The Sun enters Aquarius I (which Austin Coppock called The Mark of Exile) on 20 January 2024 at 9:07 am EST and departs on 30 January 2024 at 5:13 am EST. While ruled by Saturn, this part of Aquarius is administered or governed by Venus, and thus it represents a type of cold, passionate desire that might be characterized as fury. We shouldn’t wonder that the International Criminal Court is in session in The Hague, really — nor that women have spoken so prominently in their criticisms… nay, prosecutions… before the Court.

The Mark of Exile speaks to this. In Hellenistic-era communities along the Egyptian Mediterranean, this was the season of Dike (sometimes called Dike Astraea from her appearance as the constellation Virgo). Pronounced Dee-kay, she was the goddess of justice and fairness — less the spirit ruling over capital punishment, and more the deity of weights and measures, or responsible treatment at the Department of Motor Vehicles, or a fair hearing from the Planning and Zoning Commission in your town about your new patio. We tend not to think about what government is for until either we need it, or it harms us in some way. Yet Dike presides over the cars, wheels and axles of this particular chariot — the one which assures us of reliability and resilience even if not always of efficiency or excellence. It’s said that when Dike presided over mortal affairs, we lived in the Golden and Silver ages — but she departed in disgust when mortals learned to sail and became greedy for the products of foreign shores through piracy and war. It’s worth remembering that good government and justice is neither guaranteed nor promised to all — but that even the ancients recognized that envy and gluttony begot robbery and villainy that equity and law could not restrain on their own.

The first decan of Aquarius is associated with the Five of Swords in the Tarot, showing a man with three swords overcoming two other combatants who have dropped their blades and abandoned the field. T. Susan Chang called this decan Winners and Losers, while the Golden Dawn taught its members to call it The Lord of Defeat. The name Mark of Exile may arise from our awareness of the story of Cain and Abel, but it certainly carries the notion of a prophet or hermit in the wilderness, reminding us that the systems of human self-governance are subject to change, if we only recognize that the existing systems do not serve us well.

The dodecatemoria, or twelfth-parts, of each Zodiac sign, also speak to this awareness of the need for change. The dodeks of Aquarius I are Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, and Taurus — signifying knowledge that the existing order is poorly conceived and executed, going back and forth through various other notions of how the system could be redesigned, finally setting fire to the parts of the program that do not serve, before resting in contentment in the new order (whether it be good or bad). It’s not dissimilar to the journey of the founding fathers of the United States, who finally understood that independence from Britain was the only option for personal freedom — or that of Thanos in the Marvel superhero movies, who chose a monstrous course of violence in service of what he believed the cosmos needed. We may not always have the right answer about what the world needs, to have certainty — and zeal — about our course of action. Alas.

Planetary Placements

The major event in this chart has sort of already occurred — the annual conjunction of the Sun with Pluto began at 29° Capricorn and continues over the next few hours as Pluto also ingresses to Aquarius. The outermost (dwarf) planet of our Solar System, to me, is often a symbol of the whirlings of the commercial economy and the flow of trade and exchange — while the Sun is the symbol of our higher minds or collective unconscious at work. Capricorn is Saturn’s night house, while Aquarius is the realm of Saturn by day. Already I’ve spoken to clients with several sleepless nights behind them (and ahead of them), and I myself have rested uneasily — but, to borrow from Ursula K. LeGuin, Capitalism seems inescapable, but so did Divine Right of Kings. Historically, it’s difficult to tell how Pluto in Aquarius behaves differently from when he’s in Capricorn, but the last time Pluto entered Aquarius it marked the beginning of an unprecedented wresting-of-power from wealthy aristocrats and handing it to peasants and laborers during the late 1780s and ’90s that we call the French Revolution today — and the time before that marked the great convulsions that wrested power from the great and powerful and handed it to peasants and laborers which we call the Protestant Reformation. The timing is not exact, unfortunately — Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg nearly twenty years before Pluto entered Aquarius — and yet the tempo, and the violence, of the revolt against Christendom’s leadership, picked up considerable speed and virulence after the Plutonian ingress. 

