‘Whispering Noon’ By Lawrence Alma-Tadema 1896 {{PD}}

There’s this whispering–is it coming from the walls, the wind, the gods, a demon, is it in our own minds? Whatever its source, it’s urging us to ignore our own instincts–and that’s just wrong–we need them more than ever, as reasoning, communication and the mind (Mercury) once again contact the illusive, the deceptive, the confusing, the inspiring (Neptune). Even worse, relationships we might usually rely on are nowhere to be found, transformed into something shimmering, ephemeral, hard to pin down, and if we prod them, looking for answers, they (or rather, the interaction) can turn destructive. Here’s the most effective approach: channel that Neptunian mist into creative forms, and then, when you’ve got that funneled somewhere, make all your actions, choices, and moves with an eye to the future, and to where you specifically want to go. That should do it.

(Black Moon Lilith sq Sedna, Mars parallel and Venus sesq NN, Venus semi-sq Pluto, Merc conj Neptune)

Today’s word image is dressing up as your alter-ego for a party, you must put on a name tag; what does it say? That is, how do you want to present yourself to the world, when what you’re doing is simply bringing forward a part of you others don’t often get to see, but which is vital to your own concept of your identity?

By © Derek Ramsey / derekramsey.com, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1612827

For those who have the natal Sun at 12 Aries. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–that offers a more complete picture of your year ahead). What fateful move will you make this year, Aries? You know, there’s no need to be so tense, so sure that each flap of your butterfly wings will bring down a civilization. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but in spite of your Aries Solar status, you are just not that powerful–except in those ways you can affect your own life, so concentrate on that. If you can adopt that more humble approach, this year you’ll find you are deeply in touch with your instincts, and they’re easily accessed, if only you can get the drumming thoughts and imaginings out of the way so you can hear those instinctual prompts, as well as allowing that info that lurks just below consciousness to surface. It’s a year when a subtle approach and more introspective mentality can be truly beneficial.

‘La Lutte’ By Émile Friant 1889 {{PD}}

Reality seems so, um, inflexible today, doesn’t it? Where, we might wonder, are all these restrictions coming from, these obstacles, barriers, insults to our sovereignty? Here’s a secret: we’re making our own boundaries, every time we insist on re-fighting (or re-creating) a power struggle from the past. We may think that’s the furthest thing from our minds, but we refuse to acknowledge the need to let go–and so we enact the issues over and over, sometimes dressed up as something completely different, sometimes as a startling replica of the original. Too, speed bumps are showing on the road to ambition fulfillment, thrown before us by our instincts and inner knowing, that sense where we ‘know but don’t know’, warning us; just like with the reality picture, these are our own creations, needed so that we take our time, vet our spontaneity and original thoughts and impulses against our enduring values. It’s just a precaution, but one we’ll be glad we took. Our biggest rewards today, though, come from letting go of a compulsive need to feel powerful, and in cleaning out the psychic closet, ridding ourselves of hangovers and negativities, especially those with which we have a long, dark history.

(Zeus contra-parallel Sedna, Saturn qnx Juno, Pluto and SN conj and nov Venus, Mercury semi-sq Uranus and parallel Vesta)

The fruit of Bixa Orellana, also known as the lipstick tree, the source of annatto. Photo By Challiyan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5085240

Today’s word image is ‘old’ seeds (packed for previous seasons) are planted and sprout, perfectly. ‘It’s never too late to do what you want to do’–we hear this all the time, but how true is it? Obviously, there are some things we can attempt younger that older bodies rebel at or are unable to accommodate, but aside from physical restriction, does this hold for all our ideas, hopes, dreams? Yes, it really does. I’ve been faced with this question myself lately, ‘Am I too old for X?’ The feedback the Universe has offered has seemed to be a rousing, No, go ahead! Though I do wonder, since it’s been delivered under Merc retro conjoined Neptune 🙂 But since this concerned a dream/ goal of sorts, I saw that as a positive expression: reconsider (Merc retro) that dream (Neptune). So I did, and I have, and I am going forward. How about you? What dream from the past, if revived, would not just ‘sprout’, but make your world a whole lot better?

