Mercury (in direct motion again since Saturday) makes its third Libra conjunction since Sept. 17 with the mean lunar ascending node (North Node) tomorrow. In the context of everything else going on over the last six weeks, Mercury’s third merger in short order with the lunar North Node implies how recognizable new patterns may now be emerging in your life.

Considering all that has probably been going on for you since mid-September, it might be comforting to finally discern some order in the course of events.

Even if things are beginning to make more sense now, it’s also important to remember how a great deal is still probably in the process of forming — starting with Mercury, and proceeding through you.

On Sept. 14, Mercury in direct motion first passed the degree of Libra where its eventual apparent retreat would end. Thus began the first echo (or ‘shadow’) phase before retrograde. A first conjunction with the lunar North Node followed shortly after on Sept. 17.

The Sun was still in Virgo on Sept. 17. Now, the Sun is in Scorpio, but it’s likely that something of the astrology to follow was foreshadowed when Mercury first conjoined the node in Libra. You may, for example, have heard the echo of our current season, initiated when the Sun entered Libra on Sept. 22.

Back on Sept. 17, you might also have sensed something of what Mercury’s subsequent retrograde (Oct. 4 to Oct. 25) would hold. Most likely, however, Mercury’s first conjunction with the lunar North Node correlated with some anticipation of the eclipses that took place this month.

That’s because the most straightforward meaning of the two perpetually opposing lunar nodes for astrologers is ‘where eclipses take place’ when the Sun is near one of them. In addition, the lunar North Node (or ‘ascending node’) in particular corresponds with looking ahead to the future. 

Sure enough, the Libra Sun was very close to the lunar North Node on Oct. 8, close enough for a total lunar eclipse to take place when the Full Moon opposed the Sun from Aries. At the time, Mercury was slowly backing out of early Scorpio. Then, an interesting sort of symmetry followed, a flip if you will.

Early on Oct. 21, retrograde Mercury’s second conjunction with the North Node in Libra essentially took the place that had been held by the Sun during the lunar eclipse.

Then, on Oct. 23, the conjoined Sun and Moon essentially took Mercury’s previous place in Scorpio, but still close enough to the ascending node to precipitate a partial solar eclipse. If you experienced something of a flip-side of mid-September at the time of the Scorpio solar eclipse, it would be little wonder.

So it is that, having probably seen something of both sides of your life now, Mercury’s third conjunction with the lunar North Node tomorrow will potentially afford you a parallax view looking forward. Implicitly integrated in the forward view will almost certainly be some familiar motifs.

Those familiar tableau will in turn be more sharply defined by both familiarity and the depth perspective gained as a fringe benefit of the edgy astrology you have lived with and through for the previous month and a half — astrology that is not quite done.

Mercury is not done retracing its steps. There is more to re-encounter until Mercury’s second echo phase concludes on Nov. 10. Hence, there are new patterns yet to fall into place, or more appropriately, to be put into place.

In an interesting form of symmetry, the extent to which patterns of your life have been altered, or even disrupted, since Sept. 17 is the extent to which you are implicitly being empowered to consciously put new patterns of life in place.

Therefore, envy not those who appear to have been unaffected by the astrology of late. Those who got off easy will not as easily have seen things coming during Mercury’s first echo phase — though if that describes you, it’s still possible to look back and discern useful patterns.

By the same token, those who remained mostly right side up during Mercury’s retrograde and the eclipses will not have seen as much of the flip side. Those who have not felt somehow flipped will also not be as well attuned to what for many will now be increasingly recognizable patterns which can be further developed to effectively design the future. Not that there is anything to fret about if you have remained among the high and dry — these things always work out as appropriate for the individual.

So, if you are still picking yourself up (or remained standing and are wondering what’s next), please consider yourself to have picked up some valuable experience as well — experience you should soon recognize how to use.  

