Jupiter opposition Pluto

A drop of water

(photo credit: Michael Melgar, March 2007)

One of the interesting things to be observed when you think things through astrologically is the difference between the effects of personal or inner planets (Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars) against what happens when generational planets Jupiter and Saturn - or an outer planet like Uranus or Neptune move through aspects over time. As an example here, nobody (at least that I know of) has any fun at all with the ongoing Venus retrograde. Whoever we are, whatever we’re aimed at doing or being…accomplishing or figuring out, Venus retrograde seems to have found our weak point.

Not that it’s mysterious, no. That quality is exactly what astrologers mean by ‘personal’ planets – they affect us personally, and at a personal level. When personal planets go retrograde very few of us think wonderfully… maybe even rationally…about ‘our person’ or self.

And thus things happen – personally and on the personal level.

Now it isn’t that Saturn and Jupiter or the outer planets (or all that lies beyond Neptune) doesn’t affect our personal life. Our life is our life and we feel all of it. (Hopefully, that is. To be deprived of knowing your Self is after all, a form of losing your life.)

But when we’re talking about Jupiter, we’re talking about something akin to an interface. Known as the planet of ‘expansion’ and ‘increase’ the astrological Jupiter embodies the process of going beyond where you are now, whatever that involves.

Yet Jupiter is not a personal planet. So when Jupiter is in retrograde, the question is more about what we don’t know about where we are now (and how are we going to learn all that?) and all we need to do in life. We’re growing and expanding inside – within the realm of our mind or soul or psyche. We’re realizing that the world is bigger than we suspected. That things can happen we never imagined would happen in life or to us – whichever.

Jupiter's Auroras photographed in UV

(photo credit: NASA,JPL)

Currently, Jupiter’s retrograde in Cancer is coinciding with Venus’ retrograde in Capricorn – which is the astrological ‘reason’ (or indication) that the current Venus retrograde is…well…about as little like the Venus we know and want to love as apparently possible.

I did tell you I’ve been getting complaints about this, didn’t I? Yes. I’ve even been getting protests from people who don’t like astrology – and let me tell you, that’s a sure sign that something is amiss.

Theory would suggest that considering the belief that since everything happens when (and as) it should, this Jupiter-impounding-Venus-retrograde effect which is forcing all of us in some way to take a good look at what it is we need to do or be in order to function cohesively in a world which seems ever more complicated and structurally amiss.

There are no simple answers here. But we do have a bunch of astrological facts to think through – the first of which is the obvious one. We already know that Venus is retrograding back through Capricorn about to go direct at 13 Capricorn. Those gut wringing effects have been with us for a while now asking us to re-prioritize so that the whole Venusian concept of ‘cause-effect’ works correctly – which is to say, what you puts out comes back to you…meaning we can’t be aiming for the effect and trying to ‘back into’ whatever will cause that.

That won’t work. And that’s one of the big points of this time – we don’t just get to do things the ‘pretty way.’

And frankly, if you haven’t gotten that message by now, stand by. Yes, there are a few of us who for whatever astrological reason have had the right rock to hide under to avoid this Venusian chaos, but as an astrologer I’ve never seen a chart which would be theoretically “immune” to everything which is going to occur over the next four or so months. It has struck me of late that it’s some sort of cosmic dirty trick that Venus and Mars tend to go retrograde in a 1-2 fashion as both planets are personal astrological indicators pertaining to our sense of being appreciated in this life and world.

So yes, there is an important point there: how we feel about whether we’re appreciated or not may have nothing to do with how others truly regard us. But it’s a feeling…and that feeling is real. Vitally real.

