Sun trine Chiron and North Node, Sun inconjunct Moon | independent work favored, a wild card is tossed into the game, taking the edge off the pain, prioritizing home and family, doing the brave thing, allowing ourselves a place of refuge, go back to bed

cold morning by mrs-pinkeyes

The Moon is waxing (growing) as we head towards Friday's Full Moon in Gemini.

In Aries today, she moves into opposition with Venus (home in Libra) at 10:44AM EST - this indicates more can be accomplished through independent work and interactions with other people could be stressful. Watch any tendency to overspend or overeat now.

Later she inconjuncts (that rock and a hard place) the Sun (at the end of Scorpio) and finally at 5:46PM EST she hooks up with Uranus - her last aspect before the void, so expect the unexpected - and then goes Void for about an hour, until 6:43PM EST, when she moves into Taurus - where she is exalted. 

Today's waxing inconjunct indicates the possibility that something new or unproven (Aries) - maybe connected to an intimacy/financial/hidden issue or maybe just unexpected or chaotic - is tossed into the situation just as we are expecting to finish/close something out - that approaching Full Moon.

The good news - the Scorpio Sun is trining (brakes off) both Chiron and the North Node (in Cancer now and ruled by the Moon).  The energy is available - and yes, it could be emotional - to get us through this smoothly. To move us along on our best path forward.

The trine to Chiron should take the edge off the pain, this will happen naturally - there is alot of Pisces energy right now, please don't over-medicate, drink/drug/distract the pain away.  The trine to the North Node speaks of prioritizing our home base, our family, what makes us feel most stable and secure within ourselves. With the North Node in Cancer, looking to the outside world for validation isn't going to work/feel good. We have to know our own worth. We have to know what we really value - what we are really made of.

We have just been through a bloody Venus retrograde in Scorpio and she is still re-walking those degrees (!) - we know what we most value because it is what we are still feeling connected to.

Mercury is retrograde. And his/her square to Neptune is really fogging things up! Have you noticed it is hard to remember what time/day it is? Time is kind of drifty.

Do what needs to be done today. Take appropriate action. The Aries Moon can require bravery. So, yes, if something feels scary it could be the appropriate thing! But it might just seem scary because we are looking too far ahead. Don't look too far ahead. Mercury is retrograde! 

Once the Moon gets into Taurus this evening she makes all positive aspects tonight and tomorrow - making nice with Mars, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto! Our focus will naturally turn to Taurus themes for the next couple days - being comfortable, our money, our values, our resources, the important stuff that money can buy and the important stuff it can't, the stuff we already have.

xo all

Heads up - the Moon will be void all day on Thanksgiving so plans may get thrown off course. Maybe we cook a turkey and then find out most guests has gone vegan. Or maybe we forgot to defrost it. Maybe some people catch colds and don't show up - take some extra Vitamin C and D, so we aren't those people! Wet weather, plumbing issues, insect/rodent infestations all tend to happen when Pisces is activated as she is now.  Stuff gets released when boundaries thin. We'll need extra sleep now and to allow ourselves, and other people, to feel more emotional. We will need to escape a bit - go to the movies, read a new book, make some art, get into or near water. We need to stay grounded so we don't drift totally off-course AND we need to allow our Neptunian imagination/compassion/spirituality roam, too.

Mars Square Jupiter | avoid taking on too much, stay grounded, tension between the big picture and whatever action we are taking, allow, stop pushing, don't be preachy, being brave with our words and thinking, staying open to BIG possibilities without losing our shirt (unless it's the shirt that shrunk in the dryer and makes us feel like we have eaten too much pre-Thanksgiving pumpkin pie or maybe we HAVE eaten too much pie, either way that shirt, that one, we can lose)

Shirtless, Sheet-less and ... by Erin-boo

I didn't get to the weekly yesterday, so we will work with some dailies!

We start the week with the Moon in fiery, "let's get something started" Aries. Good for taking initiative and being brave, but we'll keep in mind that Aries ruler Mars is in Pisces - encouraging connection and the allowing of what is unfolding rather than any strong pushing for a specific agenda and discouraging Mars natural impulse to just "go it alone".

Mars (and with our Moon in Aries and answering to Mars we could feel this more acutely) squares Jupiter (in Sagittarius). Squares are tension/frustration.

