Astrological Forecast for January 2010

Happy New Year to All!

January is, of course, a month of beginnings. As the Sun begins to climb higher in the sky each day and the evenings grow - oh-so-slowly - longer, we even reach a point towards the end of the month when the temperature starts to climb. We are heading towards the morning of the year, although dawn is still a ways off.

This January, we begin not in a deep sleep but wide awake, coming off the Full Moon eclipse on December 31st. Full Moons bring things to light, and make us aware of the issues with which we are dealing. An eclipse adds an extra intensity, an urge to act on what we see. So we are awakened in the middle of the year’s night, and begin 2010 not with vague resolutions but with an awareness of what we must do. It is not what we want, but what we need, that is on our minds.

Mercury is retrograde through the 15th, which will also be the day of a Solar Eclipse at 2:07 a.m., EST (Solar Eclipses aren’t visible at night). The intensity of the first two weeks of the month comes from the eclipses, while Mercury retrograde adds a veneer of confusion. To bring the mid-month intensity to a (slow) boil, Saturn stations to retrograde on the 13th. The time between the 11th and the 17th will have a strange mixture of energies. The movement is powerful, but generally inwardly directed. A sense of impending change mixes with an almost frozen facade.

It is a good time to note what is going on in your life, and what is and is not working for you. Try to feel your way along, as the rational, thinking mind is liable to miss the obvious. Note, especially, where you get "white knuckles" from clinging to the past.

As January ends, what was a vague foreboding at the middle of the month becomes more overt, as the Full Moon on the 30th precedes the Saturn-Pluto square on the 31st. This square is the second in a series of three which began in November and will be in effect through the summer of 2010. Much has been said about the changes which this aspect symbolizes on the collective level, and while I don’t expect that conspiracy theories and power struggles will disappear from our public discourse, there is also a personal side to this aspect.

The beginning, middle, and end of the month hold the real excitement in January. It’s unlikely that we’ll have time to fully recoup between these bouts of cosmic activity, but even in the midst of it all, life goes on. The 13th has a nice energy for relationships, with the potential to move out of old patterns and try something new. After the 18th, Venus leaves Capricorn for Aquarius, where she is more open and sociable, which should help relationships of all kinds. She makes a nice trine to Saturn on the 22nd, an aspect which helps us to build our relationships, to formalize them, or to let them go with a bit of grace. The Goddess also gets into the fray at the end of the month, as she opposes Mars on the 27th. This is a passionate aspect, one which will have many people putting it all on the table in their relationships.

Passion may be in short supply, as Mars is still retrograde, as he will be until March. Still, he is being energized at the end of the month, and this may mean that we feel an increased urge to move ahead, and our drive is strong, although actually getting things done might be harder than expected. The Full Moon on the 30th is in Leo, generally the Party Moon of the year, and Mars is closely aspecting this moon. Even retrograde, this suggests a sexy Saturday night that caps a raucous weekend.

Jupiter enters Pisces on the 17th, beginning a year in one of his home signs. Jupiter in Pisces has a very spiritual flavor, and this will be a good year to find your (inner or outer) guru or simply get in touch with your spiritual side.

We begin 2010 with intensity, continuing the momentum which began in the fall of 2009, and which is part of a series of major changes that continue through 2015. Naturally, change is ongoing and always with us, but we are in the midst of deep transformation, the outcome of which can only be known in the future. Yet each of us holds an important piece of the overall picture. Where we are heading is - in large part - determined by where we decide to go.