Mercury in Scorpio

The Perseus Nebula is about 1043 light years from Earth.

(photo credit: Spitzer Space Telescope - NASA JPL, Caltech,

L Cieza/University of Texas, Austin, October 2006)

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When Mercury enters Scorpio on September 29th at 11:29 in the morning (UT/+0 time) it will be adding what we might think of as another ‘layer’ to the intensity and complexity of everything which is already going on in life. We’re all doing some ‘testing of the waters’ and we’re all experiencing some form of being tested.

Venus is already in Scorpio – and Venus will remain in Scorpio until October 7th. That means our desire quotient is more insistent than usual and now our thoughts are coming to bear on how we can have what we want…or…wait, is that really what I want?

This is the inward-versus-outward sort of effect this Venus/Mercury combination can truly have. And as we feel ourselves moving back and forth and back and forth between our personal yes-no-yes-no of wanting and realizing no, maybe I don’t want that, we’re all going to get a bit dizzied. Or maybe confused. And yes, certainly frustrated. After all, with the current Sun in Libra there’s some underlying sense that we should be able to make this work…and when it doesn’t work – or if someone disagrees with us or even causes us to feel like we’re being frowned upon, we’re likely to get all out of hand.

We think it’s them. It’s not. The weeks…no, actually the months ahead of Mercury in Scorpio are NOT about them. They’re about us. They’re about our ability to understand why we want what we want and why it’s so hard to change what we want even when it doesn’t work for us.

Even when it’s bad for us.

Even when it’s self destructive to want it or go after it.

Before I go any farther, I want to explain what I said back in that last paragraph about Mercury’s lengthy stay in Scorpio, because this is going to be a doozie of a traverse. Mercury enters Scorpio on the 29th, as stated. Then on October 1st, Mercury will cross the “invisible line” into the shadow of it’s upcoming retrograde. 

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Yes, you heard me…Mercury is going to go retrograde in Scorpio. By the time it gets to doing that, it will have moved all the way up into Scorpio’s high ‘teen degrees – which is the most intense of this seriously fixed water sign.

Call it intensity intensified, and you just about have it. Just remember we’re talking about our mental attributes, our focus…and in particular, the emotionality we bring to any subject.

This is high stakes mentality we’re talking about. And let’s not forget that by nature Scorpio is an interactive sign – and that applies whether you’re interacting, or whether you’re totally anti-interactive. All signs have polarities and hardly anything is thought of as more polarizing than Scorpio, a sign which represents everything which can scare us out of out of our wits not necessarily because the thing itself is scary, but because the feelings we bring to the situation, to the transaction, to the event, to that moment when we face the music (so to speak) are scary to us because they mean so much to us.

Yes, Scorpio is the sign of war and conception and death. But Scorpio is as much a sign about reclamation as it is about destruction – so why do we all get the jitters when something Scorpio comes up?

Answer: because Scorpio anything is about letting go of control. Yes, you can try to control things – you can pick the finest surgery for the operation, you can build the very best weapons and supply the largest army the world has ever seen. You can discuss an investment and read up on market theory and prospectuses on the company and on and on and on.

But when it comes to Scorpio, there is a moment when you have to let go…or when by the very nature of the act or situation, things become unpredictable. They may go exactly as you predict. Then again, they may not. And it’s that exact Scorpio quality which gives us the queasiness, the nervous twitch, the moment of ‘what if’ which is so very, very Scorpio.

Mind you, Scorpio is also very tough. This is a sign about survival so while the prep and wariness goes on you will also feel yourself prepared to endure no matter what. In spite of anything. Scorpio fires our survival instincts like nobody’s business and that’s all well and good.

And that’s pretty much the point: the fear, the positioning, the shyness, the lust, the desire to win, the craving to control or not to have to be in control…all those Scorpio things are good OR bad depending on where we are with ourselves on our ability to survive.

Sometimes yes, this is physical survival. But most of the time, transits of Scorpio are about emotional survival, the making ourselves make it through no matter what comes along.

