Saturn in Sagittarius

Taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn looms large in the foreground with

our beloved Terra Earth but a distant dot in space.

(photo credit: NASA, JPL, Caltech, 2013)

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As Sagittarius is the 9th sign of the zodiac, Saturn’s entering Sagittarius indicates a shift into the 9th derivative phase of everything which requires focus, discipline/self-discipline, structuring, responsibility, dedication and/or diligence.

It’s also the place in our individual Saturnine process where (and when) we come to feel like we can finally see our goal. It’s right there. It’s right ...

And then something happens.

Why would something happen? No, it’s not because Saturn is out to get you (even when life feels like it) and it’s not because anyone just wants to rain on your parade.

So why would something happen? That’s because Sagittarius, being the 9th sign in the zodiac is the sign right behind Capricorn (zodiac sign number 10), Capricorn being the sign of accomplishing the success which then ‘pays off’ in Aquarius (zodiac sign number 11). And that’s important because Saturn rules Capricorn, which makes Sagittarius the 12th derivative sign to a sign Saturn rules.

The 'natural zodiac' wheel

To work with derivatives, start with the sign you are looking to find the derivative of. Counting

that as "one," go counter-clockwise around the wheel (as the signs are numbered here) until

you arrive at the 'derived' sign of influence.

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Sagittarius is about expansion - the expanding of what we know, what we want to know, our sphere of influence, our understanding of our Self. In being the opposition sign to Gemini (the sign where we are asked to think things through, make a choice and construct priorities and plans) Sagittarius is also the sign where we meet up with people and things which may further contribute to our (Gemini) choice-and-plan ... or which may challenge it or point out it’s chinks or flaws, causing us (more often than not) to go back and review all our Gemini (and 3rd house natal) choices.

Sometimes we return to Sagittarian mode and stand up for ourselves, which wouldn’t be unlikely moving forward as Saturn is all about standing up for Self and the ‘standing’ of the Self as Saturn is astrologically all about structure (including backbones, real and proverbial) and the process of re/structuring ... some of which will happen over the next couple of years as we (Sagittarius) expand what we know or understand and see the benefit of building for a future, or bringing our past up to date.

(Or at least working on it.)

And about that ‘Sagittarius as the 12th sign to Capricorn’ which was cited because Saturn rules Capricorn. First of all, ‘rules’ are a big thing with both signs: Sagittarius covers the theory of law and Capricorn (hence Saturn) represents the reality of it - the rewards and consequences both for breaking a law and whatever the consequences for a given law may be whether planned or otherwise.

What isn’t in this mix however is politics, politics and all of its highly verbal operations being Aquarian and 11th house. (Which yes, does mean that the age we are now entering - the Aquarian Age - is going to end up being highly political and less based on the universal faith or the universality of faith, that having been a ‘last Age’ theme).

However ... Saturn itself (as opposed to Capricorn) is quite often a tinge political - and being the ‘in door’ ruler of Aquarian, that makes sense.

Why bring all this up? Because Saturn will be traversing the 12th house to its ‘sole ownership’ sign of rulership (Capricorn) at the same time as Saturn is - by moving through Sagittarius - also in (and therefore activating the 11th derivative to the other sign it rules: Aquarius.

What this amounts to is a crib sheet which says that during the whole of the period which starts on December 23, 2014 (at 4:34 p.m., UT/+0) and which ends on December 20, 2017 (when Saturn moves on into Capricorn) we can expect substantial successes and structural challenges where/when we test our own limits and our own (Gemini) ideas. And since wherever we see Saturn we earn what we get and get what we have earned, there are likely to be any number of debates both with our Self and with others - often in public as the public airings of opinions and getting ‘out there on the record’ are essentially a Sagittarian forms of sport.

But more to that derivative concept: the 12th to any sign being where we are emotionally tested or tested on our ability to accept our own feelings and our feelings about emotions (got that?), with Saturn moving through the 12th sign to its own Capricorn ‘home base’ (so to speak) is to virtually guarantee that we will - each and every one of us - have, or run across some sort of gap or glitch which we will react to for however short or long a time depending on your personal relationship to that which is hard for you to face. When that happens, the extremes of response will be at one end a fervent sort of frigid rejection and at the other a determination to accelerate some process in the name of necessary in spite of how we may or may not feel about it or about how it might affect us personally.

