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January - 2008

Whatever your sun sign, this forecast will help you choose how to best use each month’s astrological energies! Events are most powerful on the dates listed. However, their influence will be active for at least several days before and after. All dates and times are in the U.S. eastern time zone.

While everyone is affected by these global transits, you will be most powerfully impacted when moving planets activate natal planets and other sensitive points in your birth chart. 

1/1. A business-friendly GRAND TRINE peaked yesterday, composed of three planets with financial themes: Saturn, Ceres and the Capricornian Sun. The fact that the Grand Trine is in earth -- the element most associated with business and money -- adds to its power. You can ride this energy to success 12/24 thru 1/6. Not so financially focused? You can still enjoy the Grand Trine’s grounding and stabilizing effect.

NOTE: There’s another business-friendly Grand Trine that lasts all month, and then some! See the 1/21 entry for details.

1/2. Are you feeling lucky? Try not to hear Clint Eastwood saying it, because, with Jupiter quintiling Uranus, it's a real possibility today! Jupiter is the planet most associated with good fortune, Uranus can bring sudden and unexpected events, and the quintile is the angle of magic and divine inspiration. With Jupiter in Capricorn, however, it may take some effort on your part to bring potential blessings into full manifestation.

Great power can be unleashed -- for good or ill -- with today's Mars-Pluto opposition. Rather than giving in to its dark side -- violence, anger, volcanic rage -- you can choose instead to make a powerful and positive new beginning. With Mars in Gemini, energized learning, teaching and writing could all be great choices.

1/6. A Venus-Saturn square is always good for some relationship challenges. This is never fun, but it is very useful for bringing problems to light so they can be worked through, and it’s also good for identifying relationships that may have outlived their usefulness. Venus also quintiles Neptune today, joining the two most creative planets with the angle of creativity! Possible combined effects of these two Venus aspects include easily receiving intuitive insights that can heal relationship issues and being motivated to work diligently at manifesting your creative visions. It's also a great day to work with the Law of Attraction!

Communication may not be easy today -- not with Mercury in tight-lipped Capricorn quincunxing retrograde Mars in Gemini. Be prepared to make whatever adjustments are necessary to get important conversations started.

1/7. Mercury enters Aquarius today for an unusually long stay through March 14 (prolonged by its Aquarian retrograde 1/28 through 2/18). This is a time when intuitive flashes can come more easily -- Mercury represents rational mind, while Aquarius represents the instantaneous insights that our limited human brains can receive from omniscient Higher Mind.

1/8. This month's NEW MOON occurs at 6:37 a.m. U.S. eastern time at 17°33’ Capricorn. It's a great time to set new plans in motion around work, productivity and being recognized for your efforts.

1/9. The first of two GOLDEN YODS in January peaks today, with quintiling Saturn and Mars both biquintiling Mercury. Golden Yods make it easier to receive divine inspiration and access heightened levels of creativity. In this case, learning, writing, and communicating (Mars in Gemini, Mercury at the Golden Yod’s apex) get the juice, while Saturn in Virgo will help you bring structure to what you're doing. This Golden Yod is active the 8th thru the 11th.

1/11. With Venus sextile Chiron, it's a good time to fine-tune relationships or creativity. It's also a good time to "sit at the feet of the master."

1/12. I hope you're not too attached to any fine-tuning you did in your relationships or creativity yesterday -- with Venus square Uranus, all bets are off if it's time for a new paradigm shift! Deliberately set aside some quiet time to receive intuitive flashes in these areas, or they may be hard to receive. (Click here for my article on how to channel information from your Higher Self.) And have the courage to act on the intuitive insights you receive, even if you initially resist them.

1/13. Communication could be little challenging today (Mercury quincunx Saturn), so be willing to make the extra effort to understand and be understood. With that in mind, the energies of two separate aspects (Venus biquintile Ceres, Mars quintile Saturn) indicate that it can be a great time for doing business.

1/16. Here are three great ways to use today's Venus-Neptune sextile: receive creative inspiration, deepen your relationship with your Higher Self, or deepen a soul-level connection with a physically incarnate being.

1/17. The annual conjunction of Mercury and Chiron is always a great time for organizing your mind, or the things you've created with it (writing, for example). Because they're coming together in Aquarius, be sure to leave room for the occasional right-brain intuitive flash in the midst of all that left-brain logic!

1/19. The classic relationship planets (Venus and Mars), come together today in the angle of relationship (the opposition). Under this energy, relationships can be initiated, empowered, adjusted and/or ended. Whichever of these directions you may be leaning in, I would take Mars’ current retrograde into account and reflect carefully before taking action.

1/20. The Sun enters Aquarius today, radiating the energy of individualism, humanitarianism, genius and "letting your freak flag fly" until it enters Pisces on February 19.

1/21. A business-friendly and unusually long-lived GRAND TRINE peaks today, at the same time as two of its members, Jupiter and Saturn, make their trine exact. (The third planet is Ceres.) This grand trine lasts from December 31 through February 3.

