2023
January 18 - 24, 2023
It’s a bumpy planetary ride this week, so be prepared for stops and starts, speed bumps where there were previously no barriers, and pockets of turbulence that interfere. While these mini storms are not negative, they are nonetheless powerful and disruptive. We’re in a triple retrograde zone, with (1) Mars Direct, which happened six days ago, but this week is rapidly gaining momentum; (2) Mercury Direct, which happens today, January 18, and gathers forward momentum all week long; and (3) Uranus Direct, which occurs on Sunday, January 22. As the planets make their “course corrections,” daily life reflects their shifting patterns and pace. Anticipate regular routines to mimic these changing patterns, especially with the dual forward motion of Mercury and Uranus—both regulate technology, and that translates into lots of techno snafus for the entire week. You’re going to need patience to handle these bumps, so be prepared for a wide range of distractions and interruptions and be sure to do whatever it is you do to stay calm and centered.
As Mars moves forward, you may discover previously important facts and facets of projects you thought were sown up and just waiting to get started. Try not to get upset about things you overlooked and focus instead on taking an inventory to make sure those lingering issues are addressed. This could be as practical as realizing you owe slightly more money than previously calculated. These Mars details could also involve finally remembering to invite all the members of your team to the meeting, not just the ones you like having dinner with. Mars began its journey through Gemini on August 20, 2022, and even though it is moving forward it won’t leave Gemini until March 25, 2023, so Mars is going to revisit certain situations that were set in motion since September 2022—just in case we didn’t get things right the first or second time around.
Mercury Direct begins today, January 18, at 8:12 AM EST, ending its retrograde that started on December 28, 2022, and ushered in the New Year. As you put your plans and projects in motion, please remember the Mercury Retrograde rule that also applies to Mercury Direct: the three days prior to and after the actual retrograde are not exactly full-steam-ahead-and-out-of-the-retro-zone. If you can wait until Monday to get started on new projects, that would be ideal. And just so you can mark it in your calendars (if you haven’t already), the next Mercury Retrograde of 2023 is April 21 to May 14, 2023.
Uranus Direct begins on Sunday, January 22, ending a retrograde phase that began on August 19, 2021. Because Uranus can sometimes disguise itself as Mercury, we may not experience the end of Mercury Retrograde problems until Uranus is comfortable “moving forward,” so you’re also going to need your patience pills for this “course correction.” When Uranus moves, we usually experience a significant manifestation of its power—earthquakes, electrical storms, and other potent earth-related events. I can’t say that we will definitely experience something like that from a collective perspective, but I am fairly sure that individuals will feel the “earth move” in their personal lives in some notable manner.
Holding yourself steady this week won’t be so easy, given all the shifts that are happening so close together, but it can be done. You’ll need to stay true to your heart and you’ll also need a lot of common sense to navigate the ups and downs as you roll through the days and nights of the week. If family and friends are having a difficult time, try to be helpful, but be careful not to overextend. Be especially considerate of children and animals, who feel the intensity but can’t articulate their feelings easily. Every little bit we can do to make life easier is enormously helpful in times of transition—and this is definitely one of those times.
January 11 - 17, 2023
I think my calendar is keeping track of time on my home planet in a distant galaxy far, far away—on my Earth calendar, it says 2023 is a new year, but nothing has changed since last year; I’m starting to feel stuck in an interdimensional time warp and there’s nothing I can do about it. Everything around me reeks of the past, especially the Trumpian past, which somehow in this time distortion I’m caught in has become the new present. Yes, we are in a dual retrograde—both Mercury and Mars are in a seemingly endless review—but I’m not sure their simultaneous retrospectives are the cause of my time displacement. I can’t help but wonder if something more is contributing to this warp, but the causal level has yet to reveal itself.
