Living with the Stars

  And here it is, the first New Moon of the new calendar year. Notice how all the planets are above the horizon; Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Let's not forget Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The last three planets are not visible with the naked eye, and even if they were, being daylight it would be impossible to see them. The same goes for all the other planets. The lady leading the dance is Venus, who is in her morning star phase. The photo on the right was taken on the 9th Jan, just before sunrise.  So, what story is the sky offering us this New Moon? As with every new moon, it is a good time to make your intentions for the next two weeks. Being the new year, we all make our resolutions, even if it is only one resolution we make.  Just look at that line-up. The New Moon in Capricorn occurs at 12:57 on Thursday 11th and the whole dance is led by Lady Venus. Pluto, the planet associated with death and rebirth is at 29'41 Capricorn and is poised to enter...

  New Moons are excellent for setting intentions. This is all down to the old ways - it's about sowing seeds. My grandmother was an avid gardener, who always told me that seeds are sown during the waxing moon period. This is knowledge that people way back then had - they were in touch with the Earth's rhythms.  Today's New Moon occurs on 1 degree of Aquarius, the sign to do with ideas, ideology and is traditionally ruled over by Saturn the task master. In traditional astrology, Saturn was considered to be the greater malefic (it conferred hardship). Venus is very close to Saturn in the sky and if anyone has this aspect in their natal charts, astrologers would say that the native would be naturally cautious in their approach to relationships. Once friends are made, however, they would last. The Moon is still out-of-bounds, donning something of a wild card vibe to this New Moon picture, which means that it adds extra energy to this chart. Mars, the lesser malefic, is also out...

    This is the chart for the Full Moon of the 18 th January 2022. It occurs at 48 minutes past midnight – in Malta. This is a very particular Full Moon chart; both Mercury and Venus are doing their backwards walk (retrograde motion), Saturn and Uranus are disengaging from a challenging square aspect, and most notably, the Sun and Pluto are conjunct in Capricorn. This also means that the Moon opposes Pluto (because the Sun opposes the Moon, and the Sun and Pluto are within one degree of each other). This is going to be an intense time, especially because this Full Moon is a Cancer full moon. Cancer is the sign ruled by the moon, and in astrology, the Moon rules our emotions. Mercury and Venus are called the personal planets. Mercury tells us a little bit about how we effect communication. This planet is symbolised by the god Hermes, who, if you recall, wears a hat with wings, and also has wings on his feet. It tells us how we think. When Mercury goes retrograde, it can symb...

  We will hardly have had time to get over the New Year’s celebrations when 2022 is ushered in with a Capricorn New Moon. This new moon heralds in the new year with a Sun-Moon conjunction at 12 degrees of Capricorn after sunset on the 2 nd January at 19:33hrs. Significant is the nice and easy trine to the eccentric Uranus at 10 degrees of Taurus, which tells us that if we want to do things differently, the energy of this new moon is available to yours and sundry. All you need is some motivation to go for it, after all, the New Moon phase is a great time to get your plan into action.     With a Leo ascendant, the ruler of this chart is the Sun king himself, who, by virtue of being in the very organised and business-like Capricorn will find not objection to getting the house in order after two weeks of focusing on how to survive the festivities. That’s where Uranus steps in: out-of-the-box, pro-social attitudes towards responsibility (hey, the Sun King is in Cap...