An artist's conception of Pluto and its moon-and-binary-partner, Charon

(courtesy of Pat Rawlings, NASA - October 1992)

Evidently life doesn’t want us resting on our laurels collecting huzzahs and accolades…which brings us back to Jupiter. Life wants us to keep growing – that would be the Jupiterian view. So as Jupiter moves from 13 Cancer into 12 Cancer and ‘locks in’ this face-off against the forces of transformation and our need to change something in order to move on…ahead…or even just to stay in one place, so we move from the more theoretical realm of 13 Cancer (an unusual Cancer degree which functions through the intuitive mind) into 12 Cancer, a degree which through exposing us to whatever is habitual, mundane and seemingly inescapable tends to drown dreams in false promises we may well think are safer.

This issue is purely Cancer: Jupiter in Cancer. There is in essence, no safety in yesterday’s solutions. We can try to avoid the inevitable, but if we do, inevitability will find us – eventually and inevitably. A lot is breaking down and a lot is coming out. Jupiter’s being positioned in this image at 13 Cancer brings in dog star Sirius, which questions our use of brilliance and our willingness to be simply…dazzled.

And when we do, and of through that we end up with nothing – or with something we know is utterly wrong for who we are…is the lie theirs? Or is it the lie that we told ourselves when we truly knew better?

Asteroid Hel and Child are sitting right beside Jupiter at 11 and 10 Cancer respectively bringing in the emotional aura of wanting things to be good and to go well. But are they? Given the opposition from Pluto (i.e., Pluto/Venus retrograde) this would seem to be some form of personal naiveté being brought to our own mental table for a bit of carving.

At least trimming of the fat. We’re better than all of the wishing and hoping, the placating, putting off and ‘going along to get along’ we’ve been doing - it’s time to get down to work. Across the zodiacal gulf, Pluto is just sitting there alongside asteroid Psyche (our mind) in Capricorn, asking us to use what we know in a manner which can change our direction – and maybe that of a few others or something else out there too.

Pluto conjunct Psyche is the sign of a changing mind. Those who resist Plutonic energetics generally get crushed, stripped or unjustly taxed – even punished. Those who stop trying to define today and tomorrow by yesterday inherit Pluto’s power.

These months are not just about us. To think so is likely to be one of our big and bigger mistakes – as indicted in the above t-square. With Jupiter in the ‘goal’ position here we are asked to get ‘over’ our Uranian ‘I don’t want to’ selves…or to embrace the unique and Uranian in our Self and to use that universally so that we can achieve our Jupiter (expanded) goals.

T-squares always, always, always ask us to think more globally. To therefore have an Aries Uranus at the ‘hurdle’ of this t-square asks us to ‘use our Self’ in a universal way or in a universal cause – or merely to understand that what we’re going through is something everyone can relate to, or everyone is going through in their own uniquely Uranian way.

That process starts with our moving ‘off’ our Venus/Pluto position – which could well be some sort of personal ‘power base’ into something new or unknown. Against that, Uranus in Aries (pretty much by nature) represents the nerve-wracking which  generally requires at least some ingenuity and maybe a bit of risk. Then again, Uranus in Aries can make us think we’re risking when we’re not – we’re just stepping outside of some ‘known’ or ‘comfort zone.’

Into all this comes the idea of 9 Aries, a degree which concerns the need to make corrections, often of the “course correction” type. Realizing that such things are universal may help us now as we admit – even just to ourselves – that how we have been going about something isn’t optimal.

9 Aries also supports learning about the pros, cons and variable values concerning just doing ahead and doing things as opposed to stopping to consider the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and/or ‘popularity’ of something among friends, associates and others. Considering this is an early Aries degree and Aries is (if nothing else) the heart and soul of ‘I am me’ it’s curious to think of any Aries degree as being ‘group-oriented.’ But maybe that’s the point – Uranus in 9 Aries will be, if nothing else a test of our willingness to own our opinions and gain perspective on who we are in any given situation.

Not that this t-square stops there.

