Midlife Transits

How to get a job or how to keep a job. Those are the questions for January. There’s an eclipse in your job sector on January 15th. Eclipses can work so quickly that you end up saying to yourself ‘how did that happen?’ This is a new moon solar eclipse, good news for those of you who have been job-hunting for awhile. You may finally get the job you need.

Mercury is in this same job sector of your chart all month, and he switches from retrograde motion to direct right around the time of the eclipse. If things feel like they are going south at the beginning of the month, take heart, they can turn around on a dime in the middle.

But wait, there’s more. Venus is also in your job sector until the 18th, increasing the chances that you’ll get some sort of a gift or present from the universe in the job-related sector of your life.

At the end of the month, your annual full moon takes place. This can be a bit depleting, so you may want to stay home on the 30th, especially if mid-month was exciting and fast-paced.

As for the year ahead–well, let’s just talk about the first 6 months for now. You’ve got great energy from Mars in your own sign until June, plus, you’ve got Jupiter in the sector of your chart that deals with non-ordinary income. That means things like benefits, pensions, annuities, insurance payouts, royalties, etc. It seems that you’re about to get some sort of money somehow. That’s pretty good news. In fact, you’ve got one of the best year ahead outlooks of any of the signs. Be glad. I’m sure you deserve it.

This is traditionally one of your most enthusiastic months of the year, thanks to energy in compatible Sagittarius. This December, there’s a bit more energy than normal in Capricorn, which represents your job sector, so there may be a bit less enthusiasm and a bit more work to be done. The month also starts off with a full moon in your friendship sector (on the 2nd), which could bring an ending to a matter regarding a friend.

On the other hand, the annual new moon in Sagittarius takes place on December 16. This is the kind of new moon that could get you enthusiastic again. It’s good for taking up the study of something you find interesting (doubly so with Saturn in your 3rd house), taking up a hobby, starting a project with your kids, engaging in a creative project, or even traveling.

There’s also a lunar eclipse at the end of the month. This could signal a few different things. One would be a need to get off by yourself or with a few friends to go visit nature or otherwise refresh yourself by going on a little retreat. A lot of problems melt away when we take the time to engage our spirits instead of our minds.

Other possibilities include not noticing a dang thing or getting wind of something that relates to your occupation. This is part of a series of eclipses that has to do with your work, and changes may be in store in that area of your life relatively soon.

November starts out with a full moon in your career house that you can use to boost visibility if you want, but the real action of the month is in your solar 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th houses. Mars in your first house burns hot and urges you to put yourself forward. It’ll keep urging until early June so pace yourself, but don’t hold back.

Saturn is in your 3rd house for its first full month of the transit through Libra.  The third house is the house of relatives like brothers and sisters, and, for some reason, this area of your life is in conflict with Pluto in your job sector. I don’t know if this means you will be working when your siblings think you should be attending to family matters, but it’s not out of the question. The sun in Scorpio is transiting the sector of your chart that deals with your family of origin, and the aspects are kind of muddy there, so maybe something’s going on that you need to deal with.

The new moon in Scorpio takes place on November 16, and it occurs right in the middle of all the wacky aspects of the month. If your family life does not prove to be contentious, perhaps you will simply need to attend to some matters around the home. Of course, there are lots of other possibilities for this rather contrary month. Saturn in the 3rd could mean that you are doing a lot of reading or studying and that this somehow conflicts with your job duties.

For more possibilities, you might want to visit my other website Practical Astrology and look at the keywords for the houses listed above, as well as the planets Mars, Saturn, and Pluto. (Pluto’s the one in your 6th house.)

At the end of the month, Saturn moves into your solar 3rd house of short trips, errands, and daily goings out and about. For some this will mean that they’ll be busy when they wish they could have some peace and quiet, and for others it will mean that they’ll be bored and stuck at home when they wish they could be going somewhere. Either way, it’s a small price to pay for getting Saturn out of a financial house where he tends cause a lot of stress.

But let’s not think about Saturn too much right yet, because we’ve got Mars moving into your own sign on the 16th, plus Jupiter stationing in your 7th house on the 12th. Translation: for once, you may be able to get other people to adapt to your needs and your desires. That hasn’t happened in awhile. You’ve been having to do all the adjusting for quite a long time, and your partner’s needs and quirks may have been a bit strange, courtesy of Neptune in your house of committed relationships.

