We may have felt very heavy toward the end of last month when Neptune (planet of dreams and illusions) and Saturn (planet of karma, endings, responsibility) were teetering back and forth at the end of their respective signs.  When a large outer planet reaches the end of its cycle, for Neptune, a span of 14 years for Saturn, 2 1/2 and 28 years, we feel stuck, anxious and oftentimes pulled back into feelings of desperation, overwhelm and sadness.  Some of the pressure may still be with us as the month begins but will reach a culmination in the early part of the month when Neptune changes signs into Pisces and Saturn turns retrograde for the last time in Libra.

As of February 3rd, the dreams of the last 14 years fall away and we are in the midst of a new cycle of visioning.  Neptune in Aquarius did bring us the “dream of the collective” and the promise/nightmare of technology with the Internet, social networking and cel phone technology bringing people closer while also challenging our privacy or sense of reality.  Neptune moving into Pisces will be a very different universal hope–that of connecting to God and our spritual source.  Art, esoterica, poetry and film will be the areas that will most benefit from Neptune’s move into the sign of the collective unconscious.  Those most affected will include anyone with a Pisces Sun, Moon or Ascendent and they will feel as if, for the first time in their lives, they are in their element.  Most zodiac signs have an experience of their ruling planet being in its best form, but for Pisces, whose ruler is Neptune and has a 156 year cycle, no one has experienced this transit in our lifetime.

Saturn, our task master, and yes, the party pooper extraordinaire is the opposite of Neptune and his role is to get us to understand the limits of our three-dimensional world and forces us to see the chinks in the armor of our lives and dreams.  While this might sound depressing, he is actually a wonderfully corrective energy in our lives because

he asks that we approach our work and relationships with a sense of mastery.  Anything worth having requires some effort and committment and int this regard, Saturn is our friend and constant guide.

Saturn in Libra has been the “cause” of many relationship breakups as he has shown us that unequal situations are no longer tenable.  If you are approaching a Saturn fork in the road in your relationship (i.e. you have been together for almost 7, 14 or 21 years) this might be the time to move on if the relationship is not a positive force in your life.  This is the natural exit point or opportunity to redefine and restructure the arrangement.  This includes our connection to our professions, families, jobs, homes and future goals.

For those still on the fence, an event may occur on or around Feb 8th that will clearly show you what is untenable and what is required to disentangle you from the situation.  Whatever comes up will be resolved in the summer and you will be free of Saturn in Libra,  and the lesson of equality in relationships–for the next 28 years.

Later in the month, Venus, the planet of love and ruler of Libra, will move into the sign of Aries and we will definitely want to be free.  The victimhood of Pisces, where Venus has been since Jan 15th,  will now give way to a strong need for independence and excitement when it comes to relationships.  Aries is an initiatory energy so we will find ourselves more motivated to go after what we want, declare our love and find ways to express a more dominant side of our nature.

And even if we are finding that we want to take action, always an Aries vibration, we can still speak in a soothing and mellifluous tone as Mercury and the Sun will be settling into Pisces on the 15th and 20th respectively.  In this regard, there will still be a slight tug back into the past and into inertia, but take note of what your Venus now wants and by the time the sun moves into Aries in March, you will be full speed ahead in defining a new set of values (and attracting a new paramour.)

ARIES

Last month you may have finalized a chapter around your dreams and your relationship and given it a fond kiss farewell.  It is now time to merge more deeply with the collective and your own highly intuitive powers of perception.  For the next 14 years, if you dream it, you can create it because that inspiration is coming directly from Source.  You may still be stuck in rewind concerning your template for a partner, so even if you sneak back to an ex, you will most likely realize that come June, your instincts concerning this situation were right on all along.  You start to get some spit and fire in your step mid-month and from then on, you won’t need or want to cling to anyone who holds you back.  The inner murmurings that you hear in your new found spaciousness will seed the next decade of your life.

TAURUS

You’ve completed your professional apprenticeship and now it is time for the full-on committment.  There may still be a few tiny details that need to be attended to, but come the fall, you will be making your debut on the career stage.  You will be thinking bigger and brighter as the year progresses and in order for your work to fulfill you, you must connect your dreams to a greater humanitarian cause.  A part of you is still feeling a bit shy, but Venus in your 12th house of the unconscious is stirring up your inner warrior and he/she will make her debut come the Spring solstice next month.  Use that hidden fierceness to connect to others who share your dreams of a more beautiful and transcendent world.

GEMINI

You have finally gotten your head and your heart onto the same page after possiblly a lifetime of separating the two.  But the heart has wisdom and the mind has compassion and these now combined will bring forth a change in career and public role over the next 14 years.  You may still need to review the rules of relationship engagement and integrate the desire for partnership with the need for excitement.  Believe it or not, you CAN have both provided you stick around long enough to receive the benefits of committed love.  If you want to wander, do so in your creative life and social ideals and in this arena, you can be Joan of Arc and  William the Conquerer.  You can now speak words that inspire and attract and set the foundation for a new professional identity.

