HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2021 begins in a highly celebratory mood. We can be feeling upbeat, assuming that the worst is behind us and that this new year offers a blank slate with the promise that we had descended into the valley in 2020 and now can rise to the summit in 2021.
Intentions are powerful motivators, but they need determination, commitment and perseverance to follow through. The New Year begins with a Stellium in Capricorn with the Sun, Mercury and Pluto all in the Cardinal Earth Sign. After indulging, even gorging ourselves in welcoming the new year, we can use early January to determine our resolutions for the new year and begin to put them into effect.
The 1st of January has Mercury sextile Neptune. By visualizing and considering the ways by which we might realize our goals for the year, we could devise a best practices approach. It is essential that we keep in mind that no matter what our plans might be, things can shift and change suddenly and dramatically thanks to the asequential reality in which we are operating where unexpected situations can arise in the most inexplicable ways.
After the first weekend of January welcoming the new year, we may become more serious about implementing our plans. The first full week of January can be highly productive with various Sign changes switching signals but largely to our benefit.
The 4th of January has Mercury conjunct Pluto. Our mind can be sharp and incisive as we consider our long-term goals for the year, prioritize our activities, and concentrate on the specifics that will lead to the successful realization of our plans. We are likely to be no-nonsense, perhaps hyper-critical, but now is a time for us to put our spirit into action.
After transiting its own Sign of Aries since the end of June of 2020, Mars exits Aries and enters Taurus on the 6th [5:27 PM EST]. Much of our impetuousness and self-absorption and physical energy might drop off as we take on a more plodding approach. Stubbornness is likely to increase with the need for someone to trigger movement, a response quite different from the six months when Mars in Aries had people rushing ahead with all flags flying. Mars is in Detriment in Taurus, uncomfortable, since physical energy becomes muted. It’s hard to get off square one and get going.
The 8th of January has Mercury exiting Capricorn to enter Aquarius [7:00 AM EST], and Venus exiting Sagittarius to enter Capricorn [10:41 AM EST]. We now have two Stelliums, one in Capricorn and the other in Aquarius with Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in the Fixed Air Sign of Aquarius, and Venus, the Sun, and Pluto in the Cardinal Earth Sign of Capricorn. While we can use these two powerpacks to have our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground, we have to be wary that we maintain the balance between the two and not be compromised by either being too airy and futuristic without considering the practical means to attain our dreams, or so practical and earth bound that we discount and negate the possibility of the plausible, and even more so the seemingly impossible.
The 8th also has the Sun sextile Neptune, and Mercury square Mars. We could have a sense of our personal destiny, what our life purpose is all about, but we might diminish the possibility of our reaching for the stars by accepting a sense that we don’t have the capabilities and the resources to achieve our greatest dreams. As suggested by Richard Bach in his spiritual classic Illusions The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah: “The original sin is to limit the Is. Don’t.”
With Mercury conjunct Saturn and Venus trine Mars on the 9th, and both Venus and Mars having just changed Signs with Mars entering Venus-ruled Taurus on the 6th and Venus entering Capricorn on the 8th, we can be highly practical and take our time in advancing our interests. This is a time when we can employ the carpenter’s sentiment of ‘measure twice, cut once’. Every journey is taken step by step, and we are willing to move along focused and in a plodding pace.
The 11th of January has Mercury conjunct Jupiter. Our thoughts may be lofty. Our focus, serious of thought and practical implementation of plans that we might have had on the 9th are likely to give way to a belief that anything and everything are possible. Not that they aren’t under the parameters of our paradigm shift into asequential reality, but we have to realize that we can no longer rely solely on our abilities to pull things off. Instead, we need to accede to the universe helping us out, which sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t.
One of the times when we might feel as though we are rolling the boulder up the mountain or are in dueling conflict with the universe could be on the 12th of January. Mercury squares Uranus, one of my least favorite configurations for air travel, communications, computer issues, and anything where our plans can be disrupted by unexpected factors.
Fortunately, we are on the dark side of the Moon prior to the New Moon late tonight, early on the 13th. This energy might be mitigated, with a strong emphasis on the might, but this mid-week period from the 12th through the 14th could prove dicey and even runs through the end of the month.
We may find ourselves having to fully employ awareness and mindfulness in order to avoid upsets, conflicts and harmful situations. Let’s be careful out there.
The New Moon on the 13th [12:00 AM EST] could shake up things significantly. The Sun Moon conjunction is also conjunct Pluto. Like a volcanic eruption, things can blow. Whatever has been percolating below the surface can rise to the fore, either in a subtle but dramatic transformation or in an explosive force that could be earth-shaking. With the New Moon influence up through the Full Moon on the 28th, this two-week period can be transformative in regard to society with people acting out, liable bombings, and violent confrontations. We could see an uptick in earthquake and volcanic activity, and intense storm systems during this two-week period. Anyone want to stay home? Oh, that’s silly to write, since we are all supposed to stay home under the governmental edicts of the lockdowns.
