‘Abrazo – Good hope II’ By Аршил Горки/ Arshile Gorky 1945 {{PD}}

A strange day, in that many things may be hard to pinpoint, slippery in their meaning, layered and nuanced–and this only surprises us because it all seems so straightforward at first glance. The subtle shifts in message–in the midst of the communication, or thought, or plan–stops us in our tracks, but only briefly, if you’re ready for it. The contrary energies come largely in the form of uneasiness, of a fear we can’t trust ourselves (or maybe, our eyes or ears!): the smart choice seems hurtful, we resist change to relationships or assets, not seeing the potential payoff available under different circumstances, and Love and Money carry a destructive element. Those who can center in the Power of Love (big ‘P’, Big ‘L’) won’t have a problem; everyone else, be willing to modify ambitions and desires–you may be barking up the wrong tree, or scaring somebody needlessly with your ill-considered passions–and be willing to both question your own beliefs and avoid the stickiest of the social scene–if they remain unexamined, these latter two areas bring forward the biggest conflicts of all.

(Chiron parallel Pallas, Venus conj Pluto, Mercury contra-parallel Pallas and Chiron, qnx Zeus and sq Jupiter)

Setting the table for your year ahead. Art by Peter Ilsted {{PD}}

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 03 Pisces! (Sun passes into this degree this year at about 3 PM Pacific of the 21st thru to that time on the 22nd–see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) Power and status struggles in the form of who has dominion over what form the core conflicts of this year for you–and this begins right after you feel you’ve achieved equilibrium, especially emotionally, so go figure, right? What seems steady can shift in a heartbeat, but most of the surprises are rooted in conflicts over communication (make it clear!) and in the way ambitions in their current forms draw on (and maybe drain) relationships and/ or finances–and those conflicts will largely disappear once you are really clear on what you think and want. You think you are, now, but what comes at you will let you know where, and just how much, you might need to re-think things.

A large flower cracker. Two shots taken for 1s duration are stacked together. Photo By Subhrajyoti07 – Own work CC BY-SA 4.0

Most of us won’t be out to deceive anyone, but the atmosphere is such that we end up either overplaying or underplaying our reach, skills, or status and so giving others the wrong impression. The problem with this is that we don’t get the payoff we were aiming for, and it all makes choosing or taking action difficult. Bright spot: Ideas snap like firecrackers. Write them down, just plan to act on them at a time when the flow is smoother.

(Neptune contra-parallel Juno, Venus sq Zeus, Mercury nov Uranus and semi-sq Mars)

Setting the table for your year ahead. Art by Peter Ilsted {{PD}}

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 02 Pisces! (Sun passes into this degree this year at about 3 PM Pacific of the 20th thru to that time on the 21st–see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) This year you may feel like you’re in ‘drive’ and pressing on the gas, but still have the emergency brake on! Frustration may be a looming background issue the entire year, and in some very real sense, you may think (or believe) that you’ve ‘missed the boat’. Please don’t let this get you down. The reality is that there is a purge going on, one that will remove toxins, unjust conditions, and at the same time will limit your capacity to embark on change. You’ll be able to speak to what you care about most very soon; until then, allow instinct and what you ‘know but don’t know’ to surface to consciousness and guide you on your way.

‘Calf’s Head and Ox Tongue’ By Gustave Caillebotte c1882 {{PD}}

Either relationships or finances are the ‘hard sell’ today, with one or the other making us feel disempowered, as if we’ve overstepped our bounds or rolled the dice and lost–but that would just be a feeling, not accurate to the reality picture. The perception of loss is really about our own sense of having been undercut, either by someone else in some personal way, or in circumstances surrounding the earning situation. We’re prone to attribute that dis-ease to our own inadequacy, when it might be more accurate to realize that the only thing holding us back is our acceptance of the messages of loss, scarcity, or limit we’ve been handed.

See the Full Moon report for today here–

(Venus sesq Juno, Mercury sxt Saturn)

Setting the table for your year ahead. Art by Peter Ilsted {{PD}}

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 00 Pisces! (see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) Is that fresh heartache I see on the horizon, or is it just a fear that Love will be taken away? Don’t fret; though relationships and/ or finances have been under stress recently, they won’t be for much longer. Here’s how you recover: put yourself first–I know, it seems a bit contrary to a healthy relationship, or to pleasing an employer, but stress has made you undervalue yourself of late–no more; be creative in the way you see things, and in the ‘stories’ you tell yourself about your reality–you’ve been too negative in your assessment, and too narrow in your approach–that’s where you’ve contributed to things; and don’t underestimate the power of a ‘new start’ that comes along later in the year.

