At 4:44 AM ET — an Angel Number suggesting “all is well” —  the Sun enters Aquarius. The Moon follows at 7:59 AM ET, and the Sun and Moon both meet up at 8:14 AM ET. Happy New Moon! This is our chance to re-set intentions and goals for the next lunar cycle.  Make a list; light a candle; plant those seeds. Around the 26th, on the First Quarter Moon, we can expect a challenge to those goals, with appropriate adjustments made. How are our seedlings doing?  Keep on nurturing them, and at the time of the Full Moon, they may flower. We will receive illumination on the success or failure of our goals for the cycle, either way. If we succeeded, we can consciously release our success into our reality; if we failed, we let go of whatever did not work. After the Third Quarter Moon on February 11th, we can harvest our achievements, then tie up loose ends, compost and get ready to begin another New Moon cycle on February 18th.

Aquarius is an airy (mental), fixed (organizing) energy. Keywords for Aquarius include innovation, eccentricity, friendship, humanitarian, unconventional, rocket scientist and/or mad genius. If you were born with the Sun in Aquarius, you have the energy to innovate and intellectualize with others. If your Moon is in Aquarius, you need to be socially significant — and dare I say appreciated for it. You probably need to be unusual, too. I learned these nifty, pithy expressions of solar energy and lunar needs from my mentor, Noel Tyl. “I love you, but don’t take it personally” is another nifty, pithy Aquarian  expression — and I came up with that one all by myself. If you have Venus in Aquarius, chances are you especially know what I’m talking about.

In the chart for this New Moon, the Sun and Moon are augmented by practical Saturn in high-flying Sagittarius. There’s a need for easy communication of humanitarian ideals and how they are to be achieved. Mercury and Venus, which refer to mindset and values — are also in airy, Aquarius, which is also the sign of “the people”.  Both are opposed by expansive Jupiter in kingly Leo. Hmmm. With Mercury at a near standstill and about to turn retrograde on Wednesday (BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER NOW), big ideas may be stalled and up for review before they can move forward.

Meanwhile, action hero Mars and visionary Neptune are together in soulful Pisces, adding pixie dust and considerations of sacrifice, empathy, idealism, surrealism or fanaticism to the mix.  Interesting that the Sun and Moon in humanitarian Aquarius are reaching out to Saturn; Mars and Neptune (and all that they represent) are moving away from Saturn, which refers to structure, ambition, etc.  Moving from vision to practical reality?

Last, but hardly least, the revolutionary Uranus-Pluto square is inching closer to its grand finale scheduled for March 15th. Isn’t this an interesting backdrop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight, which is not happening during a Moon void, and thus may actually be of consequence? Tax breaks for the middle class — to be offset by an increase in taxes on the richer are allegedly on the agenda.

The Sabian Symbol for this New Moon is “an old adobe mission,” or, as Sabian Symbol guru Blain Bovee describes it, “a sun-baked building erected for a specific cause in a foreign territory…imagine the burning fervor of someone whose deep beliefs motivate a journey to a foreign, even hostile place”.  Bovee suggests we apply this degree with a watchful eye toward “a willingness to go into hot spots; a willingness to take on hard cases.” In light of current events, I am particularly struck by this: “The quest to carry beliefs far afield exposes all concerned to the inadvertent spread of foreign disease; in this case, even a kindly message can have striking repercussions”. Watch for these themes in the headlines.

In your own personal world, if you were born around the 20th of January, April, July and October…or if you have a planet or angle around 1 degree of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and especially Aquarius, you will be more personally affected by this New Moon. Wherever it falls in your horoscope is where you can expect a fervent belief to spark a mission. Consult your local astrologer for details, especially since Mercury will turn retrograde on Wednesday. Mercury REtrogrades are excellent times to REview your life!

And now, the news.

It’s interesting to read the headlines of obituaries in the New York Times and marvel at how they reflect current planetary patterns, such as Monday’s charismatic, magical and/or surreal Mars-Neptune conjunction in Pisces. “Jane Wilson, Artist of the Ethereal, Dies at 90“. “Kim Fowley, Rock Producer and Svengali, Dies at 75“. “Yoko Nagae Ceschina, Countess and Fairy Godmother to the Arts, Dies at 82”. Fairy godmother? Ethereal? Svengali? Clearly the NYT reporters are under the influence. Yea verily, you may not believe in astrology, but astrology definitely believes in you.

Here’s a wiggy item in the world of sports (Mars),  in which the New England Patriots, who defeated the Baltimore Colts on Sunday, are now being investigated to determine if they cheated (Neptune) and used “deflated balls” in order to tip the odds in their favor. As this story broke during yesterday’s all-day Moon void, I’m inclined to think this is much ado about nothing. Meanwhile, in the world of film (Neptune), we have the surreal box office success of “American Sniper,” (Mars). It’s earned ten times more than “Selma,” a film about Martin Luther King, Jr and the civil rights movement. Here’s a how a few people who saw “Selma” reacted, while in Alabama, a school superintendent refused to allow a high school history club to see it, because of concerns that the language would be offensive. So they all saw “American Sniper” instead.

OK, I made that last line up. Point is, when Neptune is prominent, double check for accuracy. Especially in the news. That advice also applies to the next Mercury retrograde, which will continue through February 12th.

For example, elsewhere in the media (Neptune), Fox news issued an apology for repeatedly perpetuating the falsehood (Neptune) that parts of Paris and the UK were considered “no-go zones” for anyone who was not Muslim. Did you know that Jon Stewart has an equal in France? Here is a French version of “The Daily Show,” in which the Fox story is deconstructed and exposed. On a bien rigole!

Finally, here are a couple of “wake up and smell the coffee” items in the spirit of the Uranus-Pluto square. They’re about climate change and income inequality. First, a study released yesterday (on that expansive and indulgent Venus-Jupiter opposition), reported that the 1% now own 50% of all the wealth in the world. But true to the spirit of the Aquarius New Moon, this issue will allegedly be a hot topic at the world economic forum starting on Tuesday in Davos (and in the State of the Union speech, as noted earlier). Second, three more studies on climate change were released last week — in case you had not heard.

On days when I read articles like these, Angel Numbers like “444” are doubly reassuring. Onward!