Show Notes:
Here are the timestamps for the weekly forecast:
0:00 intro
0:33 title and date
0:47 Good morning, friends! Updates
1:24 Kill the Cow parable read-aloud
3:30 weekly overview
5:31 Venus Enters Capricorn
7:19 Full Moon in Leo
9:32 Uranus stations direct
11:12 Chiron, Mercury, and Mars
14:55 Tarot cards for the week
19:09 In conclusion
19:39 End Remarks
Transcript:
You’re listening to the AstroMommy Weekly horoscope, a forecast that hopes to shine a light in the dark, helping us all see where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. Whether you’re a first-time listener or a long-time subscriber, thanks for being here! I truly appreciate you being in the AstroMommy community. I hope you enjoy this week’s horoscopes and card reading.
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Without further ado, here is the weekly horoscope.
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Good morning, friends!
Have you ever heard the parable “Kill the Cow?”
This week we have several things happening: Venus ingresses into Capricorn, there is a Full Moon in Leo, and Uranus stations direct, but tucked in between all these major shifts, is the “sacrifice” that I was talking about back at the end of December 2023, involving Mercury, Mars, and Chiron. This is the week we make that sacrifice, in essence, this is the week our “cows” are killed.
Let me tell you the story so you can understand:
There are several versions of this story and I have no idea who wrote it first, but I like this one by Paul Simos published on Medium1, because it is simple.
Kill the Cow
Retold by Paul Simos
A family lives on the outskirts of a remote village on a small plot of land. The family owned one cow. Each day they lived from the milk of the cow. If there is little milk, they eat little. If there is lots of milk, they eat well. The life of the mother, the father, the children depend on the cow.
One autumn day, a lone traveler stops at the village. He is hungry. The family share their milk. The traveler is grateful.
The traveler wishes to return the favor and help the family. He doesn’t know how to help the family. He hears that there is a wise man in the village. He walks over to the home of the wise man.
“I was hungry and the family fed me. I would like to help them. How can I help this family?”
The wise man said “Kill the cow”.
“Kill it? How can that help them? They depend for their lives on that cow”.
The wise man repeated “Kill the cow”.
The traveler was nervous about following such strange advice’ but the reputation of the wise man was such that he went ahead and killed the cow.
A year later the traveler happened to pass again through the village. He noticed new shops and a thriving market. He saw a new hotel that provided beds and food to the travelers who came for the market.
The traveler entered the hotel. Behind the bar he found the eldest son of the family of the cow. The man was standing tall, smiling and happy. The traveler greeted him and asked, “What happened?”.
“We lost our cow. There was no milk. We had to go out and do something to eat. We set up a small market, it grew. We set up this hotel, it is growing. Without the milk from our cow, we had to try new things.”
Silently to himself, the traveler reflected on the power of the wise man’s words.
“Kill the cow”.
Where are the cow’s in your life?
And I love the moral quoted from Eric R. Nielsen’s version2 on LinkedIn:
“THE MORAL:
If you are willing to accept things as they are, they will never change
Innovation can only occur outside your comfort zone
"Good enough" is the enemy of "Great" (Nielsen, 2018)
This is where we are at in “our” stories this week.
Let’s keep this parable in mind as we unpack this week’s most important transits.
Okay, let’s get into… the astrology
(All times are in Eastern Time (ET) unless mentioned otherwise)
The Weekly Overview
This week we have Venus moving into Capricorn and making a trine to Jupiter, the Full Moon in Leo, and on Saturday, Mercury and Mars conjoin, Uranus stations direct, and the Sun squares Jupiter! The Moon, Mercury, and Mars all square Chiron this week, and by next Monday and Tuesday, Mars forms a trine to Uranus and squares the Nodes!
This is why I feel that the “cows” in our lives are going to be falling off of cliffs everywhere! It’s going to be raining cows!
I truly apologize to anyone in my community who may be offended by my use of this story and the sacredness of cows. I am in no way saying that we should literally go out and sacrifice cows, it is a metaphor for illustration, so please take it as such.
Okay, a lot is going on this week and I will get into all the nitty gritty details in the daily reports, but for this weekly forecast, I am going to focus on the biggest shifts, which are: Venus changing signs from Sagittarius to Capricorn, the Full Moon in Leo, Uranus stationing direct, and the tense transits to Chiron.
Here is the timeline of transits so you can prepare:
Tuesday, January 23, 2024: Venus ingresses into Capricorn.
Thursday, January 25, 2024: Full Moon at 5°Leo 14’ (Don’t forget to write your poem!)
Saturday, January 27, 2024: The Sun in Aquarius squares Jupiter in Taurus, Uranus in Taurus STATIONS DIRECT (all planets will be direct after this!!), and Mercury conjoins Mars.
