Closer Than They Appear
As a kid, I was puzzled by the message that appeared on our car’s rear-view mirrors: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. It still takes my brain a moment or two to adjust to what I’m being told, there, which I guess is… things look far but they’re close? I think?
It’s a Mercury-opposed-Jupiter kind of dilemma, this concept of near vs. far, detailed vs. abstract. “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” we might tell a Mercury-oriented person, who focuses exclusively on details and misses the big picture. Like getting too close to a Monet landscape and complaining that it’s a bunch of little paint daubs. Or, “Your optimism is writing checks that your income level can’t cash,” to an incurable Jupiter optimist who tends to get financial overextended.
Mercury is in Capricorn as it opposes Jupiter in Cancer this week (Jan. 14, 2026, 12:17 am PST). In Capricorn, Mercury is quiet but reasonably confident, focused on what needs to be done today to achieve Jupiter’s long-range visions. And Jupiter has a way of putting our Mercury myopia into perspective. The challenge of this week is to keep our hands on the wheel, but our eyes on the future.
Love and Work
When I’m asked what I do for fun, I usually reply, “…I work?” I’m not that good at relaxing and enjoying myself, and it seems the minute I adopt a creative hobby, I find a way to turn it into a business.
Come to think of it, I suppose what I really enjoy is business. And yes, I’m lucky to have found a way to make my living doing something I truly love, but I won’t lie – it’s taken a lot of Saturn to make it work.
Venus is the symbol of what we enjoy, and in Capricorn, it loves business. As Venus meets up with Saturn this week in an opportunity-oriented sextile aspect (Jan. 14, 2026, 10:19 pm PST), an invitation or idea may come across the transom and lead you to wonder: Could you combine what you love with your occupation? Maybe you’ve got a book inside you that needs only Saturn’s discipline to find its way out. Or perhaps you meet someone who works remotely, on the road in an RV, free to enjoy some of the world’s greatest natural spaces as their office, and you think to yourself, “Well, as a matter of fact…”.
Can you make a living doing what you love, where you love to do it? Loving Venus is easy. But can you can love and embrace Saturn as well?
A Change is as Good as a Rest
In the midst of a busy week for Venus, she trines Uranus (Jan 15, 2026, 7:22 am PST) and enters Aquarius (Sat Jan 17, 2026, 4:43 am PST), which have some measure of experiential overlap. Uranus is associated with Aquarius in modern astrology, because both symbolize a kind of reckless, rebellious, unpredictable quality. Uranus likes to shake things up, and Aquarius likes its distance and breathing room and has a certain benign indifference to the world of relating.
As Venus makes its connections with this planet and sign this week, their influence brings a kind of happy disruption to relationships. However content and comfortable you might be in a partnership, things can grow stale and dull over time unless you make the effort to change up your routines and pleasures. As the old saying goes, “A change is as good as a rest.” The smallest alteration of your normal routine can be incredibly refreshing!
So Much to Love
As Venus sextiles Neptune (Sat Jan 17, 12:33 am PST) this week, we take a closer look at beauty, grace, music, and the sorts of things that make life delightful.
What is life without beauty and harmony, even if we have to work a little bit to find them? I love flowers, but bitey cats deter me from having them indoors. Luckily, outside my north-facing office is an early patch of oxalis, a note of obstreperous yellow that’s delicate, fragile, and cheerful under January’s sometimes flat, gray skies. My work doesn’t lend itself to a musical soundtrack, but I smile at the sounds of the early winter winds moving the windchimes around, a diligent woodpecker attacking a power pole, and the cats chattering at him from the window.
Together, Venus and Neptune remind us that however ferocious the winds of change, there is so much gentle beauty all around us, so much to listen to and enjoy, and so much to love.
