Aquarius Season 2023 with Safron Rossi on THE COSMIC EYE FORECAST

Dr. Safron Rossi joins Alejo Lopez to chat about all things Aquarius. Includes a look at classic Aquarians Susan B. Anthony, Bob Marley, and John Donne, PLUS the new and full Moon, Venus in Pisces, Venus conjunct Neptune, midpoints, opportunity transits Moon trine Venus and Mercury sextile Jupiter. 

Tune in to hear about the planetary patterns unfolding this month so you can sync up your energy with the cosmos.

Keep exploring:

Check our webinars and courses with Dr. Safron Rossi

Learn more about Aquarius:

Aquarius in Myth and Psyche with Jason Holley – Learn more

Revisiting Aquarius with Tony Howard – Learn more

Time stamps for the topics covered in this podcast episode:

0:00 – 6:53 – Introduction to Aquarius
6:53 – 12:10  – Classic Signs
12:10 –18:38  – What can we do during Aquarius season?
18:38 – 52:02 – Ephemeris of the Month
52:02 – 56:33 –  Monthly Mantras
56:33 – 59:48 –  Book Recommendations
59:48 –1:04:17 – Contact Information

Transcript for the Cosmic Eye – Aquarius Season Episode

Tony Howard: This is the Astrology University podcast, helping you find inspiration, insight and connection through the study of astrology. And I’m your host, Tony Howard.

Alejo Lopez: Hi and welcome back to the Cosmic Eye, the Astrology University podcast for Aquarius season 2023. My name is Alejo Lopez. I’m your host– your new host, since from today– and today we have with us Safron Rossi, who you already know from Astrology University. She is also teaching at Pacifica Graduate Institute. And she’s the author of the Kore Goddess. Hi Safron, I’m happy that you’re here with us.

Safron Rossi: Hi Alejo, thank you for inviting me. It’s nice to come back. I did this last year. So it’s nice to see what it’s like again this year.

Alejo: You’re like the Aquarius guest. So for listeners, remember if you like the podcast, the best you can do to help us is to share it with your friends. And also when you finish listening if you want to send us your feedback, the email is [email protected]. So let’s go to Aquarius. Aquarius is the sign of the water bearer. It’s a fixed sign, it’s an air sign. And supposedly we are in the Age of Aquarius– well, we’re entering, we don’t know if we’re in the age or entering the Age of Aquarius. When I think of Aquarius, one of the things I think of is this god Ea, who is the counterpart of Enki. And as far as I know, he was related to the idea of the waters that are used for purification. So like ritualistic waters. So this is the idea of the water flowing. And what’s interesting is that he’s considered the bearer of culture. He’s the one who brings culture into the world, which I think has a lot to do with Aquarius. So I wanted to bring him in to our session. What do you relate with Aquarius?

Safron: Well, I always go to the Greek Titan God Prometheus, because of the extraordinary way that he draws out some of the Uranian Aquarian themes. But it struck me when you mentioned the god Ea as the bringer of culture. You know, Prometheus was the Greek figure deeply related to this whole idea of civilization and culture. So archetypally, these gods are connected in that sense, even though they come out very different civilizations themselves and mythologies.

Alejo: Yeah, I agree. It’s interesting. Yeah, I like the passage in Prometheus when he’s in chains. There’s a passage that I like so much, when the court is telling him that he should be more modest, because Susie’s gonna be angry. And he’s like, I don’t care. Let him rule his little period of time, because he’s gonna fall eventually. I like this idea, like the visionary attitude of Prometheus that he doesn’t care to bear this punishment to say, because he knows there are other times to come, which I think it’s also very Aquarian.

Safron: Yes, yes. And I think another piece of that too, with Prometheus, is the conscious sacrifice of himself, or the boundaries or laws that Zeus puts down, he consciously transgresses that in order to serve something that he sees is even more important. And I think that problem, so to speak, of conscious sacrifice can be a really big Aquarian theme as well.

Alejo: Hmm. Yes. That was one of the ideas. Yes.

Safron: Yes. Or the higher vision, the higher self, whatever that might be. Yeah.

Alejo: Yeah. And the sacrifice could be individual, or it can also be collective. I had to prepare a talk for last week on Pluto going into Aquarius. And I run into this book about fundamentalism, The Fundamentalist Mind. And one of the chapters was about the French Revolution, which had Pluto in Aquarius. And they were saying this idea how the vision that they had was kind of taking them over and they couldn’t see what was happening in the more physical, real world. Not that the ideas are not real, but you know what I mean, right?

Safron: Well, yes. That’s a really great example. The French Revolution was an act of enormous vision in terms of breaking free of hierarchical power over social structure. But we also know that in the service of the sort of burning of the democratic spirit, real humans were being slaughtered. And so there’s this really interesting tension between what do the ideals allow us in service to the ideals to perpetrate in terms of sort of basic, embodied human life. And I think that that’s a really big tension, which I think is also encapsulated in the polarity of Aquarius and Leo, that there’s something about the human and the trans-human, or the impersonal, the personal and the impersonal and the way that plays out.

