January 2003

January begins with Mercury turning retrograde on the 2nd at 28 Capricorn; it turns direct on 23rd January at 12 Capricorn. This fits with the positions of the lunations - the January new moon is at 12 Capricorn and the full moon at 27 Cancer. This happened in September with the previous Mercury retrograde at 28 Virgo and 12 Libra.

Mercury and Saturn continue to be in mutual reception - that is Mercury in Capricorn (ruled by Saturn) and Saturn in Gemini (ruled by Mercury). This may be a particularly difficult time for people with Virgo and Pisces planets as they will be receiving the hard aspects from Saturn and the soft ones from Mercury. Libra and Aries of course receive soft aspects from Saturn and hard ones from Mercury.

Neptune moves away from its long time stay at 8 Aquarius and Pluto moves from 15 Sagittarius. Uranus returns to its favoured position around 28 Aquarius. It has spent considerable time here and will return here once more at the end of the year for a final station after it has entered Pisces. This focus will see further disruption but also a clearing of baggage for those with planets aspected by this point. These include Israel, Zimbabwae and the charts associated with Northern Ireland. The full moon in February will certainly illuminate these situations.

The combination of Mercury and lunar cycles also pulls in the charts of the USA, Iraq, Saddam Hussein and George W Bush.

2 January 2003 New Moon

18 January 2003 Full Moon

USA - Sag Ascendant

George W Bush

Iraq: declaration of republic

Saddam Hussein