 On January 11, Mars in Sagittarius will make a square with Neptune in Pisces, both at 20º. Mars often describes fiery, assertive, driven, and even divisive action, and in Sagittarius, this can be directed toward expanding one’s territory, striking out beyond familiar borders, and conquering that which demands courageous adaptation. However, as Mars squares Neptune, we may find ourselves charging into a tidal wave that sweeps us off our feet, swirling us around and disorienting our plans. It might be challenging to accomplish your intentions around this aspect. At best, you might surrender to the current, adjust your plans to move with the tide, even if it takes you off course. With Jupiter in Pisces ruling both Mars and Neptune, it does feel as if there is some oversight, some promise or potential that even if you find yourself wrestling with the waves or surrendering to their force, this confusion might lead the way to something greater than you could have anticipated.
[Image reads: 11 January 2022 Mars in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces in light lettering on a starfield that fades from a reddish tint to a teal tint]
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 Juno is the Roman goddess of the feminine, marriage and commitment, the counterpart to Jupiter and protector of the community and the state. Astrologer Demetra George describes Juno as “the principle of relatedness and commitment to the other,” “one’s capacity for meaningful relationship and commitment to another person.”
On January 7, Venus will make a conjunction with the asteroid Juno as part of Venus’ longer retrograde journey. Our capacities for commitment within our most significant partnerships are being woven into the larger process of reflection and review described by this Venus retrograde. Feminist philosopher Judith Butler writes on the subject of love and commitment: “Commitment would be the agreement to commit oneself anew, time and again, precisely when circumstances change. And this would mean changing the concrete meaning of commitment as circumstances change … if commitment is to be alive, that is, if it is to belong to the present, then the only commitment one can make is to commit oneself again and again. ‘I love you and I choose you again and again.’ I did not just choose you once, but I continued to choose you, and what there is of me in my speech is given to you again and again through this speech act, declaration, vow, and promise, one that binds me to you in the present, whatever present that happens to be.” As Venus makes this conjunction with Juno, you may find yourself assessing your commitments, committing yourself anew, once again, making your commitment to those you love alive in this present moment, choosing those you love again and again. Doing so may require considerable reflection, asking the questions: why is it that I choose this love, this commitment, now again? How can my love be more than simply a habit or pattern and instead emerge as a clear choice under these current conditions? Venus will make another conjunction with Juno this year, at 21º Aquarius on March 28. You may notice reverberations between these two connections on January 7 and March 28. [Image reads: 7 January 2022 Venus Rx conjunct the asteroid Juno at 19º Capricorn in light lettering on a dark starfield]  Today is the third and final exact square between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus, both at 11º. These are degrees where they have already been: Saturn was here around March 28 and July 21, Uranus was here around May 8 and will be here again on February 12, 2022. So, not only is this the third of three squares, it is happening on familiar territory. While Uranus can be unpredictable, it is unlikely that this third square will break new ground. Rather, this aspect may be more like an aftershock, the ongoing reverberations of internal and external events that have been in motion since at least the first square in February.
