Midlife Transits

January 2010 marks the end of the astrological emphasis on Aquarius and your finances. Neptune will still be in the financial sector of your chart, fogging things up and influencing your tastes, but Jupiter leaves Aquarius for Pisces on the 17th. You’ll need to work harder for what you get this year than last. With Saturn in Libra up at the top of your chart, matters relating to your career or employment situation are on your chart’s mind, perhaps because you’re anticipating a change in finances.

Not to worry, though, there’s plenty of energy in your sign for the time being and it’s your birthday month. Not only is it your birthday month, but there’s a new moon solar eclipse in your sign on the 15th that is supposed to bring you goodies. It is part of a series of eclipses this year that are supposed to set you on the path you’ll be following for a decade or so. Jupiter in Pisces will be beneficial in its own way also, mostly in matters regarding your mental development.

As for 2010, it’s an unusual year. The only two planets that stay in the same sign all year are Neptune in Aquarius and Pluto in your own sign. Everything else moves around, including Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter. Usually things are a bit more stable.

In spite of the instability or perhaps because of it, 2010 is going to be a big year for many if not most Capricorns. Capricorns born during the first 5 days of the sign will have the most to deal with from the stars, but others will see big changes as well. Capricorns around the same age as Obama will see some help from Pluto, who will be their best friend during the year.

Overall, though, it’s a year when things can change so rapidly that it’s probably wise to check your horoscope at least every month. This may even be the year to get your personal chart done, so that you can have a shot at figuring out what the heck is going on. Change can be very exciting, but it’s nice to have some kind of map as to where it’s leading you.

The month starts out with sun, Mercury, and Venus in philosophical and optimistic Sagittarius. This could have the effect of making you feel both philosophical and optimistic. Sagittarius is also the sign in your solar chart that indicates the need to rest and withdraw a bit before your birthday. Thus, you may want to take a day off to spend at home catching up with stuff or you may want to remind yourself not to push yourself too hard right now (especially if you’re dealing with nasty December weather!).

The planets in Sagittarius clash a bit with Uranus in Pisces in your more sociable and active solar 3rd house. The week of the 13th sees your chart trying to balance the need to go out and get stuff done with the desire to stay home and take it easy. The tempers of people around you may be a bit frayed that week, or you may feel yourself becoming a bit snappy. The feeling will pass.

Adding to the mix is Mercury in your own sign from the 5th of December on. Mercury in your sign generally indicates a lot of phone calls, errands, and minor tasks to keep you busy. Enjoy the attention you get this month, but avoid overcommitting yourself.

Finally, at the end of the month, there’s a lunar eclipse in Cancer. If this eclipse affects you, it will most likely affect a key relationship. Something may need to be changed, adjusted, or flat-out eliminated for your maximum happiness. Eclipses don’t always seem like they’re going to make you happy when they occur, but their long-term effect is to keep you from going down a path that wouldn’t suit you in the long run.

November is a heavy month, Capricorn, going from major planetary activity to your traditional season of withdrawal and the need for quiet time. The month starts out pleasantly enough with Venus in Libra wrapping up a tour of your 10th house of career  (Venus is in this sign from October 14 to November 8). Expect to be visible and even popular throughout the month, as Venus moves from Libra into Scorpio and your house of popularity for the rest of November. The Thanksgiving weekend may see your phone ringing off the hook, or alternatively, you may be the one reaching out to others.

Scorpio is also the sign that represents your hopes and wishes, and your wishing new moon occurs on the 16th. You may need it by then, though, because the day prior Pluto in your sign will have been in exact square to Saturn. To be blunt, this is a rather scary aspect, as it makes you examine yourself in the kind of deep and thorough way that most of us spend our lives avoiding. What’s truly important in life tends to come into focus during these major aspects, and what’s truly important is almost never the stuff we start out thinking it is.

As it so happens, Mars will be in your Pluto-ruled 8th house, and he may persuade you that you need physical or psychological healing. Wouldn’t be a bad time to enter a short course of therapy to reinforce your insights. I’ll put it another way, Cap. Saturn in Virgo has spent the last couple of years trying to get you all wise and stuff so that you could take your place in society in a visible and important way. This is the month when you need to call upon that wisdom.

