Today's Astrology Forecast | Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 - making commitments, feeling able, dissolving resistance, feeling all the feels, lines get blurry, slippery slopes

 

The Moon continues her journey through her home sign of Cancer. She squares Mars (in Libra) at 4:16AM EDT (actions with other people at odds with our security needs/home/family) and sextiles a retrograde Uranus (opportunities to feel more comfortable with change/the future/to detach a bit from anything where we have been too emotional) at 1:53PM EDT. 

We have two SMOOTH aspects today - the Sun, at 6 degrees Libra trines a retrograde Saturn in Aquarius and Venus, at 21 degrees Scorpio trines a retrograde Neptune in Pisces.

 

The Sun trine Saturn (retrograde) is stabilizing energy for our relationships/contracts. Commitments are made, responsibilities stepped into - this likely won't be a totally new thing with Saturn retrograde. Saturn will be direct in just a couple weeks, so if there is some responsibility/work/group situation we have been avoiding, this might be the time to step into it/finish it up. There might be rewards for old work now. We are stepping into our responsibilities/goals - feeling able. 

Venus in Scorpio is trining Neptune (retrograde) in Pisces - and the Sun in Libra is answering to Venus, so today's smooth aspects are both working TOGETHER. Venus is exalted in Pisces, so she likes any contact and particularly a powerful trine. She (as us) can work her magic here. Neptune expands intimacy, shared money, self-esteem. Opportunities can increase as we let go of preconceived notions of what we want/what is ours/what is theirs. Resistance dissolves. The beautiful energy of  Venus with Pisces is also what makes it so slippery - the lines between us and other people, between acceptance and avoidance, between our money and their money, between love and "what was I thinking" will blur. Keep this in mind.

 

If the more stressful aspects this week are challenging us, this aspect can soften any blows.

xo all

artwork by the talented K Shoa

Today's Astrology Forecast | Tuesday, September 28th, 2021 - what do you need from other people, what do they need from you, keeping the peanuts in the peanut butter

 

 

The Moon is void until 9:34AM EDT when she comes home to Cancer - now we are nurtured/nourished by home, family, real estate, mom and apple pie. Her only aspect comes at 9:57PM EDT when she squares the Libra Sun.

The square is this month's Third Quarter Square - the Sun and Moon's final square before the New Moon next week, one last chance to adjust/turn a corner on something. Happening at 6 degrees, the square is Cancer/Libra. 

 

The Sun in Libra is airy/detached - seeking balance/fairness, sometimes peace at any cost. The Moon in Cancer is emotional/attached - seeking nourishment/stability, sometimes safety at any cost. 

 

Squares speak of tension/challenge. 

 

Situations are apt to highlight what is out of balance within our partnerships/contracts/one-on-one interactions. The Cancer Moon wants her needs met, we can feel especially sensitive to detachment or power imbalances. Or maybe this 'getting our needs met thing' (or someone else's) involves some uncomfortable nurturing. We want a partner not a parent. Or they do. 

With us at the very beginning of a long Mercury back and forth through Libra, we don't want to push anything under the carpet - unless we want to be dealing with an elephant under the rug later on - which sounds kind of messy and hard to vacuum. 

 

If the Libra Sun is all smiles 'nothing to see over here, everything is just fine' then why is the Cancer Moon crying herself to sleep? 

 

If one partner's lack of emotion is triggering the other partner's insecurity - this needs to be addressed. If one partner's neediness is triggering the other partner's need for balance/space - this needs to be addressed. Give and take. 

 

Not because everything needs to be all 'even-steven' all the time - the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes are the only times we are truly balanced, and that only lasts for a New York minute - the rest of the time the 50/50 split thing is nearly impossible, not at all a goal worth pursuing in the short term. In the long term though, fairness/equity, should be required reading for all of us. Balanced stuff lasts. 

This square can also show up in very literal terms - a relationship/partnership/contract vs home/family/real estate/mom. A Cancer vs a Libra.

 

Cancer and Libra are cardinal signs - they kick off new seasons. Their squares require action (at their heart are identity crises). When planets occupy these signs and square each other, like today, the changes the tension/frustration FORCE can be impactful/lasting. There is more potential to initiate something new here.

