Upholding our standards and values, or implementing our Will with little fuss or need to bow to others? The first is a somewhat static position, but a stance we might need to take in order to think well of ourselves, while the latter could send us riding roughshod over the feelings and needs of those around us as we do do do. We can’t both display our standards and achieve, today; even worse, we may find ourselves having to choose between exercising our prerogatives (again, without answering to anyone else), or centering our actions and reactions in our sense of hurt or in a need to offer skills (with a further challenge of matching those skills to what’s needed around us–which we may not be able to do!)

The most effective course may lie in staying attuned to the reality picture, and doing what’s mentally healthy, however you might define that. It might mean eschewing experimentation or refusing to go out on a creative limb in favor of what you know to be the most solid reasoning, the most practical or sensible alternative, or the option least destructive to you, others, and the environment. It may feel like a sacrifice, this putting-on-of-the-brakes, but it’s actually time to re-align our thinking with what’s reasonable, with what’s meaningful in a real world sense, and for at least some of us this may seem tragically lacking in glamor. It is, and that’s the point: we need a solid, healthy base from which to take our flights of fancy, and today is a day that requires we either take steps to secure that base, or we take action, and the need for others or a secure position be damned.

(Perfecting today: Vesta sesq Juno, Chiron contra-parallel Ceres, Mars nov Chiron, Mercury trine Hygeia, Sun sxt Saturn)

Today’s word image is insomnia. What does not being able to sleep mean for you? Even if you’re not (yet) in a period of insomnia, it may be time to take steps to insure you don’t get into one–so try to do one or more of the things you find soothing, relaxing, that help you sleep when you need to. Current aspects suggest a certain subtle discord that some may respond to by being extra wakeful–but a little attention will likely prevent this from becoming a truly debilitating possibility.