We start the year off right, with a New Moon for powerful intention setting, just as we greet a new year that holds so much uncertainty. This lunation takes place at 10:33am PST, and we wake up this day already in the Dark-of-the-Moon, that fertile time when the Moon is in the same sign as the Sun. As they meet up this morning and the New Moon hits, the energetic stamp on 2022 has its first major imprint. We are off to the races, and the year ahead is going to be fascinating to say the least. So much change is behind us, and it’s not about the storm anymore, it’s about the aftermath. We made it through the storm, welcome to the aftermath. It’s time to set intentions to help us navigate our lives, find our flow in the new world, and make attempts to create a brand-new landscape while still dealing with all of this aftermath.

One of the beautiful things about the Capricorn archetype is that it only needs to understand the end game. Consider the avatar of this sign, the goat. With discipline, steadfastness, and focus, Capricorn will keep that end game as the north star of its journey to whatever goal and ambition it sets its mind to. In the realm of creating your own desires, this is the energy that says focus on “what” you desire, and leave the “how” up to the Divine. This is not the moment to get distracted with thoughts about exactly how you’re going to accomplish those things you set out to create, just pour your energy in the direction of the vision you are creating for the year ahead, and trust the Universe to take care of the rest.

The Sun and Uranus, the Great Awakener, are in a perfect Trine during this New Moon, and so both the Sun and Moon are making direct contact with the energy of progress, innovation, sudden changes, and the joining together with others (Uranus is ruled by Aquarius, the sign that invented community) for likeminded causes. When you put the power of Uranus so directly into intentions we set at this time, we are marshalling a significant energy of sparkling possibility. Uranus knows no limits, and so that energy speaks to the part of us that is free to imagine at a truly expansive level. What intentions would you set if you felt no inhibition, or no sense of limitation to what you are capable of accomplishing? And again, just focus on the vision, end game, goal, or sense of purpose, and trust that the Universe can take care of the rest. With Uranus in tow, miracles are possible at this time.

Mercury has just moved into Aquarius, the sign that is ruled by Uranus. Mercury and Uranus are related, like cousins in thought. Mercury is our thinking mechanism at the personal level, and it is through Uranus that we connect with the Divine Mind, higher thought, and the way in which our multi-dimensional self and our human embodiment align most directly. Mercury is also the mechanism through which we set intentions; all of our experience emanates first from thought. Our thoughts right now are being guided by Uranus, an aspect of our much higher nature, by virtue of the planet of our thoughts in his ruling sign. And just as this New Moon is peaking, Mercury will Trine the North Node of the Moon, the point that holds our collective future in its thrust. Mercury in this harmonic geometry with our north star makes this intention-setting moment more powerful and effective.

Venus is retrograde and still within spitting distance of Pluto, so our emotional body is in great amplification as we turn the year. One of the benefits of this timing is that our emotional bodies are very receptive to change and transformation right now. Venus is essentially visiting the unconscious by virtue of her backward motion, and her proximity to the Lord of the Underworld means each of our heart centers are more open to the unconscious than what we typically experience, and by a very large margin. This is part of what the last few months (and the next few) are going to be particularly emotional and intense, but the benefit to our intention setting right now is that it will be easier to get a feeling sense of that which you desire to create.

This is the moment to stop moving for a moment, look around at and ask yourself, now that there is this new world we are charged with building, who do I want to be, and how do I wish to serve? Then set the intentions to create what you need to serve in the way only you are designed to offer. Manifestation technique works best when your mind can easily focus on the thing you wish to create, while you allow your feelings to rise up in direct response to the thought of that thing, as if it already exists in your experience. With Mercury in Aquarius, we can think out of the box, and with him Trining the North Node, we can focus those thoughts very specifically toward the future. Add Venus in a retrograde near Pluto, and we can allow the depth of our emotional body to vibrate with those wishes. This is the perfect recipe for creating new possibilities for our lives, and this is the way we start the year off, so have at it!