Monthly Vedic Astrology Forecast

New Moon in Capricorn February 8

The first week of our shortest month sees the Moon waning through Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. Moon enters Capricorn on Monday, the 7th, and comes into full conjunction with the Sun on the 8th at 26°20" Capricorn that afternoon. Spend the first week of this month finishing and getting closure on various projects before the new moon on the 8th, which seems to herald a solid beginning to new pursuits this month. This new Moon occurs in Dhanishtha, the lunar mansion that spans the last degrees of Capricorn and the first degrees of Aquarius, thereby ruled by Saturn, the lord of these two signs, but carrying with it the energy of Mars as well. Dhanishtha is fertile ground for setting aside individual, selfish motivations in order to make oneself a vessel for divine energy. This could play out in ways such as beginning projects that require a solid humanitarian foundation, for example, or following the beat of your own heart by pursuing activities that feed your soul rather than line your pocket. The feat of choosing faith over fear is rarely facile, so whatever it is you may encounter in this region may not necessarily keep you in your comfort zone.

Sun, Mercury and Venus Move to Aquarius February 13 - February 22

During the course of this month, we have the Sun, Mercury, and Venus stationed in Capricorn, Saturn's earthy sign, and then moving one by one into Aquarius, Saturn's air sign. The Sun moves to Aquarius on February 13, Mercury moves there on February 14, and Venus moves there on February 22. After the new Moon in the late degrees of Capricorn on the 8th, we may feel ourselves gradually moving into a more idealistic arena from the trenches where we have been toiling. In trying to establish a new balance in our personal fear/faith dynamics, we may find it well to heed our rational minds this month, to listen and observe, and to analyze our perceptions in an effort to bring sense to fears born of emotional attachment. Use your mind to discern if the song that your heart is playing is born of the spontaneous life that you call your own or if it is simply an old tape that's been on continuous loop for too long and needs to be ejected. Then, take it from there. Jump into that great cosmic ocean with Rahu as the month ends and prepare to expose yourself to the really big picture. May our hearts and minds be guided by truth that we may find sure footing on our paths.

Rahu/Ketu moves to Pisces/Virgo February 22

The movement of Ketu from Libra to Virgo and Rahu from Aries to Pisces on February 22 will lend another layer of meaning to our current planetary configuration. Ketu moving into Virgo moves into close quarters with Jupiter, which could further strengthen that tendency to fight for the side of traditional values and entrenched social mores that we carry with us from the past. Ketu in Virgo also gives us the opportunity to take the scientific information that we have access to, especially in the area of personal health and hygiene, and use it as a resource as we make choices for our futures. What we do with our intellectual resources at this juncture points toward Rahu's new position in Pisces, Jupiter's water sign. Pisces represents energy that is cosmic, boundless, and impersonal in nature. Our task is take the specific, earthly knowledge that we have garnered, as indicated by Ketu in Virgo, and to translate that into a new vision. Many of us can take advantage of getting the big picture while Rahu transits through Pisces. As we try to rearrange our personal reactions to the faith/fear axis, we may be called to view everything we think we know from an entirely different angle. Pisces is like the ocean, with the power to take away all the details of our life until we dissolve and become one with the great cosmic soup.

At this point, it seems the groundwork is being laid for some serious transformation in the realm of fear/faith. While it may be easy to point the finger at "those religious fundamentalists" who are participating in jihad, protesting a woman's right to have an abortion, or mightily denouncing the practice of homosexuality, and even easier to blame the world's problems on the intolerance of these groups and individuals, ultimately we must see that the morals and values which they uphold have their roots in traditional cultures with thousands of years of history from which we can gain valuable wisdom. The challenge lies in transforming and translating that storehouse of wisdom and tradition into a body of knowledge that applies to the global village, with individuals of every shape, size, and inclination imaginable interacting at all levels in many different places. If we blur this picture of "militant fundamentalism" a bit, we can even see how it exists in each of our lives: in the tendency to allow our ego to push our own personal agenda, to justify our own harmful behavior, or to refuse to perceive the truth when it threatens our sense of personal security and comfort. The trends that flow through our world are mirrored by the trends that flow through our personal journey.

