The Moon is in Cancer today, just over a day from entering the Dark period, and as time passes we may find the emotional life front-and-center. Luna will move to conjoin first Jupiter and then Venus over the coming day+, and our awareness grows around the ‘caring component’–that is, we’ll keenly observe what moves the social order and our own relationships. We’ll notice what they invest in, what they value, what they are willing to pay for, sacrifice, or support–and we’ll have our emotional reactions to this. We may think our responses arise out of approval or outrage, but they’ll actually have origins in our own ideas of what kind of opportunities they might bring for us personally. We’re hoping for Love and reward, of course, but if we’re too eager to gain (if we leap at the chance without looking at all the circumstances) we could suffer a loss that will deliver a bigger emotional impact than we might expect. It’s a day to keep our heads even as we scan the horizon for our chance to bring good things our way. With Jupiter involved in a Water Grand Trine with the Black Moon Lilith point and the North Node, being honest with ourselves and keeping one eye on the future are the ways to measure those potential opportunities, and assess them for what they really are, and what they really offer.
Please see yesterday’s post for other influences still in effect.
Today’s Daily Word Image is making a ‘clean sweep’. Is there some part of your life that needs a fresh start, one where you know a refresh is needed, where you can also be sure that you won’t be sweeping away anything still important or useful? We all have an area or three that we know holds only the outmoded or the useless, at least to us; what we need to ask, just before we take up that broom, is why we held on so long. There might be something in that answer to help us move forward in other ways, as well.
‘Cupping the Bees’ By George Mulready c1830 {{PD}}
I think for a while I’m going to offer very short daily commentary on current astro conditions. That does mean no long New and Full Moon analyses to chew on–just a little once-a-day nectar to sip.Seems like time to change it up.
Three situations stand out to me today, and all of them have that sting of facing someone or something and catching a glimpse of ourselves in the encounter/ experience. Venus is just out of maximum range of Jupiter, so that’s not going to save us; instead, it removes emotion (Cancer) and the unspoken hope of reward and puts them where they belong, out in the open and at the forefront of our thinking (Moon in Gemini). Refusing to keep secrets from ourselves is the way to avoid conflict and any nasty surprises. The Sun Fire trine to Chiron over the coming few days says it’s easy to feel hurt, and easy to wound others through our actions–so the question becomes, how much responsibility do we bear for others’ responses?
Two oppositions describe the kinds of issues we may be faced with: Mercury in Leo opposed Pluto in Aquarius, the latter of which is trine Uranus in Gemini=ego based or Self-glorifying thinking will definitely draw out those who want to bring us down a peg or maybe even wipe us out–that’s where the shocks and surprises originate, especially as we may see our own insistence on flexing our muscles in those who oppose us–if you get that kind of reaction to Self-assertion, it might be time to check yourself for hidden motives and the taint of vanity. Honest and sincere motivations (those not focused on Self-promotion or the ‘humble brag’) can put you ahead of the crowd, lead to inspired and innovative ideas, and foster Higher Mind understanding. There’s also a loose Air Grand Trine (Mars, Pluto, Uranus) that features a still-barely-there opposition of Mars to Saturn-Neptune across the Libra-Aries axis. This suggests that power and innovation balances can be thrown off by actions and choices that don’t take into account the gap between reality and what we want it to be, and the gap between the possible and the delusional. Framing issues as ‘Us vs. Them’ doesn’t lead to answers, or harmony. Staying grounded in the real and its potentials to manifest the ideal should be a priority today, as that will help us avoid 99% of possible missteps.
Today’s word image is a bee. Are you busy as one, and if so, how does that make you feel? Like a Queen, calling the shots, like a worker plugging away and forever putting off fulfillment (or even simple enjoyment) into the future, or like a drone, desperate to take things off automatic?
By ‘us’ I mean each of us, individually, as the upcoming Mercury retrograde is contained entirely within Leo, focusing our thoughts, concerns, communications, judgments, conclusions, and revelations, whether we want them to or not, firmly on ourselves and our roles, socially, with our families, and within the greater scheme of the Cosmos. Leo intends to show whatever passes through it how to ‘shine’, but that useful reveal could be thwarted by our own reluctance to appear selfish, out of fear if we take our eye off our duties we might fail our relationships or those who rely on us, or from simple modesty–it’s not uncommon to want to inspect ourselves and our Soul’s work privately, and the Leo spotlight may feel not just too revealing, but as if we’re seeking attention–but you need to know, that’s not what’s happening, at all.