Where have you been experiencing the collision of insistently revolutionary change with unwavering and potentially limiting beliefs about the world as it is or as it can be? How have the longings of your body propelled you toward a path of liberation this year, despite the constraints of rigid ideology? Where are you feeling destabilized or disrupted, and what structures might you build to hold the changes you have been experiencing? These conflicts that have been set up and intensified throughout 2021 will continue to unfold throughout the remainder of Saturn’s time in Aquarius and will no doubt play an important role in defining Uranus’ transit through Taurus until 2026. While this is the last exact square between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus, they will come very close to an exact square at multiple points in 2022. If you would like to learn more about how this story continues to unfold in the year ahead, my Astrology Guide for 2022 is currently available for immediate download. [Image reads SATURN SQUARE URANUS 24 December 2021 in light green letters on a dark brown background.] Today the Moon makes a conjunction with Venus in Cancer. Both the Moon and Venus draw us toward one another, into connection and union, and together they prioritize safety, comfort, equality, and justice. bell hooks teaches us in All About Love, “There can be no love without justice … Without justice there can be no love.” And adrienne maree brown teaches us in Pleasure Activism, “Liberated relationships are one of the ways we actually create abundant justice, the understanding that there is enough attention, care, resource, and connection for all of us to access belonging, to be in our dignity, and to be safe in community.” What if we understand justice as there being more than enough attention, care, resources and connection for all of us to access safety, dignity, and belonging? And what if our intimate and familiar relationships are a primary site at which we practice and create this kind of justice? Uranus stations retrograde in Taurus, marking a turn inward for reflection and introspection in the longer process of radical change that Uranus is describing in whatever area of our charts is occupied by Taurus. Uranus began its transit through Taurus in 2018 and will be retrograde until January 2021. What movements toward radical change have you been experiencing over the last two years, and how might this retrograde period offer a time for review and reorientation? Finally, the Moon makes a sextile to Uranus, perhaps describing a felt physical, emotional recognition of this outer planet shift, hopefully in the form of subduing some sense of urgency.  Today the Moon in Gemini moves through supportive sextiles with the Sun in Leo and Mars in Aries before ingressing into its home sign of Cancer. The Sun and Mars are both powerful in their respective domiciles, with access to abundant resources that they can share through these sextile aspects. Both offer courage, with the Sun emphasizing bold visibility and enduring prominence, while Mars extends ambition, drive, and assertiveness. Today may be a day for putting yourself out in the world and demanding that others take notice, getting clear about what it is you want to accomplish, and taking steps to make those ambitions a reality. With the Moon in Gemini, this may require thinking in new ways, making connections that excite and animate us, and discovering how these ways of thinking propel us into action. Audre Lorde writes in “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” “But there are no new ideas still waiting in the wings to save us as women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within ourselves—along with the renewed courage to try them out. And we must constantly encourage ourselves and each other to attempt the heretical actions that our dreams imply, and so many of our old ideas disparage.” As the Moon then settles into Cancer, we move back inward, toward comfort, care, and sensitive connections. After the energy and effort of the day, how can you move intentionally toward the things you already know allow you turn down the intensity and move toward rest?  Today Mars in Aries perfects a square with Pluto retrograde in Capricorn. The rulers of rage and the underworld clash in this tense aspect, dragging conflict up from what has been buried, confronting abuses that have been repressed or forgotten, demanding transformation in the places where rage propels us toward destruction. As Judith Butler has said, “How often is sorrow effectively shouted down by rage? How does it happen that sorrow can bring about the collapse of rage? Is there something to be learned about the sources of nonviolence from this particular power of grief to deflate rage of its destructiveness? … Mourning has to do with yielding to an unwanted transformation where neither the full shape and nor the full import of that alteration can be known in advance. This transformative effect of losing always risks becoming a deformative effect. Whatever it is, it cannot be willed. It is a kind of undoing.” What is the grief or mourning that is covered over by rage? Beneath the intensity of whatever anger or righteous indignation that you may feel, what is the mourning that you carry that—if given the opportunity—has the potential to transform you in ways that can be neither willed nor known in advance? The Moon in Gemini makes a sextile with its ruler Mercury in Leo. In the wake of breaking open whatever part of us resists the immensity of the grief we are holding, the light of new understanding finds its way through. Perhaps we find that we can share parts of our hearts that have been bound up in the crypts of rage and grief to which we denied ourselves passage.  