Yes, that is a complicated diagram – and thus an indication to us that things will be complicated. So let’s just go through it one item at a time…

The bulk of the additions here end up centering in Pallas (dispassionate perspective) retrograde – indicating a perspective on ourselves. That Pallas is in Virgo increases our ability to carefully ‘inspect’ what we’re doing – a positive in anything complicated, technical or task-oriented. Against this, Pallas in Virgo can be a negative where feelings are concerned. Pallas is hardly a cuddly symbol and when we add in the Virgo tendency to opt for the earthy and practical, this combination could be wonderful or disappointing, depending on how earthy your personal natal chart is. (Or isn’t.)

That Atropos and Sphinx are united with Pallas at 11 Virgo speaks either to a good will which is for some reason being held/caged in or the definitive (Pallas) understanding that the (Sphinx) time for waiting is (Atropos) over. In sextile (denoting an opportunity) to Jupiter, there is no requirement per se that we do anything, but we could. With the Pallas-Atropos-Sphinx grouping solidly trined to Pluto/Venus, we have the standard trine notification that the status quo isn’t going to change until we do – which in this case comes in part from the Uranian t-square hurdle we talked about plus this Pluto/Venus-Pallas group-Jupiter ‘workaround.’

We’re working around our situation…and around ourselves. (Yes, it’s come to that.)

However…with all of the above (this is beginning to sound like a murder mystery), the Pallas triad is also inconjunct Uranus. This astrologer isn’t going to make any call on which end of this 150 degree inconjunct is going to give, but either the Pallas end or the Uranian end is likely to give between now and…oh, call it mid/late May.

Did I mention that mid/late May is when Mars goes direct after going retrograde on March 1st? And how there’s going to be a solar eclipse in Venus-ruled Taurus while Mars is transiting Venus-ruled Libra?

I’m just guessing here…but in reading through an ephemeris it looks like we’re all in for some seriously trying growth over the next couple of months. How you and those around you choose to handle this time will without question raise issues of helplessness and the need or call for those types of self-discipline we would all much rather exert through exercise than personal vulnerabilities of self or to others. And yet, courtesy of Juno, Chiron and Dionysus at 11 Pisces in opposition to Pallas, Atropos and Sphinx in Virgo, we will all face, hear or experience such moments, with the sorriest part of it all being our own lacks and a resulting feeling of regretted failure to live up to our own standards of belief about ourselves.

(Ouch.)

Another thing to consider: everything here and about this time is not only what it is in the moment, but also part of a greater Jupiter/Pluto synodic cycle. Such cycles roll through about every thirteen years with the last one having begun in December 2007 at 28 Sagittarius – a degree which one one hand requires patience and endless dedication...and which on the other is often slow to mature, coalesce or succeed. The Sabian Symbol for this degree reads as follows: “A FAT BOY MOWING THE LAWN OF HIS HOUSE ON AN ELEGANT SUBURBAN STREET.” The original keynote from astrologer Marc Edmund Jones speaks of ‘The need to attend to everyday tasks which both ensure social worth or respectability, and benefit one’s constitution,’ which Dane Rudhyar brings down to pithy succinctness by citing SOCIAL RESPECTABILITY.

With Jupiter and Pluto having begun their synodic cycle at this degree, in some senses the joke is on us – and it’s no joke. Wherever these two start their cycle is the crux of a thirteen-year-long odyssey which will bring most of us to our knees through lessons which teach us the fallacies of ego and the illusions built into our most mortal, human desires.

Then again, life does have to get us to do something somehow.

This month’s Jupiter-Pluto opposition perfects on January 31st, the same date as Mercury’s Pisces ingress and Venus’ turn to direct.

I repeat: this is NOT a genteel time. We can get over life not being what we would like it to be and not working the way we thought it would - or not.

After January 31st, Jupiter will continue in retrograde as Pluto moves into achievement-oriented 13 Capricorn.

 From Solar Fire's Graphic Ephemeris generator, a screen shot of a partial page

showing activity patterns for the early months of 2014. The symbols at the left

being (from the top down) Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune, if you

follow the green Jupiter line you will see where it aspects Pluto's position at

the end of January and rather late on in April.