At the same time that that’s in play we will also experience Saturn being in the 11th derivative sign to its other sign of rulership (Aquarius) makes a reference to earning results, inclusive of whatever might prompt us to want to work towards some particular result and all that we are challenged by along the way. As with all eleventh derivative signs we will all be called upon to balance that which distinguishes us against that which distinguishes us from others. And at the same time that we’re doing that, we’ll also be having to satisfy that uniquely  Aquarian requirement that we balance the idea or ideal against everyday practicality and universal functionality - all without fracturing or breaking society’s structures into layers, classes, castes or anything else which embodies some sort of exclusion.

Saturn enters Sagittarius (first ingress, glyph chart)

December 23, 2014 - 16:33:59 (4:33:59 p.m., UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Saturn enters Sagittarius (first ingress, glyph chart)

December 23, 2014 - 16:33:59 (4:33:59 p.m., UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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As Saturn enters Sagittarius it may well also be useful to note that Saturn will be making this ingress not once but twice, as Saturn will reach 4 degrees of Sagittarius by next March, go retrograde, and then back into Scorpio...

Saturn retrogrades out of Sagittarius (glyph chart)

June 15, 2015 - 1:35:31 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Saturn retrogrades out of Sagittarius (text chart)

June 15, 2015 - 1:35:31 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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...for just about three months between mid-June and mid-September before going direct on August 2nd (UT/+0) and re-entering Sagittarius on September 15, 2015.

Saturn's 3rd (final) Sagittarius ingress (glyph chart)

September 18, 2015 - 2:49:12 a.m. (UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Saturn's 3rd (final) Sagittarius ingress (text chart)

September 18, 2015 - 2:49:12 a.m. (UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Looking just at the first ingress, Saturn is conjunct dispassionate Pallas in a degree which speaks to ‘mastery’ (28 Scorpio) whether we have it or not - which again points back to that Saturnine ‘have you earned it?’ quotient. With Sedna at 24 Taurus (and retrograde) in opposition to Pallas but not Saturn, we all have something we’re unwilling to give up which is holding us back, just as we’re all perfectly able to see someone else doing the exact same thing - and guess who we’re pointing fingers at?

Right ... probably ‘them’ for something we are in our own (perhaps distant) way equally enmeshed in, consumed by or (self)righteously devoted to - probably for reasons which go back to the basics of who we are, how we were raised and with what values and so on.

This ‘inner’ knowing or perspective on something we are doing ... and probably something we’ve done in the past as well ... to some degree this holds us to standards now just as to some degree we are proceeding in spite of not yet having sufficient experience or ‘maturity’ with something to be completely sure we know either what we’re doing - or that how we’re doing it is going to get us where we really want to get to.

We also know (this being purely Saturn) that it’s going to take time to get anywhere ... even if once we get there we realize that’s not where we want to be, at which point we’ll pack up our lesson learned and move on.

In keeping with regular astrological theory, retrograde passes (such as the one we’ll see this next June as Saturn moves back into Scorpio) tend to be personal - and this one is unlikely to be anything different, although with Saturn itself now in opposition to Sedna while also in opposition to the Moon and Mercury at 4 Gemini (a degree known for insight and interactive perception) even though Sedna isn’t conjunct the Moon and Mercury suggests being of ‘split mind’ - or at least attention - though why that is would be up to specific circumstances, specially as Saturn is also trine Vesta and the lunar South Node as this ingress gets made.

It would seem a moment of inner caution, though why that would be is entirely personal. It could be something small like dreading having to clean out a garage or going to the dentist. Then again, it could be something which - especially with a lunar node involved - plays on or through some relationship, be it person or that you have to some subject, effort or avenue of undertaking which has for good or not-so-good gotten out of hand.

