So Jupiter and Venus have been illuminated over the past week by the Sun–and what has it shown you? Happening in Gemini, this ideally brought insight on Love, finances, relationships, and what we value, and revealed never-before-thought-of opportunities and ideas for expansion and adventure. Sounds great, right? So why hasn’t everything been kittens and roses?

At the same time, the Sun has also been in dialogue with more challenging energies, making a sextile to a 29 degree Neptune and a trine to Pluto in Aquarius. These contacts may have created crises most notably in creative expression and in Truth-telling–that is, we’ve been pressured to account for our use of our own creative energy–and if we haven’t been productively channeling it (in Art, in personal expression of all kinds, in innovative and inventive ways), then almost certainly that energy has been pouring out as destructive and obstructionist expressions–and the worst part could be that the liar, the fabricator, the confabulist, the misleader may be themselves deceived, unsure, doing the best they can with distorted or deceptive information. We’re all trying to exert our Power, but our success requires a clarity of vision that may be difficult to grasp when sorting through so much that confuses and obscures, or when dealing with the Power expression attempts, well-meaning or not, of others.

Venus is just now leaving Jupiter’s influence, so it may be a kind of waking up, a turn to the practical in relationships and finances over the optimistic and expansive, a ‘bird in the hand’ mentality–and that may be just what we need, in preparation for the meeting of Mercury and Uranus in Taurus, a combo promising the sudden realization with rewarding or comforting repercussions. The one thing to be wary of, perhaps, is the way Mars and Chiron are so close, at present. That can make us feel that injury is inescapable, should we act, or even make a choice. But, this pairing is in Aries, with the way to beat that ‘it’s gonna hurt no matter what’ feeling by completely, thoroughly, willingly accepting responsibility for the Self. Doing so should make us hyper-aware of our obligations, our role in things–and hyper-aware that so much more is in our control than we typically realize, especially whether we will see ourselves as vulnerable, as victims, when our openness will show us we are capable of so much more than we usually think we can handle. That’s another element of Uranian surprise, that we are in charge, and inspired by our own ideals and dreams–and there’s no better way to be.