Tag Archives: Mercury retrograde

Weekly Forecast September 28: Sun Conjunct Mercury

"Of course it's OK to take those bags of money at your feet, John, and here's a bonus. Would I lie to you?"

“Of course it’s OK to take those bags of money at your feet, John, and here’s a bonus. Would I lie to you?”

There’s only one major planetary aspect this week, giving us a chance to catch our breath after all the shifting that happened last week. However, it will not be business as usual.

As the week begins, we’re still in the wake of Sunday’s powerful lunar eclipse in Aries. Events related to this eclipse will continue to unfold through Wednesday. That said, when eclipses are this intense, events can occur up to three months ve. For some, life events that correspond to this eclipse already have happened.

Eclipses can bring rapid changes, often faster than we can cope with. In that regard, Mercury retrograde could be a blessing, as news of a big change could come a few weeks before the actual change. Keep in mind, though, that everything is subject to revision Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast September 21: Sun Enters Libra, Full Moon Eclipse in Aries

Aries Eclipse Sept 2015This week is the second most significant in 2015, astrologically speaking, with several shifts and a lunar eclipse, the last of four in a row.

The first shift is the Sun’s entry into Libra, the fall or spring equinox, depending on whether you’re north or south of the equator. In Western culture, the equinox is considered the first day of fall, but I view it as mid-autumn. We’re now in the final descent into the dark days of winter.

The two key associations of Libra are personal relationships and diplomacy, which is just a large-scale relationship between nations. Many of the same principles apply: listening and responding, give and take, negotiating and compromise. The point is to achieve balance and harmony, Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast September 14: Mercury Retrograde, Saturn Enters Sagittarius

Composite art by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

Composite art by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

For the next two weeks, we’re in the twilight zone between eclipses, reinforced by this week’s Jupiter-Neptune opposition and Mercury retrograde.

All of this week’s major aspects occur within a 24-hour period on Thursday (Jupiter’s Day) and late Wednesday night in Western time zones. First, Jupiter opposes Neptune. Then Mercury turns retrograde in Libra, the sign of relationships and diplomacy. Several hours later, Saturn enters Sagittarius, where he will remain until December 2017. Over the next year, Saturn will square Neptune three times, pushing us out of the comfort zone of our beliefs and into the rugged terrain of truth. Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast June 15: New Moon in Gemini, Sun Enters Cancer

Composite by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

Composite by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

We’re still floating along in a Neptunian fog, but this week has a couple of positive shifts that should make life more bearable overall, maybe even fun.

Oh, dear. Did I just use the “F” word? Must be all the sleep I got over the past week. Apparently it has made me feisty. If I could put that in a bottle, I would be a millionaire, and all those Lunesta moths would be out of work. (Did you know that luna moths belong to a family called saturniids?)

There’s going to be a lot of feistiness in the air this week, for better or for worse, with the New Moon in Gemini conjunct Mars. Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast June 8: Mercury Direct, Neptune Retrograde

King Neptune. © Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

King Neptune. © Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

Neptume is to blane. That’s may story and I’m sticking to it.

Seriously, Neptune in Pisces hasn’t been all roses and strawberry fields forever. There’s a debilitating side to it, not the least of which is fatigue, sleepiness, mental confusion, and inability to concentrate. There’s going to be a lot of that going around this week, with Neptune turning retrograde.

There’s also an escapist side to Neptune, which is what many astrologers predicted would happen when Neptune entered Pisces in January 2012. I don’t have statistics about substance abuse, addictions to computer games and pornography, or numbers of mishaps due to failure to look up from a cell phone while driving or Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast May 25: Mercury Conjunct Mars, Sun Square Neptune

Composite by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

Composite by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

We’re in for another trying week, with an increased risk of arguments, errors on the job, and difficulty staying on task.

Mercury is retrograde until June 11, in his own sign of Gemini. Mercury rules information, communications, small electronics, traffic flow, siblings, and your immediate neighborhood. Challenges in one or more of these areas are typical during Mercury retrograde periods, but the potential for frustration and delay doubles with Mercury in his own sign.

Mars and the Sun also are in Gemini, adding another layer of complication, and this week all three planets are in conjunction, and all in a square to Neptune, the planet of foggy thinking, confusion, and deception. Gemini usually is quick-witted, funny, curious, and chatty; however, this configuration is anything but amusing. Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast May 18: New Moon in Taurus, Mercury Turns Retrograde

New Moon in Taurus 2015 collageThis 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 Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast May 11: Mars Enters Gemini, Venus Trine Neptune

Duel of Hektor and Ajax2Frustrations begin to mount this week, as Mars enters Gemini and Mercury, Gemini’s ruler, slows down in advance of next week’s retrograde.

Mars has been in slow-moving Taurus. That hasn’t entirely been a bad thing; there’s something to be said for endurance as opposed to a sprint. However, there’s been a drag on our energy, and that will lift after Mars enters speedy Gemini on Monday. The movements of Mars are always important to watch, particularly in world affairs, but that has been doubly true since Uranus entered Aries in 2010. With the planet of unpredictability and upset in the sign Mars rules, he has been receiving something like an intravenous drip of caffeine. Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast May 4: Sun Trine Pluto, Venus Enters Cancer

Composite by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

Composite by Osk Ingad Alden, 2015.

This week is mostly about the Full Moon in Scorpio, which occurs on Sunday night in the United States and Monday morning in Europe.

Because it technically fell within last week’s forecast period, I covered it last week. However, I didn’t realize last week that this Full Moon is Wesak, the celebration of the birth, death, and transformation of the Buddha. Normally it falls at the Scorpio Full Moon in sidereal astrology, a different system practiced in Eastern countries that is a month “behind” Western astrology. The sidereal Full Moon in Scorpio is on June 2. But apparently it’s more complicated than that and historically has always been in May Continue reading →

Weekly Forecast February 9: Mercury Direct

Winter gems. © Gretchen Friedrich, 2015.

Winter gems. © Gretchen Friedrich, 2015.

Welcome to yet another week in which there are no major astrological aspects but that nonetheless is dominated by tension.

In the past couple of days, I’ve read countless commentaries by folks who feel sure we’re headed for “total war” as the West confronts Russian President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine. Putin met on Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande to negotiate what observers call a last-ditch effort to avoid an all-out war. The three world leaders are scheduled to meet again on Wednesday in the Belarus capital of Minsk to work out final details of a peace agreement.

Reports from Friday’s meeting at the Kremlin were dismal, Continue reading →