It will take a couple of months from June for Saturn to finish retrograde and get back to it’s Sagittarian ingress, but once it gets there come September 18th, we will certainly know some form of ‘workable versus unworkable’ (Saturn trine South Node at 0 Aries) and that we are either ready to proceed with some furthering of some cause or that we need to proceed according to some new tact or tactic, the Saturnine reality of which we are ready to begin working on now. However ... that Saturn is not just opposition Sedna (which in its own grand trine to Ceres and the Sun reads rather as a status quo, personal allegiance (or) vision or tradition which we don’t want to let go of but may need to)... but that Saturn is also in square to Mars at 25 Leo?

Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, which is some 3200 miles or 5150 kilometers across.

(photo credit: Cassini - NASA, JPL, Caltech, SSI)

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Well, this is Saturn coming into Sagittarius and ‘committing’ to the full transit of Sagittarius as the object of a t-square with a Leo Mars as some ‘hurdle’ we have to get past - and in this case the hurdle is related to not just an individualistic highly biased (whether pro or con) Mars expression with regards to problems of pride, ego and luxury and/or luxurious self-indulgence, often to such an excess that the gift itself runs out.

Thus some come to Saturn in Sagittarius to forge ahead while others come to Saturn in Sagittarius to pay the price for what they’ve done ... a thought which leads to why those responsibilities spoken of in connection with Saturn must be those we owe others because we owe it to our Self.

That's the Saturn if Sagittarius premise - that we owe it to our Self to be someone who not only learns what they need to learn (i.e., to survive or get ahead) but how to their utilize skills, knowledge and conviction such that by the time Saturn reaches Capricorn and Aquarius, things we have put to work (and worked through) during this learning phase become the foundation for becoming someone capable of manifesting greater successes as a human being ... not merely as someone others see as manifestly successful. 
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Venus in Aries

Afrodite (Aphrodite) 

by Nils Bergslien (1853-1928, Norway)

When I first learned about Venus being astrologically ‘weak’ and often unproductive in Aries, my first reaction was disappointment. It sounded sort of sad to me.

Then I came to better understand the idea of the astrological Venus, which in many ways very, very different from what we think of Venus – or Aphrodite – as the goddess of beauty and allure, she who is adored, ogled and admired by all.

Actually, if you read a lot of mythology, in time you learn that the standing there (or lying there) being gloriously beautiful is just one part of the Venus myth. Venus is not only pretty feisty, but she sets up a lot of challenges for those of us who are mere mortals...which leads to realizing that all of Greek (and Roman) myth is an exercise is describing how and why humans operate as they do.

And once you get there, it all begins to make better astrological sense.

Venus represents our ability to attract, and thus to bring about a new circumstance. Venus is not about luxury per se, Venus is about whatever we do so that we have that moment of luxuriating.

Once I got that far, it slowly dawned on me why Venus is the astrological ruler of Taurus, sign of our personal resources and the self worth and self respect which causes us to put those things to good use. I came to understanding why Venus as ruler of Libra represents not the appearance or the performance which garners all that love, but the (Taurean) resources devoted to that appearance and performance, and that the Libra Venus really only lasts when its not a veneer, but the expression of our truest Taurean being. When it’s not, the Libra-Venus concept becomes beauty is only skin deep.

Aha, I said.

The hardest thing for me to understand was probably why Venus is exalted in Pisces, which seems odd for someone who has Venus natally in Pisces, but that’s one of those karmic ironies: sometimes the ‘what we are’ is the thing we learn last.

Anyway…it finally occurred to me that Venus is exalted in Pisces because Pisces is that deep ocean of emotionality which all humanity originates in, and in the end, lives in. Human beings are always emotional critters…it’s really only to the extent that we understand and can work with and grow into accepting our emotions that we can harness our intellect or life with any sense of ‘sinking in.’ Without that, we skate by. We make do. We rush through the moment, staying busy so we don’t sink in and become immersed in how we really feel about life.

Being willing to feel…being willing to understand that every human being and every creature which has ever existed arises from this same deep well of sentience is the Pisces challenge – and why so many of us have such a hard time with that universal sense of Piscean compassion.

After all, we cannot teach that we do not know. And when that’s applied to Venus, in the universally  emotional sign of Pisces that means we will not receive the compassion we know not how to give.

