February 2015

A most mystical time envelops us as we enter February. Although this is the dark of winter, there is much magic afoot with glimmers of light shining through.

On the 1st, Venus conjuncts Neptune and our spiritual nature can be highly enhanced. The question of spirit into action also calls for us to be discerning and selective with whom we choose to dance. Either we can involve ourselves with a soulmate or we might get entangled with a trickster. While the former would be preferable, we might want to keep in mind what happened to the character Pete when seduced by the sirens in the Coen Brothers’ movie O Brother, Where Art Thou. While Delmar thought Pete had been turned into a toad, Pete had actually been turned in to the authorities by the sirens to collect the bounty on his head.

The Sun sextiles Uranus on the 2nd, prior to the Leo Full Moon on the 3rd. This can be a time of innovations — technological advances, creative pursuits and radical departures from the previous norm. The new ‘normal’ may be an inquisitive nature, a willingness to push the envelope and stretch beyond the boundaries of limitations. Streamlining operations allows for increased productivity and greater effectiveness with less exertion of energy.

While many of our new projects can be successfully grounded in practical reality, we do have to be wary of overexpansion. Mercury sextiles Saturn on the 5th, followed by the Sun opposed Jupiter on the 6th. We may devise the right approach, but we have to be wary of overconfidence or more recent personality traits of entitlement. Although we might be optimistic about our plans, determining the right methods by which to accomplish our goals is a necessary ingredient.

February 8th has Venus sextile Pluto, and we might discover our intuitive foresight blends nicely with the basic fundamentals. We can draw upon our experience and expertise with a certain inner knowing to accomplish a great deal during this early February period. We just have to maintain awareness that the influence of the Mercury retrograde engages Murphy’s Law of ‘whatever can go wrong could go wrong’.

With such positive energies around us, nothing can be taken for granted, everything done with due diligence and enthusiastic persistence.

Mercury turns direct on the 11th of February. Some of the missteps of the past three weeks can be rectified and misunderstandings with other people corrected.

February 18th has the Aquarius New Moon in the last minute of Aquarius, just before the Sun exits Aquarius to enter Pisces. This New Moon in China is on February 19th and ushers in the Chinese New Year of the Green Wooden Sheep [Goat / Ram]. According to interpretation for the Green Wooden Sheep, this year can be a highly prosperous year resulting from due diligence and hard work. Similar to the western interpretation of planetary placements for 2015, the Green Wooden Sheep year promises the opportunity to establish order and structure out of the creative chaos that has gone on before.

The 19th also has Mars exiting Pisces to enter its own Sign of Aries, followed on the 20th by Venus exiting Pisces to enter Aries, creating a Stellium in the Cardinal Fire Sign as Venus joins Mars and Uranus in Aries. The Grand Trine in Fire with the Aries powerpack is complemented by Jupiter in Leo and Saturn in Sagittarius.

The moody, emotional temperaments of the past three weeks when we may have found ourselves sighing and our energy impacted by anything and everything operating around us, much like a dry sponge taking to water, is past. We could now experience a fire in our belly and certainly an impetuous attitude to get things moving, to get ourselves going.

Venus conjuncts Mars on the 22nd of February, followed by Venus trine Saturn on the 24th, then Mars trine Saturn on the 25th. The Pisces Sun squares Saturn on the 23rd. While past mistakes or previous miscalculations could halt us in our tracks momentarily, the energy at this end of February is for us to launch ahead, move forward with new beginnings and new initiations. This is a time for us to recall in mantram-mode the childhood classic refrain from The Little Engine That Could: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”

This counterpoint between the Pisces energy and the Aries energy is strong at the end of February with the Venus conjunct Mars in Aries and both trine Saturn, while the Sun in Pisces squares Saturn and the Sun conjuncts Neptune on the 25th.

Even if delays stand in our way, or we doubt our abilities, this would be a time for us to have faith in the universe, forge ahead, all with the recognition of that wise and true saying that ‘the universe has far greater plans for us than we could have ever imagined for ourselves.’

February is a month to engage awareness and mindfulness, to be open to the workings of the universe and not try to manipulate or control. It may be a tall order to disengage our early conditioning but the rewards will be great and vast the more that we can do so.

February 2015… soft, lilting breezes to blustery, stormy winds…