January 2008 Astrocast

Key Events:  

New Moon:  01/08/2008

Full Moon: 01/22/2008

Mercury Retrograde: 01/28/2008

Other RX Planets:  Mars until 1/30; Saturn until 05/03 

The New Moon on the 8th falls in Capricorn, i.e. your 5th House, which should herald a new beginning of some sort in that part of your life.  In other words, it could relate to your children, love life, self-expression, or possibly a new creative endeavor.  Also hanging  out in Capricorn we have Jupiter and the Sun for most of the month, Mercury until the 8th, with Venus and Pluto moving in on the 24th and 26th, respectively.  Quite the busy little sign these days.

The month starts out with a somewhat scratchy aspect, which will last until the 28th, between Jupiter and Neptune, who's camped out over there in Aquarius, a.k.a. your 6th House.  Jupiter tends to expand and enlarge what he touches, an effect that is generally considered lucky, but of course this depends on what he's expanding and enlarging.  With Neptune involved it's possible that it might not be any more than a bubble that could burst at any time.  A good Neptune analogy is chasing rainbows.  I don't know if a practical soul like yourself has ever done anything quite as pointless as that, but if you have you know how it works.  Actually, as a Virgo, you probably also know how it works, even if you've never done it.  For those who have probably not thought about it before, let me explain.  You may be in a position where you can see the rainbow clearly, including both ends, so you drive frantically toward one of them, certain when you get there you'll get to bask in it's beautiful, defracted light and maybe even find that pot of gold.  Yeah, right.  Of course, when you get there, the damn thing has moved or gone away entirely, showing it was no more than an illusion.

On the positive side, Neptune rules our dreams, inspiration, idealism and all sorts of nice, friendly things like that, but on the negative side, he can cause illusions and delusions, deception and so forth.  In this context with Jupiter, then, it's best not to get your hopes up to high because there's a chance that it will only be an illusion.  Wait until you have it in writing or as concrete evidence in hand before counting on anything, which shouldn't be too foreign to someone with a practical mindset anyway.  At any rate, don't let your hopes get too elevated without cause because you know how much you hate being disappointed.

Back in September, as a birthday present from the Universe, Saturn entered your Sign.  I know that you're familiar with the concept of sarcasm, but unless you know something about Saturn, you may not catch it.  Let's just say that Saturn isn't exactly the party boy of the Zodiac set.  He's known for discipline, delays, boundaries, restrictions, responsibility and other cheery concepts along those lines.  He's stuffy and stern, albeit wise, and is somewhat like some old fart relative coming to visit for a long, long time.  So he's currently residing in your 1st House, which rules your personality.  I can almost hear your cries of joy already.  At any rate, apparently he thinks you have something you need to learn in this area.  If you don't, meaning you have your life under total control, then you'll be largely immune and it will hardly be noticeable, like having had an astrological flu shot.

Anyway, just in time for Christmas, on December 19, he went retrograde (RX).  Now this is not necessarily a bad thing.  What Saturn does in this state is to gather up anything that requires his tutoring, then drops it into your subconscious for consideration.  When he goes direct (which will be May 3 for you detail-lovers out there), you'll know exactly what it happens to be, and then by the time he reaches his original position (which will be the very cool date of 08/08/08) you should have a handle on it and it should be resolved, leaving you older and wiser about whatever it happened to be.  Since this is all occurring in your 1st House, this will be something that directly relates to you, your personality, and how you view the world.  If there's one thing I know about Virgos, it's that no one is going to accuse you of wearing rose colored glasses, so it's a safe bet that ain't it, eh?  So that's the scoop on Saturn's sojourn in your 1st House, at least for now.  You probably don't want to know how long his visit will last, but I also know it will drive you crazy if I don't tell you.  He'll be there until the end of October 2009.  Sorry, but I have no control over things like that.  And then, I hate to tell you, but he'll be back again between April - July 2010, during one of his RX cycles, but even for someone who likes to plan ahead like a Virgo, that's a little too far out to worry about just yet. 