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

For those born with the Sun at 09 Aries (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!) What you do, and what happens to you this year, dear Aries, is going to feel very public, even when it happens in private. You’ll just have to accept this as a ‘living condition’, for now, and conduct yourself accordingly. Too, it may be a year that’s like walking the length of a live high-tension wire, where actions and choices seem visible only through a highly emotional, reality-focused lens–and this will be wearing as heck, especially if your natal emotional make-up is of the more sensitive or non-verbal variety. I don’t mean to be so negative, but this is a period when you’ll spend a lot of time trying to determine what’s wise, what skills you need to acquire, what’s the smart move–and it all will have major impacts on your future, and your life direction in general. You may feel as if your mind is made up and clear on a number of issues, just after your birthday, but the reality is you’ll need to be flexible enough to allow healing, as well as open enough to receive some real-world conditions around Love or Money that are darn near ideal–congrats on that!

Константин Яковлевич Крыжицкий – Пейзаж
Constantin Kryjitski 1908 {{PD}}

The station of any body, as it prepares to take up apparent contrary direction to its previous path, fosters a lot of tension. Just as we must exert extra energy to stop something already in motion (extra, compared to what it takes to set it in motion in the first place), we find the same symbolic dynamic at work with a planetary station. We feel the drag and resistance, even though no such thing is physically occurring–we feel it grind on a particular natal spot and we wait, poised for the relief (because it will be relief, whether it’s considered ‘good’ change or not).

I don’t want to say we’ve gotten used to the monkey on our backs Merc retrograde has been over the past three weeks, but I think we have, as each day has felt like a week, courtesy of the Piscean placement that disconnects our minds from reality and plugs them in to fears, fantasies, deceptions, making it ultimately impossible to trace where messages and perceptions are coming from–and to be fair, hooking us into our creative potentials, as well. Now, we find ourselves asking, ‘What’s really the smart thing to do, the smart direction to go?’ Our answer involves some misdirection of our attention, a little contrary impetus of our own.

Will your unconscious choose the shock, the surprise, the revelation, to shake you out of your Merc retro doldrums? Or will it be the way relationships defy their usual contours, or finances take a sudden leap in one direction or the other? No matter, one of those options is what we need to jump start our minds, to put that creative energy under conscious control, to sort out just what the hell has been going on around here.

(Mercury stations direct, Pallas sq the Nodal axis, Venus contra-parallel and Mercury semi-sq Uranus)

John James Audubon’s “Carolina Parakeets” 1832 {{PD}}

Today’s word image is a boy who opens a parakeet’s cage, reaches in, grasps the bird, then removes it from the cage, closing the cage door, and releases it. Some might see this as an image of liberation–but how freeing is it to put something out into the world that isn’t equipped to live there? Everyone’s definition of what makes them free is different; just because it doesn’t look like it to you doesn’t mean that someone else’s ties, agreements, subjugation, cooperation aren’t exactly what they need to liberate some other part of themselves–and that suggests: withhold your judgment of someone else’s circumstances. Sometimes we cling because we want to, sometimes because we believe we must, but always in service to a genuine need, even if that need has become as distorted as a thoroughly domesticated bird’s, a creature concerned not about some nebulous freedom, but about surviving in an environment it can handle.

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

For those born with the Sun at 08 Aries (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!) Some tough emotional conditions this coming year, through to your next birthday, are slated, not to torment you but to shape you so that when the reality picture reshapes itself (which it will for you, relatively soon) you’ll be emotionally ready not just to handle it but to react quickly, appropriately, and to get a significant head start on others because of your newly forged, sturdy emotional nature. That doesn’t mean you’ll be hardened; quite the contrary, you’ll undergo some intuitive fine tuning that will offer you a distinct advantage in your chosen arena. The challenge, then, might be to get your head on straight about the reality situation in that arena, to sort illusion from the facts–a tougher proposition than the emotional one, but necessary if you’re to access the most ‘tuned in’, instinctively astute actions and choices possible.

