Your health planet, Mercury, is a fast-moving planet. During the course of the year he will move through all the 12 signs and houses of your Horoscope. Thus there are many short-term health trends that are best discussed in the monthly reports.
As we mentioned, Saturn will move away from his stressful aspect on October 5, improving your health and energy tremendously. However, with Uranus and Pluto still affecting you, you still need to watch your health.
The most important times to rest and relax more this year are from January 1 to January 19; June 21 to July 22; September 22 to October 22; and December 21 to December 31.
Home and Family
Your 4th house of home and family is not a ‘house of power’ this year. Normally this would mean a status quo kind of year, with no major changes. But this year, with Uranus in your 1st house (especially for those of you born early in Aries) status quo is not in your lexicon. You are into change, change, change – the more the better!
Usually when Uranus occupies the 1st house (and this will be a trend for many more years) people become nomadic. They are restless. They might not formally move, but will travel around a lot and live in different places for long periods of time. They might have a home, but they behave as if they were ‘homeless’.
This also generates a ‘passion for personal freedom’. You don’t want any responsibility, and this can create problems with the family unit. Every family member has responsibilities, whether formal or unspoken, so this could create rifts with the family this year. (Those of you who have Aries people within your family need to give them as much latitude as possible – so long as it isn’t destructive. Aries children are more difficult to handle this year; they are more rebellious.)
The Moon is your family planet and she gets eclipsed twice this year – this is pretty normal. This means that twice every year (and sometimes more than twice) you get the opportunity to improve the home and the family relations. The cosmos forces you into it. Thus if there are flaws in the home, or hidden grudges with family members, these are the times when they surface so that they can be corrected. The two lunar eclipses this year are on June 4 and November 28. We will discuss them in more detail in the monthly reports.
We do see dramas with parents or parent figures this year. This began last year, but is more pronounced now. They can be having operations, near-death kinds of experiences and financial changes and shakeups. Like you, parents and parent figures need to watch their health more, especially their overall energy levels.
Siblings and sibling figures are having a very spiritual kind of period until June 11. There is much inner growth happening. After this date they enter a period of prosperity, with increased earnings, luck in speculations, travel and the good life. Siblings of an appropriate age are much more fertile than usual during this period too. There are probably major repairs going on in their homes early in the year.
Children of an appropriate age could have multiple moves this year, but they seem stressful. If they are going to move, it will be better to do it before October 5. Afterwards there are many delays and glitches involved. Grandchildren of appropriate age seem to have a status quo year as far as the home is concerned.
Finance and Career
In spite of all the challenges you’ve been facing, last year seems to have been prosperous and the trend continues in the year ahead. Expansive Jupiter – the planet of abundance – is still in your money house until June 11. By then, your financial goals will more or less be attained and your focus will be on other things.
Like last year, assets you already own tend to increase in value. Thus your net worth is increased regardless of your actual earnings. Jupiter is both the generic and actual ruler of your 9th house. Thus there are financial opportunities with foreign companies, or in foreign countries, or with foreigners in your own country.
With Jupiter, the planet of religion and philosophy, associated with wealth this year, it is very important to have a good personal philosophy of wealth: a good metaphysical understanding of what causes it and how to attain it. There is much more to it than just mere ‘hard work’ (although this is part of it). If there are flaws in your personal philosophy (i.e. if you believe that wealth is just material things), it can hamper your ability to earn.
There are a few complications though. Venus rules both your love life and financial life. Thus, for you, there is a powerful connection between love and money. When love is going well, finances tend to go well. When finances are going well, love tends to go well. Problems in love can cause problems in finance and vice versa. Thus, because the love life has been challenging, this could affect earning power. (In cases where couples are getting divorced or separating, there are often financial conflicts involved.) Love problems tend to be the root causes of financial problems in your Horoscope. If financial problems beset you, do your best to get the love life in order.
Venus is a very fast-moving planet. Like Mercury, sometimes she moves fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes she goes backwards (this year she retrogrades from May 15 to June 27). Thus there are many short-term trends in finance that are best dealt with in the monthly reports.
For the past two years your career planet Saturn has been in the sign of Libra. This is a nice position by the way: Saturn is exalted in Libra and your career energies are at their most ‘exalted’ status. This situation continues for most of the year ahead, until October 5. The career planet in Libra shows that you advance your career by social means – by attending or hosting the right kind of parties and through your social connections. Your friends (and spouse or current love) seem supportive, career-wise.
Pluto has been in your 10th house of career for some years now and will be there for many more years to come. There are great shakeups and upheavals in your company or industry. This trend accelerates after October 5 when your career planet enters Scorpio, the 8th house of your chart. The rules are changing. A detox is happening in your company and industry, and also within yourself. Your attitudes and approach to your career are getting purified, sometimes by dramatic means such as by ‘near-death’ kinds of career experiences – situations where you face apparent ruin. However, the career dramas you are facing are really the ‘birth pangs’ of something new and wonderful.
Love and Social
As we mentioned, the love and social life has been challenging for some years now. Saturn has been in your 7th house. There are many good things about this, but seldom is this transit pleasant. Singles are better off not marrying this year. We often get into relationships with a honeymoon mentality, but the honeymoon rarely lasts for long. After a while the burdens and responsibilities come in and we have to deal with them. The past two years – and most of the year ahead – is such a time. Many a love relationship has dissolved these past two years and many more will dissolve in the year ahead. Many of you even doubt that love exists, it all seems like a duty and burden. Even good relationships (especially if this is the first marriage) have become dull. The spark of love, the fire of romance, the spontaneity seems lacking. All of you will have to work harder to project love and warmth to others. On some unconscious level, you are projecting a ‘coldness’, a distance, an aloofness and others are picking up on this. So it is up to you, through your conscious effort, to project love and warmth to counteract these astrological tendencies.
The good part of this transit is that you will learn whether your love is real. We seldom know this when everything is going well. It is only in the tough times that we learn this. The other good thing here is that many of you are learning that duty and responsibility are another form of love. Doing your duty by the beloved, no matter how you feel or how onerous it is, is a form of love. And, in many cultures it is considered the highest form of love.
Aries people tend to jump into relationships much too quickly. They fall in love very quickly and often marry quickly. But now with Saturn in your 7th house the cosmos is cautioning you to go slow in love. Don’t rush