Personal enlightenment is one goal during this retro cycle, while gaining a better understanding of ourselves within the current parameters of our lives is another. One mistake easily made is to believe during the cycle we’ll sufficiently understand what we learn and what it means, that we can immediately charge forward (which is something, of course, that saucy Fire sign Leo will encourage us to do). We’ll need both processing time and the perspective that automatically comes when we are a step or two past the retro season. For instance, just as Merc retrogrades it’ll sextile Venus in Gemini–which almost certainly will persuade us we know and understand the ‘lay of the land’ in terms of both relationships and asset earning and usage; we may quite literally believe ‘we know what we think’ (Gemini). The problem is that, just as our capacity to handle things with the mind is withdrawn, we’ll get the impression that we’ve hit on what we need to know about Venusian matters; that’s when we’ve got to remember that feeling, sensation, intuition, sentiment, Love are how we gather knowledge during Merc retro–all else is misinterpreted or incomplete, lacking a full picture, or crucial details, of situations or events.
The moment of retrograde comes on the 18th at 9:45 AM PDT at 15 Leo 34, during a last quarter Moon on its way to the Dark period, suggesting a kind of ‘winding down’, energetically speaking. Merc will turn around sesquiquadrate Saturn, which will go retrograde itself just 5 days before; this suggests that understanding what’s concrete or solid, and what a barrier, rule, or prohibition actually means, may be a significant challenge during this period. Rules may not be clear, and the smartest option may, consistently, be to wait for direction to make a choice, decide, or to inspect circumstances again in a new light. At the time Neptune, which retros on the 4th, will still be conjoined Saturn; use the influence to make dreams a reality, and to give the imagined goal physical form, rather than succumbing to misleading or confusing detritus that only clouds the picture.
And, in less than a day, the Moon in Taurus will move into position to create a brief T-square with Mercury and the Black Moon Lilith point in Scorpio. This may bring feelings and intuitions about stability, security, and resources to the fore, and encourage us to believe this is the whole picture; not only will we be missing the details, we may also be ignoring those things we find less than positive, those things that threaten to destroy our emotional or mental balance, or which through neglect or refusal to acknowledge we have buried like a ticking time bomb somewhere out of sight.
The 29th retro Merc will semi-sextile Jupiter in Cancer, bringing enormous optimism into play. Remember, using the intuition and feeling nature at this time is the way to gain information, with the caveat being that we may accept that as the whole picture–which it definitely is not. This may feel like a high, and could urge us to put things in motion too soon–and the feeling carries over to the Inferior Conjunction, where it just might take on an exaggerated sense of urgency.
The Inferior Conjunction, the meeting of the Sun and Mercury during Mercury’s apparent retrograde phase, occurs on 1 August at 9 Leo. Within the past week both bodies will have opposed Pluto in Aquarius, suggesting interludes of despair, the threat of obliteration, an awareness of mortality or the inevitability of change, or realization of the power to transform–so it’s not like we’re hitting the Conjunction free of shadows, fears, or insecure in some way. With this as background, the Inferior point could see us vowing to overcome, to meet the challenge, or to give up and release ourselves to the flow of events.
For once this Conjunction doesn’t really serve us taking a new perspective or beginning anew; we’d do better to tell ourselves there’s no need to start over, that all that has happened was necessary to deliver us to our current position. Reminding ourselves of the eternal nature of the Soul (Leo) is needed–and if that’s not true, if instead we wink out of existence when it’s all over, that should be in its own way reassuring as well, because in either case, there’s nothing to fear.
