This week begins with Uranus turning retrograde and ends with a total eclipse of the Sun. We’ve got all the information we need, and now it’s time to spend a few days preparing before we venture into new territory.

Uranus, the innovator and awakener, entered pioneering Aries on May 27. Since then, we’ve been able to scout the unknown terrain to give us a better idea of what’s out there in our Brave New World.

Unfortunately, we’re not going to have a lot of time to analyze the data, and events may unfold too quickly this summer for us to follow a coherent strategy. Still, we have a better idea of where we want to go and who we want in our camp, and we do have a bit of time this week to put together a hasty roadmap.

Uranus turns retrograde on Monday. He’ll re-enter Pisces in mid-August and then return to Aries on March 11, 2011. With the Moon in Taurus on Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll have just the space we need for some quiet contemplation and, hopefully, sudden inspiration.

Venus opposes Neptune on Thursday, an aspect often associated with fantasy and delusion in romance. It depends on where these two are in your chart. If you’re looking to create an illusion of glamour and enchantment, this is your ticket. Just make sure you’ve got a ride home when your coach turns back into a pumpkin at midnight.

Friday is a busy day, with communicative Mercury making a productive sextile to Saturn in the final degree of Virgo. Think about what you really want. Better yet, talk about it. Often we don’t want what we think we do, and that sends out mixed messages to the universe.

Later in the day, Mercury enters Leo. It’s hard to find humor in our circumstances when we’re under so much stress, but sometimes that’s exactly what it takes to break the spell. Mercury trines Uranus on Friday and Jupiter on Sunday, which should provide lots of inspiration and mental stimulation, even with Uranus in retrograde mode. On the downside, there’s a potential here for major electrical outages.

On Saturday, Venus enters nitpicky Virgo — not her favorite sign. If you feel an urge to be critical at every turn, channel that energy into helping those you love in simple, practical ways. Likewise, when someone does something nice for you, no matter how small, recognize the love in their actions and show your appreciation.

Also on Saturday, the Moon enters Cancer and begins moving into position for Sunday’s total eclipse of the Sun. The Sun, meanwhile, sextiles Mars in Virgo, the only aspect this New Moon will make with any of the planets. As I wrote in my eclipse post on Saturday, I’m hopeful that this easy aspect will bring positive results, but there is always the possibility that it will be the path of least resistance for the pent-up energy of the eclipse.

The cardinal T-square between Saturn, Pluto, Uranus, and Jupiter continues to get closer, but as of the eclipse, Saturn remains in the final degree of mutable Virgo, so technically it’s not a cardinal T-square. I’m not sure how much of a distinction this is, but I’ve theorized that Saturn in Virgo has been a stabilizing influence — an advantage we’ll lose once the lord of time re-enters cardinal Libra on July 21. That’s when the T-square will be at peak power.

That said, events don’t necessarily happen when planetary alignments are exact. There can be lags of days, weeks, or months, and sometimes events happen in advance of the planetary marker. That certainly was the case in 1989, the last time we had anything resembling this year’s cardinal build-up. With Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all in Capricorn, cardinal energies dominated the skies for much of that year.

I went back and looked at several charts for events in 1989, including the Exxon Valdez spill, Hurricane Hugo, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Loma Prieta earthquake, the protests in Tiananmen Square, and the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid due to a geomagnetic storm. None of these events occurred when the planets were in exact alignment, although some of them were pretty close. In some cases, key planets were on the Ascendant at the moment of the event.

What this tells us is that the changes could come at any moment. We know we’re in the hot zone, and so nothing that happens in the next two months should surprise us, no matter how unprecedented, extraordinary, or totally outside of human experience to date. We asked to come along on this journey, but we can’t control what happens once we’re on the trail.

Much love and courage to all,
Pat