With the Sun here, there’s a sense of watching the crisis begin to unfold in real time — and to understand it with all the clarity that a rational mind can bring to bear on the situation. It should not escape our notice, either that — with the help of enormous bombs — Israel is bringing sunlight down into Hamas’ tunnel system (more than 450 miles of underground passages) riddled under the towns and landscape of the Gaza Strip… and yet it’s the Sun who goes on into Aquarius alone to stand in the isolated and lonely twelfth house, while Pluto follows afterward, lingering a little while still in darkness — and yet in the company of friends.

Those friends in this case are not entirely without plans of their own — Mars and Mercury will conjunct on January 27, 2024, a day that promises forceful and highly emotional defenses of positions of less than full intellectual rigor or depth. In the eleventh house, these claims are likely to be fraught and fragile like toxic masculinity — and it’s worth asking yourself if the emotional connection is more important than the rationally correct thing to do; or if the intellectual position is a hill worth dying on. It’s also a day on which we’re likely to find out who our allies are — and who will take the morally indefensible low ground for the sake of an interesting fight.

Venus takes a different sort of high ground, approaching the midheaven while standing in the third decan of Sagittarius in the tenth house — be on the lookout for the constantly repeated, creative stories of bosses and supervisors, that beat the horse to death but reveal an underlying structure of bony horror. I spent a lot of time traveling this past week, and this meant a lot of time watching TikTok and Instagram videos in airport waiting rooms, listening to stories about the economy and labor rights — and there seem to be a lot of companies telling stories about cutting back or limiting operations in some way… but it feels like a lot of amputation rather than first aid. Venus is a creative storyteller when in Sagittarius… but not all creative stories are true.

The Nodal Axis dumps its crap in the eighth house, but hungers for resources in the second — and the Nodes have just changed to the middle decans of their respective signs, Aries and Libra. The South Node invites us to understand the chains that link and bind us to our responsibilities in the marketplace, while the North Node encourages us to pick up the crown of our financial sovereignty and wear it. Sometimes, though, choosing power and seating yourself on the throne comes with inescapable restraint on how you use that power. Pick your headgear carefully this week.

The Lot of Fortune, representing a point in space chosen by relationship to the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant, is in Cancer in the fifth house, in the first decan called the Mother and Child. In the fifth house, this is particularly significant, suggesting that an awareness of the relationship between parent and child is essential to getting through the next ten days. So much of this relationship is about having fun while also teaching skills for the future, and presenting a face of safety and love. Cook and eat meals together with your family, reach out to your own parents where possible, and be a model of a nurturing family member. Remember that this also applies to your hobbies and casual pastimes — nourish what you want to flourish.

The Moon in Gemini in the fourth house starts this week waxing and in the Fifth Mansion of the Moon called The White Spot. Promising goodwill, safety, and peace at home, the Moon invites us to enter a gentle relationship with our families this week, and to treat the home as a place of intellectual insight where the fermentation of vague ideas into concrete, fruitful courses of action really begins.

Taurus currently plays host to Jupiter and Uranus retrograde in the third house, suggesting considerable unrootedness and turbulence in scheduling events with close friends and family, and unexpected turmoil in errand running and local affairs. Many of the choices with long-term effects require generosity and mercy; while numerous smaller decisions with nearly microscopic results, require tedious overanalysis, dawdling, and delay.

Saturn and Neptune anchor Pisces in the first house. As hard as this is to say, we’re all likely to face a great deal of dithering when it comes to making our own choices for ourselves. Even though there’s all sorts of things going on requiring decisions, and most of all action — we’ll find ourselves wrestling with structural inequalities, limitations and boundaries — and challenging circumstances that seem to sweep away our decisions even as we’ve finished making them. It’s a week for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but do your best to set your direction, even if you can’t get quite all the way to the destination.

Houses nine, eight seven, six, five, and most of four have a lot of indicators in them, but none of the objects or beings of traditional astrology. There’s a sense here of picking and choosing your own course of action, and selecting happiness first of all — but recognizing that when you REACT to situations, you’re mostly on your own rather than having the support of the planets: choose your course of action, wait before responding to outside stimuli, and think before acting on what others tell you.

Horoscopes by Rising Sign

Decan I of any sign (usually covering the 21st of the month to the first of the following month) is free to all visitors; Decan II is only available to Patreon and Ko-Fi.com subscribers; and Decan III is available to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and MailChimp subscribers.

