Just this week Mercury finally moved out of Capricorn where it's been since December 6th.
Mercury in Aquarius wants to connect to a big audience, and is often found in the charts of people who want to share ideas about a innovative or utopian ideal.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is an example of this. His Mercury in Aquarius is peregrine, though. This means his Mercury is unconnected by major aspect to any other planet in his chart. That's a fixed sign (Aquarius) with a highly focused voice. And the focus? Telling people about The Dream.
Mercury in Aquarius functions like a big radio, both receiving and broadcasting. It's got some serious buzz. Sometimes the signal it pulls in is a dream, like King's, but it could just as easily be a nightmare. Aquarius can also produce real fascists --people who think they have THE answer and use that against their audience by demanding mass conformity. Those antennae don't have a conscience.
Mesmerism comes to mind. But to truly commit masso grando profundo hypnosis you'd need something like Neptune at hand, by transit or natally.
Oh we have one?
Just over there at 26 degrees Aquarius? It's been in Aquarius for like, nine years? You don't say. Mass hypnosis for nine years. Wow. Has it been smokey in here or what? Didn't notice that until recently...
These are the dwindling days of this particular mass hypnosis: Chiron and the Sun's conjunction this month is blowing away some of the smoke we've inhaled these past nine years. We can see better what illusions we bought into, if we want to. Some people like their illusions a little too well, you know.
So count this Aquarian Mercury the harbinger of new ideas. Adjust your antennae. Embrace the buzz. It's a great tool. This weekend as it opposes the ultimate "re-tooling" Mars in Leo, fixate on all the options available around you. You have resources and ideas available now, and if you can dial in a good signal you can use these resources to boost your personal individuation without inhaling another lungful of old Neptunian smoke.
Good signal: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bad signal: Benny Hinn and few folks getting slain in the spirit --or not?
Practical, grounded, must-get-this-done, must-plan-for-that-contingency future thinking going on here. Delayed gratification, long-term thoughts is the theme, folks. But innovative. Different. Challenging. People out there won't know what got into you. "Is that even possible?" they'll ask.
Yeah. It's possible.
Mercury just passed the North Node of the Moon and out of it's retrograde shadow phase, meaning this past week we've seeded a few thoughts about new structures in our lives.
Whatever you learned during this retrograde phase is clearing your brain for take-off. These thoughts are important because both Mercury and the North Node are now in Capricorn, the sign of this 15 year era and new foundations and legacies. The North Node is a door into the future, and Mercury, representing our thoughts, just stuck his head in that door and had a gander at what's possible.
If you're thinking, think it strong enough to last for the long haul.
This means you don't get all the goodies just yet. Delayed gratification --it's the new sexy. Bank on it.
And speaking of attraction: Venus trines a Libran Moon today. The sparkle you need today is in your head and a little zany. Venus in Aquarius likes it a little weird, but that Libran Moon gives your unorthodox ideas charm. Today may be the day you finally agree with your Aquarian inner self and dare to innovate.
Charmingly weird. Yep. Different. Not in the usual vein. But attractive. Think about that tonight when you review what you talked or read about recently.
Mercury is direct today and finally moving away from Pluto. Finally. I mean, those two were too tight for nearly a week there. (Someone cue, The Weight...)
Does this mean all your plans on hold are now ready to go? Not exactly.
The first week of February Mercury finally makes it back to the point where it went retrograde on Boxing Day. Until then let your brain gently unspool from this retrograde. We've just passed through a mighty tight astro period, so don't go at "what it all means" with too heavy an agenda. What it all means will sort itself and show itself over the next few weeks. At least you should have a few ideas by mid-February when Mercury has passed the North Node (future ideas), and then finally connects with Aquarius (the sign of people you do yer stuff with).
Need to mend fences with someone?
You might make some progress after Jupiter arrives in Pisces on the 17/18th. Jupiter in Pisces is a lovely grace note, but Mars is still retrograde in Leo, so don't be surprised (or offended) if your peace offering is only half-accepted. If you're dealing with a self-aware or "conscious" person, you'll probably get somewhere with your negotiations, even if it's an indefinite conclusion. But if you're dealing with your average "unconscious" and defensive character, be prepared for some degree of ego blowback. Real dialogue requires two people willing to engage openly about their legitimate needs --emotional and physical. Mars in retrograde seems to play into defensive behavior, so don't ask for a fight if you're not looking for one. Stay away from hassels. Mid-March may loosen up your negotiating potential, so if you can let sleeping egos lie until then, do.