And let’s be real – there’s a lot of Scorpio action already in progress. We discussed Venus and that’s one part of the puzzle. But Saturn is also transiting Scorpio, and that’s a sure-fired signal that there’s a lot of important growth going on. There’s a lot to be done, and as much as our inner twinge might get to us, we know there are responsibilities we really have to be dealing with.

So in light of that…how much risk will we take?

The Nodes are counting down through Saturn’s first decanate degrees like some sort of space launch countdown. As Mercury enters Scorpio the North Node is at 8, and 8 Scorpio is a degree known for emotional glitches and our ability to outsmart ourselves through our very cleverness. Since the North Node is about relationships and how we need to pay attention, we can hope that the first few days of Mercury in Scorpio will have us focused on those areas where our attentiveness can do us the most good.

I just wouldn’t count on it. Yes, we can insist of ourselves that we do the right thing and in particular, do that Scorpio Thing and not assume we know what’s best for everyone without asking. Scorpio is a sign where we would like to impose our will simply because our emotionality is so strong it feels like invalidation to have to change.

Within a day of Mercury entering its shadow, the Nodes will move back a degree into 7 Scorpio – a degree noted for an indescribable and mysterious strength which appears either as charismatic...or an “alternative”…or even a "rebellious" form. With the North Node resting in this degree for the rest of October, the balance of Mercury’s transit of Scorpio (which is mysterious enough!) is going to like as not be an ocean of wanting to know what is best, wanting to know which is the right choice and wanting to both seize our power and not have to be in charge perhaps at all.

Once Venus moves in Sagittarius on October 7th the sense of what we just might be able to do lightens and brightens. We may not understand everything yet…but we’re likely to find the right questions to ask – and quite possibly the right person to pose those questions to. Providing we don’t get overly pushing about things, there’s good progress to be made in the week or so before Mercury reaches its station/retrograde point (on October 21st) but that ‘don’t push’ is going to push us – and our “buttons” pretty hard!

Pragmatism settles in as Mars hits Virgo on October 15th, at which point one of several things is highly like to be true. Some of us will be in the ‘slow and steady wins the race’ mode. But others of us are definitely going to be feeling stymied and stuck. You may not have the answer or enough information yet (which is very common just prior to a Mercury station)…or you may just not have the courage to decide something – most likely because you know your decision either means you’re ‘risking’ something…or because you out-and-out know that to decide in ‘this’ direction means ‘that’ will happen, but deciding in favor of ‘that’ means something else will happen.

Yes, this would be one of those ‘can’t I have my cake and eat it too?’ sorts of moments. And there is some chance that you might be able to have and eat cake, but you’ll never know unless you commit to one thing or another. And there is that pesky niggling point about how if you thought you were in trouble and it turns out you were simply driving yourself nuts, that’s a whole other brand of being wrong.

In other words…why DID you get so cornfuzzled? What in your psyche caused you to be fear driven? Where did you learn – and through what did you learn – to be so scared of being wrong about anything that dealing with that fact can freeze you in your tracks and lead to even more consequential results?

Ah yes…our mental life is such fun, isn’t it? And with a quick ‘don’t throw anything at me, please…’ the next item up for grabs is a Lunar Eclipse – this one being at 25 Aries on October 18th.

Can you say “wild card”? This is definitely a celestial wild card…with the emphasis on the ‘wild’ side. The nuances of the eclipse itself will be discussed a bit down the road, but just the fact that it is occurring with the Sun in the sign ‘behind’ that Mercury is in puts the Moon (our feeling self and sense of ‘how things are at the moment) in an 8th sign harmonic TO Mercury (below, in yellow) and a 6th sign harmonic FROM Mercury (below, in red).

And that makes the period going into and around the time of Mercury October 21st station/retrograde point a power struggle. Many of us will experience our struggles with something which has to do with what we’re working towards (i.e., that which will afford us the ability or power to move forward in our lives) while others of us struggle with someone…as still others of us struggle with our Self, trying to understand or become better aligned to being the person we know we need to be but have some problem with being.

