In the last few days of 2016, the stage is set for the New Year. On Thursday December 29ththere is a New Moon in stable, sturdy Capricorn. Please take time on this day and over New Year’s weekend to handwrite your list of intentions for the month and year to come. With FOUR planets packed tightly together in practical Capricorn, it is truly a golden opportunity to draw plans for the future.
Capricorn is the ultimate building tool. An earth energy, closer to granite, bedrock rather than rich fertile soil – say like Taurus, Capricorn enables us to set in stone a solid foundation upon which to forge ahead. So cast your hopes and dreams with all of the realism and pragmatism this sign affords. The New Moon occurs the same day that Radical Uranus turns direct motion giving us huge motivation to activate our life.
Change is the only constant in life and Uranus IS the change agent. Just when you think you are settled into a routine, whoops! Uranus unleashes surprise. It can be big and volatile, wildly romantic, small and irritating. But it happens to all of us in some regard. This week, my gym changed all of the equipment… just after I mastered a fitness routine. A first world problem to be sure but annoying for one who struggles to exercise. Whatever situation you find yourself in, Uranus’ shift in motion assures unsettling events. So hold on and breathe!
It is a good thing then when just after the New Year, Venus enters dreamy Pisces where she is treated like an honored guest, a VIP and in turns encourages us to be generous and kind. This deepest of water signs brings out the best of Venus, her cherished goddess qualities, endlessly selfless and giving. Here she offers great hope to the start of 2017. Venus will be in Pisces for the entire month of January, too, joining the lunar south node, Neptune, Mars and Chiron, endowing each of us with extra special love, inspiration, care and healing. She bears abundant peace in Pisces, has a rather Mother Theresa-like quality that significantly softens all of our relationships and finds us to be more charitable with money and spirit with which we approach situations and people.
Capricorn the architect compliments visionary Pisces so well, offering us tremendous potential for 2017. The dreamer (pisces) and the builder (Capricorn). The energy is literally: if you dream and build it, they will come. Given the immense divide politically and socio-economically in the United States (also globally), having four planets in mystic Pisces at the outset of the year enables us to envision and dream about the kind of world we want to create. Our vision starts with our own individual lives, then building that solid Capricorn New Moon foundation. What do you hope to accomplish by this time in 2018?
Remember to set reasonable, manageable goals or choose a few large goals with attainable sub-set goals to give yourself some self-esteem as you knock off the to do list. Try not to bite off more than you can chew especially if you are working toward one or two big goals. Knock off the smaller tasks bit by bit. Want to clean up your finances? Cut up the credit cards first then pay down the monthly debt one chunk at a time. Kick unhealthy habits and embrace new ones. A helpful fact is: it takes 60 days straight to firmly implant a new habit, pattern or routine. You can do it! Yes you can!
The caution with Pisces (and the heavy focus of 4 planets in this sign) is that it likes to press the escape valve when the going gets tough…and even when the going is smooth sailing. Definitely watch your drug and alcohol intake on New Year’s Eve and all month long. If you do need an escape, choose healthy outlets – walks in nature, meditation, exercise, giving to others (random charitable acts of time and money), enjoy music especially live or playing an instrument, journaling and all artistic forms of self-expression.
The on-going and continuing challenge leftover from 2016 is a hard angle between Jupiter in Libra vs. Pluto in Capricorn vs. Uranus in Aries. Wherever these three fall in your chart you feel called to action, to press forward and tend to business. Jupiter in Libra endows us with immense grace, dignity and relatability. We want to interact with others and change our relationship to ourselves. Pluto in Capricorn transforms some foundational aspect of our lives…something we always counted on as a bedrock. While Uranus in Aries pushes us to break out, break down barriers to what no longer serves us – to be the warrior and pioneer of our own lives.
To say this troika is highly catalytic, even volatile, is an understatement. It is as combustible as it is galvanizing; and prompts much of the global unrest we now witness. When the Sun joins Pluto on January 7-8 adding our will to the existing energy, some may feel they are on a mission, that their purpose is of vital importance. So it is essential for us to remember that there are always, always, ALWAYS positive and productive uses of energy. Please focus your intentions and plans for any endeavor or relationship in the spirit of peace and love rather than power, might or revenge. Keep close to your mind the words of Jimi Hendrix: “when the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Also on January 8th, Messenger Mercury turns direct motion. The wheels of life start churning forward again and do we. Sign those contracts and move ahead with major purchases. The Pluto-Sun alliance challenge to Jupiter and Uranus are still in place leading into the Full Moon on January 12 so you may feel your personal mission take on a new, heightened dimensions. Just think before speaking or acting. Our sense of purpose is even more accentuated by Mercury at the final degree of Sagittarius on the day of the Full Moon. We may feel the need to fight for our individual philosophies, truths and beliefs; some may be filled with religious zeal to fight for a particular reason (Isis terrorists, Christian Evangelicals, etc); some may feel their own truths are at stake against a larger, uncaring/thinking/non-believing collective. Are they?
Stand back from your personal emotional fray and assess objectively.
If you have a message to deliver or stake to claim, speak up now on your own behalf or for those who aren’t able to speak for themselves. Speak your truth. Just remember, there are many truths and realities, not just your own. You have the spotlight on you between January 10-13, so review the content of your message thoroughly.
We gain huge help at the Full Moon with Venus’ annual conjunction to Neptune, now in Pisces. Talk about the possibilities for universal peace, love and harmony. WOW. This is it! This duo really inspires us to cast the widest net ever to be inclusive, sharing and generous in the greatest interest of mankind. In short, it really softens the Jupiter-Pluto-Uranus struggle and strife, to channel the energy for the greater (and greatest) good. Venus-Neptune lends a saintly and angelic quality to this Full Moon, and boy, our world sure can use it. Ask how you may best be an extension of love for yourself and fellow man?
The grace and harmony of Venus-Neptune stays with us the following week while Motivating Mars joins healer Chiron in Pisces. This latter pair affords an extra added healing capacity. What wounds in your life need gentle tending? If you do find yourself on a mission, let it be one of healing, purposeful well-being for yourself, others, our planet Mother Earth. Be vulnerable. It is OK. Let your vulnerabilities show. You too guys. You do not have to know/be/do everything all of the time.
By January’s third week, Mercury has re-entered Capricorn post-retrograde, structuring our thoughts and words in to a cohesive whole. So you want to lose weight, find a new job, relationship, help your fellow man? Messenger Mercury says let’s make a step-by-step plan. On the 20th, the Sun enters Aquarius ushering a changing of the guard. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, the radical, inventive and altogether different planet. In the United States and globally, we feel this energy and how. Mr. Trump is due to be inaugurated on this day and the whole world watches to see how drastic a landscape (politically, economically and socially) he will initiate. Aquarius is about humanity and human interests. It asks, what is possible and best for the ordinary Joe comprising the vast majority of the populace? Let’s hope and pray to heal the enormous gulfs and divides separating us.
Refine and redefine your intentions on the New Moon, Friday, January 27th. This date finds Motivating Mars at the final degree of Pisces, inciting extra strength to our dreams and desires for the future. The very next day Mars enters fiery Aries, sparking us into action. Carry out those dreams with thoughtful effort through connected relationships that form a generous, healing, welcoming world.
Of Special Note:
A huge note of gratitude to ALL of my loyal blog readers! I am so very pleased to share that my blog message is now read each month by over 7,000 people globally. The expanded following is due in large part to my new website www.hilaryharley.com created by Robin Agricola of Birdhouse marketing: www.birdhousemarketing.com. Thank you for your continued interest in my work!