday, January 7th, accompanied by the entrance of Jupiter into your sign, which is a very Good Thing, granting you the confidence and the grace of the universe to support you in your endeavors. You might be reminded of the Goethe lines, which certainly apply to you right now: "What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."