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The Astrology of January features Saturn, Neptune and Pluto, with the retrogrades of Mercury and Mars also a factor. The mid-month Solar Eclipse completes the set of two that began with the Lunar Eclipse of New Year’s Eve, and emphasizes both the concrete practicality of Saturn and the dreaminess of Neptune, which are normally antithetical. Saturn and Uranus form another pair of opposite-themed planetary archetypes whose opposition is still active even in this month of its greatest angular separation and which will become much more potent over the course of 2010. Meanwhile, Saturn and Pluto continue their square dance, moving even closer to an exact 90-degree aspect after mid-month, when Saturn changes to backward motion and begins to close the gap once again. They are never further than 1 1/4 degrees away from exact square all through January, culminating on the 31st when their distance moves to exactly 90 degrees. They will be within a 2-degree orb all through February.

This is tough love on the part of the universe. Saturn with Pluto reminds us that something in the structure of our lives has got to experience radical change, even dissolution, and that applies equally to the cherished structures of our society. Throw in the Uranus entrance into Aries in late May, where it will oppose Saturn in Libra and square Pluto in Capricorn, and you’ve got quite the witch’s brew.

Uranus in square with Pluto is redolent of the rebellious attitude of the pivotal sixties, when they were last in major aspect, and in fact these themes of rebellion and accompanying backlash repression, with violence possible on both sides, may well be coming back into style over the course of the next few years. Uranus square Pluto will perfect in June of 2012, and will be a definite factor for the first nine months of 2010, although fading temporarily in the late fall and winter months of 2010-2011.

In the current month, Mercury remains retrograde right up until the day of the 15th, when it turns direct. The Mercury retrograde period is good for reconsidering everything and reflecting on where life is leading us at this time, not so good for taking drastic unplanned action. Mercury remains in its retrograde shadow for the entire remainder of the month, so that things will not entirely straighten out until February. To complement this introspective time, making it more so, Mars is moving backwards still, all through January and February and even into March.

The Solar Eclipse of Friday, January 15th, taking place late at night on January 14th on the West Coast, is exactly conjunct Venus in Capricorn. Venus is ruled by a stationing Saturn, and in turn rules the sign of Libra where Saturn currently resides, in what is termed a mutual reception. Since it also matches the eclipse degree there is a strong emphasis over the final two weeks of the month on the Saturn – Pluto square that remains within a degree of exactitude. Neptune, in the same degree of Aquarius, is exactly semi-sextile the eclipse degree – to the minute. Neptune with Saturn brings the ideal and the concretely real into contrast. At this important juncture, we will therefore be taking a good hard look at our dreams, attempting to see whether they are viable in the chaos of this new decade. The answer is yes, but painstaking and dedicated action is the key to bring them into fruition, and careful discrimination is required to determine which ones are worthy of the effort.

ARIES (March 20-April 19)

This is the first month of the rest of your life, Aries. Partnership has been problematic lately, but also revelatory of important lessons. You are ready to make a fresh start somewhere, and yet you seem to be spinning your wheels. If you are contemplating life and love these days not with the attitude of fixing anything, but rather just marveling at the complexity of your process, then you are on the right track. The end of this month and the first half of February will be a better time for action.

TAURUS (April 20-May 19)

You are riding high this month, Taurus, surfing a wave of thought that takes you out of one distinct phase and into another. Dreaming large comes easily to you these days, but by month’s end you will be ready to turn ideas into action. During this first half of January, and leading up to the Solar Eclipse of the 15th, which will more or less knock your socks off, you must be content to take it all in, foreign perspectives as well as your own native brand, as grist for your mill of transformation. Everything has its season and its time and yours is fast approaching.

GEMINI (May 20-June 20)

This has been a slow turning of the year for you, Gemini, with plenty of chances for a thoughtful time to relax and to think over where you are truly headed. By the second half of the month your fallow period is nearly over, fading with the retrograde of your ruler, Mercury, and along with the mid-month Solar Eclipse comes a mandate for action. This won’t be change fast and furious, but instead there could be a gradual easing in, as you feel the shift inside. Your ideals will guide you into the exactly correct place for you to be. The collected walls of the past start to break down like the river ice when spring begins to bend it, slowly at first and with true compassion for what has been.

