Midlife Transits

January is Capricorn month. That means there’s an emphasis of the basics of everyday survival for everyone. Party time is over. An eclipse on the 15th highlights this theme. Attend to business, especially in joint financial matters, as the overall economic outlook is still rather difficult. Your ruler Mercury is also retrograde in this same sector of your chart that deals with marital finances, until right around the time when the eclipse takes place. This indicates that a reversal could take place mid-month. Hopefully, it would be a positive reversal, such as your spouse’s financial situation unexpectedly improving.

After the 19th, the emphasis shifts slightly to the less difficult energy of Aquarius, as the sun moves into that sign. In your solar chart, Aquarius is the sign that represents your beliefs, your spiritual practice, even your daily rituals. Time to get back to your meditation routine or whatever similar practice you use to calm your mind.

At the very end of the month, there’s a full moon in the creative sign of Leo. Leo in your solar chart represents skills, crafts, and daily self-expression. This would be a great time to complete a creative project or to indulge in some artistic play, just for yourself.

As for the year ahead, it’s a good one for Geminis with a scientific or technical bent (which many of you have). Energy in Capricorn, Aries, and Libra puts a focus on the more rational elements of life at which you excel.

For some people, December is a predictably stressful time of year. If you typically get overloaded, you might want to force yourself to meditate or otherwise slow yourself down and step back from the hustle bustle. A lot of excellent aspects in the detached sign of Aquarius will support you if you do so, and the exercise could be marvelously healing.

This is also the time of year when the sun is in the sign opposite yours. This indicates you see the best of people and you see the worst of them this month. A little marital tension is par for the course. Once the sun enters Capricorn on the 21st, you have permission to stay home and decompress for the rest of the month.

You may also want to make a note to sneak away and spend some time on your own on the 2nd, when there’s a full moon in your sign. Get yourself an early holiday gift, and just take a bit of time to check in with yourself.The new moon that symbolizes getting gifts for others takes place on the 16th; useful especially if you are not buying the same old gifts everyone else is getting but are choosing more unusual or hand-picked gifts.

Finally, there’s yet another lunar event this month. A full moon eclipse in Cancer takes place at the very end of the month. This sign has to do with your values, your tastes, and your income. Some will not be affected, but some will come to a realization regarding these matters or get some surprising news.

Health month for Gemini! The sun’s in Scorpio, your health sign. Time to eat those fruits and vegetables, get your annual checkups done, and all that jazz.

It’s also relationship month, starting on the 16th, when your ruler moves into your relationship sign of Sagittarius. We’re talking exclusive, committed relationships here, not casual dating relationships. Nope, the dating relationship sector of your is a whole nother story. In fact, your solar chart is now firmly opposed to casual relationships and it may start pushing you toward marriage, even if you don’t want to be pushed. Saturn is taking your relationships very seriously these days and this is NOT the month to be caught playing around on your girlfriend or boyfriend. Trust me on that.

Another possibility is that you will have some fairly serious matter to deal with regarding your children. Saturn in your 5th house of children is squaring Pluto in the middle of the month, and that’s a stressful aspect. Fortunately, things are better by Thanksgiving, and you should enjoy your holiday.

Friendlier skies for Gemini in October than in September. Gemini is a pretty darn adaptable sign but even so, there may have been a bit too much to adapt to here recently. October puts much more of an emphasis on simply having a good time, whatever that may mean to you, whether it’s indulging in a good book or doing a little entertaining.

Admittedly, money may be a bit of a stressor in the first half of the month, as Mars in Cancer wants to spend it, while Pluto in Capricorn wants to keep a tight-fisted and wary eye on your budget and investments. Pluto in Cap is anticipating tough times down the road, and perhaps he is wise to do so. He may be overly pessimistic about your personal prospects, but give him props for being prudent. As a heads up, Pluto’s scheduled to be even more financially annoyed in mid-November (by Saturn in Libra), so plan ahead.

On a related note, if you are worried about your financial future and feel the lack of marketable job skills, October’s an excellent month to invest in some education. It could be formal or informal, depending on your needs. Even some on-the-job training from colleagues could be helpful.

Finally, Saturn’s move into Libra at the very end of this month is a plus for you, and it puts the planet in a much easier position for you. Saturn is scheduled to stop bugging you about your family and start stabilizing your sometimes naturally volatile energy levels. That’s kind of nice.

