‘Open Door on a Garden’ By Konstantin Somov 1934 {{PD}}

Why does it feel like our instincts, our own most intimate impulses, are steering us in the ‘wrong’ direction? It’s because we’re reacting from the way we think we’ll profit by embracing our own hurt, or by denying something we really should recognize; we know the mind is taking us down a path we don’t want to travel, and yet we need to see that our sense of ‘wrongness’ is based in the way, small or large, the impulse is violating what matters most to us. It’s the perception of abandoning our priorities that’s tempting us with what amounts to illicit reward, as it will only dig at the wound or cause more denial, and so more pain. Right now the mind is exaggerating and hyping, when it’s not rejecting the facts and fighting over beliefs, and that means our way out is singular, but not hard to do if we narrow our focus: put everything on the future, how things will read in hindsight, once we get there–thinking of that can guide our best choices now.

(Vesta contra-parallel Sedna, Venus semi-sq Chiron and parallel Black Moon Lilith, Mercury sq Jupiter, Sun trine NN)

Today’s word image is a half-packed box. Did you immediately think the box was partially unpacked, or was on its way to being filled? In this mini-personality test, if you thought someone needed to finish unloading the box, you have something that needs ‘unpacking’, literally or mentally, a real-life scenario it’s important you dissect and understand; if you see the box as on the way to being loaded and ‘put away’, you have too many things on your plate, or on your mind, and could stand to put the less important stuff away for awhile, to give yourself a little breathing room.

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

For those born with the Sun at 25 Pisces (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!) You’re looking at a year ahead, through to your next birthday, where the instincts and inner knowing will be an unerring and invaluable guide to Self-development that results in smart moves and the acquisition of practical skills. Be careful not to mistake wishful thinking or willful ignorance for that inner knowledge–that’s the big potential pitfall this year. Look to partners for support and validation (they can offer wise counsel, and if they don’t offer support, well, maybe it’s not a good relationship, after all) and give the intuition and feeling nature a workout–it can reinforce positive relationships, bringing you closer, and make for a lot more enjoyment of life.

Just think about it. ‘Portrait einer Venezianerin’ (Protrait of a Venetian woman, By Anselm Feuerbach 1855-56 {{PD}}

Change (or is it transformation?) is all around us today, and this either offers opportunities or knowledge–and then forces a hard choice. What benefits us? Clear thinking, and acknowledgment that it’s a fine balance between feeling empowered, in charge of your own life, and what’s wise, practical, just plain smart. Sometimes the wise thing is to ask for help, to turn down the opportunity, to choose not to exercise your power. Look at what (and in whom) you have real faith, before making a choice; though it may seem unconnected, please consider: the trust you put in the Universe may be commensurate with how much you can trust yourself.

(Pallas sesq Juno and semi-sq Ceres, Merc nov Venus, Sun sxt Pluto and sq Jupiter)

“The Archetype”, one of the sculptures in the Frank Bruce Sculpture Park, near Aviemore, Scotland. Photo By Nilfanion – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23148875

Today’s word image is this: pick an Archetype, any Archetype, whose qualities you believe would help get you through today, if you could access them–and then think of that Archetype as ‘backing you up’–hovering behind you, supporting, offering their own particular special strength. And then go through your day, extra confident, supported, feeling capable, no matter what. I get the feeling we’re all going to need this exercise, sooner rather than later.

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

For those born with the Sun at 23 Pisces (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!): It’s a year of difficult emotional choices presented by opportunity, by abundance, by educational or religion-related developments that say to you, ‘Okay, here’s the profit, knowledge, and chances you asked for–doesn’t feel so good, does it?’ The pain is rooted in the feeling nature and in the effect of such opportunities on relationships; you never anticipated that getting the chance to have or do what you wanted would be so hard on your interactions with others–but it is, and that may be mostly or even entirely because you changed when you got what you wanted. This is a year-long ‘lesson’, but if your responses are heartfelt and honest, you’ll reach your next birthday considerably richer in several ways that count.

Hey! Read a book! And if you’ve already read one, please offer a review at GoodReads. Thanks!

