Astrology for Monday, January 18

The Moon has moved into Aries, conjunct Chiron, the deeply wounded Centaur of the zodiac. The Moon in Aries is focused on development of the self, and its presence next to Chiron signals an awareness of our own pain. Chiron can be a shaman, too, but in Aries, with the Moon in Aries, too, the focus may be personal. This pain can be empathetic, leading to compassion for others. Or it can be that an individual nurses grudges against the wrongs that hurt them in the first place.

As a people, we have a skew in our perception of reality - what has gone wrong that has left us so deeply divided? For instance, some feel the insurgency at the Capitol was a patriotic endeavor akin to the insurrection of 1776. Is that reality or a perception of reality that causes and gives great pain? Others feel the rioters had a fantastical view of reality that was vengeful and threatening to democracy. Both sides claim they are stewards of democracy.

Many of those rioters claimed we are at risk of becoming a socialist country. "Socialism" has a historic meaning in the United States. Many defined socialism as any redistribution or sharing of wealth - from large corporations to slaveholders, historically. Pluto is still in Capricorn, the sign of big business and big government. Is it socialism to ask that Amazon pay its fair share of taxes, for instance?

Neptune, a planet of fantasy and imagination is opposite Vesta in Virgo and crossed by the transiting North Node in Gemini and South Node in Sagittarius. Neptune brings in a note of unreality; the nodes assure us that actions have consequences.

We cannot define ourselves through our pain. Nor through myths, such as white supremacy or the "rugged individual". Their expiration date is here. We must decide as individuals, Moon in Aries, who we will be, what our values are and how we shall define reality.