The first New Moon of this New Year comes so early that the newness of 2022 is reflected quite clearly as we immediately enter a new zone. Numerology is not my forte, but it looks like a clear code with ones and twos, raised to another level by the two zeros.

New Moon @12 Capricorn 20
January 2, 2022 @1:33pm EST, 10:33am PST, 6:33pm GMT,
January 3 @ 5:33am AEDT

This New Moon is, naturally, in Capricorn, a down-to-earth sign, and finds us on a Venus retrograde journey also in this practical sign. This is an opportune entry into the New Year, with instruction and valuable advice of Venus—as long as we listen and do the work. Have you made any New Year resolutions? or perhaps a better word is ‘plan’ to start out with? Are you considering what you want to experience and accomplish this year?

Venus is an ally in this questioning, a personal process underlying our ongoing collective experience described by this 27^th degree Capricorn Sabian Symbol ‘Mountain Pilgrimage’ we take toward ReDesigning Reality. We need to reevaluate, consider our situation, and determine what best can happen as we hike further into this year, motivated by powerful resonance in our hearts.  

How do we get to the top of that mountain, where the view is broad and clear? We need to sketch a starting plan, listing all the components we are dealing with now, what we don’t like and what we do like, focusing on the ‘like’.  We take that back down the mountain to build our new plan concentrating on developing the best initiatives for our happiness, well-being and satisfaction, in pursuit of happiness and freedom of spirit.

Venus began this particular journey conjunct Pluto and the intensity of its transformational necessity. In Capricorn Venus invites us to re-define and re-design systems and structures that shape and condition our lives, honoring Earth wisdom and in accordance with Nature’s organic geometries and aesthetics. This journey takes us deep into the recesses of our hearts to restore a fearless foundation for living in love and joy.

January 8-9 is the New Venus Sun Day, the special moment in its 584-day cycle when our sister planet is closest to Earth and takes a Sunbath in the light of our star, conjuncting the Sun. This is often called the ‘New Venus’ or the ‘Venus Star’— the beginning of a new Venus cycle influenced by Capricornian qualities, the experienced wisdom of the Divine Feminine.
[Read my article Honey in the Heart: Venus Retrograde for more on the cycles of Venus retrograde and what they mean. Tables available to track your cycles. ]

This New Moon is supported and activated in surprising ways by a strong trine with Uranus in Taurus, earth sign to earth sign. On December 23-24, we passed the peak of the Saturn-Uranus square that defined a major tension of 2021. Uranus has broken up many inoperative systems and structures. Gone, but not yet forgotten long enough for a really fresh start; challenges remain. Uranus will demonstrate its effects starting now without being held back by as much resistance— though with that square still in gear we may have moments of throw-back to old systems and be grateful for timely yellow lights that give us pause for reconsideration and consolidation before we continue trailblazing.

The old limits are going, going, gone— so what do you want to create? Let’s shape up our lives, using the aesthetics of Venus to find a naturally harmonic way of living. If you could do anything, what do you want to do? Go there, take on that rather overwhelming question. Dream Big!

[I just saw an inspiring documentary that demonstrates the power of dreaming big. 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible follows the amazing feat of Nepali mountain climbers, led by Nimsdai Purja. He called the project, “Mission Possible”. If you need inspiration, here is the trailer

Just in time for the New Year, Jupiter moved into Pisces, opening an almost unimaginable expansiveness for dreaming big and bigger. Squaring the Nodes of the Moon and our collective Line of Destiny, Jupiter’s strong intuition takes us beyond belief systems to open wide new possibilities— if you can entertain a variety of viewpoints that resolve dualities and take us into a new visionary cohesion. For the next several months, Jupiterian blessings abound, peaking on the April 12 Jupiter-Neptune conjunction, a huge tidal wave of spiritual Grace or dysfunctional dystopia depending on which frequency vibration you inhabit. From now to then, we take responsibility for ourselves, forging the life we want to live, no longer relying on some abstract ‘authority’ that makes artificial rules.

