A New Moon of Intensity, Recognition, and Transformation

Sunday’s late Capricorn New Moon – in the final degrees of the sign – is another strong and fierce one, due once again to the outer planet activations contained within its configuration. It officially lands on 28° Capricorn at nearly noon January 18th on the West Coast, afternoon or early evening for the East Coast and Europe. Pluto is still featured, being conjunct Venus, affecting relationships and aesthetics, and also in close parallel with personal planets Moon and Mercury, plus contra-parallel Jupiter. Pluto with the Moon brings difficult emotions to the surface, while with Mercury tends to play the detective, studying the depths of any matter that engages our attention. This might come in handy for examining the condition of both local and international politics in these crucial weeks.

Saturn and Neptune are also only two degrees apart in late Pisces, and their midpoint is 28° – thus in perfect sextile with the New Moon degree, bringing them once again into prominence. Meanwhile we find Uranus still in retrograde, at 27° 34’ of Taurus, therefore in very close trine with the Sun and Moon in this consequential lunation. All three outer planets plus Saturn are once again dramatically constellated, which likely indicates no real end in sight for these difficult and challenging times that test us. This New Moon also has Mars and Mercury in partile conjunction at 26° Capricorn, close to the positions of Sun and Moon, bringing a great deal of excitement and energy to the table, also to our thought process. Venus is close to the New Moon as well, at 1° Aquarius, and conjunct Pluto two degrees further into Aquarius. We thus have six planets in a row, leading up to Pluto, from 26° Capricorn to 3° of Aquarius, extremely consequential for the ongoing challenges we now may face to our personal sense of safety and peace of mind.

Saturn and Neptune, by being featured and by coming so close together in this current year, as well as in the one just passed, speak to the difficulty presented by these antithetical archetypes in combination, symbolizing extreme polarity within our culture and additionally could be indicating the fog of uncertainty as far as practical matters along with also emphasizing the realistic presence of Spirit in our everyday lives. One keyword for this combination, “deception unmasked,” seems highly appropriate in our divisive political situation, where the actual truth undeniably matters.

Uranus and Pluto, at 27° Taurus and 3° Aquarius, currently lie in a six-degree trine, which gets much closer mid-year, once Uranus stations to direct motion in early February and approaches the same degree in Gemini as Pluto in Aquarius, culminating in July. All along the way, we must regard our situation as revolutionary and potentially evolutionary timing, since Uranus–Pluto carries that signature, just as their combining did in the storied 1960s – when they were conjunct. That fecund period, inspired yet not simple nor peaceful, which like ours saw many clashes with a police-state-like atmosphere, was in search of greater freedom and liberty for all members of a pressurized society faced with an unpopular and perhaps overly militant foreign policy. This indicates, to me at least, that our country’s international adventures abroad and repression here at home are not going away any time soon.

And what, then, in this difficult timing, of each one of us individually? The pressures are intense and yet we still have agency in how we respond. The personal planet involvement with these highlighted outer planets of this New Moon – and for next thirty-day lunation cycle it spawns – is also quite telling, reminding us that we are dramatically engaged in dealing with inter-personal struggles that will test our sanity and our dedication to our highest purpose – perhaps especially true in our closest relationships with important partners. We might want to make a sudden and novel New Year’s resolution to try to get along and to take a stand for our ideals of peaceful co-existence right here at home, where we live. If we can model, to ourselves and to others, that greater perspective that is calm rather than upset, curious rather than judgmental, and inclusive rather than divisive, we might yet come through with our hearts in alignment and filled with the joy of joining together.

So, the bottom line on all this might be that while “these are (indeed) the times that try our souls,” yet they continue to provide the goal of coming through with our ideals intact and with an optimistic stance. If not us, then who? And if not now, then when? The best that we can do, and it is no easy task, is, rather than succumb, to rise above. And by doing so, we win, in spite of everything.

A New Moon of Intensity, Recognition, and Transformation

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Chart for the New Moon on January 18, 2026

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January 2026