Reconsiderations
Welcome to February, which should be a little less bumpy than the January that we left behind.
This month provides opportunities to see into ourselves in a new way and break free of habitual ways of interacting with others, if we remain open and humble. Flashpoints for insight — or for conflict – include power dynamics with others and our personal beliefs/values, so use Aquarius’ famous detachment to observe the dynamics and open the doors of perception.
The goal for February is to free yourself of old roles and patterns of relating that limit, oppress or confine you. Same goes for old values: if they feel like someone else’s rather than uniquely yours, it’s time to shed them. This is personal work that we need to do alone and it requires a bit of stocktaking and quiet contemplation. We often conjure some obstacle or authority against which to push so that we can clarify our feelings and ideas.
So be mindful of the limits and frustrations you encounter this month. They speak to the boundaries of your life: where you need to focus your energy to create new foundations that support you or where you need to broaden the definitions of who you are to truly be free. More directly, external challenges are reflections of inner dynamics: they reveal conflicts within you that need rethought, re-envisioned, or seen anew.
February provides a chance to restart your thinking about relationships, about your fears, about ways you limit yourself, about the balance/quality of inner and outer life, and about assumptions which need questioned. Take advantage of its gift of clarity.
New Moon – January 30th, 11 degrees Aquarius
This Aquarian new moon exposes tensions between being authentic, even if that means going against the grain on occasion, versus playing our accepted roles.
Each of us has roles we unconsciously slip into, especially when relating to others. With Pluto and Venus in Capricorn and Venus turning direct the next day, we need reexamine those roles and how they might limit us and restrict our capacity to connect with others. For instance, if your proclivity is to avoid conflict, do you find yourself in the role of the pleaser, accommodating others at the expense of yourself? Do you give up your power rather than speak up? Or perhaps you’re the diva who uses your anger or hurt to shut down your partner’s dissent or concerns: “You never support me.” Or perhaps you’re the responsible one, the parent to another’s child. Pay attention to the roles you and others around you habitually adopt.
Each role is a way to negotiate power, a strategy to get something one wants or to avoid something one doesn’t want. The pleaser wants everyone to like him/her and to avoid discord. The diva wants to manifest his/her vision and to avoid compromise. The responsible one wants order and structure and to avoid being wrong, whereas the child role wants the freedom to play and explore and to avoid accountability.
But all these roles hem us in. They all speak to times where we are unconscious, ashamed, afraid, or compulsive when interacting with others. We are checking out and letting habit run our behavior. The challenge, then, is to become aware of the patterns, to be wholly present, and to step into our power rather than hiding behind the safety of a role. It means being vulnerable and revealing yourself in all your freakish, flawed glory.
And it may mean doing the unexpected rather than the expected.
The sign of the new moon, Aquarius, is connected to innovators and iconoclasts. And this new moon find support from rebellious Uranus, planet of radical discontinuity and freedom, so the call is to be true to oneself even if it means ruffling a few feathers or raising a few eyebrows. Those who appreciate you on your own terms find your idiosyncrasies charming and could care less if you don’t follow the crowd. They will continue to support you as you fall in step with your own drummer.
Exploring your relationship to money, power, and what you value is also fruitful this month. Western culture encourages an over-identification with work, as if one’s work or career — and its recompense — speaks to one’s intrinsic worth. Unconsciously, money, power and worth become conflated. Unlinking one’s personal worth with one’s financial worth is one exercise to put into practice in February. Spend some time thinking about when you genuinely feel good about yourself and how you define success and power. See if you can align your happiness and feelings of contentment with your (new) definitions of success and power.
As this month asks you to own and define your power and individuality, take a closer look at your self-worth. Those situations in which you hide behind a role often point to insecurity, a fear that you aren’t enough or aren’t good enough. For instance, do you feel empowered enough to ask for what you want or do you feel you must strategize or manipulate to get your needs met? Can you find ways in which both parties can have their needs met or do you feel life is a competition, with distinct winners and losers?
Use February to contemplate how you might break free of the established roles and expectations that reduce your happiness and surround yourself with comrades who are in step with your values, what brings you pleasure, and support you feeling good about you.
February 6th – Mercury turns Retrograde at 3 degrees Pisces
When Mercury appears to slow to a stop in the sky and begin moving backwards, we have Mercury retrograde. This phenomenon occurs several times a year, so while there can be miscommunications and mixups — and technology frustrations — take any dire warnings about Mercury retrograde with a grain of salt. Back up your computer, double check your facts, repeat complicated instructions back to others to verify you’ve understood: these common sense approaches take most of the sting out of this period.
As is the case with every Mercury retrograde this year, Mercury starts in a water sign and then returns to an air sign, pointing to the need to dive deeply into our emotions, dreams, and imaginings and then surface to analyze what we find. Somehow we must give voice to our more internal musings and feelings.
