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!

What seems unfortunate may end up being anything but. Josef Abel 1818 {{PD}}

You may fall ass-backward into opportunities this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Aquarius. Sorry, I just can’t think of a better way to describe it; it may be that, though things are ostensibly going poorly or not moving forward, somehow these circumstances will either deliver something new and better, or catapult you in a completely other, fortuitous direction. So really, don’t worry too much, and don’t put yourself under undue pressure; though you may have a (largely emotional) expectation that this is the year you must step out and be either a pioneer or a leader, neither role is actually called for. You’d be way better off consider what you might want to banish or trim from your life, and in making certain that what you hold for goals and ambitions is truly what you want. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

You’ll be feeling better in no time, Aquarius, because this year you can heal. Michael Ancher 1881 {{PD}}

You have an excellent chance to heal deep and long-term wounds this coming year, dear Aquarius; you are on an extraordinary wavelength right now, sensitive to interaction to such a degree that you feel the slightest shift in the atmosphere–and it’s this sensitivity that can stir both the empathy needed to repair relationships and the patience needed to be gentle in salving your own injuries. You have recently avoided some of the big issues, perhaps been less than truthful with yourself (especially about admitting what you need) and it’s left you in a spot that demands a creative approach to righting your course. The good news is that this will only help you in healing, enhancing your already stellar sensitivity; the bad news is that you may resent having to use creative energy to deal with what you would rather ignore. Take heart, Aquarius: the payoff comes when you have dealt with your issues. You’ll be free to apply that unusual ability to tap into the Cosmos that helped you heal directly to bringing your creative ideas to reality, making their realization speedy, if not instantaneous. Happy Birthday, and good luck!

What you choose is up to you, Aquarius. ‘Jason and Medea’ by John William Waterhouse 1906 {{PD}}

You have successfully thrown off past constraints, dear Aquarius, and now the question may be, will you use this new, freed-up energy to finally tackle what you’ve previously put aside, will you deal with some particular rage you carry, or will you use this energy to create, in some spectacular and significant way? Any of these would be a fine way to employ this abundance, though it’s time for you to follow your fancy; whatever draws you emotionally would be the best use of this surplus. Some hints as to what may come from any particular direction: taking care of matters delayed or denied will empower you; dealing with your anger will free up spiritual energies; and creating will bring other, neglected or forgotten issues to light, ‘cleaning out the closets’ even further. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

This shows twins actually born one full day apart. The painting is signed “Ætatis Suæ 4 1654 – 7 Octobris. ætatis Suæ 4. 1654 8 Octobris.” Formerly attributed to Jan Jansz. de Stomme (1615–1657/1658) {{PD}}

You may be torn between two modes of Being this coming Solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Aquarius: on the one hand you may be solidly rooted in reality and proud of it, and on the other hand, the emotional nature beckons you toward the ultimate inspirational experience, from which you believe the creative will flow. Somehow the two orientations aren’t quite able to meet in your mind’s eye, and that leaves you yearning to live an extreme of creativity you feel deep within, but also aware you cannot remove yourself from the world of the solid and concrete without paying a price. What you may not have realized is that the price you’ll pay for disregarding the material world is one exacted not by the reality picture but by your own ego needs, specifically that part of you that cares what other people think. Just know this: removing yourself from the world for a time won’t actually make you one whit more creative than you are any other time, but it will offer a certain kind of maturing experience, one where you become more honest with yourself, and that allows the creative flow to take a more direct, more accessible route. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!

Setting the stage needn’t be quite this literal, Aquarius. Dancers by Edgar Germain Hilaire Degas 1873 {{PD}}

Dear Aquarius, this year you may be looking to take charge of your reality, to create exactly the real-world atmosphere you feel is ideal–and you may be able to plan for it, to set the foundations for it, though implementing it (at least, implementing it completely) may have to wait. There have been changes to your dreams and to your feelings that you haven’t dealt with yet–some of them you’re not even aware of; these emotional and inspirational shifts must be accounted for (and sometimes, healed) before you can go forward successfully. How to do this? Take some time to review the ways the feeling nature and the personality coincide, and how they clash–this will be revealing–and embrace those things about yourself that are most unique and unusual, especially those things you might not have known how to express well in the past. Integrating as much of your personal originality as possible will bring you empowerment, and set the stage for gaining the position or status that you ultimately seek. Happy Birthday, Aquarius, and good luck!