Venus Square Saturn, New Moon in Aquarius, Mars into Aries | cold water splashed in our face

new beginning by anne wipf

So, have we learned something over the last few days? Venus hooking up with Chiron and running into Saturn - ouch!

Today we have multiple energies converging.  

We have Venus (love, money, what we want) squaring Saturn (the wall).

Squares are tense aspects. With squares some tension is needed to stimulate action, but too much tension causes stress. The planets within us and outside of us are working at cross purposes - there are obstacles here.

In this case, and we have been building toward this all week, so this might not be something that happens today, but you might be feeling the stress of it today - this is the cold facts hitting us in the face via a lack of love, money or resources.

Now, the way through every Saturn problem is always time or work and most likely a combination of the two. The answer to whatever is happening now is never going to be a shortcut (so get that shortcut thing right out of your head right now).

Nothing is gained by closing our eyes or turning away. Not this time. There is a new beginning here. Find it.

We know there is a new beginning because at the same thing we have the New Moon in Aquarius!

I have been having trouble following the Moons because it is always so cloudy here I can never see them (we wouldn't be seeing the Moon today anyway, of course).

If you think about the symbol for Aquarius - the water bearer (although she is not actually carrying water, but water works for today's energy) - well, we could imagine that water being splashed right in our face - and yes, it is icy cold and no, she doesn't care that you just applied your mascara and have a meeting with your boss in 10 minutes.

Or maybe that water is washing something away so we can see some situation or person clearly now.

People think Aquarius represents independence (nope, that's Aries), but more accurately Aquarius represents individuality. There is a difference. Think about it. There is an independent spirit here, yes, but since Aquarius rules the 11th house of groups, it shows people bound together by a cause. So, in Aquarius we find a better way to work together so it benefits everyone or else we go our own way. These are the only two outcomes for Aquarius. Aquarius is the space in your chart where it's never going to work to follow the crowd just for the sake of fitting in.

Our rough, uncomfortable edges are there for a reason. 

With the Sun and Moon meeting up in Aquarius today (where is 8 degrees Aquarius in your natal chart - there is a fresh start here) and with Saturn being the traditional ruler of Aquarius and Saturn having this lengthy conversation, first with Mars, and now with Venus, and with us heading into an eclipse season dealing with Aquarius - whatever is happening now isn't over - and that's probably a good thing because the situation requires adjustment, right? We have to fix this thing.

The great thing about that cold splash of water is we have rinsed the stars from our eyes. We might have to do this thing ourselves. Yes, that is most likely the way we will have to do it. This isn't forever, but for today we will have our own back. We will forgive ourselves for whatever the hell we avoided that got us here. We get a fresh start.

NEW MOON INTENTIONS

AFFIRMATION TIPS for your monthly New Moon:  always make affirmations from a  positive place (positive meaning both light hearted and certain) - write your affirmations down by hand in script, speak them out loud. Then release your attention from these things knowing that your intention is known. Know these things are already yours.

(I would recommend doing the intentions tomorrow - we'll have Mars in Aries by then and the energy of billions of people celebrating the newness of the Chinese Year of the Rooster)

We'll wake up Saturday morning with Mars in his home sign of Aries - this is great energy to get new stuff started (if it's very new and important - wait a day or so for that sliver of New Moon in the sky) and great energy to get old stuff done and also great energy to have a rip roaring fight. He will hang here until March 9th. We might want to pace ourselves.

Our Aries natal house gets a wake up call.

Aries suns and ascendants get - even more than usual - fired up! Aries is independent and Mars is uber-strong in this sign that he rules.

I take this as another signal whatever it is we have to do to get this train back on track, is up to us.

xo all

the upcoming retrogrades of Venus and Jupiter | what do we really want

The Bee by Natalia Drepina

Normally I don't pay much attention to Jupiter retrogrades, unless he is backing over planets or points in my natal chart. He is retrograde for large chunks of time (four out of every thirteen months) and similar things seem to occur when he is moving forward or appearing to move backward.

But this year we have Jupiter in Libra and answering to Libra's ruler Venus and Venus is also retrograde (March 4th- April 15th) for part of Jupiter's retrograde amplifying whatever is happening.

Also remember we have Saturn - the other middle planet, along with Jupiter, that impacts both of collective energies and our individual energies in somewhat equal measures - still in Sagittarius and Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter - who, as I just said, is hanging out in Libra and ruled by Venus.

There is a strong picture here of VENUS RULES. So her retrograde will be felt.

Now, looking ahead to after the Venus retrograde, which is like looking at the dessert menu before we have even eaten our salad - but yes, let's do that! From May through November - we will have a passionate Grand Trine in Fire involving Saturn, Uranus and the North Node (by this time in "I am not afraid to shine!" LEO) - this will allow us to move mountains and more than make up for the crap we have to wade through before we get there, I promise. But first we will have to put on our waders, which I hope for your sake are very TALL, and get through March and the first half of April.

Now, let's look at the degrees so you can look at your natal chart (or ask me) and we'll see what areas of life we are talking about for you personally - you are also influenced, often strongly if you have no planets or points at the following degrees, by the general themes of a Venus retrograde we will talk about.