CANCER (June 21-July 20)

This is a very special month and year for you, Cancer. Although you are famous for being nurturing, like everyone else you sometimes have trouble compromising with a partner, preferring to remain wholly in the driver’s seat. This and other factors in the way that you do relationship with significant others could radically change over the course of 2010. You are coming into a new understanding of what partnership can provide for you starting on the very eve of this month and year with the powerful December 31st Lunar Eclipse in your sign. Strictures and limitations on the home front could constrain you into reluctantly accepting the medicine that turns out to be just right for you. What a surprise!

LEO (July 21-Aug. 21)

This New Year is not all fun and frolic as much as you would like it to be, Leo. Through the uncertainties of this turning you are reinventing yourself yet again, and somewhat closer to your soul’s desire. This begins with your work in the world, and the extent to which it matches what you might consider your true calling, and crystallizes into a serious commitment. By the end of this month’s journey you will find yourself enjoying relationship with significant others in your life in an entirely new way that embraces soul-level purpose and deliberate speech as added factors. Partners in your life are helpful to you right now because they serve as a vital projection point for everything that you aspire to in your heart of hearts.

VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21)

You have been in a brown study lately, Virgo, mulling over your choices. It is possible that your deep thinking has had to do with family in the largest possible way, the sense that this concept connects you to your human roots in terms of legacy, domicile and tribe. Concerns that have surfaced lately may also have to do with unmet security needs, or with finding that you have to be yourself no matter what. In any case the tide is turning for you to exercise your own individuality during the course of this current monthly cycle, and something stuck might begin to give. The Solar Eclipse of January 15th is the push-off, and by month’s end you’ll see your world as more fulfilled and more whole.

LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22)

It’s an interesting transition to the New Year for you this time, Libra, and one that is full of surprises. Lately there has been confusion as well as enthusiasm, and sorrow as well as joy, with most of the issues revolving around changes you are making at core level. The choices come down to decisions that spring up out of pure necessity versus those that are more intentional as you continue to search for a better fit to your true calling. This month represents one stage of further unfolding. Communication with others and self-assertion are big items for you as your plans begin to come together with some sort of clarity toward month’s end.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Sometimes less is more, Scorpio. This is definitely a confusing period of time all through the turning of the year, with Neptune highlighted in your home sector and with your ruler Mars running backwards. You have been sorting out security needs as your get up and go has gotten up and left and your work situation has gone into hibernation. What you do have at this time, and this is vitally important, is plenty of opportunity for reflection and for getting a better handle on where you are ultimately headed. This all starts to make more sense by the end of the month, when you will have a terrific chance to integrate inner and outer, in thought, word and deed.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20)

The turning of the year has been a trying one for you, Sagittarius, but rewarding in terms of self-knowledge and of getting your priorities straight. Security, both emotional and financial, has been on your mind lately, big time, and this trend continues and even intensifies in the course of this first month. Through this focus you are forced to decide on what is the ultimate meaning of money for you, as an unadulterated plus or as a shield from seeing where your true values really are. This is a thoughtful process. A shift by the last week of January will suggest viable alternatives as homey concerns take precedence over merely financial well-being.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19)

The spiral path up to the heights of your destiny keeps on turning, Capricorn. One moment you are up and the next one down as you negotiate the twists and turns. You are coming around the mountain one more time in this current monthly cycle, kicked off by a pair of eclipses that are dramatic for you, culminating with the mid-month Solar Eclipse in your sign. A magical perspective opens up, but you might be justified to remain suspicious of it. You are entering into a new mode of thinking about where your career is really headed, and how to balance your work and your personal life. Something there has to give and there is no time like the present for that to happen.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17)

Mystical madness pervades your soul over this turning of the year period, Aquarius, but this is not a particularly bad thing. It is generally difficult to strike the right balance between inner truth and the demands of the outer world that are so constantly and insistently present, and for these first few weeks of the New Year you will have your chance. Ideas that you have had previously have scattered. You might feel like the wake of the hurricane that shakes everything up without any real idea of order to replace what was lost. Be patient and it will come to you. The beginnings of a new dawn can be felt over the last week of the month, as everything changes.

PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19)

You are still on the roller coaster, Pisces, and getting used to the up and down by now, although you’ll still be happy to learn that the train is coming into the station. This is a paradoxical time of rethinking priorities and of arriving at new conclusions regarding your life direction but it all takes time. Over the last two weeks of the old year and the first two weeks of the new, you are like a bow pulled to the maximum, ready to let your arrow fly. Then the latter half of January, punctuated by the First Quarter Moon of the 23rd, is flight time. When you do let it go it will involve both your inner and your outer worlds in a new amalgam of meaning.

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