Time for another astrology column. The Sun enters Aquarius (and coincidentally, Aquarius I), on January 20, 2020, at 9:55 am over my location. The Capricorn stellium is starting to break up, with the South Node, Jupiter, and the Midheaven in roughly the first third of the Sea-Goat’s sign (the parts Austin Coppock called The Headless One and the Pyramid), and Saturn and Pluto malingering over black, bitter coffee in the last third, called The Throne.

Meanwhile, the Sun, Mercury, and the Sign of Fortune have all crossed over into Aquarius, with the Sun entering the Decan that Austin named The Mark of Exile. With the Saturn-ruled signs coming into prominence at the midheaven and succedent positions, we can expect a lot of public challenges to career, and to our relationships with extended professional networks, in the next ten days. Oh, what joy.

Let’s look at the placements, and then consider the Rising Sign horoscopes, and see if there’s more hope offered here than in the initial impression.

Planetary Placements

As just mentioned, the Sun is in Aquarius, in the 0° position in the decan called The Mark of Exile. We’re in a place here where it’s easy to come up with big ideas… but nearly impossible to make them happen; and where the common wisdom looks at our concepts and thoughts, and mocks them or even outlaws them rather than pondering their implications: we are not merely denied, but thrown out. The Sun is quite uncomfortable here, in the overall territory of Saturn, in a place Saturn rules by triplicity, (and in the Egyptian terms at least), a bound ruled by Saturn). As Bertrand Russell might have said, “it’s Saturn all the way down!” Well… almost all the way down. Venus rules this decan, and though she’s got troubles of her own, she’s at least favorable to her current house-guest. So, if you’re feeling heavy and uncomfortable, with the weight of challenges pressing on your mind and heart… you’re not wrong.

Trailing the Sun by primary directions (the way the Sun moves across the sky from east to west), but leading the Sun through the signs in Zodiacal order, is Mercury. Like the worried dog in The Fool card, the swift-moving messenger planet circles the Sun in a tight orbit, providing both encouragement and counsel in dark times. Still, the times are getting brighter. Mercury will be in their own Decan soon, a place Austin called Heaven and Earth, where our brightest thoughts begin to find traction. Connected to the waning Moon by trine, Mercury will find the right language to express their ideas, and will be able to assist us by designing language that target our goals and market our proposals to our friends quite successfully.

Venus hangs in the late degrees of the Decan called The Labyrinth — a place with a single path, but where the twists and turns make it appear as though we’re lost. Although she’s an honored house-guest here in Pisces where she’s exalted, she’s co-present with Neptune the lord of vague plans and unclarified dreams. Square to the Moon and sextile to the South Node, she knows that she wants to pick a target, but is unclear where to direct the shot; and she also misjudges both wind and distance — her aim will not carry her arrow to her chosen focal point. Wandering back and forth in her labyrinth, she’s searching either for the center or for the exit — and the watery trickster invites her just to leave the road and walk diagonally: “Every place is connected to everywhere else if you just walk or swim far enough.” True enough, but not always helpful — our creative capacities are stuck in a lonely rut, in part caused by the boundlessness of the opportunities around us, and a multiplicity of targets too far away.

With the Ascendant in Aries, we’re likely to experience the ‘fire in the head’ of new ideas and grand capacities. It’s easy to begin something new right now; but it may feel like trying to start a new fire with some punky old wood — first it burns brightly, then it stutters, then you add more small fuel… It’s all very easy to begin, but hard to keep going.

Uranus holds a slow pace in the Second House in Taurus, bringing a certain amount of disruption to matters of portable wealth and easy money. The US financial markets are off to a great start this January — but ordinary people are likely to be suffering.

Venus’s troubles are magnified by her trine position to a conjunction of North Node and Imum Coeli (bottomof the sky) in Cancer. We’re all feeling the urge to nest, to make home, to dream big dreams about family and household — the nurturing of kith and kin grows huge in our hearts and minds. Jupiter’s opposition says, “focus on career and reputation first,” even though that’s an uphill struggle with the South Node dragging your leadership qualities through muddy places in Capricorn as Tenth House.

We find the waning Moon in Sagittarius, in the ninth house and the Twentieth Mansion, swiftly approaching conjunction with Mars. The Twentieth Mansion, imagined as the residence of an angel in the shape of a centaur drawing back his bow, indicates a need to learn with a targeted goal in mind; but also to establish boundaries with rivals, not simply for your own protection against them, but to avoid the arms-race and one-upmanship. The Moon begins this season in the Decan called The Poisoned Arrow, where her choice of favorable targets may not be ideal. However, the coming Mars conjunction warns of an upcoming provocation — and the need to bridle and direct your powers of attention where you genuinely wish to go, rather than to get pulled into brinkmanship over superficial issues.

Rising Sign Horoscopes

I think this is the first time that I’ve ever been able to write the signs’ horoscopes in Zodiacal order. Very much a first for me.

Aries: With poisonous captain, and career stalled,
it’s easy to shine your sweet light on mates;
a foe’s achievements seem to cut and scald,
yet focus on dreams your own heart creates.

Taurus: Reforging your self may take seven years;
for now, wealth grows when you take back prestige
from allies who’ve been all mouth, and no ears,
whose constant crises your own works besiege.

Gemini: Your spouse is driven to learn some new thrill,
while your own fame seems forlorn and diffuse.
But from broken pigs, their coins start to spill;
your career careens like an escaped goose.

Cancer: Nurse your dreams of home, though partner curtails;
fortune’s found on trips with forebears in mind.
Harness bad habits; put good ones on rails;
Retreats bring insight, both fair and unkind.

Leo: Recent illness can be traced back to work,
your partner reveals like a lightning strike.
Your fun’s upset by an odious jerk;
unsnarl yourself on a secluded hike.

Virgo: “We’re all connected” and yet you’re alone;
there’s urgent labor, while joy’s put on hold.
Seeking new household, your home is unknown —
subversive friends give you leave to think bold.

Libra: Your star now dims as your spouse starts to rise;
there’s turbulence among your kith and kin.
Money-making work wears pleasure’s disguise;
home is a mess, with little peace within.

Scorpio: A partner’s repose is in disarray;
while your coins are launched at other ventures.
Your tribe all lie low – are we hunted like prey?
Your dough rises from their due indentures.

Sagittarius: Tend the burn or wound with gentle habit;
keep account of coin, though wealth appears waste;
network with friends whose mind-fields co-habit,
at-home labors need reshaping with haste.

Capricorn: In public you appear to hold the throne,
but you got it by doling wealth to friends.
Claim back a portion of those favors done;
but to some rival claimants, make amends.

Aquarius: Some confidants seem to leave you behind;
Catch up, and claim gold, from the time well spent;
Woes loom large in a solitary mind;
cronies seek help with a naughty intent.

Pisces: Creatively, you seek a single path,
to places almost every road can go:
allies shield you from a rival’s fresh wrath;
work is dammed up, when you need it to flow.

Colophon

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces as the basis of some of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me. Any errors in these columns are my own.

If you want to read some of my other astrologically-oriented poetry, To the Mansions of the Moon is a collection of hymns to the angels of the Mansions mentioned in these columns. For the Behenian Stars is a collection of hymns to the first/brightest sixteen stars. The Sun’s Paces are hymns to the thirty-six Hellenistic-era deities and ascended souls of the Greco-Egyptian Decans-calendar. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.