Eastern Asia is a diverse region with a long and complex history. It is therefore not surprising that there is more than one way of calculating when eastern Asian calendars turn over into a new year. For a great number of people, however (including many in Western cultures), the Asian new year takes place with the second New Moon after the Capricorn solstice.

Assuming you are among those who at least acknowledge the Asian lunar new year, this Friday (or Saturday, depending on your time zone) will be the day. That’s when the Moon will meet up with the Aquarius Sun for the second New Moon of our current season.

Interestingly, the occasion of lunar new year in 2017 will be symbolically new in several ways for Western astrologers as well. Approximately 24 hours before the Aquarius New Moon, a Kuiper Belt object known as 50000 Quaoar will change signs for the first time since it was discovered in 2002.

Indeed, Quaoar has been continuously in Sagittarius since 1994. On Thursday, however, Quaoar will enter Capricorn for the first time in more than two-and-a-half centuries. Based on how events have correlated with other slow-moving objects changing signs in recent years (think Pluto entering Capricorn in 2008 as just one example), the lunar new year coming up should be newer than most.

Neither will Quaoar be alone in implying some changes of unusual substance during the upcoming Year of the Fire Rooster. Less than seven hours before the Aquarius New Moon, Mercury will finally move past the degree of Capricorn where it stationed retrograde back on Dec. 19. Then, less than six hours after the Moon separates from its merger with the Aquarius Sun, Mars will enter its Aries dominion for the first time since February of 2015.

Note the signs involved with the big celestial changes coming up at the end of this week. Aquarius: emblematic of a much anticipated (and disparaged) New Age which may or may not have already begun. Capricorn: a cardinal sign, which means that a new season begins when the Sun enters. Finally, Aries: not just a cardinal sign, but the place where the entire zodiac starts over. It’s enough to inspire you to initiate some changes of your own, even if nobody else gets the cosmic hint.

Given how women gathered all over the U.S. (and around the globe) to assert their political power over the weekend, you might even want to consider changing one of the world’s oldest traditions. After all, the Year of the Fire Hen does have a certain ring to it. Who knows? It might catch on.

Offered In Service

Pre-order the 2017 Planet Waves Annual, The Book of Your Life, to lock in our special early pricing. Read more here or go straight to the purchase page.

There is no denying today’s ceremonies and festivities in Washington D.C. are historic. All presidential inaugurations are historic. They are designed to be that way. There are at least two questions worth asking, however. The first regards how today’s inauguration will take its place among others before. Astrology offers some hints in reply.

The second, more important, question is for you. It has to do with ascertaining and being honest with yourself regarding the two most crucial determinants of reality: your perception and your focus. Knowing how and what you perceive at any given moment is to know your reality.

Even more pertinent to all things having to do with history in the making is your focus. Where your attention is at any given time contributes to determine the realities of your future. In other words, you are just as important as nearly anybody else when it comes to determining what happens from this day forward.

Besides emphasizing how and what you perceive along with where and how you focus, the astrology for today and the week to come is surprisingly deferential. The Sun is only in the very first degrees of Aquarius. Today’s Scorpio Moon has basically started closing out old business. Mercury is in the same patch of Capricorn where it has spent the better part of two months. It’s almost as if the interior of the solar system is saying: “ain’t see nothin’ yet.”

Pre-order the 2017 Planet Waves Annual, The Book of Your Life, to lock in our special early pricing. Read more here or go straight to the purchase page.

Outside the main asteroid belt, the message is not all that much different. Mars has not quite gotten home to Aries, and won’t until after the New Moon a week hence. Jupiter is not quite standing still, and will remain that way until weeks after its retrograde begins on Feb. 6.

Saturn still has the better part of a year until it reaches its Capricorn dominion. Finally, all the sign-ruling planets that mediate between your life and history (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) are, even today, still proving a thing or two.

In sum, the skies are all but deferring to to you, at least until the end of the month. It is almost as if you are being given your chance to set a tone and lead the way after all the hoot and holler in D.C. has yielded to to yet another working day. Given its historic role as an arbiter of time, however, the cosmos cannot possibly wait on you forever.

