Horoscope: January 21 to 27, 2019
Astrologer Pam Younghans writes this weekly astrological journal based on planetary influences, and offers perspectives and insights to assist you in making the best use of current energies. This column is not intended as prediction. Your own experience will be more specifically defined by transits to your personal chart.
Highlighted Aspects for This Week
All times listed are Pacific Standard Time. For Eastern Time, add 3 hours. For Greenwich Mean Time, add 8 hours.
MON: Mars square Saturn, Mercury conjunct South Node
TUE: Saturn semisquare Ceres, Venus conjunct Jupiter
WED: Mercury square Uranus, Mercury sextile Chiron, Mercury sextile Ceres, Mercury semisquare Neptune, Mercury enters Aquarius
THU: Mercury semisquare Jupiter
FRI: Mars trine Jupiter
MY GRATITUDE to everyone who attended my webinar last week! I appreciate your positive feedback, and also the suggestion to provide the slideshow beforehand for printing and note-taking. We'll make sure to do that for the next event in early July.
If you missed this class, where I talked about planetary influences for the next six months, no worries! You can still purchase the replay, calendars, and slideshow. Just send an email to
Now, back to the show.
WE'VE ALREADY been working with the influences of tonight's Total Lunar Eclipse for several days, and we'll continue to feel its effects throughout the coming week. In varying degrees, we will also work with the issues brought forward by the eclipse for the next six months, until our next pair of eclipses in July.
Here are the essential elements of the eclipse, which reaches totality at 9:12 pm PST tonight (Sunday, January 20). Some of these I touched on in last week's Journal, but all bear further exploration:
The Sun, Moon, Mercury, and North and South Nodes all in square aspect to Uranus and Eris. This is a powerhouse T-square configuration, auguring major changes in how we go about business in our personal lives and in the world at large. It can stir up considerable anger (Eris), and contains the seeds of new, revolutionary ideas that can alter our trajectory (Mercury square Uranus).
The Moon in Leo conjunct the North Node in Cancer. This is a North Node eclipse, which helps propel us further along our evolutionary path. Events that occur now -- even the challenging ones -- are integral to the development of positive potentials in the future. This conjunction across sign boundaries is complicated, since the fiery impact of Leo the Lion, King of the Jungle, does not merge well with the watery influence of Cancer the Crab, Nurturer and Protector. When fire and water combine, we tend to see a lot of steam.
However, in large enough quantities, water can also extinguish fire. We might see this Moon-North Node alignment as representing a greater shift that is occurring. This is the last eclipse of the Leo-Aquarius polarity, a cycle that has been with us since 2017. After tonight, all eclipses for the next 18 months will activate the Cancer-Capricorn axis. We are moving from an emphasis on masculine signs to an activation of feminine signs. The spotlight that has been trained on leaders and showmanship now begins to highlight public opinion and the protection of those who cannot defend themselves.
Mars in Aries square Saturn in Capricorn. Both of these planets are in signs where they are strengthened, so this square represents even further entrenchment in positions that are at odds with each other. In brief, Mars in Aries support the rights of the individual, while Saturn in Capricorn has its intentions firmly focused on a goal, and is determined to accomplish that goal, even if it means resorting to domination and control.
Venus conjunct Jupiter, conjunct the Great Attractor. Venus and Jupiter are both "benefic" planets, usually symbolizing qualities that we would call positive. When the two meet at the same degree of the zodiac, we might expect heart expansion that allows greater love and abundance to enter our energy fields. We could also anticipate enhanced creativity and beauty to unfold in our art and in our relationships. But with the two planets also aligned with the Great Attractor (GA), we need to add another level of interpretation to the mix.
The GA is a gigantic black hole that is highly magnetic. It is drawing towards itself our Milky Way galaxy and all other galaxies that are a part of our "supercluster." By astronomers' calculations, we are moving in the direction of the GA at a rate of 370 miles per second. But, at the same time, the GA is also moving through space, being drawn magnetically towards the Shapley Supercluster.
Astronomers also tell us that black holes are the source of all that is in their vicinity -- which means that the GA is in some way the source of our Milky Way galaxy. Symbolically, this inexorable movement towards the GA represents our ongoing evolution -- and our journey home to Source. And yet, at the same time, our Source is also evolving, being pulled to its Source.
All of that is a lot to digest! So what does it mean that Venus and Jupiter, at the time of the eclipse, are aligned with each other and also aligned with the GA?
I think it certainly raises all of those positive qualities mentioned earlier -- heart expansion, love, abundance, creativity, beauty -- to a somewhat cosmic level. We might experience this energy as heightened creativity and connection, either physically or metaphysically. It most certainly provides the energy and opportunity to expand our concepts of love, relationship, and beauty beyond the confines of mundane reality and human definition. We are transported in some way, if we can allow the experience to occur, and assisted in evolving to being more heart-centered than before.
(The energy of this alignment feels quite elevating, but not very grounding. I've had to stop twice while writing about it to get my brain back in gear so that I could keep the words flowing in some kind of meaningful order!)
Mars trine Jupiter. This aspect will be exact on Friday, but is also contained in the eclipse chart. It is another positive influence, one that enables us to take action (Mars) on our higher wisdom (Jupiter). There's not a lot of restraint about this combination of energies, especially with both planets in signs that they rule, and in fire signs. If we are on track with the positive unfolding of our reality, we can use this energy to catapult ourselves a few light years ahead of our current location.
Artwork by Sherri A. Nicholas, LMT, LPTA, EEM-CP
I DID A SHORT INTERVIEW with Elsie Kerns yesterday about the eclipse. Here it is:
{youtube}https://youtu.be/yoyTEwY5V48{/youtube}
The colorful graphic above the video is by Sherri A. Nicholas, LMT, LPTA, EEM-CP. She created it after watching the 15-minute interview about the eclipse. I'm fully impressed at how she captured all the individual components! And I am pleased to share her inspiring work with you.
Enjoy this powerful Total Lunar Eclipse and the week to come -- may we all reap the most positive blessings and potentials of this time!
IF YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK: As an Aquarius, your natural tendency is to be on the forefront of possibilities. You are the progressive thinker, and dedicated to new ideas and how they may come to be realized, usually for the highest good of the collective. But even progressives are challenged to think outside the box from time to time, often due to the need to incorporate the ideas of others. If your birthday is in the first half of the week, you've already been working with some of those challenges over the past year, and will continue in that vein for a few more months. If your birthday is in the last half of the week, you are entering a time of shifting energies that is likely to alter your course in some way. For all those who have birthdays this week, this is a time of reinventing yourself and some area of your life, so that it becomes a more accurate representation of your authentic self. This year relates to another time in your life, about 21 to 22 years ago, when you also experienced major change. Now it is time to take the next step in your self-understanding and self-awareness, so that the life you create from here feels even more fully your own.
About the Author
Pam Younghans is a professional astrologer, editor, and writer. She lives in a log home northeast of Seattle, Washington with her beloved animal companions. She has been interpreting charts professionally for over 25 years. If you are interested in an astrology reading, e-mail
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