Alejo: Yeah, fantastic. Amazing. Yeah, I agree. So, to sum up, like a few keywords for Aquarius, what would you say?

Safron: Well, I guess I would point to that sort of movement up, that kind of idealism, an eye on potential. There’s always a value of, perhaps, perfection, or the ideal image coming through. And then of course, the radical, the breaking out of the known into the unknown.

Alejo: Yes, fantastic. So let’s go to our classic signs for this period. My first choice was Bob Marley. He was the first thing that came into my mind. He was born on the 6th of February 1945. He’s a Moon in Scorpio, but his Sun in Aquarius and a Sagittarius Rising, and I think you can see this in his famous song, “Get Up, Stand Up,” stand up for your rights. I think that’s very Aquarius and also Sagittarius Rising. I think it’s quite brave. Do you have a choice? Did you choose a favorite character?

Safron: The individual that I wanted to bring to our conversation today was the Elizabethan English poet, John Donne. Now, it’s likely that his birthday was between January 22 and 24th, 1572. So he was a late 16th century poet. And he’s very well known for his love poetry. But he was also a scholar and a cleric. He was the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. But one of the reasons why I wanted to bring him was because, as the beautiful biography that’s just recently been published about him, the writer Katherine Rundell describes the impact of his ideas in ways that just are so inspiring. And one of them is that he understood and saw humans as both full of chaos and potential. And she thought that humans were at once a catastrophe and a miracle. And I think that’s very much that Promethean spirit that I was trying to talk about, that we’re both disasters and angels, and that kind of dark and light. And I think that that really does belong to a certain kind of quarter of the Aquarius archetypal field.

Alejo: Yes, completely. And I do see the Prometheus spirit. I imagined Prometheus creating humanity, and then looking down at us like, Oh, my God, these guys. *laughs* At the same time, all this love, right? And everything he did to stand for us. Yes.

Safron: And Prometheus’ sense of the great potential for humanity, if they were given that fire, that the fire would kindle something of their innate potential. And so in Dunn’s kind of philosophy about who we are, you know, at the core, i think it’s a really powerful expression. And then in another way, too, he had Sun and Mercury conjunct in Aquarius. And he was the inventor of over 340 words in the English language. So, you know, that’s just another one of those more kind of pinpointed Aquarian pieces, the inventive capacity and for him through that Mercury, it’d been so much in the realm of language. Yeah.

Alejo: Nice. Very interesting. Yeah. Thank you for bringing. I also thought of Susan B. Anthony. She was born on the 15th of February, 1820. And she had the Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in Aquarius. And she also had a Venus-Saturn conjunction squaring Uranus. So it’s like a lot of Aquarian energy. And she was an advocate for women’s right to vote. And so she organized this group of women and they went all together to be registered to vote. And they told them that they couldn’t vote because they were women. And so she started kind of saying, no, the Constitution says that we’re citizens. And as citizens, it’s our right to vote. So she started kind of defying them. And in the end, people didn’t know what to do. So they said, Okay, we’ll let you sign up for this. So eight, I think it’s eight of them, they signed up. And then after they voted, the police went to look for them, because they had been voting illegally. So they went to jail, and they were prosecuted. And many of them–their husbands and people– paid for them, the ransom that you paid so they can leave. But she didn’t want to do it because she was like, this is the opportunity to get this all the way up to the Supreme Court and maybe make a change. So I think that’s very Aquarian, also.

Safron: So powerful. Again, look at how there’s a theme of the willingness to sacrifice one’s own comfort for something much bigger.

Alejo: Yeah, completely. And so what about us? What about, like, normal people like us?  We’re not Prometheus, no John Donnes or Susan Anthony, maybe some of us, maybe somebody’s listening, and they are. But what can we do? What do you think we can do in this Aquarius season as normal human beings?

Safron: Well, yeah, for sure, and so I want to go to this amazing biography that I mentioned, because John Donne had an utterly innovative and original poetic voice, but part of what he was so committed to was the value of each of us discovering and owning our own language. And I want to share this little piece that comes out of Katherine Rundell’s writing, because it’s so powerful. “That there are elements of each of us so particular, unwieldy, so without cliche, that it is necessary for each poet to invent his own language, it is necessary for us all to do so. Owning one’s own language is not an optional extra. The human soul is so ruthlessly original, the only way to express the distinctive pitch of one’s own heart is for each of us to build our own way of using our voice. To read Donne is to be told, ‘kill the desire to keep the accent and tone of the time.’” So to me, this really expresses the spirit of Aquarius, which is, “how do we discover and own our language?” And one of the ways that we can do that is to read poetry. So I’d like to just suggest that this would be one of the ways that people can explore this, which would be to find new rhythms and new words that grip you, that you want to make a part of your own language, because Aquarius is related to the intellectual imagination and that kind of innovative streak and the way in which we encounter something new and that gives expression to something that maybe we hadn’t quite recognized before. And for me, reading poetry makes that happen in a very direct and meaningful way.

