By Amanda Painter

Even though the calendar page will turn to a new year in a few days, the astrological year still has most of a season left to it. Yet the sense of one thing ending and something new beginning is still strong — and there is some major astrology on its way to support that sensation, even if the timing is not exact.

Photo by Amanda Painter

For one thing, Uranus will station direct on Jan. 6. This means that ALL the sign-ruling planets will be in direct motion for a spell — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (the Sun and Moon are never retrograde).

If that doesn’t sound like a cosmic green light to finally move important projects forward, I’m not sure what does. I don’t know about you, but after the continual feeling of limbo I experienced with this year’s inner-planet retrogrades, I’m really looking forward to a phase of momentum and traction, even if it’s brief.

For another thing, we have eclipses coming up very soon. The first will be a partial solar eclipse with the Capricorn New Moon on Jan. 5-6 (depending on your time zone). The second eclipse of the pair will be a total lunar eclipse with the Leo Full Moon on Jan. 20-21.

If you’ve been reading Planet Waves or studying astrology for a while, you know that the weeks between eclipses can be key times for releasing old patterns, setting new ones, and possibly moving your life into a very different phase of growth. Combine that with having all the sign-ruling planets in direct motion (along with the top few asteroids and centaurs used regularly at Planet Waves also direct: Juno, Pallas, Ceres, Vesta, Chiron, Pholus and Nessus), and it appears that forward progress is the name of the game. No wonder we were tasked with so much introspection, review, and sometimes confusion — or the illusion of stasis — in 2018: having this much forward influence requires a clear understanding of what has come before in our lives, and of just how much we carry within us to draw upon.

We also have Chiron and Uranus moving into their new signs for the long haul during the first part of 2019: Chiron makes its move back into Aries on Feb. 18, and Uranus re-enters Taurus on March 6. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. As Eric has mentioned recently, before Chiron makes its move it receives a conjunction from Mars in late Pisces (this Saturday, Dec. 29, exact at 12:41 am EST / 5:40:51 UTC). After that, Mars will run vanguard and enter its home sign of Aries first, on Monday, Dec. 31.

Mars-Chiron appears to offer some awareness around the healing of our inner masculine or active part of ourselves — and, in Pisces, perhaps that part of ourselves that is often reactive: the tender areas in our psyches, our bodies, our histories, our karma that transform fear and pain into anger and aggression so fast, the speed can’t even be calculated. It’s a real issue in our modern world — for both men and women — and something that seems exacerbated by the polarization and detachment and overstimulation of living so much life online. Venus may rule Taurus — the sign most closely associated with the physical body — but Mars energy also gets expressed physically: creatively, as sex, as exercise, as competitive sports; and destructively, as physical violence and war.

Mars energy comes through psychologically and emotionally, too, such as through motivation and ambition, or vocalized anger and energetic blasting. This has always been the case; but I do wonder how much the loss of inner psychic space, and the internet’s reduction of physical, tangible relating, is short-circuiting our collective ability to channel Mars constructively and physically. Is it possible that Mars making its conjunction to Chiron just before both enter Aries might signal a new level of awareness regarding how we deal with and heal this schism?

Mars is now within a couple degrees of Chiron (so, functionally conjunct), and finds itself in an interesting configuration today: square the Galactic Center (GC) and centaur Ixion in Sagittarius.

Getting right with the world means getting right with yourself first, right? Yet, that’s not the same as getting down on yourself with criticism. It’s more like letting your conscience align with universal truths such as the Golden Rule, and then acting from that place. And rather than beating up on yourself for making the same mistake you’ve made before, it’s about understanding the lesson well enough, acquiring new tools, and desiring a different outcome enough that you can make a new choice when faced with a second chance.

This looks like one issue Mars square the GC and Ixion could be bringing up. Along those lines, the Moon transiting Virgo today could make the dynamic feel quite personal; it’s also a reminder to put any potentially critical energy to better use. Think holiday week re-organization project.

With the Virgo Moon also opposing Neptune in Pisces today, emotional responses that seem to bubble up from your unconscious could be especially slippery. So if anyone triggers your sensitivity, it might be helpful to step away and detail the known, verifiable facts about a situation before your imagination (or Mars) runs away with the show.

Also note that Venus and Ceres are in a conjunction in Scorpio today — and that they’re opposite Juno in Taurus, and making a sextile to Pluto in Capricorn. There’s something here about the connection between physical needs, emotional security and financial stability in relationships.

Specifically, it looks like a reminder to feed and care for your own inner sense of emotional security first, and that doing so can get a big boost when you’re willing to adjust your idea of who or what is your bedrock (hint: it’s not anything outside of yourself). In other words, the more you can give yourself what you need (especially sexually, given the signs involved), the easier it is to see and respond from a place of stability and abundance to the needs of anyone you’re involved with.

As usual, the various aspect patterns in the sky appear to be conspiring to help us grow and heal and reclaim agency within our lives. That’s a great agenda no matter what time of year it is, whether you’re using the astrological or civil calendar. As we reflect on the already-reflective year that was 2018, and look ahead to the promise of 2019, I wish you peace, understanding, curiosity and motivation in equal measure.

As we go deeper into this most unusual and challenging phase of history, intelligence is the thing we need the most. That is the theme of the 2019-2020 annual edition of Planet Waves, now available for pre-order. See more information here. If you’re looking for individual signs, pre-order here.