I've given all this background on Saturn because I know you thrive on details and it will also help some of this month's activity make more sense.  January 1 - 3, the Sun will trine Saturn.  A trine is a positive aspect, so this should simply highlight something related to your 5th House to Saturn's work in your 1st House.  In other words, it should give you a hint at what some of that RX stuff is all about.  From January 4 - 9, Venus is going to throw him a square, which usually indicates some type of conflict.  Venus is usually pretty friendly, and at that point she'll still be in your 4th House of home environment, so this looks like some sort of nudge from a family member about something.  Depending on what it is and the family member, it might be more like a kick.  From January 10 - February 1, Jupiter jumps back into the game and will throw a nice trine at Saturn as well.  Between being benefic Jupiter and it being a nice, harmonious trine, I suspect this will be something good, again related to your 5th House.  The Sun will call attention to something, and then Jupiter will bring it home.  And even better, between January 30 and February 4, Jupiter and Venus will be in a nice, cozy hug, which should throw all sorts of positive vibes and good luck throughout your 5th House and even extend a friendly hand of fellowship to stuffy ol' Saturn, so it looks as if there's a good case here for all's well that ends well.

The Full Moon this month on the 22nd is in Leo, your 12th House of dreams, inspiration, and spirituality, which implies the culmination of something in one of these areas.  This generally sounds like a good thing.  I can't tell what it will relate to, but I'm sure you will.

The two bad actors on the astrological scene, as most people know, are Mars and Pluto, and those two are up to no good.  The god of war and god of the Underworld are faced off in a way that will probably stir up some crap between home and your career.  Mars is also RX, which tends to awaken suppressed anger that was never properly resolved.  This RX cycle started back in mid-November in your 11th House of groups, friends, coworkers, hopes and wishes and is currently in your 10th of career, community standing and reputation.  Thus, anything in one of those areas for which you've been toting around some sort of grudge or irritation is going to come up for review in the coming months.  Mars goes direct on January 30, after which events will transpire that bring these issues to closure.  So that's what Mars is up to in the long term.  Bear in mind that the suppressed anger thing is likely to go very deep and have transformational effects with Pluto involved.  It will be cleaning house much more than Mars alone, but your likelihood of resolving it once and for all is quite good.  

Pluto is just finishing up a 12+ year gig in Sagittarius, your 4th House of home environment.  Fortunately, this month Venus spends most the month there as well, which will soften some of these effects with a bit of luck or some description.  If you've had all sorts of problems in your home such as plumbing problems, electrical problems, cockroaches, and so forth, then blame Pluto.  As the Zodiacal Rotorooter, he brings his backhoe into whatever house he's visiting and proceeds to dig up all sorts of crap, which is sometimes pathetically literal.  The good news is that when his work is done, everything not only gets back to normal, but actually better.  While doing his work there may have been dirt all over and the yard looked like a war zone, but once all is said and done, the dirt put back and grass replanted, it's nice to flush the toilet without any unpleasant surprises.  So if you think about the last decade plus and what you've been through in your home and with your immediate family, I'm sure you'll be able to come up with several examples of Pluto's work.

Now with these two faced off across the Zodiac, it looks like the Readers Digest version would be you'll be dealing with the last of Pluto's cleanup at home versus frustrations, some of which will be old, regarding your career or reputation.  At least these aren't inherently dangerous, like it is with signs where this hits in a more personal or physical area like poor Taurus and Scorpio.  This crap has already been messing with my Scorpio daughter, who has had two car wrecks already, neither her fault, in the past several weeks.  So by comparison, a few things at home and work should be relatively benign.  From January 25 - February 2, you'll even have some additional help as your Sign Ruler, Mercury, jumps into the game and trines Mars, which should assure good communications to work it out. 

This box of cereal has a surprise in it, however, because right in the middle of that seemingly nice aspect, Mercury goes into one of his retrograde cycles, which happens about three times a year.  As your Sign Ruler, this will mess with your brain along with every communications device known to man and things mechanical from A - Z.  Fortunately, it will only last until February 19, but until then expect a few frustrations.

Nonetheless, this looks like a very active and significant month.  A lot of what's going on is long-term and somewhat beneath the surface, but will ultimately have a positive outcome.  Expect a lot of action in your 5th House, be cautious believing everything you hear without evidence, but nonetheless look forward to something rather good coming along the end of the month, once Neptune gets out of the way with his deceptive magic tricks.