You've got better things to do: stick with refurbishing your own brain and looking for new opportunities. There's something in that gestalt pattern you created these past three weeks. Go play with the possibilities.
If you're a Capricorn or Cap rising --be kind to yourself right now.
Really.
You so easily dog yourself about what you have/have not done on
the road to success (whatever that road is to you), but this week don't
indulge that stuff. Instead this is a good week to think hard about liking
yourself for the right reasons, and deciding what sort of leadership
you truly want to give to the world.
You like being seen doing the
"right thing," whether that's promptly sending thank you cards or knowing the company vision statement by heart. You don't see yourself as a complete suck-up to the job because like all cardinal signs, you've got an independent, self-starting streak within you. You prefer to think you decided what the right thing is. It just so happens that your version of "right" has an air of long tradition hanging around it, which might sound to some folks an awful like like "status quo". But is it?
Just because something is time-honored doesn't make it bad, you think. You have no problem with time. I am here to ask you about "honor" though. Specifically, I want to ask you "what's worth honoring?"
Now is the time to rethink what the "right thing" is in your life. If you are more honest with yourself, you'll admit you're too often driven by an authority or voice of authority outside yourself. What is this authority you revere --or fear? Your
boss, your friends, your perceived reputation, your family faith? Pick one --or two or three.
You want an accumulation of worth and you definitely want the esteem of others, but someone else seems to be defining that worth. What are you working towards? 10 million frequent flier points on your credit card? Another company recognition plaque on the office wall? An "appropriate" partner for that next marriage/project/committee? What is it? There's some delectable fruit you're after; I know because every Capricorn is always working toward something.
Working towards something implies we're also working away from something. For many of you that something is a fear that keeps you in constant motion toward your goals. Maybe you had a hard childhood; maybe you once knew poverty; maybe you lost a parent at an early age; maybe you grew up in an emotionally hostile/cold/or enmeshed family. Whatever it is, it's the fear that that monstrous memory coming back to you that pushes you out, away and up into some kind of carefully controlled (and I mean controlled) need for civility and accomplishment combined. No more chaos and crazy people, you vow. (Nope, those folks are getting side-lined quicker these days.) Like Scarlett O'Hara, herself, you vow you'll never go hungry again.
And no more fear of rejection. Ah, the fear of rejection: your very painful achilles ouchy spot. You know exactly what I mean.
Perhaps this is an expression of Capricorn's fishy side: the symbol of the climber is also has a tail of a fish. The fish within you vibes more like Pisces: it's the trembling, sensitive, secretive and (potentially) spiritual side of you. Do you remember the last time you stunned a friend who discovered your secret passion for crop circles? That stash of weed --or your tarot collection? "I had no idea you were into this stuff! I mean, I thought you were so straight." Uh, yeah... Your fishy secret self is also the side of you prone to (self) deceptive illusions. Exhibit A: Tiger Woods, the Capricorn of the hour and control freak extraordinaire. If you want to be an illusionist, take care. All Caps have some weird side, and so do you. Pluto, however, has a way of outing your weirdness. Digging in the basement, so to speak. Some honesty may be necessary if you haven't found some peace between your goat (climber) and fish (dreamer) halves.
With Mercury still in retrograde in your sign of Capricorn, take some time right now to think about who --or what- exactly is driving your ambition. And your fears of ambition. What is your ouchy spot, anyway? Are you self-medicating that spot with shopping and power grabs? Or maybe hitting the hooch a little too hard? Or have you buried your brain between the pages of Harlequin Romances?
This week as we prepare for a solar eclipse in your sign, the Sun, Venus
and the North Node are clustered together in Capricorn, too. All are pressing you
forward toward a more authentic expression of your leadership potential. Which means, you've got a really good opportunity this week --and I mean a really, really good opportunity-- to tune into what's attracting you to your future. With all these signs in your sign (or rising sign) the attraction signals should be coming from you.
Tune into yourself and listen deeply to your own heart. What is the most noble and life-affirming leadership you can offer? --First, to yourself, and then to others. You've got stuff in there that bears no resemblance to the rat-race, corporate/parental authority kow-towing you've known for most of your life.
Capricorn is the sign of revolutionaries. That's an amazing thought because most everyone has written you off as pretty uptight in these tell-all, happy-clappy Facebooking times. But you know, stuff doesn't change without someone with backbone in charge. Real change requires people who commit to long-term visions. That, Cappy, you've got in spades --long term vision.