Compassion, love, care…it’s all part of that equation.

And it was once that I reached that point that I understood why Venus is awkward in Aries. Venus is a connective precept, and in Aries there is only the I-me-my of life.

All planets are weak (or awkward) in the sign (or in this case, signs) which are opposite those which they rule or are exalted in. In this case, Aries is in opposition to Libra, where Venus is the idea which connects – as opposed to Venus in Pisces, which is the feeling which connects…and Venus in Taurus, which is the ability TO connect.

But since every placement – no matter how testing it is – has a positive sign, then the question became how is Venus in Aries a positive?

Aries being the ‘first person personal’ sign, my best answer comes from Aries as a fiery sign which can create the image which motivates us to do something. In Aries, Venus asks us to motivate ourselves. The tough part is there is no cheering section. And during the next three (plus) weeks of Venus in Aries, we can’t expect much in the way of applause.

For some this will feel isolating. Some will enjoy the feeling of independence or the opportunity to experience a little peace and quiet. But for most of us, Venus in Aries - whatever else it is, always includes some sense of feeling like you're on your own. That can be because there isn't anyone around, because no one is available (or able) to help you...or because you've decided to take an independent position or course of action.

And sometimes that's what you need to do. Sometimes it's pure folly - true! But sometimes we drown by surrendering ourselves to the expectations of others. Or some tradition or habit which has outlived its appropriateness, or which doesn't fit your current situation.

Solitude by Frederick Leighton

(c. 1890, oil on canvas, Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington)

 
Venus enters Aries on March 22nd at 3:16 in the morning UT/+0 time. It will be in Aries until April 15th (which those in the USA will recognize as Income Tax due-day.) For this to be happening while Pluto is hunkered down in 11 Capricorn (the degree it will go retrograde at during April) is a metaphysical image of a challenge we each will feel in our own Venus-in-Aries sort of way. Since Venus will square Pluto at the end of this month (the 30th or 31st, depending what time zone you’re in) and that by then Venus will be running in tandem with the Sun is an indication of focus.

Which for some will be an ‘over-focusing on self’ in all it’s myopic non-glory, yes.

But there are some up sides here. During these days (which, given orbs on transit we can broaden to March 28th through April 2nd, give or take)…during these days the Sun-Venus will be conjunct Uranus. That means things aren't entirely in our control. Leaving ourselves open to new ideas is far (far!) better than trying to hold on here, as Uranus respresents those life forces and moments which change our outlook.

Even our life.

Sun-Venus will also be sextile to Jupiter in Gemini. This represents a moment of recognition, though with Jupiter being in Gemini (not Jupiter’s best sign) and Venus’ position in Aries we may be finding out things we would rather not hear, but need to know and think through.

Since at this point Venus and the Sun will also be in an inconjunct to Saturn in Scorpio retrograde, there is a sense of ‘regrouping’ here. Saturn’s opposing Venus’ most primal sign of rulership (Taurus) while Venus is in a sign of detriment (that’s the astrological term for ‘in opposition to sign of rulership’) is a sign that what we’ve been doing with our life…which probably amounts to priorities and how we’ve been going about doing what we’ve been doing…is going through a general period of personal scrutiny.

And when we won’t do that scrutiny, life will (of course!) prompt us to scrutinize those things either through things which happen to us or relationships with, or reactions from others.

Need I add that May is going to bring a Taurus Solar Eclipse as well?

We’re hearing this whole ‘the cost of life’ and discussions of values and what’s valuable all around us. The Venus lesson tells us that ultimately, we do have to care about what we do to or about others, but that our ability to do so is vitally about us.

And therein lies the rub – particularly the Venus-in-Aries rub. Nobody likes being wrong. Nobody likes not being able to do what they want to do. Nobody likes having to deal with the idea that they can’t have what they want now (deferred gratification) or that they’ve made a bad bet, be that financial or (even ouchier) with your life.

Alas, the handwriting is on the solar systemic wall (wherever that is). Because we have talked about this Venus-Sun conjunction occurring in aspect to Jupiter and Saturn we know (astrologically, at least) that this is about what we are building (or have built) in our life. Jupiter and Saturn are the ‘generational’ planets. Personally and individuality they are about what we do in this world and the world as we experience it or are supported-or-hindered by that world.