A tired Mars cornered by a powerful (enthusiastic, but also possibly overly optimistic) Jupiter could result in us taking on more than we can handle or over-promising what we can actually do. With Mars in Pisces aggressive actions could seem to come out of nowhere and Jupiter will make things BIGGER - or to seem bigger, it's hard to say with Jupiter - than they would otherwise be.

Our negative Piscean tendencies - addiction, escape, shoving stuff into closets and under furniture - could get exaggerated now.

We might jump to a wrong conclusion and with Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius we are meant to be questioning our beliefs not yet concluding anything mentally - we just don't have all the facts yet.

We are going back and forth with something because it is time to be going back and forth with something. Two steps forward and one step backward is how life actually works. It only feels like a problem if we are pushing and it's not the time to be pushing. With the Moon trining (brakes off) that same retrograde Mercury we could be looking backward with regret about some prior action/inaction. The Sun's trine to Chiron tomorrow will likely help ease the sharp edges off any of that.

Looking ahead this week the major aspects I see are:

MONDAY - Mars squares Jupiter
TUESDAY - Sun trines Chiron
THURSDAY - Sun moves into Sagittarius and trines the Nodes
FRIDAY - Full Moon in Gemini
SATURDAY - Neptune stations direct
SUNDAY/MONDAY - Sun Conjunct Jupiter (and that luckiest day of the year thing)

For today - we have that trine between Mercury and the Moon encouraging courageous conversations/thinking and that square between Mars and Jupiter tempting us to overdo whatever it is we are doing. Warning us about any tendency to wander off-course and make mountains out of molehills and advising us to keep one eye on the rear-view mirror for things can seem to come out of "nowhere" now and are closer than they appear - and also bigger or smaller than they actually are depending on our natural inclination toward optimism or pessimism, so keep all of this in mind.

Our minds are stretchy with Mercury in Sagittarius so this will all surely fit in there somehow. We might have to ditch a few awful middle school memories to clear some space and that's a good thing, too. :)

The best use of today's square - instead of feeling cornered, let's allow ourselves to stay open to BIG POSSIBILITIES. Some things are outside our control now - which is probably the good news.

xo all

Weekend Astrology Forecast for Creatives | more flies with honey, the power of our imagination, the fine print, adventure, the Sunday night blues or inspired ambition

And suddenly it's evening 1X by Michela-Riva

We wake on SATURDAY morning having slept through our monthly Moon/Neptune conjunction. If you had any memorable dreams maybe write them down and give some thought to them. This energy should put us in a relaxed, dreamy state for the early part of the day. It could be hard to know where we begin and other people leave off though. Boundaries will be thin.

By 2: 10PM EST the Moon moves into a sextile (opportunity) with Pluto (at 19 degrees).

This is the energy for eliminating (Pluto) our delusions/illusions (Neptune), for deep/maybe dark (Pluto) magic (Neptune), for transformation/lasting change (Pluto) through compassion (Neptune), for using the power (Pluto) of our imagination (Neptune). Good for meditation, making art, healing. Stay sober. 

This is an opportunity between our Capricorn and Pisces houses. It's like Aquarius has gone to use the restroom and Cappy and Pisces are holding hands under the table.

How can we use this? For example in my chart this is an opportunity between my 3rd house (communication, conversations, siblings, neighborhood, transportation) and my 4th house (5th house if we are talking rulerships - but the Moon will still be in my 4th house) of home, family, property, my roots, mother/motherhood - so communicating about a home/family situation is favored. This energy is swift, but potent.

Also on Saturday - which could factor in or be about something else entirely - we have the Scorpio Sun (25 degrees) opposing Juno (in Taurus). Juno is about our relationships, our commitments and contracts involving partners, our marriages and in Taurus she is focused on stability; on keeping the relationship safe. Also, she is focused on the money, honey and on the relationship's resources. 

Remember Juno is Jupiter's long suffering wife and the part of us that will look the other way to keep our commitments and contracts intact.

So now along comes the Sun shining a bright light/bringing a conclusion (a solar opposition is like a Full Moon to the planet being opposed) to something that the Sun in Scorpio has dug up. The Sun is drilling into the fine print in that relationship contract and comes to Juno with a flashlight in one hand and the thing she (as we) maybe does not really want to look at in the other and she/we can't look away.

