The Sun enters Aquarius II on January 30, 2024 at 5:13 am EST. Austin Coppock called this decan Heaven and Earth, while T. Susan Chang called it Celestial Navigation — from the Golden Dawn's name for the card the 6 of Swords associated with this decan, the Lord of Science. The Greeks of Alexandria apparently acknowledged Phobos at this time of year — literally, Fear — with apotropaic rites intended to fend off the terrors of an uncertain world: war, plague, famine, oppression, and other villainy.
Within this Saturn-ruled sign of Aquarius, the second decan is under Mercury's administration — but the herald and expert of the solar system is still busy getting strategic and tactical guidance from Mars in Capricorn. It's a bit like the younger trans child of an Army veteran, forced to listen to dad's war stories while he's in his cups — it's not prudent to get up from the table just yet, and yet the kid is beyond hearing these terrible anecdotes, reliving a past generation's trauma. Nevertheless, whatever messes the Sun observes during the period from January 30 to February 9 this year, it's likely that Mercury will be cleaning up during their own transit from February 11 to February 17. Note that the Sun will shine a light, and then Mercury will talk out — this is philosophical or intellectual insight now followed by therapeutic conversations later. Observe this week, but wait for the right window for the discussion to proceed.
Without the ritual scripts for the decans, it's hard to know how the Greeks of ancient Alexandria would have 'celebrated' the feast of Phobos. Would it have involved masks and costumes representing things they dreaded, like war and famine and plague? Or... was it their Halloween with revelers going door to door, or their Carnival — with honeyed pastries and thrown beads? Neither celebration nor cloistering seems likely — Phobos was the son of Mars and the chariot driver of the war-god. The only certain representation I've seen of him shows him a young man without beard in a helmet and his smile a vicious rictus. Alexander the Great sacrificed to him the night before the Battle of Gaugamela, praying that his enemies be filled with fear — and Darius III of Persia fled the field mid-battle, virtually guaranteeing the destruction of his own army. In a play by Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, the temple of Phobos is built entirely of human skulls. The Spartans worshipped him as a patron of their city-state: the elites feared an uprising of their enslaved helot serfs, and the helots lived in terror of disappearing from their families at midnight at the hands of the secret police, or even just a practice mission from a Spartan youth looking to prove himself.
It seems more likely that this was a season of apotropaic actions — efforts to propitiate the lord of fear rather than encourage him. Closed doors, quiet dinners at home, isolation from others, and deliberate avoidance of risk must have seemed sensible. Loud parties and extravagant celebrations? That seems improbable.
The four dodeks of Aquarius II start with recapitulations of Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo — the emotional unease that comes from overthinking a problem. Gemini considers several solutions to a difficulty, while Cancer finds them all emotionally fraught. This works up a heightened roaring, Leonine anguish, which finally grounds itself in the harvest of an exhausted Virgo which cannot decide — the analysis paralysis of fearful consequences. When all choices are bad, how do we choose the least-worst option?
Planetary Placements
We're looking at a Night Sect chart in which the Sun is below the horizon, and yet only the Moon of the night sect planets is above the horizon. Indeed — excepting the Moon, all the planets are below the horizon. This makes makes our households and homes and our personal or private decisions, far more important and essential than the public actions of officials or politicians — the realm of personal management requires far more of your attention than usual.
This deliberate inattention to public affairs will be hard to accomplish. The Midheaven is in the eleventh house, while the South Node excretes malice into the tenth house. Black Moon Lillith, an indicator of broken rules and cut corners, rides in the ninth house of higher academia and long-range travel. The Vertex, indicating questions of public fortune and media awareness, is in Leo and the 8th house — drawing our attention to many pressing responsibilities like a lighthouse beam at twenty yards. It will be difficult to look away from tragedies or media circuses unfolding on many fronts.
And yet we must.
The Moon draws our emotional attention to markets and economic matters — but the vast majority of matters blaring out of our preferred media sources and the edicts of public officialdom, are simply beyond our control or capabilities to affect. Your outraged email to a congressman or senator, your petition for this or that result or action... is simply not going to make a difference to people with power to decide: the choices have already been made, and your outrage is costly to you but to no one else. Go private these next ten days, and focus on what you can do for yourself and your household, your most intimate friends, and your extended web of relations: use your outrage to fuel personal preparedness.
The Sun and Pluto are both in the second house, holding down the first two decans of Aquarius: The Mark of Exile and Heaven and Earth. The second house is about personal property and resources like bank and investment accounts — and these placements invite you to look about you at your personal inventory of worldly goods and materials with a critical eye and an practical concern. What do you own that is wealth, against merely a symbol of wealth? How would you change your stock of resources to prepare both for the future you feared, and the future you hoped? There's no guarantee that either will come — both apocalypses and utopias have a tendency not to arrive despite fervent and frequent predictions.
In the first house, Venus and Mars and Mercury all lie below the horizon. We're nearing the end of the first month of the vulgar year — how have you worked on your New Year's Resolution so far? Still on that diet? Still going to the gym? Already given up on that novel you promised to write this year? These three invite you to take up the path of a new year and a new you, again, and renew your commitments to long-range goals: getting fit and athletic (rather than losing weight necessarily), refreshing your wardrobe, keeping a journal and reflecting regularly on your long-range goals (3-5 years) and short-range objectives (12-18 months). However, you're being warned not to brag about your accomplishments or to draw attention to your efforts at self-improvement: keep your plans under wraps for now!
Neptune and Saturn are holding down the third house of intimate friends, siblings of blood, and those wide-ranging cousins and aunts. Water signs receive support from Venus, Mars, and the Moon, and two of those planets are in a sextile relationship here from your first house. What are you offering to others, to get them through their current deficits and turmoils? How are you showing up as a good friend to those who are in straitened circumstances and limited conditions, or who are stuck in challenging currents? Your inner circle needs your professional skills right now — and you probably can't see how they need you until you actually listen to their stories.
Jupiter, the Lot of Fortune and Uranus are all in the fifth house in Taurus, along with the Imum Coeli. This is the part of the chart that deals with our hobbies and pastimes, our food and drink, our sex lives and other athletic endeavors — and it indicates a strong degree of financial strain, and nagging responsibilities, pulling on this part of our lives. Yet at the same time, our sensual selves and our intellectual capacities, our personal magnanimity and ambition, our desire, and our individual maturation ... are all longing for more time for our hobbies. Give yourself permission to do the things that bring you joy this week. You can't rely on bread alone — you need roses, too.
Horoscopes
Decan I of any sign (usually covering the 21st of the month to the first of the following month) is free to all visitors; Decan II is only available to Patreon and Ko-Fi.com subscribers; and Decan III is available to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and MailChimp subscribers.
Capricorn:
Aquarius:
Pisces:
Aries:
Taurus:
Gemini:
Cancer:
Leo:
Virgo:
Libra:
Scorpio:
Sagittarius:
Colophon
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I use Christopher Warnock's The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock's 36 Faces for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.
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