Sunday, January 28, 2024: Venus in Sagittarius trines Jupiter in Taurus
Monday, January 29, 2024: Mars in Capricorn trine Uranus (now DIRECT!) in Taurus
Tuesday, January 30, 2024: Mars in Capricorn squares the Nodes
This is a pretty powerful week following the Sun and Pluto’s conjunction and ingress into Aquarius which happened last Saturday. Because there is so much going on with the personal planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Moon, I think this means that there will be a lot of things to process and experience in our personal lives.
Okay, here we go…
Venus’s Ingress into Capricorn, January 23, 2024
You can see Venus in the chart above at about the 8 o’clock position. She is now co-present with Mercury and Mars who are only days away from their upcoming squares to Chiron followed by their conjunction and then square to the Nodes next week.
Venus is not making any aspects upon her immediate arrival in Capricorn but she is approaching a trine to Jupiter in Taurus which will perfect on Sunday, January 28, 2024.
Venus leaving Sagittarius and moving into Capricorn may be a little bit like the hippy travel chick cleaning herself up for her day job and showing up to work dressed in a suit and French twist.
Venus in Capricorn is calm, and collected, and keeps her cool. She’s faithful and an excellent worker. She likes quality items that help her advance in life and she likes to be the one in control. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn is a sign that brings out the serious side of Venus and inhibits unnecessary flair or glamour. If it has a function or a utility then it gets the green light, otherwise, it gets the cut. Venus in Capricorn is not afraid to kill the “cows” in our life because she understands the bottom line and how to get to the top of the mountain and sometimes we have to let things go and get rid of the dead weight.
So, as a collective, we could experience Venus’s time through Capricorn like going on a business trip, and keeping track of every expense so that we may write it off later. There may not be a lot of time allotted for pleasure. Venus in Capricorn is not here to play and have fun, she is here to show her commitment and dedication to the job at hand. She’s precise, controlled, and all business—you won’t see a mullet on this gal! There is no “party in the back,” just a no-fuss hair do. She’s not a “Karen” either in that she’s not here to complain, that takes way too much energy and is usually a waste of time. Nope, Venus in Capricorn is focused on getting results and helping us get to the top of the mountain with snacks to spare.
We may need her stoic nature to handle everything else that is happening!
Full Moon in Leo
We begin the end of the week with a Full moon in Leo on Thursday, January 25, 2024. The Full Moon is a time when the intentions you set during the New Moon two weeks ago in Capricorn come to a peak point or a culmination. It can also signify endings as often when something comes to its highest point of creation, the next part of the cycle is the deconstruction process. The Moon has reached her fullest potential and now she will begin to wane, losing light as she approaches the next New Moon in Aquarius in two weeks.
So, this day could be a day for celebration and/or endings.
What are you celebrating today? What are you ending? Which archetype fits your life right now?
You can see in the chart above the opposition between the Sun and the Moon and both applying to square Jupiter—whatever we are celebrating or ending will involve Jupiter, so this means that we are taking actions toward our health, our prestige, and our prosperity. In essence, we are striving to feel wealthy, healthy, and wise. (This dynamic shows up really strongly in the tarot reading for this week, so make sure you read that after the horoscope!)
Also present in the Full Moon chart is Mars’ square to Chiron and Mercury’s applying square. This means that on the Full Moon, the destiny between Mercury, Mars, and Chiron is unfolding. I will talk about this in the section that follows.
Briefly, below you will find the house that this Full Moon is occurring in according to your rising sign. Find your rising and read the house topics associated with this Full Moon. You may notice a celebration or an ending involving one or more of those topics.
Aries —fifth house of pregnancy, children, creativity, and recreational activities.
Taurus —fourth house of family, roots, and property.
Gemini —third house of siblings, communication, and local travel.
Cancer —second house of money and possessions.
Leo —first house of self, health, and character.
Virgo —twelfth house of blind spots, large animals, hidden enemies, and mental health.
Libra —eleventh house of friends, allies, groups, and wishes
Scorpio —tenth house of career, praxis, and the mother.
Sagittarius —ninth house of foreign travel, higher education, and beliefs.
Capricorn —eighth house of shared resources, inheritance, debt, and death.
Aquarius —seventh house of marriage, partnerships, and legal matters.
Pisces —sixth house of stress, health issues, employees or co-workers, and pets.
I wish you all a Happy Full Moon!
Uranus Stations Direct
You can see Uranus with a little black “S” indicating that he has stationed direct in the upper right of the chart between the 2 and 3 o’clock position.
The Moon at 24°Leo has just made a square to Uranus the day before on Friday and now she is void of course, meaning that she will not make any other aspects before ingressing into Virgo, the next sign at 2:11 pm ET. This means that all day on Saturday we may feel as if we are in limbo, trying to make things happen, but it is hard and there is a lot of friction. Almost like we are stuck in a freeze frame or trying to swim through molasses.