 

So, pay attention. If this isn't hitting your personal chart and even if it is, this is likely to be a small thing/fleeting. It's just something we want to address and not stuff/feed - we don't want to be tossing peanuts to an elephant who is going to rampage our living-room next week when the Moon meets the Sun meets Mars meets Mercury retrograde. 

xo all

artwork by the talented Aaron Griffin Art

Mercury Retrograde in Libra | through October 18th - rethinking our relationships, renegotiating contracts, changing our mind, shadow work, avoiding passive aggressive traps

 

The weekend's wonderful weather (yes, autumn weather, I am officially de-pooled) kept me unplugged, so this week it will be dailies rather than a weekly. We'll kick off the dailies with this post on Mercury retrograde in Libra - which begins TODAY!

 

A central idea of the newly developing quantum thinking is that we live in a participatory universe. There is real evidence that our attention and choices are what attracts/forms our material reality out of the vast potential of the quantum soup. Scientists long ago learned our world isn't so much solid things, as the energy that makes up those solid things. More recently they have learned our world is not JUST energy, but data, held together by webs of information, strung like our summer patio lights and creating the structural framework of our universe. 

 

(which is where astrology comes in, although science hasn't caught onto that part yet) 

So, when planet Mercury, ruler of data/information starts moving backward (from our view here on Earth) it is always important to PAY ATTENTION.

"We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world" — Gabor Maté

On MONDAY, at 1:20AM ED, Mercury, after getting all the way to 25 degrees Libra (and we thought we were almost done with all this relationship stuff), decides, um, not so fast folks, let's re-think this relationship/fairness/balance stuff. He turns around. Time to re-think, re-examine, re-visit, re-vise. 

 

You know the Mercury retrograde drill.

We ignore a retrograde Mercury at our own risk. Trying to plow ahead re-gardless will not work - likely we will have to do whatever 'new' thing we are doing now all over again anyway. It also won't work to stand still and try to wait Mercury out. We must move our ideas, projects, conversations, etc, through the process of the retrograde period.

With Mercury in Libra - this "review/re-do" will be focused on our relationships/partners, what we project onto other people, our need for balance, our ideas about fairness and justice, our contracts and agreements. Libra is an air sign - we are meant to re-think things. Minds will change.  

 

Mercury's station means the only planets in direct motion now are Venus and Mars. So, there is a hell of alot of momentum drawing our attention backwards. What did we miss? What needs to change?

 

A maybe good (and definitely complicated) thing is Mercury in Libra is answering to Venus, who is in Scorpio answering to Mars who is in Libra answering to Venus. This doesn't help Mercury reach his home energies (Virgo or Gemini), but it does help Venus, Mercury's dispositor during his stay in Libra, have some access to her own energy. 

 

Although she will have to go through Mars - take action, get angry, initiate, etc - to reach it.

 

This is reminding me a bit of last fall's Mercury retrograde (and I think 2019's, too) where we went from Scorpio to Libra, because although Mercury stays in Libra during the entire retrograde this year, Scorpio is pulled into our story through Venus - and you might notice in the list of the following aspects Mercury will make, a couple of his important repeat aspects are with Scorpio's co-ruler Pluto and he will finish up after her/his retrograde when he is in Scorpio. 

 

So, the whole "we aren't getting out of here alive" thing applies this season, too. Which probably sounds worse than it is, but that's kind of the point with autumn anyway, I guess.

Here's a rundown for the astro buffs:

9/27 - Mercury stations retrograde, 10/1 - Mercury squares Pluto/opposes Eris

10/3 - Mercury trines Jupiter, 10/5  - Mercury inconjuncts Neptune

10/8 - New Moon in Libra conjunct Mars, 10/9 - Mercury conjuncts Mars

10/12 - Mercury inconjuncts Uranus, 10/16 - Mercury sextiles Venus

10/18 - Mercury stations direct, 10/24 - Mercury inconjuncts Uranus

10/30 - Mercury inconjuncts Neptune, 11/2 - Mercury squares Pluto/opposes Eris

11/6 - Mercury (in Scorpio) sextiles Venus, Mercury inconjuncts North Node

11/10 - Mercury (in Scorpio) conjuncts Mars, Mercury squares Saturn

Mercury's first aspect after his retrograde station is FRIDAY -  a tricky square to Pluto (retrograde in Capricorn, and the modern ruler/co-ruler of Scorpio) and opposition to Eris. Notice Mercury will repeat this aspect again, a month later, with BOTH Mercury and Pluto direct. The square is tension/a space of crisis - verbal power struggles, obsessive thinking, manipulations, jealousy, intense conversations - something can feel like all or nothing/life and death. 