 .

Then we get April. With Mars retrograde in Libra (can we say ‘relating and relationship issues’?) Jupiter turns direct on the 6th, we take a breath and then pass through a lunar eclipse in Libra (more interactivity) and Pluto’s station/retrograde on April 14th.

Another week passes, Jupiter (now direct) opposes Pluto for the third and final time and we arrive at the solar eclipse at 8 Taurus, a degree known for its ability to test how well what we think the world is matches the world’s seriously worldly realities. 

Do or be done in by that we choose to leave undone would seem to be the message here. The learning isn’t easy and our failure to learn becomes our mortal hindrance.

That’s all I can really tell you.

.

.

.

Klotho and Pluto: Fate and Transformation

The Three Fates

by Sodoma

There are many tales which touch on the habits, actions and ‘choices’ of the three Greek Fates, none of which is particularly complimentary.

They could definitely could use a good PR person.

Of said three personages, it’s likely most of us would choose Klotho as the Fate we like best. Klotho is the ‘spinner’ – the idea that new things (and people) come into being. In the grand circuit of birth, life and death, Klotho is birth.

Pluto, on the other hand, is sometimes known as a symbol of rebirth – hence Pluto’s connection with the idea of the phoenix.

So these two are rather in sync, right? Not meaning that they’re a boy band (boy, that would be one scary thought – planetoids in performance…now coming to your local solar system…)…we might think that birth and rebirth are different ways of saying the same thing. And in a rather distant sense, they are. But dwarf planet Pluto is a Kuiper Belt object – it orbits way, way, way far away from us. Klotho isn’t a dwarf planet – it’s an asteroid, one which orbits rather towards the outside of the main asteroid belt, making Klotho the image of something we meet up with in life on a cyclic basis.

So Klotho is more about things we start as we go through life simply because that’s part of life…or the idea of birth, of birthing, of bringing something into being. Against this, remembering that Pluto’s orbit is governed (physically) by Neptune, Pluto represents the transformative power of emotions in our lives. We choose to do something, we experience it and what happens – the result – has an emotional impact on us which changes us. That’s Pluto’s version of rebirth. It can be large, it can be a moment in an elevator, Pluto can represent the emotional effort we put into rehabilitation after an accident or the grief associated with death, the fear and anxiety experienced through threat, the ecstasy of success.

Now that we know the difference between these items, why does it matter?

Well for one, Klotho is entering Gemini at 2:26am (UT/+0) on April 7th, beginning about seven weeks of what will likely be new ideas and choices…which may well be driven by new information and events.

But we shouldn’t think that all this will be “new” new ideas…considering that Klotho’s Gemini ingress will happen under Mercury retrograde, we can expect at least a goodly measure of debate about how things should be done along with the a heaping handful of that ever-popular sport of criticizing others while offering nothing new, or workable.

Yet if we approach this from the point of view of all things happening as they should, then Klotho entering Gemini under Mercury retrograde would also be thinking things over and going back over our facts. It would favor revisions and editing of ideas…or actions…or anything else which needs editing!

So this could be an indicator of much pot-stirring to come, or useful pausing, restarting and honing of processes.

Against this we have Pluto. And what is Pluto up to? Well aside from the fact that Pluto the Dwarf Planet is continuing to wander around the frigid outer solar system in an orbit controlled by Big Blue Neptune (a planet specifically all about non-specificity), Pluto is also going on station as of April 7th, about to go retrograde at 7 Capricorn.

And that suggests that there well may be a ‘fateful’ quality to things which happen today…and over the next couple of days. During the two days which fall before April 9th (when Pluto actually goes into retrograde motion) matters would pertain to things which have not yet happened. In the two days after April 9th, we would guess they would pertain to things which have already been done. 

We will also figure that those last two days will be colored by things going on then – on which we will comment and contemplate as those moments come along.