Mercury’s direction occurs on 11 August at 4 Leo 14, and there’s an unusual amount of harmony among bodies, even as some of these combos are potent and possibly a little threatening. Mercury turns around at the rough midpoint of the Mars-Uranus trine, is opposed Pluto, and is trine the still extant Neptune-Saturn conjunction–and of course all these other entities make their own contacts to one another, as well. This forms a Mystic Rectangle among Mercury, Mars, Pluto, and Saturn-Neptune. Mystic Rectangles allow the four or more involved energies to function in a way that makes for a larger positive whole than we could’ve assembled from the pieces singly. In this case, we should expect the Truth, how to apply this to what we think and what we do, making areas to transform clear and the path to implement the dream obvious. The one energy left out of this equation, but which still contacts Mercury, is the sextile to Uranus–so the fact of surprise, revelation, innovation, or unexpected upheaval may be the trigger that sets off fate-shaping events.
Don’t expect it all to be revealed at once, despite the big impact the direction might deliver. The Pisces Moon passes over its own North Nodal point on that day, suggesting we become aware of our life direction in a big, Universal way, as Luna heads toward the upcoming eclipses of September. Don’t expect to enter autumn without having undergone a summer of change, and a reinvigorating of, and reinvestment in, your life.
Your Word Image for this week: ‘Mistaken Identity’
‘Three Women on a Hilltop’ By Charles Courtney Curran {{PD}}
The longest day of the year deserves our attention, not least because at the Solstice point, 7:42 PM PDT, the Moon has just entered Taurus and is still sextile the 29 degree Sun, with Uranus caught at the 29 degree Taurus midpoint. It’s a portrait of emotional rawness, of extreme shock, surprise, stunning revelation, or higher mind understanding illuminated–and it may present in the actual physical atmosphere or with circumstances related to our comfort or security (Taurus), and hints at large themes we’ll deal with for the entire summer.
There’s a Finger of God in place that may point out at least part of what’s coming: Pluto sextile Saturn-Neptune as the base, apex Mars=big, transformative (and possibly unwelcome or unwilling) change to the real-world picture, to established methods, structures, rules, and to the things we do or, crucially, don’t see clearly–or change to the ways we’ve so far implemented our dreams and incorporated or manifested them within our reality. The formula is something like Time plus the Powers-That-Be acting on our world, either bringing it closer to the ideal or dragging it farther away by exposing what had been obscured before. So, we find out the Truth, but we might not be happy about it–and from there we make our choices and take action.
Jupiter in Cancer is conjoined the Sun and sextile, to either side, Mars in Virgo and the Moon new in Taurus. In this Solstice snapshot that places Jupiter-Sun at the rough midpoint of Luna and Mars=feelings drive both actions and perceptions of identity and place within the social arena; we care more about how society perceives us when Jupiter is in Cancer, and we want to do something about it, and what we care about expands, as well. Who we are and how we’re perceived seems to matter so much more, right now; just remember, with everyone feeling that way, we can’t possibly be under as much scrutiny as we think we are. Living up to our own standards is the most important thing–and know that anyone who tries to make you feel badly about yourself is likely suffering deeply (and behaving insufferably, natch) themselves. It has, literally, nothing to do with you.
This also means that Saturn-Neptune sextile Uranus catches the Moon at their midpoint=emotional perceptions will definitely be filtered through our reaction to the Uranian unanticipated–and to what this shows us about our manifestation so far of the dream or ideal. How close have we come to what we really wanted? And how does the Uranian revelation change our perceptions of, and our feelings about, that dream? All good questions, that it will likely take the whole summer (or winter, for our Southern Hemisphere friends) to answer.
Note too that Mercury is trine the North Node=thinking, planning, communicating are shaping the life direction/ future right now. That means awareness of the power of your words and thoughts is paramount to knowing consciously just exactly what you’re creating/ drawing to yourself in the moment. It’s no time to sling words, insults, or criticisms casually–all will have an oversized effect on tomorrow.
‘Beauty of the Season: Spring’ Hanging scroll by Fujiwara Chikanobu 18th century {{PD}}
Hi All! I’m stepping away from the computer for a short while, but will be back with the New Moon post. I won’t be answering emails or processing orders or sales through Dog & Sunflower–it’s a bit of a detox, for me–but will be back up and running next week. With Mercury conjoined Neptune, and Venus and Saturn conjoined the North Node, we can be inspired to plan for an abundant future, make dreams into realities, and as well appreciate everything we already have. The ideal is apparent–all we have to do is reach for it, but with the caveat that the unscrupulous may try to obscure the facts or mislead. So, eyes wide open. Have a great week/ weekend!