I recommend reading your Sun sign, Moon sign, and Rising sign for best results. I write them with rising sign in mind, but several people have told me they find that they do better with all three.

Pisces: More than any other sign, you get to be the initiator and instigator of new adventures these ten days — but it comes at a price. You have to know what it is that you want to do, and you have to be prepared to seek it out despite all sorts of turbulence in the water of your life. Friends are going to cancel on short notice: do you blow up at them, or calmly reschedule? How do you use the sudden time-gain usefully to advance your home, professional, and social goals? What will you do to entertain yourself when you can have anything? What will you do to create new power and develop a new task force for your goals in your professional life? 

Aries: You may feel guilty about being money-hungry this week, but you may also find that you have a brilliant new hat. This off-again, on-again love affair with your entrepreneurial tendencies is getting old: are you really starting a business, or merely trying to monetize a hobby that you will loathe the moment you do it for pay? Professional matters are likely to suck, but you should define some personal learning goals (or at least a travel destination that you’re going to get this job to pay for your trip) and figure out what you’re getting out of this job besides a paycheck. Nurture your home — your house or apartment is a natural spirit whose nature is shelter, and if you treat it well, it will be your shield in these trying times.

Taurus: Family matters disrupt your routines with your inner circle. Long expected shifts still cause micro-disruptions and change the landscape of the future for the next six months — and the result for you will be some tumult with friends and allies, some travel and new learning experiences… and some creatively acquired new responsibilities. Will there be money attached to these new obligations? Perhaps, but that depends on a mix of your goodwill and inner peace; and on your ability to play the mom to disparate allies and friends at varying levels of intimacy in your life: bring together your soloists into a task force, and you’ll make a great improvisational leader.

Gemini: You’re going to be living a very public life in the next ten days, in which you’ll be setting some of your major long-term goals and displaying them to your friends and allies. You’re going to do fine, in part because you’ll set on-duty limits and boundaries on yourself, and during off-duty celebrations you will be charming and delightful. But that set of boundaries are going to require creative partnerships and alliances that are not in your ordinary expectations at this time of year; and you’ll have to be “on call” in ways that people aren’t used to treating you. Treat these coming days as an important learning experience for what you want to do in the long run, and accept feedback even when you must reject critique.

Cancer: There’s some freedom to pursue your own goals, but there’s also a part of yourself that you’ve been failing to nourish and tend to. Give some of that tender milk of human kindness to yourself, and allow your alone-time to be home-time and cultivate peace for yourself in a place of contentment. A long-expected meeting with a friend gets canceled or reorganized, but the change makes space for an unexpected opportunity with a new friend. Some contentions may arise with your business partner or spouse; you’ll have to create a new way of burning the midnight oil or the candle at both ends to solve some problems — but it may be worth turning on your own interior critic’s megaphone, too. Shine a light on the flaws in your own responsibilities… NOT that you do them poorly, but that they ought not to be on your shoulders without your consent.

Leo: Break some of your personal rules and regulations around your daily routines this week, and shine a light on your more important partners and allies. Is how you’re spending your day actually getting in the way of your own success? Take a creative break, work with tactile but semi-natural materials like paint, bone, clay, leather, and sculpt (rather than draw) your vision of yourself and what you’d like to become. You can do this on your own, but if you intuit the right friend you can bring them along — either as mentor, or protege… Your employer may attempt to drop a few new projects in your lap, but I advise you to demand that priorities be set, in writing… or deliver those priorities to them in writing, and make them change your expectations (potentially in a legally actionable way for you? Maybe… not all bosses are jerks, but giving them opportunities to prove their humanity is good).

Virgo: More than other signs, you’re likely to be experiencing a great deal of reactive circumstances: you may have your own plans for the next ten days, but you’ll also be responding to circumstances that others create — and over which you’ll have little control. That responsiveness to others may get you into trouble, particularly when it comes to supporting your kids or pursuing your own hobbies. This doesn’t mean that you should abandon your pet projects or let your kids ride through the troubles on their own — no, you will benefit from the leisure time you enjoy! — but sometimes you just want to do a thing, and not solve unanticipated problems. Relax and roll with the things that come to you as a result of others’ schemes… but don’t give all your time to other people’s problems either.

