January allows us to put our spirit into action. We are in the midst of dramatic change and this month we can lay down some of the foundation stones of our future in a pragmatic and solid manner. We no longer have to fall prey to fear or anxiety about the changing parameters. On the contrary, we may be a little blasé as though battle-weary from the long drawn out transitions that we have gone through for the past two years. Some of us might even assume such dramatic changes were only huge blips on the screen that once passed bring us back to our old normality. Such a belief would be a serious error in judgment and could prove downright disastrous to our future well-being.
The world has changed and we have been asked to change as well. As we begin January, we may feel that we are ready to expand our horizons, broaden our perspective and widen our involvements. We may feel optimistic about the future and confident of our prospects. No matter the problems and difficulties in the world-at-large or even the problems in our own lives, we may feel better able to deal with our challenges and more capable in using the dynamics and volatility of these times to our benefit.
We start the month and the New Year of 2011 on an upbeat, confident and optimistic tenor. Looking at the New Year chart from New York and west, January begins with two planets in a Fire Sign, three planets in an Earth Sign, two planets in Air Signs and three planets in Water Signs. There are four planets in Cardinal Signs, two planets in Fixed Signs and four planets in Mutable Signs. Four planets are in Positive Signs and six planets are in Receptive Signs. In London and east, January begins with one planet in a Fire Sign, three planets in an Earth Sign, two planets in Air Signs and four planets in Water Signs. There are four planets in Cardinal Signs, three planets in Fixed Signs and three planets in Mutable Signs. Three planets are in Positive Signs and seven planets are in Receptive Signs. Whether in the US or in Europe, the chart pattern is a bowl chart with all of the planets below the horizon and there is a Stellium of three or more planets in the Cardinal Earth Sign with the Sun, Mars and Pluto all in Capricorn.
January begins with us considering the parameters of our world. We want to stretch beyond the constraints of our past, but we are looking to do so in a grounded and focused manner. We are no longer interested in the fluff, decorative or the dross. If things do not work for us on a deep and meaningful level with true purpose, then we are unlikely to engage them.
We may start the year continuing to tie up any loose ends of 2010 that we were unable to complete before the end of last year. We do not want to bring any excess baggage into this new year and the more we can clean up and clear out of the past the better it would be.
We might feel as though a brand new day is dawning for us, but it would be wise to keep in mind that there are still potential problems, difficulties and collateral damage of the meltdowns that have gone on since 2008. We are not out of the woods yet. We may be more aware of the changing paradigm but it is essential that we maintain mindfulness and not become oblivious to the shifts and changes continuing to go on around us.
January begins the year of 2011 and this year offers further potential for significant transformations. In numerology, 2011 represents a year of transformation as 2011 breaks down into 13, the number of transformation that offers the potential of the realized individual. If we bring the 13 down to its lowest common denominator, then the magical transformative number comes down to a 4, a work number where we have blinders on, put one foot in front of the other, and are more focused on the micro rather than the macro. While we might want to concentrate on our own personal, individual lives, and the changes occurring within us and in our own formats of creative self-expression, it is important that we maintain awareness of the radical changes occurring in the world at large.
The key to this new year is in the ‘letting go, let god’ concept of releasing our sense of control over circumstance and working with the energies to co-create a new framework and a far more engaging lifestyle for ourselves.
On January 4th, we have the first New Moon of the new year, and this Capricorn Lunation is a Solar Eclipse. The likelihood of magic and miracles cannot be underestimated but, instead of the possibilities, some people might see further eliminations of old patterns and traditional structures falling away. This Capricorn Lunation can increase the sense of cold, even restrictive measures, but it comes at a time when Venus squares Neptune, Venus trines both Uranus and Jupiter and Jupiter conjuncts Uranus. This signature of the fortnight gives greater strength and belief of the changing of the guard.
While there can be enthusiasm, and even irrational exuberance, what is most important for us during this time is to take off our blinders and be open to the magic and the miracles. A major factor of the paradigm shift we are all going through is the letting go of control over situations and accepting with humility and with awe and wonder the natural unfolding, whereby we can work with the energies, be very much involved in the process but without our expectations of how things should go with us getting in the way. These times speak to the concept that ‘life is too mysterious, don’t take it serious’.
The more we can embrace the process of living, the serendipities and the synchronicity of these times, the more productive, happy and healthy our lives are likely to be.
But old ways and old patterns are hard to let go. They become habits that are almost automatic and familiar ways we tend to revert to when we are in a quandary wondering how to act or how to proceed.
Such a quandary can occur around the 7th of January when the Sun squares Saturn, also the day that Venus moves into Sagittarius. We may want to jump ahead with optimism and confidence into new ventures, but if we are still carrying the old baggage and looking to re-create old patterns, we could find that we are hampering ourselves and limiting the true potential of stepping into the unknown.
This conundrum of the familiar and the expected versus the unfamiliar and the suspending our anticipations can be part of the push-pulls of this early January period. We have to be wary of both relying on the past as a security during these times and looking to leap ahead without considering the circumstances and conditions, some of which we might not be fully aware until we are actually on the road.
The 10th – 13th of January provide a significant challenge in regard to the idea of unanticipated variables affecting our vision and our hopes and dreams. The 10th has Mercury sextile Neptune and Mercury square Uranus, the latter energy configuration being one of my least favorite for flying and air travel. The 11th has Mercury square Jupiter, and the 12th has Mars sextile Uranus, followed by Mars sextile Jupiter on the 13th, the day that Mercury enters Capricorn to reinforce the Capricorn Stellium of the Sun, Pluto, Mars and now Mercury transiting the Cardinal Earth Sign.