Jupiter will station retrograde on February 6th at 23 degrees Libra. He will station direct on June 9th at 16 degrees Libra - then he'll walk forward getting back to 23 degrees Libra and proceed into new territory sometime in early September (he actually entered his shadow period on November 11, 2016). If you have planets or points from 16-23 degrees Libra (or to a lesser degree the other cardinal signs since he will square and oppose them - Aries, Cancer and Capricorn) you will have multiple opportunities for growth (or waste) and expansion.

If you have something you are wanting to start do it BEFORE February 6th and Jupiter will help expand it! Let's use every moment Jupiter is in Libra!

Now, Venus, the piece of the puzzle we are going to pay the most attention to because SHE RULES, is going to station retrograde on March 4th at 13 degrees Aries and move backward until she gets to 23 degrees Pisces (you can see she is much closer and faster and covers more ground) and station direct on April 15th. If you have planets or points in your natal chart from 23 - 29 degrees Pisces or from 0 to 13 degrees Aries, you will feel this retrograde the strongest as well as people with Libra or Taurus rising, because your chart is ruled by Venus.

But we will all be impacted - particularly within the themes of the houses in our chart that house 0-13 degrees Aries and 23-29 degrees Pisces AND within the themes Venus rules - love, money, our values, women and beauty.

HOW THIS WILL LIKELY PLAY OUT - Venus retrogrades are typically times (her last retrograde was the summer of 2015) when events transpire to show us what we value. 

Relationships are tested. The way we handle our money (and other resources including the planet Earth) is tested. 

The retrograde period itself isn't a time to make major changes - it's NOT  a good time to start a business or love relationship that we want to last, for example - it's a time things happen to get us to clarity so we can take action, if we choose to, when Venus is direct (after April 15th). Got it?

When Venus stands still in Aries in early March (and think of a planet standing still as you stilling your hand over a candle - much more powerful, and in the case of a candle painful - than a moving hand) we will also have the Moon, Uranus and Mars (very strong here) in Aries. AND the Sun, Mercury and Neptune all in drifty Pisces.

Something within the theme of our Aries/Pisces houses - or involving the Venus themes of love, money, or values - could (to use Pisces terminology) "drift off course", "evaporate" or "fade away". 

Something/someone that looked like a sure thing or our next big thing may turn out to be anything but and something/someone we had written off as over might "drift back into our lives", "re-awaken" or "re-appear".

We move from Aries (I want what I want, I want it now, I want what's mine) to Pisces (we are all one, the bigger picture, connection) and back and forth again. We figure out what we really want, what we value. This process is important.

Remember we really need to be going after the right stuff this year because we have the greatest chance we've had in a great while to actually get it!

And we want to get this stuff figured out NOW - there is no longer any "I'll figure this out tomorrow". Tomorrow is TODAY. I don't write this so we will all run off doing crazy ass things without thinking about them (although that crazy ass thing that makes your heart sing that you have been thinking about for quite a while well this could be exactly the year for THAT).

I write this only so we are all paying attention. If we are putting off stuff until we have all our ducks in a row - well this is the year those ducks line up, so be ready. The row of ducks may only look like a row of ducks if we drink two glasses of wine and squint into the Sun, but at some point even that will be good enough to get us moving. I promise.

By the end of the year Jupiter will be in Scorpio, Saturn will be in Capricorn, by the middle of 2018 Uranus will be in Taurus, Neptune in Pisces, Pluto in Capricorn and the North Node in Leo - this stuff is biblical - we want to be on course, and STRONG. Heroes and heroines will be needed.

I have a friend with a daughter disappearing (Pisces) on heroin (Pisces). There is a little less and less of her everyday. In many ways this is all of our stories now in the spaces we aren't vigilant, isn't it?

I have been poking and prodding this girl's natal chart for the times and ways her mother might reach her.

We have Neptune, so strong in Pisces until 2025, coaxing so many people with beautiful, imaginative energy into the dark void of illusion and delusion with its promises of "escape" - we all feel it to varying degrees, don't we? When the South Nodes moves out of Pisces in May and the North Node moves into Leo and especially when Saturn comes full strength next December in Capricorn - heroines will be needed. I just keep thinking of that little letter "e" that turns heroin into heroine.

And how when we hear the word spoken out loud we think first of the drug and not the woman and how we need to change that.

I have no idea what specifically this means you have to do - I do know we have to do what is right in front of us and follow our heart - we need to trust that this will get us lined up with the right stuff. Eat clean and meditate - truly there are so many studies and we need to fight this fogginess (sugar, wheat, drugs)!

(so many people say they have terrible memories now - and we are made of our memories! on the one hand this fogginess might make it easier for us to let go of things since it detaches us - on the other hand it makes us detached from each other since we are not remembering the things that keep us together!)

For now let's take NEW action by February 5th, then we'll back off a bit BUT KEEP MOVING, we'll see what Jupiter's station and the eclipses in February expand and eclipse out.

xo all