Astrology says that how and when we begin a new cycle has an effect on the whole cycle. In the western world, we think of the new year starting the first instant after midnight on the first of January. Thus we begin each yearly cycle with the Sun in the sign of Capricorn. Perhaps this has to do with why western societies could be described as rather serious, determined, and materialistic.

Of course, it is very difficult to make such a sweeping generalization, but maybe there is some kernel of truth. In China, they use both a solar and lunar calendar, but in either case, the new year begins around the time of the first stirrings of Spring, either at the midpoint between the Winter solstice and the Spring equinox (around February 4th in China) or at sunset on the new Moon of this same period (the 29th of January this year). Their new year begins midway into our sign of Aquarius or the beginning of what they call the month of the Tiger. Could this have something to do with the generalized over-all description of the Chinese? It is probably even more difficult to generalize about all the Chinese, but in certain ways, communism could fit into this Aquarian/Tiger category. At any rate, the Chinese year of the red or fire dog will begin with Spring at the cross quarter time. (Most folks, even some good astrologers, tend to think of the solstices and equinoxes as the beginnings of the seasons, where in actuality they are the midpoints. For example, Winter solstice has the very longest night and is therefore mid-winter, not the beginning of Winter).

You can look up Chinese astrology to understand more about what this year of the red dog might bring according to their system. A very fun internet site I like is: fortuneangel.com. My mini reflection on the new Chinese year yielded this: Dogs are loyal if you are on the right side of the fence, but can be quite fierce at other times, especially fire dogs!

Returning closer to home, we begin our year at midnight just after midwinter and this places the Sun, for a chart cast for this time, at the very bottom and about 10 degrees of Capricorn. Related to the season and time of day, I have named this sensitive degree the Morpheus point, Bringer of Dreams. This year we can expect an extra dose of strong no-nonsense medicine as we dream the year into reality with Sun and Moon both in the sign of the goat. Over the years, the powerful midpoint between Pluto and Neptune has been transiting over the Morpheus point -- new year 2001 was very close to exact. I imagine that the deep transformative power of the two outermost planets had a profound effect on how the western world was dreaming their world into existence. This year the Pluto/Neptune midpoint falls on the Capricorn Moon. With Lady Luna’s connection to the dreamtime, I anticipate even more profound effects. There seems to be a portal open to manifest our dreams more readily. I guess this is a mixed blessing since it depends on the quality of the dream. What are your dreams and nightmares for 2006? It appears that we would do well to pay attention to what we are dreaming into manifestation to the extent that it is possible. I sometimes watch to see what costumes my friends and I wear to the new years’ ball as an indicator of sorts.

Some good news is that our midnight new year’s party also makes the rising sign Libra, with its ruling planet, lovely Venus, the over-all ruler of the chart. This year begins with our leading lady having a close encounter of the weird kind with the maverick healer Chiron in a homey Aquarian setting. Since she has just turned retrograde, it is like our lady of beauty and balance is looking back to her more stable days in Capricorn. How about you?

There seems to be deep healing available as we review dispassionately our deepest emotional relationships, cherished values, and other meaningful artistic projects of the past year. Venus in cool refined Aquarius is reminiscent of Aphrodite Urania, the Goddess who loves the fine arts -- perhaps this part of our psyche is the refined artist in us who longs for more beauty in our relationships. Lets re-view and re-vision the aesthetics of our interactions with others, especially those close to home.

In this same comfortable living room with Chiron nearby, Venus looks back on the Royal Couple, Sol and Luna, fresh from their conjunction and ready to manage new departures. Sun, Moon and Ruler all in this 4th house of our deepest-rooted connections, suggests making our new projects start from firm foundations in our own home and family. Always good advice, this year with all the external intensity, we may especially profit from bringing it all back home.

And speaking of external intensity, lets start with Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn and in the 10th house, retrograde in Leo. Well, lets jump right in and say that this influential placement of Old Father Time in the house of profession, but dressed in rather uncomfortable royal leonine costume is also part of a whole crisscross of irritable giants. Imagine being at this new year’s eve costume party: Saturn/Chronos with his sickle across from Neptune/Poseidon, the earth-shaker, with his trident and rounding out the square is mighty Jupiter/Zeus, thunderbolt in hand, facing Mars, ready for war with sword drawn. Yikes, looks like a storm on Mount Olympus!