Alejo: Yeah, because it pushes you to think in a different way, not in the ordinary way in the way you read the text, it’s kind of invoking something different, right?

Safron: Exactly, exactly. Yeah.

Alejo: Would you advise also to try to write poetry?

Safron: If one feels called to? Sure? Yeah.

Alejo: I have on my fridge, my sister gave this present to me, it’s different words and they have a magnet behind. So you can place them on the fridge. So every once and then I just stand there, and I start creating small phrases. And it makes me think of what you’re saying because it’s really out of the moment. And some of the phrases sometimes when I create them, they make a lot of sense. Then maybe a few days later, I’ll read them, I’m like this grammatically, it’s not making any sense. But it’s like you’re saying, the mind creating new meanings..

Safron: Right, breaking out of our known form and discovering something maybe new or a rhythm that moves us. And I think that that kind of play can be imagined as an Aquarian process.

Alejo: Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Thank you. I also thought with this idea of bringing your own voice to the world, and the idea of commitment that Aquarius has with society, I was thinking of following that, you know, committing to your ideas, committing to your political ideas or your beliefs, and perhaps I think it’s a good period in time to try to meet people who think alike, or I was also thinking of this idea of joining a nonprofit organization that may help you express your voice through an organization that may have an impact on the world. And I think it’s interesting  because we’re both bringing both sides, like what you were saying as more like a personal approach to Aquarius. And then I was thinking more of a social approach. But it’s quite interesting, because in the quote you read, I got the feeling that it’s a bit like you do this process with yourself of finding your own words, and that’s going to also have an impact in society.

Safron: That’s right. It’s like where the personal then meets the collective. And the way both are informed, you know? And some people, I mean to be fair, some people are less interested or less drawn to the more explicitly kind of social sphere of activity, and then they are more, you know, inner focused. There can be such an overemphasis with Aquarius in terms of the extroverted, collective orientation. And there are valences to the sign and the dimensions of life that it points to. And it isn’t always just what’s going on in these large, collective bodies or visions. It can be quite intimate, and personal, too.

Alejo: Yes. And I think it brings in also this paradox that you were talking about before, with Aquarius and Leo, like how the individual plays a part. One is the shadow of the other. Yeah, very interesting.

Okay, great. So let’s go to the ephemeris of the month, the ephemeris of our Aquarius season. And of course, there are a lot of things that are happening in one month. And before we started recording I was talking with Safron because I’ve made a list of almost every day, for every day I have an aspect that I think it’s important. So we’re not going to stop on everything, we’re just going to mention a few things that we find interesting or we find attractive to discuss. The first thing of course, is the 20th of January the Sun goes into Aquarius, so the season starts. And then on the 21st of January, we have the new moon, we’re having this season’s new moon at the beginning of the season, which is quite interesting. So the new moon is happening on the first degree of Aquarius, because it’s happening one day after the Sun goes into Aquarius and I think you had some ideas to share about this.

Safron: Well with this sort of looking ahead I always approach it as more of a kind of contemplative exercise because we’re feeling into some of the qualities that these aspects suggest, but the one degree new moon, I mean I just thought Gosh, this is a very new new moon, there’s something so nascent about beginnings. And I really love dipping into the Sabian symbols just to get those images that are connected to each one of the degrees of a sign. And the Sabian symbol for one degree Aquarius is an unexpected thunderstorm. And I thought, wow that’s so evocative, isn’t it? I live in central coast California, we’ve been in a drought, we’ve just had weeks of extraordinary rain. So for us, an unexpected thunderstorm is a very positive arrival, because it’s the bringing of moisture that we’ve been missing. So I think that might be one way to imagine into this, that the new moon, this new moon in Aquarius, it’s also sextile Jupiter. So some the seeding that we understand a new moon to be about, this really carries a sense of the unexpected arrival of something, a sudden illumination, and I think that that’s connected to that Jupiter connection, the seeding of something meaningful, that will unfold over the course of the lunation that month. So I mean, so just playing with that image of the unexpected thunderstorm, I thought, there’s the potential for a kind of electric connection, or a sudden illumination. I mean, an unexpected thunderstorm also means a break in the monotony, of the sun or just the cloud cover. So something kind of cracks through. And maybe even it’s something of an expression of nature’s challenge to our human attempts to control things. Right, an unexpected storm, you know, too much rain, and we get landslides. Too much rain, and we get flooding, right. So these were just the images and ideas that came to me looking at the new moon signature.

