If you feel like a wrung-out dishrag following last week’s tension, you’re not alone. Fortunately, we get a bit of a breather this week, and we might even witness a historic event that gives us some hope for humanity.

Given last week’s tense astrological aspects, the tragic shooting at the Washington Navy Yard wasn’t surprising, nor was it any wonder that investigators couldn’t find a motive. When someone cracks and goes off the deep end, they don’t have a “motive.” Perhaps the question investigators should be asking is why some people just quietly put a gun to their head, while others are driven to shoot randomly into a crowd.

I’ve written before about the mental health crisis in the United States (I can’t speak for other countries, but I imagine there are similar trends). The national suicide rate is increasing in the face of enormous stress. Much of it is financial. Homeless figures show that some people without homes actually have jobs, but their wages are so low that they can’t meet basic expenses. Readers outside the United States might be shocked to know that there is no state-sponsored healthcare here, many employers don’t provide health coverage, and the cost of medical care is prohibitive for those without insurance. The suicide rate is particularly high for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who don’t receive adequate support. To add insult to injury, a recent study funded by the Defense Department says there is no link between combat and military suicides, but that soldiers who take their own lives were predisposed to mental health disorders.

Against that backdrop, the Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government unless President Obama’s healthcare program is defunded, and they want to cut food stamps for the poor, too. It’s as though they’re itching for riots in the streets, which they’d no doubt respond to with police armed with tear gas and perhaps even lethal weapons. It’s possible this is just political theater, intended to divert public attention and divide people politically so they won’t start exercising their power. However, rioting in the streets is exactly the scenario astrologers have foreseen, given the Uranus-Pluto square and the various T-squares that form throughout the year. In fact, when last week’s shooting began, Mercury was conjunct the Ascendant, in a T-square with Uranus and Pluto. Mercury is the Messenger planet, and he’s in Libra, the sign of equality and justice. Mercury in Libra also represents mental balance.

The congressional budget fight will continue this week, and hopefully saner heads will prevail. Meanwhile, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday for a week-long debate on pressing global issues. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, is scheduled to make his first speech, and he has declared his willingness to negotiate on Iran’s nuclear program. The United States and Israel have charged that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and to counter the perceived threat, Israel receives billions of dollars in annual U.S. military aid. If that pretext no longer exists, dynamics in the Middle East will change. It isn’t yet clear whether President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Rouhani; in the past, the U.S. delegation has walked out of speeches by Iran’s leaders. If they do meet, it could be a worthy legacy for Obama, especially given his aggressive stance on U.S. military strikes in Syria. Some observers are comparing an Obama meeting with Rouhani to Nixon’s 1972 trip to China. Speaking of Syria, it also will be a hot topic at the U.N. meeting.

Mercury remains in Libra for the rest of this week, so this is a good time for negotiating. With Venus in secretive Scorpio, there’s bound to be plenty of backroom wheeling and dealing, but it could come out quite well, as Venus forms a favorable trine with Jupiter on Thursday. Venus and Jupiter are the two key financial planets, so there’s a good chance that congressional leaders could reach a favorable agreement this week, too. Don’t count on hearing about it in the mainstream media, though. We’ll have to look elsewhere to try to find out what really happened, and even then, there’s a good chance it will remain a secret.

Depending on where Venus and Libra fall in your chart, you could stand to gain, too. Financial issues are the most likely outcome, but Venus also is the planet of love, and Jupiter is the planet of luck, so romantic relationships may blossom at this time. Again, it depends on where these planets are transiting your natal chart. As I mentioned in my mid-week post, I decided to go ahead with the StarGuide Fall 2013 forecast. I received several e-mails asking about it, and I know that many people are interested in knowing what might be in store, with two eclipses, another round of the Uranus-Pluto square, and Mercury retrograde – all within a few weeks of one another. I’m trying a new format that gives me the flexibility to provide more personal information. Because I’m writing more material from scratch, I also raised the price a little. As I said, I’m going to have to see how this goes. It’s a lot of writing, and it will take me longer to produce one report, which means I won’t be able to fulfill orders rapidly. If you want to try one of these new reports, be sure to order right away. When I get your e-mail, I’ll give you an ETA. In case you’d like to see what it looks like before you decide, I created a sample using the chart for Edward Snowden (who has a challenging time ahead).

The good feelings of Venus and Jupiter begin wearing off over the weekend, when Venus squares Mars (exact on Saturday, September 28). Still, I think the good will generated earlier in the week will carry through. The Moon is in Cancer from Thursday through Sunday, and on Saturday, she conjoins Jupiter and trines Venus, carrying forward another wave of that positive vibe. And anyway, the Venus-Mars square, while edgy, does have some welcome manifestations, primarily in romantic relationships. Sex is more urgent, raw, and primal. If that’s how you like it, plan on hooking up next Friday or Saturday night (or both!).

On Sunday (September 29), Mercury enters Scorpio, which is the sign he’ll be in when he turns retrograde on October 21. He enters the pre-retrograde shadow period on October 1, so it’s important to spend next week wrapping up paperwork, sending important correspondence, and backing up your computer data. If you’re a writer working on a major project, spend the next four weeks producing a draft, and then edit and revise while Mercury is in reverse (what it looks like from our perspective on Earth).

Some other activities are favored while Mercury is retrograde, especially when he’s in Scorpio. This is the marker for investigative research, digging into trash cans, old court cases, and other hidden places where important clues could be hiding. Back when I was a reporter in Washington, D.C., I had a reputation among government PR types as a conspiracy theorist. One wrote to my boss that I “never met a conspiracy I didn’t like.” That was mostly true, but I investigated every lead to confirm whether my theory was correct, and sometimes I found that it wasn’t – or that maybe it was, but I’d never find the proof, in which case we couldn’t go to press with it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t an astrologer back then and didn’t know that Mercury retrograde periods are great for going back over your information to find leads you might have missed. This will be all the more true with Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. It’s a good bet that we’ll discover more than one embarrassing government secret, and they could be whoppers.

Again, if you’d like to know where Mercury will be retrograde in your chart, you can find out in the new Fall 2013 edition of StarGuide.

That’s pretty much it for this week. Next week, we get another round of a cardinal T-square, so do make sure to take a bit of break this week and recharge your batteries for October.

Much love and courage to you all,
Pat

© Pat Paquette, RealAstrologers.com, 2013.