Metaversal New Year; The first three days........

Wednesday January 1
We will feel the New Year in more ways than one, as we experience a New Moon at 3:14 am PT/10°57' Capricorn (6:14 am ET) simultaneous to the New Pluto (Sun conjunct Pluto) at 10:57 am/11°17' Capricorn. This launches a yearly cycle of transformation via Pluto’s transit, and a powerful lunar cycle that encapsulates the process of change that is afoot in one short month. This lunar cycle will highlight themes of ongoing deep, hidden processes of evolution, some factors of which will surface in potentially dramatic ways over the month.This lunar (and secular) month comes in the midst of a set of strong contacts between the planets of the Cardinal signs and the Sun and Mercury as they move through Cardinal Capricorn, December 25–January 8. Thus, we already know much of what is in this month’s chalice to be brewed and imbibed. We have a place of emptiness on every New Moon, and this one has to do with agreements, relationships, and boundaries. The Capricorn Moon makes a bevy of connections, its own “greatest hits” as it moves through the populated mid-degrees. We get a preview of the month, a mini-version. See what scenario is created, what stage is set. Then it’s our turn to interact with the players as they move around the stage. Venus is the star, doing her own thing and affecting every other player/planet as she moves in a direction that is contrary to expectation. Who is Venus in your life, and how are you playing her yourself? The Moon will show you—in the reactions and interactions with others. The people and things around us reflect our own way of playing her (or any other planet’s) role in life. If we see how others are loving us (via Venus), we see how we are loving ourselves. Our understanding of and ability to change what we see is heightened during Venus’s retrograde. The energies of our connections are more fluid and therefore open to change. Venus is at her closest point to Earth, and we remember what love really is—or our connection to love, since it is the universal state of the cosmos, always there but for our lack of awareness. In the chart cast for Washington DC, the focus is on diplomacy and balance, with leadership from the President. However, he is challenged to change his tendency to waver and capitulate on important matters of policy for the sake of surface peace. The current budget crisis and arm-twisting by the whining minority provide the arena for a weak budget resolution and weakened nation. This is the area for growth through the Venus and Mars retrogrades—how to get out of the budget and sequestration mess before it deconstructs more of the nation, further undercutting its people. A winter storm offers distraction and underscores the ominous trends of climate change. The Sun and Moon are both at the same degree (11 Capricorn), whose Sabian Symbols is “Pheasants display their brilliant colors on a private estate.” This speaks of the contrast between surface beauty and what may lie hidden underneath. A private estate implies wealth and the pheasants a frivolity that allows them to be displaced from their natural wild environment. This month, we may be looking for where things belong and allowing them to find their natural place and level of belonging.

Thursday January 2
An irritation emerges as Sun squares Mars, and it carries deeper meaning than appears on the surface, so it is good to pay attention to those seemingly innocuous omens. This comes just at the time when we reach a crescendo of understanding of how things are progressing, as Mercury opposes Jupiter. The is the first step in the “Full Jupiter” phenomenon, when the Sun (and its entourage, Mercury and Venus) opposes Jupiter at the midpoint of their yearly cycle, and Jupiter’s retrograde. This results in a new awareness, often uplifting, of what’s being created. More steps to go, but it’s good to see our efforts coming to fruition. We should expect the coming week (January 2–8) to be quite lively as everyone responds to this fertilizing energy. The Moon enters its void period in Capricorn with its conjunction to Venus at 3:12 am PT (6:12 am ET). This is the last Venus Gate of her retrograde before she enters the Underworld (burns up in the Sun), in the story of Inanna. She will soon be lost in the light of the Sun, until she emerges, reddened from her ordeal, as the Morning Star after the January 11 conjunction. The Moon gives us a fresh perspective from Aquarius once it enters the sign at 9:03 am. A contact to Uranus brings inspiration to the other events of the day.

Friday January 32
The Moon in Aquarius helps us find the balance between enthusiasm and responsibility as it connects with Mars and Saturn
over the day. Its void period starts at 5:47 pm (8:47 pm ET), letting us off the hook till tomorrow morning.