a very good year with just the right amount of challenges to keep you on your toes. When you have everything going your way you can get bored and often you find yourself in a situation where you create challenges where there are none, just because we need some kind of challenge to keep us motivated. The key is to have just enough and right kind of challenge to keep you motivated, but not enough to overwhelm you and 2009 has found that balance.

Your home and family sector, that was so dominant in 2008, continues to dominate this year and especially at the beginning. As you move into 2009 the Sun, Jupiter, Pluto, Mercury and Mars, the planets of luck, change, communication and passion are all in your home and family sector, the area of your chart that rules your home, family, lifestyle and property situation. By mid February all the planets except Pluto will have left, with the planet of change staying on to ensure that things continue to move forward.

Within the first week of the year things begin to change and they start to change from Day 1, when on the 1st January Mercury, planet of communication, moves into your romantic and creative sector. Here he finds himself in very impressive company with Venus, planet of love, already here along with Neptune, Chiron and the North Node. It is here that both you and Mercury have a date with destiny, for on the 6th January, just 5 days after Mercury arrived Jupiter, planet of luck, moves into your romantic and creative sector.

This begins what is destined to be one of the luckiest years on record when it comes to love, romance and your creative passions, anything in fact that comes from the heart. This is something you've been working towards for over a decade now, ever since Neptune, planet of dreams and fantasies moved into your romantic sector in January 1998 and where he’s been inspiring your imagination and your romantic fantasies ever since. During that time there have been ups and downs and challenges, but your heart has stayed on track. Then in 2005 Chiron, planet of healing arrived, giving you the opportunity to heal any old wounds and slowly prepare your heart for the good things ahead. That happened just when your romantic sector was coming under opposition so he had his job cut out. Then in December 2007 the North Node moved here, giving your heart a sense of direction.

So by the time Jupiter arrives on the 6th January, you and the stars have been preparing for this moment for a long time, ensuring that from Day 1 you hit the ground running. In fact, so confident is Venus, planet of love that things are going well, that she leaves your romantic sector 2 days before Jupiter arrives, her job of filling your heart with romantic desires done. Now it’s a case of fate, destiny and timing coming together to make things happen.

Your home and family sector and your romantic and creative sector will continue to dominate your chart for the rest of the year, but they are not the only games in town. When Venus leaves your romantic and creative sector on the 4th January she moves into your work, employment and health sector, where there were some challenges last year, due to Uranus’ opposition with Saturn. Venus will spend extra time here and in April will return for a double dip visit, just to check that you're on track, but her main mission is to reach your relationship sector, which she does on the 3rd February.

In a year that is without a doubt your luckiest romantic year on record, it is especially auspicious that Venus will spend nearly 4 months in your relationship sector, from the 3rd February to the 6th June, except for 12 days in April, from the 12th to the 24th April she’ll return briefly to your work sector. This makes this an even more important year for love, taking an already lucky year for love and throwing in the ability to create some very special relationship opportunities.

The other main force at work in your chart this year is Saturn and there may be some challenges around this, especially if you're trying to hold on to the past or aspects of the past that you need to let go. You're coming to the end of a major Saturn cycle that began nearly 3 decades ago and will end when Saturn returns to your sign, on the 30th October. It is then that you’ll begin a brand new Saturn cycle of growth, but until then it’s time to close some old doors, learn as much from the past as possible and prepare to move on. Saturn turns retrograde on the 1st January and doesn’t turn direct again until mid May, so this gives you a real chance to take a trip down memory lane. This will be no tourist’s excursion though, with Saturn expecting you to do some hard work.

Work:
You're not going to get very far into the year before you realise that the challenges of last year are either no longer there or that they have transformed into opportunities. Venus, planet of desire and attraction and your ruling planet sets the scene very early in the year, when she moves into your work sector on the 4th January. It’s then that she joins forces with Uranus, the planet who received so much pressure from Saturn last year. With Uranus anxious to make up for lost time and to get things moving and Venus bringing a sense of desire and triggering the laws of attraction, they’re a match made in heaven. This opens the door to a period of work opportunity that stretches all the way out to the end of April. It’s mid year that the focus switches to your career sector and to your professional game in general, while Uranus will remain in your work sector all year, to keep things moving. It’s in June that the Sun moves into your career sector and over the course of the next 4 months will be followed by Mercury, Mars and Venus, all doing their part to open new doors and put your professional goals and ambitions on the right track. It is the nearly 2 months that Mars spends in your career sector, from the 26th August to the 17th October, that are destined to be the biggest professional months of the year.

Love:
To say that 2009 is a big year for love doesn’t do the year justice, for this is one of the biggest years ever. Things began building in your romantic sector long before Jupiter, planet of luck, arrives on the 6th January, making this an extremely lucky year for love. In fact forces have been building here since 1998 when Neptune, planet of dreams and fantasies first moved into your romantic sector. For over a decade your romantic desires, dreams and fantasies have been building, but it’s only been over the last few years that you've been able to achieve a lot of healing and again a real sense of romantic direction. It is when Jupiter joins forces with Neptune, on the 6th January that everything comes together, with the planets of luck and fantasy working together to turn romantic dreams into reality, in a way that hasn’t happened before, in your lifetime. Lucky romantic stars will dominate the whole year, but they are particularly strong at the start of the year, giving you the push start you need in order to dare to follow your heart. Over the course of the first few months of the year your chart is almost overwhelmed with romantic forces and it’s within that time that relationship opportunities also start to develop. Normally these don’t coincide, moving from one to the next, but in the first half of the year, romantic and relationship opportunities are going hand in hand. This really is your lucky year for love.

Money:
While there are no major factors at work in either of your money houses this year, there are no challenges either, giving you a chance to take a slow but steady approach to your money game. In the first half of the year, especially between April and mid July, the focus is on your financial situation as a whole, when during that period the Sun, Venus, Mercury and Mars will all move through your financial sector. This gives you a chance to get things on track, ahead of some very good professional and financial opportunities in the second half of the year. It’s in October, when Mars is wrapping up his nearly 2 month transit through your career sector, that the income opportunities for the year finally kick in, beginning with the Sun’s arrival into your income sector on the 23rd October. It is between then and early December that the Sun, Mercury and Venus will all do their part in ensuring that you’re able to gain as much financial mileage as you can, from the professional opportunities that Mars has been creating. None of the financial themes in your chart this year are beyond the norm, so there is no pressure.