Midlife Transits

There are two different areas of focus in January for Scorpio. One is the little stuff, the stuff of daily life and the ordinary business of life. You may see a subtle or large shift in everyday matters around the time of the eclipse on January 15. It would be the structure of your activities that would be most affected. If your daily life is not affected, relationships with siblings, neighbors, or extended family relatives (cousins, etc.) may be.

The other focus has to do with residence and property matters, as Jupiter leaves your home sector on January 17. Scorpios who have been searching for a place to buy or an apartment to rent could get a lucky break this month. Some of you will also want to finish up home improvements before Jupiter leaves this area of your chart.

Career matters continue to be important, although there aren’t likely to be major new developments. This is a time to pay your dues in your career and keep momentum going.

As for your 2010, one big change starts this month when Jupiter moves into Pisces. This is likely to bring happy events, perhaps a new love affair, plans for children, progress on a creative project, or something else that you enjoy. In the summer, the focus switches to employment and health-related matters, but that’s a ways off, so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

December is eclipse month. A lunar eclipse in Cancer occurs at the very end of the month. Because eclipses can be felt over a wide range of times, you may notice something at the beginning of the month, at the end of the month or in late January. In a general sense, this eclipse is about giving up false beliefs, false hopes, false plans–letting go of something you think, rather than something you have or someone you know.

This is also money month for you thanks to Venus in Sagittarius and a new moon in that sign on December 16. Expect calls from people with income opportunities. If no one calls you, make some calls yourself.

This month has a lot of Capricorn energy, too. Mercury will be in this sign from the 5th, and it will go retrograde right after Christmas. Capricorn is the sign of shoulds, ought tos, must dos, and so on. It represents your solar 3rd house of words, and it is big on integrity. If you make a promise this month, you must keep it.  In fact, a big area of growth for all Scorpios is learning the power of keeping your word. That’s why it’s important to let go of plans you can’t or aren’t willing to follow through on.

Career continues to be important, with Mars in Leo stuck at 19 degrees for much of the month. If you were born in the middle of November, you are being challenged to do your best work.

You’re moving into a period when job and family will wrestle for your attention. Or, more accurately, career and domestic concerns in general will tug at you. The conflict is not unmanageable though, and, in general, your career should get more preference for the time being. Scorpios who do mental or intellectual work will find November to be particularly intense, as will Scorpios with 3rd house occupations, such as secretary, writer, PR, communications, transportation, knowledge workers, and other occupations related to Mercury. (You can look at my other website Practical Astrology for more keywords related to Mercury and the 3rd house. Scroll down for keywords.)

It is likely that you will be quite busy and you may feel that you do not have time for everything you have to do this month. When stresses get to be a bit much, use your home as your retreat; it is your place of healing these days. Doing chores around the house can help you unwind.

Of course, this is your birthday month and time for a party. Fortunately, you have better astrological support for a good time this year than you have since 2007, as grumpy Saturn has moved out of your solar house of friendships and socializing. Your birthday wish new moon is on the 16th.

Your Scorpio year ahead looks to be full of changes, as we have many more planetary shifts than normal, as well as heavy-duty outer planet influences to shake us all up and make our lives interesting. You’ll want to check back often during the year for your current horoscopes, for if there’s ever a year in which we could use a roadmap, the next 12 months are likely to qualify for that distinction.

Take care and enjoy your birthday celebrations!

Your sign finally gets a little personal attention this month when the sun moves into your sign on the 23rd. That should hopefully make you quite happy. Jupiter also stations this month in the part of your solar chart that governs your home. That should make you happy too, especially if you stay home when you want to stay home.

This little vibe also works quite well with the new moon in Libra on the 18th in your solitude-loving 12th house. Those of you who don’t love solitude all that much could take advantage of the nice vibes to do some entertaining, invite a few people over. Another possibility is to go with a friend (or lover) to some sort of spa or retreat. FYI, the whole happy home life/spa &retreat vibes begin in late September (around the 20th).

For those of you who must think about work instead of fun, there are a couple of things going on. One’s a full moon in your job sector on October 3. There’s a small possibility that a job-related matter will wrap up around then. In bigger news, Mars enters your career sector for an astonishing 8 month stay on the 16th. This is when you either start to receive the applause you’re due for career efforts or you start making efforts to earn that same applause. If you’re not that visible in your field, it’s time to start getting more so. Volunteer for highly attention-grabbing activities like public speaking or otherwise take action. This kind of a long stretch of career help from Mars comes along only very rarely.

