venus retrograde meets the Sun | January 8th, 2022 - a light on what we want/value, seeing the real worth of our efforts, our actions can be challenged by what we can't control, allowing things to unfold/unwind, swimming against the tide just wears us out/gets us wetter


 

For SATURDAY - the Moon is in fiery Aries now - we are nourished/nurtured by moving our body, starting, taking action, passion, arguments (sometimes), men. Her only aspect today is a smooth sextile to Mercury at 7 degrees Aquarius. Good for new conversations (keep in mind Mercury is walking degrees he will walk two more times during his upcoming retrograde, so ideas/communications/information - nothing is set in stone here), writing, commerce, opportunities through siblings, our local community, our tech, transportation. Mercury is cutting edge in Aquarius, our minds are linked up with the FUTURE/humanity. 


This is a BIG day for Venus as she meets up with the Sun - reaching the mid-point of her 40 day/40 night retrograde cycle. HERE is a light on what this Venus retrograde is about for us. Can we see the real worth of our efforting? What have we learned?


A message comes in now, likely expressed through a Venusian situation - relationships, love, our values, self-esteem. 

 

Since Venus started her retrograde cycle as omicron was announced as a new variant, maybe now is when we get some enlightening data/sense of what is happening.


Venus also rules beauty, so changes are good while Venus is retrograde, we are "re"vising after all, but only if it’s something we used to love and/or can be easily reversed once Venus is direct, in case we find the change something we are not loving later on. Move the couch, but don't buy a new couch, for example.


At the same time the Sun is meeting Venus, he is sextiling Pallas at 18 degrees Pisces and Mars (18 Sagittarius) is squaring Pallas.

 

Mars square Pallas and applying to his upcoming square to Neptune speaks of tension/frustration/delays with our QUEST. Our actions can drift off course. Here in New Jersey, we've just had a snowstorm and everyone is sick, was sick or is probably about to be sick. Pushing through a Neptune square is like trying to fight water/swim against the tide. 

 

Better to go with the flow of that smooth sextile between the Sun and Pallas.

 

We are working with our intuition and spirit, offering compassion/rest/healing/imagination, connecting illusive dots as a STRATEGY.

 

Ultimately this is another Saturn/Neptune - making the dream real with maybe a sacrifice/release necessary before things can stabilize. Patience is par for the course here. Also keep in mind, although Mars is squaring Pallas, the Moon, answering to Mars through Aries is sextiling (opportunity) Mercury. Talk about something new. The North Node is still Gemini - there are more choices than we think there are. Ask new/smarter, less emotional questions.

 

Know there are almost certainly going to be delays and changes of directions over the next month, take care of yourself - this is all in bigger hands than ours ....


xo all - back with a post about Mercury's upcoming retrograde, the second part of the Nodal shift AND, I think, we'll take a look at next week's Cancer Full Moon this weekend, get a jump on things with that and see where this two week cycle winds up

 

note - people with planets/points nearest 18 degrees will probably feel these energies strongest as well as people with natal aspects getting repeated (regardless of signs) through these transits and probably Venus ruled Taurus and Libra risings

more about the astrology of january 2022 | january as preparation for February through April's GO time

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Once we get through the next month of retrogrades - we will have all the planets direct for quite a few weeks. 

 

We might want to be thinking about this now/preparing. January's New Moon in Capricorn last weekend was a GO/get seeds in the ground with that trine to future-focused Uranus, but we still have Venus retrograde in Capricorn and an approaching Mercury retrograde that will start in Aquarius - the future - and pull us back into Capricorn - the present/past. 

 

We also have Mars in Sagittarius now reaching the degrees where he is beginning to square Neptune (this will be exact on January 11th) - which can feel draining/diluting. It can also pull in wet weather/virus, flu, etc and other Neptunian situations that can work at cross purposes to our actions/our quest. Mars in Sag is answering to Jupiter in Pisces, so ultimately answering to Neptune, really giving Neptunian delusion/exhaustion/escape (but also inspiration, healing, compassion) the upper hand here. 


Once we get past February 3rd, we will have all the planets direct including Venus and Uranus (currently retrograde) and Mercury (retrograde starting January 14th). We will still be walking old shadow degrees for a bit, but that's ok. This will be prime 'LAUNCH'; time, but there will be some days/times that are better than others. This 'forward ho' will last until April 28th when Pluto stations retrograde and the spring/summer retrogrades begin. We will talk about this more as we get closer and move through it, but the preparation/clear the field/reflection/get seeds into the ground time is NOW.