This New Moon has two other energy configurations occurring on the 13th. Mars squares Saturn, and Venus trines Uranus. Although each of us could feel like things that have been held in are rising to the fore with a sudden release imminent, we might also feel blocked and totally exhausted by the psychic energy we are expending. While our self-determination may seem muted by conditions and circumstance, a serendipitous encounter can pave the way forward for us by both mollifying us and suggesting alternatives we might not have been aware of. As the old and wise saying goes: “We never get more than we can handle.”
The 14th of January has the Sun conjunct Pluto and Uranus turning direct. The intensity of this mid-January period cannot be discounted. We may be looking towards our future but feeling stuck in our past. In whatever ways we can extricate ourselves from sticky situations we are likely to do so. Various twists and turns can be hasty, putting us accident prone through the rest of the month. Let’s be careful out there with a recognition that this latter part of January could experience no half measures in anything that occurs but rather abrupt, radical movements and actions that seem continually over-the-top. Could we say that this period is one when all hell is breaking loose?
Tearing things up, destabilizations and acting out with an ideological bias may be seen on the 17th when Jupiter squares Uranus. We might be interested in making changes, but tearing everything down could threaten our security without a clear plan as to how best to build anew.
We seem to be in a revolutionary mood, a time when our pent-up energy is being released spasmodically and without much forethought, just the sense of ‘change for the sake of change’.
The 19th of January has the Sun exiting Capricorn to enter Aquarius [3:40 PM EST]. As it does so, the Sun ends the Stellium of three planets in Capricorn and enhances the Stellium in the Fixed Air Sign as the Sun joins Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius.
Practicality seems to be lessening. Desires and intentions seem to be increasing. Unfortunately, the ability to engage the new and transformative in a structured and methodical manner could be lost, and we can find ourselves blocked as if in a constipated, stuck state but agitating and frustrated at the same time.
Inauguration Day in the US is January 20th and a day that has Mars conjunct Uranus. What we might truly be inaugurating on this day are forms of terrorist activity — both in society and in our personal lives. Discontent can be extreme with people acting in knee-jerk reactions. As if battling against ‘what is’, actions can be thoughtless, reckless, and over-the-top. We might feel that making violent, radical changes to disrupt our stability and security will be replaced by better days through better ways. But without considering the process, both in our own decisions and in the asequential reality of the paradigm shift, we could wind up destroying present templates for something of which we might not even be able to imagine. Sometimes, changes are not always for the better.
The push – pull in the squares between the planets transiting the two Fixed Signs of Taurus and Aquarius continues on through January and through much of February. This can be a highly frustrating time. On the one hand, we might wish to make dramatic, even radical changes to our lives with increased independence and autonomy. But on the other hand, we may be reticent, fearful of letting go of what we have in order to take a leap into an unknown future. The battle is engaged, and a battle waged both individually and as a collective.
We could find ourselves so focused on our daily routine with intentions of shaking things up that we become negligent of reflection, proper planning, and the consideration of the new parameters of the paradigm shift where the universal unfolding is a key factor in the ways that things are likely to proceed.
A case in point would be the on the 23rd of January. Mars squares Jupiter, Venus sextiles Neptune, and the Sun conjuncts Saturn. Although we are future oriented, we might try to go too far, too fast. The result could be banging our head against the wall with a great deal of exhaustion and frustration. Drawing upon a trusted confidante to provide an objective perspective can provide us greater clarity and may dampen any tendency on our part to swim against the tide.
While we are entering a new paradigm with conditions and circumstance quite different from what we have been used to, we might not have the rule book or understand this new game of life.
Although it would be wise for us to temper our behavior, we are more likely to rush headlong into things with a belief that we can create the conditions according to our will. Silly humans, the times have changed, and we are ever more impacted by the universal unfolding and less influential in our belief of our mastery over circumstance.
Any head banging caused by our arrogance and narcissism continues on the 26th with the Sun square Uranus. Pushing forward based upon our willfulness can meet the intractable force of the universe. No matter how much we might try or force an issue, the twists and turns of the universe during this paradigm shift are likely to get the better of us.
The Leo Full Moon on the 28th of January [2:16 PM EST] can have us seeking a breather from all the intensity and looking instead for us to have a good time. Venus conjuncts Pluto, and the Sun conjuncts Jupiter. By prioritizing our activities and utilizing time management skills with a doff of our hat to the serendipitous incidents brought to us by the paradigm shift, we can deal with what we need to accomplish while concentrating on enjoying ourselves and preparing for our future endeavors to pursue.
We close out the month of January with the year’s first Mercury retrograde on the 30th [10:52 AM]. Here we go again with Murphy’s Law of ‘whatever can go wrong could go wrong’ engaged for the next three weeks up to the 20th of February.
Our plans can go awry, our relationships dicey at best, and our frustration increased. We may have to rework or reconsider some of the resolutions we made for the year. Let’s keep in mind, always keep in mind, the necessity during these tumultuous, disruptive times to maintain vigilance, be aware and mindful, and engage flexibility and adaptability.
There are times when we need to go back in order to move forward.
January 2021… new year, new beginnings…
