Prosperous pigs, broken eggs, and echolocation
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The true nature of success
This week’s New Moon in Aquarius (Feb. 4, 1:03 pm) also ushers in the Chinese year of the Earth Pig, a sign that is associated with wealth (the piggy bank is not a coincidence). Fittingly, the Sun and Moon at this New Moon are in close and auspicious aspect to Jupiter, the planet or wealth and good fortune, and on the Sabian Symbol, A big-business man at his desk.
If you’re a career-oriented person, you probably sat down with your calendars and planners around January 1 to sketch out your goals, resolutions, and objectives for 2019. But by all rights, this New Moon is when your personal fiscal year should really begin.
But let’s back up for just one second. Because pursuing earthly success is fine, but it must be balanced against matters of less tangible value, such as a happy home life and strong emotional relationships. The Moon’s South Node – the point of release, what we’re meant to be letting go – is moving through Capricorn, the sign of big business, this year; in April, it will pass over difficult Pluto and Saturn. So taking care of business is important, but guard against becoming a workaholic obsessed with the bottom line. The true nature of success, this year, is the ability to care for our loved ones and to create a warm sense of community with those who share our passions and pursuits.
Bearing all of that in mind, the Sun’s exact sextile aspect to Jupiter (Feb. 7, 4:32 pm) is one of the year’s better moments to take a little bit of a risk and try something new. Good fortune is in the vicinity today, but only really useful to those who recognize it and reach out to grab it as it goes by. If you’re celebrating a birthday this week, you have this influence in your chart all year long; this could be a particularly uplifting year, particularly if you wish to travel more or further your education, both of which are favored by Jupiter.
Omelets
The Crescent Moon (Feb. 8, 4:26 pm) begins in Aries, and the combination of the Moon (and Mars) in Aries with the Sun in Aquarius is a formidable one. Aquarius has a strong sense of what it wants and what is important, and Aries will stop at nothing to get it; this is true of the Crescent phase, generally, when it’s easy to get obsessed with new ideas. Mars and Uranus are approaching a conjunction, though, which will be exact next week. Two such impulsive, restless planets in a sign that is not known for its restraint can get a lot done, but have been known to break more than a few eggs on the way to making that omelet. Count to ten before saying or writing something that could start a fight, and leave plenty of time to get from place to place, because being in a hurry makes accidents more likely.
Mars squares the Lunar Nodes the next day (Feb. 9, 0:08 am). The North Node in Cancer and South Node in Capricorn describe a fundamental quandary that I touched on earlier: how can we achieve all we want in worldly terms without neglecting or otherwise harming our close emotional bonds? Mars triggers this issue all this week, but particularly on Feb. 9. If you’re moving fast but without a lot of consciousness, the result could be broken bonds and hurt feelings. But perhaps you’ve been sitting on the fence for awhile, afraid to take decisive action that will bring your work and home lives into better balance and integration – stepping down from a high-powered job, for an example – and this week, that conflict comes to a head.
Wavelengths
Mercury enters Pisces (Feb. 10, 2:50 am) this week, a sign where it must work a little harder to get its point across. The work of Mercury is rational, quantitative, clear; in Pisces, it can be like a radio being forced to transmit its signal under water. Normally, this would signal a few weeks of have to be creatively adaptive in your communication style. But Mercury will be in Pisces a pretty long time, because it will retrograde at the end of the sign on March 5 and won’t enter Aries until April 17. So this points to something a little more substantial that needs to be addressed in how we’re perceiving the truth of the world and communicating with each other about it.
The solution lies in finding a means of communication that is better suited than a radio to underwater communication. Whales use echolocation, for instance, finding their way around through reflected sound. The key to Mercury in Pisces is looking for a way to get onto other people’s wavelengths rather than insisting that they get onto yours. Having trouble communicating with your partner? Put together a mix tape for them! Having problems finishing a piece of writing for work? Grab a sheet of paper and plot it out in a series of drawings. Not all communication happens with words, and this week we begin the shift toward more creative, imaginative, and empathetic ways of understanding one another.
© 2019 April Elliott Kent