On SUNDAY, the Moon, in her final Piscean play, has trined the Sun in Scorpio, while we slept. This would be another good night for a dream analysis if we can remember any. The Moon moves into action-oriented Aries at 7:56AM EST. We'll wake up ready to GO and by mid-afternoon she moves into a nice trine with Jupiter (2:18PM EST), so the afternoon is ripe for any Jupiterian pursuit - an adventure, a focus on the big-picture, higher education, travel, anything/anyone foreign to us, weddings, the media, religion, etc. This aspect brings optimism. 

By late Sunday night, the Aries Moon will be squaring Saturn (in Capricorn), focusing us on our responsibilities - our goals and ambitions. Squares bring tension and stress, but are really the energy we need to get things done and there is no better energy to get things done than a square to Saturn.

We get what we want by following the rules now, yes, and yes, there are obstacles in our path, but an Aries Moon eats obstacles for breakfast! And getting this monthly aspect on a Sunday night instead of a Monday afternoon might make it go down easier.

The flies in the ointment with this one are - we could be dealing with cold emotional responses, fights with dad/authority, feelings of being caged in or lonely - just keep in mind the long-game we are playing. This is just one fast (fight?!) transit.

Avoid physical risks.

Tonight's energy could feel like a let down if the day felt especially good. It's like the guy with the good jokes and the good pot has left the party.

Don't let Sunday night ruin a perfectly good weekend. We know Monday morning is coming. It always comes.

Mercury is retrograde folks, expect delays, having to do things again and not knowing what we don't know. Roll with it.

xo all

Next week we have what astrologer Susan Miller calls the luckiest day of the year - are we ready for that? Yes, we are!

shifting sands ahead .....

Untitled by Irina Joanne

OK, let's take a breath before the next round of shifts starting tomorrow and see/feel where we are.

We are on a brave new quest with Jupiter's return to Sagittarius - just keep in mind this is a year-long quest. We don't have to do everything in the first week!

We have Mars - the planet of our action, our initiative, the way we go about getting what we want - leaving Aquarius after six MONTHS. The last time Mars was in Aquarius for this long was in 1971! He moves into Pisces on Thursday where he will stay for about six WEEKS.

Aquarius is not Mars favorite place (neither is Pisces!) - and he had to deal with the South Node there (what we are releasing) and because Aquarius is a fixed sign - this left Mars squaring Uranus in Taurus, opposing all the Leo energies (including the North Node of where are heading) and then squaring all the Scorpio we have been working through with Venus! This has been challenging us since May. Although Mars can still perform in Aquarius, he isn't fond of Aquarius penchant for - over-thinking, digging in too doggedly to a mental position, detaching - Mars wants to just go for it. And Aquarian energy does not work like this.

Now, he (as us) moves into Pisces. This would be a great time to rest if we can rest. If our life is not set up to rest for the next six weeks (Mars is going to really, really want to nap!) and I know mine isn't, and yours probably isn't either, we are going to have to be careful we don't slip up and sabotage ourselves by - zonking out, drifting off purpose, totally losing our boundaries, escaping with another glass of wine, going on a shopping marathon, taking action based on what we are seeing through our rose-colored glasses, vegging out with too many Netflix marathons, letting things slip away.

Maybe we should put a rubber-band on our wrist and snap ourselves awake every hour!

We are going to have to muster whatever reserves we have to stay on top of things for the next few weeks. AND we are going to have to prioritize rest and escape somehow, too.

We are NOT going to push because Mars in Pisces can't push. It will be like pushing jello up a hill - nice for the guy behind us who isn't pushing and gets a delicious strawberry dessert tossed at him that he didn't have to work for - but not so nice for us; the ones doing all the work. On the other hand Mars in Pisces is excellent energy to go within, to meditate, to make art, to heal, to work with our intuition, to work with our dreams - this is the energy of the spiritual warrior and having this compassionate energy during the holiday season is a very, very beautiful thing - a gift to us.