So be the one with backbone. Be the one with vision for the long-haul. Just make sure the revolution you're starting is your own heart's fire; don't settle for anything less.
We have a solar eclipse at 25+ degrees Capricorn on the 15th.
Mercury is stationing most of the week at 5+ Capricorn.
Mercury will go direct on the 15th.
Jupiter will ingress Pisces on the 17th.
Okay, so this feels like a lot like a Rip Van Winkle tale --time distortion, old man involved, and someone re-emerging on the other side of the distortion with an altered identity and an adamant belief in something that could only be a fairy tale.
Is that right? Only a fairy tale?
I suppose astrology is mostly fairy tale to the modern mind. We might have serious students of Klingon language and folks who prefer to live on Endor, but they're tolerated as dreamers and romantics of a sort. Astrology fits in that category, too. Except when it's practitioners insist that something happens to all of us when Jupiter ingresses Pisces.
Astrology happens to us pretty much like weather happens to us, and our part in the matter is to decide how to respond. Yes, I'm a dreamer and a romantic of a sort, but Capricorn that I am, I get a little (a lot) nervous if I don't work with the tangible "real" world, too. So if I'm going to talk about this week, I want to talk about anchoring the events of the week into something you'll really use.
So here's today's useful eclipse week advice:
We are still in a dark moon phase, right now in Sagittarius, which is swell. Dark moons are typically draggy and murky, emotionally, but today I'm feeling pretty sanguine. And well, what d'ya know? The moon's in Sagittarius --until tomorrow night, when it ingresses Capricorn and triggers that Aries Point that's so active these days.
Maybe finally make another draft of those New Year's Resolutions, with a hard look at the beliefs behind those resolutions. (Remember Mars in Leo, retrograde, is giving us time in the "backstage" of our ego structures to sort a few things out.) Certainly after that lunar eclipse over the New Year, you've gotten a clue or two about false feelings or out-dated beliefs/habits.
Take out the recycling and the old clothes. Don't freak over this and suddenly think you've got to go on campaign; just give yourself 15 minutes to cull and then stop. Then actually shove the stuff into your vehicle and get it off to the Goodwill shop.
Unless you've got a religious reason for it, pack up any left-over Christmas decorations and be done with them this week.
Don't make any big decisions or permanent judgments until next week, at the very least. All the facts are NOT in.
Mercury moves into Capricorn today, squaring the Aries Point, and will pair up with Pluto on the same degree (2+ Capricorn) December 7th. Thus beginneth the Capricorn season.
We'll have about ten weeks of Capricorn thinking this year: Mercury goes retrograde the day after Christmas (aka Boxing Day) and then resumes its forward path January 15th where it will remain in Capricorn until February 10th. Ten weeks. Whew.
Soon each of the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, the Sun and the Moon) will pass by Sir Pluto, pushing all our dear Cappy friends into new realms of selfhood. We Cappys are such Nervous Nellies and Pluto sitting in our sign for the next fourteen years will no doubt make us or break us, so be kind to our neuroses this holiday season.
On the other hand, if you get rebuffed by a Cap, don't take it too hard. If they feel anything like me, they are so not into your games these days. Whatever games they are. Doesn't matter. Was having a laugh at myself after I realized Mercury had already moved into Capricorn because today I've noticed the shift in my approach to others right now: if you've got a serious offer or a legitimate/thoughtful plan, we'll talk; otherwise, I've got better things to do --and one of 'em is not you.
I know, hard core.
Still, there's that fishy/mystic interior life that Caps work so hard to hide. But with Mars still in Leo and Mercury now in your own house, any opportunity for self-expression won't go unnoticed these days. In fact, if you're a creative Cappy, I imagine these would be pretty fertile times for you.
Veteran's Day this year is particularly emotional, even for those of us who don't have a loved one in the service. Yesterday as I drove my daughter to a doctor's appointment, I listened to the memorial service for the men and women killed at Fort Hood. On the astrological anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I found myself, again, heavy-hearted over the madness of war. It's a form of melancholy I'm susceptible to, and one that responds well to rituals like memorial services and tunes played on a trumpet in a minor key.
Do I have any illusions that humans will ever abandon violence? No. No illusions there. We could sit through a hundred million memorial services and I still don't think we'd ever abandon that place in each of us that lusts to harm. I'm the sort of person that believes it's in each of us, waiting for the right moment to erupt. This belief doesn't make me paranoid; on the contrary, acknowledging my uglier self is an act of mental health --sort of like keeping one's friends close, but one's enemies closer. Yes, we can be our own worst enemies.
