The Full Moon took place in Cancer. The Sun was at the midpoint of Venus and Saturn. The Sun in Capricorn was in conjunction with Pluto and 55576 Amycus. Venus continues to retrograde in Capricorn. Mercury stationed retrograde on Jan. 14 in Aquarius.

Centaur 55576 Amycus enters Aquarius in 2023. Amycus was discovered in 2002 and it is named after one of the centaurs in Greek mythology. The centaurs are best known for the battle between the Lapiths and the centaurs during the wedding of the king of the Lapiths, Pirithous. The drunken centaurs lost their control, and one of them tried to rape the bride. Pirithus’s friend killed him, and Amycus was then responsible for the first death of one of the Lapiths. Amycus also lost his life and the centaurs had to flee from Thessaly.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said: “We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.” We choose our actions, and our choices have consequences, and not just for ourselves. The following people have not been afraid to take a stand, speak, or act on their beliefs.

Irena Sendler (Feb. 15, 1910 – May 12, 2008) was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in Warsaw. She participated, with dozens of others, in smuggling Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then providing them with false identity documents and shelter with willing Polish families or in orphanages, saving those children from the Holocaust. The number of Jewish children saved through Sendler’s efforts is not known, but she claimed that she had saved 2,500 children. – Amycus conjunct the Sun and Venus in Aquarius, semisextile (30º) Eris in Pisces, and trine Pluto in Gemini.

“Heroes do extraordinary things. What I did was not an extraordinary thing. It was normal.”

Desmond Tutu (Oct. 7, 1931 – Dec. 26, 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, and anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was a friend of Nelson Mandela and committed to non-violent activism. The African Ubuntu philosophy that recognizes the humanity of a person through a person’s relationship with other persons is best known through the writings of Desmond Tutu. Ubuntu defines what it means to be truly human. – Amycus at the Aries Point conjunct Eris in Aries, opposite Mercury in Libra, sesquiquadrate (135º) Jupiter in Leo, and sesquiquadrate (135º) Mars-Ceres conjunction in Scorpio. The Aries Point joins individuals with the collective.

“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”

Gloria Steinem (born March 25, 1934), “The Mother of Feminism”, is an American journalist and social political activist who became recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. – Amycus conjunct the Sun, Mars and Eris in Aries.

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

Michael Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American documentary filmmaker, author, and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. – Amycus conjunct the Sun in Taurus, and trine the Moon-Mars conjunction in Capricorn.

“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

Alexei Navalny (born June 4, 1976) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist. In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalized in serious condition after he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He was recovering in Berlin, returned to Russia in January 2021 and was immediately arrested at the Moscow airport. He is recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. In October 2021, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights. – Amycus conjunct the Sun and Venus in Gemini, sextile Eris in Aries, and opposite Neptune in Sagittarius.

“I am not ready to back away from my views.”

Edward Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy. In 2020 a U.S. federal court ruled that the U.S. intelligence’s mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. Snowden was granted permanent residence in Russia in 2020. – Amycus in early Cancer conjunct the Sun in the last degree of Gemini, and quincunx Jupiter in Sagittarius; the Sun-Amycus conjunction is square the Aries Point.

“My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”

Greta Thunberg (born Jan. 3, 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. In August 2018, at age 15, she started protesting outside the Swedish Parliament. Soon other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together they organized a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. – Amycus in Libra opposite Eris in Aries, sextile Jupiter in Leo, and sextile Pluto in Sagittarius. Amycus is involved in a kite configuration. Eris, Jupiter and Pluto form a Grand trine in fire. The Eris-Amycus opposition forms the spine of the kite and Amycus is the apex of it.

“It will take a far-reaching vision, it will take courage, it will take fierce, fierce determination to act now, to lay the foundations where we may not know all the details about how to shape the ceiling.”

The New Moon at 12+ degrees of Capricorn takes place at the midpoint of Mars and Saturn. Mars in Sagittarius is sextile Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, in Aquarius. The New Moon is in conjunction with asteroid Tantalus at 13+ Capricorn, exactly at the midpoint.

2102 Tantalus is a small near-Earth asteroid, discovered in December 1975 by Charles T. Kowal, the same astronomer who two years later discovered centaur Chiron.

Tantalus is a Greek mythological figure, famous for his punishment in Tartarus, the deep abyss where souls were judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment. Tantalus was invited to dine at the table of the gods in Olympus, but he abused Zeus’s hospitality and stole ambrosia and nectar to bring it back to his people, and revealed the secrets of the gods. He was condemned to spend eternity tortured in Tartarus. He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any.

The New Moon emphasizes the need for endurance. According to astrologer Martha Lang-Wescott, asteroid Tantalus can signify times when what is wanted is just out of reach or feeling as though one is tested. This can be frustrating, but willingness to work hard awhile will help.