If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget it. This is real astrology. See the section above. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT).

The first couple days of January, being still under the sway of the December 30 lunar eclipse, are apt to be far from quiet on the weather front. Strong storms with high winds and heavy precipitation are bound to be in the picture through the 3rd - picking up an extra day of run time due to the lunar perigee early on the 2nd. Flooding and moderate to severe seismic activity are a possibility as well - including Richter 5 or greater quakes and volcanic eruptions. If you're in a place that's subject to extremes of this sort, it's a good idea to be prepared as much as possible. This is bound to be one of the wildest couple of days all month as far as Mother Nature is concerned.

Although something of a minor sell-off is possible around the time Venus opposes Jupiter on the 3rd, major world equity markets are apt to lack strong direction either up or down early in January - until around the 10th or 11th, as the new moon effect sets in. Then, watch for very solid blue chips to take off, and speculative high tech issues to take a dive. No huge moves either way here, but a direction at least will be obvious for a time.

The January 13 new moon at 23 Capricorn (conjunct Venus) comes less than 24 hours after Luna reaches its southern declination extreme for the month on the 12th. It's a combination that signals a slight increase in meteorological and seismic action from the 10th through the 16th. So if you live in or plan to visit a place subject to strong storms, earthquake activity or flooding, for example, this would be a good time to check your emergency kit (fresh batteries and bottled water, etc.). Weather delays are more than likely, and you'd do well to allow for them if you'll be traveling between the 10th and 16th. From what I can see, this mostly looks like a phase of nuisance weather rather than killer storms - but the seismic action could turn into a big surprise.

Mercury's retrograde is probably the biggest news of the month. It starts with the retrograde station at 14 Aquarius on the 8th, and continues until the little Sun-grazer turns direct in apparent motion again on February 8 at 29 Capricorn. This is astrology's very own little shop of horrors, the time when Murphy's Law reigns supreme and practically everything that can go wrong does - most likely at the worst possible moment. It's a great time to work on fixing up mistakes (your own and others'), because there's so much material to work with. You can minimize the mayhem as much as possible by strictly following the "measure twice, cut once" rule. Double-check and follow up on everything, figuring that a clear-minded hands-on approach is your only prayer of having anything turn out right at a time like this. Stuff gets lost, poltergeist-style, as soon as you take your eyes off of it - so do what you're doing while you're doing it. No half-hearted efforts will do: either give it your all or stay out of it. And none of this "too clever by half" stuff: the simple and direct plan beats the Rube Goldberg confabulation by a light year when Mercury's apparent motion as seen from Earth is backward.

As a rule, transportation and communication are the areas where Mercury retrogrades evidence their presence most. This means lost or missing shipments, shipments sent to the wrong place, orders misunderstood or lost, transportation tie-ups (from traffic jams and highway pileups to ship and train wrecks to planes crashed or grounded); and that's just the half of what to expect this time around. Also be on the lookout for a big new wave of computer vandalism (worms, Trojans, viruses, hacker attacks etc.), computer breakdowns due to software and operating system bugs, etc. And God help NASA, aerospace contractors and the whole telecommunications industry. I think I pretty well covered the territory - at least enough to give you the idea.

While what I've said about Mercury retrograde applies to the whole January 18 - February 8 period, I figure the weather-related transportation and communication messes are likely to be biggest around the beginning and end of the retrograde. Apart from Mercury's stations (the apparent standstills in the sky which begin and end the retrograde phase), the other indicators of enhanced mayhem at these times this year are lunar in nature. They include the Moon's northward crossing of the celestial equator on the 20th (a storm and seismic signal booster from the 19th through the 21st) as well as Luna reaching maximum south declination on February 8.

A combination of lunar phenomena signals a slight but not negligible increase in storm and seismic activity from the 25th through the 31st. Among the factors active during this period is Luna's extreme northern declination on the 27th, the full moon on the 28th, and the Moon reaching perigee (closest approach to Earth) again on the 30th. None of these celestial factors alone is anywhere near in the same class as a SuperMoon or eclipse, but the combination is noteworthy. Coastal and inland flooding, heavy winds and high precipitation, Richter 5 or greater quakes and volcanic eruptions: they'll all be on the upswing during this last week of January.

  

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)