Maybe it’s all been good, all this adapting and accommodating you’ve had to do; maybe there’s been a lesson in there somewhere or a gift. Still, it’s nice to get a break, and I urge you to take advantage. Do something for yourself for a change.

Oh it’s all about the money in September, Leo. Full moon in Pisces, new moon in Virgo–both in your financial houses. Uranus and Saturn in these same houses facing off and calling each other terrible names. Sun, Mercury, Venus and Saturn all in your income sector. It’s all a harbinger of change to come. Saturn will finally leave your income sector at the very end of October, and that should be as welcome a change as planetary changes can get.

In the meantime, get yourself educated on financial matters if you haven’t already done so. Get yourself a book on getting out of debt, tax strategies, estate planning or whatever your problem is. Hole up inside the house and spend the Labor Day weekend reading it. You are so close to a breakthrough if you can wrap your mind around the ideas and knowledge that you need.

There’s good news and bad news in August. Good news–the long and brutal run of Saturn in your solar 2nd house is nearing a respite! The financial pressure you have been under for almost 2 solid years is going to subside for a while. Bad new–before it does, you have to run the gauntlet of an opposition between Saturn and Uranus next month. Prepare a contingency plan now in case difficulties arise next month.

On the positive side, once you get past September, you should know more about the real truth of your financial situation after a long period of uncertainty. Next year, Uranus, another planet that’s been trying to give you financial fits will even move out of Pisces for awhile and into a spot that’s easier for your chart to handle.

More good news. August marks the final eclipse in Aquarius (on the 6th) and that means less pressure on your primary relationships once that final hurdle is cleared. You may feel a bit more certainty on that front as well (unless you were born during the last week of the sign).

In fact, as we look ahead to the next 12 months in your chart things become more and more positive. Planets will move out of signs that are hard on your chart and into signs that are more compatible for you. Jupiter moves into Pisces (more easing of the financial pressure) and then Aries (good for your sign). Saturn moves into compatible Libra. And Uranus moves into compatible Aries.

There will be plenty of bumps and false starts along the way, but at least things are moving in the right direction.

Your partnership sector (read: your mate) has been the focus of so much planetary activity in your solar chart for so long, Leo. It’s as though there’s some never-ending situation for you to deal with–and yet things refuse to settle down and become stable. That’s still the case in July, although the fact that all the planets in Aquarius are now retrograde may make things a little bit less hectic. We can hope so.

In fact, there’s a lot of fixed sign energy this month, including the sun and Mercury moving into your sign. You may even feel like things are slowing to a standstill in some areas, although your social life should pick up this month. You may also encounter some surprising news about your job situation. Hopefully it will be positive.

The first few days of the month may be a bit wobbly as Mars in your career house clashes with all those planets in your partnership sector. Call on your friends for assistance if you need to. Other wobbly times are around the lunar eclipse on July 7 and around the solar eclipse on July 22nd. It’s unlikely that you’ll be affected by both, but there may be a general lack of stability in the air.

Things get better after the 22nd, and the last week of the month should see you feeling fine and having some fun I hope.

I’d love to tell you to take it easy in June, Leo, but you’re probably not going to. After the 21st, the sun will be in your solar house of ‘please let me get some rest,’ but Venus and Mars in your career house will not be tired. Mercury’s already in your career house as of May 13, so you’re probably already quite active with career matters. Mars in particular will want to keep you running when it comes to all things relating to your professional life, no matter how much the sun would like to take a break.

So…if you need to show people samples of your work in order to impress them, June would be the month to do that. In fact, after the 21st it would actually be preferable to let your work do the talking rather than you. If you can rustle up some behind-the-scenes career jockeying, the time for that would be around the new moon on June 22. The nice thing about all this is that with Venus at the top of your chart, you’re in line for some appreciative applause for your efforts. Leo loves appreciative applause, so that should hopefully make everything worthwhile.

On another front, if you’ve got kids or lovers to worry about, set a good example for them around the 7th of the month, as they are likely to be watching you at the full moon in Sagittarius.

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 2nd house. The 2nd house means money.

