Mercury will be initiating a week, a month, and probably you with expansive style come Sunday. Indications are you should not take a passive role and simply wait for something to happen. Even though several expressions of the same theme will be intersecting in one day’s worth of astrology, you will probably have to make at least a some effort to catch the swelling wave.

The requisite nature of your participation will implicitly have to do with exposing yourself to some sort of mind-expanding initiation. That will mean going to someplace new, or doing something for the first time.

Be selective. Wherever you go or whatever you do should have a quality or reputation that makes your pulse race a bit in anticipation of what it will be like.

In addition, Sunday’s astrology implies that your chosen activity or destination should stimulate your mind at least as much as your body. Finally, insist on some sort of inherently spiritual (but preferably not ideological or hierarchical) quality for your astrologically harmonious participation.

So what is happening in the sky and on the zodiac to open a door and possibly blow your mind on the first day of both next week and next month? A handful of things, actually. But there is no doubt that Mercury will be the crux of what manifests for you. So let’s look at the little big planet first.

Mercury is versatile. Yes, it has to do with mind and mentally-related subjects. As Eric has repeatedly pointed out, however, there is now an unavoidably electronic component to Mercury’s impressive reach, manifesting in every form of media and whatever else moves quickly.

Then, of course, there is Mercury’s well-earned reputation as a trickster, paradoxically paired with its proficiency as a medic. The list of other mercurial qualities goes on and on. It’s quite the multitasking planet.

Mercury is in Aquarius and has been since Jan. 5. How could the planet with fastest apparent motion be confined to one sign for nearly two months? Well, there was this little matter of a retrograde during which Mercury slowly (for the most part) pinged back and forth in basically the first half of this fixed air sign. You probably got pinged a bit as well.

Mercury entered the arc (or first shadow/echo phase) of its retrograde motion on the same day it entered Aquarius. It turned on a dime and shifted into reverse Jan. 21, then resumed direct motion Feb. 11. Finally, on March 3, Mercury will move out of the narrow slice of the zodiac to which it has been confined most of this year, and concludes its second echo/shadow phase by accelerating into new places and interactions.

But not before an implicitly grand finale.

The big finish will come on March 1. In the course of one day, Mercury will achieve an exact sextile aspect with Uranus (in Aries) for the third time this year, followed by an opposition to retrograde Jupiter in Leo for the very first time this year.

Jupiter and Uranus are not chopped liver. What they have in common is that both express some sort of expansion, albeit differently. Jupiter’s expansiveness is usually on the magnanimous side, although retrograde motion can bestow a quality of megalomania to Jupiter’s old and usually stable reputation.

The reputation of Uranus does not imply stability. As a matter of fact, none other than the concisely erudite Robert Hand flat-out referred to Uranus as “a crazy planet” when interviewed for the October/November 2014 edition of The Mountain Astrologer magazine.

Hence, what expansive quality Uranus can be said to have tends to be somewhat explosive. That’s a good quality if you can harness it. Fortunately, Mercury in sextile aspect (closing to within 60 degrees of separation) with Uranus on Sunday indicates a chance you might be able to capture lightning in a bottle, or more precisely with your mind.

The evocation of lightning is not an idle one. Mythical Jupiter was known for his thunderbolts, with which he sustained his power over heaven and Earth. Mercury’s archetype, as already mentioned, has grown to include all things electronic. Finally, Uranus (as what some astrologers call the “higher octave” of Mercury) has an implicitly galvanizing cachet all its own.

We already have some experience with Mercury in what is normally known as a supportive sextile aspect with Uranus. That’s because Mercury’s retrograde sweep has already brought us the same aspect twice this year — on both Jan. 14 and Jan. 28th. It would be worth your while to check back on your calendar, diary or memory for what happened on those two Wednesdays, to give you a leg up on what promises to be a third time that just might redefine the word ‘charm’.

We have no such previous experience this year with Mercury in Aquarius precisely opposing Jupiter in Leo, but maybe a hint. When Mercury apparently initiated reverse motion on Feb. 11, it was two degrees away from a precise opposition with Jupiter. The sky has waited until this coming Sunday, however, to show us the real thing. Hence the idea that Mercury will be hooking you up to an initiation of sorts, one that might well blow your mind.

