Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.
~ Ralph Blum

The Sun and Moon, along with Venus and Pluto, are having a Board meeting in Capricorn. They're hammering out plans for the coming year, and strategizing about what resources will be needed to make those plans happen.

The Sun does this every year around this time, since the New Year happens while the Sun is in Capricorn. This year, he has the support of 3 others on the Board – the Moon, Venus and Pluto – and together they have an effective balance of male and female wisdom, as well as personal and transpersonal agendas.

The Moon is in detriment while in Capricorn, meaning it's harder for her to express her inherent nurturing, warm, sensitive nature in factual, structured, cool Capricorn. But there's also an advantage, in that the Moon can operate within an atmosphere of healthy boundaries and objectivity, which can bring stability and groundedness. So, this may not be the most snuggly experience but the potential is there to be less moody or needy.

Venus is now retrograde (Dec. 19 to Jan. 29) and also in Capricorn, where she desires stability and commitment, to be treated with respect, and to be taken seriously. With Venus being retrograde, you may feel like you're surrounded by people who are overly rigid, lacking in warmth, or too focused on the task at hand and not enough on the process of interaction that goes with it.

On the other hand, you may find this is a welcome break from highly emotional encounters, when you can pull inside a bit and just focus on the mechanics of what you're doing, instead of having to be emotionally "on" all the time.

Venus is still conjunct Pluto, although she is done with the exact passes for a while. These two were locked in a long one-degree embrace from Dec. 8 to 28, as Venus stationed barely 1° from conjunction with Pluto (Dec. 19).

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
~ Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

Pluto has been in Capricorn for... well, forever it seems. He started this journey in 2008 and will remain there for another 2-3 years, at which point he transitions into Aquarius during 2023-2024. On a collective level, this has been an intense period of transformation that has disrupted societal structures, expectations and traditions, with special focus on the role, power and abuse of power by corporations, governments, and other power structures. During this time, the public has become a lot more savvy about power dynamics on a collective level, in ways that few were decades ago.

As a result, we have become more aware of how we participate personally in those power dynamics, as well as how we are influenced by those dynamics. The pandemic and our reactions to it – triggered by the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto – have shown a dramatic example of this. The Saturn-Uranus square has also been a factor through this time, extending the Covid life cycle and ramping up polarizing reactions.

Pluto is still conjunct, but being abandoned by, both Venus (moving retrograde away from him in Capricorn) and Mercury (moving direct away from him in Aquarius). Venus and Pluto were conjunct on Dec. 11 and 25, while Mercury conjoined Pluto on Dec. 30. Venus and Mercury have also been conjunct – exact on Dec. 29 and within an 8° orb for about 4 days before and after (Dec. 25 to Jan. 2). However, Pluto is still conjunct both, and therefore provides a bridge between them, until Jan. 5.

In both cases, we've been challenged to take a deeper look at the world around us, and be aware of how we navigate through difficult situations mentally and emotionally. Has it been a difficult holiday season? Maybe you've been fluctuating between being open to positive feelings and wanting to be cautious about not getting your hopes up too much? Are you having a hard time being convinced that 2022 will be any better than 2021? How have you dealt with the temptation to succumb to disappointment, pessimism or fear?

One lesson we're still learning as Pluto remains in Capricorn is that the best learning, transformation and development happen slowly, in their own time. And that before something new can be born, something in the past must die in order to make room for what comes next.

The twentieth century will be chiefly remembered by future generations, not as an era of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical objective.
~ Arnold Toynbee

There's more to Mercury's story than his recent conjunctions to Venus and Pluto. For one thing, Mercury has just crossed into Aquarius and we find him in the very first degree of that sign. This is called a critical degree and denotes extra significance or strength. It also happens to be the degree where Jupiter and Saturn conjoined barely over a year ago (Dec. 21. 2020).

So, at the dawn of 2022, you may be thinking a lot about the big changes that were augured in 2020 from the multiple conjunctions of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. In particular, the Jupiter-Saturn alignment at the first degree of Aquarius began a new 200-year cycle of conjunctions in the cerebral Air signs, after 200 years in the get-serious Earth signs. These events seemed to offer so much potential for positive and transformational change, yet here we are still stuck in the Covid swamp.

