At this great division of time between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, it’s comforting to know that from one year to the next, there will always be eclipses, and meteor showers, and, of course, Mercury will make its several retrogrades. But even with all this predictability, one year differs from the next pretty dramatically in the course of human history, so the trick is to find the unfolding narrative.
There are several things to know in order to find the story in the stars this year, but for starters, note that Old Father Time Saturn is in the same region of sky as the Sun this first week of the New Year, which suggests that everything old is new again!
Also these first few mornings, the crescent Moon will sweep past Venus, goddess of love, and Jupiter, lord of the future, right near the star Antares, which marks the threshold of the Scorpion underworld.
So the New Year starts with the imagination that what is past (Saturn) is refashioned by love (Venus), in order to set us all up for a happily ever after (Jupiter)!
Later in the Spring, the festivals of renewal will happen coincident with the Lyrid Meteor Shower, in April, so all of this points to an opportunity to reimagine the myth of Orpheus and his twice-lost beloved Eurydice. She dies too soon after their wedding, so Orpheus uses his music to charm his way into the underworld and convince the gods there to allow her to return. They agree, but on one condition: That he not look back. For centuries, poets have lamented the fact that Orpheus broke his promise and lost his beloved, but this year the stars seem to indicate a rare opportunity to re-imagine this lost love.
So as you look ahead in your New Year, draw on the wisdom of Oprheus’ tale and don’t get tricked into looking back. Not looking back doesn’t mean “forgetting”, it means to not keep thinking that history repeats itself!