Alejo: Yeah, I was also thinking it’s trine– I mean, it’s a wide trine, perhaps because it’s like seven degrees– but it’s trine Mars in Gemini. I was thinking about this when you were saying about beginnings and everything because Mars has been retrograde for so long. And now he has recently gone direct. So I think it’s interesting, like this New Moon is picking up perhaps this energy of our drive of our minds, our thoughts or ideas finally being able to express themselves perhaps because we’ve been for months dealing with this. Perhaps intellectualizing our drives or desires, these kinds of things, and I think maybe it’s now the time to pull them out there, to be able to take them out and do something with them.

Safron: Right, the sense of release, and that’s interestingly echoed in Jupiter in Aries. So there’s that Mars sort of thread that comes through that sense of movement, momentum, energy, you know, toward moving forward in some way. Yes.

Alejo: Yeah. I’m looking forward to it. Let’s see what happens. And then on the next day, the 22nd of January, Uranus goes direct. So again, this sense of a kind of motion.

Safron: Right, because Uranus has been retrograde since August. So I mean, it’s been almost a six month period. So yes.

Alejo: Yeah. And I mean, the full moon will pick it up, the full moon is squaring Uranus. So it’s like something is in motion. I think something is in motion. And also, you know, Uranus in Taurus. I think it has been quite intense. Maybe because I’m a Taurus, but I think it has been quite intense. What I’ve noticed is a lot of people have what people have found to be their sense of safety perhaps or their insurance of survival, their trust of survival has been threatened so much, and I think it’s part of the Uranus in Taurus.

Safron: Yes. And I think that you know, here in America with a lot of the issues and drama in our political life, that sense of being threatened as a sort of ideological political, and that moving through the kind of political landscape, I mean that’s been really just keeping the pressure on, you know, that people don’t feel safe. Whatever side of the political spectrum they’re on, they feel threatened by the other. And I think that that’s what you were describing in terms of that Uranus in Taurus, the disruption of what we feel to be that keeps things in the right place, and has us feel secure in what’s going on and knowing that things are moving in the right direction. So, yeah, it moves at all these different levels, doesn’t it?

Alejo: Yeah. And I always wonder how to find safety in instability, in the opposite of stability, how to find safety in things that are not stable. I think this is kind of what Uranus is trying to teach us in some ways. Yes. Then, on the same day, we have a conjunction of Venus with Saturn. So they’re starting the cycle, if we want to think with perhaps, I mean, if it’s touching any personal planet, I would say maybe it’s a moment to think about what kind of commitments one wants to make according to one’s desires and one’s sense of pleasure and joy. I mean, and then on the 26th, Venus enters Pisces. It’s beautiful because she goes through her exaltation. Yes. Do you have any thoughts to share about this one?

Safron: I just think Venus in Pisces is so extraordinary. It just opens the heart, doesn’t it, the possibilities of moving into a much more sort of sensitized connection to the beauty of all things. I just think of a great kind of cosmic jolt of beauty. Like, that’s Venus moving into Pisces, and then she’ll be dancing with Neptune. So I mean, that also is just a kind of lovely, you know, that sort of elevating and softening. It’s almost beyond words, which makes sense with Pisces, you know, like, it’s so much more of a feeling or an intuitive sense, rather than something we can capture clearly with language.

Alejo: I always have these things with planets in Pisces, I think they’re so hard to describe with words. You need to use images and metaphors and stuff. It’s like that’s so hard to describe. What I like about Venus moving into Pisces is also what you were saying before about the Sun in Aquarius. So the Sun is in a rational, mental sign, right? So Venus, who may be the consort of the Sun, if you want, is like she’s going into Pisces. It’s like she’s trying to bring some balance between these more rational approaches and the more sensitive approach. Yeah, more softer approach. And I’m thinking about your idea, your suggestion of reading poetry? I mean, I think it’s a perfect match. Because poetry I mean, it uses words, so there is this whole Aquarian, intellectual thing. But it touches the heart. I mean, that’s the soul.

Safron: That’s right. Yeah, I mean, poetry is the language of images. So it’s using words to evoke images and feelings and experiences. So it’s not a rational process so much as an immersive and even incantatory kind of magic stirring, you know, form of reading.

Alejo: Yeah, that’s beautiful. I really think it’s a good time to read poetry. Yes. Yeah.

Okay, so the next thing we have on the third of February, the sun is squaring Uranus. So perhaps there is a sense of trying to break free from your own ideas of who you are. I think it’s a good time to reflect on who do you want to become. I love the Carl Jung quote, “I am not what happened to me. I am who I choose to become.” Then on the fifth of February there’s a Venus square Mars. I mean, I think it kind of starts on the first of February, depending on the orbs you use, but on the fifth of February, it’s when we have Venus square Mars, and that’s also when we have the full moon. And the full moon, as we were saying, is squaring Uranus. So it’s picking up this idea that you mentioned before, about this idea that we are chaotic forces, we are a chaotic force. But at the same time, there’s light within us. Leo-Aquarius thing. And if Uranus is involved, it’s like Prometheus, right? Trying to help us organize the stuff, but by shaking them first, I guess. Yeah.