For now…considering Mercury is in retrograde and Pluto going on station, this astrologer’s guess is that there will be a lot of ‘personal considerations’ going on now – and for the next day or so. Neptune’s recent move into Pisces is signaling an ever-greater disparity between our ability to have faith and just deal with things and ideas (or our imaginations) taking us to some very dark places.

There’s a popular stream of thought which says just think good things and all will be fine. And while there is a lot to be said for checking unfounded fears at the mental door, there’s also a line which when crossed means we’re just kidding ourselves.

Over the next few days, we probably would do well to hold the good thought without abandoning all (and our) reality.

Of course if we learn to do that, we may actually realize that fate is only in part what is handed us. The other part is all in what we do with it, considering that choices have consequences.

Would that be so bad?

Mars enters Capricorn & Mercury's Station/Retrograde: A Cosmic Combo Platter

 

 Pilot Mountain in Alberta, Canada's Banff National Park

photo credit: Chuck Szmurlo (2007)

Capricorn being a sign of worldly achievement, there are some symbols which fit the earthy Capricorn determination than others. One of the most fitting is Mars: planet of assertion, determination, courage and  self-owning willingness to do what it takes to get a job done.

So...interesting news: Mars will be entering Capricorn on December 7th at 11:50 in the evening (UT/+0).

But this isn't just any Mars into Capricorn ingress! For one, it's happening as Mercury is about to go retrograde, which heightens the feeling of urgency (and frustration?) we normally feel in the week prior to Mercury's station/retrograde.

More to the point, with Mercury taking that station on Friday (the 10th) at about noon (UT/+0), that opens the two-day 'station window' on the 8th. Which would be...oh, about twelve hours after the Mars/Capricorn ingress.

Close enough, eh?

That the Mars ingress comes first suggests that for those whose charts are closely aspected by Mercury's station, something 'assertive' or 'initiates' events connected with that station. 

Mercury being about the workings and applications of our 'thinking apparatus' (including the means and methods by which we transmit our thoughts and choices), this is a pretty feisty combination. And it can work either way - meaning it could be something you do, it could be something done to you. It could be something which starts now, or it could be something which is now revealed. Or something which 'takes a turn' in changing - that 'taking a turn' symbolism very much in keeping with any station.

But as I said - not everyone is going to be personally affected by Mercury's station...and thus for many, this Mars-entering-Capricorn is going to go by with nary a glitch. For you, life just seems to fall a bit more into order - you still may have a lot to do, but at least you have a more collected perspective on the list of what needs doing!

Considering Capricorn's reputation for a reserved, cool sort of focus, Mars in Capricorn is also well regarded as a time to get to big goals. Capricorn being all about achievement, this combination signals some six weeks of recognizing what needs to be done in order to accomplish your aims and having the focus and internal fortitude to deal with what will allow you to claim your personal prize.

HOWEVER...A lot of that effort is going to be done on the inside. That we know because Mercury is going retrograde. At some level we are all going to be grappling with 'who we are' on the inside. And that how/who we are helps or hinders us in our drive to get to personal goals.

So...that said, let's get to the Mercury part of this conversation.

Mercury is going retrograde at 5 Capricorn, a particularly interesting zodiac degree. For one, it's Capricorn and earthy - it's about things we know, can touch, comprehend tangibly. It also carries that well-known Capricorn 'steeliness.'

Being a first decanate ('deca' meaning 'ten') degree, 5 Capricorn is also like any first decanate degree in that it's about something that we do or are being. It's personal in nature, but it's a personal degree of a worldly sign. So it's really about what we 'do' and are in the world!

The lore concerning 5 Capricorn speaks of 'wealth of generosity' and the tendency to be sympathetic, supportive and trusting. And yet there's an implied  weakness here too - a specific lack of focus (reality recognition) which says there 'inside' part of you can be so focused on critique of self that said hospitality and extended trust eventually costs or 'undoes' you.

