JANUARY 2022 ASTROLOGY
A variegated white bougainvillea at the Proverde nursery, Santa Ana, Costa Rica. Photo by Deb
January is full of movement and shifts, as planets and points change direction, change signs and alter our perspectives. The New Year began with a New Moon on January 2nd at 12° of Capricorn. This encourages manifestation of something tangible in our lives, such as a new job, new relationship, new financial situation - something we can see and experience. This energy will be active for several days after January 2nd, so take advantage and connect with your desires through journaling, meditation and calling in what you wish for. Venus remains in retrograde for most of the month, inviting us to continue taking a step back to review, rethink and re-evaluate our relationships and finances. As is typical during a Venus retrograde, Venus joins the Sun in Capricorn once during the cycle, which occurs on January 8th. This is an auspicious time as this is the beginning of a new 8 year Venus cycle where the Sun, Earth and Venus align in the sky. Capricorn is an earth sign and a very serious one as it is ruled by Saturn, planet of commitment, rules and hard work. What have you been calling in? What would you like to manifest? This is a time for reviewing these matters and using laser focus to bring in what you may have been wanting for a very long time.
On January 3rd, Jupiter in Pisces will begin a relationship with the Nodes of the Moon, asking us to navigate towards our fulfillment and destiny using our intuition and gut instincts. On January 5th The Moon will join Jupiter in the sign of the fish and further put a stamp of intuition on matters. It’s important to sense our way through these days, rather than overthink our actions.
January 14th brings the first Mercury Retrograde of the year, which will last until February 4th. The planet of communication will begin its backwards motion in the sign of Aquarius with a challenging relationship to Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius. This can bring brilliant insights, sparks of genius and illumination into problem solving. It can also bring some agitation if you are not flexible in your thoughts. With Uranus, anything we don’t plan on can happen and we get to experience a powerful shift in thoughts and perspectives on January 18th when Uranus shifts direction, moving forward from retrograde. Since both Mercury and Uranus will have simultaneously slowed down, their dance will last several days as our consciousness receives an upgrade to higher frequencies. Afterwards, we may find ourselves more open to new thoughts and ideas, perceiving them in an illuminated way.
While this is happening, on January 17th a Full Moon will occur in the sign of Cancer, while the Sun is conjoined with Pluto. This is particularly powerful and transformative, especially since the point where Sun and Pluto meet is close to the point where Venus went retrograde and Mercury will station direct. This ties together both of these astrological events as we continue to receive new information that allows us to release the old blockages to relationships, finding value and wealth.
On January 18th we end a cycle of the Nodes of Destiny, which make their 18 month change into new signs. They leave Gemini (North Node) and Sagittarius (South Node) and move into Taurus (North Node) and Scorpio (South Node). The North Node in Taurus indicates an 18 month focus on finances, security, values, tangible skills and earthy matters such as nature and environment. The South Node in Scorpio reminds us to not solely focus on our creativity and passions, but to channel that energy into practical means.
The Sun enters Aquarius on January 19th, kicking off the season of the Water Bearer. The Sun is our life force, so in the next 30 days we will thrive by exercising our freedom, independence, liberated thinking and by finding the revolutionary, innovative spirit within.
On January 25th, Mars will enter Capricorn, an ambitious sign that Mars loves. It’s perfect for taking on work projects, planning new creative strategies and advancing one’s career. This is the first visit in 2 years for Mars and will prove to be a fascinating one as it joins Venus there for quite a while, which will be an amazing journey of the two planets together into February and March.
Venus will station direct at 11° of Capricorn on January 29th, after a 40 day retrograde cycle. Notice the closeness to the degree of the New Moon on January 2nd, this connects the two events and what you chose to manifest at the New Moon may be closely related to events that occur when Venus stations direct. As the planet of love, beauty, art and finance slowly moves forward, we begin to adapt to our new viewpoints that were revealed under the retrograde. We see how our world has shifted in these areas of our lives. When we change and clarify from within, our outlook changes as well. Our focus is new and fresh, we have released all that was an obstacle to deeply enjoying our lives.