This month is a strange illustration of the principle that big changes happen slowly and in little steps. Some of those steps involve moving backward instead of forward, as is symbolized by this month’s Mercury retrograde. You can use this Mercury retrograde to just let yourself be aware of the changes  that have been occuring over the last 12 months, slow and small as some of them may have seemed. If that sounds entirely too philosophical for you, you can also use it to get in touch with some old friends.

Or both. Your chart is anticipating major changes in your friendship sector as Saturn moves out of Virgo in very late October. Right now, these changes cause resistance and anger; later they will cause relief and a feeling of burdens lifted. In short, you’ve come a great distance with these old friends, and soon enough you should be able to see the ground you’ve covered.

Meanwhile, you’ve also got Venus in Leo this month. Good career energy! Socializing with the boss, praise, congratulations, or other goodies may be on tap. If you need career luck, get out and about and be seen. Don’t be afraid to show yourself in all your glory.

New moon in your career house this month, Scorpio. The new moon itself occurs on August 20. Before that, the sun will be in your career sign (Leo) and then Venus will be. Time to get creative when thinking about career options.

Sometimes Scorpio as a sign wants things to be black or white when the universe would prefer something entirely different like fire engine red or tartan plaid. Part of your job this month is to start looking for career colors you normally ignore. This can mean things like mixing part-time careers, expanding the range of what you do, tweaking your path, or devising ingenious ways to dodge a bullet. The economy has got a lot of people in a career spot these days, so creativity and flexibility are more important than ever.

If you’re already where you want to be career-wise, use the moon to do a brief ritual of gratitude. Many people are not so blessed.

Finally, there’s a lunar eclipse in the sector that governs your home and family. If you feel it, it would most likely be to say goodbye to something that you no longer need.

July is eclipse month, Scorpio. What this normally indicates is that you’ll be making decisions that could greatly alter the routines of your daily life. The decisions may not be easy, as there is a great deal of fixed energy in the skies, all of it clashing to some degree with your sun sign. Too much fixed energy could make you feel stuck, immobilized or even check-mated for awhile.

Some of you may feel resistant to change at the very moments when you know you need it. Still, whatever decisions you make, know that action is likely to be less painful than sitting around wondering what you’ll do if the doomsday scenarios in your head play out. This is especially true if your fears are financial.

Turning to a spiritual practice could help. Some Scorpios will even be joining a new church, as eclipses in the sector of your chart that deals with religion could open up new possibilities for you this year and next. Or you may be thinking of travel as a way to get away and get some perspective on your situation.

Finally, if you can turn your attention away from money issues, this is also a good month to think about your career and what you want to do with that.

Oh yes, there’s a big concentration of hot sweet energy in your partnership sector in June, Scorpio. With Uranus lingering in your solar 5th house of surprising love energy, some of you will meet up with someone new, and you will like the results.  There’s also energy in your sector of joint money matters, too. Time to pull out the stops and use your charm skills to strike a favorable financial deal with someone you’re close to.

If you act fast (before the end of the first week of June), you may even be able to butter up someone enough to land yourself either a new job, a better job, or an improvement in the job you already have. After then, Venus will leave your job sector for the year after a long stay, and you may notice the absence.

One thing you might do with a partner or significant other is indulge in some overseas travel. Your annual new moon in your 9th house of foreign travel takes place on June 22. If you go before then, be careful with your money. There’s a full moon in your financial second house, and every once in a while, this is associated with a loss of money during foreign travel. The 9th house also represents religion and church activities, so you may want to increase your participation in these kinds of activities.

Last but not least, Uranus is spending the whole month at 26 degrees Pisces, while Neptune is spending the whole month at 26 degrees Aquarius. The good news about this is that Uranus is set to deliver the insights and revelations, while Neptune provides the inspiration and the need for said insights and revelations. This holds particularly true if you were born in the days around the 17th. This is a good thing, so be grateful!

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.

This is also 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 11th house. The 11th house relates to friends and also to goals.

So, in the days around the 16th, you may feel the sense of gloominess subsiding around a friendship or, alternatively, you might feel lighter and free around your goals and hopes and wishes.

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.

May could find you feeling a little bit indecisive when it comes to partners. In fact, May could find you feeling a little bit indecisive about everything, especially if you were born around the 17th of November. First, we’ll talk about the partners. The sun will be moving forward in Taurus, your sign of committed relationships, at the same time that Mercury is moving backwards in the same sign.

So it’s kind of like your chart is one of those cats standing at the door, with you saying impatiently “Well, in or out, which is it?” Or you could be one of those cats that goes out (as for example with a person of your favorite sex) and then as soon as you’re out, you start thinking “Oh I want back in” (your cozy home). And then as soon as you’re back in your cozy home you want to go back out again. Kind of like that.

