Astrology with Daniel Sowelu

This is going to be a very strong year for most of us and a very significant year in the long term scheme of things. At midnight on New Year's Eve, we have a nearly exact Full Moon, with the Sun in Capricorn and the Moon in Cancer, which is saying that 2010 will be a peak year, a year of illumination, realisations and culmination. And like our monthly full moon, a time of great power.

The symbolism of any full moon speaks of the relationship between masculine and feminine, both peaking in strength and mutual radiance, simultaneously polarised and complementing each other. Its illuminating quality reveals what's really going on, on lots of levels, including the degree of balance and imbalance in our world, between the internal masculine and feminine parts of self. It's where we get to see and experience the fruits and the viability of our creations, including our work, our relationships and our lifestyles, all of which are reflectors of the degree of inner integration of masculine and feminine. It's then a time of review, re-evaluation and, if necessary, strong change.

This Sun and Moon points to a year of rebalancing and honouring the needs of both Capricorn and Cancer, including the juggling acts of work and family; material and professional advancement and the needs for nurturing, safety and security; between the urge to power in the external world and the need to care for one's emotional self and inner needs. It also includes all the intricacies of how to look after the planet while creating sustainable development and the importance of getting the balance right.

This particular Full Moon is an additionally strong one, with Pluto on the Sun and both Sun and Moon in square with Saturn in Libra (which is, in fact, a Grand Cross if you include Juno in Aries). This very tough line-up affirms that 2010 will be a Saturn/Pluto year which ups the stakes on all processes, emotional, political and social, with some major power struggles between the forces of deep change and the forces of conservatism, such as we are seeing in both Australian and international climate change politics. It seems that the squeeze(s) will be intensified.

The Sun conjunct Pluto at its highest talks of long-term creative transformation, that this is the year of being able to wield tremendous power in making deep change on any level. Trouble is it will empower the idiots as much as the wise, so we can expect some crazy stuff from so-called leaders, as well as some real breakthroughs from the real ones. Fortunately, Venus sits between the two, a benevolent influence that offers great heartfulness to these power potentials and one that can energise the power of love to make great change in itself.

Even with Venus though, the Capricorn end of this spectrum is strongly masculine and saturnine and if these energies are used without proper consultation with the Cancer Moon, of the feminine in general, then we'll be in further deep trouble. To do so would repeat centuries, ages in fact, of dishonouring the goddess, the very situation that has created the environmental, social and spiritual messes we're already in. The opposition between Sun and Moon is meant to raise the awareness of everyone on the planet that we need to honour both masculine and feminine to get out of these fixes.

On a superficial level it's almost impossible to put a positive spin on a Saturn/Pluto square, but paradoxically its brief is to actually take us deeper than the superficial. While Saturn will put some significant breaks on the need to make deep change, it's not just because it has activated resistances, fears and conservatism within and without. There is a deeper wisdom here at play, one that says to the powers that be to "get real, get responsible, get wise" about the way we use power. This year we are gifted with the potential for real change, but we need to understand the true consequences of what we do and that takes time, contemplation, and going into things deeply. A Saturn/Pluto square is a reminder of the disastrous consequences of the misuse of power on every level. We may not be able to move quickly, but there's more likelihood that we'll get it right when we do.

The Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune conjunction that coloured most of last year is still in play for 2010 and is directly opposite the healing goddess Hygeia in January's chart. Hygeia opposite Chiron is another version of the masculine/feminine polarity, one which does link these two awesome faces of the healers within, adding great Shakti to all forms of healing work. Even as we experience the more challenging energies of the year, there will still be much grace operating behind the scenes to assist in the changes, some fabulous healing amidst the rather intense alchemy of the Saturn/Pluto. While the structures get altered, the chakras get going!

The former processes will stay strong until March, during which time Jupiter makes a dash through Pisces, going into Aries in early June, just as Uranus does the same. A Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Aries? Now that should get some energy really moving, an abundance of dramatic, creative and initiatory fire! More about that as we get closer. Take care in the meantime.

Daniel Sowelu (B.Sc.Dip Ed) is a therapeutic astrologer, primal therapist and groupleader in his 22nd year of private practice. www.sacredlawfirm.com.au