Happy New Year, Everyone!

This year will begin on a very introspective note energetically. As you know, January is named for the Roman god, Janus, who had two heads – one looking forward to the new and one looking back to the old. This is very appropriate for the planetary doings this month.

We begin with everyone’s favorite retrograde! Mercury will be retrograde in Capricorn from January 5^th through the 25^th. He joins the Sun and Pluto in Capricorn. As a matter of fact on January 6^th the Sun and Pluto will be right next to each other (conjunct) in the heavens. And the New Moon (new beginnings) occurs on the 9^th at 19⁰ Capricorn.

If that isn’t enough for you, Jupiter, planet of expansion, good fortune and luck, goes retrograde on the 7^th. He’ll be at 23⁰ Virgo, another earth sign and an easy flow with the Sun, Pluto and Mercury. His retrograde ends in May.

Retrogrades are wonderful times to re-flect, re-group, re-think, re-organize, and re-treat. As the god Janus invites us to do to – look back on what has gone well in the past and look forward to changes you want to make. Pluto is the planet of transformation, never an easy process, because we all love to hang on to our illusions and Pluto goes deep. No hiding! So we have a whole month for this process! Neat, eh?

Like all signs, the energy of Capricorn can be used on different levels. Capricorn brings with it the Saturnian concepts of discipline, determination, and sure-footed forward motion. Capricorn folks always have a plan – one year, five year, and beyond. Nothing is left to chance. These wonderful attributes can be applied on one level to goals on the material plane, such as business, career, athletics, etc. On a higher level, Capricorn is the sign of the spiritual initiate, pictured as a goat climbing sure-footedly up the mountain of spiritual understanding. Its symbol (glyph) is a combination of the symbol for Aries (the head) and Leo (the heart). When these two parts of us work in harmony, great growth can be achieved.

I believe this powerful combination of Pluto (transformation), Mercury retrograde (inner thought processes) and the Sun (our essence) is an invitation from the stars to look at our spiritual growth and service, and Capricorn provides wonderful, practical, goal-setting energy. I think we all hve planets either in cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn) and/or planets in earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn) that will aid us in tapping into this energetic line up this month to re-dedicate ourselves to service, in whatever form that may take for us, and to brighten the light that we shine in our world.

Adding to the mix is Jupiter in Virgo, a sign that is frequently misunderstood. It is most often viewed as being perfectionist, lost in the details, bean counters, and/or a health nut. In actuality Virgo is the sign of the harvest of self, an individual who moves through his/her world with assurance and an inner sense of self. Maya Angelou described Virgo beautifully when she wrote: “A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself.” Add this developing sense of who we are to how we want to serve our world, and I think we can bring a lot of light wherever we are. This is a month of determining inwardly how we want to go about this and identifying/dissolving blocks to our goals. Jupiter retrograde may bring news stories about business issues, the stock market not doing well, but it is in truth the planet of faith and higher truth. Where is our faith?

And we have some fire to help inspire us along the way. Venus and Saturn are both in Sagittarius (Jupiter’s sign) and Uranus is in Aries (Mars’s sign). When earth and fire work together, we have inspiration (fire) and practicality (earth) in our toolbox to realize our dreams.

January also brings with it some sustaining energy, which has been absent recently. We astrologers call it “fixed” energy and Mars, the warrior, enters Scorpio on January 3^rd. Scorpio is another generally misunderstood sign. It is water, which will soften all the earthy Capricorn and Virgo energy. It is an easy flow of energy with Neptune in Pisces. Scorpio is ruled by Pluto and can provide insight into the depths of us. Scorpio goes where we perhaps would rather not look – but need to. It is a sign of great healing and insight, as we bring the dark parts of ourselves to the light. And Mars provides energy and courage for this task.

There will be more sustaining energy when the Sun enters Aquarius on January 20^th. Aquarius is an air sign and not necessarily compatible with watery Scorpio. Aquarius is a visionary, but can get stuck in the ruts of his/her own thinking. However, it can provide innovative ideas on how we want to change and new areas of service that we’d like to explore. Air is mental energy and water taps the feeling, psychic energy – a restatement of the symbol for Capricorn when used it its highest expression.

I wish you a most joyous and reflective January.

Peace and abundant blessings,

Margaret