This isn’t exactly your fault. There’s a whole huge stack of energy right at the bottom of your chart (Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron precariously perched on top of each other) and all of it is squaring your sun. So you could be extremely happy at the same time as being extremely depressed or anxious at the same time as being confused as to why you are feeling a bunch of different things at once. Makes it kind of hard to make up your mind.

This too will pass, although not really until July or so. The reason you are indecisive, although it will be difficult for you to tell, is because your soul is processing like a gazillion tons of information below the surface of your conscious mind. This takes time and tends to put your normal thought patterns out of commission for awhile. As in being spacy and indecisive.

Having your soul process a gazillion tons of information all at once is actually a good thing, although you won’t, again, probably be able to tell until the entire fatiguing process is completed. But once it is completed, you’ll be able to make better decisions than you thought possible because you’ll understand yourself way better. Which is kind of cool.

There are a couple of energies I suspect you’re going to want to pay attention to in April, Scorpio. One is the Aries energy. There’s a new moon in this sign on March 26, the sun is in the sign until April 19, Mercury’s in it until April 9, and Mars from April 22 on. Meanwhile, Venus retrogrades through Aries until the 11th.

Venus then hangs in suspended motion at 29 degrees of Pisces for two weeks before moving back into Aries in direct motion on the 24th. If you know your own chart and have a planet at 29 degrees in any of the signs, pay particular attention to the energy of that planet. Otherwise, just take note of the abundance of Aries energy. The new moon in Aries will supposedly make you instinctively want to express yourself via a job, a service or volunteer project, through becoming more efficient, or by focusing on how you can maintain or improve your health.

Since Venus rules the appearance, it may also make you want to improve how you look as part of your health endeavors or as part of your efforts to secure a job. The best time for an appearance upgrade or makeover would be after the 24th of April. Whether or not you choose to get all Venus-y about beautifying yourself, the strong energy around jobs and health continues throughout April. I personally recommend taking advantage of it as early in the month as you can.

Then there’s  Pisces energy, which consists of the aforementioned Venus influence, plus Mars in the sign until the 22nd, and Uranus throughout the month. The days around the middle of April are particularly energetic. The Pisces influence is also supposed to instinctively make you want to express yourself, even re-create yourself, again in some sort of service-oriented way. You can see the trend–this is the month to figure out how you can be of service to others and perhaps land a job or improve your health in the process. Bottom line–what you want comes through contributing to others.

One final P.S. Pisces energy also relates to your children if you have any. They may benefit from involvement in service, just like you!

First off, I have to mention Venus in Aries. Venus entered Aries in February (on the 3rd) and it will stay in that sign all the way through the first week of June, with the exception of a two week vacation in Pisces in mid-April. What this means is that Scorpios who are job hunting in this tough climate are getting a lucky break, for Aries represents your solar 6th house of getting a job. Venus represents good fortune, not spectacular good fortune, but any form of good fortune is a blessing in today’s economy.

Venus’s position also indicates that the cause of job hunting is best served by tapping into your relationships. If you work the energy (i.e., put some effort into finding a job through your network), you have a much better chance than many of finding a position that you actually really like. Such is the power of Venus.

Scorpios who are not job hunting have the chance to experience a pleasant and enjoyable atmosphere at work or a pleasant spate of good health. Another possibility is getting involved in a relationship with someone at work or developing your work-related support system. The most potent time for this job and health energy is near the end of March, when the sun, Mercury, and a new moon on the 26th supercharge the vibes.

Another energy that’s in play all month (actually all year) is Aquarius energy related to your solar 4th house of home and garden. In March, Mars (your co-ruler) continues his transit through the sign until the 15th. This gives you a good opportunity to express yourself clearly and forcefully regarding any home or community related matters. An example would be forthrightly and successfully addressing any problems related to a homeowner’s association (4th house=homeowners, Aquarius=associations). You have Jupiter on your side in residential matters all year, so you have a chance to get some good work done around the house, even if there are no outward problems.

A third energy that’s in play all month (and again all year) is the Pisces energy in your solar 5th house of expression. Mars moves into this sector on March 15, joining Mercury and Uranus there. Some sample manifestations of this energy would be things like expressing your opinions (as in a blog), public speaking, writing down your feelings in a journal, painting or engaging in other creative arts. This is also a good time to give a presentation as you are likely to be more eloquent than usual. Even your emails, texts, IMs, and social networking posts are likely to be more expressive than the norm, especially between the 15th and the 25th.