This doesn't mean we can't launch/start anything important before early February if we must, just know things will tend to revise themselves as we move along. With the Nodes set to move into fixed signs - Taurus/Scorpio - on January 18th, it might be in our best interest to not be as flexible as we have been after this time. So, if we can help it, we really don't want all the retrograde energy in the 'start chart' for anything that really matters (realizing sometimes this can't be helped). Forward moving planets mean less revisions later and that's usually a good thing - less headaches/more momentum with fewer starts and stops.

 

Just keep in mind these retrogrades MUST BE WORKED in order for the 'momentum' thing LATER to be most effective or we could be moving ourselves toward a cliff/brick wall very quickly when all the planets are direct. There are good reasons for the delays/road blocks/turnarounds we will encounter as we move through January. The retrograde energies are times for INTERNAL work - getting real/getting clear. Doing the "re's". We usually can't just sit them out.

 

A couple dates to note in January: 

 

January 14th - we have Ceres stationing direct (27 degrees Taurus, conjunct that RED HOT degree from the last Solar Eclipse in December 2021 that kicked off the Taurus nodal shift) at the same time Mercury stations retrograde (10 degrees Aquarius). 

 

January 18th to 19th - we have Uranus stationing direct, the nodal shift into Taurus/Scorpio and the Sun's move into Aquarius answering to Uranus and squaring those freshly minted Nodes. This also lights up the RED HOT 'world starts up again' 0 degrees Aquarius where Jupiter and Saturn met back in December 2020. 


(an interesting side note here is that Venus will meet Pluto at 0 degrees Aquarius on December 7, 2024 - so they met on "time runs out/power cemented" for the first time on the day Omicron was announced in November and meet again on "time starts up again" in 2024)

 

Lots of changes ahead/twists and turns. Opportunities and challenges. 

 

We are probably feeling more 'goal-oriented' right now with all this Cappy energy. With Venus retrograde we want to be bringing more Venusian charm/balance into our business dealings. AND conversely, we want to be taking Venusian themes - relationships, money, our values and self-esteem more seriously. February will bring fresh opportunities/starts, but it is the January "re's" that make sure we have that 'ladder of success' we will be climbing perched against the right wall.


With all this Capricorn, life's a marathon, not a sprint. Take care of yourself.


xo all

 

artwork by the amazing Duy Huynh

Today's Astrology Forecast | Wednesday, January 5th, 2022 - re-imagining what we want, giving up the ghost, all day void moon


 

The pile-up of planets in one part of the heavens is creating an unusually long void Moon today. The Moon, void last night off a sextile to Mars, is void until 7:17PM EST tonight when she enters Pisces. In dreamy Pisces we are nourished/nurtured by art, music, imagination, rest, meditation, prayer, compassion. Her only aspect is a conjunction with Pisces ancient ruler Jupiter at 9:56PM EST. 


This feels very supportive of today's dreamy Venus/Neptune sextile at 20 degrees Capricorn/Pisces. 

 

Venus is retrograde and this is her second of three meetings with Neptune. We had the first sextile back on November 30, 2020, so maybe something from that time frame is connecting to a situation now. 


Cappy/Pisces is 'making the dream real' energy. Neptune rules the collective unconscious and his contact with a personal planet, in this case Venus, in stabilizing Capricorn, can merge the collective creative imagination with our physical power to create something in tangible form. This is excellent energy for making art, music, writing, etc. We can tap into collective potential. Give life to something that can benefit/heal other people.

 

There might also be something here about softening the hard edges of our ambitions or defenses. The retrograde of Venus in Cappy can be particularly eye-opening for people with Venus/Saturn natal aspects which might have manifested as the feeling of needing to 'earn' love or 'earn' our keep or having a great sensitivity to rejection. Situations can arise that mimic or trigger childhood emotional pain. Here, maybe the Neptune contact can bring some healing/compassion. The three-peat nature of this sextile can be especially healing and we will have Mercury and Mars through here in the coming weeks. Old ghosts/family curses can be put to bed. Keep in mind, for our benevolent Venus, this is our second pass - the one where we are doing the "re's", re-evaluating, re-feeling, re-doing, etc. 