Mars in Pisces won't be squaring Uranus and Venus and the Nodes anymore, but he will be squaring Jupiter (freshly home to Sagittarius) and these are our two BIG unlimited energies. And Mercury is stationing retrograde in Sagittarius, too, so our thinking is surely going to be more optimistic, obviously a good thing, but also more unrealistic and more over-the-top.

This can get us so caught up in what is possible, some far-out-there dream that we toss the baby out with the bathwater - and it's pretty freakin' cold out there for babies, we jump from that plane (adventure!) without checking to see if our parachute is working or if we are even wearing a parachute.

We party like it's 1999 ... and it ain't 1999 no more folks.

Think rubberband. Think wrist.

#kidding #notkidding

The day after Mars finally moves out of Aquarius we have Venus stationing direct (25 Libra) and Mercury stationing retrograde (13 Sag). Now all three personal planets have changed sign or direction within just two days - how often does this happen?! Friday is a very big day, but big things don't always happen when energies are exact. Sometimes they happen as the energies wax or wane. I would still expect Friday to be a big day.

We have been going back and forth through Venus over relationship/financial/resources/self-esteem situations since early October. We have made decisions and had to deal with other people's decisions - maybe multiple times (!), we have weighed things out, we might have had to let something go (relationships, money, power). Things have been up and down and out of balance.

This energy will shift forward and we will regain some balance now. We are following up on decisions that we made a few weeks ago and again asking ourselves - What do I really value? What do I want? What do I need? Have I been too focused on what isn't mine?

And because Venus is STILL squaring the nodes - remember they moved into cardinal signs, too - we are STILL making decisions - and yes, some of this is out of our hands -  and these decisions are going to impact us for a long time. The North Node in Cancer - which I am going to write a big post about - is asking us to root ourselves in our new decisions and grow something from this stronger, smarter position.

Maybe we may have worked ourselves right around in a circle to the same place (maybe not)! Either way, we are different people now. If we haven't totally wasted the last few weeks and that would have been pretty much impossible - our decisions will be better, stronger and smarter than they were in October.

So now we have committed to something with relationships or money and we will know where we stand ... but we are not finished with our work here

because Venus will still be walking degrees she walked twice before until December and because Mercury - it is not a coincidence these stations happen at the same time - now takes some part of this story - the deepest part - remember he is headed back into Scorpio where much of the Venus retrograde took place - backward again.

Venus has shown us what we truly value. Now Mercury says, "hold that thought"..

Something needs a re-view, re-vision, a re-novation, a re-location - think "re" here - with our thinking, with the paperwork, with the information, with the idea, with the conversation. Squaring foggy Neptune it is going to be hard to tell what is real and what is bullsh*t.

And keep in mind Venus (because Uranus has changed signs, too) is moving toward another opposition with "anything-can-happen" Uranus - remember that opposition during the Kavanaugh hearings?! - and the North and South Nodes - because they moved into cardinal signs last week - are still squaring Uranus, only from new positions. We have to stay grounded.

By early to mid-December we will know what we are doing. By the end of December/early January we will be moving full-steam ahead.

(just keep in mind we will never totally know what we are doing and we are never totally full steam ahead plus I can't see your natal chart transit which could countermand all this stuff)

If we can't wait - if decisions must be made and strong decisive action taken, and this could certainly happen - what do we do?

Well, we work with what we have. We have a lifetime of experience that got us to this place. We already know what to do. We already know when something is too much. Just know it is likely, because Mercury is retrograde, we will have to go back over some things and revise them. It's not a time to bet the farm, but most decisions are not that big. Most decisions can be tweaked later and as we move through the remainder of 2018.

We need the time between now and the end of the year to get things right. But we can't just take a powder for the next six weeks or we will sabotage the whole damn thing.We'll wake up in December/January with nothing to move full steam ahead with.

We have to be smart and we are smart. We can make progress during Mercury retrograde and Mars in Pisces it just won't be progress in a straight line.

Straight lines are boring.

xo all

Also keep in mind that next spring Uranus is going to move back into Taurus (this time not just for a few months like he did from May through last week, but for a few YEARS) - so we can't do the Venus/Taurus stuff the same way for much longer anyway - the way we do relationships, the way we earn and spend money, the resources we value, the way our self-esteem connects to our wallet, the way we toss our old crap into a landfill, the way we disrespect the "mother" - this is all going to change. For all of us. Big time.