This week is a mixed bag astrologically, but it could turn out quite well for many of us.

The bad news is that the Uranus-Pluto square remains close until the end of April, and we’re coming up on a total lunar eclipse that reinforces its explosive, destructive nature. Also, the period between eclipses can feel just plain weird. I usually feel like I’m in some kind of a twilight zone, not all “here” and but not all “there.”

The good news is that this week’s aspects are all largely positive. The Sun in Aries is more upbeat and active than it was in Pisces, and the trine from the Sun to Saturn is a good combination for productivity and accomplishment. There’s magic, too, with Venus in a romantic sextile with Neptune and an indulgent square with Jupiter. Mercury’s conjunction with Chiron in Pisces creates a space for healing words and insight into deep wounds, perhaps from other incarnations.

The Venus-Neptune sextile is exact in the wee hours of Tuesday morning on the East Coast of the United States. That means we may sense it the most while we’re in the dream state. Mercury in Pisces increases the likelihood of deeply symbolic dreams. Some of my dreams have been completely off the wall. A couple of times in the past week, I dreamed an entire novel from beginning to end. Maybe with an intense journaling session, I’d remember if I ever encountered any of these images, but I have no immediate explanation.

Mercury’s conjunction with Chiron is exact later on Tuesday morning, but it will be close enough overnight that dreams could have significant healing properties. It can happen. It’s not at all uncommon for people to overcome a particular fear by confronting it in a dream, sometimes in an exaggerated state of the situation they’re afraid of, or sometimes in a deeply symbolic setting. Dreams also can help us assimilate parts of ourselves that we subconsciously don’t accept or to find pieces that somehow got lost. You may wake up feeling that something has changed, or it may take you a few days to process the new information.

In any case, there’s a lot of potential in the first half of this week for healing work. You might want to set aside some waking hours Monday and Tuesday to write in your journal, meditate, or just sit in solitude.

On Friday, Venus squares Jupiter. Although we usually think of squares as “bad,” Venus-Jupiter combinations usually are pleasant and often even lucky. The only real downside to this one is that you might learn firsthand that there can be too much of a good thing. Venus is in Taurus, the sign she rules and the most materially oriented of the zodiac. Taurus is especially fond of gourmet food, vintage wine, luxury goods, and anything that appeals to the senses. Jupiter, meanwhile, is in dramatic Leo, subdued just a bit due to being retrograde. Nonetheless, this particular Venus-Jupiter combination is prone to overeating, overspending, and in general overindulging. The Moon will be in Cancer, sign of comfort food and mom’s home cooking, so rather than the fancy stuff, the temptation might be meatloaf and mashed potatoes or a triple helping of mac and cheese.

Since it’s Friday, a lot of folks will be out partying. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. If you’re planning a night out on the town, be sure you arrange beforehand how you’ll get home if you’re too drunk or high to drive. Venus and Jupiter may be lucky, but please don’t take any chances with your safety or risk getting pulled over by the cops.

Taurus also is the sign of money and banking, so aspects from Venus to Neptune and Jupiter also could manifest as financial opportunities. Again, you just need to know your limits and exercise some self-discipline.

The most significant aspect of the week is Wednesday’s trine from the Sun in Aries to Saturn in Sagittarius. Sun-Saturn combinations can be limiting and confrontational, but in an easy trine, they are more inclined to work together. That applies both to personal circumstances and in world events.

Aries is quick to act, often in service of the self. A recurring theme in the popular uprisings that have taken place during the Uranus-Pluto square has been the impulsive (Aries) nature of the demonstrations, with demands for individual freedom. Many of the protestors seemed to have an idealized (Uranus) vision of democracy as civil liberties with income equality, and they didn’t stop to think that overthrowing a fairly elected leader, however corrupt, was not democracy but mob rule. We now know that demands for immediate regime change were provoked by foreign agents, which is another whole discussion. Nonetheless, demonstrators had no action plan beyond toppling the current government.

For his part, Pluto was the riot police sent to crush the rebellion, the covert operations by foreign powers, and the force that imploded social and political structures. Pluto in Capricorn was reinforced by Saturn in Scorpio, making the destruction and the ruthless response by authorities that much worse. Saturn left Scorpio in mid-December, so the last blast of the Uranus-Pluto square a week ago had a different tone. A big part of the shift has been an increasing awareness of how the privileged few – the plutocrats – have been manipulating political and religious beliefs so that the public will behave in a certain way – for example, to support a war or fight national health insurance.

This week’s Sun-Saturn trine is useful for achieving a personal goal that requires self-discipline. This could be a new personal best in sports or fitness, completing a step in a long writing assignment, or taking an exam for your profession. However, it’s also a time to think seriously about your beliefs and to ask yourself whether you’ve bought into a particular belief system. An obvious example would be adherence to one or the other of the two U.S. political parties. I can’t tell you how often I see comments on news articles that simply parrot the party line. No original thought, no critical reassessment. And it’s on both sides.

Saturn represents structure, while Sagittarius is about beliefs. We don’t usually think of our beliefs as a “structure,” but they are. Belief systems are structures of the mind. For those too busy to think, they come prepackaged in convenient color-coded wrappers: red for Republicans, blue for Democrats, orange for Protestants, Green for Catholics. They also come in black and white. People cling to these systems and fight to the death to defend them. Intellectually, we can see the stupidity in that behavior, but when it comes to our own beliefs, we may not even recognize that we have them, let alone question whether they are really true.

Saturn turned retrograde on March 14 and will return to Scorpio from June 14 to September 17. Between now and mid-June, we have an opening for reviewing and reassessing our beliefs. This is not just an academic exercise. It’s a critical step in rebuilding society out of the ashes of the Uranus-Pluto square. It should be obvious that we can’t rebuild a more just, sustainable society if don’t know what we want. It’s not going to just magically come together by itself, and we can’t leave it to others. If we cede that responsibility, there’s a strong likelihood that we’re not going to like what we get – or, I should say, our children and grandchildren aren’t going to like what we allowed to happen. The plutocrats and their vassals are thinking about it now, and they know exactly what they want.

There was a demonstration last week in Frankfurt organized by Blockupy, an alliance of leftist groups, trade unions, and the German Left Party. The name is a takeoff on Occupy Wall Street. The protest was timed for the opening of the new $1.4 billion headquarters of the European Central Bank, which Blockupy says is forcing austerity on countries while enriching the bank’s shareholders. The demonstration was in part a show of solidarity with Greece, which has suffered for six years under austerity programs required as part of a bailout by the International Monetary Fund.

Blockupy’s politics are socialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-globalization, which are nothing new. What’s new is that like-minded groups throughout Europe are coming together in an attempt to create a movement big enough to build a new social structure from the ground up. One of Blockupy’s main supporters, a tax justice group called Attac, advocates a tax on the wealthiest few to stabilize the economy. I haven’t thought about it enough to know whether it’s applicable to the United States, but it’s an interesting idea, and they make a compelling argument.

Unfortunately, the ECB protest turned violent – not a big surprise considering that it was two days after the last Uranus-Pluto square. The group intended for it to be a peaceful demonstration, and there’s some speculation that it was infiltrated by provocateurs to give the movement a black eye. And it did. In all the coverage of the event by the Western media, there was barely mention of the group’s message. It was all about how they attacked police and torched property. After all, that’s just how radicals are, right?

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

© Pat Paquette, RealAstrologers.com, 2014.