Make no mistake: this is an intensely provocative moment. But what it’s intended to provoke is not some full scale war, but an awareness of what it means to be in interaction with other people. Or working with other people. Or just being on the planet with 7 billion-plus other people.

Once the Sun moves into Scorpio early on the 23rd (UT/+0 time) the reconciling of our mentality to reality (or to realities) begins in earnest. Life will present us with pressing situations which need negotiating in or carefully negotiating through and woe be to those of us who simply think we can stonewall life.

Yes, you may (MAY mind you!) be able to forestall effects for the moment. But not forever. And those who do evade, avoid or postpone the reality are going to earn what we might negative karmic points… which is a fancy way of saying dealing with whatever is not being owned now later on is going to cost you ever so much more.

And we ain’t just talking money here, buck-os!

So the solar eclipse rolls through on November 3rd, then Jupiter (still in Cancer) goes retrograde on November 7th, doing so at a degree which will trine Mercury’s station/retrograde point.

Not that Mercury will still be lurking there, no. But this should be taken as life’s way of ‘holding us to some point’ and making us mind whatever process is going on.

Or maybe we’ll just mind it a lot, if you take me.

Either way, that Jupiter trines Mercury’s station degree is sort of a la-dee-dah celestial way of saying ‘you thought this was going to be easy? Maybe not!’ which rather goes along with Mercury’s being in retrograde since hardly anything ever gets ‘settled’ under Mercury retrograde.

Then…at last…Mercury goes direct and by Wednesday November 27th, Mercury clears it’s shadow and goes toodling on about its Mercurial business just in time for retailers in the US to do  their boombox holiday business and for lots and lots of people to be traveling not just on Thanksgiving here in America, but throughout the world over the holidays as the Sun heads into Sagittarius on November 22nd (UT/+0 time) and life carries on.

But probably not as it was. Not quite. Between the Solar Eclipse in Scorpio and this rather long Mercury (aka Mercurial) transit of Scorpio, by the time December 5th rolls around and Mercury follows the Sun into Sagittarius, a lot of us will have found out a whole lot more about who we are – and in particular, how well our ‘who we are’ quotient functions when it comes to making decisions, creating alliances and…to paraphrase a well known line, how well we do unto others, since between the things which go into how we do unto them and how where we stand with ourselves determines who we do what unto…how well all of that is working.

Here’s to our recognizing our errant ways – and to the courage and fortitude it not only takes to change us, but to go back and make amends with whoever we might have treated rather badly along the way.

They say ‘to err is human…to forgive, divine.’ Too often we tend to think that’s about forgiving ourselves and just moving on. But where Scorpio is concerned…or I should say especially where Scorpio is concerned (not that anything is scot-free under any other sign) the interactive nature of the energetic requires that we purify ourselves and then connect (or reconnect) and purify that connection. 

Or the process of connecting.

If you’re familiar with Tantra, this is akin to Tantric liberation. Tantra is not just about sex, though many think of it that way. Tantra and Tantric processes are about harmonic alignments and the ‘fine tuning’ of our beings which, through the accessing of our energetics and the matching of what we might call a ‘vibrational frequencies’ allow us to dissolve barriers which lie within us - and between our Self and another (Tantric sex or intimate Tantric unity) - and between our Self and our world.

Seen in this light, the universality of Tantra is very much akin to the universality of the unbounded whole which is Pisces.

Thus because Scorpio as our depth of emotional experience is found as a 9th harmonic – the sign through which we learn or expand our horizons – from Pisces…it is through this that we come to understand that the ‘alliance’ which allows us to access or unlock our Tantric Self and our Tantric experiences with others (which would include our fullest expanse of Scorpio power and personal transformation and transformative experience) is initiated through a “Libran” pathway which requires openness of our Self and to our Self. It requires not the ‘appearance’ of beauty but the willingness to be beautiful in the integrity of our being…which coming from Pisces includes the admission of our fears, our flaws and our humanity.