Another powerful subtone of this New Moon emphasizes this theme. At 28 Taurus, Earth Mother Ceres conjuncts Deep Sea Sedna, far out in deep distant edges of our solar system, both aligning with the North Node as it soon moves to this degree. This is an imperative call arising from deep inside the Earth, for us to embody the direct connection from Earth to the Heavens, honoring all Elements and Earth Beings for their contribution to our ecological harmony. We are to be guided by Earth’s Natural Law, according to the Golden Mean of Venus, the Divine Proportion of highest beauty— and function, in the Capricorn way. Dream Big, yet stay focused, using the Saturn-ruled Capricorn at its best to find ways to accomplishment. Saturn in Aquarius indicates we do this together with others. Who are your ‘others’?

There is a basic level of responsibility we take on in this process, Venus agrees. There are consequences and repercussions from our actions, so we consider carefully, first for ourselves, then in relation to the social context that is emerging, either supportive or undermining. Which shall it be? Can we respect each other, person to person, individual to individual, beyond differences and judgments, putting aside separative categories by which we define other people? Can we encounter each moment, each personal exchange in a mutual agreement to move along together and create the world we want?

“The real context for happiness, for vitality, for fulfillment, for awakening, for awareness,
all exist in your dynamic involvement in the world.
It is here that the needs of the world and your inner need have finally come together,
for they are directly related.” 
—Anne Baring, Dream of the Cosmos

This New Moon Mercury has just moved across into Aquarius, and will do so again on February 14. This “Age of Aquarius” threshold was crossed on December Solstice 2020 by the special Jupiter/ Saturn conjunction. This threshold will be crossed by a conjunction of Venus and Mars in early March. This is a degree to track, as Pluto will begin to cross this threshold in March 2023 and into 2024.
Sabian Symbol for 1 Aquarius: “An Old Adobe Mission.”

What is your mission? Do you believe in your vision, your quest and your purpose as much as those Nepali mountaineers? We can find a deeper confidence in this Venus journey. And what is the collective mission as we create and cross into a new paradigm? Are you onboard this “Mission Possible,” aligned with the Star Trek mission: “to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before!” Do we appreciate how amazing it is that we are living at this time?

With this increasing Aquarian energy, we need to vigilantly monitor our states of mind as we enter into a broader, higher-minded, quantum field of awareness. At the last Full Moon, during that busy celestial turning phrase from December 18-19-21, Mercury was impulsed by Chiron in Aries to entertain thoughts and seek options that augment our healing and well-being. Much of this is non-standard and challenging: out-of-the-box ideas and discoveries that alter our sense of reality and may tend to evoke instant dismissal or retreat from the edge of the unknown. Chiron continues in Aries for several more years, continuing an experimental phase of creating a ‘New Earth,’ as some are calling it. Thankfully we do have internal guidance, and times of pause to step back to review our alignment.

Yes, in addition to retrograde Venus, we soon have Mercury turning retrograde on January 14 @10-11 Aquarius— conjunct Saturn and very closely squared Uranus! This New Year gallops apace with unexpected information that challenges our beliefs and changes our minds yet again, offering (even requiring) a ‘time-out’ to rethink and regroup. There is not much we can take for granted these days. If you name those things that you can truly rely on, you will likely find them inside yourself. Much of the social discourse can be distracting and disturbing. Turn it off as needed for your own mental clarity and peace of mind, but don’t dismiss unfamiliar information without some questioning or research. Listen firstly to your heart, home of your intuitive knowing.

“…if you can step outside of the cacophony of personal strife and ambition,
you will be able to feel the involvement of the world. You will feel it within your heart.
You will feel it in the ground beneath your feet. You will feel it as you look up into the sky at night…
It has everything to do with who you are, why you are here and who sent you.
It may have little to do with who you think you are and what you are preoccupied with at the moment.”
—The New Message from God, Vol 2, Marshall Vian Summers, published by The Society for the New Message.

I hear the word “restoration’ being used, so appropriately Capricorn, in a call to restore our way of living informed by traditional, natural values inherent to our planetary well-being and sustain-ance. As we restore health to our Earth, we restore a planetary harmony we once knew and experienced. We remember this and bring this natural wisdom back into our daily rhythms.

Venus encourages us to be highly aesthetic in everything we do
                         to create the beautiful world of our Big Dreaming.