Which brings up a lot of questions about the relationship of Islam to modern psychiatry: how do each reconcile the shadow self to being a "good" person? Are there contradictions in definition, approach, outcomes? I'm very curious because the astrology of the shooting points to a sort of primal scream. Eric pointed this out to me in the Fort Hood shooting discussion thread at Planet Waves: Mars is trine both Pholus AND Hylonome. And Hylonome is a centaur planet and a marker for self-inflicted wounds, and self-imposed grief. Think of the custom of funeral keening and you get an image of Hylonome at work.
This week the Sun and Mercury passes through the last degrees of Scorpio and moves on to touch Pisces in Uranus and the South Node in Cancer in a grand water trine. We experience a lacuna of emotion-laden waters --self-referential, self-absorbed, self-contained. I say "lacuna" because grand trines so easily speak to one another, that this part of us tends to skip over useful information offered elsewhere in our experience. Here, we move from a deeply personal (Sun and Mercury in Scorpio) feeling to an universally compassionate (Uranus in Pisces) feeling, and then on to the backwaters of family history, our homeland, and most profoundly, our past patterns developed from feelings of safety and belonging (South Node in Cancer).
Or you could be cagey and secretive (Scorpio Sun/Mercury) about possibly paranoid and definitely unpredictable/unlikely/surprising emotions you can't define (Pisces/Uranus), but you're pretty sure they've got something to do with your mom/childhood (South Node in Cancer). And you stew in this (grand water trine).
There's more than one way to float this river.
For Americans who observe Veteran's Day this pattern points to our own feelings of safety as a nation; we were "born" under the sign of Cancer, and for the next 18 months as the South Node passes through the sign of Cancer Americans will think a lot about our past patterns of how we nurtured and protected our own. Appropriately, this seems to have crystalized around two issues --our collective health (the health care legislation) and now, our combat soldiers sent out, ostensibly, to protect our country. (Many of whom do not support this current war but feel pressured to keep silent.)
Fortunately the Saturn-Pluto square is FORCING us to integrate these feelings --somehow, some way-- into a new sense of identity. This is the beginning of a long growth cycle for all of us. Some folks are really working hard at this; others, not so much. Have a care for the folks who resist these changes. There's something here they don't want to acknowledge, which is the ugly side of themselves. And what we don't like about ourselves, we ascribe to others: "I'm not the problem, you are!"
You know, it's how wars start.
Peace to all who've lost a loved one to war.
"Snow Angel" by Over the Rhine
(Words and Music: Detweiler)
Once upon a winter
It seems so long ago
My one and only love and I
Fell down upon the snow
And as the dusk was falling
From our gray and goose down sky
We heard the old cathedral bells
Ring out our lullaby
Snow angel, snow angel
Someday I’m gonna fly
This cold and broken heart of mine
Will one day wave goodbye
Goodbye to this cruel wicked world
And all the tears I’ve cried
Snow angel, snow angel
I’ll meet you in the sky
The rumors of a distant war
Called my true love’s name
He packed his leather suitcase
And spoke no word of blame
We walked awhile together
I tried to hide my fear
He told me not to be afraid
And whispered in my ear
Snow angel, snow angel
Someday I’m gonna fly
This cold and broken heart of mine
Will one day wave goodbye
Goodbye to this cruel wicked world
And all the tears I’ve cried
Snow angel, snow angel
I’ll meet you in the sky
They brought my love home from the war
In a cart pulled by white mules
The Christmas bells rang out that day
Oblivious as fools
And as the snow began to fall
I kissed his frozen face
They told me in his woolen coat
His last few words were placed
Snow angel, snow angel
Someday I’m gonna fly
This cold and broken heart of mine
Will one day wave goodbye
Goodbye to this cruel wicked world
And all the tears I’ve cried
Snow angel, snow angel
I’ll meet you in the sky
Mid-October will definitely bring new opportunity for acting on your recent insights.
This is because in the second week Mercury will square off against Pluto and oppose the Aries Point.
The Aries Point = where what's personal meets the public --or vise versa.