 

The opposition to disruptive Eris might speak of unpleasant truths/conversations/information we really don't want to deal with. 

 

One thing to keep in mind is the Pluto/Eris square is ALREADY in play and not going anywhere (all through 2021 and 2022), Eris is a disrupter. The Goddess of Discord/whistleblower. Eris catalyses vital changes in our lives/reveals what is hidden in the system. Squaring, well, um, death (Pluto) as she is now - is an evolve or die aspect. 

 

This isn't a new situation (and if you have cardinal planets near 24 degrees you have no doubt been tossed into situations where you are being required to state your truth/take your power back), but maybe now we are seeing it/talking about it/Mercury steps into the energy and makes the Pluto/Eris square a cup of coffee. He brings it home. He makes it personal. 

 

(the Moon will be in Leo and sextiling the Sun and Mars (both in Libra) on Friday, so the way through this square will be the Leo sextile - our Leo house, brave, loving, generous, following our heart. Honesty will be the best policy, hiding won't be an option.)

Mercury's follow-up aspect is a trine to Jupiter (who, keep in mind is retrograde, too) which might ease us into something more optimistic/bigger or return our sense of faith/hope, but is just as likely to exaggerate our fears around whatever Mercury retrograde square Pluto and opposed Eris has dug up. Which way this leans is up to us.

 

Then Mercury inconjuncts Neptune (yes, also retrograde) and maybe it feels like a relationship/conversation/information is literally drowning us. It's us or them/sink or swim. Something's got to give. Keep in mind, Mercury is retrograde. This is not the time for big decisions - it's the time to be RE-THINKING/RE-VISING. Let Mercury do his job. Big decisions during Mercury retrogrades often toss babies out with the bathwater. We don't need to ditch our partner (probably not anyway) or turn away from all information to save our sanity, but we do need to look at what the relationship/information is ALLOWING US TO SEE.

OK - by this time, as we near October 8th-9th, we will be building toward a New Moon in Libra conjunct Mars with Mercury applying and catching up with Mars a couple days later. Venus, ruler of this lunation, is still in Scorpio and now we have four planets answering to her. Pluto will station direct at the time of the New Moon, and remember Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio. This is a powerful/energized new beginning - keep in mind Mercury is still retrograde - by now we are clearer on what we want/what we have to do to get what we want/what needs to go. Mars will make things active/passionate/maybe angry - expect fireworks. Avoid the passive-aggressive bullsh*t. We will talk about this in depth as we get closer.

A few days later Mercury will inconjunct Uranus - some give and take/rocks and hard places with change, our money/resources/the future. The conversation/information/relationship shifts. Finally, Mercury sextiles Venus - OPPORTUNITY. By now, Venus is in optimistic Sagittarius (Sag ruler Jupiter is direct) and trining Chiron (healing). 

 

Restored faith/expansion/luck and healing via our relationship/balance/fairness story-line that has been RE-WORKED. Now I am not saying all's well that ends well, but a transit that starts with a square to the planet of death and ends with a smooth sextile to benefic Venus (ruler of this whole journey) while she trines (brakes off) healing Chiron, can be counted on to produce SOMETHING OF VALUE.

 

Two days later, October 18th, Mercury stations direct. 

 

Sometimes here is where a situation flips around. Our thinking changes. Once Mercury is direct the re-considering/re-doing time is ended. Things start moving forward. We choose. We decide. 

 

(sometimes we have to make important decisions/choices earlier on and that is OK, too - we just do the best we can with this, knowing things are still in flux and will change. The choices/decisions won't be rock solid until after Mercury stations direct.)

 

On November 4th, Mercury reaches 26 degrees Libra and finally starts covering new ground. 

 

The retrograde, through us, has done its job. What have we learned from our journey back and forth through 10-25 degrees if Libra? About us? About our partnerships/relationships? About what balance means now? Fairness? Justice? Beauty? Here is where we start walking a new road. Here is where we are moving on. 

 

I hope something here is helpful. We'll talk more about this as we move through it.

