February

February begins with a Mercury retrograde which continues on into the 18th of the month when we end the first of this year’s three Mercury retrogrades. Mercury turned retrograde on the 28th of this past month. I, for one, have already felt two indications of a Mercury retrograde. The first was my car needing to be jump started. The second incident was trying to install a software program on my computer and having no success at all with being able to use the program despite the fact that the computer indicated a successful install.

With Mercury retrograde for almost two-thirds of the month, we do have to watch for possible glitches in areas associated with Mercury: travel, transportation, communications and high technology equipment.

Apart from the Mercury retrograde, February begins with one planet in a Fire Sign, four planets in Earth Signs, four planets in Air Signs and one planet in a Water Sign. February starts with three planets in a Cardinal Sign, three planets in a Fixed Sign and four planets with a Grand Cross by Sign in the Mutable Signs. Five planets are in positive Signs and five planets are in Negative Signs.

We start the month with two Stelliums of three or more planets in one Sign: a Stellium in Capricorn transited by Venus, Jupiter and Pluto, and a Stellium in Aquarius transited by the Sun, Mercury and Neptune. If we will take note, and maintain constant vigilance, of the Mercury retrograde, this month of February would be a good one to consider and plan our prospects for the future. Our mind is fertile and we are open to the unique, iconoclastic and even revolutionary. We also have the ability of planning the most effective structure and format by which to realize our plans. The combination of prudence and daring, if held in proper balance, allows us to streamline our operations, prune the ineffective time-wasters, focus on our goals and create a game plan by which to proceed and realize our dreams.

This month allows us to put our spirit into action, although it is important that we go step by step, all the while checking the parameters and making necessary adjustments as we proceed. February is a month when talk can be backed up by methods and strategy.

This month also has Mars having turned direct on the 30th of January and finishing its transit of Gemini before moving back into Cancer next month and its opposition with Pluto at the time of the Pisces New Moon in March.

With Mercury retrograde, Mars direct in Mercury’s Sign of Gemini and the strong emphasis to begin the month in the Earth and Air Elements, we do have to be careful not to create dust bowl conditions. If we are not adept, ideas and thoughts can be spinning around but without any real pragmatism to ground them and turn the abstract into reality.

There could be a great deal of hot air circulating, and in the US this month has Super Duper Tuesday on the 5th, a.k.a. Tsunami Tuesday, Mega Tuesday or Gigabyte Tuesday, the Tuesday when many state primaries are held for the election of delegates to the nominating conventions of the two major political parties in the US. It is interesting to note that this Super Tuesday, a gargantuan of a political day, occurs during a Mercury retrograde, in the dark of the Moon on the day before the New Moon and that the early hours of Tuesday the 5th ends an almost twenty-five hour Moon Void-of-Course. Aaargh!

Back to better things, and that would be the fact that February also starts with Venus conjunct Jupiter on the 1st. The two ‘good guys’ of the planetary realm are together to begin the month. The potential for indulgence and excess cannot be overstated, and at the beginning of the month we all have to watch that we don’t bite off more than we can chew, or the idea that our eyes may be bigger than our wallet or pocketbook.

At the beginning of the month, we also have Mercury conjunct Neptune. Our mind can be filled with sugar plums or other wonderful pleasures, but we have to be careful that we don’t fall prey to wish fulfillment. We could easily buy into thinking the things we want to be real as being real. This energy gives rise to hucksters and tricksters, those people with the gift of gab that can make things seem so wonderful, or so awful, with the idea that they can enhance the wonderful or ameliorate the dreadful.

With the Venus Jupiter conjunction followed closely by the Mercury Neptune conjunction, we need to keep a firm grip on our sensibilities at the beginning of the month. With some of the distressing news circulating, we might easily want to escape into a fantasy world where everything is perfect and everybody appreciative. Nice concept and while visualization is a wonderful tool and technique, it would be wise to maintain a jaundiced eye to balance any tendency toward confusion, illusion or delusion.

Following that Tuesday the 5th, the 6th – 7th gives us an eclipse of the Sun at the time of the Aquarius New Moon which ushers in the Chinese New Year of 4705 and the Year of the Brown Earth Rat. A Rat Year is a year of the beginning of the Chinese Zodiac and concurs with 2008 as a 1 year in Numerology, a year of initiations and new beginnings. The Rat Year offers greater prosperity and the concerns over economic crises can simmer down with even a bounce back in the property / real estate markets. But there can be a greater tendency towards conservative investments rather than speculative ventures. Boom scenarios will take a back seat as people reel from some of the busts that often occur in consequence of excessively booming times.