Safron: No, I liked that. I liked that. And that was my thought, too, that Uranus square the Sun, and then of course, Uranus square the full moon, let’s imagine into this as the signaling and opportunity for the breaking open of a problem or sudden insight. Now, I do think working with this idea that we’re full of potential and chaos, the way that I would think about that psychologically, too, is that we need to be open to both the illuminating, that is, the positive expressions of the breaking open of a problem or insight, but also the negative or disruptive. It’s like sometimes we come to know something or get an insight because we experience the sort of shadow of a problem. Like we just realized this isn’t working for me anymore. So I want to kind of keep the reins on our sort of idealizations of the Uranian pattern, because sometimes the breakthrough comes through what feels like the negative issue coming full to us. And so I think we should stay open to how that information might emerge in the course of those days, it seems like it’s a bit of a theme. The third, the fourth, the fifth, right? And to be willing to hold the catastrophe and miracle side our experience. Yeah.

Alejo: Because I think most of the time, a Uranus transit is felt more like a disruption. I think at the moment that it happened, it happens. It is not so much felt as a blessing. I think most of the time, the first feeling is more like the disruption. Right? Then with time, I think we get to see what happened. And we might get the idea of a blessing. But I think at first it’s a bit of a thunderstorm. Like you were saying it’s a blessing, but it’s scary.

Safron: Yes, but I think this is interesting, you know, given as you share that you’re a Taurus, then you would maybe be greeted with something of as a disruptive guest. Whereas perhaps with someone with a stronger Aquarius chart or mutable chart, they might really register that Uranus as positive at first. I mean, those of us that are constantly seeking the new, it’s like putting the wind in our sails. So I think it depends on our astrological disposition, so to speak.

Alejo: Yeah. Yes.

Safron: But yes, I mean, those are the two sides of course, yeah.

Alejo: And bringing again this shadow side of Uranus and the liberation that it brings, I was also thinking about the alchemical process. When one starts to detach from what’s happening and concede from a distance, from an objective distance, there is a danger to fall into abstraction, to to follow only abstraction and logical thought. And I think again, it’s a blessing that this is happening with Venus in Pisces, because it’s bringing balance to that, like okay, go back to your feelings, go back to your emotions, your body, what’s happening in your guts, right, when I see your body?

Safron: Yes. Oh, I think that’s really nice that there’s that interplay between perhaps our more sort of intellectual inspiration and that kind of fire. And then that Venus in Pisces really keeps us connected to something of the emotional value, the feeling value of what’s going on, and that those things need to be held together. And we don’t get caught sort of privileging one over the other, but it can be a very beautiful dance, the two, those two parts of us. Yes.

Alejo: Okay, great. Then if we move farther into the month, we get on the 11th of February, Mercury goes into Aquarius. And do you have any thoughts on this one?

Safron: Well, I’m thinking of John Donne with his Mercury in Aquarius. He also had Venus in Aquarius. And his poetry was, in a way, a description of or an expression of how thinking fast and hard were essential joy akin to sex. Now, that’s something that the biographer says, and so to me, that Mercury moving into Aquarius and playing off of that, it’s like the power and the joy of thinking hard and fast. Getting hits of ideas around something, leaping, making these kind of intuitive, intellectual leaps around things, being inspired by what we hear, I mean, Mercury in Aquarius, there’s a real receptivity, and that quickness, there’s a lightness, a quickness. And I think we need that. I mean, obviously, that’s part of our astrological ecosphere, but perhaps after such a long doubling of Mercury and Mars being retrograde, to have something of the light footedness of Mercury in Aquarius can also contribute to this feeling of movement, or even spaciousness, that has been difficult for some of us to really feel in recent months.

Alejo: Yeah, I agree. And I’ve noticed on that day– I like midpoints a lot– that day, Mars is in the midpoint between Moon and Pluto. From Ebertin, who wrote The Combination of Stellar Influences he says the idea of changes of mood, the idea of something with Moon and Pluto, something that is very deep, it’s emotional, it’s very deep, and with Mars it’s kind of bursting up into the surface. But Mars is in Gemini. So I think there is this kind of speed that you’re talking about, of pulling things out and being able to express things that are very deep inside of us. And there is this opportunity of speaking about and putting them out there.

Safron: Hmm, yes. And so in that sense, too, maybe that Mercury in Aquarius allows us to be able to then share that in a cooler way. Like, it gives us a little bit of that ability to kind of shape it that doesn’t have to be too intense, that it can be translated in a way that can lead to some further insight or connection.

Alejo: Yeah, it is like it’s breaking us free from the jail of thoughts. It’s like taking it out of our minds, this idea of Mars, as the midpoint between Moon and Pluto, the idea that it’s something that’s deep within ourselves finally can emerge to the surface. Mercury in Aquarius, maybe it’s a symbol of words making us free.

Safron: Right, yes, the freedom of being able to articulate something that one’s felt and being able to just name it, say it, and then there it is yes. Oh, I like that.