Scorpio has always been seen as the sign of that power which allows us to understand and reclaim our inner sense of vibrant being. While Mercury is traversing Scorpio during these days of an unfolding solar eclipse cycle, we have a singular opportunity to see without and look within…and thus find that we need to know in order to empower our moving on into greater growth.
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Sun in Taurus: Life, Reflected Inward

As an extension of the idea of Taurus as the sign of satisfaction with the self

are all those things which we consider 'satisfying' and comfortable or comforting

in life, such as these handwoven, natural dye Thai silks for sale in Ban Tha

Sawang (Surin Province, Thailand). Taurus problems generally arise from

substituting the 'thing' for the satisfaction, or thinking that 'things' or money

or 'looking right' can fill or fulfill our need for the sort of personal satisfaction

which comes from fulfilling your potential and doing that which you know is

right (for you) as opposed to simply making others happy.

(photo credit: JJ Harrison, December 2012)

Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac. And as such, there’s only one sign which precedes it: Aries – the sign of Self and awareness that we exist.

If you look at a horoscope wheel, the order of the signs is one through twelve. And that 12th sign, like that 12th house, is always the ‘shadow’ which we just may be afraid of.

Or maybe we’re afraid of being afraid of it.

What is it? What could go wrong?

If there is a position in the horoscope which embodies the fear we have of things which go ‘bump’ in the night, that the 12th harmonic – which is to say, the 12th ‘sign position’ to wherever you’re starting from.

 
Which with Taurus is Aries. So when you’re sitting in the Aries seat, Taurus is the 2nd harmonic: it’s all about what we can make of ourselves, and what we have to build with. Talents, resources are half of it, and the self worth and internal security is the other part – the part which allows us to harness that first half.

But when you ‘sit’ in the Taurus seat? Then all the ‘am I going to fail?’ and ‘what if they don’t like me?’ or even ‘what if war breaks out?’ or ‘what if the banks fail?’ or ‘what if I become homeless?’ or ‘what if there’s a hurricane?’…all the thousands and forty nine (yes, I counted) things which we might dream could go wrong become Aries in the 12th house position. All the fears we might dream up of failure or humiliation or whatever…that’s where they go bump in what great poets have referred to as the night of our soul.

All this is important because as the Sun moves into Taurus – which it is going to do as of 10:04 in the evening of April 19th (UT/+0 time) – the Sun’s entrance into the sign of the impending solar eclipse brings all those issues which are going to be challenged by the eclipse into the metaphysical sunlight...our conscious awareness.

Sunlight streams down onto a hot spring at Leirhnjukur, Iceland

(photo credit: Andreas Tille, July 1996)

So where ordinarily with Sun in Taurus we might be talking about utilizing our time, our personal resources (be they time, love, talent, money – whatever) to help others and thus earn that satisfaction which breeds security, here we’re talking about a period of time which is more likely to be about tests of security - and yes, as we've seen through acts of violence, threats to commit acts of war and the mailing of literally poisonous letters in the mail, that security can be physical.

But on a more global level, especially once the Sun is in Taurus, the issues are going to be more about 'worth' - most specifically, self worth.

I know…you’re just jazzed. (NOT!!!) But as I've been discussing with a friend on Facebook (through the astroPPM page) what we've seen for the past week-to-ten days has been all about Aries energetics: who we are and trying to prove our 'existence' to others and ourselves. The aim has been to be and to be noticed and to feel valid in going (Aries=assertive aims) in the directions we're aimed at.

North Korea's leader made his threats as the Sun was passing through Aries emotional second decanate, where the stakes are emotional and thus the idea of threatening what you might do is apt. Everything about that time called our attention to life on a more or less survivalistic level.

Then, as the Sun moved into Aries' third and most public and worldly level, the actions became public. You've often heard me say that third decanate degrees (degrees between 20 and 29 of any sign) are where we let go and where the world then reacts to us, at which point we have to deal with those reactions.

If you think of the bombings at the Boston Marathon, they embody this very kind of concept. Localizing this just to the bomber(s), they obviously went through planning and putting things together - after which came the moment of 'putting it out there' and having the world react. That's the Sun moving through the third decan of Aries. My friend on Facebook quoted her nephew in noting how many, many acts of violence and terror have taken place during this last segment of Aries. And I agree: astrologically, such acts are very third-decan of Aries.