If there is anything to astrology, your appropriate role at this time does not involve either mourning or celebrating. Instead, it would be most appropriate to make use of the time you are being given with your own mind in mind. If you can only come to better know the power of your perceptions by next month, you will have stepped forward. If you can also manage to stand in the power of choosing your own focus, you will have stepped to the front.

The most important part of what is yet to be seen is what you have yet to show.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

Today the Sun enters a new sign: Aquarius. We’ve reached the middle sign of the winter season here in the Northern Hemisphere, one day before the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States.

Photo by Amanda Painter

Does that event feel like a fresh, revolutionary beginning to you? Or more like the crystallization of questionable (or disturbing) cultural and political trends from the past year? Interestingly, either sensation could be an accurate illustration of Aquarius.

This is a reflection of Aquarius having two rulers: its traditional ruler is Saturn, and its modern ruler is Uranus. Saturn signifies the force that concretizes and limits. Uranus represents the force that surprises and shatters old forms.

It would be easy to cast one as the ‘bad guy’ and the other as the ‘good guy’. How often have you heard people speak of Saturn transits as ‘hard’, or you’ve had difficulties with authority figures and restrictions? How often have you longed for freedom, or wished that something would come along to shake up systems that no longer work?

Yet neither of these planetary energies is ‘just bad’ or ‘just good’. In fact, we need both forces working together in proportion to live in balance — to grow, to establish clear structures, and then to open them up and grow some more.

Continue reading →

Earlier today, the Moon left Virgo behind to enter Libra. There it will remain until shortly after the Sun leaves Capricorn behind to enter Aquarius on Thursday.

You might say it’s rare for the Sun and Moon to change signs at essentially the same time (which is basically what will happen on Thursday), but it should not be surprising in the current context of astrology, world events and your life.

First off, to have the Sun move from a cardinal sign (Capricorn) to a fixed sign (Aquarius) is to imply that something which initiated in consciousness about a month ago is now about to take a lasting and publicly acknowledged form. The progress of the current season defining itself since the third week of December is but one example.

What’s more, when you consider that both Capricorn and Aquarius are originally ruled by Saturn, whatever does take form will likely serve to define things for some time. Throw in the Moon moving from cardinal Libra to fixed Scorpio less than an hour after the Sun enters Aquarius, and you have a lunar last quarter on top of everything else.

The Moon’s last quarter phase takes place about a week after the immediately preceding Full Moon. It’s a point of evaluation, possibly even tension as regards to the current lunation cycle that started with a New Moon about three weeks before. The fact that you have to be up past midnight to see a last quarter Moon rise implies a private process in parallel with public manifestations indicated by the Sun.

When you look at what will be happening in Washington D.C. this week, the Sun’s ingress to airy Aquarius on Thursday as described above will probably resonate externally. Should you note how a lot of people seem to be coming down with the flu at the same time, the concurrent lunar last quarter in moist Scorpio will very possibly make more sense internally.

Even so, you should always remember that astrology is not destiny. Simply because your life is almost certainly synchronized to some extent with the seasons does not prevent you from sojourning in some other latitude to adjust your attitude.

Nor do the Moon’s phases necessarily dictate your fate. You always have a choice about whether to go with the flow or depart from it. Neither the sky, nor politics, nor even your internal life need define you. Ultimately, it is in your power to at least partially define yourself in the context of what goes on with both the sky above and on Earth below.

Interestingly, the next lunar cycle will implicitly offer some symbolic points of departure. The next New Moon is on Jan. 27 (or Jan. 28, depending on your time zone). Two weeks after that, the coming Full Moon will be a lunar eclipse.

Two more weeks after the lunar eclipse of Feb. 10 (or Feb. 11), the New Moon of Feb. 26 will constitute the proverbial “other shoe,” in the form of a solar eclipse. The time in between those eclipses will be yours for the taking, if you will but have it be so.

Pre-order the 2017 Planet Waves Annual, The Book of Your Life, to lock in our special early pricing. Read more here or go straight to the purchase page.