So Mercury conjunct the Jupiter-Saturn degree suggests this year will require us to become more aware of what it means to shift gears into a different focus within the collective (Aquarius) and what we see as our role in that shift. Aquarius is the sign of the Water-Bearer, yet it is an Air sign, not a Water sign. It symbolizes how we can "carry" the essence of feeling, yearning and surrender in a container that is rational, intellectual and analytical. It is about the choices we make that are driven by feeling, intuition and mental focus, both within our personal awareness and within the atmosphere of the collective around us.

Mercury is now in the retrograde shadow, and will be retrograde from Jan. 14 to Feb. 3, partly in Aquarius and partly in Capricorn. Our awareness and mental focus seeks to find the transitional connection between those two signs—between the two signs ruled by Saturn. In part, this is about moving from a goal orientation to a vision orientation; from a future based on objectives to one founded on ideals. Capricorn is about what you want to achieve; Aquarius is about why.

In the last couple of years, there has been a lot of emphasis on the shift from Capricorn into Aquarius and the two sides of Saturn which governs them. Indeed, it is often said that we are gradually moving into the Age of Aquarius (although when that begins and what that means varies considerably among astrologers).

For now, it is our job to examine what this could mean – how Aquarius shows itself in our personal and collective lives, and what choices we can make that will strengthen, perfect and clarify our experience of that energy. Aquarius on one hand is associated with individuality, uniqueness and individuation from the collective. On the other hand, it is about our participation in that collective and therefore, ironically, about what we share with others which diffuses that uniqueness. And we are shifting into a new long-term approach to these themes that will shape and define who we become as a planetary population.

So, what would you like to see the world becoming over the next 200 years? You may not live to see much of that process but you are still a participant in what happens, whether you do so consciously or not, intentionally or not, optimistically or not. What can you choose to do this year that will support that vision?

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Speaking of planets at zero degrees of a sign, Jupiter just recently entered Pisces and is still in the first degree of that sign. In 2021, Jupiter split the year between Aquarius and Pisces, and in 2022 Jupiter does a similar dance between Pisces and Aries. It's not until Jupiter reaches Taurus in May 2023 that he stays put all the way through one sign.

• Aquarius from Dec. 19, 2020 to May 13, 2021
• Pisces from May 13, 2021 to July 28, 2021
• Aquarius from July 28, 2021 to Dec. 28, 2021
• Pisces from Dec. 28, 2021 to May 10, 2022
• Aries from May 10, 2022 to Oct. 28, 2022
• Pisces from Oct. 28, 2022 to Dec. 20, 2022
• Aries from Dec. 20, 2022 to May 16, 2023

So, Jupiter does 3 stints in Pisces in 2021 and 2022. Pisces is a transitional sign at the best of times, closing out one trip around the zodiac and melting into the start of the next one in Aries. Jupiter carries us through this transitional theme as he dances back and forth from Aquarius into Aries. It is an extended reminder that transformation never happens in a straight line, but meanders hither and yon as it traces the uneven landscape of change.

For now, Jupiter is focused on the (re)birth part of that process, being situated at the initiating degree of its own sign. It has precious few aspects to other planets – an exact semisextile to Mercury (30°), a quintile to Uranus (72°), and deciles to Pluto and Chiron (36°). Jupiter is also square the Lunar Nodes (90°) which becomes exact the day after the New Moon, bringing a sense of conflict or resistance to the direction we feel we should be heading into.

Jupiter's dominant relationship to the rest of the chart is through aspects from the quintile family (division of the circle by 5 and 10), and actually forms a quintile-based aspect figure with Pluto and Chiron. Quintiles are about struggle that leads to creativity and creative problem-solving, so Jupiter's message seems to be, "Don't be distracted by a longing for easy answers. The most important and fulfilling answers to your questions and troubles will be found in the subtle complications and complexities of the problem itself."