I know that sounds dramatic, but the confluence of energies on the day is exceptional, despite the way many of the contacts are in place well before, and for some time after, that day; the difference is in the Moon, in Virgo, as it passes over the South Node point, highlighting what’s going on, and potentially bringing the emotional realities behind the other aspects to awareness. It’s likely a deja vu, an ‘All this has happened before, and all this will happen again’ revelation, one that perhaps pulls past events into the present, making clear the emotional impact they’re delivering in the moment. Think in terms of accuratelyseeing the origins of things, and the consequences our handling of them bring forward now.
With Moon in Virgo the impulse is to be critical, to dissect and fact-find and, unfortunately, edit; if we succumb to the urge to trim, and so in effect deny, the facts, we deprive ourselves of the full picture. Use that Virgo energy to catalogue, instead: allow the perceptions to see things that don’t neatly fit into a preconceived picture, accepting the contradictory, the inconvenient truth, the messy reality. Remind yourself that the job here isn’t to complete the puzzle or draw sweeping conclusions, it’s to be as aware as possible of all the factors in play and to accept as reality the genuine state of things.
Within less than six degrees we see five bodies/ significant points: Venus retro, Saturn, the North Node, Mercury, all in late Pisces, and Neptune at 00 Aries. This massive line-up tests our ability to see reality, as well as to respond creatively and, at the same time, take responsibility for our choices. These lie opposed the Moon and South Node, pitting our revelations about the past and its (emotional, if not literal) connection to the present against our re-visit of our talents, assets, and aesthetics, the nuts-and-bolts reality picture, things and particularly our thinking that have been restricting us or holding us back from pursuing our intended life direction, and what we imagine we can do–versus what we actually are capable of doing.
Our minds, still sluggish after the recent Mercury direction, are groping around, trying to identify what we think, what our standards are.We’ve been myopic, trying to discern not just our place in the scheme of things, but our own best use of our time and talents, and how to implement our goals that make the most of who we are–and Luna in Virgo brushes up against the South Node and fairly shouts at us: it’s your feelings about the past that are holding everything back!
That big Pisces/ Aries line-up is also trine Mars in Cancer–there’s another clue, a reiteration–that the only way to get moving is to sort out the feelings, and sextile Uranus in Taurus, implying that either the material or asset situation, or our feelings around comfort and its lack, will surprise us, perhaps delivering unexpected insight.
Now Neptune, at 00 Aries, has its own little dialogue going, with a quincunx to the Black Moon Lilith point in Scorpio and a sextile to Pluto in Aquarius, which makes BML square Pluto=this applies to us trying to pinpoint how we can muster creativity to express the ‘I Am’, influenced by those factors we ignore or deny (and which are now being dredged up–Scorpio) and spurring intense, permanent change, the kind that ushers in a ‘New Age’ (Aquarius), one that we may be acquainted with intellectually but in which we may lack hands on experience or understanding (the 00 degree). That means our discretion and judgment may be clouded by what we’ve been avoiding or even can’t know about—so again, facing all components, and admitting exactly how we feel (once we discover it!) will be the only way to shape and control what happens. Otherwise we invite big change that we didn’t necessarily want, and which will seem to come out of the blue–but of course, it won’t, we’ll only think that if we are in denial, or haven’t yet sorted through the feelings.
One more point: the Sun and Chiron are conjoined in Aries; they square Mars and the Sun is moving away from a sextile it formed last week with Jupiter in Gemini. Again, we have a tendency to focus on our own wounds and potential talent expression, and may be having trouble taking action; this is specifically because we have allowed the Big Picture, and our place within the social order, to lose relevancy for us personally. The more attention we pay to ourselves and our issues, the less we see what’s happening around us–and that means we make our decisions and act as if we are independent of the social arena, rather than a component of it, with all the crossed wires and inadvertent interference that may imply.