If the AP is new to you, here's a basic introduction. What happens on an Aries Point event is usually something "out
there" that comes home to you. Usually this meeting isn't a collision, but there's always a possibility of hard adjustments. No, usually the Aries Point works more like a ripple effect in play. Something out there rolls it's way back into your personal life, or back into your head. Think Micheal Jackson's death this
summer --an Aries Point event, sure as sure. Or legislation passing that will affect your personal life (health care, fer'insance). On a far great scale of impact and importance (at least in political and social terms) was the September 11th Aries Point events.
Does an Aries Point event always point to death and destruction? No, no, no. However, we can never forget that AP events always carry the seed of wider influence. In other words, whatever you choose to think or do does not stay in Vegas. This could be the birth of an idea that positively transforms your company's whole culture, or it could be the revelation of your shoddy bookkeeping that brings down the whole company. Positive or negative, AP events always connect us by merging the public with the private.
So here's my thematic take on the upcoming AP aspect in Mid-October: What is the power within your mind?
How do you want your ideas to utterly transform your world?
How are messages you tell yourself creating the environment you find yourself in?
Or the people you want to be with?
You will be thinking about your relationship to the people around you. You will be thinking (or reacting) to the power or authority you perceive in the people around you. (This is the Pluto part.)
What ideas (assumptions) do you bring to these people?
And where are these assumptions leading you?
Got any ideas about how you'd like to lay a better foundation for yourself in these relationships?
If you've been doing your homework during the Mercury Retrograde (and shadow) phase, I bet you'll have clearer answers to this questions. Just a head's up.
Here's Mystic Medusa's take, which has some wise and fun advice:
Merry Mercury Direct & now, well, things go faster and there should
be heaps less of that mixed-messaging style confusion but as I say,
Mercury Retrograde purists don’t count it as DONE until Mercury gets
back to six degrees of Libra, the point at where it went Retro in the
first place. How I Think This Works: The contracts signing being a bad
idea, shit breaking down, crazy Freudian slippage and all that stuff is
done once Mercury is Direct. But dialogue from as far back as
mid-August still has a while to play out. There will be further
developments on any important dialogue in that time. Or reversals.
Weirdings. Revelations. Secrets. You get the idea. Particularly when
Mercury Squares Pluto again for the third time in a row on October 11.
Mercury's turn direct is next door to Saturn, both planets still in the sign of Virgo. So steady on, folks. Saturn doesn't reward fluffery, and Mercury is still working out the details. So still a good time to lay down solid tracks for your next project/venture/personal development scheme. In fact, not much else will work these days.
The Moon will oppose Pluto all weekend, so take time to note the deep insights that can float to the surface of your thoughts and emotions this weekend.
I say "can" because this is totally possible, but not usually pleasurable. With Pluto in the mix we're likely to feel something discomforting about our insights.
Discomfort is something we tend to ignore or treat away, like a headache. But like a headache is usually the body's first signal that something is out of order, emotional discomfort is usually a signal that something within us needs an adjustment, too. It's not that our emotions are "wrong," but that they may point to a deeper discomfort hidden beneath the clutter of our daily to-dos and amusements/distractions. As a culture we are trained (and sometimes even rewarded) for ignoring this pain. Instead we pop the emo-aspirin and turn on Iron Chef or the Steelers game and fogettadboutit.
Word of warning: if you're ignoring your darker or more painful emotional side, you may just encounter that issue through another person this weekend. So heads up if you think someone else isn't handling their "business" well this weekend. It might be a clue about the way you handle your own emotions.
The Moon is also squaring Mercury retrograde in Libra and Uranus in Pisces. If you're a daring soul this is a dynamic set-up for revelation and compassionate/spiritual breakthrough about personal power in relationships.
I, for one, am having an abundance of thoughts on the subject of ambition. There's plenty of dark power in that topic. Lots about who's on top and who's on the bottom, and who has to give what to whom --for what? It's absolutely uncomfortable, but I'm rethinking many of my assumptions about ambition. And the first stage was simply acknowledging I even HAD assumptions.
If you feel a little like taking a retreat from the world for this deep thought Moon, by all means, do. Really. This is a feeling opportunity, and it's so difficult to sort our own feelings when we're entangled in the emotions of (even well-meaning) friends and family. Remember Pluto's in the mix, and the planet just turned direct. Pluto does have a habit of pulling up buried stuff. So if your psyche hands you that lump of coal in your heart, remember that lump that has all the potential of becoming a diamond of great beauty. That's also the power of Pluto in its current sign, Capricorn.
And if you happen to ponder all this alongside a slice of double dark chocolate cake and a cup of good coffee, do not feel ashamed. After all, this is a Cancer Moon. Enjoy.
