This is a quiet and smooth week as Venus enters Aquarius on Monday along with the Sun entering Aquarius on Tuesday. This presents a nice energy for social gatherings, community activity, community or group activities, and technological insight, which includes such things as upgrades, changes with your software or hardware that you’ve researched for a while not. As Venus and Saturn are trine on Thursday, this brings the opportunity to ‘build something together”! Saturday and Sunday are the First Quarter Moon (often associated with building or adding a structure to things) and the Sun and Saturn are in great aspect together on Sunday. Saturn aspects can feel restrictive, but in reality, they are practical and allow one to put their focus on what needs to be finished or completely in order to move to the next level of evolution. Perhaps it is time to buy, prepare, or sell that house you’ve been thinking about.

Next week on the 28th of January (but we feel it this week), there is a nice aspect between Pluto and Vesta (an asteroid), whose name is embedded in the word, ‘investment’. Pluto represents the banks and monies and Vesta (the ‘goddess of the hearth’ representing devotion and tending) are in a good aspect to each other. This suggests news of money opportunities for those who save and invest.

This week ends with a mixed bag. First, Mercury, the planet of communications turns direct on Friday. It always takes a few days to get moving after direct motion and patience is important as this occurs. In addition, we have three other charged events this week. One of these is on Wednesday, the 13th, where Saturn finally retrogrades at 4 degrees Libra 39′. I usually love the Saturn retrograde, which continues through late May, because we always get a lot more done when it is retrograde rather than direct. However, it is true that the first two days of the week may seem very frustrating as Saturn does begin slowing down to put on the brakes as we attempt to plan our lives. Plus…we have an annular Solar Eclipse at 25 degrees Capricorn the following day.

The last time this eclipse hit here was January 15, 1991! If you reflect on those years, this brings another opportunity to enhance or complete what was then left unfinished.

The long awaited ingress of Jupiter into Pisces on Sunday brings extra joy to the day of rest since Pisces is the sign of gentle compassion. We are fortunate to have this cycle for a few months this year before it enters Aries in summer because it presents opportunities reconnecting our spirits with our dreams, visions and creative projects that often emerge with this cycle. Last time Jupiter was in Pisces was in 1998, 1986 and 1974.

This is the first official week of the New Year. In a few short days, we will have a Solar Eclipse at about 25 degrees of Capricorn. This is the time of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere, where things are cold and silent and may seem as though nothing is going on. However, there is a lot more than meets the eye.

This is the incubation period where we sit with ideas and thoughts and visions and turn them around in our minds to figure out the best way to birth them and bring them forth in the spring after Spring Equinox. The Solar Eclipse is associated with events outside of our lives — things happening in the public — and surrounding world leaders. The interesting thing is that the growing lack of resources, exacerbated by this eclipse and the fact that many planets are in Capricorn, particularly Mercury, which is still retrograde and beckons all of us to re-organize our budgets, spreadsheets and review what we need to release and what we keep.

In addition, Saturn, which rules Capricorn, is slowing down, getting ready to go retrograde as well very soon. That and Mars retrograde still in Leo suggest our entry into the New Year offers tremendous opportunities to delve deeper into what it is we really need versus what we really want. Minimalism in living and spiritual refocus are a very good plan over these next two weeks.

The Lunar Eclipse of December 31 exhausts our energies as a very special eclipse occurs at the 10th degree of Capricorn. Make sure you get plenty of rest during this time, because it also falls on the heels of the sobering aspect between Venus and Saturn on the 28th. The good news is that it happens AFTER that aspect rather than before. Lunar eclipses tend to be very emotional, particularly in water signs. The last one that occurred close to this zodiacal position was on December 30, 1990. It aligned then and now with the fixed star known as Facies, which represents ‘Two Faces’.