But beneath or beyond that is the greater metaphysical concept which will 'evolve' as the Sun moves into Taurus. With a solar eclipse in Taurus this year, events in the eight weeks prior to that eclipse would be all about calling our attention to however issues of security and satisfaction with our lives are playing out in those lives.

And just maybe how we need to make changes. Maybe it's to security measures we take, yes. But maybe it's to what we prioritize in life. Or maybe it's to how we see other people, some of whom end up doing us wrong when they think we've done them wrong.    

This is not about blame. And not to put too fine a point on this, with Venus already in Taurus we want what we like. We want to do well. We want to be well. We want to be well thought of.

But all that is now scrambled into a time where other people telling us we’re fine won’t feel fine if we’re not feeling fine with ourselves and with the world we live in. All the placation in the world isn’t going to satisfy us if we aren’t satisfied with ourselves. Or if we can't step outside because we're so scared of a world we've walled out that we've reduced ourselves to living in some sort of walled encampments.

Freedom - astrologically - is Aquarian, a sign is just as famous for rules as it is for anarchy. We win in this world only when the world wins, giving us that wonderful space in which to live. Universal is not 'me and mine,' it's 'all of us and everyone.'

Taurus tests our ability to understand what 'everyone' means and how to grow through that understanding. We don't have to love everyone to be a universalist. We only need to understand that others have the right to be different, so long as nobody's hurting anybody else.

And no, that doesn't mean hurting your feelings because someone doesn't agree with you! Sometimes that's the very simplest issue, and the very thing which starts a war. The greatest lesson we achieve when it comes to differing opinions or different cultures or different life styles or whatever is not why others do or think as they do, and not what or how they do it.

It is the growth we experience through learning to allow others to be not like us...and being okay with that.

Maybe even loving someone in spite of that.

Or loving them because they are so very different. 

But let’s be real here: we’re talking about a Taurus solar eclipse, which is not life's gentlest upheaval. Plus (spoiler alert!) maybe you don’t realize it, but Mars is going to be joining this Taurus on the day after the Sun moves into Taurus.

Which means that as the Sun is about to enter Taurus and moving through the most 'critical' (intense) degrees of Aries, Mars is also at the most critical point in the Aries process.

And Mars rules Aries, which makes this either an assertive dynamic (perhaps to the point of complete narcissistic disregard of others) or a time when all we can think of is how 'separate' we are from life.

Which is part of the most celestial point here. Whatever life has to do to get us to understand that we don't have to just 'go along to get along' and that we are individuals gifted with a life which gives us the opportunity to do things in this world...that's what life is going to do.

Yet at the same time, we also have to be realistic. And when it comes to Mars in Taurus, Mars in Taurus is not focused on the self and actions that self can take, Mars in Taurus is focused on what we want.

And that what we 'want' all depends on what we think we don't have. Or how much we believe in our capacity to get where we want to go, despite whatever we're up against in this very moment. You may simply want “out of here.” You might want a job. Or you might want to not need to do whatever you're doing.

The object, the goal, the aim is Mars in Aries. But what lies under that...the wanting and whatever sense of satisfaction or insecurity or craving or lack of self regard we have about ourselves will determine how we will deal with this time. The Sun in Taurus, even without Mars (and Venus) in Taurus gets us to thinking about how we feel about who we are on the inside. How comfortable we are with that person we feel ourselves being when we lay down at night and close our eyes.

Most of the time this relating-to-our-state-of-self is quasi-automatic. But with a Solar Eclipse coming up, the Sun's moving into Taurus represents life 'lighting up' all those little cracks and crevices in our opinions of our Self and our lives. 

The solar eclipse being slated to happen during the Sun’s passage through Taurus tells us that these next few weeks are going to be intense. Maybe even contentious. This solar month is going to pose challenges, propositions, questions and revelations. Some of the foundations we have built certain assumptions, presumptions or suppositions on are going to shift. Some may even melt away - sometimes rather magically, but other times through wholesale pressure like that exerted inside a crucible.