 

Something else to keep in mind with Venus in penetrating/take no prisoners Scorpio, is that although Mercury in Libra will be wanting to keep things cordial/balanced/polite with Mercury answering to Venus, this smiling 'til our face cracks thing won't work out so well. It will be like pouring pink paint on a problem and call it a Barbie dream house. Venus will insist we go deep, get to the bottom of things, not let those sleeping dogs lie (yes, the metaphors are killing me, too - I'm sorry, I can't stop). We might try to stay at the 'slap a smile on it' surface of things, but there will be something niggling at us that won't let that happen. Or the people around us won't. 

 

BUT even after saying that, it will pay to keep in mind that we have Mercury, Mars and the Sun in diplomatic Libra right now. 

 

Nice guys will finish first (we might have to be dragged into the mud before this is all over, so be it, all those micro-organisms are good for us anyway).

 

Social civilities/being kind will feel good, too.

xo all 

artwork by the talented Natalya Amirova

 

the astrology of the Full Moon in Pisces | September 20th, 2021 - a culmination, something gets cleared up, optimistic information but check the fine print, let go and let God then make welcome what shows up

 

 

This month's Full Moon is an ending at almost the very end of the very last sign. An end at the end of the end. In imaginative/dreamy, but often confusing Pisces. Does this end an area of confusion? Neptune is already retrograde, the tide out, life should be less foggy, but with Neptune so strong in his home sign these last few years - the buck stops here, there is nowhere else to go - I am not certain the tide being out clears up what we are seeing anymore.

 

But maybe the Full Moon will (over the next two weeks as this Moon plays itself out). Does something make more sense than it once did? It should. It will.

With the Moon at 28 degrees by the time she opposes the Sun, let's look at what she has been up to in Pisces before she gets here.

 

The Moon entered Pisces on Sunday. 

 

She squared the Nodes of Fate (Gemini/Sagittarius), she trined Venus (brakes off) and sextiled Uranus (opportunity through change). She met her pal Neptune (Pisces ruler, so here's the illumination or the dream, Neptune is retrograde, so there will be a connection to the past with this, either old dreams/illusions or past-life/familial story-lines). She sextiled a retrograde Pluto (opportunity through transformation/merging/purging/death) and finally she reaches her opposition to the Sun, waiting for her in Virgo - now here is this month's Full Moon, our annual Full Moon in Pisces. And then whoosh, she goes void/radio silence off that opposition. Sounds about right for Pisces!

This is all part of the Full Moon story of the last couple days, but also the story of what is peaking now from the last two weeks and the last six months

The square to the Nodes is tricky through Pisces because Pisces isn't a cut and dried place. Things morph/drift. The square speaks of pivot points and choices - and tension/frustration until we make them - but there is no clear way through. There is fog/uncertainty, sometimes exhaustion, maybe even deception. In Pisces we can't know BECAUSE WE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO KNOW. Pisces is about intuition/connecting to something bigger than ourselves. What do we do when we don't know? Then the Moon (as us) trines Venus (in Scorpio) and sextiles Uranus (in Taurus). Merged resources/intimacy/love/self-esteem/healing prayers, dreams that merge/purge, opportunities for change, opportunities to move toward something new (and keep in mind Uranus is retrograde, so new might not be totally new). New values. Embracing something else. Then the Moon meets up with Neptune (retrograde) - peak emotions about situations older than we are. This can feel like nirvana or this can feel like our batteries have been drained. And keep in mind again that we are talking about the story of Sunday/Monday (this month's Pisces Moon), but also of the last two weeks and six months.

 

That's the backstory, now let's take a look at this moment of fullness - let's unpack the chart!

 

At 7:54PM EDT on Monday, September 20th, the Moon opposes the Virgo Sun (on his way out of Virgo, so he's tired, too, ready to be finished with all the fixing).

Full Moons bring things to light, to peak energy - to a culmination, to an ending. It is the space in our breath cycle when our lungs are full and we need to exhale. Or maybe if we have been holding our breath, now is the time we must noisily gasp for air.