Like I say, an interesting degree.

As Mars enters Capricorn, it's also adding to an early Capricorn lineup composed of (in order) Mars, North Node, Pluto, then Mercury - all in the first five degrees of Capricorn. THAT's intense!

Capricorn being about business, government, commerce and 'societal workings' on every level, that means we now have activity being focused in these areas (Mars) with a need to focus on the functional workings of society and at the social level (North Node). But things are changing (Pluto). We know they're changing, we can feel them changing and we all have to adjust our thinking and expectations (Pluto).

For many of us, this will just be a 'so what?' sort of image of the busy holiday season...dealing with obligations, putting up with occasions you love to hate and hate loving...all the usual stuff.

But there is a level at which Mars/North Node/Pluto is a societal/social (relational) powder keg. And Pluto/Mercury is more than a little obsessive! So don't be shocked at news - that on the television, things which come streaming in through the computer and what you get told on the phone or face to face.

Plus there is that little Mercury station deal.

This Pluto/Mercury could be your wanting to (deciding?) to just give something up. Or avoid, some big deal. Avoidance and denial are just as apt to surface in this next short run as explosions are.

 

So who is this going to affect the most? The more pointed signal here being Mercury's turn to retrograde at 5 Capricorn, here's the list:

 

For anyone with natal planets, important asteroids, dwarf planets, axis points or nodes positioned between...

0 and 10 Cancer: Expect to have to confront yourself or to be confronted by others (or situations) about the nature of your choices and your methods of going about implementing your choices. This doesn't mean you're right or wrong, but you could be. At the very least it may pay big dividends to try and understand the emotions behind why others are bringing such things up.

0 and 10 Aries (or) Libra: Challenges to your ability to achieve (Aries) or internal rationales (Libra) are asking you to finish old business before you start on new projects (Aries) or to 'update' your thinking and basis for decision making (Libra). Acting on (Libra) habits/instincts or with (Aries) haste trips you up. But IF you are willing to 'connect the mental dots' and recognize why you do what you tend to do, not only will others help you, you will relieve a great deal of stress and strain on/within your Self.

0 and 10 Taurus (or) Virgo: With either sign placement, the question is whether you have overextended yourself. If you have, events, situations and people will now let you know that you need to rein it in and reconsider your pace or needs. Quantity is the  Taurus side question, quality the Virgo issue. You can make the adjustments - the question is whether you're willing to.

  

2 and 8 Pisces (or) Scorpio: You have an opportunity to be more effective. For you, the question really is whether the opportunities coming to you now fit with your greater priorities. Recognizing your limits as you consider whether you do/don't want to make a move is the real question and where you are overburdened you will need to make (at least temporary) changes in the weeks ahead.

3 and 7 Gemini (or) Leo: On the Leo side, recognizing the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of how you are going about your business divides pluses and minuses. Questions of integrity arising now are reminders of the difference between the ability to do something and whether you should or shouldn't do it! On the Gemini side, understanding why people - including you! - choose and react as they do lies behind current dynamics, challenges and objectives. Though looking for the 'all encompassing' choice is tedious-hard, in the end that's the easiest way to go.

3 and 7 Sagittarius (or) Aquarius: Ouch! This is a trying moment all about whether you get the bigger picture (Aquarius) and/or whether your self worth and values are out of place, given the needs of the moment. Though you may do well to think things over, this is not necessarily the time to cut and run. Considered reactions are called for...and if you can, admitting the merit of another point of view is a big plus. This doesn't mean you have to agree, but allowing for differences is a plus!

0 and 10 Capricorn: This is the moment when you are on a hot seat with yourself. Why you are who you are and the pluses and minuses of that determine whether you gain or divest, are rewarded or penalized, move ahead or are held back now. Though it's easy to think everything is about 'them' it isn't - and recognizing that may be the hardest if most important thing of all.