Why is this Grand Trine is so good for commercial activity? For starters, all three planets are in earth, the element most powerfully associated with business. In addition, all the planets have obvious business associations: Jupiter and Saturn are the workhorses of business astrology, while Ceres carries the Taurean meaning of money earned through your own efforts. Finally, the Grand Trine configuration means that all these energies flow together easily. By applying consistent effort to your business endeavors, even if it doesn't always seem necessary, you can be sure to milk this potentially rewarding energy for all it's worth!

1/22. January's other GOLDEN YOD peaks today. The back end -- a Saturn-Mars quintile -- is the same as the one that peaked on the 9th, but they’re now sending biquintiles to the Aquarian Sun instead of Mercury. Making time for spirituality and/or creativity should boost your vitality while this Golden Yod is active, especially if you do these things in exactly the way that they best fit you. This Golden Yod is active the 19^th thru the 23^rd.

January's FULL MOON occurs today at 8:35 a.m. U.S. eastern time at 1°54' Leo. Consider how" full-filled" you are in shining your creativity or leadership into the world, as well as how much you're interacting with kids, taking enough time to relax and have fun, and engaging in appropriate levels of calculated risk. Make adjustments as needed.

Mercury conjuncts Neptune today. To whatever degree your thinking seems fuzzy or clouded, the same degree of opportunity exists to receive the flow of intuitive certainty. Bottom line: try to let your Higher Self do the thinking today!     

1/24. It's all about Venus today, as she both conjuncts Pluto and enters Capricorn through February 17. One combined impact of these events can be to transform relationships to make them more productive, or release them altogether if they prove impractical. There are also strong financial possibilities: Venus can stand for money, just as Pluto can represent massive wealth. Put them together in Capricorn -- the sign of doing business -- and the sky's the limit!

This period of enhanced financial opportunity is actually extended, since Venus “carries” Pluto's energy over to Jupiter thru February 1. But, as with all transits, these energies work best when you consciously use them to make something happen!

1/25. PLUTO'S ENTRY INTO CAPRICORN, which begins today, is probably the most important astrological event of 2008. When Pluto changes signs -- which only happens every 12 to 20 years -- it signals profound transformations in the areas of life which relate to that sign.

Just look at one example of what's happened since Pluto made its prior sign change, entering Sagittarius in 1995. One thing Sagittarius represents is religion. Since 1995, the Catholic Church has weathered a huge scandal involving the sexual abuse of children by priests, and numerous fundamentalist megachurch preachers have been ruined by scandal. (Pluto loves to bring hidden dirty doings out into the light!) In a more positive vein, there has been an ever-accelerating sea change in how more and more people now approach spirituality, abandoning more intellectual or emotional approaches in favor of direct, conscious and transformative union with Spirit.

So what can we expect as Pluto transits Capricorn for the next 16 years? For one thing, even more exposure of the hidden dirty doings of big business – the huge multinationals, in particular. Capricorn also represents the underlying structure of things – it rules the skeleton, for example – and is an earth sign. Thus, Capricorn can represent the core structure of the Earth itself. Pluto, representing death and rebirth, gives a clear and sobering message at this critical moment in history: either humans need to positively restructure how they interact with the global ecosystem, or death and destruction on a cataclysmic scale will result. And there is no guarantee that humans will be among the surviving species.

Heavy stuff, I know, but Capricorn is a no-nonsense, let's-deal-with-the-facts kind of sign, and it is not Pluto's habit to sugarcoat hard truths. Let's just hope that the United States, China and the other major contributors to climate change quickly embrace the radical paradigm shifts needed to ensure that the Earth continues to possess a habitable ecosystem.

1/27. If you're milking Venus’ financial and business possibilities (see 1/24), then be especially attentive to any flashes of inspiration as Venus quintiles Uranus today. Otherwise, Uranus' intuitive flashes are more likely to contain insights related to creativity or relationships.

1/28. MERCURY RETROGRADE. Mercury is back (and backing) for a three-week retrograde, lasting from 3:31 p.m. U.S. eastern time today (around 24° Aquarius) until 9:58 p.m. on 2/18, where The Trickster shifts into drive again (around 8° Aquarius). As always, communications, technology and travel are more prone to glitches during this time, and it's best not to start major new projects if you can avoid it. You can use this time positively by reflecting on how well you're fulfilling your core needs, reassessing your technological tools, and meditating on how you can contribute more to the common good.

1/29. It's nice to have a transit once in a while that specifically about stabilizing relationships! That's a great way to use today's Venus-Saturn trine. Creative types can also use it to groove into some consistent productivity.

1/30. MARS GOES DIRECT today, finishing a two-and-a-half-month retrograde that started on 11/15. Taken in isolation, this represents a green light to kick into gear with all the plans you've been cooking up since mid-November. Personally, however, I'd wait at least until 2/19 when Mercury is direct again!

QUICK GLOSSARY OF ASTROLOGICAL ASPECTS

Conjunction.  Two planets in the same place (0° apart). Union; merging.
Opposition.  Two planets opposite each other (180º apart). Opposition; relationship.
Square.  90° angle.  Conflict; challenge for growth.
Trine.  120° angle. Easy, flowing connection.
Sextile.  60° angle. Flowing, high-energy connection.
Quincunx.  150° angle. Difficulty making connection; adjustment required.
Quintile.  72° angle. Inspiring, creative connection.
Biquintile.  144° angle. Like a quintile, but more subtle.