 

Maybe an old dream is re-awakened. Maybe someone/something can come back around.

 

Whatever this is, the sextile is opportunistic. It's a good time to be socializing, connecting with other people, connecting with our muses and spirit via meditation/prayer. Tonight's meeting of the Pisces Moon and Jupiter might foreshadow next spring's big meeting between Jupiter and Neptune. Write down your dreams. Pay attention to what is inspiring you now.

 

Venus pulls in themes of money, relationships, our values and self-esteem. Neptune brings in our dreams, healing, compassion, our ghosts, sometimes our escape mechanisms. Saturn activates our Cappy natal house themes and the more general themes of our careers, goals, karma and ambitions. 


This is a good time to be "re-imagining" what we want. 

 

Keep an eye on the Void Moon, too. Give yourself a break.


xo all


artwork by the talented paulee1

the nodes of fate shift to taurus and Scorpio | january 2022 to July 2023 - turning away from the complicated drama and crisis situations, Keeping things simple, minding our own business, turning toward mother earth, savoring life

 

On January 19th, 2022, the Nodes of Luna move from Gemini/Sagittarius to Taurus/Scorpio. The North Node will be in Taurus (which becomes our most beneficial path forward) and the South Node (where we are, what we need to leave behind) will be in Scorpio. 

 

The nodes will be in Taurus/Scorpio until July 17, 2023.


Here is where we, as a collective, and in our personal lives, of course keeping in mind we have our own nodal story playing out through our birth charts - appoint Taurus (ruled by Venus, and we will look at Ceres here, too) our guiding North Star and Scorpio (ruled by modern ruler Pluto and we'll look at ancient ruler Mars, too, at times), the space and themes in need of sorting/sifting and, whatever is past its use-by date here, retirement. 

 

The Nodes are activated by transits (their interactions with planets/points) and our Taurus/Scorpio houses will be amplified via Eclipses in these signs over the next eighteen months. This story kicked off a little early with the New Moon Solar Eclipse at 26 degrees Taurus on November 18, 2021.

 

We talked about that one HERE


(this was the Eclipse with the Moon on fixed star Algol, tightly conjunct the U.S. birth chart's exact Wuhan/Pandora conjunction, conjunct asteroid Sedna and opposing President Biden's Sun - yes, the Eclipses came in with a bang)


What does it means to appoint Taurus our North Star? 

 

Taurus rules our collective second house - our values, our self-esteem, our finances, our resources, our earned income. Taurus likes comfort and ease and stopping to smell the roses. This isn't about being lazy, although Taurean energy can be a bit lazy. This is really about our ability to savor. And to put down roots.  In Taurus we see where we are and what we have. WE HOLD ON TO THINGS. Gratitude and patience pays off. Taurus always makes me think about stewardship - the responsible care we take of ourselves, our families, our businesses, our spaces, our planet. As the North Node moves into Taurus, Taurean ruler Venus is retrograding through sober/traditional Capricorn, so, even though the North Node is all about the future, with a retrograde ruler at kick-off time, the past, this whole 'going backward to go forward', will need to be factored in. 

 

Another thing to consider is that even though Taurus is FIXED EARTH, we have had disruptive Uranus in Taurus, shaking up our Taurus stability for the last couple years, so it's an area of life we are already dealing with CHANGE. As the North Node moves into this space in our blueprint/birth chart the changes/chaos we have ALREADY BEEN DEALING WITH will be magnetically lining us up, as we lean into Taurus, with our best path through these changes and their aftermath. When the North Node meets up with Uranus next summer, we can expect a big chaotic push into the future.

 

The South Node - where we are, what we need to be leaving behind - will move into Scorpio. 

 

Scorpio rules our collective eighth house - where those second house themes get merged or purged through our relationships with other people. So, Scorpio rules other people's resources, other people's values, other people's money, our spouse's/partner's income, loans, debts, taxes, inheritance, death, rebirth, intimacy, sex, reproduction. Here is where we take the time to understand/unravel/obsess over other people's motives. It's through the constructive traits of Scorpio - focus, resourcefulness, passion, probing, deep perception - that we experience real intimacy. We merge with other people physically and materially. The sum becomes something far greater than its parts.  

