It often happens that we’re surprised by events, when, looking back, the signs were there all along.

I could say that that’s one of the major themes of my life. There have been many instances, especially in my younger years, when simply paying attention could have saved me a lot of grief. But then, it’s not always that simple, is it?

There is so much noise from outside that it can drown out our intuition, which in any case is ridiculed as inferior to rational thinking. We are taught not to trust what’s in our hearts. Well, as I’ve said before, the heart is the seat of the mind; the brain is just a tool.

The brain takes in a vast amount of information in the course of a day, much more than we’re consciously aware of. Although I believe that we have a connection to a “higher mind” outside of ourselves that can account for some of our intuition, I also believe that intuition in some cases is the synthesis of several disparate bits of information taken in over time that suddenly come together and make sense – the “Aha!” moment, if you will.

This week has all the ingredients for sudden flashes of intuition that can have very real benefits. First of all, Mercury is retrograde and moving very slowly after stationing at 2 degrees Scorpio on Saturday. Then there’s a total lunar eclipse at the Full Moon on Wednesday, which falls in close conjunction with Uranus, planet of shock and surprise. Later in the day, Mars forms an exuberant trine with Jupiter, planet of abundance.

An advantage of Mercury retrograde – and there are many – is that our minds can slow down enough to hear our inner voice. This is particularly true with Mercury in Scorpio, one of the signs associated with the deep psyche. In classical mythology, Mercury (Greek Hermes) was the messenger of the gods and the only one free to enter and exit the underworld, represented by Pluto (Greek Hades). We experience this symbolism in a very real way in the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states – that in-between space as we’re waking up and falling asleep, halfway between the conscious and the unconscious. One of the names for Mercury was psychopompos, which referred to his role as guiding souls to the underworld. You could say that it is Mercury who guides your soul into the subconscious “underworld” when you fall asleep.

The other sign associated with the deep psyche is Pisces, although it is a bit different in than Pisces includes the collective unconscious, as well as our lives on other planes of existence – what some people call “past lives.” As it so happens, Mercury stationed within 3 degrees of a supportive trine to Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, currently in his own sign and thus very powerful.

Neptune is the planet of sleep and dreams. I suspect many of you have had some vivid, strange, and perhaps disturbing dreams over the past few days. One of the functions of dreams is to process information that your brain takes in during the day. Some of that information is “noise” and discarded, while other bits are kept, put in context of past experiences or perhaps filed away for future use. The latter is important when, for whatever reason, we’re not yet able to understand something. Often, it’s the ego blocking information that clashes with its “authority.” Neptune has a wicked habit of dissolving ego boundaries.

Mercury stationed in Scorpio, and in a trine with Neptune, is like having an open portal into other worlds, other places in space and time, via your dreams and in those spaces between waking and sleeping and vice versa. If you’re struggling with an internal conflict, information can surface this week that helps you find some resolution. If you’re a writer, you likely are familiar with the richness of the hypnopompic and hypnagogic states, so you know what I mean when I say to watch that space.

We begin the week within the pull of Wednesday’s Full Moon, which coincides with a total lunar eclipse at 15 degrees Aries. Eclipses also can open portals into other realities. You might feel a little dizzy and light-headed this week, or you may have sudden lapses in attention, like when you’re driving and you suddenly “wake up” and can’t remember the last five miles. I always find that to be the case at this time of year anyway, as we approach the Celtic cross-quarter day of Samhain, also called Halloween, All Hallows Eve, All Saints, Day of the Dead, and so forth. It’s a time of year when the veil between the worlds is already quite thin. Also, the period between eclipses can seem surreal, and we’ll be in that state between the lunar eclipse on October 8 and the solar eclipse in Scorpio on October 25.

All in all, the next couple of weeks could be disturbing and even scary, but there definitely will be treasure for those with the courage to sign up for a guided tour through the underworld.