Alejo: And then the month goes on. And on the 18th of February, the Sun will enter Pisces, and we’re going to have another– wait, 18th of February, did I calculate this right? Yeah, yes.

Safron: Yeah. Yeah, I know, it always seems like Pisces appears all of a sudden, but it’s because February’s a short month.

Alejo: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so we’re gonna have a different podcast for that. But we’re not done with Ephemeris yet, of course, because we’re gonna go to the lucky, the fortunate days– I don’t want to call it lucky, like some days are lucky and some days are unlucky. But we call this section “when opportunity knocks,” like which days we find that are particularly interesting to do certain things. And well, of course, as we were talking about, we mentioned some of them, like when Venus enters Pisces is a good moment to connect with your creativity, with your inner self, these kinds of things. But we were also saying, before we started recording, on the 29th of January, the Sun makes a trine to Mars. Right? And also Mercury makes a trine to Uranus. So it feels like it’s a moment where if there’s something we want to do, something we want to achieve, we might find the drive and the energy to do it.

Safron: Yes. And even the sense, perhaps, of the sort of courageous vision to do it, that would be that Mercury trine Uranus, it’s like I see the value of taking that courageous Sun-Mars step forward. And it’s like having our actions perhaps really inspired by that Mercury-Uranus kind of value or insight about something. So it could be a day of inspirational action, whether large or small. I mean, again, our lives are so complex and multifaceted. But we may surprise ourselves with where and how we bring that about, or we feel motivated in that way. Yes.

Alejo: Yes, I agree. And I always think it’s important to be grounded back to our lives. Like you were saying, grand or small, because otherwise sometimes we end up, like what you said before about Aquarius and we make so much focus on the social, I think it’s important because in the end, for most of us, most of us are not the leaders of a country. And we don’t need to decide if we’re gonna go to war or not, or whether we’re going to do xyz, most of us are going to play all that out when we go to the grocery store, when we meet our neighbors, right. So I think it’s interesting to think about this brave vision. I mean, I think it’s interesting for each one of us to think, Okay, what is my brave vision of what the world should be? And how do I apply it in real life, like with my family, like when I have to meet after the holidays, we have to meet our families, like, how does it really work in real life? Then on the sixth of February, there’s a sextile between Mercury and Neptune. So if we’re going to write poetry, perhaps this is a good day to be inspired.

Safron: Yeah, so maybe that day, let’s make ourselves available to the poem that might want to show up.

Alejo: Yes. And also, I personally keep track of my dreams. So perhaps this might be a good day to go over my diary of dreams and see if there’s a pattern or these kinds of things. I think with Mercury sextile Neptune, anything that has to do with something invisible, something connected with the unconscious, something spiritual perhaps, something very subtle, but maybe Mercury is going to give us the possibility to grasp it.

Safron: I think that’s so good for us to be reminded that those Mercury contacts, as being Hermes, Mercury is the Roman name for the god Hermes, Mercury’s aspects become moments or opportunities of connection, where a message can be received, as sort of the presence of Hermes. So I like that reminder very much.

Alejo: Yeah. And also, I’m thinking that as you’re saying this, we could also say the other way around. It’s not only that we’re going to be opened up to, let’s say, a higher message. But it could also be the other way around, it could also be our opportunity to give Hermes a message to take to the gods. So it could also be a good day to– I don’t know, I wouldn’t say pray, because that maybe doesn’t feed everybody, to meditate, but to kind of express your intention.

Safron: That’s lovely.

Alejo: I think Nick Campion, he says something like, “If astrology is the language of the sky, it’s not only because the sky will speak to us, but also because we can go back and speak to the sky.” I think he says something like that somewhere. Then we have on the 13th of February ,the Moon is trining the Venus-Neptune conjunction. Okay, so Venus conjuncts Neptune properly on the 15th of February, right. But on the 13th we have the Moon trining, the almost conjunction (if you want to call it like that.) So again, it’s like a moment where we might be able to open up, to open our feelings, to open up to also to our own creativity, perhaps. Yes. To our dreams. It’s a very tender, dreamy, soft-like quality, right?

Safron: Yes, it is. Yes. That’s a gorgeous little constellation there, Moon-Venus-Neptune. I mean, it’s like deep inspiration. Or hearing the song of the Muses, you know?

Alejo: Yeah, I love that idea. Yeah, it could be a good day for inspiration. Then we have well, on the 15th of February, the Venus conjunct Neptune itself. So here we have, it’s like during the month, it’s this pattern repeats in between going to the mind and going to the inner world, the emotions, the softer side of us, it’s quite interesting. It’s like we’ll go to one side and the other all the time.

Safron: Well, it’s a real full image of the sort of figure of Aquarius as the water bearer, it’s like we’re really being asked to pay attention to that permeable line between Aquarius to Pisces, the air into the water, the water bearer pouring out and serving that watery flow and dimension. So that did strike me about this month, those two signs, those two archetypal fields of Aquarius and Pisces are very strong. And how do we weave back and forth between them? Yeah, it’s a really interesting signature.

