Feel free to call me 415.642.8019 or reply to this email if you have questions about direction or life choices. Luck for new creative endeavors is for all, especially the Fire signs Leo, Sagittarius, and Aries and those born in Monkey, Rat, and Dragon years.

Sunday January 22 at 11:39 pm PST was a new Moon in the independent and exciting Air sign Aquarius. Chinese New Year is on the second new Moon after Winter Solstice, and this new Moon started the year of the Dragon! Magical magnificent Dragon is the most powerful sign of the Chinese zodiac. Anticipate a year that is exciting, creative, and over the top. Dragon's influence inspires passion, drive, and daring. Dragon year is an excellent time to start a business, get married, have a child, travel the world, or take incredible risks. But results can be drastic: undreamed of success or unrealistic fantasies that crash. Either way, life's pace is speedy, dynamic, and anything can happen. On a planetary level, expect extreme earth changes such as earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions.

3 MERCURY RETROGRADES IN 2012

While enjoying Chinese New Year festivities with family and friends, consider making travel plans for 2012. In Hare year it's good to stay close to home, but Dragon year is the time to travel, explore, and see the world -- fly high like the mighty Dragon. Note that Mercury retrograde is not considered an auspicious time for travel. So make you travel arrangements with the following Mercury retrograde dates in mind:

March 12 to April 4 in Aries and back into Pisces. Try to include others, and sensitive to their feelings.

July 14 to August 7 in Leo. Easy to be self centered, not easy to be objective.

November 6 to November 26 in Sagittarius and back into Scorpio. Exaggeration brings confusion, so tap into deeper feelings to uncover the truth.

LUNAR MONTHS 2012

Here is a list of the Chinese animal months and elements for Water Dragon Year 2012. Note that each animal month begins on a new Moon, not the 1st day of the month. The Water months are most favorable, as are the Dragon, Monkey, Phoenix, and Rat months.

Water Dragon Year 2012 Lunar Months:

Feb - Water Tiger
March - Water Hare
April - Wood Dragon
May - Wood Serpent
June - Fire Horse
July - Fire Sheep
Aug - Earth Monkey
Sep - Earth Phoenix
Oct - Metal Dog
Nov - Metal Pig
Dec - Water Rat
Jan - Water Ox

OUTER PLANETS IN TRANSIT BY SIGN
The farther from the Sun, the slower the transit:

URANUS IN ARIES

2012 began with URANUS, planet of radical change and revolution, in the the fiery leadership sign ARIES until May 2018. Uranus is known for erratic Mercurial activity with flashes of insight and genius. But Uranus is the planet of rebellion, with a big urge to break away and be free, especially when expressed through the pioneering spirit of Aries. Aries correlates to Dragon and 2012 is a Dragon year, so anticipate change, revolution, and evolution all over the world.
Uranus rules Aquarius and is best in Scorpio, meaning that it's not well expressed in fiery Leo nor in Earthy Taurus, who are the opposites of Aquarius and Scorpio. Still, I like Uranus in a Fire sign, and look forward to fast change led by cardinal Fire sign Aries.

PLUTO IN CAPRICORN

The Recession began in Earth Rat year 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn. The planet Pluto symbolizes death, rebirth, and transformation. Pluto is named after the Roman god of the underworld, Hades to the Greeks. Pluto is also a god of wealth because the riches of the earth are in his domain: gold, silver, oil, diamonds, minerals, and precious gems. Pluto will be in the pragmatic earth sign of Capricorn until spring 2023. So the world plutocracy, governments of wealthy men or plutocrats can now be transformed. Change will be slow in coming, but the transformation has already begun. Occupy Wall Street is an example of the old plutocracy being questioned.