Not hard to imagine gloominess around money these days. So let’s say you’ve been struggling to bring in some extra money with a second job (that’s the kind of thing Saturn in the 2nd likes to do–have you work twice as hard!). So you get some seasonal part-time work. But you’re slow (Saturn) getting paid (2nd house). Around the 16th, whoever you’re working for gets the kinks worked out and the money starts flowing in. Maybe not a gusher, but at least some.

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

Spirituality is likely to play a big role in any decisions you make in May, Leo, even if you are not otherwise in the mood to be particularly spiritual. The full moon on the 9th of May occurs in the deep and mysterious sign of Scorpio in your solar 4th house of the soul. So we have our spiritual theme right there. But wait, there’s more!

There’ll be a big triple conjunction of Neptune, Jupiter, and Chiron in Aquarius toward the end of May. That’s a pretty spiritual trio right there, and Uranus in Pisces will also be at the same degree one sign over. Uranus in Pisces leans toward the spiritual as well. The spiritual energy is just all over the place.

Furthermore, most of the action takes place in the angles of your chart, where influences are most likely to affect you. The sectors of self, family, career, and partners are all getting energy at once. If you were born during the last week of your sign, you are even more powerfully affected. Nothing to do I suppose but search your soul and act from your highest purpose.

If you need more money (and your chart says you do), April will be of interest to you. The money problem in your chart stems from two things. One is Saturn in Virgo in your personal money house. Saturn is notoriously stingy here, although he can also be useful.

The second money problem your chart has relates to your partner’s finances, which are just as notoriously unreliable. Lately, they’ve been not only unreliable, but problematically so. If you haven’t got problematic partner finances to deal with then it’s likely to be things like taxes or debt or big expenses or other annoying obligations. April’s astrology can’t do anything about those two problems.

But it can do something about your career, and in the world of Leo solar charts, the career is a potentially big money maker. Your personal career new moon for 2009 takes place on April 24. Note the date and follow the money or the opportunities for money or the career opportunities or basically anything you can spy out of the corner of your eye that looks like it might mean money or career enhancement somewhere down the line. This energy is good for a couple of weeks, so jump on it.

If you want to be super-smart, use the days preceding this new moon to think real hard about what you can do to take advantage of it. You’ll have Mercury (thinking planet) in Aries (planning for the future sign in your chart) until the 9th. After that, you’ll have Mercury (still thinking) in Taurus (your career and money sign).  You’ll also have Venus (money planet) in Aries (planning) for much of the month. If that doesn’t sound like your chart’s in ‘show me the money mode’ then I don’t know what does.

Thoughts of love. They just keep coming for Leo in March, mixed occasionally perhaps with thoughts of strangling those you love the most. This is all due to the crazily high level of activity in the sign of Aquarius during the first part of 2009. Mercury’s been in Aquarius off and on since January, and he doesn’t leave until March 7. Mercury is the thinking planet, and Aquarius is your sign of significant others and one on one relationships. Hence–thinking about relationships.

But there’s also Mars in this same sign (February 4 to March 15), the planet of anger and occasional desires to strangle people. But then there’s Jupiter in Aquarius, too, all year. Jupiter is the planet of really big thoughts about relationships, as in ‘maybe I love you so much that it’s time we got married’ type thoughts. Or sometimes just the opposite, as in ‘maybe I’ve just realized that I need to be free of you for awhile or maybe longer’ type thoughts. Either way, your chart is spending a whole lot of time contemplating love.

Which is kind of good, because the rest of your chart is busy worrying about money. Fortunately, although all issues are not necessarily resolved, things are supposed to be considerably better for your chart financially in March than they were in February. In fact, if things go well, you should have the opportunity to push your case forward, especially around March 8, March 18, and then again in April. The most likely cause of financial friction is some uncertainty surrounding a partner’s finances, which is causing hardship for your own. Some of you may actually have experienced a robbery, theft, fraud, or a situation in which you got ripped off in some way. If battles have been brewing, they may not be resolved right away, but take heart in knowing they will eventually be resolved.

On the good side, you may have traveling on your mind as the month closes. Mercury will team up with a new moon and Venus in the sign of Aries, starting March 25. Mercury is a traveling planet and Aries is your traveling sign, so you just may be able to sneak out for a bit of a vacation toward the end of the month if you play your cards right.