Happy New Year—right? (Yes, I think so!) 🎉🎇
This January is an especially powerful one, and change is a-coming. Though the first month belongs more to Capricorn than Aquarius, the radical waves of the water bearer will crash early in 2019.
Not only do we have two(!) eclipses this month, but Uranus—the ruling planet of Aquarius and administrator of Aquarian culture—is going direct for the first time since August 7th. That concludes the major retrogrades that slowed down all our progress last year and made us feel like we were wearing brick sandals. It’s over.
First, the solar eclipse tonight
The solar eclipse in Capricorn tonight (the 5th) is a benevolent, sweet new moon. Solar eclipses are always new moons but not vice versa, so these lunations are extra special and can affect the next six months.
The solar eclipse peaks at 8:28 p.m. ET, and I will be writing down my 10 wishes right after (not before). I very much recommend everyone join me, because it’s a highly lucky time. The sun and the moon are conjunct, so that means our astrological psyches are integrated in a rare opportunity to crystallize our intentions to the cosmos.
Really quickly, here are the parts of your life this moon will hit. This is by rising sign, so if you don’t know yours, go to astro.com and find out. Or ask me!
♈ Aries: Career and fame
♉ Taurus: Travel, higher education, publishing/broadcasting
♊ Gemini: Other people’s money, sex dreams, desires/jealousy
♋ Cancer: Marriage, partnership
♌ Leo: Work, health, habits
♍ Virgo: True love, creative output, children
♎ Libra: Home, real estate
♏ Scorpio: Communication, sibling relations, short trips
♐ Sagittarius: Income, values, possessions
♑ Capricorn: Identity, independence, self-possession
♒ Aquarius: Mental health, vulnerabilities, self-undoing, dreams
♓ Pisces: Friends, social groups, networks
With 10 wishes, you can represent plenty of hopes and dreams, but try to focus at least a few on something you want or need in the realm of your life that will be affected by this moon. If you want.
Second, Uranus going direct on Monday
Although Uranus retrograde will be over on the 7th, Uranus won’t be totally himself again until April 22nd, and until then, expect to relive some of the same turbulence that may or may not have rocked your world since August. I know I am, and I hate it. May you have better luck!
The planet brings abrupt change and then gets mad at you for not immediately getting on board, because you should just trust him. He’s a genius, didn’t he tell you? Who doesn’t just love a genius who tells you about it? Uranus is an asshole. Uranus would agree he’s an asshole. He’s proud of it, and that makes him an even bigger asshole.
But we have to get right with Uranus or he’ll bite us in our Uranus. And the way to do that is to out-asshole him and one-up his ideas. Everything he does is a dare, and we have to not only accept but dare ourselves harder than he did. And even though that sounds psychotic, it’s allegedly worth it. I’ll let you know.
Right now Uranus in the last degrees of Aries, a friendly sign where the crackling genius of Uranian innovation can meet with that pure ram energy. These two gas each other up and destroy things, but in a good way.
What I’m saying is, Uranus is comfortable bro-ing out in Aries. But remember, he entered Taurus on May 15th (so long ago!) before he started going backwards. And after he goes direct this month, he’s going right back to the sign of the bull, where he’ll remain until 2025!
And Uranus is in its fall when in Taurus. I will review the concept of placements in another issue, but the short version is that some planets like being in certain signs more than others. When they are in their least favorite sign, that’s their fall. And Uranus is in its fall in Taurus, because its heavy, predictable qualities are totally at odds with Uranus’s rebellious need to fuck up anything he thinks is too old-fashioned. Taurus goes with what works; Uranus moves fast and breaks things.
To give an example from my chart: Taurus rules my home sector, so that’s where Uranus is doing all his great work on me. I have lived in the same place (happily!) from 2012 to May 2018—right when Uranus entered the sign. In the latter half of last year, I lived at five different addresses. I was pretty much migrant. I might have to move again, and if so, it’ll be in April—when he’s fully recovered from his retrograde and back in Taurus.
That’s what’s up for next six years.
O.K. is OK, okay?
In my last issue I groused about how the word “okay” is written differently across (and within!) publications, which annoys me as a style enthusiast. I then implied that writing it with periods (“O.K.”) made the least sense because it’s not an initialism.
But here’s the thing: it actually is! A kind and observant reader pointed this out to me, and I wanted to officially correct the record.
The two prevailing theories involve our eighth president, Martin Van Buren.
His 1840 re-election campaign slogan was “all correct,” which was facetiously misspelled as “orl korrect” (by political opponents?) and then abbreviated to O.K.
Or it’s merely an abbreviation of Old Kinderhook, his nickname, which was derived from his birthplace, Kinderhook, New York. It’s said he used to sign off on line items using those initials, and that’s where it came to be synonymous with saying everything’s good.
Cool, huh? I still like it best when it’s okay. But they are all O.K.
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