The Aquarius New Moon on the 6th-7th reaffirms the two Stelliums in Capricorn and Aquarius. Venus in Capricorn sextiles Uranus in Pisces and the New Moon configuration of the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Neptune create a semi-sextile to Uranus. This New Moon gives us the impetus to think outside the box, streamline operations and consider the most expedient ways to accomplish our goals. The importance of both thinking outside the box and utilizing innovative techniques cannot be understated, all with the cautionary flagging of the Mercury retrograde still operating on the 18th. But this New Moon signature does impact the fortnight from the New Moon to the Virgo Full Moon on the 20th – 21st.

Now is a time for us to dream our dreams but to also blueprint and strategize. Although we may want to launch our boats after the Mercury retrograde is done or even later into the Spring period, we can certainly reflect on our intentions and make plans of the ways by which we can effect our goals.

The importance of reality checks during February cannot be discounted. With the transits of Mercury and the Sun through Aquarius, there are times when both will conjunct Neptune. Mercury conjuncts Neptune on the 2nd and again in March. The Sun conjuncts Neptune on the 10th. Around these times, it would be important for us to do a double reality check for we could easily be entranced by possibilities, appearances and our own hopes and wishes. If we don’t want to fall prey to illusions or delusions, then it would be essential that we take the time to do our homework, check the facets of the situations and to apprise ourselves of our resources and capabilities.

On Valentine’s Day on the 14th, the Sun trines Mars. This time can be one of much communication with friends and loved ones near and far. We are likely to be reaching out in appreciation and gratitude of those special people in our lives and those with whom we have shared fond remembrances.

The 17th has Venus exiting Capricorn to enter Aquarius. Our interests in others may now be more an attraction to the character, the quirky, the individual embracing life by marching to their own drummer.

Mercury turns direct on the 18th, ending the first of this year’s three Mercury retrogrades. Although we shall remain in the ‘shadow’ of the Mercury retrograde until the 10th of March, our thinking and our communications should be clearer. We may find some of the problems we encountered while Mercury was retrograding — travel problems, transportation issues, miscommunications and misunderstandings, and computer glitches — start to drop away.

The Sun exits Aquarius and enters Pisces on the 19th and in so doing sextiles Pluto in Capricorn. Our destiny may be calling and we may find that our compassion is linked to doing something with purpose. Drawing upon our intuitive sense can help us focus on the fundamentals of our lives, the essence of our being. Our desire for new beginnings can start to take root, especially if we listen to the small voice within.

On the 20th – 21st, we have the Virgo Full Moon and a total Lunar Eclipse. The Sun is within orb of a conjunction to Neptune and the opposing Moon is within orb of a conjunction with Saturn. Both the Sun and Moon are in aspect to Pluto, the Sun sextile Pluto, the Moon trine Pluto. Although we may find the holds of the past strong and unwilling to release us, now is a time for us to do a healthy clearing of the unproductive, worn-out and all old baggage with which we have no intention of moving forward. We may feel somewhat confused, even tentative at this time, and there could be a tendency to draw upon old patterns for support, the old ‘tried and true’ which has been tried but no longer true. Although our vulnerability now could have us feeling like the emperor with no clothes, it is also important that we use this time to do an inventory-taking, realistically consider what is important to us and look at how we can release ourselves from past programs and habit patterns in order to shapeshift into our new future during this year of new beginnings.

On the 24th, the sense of our old identity might be reinforced by the Sun Saturn opposition. If we use the energy wisely, we could blend both a visionary sense of where we want to go with a serious evaluation of the means by which we could get there. Otherwise, we might feel as though we have hit the wall, that our strength wavers and we feel any obstacles to be impenetrable forcing us back into our old identity and the old patterns. Courage may be called for, but part of the courage is to release ourselves from humankind’s old pattern of control over situations and the world and moving into a healthier framework of working with the natural unfolding taking place.

The 26th has Mercury conjunct Venus. Our thoughts are with our friends and we are likely to be celebrating diversity rather than demanding conformity.

This month of February can be an important period of gathering our thoughts, considering our options and creating a focus of how we want to do our lives so that they far greater express real purpose and meaning for ourselves.

As Richard Bach writes in his spiritual classis Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah: Don’t Limit the Is.

February… possibilities and planning stages…