Yes, for some life itself is going to be a pressure cooker. In the world of metaphysics, the idea that such an object would become an object of harm isn't chance: its emblematic.

So as the pressure ratchets up, then we get to see how ‘solid’ our personal operating systems really are. Do we know how to vent, or do we just explode? Do we use our energy and personal energetics for constructive or destructive means?

As a sign of security and not just all which we do to become secure but all those

basic things which allow us to pursue personal security, Taurus is also the sign

of food, restaurants, cooking and the food chain in general - which leads us to

this rather fun photo of a Barcelona fruit market.

(photo credit: Ajrin, October 2008)

It is often said ‘life isn’t what happens, it’s how you respond to what happens.’ That’s very metaphysical. Fate is what happens…how we respond, even when we do nothing, is the choice of free will.

And how we deal with that choice, be it in real time or in our head or heart or soul…those reactions, those responses voice our Taurean nature. What do I value? What am I willing to stand on as a person and use to build my life and enhance and grow the world I live in so that my life (and that of those I love) is enriched?

Given that Saturn is retrograde in Scorpio during this year’s Taurus transit of the Sun, our challenges are huge. But so too are the possibilities for gain, for growth, for learning better how to live in this world.

Or maybe how to make a better world in which to live. But there will be disappointments and challenges. We can expect a little confusion or inspiration as the Sun's radiance connects to Neptune energetics on April 23-24 (depending on your time zone). For some this will raise questions or confusion, for others this will be an inspiring or even a relaxing time.

The last days of April - April 27th through to May 1st - are will bring confrontations, most of all to our realities (or something we thought was 'this' when it's really 'that') and sense of having things "all planned out." Though issues may well be raised by others, they are not the core issue - our reactions to them, and maybe how we have been regarding them are.

Accept the reality and cope with it. You may not like the 'feet of clay' feeling encountered now, but deal with it anyway. Expressing your disappointment is fine provided you understand that you may be projecting unrealistic expectations which are yours on someone else who will then know that you're prone to constructs in your head which aren't the real thing.

For most of us, this is just a sandpaper sort of moment which in evoking the changes of values and valuations associated with the incoming solar eclipse are offending us mostly because we have to change.

Do we HAVE to?

Well, no. If you don't care about keeping in step with life, reality and the world, no. Just remember - you're living in and with it!      

And yes, things are changing. With Pluto transiting Capricorn we know things structural are changing. Taurus is an earth sign, and earth signs pertain to realities and ‘things tangible.’ So we know that the structures and the ‘rules’ of life are changing. And yes, we can kick and scream all we want, but the world is not going back to ‘the old way.’

Things are simply changing. We're due to get a few more 'notes' on the subject (bring your #2 pencils, everyone!) as the Sun connects to Jupiter on the 7th and 8th of May - again, depending on the time zone you live in. This is something of the 'bookend' aspect to issues raised at the end of April: "x" may not work, and "y" is going to take a WHOLE lot of effort to put into place.

Again, the question becomes about quality: do we just want to ignore things and have them work? Sure. But will they? Probably not! So in 'fixing' whatever is amiss in life, are we going to go for a quick-fix temporary patch, or are we going to dig out all the old rotten methodologies and upgrade our life to something new and quality and stable?

I'm beginning to feel like an HGTV show here...

(Show Host): '....You know, when we started this life remodeling project we had no idea you had all these time-damaged support beams. They all need replacing - do you have the psychological budget to cover these additional costs?' 

Whatever sign the Sun is in, it’s always making some sort of aspect to every planet, and during the Sun’s passage through Taurus we are in a moment of earth-to-earth sign trine. This does not (contrary to pop astrology PR) mean everything is ‘easy.’ Trines merely mean “ongoing energy” which can just as easily be an ongoing epidemic as ongoing sunshine and roses. The ‘pop astrology’ reference is to the energy…the energy of the trine is ‘easy’ in the sense that it simply flows and flows and flows.