Dahomean women warriors, or Amazons.The horns, probably made of tin, were an insignia of rank: these are officers. Horns were also icons of power, associated with such animals as the antelope and buffalo; “furious antelope” and “wild buffalo” cadres were among the fiercest Amazon battalions. By N.N. c1894 {{PD}}
Neptune lingers in the last degree of Pisces until 30 March, when it moves to the Aries Point, 00 of the sign, and remains there until the final few days of April when it moves forward in Aries, dipping back into Pisces for a nostalgia tour (look how carefree and/ or muddled we were! Those were the days!) from late October to late January 2026. How much are we conscious of this kind of shift, a heavy leaving its longtime home for a new sign–and even more pointedly, leaving its own sign for what is, at least symbolically, the inception point of the zodiac? Those Cardinal points (00 of Cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) are often significant, felt in the same way a sudden drop in the barometer is; every cell of our bodies feels an intense change in pressure, accompanied by an urgent impulse to act, to express the essence of the transiting energy in new ways. With Neptune in Aries, impulses toward the creative, the ideal, the spiritual, and the deceptive, seem to require individual effort of (almost) heroic proportions–we become keenly aware that we alone can make it happen–and circumstances urge us to embrace the right to Self-assert. Of course, what it is we’re thinking of asserting is intimately aligned with the situation of our natal Neptune, and how and where we typically express it. A sense of responsibility may overwhelm; so might confusion, as we find we may have a lot of sorting, true from imaginary, real from unreal, to do.
That Neptunian fog rolls into Aries and asks, “Wait a minute–who’s in charge here?” Don’t hold your breath for an answer; every assumption we’ve been making about the confluence of energies that make up civilization will be brought into question. We’ll need to examined what’s around us, with the goal of determining as an individualwhere we will be responsible, how we might take the lead, and in what way we must put in motion our own ideals. No more relying on the Collective (Pisces) to carry us along; the individual in Warrior mode is needed now. Anything short of complete personal responsibility will leave a lot of Neptunian energy on the table–and unused Neptune leaves us open to being deceived, misled, or kept in the dark when we have a clear right to know. It’s that principle of energy ownership: if we don’t take command of our creative and spiritual inclinations, they’ll come at us in a much less useful form from the outside.
It’s a tall order, asking each of us to examine our creative and spiritual goals, and yet, if we don’t get specific about it, we’ll suffer confusion, be taken advantage of, or may believe things that just aren’t–to our eternal detriment. The dreamy state that was Neptune in Pisces dissolves (such a Neptunian word!) in the aura of accountability and call to action of Aries. With Neptune in Aries, we’ll each become a spiritual force, our statements of ‘I Am’ a direct line to who we are as creatives and as spiritual Beings–but whether we’ll muster on the side of ‘good’ or ‘evil’ (that is, deception) will be a choice each of us must make alone. To make that choice as consciously as possible is to exert a strong influence on the world at this time, our impact commensurate with our surety of purpose. Clarity in knowing who we are (that Aries ‘I Am’) will offer a kind of creative power and powerful expression we haven’t had available to us before; let’s hope that being so potently armed (for the Aries energy is nothing if not Warrior energy), we’ll all choose the side of ‘good’.
The Sombrero Galaxy NASA/JPL-Caltech and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) {{PD}}
Venus retrograded on the 1st at 10 Aries–but what does that mean? Venus, an energy we experience in highly personal ways, in apparent backward motion will mean different things to different people, depending on where and in aspect to what it contacts the natal chart; what we all share is the way Venus retrogrades in the same part of the chart/ sign, within a couple of degrees, every 8 years. With such a loop to the Venus retrograde cycle, we may not immediately recognize that we’re in territory we’ve trod before–or that we’re seeing the results of our previous, 8-years-ago responses, whether they take the same shape or are the same challenges in a new Venusian get-up.
Retrogrades are ‘re-‘ periods, times when we can (and often must) review and reconsider our usual stance on any number of, in this case, Venus-themed areas, but the 8 year cycle places those circumstances of review and revision in an area where we’ve already experienced them–and now, as noted before, we face either the renewal of the situation, as if no time has passed, or we find the same issue dressed up in a new form, with the possibility that we don’t notice the echo-quality of what’s happening; we may believe we’ve already dealt with this Venus issue satisfactorily, ‘putting it to bed’ 8 years previously, or that what’s before us is unrelated to anything that’s come before–and in both instances we’d be wrong.