Beneath the costumes, it is just as bad: Saturn in Leo is really a top CEO with a declining year end sales report in hand; Neptune in Aquarius, a moody university sociology professor; Jupiter in the sign of the Scorpion is another top executive who has been drinking way too much; and underneath Mars’ Bull mask is the thick-necked college football coach just back from losing a big game. OK, folks this is our task for the year -- to imagine a way to get these four heavy dudes to co-operate and enjoy the party rather than tearing the place up. To the extent that we can integrate these diverse parts of our psyche, we can do our alchemical magic on the larger stage of history. How would you do it? How are you going to do it?

The four planetary horsemen of the apocalypse mentioned above are in what is called a Grand Cross or Grand Square, both symbols for earthy, materialistic functions and this is doubly or triply accented by being in fixed signs and houses forming a huge “X” in the heavens. X marks the spot where two highly divergent paths intersect, and x is the unknown. If we imagine a square superimposed on our chart wheel, then we can almost feel the bumpy ride such a wheel will produce. Being near the center point of the 4 fixed signs, (Neptune is right on 15 degrees of Aquarius) this is ground zero or powerhouse X where structure and action meet. There is tremendous potential for good, bad, ugly or beautiful. Turning the angle of our minds and laying the squared circle flat, we have a very solid base for the Great Pyramid. Sacred power spot or bumpy ride, it is up to us!

Jupiter and Saturn have been traveling square to each other for many Moons and we have been dealing with the duality of Jupiter’s expansion at odds with Saturn’s contractions, making it challenging to decide between these seemingly divergent paths. However, as any good midwife will tell you, you need both expansion AND contraction to give birth. The trick as always is to bring enough awareness to such in-tense times that we do not go into automatic patterns that do not serve our higher purpose of being fully with what is. This year the square between these two influential giants will finally open up, making it easier to move beyond the deadlock between safety vs. expansion.

In astrology, the transformative power of a planet is largely a function of the speed at which it is moving or perhaps better said, dependent on how slowly it is moving. In the case of Mars, his recent station in December has put him right up there with the heavyweights in terms of lasting power, and his retro period put him very close to Earth, which accents his presence. Mars is not all that comfortable in Taurus, in fact none of the planets in the Grand Square are very comfortable in the fixed signs with the possible exception of Saturn, but then playing the Lyon King is not really his thing either. All in all, this is perhaps one of the most difficult Grand Crosses one could imagine. Three of the planets caught in the crossfire are in mutual reception (in each other’s home signs), emphasizing their power and discomfort. If you count Venus in Scorpio, then Mars stationed opposite her on October first, making eight planets uncomfortably out of costume in this Twelfth Night scenario.

While speaking Elizabethan, Sun and Saturn in mutual reception emphasize the question of real power vs. control, and I cannot help but wonder at the King Lear magnitude of fall that our president, King George II appears to be courting. Actually, this chart suggests that all of us are open to this kind of fall in the next year to the extent that we are controlled by our egos’ over inflated, grand schemes.

Uranus and Neptune in mutual reception and both in the 5th house, places a lot of emphasis on the importance of creativity for transformation this coming year. We can best utilize the subtle and not so subtle power of this dynamic duo best as we bring deep feelings and intelligent awareness into alignment, applying it to our creative projects (children certainly qualify in this category too). I don’t know about you, but when I am able to get the creative juices flowing, I am usually much more satisfied with my life. We will be able to draw on extra perception and extra-sensory perception this year to accomplish creative tasks, and in the process, we will be positively altered.

Jupiter and Pluto are also in each other’s home signs and this evokes in me a feeling for the ability of joy to radically renovate our lives. With the 2nd and 3rd houses involved, I see prosperity coming our way especially when we are aligned with the higher needs of our community and Life in general. Pluto brings passion to our quest for power, but always works much smoother as we co-operate rather than try to divide and conquer. The 3rd house, where we find Pluto conjunct with Mercury or Hermes, gives us a very rich image (Pluto actually means rich). Hermes was called “psychopomps”, meaning the guide of souls to Pluto’s (or Hades’) Underworld realm. The 3rd house is a place where Mercury likes to fly and communicate, and Sagittarius puts the extra distance and idealism to his trajectory. Hermes as guide of souls is the archetypal under-taker and helps us to appreciate the richness that Death can bring to our Life, and in this case, expanding our horizons of communication.

I was mightily touched by Hermes this past year as I assisted my former wife, Jeannine, a double Gemini and sister midwife to Hermes, under-go the final transit out of this body. I am deeply impressed at the influence this experience had on my resolve to live more of my life with my highest spiritual goals in mind. This coming year, I see all of us being given more of this opportunity. I heartily recommend you use 2006 to get your Will in order and make plans for how you might want to conduct your last days. This may seem gloomy, but trying to avoid the void robs us of depth to our spiritual highs. Jeannine had a home death and it felt very in tune with the home birthing and home education that had been so central to her life and teaching.

