Befitting the energies of Aquarius, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus the contradictions between dour challenges and exalted opportunities are particularly highlighted. And, once again there are great healing supports along the way.

These are not just operating on the levels of the mind, as the goddess asteroids are equally strong and placed. In a dynamic month, this movement will be operating on every level, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically in what in many ways will stimulate all our chakras.

Let’s see what we can make of this.

This multiple conjunction stretches from 5 to 15° of the sign and some of the archetypes are so dramatically different that it is difficult pulling out consistent themes from the symbolism. One that does stand out is about the gathering of great multi-skilled spiritual power and knowledge, both exalted and deeply grounded, seeking focused and expanded expression in the world. To make sense of this I’m going to compartmentalise some of these combinations.

The Sun and Jupiter are two of the great lights in our charts and they share the urges to expand, to shine and to integrate other parts of ourselves into conscious awareness. Together they represent one of the most positive, gracious and growthful combinations we can have in a chart, all of which in turn enhances the creative brilliance and genius of Aquarius. This part of ourselves is truly waking up, which can manifest as flashes or downloads of insight, expanded possibilities, innovative ideas and generally conferring a more positive outlook on the world.

Shedding their light on the fierce goddess Lilith (the asteroid as opposed to the Black Moon) presents great challenges and opportunities. Lilith is one of those places in our psyches that carries the accumulated pain, trauma, grief and rage that naturally emerges from generations, lifetimes and the long-term cultural suppression and denial of the feminine in all her forms. As this legacy also shows up in Hekate, her asteroid only 5° away and, in a hard square to the Black Moon in Taurus, then this is a time when the consequences of this will surface in different ways at this time.

The light of the Sun and Jupiter on Lilith supports us to see clearly into this often darkened territory, so that we can raise our awareness, take responsibility for and actively engage in their healing and the reclamation of this awesome goddess. Underneath her pain is a fierce spiritual warrioress for truth and equality, a tantric kundalini goddess and a love goddess who demands the highest form of relationship. These qualities are reinforced by the presence of Parvati, the goddess of the sacred marriage, only 4° away from her as well.

If you want to see an example of Lilith energy operating fully, check out the acceptance speech of Grace Tame, recently and rightly crowned as Australian of the Year. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-26/grace-tame-australian-of-the-year-speech-in-full/13091710

The Jupiter Saturn conjunction is still with us then but will have separated by the end of the month. As the Sun is closest to Jupiter, it will tip the scales in favour of this expansive giant, while Saturn remains a considerable force in conjuncting Parvati, Lilith and the Sun.

The Jupiter Saturn combination has us working with the polarities between conservative and progressive forces, stable earthy realism and growthful opportunity, wise counsel and youthful enthusiasm. This dichotomy is part of the reason why things can shift so quickly between feeling positive then suddenly not so, where things are going well and you are building up steam then hit some kind of internal or external blockage. This oscillation between positivity and negativity is a natural part of it.

Saturn is obviously the more serious of the two and yet he is a voice that encourages us to face our challenges, to get “thy shyte together”, to bring healthy discipline, focus and self-responsibility for manifesting our more expansive visions. Without a well operating Saturn, it is very difficult to bring anything in the world into sustainable form.

Jupiter’s role is to stretch our horizons beyond the norm, to inspire us towards greatness, to trust and follow our visions and, to step into life with faith and optimism. While this is difficult to achieve when there are other darker and more difficult processes afoot, Jupiter energy has a knack of finding a way to being supportive with whatever might be going on.

This combination first kicked in during the last weeks of January, which explains how unpredictable, destabilising and volatile this period has been. The Uranus/ Black Moon conjunction has been around for months and I’ve described this in previous columns as a kind of free radical influence around deeper and sudden change.

Mars then joined Uranus exactly in January 21st and then crossed the Black Moon on the 27th, the former having a reputation for sudden and sometimes dangerous outbursts of anger, rage and frustrated individualism, while the latter can ignite more ancient volcanoes filled with toxic distortions of both masculine and feminine origins in our family systems and in our culture.

On another level, the same symbolism points to deep processes of purification around anger and rage in general, as well as the reawakening of highly individualistic parts of self previously suppressed by family and cultural values. At its highest expression, this can represent getting our masculine warrior energy in greater alignment with the need for dramatic cultural change and with the deeper transformative and empowering agendas of the Black Moon.

How well this goes is highly dependent on how much work we’ve done on the deeper primal levels within ourselves, therapeutically and spiritually.

As for the multiple squares to the Aquarian stellium, this creates a heavy duty and volatile pressure cooker that requires both careful handling and appropriate outlets, physical and emotional, to release the pressure valves. Particularly with the dark goddesses and with Mars in the brew, we would do well to work directly with whatever anger and rage we carry in our systems. The more we can work on those levels, then the multiple opportunities of both Aquarian and Taurean conjunctions can become available to us.

