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Understanding the Zodiac: Aquarius
by Barry Kerr
The Sun moves into Aquarius on January 20
Aquarius is ruled by Uranus and resonates with freedom, authenticity, intuition and seeing past the limits of the status quo. Our inner Saturn agreed to conform to the seeming limits of the world, but our inner Uranus, orbiting just beyond Saturn, intuitively knows what our five senses cannot perceive, and prompts us, like Aquarian Star Trek, “to go where no man has gone before”.
Planet Uranus wasn’t discovered until 1781, though it has always played a subversive role in the unfolding of human culture and evolution. Discovered during the American and French revolutions, it inspired change for democracy and freedom around the planet. This radical, collective expression of freedom was necessary to allow the individuation we needed to eventually grow out of religion and into spirituality.
On a personal level, Uranus urges you to not get trapped in the illusions and limited thinking of the physical world. It’s a guide from your larger soul, maintaining a helpful, though sometimes disruptive influence on ego. Conscious of it or not, it gives you the information you need to stay true to your soul’s lifetime intention. As Uranus comes into play through the cycles of your life, you feel an increased tension around what is out of integrity. On your birth chart, the signs, houses and planets touched by Uranus will reveal the themes and issues emphasized during those times.
Particularly, at age 38-42, Uranus reaches the halfway point of its 84 year orbit and sits exactly opposite its natal position. This profound life passage relates to what has traditionally been called the “midlife crisis”. Whatever choices you’ve made by way of lifestyle, commitments, and values are tested against your feelings of authenticity. What falls short becomes less tolerable. You long for change. Depending on how true you have been to your soul’s path, this can be a radical and disruptive revolution in your life, or an acceleration and liberating deepening of your life path. Changes will happen, voluntarily or not. It’s a natural part of our growth cycle. Resistance creates suffering.
On the collective societal, we are in a similar “crisis” of vision and authenticity regarding our organized systems and institutions. During Aquarius, awareness of this dissonance is demanding our attention more than ever. And just as on the individual level, once we see past the limits of the status quo, there is no going back, even if the necessary changes bring us some chaos, challenges and pain.
Aquarius’s spiritual intention is to teach us how to remain true to our unique vision while working as a team with others, collectively. Our inner Aquarius/Uranus knows, intuitively, that the authority of the status quo is temporary to the understandings of our limited senses, changing as consciousness evolves. Thus, we strive for the “ideal," often feeling rejected or weary when the world doesn’t “get it." We know, in our hearts, that we are all in this together, as equals.
Through Aquarius, we learn objectivity, equality, group participation and serving humanitarian causes. We learn to relate to others as whole individuals, not just their functions, recognizing them as special, just like us. We learn to share our intuitive and unconventional ideas with others and encourage them to do the same. This further taming of our ego creates friendships, camaraderie and “belonging." We begin to experience the oneness of humanity as an extension of self. The Lego Movie, deceptively childish-sounding, but very adult and metaphysical, illustrates this Aquarius/Leo polarity excellently: “Everything is awesome!”
Good Aquarian Activities
To align your energy with Aquarius, think outside the box. Question the status quo and invite future vision. Share your visions and gifts with friends, colleagues and networks. Notice who sees and appreciates your unique expression and align yourself with theirs, as equals, in mutual support. Quit groups when you don’t feel synergy happening. Make collaboration, teamwork, and unity your mantras.
Good Aquarian questions to ask yourself
To heal and evolve your Aquarian self, pay attention to how well you do in groups. Do you strive to understand the group or do you insist on getting your own way? Can you follow your own heart and still work with a team, or do you do what’s expected in order to feel you belong? Do you treat others as whole and special or do you only see them as serving a particular function? Do you honor your intuition? Are you open to creating win/win situations? In a world that falls short of your ideals, can you still feel your loving connection to humanity and know you have a place?
Horoscope for January 20 – February 18
While the Sun is in the sign of Aquarius, our egos become more sensitive to the human experiences of group energy. Friends, colleagues, comrades, and community draw our attention in ways that heighten our awareness of collective values, visions, goals and activities and how we fit into that. The desire to “belong” to a tribe of peers is universal. By aligning our personal energy with that of others, we can get a taste, here in the physical world, of the synergy and magic that reflects the spiritual oneness of all our souls in the divine dimension. Thus, our experiences with groups are opportunities for learning how to guide our soul-inspired egos toward soul-fulfilling expressions of divine love.
Look below for your birth sign (sun sign) to see what particular challenges/opportunities are being brought to your awareness this month. (These can also hold true if you have your Moon, Rising sign or a number of planets in the sign.)
Aries (Mar 21 – Apr 19):
Taurus (Apr 20 – May 20):
Your participation with groups can contribute an earthy, grounded stability and consistency to the team and build your own sense of self-worth. The problem can be that you become too attached to a particular idea or plan of action, your own or the group’s, and unable to muster the flexibility to adapt to the inevitable and unpredictable group process. If you make sure the overall values and goals of the group align with your own, and don’t look to the group for validation of your individual self-worth, you will remain free to disagree, yet remain loyal.