Alejo: Yeah, it’s beautiful. And then on the 17th, we have Mercury sextiling Jupiter, right?

Safron: Right. And I just landed on that, because that’s actually the first major aspect Mercury makes when in Aquarius, and that sextile to Jupiter is echoing that new moon, which was also sextile Jupiter back on January 21. So that struck me as perhaps this could be a day where something of that new moon seed that there’s a connection made a new idea or understanding emerges, like it comes into focus. And so I just thought that even as a way of concluding that particular lunation, because that’ll be at the end, and then the new moon will be emerging in Pisces, something about whatever this lunation might be for each of us could click, and we’re given something about that on the 17th as suggested by that sextile.

Alejo: Yeah, because it’s like Mercury goes into Aquarius, it picks up whatever the moon left on the first degree. And then it keeps moving, moving a few degrees more only and it reaches the sextile to Jupiter, and Jupiter is in Aries. So it’s like an inspiration. It’s like a starting. It’s like fire to start something. It’s a visionary fire of the beginnings of things. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. It’s very beautiful. It comes at the end of all of this process between mind and emotions and afterthought, and it’s quite interesting. Also when you think of Jupiter and Mercury, they’re kind of opposing planets. So it does sound like an integration perhaps.

Safron: Yes. Very nice. Yes. And that would be Mercury’s mode. Right. It’s the holding together of the opposites. Those are the two serpents on the Caduceus. It’s the integrating. It’s the dance. It’s the interplay. Yeah.

Alejo: Yeah. Great. Is there anything else you would like to add about the ephemeris that maybe I left behind?

Safron: No, we’ve touched on all that I picked up in scanning it. And I love the particular aspects that you touched on. And yeah, it just looks like a really rich month, doesn’t it?

Alejo: Yeah, it does. And it’s interesting, because when I had to prepare for this, when I first had a quick look, it was like, oh, not so many things are happening. Okay, in the beginning, yes, because we have the retrogrades are going direct. But I was like, yeah, Uranus goes direct. And Venus goes into Pisces, and I was disappointed at first. And then I started looking deeper. And I was like, Wow, a lot of things are happening. I came up with a long list, which people cannot see.

Safron: Yes, your list is amazing. It’s so detailed.

Alejo: Because I’m obsessed with midpoints. Every time I saw a midpoint that was really interesting, I was like ah, other details, yes.

Let’s go to the mantra. Yes. So for me, I came up with two mantras, if you want to try. Because we were talking about this idea of breaking free, being new, doing something more authentic, perhaps. So one of the mantras I thought was, “I’m never the same, I’m constantly new. I allow my current self to be free of my previous way of being.” So I was trying to come up with this idea of the futuristic approach of Aquarius, trying to ground into the present. So the idea of breaking free from the old so that you are present in this moment in time. And then the other thing that came up into my mind is, “I’m free to be whatever I want to be, I am unique.” And as I was writing it, I was hearing, you know, this song by Oasis, “I’m free…” but I looked at their charts, they’re not Aquarians, but I’m gonna use them even though they’re not Aquarians. Yeah. So what did you come up with for the mantra?

Safron: Well, I took a quote from John Donne. I’ve been holding to the poet throughout our conversation. And it’s just this beautiful line. And I thought, what an interesting sort of opening into our own reflection for ourselves? And his line is, “I am a little world made cunningly of elements and an angelic Sprite.” Isn’t that gorgeous? “I’m a little world made cunningly of elements and an angelic Sprite.” And that just makes me think about our inner world, which is what our birth charts help us imagine into. But also the sense of freedom that comes in when we begin to imagine ourselves a little world, that there’s space, there’s geography. There’s intelligences at work in there, and this angelic Sprite, which I think of as the daemon, you know maybe it’s our Sun, which we would also in more Jungian language talk about the Self, but just being in relationship to that, maybe just in awe of that. That somehow feels like medicine.

Alejo: Yeah, it’s beautiful. And I like this idea of the different elements inside. I think that’s also quite Aquarian. I’m thinking now about the one by Walt Whitman, “I contradict myself– I’m not just one, I contain multitudes.” It reminds me something of that. And I’m thinking how to be able to contain all of these elements. Like he’s saying, it’s actually to be authentic. Because in our culture where we live, you have to be one thing. And astrology teaches us that no, we are complex, we’re many different things at the same time and to be authentic, it’s to embrace perhaps all of that.

Safron: Right, the thread, yes, and to not judge the different parts of ourselves and to find efficacious ways of making room for all the different figures and needs and values that make up who we are ancestral and familial and cultural and personal. I mean, all of that.

Alejo: Yeah. And the angelic Sprite?

Safron: An angelic Sprite. Yeah.

Alejo: And so it’s like blessing all of that. It’s like saying, this is sacred. This chaos that I am, it’s sacred.