Uranus stations direct at 2:35 am ET, 17 minutes after the Sun squares Jupiter and 7 hours before Mercury conjoins Mars. So there is this limbo point in between where something Uranian may happen—perhaps it will start to rain cows and we all will be in such shock that everyone will just be standing there like deer in headlights! All jokes aside, when Uranus stations direct it is like the world being innervated by a powerful force of nature. It’s like getting the power back on after a power outage. But sometimes it can pop breakers. Now that Uranus is direct he can do more, bring more, of his unusual, quirky, eccentric self to the table. Now when planets interact with him he will have more power to send his rays, making more open conversation. The first planet that Uranus will be interacting with is Mars, when Mars forms a trine to Uranus on Monday, January 29, 2024. This trine will send shock waves throughout the earth. Mars and Uranus together in a harmonious trine could bring life-saving procedures, revolutions, and liberating efforts. It can also mean that all blocks are removed and something suddenly, perhaps violently or with an invasive intervention or procedure, shifts dramatically. I feel that this transit is like the push that sends the “cow” reeling over the cliff!
Chiron, Mercruy, and Mars
The many squares to Chiron this week, plus Mercury and Mars conjoining, and Mars trining Uranus and squaring the Nodes makes me feel that this is the week when we will see the “sacrifice” I talked about at the end of December come to pass.
On December 26, 2023, Chiron stationed direct. Chiron is known as, “The Wounded Healer,” an asteroid that can represent sacrifice, internal vulnerabilities, and wounds. When he stationed direct back in December, his power and influence became more active.
Before that station, in mid-December, there may have been a direct attack on a vulnerable part of yourself, followed by an illusion, a deception, or a massive feeling of betrayal, and then a very odd feeling like something just wasn’t adding up, making sense, or feeling very loving.
That was the backstory…
The next day after Chiron stationed direct, Mercury and Mars conjoined in Sagittarius and subsequently both perfected squares to Neptune.
Indicating some sort of wishful thinking coupled with aggressive actions that could’ve taken place or been seeded inside the mind.
Fast forward to now, and Mars and Mercury are both approaching their squares to Chiron this week on Thursday and Friday, respectfully, followed by their final conjunction in this sequence on Saturday, the same day that the Sun will square Jupiter and Uranus will station direct, activating a disruption, like an earthquake that shakes things loose, riles things up, or dislodges something that was stuck.
“Mercury and Mars together represent forceful communications and aggressive thoughts and actions—these could be helpful or unhelpful, it just depends on what you choose to do with this energy. Either way, the Mercury/Mars combo is going to sort of agitate and innervate your mental faculties and physical stamina. Because it’s Mars there is always the possibility for anger and aggression, couple this with Mercury and we are talking about debates, arguments, or even fights. Mental and verbal sparring could be at play. My teacher, David Palmer, describes Mercury/Mars conjunctions as a “barking dog!” It’s loud, in your face, and troubling.
Mercury and Mars conjunctions are a classic combination for accidents, especially car or transportation accidents
Now, bringing this all back to Chiron…
Mercury will turn direct on January 1st, heralding in the New Year—along with Jupiter who will station direct on December 30—so, Mercury stations direct, and then on January 8th he makes his final square to Neptune in this sequence. About two and a half weeks later, Mars perfects a square to Chiron and this is where there may be the feeling of sacrifice—since Mars is the ruler of Aries and when Mars squares Chiron it will be from his exaltation sign of Capricorn and Mars will be in the superior position, overcoming Chiron, this could be a moment when a wound, a vulnerability, or a trigger point is pushed, poked, or penetrated with the force of Mars. Right after this square to Chiron from Mars, Mercury and Mars conjoin again, now with Mercury direct, and then they both square the Nodes—Mercury and Mars will be at the southern bending, so this little sequence describes an internal event that could feel like a sacrifice and it could be riddled with a lot of heavy emotions.
The Moon will be in Cancer, squaring the Nodes herself from the Northern bending which means an outward expression, when this sequence begins, then she will be in Leo, opposing Pluto and the Sun, both freshly having ingressed into Aquarius, and in Virgo opposing Saturn. This is MAJOR! I can’t express it any other way—January is a BIG month for 2024 and it ties into this Mercury retrograde conjunct Mars square Neptune sequence with Chiron.” (AstroMommy, 2023)
I concluded:
“January’s astrology symbolizes some major events taking place on a personal level and/or in the world at large that will dramatically shift the storyline and could feel like we are having to make a sacrifice of something to move forward.
Whatever it is, it is part of our collective destiny.”
This is the week that I was talking about! So, be prepared for some intense life events that create very unstable pastures for our “cows.” Keep some ideas in your back pocket for “What-if” scenarios. This may be the week you need to pull them out!