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‘Diana and Actaeon (Diana Surprised in Her Bath)’ By Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot 1836 {{PD}}

We’re so determined to honor our own beliefs that we end up exaggerating the facts in service to them, or we outright shock, surprise, or spin a yarn out of a need to feel our own power, with that need superseding both common sense and what’s smart in the moment. What’s going on?? It may be that we’re not feeling rewarded or compensated for our originality; appreciation of one’s uniqueness is a human need, not a vanity project, and if we don’t receive that appreciation, it may be telling us one or more of the following: we may be hanging with the wrong crowd, one that doesn’t value what we offer (or that deliberately withholds that appreciation, in an attempt to tamp us down or control us); we may be offering the world something we’re really not very good at, that in some way we’re not meant to be pursuing/ sharing, at least not yet–and this leads us to the possibility that we’re trying to go in an inappropriate direction entirely, likely one that serves an image we want, rather than a Path that allows our best to flower; we may be ‘stuck’, (almost consciously) distracting ourselves from what we know needs doing; or it may be that ego is calling the shots–and when has ego every done anything truly beneficial for us? Once ego’s in the driver’s seat, there’s no giving it directions–it hijacks our lives. Handle any or all of these tendencies by reminding yourself of your values and goals, then listen for that inner voice, the one that’s only agenda is your well-being. Access inner wisdom, put things in practical (or health-supporting) terms, and very quickly what’s not genuine to your purest interests or expression will fall away, showing you what’s worth the effort, and what’s useless wheel-spinning. Look too to strong people from your past for the example they set; somewhere in there is something you can use right now.

(Ceres nov SN, Pallas opp Hygeia, Vesta sxt Sedna, Jupiter sxt Pallas and trine Hygeia, Venus sxt Uranus and contra-parallel Juno)

picseli – https://unsplash.com/photos/VxtWBOQjGdI Image at the Wayback Machine CC0

Today’s word image is the foam in a cup of freshly brewed coffee that forms a yin/ yang symbol. Balance! There’s nothing mystical about our need to find a middle point, an area not necessarily evenly centered between extremes, but one that allows sureness around Self-knowledge, and so offers a sense of centeredness that gives a sure platform from which to send our expressions out into the world. The fact that the image is of coffee may also imply that a little stimulation may go a long way–check your caffeine intake, if it’s interfering with finding that needed balance.

For those born with the Sun at 07 Aries (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!) Are you feeling a little bit out on your own as you begin your new Solar year, Aries? You may be blazing a trail this year, even if that trail is only within your own mind, and that may be a lonely place, especially considering that the emotional landscape may seem particularly harsh. The fact is, something unusual is happening; it’s almost as if the past is reshaping itself in order to support smart choices and opportunities for you that will manifest in the future, some of them showing well before your next birthday. How to prepare? Keep your mind clear, your thinking focused, and be on the lookout for unusual opportunities for love or money–in accepting (within reason) what you normally reject, you open the floodgates for prosperity or relationships that will be both fulfilling and out-of-the-ordinary for you.

John the Evangelist touches his mouth with the right hand – this is the symbol of the silence; the left hand of the apostle points to the text of the Gospel of John. The angel – the symbol of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom coming from God – is depicted on the right, above the shoulder of John. By Nectarius Kulyuksin – Varvar.Ru: Main page (in Russian), Pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26612656

Today Mars conjoins Sedna, and all else is noise. We’re still under the auspices of that Merc-Neptune meeting, but our experiences over the past two or three days inform today’s ‘Don’t Speak!’ policy–too many misjudgements led us down too many dead ends, and we don’t want to make that mistake again. So, don’t let the mind, messages, or communications of any kind dictate behavior–instead let actions be guided by instincts, by acknowledging what you ‘know but don’t know’, and by reflexes attuned to the primal Self–all else must be silenced.

‘Breton Girl Looking After Plants in the Hothouse’ By Anna Petersen 1884 {{PD}}

Today’s word image is washing the spring moss and pollen from a greenhouse. This suggests a periodic maintenance chore that’s vital to the functioning of something. Are you putting off something that needs doing? And really, who isn’t? This image implies a needed clearing away, one specifically to ‘let the light in’. See where you could let the light in, and remove all obstacles.

For those born with the Sun at 05 Aries (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!) What have you been ignoring or denying, what anger have you buried, what injustice have you had to live with? This is the year when you’ll right all this, relieve yourself of anger, attend to what you’ve neglected, see justice done–and that’s a good thing, opening the way for you to adjust the life direction and so make yourself available to opportunities you’d never have anticipated. That, plus the emotional harmony you’ll enjoy, will make this a year brimming with potential, and also holding the possibility of true, root-deep, freedom.