It may seem like the choice is to be wild and free, or to be practical, but there’s something else you must choose first, Aquarius. Linen tapestry showing two scenes from Der Busant, a Medieval poem c1485 {{PD}}

Your upcoming year, dear Aquarius, is all about being who you are–sounds easy, right?–except you’re caught in this maddening stand-off between doing what’s smart and practical, and doing what’s wild and once-in-a-lifetime–and though it seems as if this is the immediate thing to deal with, what you need most is really to decide who holds the power in your world, whether you will allow yourself to experience hurt (and remember, a strong person can let the hurt happen and not fall under it–in fact, it becomes the material of healing), and what things these events will prompt you to do. Once you have sorted out the power situation, once you have seen that being hurt doesn’t destroy you, and once you have chosen a direction and taken the first step, then you can worry about whether you should be practical or wild, avant garde or the smartest in the room. But first, sort out the power. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

Your choices won’t be THAT drastic, Aquarius. Cover of a religious tract from 1896. This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g06056 and is in the public domain

Recently you’ve been considering just what Path to take, and you’ve done a good job of it, my dear Aquarius–now only two things remain: the unrealized dream into which you’ve poured a lot of Love but which you haven’t made a move on yet, and the need to heal some very old wounds. Oddly enough, both are to be addressed by taking action, specifically that which puts the imagination in gear, calls on the spirit, and takes ambitions and the social role (both the one you have, and the one you want) and uses them to shape the Fate. It’s that simple–but of course, that’s not simple at all. So, the best thing you can do this coming year, through to your next birthday, is to do ‘it’, to make a move–and the worst thing you can do is allow yourself to be paralyzed by fear. What will it be? Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

Granville Redmond – Road through a field of wildflowers 1912 {{PD}}

You really seem sure about your life direction right now, dear Aquarius, and I don’t want to discourage you. You’re smart, and wise, and in the groove to take a practical approach, so maybe I shouldn’t say anything–but then again, if it were me, I’d want to know about any bumps ahead, so–in about 6 months or so emotional adjustments will be on the horizon; don’t worry, just be willing to care as much about the other person as you do about yourself. Know that every action you take this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, will either cause hurt or healing–there’ll be no in-betweens. Get ready to enter one of the most rewarding and creative periods of your life just down the road a bit–but the price of entrance will be facing those things you’ve ignored or denied. And for you, this year, empowerment comes from what you don’t communicate. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

Your year may feel a little like this, Aquarius. ‘Cosmic Composition’ Paul Klee 1919 {{PD}}

The Sun and retrograde Mercury meet in the Inferior Conjunction today, but what does that mean for the birthday/ Solar Return individual? It means this coming year, through to your next birthday, holds the seeds for change and/ or a new start–and this is something that will occur based on what is done during the year. Obvious, right? The thing is, you by your mere existence will be seeding some event; your choices will play in, but what gets ‘planted’ during this period is not necessarily clear to you. It’s like the Cosmos creates a seed that is nurtured by all the forces at play in your life, both conscious and unconscious–so what will come from it is a mystery wrapped inside a riddle–even solving the riddle won’t reveal the mystery, until it’s the right time for it to be seen.

That said, you, dear Aquarius, have some excellent, balanced resources available to you: wisdom, practicality, unique experiences from the past, and a particular role or position that affords you a level of empowerment and abundance (or social clout) that gives you a potent platform from which to make the best possible circumstances to receive the Cosmic ‘seed’.

You should be sitting pretty quickly this year, Aquarius. Heinrich Hellhoff – Portrait seiner Tochter Charlotte Testrup auf weiß gefasstem Louis-Seize-Stuhl. 1906 (Portrait of the Artist’s daughter, Charlotte Testrup, in white on a Louis XVI chair) {{PD}}

You have a new (or re-awakened) interest in dedicating your life energies to a cause, to creating a home, and/ or to the mate relationship, dear Aquarius, and can look forward this year to unusual harmony between the emotional life and your goals–so what could go wrong? There is a possibility that you could become embroiled, this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, in a power struggle for influence, position, or a particular desired status–and that would be a shame, as it would sidetrack the truly monumental progress toward fulfilling your aims and ambitions that you could make this year. Success depends on your inner confidence, in you knowing that you are a powerful (and so empowered) Being, because you may find that the material world, at least initially, may contradict that reality. Put that down in part to ongoing perceptual distortions (that will eventually vanish) and to a slight lag in external circumstances catching up to your internal reality. If you don’t find yourself sitting pretty by halfway to your next birthday, then you know that your internal situation hasn’t embraced your own empowerment–you may have bought into the inaccuracies reflected back to you–but it’s your job not to. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

It’s time to sort real talents from dreams, Aquarius–and if that means you must pursue your career in dance, so be it! ‘Ballerina With A Black Cat’ Pierre Carrier-Belleuse {{PD}}

During this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, Aquarius, you’re heading for an empowerment showdown. What does that mean? You’ll be challenged to find a personal rhythm, an expression, a role that is both uniquely ‘You’ and that makes the most of your talents and abilities; the showdown part comes with both having to extricate yourself from current circumstances that might not let you grow, and from needing to confront those internal matters truest to yourself that you have been avoiding or ignoring. Fantasies and desired Self-images must fall by the wayside; tapping into real and matured talents is slated for you–and doing so brings immense reward–you just have to accept that your actual abilities far outstrip any ungenuine ones (for you as a unique individual) you may have pursued until now. “To thine own self be true” was, well, never truer! One hint: the practical move is the smart move, in this case. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

Hold a little less tightly to the reins of control, this coming year, Aquarius. ‘Liberty Act’ by Gaetano Ciniselli {{PD}}

Your creativity is strong this coming Solar year, dear Aquarius, and you are especially focused on either showing this in the career or getting the creative product before the public. A little advice: don’t hold quite so tightly to the reins of control–this will slow your efforts considerably; let the emotional life just be, for a while–you will almost inevitably experience, between now and your next birthday, a period of stress and uncertainty that will not be helped at all by giving it your attention; and consider that you can either meet change with hurt sensibilities (as if the world owed you a constant of stability) or with the attitude that change frees up energies, many of which can heal old situations if applied correctly. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!