I see the Jupiter-Mars-Ketu energy, as it is shaping up in the next few months, as representing our tendency to faithfully cling tenaciously to outdated values out of fear of the unknown. It is my hope that we can courageously transform this energy into true faith, love, acceptance, and understanding. I feel that we can leverage the energy of Saturn, Venus, and Mercury to this end during the next few months. Saturn and Mercury will be in mutual reception, exchanging signs through February, as Saturn is housed in Gemini and Mercury will move through Capricorn and Aquarius. These planets provide us with the detachment, perseverance, tolerance, compassion, and intelligence to connect with a source of faith that's based in tradition yet which embraces the truth of diverse mores. Mercury gives us the ability to learn, to exchange information, and therefore to transcend ignorance-based fear. Venus gives us the empathy to relate to others as well as the attraction to the natural beauty of earth and her creatures, affording us the desire to harmonize conflicting energies. Saturn gives us timeless wisdom, as opposed to traditional wisdom, with his knowledge that the only constant is change, and that time marches on with and without us, charging us with the responsibility to account for our actions.

A friend recently asked me a question concerning the possibility that some periods of time seem worse or harder than others, and whether that possibility could be discerned astrologically. A couple of trains of thought have taken off from that question, the first being that no matter what the planetary configuration, certain people will be affected positively and certain people will be affected negatively. Therefore, it's not accurate to make a statement like: Due to current planetary placements and relationships, this will be a very hard time astrologically. The second train of thought is that, well yes, certain planetary combinations are so disharmonious or volatile as to create an overall feeling of "hard times." The two trains seem to be running in opposite directions, while at the same time both represent the truth of the situation, much like our infamous Nodes of the Moon, Rahu and Ketu.

In exploring that question, I was drawn toward the recent move of the nodal axis from Rahu/Ketu in Aries/Libra to Rahu/Ketu in Pisces/Virgo. It takes about 1.5 years for the nodes to move through a sign, which they do in retrograde motion through the zodiac. Depending on the astrological position of the nodes and the slower moving planets like Jupiter and Saturn, the combinations and relationships formed by these planets and nodes could likely make for "good times" or "bad times," ultimately very subjective concepts. I decided to check out what happened back in the day, from August 1986 through February 1988, the last time Rahu/Ketu moved through Pisces/Virgo.

During this time, Rahu moved through Pisces, while Saturn was in Scorpio and Jupiter was in late Aquarius and Pisces. Rahu represents the force of the masses, that which we refer to when we say "the world," and Jupiter represents the principle of expansion, and both were transiting through the Piscean field of dissolution. Saturn was in the very secretive, powerful, and even forceful sign of Scorpio, which is portrayed by the Iran-Contra arms scandal of that time. Events of the time included the first observable supernova since the 1600s, a stock market crash in October 1987, Halley's Comet passing, and by that time the AIDS epidemic had become a recognizable threat, while at the same time, a new drug, crack cocaine, became readily available. In short, the planetary combination of the time provided a background of aggressive secrecy and a foreground showing no direction, a vast sea of vague and uncontrollable possibility.

At this time, however, Jupiter is posited not in Pisces with Rahu, but in Virgo, opposite Rahu. This should promote the principle of internal infrastructure and organization, which from an individual standpoint affords us the chance for agility in the material realm as well as a unique viewpoint from which we may regard that vast sea of vague and uncontrollable possibility represented by Rahu in Pisces. Saturn is now in the late degrees of Gemini and will move into Cancer during the course of Rahu/Ketu in Pisces/Virgo. This placement lends itself to a slightly more nurturing timbre than Saturn in Scorpio, yet with the possibility of hard lessons learned still in hand. Rather than uncovering arms scandals during this time, we'll be more likely to "discover" that our rulers have manipulated the published public opinion in order to push an agenda "for our own good." So, to answer my friend's question: It's hard to tell if some times are worse or better than others, but we may be ever so slightly more fortunate in the upcoming 18 months than we were during the last tour of Rahu through Pisces.