This week begins with Mercury retrograde and major planetary movements that start to shake things up. Whether you like it or hate it has more to do with how attached you are to old ideas of how to succeed, influence and experience your world. If you are open and curious, there is an adventure ahead. One you will remember for years to come as a turning point. This Mercury Retrograde sits with Saturn, The Great Teacher, which means this change is well timed and one that serves you for the long haul. Because Mars the action planet is opposite Uranus, you pay a high price if you keep trying to do the same things, the same way.
Since Saturn is involved, though, you can’t rush to decide what is the exact right action. It requires you try one new thing, see how it fits. When a situation serves up the need for you to act, pay attention to all the different components. Do you understand more than a surface reaction when it comes to what motivates you? Discover where you can get to a better place than knee jerk responses. It’s your choice and this month when you get too puffed up with being right and want others to see it or do it your way there’s adjustments that may not feel too comfortable.
Instead of the sense of being right, look for the place where the actions that serve your interests can be aligned with what can also improve the situation to make it right for more than just you. This is a long term winning combination. Thinking your way to this place will only get you so far. Bring your intuitive sense, your heart and then your body along for a ride – don’t let your mind hold everyone else hostage. Then take it a step at a time. This next year community and group solutions are highlighted rather than a solo hero or heroine’s journey.
But it’s a new kind of community that is emerging with Pluto going through Capricorn. The old structure of pecking order, hierarchy and class consciousness is toppling, but not without a fight. There’s nothing so good at consolidating opposition as excess and power struggles are abundant everywhere you look. In governments, rich versus poor, religion, battle between masculine and feminine. The good news is that this month we get a chance to dig deeper on what we believe and why we feel that it’s the best belief system. It won’t be comfortable and you may find some of the values dear to you are simply a container that no longer really fits what is going on within you or the world around you. Stay open to explore or the shake up will rattle more than your teeth. The Cards and the Stars will help.
Card of the Week: The Sun
This is the most positive card in the deck and promises gradual change, like the days that grow longer bit by bit. The shadow side of this is present in the Full Moon we just experienced and our wounded ego. The opportunity this week is to find out how to bring light to your own shadows and when you do share it to encourage others to do the same. It may sound relatively small and easy, but I wager you’ll be surprised at the impulse to dig in and be right. That’s just so you can see where and how this happens. Now that you see it, introduce small changes. One situation at a time you start to move in a more pleasing direction. The better news is you’ll have some fine company when you operate from this guideline. There is less struggle, more harmony and even some fun while things get stirred up and mixed around. It brings hope to the journey and the promise of additional sunshine ahead. This card promises your inner guidance system is your best asset when in murky waters or unfamiliar territory. You get a chance to tell the difference between your fears and your intuition while you are at it.
Monday: Four of Arrows
The fours always ask or caution you to put things on a firm foundation. This mental Four of Arrows with the Sun stresses letting things happen rather than an attempt to make something happen. Ease and grace, no rush to judge or respond is underlined today. It is actually a fantastic benefit to carry with you the rest of the week. With so much celestial activity that mirrors the creative chaos in today’s world, when in doubt, pause. Take a breath. What we notice first is whatever reminds us of past threats or dangers. That’s our survival system. But it isn’t the whole picture. Pause. Let the rest of the information get in to add to that story. See where you have help, support, inner strength from where you’ve learned as you survived those past traumas. Ah, now breathe all the way out and in again. There… now you can feel your way forward from a still, informed place.
Take Action: Practice the Breath of Love today (and all week as needed) whenever you get triggered or busy.
Tuesday: Balance
We have a mix of both challenge and ease aspects today, perfectly represented by Balance. Chiron goes direct today and trines the Moon, so you can see how far you’ve come from the wounded child that was shamed or hidden in the past. Everyone has the place in them that was disempowered in some way by childhood. We all have the scars. So much of the misery we wade through today is thanks to the unrecognized or disowned places of powerlessness. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve had events and situations stir that wounded place up since June 30th of this year. It is so you can learn to stand in the place where you felt weak and get yourself through it on your own steam. Congratulations. It didn’t need to be spectacular success, you just needed to do it. You have… So take today and examine where you see that in your own life. With Moon trine both Neptune and Jupiter, you aren’t alone in this anymore and you can feel the difference. Thanks to Moon opposite Pluto you start to see where your coping skills felt good even though they didn’t get you what you wanted. They allowed the inner child to act out. Now is the time to see the whole Truth of you, embrace it, even as you move away from the raging or helpless child within to a more empowered adult who accepts responsibility for what you create in life.
Take Action: Review what your big triggers are since June 30th and notice any pattern you see in those incidents.
Wednesday: Three of Stones
The theme of light and dark continues today but with some solid ground beneath you. This Three of Stones promises healthy results from your communication. It doesn’t promise perfection, just tangible, satisfactory results. Mercury teams up with Saturn to highlight the fact that you want to begin as you wish to go on… In other words, set a standard for speaking up today in a manner you would like to be spoken to – it’s as simple as that. If you don’t like being yelled at, don’t turn the volume up on someone else. If you don’t want to be emotionally blackmailed with words, find another way. The Moon is square Mars which calls in the refrain from Monday, Pause. Before you fire off a reply, pause. Take in a lot more information. See where you want to interpret someone else through your own filtered story. Be curious. Threes are great at being curious. Mercury and Saturn are in an easy aspect to Mars so when your fears (Moon) get triggered, Pause. Take a beat and then try something just a little more self assured rather than reactive. The results are something you can build on long term.
