It's officially autumn. We are in the Eclipse spin cycle, between two powerful Eclipses - life determined to spit a good portion of us out in quite a different shape than we went in.
This week is all about MERCURY - communications, information, news, local community, transportation or tech situations, siblings, commerce. In Virgo this will be about our health, work, daily routine and obligations, pets and habits. Our natal Virgo house and its theme will be hopping. Virgos and Geminis will be, too.
With Mercury interacting with so many energies this week - Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and finally our Sun and because I suspect the Gods hunger for symbolic gestures, this would certainly be a week to hone our intellect, attentiveness and discrimination. Say only what you mean. Intend what you say. Think about what you are thinking about. Write it down. Learn what is needed. Teach what you know.
One of Mercury's aliases is Hermes, the magician who invented the alphabet. Letters and words were originally considered divine. The Mercury part of us KNOWS THIS. Maybe let's monitor our thoughts and words this week around how they make us feel. Does this thought or these words give us strength or take it away? In Virgo, Mercury is PRACTICAL MAGIC.
Mercury reminds us that whatever we will speak to will speak back to us and this week that includes 1. the future (Uranus) 2. spirit (Neptune) 3. power/death (Pluto) and 4. our life force (the Sun) and with Mercury in Virgo some things we might ask ourselves are - have we, and our words, been of service? Have we, and our words, helped? Have we avoided criticism? Zipped lips as needed?
HAVE WE KEPT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE this Eclipse spin cycle?!
Let's unpack this pivotal week!
TUESDAY - Mercury trines Uranus retrograde, Third Quarter Moon (Cancer)
WEDNESDAY - Mercury opposes Neptune retrograde, Saturn semi-square Pluto
THURSDAY - Mercury trines Pluto retrograde, Mercury enters Libra
SATURDAY - Sun and Mercury conjunct South Node of Fate
TUESDAY - As we build toward next week's New Moon Solar Eclipse in Libra there is tension between the Moon in Cancer's need for security, nourishment and the Sun in Libra's need for partnership and balance. Issues might center around comfort, safety, neediness and relationship imbalances. Something, likely within our relationships or home/family, needs to be pulled back to CENTER.
At the same time, Mercury in Virgo is trining Uranus retrograde. Sudden, maybe even SHOCKING, but not totally unexpected news. Change is good. New words and ideas are good. Note - with Uranus retrograde these words and ideas may NOT be totally new. Stay flexible and open to different information and different conversations. Say it again, but in another way. Our mind is smoothly connected (brakes off) to innovation, liberation, THE FUTURE, so pay attention to what comes to your attention. Choose the language of what you do want and avoid the language of what you don't want. Great time to make a vision board.
WEDNESDAY - Mercury, fresh off that liberating trine to Uranus retrograde is now opposing Neptune retrograde. Maybe our focus/attention is disrupted or clouded. Not everything will be true. Oppositions can bring things to a result or conclusion, but this one will be unclear/dissolving/draining. Take your vitamin C and watch your boundaries. Don't overshare. Maybe the need for a well-earned break pulls us off our game for a little bit or maybe an old escape hatch/self-sabotage has re-appeared and we need to avoid it. A Neptune opposition might require a SACRIFICE. If we do not make our own sacrifice willingly, maybe in the form of relinquishing a FANTASY, then sacrifices will find their way into our lives through alternative means. As my grandmother used to say - what cannot come in by the door, will find a window.
Saturn is also in semi-square to Pluto, which I wouldn't normally report, but with Pluto back to this pivotal 29 degrees Capricorn, it might pay for us to notice this. Maybe our attention to a smaller problem now can prevent/ward off a larger tension or frustration to push us into action later. The semi-square is Pisces/Cappy and with Mercury opposing Neptune might be speaking of keeping ourselves grounded in reality/facts and not getting lost in the sauce right now. Stay sober.
THURSDAY - Now Mercury in Virgo is making his (for the last time in our lifetime) trine to Pluto in Capricorn.
Here is an empowering conversation or communication that can be easily integrated. Intense information. This is an excellent aspect to cap off Mercury's journey through his home sign of Virgo. Coming after the Neptune opposition we could feel a strong desire to GET TO THE BOTTOM OF SOMETHING - GET TO THE TRUTH. Earth trines are practical - about real world things we can use. One thing to keep in mind here is this trine is happening at 29 degrees, so there can be some kind of last ditch effort involved here or desperation play. We might feel a strong need to get something done right now, like time is running out ... and it might be.
Then Mercury enters diplomatic and cooperative and beauty-focused Libra.
Successful words will be more POLITE now. We will want to listen. If we want our communications to hit their target we need to make the other person feel heard, loved, appreciated.
Conversations become kind of a dance here. We wouldn't tear off our dance partner's trousers and leave them standing there with hands covering their undershorts and last shreds of their dignity. We wouldn't tell them they are a crappy dancer even when they step on our toes and smudge the tops of our favorite shoes. A type of kindness and civility prevails on the dance floor. We smile. We talk about the things everyone can agree on. With the floor spinning beneath our feet we manage to find common ground.
That is the energy that moves communications, ideas and conversations forward now.
Pluto's return to the end of Capricorn includes his opposition to Pandora, exact on FRIDAY.
Pandora, besides being the first woman and sometimes made a stand-in for all the ills of the physical world, is also about 'getting to the bottom of things' and raising consciousness. Because really doesn't getting to know ourselves precisely mean 'the stuff in the box', which without Pandora would still be in there? I think she did for humanity the best she could, letting the shadow be visible, a very Plutonian and Promethean act really. She made the shadow something we could see, maybe even negotiate with rather than something hidden away behind lock and key.
The biggest question for Pandora, might be, if we could get her on the couch for questioning - why was hope left in the box. Was it a mistake? A subconscious slip up? Did she mean for hope to end up there?
It's interesting that sometimes what we need for transformation to take place is precisely for us to LOSE HOPE.
Hope can suck the life out of you because it is privately at war with 'what-life-is' on account of 'what life-could-be'. The hope of making something perfect, OF CHANGING SOMEONE, of things being fair, of living with total security or the hope that someone will come along and save us.
Maybe hope in the box is actually just where it needs to stay.
Maybe Pandora's opposition to Pluto during this Eclipse spin cycle - echoing Mercury's trine to Uranus, opposition to Neptune and trine to Pluto - is asking us "what is it time to lose hope in?".
Finally on SATURDAY Mercury catches up with the Sun on the South Node of Fate in Libra.
Maybe a light shines on a partnership message from the past. Or maybe a light shines on the way we communicate with other people? Or something we have grown comfortably numb with that needs our attention? What does your Libra house rule/what is its "theme"? For example - if you are a Scorpio rising like I am, this will be happening in your hidden 12th house of what is behind you. Maybe a light shines on something secret, something done behind your back, an addiction or a health situation that needs your attention
We have been through a Mercurian journey this week, so what do we see? What did we think, say, hear, learn?
BIG Eclipse next week folks, so stay loose and if you are lucky enough to have a windy day, definitely get out and walk in it.
xo all
back with part II of the war comes home post next
4 comments
hope is important.
It is important. Useful? I am not so sure. Faith is important AND useful. But, this blog is just my opinion as I probably don't say often enough :)
:)
Pandora is certainly up for interpretation. Very complex archetype and story.
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