CANCER

How to find intimacy in a settting that does not necessarily include family members (those in your clan)?  That has been your task over the last few years and you have created that with friends or a loved one.  Now it is time to move on and bring this unity and compassion into the international and transpersonal realm.  Sure, right now you may feel a little bereft because you’ve had to say goodbye to someone who has felt like family but since you’ve grown up, you need to be able to stand on your own for a bit. You’ve got dragons to slay and battles to win in the professional arena so you need to sharpen your sword and cut lose of any regressive ties.  If you want the beautiful energy of merging, use it in the realm of poetry and writing or a far-away romance.   This is a new way to nourish your soul without the dependency on others.

LEO

You realize, after much struggle, that communication is the most important ingredient in a relationship.  Several years of not knowing what was going on with a partner forced you to speak in clear and certain terms.  If they were lost, you needed to let them go and along with that, perhaps a fantasy of romantic love.  Fear not, a new dream and one that is more likely to occur now lands in your lap and that is one that involves collaboration on a deep level.  Yes, for some in can mean a transcendent love affair, for others the creative partner of your dreams.  Keep your sights on far shores as that is where your audience is most likely to be and your adventures manifest most dramatically.  Save some time, however, for some very private musing with the one who feels like home.

VIRGO

As with Taurus, you have spent several years finetuning your professional skills and talents.  This has left little time for relationships.  In many ways, even if coupling was a desire of yours, your partner may have been missing in action.  You may have even had a fantasy lover rather than the real thing.  One critical (pun intended) thing about Virgo is learning deservedness.  Do you feel worthy to ask for what you want?  You do receive one last test around the 8th and when you get the probable “no”, you realize that when you settle for less, you get less then you settle for.  Someone is in your sphere who sees your inner fire and by listening to your intuition and letting go, you may begin an entirely new chapter around the mirror of love and self-love.

LIBRA

Creative vision and the means of accomplishing that have been the lessons of the last few years.  You are never at a loss for ideas, but what is the ratio of imaginary to real?  It is true that you have been dealing with loss of a real or metaphorical sense since 2008 and you will be able to integrate how these events made you more resilient.  While the new life doesn’t totally start until the fall, you can begin to taste how adventurous your life can be if you let go and allow others to direct the show.  Some of these imaginings can turn to reality in a way that will defy your expectations, particularly in the romantic arena.

SCORPIO

As with Libra, loss and working through old fears of abandonment and betrayal have been the challenge for quite some time.  You are now about to enter an entirely new cycle of transcendent love and creativity that can knock your socks off.  One more test of faith and doubt may occur around the 8th, but this is the last bulletpoint to a propensity toward allowing others to color your reality.  It is clear that a feisty man or woman has been circulating as of late.  She or he is showing you the way to the future.  You can begin by exchanging thoughts and words of a most romantic and sensitive kind as you allow yourself to be swallowed up by the waters of a sexual divine love.

SAGITTARIUS

You have developed strong communication skills these last few years and changed the company you keep.  Those still stuck in the past you have had to let go off as well as those individuals who fail to recognize the strength and power of the new you.  You have allowed your Self more free reign and let go of small-mindedness in favor of a bigger piece of the sky. Time to consolidate those professional relationships that have proved worthy or supportive of your endeavors and release once and for all those associations that are dragging you down.  You need to open up space for love and adventure so listen for the whisperings of one who would exalt you in your rightful home.

CAPRICORN

Your career may be at an all-time high or coming to a halt.  This is all based on whether or not you feel you have chosen the right profession that allows you to reveal your true mastery.  It has been hard to know what you are good at, despite an obvious professionalism, but this month you will awaken as if from a dream and know what is your rightful calling . And certainly, despite your aura of conservatism, you are anything but and so allow the new people who are shaking up your life and home free reign.  The truth is you are a dreamer and you manifest your abundance not through limitation, but through being in alignment with all that is.

AQUARIUS

It has been hard to get a handle on anything for so long, such as who am I and what do I believe?  Neptune’s 14 year transit through your sign has separated you permanently from any constructed self that was not true.  You were meant to drift and explore and not know the outcome.  This month you will begin to understand the purpose of your life and the thought process and spiritual grounding that will make it so.  It’s time to start writing about and sharing your experience and even if you don’t like to write, enlist the skills of women or friends who are buzzing about your story.  Believe it or not, this walk through the garden of gethsemane will be the one thing that will give you value and credibility and eventually pad your bank account.

PISCES

Similar to Aquarius, you have been on a journey of letting go and just allowing the universe to move you along.  You were required to unleash old wounds and learn to create proper boundaries in relationships.  In many cases, it was clear that your romantic and financial situations were inbalanced and you paid the price.  As the sign connected to universal consciousness, you needed to understand all the aspects of yourself, even through the mirror of others.  You are in a new cycle around self-worth and money as well as burgeoning new relationships.  Just be your delightful and soulful self.  This is the time to call in the one because you are ready and he has been waiting for a very long time.