Neptune Stations Retrograde | increased intuition, releasing fantasy, releasing guilt, the anesthetic wears off ...

The Whispering Lake by Mirish

Neptune retrogrades are subtle because Neptune is subtle. Think of the way rock is worn away by water - slowly and almost imperceptibly - but effectively and permanently.

This one takes Neptune from 14 to 11 degrees Pisces through late November. If you have planets or points in those degrees or in those degrees in any of the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) or mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) you will feel this year's retrograde strongest. Neptune is retrograde about 40% of the time.

Neptune rules the ocean, the seas, sleep, our dreams (both the dreams when we are sleeping and the dreams when we are awake), the unconscious, the subconscious, our inter-connectedness, flow, imagination, compassion, meditation, medication, illusion, deception, lies, addiction, alcohol, exhaustion, escape, baptism, sacrifice, spirituality, detox, faith, psychology, mental health, mental illness, intuition, mysticism, fantasy, the ethereal realms (things that cannot be seen, touched, tasted or heard with our five senses), art, dance, music, film, chemicals, drugs, poison, ghosts, victim, martyr, saint, religion, Christ-like, fanaticism, hospitals, healing, research, confusion, retreats, release, isolation, orphans, nursing homes, retirement, our feet, vision, karma, hidden enemies, what is hidden, what we do in secret, lack of boundaries, the 12th house of our charts (things we do last, things that are put away, our subconscious, our self-undoing), the house that holds Pisces in our charts, the 12th house of our charts.

At first glance this might look like a list of unconnected things - but when you look closer can you see/feel the connections? And of course, even as we look for the connection we are using Neptune!

Something here is up for review which means situations, people, circumstances will come up that will re-focus our attention on one or more of these areas over the next few months.

This will be a time to reflect, re-do, re-evaluate, re-examine, release or re-visit what we are working with here. Neptune always turns us inward. Dream guidance and intuition will increase.

Remember when a big energy shifts like Neptune does today we will literally be "off" so things can just feel "off" - let's not push where we don’t need to push. Instead let's stay alert to the signs and feelings around us and take our cue from them. We might require extra (or less) sleep, more (or less) time alone or more (or less) meditation time.

Avoid mind altering chemicals and known addictions. Life's natural anesthetic is moving in reverse now, so the lure of outside numbing agents - that drink or shopping spree or pain pill will be stronger - keep this in mind.

Imagine we are standing at the shore line up to our knees in the cold ocean. When we look down into the water everything looks foggy. Our legs look two sizes too big, almost like one wide mermaid's tale (or this is how I imagine myself, clamshell bra and all). The shells and pebbles at our feet are not in exactly the place they appear to be when we reach for them. Even in the clearest water things are illusory and shifting.

Then the tide flows out. The shells at our feet look a lot more ordinary and less colorful and they are smaller than we thought they would be.

Instead of things being closer than they appear, they now appear to be exactly where they actually are. Stuff is a little less magical - the mermaid's tail/tale turns back into our ordinary legs; sunburned and spider-veined - but now that we have legs again we can do all kinds of things we couldn't do before. Maybe sometimes the tail/tale is needed to keep us sane and protected, but at some point it just gets in our way. And this is a sloppy, terrible metaphor, but you might see what I am getting at. Maybe.

Neptune retrogrades separate the illusion from reality. 

And what we will be left with next November will be the reality. Useless boundaries, lies, guilt, martyr and victim stories and other tall tale/tails will be left on the shoreline. What was vague will clear up. Draining dreams will dissolve. Reality shifts.

As Neptune stations she is sextiling (opportunity) Juno (partnership, commitment) in Capricorn (time, responsibility. structure, work). Since Juno is also retrograde - for some people this will be part of that partnership/commitment "re-view" we talked about HERE - also finishing up in November which I guess will be a big month for .. finishing up!

Also today if you have anything in your chart around 26 degrees of Aquarius, Leo or Gemini there is a nice trine (brakes off) between the Gemini Sun and the South Node in Aquarius and a nice sextile (opportunity) to the North Node in Leo. Communications, ideas, information - also siblings, local neighborhood, transportation - issues that come up now could have a positive impact on your future. If there is something you have been detached from (Aquarius) it could be time to put it in your spotlight (Leo) or maybe your bystander role in a group needs to move more front and center? See what develops. Write down words that catch your ear now.

xo all

Saturn Opposite Sun | pressure makes diamonds ... but pressure also creates depression

"People who have a creative side and do not live it out are most disagreeable. They make a mountain out of a molehill, fuss about unnecessary things, are too passionately in love with somebody who is not worth so much attention, and so on. There is a kind of floating charge of energy in them which is not attached to its right object and therefore tends to apply exaggerated dynamism to the wrong situation." ... M.L. von Franz

_ by nairafee

Once a year the Sun and Saturn line up in exact opposition. This happens today at 24 degrees Gemini and Sagittarius.

Our creative heart/life force (Sun) meets a limit (Saturn). Coincidentally (is there such a thing? I guess so ... maybe) Saturn also reaches the exact midpoint of its retrograde journey (retrograde through late August).

If we are encountering delays and obstacles this transit doesn't bring about a conclusion, but it can shine a light on what is limiting us and a light on what we need to do about it. Retrograde Saturn is focused - it creates the defined choices we need to look in a specific direction.

This energy might not feel good. Saturn can be depressing because it is quite literally like a weight pressing down on us.