Like Mercury’s reputation, there’s an even longer list of indications in the astrology to reinforce the theme of a mind-expanding initiation on Sunday. We could go on and on here, but by now you have the idea.

To access the real thing yourself, you will need to do your part. After all, to surf you must first go to the beach. So, as Mercury would have you do, start thinking now.

Would your first experience watching an opera fill the bill? On any given Sunday, you might well find a bargain matinee. Alternatively, you might take a walk on the wild side (as Uranus would encourage) and check out a kinky cabaret. Perhaps (as Jupiter may have you do) you might even show up to support an unconventional (but now legal) marriage ceremony.

So here’s wishing you Jupiter’s good fortune, Mercury’s stimulation and the combustive upside of Uranus. May you come back to Planet Waves next week a bigger, better person for having caught every bit of a perfect wave for the first time in your life.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

And before my life is done, got to find me a place in the Sun
— Stevie Wonder

There is an interesting pattern in the sky this week. The pattern favors finding your place in a larger scheme of things than just your personal life. It has to do with how the sign rulers have temporarily sorted themselves out. As always, the final and crucial ingredient in making this astrology work for you is your awareness, holistic perception and conscious response.

With an exception for the Moon’s unique scope, sign rulers associated with your personal life (the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars) are clustered into a relatively narrow arc of the zodiac — all within 60 degrees of each other.

As result (and once again, with the fast-moving Moon as an occasional brief exception) the so-called “personal planets” are not perfecting any major aspects to each other in the near future.

That’s because Venus is now separating from its weekend conjunction with Mars, which occured as both entered Aries. Also because the next major aspect after a conjunction is a sextile, which requires a separation of 60 degrees. That’s something Venus will not quite achieve from either the Pisces Sun or Mercury (which is accelerating faster in Aquarius than Venus is in Aries) anytime soon.

Instead, the four sign-ruling planets closest to the Sun are exclusively aspecting their peers in the outer part of the solar system for the time being. Proportionally speaking, it’s a big jump from the orbital period of Mars (about 2 years) to the approximately 12 years it takes for Jupiter to circle the Sun and the zodiac. The same is true for Saturn’s circuit of nearly 30 years.

For that reason, Jupiter and Saturn are usually interpreted as corresponding to entire segments of your life rather than the frequently repeating life cycles that correlate to personal planets. That’s how Jupiter and Saturn have come to be thought of as trans-personal planets, completing their respective orbital periods to distinguish passages associated with generations.

Beginning with Uranus (which takes approximately 84 years to move through all 12 signs), and continuing on out to include the even longer periodicity of Neptune and Pluto, the modern sign-rulers tend to mesh with historical cycles and social entities that transpire over multiple generations.

Hence, the fact that personal planets are now focusing their most meaningful angular attentions on the outer solar system has a symbolic message for you: now is a good time to place yourself in a larger, longer context.

You might say the process started yesterday with the Pisces Sun achieving a separation of 90 degrees (a square aspect) from Saturn in Sagittarius. Therefore, in order to place yourself in context with the sky, try to recall whether you experienced anything other than the usual weekly return of anxieties normally associated with Mondays.

Specifically, if you consciously encountered or contemplated any long-term milestone with a sense of trepidation in the last day or so, don’t be troubled. Instead, take consolation from the fact that yesterday’s inner tension is the handle by which you may open the door to this week’s astrology.

The handle yesterday’s discomfort provided will allow you to reach within yourself. With but a little contemplation you might attain an instinctive sense of reconciliation with your place in a larger, longer scheme now — as today’s fire trine from Venus to Saturn would support your doing.

If you can but stretch to get a hold within yourself today, it will help tomorrow. For even though Mars is falling behind Venus as they both move through Aries, it is still close enough to perfect a fire trine of its own by reaching precisely 120 degrees of separation from Saturn in Sagittarius tomorrow.