Mars, retrograde since October 30, 2022, goes direct tomorrow, January 12 at 3:56 PM EST, and as it “moves forward,” we’re sure to feel its energetic bump. Unfortunately, Mercury Retrograde continues until January 18 at 8:11 AM EST, and in the meantime operates as a speed bump in Mars’ course correction. So it might be wise to continue being circumspect about putting new plans and projects in motion—it’s only another week or so until the end of both retrogrades, which may finally feed that enthusiasm for a new beginning. Some of us are actually moving forward despite the dual retrograde distortion—which is great—but many fellow travelers aren’t as able to gather momentum anywhere and the regular routines of daily life are out of reach. For those, the start of 2023 is sluggish. Don’t despair—the pace will eventually pick up.
As this week unfolds, the planetary patterns offer numerous possibilities to get grounded and organized. Today, the Moon is in Virgo and as it moves through the Sign of details, it trines Mercury in Capricorn, Uranus in Taurus, and the Sun and Pluto, conjunct in Capricorn. The Mercury/Moon trine has the potential to steady wobbling emotions—useful for clarity and objectivity about what you are feeling in the moment. The Moon/Uranus trine adds a bit of emotional volatility and spontaneity, so no matter how much clarity the Mercury/Moon trine contributes, Uranus still has the power to inspire all sorts of random acts that don’t necessarily make sense but are nonetheless potent in their effect. What’s more, Mercury trines Uranus on its own, without the help of the Moon, and that Mercury/Uranus combination engenders lots and lots of inspiration and a unique perspective on all sorts of situations.
As the Moon moves through the Sign of Virgo, it also trines the Sun and Pluto, adding an emotional intensity to the goings-on of the day, especially if interactions turn toward power struggles. If that power struggle is over something that really matters, take your stand and support you position. But if you are struggling over a situation that isn’t significant, rather than vie for power, let go. It’s not worth fighting over things that aren’t that important, especially considering that as Mars prepares to go direct tomorrow, it squares the Moon today, and that’s going to turn a multitude of tempers testy. So take a breath before you lash out or make accusations that might be based on assumptions.
Uranus in Taurus also squares Venus in Aquarius this week, so be prepared to fall in and out of love easily and/or frequently over the next few days. This square is exact and separating on January 14, and as many readers are well aware, Venus/Uranus contacts can create passionate yet brief emotional encounters. This square also fuels and inspires creative endeavors so if you can capture its creative magic, it’s likely your work will not evaporate as easily as amorous fantasies do.
It's not easy living in the spaces between time zones, whether those zones are actual or imagined, extraterrestrial or Earth-based, and we are being asked to straddle parallel universes every day as we watch systems, tried and true, dissolve. This difficulty is due to Pluto’s transformational superpower—it’s moving through the final degrees of Capricorn and preparing to move into Aquarius on March 23, 2023. Pluto will be making that transit for the next nearly two years and as it does, we will become increasingly skilled at moving between dimensions. For now, simply consider any sense of dislocation “practice.” You’re honing your dimensional/time-zone-jumping skills, and because it’s practice you don’t have to be too worried about landing in the wrong time zone—it’s unlikely you’ll get stuck. Once Pluto is inexorably moving toward its transit of Aquarius and we are out of the retro-zone, everything will move quite quickly. As always, please try to be kind to those who aren’t as skilled at handling confusing times or who simply don’t move as quickly as you. Everyone is trying to manage these seas without sinking their ships and some of us require more help than others.
January 4 - 10, 2023
It’s a dual retrograde start to the New Year, which manifests as a peculiar rhythm that makes consistency as well as constancy hard to pin down. Normally I would simply call this a “two steps forward, one step back” beginning and suggest that it is likely to manifest as a stop-start signature that makes getting anything new going a challenge. But while that’s one way to interpret this dual retrograde, I’m thinking a little more guidance is needed, especially because the two retrograde planets—Mercury and Mars—are the planets that drive the mechanics of daily life. It’s a rough configuration to begin a new year with, especially when almost everyone wishes all aspects of life would flow smoothly. We’re used to Mercury Retrograde by now—almost everyone knows the drill (those that don’t keep making it up and giving Mercury powers it never possessed and blaming it for all sorts of problems that are well outside the bounds of its domain); and Mars Retrograde ends on January 12—only another week or so—which means the dual-retrograde sluggish signature doesn’t last for long.