Death is another realm where we can take back the power to be our own authorities and rewrite the script more to the authentic values of how we have lived our lives, rather than at effect of the Disney myth revisionists who portray death as enemy to be avoided at all costs. As we baby boomers approach the final frontier, I foresee more and more our alternative culture revolutionizing this realm as we have with gentle birthing, organic foods, wellness, and all manner of healthy and more humane, peaceful dwelling on our beautiful turquoise gem planet, Gaia.

Also in regards to Pluto, I would like to mention a little noticed aspect called the 7th harmonic or septile. Because of Pluto’s very elliptical orbit, during the period from roughly 1980 to 2000 (and amazingly also when this planet transited its home sign of Scorpio), the Divinity of the Apocalypse made its closest approach to the Earth and was actually closer for awhile than Neptune, it also sped up so that it has closed the angle to Neptune to considerably less than the sextile or 60 degree angle that it has maintained for many years. These two outer planets, now are at a septile or 1/7th of the circle from each other or about 51 ½ degrees. The last time this aspect was in effect was around the time of the rise and fall of the 3rd Reich and there are certainly parallels to that time now. This aspect will be with us in exact form until 2011 and longer depending on what orb is allowed. The new year 2006 shows them at 51 degrees and 5 minutes and throughout the year they will make the exact septile aspect. Some astrologers have instigated this aspect with terrorism, the 9/11 attacks, and the bombing of Baghdad. Hermes’ role as under-taker of souls to Hades realm, as with Mercury conjunct Pluto in the 2006 new year chart, emphasizes some of the more terrible potential on the larger scale of things. (My thanks to Tem of The Mountain Astrologer for his article on the septile: http://www.mountainastrologer.com/planettracks/temsept604.html

If we were to walk in the doors of the first and seventh houses, entrances to the upper and lower hemispheres of our new year’s chart, we would meet the Moon’s nodes. Rahu, or the Head of the Dragon, in the seventh house of long-term relationships, could bring new deep karmic partners into our lives, the kind that carve deep grooves in the soul. They appear to be coming towards us with the heat of Aries’ fire, dragon’s breath and the red dog’s fierce persistence. It won’t be easy to resist taking a little bite out of the apple, but let’s see if we can keep our eyes on the big picture. Aries is not always so good at that, but on the other edge of the sword, Aries can be very direct and honest. This can have its advantages too. Saying what we REALLY want in relationships right away could cut through hundreds of lifetimes of roundabouts!

As for Ketu, who we meet first upon entering the 2006 chart, all I need to say is that if you think the breath of the dragon is formidable, wait until you have to deal with what comes out of its rear end! Ha! The Tail of the Dragon at the beginning of the first house has come to conjure up images for me of the yoga of renunciation: neti, neti, neti (not this or this or this) . . . We might find 2006 to be a year of letting go of our attachments to who we think we are on a grand scale. You know, ‘been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt, and moved on.’ Anything or anyone we think we are short of the.... Well, nothing . . . will present us with the opportunity to let it go. It is in the sign of Libra, so again we hear that relationships and art will be our allies in the process and with the Wheel of the Goddess Fortuna nearby, we could feel the blessings immediately.

And ending on another good note: Jupiter and Uranus trine and in grand trine with Vesta at the mid-heaven, imply that making our profession sacred will bring in lightening bolts of ingenuity and insight, not to mention creativity and prosperity!

So how might we sum up this complex message written in the heavens concerning year 2006? . . . The Grand Square most simply communicates major tension with plenty of structure built in. For folks who are good at dancing with tension, then it can be used as energy and power. This is always true, but this coming year just seems to be especially so. A new Moon in Capricorn in the 4th house gives us the impulse to manage our affairs in a grounded and firmly rooted manner, paying attention to having our home life in order as fundamental. Venus also in this house retro in Aquarius amplifies the above and adds the dimension of re-viewing values with clarity. Mercury conjunct Pluto in the third house stresses deep communication potential for the year and especially letting Hades’ underworldly realm inform our spiritual flights. Pluto/Neptune septile and midpoint conjunct the Moon suggests intense dreams that can manifest hopes and fears. Home Land In Security. Moon’s nodes rising and setting: Identity purging in tandem with karmic relationship firewalking. Good year for creativity and prosperity especially to the extent that we can bring the sacred to our profession.

Moon in Miami = Happy New Year 2006
Plus Happy Red Fire Dog Chinese New Year 4703

Love and namaste, Rico