Libra: Trouble in paradise with your responsibilities, as there’s a shift at hand. You used to keep everything spinning and up in the air all at the same time… and now it’s a matter of keeping everything ganged and bound together. You’re used to wearing the crown… how does it feel to be clapped in irons? And how does it feel to have both at the same time? Being in charge has some incredible perks, but it also comes with tremendous deficiencies, not least of which is being linked to the processes and expectations of leadership — which involve arranging expenses and managing income, sorting and organizing the rules and their exceptions, and determining priorities. These next ten days require you to be considerably more creative in managing family matters, and home in particular shows signs of coming apart at the seams without friendly help; nor will you be able to enjoy yourself without criticism. In your daily routines, the more discipline you try to impose, the more likely that the flood will overwhelm. In your generosity, resolve upon changes in the near future, for yourself and others, so that you need not be both judge and prisoner at the same time.

Scorpio: Travel or learning opportunities beckon, but these journeys ought to be taken in companionship with a friend, a savvy money-earner and communicator. It’s your job to be the creative, crafty artiste who turns skills into wealth. This may create a series of disruptions in your romantic life, or bring unexpected intimate revelations — not of removed clothes, but of dropped masks and shared confidences. Discussing these issues on a rational level with your close friends may invite critique, but it’s up to you to turn negative assessments into favorable actions and the insights that produce wisdom: brothers or sisters or even your parents may help guide that conversation effectively.

Sagittarius: Despite plans to be in public and to demonstrate prowess and leadership, you may have to go deep private over the next ten days. Financial matters may hold your attention and anxiety — but you may have a mix of stresses, both having enough, and having more than enough that you don’t how know to manage. This is what comes with having a throne, though — you’ll have to get creative about addressing the criticisms that come your way, and accepting both the limits, and the opportunities, that wash over your family. There are errands you’ll be doing for family in coming days. Be hungry for “fun” in your life, but don’t neglect the work that comes your way.

Capricorn: “You are your network,” is the remark of the passionate and capable extrovert, who knows ten thousand people and is always in a position to say, hey, I know a guy… any time there’s an essential connection that must be made, no matter how obscure. Know anyone who can identify a statue of a Roman emperor solely by the decapitated torso? How about an anarchist buried deep in the bureaucracy of the health insurance company? And how about the stock market maven who can show you how to make the best picks for securing your fortune? Chances are, you have such a network, but you’ve been deliberately obtuse about activating the most necessary components of it, or sharing the parts of your routines and goals which would allow them to offer constructive feedback. Whether you wind your way by circuitous routes into these conversations (somewhat more selfish for you than usual, it’s true), or simply smash the walls with a wave of your hand as you down a glass of dark red wine… you can open up. You don’t have to. But you can. And it might help you restructure your daily routines for greater success, and happiness, quite suddenly.

Aquarius: This week, you have remarkable and unusual gifts for being able to rise first thing in the morning, and turn your enormous capacities of perception and insight on. Before you’ve even had your first cup of coffee, you’ll see through conspiracies large and small, and get a bead on the smallest detail. Your analysis and perspicaciousness will blow them all away. Of course… if no one else is up, it’ll be hard to turn off this mental modeling of the world, and — for lack of better targets — it’s likely to turn inward with a dose of toxic and unpleasant self-awareness that draws your attention to all the things that are not going well: the friends you’ve analyzed and criticized out of your life, the creative opportunities you’ve blown, the money you’ve wasted on structural projects that didn’t quite do what you planned, or the enthusiasms you didn’t quite bring to fruition. Eat this apple of Eden, though, with your first swig of morning caffeine — you have the capacities not simply to self-criticize, but to make and mend and rebuild the parts of yourself that you find wanting. There are few friendships beyond mending, and few projects no matter how ill-conceived that did not build the skills of observation and analysis that you have now. Cut yourself some slack, man — and find one thing, just one, that’s worth your time to repair or re-do, and do it… if only for the pleasure of completion.

Colophon

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If you want to read some of my astrologically-oriented poetry, the largest collection is called A Full Volume of Splendor and Starlight, available through my Etsy shop, and containing poems and hymns to the planets, constellations, decan deities, and Moon Mansion angels. 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.

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts. I also use Hugh Tran‘s Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.

I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.