This time Venus retrogrades in Aries, an energy she’s inherently uncomfortable in, as she is receptive, seductive, looking for pleasure, and Mars-ruled Aries is assertive, aggressive, looking to impose the Will. It’s hard to be receptive when the surrounding energy is urging one to go out and get what is wanted–and yet, that’s one way we can reconcile the disparities here: Venus wants, as well, and if she can modify her usual seductive or appealing-to-the senses stance to seek actively, as Aries does, she can find a way to be effective within an atmosphere that’s less than sympathetic to her preferred modus operandi.
Then we have the question of where this retrograde happens in the individual chart. It’s incumbent upon each of us to look back at our situation 8 years ago–and in particular, to look for those echoes, those repeats, the re-emergence of what we thought long settled. Say this retro occurs in your 3rd House, and 8 years ago you and your sibling discussed going into business together. It didn’t pan out, but now you find yourself considering the idea again, or your sibling has gotten in touch, just lost their job, asking if you ever consider going for that food truck you both talked about? Or it falls in your 5th: 8 years ago you were head-over-heels for someone, and now you’ve just found out you’re pregnant (by another partner–haven’t seen that 8-years-ago guy in 7 years). What’s the connector? Romance and children are both products of the 5th; 8 years ago you were considering the value of the relationship, while today you’re considering what having a child will mean to you. Both are relationships that fall under the 5th, and both are Venusian, two different versions of Love. It may take a little detective work, but finding the thread will help us understand what’s at stake, and how Venus retro may shape things going forward.
Beyond the Venus-keyed patterns we see, we’ll also deal with the garden variety Venus issues that spring up during a retro period: changes in our customary tastes, our attitudes toward relationships, toward Love, toward aesthetics, toward sharing and cooperation, toward diplomacy, Art, comfort and sustenance, and in our values, preferences, and wants. We must be ready to experience changes in what we find attractive or pleasing–and we must be aware that our tastes, once the retro is over, will bounce back to the shapes and styles we had before the retro, meaning that we must be careful what aesthetic alterations we make during this part of the cycle. We’d be wise to do things that aren’t permanent, to experiment, but not in an irreversible way; if the change or adventure leads to something that we’ll have to live with, we’d be wise to save the idea until after Venus goes direct–then if it still appeals, go ahead. Otherwise, dye your hair, but don’t get a tattoo; date someone new, but don’t marry them, just yet; vacation in a part of the world you’d never found appealing before, but don’t decide, between flowery umbrella drinks, to move there. It’s a time for exploration of the senses and what pleases us; choose something irreversible (or at least difficult to alter) and you risk being stuck with something that ‘just isn’t you’.
Venus goes direct 12 April at 24 Pisces. If you experiment, and are considering a permanent step, please wait until after this point; then, evaluate, and measure, according to your more usual tastes and feelings. Though it’s not as much fun as off-the-cuff change, assessing things in a sober light is worth it (because that’s what it can feel like during the retrograde, like we’re drunk on some kind of Venusian punch, a high that undercuts our judgment in favor of a momentary feeling of invincibility). We deserve to enjoy Venus in a form most supportive of who we are–and we can only have that when our senses aren’t distorted as we make choices and invest in ourselves.
Mercury retrogrades on the 14th at 9 Aries, making for a period of reconsideration and review around what we do (Fire sign). Are we happy with our choices, with the way we’ve expressed our Will, with our leadership role(s) or lack of them? Have we gone after what we want, and are we okay with what we had to do to get it? Remember, at this time the mind and the mentality are, in certain ways, ‘blind’ to the facts, to communications, to the details, or these are actively not being shared–and that means that, even with the most careful efforts, we’ll still be making decisions and coming to conclusions without a full and complete picture of the situation. Inevitably, post-direction, we find out things we didn’t know during the retro period, but sure wish we had. Usually I’d encourage everyone to rely on the feeling nature to supplement/ circumvent the mind, but with Venus retro, that leaves only the intuitive faculties of the Moon as reliable–and even then, our feelings may color things so that what we think is accurate could be distorted by emotion and even leakage from the atmosphere around us. Maybe hold off on significant decisions for the retro period, as well as the usual don’t sign, don’t buy warning, which goes through direction on 7 April. Try instead a ‘go with the flow’, noncommittal attitude, leaving yourself as many options as possible, and a gentle refusal to judge or condemn yourself or your actions as you review them; by the time Merc reaches the direction point, in Pisces, the imagination may have supplied more possibilities than the mind could on its own, offering up potentials Mercury normally would’ve overridden before the idea even dawned.
