Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring the Create section and your weekly horoscopes.

Dear Friend and Reader:

When everyone around you is wounded and hurting, if you initiate and pursue your own healing it will probably make you stand out. I suspect countless people have had this thought before, but it came to mind as I was thinking about tomorrow’s conjunction of the Sun and Chiron in Aries. I don’t know how many people think of that possibility consciously before starting (for example) a therapy process; even if present unconsciously, however, I imagine it holds some people back.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

Sun conjunct Chiron occurs at 2:38 pm EDT Friday (18:37:51 UTC).

And although it’s not in the very first degree of Aries, it is in the second degree, which is still Aries Point territory (the nexus of personal and political).

Whatever tomorrow’s astrology describes for you personally, it will likely resonate with issues that are prominent in our collective social environment right now.

This is the first conjunction of the Sun and Chiron in Aries since Chiron left Pisces for good on Feb. 18. As far as I can tell, it is the only conjunction these two bodies will have in the first five degrees of Aries for this particular journey of Chiron in Aries (though next year will come close; that one happens in the sixth degree of Aries).

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring the Create section and weekly horoscopes by Amy Elliott.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Have you ever looked at your reflection in the water with the Sun directly behind you? Your reflection ends up being mostly a silhouette that’s gently distorted by the movement of the water; and though you can’t see your own features very well, you can see all the color and detail of what’s behind you — it’s just softer than if you turned and looked directly at where you are.

Photo by Amanda Painter

It occurred to me this might be one way to think of tonight’s conjunction of the Sun with retrograde Mercury in Pisces.

Due to the compression of your perspective with the source of illumination, you may not be able to see yourself as others see you right now. Yet you might find a new, gentler appreciation for where you’ve been — a view with softer edges but no less imagination-sparking (or growth-sparking) insight.

After all, Mercury retrogrades really are about slowing down and reassessing more than they’re about everything getting glitchy and going to hell in a handbasket. As I saw suggested elsewhere, those hiccups are generally the result of us fallible humans refusing to slow down, pay closer attention, and retrace the steps that got us where we are now (or where we have been many times). It’s trendy these days, even for people who scoff at astrology, to blame everything that goes wrong on Mercury being retrograde — even when it isn’t.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring Create, Eric’s latest Planet Waves FM broadcast, and weekly horoscopes By Victoria Emory. The previous version of this post, with comments, is further down the page

Dear Friend and Reader:

At last, the major astrology of this week (this month, really) has occurred: Mercury is retrograde in Pisces as of Monday; Uranus is in Taurus as of yesterday, and the Pisces New Moon is separating. As I write this, it’s all so fresh that I’m still getting a feel for whether the edginess and sense of anticipation I’d been experiencing has dissipated.

Utility poles in Orkney, Scotland, the day after Uranus — the cosmic light socket — ingressed Taurus in May 2018. Photo by Amanda Painter.

I’ve tried to think back to last May, when Uranus first dipped into Taurus, to compare how I felt and what was going on for me, to see if there are any correlations. I have to confess, though, I feel like last year’s ingress was easier somehow.

That could be more the result of time softening the edges of memory than an actual contrast. But I’m curious to hear whether anyone reading this has a similar sense of it all.

I know that last year, like this year, I was involved in a theater production; immediately after, I traveled to Orkney, Scotland, for an intensive workshop on voice and breath for theater. It was during that workshop that Uranus entered Taurus. I recall feeling busy before the trip; maybe a little overwhelmed; but when Uranus actually made its move, I was simply focused completely on the workshop and on exploring my surroundings when I was not exploring my own breath and voice.

So I’ve been wondering: was it partly being in a strange place, on an adventure of self-discovery, that aligned with the energy of Uranus and therefore seemed to smooth the change? Are my situation and activities somehow less in harmony with Uranus this year? Was it the resonance of a voice class with the sign Taurus (which rules the neck and throat)?

Or does this year’s edginess in the lead-up relate more to the succession of other planets we’ve had hanging out in the final degrees of signs? Maybe having Chiron in the sensitive first degree of Aries, conjunct Salacia, is providing more agitation than I’ve been giving it credit for?

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