Take Action: Pause in your communication today until you can feel yourself coming from a place that feels centered, respected and respectful.
Thursday: Three of Bows
Ah, two threes in a row. That almost always means you have a choice to make. In the morning with have both Moon and Mercury in a tense aspect with Jupiter, which tends to stir up the defensive side of us from old coping skills. Choose to pause and get your bearings before you respond. As the day goes on you find it easier to reach for the more powerful choice as the Moon trines the Sun and brings you into easier alignment with change. Build your courage daily when you act from a brave place rather than the wound that demands or expects someone else to make the world more of what you want. What I love about this Three is that it stands for the ship in the harbor. It’s not at the dock but boy can you see it in front of you. Your job is to be ready for that ship to come in, which means be rested and have support for unloading all the good things ahead. See your part in all of the good fortune, it requires collaborative effort rather than skewed emphasis on you or something outside of you. This is a much better choice…
Take Action: Choose to stay in command of yourself in spite of distractions, because you have good news on it’s way.
Friday: Archer
The Archer arrives just in time for a celestial parade. We have a Grand Trine in Fire between the Leo Moon, Mercury in Sagittarius and Uranus in Aries. The plus side of this is easy, powerful and applause worthy changes in how we share the deeper side of ourselves (the Moon) usually guarded by our fears and defenses. The Sagittarius Mercury Retrograde nudges you to revisit old conversations to see all sides and with some help from the Great Awakener, Uranus, new solutions, connections, and understanding are possible. Grace is a natural byproduct of a regal Leo Moon, so you can let bygones be bygones and choose a fresh start. The shadow side of today with Venus in a difficult aspect with Uranus is to watch out for ego and selfishness reaching for outcomes that benefit you at another’s expense. With the waning Grand Trine in Fire it can be too easy to justify that what works for you is just what’s best for everyone. Keep an eye out for that and you will win the day, like the Archer who hits his target over and over again. You have to risk, fail, learn, risk again, hit it and celebrate. Then it all begins again. Find pleasure in becoming skilled at creating with what’s at hand rather than frustration because the world isn’t yet what you wish it to be.
Take Action: Practice resilience by reviewing failures and seeing what you learned from each one.
Saturday: Queen of Bows
The first half of the day serves up challenges for this Fire Queen to handle. Intuition is here gift, and it’s put to the test when what you want runs up against resistance from both yourself and others, thanks to difficult Lunar aspects from Venus and Neptune. Venus is our desire nature and it’s at odds with our security needs represented by the Moon. Then Neptune, the collective steps in and we sense that what we want won’t be approved by those around us. Or it could be that we get what we want only to discover we aren’t satisfied with that either. Common enough occurrence. The child in you would wail, rage or shut down in the past. What will you do today? Fire is the perfect element for today because it takes all the other elements, burns them up and creates something new. So let it all come together and turn up the heat of your intuitive gifts to pick the perfect way to burn off dissatisfaction and create enthusiasm to move forward with yet another option. You get help from Mercury and Pallas as strategic thinkers and then from Sun and Ceres, who offer solid nourishment as you boldly set off in a new direction. So don’t fret about where the day starts, instead take command of creating something altogether new, unique to you by day’s end.
Take Action: Let dissatisfaction be your fuel to rearrange things mentally, emotionally and spiritually before you act on anything. Once you do that…feel your way forward.
Sunday: Six of Stones
Ouch, this Six in the Wildwood Tarot speaks of greed and imbalance. Normally though this Six is of repayment for past generosity. The aspects invite you consider both sides. Mercury is square the newly direct Chiron, so you do well to see where you used your pain and injustice of the past to create situations now that are, perhaps, just as unfair to someone else. Time to own up and balance the scales. Take care of yourself rather than expecting someone else to pay for past wrongs they had nothing to do with for you. It’s also good to take stock of where you’ve been trying to help a loved one get whole by over-giving to make up for their past lack. You’ve paid enough, time for you to revisit that situation too. Watch for the Inner Critic today and see where you can pull his fangs out of your tender hide. The Moon, Mercury and Chiron are all swirling together in a way that makes perfection seem like a must, when it’s never a reality at all. Give something your full attention, be present and let perfection go. Then we have Venus square Neptune so it’s going to bring up doubt. Can you trust this person, situation, choice? It can stir up enough confusion to get you to forget the real Truth. Trust yourself. Each disappointment or failure is less about a bad choice or person than it is a chance to trust what you want, what you can create and how you learn from it all. If it doesn’t look or feel good, make another choice rather than blaming yourself or someone else. Create your way out of imbalance. There’s so much more joy and power there than beating yourself up over mistakes or savaging someone else for theirs. When it feels bad, trust you can get to a better place. Then do it, one step at a time.
Take Action: When the Inner Critic appears, thank them and then bookend their dire prediction with a best case scenario that is equally possible. Balance…
