Grace for Your Struggle
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
Déjà vu All Over Again
It’s been a particularly challenging Mercury retrograde period (since Dec. 29, 2022), partly because Mars was retrograde in Mercury-ruled Gemini at the same time. For all Mercury in Capricorn’s gifts – discipline, pragmatism, perseverance – it can also veer toward dogmatism and inflexibility, and the retrograde aggravations may have accentuated these qualities.
And so I’m happy to report that Mercury finally turns direct this week (Jan. 18, 2023, 5:12 am PST). But until Mercury finally reaches the end of its “shadow period” on Feb. 6 (when it reaches the degree where it turned retrograde), don’t expect all the soldiers to turn around as one and march forward in a straight line. Mercury must first retrace all its steps since it stationed retrograde. If the coming few weeks have a strong flavor of déjà vu, that’s why – and it’s probably not such a bad thing. We’ve all made our share of mistakes in the past month or so, and this will be our chance to discover them and set things right.
Force and Resistance
I have a vivid memory of being very little, maybe about 7 or 8 years old, and my mother telling me to do something – when suddenly, a light bulb went off over my head. “You can’t make me,” I observed, with dawning astonishment. My mother was a patient, loving woman, but she was a Taurus, and I could see her nostrils start to flare. But I hastened to assure her, with all the innocence of a kid with a Sagittarius Ascendant, that I wasn’t trying to be sassy; it was just fascinating to me to realize that short of physically moving my arms and legs like I was a marionette, she could not actually force me to do something. “No,” she said in her Mom voice, “But I can certainly make you sorry you didn’t.”
Well, I did what she had told me, but not out of fear. I knew she loved me and had my best interests at heart. As my favorite high school teacher (a Capricorn) was fond of saying, “Kids won’t care what you know until they know that you care.”
And there you have this week’s conjunction of the Sun in authoritative Capricorn with Pluto (Jan. 18, 6:44 am PST), planet of power. Being in a position of authority is a tricky thing. Using force to further your aims will only take you so far. The most effective leaders, like the best parents, are the ones who find a way of making us want to do our best. When you think of the best teacher you’ve had, the best boss, a favorite mentor, you’re not thinking of someone who relied on threats and intimidation to make you do things their way. You’re thinking of the ones who held you accountable for doing your best. The ones who, as the internet meme goes, impressed you not with how powerful they were, but how powerful you are.
If you’re in a position of leadership, this is an important week for you. Will you push your agenda without consideration of other opinions, threaten and bully others into doing your bidding? Or will you encourage them to step up, take authority, and stand in their own power?
I Know
This week, the Sun enters Aquarius (Jan. 20, 2023, 00:30 am PST), a sign that popular astrology tends to paint as a flake or a weirdo. But something much closer to the truth can be found by combining Aquarius’ element, air (intellect and communication), and its modality, which is fixed. Together, you get a profile of someone with very fixed ideas. My old astrology books ascribed to Aquarius the motto, “I know.”
Aquarius can be revolutionary, or at the very least unorthodox; but that’s not the same thing as being flaky. Those whom I know well who have a strong Aquarius signature in their charts are steadfast; they don’t tend to suffer from self-doubt, and they don’t consider their convictions to be opinions, but rather objective truth. That’s a confidence I admire, and a quality that allows one to achieve real breakthroughs and innovations – even if it occasionally stands in the way of collaboration and even greater progress.
Thunderstorm
For most of my life, Aquarius has been a foreign land to me. Born with several planets in its opposite sign, Leo, I somehow couldn’t identify with the strong desire for independence and the unconventional nature of Aquarius – despite having my chart ruler, Jupiter, in that sign, and my entire life providing testimony to Aquarian traits.
As I grow older, I can more easily locate Aquarius on my inner landscape: the bracing snap of dry, frigid air, the glint of an ice skate’s blade hovering over a frozen lake, and a friendly, distant wave to fellow skaters. I recognize it in the sudden, violent protest that lets loose in me when I feel walls closing in, and in the itchiness that comes from having gone too long without time alone.
Aquarius’s contradictory nature reflects the tectonic clash of its two rulers: Saturn, the traditional ruler, lord of impermeable boundaries and fixed opinions; and Uranus, unrestrained and unpredictable. Often, Aquarius is interpreted by warmer natures as chilly and unfeeling; and when I’m in touch with that side of myself, I have to admit that there’s some truth to that. The Aquarian nature doesn’t dare try to fit in, for fear of losing the qualities that make it unique. It’s the resistance we feel to being typecast or pigeonholed, and the absolute refusal to compromise our beliefs. There is something hard and detached in this sign – but it’s unruly and wild and beautiful, too.
This Aquarius New Moon (Jan. 21, 2023, 12:53 pm PST) is on the Sabian symbol 2 Aquarius: An unexpected thunderstorm, with all the exciting unpredictability that suggests. We’ll find the Saturn side of our Aquarian selves affixed to an immovable surface, daring the world to unseat us. And near at hand will be our Uranian natures, poking us with lightning bolts, determined to propel us onto new and unexpected paths.
Grace for Your Struggle
When successful artists are asked to give advice to young people considering a career in their field, they usually say something like, “If you can be happy doing anything else, do that instead.” Success in certain fields is so unlikely, such a long shot, that you need be not just accomplished but tenacious and determined.
That’s the lesson of Venus conjoining Saturn (Jan. 22, 2023, 2:13 pm PST). Sometimes, we only know what we truly value when are faced with adversity, self-doubt, and discouragement. If you truly desire something, you will stop at absolutely nothing in your pursuit of it.
But this quick transit of Venus with Saturn offers something else, too: grace for your struggle. When you’ve been trying hard for so long, breaking your back, picking yourself up and dusting yourself off repeatedly, it can be easy to forget why you wanted to do something in the first place. You may be on the brink of giving up altogether. Until…
…A word of encouragement comes your way. A good review, maybe, or some money. A kindly hug from someone older and wiser. A little touch of Venus to brighten the long, tiring days, and to remind you what you loved in the first place…about this career, or this project, or this person.
Rebellious Without Cause
Uranus, retrograde since August 24, 2022, stations to turn direct this week (Jan. 22, 2023, 2:58 pm PST) at 14º56′ Taurus. I’ve come to expect a whoosh of energy when the outer planets change direction. Feeling unsettled and rebellious without cause are hallmarks of a Uranus station, along with an irrational impulse to do something that can’t be undone. There are moments in life when that’s just what’s needed. But a few days either side of this station, extremity and overreaction are in the air, so proceed with caution, particularly in relationship – Uranus is in a wide square to Venus and Saturn as it stations direct. Uranus will want to shake us loose from ways we hold ourselves back from pleasure and prosperity.
Writing and collages © 2017-2023 April Elliott Kent