Read this early and prepare. Change is coming and the universe is planning to kick up a fuss about it in September. In your personal life, this probably means that you need to get everything taken care of around the house to get things in good condition. Saturn’s leaving your sector of home and family at the end of September, and he wants those lingering problems taken care of pronto.

Unfortunately, he wants this just as Uranus in Pisces is planning to throw all kinds of wild cards into the mix to create chaos in your professional life. Planning and preparation are your friends. Make a calendar, make a plan. Decide what needs to be taken care of and how you can get things to run on auto-pilot while the skies go wacky.

Pluto also goes direct in September in your house of healing and medical procedures. Gemini’s who need surgery can make plans for that also now. There’s a lot of Virgo health-oriented energy in the skies, but it’s all out of kilter right now, so you may want to schedule procedures for after the 20th, when things are a bit calmer.

It’s Leo month, Gemini, and that means it’s time for living large. It’s also an Aquarian year, and that means it’s a year for thinking large. Transiting Chiron’s been working with Jupiter and Neptune to scrub your mind clear of limiting and narrow plans. If you’re still clinging to a limiting or fearful belief, let go of it around August 6, time of the lunar eclipse. Your chart wants you to think, plan, and dream big.

Depending on your personality that could mean anything from attempting to be more saintly, understanding, compassionate and healing in your dealings with others to a big push toward being a millionaire. And a whole bunch of stuff in between.

Now that big-hearted Leo energy is adding fuel to the fire, you can translate some of that big dreaming energy into your daily life and activities. Best time for turning over a new living large leaf would be around August 20, time of the Leo new moon.

Final random note: Leo’s the sign of the back, the spinal column. If you’ve got problems with yours, this is the month to get it fixed.

July sees a lot of planets in fixed signs, plus a lot of planets in earth signs. That usually translates into a big focus on security. For example, as the month opens, Mars and Venus will be in the stubborn and danger-hating sign of  Taurus. Saturn will be in the worrying and risk-averse sign of Virgo. And Pluto will be in safety-conscious Capricorn.

Sounds like kind of dull month, right? Wrong. Not only do we have eclipses on July 7 and 22nd (usually good for livening things up), we’ve also got Venus and Mars moving into your sign this month. Venus arrives on July 5 and Mars on July 12. Once these two get going, you’re likely to be so busy that you’re more apt to be tired than bored!

Change is on the way in your financial houses (an area where perhaps you wouldn’t mind a little more security) thanks to the eclipses. And travel may be on the way for those who respond to the lure of Mercury and the sun in Leo from the 17th on.

Geminis born during the last week of the sign can also grow through long-distance travel. If you haven’t booked your summer vacation yet, there’s still time. Get out of town and have a ball!

June is the birthday month for most Geminis, and this is a time of the year when you are typically slated to have a busy schedule. If you were born around the 17th of June, you may feel that your schedule is both overactive and yet oddly heavenly. That’s because Uranus will be squaring your sun all month at the same time that Neptune is trining it all month. Even those of you not born at this time could be singing in the rain like Gene Kelly one minute and weeping into your pillow the next.

This influences of this dynamic duo of outer planets get even more complicated when we consider that one of them is beaming its rays from your solar career house. You could find that your mood (and your career) is very much contingent on what other people do, rather than on what you were kinda sorta planning to do when you got around to planning things, which, if Neptune has anything to say about it, you haven’t actually done yet. For some Geminis, interaction with a mentor is what’s providing the drama. It may be an untraditional mentor, but if you can find one to latch onto, then latch.

Uranus is offering you a chance to engage in some productive experimentation, and sometimes the best motivation for that is to have someone’s footsteps to follow in. Makes the journey less scary or more exciting or both. To use another movie reference (from When Harry Met Sally), this is a good month to say ‘I’ll have what she’s having!”

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.

Saturn represents your solar 4th house. The 4th house typically represents a person’s home, nuclear family, or parents.

So Saturn going direct could mean less gloominess around something having to do with your home or family. Let’s say you want to move or need to move, but you just can’t because you can’t sell your house. Around the 16th, you are complaining furiously about your circumstances, when someone offers to rent it to you. After some Saturn-like number crunching, you realize the proposed situation would work. One less worry on your list.

Or let’s say the family atmosphere in your home has been deadly tense for quite awhile due to marital problems. Around the 16th, you call your partner’s bluff and have it out with him. He agrees that things are not working out between the two of you and you decide that he will live with his brother for awhile so the two of you can decide what to do next in a less gloomy atmosphere. He moves out, and you feel an unexpected sense of relief. Now you can think clearly and deal with your problems logically in true Virgo style.

