Midlife Transits

Mars is the planet of the month for Aquarius. It stations (gets powerful) this month and then it moves direct (gains energy). It gives you the opportunity to take the initiative in matters of love or money or whatever it is that you desire. Since it is in the sign opposite yours, you could also feel that it is just taking you to school in March and teaching you stuff that you didn’t really realize you needed to know.

So your first step is…to take your first step in whatever direction you want to go. If you want to sing–start singing. If you want to stay home and out of the spring rains–stay home. If you want to go out with your siblings, neighbors, or acquaintances–go out. In other words, practice doing what you actually want to do–and see how other people react. They may react with alarm or anger, or they may react with admiration and support. Mars’s job is to let you know what effect doing what you want has on other people. Only by getting this feedback can you learn where you really stand with the people in your life.

Your second step is to communicate. Let people know your thought processes. Actually reach out. If no one calls or no one reacts to your initiatives, make the calls yourself. This month is very much oriented around other people, how you relate to them and how they relate to you.

Finally, if all that relating gets a little tense–get some exercise or play a game. That’ll help burn off some of the excess Mars in your chart this month.

All righty, time to budget! Jupiter is officially in your income sector now. Venus is in your sign. Saturn has left your debt sector for the time being. Time to plan your financial life.

Do two budgets. One is the hopes and wishes budget (good time for this is around the 8th, when Neptune and Venus in your sign are feeling all glowy together). The other is the worst case scenario budget. Your actual year should land somewhere in between of course, but however you slice it, things are looking up for you astrologically in this area. Since this is your birthday month, if your budget allows, you might want to invest in some clothing, accessories, or other items to spruce up your appearance.

Your birthday wish new moon is on the 13th. Valentine’s Day looks decently romantic, with Neptune and the sun getting together in your sign. As for the year ahead, there are two distinctly different trends. Trend #1 is more of the same. Pluto’s in your reclusive 12th house all year, pondering things by himself. He spends much of the year challenging Saturn in Libra, which is also pondering things. Somehow or another, your beliefs are being tested and perhaps your relationship to God or the spiritual world too. This trend started awhile back and is an important theme for the year ahead. Neptune also continues to wander through your sign, periodically getting lost and perhaps confusing you in the process. That’s been going on for so long that many of you are used to it by now.

Trend #2 is the opposite: lots of changes. Uranus changes signs this year and darts into Aries for a peek mid-year. This gives your brain a shot of energy it hasn’t seen in quite awhile. Indeed, your mind gets more of a muscle-building workout in 2010 than you’ve seen in years. Jupiter also darts into Aries mid-year, tripling the mental energy. Your solar chart keeps switching from looking at the big picture to the small picture and back again, trying to sort it all out. Partly this is because most of your astrological resources don’t have to go toward sheer material survival. It is so much more up your sign’s inventive alley to be pondering and learning and getting excited about ideas than to be figuring out what to do about out of control debts or similar matters. In many ways, your chart is going to like 2010 a lot more than it’s liked the last 2 or 3 years. Rejoice!

Good new for Aquarius. Although Jupiter is leaving your sign on the 17th, he’s moving into Pisces and your second house of material needs. Your ability to provide for your own such needs should get a significant boost from what it’s been over at least the last couple of years. If you have any important personal tasks to finish up, try to get them accomplished before Jupiter leaves your sign. On a related note, buy yourself some new clothes and put forward your ideas while Jupiter is still on your side.

Jupiter in Pisces, meanwhile, has a number of implications. One is that it increases not only your financial abilities, but your other resources, including your physical powers. Jupiter is also related to mental growth, legal issues, and ethics or basic morality. All of these will play a role in your values over the next 6 months.

Saturn in Libra will also be affecting your abilities in 2010, but he’ll focus more on your competence or skills, especially as they relate to areas like writing or publishing. The other big news for 2010 is that Uranus will leave Pisces for awhile and enter Aries. This will also take a big load off your financial situation and will energize your writing or communicating abilities even more.

Lastly, a note about the eclipse in Capricorn on January 15. It occurs in the part of your solar chart that relates to withdrawal and retreat, so you may experience a desire to isolate yourself for awhile and just chill out alone. You may also get some insight into your own unconscious drives. Repressed issues can have an effect on your long-term health, so you would do well to pay attention to anything that surfaces. Finally, a hidden enemy sometimes comes to light during this type of eclipse.

