Happy New Year! Yes, the much ballyhooed 2012 is here at last. Are you shivering with antici....pation? Probably not. You wouldn’t know 2012’s here except for the change in the calendar. The memorable nature of this year will make itself unmistakably known in a few months, but as for now, the sky is hardly tipping its hand. It’s not even delivering a week with anything noticeably new, much less the feeling of the start of a new year.

What we have instead is a dawning sense of progress, slow, steady and palpable. For a rare, welcome and brief change, all the planets are in direct motion, which translates down here into the feeling -- and actuality -- of getting somewhere at last.

Developments may not be quick, dramatic or huge just yet, because the preponderance of planets are inching along. Mars, the planet of action, barely covers two degrees of the painstaking sign of Virgo, and since he likes to go, go, go, this opposite of speed may spark frustration and nitpicking. Jupiter, the planet of growth, is even more leisurely. He’s in its second week of ambling through the first degree of Taurus, the sign most inclined to an unhurried pace. Slow doesn’t begin to describe this influence, but it promises a tangible payoff, as if Jupiter is slowly, carefully, methodically dousing the Taurus area of our charts with cosmic Miracle-Gro.

Work with this vibe. Don’t run around in a frenzy trying to force things to happen. Pace yourself. Tend to each tiny detail as it comes up. Make lists. Recraft your action items -- and your resolutions, if you make them -- from big goals or generalized targets into a sequence of steps. Incremental actions are leading you onward, rather than in a loop or back on themselves or into a repair shop, as was so often the case last fall.

Mars (drive and ambition), Jupiter (expansion) and Pluto (penetrating change) are all in earth signs, which means the forward motion is taking place in practical and mundane arenas of life.  With Saturn (structure) and Neptune (inspiration) in an easy flow of energy, progressive, otherworldly visions of how life could be are coming down into reality and taking physical form. You are laying your path with solid and sturdy paving stones, working carefully on your garden and/or firming up the foundation for the next levels of your structure. (Pick as many metaphors as you like).

Our thought processes and communication flow get on board with this when Mercury takes on the long-term goal orientation of Capricorn on Sunday. The emotional side of the process heightens, too, with the build-up of the Cancer Full Moon just before midnight Sunday on the West Coast and on Monday elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. (More on the Full Moon in my report, which will be posted by Saturday.)

So we get to ease into this year and into forward motion, without any violent lurching or whiplash. Lord knows, there’s still plenty to sort out and put in order from the Plutonian activity that marked the holiday season. This week has the space for that and more. Settle into each moment. Look up occasionally for an idea of where the sequence is leading; take the time to bring form to your vision of the future, too.

We’ll be backtracking again in a couple of weeks, when Mars goes retrograde. By spring, gardens will be sprouting and change will be busting out all over. For now, we have this optimism-inducing, potential-laden snail’s pace. Enjoy.

For another take on this week’s events, listen to my five-minute podcast. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! Don’t want to use iTunes? Listen to it on my Podcast/Video page -- or at my Liberated Syndication page, where you can subscribe to an RSS feed.

I’ll be talking about January’s astroweather next Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 8 PM on Allison Hayes’ online radio show Rock Talk With the Rock Girl on CBS New Sky Radio.

RESOURCES FOR 2012: I have two tools (so far!) for navigating this monumental year, which will not be like any in our lifetimes:

Jupiter in Taurus guides: Where you are cultivating good fortune, through June

It’s All in Your Mind mp3s: A discussion of this year's eclipses and challenging aspects, with strategies for making the most of them 

Monday: Yesterday launched the year with a toasty group-hug vibe. Alas, it’s in short supply this morning. The holidays are officially winding down and nevers are showing strain. Previous commitments take on unwelcome pressure. Everyone (especially you) wants to go his own way and do his own thing. Some people are going to bolt; others are going to play the “should” card with an uncomfortably heavy hand. Hang loose with expectations and don’t take other people’s actions/reactions too personally. Take a live-and-let-live approach and escape -- to a movie, to the TV, to, oh why not, a coup or two of well-spiked egg nog. The atmosphere will settle into into couch potato time later in the afternoon (5ish EST); we really are supposed to take it easy. The milk of human kindness flows again by dinner time. Treat yourself to an activity you find fun.