As for the rest and withdrawal, the need for that will start as soon as that wishing new moon passes. Take a break, you will deserve it.

Career month for Capricorn, which also means be on your best behavior month. Your career new moon is on the 18th. This is the time to formally present any career initiatives you have in the works. At the end of October Saturn will move into Libra, putting an emphasis on your career for approximately 3 years, although there’ll be a bit of a break next year.

A full moon in Aries could also help you wrap up a domestic matter around the 3rd. Marital and committed relationships continue to be bombarded with some rather contentious energy via Mars in Cancer until the 16th. Capricorns involved in lawsuits or legal cases may see a lessening of tensions when Mars moves out of Cancer. As Mars moves into Leo, your solar 8th house will see more emphasis. The 8th house covers a variety of matters, including surgery and other procedures to eliminate toxins, etc. from the body. The 8th house also covers items such wills, estates, and other matters relating to inheritances.

Mars will be in Leo for a very long time, so if either of these areas need your attention, plan to handle things over the next 8 months or so.

More good money energy in September for Capricorn. I’ve been saying that all year and some of you probably hate me because you don’t think your money energy has been all that great. It’s always happens that for some there are other chart factors that interfere or that Jupiter is all coy and doesn’t make you as rich as you’d like to be. But still, your sign has it good compared to others.

And this month, Venus is in Leo until the 20th, setting up more good financial energy in your 8th house. And, if you’re convinced that you’ve haven’t been cashing in sufficiently thus far this year–you need to get to work on it. Write your novel or do whatever it is that will make you a mint. Use your imagination and your visualizing skills. Get on it. Next month Jupiter goes direct and you get a second chance at wealth or at whatever else it is that you value.

Oh yeah, Saturn and Uranus face off this month and Mercury’s retrograde. This mostly affects you in cadent houses and cadent houses are normally weak in showing their effects. Don’t worry about the astrological lingo; just know you’re getting off easy compared to a lot of folks.

Good news in August is that there’s a lot of nice earth energy in the sky this month, thanks to 3 planets in Virgo, a sign compatible with yours. Virgo represents the sign that your chart uses to plan out your future. What it wants in that future is stability. If you’ve already stabilized your life, then Virgo will be happy this month–although I must warn you that Uranus is going to try to de-stabilize it again next month.

Virgo is also your vacation sign, so don’t spend August sitting around the house. If you can’t get away for a long vacation in some faraway spot, settle for a short one nearby. Crowd a few people into the car and hit the road for a few days. Next month, it will be almost impossible to do so, so take advantage of the chance to sneak away while you can.

At the very end of the month (from the 25th on), you’re scheduled to be more visible, due to the entry of Mercury into Libra. This would be the time to put forth your professional ideas, as others are likely to like and approve of them.

Final note on the eclipse in Aquarius on the 6th. If you do travel, keep a close eye on your belongings as a lunar eclipse in your solar second house can be associated with a loss of possessions. Also, if you happen to be trying to sell your house, this eclipse may help you do it. Good luck!

A lot going on in July, Capricorn. First, an eclipse series in your sign starts this month (July 7, lunar eclipse). Eclipses put pressure on us (well, they’ll put pressure on you) to act on issues in your life that have plagued you for too long. What those issues might be only you know for sure (something to do with relationships perhaps?).

Over the course of the next year and a half or so, you’ll make changes, probably in fits and starts, that will resolve the issues and put you on a higher plane than you’d been operating in the past. If you were born within the first week of your sign, the pressure to act over the next couple of years will be intense, but you’ll be much better off for having faced what you need to face.

There’s also a lot of action in Gemini in July, and for Capricorn, that means a lot of activity on the job. Fortunately, most of the vibes at work are good, thanks to Venus in Gemini from the 5th of July on. You may even be in line for a nice honor; don’t be too bashful to accept it.

