New Moon in Aquarius: Astrology of 1/30 – 2/4

This is truly a dynamic and exciting week with our transits we have going on!  Saturn and Neptune form an exact aspect this week, and a few days later the Moon will be new in Aquarius, right at the midpoint of Saturn and Neptune. Mars will square Pluto, Venus trines Uranus before Venus moves into Capricorn, and Mercury in Aquarius aspects Jupiter in Sagittarius.

We all have struggles as individuals and as a collective, and this week is like a quickening in addressing and transforming issues through breakthrough and new willpower. There are three important shifts you can help facilitate. 

One shift is becoming necessarily disillusioned (of a negative fantasy, such as something being impossible, or projecting tons of story onto something at the cost of seeing what is actually there). This is not the kind of disillusionment that relates to depression but more like a disillusionment that feels like a relief and an opening, where new realities that are more aligned with truth can form. 

The other shift is the decision to take accountability for what triggers and activates us, where we were more routinely blaming an outside source. When we are able to step back, look within and ask at the deepest soul level “why” something bothers us, we actually gain insight about things like our purpose and gifts. This can be a time of dropping judgements and moving into a space of discovering what parts of ourselves looked like before we suppressed them and put them into shadow, and how being triggered is a way that our subconscious communicates to us that something within is wanting to be transformed.

The last shift is connecting or remembering to connect to the things you do that spark greater life in you. These states not only give us the energy to be happy but they give us the energy to imagine and ground into reality heightened potentials. 

When we are too consumed by problems or allow them to grip our psychic states, we often end up perpetuating them.

When we connect to the deepest wellsprings of soul happiness, connection to the Earth, connection to the numinous, we often also touch a desire to help the planet, because from this heightened place we can really feel beauty and we want to empower it.

We are so highly conditioned to imagine that someone else or some institution is going to be what shifts and helps the world, but as we do that we project our own power onto others. Personal evolution does influence the planet, and being who you really are does actually have an impact. Being who you are necessarily translates into doing your dharma – your inspired contributions to reality are extensions of you.

Being who we really are is an act of discovery and it often does entail the realization that life is happening with us, and not to us. So when we ask “why” and drop our judgements, magic happens. When we ground our most heightened ideas into action or into our personalities, we are bridging heaven and earth.

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Here’s our week:

January 31, 2019

Saturn in 14 Capricorn sextile Neptune in 14 Pisces: 7:15 AM PDT

• It can be important with Saturn-Neptune energy to become disillusioned of some fantasy which is causing suffering – the places we experience wishful thinking but are in denial about it, the feelings we have that we self-censor in our own journals, the situations or relationships we are refusing to see for what they are. Losing the fantasy doesn’t mean we settle for a less appealing reality at all – it actually makes space for us to connect to something more resonant. 

• There is a difference between delusional standards and high standards worth considering.

• Saturn and Neptune were square in 2016, which related to more serious confrontations with disillusionment for many of us. This time, because it is a sextile between these planets (a soft aspect), the way we are experiencing disillusionment may feel a lot more gentle and also like we are doing something preventative – getting out of a fog now (if we so choose) instead of years down the road.

• This is also a time that we want to marry our dreams with practicality and methodical execution. Instead of just wishing for something, this transit is a push to actually create some plans and carry it out. It might be as simple as altering your environment so you are more inclined to accomplish your goals (such as you desire to cook more, so you organize your kitchen and make it more appealing to you, or you desire to write more, so you make your office a place you’d actually want to spend time in, etc.)

February 1, 2019

Mars in 21 Aries square Pluto in 21 Capricorn: 8:20 PM PDT

(Image: Laura Bifano)

• Anger or irritation may more clearly trigger shadow work (revealing unintegrated parts of ourselves or parts of ourselves we do not own). When we feel irritated or angry asking why can actually yield breakthroughs at this time. 

• Our relationship to anger can transform and become more empowered if we inquire into it with some intention. People whose anger causes them to do things they regret as well as people who don’t feel anger and instead suppress it and are complacent with situations that cross their boundaries in some way are both examples of a more disempowering relationship to anger. Being able to feel the heat and channel it is a form of self-mastery that is a higher expression of a Mars-Pluto contact.

• With the Sun and Mercury in Aquarius as this happens, there can be a way that while our unconscious impulses arise we find ourselves witnessing them rather than just being reactive. This can allow us to be more intentional.

• We may struggle with unconscious reservations about why we can’t do certain things – we more or less assume we can’t. These stagnant points can break open this week and we may feel the impulse or inspiration to move past our own limitations by taking a leap of some kind and experiencing our own courage.

• If you struggle with an imbalance in heat (too much anger, or lack of motivation) it could have something to do with your body’s energy type and your diet. If you want to learn more about Ayurvedic eating and how to use food and spices to heal imbalances, Eat Feel Fresh by Sahara Rose is an incredibly accessible modern guide to approaching Ayurveda. (I totally apprenticed myself to this book, read it cover to cover, cooked out of it a bunch and it changed my life.)

February 2, 2019

Venus in 28 Sagittarius trine Uranus in 28 Aries: 4:41 PM PDT

(Image: La Vie d’Adèle by Abdellatif Kechiche)

• Venus-Uranus contacts offer us the ability to decondition from our normal way of relating (to ourselves and others) and to have spontaneous Venusian experiences that enliven us. Situations off the beaten path can show up to entice us and show us where we have become overly-conditioned.

• Venus-Uranus contacts also reveal to us the nature of resonance – the ways that we really vibe with some people at certain times and also fall in and out of connection with people. Allowing this to happen can open us up to greater authenticity in our lives.