That Venus catches up to Mars about the time the whole Sun-Venus-Jupiter-Saturn thing shapes up speaks to our desire to make things work. And for some, this is a sign of (Venus in Aries) disappointments which can (Mars in Aries) really strike to the core.

Then again, this may be just what you need to get off the stick (or sticking point) and do something about your life. In fact, since even once the Sun-Jupiter-Saturn thing lets go Venus and Mars will still be running in tandem, this is a great time to get things done.

It’s also a time which may spark some rather feisty (read: serious) personal conflicts. Though Venus-Mars is known as passion, there’s nothing which says this has to be the passion of love.

Diesen Kuss der Ganzen Welt (Gustav Klimt, 1902)

Trust me, nothing says that – especially here. So while this can be a time for passionate love, there's a decent chance that expressions of love will now be...well, let's say just a touch self-serving. Not that such things don't have their place. It may be a moment when it’s ‘their turn’ to get the family (or relationship) focus. Or when someone needs your help or you need to make some sort of sacrifice. Or even when in your own life you need to shift 'passionate priorities' or not give so much attention to something which is your passion because something else needs your attention.

Just understand: this is likely to be a testy time for bargains, whether with yourself or others. So don’t blame “them,” make peace with yourself. Don't go all bonkers because you need to stop doing what you want to be doing in order to take care of something which in its own right is a real and valid problem. Knowing why you do what you do (preferably before you do it) is essential during these days. This can also be as much a time time for flagrant displays of disrespect as adoration.

Mars and Venus will continue running in tandem for the duration of Venus’ passage through Aries – which by the by, includes the Pluto station, which should be a very intense period which for some will be very trying in an internal sort of way nobody likes to deal with.

Life is asking that we change modes. May ills personal and societal are coming out now and we’re bound to see the worst in some. Efforts to blame others will abound. But in the end, if we can’t play nice with others, if we can’t keep things balanced enough that we recognize that to have a good life we have to care about building and maintaining a healthy world and society…those flaws are ours and they will be driven home.

The universe is not cruel – it’s just not partial. We don’t like that, perhaps. But it is not just a truth, it’s the very sort of truth Venus in Aries is meant to bring into focus so that the whole of our life has more balance...which in whether we know it or not, makes everything we are, everything we do more worthwhile.

You know, more beautiful.

And that's the Venus positive.
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From an Astrologer's Notebook: Venus' Planetary Station

 A digitally altered version of NASA/JPL's photo of Venus

Venus went retrograde last Friday - October 8th. It was an interesting week, listening to people. So much emotional and physical turbulence, confrontations, frustration and bouts with depression (or whatever one found personally 'depressing' to have to deal with).

Friday brought much to a head.

But as Venus actually went into retrograde, personally, I felt the mood begin to lighten. I noticed that my attitudes towards various matters had shifted into a more reflective, cautious mode. My focus turned more towards things in my life which needed preparing for, straightening out (or up) and that which needed to be pruned, repaired or let go of.

With the two-day planetary station "leeway" period ending as of Sunday, I was interested - not overjoyed, mind you, but intrigued by a series of events happening in the lives of people I know personally.  Those who had continued to focus on 'others' were taking the hardest 'hits' and finding life more sour.

Those who had shifted from the perspective of Venus as ruler of Libra and the relationship with 'the other' (where we tend to project the most) to a Venus as ruler of Taurus (as oppositional sign to Scorpio, where Venus is now retrograde) were doing better.

And those who by natural inclination are more of the Taurean type who recognizes all comes - first and foremost - from our own self worth, our values and how we utilize our native abilities or inclinations (Taurean resources)...they were already contemplating how to move ahead. Not instantly, but with a plan. By working through a process.

Some of my friends are into astrology, but not all of them. So that this 'trend' to shift towards consideration of personal values, abilities and how all could be worked on or reshaped or put/packaged differently in order to be better received (Scorpio) in the long run...

