JANUARY 4-6: ARIES MOON - MERCURY TURNING

MOON ENTERS ARIES at 11:04am on Wednesday January 4 and remains here until January 6 at 1:41pm. LAST ASPECT OF MOON: Moon Trine Mercury in Sagittarius. Ruled by Mars, the Warrior Archetype goes into action now. The first sign of the zodiac, the Cardinal Fire sign, is the symbol of the spark that is the Creator. We should have the energy, will, inspiration and passion to accomplish a lot now. Just remember not to let Aries' pitfalls of willfulness, impulsiveness or anger undermine you. With both Aries and Sag in play, there's a lot of igniting going on here! Slow down, take a breath and think before you act or speak. We could have a war of wills now. Something that may have been said in the past may return to haunt you now. Or there could just be some acts of passion with successful, if delayed, results. Don't forget that Mercury is still Retrograde. January 5th begins the 3-day period before it turns Direct on the 8th. This is the trickiest time of its transition to forward movement - and by trickiest, I mean strongest, most likely to confuse, get wrong, break down, not work out. So check and double check your information, schedules, and mechanical equipment including vehicles. This would be an Excellent Moon period if not for this Mercury condition. All things considered, let's call it GOOD for immediate smaller-impact projects while it's best to not get tempted into high gear for important actions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdOF7xg5lug&t=2s

SCENE FOR THE DAY: The Birds, 1963. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. When one imagines a dramatic result from igniting a match, it's hard not to think of this classic scene from The Birds. The well-intended warning screams from several witnesses cannot be understood (retro Mercury). The final explosions call the birds, who are the real adversaries, into action. I use this scene in film class to demonstrate not only how to construct the narrative through montage editing (we never see a master shot including both the people in the restaurant and the gas station scene, only separate shots of each location edited together; we infer that the people are looking at the gas station) but also how mise-en-scene (composition of the frame) can add visual tension to the scene. Notice how the separate cuts to Tippi Hedren's character looks left, center and right as we intercut shots of her with the fire, and notice how the fire travels left on screen while she looks progressively right. Kinda cool...