Today the Moon in Taurus makes a trine with Saturn retrograde in Capricorn before ingressing into Gemini. Saturn invites us to slow down, to feel into the moment, and to set whatever boundaries are necessary in order for us to feel safe and grounded. In thinking through the work of transformative justice, adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy, “Real time is slower than social-media time, where everything feels urgent. Real time often includes periods of silence, reflection, growth, space, self-forgiveness, processing with loved ones, rest, and responsibility. Real-time transformation requires stating your needs and setting functional boundaries.” I think that astrology as a whole calls us into more slowness, into more real-time, but Saturn may be the great teacher of slowing down, giving space, resting in silence, and accepting responsibility. How can we listen to these lessons today as we work to create more support for our own well-being and the well-being of others? As the Moon ingresses into Gemini, we may find our curiosities awaken, our desires to learn and discuss and share ideas coming alive. Gemini may not always be the most suitable for sustained, deliberate focus, so what if over the next few days you let your attention move in different directions and considered the relationships between different thoughts and perspectives rather than trying to concentrate on only one thing? What becomes possible if we allow for this kind of mobility in our thinking?  Today the Moon in Taurus makes a trine with Jupiter in Capricorn, a square to the Sun in Leo—entering the waning quarter lunation phase—and a sextile with Neptune retrograde in Pisces, all within a matter of degrees. The Moon is exalted in Taurus, and Jupiter—fallen and retrograde in Capricorn—reminds us that we can become more whole when we learn to listen to the parts of ourselves that we continue to deny and integrate the parts of ourselves that we continue to ignore. As the Moon moves into the waning quarter phase and sextiles Neptune, we are moving away from what we have known and abiding in dignity as we push forward into what we do not yet know or what is not yet clear. What if we can trust that everything we need to know or understand is already available to us within the grounding wisdom of our bodies? As Aurora Levins Morales writes in Kindling, “My body and your bodies make a map we can follow … Our bodies are in the mix of everything we call political. What our bodies, my mother’s and yours and mine, require in order to thrive, is what the world requires. If there is a map to get there, it can be found in the atlas of our skin and bone and blood, in the tracks of neurotransmitters and antibodies. We need nourishment, equilibrium, water, connection, justice.” As the Moon forms a trine with Pluto in Capricorn, we can ask: what if coming into right-relationship with our bodies is how we begin to access the map toward living in a world in which we can be in right-relationship with power? What if there is no way to be in right-relationship with power if we still have not learned to trust that the body knows what is needed in order to be well—as a body, as a society, as a planet and a world?  Today the Moon in Taurus makes a sextile with its ruler Venus in Cancer, suggesting making time today for seeking comfort and pleasure in meaningful connections with others, relationships that support you in feeling safe and secure in your own body. Mercury in Leo makes a sextile with Uranus in Taurus, then the Moon in Taurus makes a conjunction with Uranus and a square with Mercury. Uranus in aspect with Mercury and the Moon demands revolutionary change that we can articulate, name, and embody—even in the most rigidly established areas of our personal and collective lives. Audre Lorde writes in “Learning from the 60s,” “Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses … Change is the immediate responsibility of each of us, wherever and however we are standing, in whatever arena we choose.” If you long for a world the refuses to be structured by domination, exploitation, and violence, how can you accept responsibility for creating change, for becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunities to challenge and disrupt deeply entrenched oppressive systems—in how we think, how we speak, and how we embody new possibilities.  