When to Stop Trying So Hard
Over the years, I’ve spent many happy hours making bread. There’s a point in the process when kneading the dough becomes counterproductive, when it turns tight and tough and refuses to be shaped. And so, you have to let it rest. Cover it with a towel and leave it on the counter for a half an hour or so. Go have a cup of tea and pet the cat. When you come back, you’ll find that both you and the dough are happier and more relaxed.
This is the lesson when the Sun in practical Capricorn makes a sextile aspect to Saturn in imaginative Pisces (Jan. 17, 2026, 2:41 am PST). What’s the key to happiness? It’s some happy alchemy of knowing who you are, what you want to become, and when to stop trying so hard and let things happen.
Joining in the Reindeer Games
The Sun in its Capricorn season shines most brightly on individual ambitions. This is the time of year when we contemplate what we intend to build, achieve, and create in the coming calendar year – by and for ourselves.
But being a happy human means balancing the supremacy of the individual with the human need to feel part of a group. Twice each year, when the Sun trines Uranus (Jan 17, 2026, 8:59 am PST), harmony seems to reign: we like who we are, and others like us, too.
It’s a brief transit, but instructive. Seeing only through the solar lens of individual ambition is isolating. Here’s a day or two for joining in the reindeer games and enjoying simple pleasures. The world needs its leaders and lone wolves, but we all need one another, too.
Now we embark
All great things begin with passion, an impulse that connects us with the vital pulse of the world. Sit with that passion long enough, and you’ll find a story that longs for expression.
Now dwell there for a little while, and dream up various ways of sharing that story. You pick up a guitar or sit at a drafting table, write a story or make a YouTube video. And finally, you find your path and set forth, unafraid to share your passionate story.
This has been the trajectory of Mercury’s three most recent conjunctions with Mars. The first, on Oct. 19, 2025, was in Scorpio, and activated passion; on Nov. 12, 2025 in Sagittarius, came the nature of the story and the desire to share it with the world. And now, with Mercury conjunct Mars in Capricorn (Jan. 17, 2026, 11:40 pm PST), on the Sabian symbol 27 Capricorn: A Mountain Pilgrimage, we embark on our climb. We book the venue for the concert, draft a blueprint, and storyboard a video. We turn the passionate story into a reality.
Reading Tea Leaves
Despite what the calendar says, the Capricorn New Moon (Jan. 18, 2026, 11:52 am PST, 28º43’ Capricorn) is the best time for making resolutions. And not just for 2026; each New Moon begins a new Lunar Phase Gestation cycle that unfolds over several years – which is plenty of time to do important things.
This New Moon point is in a trine aspect to Uranus, the planet of awakening, and it’s custom made for reworking old patterns and giving ourselves over to new inspiration and change. And its sextiles to Saturn and Neptune, preparing to leave mystical Pisces, seem connected to the New Moon’s Sabian 29 Capricorn, A woman reading tea leaves. We think of Capricorn as strictly practical, but it’s got a spiritual side, as well. At this New Moon, pursue what’s important to you, but remember the reasons behind what you’re doing.
Ignition
Coming on the heels of Mercury’s jubilant stomp through boisterous Sagittarius, Mercury’s Capricorn season has been much more subdued. Mercury in Capricorn generally dislikes small talk and prefers to speak only when there’s something important to say. It’s a serious-minded Mercury, excellent for creating something lasting from those Mercury in Sagittarius ideas.
At this week’s sextile from Mercury to Saturn (Jan. 18, 2026, 8:09 pm PST), which rejoices in planning and strategy, formulate a step-by-step plan to make one of those ideas a reality. And keep the details private for the time being, until you’re ready to launch your project, perhaps when Mercury enters Aquarius next week.
A couple of hours later, Mercury trines Uranus (Jan. 18, 2026, 9:38 pm PST), providing a catalyst, a prompt, a match to ignite the kindling under those details and ideas. Grab a pen and a scrap of paper and commit your great idea to a practical form. It’s lightning – so be prepared to bottle it up while you can.
Writing and images © 2017-2026 by April Elliott Kent