But the additional problem with this sluggish start is Uranus; on Wednesday of next week, Uranus begins its preparations to go direct on January 22. As it slows down the pace of daily life to make its “course correction,” because it’s Uranus, that slowdown has an air of urgency—and that could be confusing. Although both Mercury and Mars will be direct by then, that Uranian undertow feels like a combined Mercury/Mars retrograde; so the upshot is that we won’t really feel retrograde-free until the final week in January.
In fact, February will probably be the only month of 2023 that feels vaguely normal—not a return to the normal of yesteryear, but also not a month of major planetary turmoil. Further dynamic twists and turns occur in March, picking up the pace and signaling the start of new cycles.
Saturn moves from Aquarius into Pisces on March 7, where its stern and distant edges are softened by a more empathetic approach. In the middle of March—actually on the Ides of March—Mars will finally blast past the degree in Gemini that started its retrograde phase on October 30, 2022. Passing that key point opens up a new vista of ambitious activity, so if you haven’t put your plans for the new year in motion prior to March 15, any time after that date would be a good time—except during a retrograde.
But be aware that on March 23, Pluto moves into Aquarius and that should manifest as some sort of planetary brouhaha. I’m not even going to venture a guess as to what that kerfuffle might be, but I do know we will all feel a tremor in the force and wonder what’s going on. Pluto is going to retrograde back and forth between these two signs from March 23, 2023 to November 19, 2024—that’s a long time to make the necessary adjustment to Pluto moving the center of transformational gravity.
Try to steer clear of thinking that Pluto’s entry as well as its transit through Aquarius will be a panacea for all the difficulties we encountered with its journey through Capricorn. Pluto’s transit through Capricorn revealed a plethora of problems that need attention if we are to survive as a planet. We still need to replace the systems that don’t work and educate the people who don’t care about the failure of those systems so they can begin to understand how desperate our situation really is.
Aquarius may be touted as the altruistic Sign of the zodiac, but before any of us can achieve a pure, transpersonal consciousness that assumes our essential unity, there’s a lot of personal work that remains to be done. Dream that the Aquarian moment can be achieved, but also contemplate how you can help to put that ideal in motion and make it a reality.
Here are the Mercury Retrograde dates for the rest of 2023:
December 28, 2022 – January 18, 2023
April 21 – May 14, 2023
August 23 - September 15, 2023
December 13 – January 1, 2024
And while we are on the subject of retrogrades:
Venus Retrograde: July 22 – September 3
But wait—there’s more.
2023 eclipses:
Solar eclipse April 20
Lunar eclipse May 5
Solar eclipse October 14
Lunar eclipse October 28
Jupiter entered Aries on December 20, 2022, but it moves into Taurus on May16 and stays in that lusty Sign until May 25, 2024.
2023 kickstarts a long series of planetary transitions and a long process of transformation as it unfolds, so don’t be concerned if you’re feeling confused by the odd rhythms of these first weeks. It’s seldom easy adjusting to new patterns but it is nonetheless a valuable process.
Being kind this year is a primary concern—not everyone knows how to handle change gracefully, which means there’s likely to be quite a show of resistance, individual and collective, as we move into these new patterns. Be patient, gentle, and understanding when your fellow travelers may not be able to move as quickly or adjust as easily to all the shifts that lie ahead. Be especially kind to children—they may not be able to articulate what they’re feeling, but they are feeling the shifts.
For those in the mood for an optimistic musical take on hope, check out this video with David Byrne and the Brooklyn Youth Choir: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvlT5fBIi4U