Today the Moon makes a conjunction with Mars in Aries before squaring Pluto and Saturn, both retrograde in Capricorn. Mars is dignified in its domicile of Aries, bringing forward its more functional qualities: courage, assertiveness, the will to pursue that which we desire, fight for what we believe in, and defend those in need of defending. But as the Moon moves into the squares with Pluto and Saturn, we may find ourselves in struggle as we encounter resistance to that actions we feel driven to take. Rather than surrendering to discouragement when we find ourselves in struggle for that which matters most to us, can we instead see that it is ourselves who are being forged through such processes? We are becoming more of ourselves as we are shaped by the forces that resist our intentions. As Audre Lorde writes in “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” “Change means growth, and growth can be painful. But we sharpen self-definition by exposing the self in the work and struggle together with those whom we define as different from ourselves, although sharing the same goals.” In the midst of struggle, both with and alongside those who are different from ourselves, can we push forward into greater clarity in our own self-definition, sharpening our sense of who we are and what it is we are struggling for? The Moon then ingresses into Taurus, the sign of its exaltation, beckoning us back into the grounding comfort of sensual pleasures, our encounters with ourselves, others, and the world around us that not only bring us back to the immediacy of body but also invite us to feel good there, here, wherever we are.  Today the Moon in Aries perfects a brilliantly supportive trine with the Sun in Leo, its own domicile. Aries gives the Moon initiative and the Sun offers whole-hearted courage to not only advance but also sustain that which we are striving to bring into being. The Moon then makes a square to Jupiter in Capricorn. Although Jupiter is both retrograde and fallen in Capricorn, this is still a condition of bonification, Jupiter overcoming the Moon and offering whatever support and affirmation it can provide. Jupiter in Capricorn reminds us to find abundance in what might seem like scarcity, to make the most of what we have available, to pursue sustainable growth even when it seems as if we are doing so in obscurity. Whereas the Sun offers its support today from the radiant dignity of its own throne, Jupiter offers support from the margins, from what might otherwise escape our notice. This reminds me of adrienne maree brown writing about “visionary fiction” in Emergent Strategy: “Fiction that centers those who are currently marginalized—not to be nice, but because those who survive on the margins tend to be the most experientially innovative—practicing survival-based efficiency, doing the most with the least, an important skill area on a planet whose resources are under assault by less marginalized people.” What can you learn from the brilliant innovation of those who are most marginalized? When will we realize that the solutions for so many of the crises we are facing will actually come from those who have been surviving ongoing crises within exploitative systems all along—the wisdom of Indigenous people, Black and Brown people, women and femmes, queer and trans people, disabled communities, undocumented and displaced people, our elders, and so on?  Today the Moon in Pisces makes a sextile to Saturn retrograde in Capricorn and a square to Venus in Gemini. What boundaries do you need to maintain in order to remain your most compassionate self? You may find that your emotional needs and your desire for connection feel as if they are at cross-purposes, but with both the Moon and Venus in mutable signs, adaptation and compromise are more readily available. Then the Moon ingresses into Aries and Venus ingresses into Cancer. With the Moon in Aries, our emotions or felt experiences may drive us to action. Things can get heated, for better or for worse. Try to stay clear with yourself about why you feel compelled to take this action. What are your actually pursuing or defending? Venus has been in Gemini since April 3, and its transition into Cancer may describe a tonal shift in our relationships and social connections, moving from sharing ideas and comparing different perspectives to cultivating shared experiences of safety, comfort, and care. Finally, the Moon makes a trine with Mercury in Leo. Both in fire signs, this is an excitable aspect, potentially sparking conversations or correspondence that bring us into more abiding authenticity. What parts of yourself would you be willing to share if you knew that doing so would allow you to show up more fully as yourself, stoking the fires of your own becoming?  Today the Moon in Pisces makes a sextile to Jupiter retrograde in Capricorn, a conjunction with Neptune in Pisces, and a sextile with Pluto retrograde in Capricorn. This feels like a day for seeking support that comes from the beliefs that sustain us, the faith and hope that give us reasons for continuing in the midst of difficulty or struggle. Whether or not you practice any particular religious or spiritual tradition, what are the beliefs that connect you to something bigger than our immediate circumstances? Octavia Butler writes in Parable of the Sower, “Belief initiates and guides action—Or it does nothing.” And adrienne maree brown asks in Emergent Strategy, “What are the practices you need to line your life up with your values and beliefs?” Begin to articulate what you believe and the kinds of actions such beliefs initiate and guide, then ask yourself what practices you need to develop in order to move in alignment with those beliefs. Feeling into experiences of faith and hope may require us to shift out of ordinary reality, to drop into ways of sensing and perceiving the world that move with intuition and inspiration rather than what we are given as concrete reality. As we do so, we may find that we have access to the power to create meaningful change in ways that are unavailable to us when we rely only on our rational or reasonable faculties. What if we could not only imagine but sense and feel our ways into other possible worlds—and what if we could do so together?  