So much for merry Sagittarius.

Some kind of chaos has been unleashed in the past week, and I’d place my bets on Mercury crossing the final degrees of Sagittarius, which he’ll visit twice more in December as he moves through a retrograde phase. At the same time, troublemaker Mars is moving through these same degrees.

The last few degrees of the mutable signs and first few degrees of the cardinal signs have been activated by the T-square over the past year, and it’s as though Mercury and Mars have been moving through a minefield as they head toward a fateful conjunction with Pluto. How many degrees should be included is anybody’s guess, but for sure, I’d say from the Galactic Center at 27 degrees Sagittarius to about 5 degrees Capricorn, where we had an intense lunar eclipse in late June.

Meanwhile, the lunar North Node is moving backward across the degrees that Pluto occupied during the height of the cardinal T-square this summer.

So what has happened in the past week? Ireland went bankrupt, United States warships are off the coast of North Korea, and WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands more confidential documents that, at the very least, will complicate international diplomacy. Protests and police crackdowns marred elections in Haiti and Egypt. Full body scanners in U.S. airports almost set off a riot among holiday travelers, emphasis on almost. It’s hard to know what would get U.S. citizens to rebel against ever-increasing encroachment on our constitutional rights.

It’s all got the fingerprints of Pluto on it. Oh … and as if all of that weren’t bad enough, Sarah Palin and Barbara Bush are insulting each other’s ancestry.

The next few weeks are going to be like this, so you might want to put up the deflector shields. Of course, that means you won’t be able to use the transporter.

This week starts out with a square from Mars to Jupiter in Pisces on Monday. You’ll recall that the T-square was in all cardinal signs for a limited time, because Jupiter, Uranus, and Saturn went back and forth between cardinal (Aries and Libra) and mutable signs (Pisces and Virgo). On Friday, Mars squares Uranus, which is stationed and about to return direct at the New Moon. Mars often acts as a trigger to set off the energies of major transits. It’s a fair bet that we’ll experience more “T-square events” in the next three weeks.

Also on Monday, Venus re-enters Scorpio. Between now and December 21, the end of her post-retrograde shadow period, we’ll be processing our experience during her retrograde, from October 8 to November 18. Expect developments in relationships and, to some extent, finances and social situations. Venus also is the planet of diplomacy, so it’s interesting that the WikiLeaks release occurred as Venus is about to return to Scorpio, the sign of secrecy and backroom power brokering.

The Moon enters Libra on Tuesday and immediately forms a square with Pluto, just as Mercury enters Capricorn. Together, these transits add to the energy activating the cardinal T-square degrees. Serious Capricorn isn’t the most fun sign for Mercury, but given other developments, some careful, critical thinking wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Mercury sextiles Venus on Wednesday. If you need to have a serious discussion with a romantic partner or a good friend, this is a good time to do it, and you can rely on any promises or commitments you get.

Mars sextiles Neptune and Chiron on Thursday and Friday. The truth can hurt, or it can set you free. On this day, it should be healing. That won’t be the case later on Friday, when Mars squares Uranus. This combination is volatile, and depending where they are in your chart, you may need to keep yourself surrounded with the deflector shields for a couple of days on either side of this transit. Mars in Sagittarius is speedy and corresponds to traffic. With Uranus about to go direct, this pent-up energy could release so fast that it manifests as a serious accident. Do be careful if you’re driving and observe the posted speed limits. Watch for deer and other wildlife, too (wild critters fall under the provenance of Sagittarius).

The week culminates in Sunday’s New Moon at 13 degrees Sagittarius. It promises to be another whopper. I’ve started my analysis and will post a complete article in a day or two, so watch this space. A few hours after the New Moon, Mercury conjoins Pluto and Uranus returns direct. “Chaos” doesn’t even begin to describe it…

I leave you with a video of our winter storm in Seattle earlier this week. Some people managed to find the silver lining.

Sliding on Kite Hill

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat