Mercury Square Chiron | words that hurt, words that heal, don't overthink it, asking different questions, arrows that find their mark

*** by aleksesss

Today, we have Mercury (in Sagittarius) squaring Chiron (in Pisces) at 24 degrees.

With Mercury (words, ideas, communications, thoughts) in bigger-is-better, sky's-the-limit Sagittarius our words already have a tendency to come out with more force/bluntness than we might have intended.

They can fly out like arrows from the archer's bow - too late to take them back or send a warning shot by aiming a little higher. We can also be more forceful in expressing our views - which are the right views because they're ours, right?

Today's square to wounded-healer Chiron asks us to think before we speak. Avoid the temptation to try to convince other people we know what we are talking about. If what we are about to say isn't helpful TO THEM, and maybe even if we think it will be - just zip it. Save that off-color joke for another day.

If we are the ones on the receiving end of a thoughtless comment or sharp remark that stings it will pay to remember the other person's words may have been tossed out quite unintentionally. They don't know we carry an open wound from 1992 just above our right shoulder and damn if their carelessly tossed arrow observation didn't land exactly there. 

The fact it found its mark is what we want to be paying attention to. Think of the person as an angel with a message (who just happens to be carrying a quiver packed with arrows and looks like our mother, angels don't all show up with soft wings and choir voices). Not because we actually look "just like your Aunt Bertha in those pants", yes, the Aunt Bertha who died of diabetes in 2008 when she couldn't control that sweet tooth.

But because we are still thinking/obsessing about that comment hours later.

If our pain seems out of proportion to the situation asking ourselves - why do these words hurt - what open wound is this activating -  is a good use of this energy. This is a good time for journaling.

On the other hand this could be just the right time to speak (Mercury) our truth (Sagittarius). Someone is probably going to get hurt though. This isn't necessarily our problem, but let's know what our intention is before going public with painful information or snapping back at a thoughtless comment now.

Maybe Aunt Bertha liked to wear red and our red pants had mom remembering that. Maybe the square to Chiron is making mom more nostalgic. Maybe she always secretly coveted Aunt Bertha's booty. Maybe screaming at her that she has always favored our sister and isn't she the one who gave us sugary treats as rewards anyway and we are just sick to death of her rudeness isn't particularly helpful.

We will all be more mentally sensitive now.

This could also play out with a sibling (Mercury ruled) or our intellect. Today's energy could have us feeling we are just not quite up to snuff about something mentally. I have been feeling like this with my memory. I miss the days when the words I needed were right there where I last put them and I didn't have to rummage around in a brain, that feels like an unsorted sock drawer, to find them. Sigh.

xo all

Late tonight Mercury will trine revolutionary Uranus making it a good time to burn the midnight oil for new ideas. Either get to bed early to avoid it or plan to be up for hours!

Neptune Stations Direct | make a wish and open your eyes, drifting closer to solid ground, intuition, compassion, escape routes, truth, lies, the man/woman in the mirror

to make a wish by ESPRIT-CONFUS

Neptune stations direct today at 11 degrees Pisces. Pisces people and anyone with a strong Neptune or planets from 11-14 degrees of the water (Scorpio, Cancer, Pisces) and mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) will feel this change of direction, although maybe not immediately.

Neptune rules our imagination, dreams, spirituality, escape, addiction, art, illusion, delusion, intuition, healing, hospitals, connection, compassion, sacrifice, the things put away, the ocean, the things we do last, the 12th house, the sign of Pisces. Like steam from a hot shower forming on a clean mirror he fogs up whatever he contacts, doubly so when he is moving backward (from our perception here on Earth) which he has been doing since June.

For people touched by this, and for everyone to some degree, especially since he has been very strong in his home sign of Pisces since 2012 (continues through 2025), this retrograde has been a process of something dissolving; fading away. Or maybe we have been what is fading away as we drifted farther and farther from solid land. Loss and gain through Neptune happen over time. The way water erodes rock or slowly creeps higher upon a shoreline. Now that he is direct we could feel rather unstable and uncertain as we regain our sea legs or more intuitively sure about something that isn't totally logical.

His last aspect before his station being a sextile (opportunity) to our Capricorn Moon is a good sign for practical, solid and lasting growth (well, as solid and stable as anything can be involving Neptune!) for our spiritual understanding/collective compassion for the next 6 months (until his next retrograde). Our dreams can become actual solid things. What are you dreaming about?

If you have planets or points near 11 degrees Pisces (Neptune's stationing degree) or a water or mutable sign you might want to take note of what is happening now and make yourself a post-it for the Full Moon in Gemini on December 3rd which will square this degree. Gemini rules information/communication/learning so something could come to light during that Full Moon that reveals something happening now is not quite what it seems.

Now that Jupiter is in Scorpio he will be trining Neptune in Pisces. The first trine (brakes off) will be on December 2nd, 2017, then on May 25th, 2018 and finally on August 19, 2018. This is wonderful energy for healing and compassion and making amazing art; for dissolving barriers and expanding connection. We feel empathy and compassion when the barrier between us and other people is dissolved. We heal when the barrier between us and wholeness dissolves. Our art and imagination come alive when the barriers between us and our muses dissolves. These time periods could also see us obsessed, manipulative and in water "over our head". Addiction, escape tendencies could expand. Truth gets stretched. It's not that we have to take the bad with the good so much as the bad is part of the good.

Remember with transits sometimes all we have to do is survive them. We just have to absorb the energy shifts. We evolve through that. We just have to be still standing or sitting or laying down (just not in a big, old wooden box) when the transit is over.

And with Jupiter in Scorpio for the next year our shadows will keep expanding until we are standing inside them in the dark groping for a light switch.

When I meditated on Jupiter in Scorpio and my own situation I kept seeing those giant fractal mirrors. At first I thought I was seeing broken mirrors, but later realized I was seeing a mirror made up of intentionally placed pieces.

It made me think about how our reality mirrors us very precisely. We all make each other feel exactly the way we feel. So however we make someone feel, whether consciously or unconsciously, will eventually become the way they make us feel. Instead of blindly groping around in the dark (although sometimes groping in the dark can be a good thing) we can choose to see what is really happening.

We can use this knowledge (you are mirroring me) to understand other people, to see/feel our impact on them, to resolve struggles quickly. 

So if someone makes us feel a certain way, we can know that we are either making them feel that way or we have made them feel that way. Or someone/something else has - there is only one of us here. 

With that knowledge we can consciously choose language and take actions with them that supports how we want to feel.

For example, Jupiter in Scorpio is alot about power and control within relationships.

So if someone is making us feel our own lack of power and control we can be certain they are feeling a lack of power and control. If we say and do things to make the other person feel more empowered and in control of themselves - the same will be mirrored back to us over time. It can't not be because we have changed, so what is reflected back to us (us!) through other people has to change, too.

This isn't New Age mumbo jumbo. Try it and see what happens. Think about the way someone makes you feel, conjecture they are feeling the same way and actively choose to make them feel differently via your words and actions - make them feel the way you want to feel. See what happens.

xo all

(Of course let's not do this at our own expense - Neptune rules martyrs, too - but we CAN help other people feel empowered without dis-empowering ourselves - if the action/words we are using dis-empowers us, these are the wrong words/actions. Do it/say it differently.)

Sun into Sagittarius, Venus Sextile Pluto | investing for the long term, taking inventory, making money, love deepens, when bigger is better, avoid overspending/over committing, exploring, having FAITH

What do you wanna by AquaSixio

Today, we have Venus (in Scorpio) sextiling (opportunity) Pluto (in Capricorn) at 17 degrees.

Our ambitions and our values can work together now. This could produce a powerful desire (Pluto) to make/spend money (Venus) or have what we want.

(Caution flag out - with the Sun's move into Sag today we could overspend or over-invest ourselves in something - if you are like me and feeling these energies the week before, you might have done this last week!)

We could be dealing with women, finances, love, birth/death or third party issues. Honest interactions are a prerequisite to getting the most from this transit.

We have been down a long and winding road with Venus this year, mostly reconstructed by and noticing what we didn't get/don't have. This shortage/lack of what we thought we needed changed/set our course or we might still feel we are hanging out in limbo land (we aren't).

This sextile creates a portal for a smooth, cosmic course correction.

Take a real inventory of what you have (money, relationships, self-esteem, values, resources) and a "get real with yourself" look at what you want and why you want it.

What is working here and what needs to shift? Mars is in Libra answering to Venus - take some kind of action. The waxing Moon is in ambitious and structure-building Capricorn now. This helps, too.

The Sun moves into "bigger is better" Sagittarius today.

We have been down a long road with Sagittarius, too, and now Saturn is preparing to leave this sign - hang in there Sagittarians! How many times over the past couple years have I written on this blog the words - travel, places outside our comfort zones, foreign issues or people, education (higher than what we have now), anything we are taking to a higher level, politics, religion, legal issues, weddings, the media and marketing -this is Sagittarius territory, Jupiter territory, our 9th house.

What we believe becomes much more important than what we know now. There is a reason the season belongs to Santa Claus!

With Saturn in Sagittarius our beliefs/faith have been held to the fire the last couple years. What does our truth look like now? What do we really believe? So much has happened on the planet to show us that anything is possible. But is that what we are seeing? Or are we seeing everything falling apart?

Remember so much inside us has changed since 2012 and the outer world has been struggling to catch up with us (yes, I know it looks like it is the other way around, but looks are deceiving here). With the Sun in Sagittarius we will all be needing a little freedom to wander and explore beyond our comfort zones and known places and spaces. The path we find ourselves on during these travels could be inhabited by unicorns and rainbows or stone throwing orks - either way we will need the faith to know that no matter what happens we will be OK. The Sun in Sagittarius (we are all burning Sagittarius fuel now) makes that possible.

xo all