Today the Moon in Pisces makes a sextile to Uranus in Taurus. Pisces often describes an immense capacity for feeling, for empathy and compassion, and the Moon can describe our instinctual needs for care and caretaking. Sextile Uranus, we may be given unanticipated opportunities to exercise compassion or we may find ourselves unexpectedly being held in loving acceptance. Pema Chödrön writes, “To relate with others compassionately is a challenge. Really communicating to the heart and being there for someone else—our child, spouse, parent, client, patient, or the homeless woman on the street—means not shutting down on that person, which means, first of all, not shutting down on ourselves. This means allowing ourselves to feel what we feel and not pushing it away. It means accepting every aspect of ourselves, even the parts we don’t like.” She also writes, “How are we ever going to change anything? How is there going to be less aggression in the universe rather than more? … Well, it starts with being willing to feel what we are going through. It starts with being willing to have a compassionate relationship with the parts of ourselves that we feel are not worthy of existing on the planet.” Uranus often brings the unexpected, and Uranus is also in a long transit, generating gradual but radical change in the area of our charts occupied by Taurus. Today we may be given the opportunity to not only cultivate compassion for ourselves as we move through this larger cycle of change, but also to practice compassion for others that is rooted in the radical self-acceptance we are practicing with ourselves.  Today the Moon in Aquarius makes a sextile to Mars in Aries, offering a boost of initiative and assertiveness to whatever you are working to accomplish today. Then Mars perfects a square with Jupiter retrograde in Capricorn. The square can be a hard aspect; in Hellenistic astrology, it is a condition of both bonification and maltreatment. Jupiter is offering its limited resources for support to Mars, whereas Mars—strong and dignified in its domicile—is hurling rays back to Jupiter, potentially instigating conflict or trouble. Depending on our particular charts, the places ruled by Mars may experience affirmation and modest expansion, and the places ruled by Jupiter—possibly already experiencing scarcity or some form of exclusion—may experience further impediments in the areas for which it is responsible. Then the Moon in Aquarius makes a trine to Venus in Gemini, a lovely aspect for building meaningful connections through conversation, dialogue, and sharing the ideas that matter most. Mercury ingresses into Leo, leaving Cancer where it has been since the end of May. Whereas Mercury in Cancer has been teaching us about emotional intelligence and communicating with care, in Leo, the emphasis turns to self-expression, committing to unwavering authenticity in how we put our ideas out into the world and persisting in our own authority regarding what we know and how we understand. Finally, the Moon ingresses into Pisces, reminding us that our own uniqueness need not separate us from others but actually has the capacity to bring us into deeper resonance.  Today is the Full Moon in Aquarius, with both the Moon and Sun in a T-square with Uranus in Taurus. The Full Moon is the climax of the lunation cycle, when the luminaries face one another in their full light, and the square with Uranus suggests that whatever we are now witnessing or revealing has the capacity to shake us, to radically reorient how we embody what we understand, the break open any pretense or façade that conceals the reality of who we are. With the Sun in Leo, this could be a call to wholehearted courage, which may require breaking down deeply entrenched patterns that resist change. Brené Brown writes in Daring Greatly, “Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough. It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.” Imagine the revolution if we were each living from such wholehearted conviction. Later in the day, Mercury in Cancer makes an opposition to Saturn retrograde in Capricorn. Wholehearted living does not mean we are without fear; it means we are capable of confronting and naming our fear, without allowing fear to shape who we are, what we say, and how we show up in the world. If you encounter fear today, acknowledge it, allow yourself to feel it, name it, then decide how you want to respond to the situation if fear is not given authority.  