Starting 2023 Slow
We are now a week into the New Year, how’s it going? Have you set yourself some New Year's Resolutions? New Year, new me? 2023 goals? Or maybe everything I have just mentioned is setting your teeth on edge and making you feel guilty because you haven’t done it yet. Maybe you were ill over the festive period, so many people I have spoken to were ill, and you just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Well, not to worry!! Everything in your own time, not someone else's time frame!!
It can be so easy to get caught up in the collective push at the New Year. To set those health goals, to join the gym, or sign up for some membership that promises to change your life. But what if you just don’t feel like it?
The astrology for the start of this New Year is one supporting reflection, not action. And there are a few dates coming up that energetically might be better for setting those 2023 goals.
Until the 12th. Mars still appears to be travelling backwards. This is the planet of action, drive and determination. While moving backward, this results in people naturally feeling lower in energy and motivation. Your get up and go has got up and gone on holiday!! So if you haven’t had your usual levels of energy and enthusiasm, don’t worry, it’s not you and it will soon be over!! Once Mars starts to move forwards again we will feel the shift in the energy. We will start to pick up the pace. If you have taken the time to rest rather than pushing yourself, you will feel energised and ready to go.
We also have the trickster planet of Mercury speeding backwards. This is the quickest-moving planet and will appear to go backwards three or four times a year. During this time we are encouraged to review and reflect, to go back over things and see what we may have missed. This is currently happening in the ambitious sign of Capricorn. This is the sign that is all about goals and hard work, your career and what you want to be known for. During this period of reflection, it’s a good time to look back at your 2022 goals. How did they go? What did you do that helped you achieve them? And if you didn’t achieve them, why? What stopped you? What obstacles did you come up against? Did you learn anything last year that can help you this year?
We just had our first Full Moon of the year on Friday 6th. Full Moons are a time to celebrate all that you have achieved and to also let go of the things that you no longer need. If we look deeper into this Full Moon then we find that the planets at play were encouraging us to look at our goals and the projects we have started, and to decide which ones we still feel excited about. It could have been a time for you when old ideas came back up.
All of this fits together to encourage and support us in having a slow start to the New Year. For taking that extra time to think about what it is that we really want. To clear from our lives and our heads, all those outdated ideas, goals and projects that we just don’t care about anymore. Priorities change and it’s okay to change your mind. If something feels like a struggle and you have to force yourself to do it then ask yourself if this is something that you really really want or something that you used to want or that you were led to believe you should want.
So after all this reflection, when is a good time to set those 2023 goals and to start taking action?
We have the New Moon on the 21st. New Moons symbolise new beginnings, they are the start of a new lunar cycle and are the ideal time for setting goals and intentions. Every New Moon is a chance to start again, to try again, to recommit to our goals and intentions. This New Moon also happens to be falling in the rebellious sign of Aquarius. This is the sign that likes to be different, to stand out from the crowd and to do things their way. This will be the New Moon to look at the person that you want to become. What are the things that are standing in your way, what are the outdated ideas and beliefs that you hold that are keeping you where you are?
This New Moon also happens to be the New Moon that will start the Chinese New Year on the 22nd. This will be the start of the Year of the Water Rabbit, which is said to be the luckiest of the 12 zodiac animals and symbolising mercy, beauty and kindness.
If you do decide to spend this time thinking about your goals for the year and waiting until the New Moon and Chinese New Year to actually set them, then you will also have the support of the planet Uranus which will start its forward movement late on the 22nd. This will give us the opportunity to take big and bold action on those ideas and intentions that we have spent all this time thinking about.
At the end of the day, you need to do what feels good to you. Just know that if you do feel “behind” or that your year is starting slow, there is nothing wrong with you. You are just more in tune with the energies of the universe than you maybe thought you were!!
Personally, I will be waiting until the New Moon to set my goals for the year. I have an idea about what they will be, but I fully intend to start my year slow!!
If you would like help to set your 2023 goals then book a Moon Reading with me and we can talk about what it is that YOU want and then map out your goals for the year using the Moon and your unique birth chart as a guide!!