There is also some quiet awesome support in this healing agenda, as all the Aquarian archetypes are connected by opposition to the healing goddess Hygeia in Leo, while most of them sextile Chiron the wounded healer in Aries. These two have been working in tandem for the last months providing consistent support for all dimensions of our healing and spiritual work, with both grace and focused spiritual power.

It also helps that Jupiter is in the middle of this entire dynamic, as his energy of offers a protective layer of benevolence that isn’t always obvious but often takes the edges off some of the harsher energies around, while lubricating our inner processes and encouraging us to keep faith as we do the necessary journeying.

This is another point of great tension that comes around every seven years or so, which actually repeats some of the dynamics between Saturn and Jupiter but with greater edginess, due to the more radical energies of Uranus. Once again, the voices of the past, positive and negative come into conflict with the need for liberating change.

Basically, this is where the revolutionary urge meets the hard reality of what is real and achievable. Simultaneously, the need for real change puts great pressure on the status quo, while challenging rigid, redundant patriarchal structures and beliefs. Uranus can provide us with extraordinary innovation and dynamic new directions, but its Saturn’s job to show what needs to be done before we can manifest anything in the world. This includes showing up what is simply impractical all the way to what is blatantly delusional. (Images of the US political situation comes to mind!)

While Saturn can be dour and at times boring even, when you get onside with him there is a curious sense of being really on track towards some kind of deep fulfilment. As the astrologer Ean Begg once said at a workshop I attended “Saturn doesn’t block, he delays”. In this context he doesn’t want to totally stifle the energy of Uranus, he is saying “show me what you’ve got and I will let you know if its do-able. If you haven’t done your groundwork, then nothing will come of it. But……. If you are on track, really on track, I will help you pull it together.”

Generally speaking this month, Saturn is saying, if you want the sacred marriage in your life, do the inner work. If you want to be a spiritual warrior, both gracious and fierce, ground your Jupiter and love your Lilith back into health. If you want to shine as a multiskilled medicine woman or man, use the light of Jupiter to mine the ancestral and cultural roots of Hekate and, the wise earth magician at the core of Aquarius.

As goddesses of the earth, of embodiment, the lower chakras and of magic, being highlighted in Aquarius offers another form of grounding To the Water Bearer, who can have a habit of being ungrounded and temporarily lost in their own upper chakra and intellectual brilliance, especially while Jupiter is equally highlighted this month. This speaks of chances to get greater movement between upper and lower chakras, of linking the wizard with the medicine woman archetypally, in what could be an awesome match!

Having Pallas Athena in the mix is also a brilliant, as she specialises in linking the deep feminine with her very focused masculine side of her nature. At a time when there remains so much periodic energy in the collective, having her, and Saturn, in Aquarius allows for a greater concentration and focusing of energy for effective manifestation in the world.

I know that many of you will respond with a groan to this news, not another Mercury retrograde where communications go haywire, words get fumbled, clarity feels like it has fled!

However, any retrograding planet calls us inwards around its operations and in the case of Mercury it is very much about going within, which can be done as an act of great wisdom, an opportunity to unravel significant mysteries of self and, a preparation time preceding more obvious for movement.

This planet of the mind goes direct motion on the weekend of the 21st (the very start of my next training, ha ah, I hadn’t seen that when I designed the course!)

What is exceptional about this particular transit is, if you look at the above list of archetype in Aquarius, by the time Mercury retrogrades to 11° of the sign, it will have conjuncted all of those archetypes, in ways that allow last to get more consciously connected with each.

This is a potent and challenging start for the goddess of love, conjunct in the transformative Pluto on January 28 and opposing Medusa on the 30th. The former process speaks of the deepening and empowering of our capacity for love, where love’s organic transformative power is highlighted, while the second talks about necessary confrontations with some of the often angry and wounded parts of self that resist intimacy.

On another level Pluto and Venus together though talks about assisting Medusa to open to her own beauty and love energy, by loving her up, by seeing her fully and not being frightened off by her scary face. Like with Lilith and Hekate, the task here to see the wounded witch inside ourselves for what she is; a rejected part of ourselves longing for reconnection.  And if by chance your Medusa is happy, then your love and sex life is going to be extraordinary at this time!

On the first of the month, Venus immediately jumps into Aquarius to spend the whole month progressively crossing all the same archetypes that Mercury will be switching on. Some of this will be fabulous and some of it will be bumpy because of the squares to be Uranus/Black Moon conjunction. Whatever the case, Venus support us to love all of them and to have our ability to love, expanded, deepened and purified.

Go well with all of this!

With love,

Daniel