Yes, trines are supposed to be easy. Without awareness, however, any aspect between Mars and Saturn might feel unduly intense. Now that you know what’s coming (and assuming your experience yesterday opened a door to understanding), you can conceivably place yourself to apply any intensity as opposed to weathering it.

Plus (and this is where seeing astrology holistically comes in really handy) when the Sun’s conjunction with Neptune peaks tomorrow, you will be able to take inspiration rather than being confused. It will be a matter of simply getting things in the right order. First, listen to your imagination. Then, act to build just a little reality on what you imagined. Just a little will do.

You need not build Rome this week. Instead, simply find your place in Rome (or its equivalent for you) as your first order of business. Then, do a little something to assert your place. Do a little for now. It will be enough.

Doing enough for now will establish a foundation to build on. Subsequent construction will be supported later by the waxing Moon. So too Mercury, which is on approach to expand your mind with a sextile to Uranus in Aries and an opposition to Jupiter in Leo.

But that’s another story (ideally your story), to be meaningfully continued.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Venus will conjoin Mars in the second degree of Aries at 12:13 am EST (05:13 UTC) Sunday. It will be the first of three times Venus and Mars will briefly share the same degree of the same sign this year. For two reasons, one general and one specific, the first Venus-Mars conjunction of 2015 will implicitly be better suited for taking note than for drawing conclusions.

The general reason for noting rather than inferring over the weekend has to do with how Venus and Mars move in relation to each other from our perspective here on Earth. The specific reason to observe now and judge later corresponds with what the Sun and Neptune will be doing in relation to all three of the Venus-Mars mergers this year.

From our perspective here on Earth, it’s difficult to accurately generalize about the motions of Venus and Mars relative to each other. The difficulty has to do with the calendar most of us use.

Our 12-month civil calendar is based on the apparent motion of the Sun. Of course, it’s really Earth that orbits the Sun once a year. For all practical purposes, however, perception is reality. That’s how it usually makes more sense both to keep track of time and to do astrology based on how things look from where you actually are.

Problem is, the apparent motions of Venus and Mars relative to each other do not make sense if the civil calendar is the framework for your perceptions. For example, you might say that Venus and Mars conjoin once every two years or so, and accurately capture their pattern since 2011. But such a convenient generalization breaks down periodically. This year is just such an occasion.

Implicitly then, you should eschew convenient conclusions when Venus and Mars conjoin this weekend. Instead, make note of what transpires and how you feel about it.

Moving further into 2015, endeavor to preserve your notations from this weekend. Save your notes to see how things look from where you actually are when Venus and Mars conjoin again, smack in the middle of Leo during the last day of August (or on Sept. 1, depending on your time zone).

That way, by the time Venus and Mars reach their third merger of the year at 24+ Virgo (late on Nov. 2 in the U.S.), you will have a customized framework of their correlations with your life. As result, you should finally be able to connect some meaningful dots based on your own experience. Doing so should give you a firmer grasp on your own reality as 2015 draws to a close.

As it turns out, there yet is another reason to first note, then corroborate your perceptions as Venus and Mars conjoin. It is a reason specific to this year. For every time Venus and Mars conjoin this year, the Sun and Neptune will be in meaningful aspect to each other.

The Sun represents (among other things) conscious awareness. In other words, being wide awake, engaged, fully present and accountable. Neptune, on the other hand, often corresponds with alternative states of consciousness. That’s how the Sun and Neptune often constitute a tricky mix that bears watching more than showing.

So happens, the Sun (in Pisces since yesterday) will be closing in on a conjunction of its own — with Neptune — when Venus and Mars hook up this weekend. For that reason alone you might want to do as you will, but without the proverbial beer goggles, so as to more astutely note your circumstances going into next week.

By the same token, you may want to anticipate that the Sun will oppose Neptune rather precisely when Venus and Mars perfect their second conjunction of 2015. Finally, you can reasonably plan on having a clearer head for this year’s third coalescence of Venus and Mars by simply knowing that the Sun by that time will have safely separated from the entanglements of a trine with Neptune.