Spend the first two weeks of the month exploring inwardly: write, journal, daydream, imagine. On February 12th, when Mercury moves back into Aquarius, you’ll begin to see connections between more dreamy ideas and feelings and your outer world. The 18th and 19th, as Mercury swings into a tense relationship with Saturn, you’ll be pushed to trim unrealistic notions and to better define and clarify your ideas. For some this can be a decision which needs to be made between two less than ideal alternatives. Whatever the situation, tests and limitations crop up that force us to deal with reality as it is and define our options. Sweep out old ideas that no longer serve you and put your world in order.
February 12th – Sun squares Saturn, 23 Aquarius & 23 Scorpio
The week of the full moon, a heavy Saturn is in stressful relationship with the sun. Energy can run low while responsibilities and demands run high. You may find encounters with authorities challenging. For these few days, it’s better to win others over to your side with reason and common sense than it is to recklessly assert your will.
Saturn rewards hard work, integrity and a healthy respect for existing traditions. Whereas Uranus, tied to this Aquarian new moon cycle, wants to breakthrough restrictions, Saturn wants to impose limits and boundaries. Mid-February may bring issues of individuality versus authority into relief so you can identify what must be handled — what structures or responsibilities need completed — before you can free yourself from restrictions. Doing the hard thing, the responsible thing rather than taking the easy way out will pay off later in the month when Mercury goes direct (February 28th).
February 14th – Full Moon at 26 degrees Leo, Sun at 26 degrees Aquarius
This full moon continues the Saturn/Mercury theme of needing to make hard choices, to think for ourselves, and to realistically assess our lives. Around the time of the full moon we may feel a little pessimistic. Avoid the tendency to weigh yourself in the balance and find yourself wanting. Use Saturn’s capacity for serious stocktaking to identify the blocks in your life — be they external or internal — so that you can put your nose to the grindstone and do the hard work of unblocking yourself. Slow and steady progress tends to be more effective than pushing hard, overreaching, and frustrating yourself.
A supportive hand from Mars points to the ability to cut through old, stuck ways of thinking and get to the heart of the matter. Eliminate rigid or negative attitudes that hold you back or keep you from fully coming into your own. Taking a hard look at projects that no longer serve you and streamlining your duties can also be a constructive use of this energy.
Our focus narrows when Saturn is in play. We are less big-picture visionary than we are serious researcher. It’s good time for realistic stocktaking and assessments, while keeping in mind your thinking will become less brooding and more broad in a week or so. So should you feel trapped in an either/or situation in which neither option appeals to you, delaying decisions until after Mercury goes direct might reveal creative workarounds to dilemmas that you might not see immediately.
With Saturn at the pivot point between moon and sun, we are at an ideal place to examine whether our home and personal needs are in balance with our work life and ambitions. If you have been sacrificing one at the expense of the other, use the clarity of this full moon to make changes. These two areas of life should be complimentary rather than at odds with one another.
February 28th – Mercury turns direct at 18 degrees Aquarius
As Mercury begins its forward motion again, we should have some understanding of the blocks and obstacles in our way, as well as insight into what we must do to eliminate them. Put serious effort into pruning your thinking patterns, paperwork, communication, and work processes until mid-March, when Mercury again will be tested by Saturn. Our aspirations my be tested and restrictions faced to move from imagination to reality.
Those who roll up their sleeves and demand more of themselves over this two-week period will see shifts in attitudes and beliefs that have previously held them hostage. For some this will mean setting limits and saying no more often. For others this will mean leaning into their discomfort and saying yes more often. Use the insights you’ve gained over the month to make different choices and consciously decide to break habituated responses to your life.
2014 February Horoscopes
If you know your rising sign (the sign on the ascendant at the time of your birth), read that description as well as your birth sign. If you don’t know your rising sign and would like to find out, click here for instructions.
As always, a broad analysis such as this is no substitute for a personal astrological consultation based your full birth data. If you are interested in setting up an appointment, please email me or call me at 800.604.0299.
ARIES TAURUS GEMINI CANCER LEO VIRGO
LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES
Gemstones: Blue Agate
February asks that you assess your dreams, your direction, and the company you keep. Let go of any unrealistic expectations that diffuse your focus or unproductive habits that limit your effectiveness. Insights into where you sabotage yourself can prove particularly invaluable this month. Examine where you let guilt or doubt hold you back, where escapism or a lack of follow through thwarts you, and if you have the right people supporting you. You can shed old behaviors and fears this month, so call on your courage and pioneering spirit to move ahead.
Gemstones: Onyx
Some desire, an aspiration you’ve been harboring, comes into focus of this month. Hints of what could be tantalize you and require you examine your responsibilities in the world and your relationships. Where are you letting your need for comfort and fear of change limit your possibilities? Use February to tap into your creativity and more fully express yourself. Notice when you don’t wholly open up when interacting with others. What beliefs do you hold that inhibit you, that limit your fully expressed power? Start there.