But is that good? Ongoing good is good. But ongoing bad is bad, right?

In the end, the lesson here – however it manifests in your life – carries with it one reminder: though we may miss something which fails or ends or vanishes now, all things happen for a reason.

Unbeknownst to us,
 the universe is unfolding as it should. 

'Airglow': Earth's city lights plus atmospheric incadescence as

photographed from the Space Shuttle

(photo credit: NASA)

No, we don’t always like the reasons, but sometimes that’s just the point. Humans do not learn through complacency. We learn through striving. The terrible loss often teaches us to make more of what we have and who we are than any amount of comfortable status quo.

Do we like the status quo? Of course.

But life isn’t about what we like. We are born into this world to be part of something far greater than ourselves. And that sometimes takes blasting us out of our comfort zones.

Life isn’t mean. Life is just life. Our mistake is that thinking life is personally sentient rather than inevitably responsive.

Cause, effect. What we put out comes back to us.

So when we put less out, we get less back. And conversely, when we put a lot out, we get a lot back. What we get back depends on the quality of what we put out, and (this is an often missing Taurus part) whether what we put out is appropriate considering who we actually are.

Taurus tolerates no fakes. Taurus demands ‘the genuine article’ – starting with our Self.
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Reconcilliating the Venus/Mercury of the Momentary All

 Venus and Mercury 

painting by Bartholomaus Spranger (1585)

A synodic cycle begins when planets are out there doing their orbital thing and by hook or zodiacal crook come to be transiting the same zodiacal degree...as seen from here on Earth.

Let's be straight about this...planets don't actually meet up out there in space - they're literally millions of miles apart. It's like planets don't actually turn around and go in reverse when they're in retrograde.

It's all about how we see and experience things from here on Earth. Astrology is 99% operated as a geocentric ('earth/geo - centric/centered') science...and no, we don't want to get me started on people who don't view it or treat astrology as a science. Things which aren't based on reality are beliefs. Astrology, originally based on repetitive observation (i.e., every month, when the Moon is 'xyz' the tides are 'abc'...hmmmm....does this mean the Moon and tides are linked?) ...is more and more science based if only because advances in science are proving out the cause/effect(s) long noted by astrologers. 

Oh, we astrologers are just so ahead of our time...as I suggested to Mike Brown, planet hunter par excellence of Caltech fame! (And yes, we've done that blog.)

Getting back to the subject...There was a synodic encounter of a rather interesting kind back on October 25, 2010 between Venus - our 'making things real' efforts- and Mercury - the thought and actions which may/may not go into making things real, unreal, or something somewhere between).

The degree of this conjunction? 7 Scorpio, a degree all about inner strength, core quality and everything it takes to recognize said strength or quality, separate it from whatever is holding it back (if something is) and learning to harness/use said strength and quality to best effect.

That this synodic conjunction occurred during difficult global financial times is aptly presented here too - by the very quality which makes this synodic conjunction out-of-the-ordinary: namely, Venus being retrograde at the time.

The implication here is that the outer/worldly (Mercurial) doings, delvings, chattings, conversings and whatever else - they are all in service of learning why we are and/or aren't effective. In other words, how we haven't yet learned to uncover, cleanse, harness and/or use our inner strengths and core qualities to best effect.

Each synodic cycle pairing having its own length, this one (between Venus and Mercury) is 144.562 days long - about half a year, say...the next one being due on May 7 of 2011. That next one being in Aries (I Am/I Do) and the current one being in Scorpio (Emotional Connections-Connectivity), the whole of this cycle is defined as one where we are working towards being able to function from a more powerful, clarified and potent position in life.

How do we know we're working towards it? We know that because we are starting in Scorpio and it's six signs until Aries, the 'sixth harmonic' being the zodiacal sign of working to create functionality and harmony.

