Aquarian Insights

January 20
Sun enters Aquarius: 03:29 AM EST

Are we there yet? At the Age of Aquarius… Some days it seems we should just be there already. If the mind can conceive of it why are we so very far from living the ideal(s) which Aquarius promises? It’s not enough to imagine the New Age, not in a world where one person’s paradise is another’s hell.
There’s the rub. We can’t get to the Age of Aquarius, unless and until everyone gets there together. It’s that simple and that complex. Aquarius is the sign of humanity and as we are discovering, humanity includes all living things in an intricate web of interdependence. We have some work to do.
The Sun will be busy as it travels through Aquarius this year: Affirming Mars and Jupiter with some “Yes we Can!” enthusiasm, yet at odds with Uranus, its ruling planet, reminding us what a mess we have on our hands; reminding us that even if we stop destroying our environment right now, we still have a crisis on our hands. Maybe Aquarius prompts us to think as clearly as we can about the goals we have all the while drawing on the archive of experience from the past even as we look toward the unknown future. The challenge is to do this with ‘beginners mind’ and not to think we know it all already. We don’t need to lower our sites, rather it’s time for re-visioning in a way that includes the awareness of all living systems and individuals. Something to practice in your own little corner of reality.

January 21
New Moon: 01 degree Aquarius: 03:53 PM EST

Used to seem obvious that if God loved you, you would be rich, famous, beautiful, even white skinned and male. Others need not apply. In this mindset we came to believe that everything was possible if we just put our mind to it. Now we understand differently. It’s not exactly God that loves us, more like the system favors some over others, based on some alarming parameters. We have woken as if from a dream into a reality of systematic inequities. We understand that those with greater powers of manifestation are the ones who are housed, fed, employed and paid a living wage. May this inspire us at the New Moon. May we find ourselves full of ideas and ideals for a better, more inclusive world. Between now and the 24th when the Sun will sextile Jupiter, cultivate an intention as big as you can imagine, bigger. Cultivate the belief that we (not me) can and will do it. Because we must.

January 22    
Venus conjunct Saturn
Uranus stationery direct

Off to the races! Let ’23 begin (already). All the planets are now direct and even the Moon is New. As the way leads on you might straighten your hat, square your shoulders and take a good look at your itinerary for the year ahead. It’s good to have a plan, even if things will undoubtedly not be as we expect.

January 24
Sun sextile Jupiter

A bit of optimism is a good thing. Even more than a bit. It’s contagious. Hopefully you have been stoking this fire since the New Moon a few days ago.

January 26
Venus enters Pisces        

Beauty uplifts the soul. It opens us to compassion, to love, tenderness and awe. Which is not the same as glamor. Not at all.

January 27
Mercury square Chiron

One person with one desperate, unresolved trauma can create a lot of damage which ripples out, like waves in a pond. That same person, healed can do the opposite.

January 29
Sun trine Mars
Mercury trine Uranus

A great idea whose time has come cries out in joy at the efforts to make it so. Here on Spaceship Earth, to get where we are going, requires us to be here and now rather than then and there.        

February 1
Sun sextile Chiron   

As we were saying, the ripple effect of one person, one kindness is unknowable. Might as well… 

February 3
Sun square Uranus

The bull in the china shop of our best ideas is crashing into them. If you’re feeling it, know that it lasts (at least) through the Full Moon on the 5th. Think of it as a necessary part of the process of manifestation. Accelerated change feels chaotic. As we step down from having worn the (imagined) crown of creation and come to terms with our interconnectedness to all that lives (including one another) we find our best plans and ideas against the backdrop of ‘the full catastrophe’. These are our times.

February 4
Venus square Mars     

If you want a bit of astro-drama and the sky is clear enough, look for Venus, setting after the Sun in the west . As the sky darkens, look up (facing south) and find Mars on the mid-heaven. Invite your mind to wander into a story about desire. Desire spins The Wheel of Life: making babies and art, inventing better mousetraps and propelling us to the Moon and beyond. We want! And what of thwarted desire, aborted desire, addiction and war? Can desire even begin to be reasonable? Craving (Venus) and aversion (Mars) top of the list of guilty suspects when it comes to suffering yet we continue to spin the Wheel because sometimes it feels so good. Go figure.

February 5  
Full Moon: 16 degrees Leo: 01:28 PM EST

Consider for yourself the difference between a cross of matter and a crucifix. One reminds us of the four directions, the seasons, each an equal part of the whole. It’s organic. The other reminds us of suffering, torture and suggests that man’s inhumanity to man is all that can be expected. A crucifix is the dominator version of the cross of matter. Truly we live in a world riddled with man’s inhumanity to all that lives. It’s time to restore the cross to its original shape.
Do what you do. Express yourself fully for the sake of the doing and the joy of expression, rather than the glory or the gain. Here, at the crossroads we might lay down our pride and open the door to our heart. Teach the children (inner and outer) about simple pleasure, real satisfactions and presence, even in the face of accelerating change.

February 6  
Mercury sextile Neptune (for the 3rd time)

The choice has never been if we live or die. It has always been only how we live. Mercury made this sextile to Neptune before, during and now, after its retrograde journey (December 24, January 2 and today). A gentle reminder to choose the best ‘how’ for your life.

February 8  
Venus sextile Uranus    

Pleasure is most genuine when it is simple. Glamor and fancy wrapping doesn’t enhance pleasure. It only adds a kind of inflated value which has no substance. Taste what you are eating, feel the texture of the clothes on your skin. Like they say, smell the coffee!

February 10
Mercury conjunct Pluto   

Where Capricorn meets Aquarius, where earth meets air, where mastery or at least circumstance becomes information for others to use. Mercury will move across this territory today as it leaves Capricorn and tomorrow when it enters Aquarius. Pluto will do the same next month. Borders are where shift happens; where we change perspective. In this case from the absolute limits of matter, (our very collective and increasingly oppressive crumbling infrastructures) to the possibility of using change itself as a resource which invites the collective sharing of ideas: From the pyramid to the commons.

February 11
Mercury enters Aquarius
Mars sextile Chiron

“Think globally, act locally”, has been a battle cry for futurists for years. As the world becomes smaller some say we should think globally and act globally as well. it’s common sense to attune and tend to the situations in our midst with an eye to the whole. No one wants the Age of Aquarius to happen somewhere else. Listen to the distressed young activist in your midst. (Be they inner or outer.) What rites of passage do we offer the young? If this is relevant to your life, here is an opportunity to do something. Listening is always a good place to start. The journey into adulthood has always been somewhat precarious and difficult. It falls to the adults and elders to encourage and lend a supportive, helping hand.

February 15
Venus conjunct Neptune     

A day for beauty, poetry, and possibly compassion of the sort that conjures the joyful sorrow and the sorrowful joys of a lived life.

February 16
Sun conjunct Saturn  

Evaluate the plan. Your focus could be the blueprint for the year or simply something more immediate. Bring in your allies, the best and brightest, to keep you from getting stuck in the box of your own thinking. Widen your perspective. Everything we do jostles the web that connects us to each other.       

February 17
Mercury sextile Jupiter

Thinking through our issues and situations collectively is not so easy for us but has the potential to bring more possible futures into being. Reach out to others and reach into the archive of knowledge (not information) that could foster your best ideas into something encouraging for all, especially the kids.