2017: A year of change, innovation, and persistence
As is often the case, this year's January 1st horoscope contains both good and bad alignments. However, the bad alignments look quite difficult and suggest some challenges ahead. The first thing that catches my eye is that Mercury is retrograde and is under the close aspect of Rahu (North Lunar Node). Taken literally, this symbolizes change (Rahu) in thinking (Mercury). The impetus towards social change that began in 2016 is therefore likely to continue in 2017, albeit in a different form.
Whereas the Rahu-Moon represented a change and disruption in mood, the Rahu-Mercury aspect could signify a change in thinking and rationality. Rahu is all about erasing boundaries -- between tradition and innovation but also between logic and irrationality. It's very much a two-edged sword in that respect. Mercury represents thinking and rational thought so the Rahu influence here may undermine conventional logic. And just when we thought that much of the world was already crazy! Well, maybe we will see what a "post-truth" society looks like in practice this year.
The Rahu-Mercury aspect also echoes last year's affliction of Mercury and suggests that cyber security will again be front and center in 2017. Rahu typically has a distorting effect on the planets its aspects and since Mercury symbolizes communication, trade, and transport there is a heightened risk of hacking, computer/power outages, and disruption of normal everyday activities. These disruptions are likely to be significant and hence more newsworthy.
But more generally, it could symbolize simply new ways of communicating as they supplant old forms of media and self-expression. In that sense, each planet also has a positive side and that is no less true with malefic Rahu. Rahu-Mercury aspects should translate to more important technological breakthroughs as Rahu governs research and breaking the boundaries of conventional wisdom.
Technological innovation is also boosted by the close Jupiter-Uranus aspect since Uranus has some association with new technology. The close alignment of Saturn with these planets suggests that this technological innovation may have tangible, practical uses very quickly. Saturn emphasizes the notion of the practical and the everyday and its connection here may mean things like driverless cars, travel to Mars or virtual reality take big steps closer to becoming commercially viable.
A more troubling placement in the chart is the Mars-Neptune-Ketu conjunction in the 6th house. This is a bad one. The Mars-Neptune conjunction is exact and its also almost exactly on the equal 6th house cusp of protection, conflict and health. Not exactly cheery stuff. Mars (conflict, harm, aggression) is usually a negative influence and its conjunction with Neptune could be seen as suffering as a result of water/liquids (floods), sickness (epidemics) or poison (e.g. chemicals, drugs, toxins).
It doesn't take much imagination to dream up some scary scenarios with this planetary combination. The presence of Ketu (South Node) here only makes it worse unfortunately. Ketu suggests sudden developments that have out-of-control impacts. The good news is that Saturn is not aligned with these planets so perhaps the actual damage and hardship may be fairly limited. But the alignment is sufficiently prominent that it could be the big story of 2017.
The economy may struggle to keep its head above water. There are no strong influences here although there are some negatives that will likely cast the deciding vote. The Rahu influence on Mercury is somewhat negative since Mercury is partially associated with commerce and trade. So that is a mild negative. But Venus represents value and money and it is in fairly good shape in the 6th house. It's in a wide conjunction with Ketu (South Lunar Node) which is also somewhat negative, but it's not really close.
Basically, I don't foresee the g
