2016 Your Year Ahead!

While 2016 is bound to be a very positive year for all the signs, this year will have it’s starts and stops, with some areas of your life requiring more reflection and rethinking than others. Almost immediately into 2016 we have Mercury, the Trickster planet, going Retrograde for almost all of the month, starting on the 5th and finally turning direct on the 25th. While no means a bad thing, this Messenger planet will bring news on what areas of your life you will have to rethink and reinvent for the rest of the year. See your individual sun sign for more inforamtion on what apsect of your life this will cover. Also starting on January 7th, Jupiter, the planet of optimism and growth will retrograde for it’s usual 5 months out of the year. The area of your chart in the sign of Sagittarius may get an extra dose of reflection. Saturn, will be conjuncting Venus in January as well, and this may mean that you will have to take a look at very serious issues of what you really value, and cutting back on unnecessary spenditures, or letting go of toxic friends, may be the result.

February is a great month that has wonderful potential for beginning new things, something that January did not provide astrologically. Be sure to start new ventures between the New Moon on February 8th and the Full Moon on the 22nd to get the most positive long term results. The start of the month with have Venus and Mars at a harmonious sixty degree aspect to one another and at the end of the month the Sun will conjunct Neptune in Pisces. You will be inspired to either new spiritual or astistic goals this month!

March will spice things up a bit with our first two eclipses for the year! The Solar Eclipse, new moon, will occur on March 8th, while the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse will take place on the 23rd. The Solar eclipse will be in Pisces, reinvigorating the areas of your chart touched by that sign, while the Lunar Eclipse will be with the Sun in Aries and the Moon in Libra. This eclipse will allow you to break free in areas that are touched by the Moon in Libra, so that you can start afresh! There may be loss involved, as there often is for Lunar Eclipses, but it is almost always something that was already in the process of departing our lives, whether we were aware of it or not.

The first half of April allows us a respite from the big changes in March, although not for long, as Mars goes Retrograde for what may seem like forever, although in reality it will be only until the end of June on the 29th. With Mars in reverse, your mojo is likely to be affected big time, and starting a new long term venture, such as a business or long term love affair, for when Mars is Retrograde the currents are going on direction and then when he turns Direct they will go another and you may find that the wind is not at your back the way you had hoped it would be. Things slow down even more at the end of April, as Mercury starts it’s second retrograde of the year on the 28th.

April showers bring May flowers, and this May life may in fact slow down enough for you to stop and smell the pretiest ones! While May will not be the best month to rush ahead with the zillion items on your To-Do List, it will be a good time to enjoy the lazy days of Spring, watching the clouds go by in the sky, and reflecting on what’s really important in your life and what you’d like to do once both Mars and Mercury go direct. You may come up with more ideas once Mercury turns direct on the 22nd, but pause until at least July before pushing ahead with them. Even though new projects may not get the green light yet, there may be positive people from your past who come back into your life to help you, as Jupiter will trine the Sun on May 3rd, will turn direct on May 9th having been Retrograde since January, and then will trine Venus, planet of love and harmony on May 10th. Who knows with whom you’ll be smelling those May flowers!

June continues the Mars Retrograde in Scorpio until almost the very last day of the month, June 29th. June is a great month to get away and enjoy a vacation or at the very least a weekend city break! While Mars Retrograde isn’t the best time to forge ahead with new business plans, it is a good time to rethink, recharge, and rest, so go ahead and get that time in at the beach early on in the Summer this year! Venus will conjunct the Sun on June 6th, giving you a happy first full week of June, and Venus making a sixty degree aspect to Uranus on June 12th could make that a weekend to spontaneously get away with your lover.

July will start heating up the Summer as long dormant Mars starts waking up and slowly moving forward again, in passionate Scoprio! Expect to find renewed passion and vitality in matters that mean the most to you! If you’ve felt hampered since Mars original retrograde motion back in mid April you will now start feeling the benefits of all the retrospection you did in the Spring. The Sun, and then the Moon will trine Neptune on July 3rd, 4th, giving you the green light to move ahead with creative projects that have been on the backburner, as will Venus trine Mars on July 6th. The weekend of the 4th would be a great week to take a vacation and enjoy with friends and family, or simply make time for your latest creative pursuits! The rest of the month will continue to move forwards away from the Mars funk of the cold Spring days.

