Starcodes January 29, 2021 Heather Roan Robbins

Tuesday is the center point of winter — Groundhog’s Day, Imbolc — when we take animal auguries and beckon spring forward. Astrologically this whole week calls us to introspect and ask how we got here, as a society and in our own personal lives, inventory what’s been working for us, what hasn’t, and what we need to do this spring to turn our ships in a good direction. The Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus (after Monday) are all in philosophical and collective Aquarius and ask these questions on a national scale. Mercury turns retrograde on Saturday for three weeks and sends us back to review and introspect our collective and personal past.

Aquarius offers the chance to see the bigger picture, to be aware of the needs and power of the larger group, whether that group is our family, our buddies on a team, or the very fabric of our society. Just at a time when we cannot gather in a group safely in person, and may really miss a good music festival, we see the power of the individual in the crowd, via vote or germ, to affect the whole — the gift and challenge of Aquarius. As Saturn and Jupiter entered Aquarius in December we immediately saw the power of the group as every vote was counted. In early January our country experienced the scariness of mob mentality in the assault on the capital. And this week we see the demos acting on Wall Street — collectively stretching its muscles in the usually elitist stock market. Covid continues to teach us that we must work together, globally, to tackle a problem of this magnitude and complexity.