All the outer planets are direct through March and April, with the spell being broken by Pluto’s retro on 4 May at 3 Aquarius. Since Mars was recently retro, and Merc and Venus will be, this imparts a difficult to sort personal picture but a crystal clear Big Picture. Our difficulty may be in discerning where, exactly, we fit in that larger scenario–but again, definitive statements of ‘I Am’ can wait until Merc re-enters Aries, 16 April. Pluto’s turnaround, by the way, will probably feel like a mental scouring pad; don’t over react–just remind yourself, It’s good to give things a thorough scrubbing! No matter how raw we feel immediately afterward.
Neptune moves into Aries on 30 March. This may feel as if someone lit a fire under our imaginative, creative, or idealistic inclinations–but the thing is, that’s fire applied at the end of a watery journey through Pisces–and fire applied to water is–steam! Will we harness it, and use it to move forward, ‘Little Engine That Could’ style, or will we just complain about the humidity? It all depends on your relationship to your own creative energies, and to reality–do you know where you stand? Because that’s required, if you want to make choices that will really matter. Prepare by (before the Mercury retro) going over recent creative efforts and where they stand–and remembering that our sense are affected right now by the Venus retro, so that making practical rather than aesthetic judgments is probably the best use of time.
And, just before Mercury retrogrades, we have a Total Lunar Eclipse in Virgo. More to come soon!
With Jupiter in Gemini now direct and slowly gathering apparent speed, we can expect an opening up, even an avalanche–of information, of others reaching out, even of gossip (beware misinformation!). Venus teases a sextile to Jupiter (which should be our payoff moment to what we learn, right?) but instead Venus does her once-every-18-months retrograde March 1 (at 10 Aries, “I was gonna do it, but . . .”), before that information or bounty (Jupiter) of worth (Venus) is delivered. We believe our efforts, initiative, or choices (Aries) will benefit us, but we’re in for a rude surprise–our reward is withdrawn (the retro), at least temporarily–so keep that in mind as the month drags on, and we think, probably more than once, that we’ve found ‘The Answer’ that will deliver that reward, only to have it deflate in our hands.
At this point (the 6th) Mercury is just a day away from Superior (direct) Conjunction with the Sun, promising revelation (of information, a reveal of circumstances, or Higher Mind understanding–Aquarius) that was sparked back at the Inferior Conjunction 6 December, and that involves Sun-Merc forming a quincunx to still retro Mars=irritation or unsureness may lead to aggressive words or ill-thought out actions. This duo also sextiles Chiron, suggesting that we may need to call on our own unique talents in order to maintain our independence and continue to call our own shots–or that it may be a little too easy to retreat to the wound, rather than tackle what’s in front of us.
The recent direction of Uranus in Taurus (30 January) has been showing us the weak spots inherent to our (threatened) sense of security and the potential upheavals to our material situation–and these will continue at least through mid-March, until Uranus picks up speed and Mars, by then direct, comes along to sextile it from Cancer in early April, showing us what to do to address those matters we care about. Right now Mars in Cancer is closely trine Saturn in Pisces, delivering real-world inspiration that we may put into action at a later point–so note what you’re dreaming of making a reality, as you might just get the chance to make it happen, soon.
Other notable contacts include: Neptune in Pisces conjoined the tense North Node, trined by Juno in Scorpio, sextiled by Pallas in Capricorn, and semi-sextiled by Hygieia at 29 Aries=this suggests we may be unsure, inspired, or under some delusion about our path forward; the current direction is, however, empowering, as long as we remain aware of our own darkness, and our own inner wisdom–to lose touch with either of these is to court an unhealthy situation where we’re prone to at least be misled, if not robbed of one or more facets of our autonomy.
