Pluto stationed direct just before noon Pacific time on the 6th, but as always when he shifts apparent direction, he’s been squatting at this spot (24 CAP 18) for some time–and he’ll stay at that degree until the final day of November. We feel those stationary periods as times when it seems nothing will ever change in matters related to the stationing body, or those natal elements it touches; in the case of Pluto in Capricorn it may feel as if rotten institutions may never fall, that the destructive goes unchecked, that being resurrected, transformed, or re-born comes with a lot of rules (or that to rise again, we have to be willing to truly transform, particularly in the disciplines we apply to ourselves), that changes feel restricting rather than liberating, or conversely, that change brings understandable rules you’ve needed or longed for, that familiar structure is being altered, possibly through adhering to its own built-in constraints–you get the drift.

For a portion of this period (roughly October 9th through the 16th) Pluto direct-but-crawling will semi-sextile Jupiter in Aquarius as it slows and stations to go direct on the 18th. That may lend to Pluto a sense of Higher Mind understanding that exaggerates what we need to pay attention to–and exaggerates the it-will-never-end-ness of whatever Plutonian effect you’re undergoing. Just expect a sense of stuckness but look also for the light at the end of the tunnel–because that’s what Jupiter’s offering, an optimistic glimpse at opportunity, openings, or knowledge to come.

With Pluto and Jupiter we’re likely to experience their motion change as a lifting, a getting back, a resumption of more positive conditions, but with Saturn, which goes direct on the 11th, it’s a toss-up: we’re either in the camp that does well under Saturn direct but suddenly experiences obstacles and barriers when it retrogrades, or we find Saturn direct a barrier that’s only removed when the planet turns around. For that latter group, the way is clear during the retro period, while direction puts up walls and rules that weren’t there (or weren’t applicable) before. Happening as it is in Aquarius, Saturn’s direction is likely to involve Higher Mind, just as with Jupiter, or understanding, with these things either deepening our knowledge and so our ability to move forward constructively, or tossing obstacles in our path (and the rub is, we’ll understand why those obstacles have appeared, though it may be outside our control to affect them).

And then there’s Mercury, retro in Libra, turning around on the 18th at 10 LIB 09. What will we have learned (the retro was in an Air sign) by then? Something about our relationships, or ourselves within them, or about our values, what we want to invest in, or about what we’re willing to do, to be, in order to get what we want (a version of Love, as we see it). These revelations are useful, though if you haven’t been hit by lightning don’t be disappointed: Mercury works on the mind, and for its retro period it moves the mind out of the way. Especially for predominantly Air types, but true to some extent for everyone, the end of this Mercury retro can feel like you’re groggy, just waking up–but really, you’re just coming back into your mind, after having wallowed in feeling, the senses, and the unseen–and you come back changed, equipped in some way and with some understanding you didn’t have before. Now go out there and use what you’ve learned.