• With Venus and Uranus both in fire signs, some of the spontaneous experiences the week holds can have something to do with adventure – getting outside, traveling, making new friends, connecting over a shared sense of enthusiasm and passion about something.

February 3, 2019

Mercury in 18 Aquarius sextile Jupiter in 18 Sagittarius: 2:54 PM PDT

• This is a beautiful transit for having epiphanies and revelations! Whatever we personally do to get a higher perspective (getting outdoors, going for a walk, seeking knowledge, plant medicine, meditation, etc.) can be places where new understandings of situations reveal themselves, where we were before just on the ground about it or inside of these situations.

Venus enters Capricorn: 3:29 PM PDT

Venus will stay in Capricorn until March 1.

• Venus in Capricorn can highlight the more dry landscapes of love – like how do we show up for life when things are hard? What are our values when it might be the hardest to stick to them – what traits endure?

• When we are able to love and endure through wintery experiences, it builds our character in a way that is bone deep. We might find ourselves feeling attracted to the qualities in others that show endurance through hardship.

• Though Capricorn relates to our activities out in the world and can relate to external acclaim and success, these symbols are only meant to reflect and not replace an inner-sense of authority and value. You may be in a cycle of karma where you are recognized and appreciated in a significant way. Or there might be ways that you feel you are not recognized for the work that you are doing or the value you are cultivating. In either scenario, staying true to yourself and the work you are engaged with will foster a deeper sense of self-esteem than looking outward for validation will. (Love and receive the validation, too, of course 🙂 you’re worth it!)

• There’s no need to harden to external validation or not ask for support if you need it – but remember that sometimes what life puts us through to go through alone are the gems we get to keep after. One time in a dark night of the soul experience a mentor told me that if anyone were to hold the weight for me it wouldn’t truly be mine afterwards. I know she was right. You can tell the difference between times in life where the support you need seems to be amply available and other times it’s more of a winter experience – and other times where you might need to challenge this perception, such as realizing there really is more support available than you thought – or realizing that your best medicine is coming from solo reflection when you’ve been leaning on people who don’t truly understand your situation.

• There’s no need to romanticize hardship or suffering. Personally speaking, I think it is better to cultivate happiness and wellbeing as a general modus operandi. However, difficulty and hardship arises, and these are times where we are tested to stay connected to life and to ourselves rather than checking out. How much have you loved other people for the difficulties they went through before you ever met them? How much do you love the prior version of yourself who came through the most harrowing experiences? These are part of the love language of Capricorn.

• Love your life more this Venus in Cap season by showing up to places and to the processes that are harder for you but that you know are good for you.

February 4, 2019

New Moon in 15 Aquarius: 2:04 PM PDT

This New Moon occurs at the midpoint of Saturn in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces; and is conjunct Mercury and Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius, and sextile Jupiter in Sagittarius.

At or within 24 hours after a New Moon is one of my favorite times for personal divination (like doing a tarot reading for myself, but any modality you are working with will do). It’s because the personality/character of the month is not visible yet, just as the light of the Moon is not. This moment of darkness is so imagistically fertile and mysterious. What messages come through during a divination can clue us into intentions or themes to be aware of, and we can watch them ripen into fullness by the Full Moon and see what closure arises by the next New. In this spirit, I’m detailing some of the personality of this Moon so you can cater your own rituals/divinations if you partake, however you are inspired.

• There may be places in our lives where the very structure of our perception is missing the point – like sifting for gold in a river with a wire net whose holes are bigger than our fists and nothing is catching. As long as we are unconscious of this, we are seeing ‘nothing’ where there is something. Or we are catching data we are not trying to catch. A way past this is Aquarius medicine: the novel perspective, the epiphany, the radical new pattern of thinking. This New Moon at the midpoint of Saturn and Neptune suggests that in order to materialize our dreams into reality we need insight. One who wants to clean the plastic out of the oceans need not to listen to stations of thought where this task is impossible – this person would need to tune into a higher source of intelligence and ask how the task is done. Invention arises here, when we are willing to look at a problem and channel a new solution.

• Another form of Aquarius medicine is the notion that a lens can distort what is actually there, and yet another lens can deepen our intimacy with what is actually there. How do you discern a ‘real’ thought? They do come – so ask yourself what it feels like when you know or when you are truly seeing.

• One way our intuition speaks to us in ideas or impulses that spark us. The more we engage with these cues and act on them, the more discerning and skillful we can become at navigating them and their timing. When we are overly conditioned to neglect our intuition, we logic or explain away our inspired ideas and settle for less inspired choices. When we act impulsively or out of alignment on what we think is inspiration, we might become jaded and less likely to try again. Seeking spiritual alignment and things like being in the right place at the right time are just attunements. No matter where you’re at on your journey of honoring your intuition, see if you can discover this lunar month how you are meant to align with your inspiration by actually doing the things it is inviting you to. How do you prepare yourself to be ready to receive heightened ideas and how do you honor the heightened ideas that come? ? 

Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! I really appreciate you being here with me as I know that if you connect to this writing we have likemindedness and that is so special.

Please let me know what you think in the comments – truly I want to know so leave a note! I love you and you are tribe to me, thank you for finding your way to these words and resonating with them in whatever ways you have. If you feel you would benefit from further guidance on your personal natal chart and transits, I am available to help! Book a reading with me here.

On another note, I’m becoming increasingly expressive on instagram and I love connecting with people there. If you use the app, follow me @sabrinamonarch and say hello ?

With love,

Sabrina Monarch

Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts, works with clients and teaches. She has been collecting astrological experience for over a decade. She is a novelist and is currently pursuing her masters in Philosophy. She also enjoys kundalini yoga, meditation and ashtanga yoga.

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