Hello Friends and welcome to Aquarius Season! Aquarius Season, with its energy of Fixed and focused Air encourages us to think big, to question, to innovate through self-compassion and through deepening our relationship to the Heart Chakra and its own sacred element of Air. From January 20 to February 18, we can access the Aquarian gifts of action through contemplation. We are invited to cultivate an awareness of the questions or thoughts that arise during this time. Perhaps ask yourself, “What do I need to revolutionize? What do I need to expand? What thoughts and thought patterns elevate and which ones drag me down?” Write down your questions and observations in a journal so that you can return to them throughout the year and see what kind of progress you have made around the changes you want to create around the ways in which you interact with your own brain and with the world around you.
During this season we find ourselves in the middle of Winter (the four Fixed signs hold the space for the middle of the four seasons) in the Northern Hemisphere and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Depending upon where you live, you are either experiencing the cycle of death and decomposition or the cycle of abundant growth or heat - the very essence of composition. These are two very different experiences: one reflects the qualities of simply being, of resting and of hibernation and the other embodies the qualities of doing, activating and growing. They represent two aspects of the primordial cycle of life, death and rebirth. When we pay attention to the Fixed signs - in this case, Fixed Air which represents the energies of our thinking brain as well as the element of the Heart Chakra - we can better align our own behaviors with these ancient energies. We can more intentionally connect to the expansive element of Air that permeates all barriers through its holy essence.
Within this alignment, we create more simplicity and ease of being. We breathe into the middle of Winter as opposed to holding our breath in resistance to the practice of being still, of engaging in more self-awareness, of taking time to rest. We breathe into the middle of Summer and into our ability to actively create through our thoughts and through our deeds a life of meaning and purpose. Aligning our efforts with seasonal energies is a radical way of living. It requires thinking outside of the box, outside of the binaries of capitalism and patriarchy. It embodies the radical energy of Aquarius that wants to connect on a deeper soul-level with collective energy and a higher consciousness. It invites us to tap into our intuition - that inner knowing - to guide us forward. Navigating our lives from a more intuitive perspective, from a place of trust in ourselves, is also quite radical. It requires us to have faith in something that isn’t always valued in our current reality. It requires us to have faith in ourselves. When we can begin to trust ourselves, we can open more fully to trusting others.
Aquarius dwells in the 11th House of connectivity and transformation. This sign and season takes relationship status to a whole new level - one that reaches across time and space to include all beings. It arrives to teach us that we are all one even though we may think that we are separate and alone, that our actions impact only us and the relationships surrounding us. In the 11th House, we recognize the dynamism of collective energy and consciousness to help us evolve into our purpose and into our power. Even more important, Aquarius and the 11th House remind us that, at our best, most evolved selves, we are able to work with our individual purpose and power in service to the greater good.
During Aquarius Season, let us fix ourselves into the center of the heart. Let us look to The Star, The Lovers and the Justice cards to guide us as we evolve into our best selves. Ruled by Aquarius, The Star card (17) offers us a curative space of healing, where we can bathe in the understanding that our vulnerability is a profound strength. It combines the manifesting energy of The Magician (I) with the contemplative nature of The Chariot (7). It reminds us of our shared humanity and that we are all healing from some form of pain and suffering. The Lovers and the Justice cards are also ruled by Air signs. Gemini gives wind to the wings of The Lovers (6) and encourages us to cultivate more compassion for self and others. Libra - with its scales of balance - provides the Justice (11) card with an unshakable integrity that helps us recognize that no one can ever truly be diminished for we are all equal under the law of love. Note that the Justice (11) card not only resonates during this season due to its Air element; but it is also informative because it is numerically aligned with the 11th House, the House of Aquarius, innovation, humanitarianism and transformation.
As we move through Aquarius Season, may we discover what gives wind to our wings. May we connect more intimately with the ideas and relationships that bring us joy. May we begin a practice - or continue to evolve an existing practice - of letting love be the compass of our lives.
Aquarius Considerations
Aquarius is a great season for Journaling (refining your thoughts and ideas), Breathwork (moving air in for inspiration and cleansing through exhalation) and any kind of somatic practice like Yoga, Dance or Chi Gong or Tai Chi to name a few. Perhaps the easiest way to combine all of these activities that also supports the restorative invitation of mid-Winter, is cultivating a Savasana practice.
Traditionally, Savasana is the final posture in most yoga classes. It is the ultimate ending in that its name translates to “Corpse” or the “Death” Pose. Obviously, this pose is not about accessing “Death” in literal terms; but, rather experiencing a metaphoric death that helps you to release any attachment to outcomes or to expectations. It is a practice of pure “being,” a release of any doing so that you can simply be present to the breath, to the moment and to the healing place of peace that is the essence of Savasana.
Here is a link to a beautiful description/instruction for accessing Savasana. I like to work with an eye pillow, blankets for comfort and a bolster underneath the knees for support. Make sure you have your journal nearby so that you can write about your experience of letting go.
Once you come out of Savasana, take a few minutes to journal about what came to you as you were in the pose. If you are struggling to write, sit with this statement “I remember” and then free write - just start and write anything that arises within your mind.
- Tarot Cards, Mantras & Cardinal Elements:
- XVII The Star: “Healing”
- Fixed Air: The East - new beginnings, possibility, joy and hope
- VI The Lovers: “Compassion"
- Mutable Air: The East - new beginnings, possibility, joy and hope
- XI Justice: “Integrity”
- Cardinal Air: The East - new beginnings, possibility, joy and hope
- Poem For Aquarius Season: (courtesy of my astrology teacher and poet, Heidi Rose Robbins)
A House Called Tomorrow
You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen -
You are a hundred wild centuries
And fifteen, bringing with you
In every breath and in every step
Everyone who has come before you,
All the yous that you have been,
The mothers of your mother,
The fathers of your father.
If someone in your family tree was trouble,
A hundred were not:
The bad do not win - not finally,
No matter how loud they are.
We simply would not be here
If that were so.
You are made, fundamentally, from the good.
With this knowledge, you never march alone.
You are the breaking news of the century.
You are the good who has come forward
Through it all, even if so many days
Feel otherwise. But think:
When you as a child learned to speak,
It's not that you didn’t know words -
It’s that, from the centuries, you knew so many,
And it’s hard to choose the word that will be your own.
From those centuries we human beings bring with us
The simple solutions and songs,
The river bridges and star charts and song harmonies
All in service to a simple idea:
That we can make a house called tomorrow.
What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day,
Is ourselves. And that’s all we need
To start. That’s everything we require to keep going.
Look back only for as long as you must,
Then go forward into the history you will make.
Be good, then, be better. Write books. Cure diseases.
Make us proud. Make yourself proud.
And those who came before you? When you hear thunder,
Hear it as their applause.
Alberto Rios
- Song For Aquarius Season: A Lot's Gonna Change