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?"
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Last but hardly least is Saturn who rules the Capricorn New Moon from his other sign, Aquarius. Saturn is still square Uranus after their last exact pass on Dec. 24, and remains within an 8° orb until March 10. These two will continue to play out through 2022, coming as close as 0:37 on Oct. 4, 2022 and stays within 8° from June 2022 to Jan. 2023. It seems we are not yet finished with the Saturn-Uranus square, nor they with us. I think it's safe to expect continuing polarization between following the advice of authorities within the collective versus rebellion from it in an effort to preserve a sense of independence and autonomy.

In the New Moon chart, Saturn is exactly semisextile to the Sun and Moon (30° apart), which emphasizes their connection beyond simple dispositorship. Saturn being in Aquarius, along with Mercury, sends back a similar directive to the New Moon cycle that Mercury does - an incentive to explore our ideals along with our more mundane goals.

This lunar cycle in Capricorn isn't just about creating goals, resolutions or decisions that can be broken down into steps to get from one end of the year to the other. It's also about identifying the goals and steps that will speak to the longer-term future, and will benefit more than just ourselves.

Saturn is also at the midpoint between Venus and Jupiter. This suggests the way to access these two feel-good planets is not so much through belief in some cosmic Santa Claus, but through clear, deliberate actions and decisions that gradually build up a supply of goodwill, comfort, and realistic faith in positive potential.

Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self and never living your own life or knowing who you are.
~ John Bradshaw, Healing the Shame that Binds You

In addition, there are some interesting alignments via declination. Saturn is tightly parallel Venus, which draws an additional connection between our future vision and the re-visioning we're doing through Venus. This is especially so in terms of stabilizing our resources (emotional, material, physical, etc), which can enable us to spread some love and support around to others as well as to ourselves.

There is also a tight triple parallel between Mars, Pluto and the Sun. This alignment indicates a strong transformational theme that can be made manifest through openness to a deeper level of who we are and our authentic selves. Much of this involves tapping into our passionate desire and intention for self-betterment and psychological healing.

However, this is no light and fluffy picnic since Mars and Pluto can be very demanding in their definition of authenticity. In the broadest sense of the word, this is about integrity; not just in terms of honesty and ethics but essentially in terms of integrating all the parts of ourselves, even—especially!—the ones that conflict. And the way we do that is through a willingness to allow ourselves to be human. In other words, imperfect in our quest for perfection, variable in our desire for consistency, and accepting that we are all a work in progress.

In addition, the Moon is Out of Bounds (OOB) by declination. Having an OOB Moon in detrimental Capricorn suggests this may not be an easy time to create a feeling of emotional safety or personal connection with others. At worst, you may feel disconnected, lonely, depressed, or emotionally flat.

However, this might not be a bad thing, since you may need to take a break from all the holiday hype and just find yourself a nice, quiet corner where you can just focus on taking care of yourself for a little while. So don't let your expectations of what you "should" be feeling or wanting or having, distract from the benefits of what you're experiencing just because it's not what you think you need right now. Listen to your inner intuition of what feels good.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
~ Anne Frank

This lunar cycle is about finding the positive in circumstances that may seem negative, discouraging or less than what you were hoping for. There's no shortage of difficulty in the start of this New Year, but there is an abundance of uplifting and encouraging promise there as well if you're willing to look for it.

The Sun and Moon in Capricorn are trine Uranus, daring us to look beyond the walls of our circumstances. Jupiter at the cusp of Pisces says there's a higher, more hopeful way to frame it that can carry you through the awkward parts. Mercury and Saturn in Aquarius encourage us to look to the greater good, not just our own personal needs and expectations.

The next update will be for the Full Moon in Cancer that will be full of thrills, chills and spills! The Sun will be conjunct Pluto, Mercury will be retrograde and conjunct Saturn, and Uranus will be stationary going direct. With its love of safety, comfort and caring, who said Cancer can't also be fun? ;-)

There is no such thing as an ending, just a place where you leave the story. And it is your story now.
~ "Muriel Donnelly" in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

© 2022-01-01 Wendy Guy. All rights reserved. Divider graphic by Gordon Johnson, via Pixabay.com.