Conflict with siblings may also be on tap at the beginning of the month, as Mercury in Gemini clashes with Uranus. Putting a little space between you may help ease the tension. The other area of focus is partnerships and committed or contractual relationships of all kinds. There’s an eclipse in this sector of your chart on July 22nd. Things may be a bit bumpy in this area for a bit. It is possible that either you or your partner are outgrowing something in your current situation. If that’s the case, you’ll need to decide how to handle the growth. There’s no one right answer, and you don’t need to decide everything right away.

Well, we don’t have as much cardinal energy in June as we did in May, and for you that probably means things will slow down somewhat, become less active. Venus is still in Aries for the first week of the month, which indicates that until then there is still some pleasant energy relating to stuff having to do with your house. Since Venus is the planet of laziness and you probably need some down time, you can combine this influence with the book-loving Gemini sun to do some kick-back summer reading on your chaise lounge with a tall glass of iced tea by your side. Or something similarly indulgent.

The whole month is rife with indulgence-loving vibes for as soon as Venus leaves Aries, she moves into indulgence-craving Taurus and your let’s-have-some-fun-for-a-change solar 5th house. If things are going well (and I hope they are), you shouldn’t be lacking for money to enjoy yourself, for abundant Jupiter stations (gets powerful) in your financial sector, intensifying an already huge and persistent energy in this area of your chart. You shouldn’t lack for skills to cash in on your opportunities either, for Gemini in your job sector is a skillful sign indeed, and it gets along with Jupiter and the other planets in Aquarius. It is true that the Gemini sun may get into a brief argument with Uranus in your sector of daily comings and goings, especially since in general your solar chart this month would rather be coming and going to someplace other than work. But that will pass.

Mars in particular would rather have you pay attention to your kids and/or your lovers than work and co-workers. I agree with Mars. This is the first month of summer and what better time could there be to enjoy being young at heart whatever your age.

Saturn’s going direct in Virgo today. Take a look at this post if you want to see what that means in general. Below is information for your particular sun sign.

Here’s an example of how to do a short little horoscope for yourself using keywords. (I have a list of keywords on the Practical Astrology home page. Scroll down to see them.) Also, if this mini horoscope seems off, you can look at the one for your rising sign if you know it.

Okay, so our keyword for Saturn in Virgo is going to be gloomy or gloominess, since that’s what Saturn in Virgo has seemed to bring. If there are people out there not having a gloomy time with the Saturn in Virgo portion of their lives, they’re not telling me about it.

Virgo represents your solar 9th house.  A keyword for the 9th house is travel.

So Saturn going direct in the solar 6th house on May 16 could mean: a something to do with travel gets less gloomy for you. As in, maybe you are able to take a vacation finally. Another keyword is education, especially higher education. Your class load could get lighter as the end of the school year approaches, leaving you with a feeling of greater freedom.

Things like that can happen. Maybe not those exact things, but things like that. Again, take a look at Practical Astrology if these keywords don’t suit.

Big emphasis on home and family in May. Still. Venus and Mars in the sector. Still. Creating an odd combination of pleasure and conflict. Still.

This energy will ease off in June, but in the meantime, you’ve got Mars in Aries to contend with. Mars is just the kind of fellow who is happy to get all excited about something but just as happy to goad someone into doing something just because he or she knows that someone else won’t like it. So you get situations where the whole family goes out the to mall and enjoys a good mood (the mall because you’ve got big spending energy in May, Capricorn) until you spontaneously decide to go to a movie and then a huge argument erupts because you can’t agree on which one to see. Situations like that.

The other situation that continues in May is the super-big emphasis on money in your chart. This could mean several things. It could mean that you’re rolling in dough. Or it could mean that there is a very loud voice in your head shouting at all times “I need more money!!!’

Either way–your chart is primed and poised like no one else’s to make more money. So look for ways to do that. Even if you’ve already got a bunch. I’m not saying greed is good; I’m just saying astrological opportunities like this don’t come along all that often. The only thing you gotta stay away from is fraud and delusional get rich quick stuff that your sign is supposed to be too smart to fall for anyway. So don’t fall for it and go out and get yourself some more money.

