2014 is the year of the relationship. Whether we interact with someone on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis; whether they are our neighbour, our lover, our child, friend, employer, employee, customer, sister or brother; whether we know them from a distance or up close, this is the year to reassess what we know, feel and think about human interactions.
2014 is a year of relationship climate change, where our preconceptions fly out the window and anything that we have been passionate about will go through a cooling process that will allow us to stand back, to restructure, to create a more realistic model of what we expect from others and, importantly, what we expect from ourselves. 2014 is a year to cast assumptions aside, to take other people seriously, to perhaps take ourselves less seriously, and to occasionally withdraw from the world of relating when, and if, the going gets rocky. If we are aware that this process is happening and that by late July, we can emerge with a balanced perspective we can be kinder to ourselves and to others. We may experience a kickback, a flashback or karmic backlash from the past, where words and actions come back to haunt us. Whichever way it manifests, if we are aware, if we can be honest with ourselves and can avoid projecting or even avoiding the pain of some past transgression, we can put as much as we can to right the wrongs done to us, or by us, and wipe the slate clean. Perfection and happy endings are the stuff of books and movies. In real life, if we can accept the failings and imperfections of human nature, we can see where the diamonds in our life truly exist.
As we head into the festive season, and throughout the first month of 2014, Venus will be travelling in an uncommon retrograde motion in the melancholic, cold, dry sign of Capricorn. She will square off with her counterpart Mars in mid-January setting the stage for Mars’s own rare retrograde motion in Venus’ sign, Libra, between March 2nd and May 30th. Venus will turn direct on February 1st in opposition to Jupiter, which has already been squared by Mars on Jan 9th, and in conjunction with intense Pluto, so starting with the New Moon on Jan 1st, which involves itself with Mars, Pluto and Uranus, the tension will steadily build throughout January. Like a dam that is full to capacity, life may burst the emotional banks by month’s end.
Austerity measures only last for so long where human emotions are concerned before they turn inward and morph into depression, so the trick is to release the water bit by bit; to open the gates and create channels that will allow the internal energy to trickle through steadily or in stages. That way we can avoid flooding the arena of our relationships with the erratic or impulsive reactions. Another trick is to use the nuclear-like energy as a propellant for creative endeavours; we can also try the head-on approach by patching up broken relationships, broken hearts or finding a way to fulfil a broken promise or agreement. As Venus shilly-shallies back and forth from late to-mid-Capricorn, we will learn from the sometimes selfish Capricorn energy to take other people seriously; that people are not commodoties to be bought and sold or that love can’t be switched on and off at will. We learn where we might have taken a turning that serves our own needs rather than keep to the commitment we promised to someone in a burst of passion. Maybe through the loss of an important connection, we will eventually learn to value not only the other person but our own integrity. If we are the person who is being let down, we have to learn to keep on trusting others and to also to build a buffer around our lives so that, going into the future, we won’t be at the whims of other people.
Venus and Mars are the big guns of relationships and relating, and they will be zig-zagging through the cardinal signs of Capricorn and Libra. Those of us who have Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn clearly defined in our birth charts will experience this energy directly, while other people should look to the segments of their chart that have these signs on the cusp. Not only do we have Venus and Mars travelling through Cardinal signs, but Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto are already ensconced in Cancer, Aries and Capricorn and form the bigger social backdrop that is already in play, and which will be carried into the future over many years. 2014 may be the start or continuance of events that will become clearer over time. In February, Jupiter moves from its intense opposition to Pluto to a second square to Uranus, the first square occurred last August. This aspect will bring a twist to the story where events and characters appear from nowhere. February sees Mercury turn retrograde in Pisces in conjunction with Neptune. Woolly notions take on a life of their own and it is all too easy to be seduced by what we think, hear, read or rationalise to ourselves. By early March we will be ready to rationalise the wispy mental threads, forming them into concrete notions that will still require the final test around mid-March.
April is the pivotal month of the year with the cardinal cross forming that will hold the seeds of great change as this cross forms over and over in the coming years. The Full Moon in Libra, though not directly in line with Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto is nevertheless a potent harbinger of change and drama. The Sun with rebellious Uranus squares Pluto on April 3rd, kicking off the action that will unfold. Mercury joins Uranus around the 15th and by the 23rd, retrograde Mars activates the Jupiter-Pluto-Uranus combo. This is a month to take extreme caution in all matters despite the urgency to act. Mars will turn direct on May 20th and will retrace its path back to a square with Pluto on June 14th and an opposition to Uranus on June 25th. Events then link back to April but on a less intense, but just as significant, level.
Jupiter enters Leo on July 16th. Leaving emotional Cancer after a year’s stay, we enter into a new 12-year phase that was last seen in 2002 – just prior to the mega-boom that hit the property market after a long plateau. This is not to say there will be repetition of the high and lows that were evident then but it will certainly be worth watching what takes place. Saturn turns direct shortly after Jupiter’s entry into Leo and traverses the second half of Scorpio for the last time before entering Sagittarius in December 2014.
October looks set to be the most up-beat month of the year with a grand trine forming between Mars-Jupiter-Uranus in the fire signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. The Full Moon of the 8th in Aries kicks off this positive formation which, while headstrong and idealistic, is full of creative potential, hope and vision.
