This makes it important, in the first few days of 2009, that you put things in perspective, especially on the professional front.

You have reached a major crossroads, starting the year with not just the Sun in your career sector but Jupiter, Pluto, Mercury and Mars, the planets of luck, change, communication and of passion, drive and ambition as well. This is the luckiest, most driven and the most life changing line up of planetary forces ever to hit your career sector, where your competitive spirit and a drive to win and succeed, not just professionally but personally, is evoked.

Yet as powerful as this wave is, it’s acting very much like a real wave, washing ashore on a beach and then receding. For as huge as the professional and competitive forces that literally push you into 2009 are, they are going to quickly recede to a more manageable level, but also one that is sustainable. For while Jupiter, planet of luck, will leave your career sector on the 6th January, the Sun later in January and Mercury and Mars by February, Pluto is here for the long haul. It is what you began in 2008 and what is coming to a head at the start of 2009 that will continue to unfold for years to come. With Pluto in your career sector until November 2024, you've reached a professional era that spans out for the next 16 years. You have arrived!

With Saturn in your work sector until the end of October, 2009 this is without a doubt your biggest professional year ever and it began long before the 1st January 2009.

However that doesn’t mean that life is going to be all work and no play, for this is one year when you really can have your cake and eat it too.

Even though the year begins with the most powerful line up ever to assemble in your career sector, within hours things begin to diversify, like participants in a group photo who can stop posing, after the photo is taken, while the impact remains. With Pluto remaining committed to your career sector throughout the year and for the next 16 years this means there isn’t even a chance that you’ll lose your edge, so let this happen, for you would simply burn out if you continued with the kind of focus that you wake up with, on the 1st January.

On Day 1 of the New Year Mercury, planet of communication temporarily moves out of your career sector and into your sector of friendship, teamwork and networking, a very social part of your chart, just in time to catch Venus before she leaves. Here he joins forces with Neptune, Chiron and the North Node. This is the moment when a phenomena known as the ‘Tipping Point’ takes place, for while the professional forces in your career sector will continue to create opportunities throughout the year, this is the beginning of the end of their dominance.

Just 5 days later Jupiter, planet of luck follows, shifting the centre of gravity that determines where your luck lies and where the greatest area of expansion in your chart is in 2009, away from your professional and personal drives and ambitions, onto your personal life. It’s from this point on that things explode and what is destined to be one of your most fun, social, romantic and playful years, in a long time, really begins.

To start with this may feel like you're losing your edge, with a fear that if you lose your focus and give your personal life a lot more attention, that you'll lose everything you've worked for. That’s not going to happen and just like when you first took your trainer wheels of your bike as a child, you have to just do it. And in the same way that you fell off a few times then, you’ll do the same this time. You might miss a deadline or two or miss an opportunity, but it will help you find the centre of gravity you need, in order to find the right work/life balance, that is going to allow you to have your cake and eat it too.

The real point of no return is the 26th January, when a solar eclipse falls in your sector of friendship, teamwork and networking, cementing this new era. Falling at a time when the planets are one by one leaving your career sector, with only Pluto left from mid February, in a display of just how committed the stars are to the concept of having it all, this also gives you a professional advantage. That’s because this eclipsing New Moon is also the Chinese New Year, when the Year of the Ox begins. For Aries, the Year of the Ox is always an extremely good year for all career matters, giving you the focus and determination you need to last the distance. With Pluto continuing to push for change and to keep things moving in your career sector, this is a combination that will ensure that you retain your professional edge.

This is not at the expense of your social and personal life though, for the main thing to remember throughout 2009 is that you can have it all.

It is then that things really take off on the personal front. It’s from the 3rd February to the 6th June that Venus, planet of love and romance, spends an incredible 4 months in your sign, apart from a brief 12 day break in April. This sets the scene for what comes next, with your love life exploding with opportunity in October, when within the same month Mars, planet of passion and your ruling planet, begins an 8 month visit to your romantic sector and Saturn moves into your relationship sector, where he’ll stay for the next 2 years.

The 5 words you need to tell yourself from Day 1 and need to be your mantra for 2009 are –
I can have it all!

Business:
2009 begins with a line up of planets in your career sector that includes the Sun, Jupiter, Pluto, Mercury and Mars, the planets of luck, change, communication and passion. This is one of the most extreme advantages your professional situation has ever or will ever get again, creating a situation that as you stand at the start of 2009, you are standing on one of the highest professional points in a lifetime, one of those pinnacle moments when you have the ability to not just see, but to reach dreams and goals that are bigger and more audacious than anything that has come before or will come after. This is it, this is your moment. This is something you've been working towards since December 2007 when Jupiter first moved into your career sector, just 3 months after Saturn moved into your work sector, in September 2007. They are both still there as you move into the New Year, but by the end of the year they’ll be gone, having delivered you to this moment. Jupiter will leave in the first week of the year, having given you a push start that will keep things in motion all year and will give you the power to move mountains if you have to, to make things happen.

Love:
In the past you may have had to make sacrifices or trade offs, knowing that you can’t have it all. That’s not the case this year, for while you'll continue to grow professionally, there are major developments in your love life this year that are being supported by a real sense of synchronicity that hangs over the whole year. The first sign that this is no ordinary year, when it comes to love, appears in February when on the 3rd February Venus, planet of love, arrives for what is usually a 4 week Venus return, when you begin a brand new romantic cycle. However, 4 weeks is going to come and go and Venus will still be there, not leaving your sign until the 6th June. A start like this should be a clue that there is something extraordinary to follow. After some very romantic months in July and August, things move to a whole new level in October. It’s on the 17th October that Mars moves into your romantic sector and on the 30th October that Saturn moves into your relationship sector. It is then that Mars, planet of passion and your ruling planet begins an 8 month period of extreme romantic opportunities, just as you move into a major new relationship era.

Money:
While money is not a major theme in 2009, financial gains are going to be the natural consequence of the huge professional forces at work in your chart this year, both on the job and the career fronts. Expect to see the first signs of income movement in April, with some form of payback or second chance possible mid month, with new income opportunities developing towards the end of April. The middle months of the year are extremely good for all income matters, with June and July in particular likely to be very lucrative months, with both Venus and Mars, the planets of money and passion, in your income sector and working very closely as a team. It’s later in the year, in September and October, when Saturn is getting ready to leave your work sector, that there is another period of financial opportunity, however this is more likely to effect your financial situation as a whole, rather than your income, which has its main advantages around April/May and again in June and July. It is the time and energy you're investing in your professional game that is destined to bear fruit as the year progresses, but don’t let it get in the way to start with.