And I mention this last rather technical sounding bit...why? Well because...no matter what you read in 'astrology simplified' manuals, as someone who has been tallying the astrological yea's and nay's now for about three decades I'm here to tell you that a remarkable number of long-lasting relationships are founded in what is known to be a 6/8 harmonic - the six part being the effort and the 8 part being power (yes), sex (yes), investment (yup) and...emotional connections made through a willingness to be honestly vulnerable.

 Mirage sunrise over Lake Superior, Minnesota (July 2002)

photo credit: Tom Ruen

Mercury and Venus are so-called 'personal planets' and much of the time get fluffed aside as "non-major" players since by transit they tend to mark errands, paying the bills, dealing with the wash - the mundane things of life.

 

But seen from another level...how we interact on a mundane level is really a product of how well equipped we are to be open, honest, vulnerable - and all the rest.

Without the core, love is a word or placation.

Without access to the emotional core, there is no vulnerability.

Without peeling back the layers and cleansing ourselves from the goo and toxins of life's bruises, grudges and those desires which are simply irrational, there can be no actual connection. Not a durable one, at least.

So why does that matter now? It's not that it matters per se as some sort of giant event you should expect. But during the day...maybe into tomorrow....as part of this October 2010 to May 2011 synodic cycle we're hitting a little 'blip' point.

First comes the Venus side of the blip, as Venus retrogrades from Scorpio back into Libra come Monday November 8th, at 3:07 UT ...which is obviously still Sunday in the Americas and Pacific Basin region.

As this happens, you will feel more thoughtful and less angst ridden. You'll want to understand things more than straighten out the feelings involved. There will be less of a sense of to-and-fro 'tugging' with others or between others. Choices can still be a bit trying to make (sorting out processes seems over-the-top-hard right now, don't they?) and there will like as not still seem to be something 'lacking.' 

Oddly enough, it's about now that you'll recognize that part of that lack - oh, yeah...- is your having done nothing to really fix the problem. For all the whooping and hollering about what we need to do (and what needs doing) which generally accompanies any Venus retrograde but especially one in Scorpio (a sign which would like to turn finger-pointing into an Olympic gold medal event)....for all the whining, complaining, pouting, snarling and dissecting, not a lot generally gets done under Venus retrograde. 

Except....for one, as Venus retrogrades back into Libra, people oh-so often suddenly seem to remember that a.) verbs are useful in sentence structure and in getting things done....AND...that oh-by-the-way, if they want something done then you know, they could just get up and do something and thus make it happen.

And granted, all that is an 'occurring to us mentally' sort of thing. So who says anything will really get done?

Well that's the curious thing. About twenty hours after Venus backs its planetary tushy into Libra, Mercury vaults into Sagittarius (at 23:44 UT on November 7th, to be exact). Libra and Sagittarius are two signs which are in natural sextile. And sextiles represent opportunities. So while the door may not be open, by sign confluence alone, it's now unlocked.

But then we consider Mercury in Sagittarius. Mercury is ruler of ("at home in") two signs: Gemini and Virgo. It's therefore very 'not at home' in the opposition signs to Gemini and Virgo, which would be Pisces (opposite Virgo) and SAGITTARIUS...which is in opposition to Gemini. 

Normally we'd say that given the Sagittarian 'aw, go ahead try' thing which is so obvious where ideas are often concerned...normally we'd think Mercury would be slap-dash, over-the-top, hasty, waste-y and problematic in the 'shooting the mouth off' department (at least!) when in Sagittarius.

But with Venus currently in retrograde....?

You know that old diet joke about how a diet Coke and a candy bar cancel each other out? In real life, this doesn't work so well. But in metaphysics and astrology, the offset of hesitant against hasty can - with a little bit of effort, especially with the natural sextile thrown in, make for not the easiest of times...but with a wee bit of thought, a productive period of time.

Some answers will come quickly. Some, you'll have to wait for. This is not a moment of 'solutions' but it is one for input and exploration of ideas with others...a 'trying things on for size,' we might say.

This is not a mandate. It's an opportunity. So you can turn it down, tune it out and go your own way.

Is that what you want to do?

Oh, questions, questions....!

 The Thinker...by Rodin