The Summer days of August also shine brilliantly as harmonious 120 degree Trine aspects are formed between the Sun and Saturn on August 1st, giving you a boost to productivity, and the Sun and Uranus on August 16th, giving you unexpected creativity and brilliance. Mercury will conjoin with Jupiter on the 21st in the brainy side of Virgo giving you what might be your best ideas of the year! You might have one of your most profitable days on August 27th when Venus conjuncts Jupiter. This is all before we have our third Mercury Retrograde for the year, starting on August 30th.

Becuase of the Retrograde, it might seem like you’re moving backwards in September as Mercury will be retrograde in Virgo until September 21st, however, there will be flashes of insight on September 2nd when Mercury, now Retrograde conjuncts Jupiter, and also on September 9th when Jupiter will give us a sneak peak at how its arrival into the sign of Libra will transform us in the year ahead! There will however, be major changes in store for September, as during the Mercury Retrograde we will have our second set of Eclipses for the year, a Solar Eclipse in Virgo on September 1st, and a Full Moon Eclipse in Virgo and Pisces on September 16th. You may be forced through circumstances to break free from the past and move forward in a new direction. Although it may seem hard and unexpected at the time, know that ultimately it’s for the better as these changes may be necessary for you to be the best you in the future. The end of September will bring to light the new beginnings you’re embarking on, with the Sun conjunct Jupiter on Septeber 25th, what might be the best day of the year for you, and a wonderful New Moon on September 30th in Libra that will bring new opportunities into your life!

While neither Mars nor Mercury will be Retrograde in October, and the month starts out with a wonderful Venus Trine Neptune aspect in the water element, the month may bring lingering fallout from the eclipses and retrogrades of September. Often one will feel the effects of an eclipse a month afterwards, with the next full and new moons, and while the LIbra New Moon on September 30th may be dreamy the Full Moon on October 15th will have challenging aspects with Mars, Uranus, and Pluto, which may bring about sudden unforeseen changes. Again, though, these changes will be necessary for future growth, so do not resist them if they happen. The New Moon in Scorpio of October 30th, will be a wonderful Visioning time, to really put out to the uninverse what you’d like in your life, as there will be many harmonious Neptune aspects. It’s time to let go of the past that didn’t work in 2016, and vision what you’d like in your life for 2017!

November will be much less turbulent than the rest of the Fall, and starts off with a dreamy Sun Trine Neptune in water signs that again is an amazing aspect to enhance both your creativity and your spirituality! If you’re a fire sign, Venus will Trine Uranus in Sagittarius and Aries, giving you the get up and go to suddenly start new creative ventures! Take advantage of this time to really move forward with momentum. Think back to New Moon back on May 6th while both Mars and Mercury were Retrograde; you will have acheived by now intentions put into action back then on the Full Moon on the 14th this month. The New Moon in Saggitarius this year on November 29th at 8 degrees is the exact degree that Mars went Retrograde on April 17th, so expect his New Moon to provide a New Beginning for all that you went through during the many months of Mars Retrograde this past Spring and early Summer!

The final month of the year, December, wraps up a year with many changes, with good times and much needed socializing with friends and family! The month starts off on December 1st with a Mars Trine Jupiter aspect that you get your holiday spirit going and also allow you to begin, continue or finish off any projects that might have been sitting on the backburner due to changes earlier this year. The Sun will Trine Uranus for unexpected good times and perhaps even a party or two on Sunday the 11th, leading up to a grande Full Moon on the 13th showing a small culmination of the initatives you put in place on November 29th Full Moon! While Mercury goes Retrograde on the 19th through January 8th, this is only a good excuse to take some much needed vacation time, set the pace a little slower and mellow out with some spiced eggnog or a hot toddy or two by the fire! Relax this holiday season, you deserve it!