Mercury spends most of December in practical Capricorn (from the 5th on). This gives you a chance to test your theories and plans to see how they work in real life. Note especially any challenges that come the week of the 6th; they could give you valuable information for the future.

Meanwhile, Venus spends most of the month in Sagittarius (until Christmas). This gives you a great opportunity to see old friends, contact people near and far, and generally renew your connections with your favorite folks. This influence also inclines you to be generous with your gifts to others. The week of the 13th could see you experiencing some conflict between generous impulses and your unstable financial situation. Try balancing the two energies by giving inexpensive gifts or giving something hand-crafted that reflects your spirit.

After Christmas, you’ll need to get away by yourself for awhile. Getting outside if possible and enjoying nature (rugged, wintery nature if you live in the Northern Hemisphere) could refresh both body and soul.

At the very end of the month, there’s a lunar eclipse in the sign of Cancer. This sign represents your solar house of employment and health. If you’ve been struggling with a health problem, now’s the time when you may finally hit upon a reasonable solution to it. If you’ve been looking for a job, you may find one. If you’re in a job that’s ill-suited to you, it may come to an end.

Career and visibility month! This is the time in the annual cycle of your solar chart when you are intended to be highly active in pushing yourself forward to the front of the career or visibility line. It’s quite the hopping month, too, from an astrological standpoint, and things don’t really slow down for your chart until early December or so.

So, regarding career–grasp all the clarity you can regarding your career when Venus moves into Scorpio (your career sign) on the 8th and then sproing into action. Venus will be your best friend for the rest of the month, although she will be  getting bushwacked by all the other annoying planets in the sky this month.

One such annoying planet is Mars, which will start out the month squaring Mercury in Scorpio and being all grumpy about your career thoughts. Then there’s the full moon in Taurus on the 2nd. This full moon falls in your family sector, so your mother or some other family member may need your attention then. The full moon’s a bit grumpy, too, although not fatally so.

Then there’s Jupiter in your own sign, normally friendly and optimistic, who is a bit dismayed to discover all the planetary activity in Scorpio cutting into his fun time. The grumpiest planet of all though is Saturn, who is somewhat grumpy during the best of months, but who is in a really sour mood with Pluto from about the 9th through I don’t know, maybe the 22nd, depending on how sensitive you are to these things. The thing to remember throughout this month is that Saturn is not mad at you–he’s mad at Pluto.

Nobody’s mad at you, actually, even if they pretend to be.They’re mad that the skies are all misaligned and going through earthquake-y type adjustments. Everybody loves you actually.  And the nicer you can be to all your many friends and acquaintances during their trying times, the more they will love you. Pick up the phone and comfort someone, even if they’re too disgruntled to say thank you. A little good karma never hurt anyone.

October sees just a little bit more of that Virgo money energy you’ve been dealing with for awhile, but fortunately it’s more positive than what you’ve been used to. If you need more money (and so many of you do as your chart has just been pounded financially), Mercury and Virgo could help a little bit, and Saturn moving out of Virgo at the end of the month could help even more. Mercury’s in Virgo until the 10th and Venus until the 14th. You’re not completely out of the woods yet, as Uranus is still in your other money house, cooking up shocks and surprises, but at least you’re getting some positive astrological reinforcement now. Make your money wishes or say your prayers early and often.

The month also sees a lot of Libra energy in your solar 9th house of Big Truths. This is the house that Saturn will be moving into at the end of this month. This influence could well make you more certain than normal of your own particular version of Big Truth, or it could make you tear down everything you think you believe and start over in a reflective state of mind.

On a more lighthearted note, Venus in Libra after the 14th could see someone call you up and offer you a chance to take a nice vacation. If that doesn’t happen, call someone up yourself and make plans to get the heck out of town and relax for awhile.

Adapt, prepare. There’s bad energy and good energy in your 8th house of random financial matters, such as debt and taxes. The good energy (Venus in Virgo) comes as of the 20th. So be prepared for the period before then. And adapt to the rare and welcome good energy after then. If you need to restructure debt, get more clients, cut a deal with the tax man or whatever, get on the phone after the 20th.