If there is any time that favors breaking patterns, it’s the period between eclipses. If the Sun’s ingress to Aquarius shortly before 4:24 pm EST (21:23:32 UTC) this Thursday does not bring a change to suit you, bide your time.

First, think about the changes you would most like to make.

Then, pick from among those options the one you would be most likely to manifest. Finally, set your sights a month down the road as a realistic timeframe in which to get it done.

It may not sound like much of an accomplishment to plan ahead and make one simple change in rhythm with the cosmos. To do so with conscious intent, however, has the potential to empower you as perhaps never before. Imagine rising above the season to transcend both external events and internal trends and define yourself. If that’s not an exciting prospect for you, what is?

Offered In Service

Astrology’s feel for the weekend coming up is subtle, but significant. The Sun is now well into the last week of its annual tour in Capricorn. The Moon is waning in Leo, and on its way to enter Virgo as Saturday segues into Sunday. Mercury (in direct motion again since last weekend) is gathering speed while retracing the steps of its recent retrograde.

It would appear on the surface as if the cosmos were taking a breather, and consolidating itself. Yet, somewhat below the surface is a fiery theme. It’s almost as if something was baking away unseen in a celestial oven, patiently (if not intently) marking time.

Jupiter (ruler of fiery Sagittarius) is practically standing still. From its nearly stationary position in Libra, Jupiter is holding a long and amplifying (if not confrontational) opposition to Uranus and Eris in fiery Aries. In addition, Jupiter is essentially bolstering Saturn’s defining (if not confining) presence precisely sixty degrees away in Sagittarius.

As aforementioned, the Moon is currently drying out in fiery Leo so soon after having swollen to fullness in watery Cancer. And then there is red, red Mars: currently steaming things up in Pisces while on its way to merge with Chiron as Monday rolls over into Tuesday.

When it comes to either the upside (energy) or downside (inflammation) of fire’s symbolism, astrologers tend to look at Mars first. Mars rules Aries. That’s another way of saying that Aries is where Mars makes its home. In order to understand the analogy, think about your own residence.

When you are away from home, many of your possessions remain there. The variety and distribution of your stuff reflects who you uniquely are, and your DNA is all over the place. The same principles apply to how astrology correlates the signs with planets. No matter where Mars the planet actually is, part of it is always home.

Mars is also what astrologers call “exalted” in Capricorn. Think of a planet’s sign of exaltation as being its time-share vacation condominium, and you have a serviceable handle on that concept, too. Finally, wherever there is either emblematic fire (such as Leo and Sagittarius) or an implication of steam (Scorpio) on the zodiac, you can depend on Mars having something to do with it as well.

When you look at how Uranus and Eris in Aries are providing the big-picture background for our current era of astrology, you also know that picture is hanging where Mars lives. When you contemplate the Sun, Pluto and Mercury combining to do a little earth-shaking in Capricorn, it’s understood that Mars is at least co-hosting the party (along with Capricorn’s ruler, Saturn).

Pre-order the 2017 Planet Waves Annual, The Book of Your Life, to lock in our special early pricing. Read more here or go straight to the purchase page.

When you consider how much energy Mars brings with it, you can’t consider its current company in Pisces (Venus, Neptune, Chiron and Pallas — to name just a handful) without conceding it is Mars that is warming up the pool.

It would be fair to say that Mars has its figurative fingerprints all over the celestial scene right now. Nearly everywhere on the zodiac, Mars is (directly or indirectly) in the process of provoking irritation, stimulating action or just plain cooking.

Hence a reason to keep an eye out for Mars in your life this weekend. When and where you feel the energy, seek to apply it creatively and constructively for best results. In any cases of either literal or symbolic inflammation, don’t neglect to be a cooling and soothing influence in order to balance things out. Finally, wherever and whenever you see smoke or smell cooking, don’t forget that there’s a fire where that came from.

There’s an old saying that fire is a very good servant, but a very bad master. The same applies to how the astrological Mars manifests on Earth. If you can remember that this weekend, the chances of your being a creative and skillful (if metaphorical) cook will be greatly enhanced.

Offered In Service

By Amanda Painter

Today’s Cancer Full Moon takes place in direct contact with several major planets around the zodiac. On one level, it’s a symbolic illustration of how life feels right now: issues pushing and pulling us from all directions, each insisting on immediate action.