Japan, late 19th-early 20th century – Embroidered and Resist-Dyed Fabric – 1916.1325 – Cleveland Museum of Art CC0

Why is it today that the only way we feel empowered is to resist what those we see as holding some authority tell us to do? Is it a kind of jealousy, born out of the secret fear that we are, in reality, helpless? Or is it that we resist because there is a hurt that disfigures our identity, one that we have yet to drag out into the light? If we find ourselves responding to others or circumstances this way, resentfully, even petulantly, we need to take a step back, and listen to the unadulterated inner voice, the one that speaks to us as instinct, the one that delivers to us what we ‘know but don’t know’ in times of stress. We need to understand that our discomfort is within us, it’s our own, not the fault of any external entity–and that means that in order to maneuver successfully, we must resolve to act, rather than respond, to be proactive, rather than carried along by the currents of the unconscious. Don’t resist, choose.

(Juno opp Ceres, Mercury sxt Sedna, Sun contra-parallel Chiron)

‘Camp Fire’ By Winslow Homer -1880 {{PD}}

Today’s word image is: you are alone, at night, camping out under the stars. I really like being out at night because, looking up at the sky, you can almost feel the Earth turning beneath your feet. Do you ever go out and look up? Do you ever sleep outside? Have you ever spent the night alone in the wilds? What’s your relationship to the night sky? Do you respond differently to being outside at night, and outside in the daytime? If you avoid being out alone at night, is there a reason? Indifference? Fear? Do you have strong feelings, either positive or negative, around camping or being out in nature over night? How do you think you’d feel, if you lived that way all the time?

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

For those born with the Sun at 22 Pisces (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!): Your song for this year: ‘Changes’ by Bowie. What seems like a hard knock, a bad break, a loss, will end up being for the better–you’ll just have to give it some time. Expect change, change, and a little more change–but if you want to take circumstances in hand, want to shape things as you’d like, you need to accept your own power to transform, and then meet each event, whether it takes you forward or sets you back, as something you have orchestrated–which automatically makes it something you can change, should you want to. So, it’s really about taking a mindset that sees no limits to your influence, while at the same time not overreacting to more temporary situations, demands, or setbacks that crop up along the path. The opportunities that will come may take some time getting here, or taking shape, but they’ll be worth the wait.

Image of an African Songye Power Figure in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (2005.21).jpg: By RichardMcCoy derivative work: IdLoveOne – CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.or/w/index.php?curid=11839811

We’ll know the perqs of power, maybe collect them, benefiting ourselves, but we’ll also see the ways in which having privilege messes with your head and possibly re-shapes what we otherwise know to be smart. Having an advantage in anything may distort our thinking, our value system, even what we find sacred–and we may meet this in others, as well, with the effect that the relationship will never quite be the same, at least, not for some time. We can solidly benefit, today, in arenas where our authority and ‘voice’ are established and recognized–just don’t let what we might gain pull what’s important to us out of shape.

(Vesta contra-parallel Pallas, Venus sxt Ceres, Mercury semi-sq Venus)

Today’s word image is this: someone, used to wielding power and a position of authority, finds they are unhappy once they’ve left their lofty perch, so others scramble to nominate them to a place that will ‘feed’ what the ego misses. Is this a good thing, to provide someone with a ‘power path’ simply because they are dissatisfied without their usual reach and influence? Or is a beast being fed, one that may need to understand that every position is needed, and that not all of them make one ‘in charge’? Consider what parts of you expect to have power, and what the appropriate response might be if you lose that. And if you’re someone who is trying to placate someone else, consider they may need to figure out a path toward satisfaction on their own.

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

For those born with the Sun at 21 Pisces (check your natal chart for your Sun degree!): This Solar year, through to your next birthday, looks largely like a time of emotional comfort, of enjoyment of a kind of security that’s rare, and from this you’ll find the energy, time, and attention to pursue goals, go after ambitions, fulfill dreams, and to acquire those things you desire. It almost sounds leisurely, doesn’t it? It can be a smooth path or a bumpy one, but in either case, will see opportunity and inevitable change. Your job is to be ready: to travel or accept the exotic or unusual, if it takes you closer to your aims; to discard the structures, strictures, or frameworks that may have been highly supportive up to now, if they no longer serve; and to be willing to learn–no one’s ever too old or too jaded to attain new skills, or to find out more about the world and how it works.