WINTER SOLSTICE 2012

The world does not end on 12/21/2012. This day will go by just like 1984, 2000, and Y2K. 2012 will be a Dragon year, and in the last Dragon year 2000 people had similar fears. But a new age is predicted on 12/21/2012 by many indigenous cultures including the Mayan Indians, the Aztec Indians, and the Peruvian Q'ero Indians. The Sun on that solstice day will be in alignment with the center of the Milky Way (between Scorpio and Sagittarius). To the Mayans, this place in space was a womb of creation, the mother's milk of the Milky Way. The solstice Sun aligns with this galactic center every 26,000 years.

The Mayan calendar does not really end on winter solstice 2012; there is another cycle in the Mayan astrological system. It's based on the number two and is a smaller minor cycle of cooperation and partnership. That challenge will be people polarized between the haves and have-nots, and how to balance that split of stuffed or starved. This date also marks the end of the 2,000-year Piscean age and beginning of the age of Aquarius. We're in a new world of technology, jet travel, globalization, and the internet. Old institutions end as new generations use the electronic tools of the Aquarian age. The world becomes Aquarian, multicultural, a global village.

In Vedic astrology, this is also the end of the Kali yuga, the age of iron. The Mayan Indians age began in 3114 BC and ends now. The Kali yuga began 5,125 years ago and ends now. So both cultures foresee another end and another beginning as we all swim together through this sea of life.

What do the Mayans say? The head of the National Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala, Day Keeper of the Mayan Calendar, the 13th generation Quiche Mayan High Priest, and a Grand Elder of the Continental Council of Elders and Spiritual Guides of the Americas, says the Mayan long-count calendar’s date for the end of this era is not 2012. Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj (known in his language as Wakatel Utiw, which means “Wandering Wolf”) in a talk on March 17, 2010, in Antigua, Guatemala, said:

"We don’t know exactly if it is going to be 2012 or if it is going to be later on. Because 2012 is a Gregorian date, sometimes it does not coincide with the Mayan calendar. There are many reasons why we don’t know exactly the timing. It has to do [with] when the invasion came, a little over 500 years ago [Spanish Conquistador invasion], the [Mayan] men and women of wisdom were the first ones to be assassinated. Then Bishop Diego de Landa, during the invasion, gathered all the books where all the information was, and they set them on fire. So they burned all the information. … The calendar that was at that time in effect, they have gone through so many modifications. . . Like in this Mayan council, they left out days; they didn’t count just to catch up with time. Then with the Gregorian Calendar, all the months are so irregular in length, like the months of 28 days, 30 days, 29 days, 31 days. So this is why it doesn’t [align]. But one thing is for sure, it is certain that you all will know when this happens, because it is going to be a long period of darkness. It is a change of sun; it is another sun that is coming. So, like now, we see the north, and in the other time, it will [be] a different direction."

Mayan (and Aztec) culture are children of a much older culture, the Olmecs, the Mother culture of Mexico. The cultures of Mexico and Guatemala are very ancient, so life continues on 12/22/2012. I agree with Elder Alejandro Oxlaj (Wandering Wolf) that the Mayan calendar doesn't end on 12/21/12. But 12/21/12 is Winter Solstice in a Water Dragon year, so anticipate snow storms or weather involving water.

EARTH CHANGES

Many people are concerned about the natural disasters all over the world. But no need to live in fear! Plan instead of worrying. You might feel better to have an emergency kit in your home, enough for you and your loved ones, and some to share. If you commute, keep your gas tank half full in case electricity is gone and gas stations pumps won't work. The problem is not just climate change, but that there are so many of us humans (7 billion) all here at the same time.

Mother Earth has experienced many climatic cycles, including a frozen ice age. Extreme earth changes have always been, and some have made history: the volcanic eruptions in Pompeii and Krakatoa, or the massive flood in the Bible. But most of what happened was not documented and communicated with lightening speed. And in the past, Earth did not have 7 billion people so we humans did not build on flood plains, into hillsides, and on landfill. Perhaps the human population is the challenge, not Mother Earth doing what she's done before we humans appeared on the scene.