 

The shadow of Scorpio, like all signs, are always the positives taken too far. Compulsion, jealousy, manipulation, power struggles, making things too complicated, we get too focused on what someone else has/is doing or on things that don't belong to us, the need for life and death drama, the need to dig so deep/unearth so much that we lose sight of the importance of any of it. The South Node will move into Scorpio with Scorpian ruler Pluto uber active via multiple hits with Venus and Mercury, the Sun having just met Pluto and with Mars scheduled to meet Pluto in a few weeks. Scorpio is fixed water - think oasis in the middle of a desert, bottomless lake/sometimes pit, stagnation.

 

With the North Node in Taurus - our values, our self-worth, what we really own - is going to MATTER. 

 

We will be in a collective heap of sh*t if we don't get this stuff right. Simpler things will move more smoothly than complicated things. And this might sound obvious and always the case, but it isn't. Remember with our North Node in Gemini for the last 18 months everything has required multiple things to move us forward, nothing has been simple. 


With the North Node in Taurus, boundaries will be important. We are going to need to know where we end and the other person begins. We are going to want to be looking at where we are putting our time/resources and how and if this is paying off for us.


Our Taurus natal planets will meet up with the North Node, our Scorpio planets the South Nodes. Our planets in Aquarius and Leo will square the nodes and offer us challenges and pivot points. The Nodes move from the mutable signs - breathe a sigh of relief, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces and into the fixed signs - looking at you Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. 


The Nodes are karmic points. During the Nodes time in Taurus/Scorpio - people with planets and points in these signs (and the other fixed signs) will release what is ready to go, past karma that is keeping us from moving forward, and, pull in what we have lined up with for our future.


The South Node shows us where we are. With the South Node in Scorpio we start this transit IN SCORPIO/the dark/dealing with life and death/needing to rise from these sweaty death bed sheets. With the South Node in Scorpio, there will be some 'bottom-less' pit activities/situations that won't get us anywhere, will keep us stuck.

 

1. getting immersed in the complicated minutiae, looking for problems, looking for truth that hurts, continuing to be absorbed in these never-ending and escalating (what we give our attention to GROWS) crisis situations

2. losing ourselves (and our resources) in another person 

3. focusing on what is dead/dying

4. getting all tangled up in other people's business/third party situations/other people's motives

5. borrowing too much money, having no personal safety net

6. trashing our physical bodies, spaces, the planet

7. inappropriate merging - lack of boundaries

8. being judgmental or withholding with others and ourselves

9. compulsions, jealousy, manipulations (trying to control what someone else is doing/thinking/wanting)

10. endless power struggles


We will be happiest/most successful if we lean into the positives of Taurus:


1. making things more SIMPLE

2. living by our own values - not getting our self-esteem through feedback/thumbs ups

3. minding our own business

4. making things more beautiful/comfortable

5. slowing down, having patience - think of the way the seed in the ground will not be rushed, be realistic, this is fixed earth

6. being outdoors

7. practicing gratitude for what we have instead of focusing on what someone else has or what we are missing

8. enjoying our five physical senses, SAVORING LIFE

9. choosing quality over quantity, accumulating resources that gain value over time

10. taking care of our physical bodies


With the North Node in Taurus our successes will be EARNED. This will be through a practical, step-by-step process. Our values/our self-worth should be dictating what we DO. This is a good transit to make money/gain resources.


Let's say you were born with a North Node in Taurus or North Node in your 2nd house - you have earned the opportunity, via your past lives' financial maneuverings with other people, to gain/reap personal wealth in this lifetime, but this time those rewards will need to come through your own efforts. Yes, you can have nice stuff. Yes, you will have to earn this stuff.


As we collectively, over the next year and a half, move away from the darker dynamics of Scorpio and build, through our own efforts, that Taurean stability, we will EARN the right to gain, too. We can have nice stuff. Comfort. Security. What we value.

 

I am writing this a bit early, so we will have to see where we are at when we come into this nodal shift. Our North Node is still in Gemini for the next couple weeks, our South Node in Sagittarius - we talked about these Nodes often over the last eighteen months and in greater detail HERE and HERE.


We'll talk more about the deeper energies of this nodal shift and dig in by sign, in Part II as we get closer, but I thought this heads up now might be helpful.


xo all


artwork by the amazing Brian Kirhagis