Safron: Yeah. He’s amazing.

Alejo: Yeah, we’ll have to look, I will have to research. Do you have any recommendations, any book recommendations?

Safron: Well, I do want to suggest that if people have been kind of turned on and inspired by some of the things I’ve mentioned about John Donne, this has really come to me in reading this extraordinary biography that was just recently published about him. And it’s called Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, and it’s written by Katherine Rundell, you can find it anywhere. And I just love it. And she’s an extraordinary writer. We don’t have any birth info for her. But the way she writes about Donne is poetic. And so it’s an amazing read. And you’re also learning about Donne and a period when poetry was really serious business and sexy, and it’s really cool. So I’m reading that. And then I mean, I always have dozens of books that I’m in and out of at any given time. But I’m also more carefully reading CG Jung’s Psychology and Alchemy, which is volume 12 of his collected works, and it’s extraordinary. It’s just an extraordinary book. So I’m reading that more carefully.

Alejo: Amazing. I also picked one of Jung that I’m also re-reading now, which is Psychological Types. It’s volume six of the collective works. Because to be honest, I’ve never read it. Like I’ve read mostly I think chapter 10, where he describes the psychological parts, the psychological types, and then the rest, I read it, but not so deep. And now I said, Okay, I’m gonna read this properly. Yeah, I think it’s also an Aquarian thing, perhaps, to try to see what’s your type, you know, psychological types. And then I’m also reading this book, which maybe you have heard of, it’s called Post Colonial Astrology by Alice Sparkly Kat. Basically I’m reading this because I’m preparing my dissertations for my master’s degree. And she basically takes each planet of astrology, I think it’s also very Aquarian, and she tries to see if many of the ideas that we have about the planets are actually manifesting the cultural ideas of the Roman world. We’re still kind of perpetrating these ideas and these ideas are ideas of colonization, domination, and these kinds of things. So she’s like we need to be careful and need to examine what the vocabulary of astrology is made of. It’s quite the challenging read for an astrologer, it may trigger some buttons, so it’s very interesting for something that we talk about so much to try to see it in a different perspective. I think it’s a fantastic exercise.

Safron: Right. Yeah. Interesting.

Alejo: Yeah. And I think it’s very well written also. Yes.

All right, Safron. Thank you so much. So how can people contact you if they want to reach you?

Safron: Well, I have a website that people can go to where I have upcoming events listed and can learn more about my writing or teaching. And my website is thearchetypaleye.com. Or they can just Google my name, and it’ll come up. And so they can do that. And I do teach pretty regularly at Astrology University. So they can find me that way as well. And maybe just to mention that coming up, on the fourth of February, I am doing a two part seminar on Saturn and the Kore, a virgin goddess, and exploring the idea that the Kore, which is the Greek word for virgin, that these Kore virgin goddesses actually embody or personify the creative and redemptive face of Saturn, and the kind of Saturn work that we engage in. So it’s a two part seminar exploring this idea. So that kicks off on the fourth of February. So I’ll be interested in coming to explore that.

Alejo: For sure. It sounds amazing. And are you open to consultations? Like astrological consultations?

Safron: Yes. I mean, I am a consulting astrologer as well, but I actually have a waitlist for new clients and I have that information on my website. So if people are interested in doing that, you know, they should reach out and join my waitlist. But I’m a full time professor, so limited time.

Alejo: Yeah, we can’t do everything. Nice. Okay. So for me, if you want to contact me, my webpage is Liminal Cosmos. And my next event is on the fourth of February, it’s called Weighing It All Up, the difficulty of astrological studies, which is about kind of when you finish looking at the chart, you have to decide what’s more important, because in a consultation, you only have one hour or one hour and a half. So it’s more intended to help you see how you decide that. And then I’m also open for consultations and I’m also a psychologist. So I’m also open for long term analysis if somebody’s interested. And then in Astrology University, I don’t know exactly when it’s going to come out, but on the 21st of January, there are two very interesting webinars about financial astrology. So if by the time this comes out, the webinars have already been done, you can still access the recording. It’s about Economic Cycles for 2023. And then the other one is Outer Planetary Shifts in 2023: Crash or Boom, and they are held by Grace Morris and Gianni di Poce. So I think it’s also an interesting thing to look at if you’re interested in financial astrology. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Thank you Safron so much for coming here and participating. Thank you. Yes. Remember, if you like the podcast, the best you can do is to share it with your friends. If you want to share some insights that you may have while you were listening, or if you have some feedback, you can email us at help@ astrologyuniversity.com. All right, thank you so much. Thank you Safron.

Safron: Thank you. Bye.

Alejo: Have a lovely season, everyone.

Tony: Thanks for tuning in to the Astrology University podcast. Study astrology online with some of the great astrologers of our time at www.astrologyuniversity.com, where we offer webinars, online classes and virtual summits to bring you inspiration, connection and insight through the study of astrology. Take good care, and we’ll see you next time.