Mars is also in Cancer as of August 25th, so you are scheduled to be busy at work during this whole period, which may help with the financial stuff. You’ve also got Jupiter on your side, scheduled to go direct in October. You’ve probably covered more personal distance and grown more this year than you realize. Saturn’s still a bitch in a financial sense, excuse the language, but you’ve done almost all the heavy lifting. You are able to handle it, truly you are. And to prove it, Saturn will leave this sector at the very very end of next month, leaving you to marvel at your newly-developed strength.

So we’re going to talk money, work, and romance for August. Then we’ll talk eclipses. First, money.

I don’t know if you have nostalgia like I do, Aquarius, for the days when the stock market was higher and gas prices were lower. If so, at the end of August, you’re scheduled to get some time to sit down and devise your plan for building and growing your resources, or, at the very least, not seeing them slip away in today’s economic climate. Take advantage of the chance to do that planning because September will bring another vicious assault from the skies on your financial houses. After you get through September, you’ll finally catch a break in that department, and in 2010, you’ll catch another substantial break.

As far as work goes, you’ll need to put on your productive hat because with Venus in your solar 6th house, August provides a prime chance to score some brownie points. If you have health problems, this is also a month when you can seek solutions and maybe even get some pleasing answers.

As for romance, we’ve got three things going on. The beginning of the month sees Mars in Gemini potentially adding fuel to the summer romance fire. Mars is also the planet of energy, and when it’s in a favorable to angle to your sun, as it is now, it should boost your vitality and perhaps your sex appeal. Planets in Leo all month also put a focus on partnership and coupledom. Things get even better in the love department after the 26th when Venus leaves your work sector and slides into Leo and that partnership and love sector.

As for the eclipses, August 6 marks the final eclipse in the series that has highlighted your sign. It’s a lunar eclipse, so it’s a goodbye eclipse. Whatever personal journey of evolution (most likely in your life direction) you’ve been on since early 2008 is supposed to wrap up. You may get a realization that tells you what you can let go of as you work your way toward your life path. After this final eclipse, the skies say goodbye to bumping and bruising you with eclipses and let you figure it out on your own. That may well be a relief! Look for something good to happen because it probably will.

June was slow, Aquarius, but July is likely to be busy, at least in an astrological sense. First off, let’s talk jobs and health. July sees the inauguration of a series of eclipses that could eventually bring big dramatic changes in your job or health status. The two eclipses this month take place on July 7 and 22nd.

The sun and Mercury will also be in Cancer to the 22nd. (The sun actually entered Cancer on June 20.) If you need a new job or have a health matter to attend to, now’s the time to take action. If you don’t take action, the changes may be forced upon you by outside circumstances, since that’s how eclipses typically work their magic.

The changes in job status do not affect your career aspirations, as your career house is the only angle of your chart not lit up in July. It would be the form of your job only that would be changing.

The other angles (1st house of personal concerns, 4th house of home and family, and 7th house of partners and mates) all see energy this month. There could be changes in any of these areas. This is a year of change in your personal identity and how you present yourself to others anyway. Some of you will even be taking the plunge and getting married this month or next.

In other words, you’ve potentially got a lot on your plate this month. Prepare for an active summer!

I’m pegging June as a slow month for you, Aquarius. There’s a whole bunch of energy in slow-moving Taurus this month, clustered around the sector of your chart that relates to your home and residence. Energetic Mars is in Taurus, but so is lazy Venus. The sun’s in your solar 5th house of enjoying yourself by doing things like reading a good book. Jupiter in your sign is slowing down to station. Neptune and Chiron, also in your sign, are stuck at 26 and 25 degrees. The pace is so slow, it’s as if your chart doesn’t want to do anything but lie on the couch and flip through decorating magazines.

In fact, if all that Taurus energy really had its way, your exercise program this month would consist solely of moving from the couch to the kitchen in search of a tasty snack. I don’t recommend that, though, because when Taurus energy gets its way, people get pudgy and fatigued. It might be more realistic this month to get yourself moving by cleaning the house than going to the gym or planning an ambitious hike through the mountains. In the middle of July, for some odd reason, your chart gets more enthusiastic about getting outdoors and really doing stuff, but for the moment, you might as well just take it easy. You could probably use the break anyway.