Ceres in Aquarius is now in a tight square with Uranus in Taurus, with Ceres trine the Black Moon Lilith point in Libra, which is also conjoined Zeus (and Uranus quincunx this point), and Eris in Aries sextile Ceres and opposed BML-Zeus=authority squares off against individuality and Self-determination, with authority essentially approaching things as if it’s an intellectual exercise and those they’d like to impose their Will on rebelling, especially in terms of the material situation and what makes them feel secure. The subtle (and so not realized or acknowledged) influence is ambition and desire along with every matter buried or denied. Isn’t this the recipe for a bomb? And here’s the fuse: Eris in Willful, headstrong, go-one’s-own-way, can’t tell me what to do Aries. Those who want to make the rules are approaching things from an airy, theoretical POV, and haven’t the slightest clue as to the massive pent-up energies of rebellion and Self-determination their template for others calls forward. All I know is that I want to be on the side of those who support freedom, as those would-be overlords don’t see what they’re up against, or how much their own wants and fears are both driving and weakening their position.
A quincunx from Chaos in Cancer to Pluto in Aquarius sums it all up: we’ll overturn all the tables in the temple to keep what we care about from being destroyed–and at the same time we must remain aware of the way obliteration and regeneration are a fact of life, and a means of renewal. But the planets, and especially the story the asteroids and other points are telling right now, says we don’t have to sit back and let others decide those changes for us.
Direct confrontation is just not the way to go. ‘Stag at Sharkey’s’ By George Bellows 1909 {{PD}}
Mars and Pluto opposed each other in early November, at 29 degrees of Cancer (Mars) and Capricorn (Pluto). Think back; what kind of stressful, end-of-your rope feelings and events came forward? What was on your mind–or maybe I should say, what were you obsessed with? What called you to potentially initiate transformative action? What structures were lost, what crises in caring did you face? It wasn’t fun, but we were shown what was leaving our lives, and what actions we could take, all measured by what really mattered to us–and now we face more of these oppositions, as Mars retrogrades in Leo and repeatedly comes within orb of opposing Pluto, now firmly ensconced in Aquarius.
The apparent retrograde of Mars begins the 6th; it’s been stationary for about four days and will continue so (to the degree, but not the minute) for another week. Think about someone aggressively confident, suddenly being forced to retrace her steps or reconsider her choices and actions; that seems to me like a recipe for a short-temper, a reluctance to admit maybe another option would’ve suited better, or regret that there’s no way this individual wants to admit–that is the basic energy we face upon Mars’ first days stationary and then retro. We’re going to be reluctant to examine what we’ve done, and if we do, we may feel a rising panic: if our best judgment wasn’t good enough in the past, how the hell are we going to do better now?
Take a deep breath; this is not a crisis, especially as Neptune will go direct the 7th, offering renewed imaginative power, a clear set of ideals, and the creative energy to move forward. So, we have resources, we just need to be certain which ones are at our disposal, which are temporarily in storage. With Mars in Leo our attention will definitely be on ourselves: on what we’ve done (or failed to do, or turned away from doing), and we may make a seriously harsh assessment of what our contribution has really been. Did we ever really shine? we may be asking ourselves–and the closer Mars moves to perfecting its opposition to Pluto, the more serious, and devastating, that assessment may become.
First of all, we need to remember that both Mars and Pluto are very active energies; they have weight and they don’t hesitate to throw that around (and so easily knock us off balance). How then do we deal with them? Only a fool would believe they could manhandle either one of these into submission; we must judo them. That is, we must use the weight of these aggressive heavy-hitters to control them, move them where we want them to go, mustering their power for our benefit. For example, we might be feeling we must do something to enhance our presence, add to our contribution–in short, we may be feeling we have to prove ourselves, thanks to Leo–but we will almost certainly sense Pluto in opposition, threatening–what? Destruction, perhaps, or a dire outcome, the obliteration of our very ego; notice, though, that Pluto is in Aquarius. It’s a mind game. Destruction is possible, yes, but is unlikely if we are able to use Higher Mind (Aquarius) to vet the choices before us. We consider options, then step aside, and let the transformative energy of Pluto, via the intellect, assess what we want to do–and then, trusting ourselves, believe what is revealed. Aquarius offers understanding, an essential element to making the right moves. With this simple formula, we can abandon the struggle, and let all that spare momentum work for us.
I’ll write a bit more on this later. Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!
Julie Demboski's ASTROLOGY 
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