In the eclipse chart, the Sun and Venus in Libra oppose the Moon and Uranus in Aries, all square Pluto in Capricorn – otherwise known as a cardinal T-square. The Uranus-Pluto square, the astrological signature behind the heightened unrest in the world over the past four years, isn’t exact again until mid-December, but it might as well be this week. Right on cue, new protests have broken out, this time in Hong Kong.

This eclipse is ruled by Mars, planetary ruler of Aries. Mars currently is in fast and fiery Sagittarius and is fresh from a trine with Uranus early this morning (Sunday, October 5). Uranus also is in Aries, giving Mars even more firepower. This week, Mars officially “connects the dots” and closes a grand fire trine between Mars, Uranus, and Jupiter. The latter two were in an exact trine since September 25. In the chart, the trine can easily be seen as the bright blue triangle.

Mars in Sagittarius can represent military incursions into foreign countries, and I’m somewhat concerned by this. However, there is an interesting dynamic in this chart that indirectly leads to peace and diplomacy. It can be seen through depositing, which goes like this: Mars is in Sagittarius, which is ruled by Jupiter; Jupiter is in Leo, ruled by the Sun; the Sun is in Libra, ruled by Venus; Venus is in Libra, which is her own sign, so she is the final depositor of both the eclipse and the fire trine. Moreover, she’s on the Ascendant in Washington by exact degree in the Full Moon chart. Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible in Washington in the early morning, just as the Moon is setting. It should be quite a sight.

In general, the fire trine provides an “outlet” to the T-square – a means for blocked and contested energies to flow freely into sudden, positive developments. “Flow” might be a bit of an understatement, given the explosive qualities of Uranus. With Jupiter involved, the potential is multiplied. This applies both in global affairs and in our personal lives. The one caveat I always make when paths without resistance open up is that these same paths are conducive to storms and other earth events. In the chart calculated for Washington, D.C., Pluto is ominously positioned on the fourth-house cusp. The fourth house represents the land itself.

It’s worth keeping in mind that events related to eclipses don’t always occur within a day or two. Sometimes they can happen months afterwards or even in advance. That does make it hard to find the association, which is tricky enough as it is. If I were looking for previous dates for events relating to this lunar eclipse, I’d look near the lunar eclipse in mid-April, which fell during the epic cardinal grand cross. Retrograde Mars was at 15 degrees Libra late on April 18 in Washington.

A major issue around that time was the failure of an American-brokered deal between the government in Kiev and anti-coup forces in eastern Ukraine. A ceasefire was announced on September 5, but it has been violated several times, with both sides blaming the other. Note that this eclipse falls within half a degree of the U.S. Saturn and just over 1 degree from the Sun of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The conjunction of Putin’s Sun and the U.S. Saturn represents attempts by the United States to isolate Putin. However, whether or not we hear about an official agreement, it’s likely that the White House and the Kremlin are talking behind the scenes. Neither wants a direct confrontation, despite inflammatory statements by extremists.

One last thing to keep in mind about this eclipse is that it represents the culmination of new situations and endeavors that began at the New Moon in Libra on September 24. That one was not severely challenged like many we’ve had in recent months, and even with the tense cardinal T-square formed by this Full Moon eclipse, the grand trine is a mitigating factor and reason to be optimistic. In addition to the grand trine, the Sun in Libra forms a dynamic sextile to Jupiter in Leo on Friday.

Also on Friday, Mercury returns to Libra, where he will remain until November 8. The dreams and visions might let up just a tad, although for reasons I mentioned above, we’re still in that strange in-between space and will stay there for a few more weeks.

I leave you with a song by one of my favorite artists, Kate Bush, appropriately titled, “Somewhere in Between.” In keeping with the Mercury retrograde theme, it’s from her “comeback” album Aerial, which was released in November 2005 after a 12-year hiatus. There isn’t an official video, but this fan-made version is quite beautiful.

(If you prefer, you can listen to the version with a still of the album cover. )

Much love and courage to all,
Pat

© Pat Paquette, RealAstrologers.com, 2014.