Today the Sun in Leo perfects a square with Uranus in Taurus. The Sun in Leo calls for us to shine more fully in our own authentic brilliance, and Uranus demands refusal of established orders that limit freedom. What would it feel like if you had nothing to hide? What kind of revolution would be possible if we each committed to more fully embodying the gifts and purposes that are particular to each of us rather than attempting to persist through conformity or sameness. As adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy, “Together we must move like waves. Have you observed the ocean? The waves are not the same over and over—each one is unique and responsive. The goal is not to repeat each other’s motion, but to respond in whatever way feels right in your body. The waves we create are both continuous and a one-time occurrence.” When you listen to what feels right in your body, how are you inspired to show up? Also today, the Moon makes a conjunction to Pluto retrograde in Capricorn, opposes Mercury in Cancer, makes a conjunction to Saturn retrograde in Capricorn, then ingresses into Aquarius. We are feeling our ways through our own complicity with systems of harm and control, the demands for our silent compliance, and accepting responsibility for the ways we have acquiesced to accepting so little of ourselves and one another. But we are also feeling our ways into the realms of new possibility, the promise that other worlds are possible and new ways of thinking are emerging. If we are moving toward a new era, what do you want it to be and who will you be in this forthcoming world?  Today the Moon in Capricorn makes a trine to Uranus in Taurus, a square to Mars in Aries, a conjunction to Jupiter retrograde in Capricorn, and a sextile to Neptune retrograde in Pisces. Uranus’ transit through Taurus describes an eight-year process of breaking up the ground in whatever part of our chart is occupied by Taurus, overturning what had been stable and reliable in order to make room for more authentic growth. The trine with the Moon today may offer a sense of how this larger cycle of change impacts our daily lives. But change often comes with conflict, and we may find ourselves at cross purposes with others who have insistent ideas about what we should be doing. If you encounter resistance or even adversaries on the outside, ground deeply into the affirmation of your own growth that comes from within. Reconnect to the dreams and visions of what you believe to be possible even if you are being told such futures are not possible. Also today, Mercury in Cancer opposes Pluto retrograde in Capricorn. This is a confrontational aspect which may demand that we name misuses and abuses of authority that have gone unacknowledged and unnamed in order to move toward healing. But what form must that acknowledgement and naming take? As Tarana Burke has said in relation to survivors of sexual harassment and assault, “We are in a time where the more you share about yourself, the more people like you; the more likes you get, the more attention you get on social media. So things are framed so that they have to be public and they have to be popular in order to be valid. What we’re trying to do is counter that narrative and say, ‘You don’t have to tell your story publicly. You don’t have to tell anybody what happened to you.’ You have to get it out—but it doesn’t have to be at a poetry reading. It doesn’t have to be on social media at all. It could be a trusted friend. It could be your journal.” What is the form of getting the truth out that moves toward healing?  Today the Moon ingresses into Capricorn, the sign of its antithesis or detriment. Capricorn is the sign furthest from the Moon’s own domicile of Cancer, in opposition to it across the zodiac. Here the Moon is far removed from its preferred resources and context, a place of displacement and dispossession. Something fundamental about embodied life is revealed in the Moon’s detriment—the Moon as a general significator for the body, in this state of dispossession. Judith Butler writes in Dispossession: The Performative in the Political, “… dispossession can be a term that marks the limits of self-sufficiency and that establishes us as relational and interdependent beings … we are already outside of ourselves before any possibility of being dispossessed of our rights, land, and modes of belonging. In other words, we are interdependent beings whose pleasure and suffering depend from the start on a sustained social world, a sustaining environment … We can only be dispossessed because we are already dispossessed. Our interdependency establishes our vulnerability to social forms of deprivation.” To be well in this life requires the support of a sustained social context, a world of others who can and do provide for the fundamental needs of embodied life. As the Moon moves into Capricorn, consider: whose bodies and lives are not supported by our current world? Whose needs are ignored or rejected? How might we insist on recognizing the ways in which lives are dispossessed or deprived of what they need in order to survive—because of race, gender, ability, age, class, and so on? What is it we are continuing to refuse to see?  |
AuthorMichael J. Morris is a witch, an astrologer, a tarot reader, an artist, a writer, and a teacher. Categories
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