 

Pisces rules the 12th house of what we do last, what is hidden and put away, the ways we self-sabotage because from our vantage point in our 1st house we can't see what's behind us/don't know what we don't know, illusions and delusions, escape, sacrifice, our addictions, our imagination, lack of boundaries, connection, compassion, charity, hospitals, prisons, the things we have forgotten, our distant pasts, our ancestors, water, sleep, illness, healing, spirituality, GRIEF, God.... it is a mystical space of MAGIC where anything can happen.  

The Moon in Pisces is widely conjunct Neptune, sextiles Sedna, squares the Galactic Center. The Sun is conjunct Mars (out of sign with Mars challenged and out of bounds). Mercury trines Jupiter EXACT. Venus inconjuncts Chiron, also EXACT. Asteroid Narcissus trines Saturn, yes, EXACT, too.

 

The conjunction to Neptune, wide, yes, but Neptune rules Pisces and so is the ruler of this lunation - speaks of imagination, dreams, also confusion, maybe a lack of boundaries. Pisces is mutable water. so maybe whatever ends now or culminates has drifted away from us. Been made too big to contain. Become too exhausting to continue. Or maybe the Full Moon brings us peak creativity, connection, psychic sensitivity. A portal to our past, our ancestors.

The sextile to Sedna - remember we spoke of Sedna with the virus/vaccine posts, one is HERE - speaks of what comes from the loss. Remember after Sedna finally released her grip (yes, her father had chopped off her fingers, but still.. she released her grip) she turned into all the creatures in the ocean - a Goddess. She is about a crisis that forces us onto a higher, more spiritual path. Maybe the good that comes from the crumbling patriarchy/the father who turns on us to save himself and his undoing becomes our doing - we are made into more than we were before. With Virgo/Pisces maybe this speaks of a health crisis/mental health crisis - ours or someone else's. Sedna also is about the things we 'know, but don't know', because remember she thought she had a better deal than she had. She didn't look closely enough at the details of what she was getting herself into (and the Virgo Sun and Full Pisces Moon - the end of confusion - won't support this). How does this factor into our Full Moon story? It repeats the Mercury/Jupiter followed by the Mercury/Pluto, so pays to think about. READ THE FINE PRINT.

The Moon squares the Galactic Center (our homing signal, black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy). Through tension/frustration/anxiety we are moving onto a new wavelength. 

The Sun, as he opposes the Moon, from his perch in precise/practiced Virgo is conjunct Mars in Libra. Mars is not himself in Libra, and although he has access to his own ancient sign of Scorpio through Venus in Scorpio, he is still not at his best. The Full Moon in Pisces needs to 'let go and let God' and Mars in Libra is more likely to be holding onto some unfairness/imbalance that he is all worked up about. The Sun adds heat (possible via criticism or perfectionism) to Mars issues, so we don't want to be making any passive-aggressive moves here. The good news is that Mars is trining the North Node, so if we keep our actions balanced/fair/cooperative our path ahead will be smoother. There will be more options. This isn't a Full Moon to be burning any bridges.

 

Venus in Scorpio, and doing the mutual reception thing with Mars, is inconjunct Chiron. A rock and a hard place. Our wounded masculine triggered. An old hurt around our ability to be ourselves/take care of ourselves is like background noise at this Full Moon. Playing a part without playing a part. The Full Moon's bright light might not be what illuminates this, but the relationship intensity/intimacy, financial situations, death, whatever this is, it's old, it's painful. 

 

Mercury, also in Libra, perfects his/her own trine to Jupiter. This is optimistic/expansive. THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT. The Sun in Virgo, no small player in this Full Moon, is answering to Mercury, so this matters. Look ahead. What comes next? Every ending is actually a beginning, too. This trine is good for relationships/partnerships/contracts. Good news can come in. A stroke of luck. Jupiter is retrograde, so there is something about this 'more optimistic' future with its feet in the past. If we look ahead we see that Mercury is going to square Pluto in the middle of the week, that can bring us back down to Earth, here's the fine print. This doesn't delete the Mercury/Jupiter, but just knowing it's coming should be enough to keep our feet on the ground.

 

The best use of this Full Moon's energy is 

1. let go and let God (and there won't be a choice here anyway) and 2. make welcome whatever arrives

 

Yes, you could have skipped right to this paragraph and saved yourself 10 minutes. :) 

 

Maybe get out and walk in it, too. It's potent.

 

xo all

 

We are going to take a look at the virus/vaccines/our collective mental health this week and see where all that might be going.