With all this said, there are two more very important things to understand here.

One is that in the moment Mars is entering Capricorn, the Moon is at 13 degrees of that same sign. And that...13 Capricorn? That's the degree of the incoming January Solar Eclipse. This Mars-entering-Capricorn marker thus 'officially' opens the shift ("breakdown") period which precedes any solar eclipse.

And not to be too coy here, Mars will reach 13 Capricorn on December 24/25, depending on where you are.

This ties back to the other astrological note to be contemplated here...namely that the degree of this Mercury station (5 Capricorn) is the degree Pluto went station/retrograde at back on April 4th.

And that draws a giant 'dotted line' between this moment and last April. So...back then, did you go into some sort of denial - or were you dealing with reality?

Many if not most of us were in a phase of 'personal destruction/reconstruction' during that time. Now we get to find out if we overstepped our own bounds. Or whether we built on solid ground. Or whether we were actually living in the real world as opposed to one all about that 'inner intensity of focus' which might have led us to be too trusting (leading to bad decisions and choices) indicated by the lore of 5 Capricorn.

Whatever happened then, whatever happens now, this is not an 'end' to all things - its a step in a process. Some of us will now solidify gains as others of us throw off old shackles and still others of us admit the defeat of self-delusion. No matter which category (categories?) you fall into here (and yes, they can be mixed) the thing to do is to move forward with yourself.

That's ultimately what Mercury retrograde is about: learning about who we are, replete with strengths and weaknesses. Through our worldly life, now things 'take a turn' whether on the big scale or small scale, putting a lot of who we are (and think we are) in a different light.

The real object is to 'lighten' our load through inner 'enlightenment' as to who we are and why we are who we are. How that happens...?

That's up to you.

Sun into Sagittarius, Mercury into Shadow: Working the Perspectives

A rendering of the 'impossible cube'

So...yesterday was the 2010 edition of a Taurus Full Moon.

And today, we enter into a zone where everything that Full Moon was turns into repercussions, explorations, adjustments and eye-opening moments of realization as the Sun enters Sagittarius and Mercury crosses over into the shadow of what will be a three-week December retrograde.

And yes, it's all about how you see things - beginning with what we've learned so recently on how well (or not well) our values, methods, priorities and choices mesh or don't mesh with others - that Scorpio functionality poke we got from yesterday's Full Moon.

Considering that Full Moon was at 29 Taurus (meaning the Sun was at 29 Scorpio), that makes today the day that the Sun enters Sagittarius, a fire sign known for expansive thinking, discoveries of any and all types... and fiery attitudes, pursuits and proclamations.

Of the three signs in the worldly/interactive zodiacal quadrant (Libra-Scorpio-Sagittarius) one is an airy sign of ideas, theories and 'meetings of the mind' (Libra)... one is an emotional water sign where we experience our own feelings through contending with life and others (Scorpio)....and one is our coming up with ways to affect the world and/or testing out those ideas in the world.

These signs are not just individual experiences. They're a process. Through our interactions with others we experience our Self and recognize what works and what doesn't work. And whether we win or lose, we emerge from the crucible of realization (Scorpio) generally ready to tell the whole world what we've learned - or to set off in the directions of our goals yet again.

That's the Sagittarius part of the process.

Yet as those born under Sun in Sagittarius will probably tell you, the Sagittarian vibe is not just about getting on with what we want to do. The whole idea of Sagittarius involves seeing what works and what doesn't work.

So if you skated (slouched, sauntered, stalked, scurried) or otherwise weathered this year's Scorpio testing without making changes - to life, to your approach, to your companions or how you go about picking what you choose to do and who you choose to do it with - then prepare yourself. These weeks ahead are likely to be full of toe-stubs and rebuffs.

And yes, the occasional 'that's brilliant!' too.

