It’s a day of reckoning, where our optimism is tempered with a stark awareness of how and why our hopes and intentions may not mesh with the current life direction, and where opportunities may cause conflict with our plans (Jupiter sq Nodal axis)–and this, in turn, might play on our wounds, and make us question our own strength and fitness to live out our choices (Mars sesq Chiron, Sun sesq Ceres). With Saturn and the Sun just entering Capricorn, and Merc freshly direct, we may feel a wee bit overwhelmed, as if barriers and dead ends are popping up everywhere. The reality, though, is that we’re being asked to slow down and take a thorough look, both at where we are and what we want. Venus helps, as she enters Cap, attuning us to the benefits of hard work and the parameters of concrete realities, even as she conjoins Saturn and novile Vesta, showing us what we treasure (and so are sure we want to keep solid) in terms of commitments, relationships, and those things we honor. If we see there’s no hurry, we can embrace our needs, values, and priorities, and so see clearly how we want things to progress.

Today’s word image is a piece of embroidery that takes years to complete. Is there some project you’ve been working on, piece by piece, for a long time? Have you put off completing it for some time, because it’s complicated, or other life events have called? Or is that a way to see life, each ‘stitch’ (choice/ action) creating a pattern that close up isn’t discernible, but makes a distinct ‘picture’ when viewed from a distance?