‘Snow Peaks’ By John Williamson 19th century {{PD}}

You’re going to find out today what resources, what Love and Money, what values of your own and others, you can rely on. There is solid, real-world proof, and possibly reward; in any case, the results of your investments come home. The problem, though, may be that we’re unable to perceive this; a fog may descend, words may mislead, or our imaginations may run away with us, making at least for a time a kind of crisis state around our inner wisdom, and the issues of what’s smart, what’s practical, what’s a good use of our skills. Think of it this way: we can see what’s smart, if we are open to–we can’t accept flaking out, acting jumpy, being unreliable, or acting as if we ‘don’t know’ as an excuse. The influence is one that feels disempowering, but is in reality a sort of testing of our own trust in ourselves. Have you ever left yourself behind, failed to come through for yourself? If you did, it was only temporary; you always rallied, came back, came through, and that alone should be enough to tell you that trusting yourself is where it’s at, right now.

(Venus parallel SN, nov Ceres, and conj Saturn, Mercury conj and parallel Neptune, sesq Pallas, contra-parallel Juno, semi-sq Uranus, Sun trines Pallas, then enters Pisces)

Setting the table for your year ahead. Art by Peter Ilsted {{PD}}

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 29 Aquarius! (see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) Wisdom, originality, how healed you are, are all tested this year, and though there’s strain and stress, there’s also a magnificent payoff, in that you discover some amazing qualities in yourself, utilize them to the utmost, and end up creating a Path forward that, if you saw it now, would stun you.

By Henry Oliver Walker – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57367065

Today reality itself has the drawing power of a drain, and our choices are: circle around it and go down by disrespecting our own values and by struggling to keep the future at bay (good luck with that!), or embrace that what you once thought sacred needs review and revision. It may seem sacrilegious, but even values must change as experience accumulates, morphing perceptions, and so our beliefs. The future is foreseeable, if we are willing to squint and adjust; this foresight can give us the power and judgement to affect real-world events in smart, even genius, ways. Take advantage of this to make your reality at least a little more as you’d like it to be (Pluto semi-sq Vesta, Saturn nov Ceres, Sun qnx NN and nov Saturn)

Setting the table for your year ahead. Art by Peter Ilsted {{PD}}

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 26 Aquarius! (this year roughly in effect late afternoon Pacific time of the 14th through late afternoon of the 15th–see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) Your instincts and sense of inner knowing are both your bête noire and your saving grace in the year ahead. If you can ignore that shadow right behind you, ignore that the past still lingers like a bad taste, and concentrate on willingly adjusting your Path so that the future you’re heading toward matches all the positives you sense it can be, you can make this year one of the most fortuitous and productive you’ve ever had–and you’ll end up going very much in the right direction, surrounded by what you need in the present, as a bonus.

By rinia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54452030

Wow, the past seems so much shinier than the present, doesn’t it? We make the mistake of thinking we can and should re-create a previous environment–but the problem is we do so under the impression that, since our past shaped our current outlook and values, we can ‘go back’, in a sense, and do ‘it’ so much better, this time around. 1) we don’t have this prerogative, and 2) this points out what we’ve forgotten: that in this particular period we are thinking of, we were not as empowered as we are today, and that we learned those valuable lessons because we had to deal with the totality of circumstances in effect at the time. Now our instincts scream at us not to alter the reality picture to more resemble a partially-understood fever dream, and we’d be smart to listen, rather than muffle the inner voice. Instead, concentrate present efforts on communicating power needs and in formulating plans to transform what’s unsatisfactory–much better than succumbing to a shiny but flawed revision of history.

(Vesta nov SN, Saturn sesq Juno, Mars enters Taurus and semi-squares Neptune, Merc semi-sq Pluto, Sun sq Sedna)

Setting the table for your year ahead. Art by Peter Ilsted {{PD}}

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 25 Aquarius! (this year in effect evening Pacific time of the 13th through evening of the 14th–see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) You may see crises around you this year, but have the distinct feeling they don’t really involve you–but do they? What you’ll observe is in anticipation of what you’ll soon experience a version of yourself–so pay close attention to what works, and what doesn’t as a response. If you’re willing to face the hard stuff head on you’ll gain considerably, and by the end of the year emotional harmony, and a refinement of the intuition as a conduit for information, will be yours.