Although we’re still facing the same ongoing challenges and will be for some time to come, the pressure of the past month and especially the past two weeks has subsided.

It’s not anything like a restoration of order or return to “normal,” whatever that is or was. Circumstances that may go back three or four years haven’t reached their logical outcome just yet. We still have more growing and stretching to do. However, we’ve just come through the worst of it and can stop to get our bearings.

To me, it feels like having just sailed through a raging storm. Seas are still choppy and the boat needs some repairs, but the first order of business is sleep.

Fortunately, most of this week is mild, astrologically speaking. The Sun in Taurus favors slowing down a bit, and Tuesday’s Sun-Jupiter sextile is wonderful for appreciating the beauty of spring in full bloom or, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, the autumn colors. It’s also a great time for food shared with friends and family, all the better with the Moon in festive Leo. The Sun’s sextile with Chiron on Wednesday further supports the ability to engage with loved ones on a deep level. If you’ve been holding back due to unresolved issues, the door is open for a heart-to-heart talk. If the opportunity is there, take it right away. Later in the week, work interferes, and relationship issues are more difficult to address.

Also on Wednesday, Mercury enters his home sign of Gemini, speeding up communications. Ideas are fast and plentiful, but they’ll just as quickly vanish, unless you take a minute to write them down. Business contracts are favored as well through Friday. Mercury’s square with Neptune on Sunday makes the weekend a bit iffy for putting pen to paper. Deals that look too good to be true most likely are. Communications can be fuzzy, too – almost as if Mercury were retrograde. Comments will be easily taken out of context, if not entirely misunderstood.

Communications over the weekend are all the more difficult with two powerful oppositions; the first on Saturday, with the Sun opposite Saturn, and the second on Sunday, with Venus opposite Mars. The Sun-Saturn opposition is in unyielding fixed signs Taurus and Scorpio. Neither of these signs is known for win-win enthusiasm. One gets her way simply by refusing to engage, while the other works behind the scenes to crush her opponent. It’s easy to feel isolated and disconnected under this influence. Work may take precedent over socializing, possibly due to a rush job for your boss or a client. This aspect does support tackling tedious work, so it could actually be to your advantage to be alone and without interruptions.

Venus and Mars are in a relationship called “mutual reception,” with Venus in the sign ruled by Mars and Mars in the sign ruled by Venus. Two hours after Venus opposes Mars, the Moon conjoins Mars and opposes Venus. Emotions will run high, and they could end up out of control. This could mean untamed passion, or a heated argument – possibly both, and not necessarily in that order. But with the other difficult aspects over the weekend, arguments could exacerbate existing relationship issues, and words could make things worse. It might be best to agree to disagree, with a commitment to revisit the issue the following week.

I’m not quite so optimistic about international relations. Individually, we have some control over how we respond to situations associated with planetary aspects. That’s not the case with world events, which often appear to be direct manifestations of the underlying astrological signatures, especially aspects between outer planets such as Uranus and Pluto. Global trends that began in 2010 culminated in events over the past month or so and are now set in motion. The train has left the station.

The current situation in Ukraine is especially worrisome, all the more so since Friday’s tragic fire in Odessa. The propaganda war has been well under way for some time, and it’s hard to imagine that the demonization of yet another foreign leader is anything other than a move to gain public support for a new military incursion – one with much greater stakes than previous campaigns.

As an astrologer, I view these events as emanating from a rare and powerful planetary alignment (please note that I didn’t say “caused by”). The very idea that it’s the United States versus Putin – not Obama versus Putin or the United States versus Russia – is indicated in the charts. As I’ve written in the past, we’re witnessing a critical period in human history, and one that astrologers have seen coming.

If all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players, then astrology supplies the script.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

© Pat Paquette, RealAstrologers.com, 2014.