By: Janette Dalgliesh – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
26 January – 1 February 2020
This week’s article is a little on the late side. Initially, I thought that was a problem. But now I know the reason it wanted to be delayed.
For readers unfamiliar with Australian history, 26 January is Australia Day.
The date was chosen to commemorate the moment that white settlement begin on this continent in 1788.
For the First Peoples of Australia, it’s the date that the murder, rape, dispossession, slavery and segregation began.
While many white Australians continue to celebrate Australia Day as a general excuse for a party, for Indigenous people it’s a day or mourning and sorrow. It’s also a day to honour survival.
This morning I attended the inaugural dawn Survival Day Ceremony in my home town of Ballarat.
Non-indigenous Australians were made welcome as allies and supporters. Speakers included Aboriginal elders, as well as young people who carry the future in their hands.
We listened to stories of great anguish and great hope. We were privileged to witness an entire community coming together to express their collective grief and intergenerational trauma, as well as their unrelenting determination for a positive future, and their remarkable resilience.
We listened to the horrifying statistics of massacres in Victoria in just one relatively short period in the 19th century.
We were invited to receive gracious healing through a smoking ceremony conducted by a Wathaurong elder.
It was humbling, inspiring, uncomfortable and an enormous privilege to be invited to witness.
What does all this have to do with the current astrology?
It was a moment of deep change.
I was there because I wanted to support the Indigenous community in my town. As a white woman born in the UK, I benefit every day from a system which is slanted towards white people.
I arrived a little nervous, willing to simply be present and receive whatever the community felt was appropriate – whether that was their rage or their sorrow.
I received a profound gift of grace and forgiveness which I did not expect.
It’s changed me to my core.
Real change is hard.
It requires us to become somebody whom we have not yet been.
Human brains don’t like change. They respond with a kind of automatic anxiety because for our ancestors, change meant a whole lot of unknown.
And the unknown can be full of predators and poisonous plants.
So we have this inbuilt mechanism which makes us wary of change.
Which means that when we want to make change, we have to consciously overcome the inertia created by that neurological defence mechanism.
The recent New Moon has set the stage for a week of high octane change of all kinds.
You have two ways to approach this.
Option one – resist the change, cling to the old, and watch as things change anyway. That’s like clinging to a rock in a turbulent stream. The water just gets even more turbulent around you, until it rips your hands away from the rock and carries you downstream. It’s rockier, bumpier and altogether less fun.
Option two – let go of the rock and go with the flow! Embrace the change potential in this week, and into the future, even if you fear it or you’ve no idea what it will be.
Hurl yourself into it, embracing every single part of what’s possible, and using this momentum to help pull you through any sticky bits which might arise.
The sticky bits happen when we put ourselves in a situation that our brain says is not for us.
- We go on a first date with a new person.
- We start a new job.
- We apply for a job that’s way outside our comfort zone.
- We create a new business, or a bunch of new offerings within our business.
- We remove ourselves from places that have become restrictive or not-quite-right or downright unsafe.
- We quietly remove certain people from our lives, and step into new relationships.
- We attend a ceremony not knowing whether those hosting it will express their justifiable rage towards us or open their arms with grace
Sometimes, our brains can throw a kind of internal hissy fit, making us think that for sure we are doing the wrong thing and we must be crazy.
This is Aquarius season, meaning the god of unexpected change Uranus is fully activated.
We are in the first phase of the lunar cycle which began in Aquarius.
This week is a time for research, opening up of possibilities, considering things you’ve never considered before.
Today began for me with a new level of understanding of the Indigenous experience. I’ve been a vague ally, but hesitated to look the atrocities full in the face until now. Anyone who’s been part of trauma knows that looking truth in the face can be a powerful part of the healing process.
My allyship is far clearer and more potent now. It’s no longer held back by some weird fear of retribution. I can be more useful, and that pleases me.
Now is a time for experimenting without judgement, a time for enhancing understanding by reading and learning outside your familiar zones, being ready to listen to concepts, knowledge and ideas you haven’t experienced or considered before.
It’s also the lead up to whatever it is that’s going to be launched or harvested in two weeks time at the full moon.
Curiosity is activated. And if you’ve been fiercely guarding a position or a belief about something or someone … this is a good time to ask “I wonder if there’s another perspective?”
It’s a time for questioning and breaking with convention.
Not merely for the sake of smashing the old, but in order to make way for the new.
The Aquarian energy, activated with purpose, is a potent agent of change for the better.
Without purpose, it’s more rebel without a cause: scattered, stressed and destructive.
You get to choose.
Those intentions you set with the New Moon?
Check in with them, remind yourself of the why behind them and the seeds of delight they contain. Then, get curious.
If you didn’t set intentions yet, now’s the time. Perfect!
So what exactly is going on astrologically to support and trigger all this?
First, we had the New Moon in Aquarius. Sun (our identity) and Mercury (our thinking and communication) are both still there.
On 28 January, an additional spotlight activates Mercury as he moves into a highly supportive Grand Air Trine (an equal-sided triangle in the sky), featuring Juno in Libra and the Part of Fortune in Gemini at the other two corners.
Asteroid Juno in Libra is about our capacity to stay dedicated to something or someone, in the face of distractions. Juno, the wife or Jupiter, famously stayed faithful as her husband constantly played around. She got her revenge, for sure, but she stayed faithful and never took a lover herself.
In Libra, Juno represents our ability to be loyal to someone with whom we are in relationship. That can be a lover, a client, a best friend. And with the Aquarian dynamic at play, it might also be a cue to question the loyalty and bring some curiosity to the mix.
The Arabic Part of Fortune is associated with our prosperity, our good luck. Here in Gemini, research and conversation are the name of the game; and of course a readiness to consider change.
So we have Mercury in Aquarius – curious and open-minded – activating Juno in Libra, who understands the loyalty dynamic; and the Part of Fortune in Gemini, where talking it through at an intellectual level links to our good luck.
We get Libra’s ability to see both sides of the story, Gemini’s insatiable curiosity, and the Aquarian capacity for standing back aloof and objective.
When we can leverage this energy with the right kinds of intentions – compassionate, courageous, inclusive – we open the door to new paradigms, new ways of thinking.
Three days later, Ceres moves out of Capricorn and into Aquarius to join the party. This asteroid goddess is about our relationship to the harvest, to nurturing ourselves physically and psychically.
So as the week begins, set those intentions. Get clear about the overarching direction you’re headed.
Be ready and willing to embrace change.
Reach out if you need support with that. There will be lots of people who can hold your hand as you walk through change (including me).
The astrology is in your favour.
Let’s make the most of it. Get ready to walk forward, because you don’t yet know what might be possible. You might even find grace.
Exact times (US Eastern timezone):
- 24 January 2020, 4:42PM – New Moon at 4º Aquarius
- 28 January 2020 – Grand Air Trine – Part of Fortune 22º Gemini, Mercury 19ºAquarius, Juno 21º Libra
- 31 January 2020, 2:59AM – Ceres into Aquarius
- 1 February 2020, 8:42PM – First Quarter Moon at 12º Taurus
Photo credit: Sacred site Uluru, traditional owners the Anangu – Photo by Ondrej Machart from Unsplash
Janette Dalgliesh has a simple mission in life – to wreak more joy in the world. A keen student of astrology, brain science and Law of Attraction, she serves her people through astrology consults, coaching, teaching and writing. To get Janette’s unique perspective on your own chart, visit her website or track her down on Facebook.
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