‘The Motorist’ By Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1898 {{PD}}

Instinctual or reflexive drives are strong and yet we need to be aware they’re tuned to the past, not the present, and as such they don’t serve current impulses but instead draw on blind spots and those things we know but don’t acknowledge–which can be fortuitous, if that knowledge keeps us away from something negative, or can lead us straight into a quagmire of our own making. These instinctive drives are a vital part of the equation needed to make the changes we are hell-bent on making right now, because if we abandon ourselves to impulsiveness or arbitrary action (which is the temptation, should we reject our instincts) we come up with precarious situations in need of fixing that deposit us way off our targets. Embrace change wholeheartedly, but at the same time insist on standards of what’s wise, what’s practical, to measure those changes against. Allow that instinctual input, but run it through that inner filter that tells us whether an option is smart, or not–that’s bound to steer us toward healthier methods of realizing ambitions, as well as toward using only the best the past has to offer.

(SN trine Sedna, Hygeia contra-parallel Zeus, Uranus opp Pallas, Sun nov Pluto, contra-parallel Uranus, and semi-sq Saturn)

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

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 01 Pisces! (see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) You may be too conscious of emotional wounds at this point to effectively see the forest for the trees, but it won’t be long before you can let go of a sort of critical fog into which you’ve fallen, and instead deal with real-world problems and obstacles that have plagued you for some time. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it actually is: you’re right now in a position to make some truly perfect plans, the kind that make for sure-fire progress–and once you’re in motion, you’ll find out how empowered you actually are (that’s much more than you think), and how recent, hurtful experiences have set the stage for a new sense of Self, a new confidence, and a more realistic and worldly viewpoint, that will make new efforts, starting just over a month from now, really soar.

The Daily Word Image is a hole in the floor. This is going to make each person think of something different; I recall an old Volkswagen (The People’s Car!) I had years ago, which somehow developed a hole right through the floor on the passenger side. It was a scary, thrilling sensation that looking through that hole as I sped along the freeway gave me–I can still feel it even now–so for me this is a symbol of something a little bit dangerous seeming that isn’t any more dangerous than it ever was, it’s just more visible, more conscious. It was always a risk to drive such a tin-can like vehicle! It was only that, suddenly, I could see how rickety everything really was. So, what’s it mean for you?

See the Full Moon report here, and the forecast for the 19th (aside from the FM) here.

Ambrosius Bosschaert 1614 {{PD}}

What is it about today that makes us want to act, all willy-nilly, in ways we know are impractical or unwise? We believe there are secrets to be discovered, bounty to be gained, and that answers may lie in the past–but what we need to see is that we are prone to treating ‘the word’ (whether that’s what’s been communicated, one’s faith, a promise given, or a thought we’ve defined as Truth) as sacred, and that puts us in a precarious position, as taking ‘the word’ as supreme puts us at odds with those in authority (who might otherwise help), alienates us from our own uniqueness and most original urges and ideas, and makes it incredibly difficult to pursue our ambitions and desires. So why do we elevate a thought, word, concept, or promise? We are convinced that’s where salvation lies, in connecting to the sacred within the idea. We’re mistaken, that’s all; we’re trying to particularize the general, as it’s a lot easier to see one thing as sacred, rather than seeing the sacred in all, and so having to behave with care in all things. Use the influence to see the sacred in the mundane, the every day, in each thing that comes before us; use the energy to acknowledge the sacred found everywhere and in every thing, rather than trying to invest the Universe in one ordinary comment, belief, hope, or thought.

(Perfecting today: Mars opp Pallas, Venus nov Black Moon Lilith and sesq Sedna, Mercury nov the South Node, conj Vesta, sq Ceres, contra-parallel Uranus and sesq Zeus, Sun parallel Vesta)

Today’s word image is bees. I think this one is personal, so consider what bees mean to you, what they bring to mind, what stories, images, activities, or entities (who use this as a symbol) that are significant to your life.

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

Happy Solar Return to those born with the Sun at 24 Aquarius! (this year in effect evening Pacific time of the 12th through evening of the 13th–see your birth chart for your Sun degree!) If you are seeking health, or are someone who is involved with creating it for others and/ or yourself, this year will see you bring forward some incredibly clever, unusual, and even revolutionary ideas for individuals to achieve optimum health in all its forms (which I might define as an optimal relationship with one’s environment and the other Beings one shares this with). The area where things might not go so well is the emotional one, where the ‘blind spot’ could hold any number of potential missteps, all of which can cause anguish. The problem is you’re struggling against your intuition, and if you continue, you’ll inevitably pay the price. Try to be up front and open with others; having no pretenses is the best way to avoid problems, and re-connect with your intuitive nature.