Offered In Service

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

After the monumental confluence of events centered on today’s Scorpio solar eclipse has peaked, there will be no letdown for astrology if Mars and Neptune are any indication. So don’t let yourself down. Take the time to take care of yourself. Also take care to follow through. Honor transitions and commitments equally, and you will be one with the celestial flow.

The flow begins today. Because today’s Scorpio solar eclipse stellium constituted by the Sun, Moon, Venus and asteroid 2 Pallas are already within orb of a trine aspect to Neptune in Pisces.

A few hours after today’s eclipse, the Scorpio Moon will have moved on, into and out of an exact water trine with Neptune.

Over the next week, Venus, the Sun and Pallas will follow the Moon. One after the other, each will move on, deeper into Scorpio and into its own precise water trine with Neptune. And it starts today.

The functional continuum of water trine aspects from the Moon, Venus, the Sun and Pallas to Neptune may well evoke a majestic and uninterrupted flow of emotional, intuitive and deeply felt energy, but not a letdown.  

Meanwhile, the planet of energy — Mars — will be moving on as well by entering tropical Capricorn, the sign of its exaltation, at 6:43 am EDT (10:43 UT) on Sunday. With ingress to Capricorn, Mars will be taking on some substantial majesty of its own, invoking the sheer power of intent, but not a letdown any more than the continuous flow of trine aspects from Scorpio to Pisces.

Implicitly, the continuous flow of trine aspects from from passionate Scorpio to the profound depths of Pisces will be a caring flow, not a destructive one. Not with the sensitive Moon, followed by receptive Venus, followed by the conscious Sun and, finally, steadfast Pallas conducting the current.

Nonetheless, you should respect the implicit power of symbolic water as you do actual water.

You should also respect the power of no less than the Moon, Venus and the Sun — the three brightest objects in the sky.

With the Moon, Venus, the Sun, and Pallas closely following each other in one trine aspect after another to inestimable Neptune, you should exercise care in all things, beginning with not letting yourself down. Take care of your emotional needs. Respect your own feelings. Give the water someplace to go, and something to do.

Having something to do should be no problem. Not following a period of eclipses concluding with what appears to be an unprecedentedly focused flourish of having the three brightest objects in the sky occupying the first degree of Scorpio today.

Nor should the will to do something be lacking with Mars entering the cardinal Capricorn kingdom ruled by substantial Saturn. A kingdom where Mars is accorded uninhibited expression of its power to follow through on commitment with manifestation.

Yet, even Saturn’s formative influence through ruling Capricorn is no guarantee that Mars in its exaltation will not exceed boundaries to manifest recklessly. Especially because Saturn remains in Scorpio where Mars rules, galvanizing both with the alternating current of what astrologers call mutual reception: two planets, each simultaneously traversing the sign ruled by the other.

Mutual reception sets up a flow of its own. A flow quite unlike that of trine aspects connecting signs that share the same archetypal element in their separate identities.

Rather, mutual reception sets up an unpredictable flow wherein the planets involved could exchange identities at any time. It’s a flow to be handled with care, and the only place that care can reliably come from is you.

It’s not as though you will need to wrestle with the gods and the elements like some mythical hero. In the final analysis, planets (like Mars and Neptune), and the symbolic elements of astrology (like water) manifest most meaningfully, and happily most easily, through you.

So keep it simple. Keep caring. Care for yourself. Care enough to keep your commitments and follow through as to manifest them. Above all, don’t let yourself down after being privileged to live through today’s unprecedented astrology. Rather, care enough to live up to it. It’s part of the reason you are here.

Offered In Service

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

Think of the rest of this week as your time capsule, and you will have its astrology in hand. Because a heaping handful of significant astrological periods will close just as the week does. Because with those closures new periods will commence, and just as with time capsules, what you put into the next handful of days will probably be reopened later in your life.

Some of what you put into the remainder of this week will be up for review sooner than is the case with most real-life time capsules. Other decisions and/or actions will be a longer time coming around.