Gemstones: Citrine
This February, spend a little time thinking about your most inspired vision for your career and role in the world. Then do a bit of reverse engineering. What beliefs or philosophies do you hold that support or hinder that ideal role? Are you comfortable with idea of being successful or powerful? How about practicalities: do you need more education, more knowledge? Over the next ten years, old roles will dissolve and a new way of being in the world is on the horizon for you. Understanding of what you want and where your resistances lie puts you in the driver’s seat.
Gemstones: Carnelian
February can be a challenging month for relationships, Crab. You may find those around you in crises, find yourself in a high stress/high demand situations, or find your goals and ambitions creating havoc in your relationships. So, put boundaries in place and don’t misplace your resentment on others if you were the one who couldn’t say no. Look at the unconscious messages you tell yourself that negatively impact the balance of power in relationships. Something ends this month. Why not choose the buried material that undermines your peace?
Gemstones: Topaz
D
The gift of psychological insight is yours this month, Lion. Your eye is sharp and observant and you make enormous gains if you pay attention to the subtle messages that aren’t being spoken. Analyzing relationships and their underlying patterns provides the greatest reward. Old, entrenched dynamics can melt away as if butter when you approach challenges with others as a psychologist or a social scientist. Rather than personalize, step back and dig into the underpinnings of the dynamics. Work and home relationships make the greatest gains.
Gemstones: Lapis Lazuli
It is often said that other people act as mirrors for our own inner dynamics. These days, though, it may feel more like a funhouse mirror: distorted, exaggerated, unclear. That’s all right. Keep looking into the unfathomable depths of the other. Mostly what is exaggerated are your expectations, as underneath your practical facade lies a romantic and perfectionist. The more you gaze into the mirror, the more you can identify where the distortions remain. Work can receive a boost this month, as can new habits. Make a clean sweep.
Gemstones: Agate
You’re feeling more assertive these days, perhaps a little frazzled and touchy to boot. Deep personal work continues to go on beneath the surface, as you transform your roots and what provides you a sense of security, stability, family, and foundation. February provides the framework to analyze the obstacles that get in your way of achieving your health and daily work aspirations. Take stock, acknowledge your responsibilities and your failings, and then call on your native creativity to solve the problems you see. Your mantra: take action, take action, take action.
Gemstones: Jade
Lately, your life may feel like more work than play as responsibilities and life demands take center stage. Dreams of a more playful, pleasurable life flirt around the edges. You’re on the precipice of larger changes which will sweep in with 2015, and right now you are required to get your foundation in place. Focus on your home and family this month. What changes or innovations can you put in place which will create a little more freedom in your daily life? Are there ideas you hold that keep you tethered to more duties than you really need to be?
Gemstones: Peridot
Ideas that you’ve long held as true and perhaps defined you are disintegrating. You need to make room for a larger vision of yourself. For instance, you may define yourself as a parent, but your actual family is shifting as parents pass or children grow up. These old parameters need to be replaced with new dreams for yourself. Tap into those in February. You’re primed to expand your thinking. The new you in the future has new beliefs, ones that don’t limit who you might be or your capabilities. Pay attention to thoughts that rigidly define who you are. Question them.
CAPRICORN
Gemstones: Smokey Quartz
February sweeps in a change in your finances or a new way to think about old values about self-worth and receiving. If you’ve resisted allowing others to support you, why is that? Is your insistence on self-sufficiency one of pride or of feeling undeserving? Money and self-value can be very intertwined. Looking at these areas in February can be quite revealing and bring a new awareness to the give-and-take in relationships and your interactions with the world in general. Let it in.
Gemstones: Labradorite
Happy birthday, Waterbearers. The new moon in your sign means the spotlight is on you to innovate, in particular for yourself. The big picture message is you’re rewiring your relationship to financial matters and trying to get to old, buried messages that have to do with money, power, and what you have to do to have them. Things like having to work hard all your life, money is scarce, work is drudgery. You’re scheduled to rewire all that, but first you have to take stock of where you’re at, where you want to go, and what financial barriers are in your way.
Gemstones: Kyanite
Life may feel a little precarious right now, as the terra firma of your world shifts as you yourself grow and shift. To make the most of February’s stocktaking, try an experiment. Ask five people you know to describe you in five adjectives, the first five that come to mind, positive or negative. Use their adjectives to provoke questions. Are you clearly communicating your identity? Or have you retreated to the safety of the shadows? Becoming the person you wish to be means better defining who you are rather than slipping in and out of sight. How do you wish to be seen?
TO FIND YOUR RISING SIGN (the Ascendant):
You’ll need the following information: date of birth, place of birth, and, most importantly, time of birth. Go to the following webpage and select “Extended Chart Selection” at the bottom right section of the page.
- Select the bar which says “Click here to show the chart,” which is to the right and above the “Options” area of the page.
- You should find yourself at another page. Select “Click here to go directly to data entry page.”
- You’ll be taken to the data entry page. Enter your birth data and click on “Continue.”
- Your natal chart with the positions will appear. At the upper left, look for the information in red text. Your rising sign appears after the word “Ascendant.”
- You can print the chart if you like, too.
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