I am not going to write again about the need to 'step into our responsibility', work hard, do the right thing, yada yada. We know this. And we are just as likely to get off course by stepping into someone else's responsibility, working too hard or neglecting the other muses. Saturn isn't everything and he doesn't run every show as much as he'd like to (although for today he kind of does).

In the Samuri tradition, warriors were expected to hone their skills in calligraphy, poetry and painting. This was to make sure their unlived creativity did not sour and devolve into an unintended/unattended mess.

These days we’re busy cutting creative outlets from our curriculum. They can’t be quantified and take too much effort. When would you ever need to play a clarinet? What use is a pen and ink drawing? Will writing a poem put food on the table?

I think quite a bit about effort these days because my body is tired. For life to be good lately it has to be easy.

We are all so busy that generally speaking our highest ideal is not to have to do anything. We work so we can take time off from working. We do it today to be free tomorrow. Something is very wrong here, but for today I am too tired (and stiff-necked - ugh) to think too long about this.

But maybe I am drifting away from Sun opposite Saturn. Of course, with a natal Sun/Saturn conjunction I do not often encounter Saturnian limits outside myself - I am much more likely to encounter a person/situation ready to hand off their own overloaded bag to me and/or to spend my time figuring out new ways to overburden/limit myself

(and if you are a person who was teacher's pet, got along with authority figures without even trying and gets out of traffic tickets easily I am talking to you, too).

Sigh ...

For now, let's give ourselves a break. We can honor our commitments. We can finish what we started. We can take responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in without judgement. And yes, this could be a good situation, too - it's report card time! We can resolve to move forward in a more responsible manner in whatever area of life we feel this pressure. And remember that 'in a more responsible manner' will have different meanings for different people. There's more info in the weekly HERE.

xo all

This is all part of a Grand Fire Trine encouraging us forward when we work courageously from our heart - it's tied into our Leo North Node, our collective way forward - so yes, there are report cards handed out now, but what we learn from our report card is ultimately what will move those mountains!

Mercury Trine Jupiter, Mercury Square Neptune | words get BIG and slippery ....

2-52 by Sturmideenkind

Today Mercury (mind, ideas, communication, learning, teaching, siblings, local community, transportation) in Gemini is very busy and in typical Gemini fashion going in multiple directions at once.

He/she has a trine (brakes off) with a recently full-steam-ahead Jupiter (in relationship oriented Libra) making this a good time for expanded thinking, big ideas and brainstorming. Jupiter rules our 9th house of higher thinking, higher education, foreign (which means different things to different people) travel and things foreign to us, weddings, legal issues, politics.

We get lucky (Jupiter) when we expand beyond our immediate boundaries.

It's a good time to share information, to think BIGGER, to imagine the possibilities. This is about optimism and lucky breaks - maybe we get good news now or have good news to share!

BIG ideas are floating in the wind to be picked like apples in the autumn. If you think you are never having any good ideas - which is not true, but just something you have convinced yourself of and once you believe it you start seeing it (kind of like when you buy a blue car and never see blue cars and then suddenly they are everywhere) - then you need to get yourself into a position to make use of good ideas. Thoughts are things and they flow to the people in the best position to bring them to life and give them legs.

Quiet the mental chatter, do more stuff you want to do - the more we are doing things we are passionate about the more we will line up with things that enhance that passion - stretch your brain with new ideas, new books, new websites, travel. Make stuff. Put time into what matters to you.

Now, here's where the Gemini propensity to bounce around comes in because immediately after Mercury trines Jupiter (at 13 degrees) he moves to 14 degrees and squares Neptune. And these degrees are so close together they are pretty much happening at the same time.

That square to Neptune really muddles things up. With Neptune, more words can just mean more confusion. Maybe the information we get now blows in and then drifts away like a storm that never happens (which can be good news now that I think about it). Maybe the story we tell reaches the wrong ears. Maybe someone is intentionally misleading us with inflated information. Maybe we are the one doing the misleading. Maybe we are misleading ourselves.

So what do we do now?

Well, first know this is not good energy to make a decision because our thinking (Mercury) is not clear - and yes, this week is a time of decisions for many people AND Neptune is going retrograde at the end of the week (through November), which isn't going to help us. At some point we will have to move forward with our heart (North Node in Leo) and/or our courage (North Node in Leo) - probably still unsure of all the facts.

But for today, if you can avoid making any major decisions push it off a bit. Give Mercury a couple days to move off that square to Neptune (lies, delusion, drifting off course) and that trine to Jupiter (expansion, big picture thinking, rose colored expectations).

It doesn't mean whatever comes up now will drift off course or turn out to be all about nothing but with that possibility on the table it's not the day to bet the farm.

Grab your idea apple if you can reach it (it's Gemini season we are stretchy) - you can totally stand on tippy toes or use your step stool or even that ladder from the garage (Venus is in Taurus so we are working with our existing resources). Write ideas/conversations/thoughts down. Work with it a bit. Feel it out.

Just don't head down to Home Depot and spend thousands of dollars on a cherry picker to reach that perfect looking apple way up top. Leave that apple for someone else - it will either be there for the someone who already owns a cherry picker or the someone willing to fall on his ass. Our asses are cushy, but maybe not that cushy.

Yes, think BIG. Just keep in mind the possibility we are hearing what we want to hear now. Save the big moves (if we are basing them on information that comes in now), choices and life changing decisions for a clearer day.

xo all