During this time, we have to be careful not to be overly optimistic and assume that we are fully prepared for whatever challenges come our way. Our confidence could know no bounds. We might assume that we are on our manifest destiny, like a streamlined autobahn able to move quickly ahead. We may feel like legends in our own mind. And such beliefs would play to the tricks of the egocentric personality, the tendency towards narcissisim, whereby we feel entitled and that life revolves solely around us. If we take that disposition, then we might find ourselves like wrong way Corrigan, heading off in the wrong direction but with little regard to countervailing indications. We might force issues, forge ahead with intensity and determination but also without the necessary evaluation and re-evaluating along the way. And such a move could postpone some of the collateral damage on the short term but only mitigate issues briefly as we kick the problems further down the road. Eventually, we shall have to address our intentions, our ways of doing things and our audacity of arrogance in place of mindful humility that could keep us abreast of the subtle and dramatic shifts and changes as we move along.
If we can use the time through mid January as a time to tie up loose ends, restructure our lives and devise practical strategies for developing our future prospects, then we are less likely to go off on a tear and we could avoid creating heaps of trouble for ourselves and all concerned. This is a time for us to consider the foundation stones of our future but all with a recognition that foundation stones may have to be shifted or replaced as we build from the basics.
The latter part of January allows us to focus on our future prospects. Like a flare shot into the air, we might have signals regarding possibilities and potentials for new involvements and activities that allow us greater autonomy and fuller creative self-expression.
These times are interesting times, akin to the Chinese proverb, some would call a curse: ‘May you live in interesting times’.
There is a paradox of opposing forces during these times. On the one hand, we have greater consolidation by the powers-that-be. Whether seen in corporate entities or government institutions, there is a contractive, restrictive and consolidating phase going on. The big are getting bigger. On the other hand, these times speak to the power of the person. The illusion of the 1960’s and 1970’s, when the phrase ‘power to the people’ assumed institutional power being handed over to the people, has been shattered. Even under the guise of ‘hope and change’, people have come to realize the truth to the old saying: ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’
The beauty of these tumultuous times lies in the realization that the dynamics and technological advances of these times give greater force to the concept ‘power to the person’.
As individuals we have the tools by which to more fully express our creative talents. Cell phones, digital cameras, software programs and other technological advances have provided the individual with the tools by which to express their unique talents. What a wonderful world in which we have chosen to live!
We have also come to a recognition that the powers-that-be, no matter their slogans or their sleight-of-hand maneuvers, are more interested in the old paradigm of power, control and authority.
As individuals we may need to fall back upon our own resources, our own talents and our own creative abilities. But we have been given the tools and given the awareness by which to be not only self-sustaining and surviving the tumult, but more importantly to thrive and to come fully into our own and to develop our own individual journey.
Power to the Person!
This sense can be accentuated during the latter part of January. New ways, some of which come about in the most unexpected manner, seem to open us up ever more to the opportunities of these times. And we are ready. We just have to be certain that we don’t have blinders on, looking at life through tunnel vision, a narrow perspective limited to what seems to be rather than what actually could be.
On the 15th of January, Mars moves into Aquarius. We are giving greater determination to our desire for autonomy and self-animation. This desire for greater individual freedom gains traction through this next week as the Sun sextiles Uranus on the 17th, Mercury conjuncts Pluto on the 18th, the Sun sextiles Jupiter on the 19th at the time of the Cancer Full Moon and the Sun moves into Aquarius on the 20th, thereby ending the Stellium of three or more planets in Capricorn and creating a Stellium of three or more planets in Aquarius as the Sun joins Mars and Neptune in the Fixed Air Sign.
We may seek out the new, the different, the iconoclastic; all in the exploration of self-discovery and greater autonomy. A sense of ‘us versus them’ could also ring out in the streets as people demonstrate and make their voices heard that they are ‘mad as hell’ and no longer willing to be subservient to the wishes and mandates of the powers-that-be.
Another significant shift in energy occurs on the 22nd of January as Jupiter enters Aries, emphasizing the self-assertiveness or self-affirmation of each one of us. Jupiter briefly went into Aries over this past Summer and each of us might have felt a certain lifting, a certain re-invigoration and a sense that we, as individuals, can move in our own direction, emphasize our own self-determination, no matter the constraints or constrictions imposed upon the populace by the consolidating forces of the old ways and traditional institutions.
On the 25th of January, Saturn turns retrograde. Things slow down and moving things forward may take longer than we like. But similar to Winter in the northern climes, there can be much percolating below the surface, the sense of new life welling up, growing in strength and in determination. Although Saturn retrograde continues until mid-June, any slowing down of projects and plans taking longer than we like can serve as a tempering process. Let’s keep in mind during this January period the importance of these times: to build upon rock, solid and strong, and not upon sand, likely to be washed away with shifting tides.
Mercury squares Saturn on the 26th, and while this could be slightly depressive to our thoughts and to our plans, we might realize that some of the issues of our past we thought resolved still need to be attended. We may question whether the people in our lives are supportive of our new interests and our new sense of being or if they are holding us back by clinging to their definitions based upon past experiences and their desires for us to be responsive to their needs rather than our own new sense of self-affirmation.
This month of January may seem like a balancing act, balancing the issues of our past with our new sense of self-exploration, balancing the needs of the individual with the demands of the collective, balancing the power of traditional institutions with the power to the person. But this balancing act can serve as a filtration process, a tempering and a honing. We, as individuals and as a society, are going through an alchemical process, a time of transformation when we turn base mettle into gold.
January 2011… stepping from our past into our future…