Photo by Amanda Painter

The challenging thing about such a situation is often deciding what takes priority.

For example: If you’re tuned in to numerous calls for social justice, plus you work a full-time job with many responsibilities, plus you actively foster a creative passion, plus you care for a family, plus you try to keep up with social media, life quickly becomes a real juggling act.

You need to decide on an order of operations. Sometimes that means doing a little of everything daily; other times, that means allotting certain days to focus on some things rather than others. Occasionally you must drop your plan and respond to an unexpected demand; but we live in a world where, increasingly, everything seemingly demands our immediate attention all the time.

That’s a little what this morning’s Full Moon chart looks like to me. The Moon in Cancer opposes the Capricorn Sun at 6:33:55 am EST (11:33:55 UTC), with both luminaries at 22+ of their respective signs.

Meanwhile, Eris is at 22+ Aries (with Uranus and Ceres within two degrees on either side). And Jupiter is at 22+ Libra.

Continue reading →

Way back at the end of 2008, Pluto settled into the cardinal earth sign Capricorn for what will eventually be a stay of about 15 years. That single ingress was implicitly the start (cardinal) of something substantial (earth). During the next two years, two other slow-moving planets (Saturn and Uranus) moved to essentially reinforce Pluto’s 2008 implied message.

Starting in 2009 and through 2010, Saturn and Uranus took up somewhat less long-term positions — also in cardinal signs. Saturn entered Libra in time for Halloween 2009. By the first equinox of 2010, Uranus had made its second and final ingress to Aries.

Saturn facing Uranus from opposite sides of the sky provided what was effectively an unprecedented setting for Pluto in Capricorn, halfway around the zodiac between them. It was a cardinal T-square aspect, named for how two straight lines connecting in the middle of the zodiac wheel put Pluto in the position of being a “leg” on the “T” crossed by the opposition from Saturn and Uranus.

During Saturn’s less-than-three-year occupation of Libra, any other object moving through the sign Cancer to oppose Pluto would convert the cardinal T-square into a grand cardinal cross. This pattern connected all four cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) as if by spokes on a wheel.

Shortly after the final equinox of 2012, Saturn moved on to fixed Scorpio, leaving the cardinal action to Uranus (still in Aries) and Pluto (still in Capricorn). Uranus and Pluto then made seven consecutive square aspects (separations of 90 degrees on the zodiac); their final exact square was in 2015.

Now, with a little less than a year remaining for Saturn’s subsequent (and current) period in mutable Sagittarius, Uranus has met up with Eris in the latter third of Aries. Pluto, for its part, is only a bit more than halfway through Capricorn.

A lot has happened on Earth since the cardinal T-square. Since then, first Mars (in a traversal lengthened by retrograde), and now Jupiter (slowing to a retrograde early next month) have been among the most notable to follow in Saturn’s footsteps by opposing Uranus and squaring Pluto.

Now, the grand cardinal crosses that distinguished the earlier years of this decade are about to be symbolically — albeit briefly — revisited. Early on Thursday (shortly after 6:30 am EDT / 11:33:54 UTC), the Capricorn Sun, less than five degrees away from Pluto, will be exactly opposed by the Cancer Full Moon. At the same time, Jupiter in Libra will oppose Eris, (closely flanked by Uranus and Ceres) just as precisely, to vividly recall the grand cardinal crosses of the past.

The Moon moves quickly. Hence, the grand cardinal cross that goes with this week’s Cancer Full Moon will be highly ephemeral. Even so, you don’t need to be an astrologer to know that the palpable energies coincident with any Full Moon do make it a notable (if abbreviated) occasion.

Then add in how the Moon is often most powerfully expressed in its Cancer dominion. Finally, combine Jupiter’s propensity to amplify the galvanizing potential of Uranus and Eris in the midst of a long (essentially continuous) merger, which links last year’s sheer dynamism to this year’s powerful promise. The result: a combination that has an emblematic potency that would challenge language to describe.