It is important to exercise caution during this time. Who around you has the face of loyalty and who around you does not? The ongoing Mars retrograde allows you time to include this factor in your decision making process that continues through February of next year. You will know more in about 90-days when the 90-day after the eclipse period begins, giving you further clarity and removing blind spots of behavior, which could include too much fixity and not enough flexibility.

At the end of last week, everything may have come to a halt — or so it seemed. With an added delay mechanism of Mercury retrograde on the 26th, things may seem to come to more of a standstill than usual. Jupiter’s alignment with Neptune (another rare configuration) screams for inspiration, which only comes from incubation, which is the one ‘gift’ offered by several planets that may be retrograde.

Jupiter with Neptune triggers a new 13-year cycle of imagination, music, the arts and with the Sun about to enter Capricorn on the 21st, bringing forth Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the celebration of the return of the light in ancient cultures, it promises quality inspiration a Venus also enters Capricorn on the 25th.

Quality is so much better than quantity and with this degree of planets in Capricorn and with planets retrograde it requires patience as you dive into deeper reservoirs of spiritual inspiration and release creative ideas. The windows open for creative thinkers in the New Year. Incubating in your cave brings forth a durst of energy at the end of January and February. If you don’t clear the decks, prune the trees in winter, you don’t have as wonderful a house or crop in spring.

Electricity and lightning are in the air this week as the Sun squares Uranus and beautifully aspects Jupiter on the 14th. Then Venus comes along on the 19th with another push to Uranus and sparks start flying! The New Moon of the 16th encourages relationships along with the rare Venus and Mars trine (triangles are great for balance) on the 17th. This along with the romantic combination of Venus and Jupiter (always brings expansive opportunities) is fortunate for those who are in the mood and ready.

Take advantage of the pink fog, because when Mars comes along on the 20th and begins its very long retrograde motion, well, it is time to re-think strategies, particularly those that began in the last couple of weeks. Mars in Leo and retrograde is NOT a happy retrograde Mars. Leo likes action and fun and is used to getting things done by sheer will, but when retrograde, may make impulsive decisions that only need re-doing when its direct motion begins sometime early in 2010.

It retrogrades once every two years and does suggest that the following eight to twelve weeks require further research and delayed decisions. In the end, though frustrating, it serves everyone, because energies are preserved than dissipated.

Learning curves are really important and this week highlights one of the big ones for the year as Mercury and Pluto come together on the 7th, forcing some issues that others are unwilling to address. In addition, Jupiter conjunct Chiron (another rare configuration highlighted in the 2009 Starcycles Calendar legend) AND Mercury and Saturn, requiring high levels of focus on the 7th, could put some play in the markets and your personal relationships!

Since it is a Last Quarter moon, which finishes out cycles, it might be time to close down a little early for the year and take a long needed rest. This week’s Sun Mars trine encourages more personal adventures that afford you the time to build personal relationships or that long needed workroom or exercise space. It may also encourage more physical activity to pull you out of the wintry doldrums. Much support is offered from mentors and teachers around the 13th-. Pay attention to what people tell you and listen rather than talk.

If you listened to your ‘wait and see’ voice from last week, this week positions you in a place where you are ready to go. Quirky and sometimes explosive Uranus goes direct on the 1st changing everything!!!! With Venus entering lucky and freedom oriented Sagittarius on the same day, you may be more inclined to run and take a vacation to think more clearly and get some space. Sagittarius is the sign of the Wild West and open spaces and it needs a lot of the same. It loves to travel, talk, exercise, have fun and work on possibility thinking inspiring people as it moves along the road of life.

The Full Moon of the 1st is another part of this magical week as all kinds of ideas, situations and people come to light or surface so that you can really ’see’ them and their motivations. This provides exciting possibilities for the impending holidays and people may be deciding on last minute parties honoring the energies of the skies.
When Mercury enters serious Capricorn on the 5th, you focus on the New Year’s resolutions and goals, maybe a little early, but that is okay. You include in your goals a strategy for paying taxes, saving money and costs as well as filing and re-organizing your very important work spaces providing for a more efficient new year.