Astrology of the Week of Jan 24, 2022: Mars in Capricorn, Pluto Conjuncts Mercury, Venus Goes Direct

This week, we are given a gift as Mars moves into Capricorn on Monday, giving the part of our charts that contain Capricorn a helpful boost. Mars is in exaltation in Capricorn, and so when the planet of action, aggression, forward momentum, and war is exalted, it eases the effects of planets currently transiting through that sign and pulls focus in the area of our personal charts highlighted in the transit.

Mars also will just give us a boost, generally, in the ambitious Saturnian sign; we might feel like really going after something we've been sitting on for a while and with this transit, we are more likely to get it. Capricorn is determined and calculating, so pair this with the Lesser Malefic's take-charge fire, and you have a recipe for achievement. Go after things this week and notice that you have the sure-footed confidence of a goat as you do so.

Mars could barely have timed this transit better. Mercury begins retrograding through Capricorn on Tuesday until February 3 and Venus is just finishing up this long retrograde in Capricorn as well. Mars' transit here should aid us in confronting the communicative and relational areas in our lives that may begin to be frictive on Tuesday or have already been murky for the past several weeks.

Mercury has already been retrograding through Aquarius, so we've already been in the trenches of reviewing the part of our chart that contains Aquarius for weeks, and now we will be having a similar moment in the areas of our lives where Capricorn lives. Look at the House that will be in review and notice how this transit feels in the same House where Venus has been retrograding for weeks. I want to see the good in this transit and especially in light of Mars' moving into this space in a helpful, directed way.

Venus also, is going to station direct on Saturday, which, for those of us who have been feeling in a bit of a romantic tail spin since November and certainly mid-December, we might feel a levity coming our way. Let's get back to the good, beautiful, lovely love times that Venus prefers over the nasty bit of relational excavation her retrograde demands.

When I look at this cluster of activity in the sky, I have a feeling that many of us will be turning over things as they are disrupted, but that our inner selves will have greater confidence to act, to cut away, and to move forward. Let us use this energy by surrendering to that fact that we can control nothing but ourselves, but let's keep in mind that words will have resonance. Especially as Pluto makes a conjunction to Mercury on Friday, what we say will be bolstered with Plutonian power, so choose your words carefully but say what needs to be said and ask the right questions. In fact, get down to investigative business. (Saying and asking things out loud may be safer than in print or text right now, though, just FYI.) Next week's New Moon in Aquarius is bound to bring some things to the surface that we aren't expecting.

Retrogrades are nesting beds for confusion because they shake up norms and expectations; clarity, tact, and a humility will help each of us make our way through the dark and the fire of Mars will help us move through with passion and dedicated purpose.