One of the things that makes 2009 interesting astrologically is the large amount of time that Venus spends in Aries this year. For you, the Aries emphasis represents family in your solar chart. Venus as a rule symbolizes the human desire to achieve agreement and harmony, shared feelings, coordinated action and partnership. So that would seemingly mean you’d be spending a large amount of time in 2009 (including most of April through early June of this year) feeling all agreeably harmonious with your family.

The huge emphasis on Aquarius energy this year would seem to make that even more likely, even in financial ventures with a group of family members. Jupiter in Aquarius loves harmonious groups! But…Aries is an aggressive sign, and the only kind of group coordinated action it really resonates to is war action. It almost makes it seem as though your family (including extended family) will feel happiest if you all pick someone or something else to gang up on and get all hot and bothered about.

This is known in political circles as a tactic for increasing national cohesiveness by trumping up the dangers of a common enemy. It works pretty well and is not necessarily a bad tactic for getting through a crisis. If your family is facing a crisis, you might just want to help yourselves get through it by agreeing on something (or someone) to blame. This will be especially true as the month winds to an end (after April 22nd) for aggressive Mars himself will join Venus in Aries to cap off an extremely family-oriented month.

Before the 22nd Mars will be in Pisces, where it will be all grumpy and just itching to attack something. Short-term and short- distance travel aren’t really advised, especially around the middle of the month, unless you are hankering for a chance to yell at a rental car agent or something. Mars may be mad because spring hasn’t come fast enough, because your neighbors are devaluing your property by being all foreclosed on and stuff, or for no rational reason whatsoever. Mars in Pisces doesn’t need a rational reason to try to cause a feud with someone; it’s just a way of discharging emotion.

In other words, if you put the Aries and Pisces influences together, you get the rather unusual chance to choose your enemies to benefit the emotional health of your family. I’m not quite sure what to make of that, and this energy doesn’t occur all that often, so I leave it to you to make of it what you will.

The first emphasis in March for Capricorn is one on communication skills and activities such as writing, speaking, and interacting with other people. The sun starts the month in Pisces, the sign that represents your solar 3rd house of well, writing, speaking and interacting with other people. There’s a new moon in the sign on February 24; Mercury inhabits the sign from March 8 to the 25th, and Mars zooms in from March 15 through the end of the month. Uranus is there all month, too, as it has been for years. Basically, time to fire up the email, whip out the phone for texting, do some IMing, and generally chat your way through the beginning of spring.

One word of warning though (okay, well actually a few words of warning): Mars in one’s communication house can get a bit huffy from time to time. It can glare at a message in your inbox and take serious offense to it, snorting to itself–’who does she think she is, anyway, talking to me that way!’ It may be justified in its huffiness, or it may be suffering from oversensivity and hurt feelings where no offense was intended. Judge your own emotional reactions accordingly.

The conglomeration of planets in your solar 3rd house can be good for speeding up your thoughts (which recent scientific research shows is correlated with cheerfulness) and for forthrightly asking for what you want from someone. Other uses for the energy include learning a new sport (3rd house is good at learning; Mars is good at sports) or engaging in sports with neighbors and acquaintances. (Pisces loves to swim, by the way, so if you can take a short recreational trip to the lake, beach or river, a number of the planets would thank you.) It’s also good for having casual get-togethers at your house (cuz Venus in your solar 4th house this month also makes this a good month for relaxing and entertaining at home).

The bottom line is that the more time you can spend flapping your gums or tapping the keyboard in March, the happier your Pisces planets will be. Next topic, faith in your finances. There’s still a lot of Aquarian energy zipping about in March, including a bit of Mercury and Mars as well as Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter and Neptune indicate the need for the faith, while Mercury and Mars (in the early part of the month) indicate the need for action. Saturn, meanwhile, indicates that faith may be a bit hard to come by (perhaps for good reason, as Neptune can be a deceptive planet) and that all financial matters should be thoroughly diagnosed by a responsible professional.

Saturn will not be in Virgo forever or even for all of the year (Saturn holds much of the blame, if you want to give it to him, for the real estate downturn that has been a major factor in making the economic news so gloomy). He’ll move into Libra soon enough, but there he’ll be in conflict with Pluto in your sign, and you won’t have as much support from Jupiter or Mars next year. So the time to act on your own financial behalf seems to be now!