Interestingly, this 'interactive' quarter of the zodiac which has no earth 'tangibility' in it is all about trying to make things happen and be/become real. Does that make sense? It should, if you think in terms of that 'grass-is-greener' sort of logic. Each quarter of the zodiac includes three signs, and in each quadrant, what we are seeking has to do with the missing element.

It's sort of life's version of 'fill in the blank,' yes!

 After Aristotle, these were the four Hellenistic

elements - the basis of the ancient Greek concept of physics.

The Sun representing life, will, energy, we can expect the pace of life to pick up and carry us forward through the next month or so - interestingly (and quite tellingly) in sync with the holiday season.

Fast pace, more energy...how is it that the 'busiest' time of the year for most folks (the holiday season) is supported by this karmic, cosmic timing?

Some would say this is a sign of a 'sentient' Being overseeing all of life. But maybe this is just the way life is made. Maybe the fabric of life is just made so that the things which work because of such juxtapositions carry on and become traditions?

Could be. It just could be.

The other thing happening to day is that Mercury is reaching 19 Sagittarius - the degree it will ultimately come back to at the end of its upcoming December retrograde. This forward (to retrograde) /backward (during retrograde) /forward (after retrograde ends) pattern is known as the 'shadow' of the retrograde. Every planet which goes retrograde - which would be everything except the Sun and Moon - describes a 'process' and a period of time bracketed by its periodic retrogrades.

This one starts in Sagittarius, specifically in an emotional degree known for difficulties with the conventional and repercussions of rebelliousness. Nineteen being the last of Sagittarius' emotional degrees there would seem to be a 'climactic' sense of feeling or  conviction here; lore speaks of defeats and difficulties arising out of this degree bringing on bitterness and vengeance.

That this crossing into its retrograde shadow happens with Mercury conjunct Hybris underscores needs to be right and the lengths some will go to be right - or at least to appear that way.

And yet...as postulated originally by astrologer Alex Miller with everything found so far in my own work backing this up - where goes Hybris, there to we find an eventual 'comeuppance.' With this degree also being flavored by the 'alternative reality' of a galactic Black Hole, this may thus be the arrogant pronouncement...or the discovery that someone (even...yuk!...you!) have been oh-so-very wrong.

Given that this cycle concerns Mercury, symbol of thought, communication and daily doings from errands to neighbors to household matters and such...there are like as not parts and details and factors involved no, no matter what happens.

For some, the situation will evolve, take a turn at the station/retrograde and resolve at Mercury's station/direct in late December.

For others, this is a moment of decision which will take from now through Mercury's retrograde to set up, work out or get put in order.

For still another group, this moment launches a month-plus period of personal upheaval.

Whatever happens, watch for events which happen as we go into retrograde (December 10 at 12:05 UT/+0) and come out of retrograde on December 30 (7:22 UT/0+). As with all retrogrades, the day or two to either side of these dates is significant. Information you want or need is not expected to be fully forthcoming until retrograde ends, too. Something is holding you back from being 'fully operational' in some sense.

Many people will welcome this Mercurial 'umbrella' effect ...or at least manifest it as their turning their attention to family and/or holiday matters, forget everything else.

And yet, this can be problematic. Mercury in Sagittarius is notoriously sloppy, hasty, overstated, exaggerated and demanding. Yes, even selfish.

And yes, this goes all the way to the famous 'cutting my nose off to spite my face' degree. So don't be shocked if there's something important or difficult (or even just emotionally hard to grapple with) on the table about now and someone abandons the conversational ship.

Some people will push for what they want now - screw  the cost. Right or wrong, sensible or not, maybe even legal or not, safe or not, possible or not....

You get the idea.

And yet with all that said, this may also be the moment when good sense finally dawns. It sort of depends on where you are in what area of your life coming to this day and time....particularly as Mercury is going retrograde at the degree of Pluto's turning last April.

Had a big turn of events this year? Stand by for the next act...or what comes now, because of (or out of) what happened...or changed...or was denied...or left not fully dealt with back then.