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.

May has its rational elements for you Gemini folks and its irrational elements. Irrationality comes courtesy of the sun traversing Taurus and your irrational solar 12th house until May 20. It also comes courtesy of a huge triple conjunction involving irrational Neptune, bouncy Jupiter, and mysterious Chiron in the sign of Aquarius. These three placements will gang up to encourage you to make the most irrational and yet strangely pleasant and optimistic decisions regarding your long-term future that you can possibly imagine.

Just as these three planets are pushing the benefits of irrationality, the sun will move into your own hyper-rational sign. The result is that you may come up with some incredibly good ideas. If you’ve ever had a hankering to solve all the problems of the world or maybe the just traffic problems in your own neighborhood, you may find the insights just pouring in. If you were born around the 17th of June, you may be almost on fire with good ideas.

Not only will Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron be in good angle to your sun but Uranus will be squaring it. If ever there was a recipe for being insanely creative in your thinking and blending the rational and the irrational into one deliriously insightful package, this would be that recipe. It’s almost like you’ll be able to see everything at once, from a personal to a global scale.

Whether you’ll be able to do anything practical with all this mental stimulation I’m not sure. But it’s bound to be an interesting month however you slice it.

The month begins under the influence of a new moon in Aries on March 26th and the sun in Aries through April 19. The sign of Aries represents your social solar 11th house, which indicates that your planets are inclined to have you be, well…social. The full moon on April 9th is pretty social for you also, falling as it does in the solar house that governs your love life. Venus is in Aries at the beginning and the end of the month, generally indicating more sociability.

Things get more interesting and complicated, though, when Mars enters Aries on April 22. Mars in Aries is more a stir things up type vibe than an uncomplicated socializing one. In your solar 11th house, it often has a tendency to want to play itself out in terms of a grand idea or hotly contested cause, as in encouraging you to get into heated political debates, just because you’re feeling bored and you’re good at that sort of thing. Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius in your solar 9th house would probably love that kind of heated discussion, since they’re inclined to amuse themselves by contemplating big ideas about society these days.

If you just hate that sort of thing, on the other hand, it’s an influence that lends itself to raucous partying. If you like both types of activities, perhaps you could do both! If you can’t find an outlet for this restless energy, be aware that Mars in Aries is perfectly capable of  trying to pick a fight with your friends, just for something to do.

More complicatedness comes courtesy of the sun in Taurus at the same time that Mars is in Aries. The sun in Taurus represents your chart’s annual desire to just be a hermit, and, like Greta Garbo, it just wants to be alone.  The sun here also wants to contemplate big ideas, but they’re more of the spiritual or religious type than the political or social type. Personally, I think the sun in Taurus is outgunned by the more social planets this year and that you’ll be socializing away even if you kinda sorta want to just retreat. Last but not least, April also sees some residual career energy, so if you’ve got professional stuff on your to-do list, go ahead and tackle it.

Who you gonna call in March, Gemini? Your friends of course. Why? ‘Cause Venus is in the sector of your solar chart that governs friendship all month long.

As if that wasn’t enough, your ruler Mercury enters the friendship house on March 25, followed immediately thereafter by a new moon in the same area on March 26. Spring is busting out with friendship and socializing vibes! Here are some of the things that all this friendship energy likes:

Tea and gossip. Pool parties. Jaunts to the beach. Heading out of town to do some partying for spring break. Trips to the spa for sauna treatments, massages, and general beautifying. Any kind of ridiculous indulgence you can imagine, as long as it involves other people. No solo hikes to the mountain top to find yourself this month–the time for that’ll come later. This month, all you need to find is some willing co-conspirators.

Lest you think that March is all about luxuriating though, the time around the full moon in Virgo on the 10th of the month may well convince you otherwise. At this time, energy bunches up around your solar 4th house of home and garden on the one hand, and your solar 10th house of career on the other. The energies get all tangled up and annoyed with themselves. It wouldn’t be all that surprising therefore if you found yourself tempted to get quite angry or irritated at work or to stomp around your house sighing at the burdens you bear.

If it all gets to be too much for a bit, adopt a philsophical attitude. There’s more than enough energy in your solar house of adopting a philsophical attitude this year to get you through almost anything the universe can through at you.