And so we leap gracefully into yet another new year, though (oddly enough for astrologers) a new year not tied to any really cool astronomical stuff like solstices or equinoxes. Could the slightly off-center nature of our calendar have anything to do with the rather off-center feel of the culture–our so-called “western culture” that adopted it? I leave these speculations to you, as I find myself rather busy at the moment, having a column to write – and my editor, otherwise a kind and patient sort of fellow who lives on an island, insists that I get my material to him on time even when Mercury is retrograde (like now, as I write this, for example).
And note, gentle readers, that though we don’t have any real solstice/equinox stuff to discuss (a fact we can blame on Pope Gregory XIII, if, as seems natural for us humans, we want someone to blame), we can note the following: that Jupiter entered Aries, the sign of the spring equinox, a day before the winter solstice, and that he won’t leave that sign again until May 16, when he will vault into Taurus like he and the centaurs should (an appropriate metaphor, BTW, as Jupiter rules Sagittarius, sign of the centaur). Jupiter’s time in Aries encourages us all to expand our self-assertions, broaden the range of our identifications,
