A Difficult and Yet Illuminating January

The astrology of January features Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. This large list is due to a very active New Moon chart from the 21st of December, when this start of the current monthly cycle coincided with the Winter Solstice, that in one way of thinking represents a symbolic beginning for the entire year to come. By this measure, we are in for a very intense 2015. The sectors of your chart occupied by Uranus and in particular Pluto will be activated, as well as a general sense of your own personal transformation unfolding. Everyone is in the same boat, although each will respond differently to the evolutionary pressure of this powerhouse combination of planetary energy. It seems that the universe provides what you need at the time that you need it, and that even though what you are going through might be difficult, you always have the ability to rise to the occasion. And, indeed if you do not take this opportunity, you will have another chance.

The process of transformation amounts to letting go of what you no longer need, while strengthening that which you can come to recognize as representing the best part of what you have to offer. This is easy to say, hard to do. And yet we each do what we can of what is before us to accomplish, to the best of our current ability. We are fortunate now in the sense that expansive Jupiter remains quite prominent in the chart for this month and new year, still in trine with a powerfully placed Eris, standing for exploring soul intention. Jupiter also stands apart from the rest of the planets, on one side of the zodiac, therefore stronger by position. Saturn, newly entered into Sagittarius, is also highlighted. There thus is both runaway optimism and an excess of caution available in this month's astrology. This is a potent combination for finding an opening to your future and yet also getting serious about what is before you.

In the chart of the Capricorn Solstice New Moon that kicked off the current lunation cycle, the Sun is parallel to Venus, and the Moon is parallel to Mars, as these two planets also make aspects to Uranus and Pluto in square alignment, that are square as well to the nodal axis. This is one reason to suspect that this month will be rather intense in terms of the transformational effects of Uranus and Pluto in combination, while another is the closeness of their cardinal degrees, never more than a degree apart from exact for the entire month, and beyond. Uranus and Pluto are separated from the perfection of their square alignment by less than one degree during all the early part of this year, through mid-March. This timing now and over the next few months is in one sense the peak of the entire Uranus-Pluto square alignment, which has lasted from 2009, through the first exact hit in 2012, until now.

January also has its downtime with another Mercury Retrograde period in the offing. Mercury stations in mid-Aquarius on January 21st, just one day after the Aquarius New Moon of Sunday, January 20th, and thus the last ten days of January have both the fresh energy and future orientation characterizing a New Moon, and the reflective and meditative thoughtfulness implied by Mercury retrograding through the very same sign. Pluto remains prominent so that the pace of major radical transformation does not let up, urging us to be all that we can be as we tackle the challenges of another intense year of change.

No matter where your evolutionary path might lead, this entire year is definitely a time for stepping up to greater understanding of what you feel in your heart that you must do, in order to fulfill to the promise of your incarnation.

A Difficult and Yet Illuminating January

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