This is going to be a tough week before it started.
Mercury isn’t retrograde yet as I write this, and already I’ve experienced several Rx moments. The most unnerving was was getting a phone call on Friday morning before I was awake, reaching for the phone, and … nothing. The screen froze. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll just reboot it.” Power switch didn’t work. Remove the battery? Tried it twice. Nope and nope.
Fortunately, I have drop-step-on-run-over-fall-in-the-toilet-Mercury-retrograde insurance, but it means being without a phone for a day or two. I was about to submit the form and had a sudden idea to try one more thing, stupid as it sounded. I plugged in the charger. The phone shuddered and came back to life, without rebooting. Actually, I didn’t even plug it in all the way, and the battery light indicated it was fully charged. Just plain weird.
Then there was the credit card payment. The one I thought I made on Friday but evidently didn’t. I must have forgotten to hit “confirm.”
I’m sure I can’t be the only one having early Rx experiences.
As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I’m way behind in report orders and consultation follow-ups and have to keep the forecasts brief until I catch up. So here’s a quick rundown for this week:
The New Moon is just after midnight Monday on the East Coast of the United States. The New Moon in Taurus usually is a delightful time of year for romance, good wine, roses, and the first hints of warm summer breezes. However, this New Moon is ridden with frustration, misunderstandings, no-shows, and fights over sex and money. If plans fall through and you find yourself alone, make the most of it. Solitude is vastly underrated. You can still have that glass of wine, or if it’s morning, enjoy a good cup of coffee. Solitary walks in nature are rewarding, too, or visit a park with a rose garden.
Click on image for larger view.
There is another dark side to this New Moon, which is conjunct the fixed star Algol by exact degree. The ancients considered Algol to be the most malevolent star in the heavens. It is associated with the mythological Medusa, the snake-headed woman who turned men to stone. She was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, as part of his quest to save the fair damsel in distress. Then, the Greeks had a tendency to take the old goddess myths and strip them of their power. Medusa represented a particularly frightening side of female power, that of the enraged woman. But the ancient goddess also embodied deep, intuitive wisdom – which also can be frightening for those who don’t understand it. To be sure, accessing that inner wisdom can take us to dark places in our psyche. Medusa goes all the way back, to when Nature herself was seen as both the creator of life and the bringer of death. And who can rage more powerfully than Mother Nature? It will be interesting to see whether we have any unusually powerful storms in the next two weeks.
Mercury turns retrograde on Monday at 9:49 p.m. EDT. On Thursday, the Sun enters Gemini and adds to Mercury’s game. It’s like encouraging someone to play more pranks by laughing at his jokes. Gremlins multiply in electronic devices like flies.
Also on Thursday, Venus in Cancer opposes Pluto, who’s also getting a jarring vibe via an inconjunct (quincunx) from Jupiter. This mix can be sexy, but not without a certain ick factor. Like meeting someone online, thinking this is finally The One, and being stood up on your first lunch date. Or meeting, being totally smitten, and halfway through the meal noticing the wedding ring tan line.
I try my best to find the positive potential in difficult aspects, but there’s not much to love about Friday’s Sun-Saturn opposition. Communications are difficult, if you can reach people at all. It’s not a day to rely on others. Even good partnerships can seem temporarily unsupportive. If you and someone you love are stumbling over words, forget the talk and just go for a walk in the park and listen to the birds sing.
Hang in there, and find some time to be still and listen to the wisdom of your inner voice. If you find your inner Medusa, give her all the space she needs.
Wishing you all an extra dose of love and courage,
Pat
RealAstrologers 
Came across algol a few weeks ago and I can’t even remember where but know its significant somehow…
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Ah I know why, saw it in the sky up at the caravan (I have google sky map on my phone ) and it popped up somewhere else on a blog a few days later . Astronomically its a very interesting star – a binary and astrologically that binary action has a very important message (which also ties in with the picture on your FB feed this am) – it is the brightest star but regurlarly goes dimmer and then brightens – it is eclipsed by its binary. Something that I am very conscious of is the symbolism of the wheel of life, the regularity of life and the cycle of the seasons, of the good and bad times … when life turns dim or seems to – there is a bright patch ahead and when its bright – there will be times when life turns dim but there is the knowledge that life will turn bright again.
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Thanks for that, Mandy.
It’s not hard to imagine how a disappearing star was considered an evil omen and how it became associated with the power of nature and the feminine and later an evil goddess. Story of mankind, actually. Ancient astrologers used Algol as a warning of beheadings. I must have been on the block in a past life, because I’ve got Algol on the South Node.
Just kidding. But I do suffer from migraines — not so much anymore, but in my 20s and 30s. There were times when being beheaded would have been a welcome relief.
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Mercury retrograde… Usually I don’t suffer much and don’t pay it much heed. My computer died, suddenly and dramatically, last week, right before a conference when I dearly needed it. I borrowed a tablet, then found my foxnovo – which I use to run my devices when I travel – hadn’t charged (though I plugged it in for a full 12 hours). I bought a new laptop to replace the dead one – it’s been a nightmare. Then I found a ton of stuff the computer company had loaded on to my web browser – took it all off and the thing is working brilliantly – for now. I’m on tenterhooks, wondering which device is going to be the next to give me grief.
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What a pain in the behind Maya. But it’s so classic Mercury Rx, especially in Gemini.
When a device that we rely on dies during Mercury Rx, we obviously can’t wait until Mercury returns direct to replace it. I like to think that REplace is an “approved” Mercury Rx activity. But just in case, keep your receipts.
Best of luck with it.
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Interesting to note Algol is actually a triple star system with a mutual orbital period of 681 days. Algol A actually has stolen much of the mass of Algol B, causing Algol B to age faster and prolong the life of Algol A at the expense of the younger but more rapidly aging Algol B. Kind of a “vampire star”. 7.3 million years ago the system passed within 9.8 light years of our solar system and may have increased the number of comets falling inward. Now the system has moved to 93 light years away. The ancient legend was justified!
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Thanks for that, Jack. I didn’t know that Algol was a triple! I always thought of it as binary. You are right about what the ancients knew. Part of it might have been that they had skies free of light pollution and were able to see the stars more clearly. But the lack of interference of all kinds also had to have allowed them to hear the stars. It’s a fascinating topic.
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