It’s almost as if this week’s Full Moon is a time machine, and not one that conveys you from one time to another like a passenger. It is more as if significant expanses of time are about to become present, but only if you can bring yourself present at the same time.

Pre-order the 2017 Planet Waves Annual, The Book of Your Life, to lock in our special early pricing. Read more here or go straight to the purchase page.

Of course, you cannot change where you have already gone. If you can bring yourself present with the highlights of the last eight years or so, however, this week’s Full Moon could empower you to make some changes to where you are going.

If there is anything to astrology, this particular Full Moon in Cancer will afford you at least one choice to which you can apply something of what you have learned so far in this decade.

That choice, in turn, could very well be the foundation upon which you build a future. And that foundation could both prolong the good things and curtail any repetition of the not-so-good consequences that have accrued from decisions in the past.

You may not be able to change the world this week; that’s a tall order. Nonetheless, it would be very surprising if you could not at least do something to change the course of your life.

Even your smallest gestures to acknowledge — with action — what you have learned from history will have a great deal of energy behind them, as the Moon comes home to reflect just what a bright and constructive force you can be while standing in the power of your free will.

Offered In Service

Late tonight or early tomorrow (depending on your time zone) the Sun will make its more-or-less annual conjunction with slow-but-sure Pluto. Notably, the Sun’s yearly merger with Pluto has been taking place in Capricorn since December of 2008. Further distinguishing the Sun’s impending meeting with Pluto, Mercury will end its retrograde motion a little more than 24 hours later, in the penultimate degree of Sagittarius.

Capricorn is distinguished by astrologers as a cardinal earth sign. When the Sun enters a cardinal sign, the season changes. When any other object enters a cardinal sign, it is thought to emulate the Sun. It essentially correlates with what you may call a new season for the qualities associated with the object in question.

Regardless of where you live, the seasonal change that goes with the Sun entering Capricorn is plain to see with your own eyes. After the Capricorn solstice, the Sun essentially turns around. After rising continuously farther south on the eastern horizon, and setting farther and farther south on the western horizon day after day for six months (following the Cancer solstice in June), the Sun begins rising and setting more and more towards the north — right after entering Capricorn in December. That is no small thing.

As a result of the Sun’s biannual turnaround, the trending length of daytime relative to night changes. As result, the weather changes, and your life with it. In the coming months, your wardrobe, diet and daily routine will most likely transition from one mode to another.

Being a cardinal sign, Capricorn therefore corresponds with new beginnings. Being an earth sign, Capricorn implicitly correlates with all that is substantial and lasting. The simple fact that Pluto takes nearly two-and-a-half centuries to make one orbit of the Sun (and a single circuit of the 12 zodiac signs) conveys a clear correspondence with the long rise and fall of nations and cultures that distinguishes entire eras in history.

Essentially, clothing Pluto in Capricorn’s motif implies that you are present to witness and participate in a turning point long in coming. To have the Sun’s merger with Pluto taking place in Capricorn indicates you would best be conscious that you are living in the midst of that turnaround.

Pre-order the 2017 Planet Waves Annual, The Book of Your Life, to lock in our special early pricing. Read more here or go straight to the purchase page.

Finally, to have Mercury conduct one of its own turnarounds at nearly the same time (albeit in Sagittarius) emblematically serves to encourage your being mindful of what a turnaround is — and, in fact, what it is not.

A turnaround is not an end. It is a transition. Songs do it. With the repetition of a distinctive musical phrase, a song signals the end of one verse (or refrain) and the beginning of yet another chord progression.

Trains and trolleys do it also. A set of rails can’t keep going in the same direction forever. Yet, trains keep running so long as there is somebody to conduct them. Similarly, songs keep being heard so long as there is somebody to play and sing them.

That, if anything, is the message in the astrology this weekend. There is no evidence historical times are coming to an end. Rather, it is for you to participate in determining where history will turn from here.

Given that Pluto has been continuously in Capricorn for more than nine years (with nearly seven years to go) you don’t have to feel any rush. It is, however, clearly time that you become aware of where you are standing in the cosmically grand scheme of things, so as to eventually figure out what leverage you will want to apply.

Offered In Service