...As an astrologer, I just find it interesting to see trends and transits at work in the lives of people, companies and governments which plainly have no knowledge of astrology.

It says so much. But does it mean that by knowing you can go from inertia to going full guns with the flip of a mental switch? No! Yet it does suggest something of the 'going with the flow' nature. If you can figure out how to go with the flow in a direction which suits you, you'll expend less energy and get farther in less time, no?

Some of us will use this retrograde to figure out how to do that. Some of us will have life get sufficiently murky or sticky that in spite of our not wanting to change, we get forced to.

And some of us are inclined to realize that the old saw 'wherever you go, there you are' is really true. We can't be satisfied without being basically happy and secure - and it's that security part which is getting tested during this time.

Among other things, Venus retrograde in Scorpio puts us in situations which test our understanding of what 'security' really means to us. A couple of examples:

Some think that's all about money - and for them, maybe it is. But why? What would they feel if they didn't have money?

Some think having someone to love and be loved by is security. What would they feel if they were totally on their own?

Knowing who we would be if we were 'without' and how that affects us, what it suggests we are or aren't comfortable with about ourselves...that's ultimately what Venus retrograde is about.

I hope to help my friends, be there for anyone lost in some patch of personal darkness and do some work on myself. So far I've wrangled my insurance company into stepping up to get my car fixed after an accident over a month ago where I was not at fault. That's plainly their Scorpio-Venus job. But maybe more important to me is that in doing that, I recognized my ability to get one of these corporate megaliths to cooperate with me hasn't vanished just because I left the 9-to-5 workforce.

And that makes me more comfortable with me, setting the stage for me to feel capable to get other things done...wish me luck!

So here's to your Venus retrograde journey being enlightening and empowering, too. I'd also enjoy hearing hear your Venus retrograde stories - as would (I'm sure) other readers of this blog....which much to my surprise is, in less than six months, being read by people on every continent except Antarctica.

(Anyone know anyone working at one of the science stations in Antarctica?)

Mercury in Cancer

 Mercury transiting across the Sun - source: News/CNET

Mercury moved into Cancer today. 

So what, you say?

Well, granting that this may not be earth-shattering news, it does signal a change in attitudes. And tone. Which is valuable to you because it says a lot about what's going to come up for discussion...and what approach is most likely to work whether you're in a negotiation or just some garden variety conversation.

Being a water sign, Cancer is automatically emotional. This tells us that as of today, the emotional approach works better than it would have, say....yesterday.

Yes, things do change just that darn quick - not to mention universally.

So where yesterday's appeal to logic might have gotten you where you wanted to go, today (and for the next while), getting into how others feel...or appealing to them in feeling or heartfelt terms is more likely to get a point across. Or - as they say - win friends and influence people.

With that said however, how you feel about 'things Cancerian' may make you more or less receptive to emotionalism in general, emotional appeals, or discussing feelings - yours or anyone else's...which may make you a card carrying member of the Bah, Humbug! club.

Then again, it may just be something far less dastardly and distinguished (sounds like a law firm, doesn't it?) People with air sign Moons are notorious for not liking how it feels when anyone tugs on their heartstrings. They tend to feel 'played'...you know, like a harp. And when Mercury transits any water sign, talking to someone with a water sign Moon may tap into some sort of emotional geyser. 

Obviously we can't cover every contingency about every person you may meet up with here. Nor do I expect that you have the chart on everyone you know - heck, I don't even have that! And we're never going to know the data on people we run across  during the average roustabout day. That's just a given! 

But we can say a few conceptual things about Mercury in Cancer which may be rather useful. 

First of all, water signs vary. Cancer is associated with the surf zone - which may explain to you why it's associated with the Moon, seeing as it's the gravitational pull of the Moon which causes tides. From this we draw that the conversational or situational Mercury in Cancer is also going to have not just tidal rhythms, but waves.

How will this work? Well, rather like the surf itself. While Mercury remains in Cancer, every day is going to have surges and ebbs. But apart from that, there's a 'rising tide' to the entire transit of Mercury through Cancer - a transit which begins today (June 25th) and runs to July 9, when it moves into Leo sometime during the day depending on where you be at that time.  