Tuesday:  “2012” may still bea startling sight on the calendar page, yet notice how emotionally ready you are for a new phase -- how, in fact, hungry you are for it. For starters, money and relationship issues are ripe for something different. The long distance view of them that today delivers is good for seeing where changes would benefit you. Speaking your piece comes easily, especially if you state your position/reaction/needs matter-of-factly.

Wednesday:  The imperative for change pervades the overnight hours and the dreamworld. Don’t be surprised if you look at a person or situation with new eyes.  Your inner world is sending up signals that certain ground rules can no longer stay in place. Dealing with this, or sublimating it, may be what propels you into a flurry of late morning (EST) activity. Or perhaps you simply get fired up by a project. Whatever the impetus, ambition, drive and follow-through are converging to make you go, go, go. Rest and contemplate this evening. Some aspect of the day won’t be sitting quite right with you. Go inside and explore why.

Thursday:  Discomfort rocks the dreamworld once again. This time, a workable strategy dawns. Look for it in your early morning ramblings. A new approach is within reach; reframing the issue may be enough. The skies leave us to our own devices for the rest of the daylight hours. A milestone in personal evolution awaits in the evening. It really is coming more easily to be yourself, unapologetically and without wrapping yourself in knots trying to anticipate and work around other people’s reactions. 

Friday:   What’s newest about the year so far is the stability of your relationship with yourself. Find your point of inner balance and stay with it as today’s energies go this way and that. By late evening, lovely interpersonal exchanges provide payoffs from the outside. The important ones, however, are internal. They’ll take you through the day. They’ll fit your sleeping hours, too, so put writing materials by the bedside.

Saturday:  The week’s largest concentration of planetary aspects happens today, with two of them during the overnight hours. Information and messages are flying! Venus makes an adjustment aspect to Mars, requiring a choice and shift in money and relationship issues, attitudes and desires (or in how we’re going after them). Wherever our hearts and wills may go, our mind gets on board quickly when Mercury makes a cooperative aspect to Saturn. Likely we get an insight into a negotiation tactic or some other way of achieving a practical, workable solution in a relationship or agreement. Stability and structure can be welcome and beneficial, particularly when they are of our own choosing. If you wake up not seeing how this played out in your psyche, write down your dream fragments and first thoughts. A pattern should emerge. Still stumped?  Ask for help. Artistic-to-divine inspiration is on tap by mid-morning EST, when Mercury enjoys the same cooperation with Neptune. Compassion and gentleness can flow through our conversations.  Prospects are good for favorable reactions to your overnight choices (how you convey them turns out to be so important), with stability and calm growing inside and out. The vibe actually turns downright nurturing and cozy late afternoon. Soak it in and remember it. A backlash awaits if you push matters. Don’t fight schedule disruptions or cling to anyone. Desires and expectations are not going to line up compatibly in some key relationship as the night goes on. Are you craving something that’s not good for you? Is a power game in play? As always, it’s helpful to revisit your bottom line. How important is the (apparent) subject of this battle?

Sunday:  Mercury enters Capricorn for a two-week sprint, and communication comes down to earth. We’re not talking philosophies and concepts but focusing on the practical and mundane, with a keen eye to what they will cost in money, time and effort. An easy link to Jupiter bodes well for gathering information and making local connections involving the garden you’ve been cultivating (metaphoric and real). A clash to Uranus delivers startling news and knocks new ideas loose. There may be an easier approach. There is definitely a more innovative, more independent approach. The emotional side of the past few weeks clamors increasingly for attention as the day goes on. The Moon is full in her home base of Cancer, just before midnight on the West Coast and early tomorrow elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Inner children are looking for mommy everywhere. Take care.

© Kathy Biehl 2012. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

If my work is helpful to you, please support this site. Gifts of any size are appreciated; every one makes a difference, large or small. Thank you.

Podcast for the week     Capricorn new moon forecast    Gemini full moon forecast