nature's zodiac

New Year’s Day

New Year’s Day arrives crisp and clear. The dawn’s light illuminated more detail on the mountains than usual. It is more often a blurry blue, distant sweep of vastness. But today it is texturized, graspable in its magnitude, and patterned with shadows and reflective light on snow. A faint sound became audible—tap tap tap… It was the sound of a woodpecker. This was the first woodpecker I had noticed since the summertime. I felt an instant kinship with this bird because I woke up with a sense of, “Get up and get to work! Mercury just went into ambitious Capricorn, and it’s a brand new year!”

This waking invitation to ‘get to work’ felt nourishing, not nagging. I felt a grasp of the sun’s power as it grew in strength.

The sun sustains all life through its low entropy, which is to say, its order. Sunlight is the primary source of life-sustaining energy on Earth, providing the photons necessary for the planet’s most fundamental biological and physical processes. These photons are not just “light” but are low-entropy energy carriers that drive the complex machinery of life

A sense of purpose serves a similar function. It allows a person to generate well-ordered light from within, which allows life to flourish, not just plod on.

The clear mountains brought to mind the benefits of a clear goal. The woodpeckers’ taps instilled in me a kindred connection to their work ethic on this brilliant new morning. Gaston Bachelard writes in The Poetics of Space (1958) about the woodpecker, stating, “We think of him not when he sings, but when he works.”

Just last night Mercury was in the deepest degrees of Sagittarius—a sign of stretch and zest. A chatty Gemini near-full moon (imagine double Gemini Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen giggling up a storm at Times Square) enhanced Mercury’s position last night.

But today, perception is reborn with focus. The quiet sound of the woodpecker replaces the noise of the evening. The array of party lights is replaced by the crystal clear light of the dawn on the mountains, offering a rare grasp of distance and real goals.

The clear mountainscape is not just a symbol; it is beautiful in its own right. This is especially true when one allows themselves to perceive beauty. Goals are not just ideas; they are tied to your body through the joy of beauty.

Unsure how to connect with your goal? Ask yourself: What is undeniably beautiful and worth advancing toward? Let it be like chocolate behind the glass that a child gazes at. Allow it to genuinely attract you, similar to how cartoon aromas lift a cat into a hypnotic “swim” through the air.

Venus and Mars, the romantic pair, are conjunct our newborn sun, inviting some passion into these goals by allowing beauty to enliven us and direct us best towards our sources of order. We are drawn towards genuine objectives, genuine guidance, and genuine connections.

Happy New Year! And happy nature pondering.

Featured Art: Ivory-billed Woodpeckers Joseph Bartholomew Kidd American, After John James Audubon American, born Haiti circa. 1830–31