Okay, moving on to…
The Tarot Spread
Let’s move on to a 3-card spread for the week that will represent the idea, the process, and the aspiration.
The first card representing the idea is:
10 of Pentacles
On this card, we see a man, a woman, and children playing in the background. There is also the family pet, who looks healthy and happy! They are all gathering together in celebration.
This card is about the happily ever after that fuels our dreams of success--the relationship, the family, the career, prestige, etc…It’s about feeling happy and content with your material wealth and what you’ve amassed in this lifetime that you can now pass on to your children and your grandchildren. It’s about creating a legacy; a life that you can be proud of and the resources that enable you to be generous in a material way.
So that is “the idea,” and sounds a lot like the “American Dream.” But whatever it means to you, it represents whatever your personal “Happily Ever After,” would look like.
The second card representing the process is:
16 The Tower
On this card, we see a tree stump that has been struck by lightning. The lightning has created sparks and sent all the animals that were living in the tree stump flying and running out! The butterflies are alight, the squirrel looks up in alarm, and all the lightning bugs have lit up in response. Their home is no longer safe.
The Tower card is an extremely intense card that represents a forceful change that creates a moment of panic, chaos, and major disruption to your life. This disruption is meant to destroy the very structures that you have been dependent on, not to ruin your life, but to break you out of any sort of mold that has trapped you. This is the killing of the “cow” moment. It is so powerful that this card showed up for this week!
We are all being put on notice that something major is about to shift in our lives and this is our warning to prepare! Prepare for a structure in your life that you depend on to be “struck by lightning,” and forever changed!
“Tower” moments open our lives up to having to make new decisions, take on new responsibilities, and be innovative with the resources that we have at our disposal. Just like the family in the parable, we will have to come up with new solutions for survival. Just like the animals on this card, we will have to fly to new destinations and seek out new shelters which will open us all up to new possible connections, interactions, and prosperous opportunities.
So, “the process” may feel disruptive, chaotic, extreme, or like a punishment from God, but it is not. It is meant to force you to change and survive.
And the third card representing the aspiration is:
12 The Hanged Man
This card has been coming up a lot these last couple of weeks!
On this card, we see a woman hanging upside down from a silk scarf. She is holding her feet with her right hand, indicating that she is mentally aware of her position, and she is stretching toward the floor with her left hand, symbolizing using her intuition to stretch herself toward a new place of groundedness. The woman is there because she wants to be.
The Hanged Man is a card that means surrender. There could be the feeling that you are suspended between choice and reluctance, hovering between deciding and not deciding…you are deliberately pausing to try to figure out the best path forward and the answer is to surrender to the stretch.
As the card for the aspiration, this means that we are trying to decide what to do when faced with the death of our “cow.” Do we get another cow? Do we do something different? It is super scary when we are forced to make a choice and the outcomes of our actions are unknown. We may feel paralyzed by and fearful of the task at hand. Again, surrendering to our situation is the lesson here. This doesn’t mean acting like a victim or allowing others to take advantage of us. It means coming from a courageous place of acceptance for the natural flow of life and surrendering to the next step in your journey even if it is frightening. Lightning strikes are inherently scary, and they are meant to snap you out of whatever daydream you were in so that you can take action.
So, to recap:
We want it all, the house, the kids, the amazing relationship, the career, but in order to get that we have to strip everything else away, let the structures crumble and fall; and “kill the cow.” The goal, the aspiration is to see the future differently, to see the situation differently, to surrender to the natural order of things. To do this we must ask ourselves, “Why am I hesitating?” “What am I afraid of?”
The Full Moon on Thursday is also in a square to Jupiter, remember, and this indicates that there is a prosperous opportunity available, but we must take action to receive Jupiter’s gifts.
This week is about something drastically changing in our lives that forces us to be innovative. We must change to survive.
In conclusion for the weekly forecast…
I’d like to pick a Soul Card for us to meditate on this week that may provide whatever it is that we all need to make it through because the truth is that I don’t know what each and every one of you may need right now, but I truly believe that the Divine does.
So, this is the message from Spirit, for you/us…
I would love to hear your thoughts and reflections!
I hope this is helpful!
Until tomorrow,
AstroMommy
Thank you for reading or listening to the weekly horoscope!
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Today’s cards were pulled from The Light Seer’s Tarot and Soul Cards I by Deborah Koff-Chapin, both are available on Amazon.
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Simos, Paul. “Kill the Cow.” Medium, Medium, 17 Sept. 2018, paulsimos.medium.com/kill-the-cow-f3840fe8cfaa.
Nielson, Eric R. “Kill the Cow!” LinkedIn, 10 Mar. 2018, www.linkedin.com/pulse/kill-cow-eric-r-nielson.
Episode #263: Venus Enters Capricorn, Full Moon in Leo, And Uranus Stations Direct! Plus, This Week We Kill The Cow…