Like most of you, I have many roles. Besides being an astrologer, a writer and an expat, I’m a lover, a partner, a friend, a sister, a mother, and a grandmother. But this past month, I’ve mostly been a daughter.

One night in December, my 89-year-old father fell while getting out of his car, and he split his upper arm like an old log. For a couple of weeks, my brother and sister-in-law came in from their mountain home to care for him, and my dad’s fellow Unitarians brought him dinner every night. And then, in the first days of 2009, I packed my suitcase and flew from Bremen to Washington DC to take care of him.

At first, it was mostly about getting him launched in the morning. Putting on his socks, I realized I hadn’t done this for anyone since my kid was a baby, thirty odd years ago. Gradually, he’s become more physically capable, and my role has mostly been to support him in making a decision. Does he really want to live in a split-level house in the burbs, dependent on a car? As we began to sort through his closets full of trash and treasure, we proved that objects do not actually have to stay in the same place forever.

In the middle of all this, we took a break to spend the whole day in front of the TV, soaking up every detail of Obama’s Inauguration. It was wonderful to celebrate this day with my progressive and politically active father. Last fall, he promised he’d live another decade if Obama was elected.

Now January is almost over, and I’m packing to go home. I’m eager to see the woman who is waiting for me. I want to resume the love story that is my life with her.

January has been a month of change, with Jupiter moving into the enlightened sign Aquarius. But since Mercury has been retrograde most of the month, it’s also been about dealing with the past. We walk forward, dragging a lot of old junk behind us. We stop to saw away at the rusty chains that hold this stuff. Then we walk forward another two steps. That’s what it feels like. We are ecstatic about Obama, and at the same time, our message is: Fix us, we are broken. Free us. We tug at these stubborn wars, deficits, defeats and fears, and they clank and catch behind us.

February will move faster, I promise you. Mercury is direct on February 1, and about halfway through the month, it enters Aquarius and encourages revolutionary new ideas. Mars also enters Aquarius early in the month, so action will follow words. In February, both Mercury and Mars conjoin Jupiter, and Jupiter makes everything bigger, bolder and more excessive.

Every twelve years, Jupiter spends a year in Aquarius, and it tends to be a busy time, with an emphasis on science, technology and social progress. Last time Jupiter was in Aquarius, the Dow Jones hit a record high, so it may be a good economic indicator. The world could use that.

The Aquarius energy is oriented towards solving problems, experimenting with new structures, creating possibilities. The late and great Eartha Kitt had Jupiter in Aquarius. So did Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, Marie Curie, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, and Ho Chi Minh. And so do Holly Near, Jane Fonda, Melissa Etheridge, Rosie O’Donnell, and Barack Obama.

It’s not generally a placid nor a peaceful time. Some wars have ended with Jupiter in Aquarius (the Vietnam War) but others have begun (World War I). It promotes the future, but it also brings up the differences in each individual’s approach to the future. Everybody will be ready to go on to step two, but some folks will be stepping all over other people’s plans. And yes, things may blow up more while Jupiter is in Aquarius.

We will have people designing brilliant new systems in every area. Radical educators will find an audience. Alternate energy enthusiasts will gain converts. Maybe we’ll get those great gadgets they have on the Starship Enterprise. But there could be trouble between people who believe our future consists of being wafted bodily into space by God, and those who believe we have to build ships to get us up there.

It’s true that Aquarius is a scientific sign, but it’s also a sign of the weird. Especially for people who distrust traditional science, Aquarius lends itself to breaking things down and examining basic theories. When you take the pieces apart and put them back together, sometimes you end up with a monster, and yikes, it’s alive. Of course, truly revolutionary theory also depends on this ability to recognize underlying assumptions, as well as to name the overlooked truths that have always been out in plain sight.

February will be a month of drive, activity, action, and ideas. Some will be so strange we can hardly conceive of the human brain that created them. Others will spark a universal “Aha!” moment.

The world of science fiction has a recurring message about the dangers of excessive thought and analysis, and that is something to watch for in February 2009. There are few planets in water signs at the full moon on February 9. And without water, people can lose sight of the feeling level. Without water, we are too cool, we eschew sentiment, we don’t notice human longing and suffering.

As I write this, Venus is still moving through watery Pisces, as it was at the Inauguration. Pisces is the most fluid of water signs, and so it was a time of free-flowing laughter and tears. There was a sense of completion. It’s not that Martin Luther King’s dream was realized, and discrimination was ended in the United States. But it was like reaching a sun-filled landing at the top of a long staircase. Everyone wanted to bask in the light, to look across the years and see them in terms of the distance travelled.

But early in February, Venus moves out of gentle, spiritual Pisces and into the passionate, fiery sign Aries. This encourages people to take the initiative, to get things done. It will feel good to move, to take on challenges, to assert ourselves. Everything will move quickly. Will there be room for our softer sides, for our vulnerabilities, for our complex and contradictory emotions?

I’ve been immersed in past history myself, and it will feel good to move towards the future in February. And then when March comes around, I’ll come back here to Washington DC, and I’ll help my father move into his new home.

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