Fortnight of January 16 through 31, Plus Saturday and Sunday 16-17 January 2016

Saturday 16 January 2016

Moon in Aries   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 3:27p PT | 6:27p ET | 11:27p UT   ** /

until it enters Taurus (time in Sunday forecast)

Perhaps especially nice early in the day while Luna is trine Venus, gradually fading by evening.

Sunday 17 January 2016

Moon enters Taurus (no longer void-of-course) at 9:49p(Sa) ET | 0:49a(Su) ET | 5:49a(Su) UT

**

A practical and hard-headed attitude prevails, with attention to critical matters including possible disputes. Let's tune with Mars's trine with Neptune, with can be spiritual receptivity or spiritualization of desires--which yet grants them more exalted fulfillment. 

Forecast for the Fortnight of January 16 (Saturday) through January 31 (Sunday), 2016

}Caution and Patience{

This is the fortnight of the gibbous (fat) moon, with the Full Moon at its center (January 23-24). We start, as before, with the positions and aspects of the planets plus their symbols as given by the 19th century clairvoyant Charubel. These have a real validity, I have observed, though not always obvious on the surface. They repay pondering.

I cannot be a Pollyanna for this fortnight! We should have a "nicer" or easier one beginning January 31 or February 1. Before that, things do not look easy. Forewarned is forearmed.

It is wise to be cautious in all your activities and plans. That does not mean fearful. But only those who are trying to live up to the Will of the Highest, every moment, really feel free from fear. That is the remedy.

Charubel gives some rather disturbing symbols. "A column of smoke ascending on a gigantic scale, followed by a terrible bursts of flame. The phenomenon partakes of the character of an explosion." He warns that "events are sudden, falling out unexpectedly, and generally disastrously." That would apply to only a few incidents, of course, but they could be major ones. Let us be cautious. Especially because Mercury remains retrograde (until the 25th, but the Dark Epoch continues after that through the end of this fortnight). I shall not predict terrorist incidents but it would be well for anyone living where they might happen to be both watchful and prayerful, though not of course paranoid. More likely, what the symbol indicates is something psychological within ourselves, a seething anger or frustration which could erupt and cause havoc among our associates or in business. Neither repression nor wantonly hurtful expression but patient understanding is needed.

Then we have our familiar "Man of stout make, good proportions, round, rosy features, looking very merry, dancing grotesquely." Charubel seems to imply that the dancing comes from  a sense of fatality, that there is nothing else to do since everything else is rather pointless. We may find ourselves looking for entertainment as escape. That is not unusual but might be noticeable in remarkable ways.

The symbol we saw as connected with Donald Trump--the grouchy and unpleasant but successful businessman--is replaced this fortnight by: "A deep red star of the first magnitude on the ascendant; but a very short interval elapses between its rising and its setting. When it sets, I see a pale golden light succeeding." Could this be a change in Trump's attitude or his strategy? But apart from that, it more importantly shows something crucial in our feelings, perhaps specially erotic or sexual ones. "Do not follow the dictates of passion" the Victorian Charubel remonstrates. He warns that "the desires of thy lower nature" could bring about "a short and wretched lot." I leave this to you to interpret for your own use and as applicable to your own case. 

"A merchant ship" indicating a successful merchant or traveler is a fortunate degree. However, we know what the stock markets around the world have been doing: Dropping disastrously. Yet individual businesses can be thriving, and in fact "the economy" or business climate is much better off than the stock market's fearful gyrations. So whatever your business or job, you may tend to it successfully.

"A magician in sacerdotal robes, standing in a magic circle, performing magic rites." We all have some sort of "creative superstition" in us, it seems, and why not? Whatever can buoy up our faith may be good for us. Depending on mere mechanical magic when things are hard or overwhelming, of course, would not be likely to result in much more than palliated expectations followed by more disappointment. So let our magic be of the soul, the White Magic which seeks others' good as well as our own. If some "art magic" accompanies that, why not? Ritual opens the heart and feelings to higher magic when done with high aspirations.

"Rings of light within the heavens; ring within ring or zone within zone." This is said to indicate "a man for the far distant future" who is not understood in his time. That would apply to many astrologers, most certainly, but not only to them. We may each have our special way of approaching something Transcendent, or The Transcendent Himself. Trying to make how you do that understood by anyone else might be futile.

One reason Charubel's warnings may well be wise and applicable is that Jupiter is beginning again its square with Saturn, or the other way around since Saturn is direct and Jupiter retrograde. This is a "soul-crisis" in some sense, or a need to find one's deep inner purpose or mission and try to fulfill it rather than neglect it.

That is a rather heavy reading for these coming two weeks. I shall supplement it by the probably lighter or less forbidding indications of the Sabian Symbols in the next report, probably posted on Sunday.

{Fortnight of January 16 through 31}  {Caution and Patience}

Cosmic Piper