The Number "1"

After last year's journey of endings, drama, and deep feelings, you now need to find your bearings and accept not only whatever your present reality happens to be, but also the way it is making you feel. This is not the best time to push matters ahead. It will take more time for you to understand the nature of this new era of your life. Therefore, during this 'waiting' month, try to be patient, observant, and considerate of the needs of others. Explain to them that you intend to make a fresh start this year, and that something - or everything - must change.

Communicate your intentions clearly and diplomatically, even if you are not yet sure of what you want to change. Let others express their feelings too, and keep in mind that you may need each other's support throughout the year. In terms of how you get along with someone else, January offers the first positive new beginning of the year.

This is a time to both give and seek cooperation, to find some common ground, and create a spirit of partnership and teamwork. This cycle of connectedness is pointing out that when an action is taken in one area, it creates ripples of energy that effect all areas. Cause and effect are always at work and, this month, the degree to which you relate to and cooperate with others will be returned to you later in the year, and possibly by people other than those with whom you must cooperate now.

This is an opportunity to create 'good' karma, on the understanding that karma is just another word for cause and effect. For instance, imagine being in a crowd situation in which you are being pushed by the person behind or next to you. The tendency is to blame this person instead of the one at the back who made the original push and created a domino effect. Fear of being crushed then develops into hostility between you and the one closest to you. Always look for the real cause of any discomfort you are feeling.

This year holds many lessons in the appreciation of individuality and humanity's amazing diversity. Your understanding of life comes from your experience of it. Your feelings are how you experience life. However, your feelings and your thoughts are not the same thing, and it is necessary for you to know the difference between them and allow them to come together in loving alignment. Knowing what you think and feel is the only way to be free, otherwise you will forever be in a state of confusion as your controlling masculine mind tells you one thing and your freedom-loving feminine feelings long for something else.

Focus on personal relationships so that a mutual acceptance can be reached; so that peace is in the air and there is a relaxed feeling between all concerned; so that love can flourish - or be found. Make this a gentle month. Force nothing. And hold on, inwardly and outwardly, to your personal dreams and desires.

Pay attention to those time-consuming details. Look for important connections and clues in all that is happening within and around you. The circumstances of someone else can provide great insight. Take a back seat. Quietly observe. Get a sense of what is really going on inside the complexity of your own reality. From what may seem an unlikely source, you will find a missing link - a connection - between something that appears to have little to do with you, and the course you will be taking for several years. January invites you to find the link between your past and your future which, of course, can only be understood in the present.