Put simply, February is all about emotions—the experiencing of them, learning about them and going through things which stir them up. Apparently the cosmic aim here is to see how well we know—handle—adapt to and live with/within our own emotional makeup.
Where you aren’t so good at being you (or being willing to feel the feelings you’d have if you were honest about who you are) things are likely to get picky, prickly…even provocative or thought-provoking.
And wherever it is you struggle with “wants” against “needs” or those feelings about what you’re “supposed to” do, be, have, like, dislike, believe in or otherwise—that’s where the real cosmic dust will cloud your vision, stir up mud-slinging and daunt your life plans—particularly in the sense of how happy you are with yourself, or with those plans.
The whole month is a series of step-by-step moments—one leading to the next, and it all starts with Mars ever-so-slowly retrograding back through 22 Virgo. 22 Virgo is a degree known for two very different “variations on a theme” which have in common one thing: “not getting anything useful done.”
One version of this involves the tendency to forget what’s important because you get so involved in good times, flattery and exaggerated rah-rah enthusiasm. Are you feeling the effects of that?
Or are you getting a heaping helping of what happens when useful potential and humanitarian insights fail to be put to good use? Mars retrograde at 22 Virgo through the first weekend in February brings us face to face with scandals and scandalous behavior (real or moral). It may be in us, it may be in others. Either way, it’s probably rather frustrating—at the very least!
Mars retrograde is always frustrating, let’s face it. And Mars retrograding in Virgo makes it hard to get things done and hard to feel that what you’re doing (or have done) has much value.
But maybe that’s the point here. With Saturn sitting at 29 critical-mass degrees of Libra, this is the moment to be asking who we are in this world and who we are busy being. It asks what we’re giving in our relationships and what we’re getting from them—and what’s good, bad, honest or an exercise in kidding ourselves. “Comfortable” may now not be so comforting—and what you think is “approved of” may earn you wholesale derision, should you be somehow out of line.
If this sounds all very contentious, that’s because things are likely to be contentious about now! The astrological indicator here is Pluto at 8 Capricorn—very much conjunct M22, a messier (nebula) astrologers call Facies. It’s a “fixed star” point known for bizarre mélanges of helplessness and aggressions which have many sources and many outlets. [For more on Pluto and Facies, see “Pluto/Facies: the Condition Our Condition Is In,” Daykeeper, January 2012.]
And given Pluto-Facies in combination with the Libra Saturn thing and the retrograding Virgo Mars thing, we should all expect testing…maybe even testy times. Many will feel aggrieved, some will strike out, others will simmer in a volatile, bubbling silence. And—surprise!—it’s all very real, and very much merited, though NOT (generally) “about” the other person.
No, in reality, it’s all about us. The emotions being raised are ours—why we react is the prime and primal question.
Back in April of 2011 we got a celestial “double-whammy” of Uranus entering Aries as Neptune entered its “home” sign of Pisces. Remember that? It was just in the wake of Japan’s tsunami. We were all feeling very mortal. The Uranian tendency to signify changes, breakthroughs and things which burst out, become evident, come loose or “break the mold” (of some status quo) in Aries, a sign about consciousness of existence, suddenly got us to thinking about how we all live on this one blue, green and dusty tan planet. How we really are in this life together.
Except—of course—for those who want to “be apart.” Uranus creates as much separatism as universality, and all that good and bad, equality against elitism, anarchy against functionality, inventiveness against responsibility…that all continued all through 2011.
And maybe you noticed how all the pathos, the willingness to feel compassion sort of went by the wayside oh…sometime early last August? That was when Neptune retrograded back out of über-sensitive “feeling our feelings” Pisces into worldly, social, systemic and economic/income-oriented Aquarius. But then, as Neptune went station/direct in early November 2011, we all began to weeble-wobble on the brink—not of disaster, but of human disapproval of our Selves…and each other.
So why bring that up now? That “why” is answered thusly: as of February 3 (at 6:53pm UT/+0, should you care)….
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Boots Hart is an ISAR-certified astrologer of 30 years’ experience, with some 20 years as a magazine and online columnist.
Writer by habit and philosopher by bent (some say very bent…), Boots is a metaphysical science geek spiritualist—a person as inspired by the workings of time/space as touched by the often painful adventures of mankind. Through writings public and private, her aim is to use astrology as cipher, helping us understand. Can we learn how to live a happier life? What does that take? Why are the times as they are? These are the questions. And that answers can be gleaned from cosmic cycles and the reflections of those in our lives? That would seem to be part of our journey—the one path we all take and walk together.
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