So there you have it. From astrology’s perspective, this weekend should be well worth noting. That’s probably very good, or at least very interesting news. On the whole, however, you may want to subject your notes to tests of time and subsequent correlation before drawing conclusions about (or acting on) what you perceive as reality.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

It appears we have recently entered a period distinguished by departure. A notable number of people and patterns have discontinued of late. For instance, a handful of well-known media personalities left their their posts for various reasons only last week. Fortunately, astrology offers a time frame to anticipate or (even better) precipitate even more departures likely to follow.

The implied time frame begins with the second Aquarius New Moon in a row at 6:47 pm EST (23:47 UTC) Wednesday, and continues through the entire lunation (the period from one New Moon to the next) well into March.

Our first Aquarius New Moon saw the luminaries (Sun and Moon) share the very first degree of fixed air last month on Jan. 20. This week’s merger of the Sun and Moon will depart from a pattern of five consecutive luminary conjunctions in the first degree of successive signs. That pattern started with a Scorpio New Moon and solar eclipse on Oct. 23, 2014.

Instead, the Sun and Moon will briefly share the very last degree of Aquarius this week just before both depart for Pisces. Meaningfully, it will also be both Ash Wednesday and Asian lunar new year — two culturally significant points of departure in many parts of the world.

Appropriately, that new pattern will both repeat and conclude next month with yet another New Moon on March 20 in the very last degree of Pisces, just before the Aries equinox. That New Moon will also be a solar eclipse.

Until the vernal equinox, and following on the heels of tomorrow’s Aquarius New Moon, a cascade of notable departures will take place on the zodiac and in the sky. Implicitly, the events of your life will either find a way to follow suit or be made to.

Mars departs Pisces and enters Aries on Thursday. Venus makes its own departure from Pisces to ingress Aries Friday, closely followed by the Moon.

Then, this weekend Venus and Mars conjoin for the first of three times this year. It begins a remarkable departure from the usual pattern of Venus and Mars merging in the same degree of the same sign only once every other year.

Come March 3, Mercury will depart from the narrow arc of Aquarius in which it has been pacing back and forth since the beginning of 2015. (That is, it leaves its ‘echo’ or ‘shadow’ phase.)

Saturn’s station retrograde March 14 will eventually lead to its brief departure from Sagittarius in June. After taking care of several months’ worth of unfinished business in Scorpio, Saturn will return to Sagittarius for the long run in September.

Finally, on March 16 or 17 (depending on your time zone), Uranus in Aries will make the last of its seven exact square aspects (separations of 90 degrees) to Pluto in Capricorn. After that, Uranus will begin a long, drawn-out departure from Aries while permanently moving away from its three-year pattern of oft-repeated and functionally continuous squares from Pluto.

It’s all nearly enough to make you want to sing “Auld Lang Syne” for St. Patrick’s Day. But don’t plan on crying into your green beer.

Instead, you should probably contemplate how to participate with what the astrology indicates. There appears to be an entire lunation chock-full of successive departures now at hand, to be either undertaken or completed. Assuming such appearances are valid, it would probably be best if you took matters into your own hands.

At the very least, you will want to prepare for familiarity to depart. It will mean releasing attachments where appropriate. It will also and ideally mean creating new routines to replace what you had gotten used to. Even if the life pattern in question was not something you were particularly fond of.

For we tend to be creatures of habit, and even the most cursed of customs leave a vacuum that needs filling once departed. Hence, a very good reason for you to initiate departures of your own accord, so as to mindfully and intentionally replace old with better, rather than simply new.  

Even as millions begin the ritual repentance of Lent, you might want to consciously choose your own abstentions rather than have some arbitrarily thrust upon you. Additionally, while millions more clean house in order to entertain not only family and friends but also a more benevolent ambiance, you might want to do some cleansing of your own.

Indeed, in some ways, tomorrow’s Aquarius New Moon might even feel something like an eclipse in advance of the real thing. Based on what is going to be happening for astrology over the next month or so, that might be a good feeling to go with. Especially so if you want to end up where you want to be, doing what you want to do when the next season auspiciously begins.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.