From June 25 through June 29, the emphasis is on what you do, what you're going to do, or what you've done. This may be a testing, or testy time.

Between June 29 and July 4, Mercury will be in Cancer's most emotional decanate (degrees 10 thru 19) which added to the Sun being in Cancer signals an emotional high tide.  Expect feelings and the expressing of those feelings to be more frequent, more fervent, more exultant and more moody during this time.

From the 4th to the 9th, Mercury moves through Cancer third and last decan (degrees 20 thru 29). The third decan of any sign being where others see what we've been up to, now efforts play out  and you see where you stand...or what you yet need to rise to. 

There's another quirk to throw in here too, namely that the Sun and Mercury will be running in conjunction from June 25 through July 1st. And when the Sun and Mercury are positioned close together, the Mercurial thought process gets a bit...well, let's just say 'drowned out' - that works in a water sign, right? 

And if you don't get why this would be? Look at the photo heading this lovely blog piece. That little, itty, bitty dot is Mercury - the whole Mercury and nothing but the Mercury. The Sun is HUGE! It's hard to remember how large the Sun really is. But it is...gigantic, I mean. 

Anyway, during these periodic Sun/Mercury conjunctions, a bit of personal myopia tends to be going around. So during this time - overlapping from the 'doing' sector into the 'feeling' sector, try to think long term. It won't be easy, but try anyway.

To this we should add just a few more thoughts, the most basic of which comes from the idea that Mercury rules two signs: Gemini and Virgo.

Gemini is an air sign all about the 'idea' of the thing and our ability to think, choose and manage life as effectively or badly as we will.

Virgo is an earth sign all about practical, tangible things. With Virgo, the thing works or it doesn't. There's a practical and pragmatic way to get things done and a proverbial means to the end. That doesn't mean that we always do it that way, but Mercury's association with Virgo is all about the search for the effective method, even if we ignore it once we've identified it!

Put these ideas together and you get why Mercury represents curiosity and a need to understand. Thus in Cancer, Mercury sorts through the basics and finds out what works, and what doesn't work. Given its natural position at the bottom of the zodiac wheel, Cancer is about foundations, thus Mercury in Cancer focuses on really basic values, asking what they're 'worth' to you.

This is where the negotiating comes in. Maybe something is worth it to you...maybe it isn't. And since there are always two parts to any conversation (and since Mercury is associated with pluralities) this makes for a lot of questioning. And answering. And asking why someone wants to know.

Hey! What's it to you, bud?

Considering Cancer rules families, real estate, cultural and national heritage, populations (of any size - civic, familial, national, ethnic, etc.), the homeland, end of life issues, childhood, memory, traditions and in families, particularly the father - and that both the Moon and astrological water are metaphors for money (liquidity, one might say), these subjects are likely to be focal points for discussions.

And don't just take this as a finite list - do a little (Mercurial) conjugating!  What do I mean by that? Well, real estate + money = home financing and home loans (or the need for same). Family + end of life issues = wills, trusts, funerals and probate matters. Childhood + memory (or tradition) can equal simple nostalgia or taking a trip half way across the globe in order to explore your personal roots. 

A last few words. There are two big 'general' groups of us right now...those for whom life may be a little odd, but basically stable - and those whose lives have either been totally tumultuous or which have begun 'shifting' through influences beyond control since...(oh....say,) early May. The former group is not being affected by the July 11 solar eclipse at 19 Cancer - the later camp is being affected by said solar eclipse. 

If you're in the first group, Mercury in Cancer may have it's up and down moments (high and low tide with a few particularly large waves) but basically it's just one of those months.

If you're in the second group, Mercury in Cancer may feel like someone is pressurizing the life vessel you happen to be encased in. And while this isn't fatal, it sure is likely to be uncomfortable.

Whoever you are, expect a lot of emphasis on 'how it looks,' many an assumption being made before all the facts are in (much shooting off of mouths) and a lot of things becoming public knowledge which in calmer moments might have been contained or gone unnoticed.

To paraphrase Bette Davis, it's going to be a bit of a bumpy ride. But not necessarily a bad one!