Gemini (May 21 – June 20):
What could be more interesting for a Gemini than being in a group, right? But that rational and chatty curiosity can come across as cold and detached from feeling or empathic intuition, leading to unintended slights and alienation. Also, a too busy mind can create distractions from group focus. The key is to direct some of your curiosity to understanding the individual contributions of others, which creates energy of appreciation in you. This builds a love vibration that allows others to receive your objective and otherwise emotionally detached ideas.
Cancer (June 21 – July 22):
Your natural tendencies toward feelings, empathy and nurturing can make you a valued member of any group, especially when emotions are in play. Of course, this is only true if the group values and respects emotion. Otherwise, your greatest strengths become everyone’s frustration. So choose your groups wisely. Also, realize that groups are seldom organized around your own emotional needs. So don’t look for them to build your emotional security and self-worth. Rather, offer your own emotional strength to others in the group or to those whom the group may serve.
Leo (July 23 - Aug 22):
Your natural confidence in expressing your individual authenticity can inspire any team and could result in your leadership. However, if it’s about enhancing your own ego by appearing to be a cooperative team player, and receiving kudos for it, then it’s a disruptive suck. The challenge is to bring your magical child’s awareness to the magical child in your teammates, playfully inviting them to add their own unique gifts to yours and others in a dynamic synergy of creativity. This allows you to lead without leading and still honors your need to shine.
Virgo (Aug 23 – Sep 22):
Your dedication to being of service and getting things right can either keep a group focused, effective and moving forward or invoke judgment, fault-finding and splintering. The challenge is for you to soften your need for perfection and appreciate that not everyone holds your standards. By extending an empathetic appreciation for the feelings and unique contributions of each member and embracing the collective and expressed standards of the group, your critical observations are better received and valued.
Libra (Sep 23 – Oct 22):
Your tendency to highly value one-to-one connection can be a natural contribution to group harmony, but when aimed toward your own personal needs, can be disruptive and get in the way of your own need for connection. It’s best to use your relationship sensitivities toward helping everyone exercise a balanced, fair and egalitarian teamwork. Your warmth and objectivity in these matters will support everyone and keep the love flowing. Just keep the caretaking appropriate or you will lose yourself.
Scorpio (Oct 23 – Nov 21):
For you, it’s about power and transformation. You may fear committing to groups, even those with lofty goals, because your keen insights into hidden group dynamics can reveal that which is out of alignment with the group’s expressed ideals. But rather than fearing to be a provocative threat to the group, your challenge is to trust your gift of perceptions by sharing it with others within the context of the group purpose and trusting that though you may get temporary push-back, after time to digest, the others will discern what is true in your information and allow it to cause transformation as needed. The key is for you to not be attached to your own sense of power or need to manipulate, knowing you are merely part of a collective process.
Sagittarius (Nov 22 – Dec 21):
Your good intention to seek truth can come across as arrogant and judgmental, even if you stay silent, and thus disrupt the effectiveness of the group and your connection to those in it. Make sure you choose groups already aligned with your truth so you aren’t trying to change their purpose. Also, recognize and express appreciation for the wisdom others bring to the table, directing your own insights to building a collaborative sense of vision and truth. After all, that is how the “magic” of synergy furthers us all.
Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 19):
You bring managerial authority and organizational skills to your collective experiences. Any group that has goals needs someone like you to help manifest them. Where you can get stuck is by aligning yourself with people and groups that keep you in a safe zone of conformity to the status quo. In truth, your leadership skills are best applied to group ideals that move society forward. By committing to a collective vision of universal progress, you act as a cautious reality check that helps keep a successful pace toward group goals.
Aquarius (Jan 20 – Feb 18):
Your Uranian impulses for authenticity, freedom and change make you both an inspiring catalyst for the potential synergy of group creativity and a rebellious detractor that can bring that synergy to a halt. The challenge is to first choose groups that align with your ideals and then make sure there is room in the group for your original, inventive, intuitive and eccentric contributions to be valued and applied. Otherwise, you will feel a need for freedom and leave.
Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20):
Your subliminal feelings of connection to the wholeness of divine unity bring an inspired idealism to your collective experiences. This can be a problem if you expect any group of peers to live up to your high ideals, in which case you will either not find any suitable groups or be constantly disappointed and fuel dissension, confusion and alienation. The challenge is to let go of expectations, feel the flow of love, allow yourself to share your visionary perspectives, and trust that this will plant seeds of inspiration for others to channel similar visions that build the collective vision to new heights beyond your own.
Barry Kerr, a certified soul-based astrologer, has 33 years of experience with an international clientele, including many medical professionals and alternative healers. He and Kristine Gay, a licensed psychotherapist, are owners/practitioners at Inner Essence Center in Madison. Both have extensive training in soul-guided healing of mind, body, heart and spiritual systems. They offer healing, coaching, therapy and astrology services. Visit www.ChooseConsciousLiving.com for more information.
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