That’s how you should probably prioritize reaching firm decisions over taking final actions this week. That way, you’ll have both focus and flexibility when you come around to things looking a little different.

One way or another, things are bound to look different after Thursday. That’s when the respective periods of solar Libra, Venus in Libra, the Moon in Libra, the current lunation (the period from one New Moon to the next) and the current series of two paired eclipses all come to a close on the same day.

It’s a rare day when so many things happen at once on the zodiac or in the sky. Thursday will thus be a day to be conscious of what all those astrological events have in common — both with each other and with you.

With the Sun, New Moon and Venus all conjoined in the first degree of Scorpio for the occasion of a partial solar eclipse on Thursday, there is bound to be some closure for you to deal with. The key thing is to decide now not to have endings be your only focus, lest only endings fill your time capsule.

For astrological periods are nearly always being completed and initiating at the same time. In this case, you will also want to be mindful of what beginnings you put into your time capsule.

For example, following a few days of the Moon in reasonable Libra (a period that started earlier today) will come the whole new, passionate feel of the Moon in Scorpio as part of Thursday’s cluster of events, sweeping you into the weekend.

Making some firm decisions now will come in handy to help keep you from being swept away into taking purely emotional and possibly premature action at the worst possible time.

At the very least, it will not be the best time to lock yourself in with conclusive action when Mercury concludes its retrograde on Saturday. At that time, it opens a final review period of more than two weeks.

Given how thoughtful Mercury will still be in Libra when it stations direct, it will be especially helpful if you decide to be consciously aware of more than just passions as this week draws to a close. After all, when Mercury changes direction, you’ll probably want the flexibility to change your mind as passions pass.

Venus will be reinforcing the focus of allowing for both change and new beginnings to go with probable closure. Starting on Thursday, Venus begins going through some implicitly passionate changes of its own.

That’s because Venus will be leaving its Libra rulership behind to ingress Scorpio just as the Sun and Moon do, initiating a period of more than three weeks when the values that inform your decisions might well shift dramatically enough to leave you confronted by any final actions you might make.

To avoid confronting yourself in the short term, begin now with awareness of the longer term represented by the fact that the Moon and Sun will be ingressing Scorpio together, even as they come together to begin a new lunation.

That way, you will be aware enough to pack your time capsule for more than just a few days, and conscious of the entire month to follow, taking both Mercury’s subsequent review and Venus’ probable itch for something new into account as well.

Beyond that, you might want to be mindful of the even longer time periods demarcated by eclipses.

Included in all the astrological events that will come together on Thursday and extend into the weekend will be a Scorpio solar eclipse. This eclipse concludes a two-week period that started with a Full Moon and total lunar eclipse back on Oct. 8. In addition, Thursday will also be the end of eclipses altogether until another six months have passed.

What’s more, the Scorpio partial solar eclipse on Thursday will also conclude a 19-year cycle. That cycle started with a pair of eclipses in the same degrees of the same signs on the same days in October of 1995.

Nearly two decades is a long time. Nonetheless, it’s very possible you have been spending the last two weeks unpacking a time capsule opened by decisions you made, and sealed by actions you took, back then. To the extent that you can, this week is a time to show what you have learned in the interim.

Show what you have learned by what you put into the rest of this week. Keep the possibility of posterity in mind even as the passions of the moment are duly honored by your heart.

Make your time capsule something you will be proud to open (or have others open) in a few weeks, or a month, or six months, or even years from now. If you can do that, just that, you will have made as much of a remarkable week as the heavens would have you do, and have something to look forward to as well.

Offered In Service

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

On Sunday at about 2:28 pm EDT (18:28 UT), comet 2013 A1 Siding Spring will make its closest approach to Mars — a special moment while proceeding in a long continuum. All told, the implication for you is to give each moment its due, even as you proceed and continue in your life.

Siding Spring will pass within less than 140,000 kilometers (87,000 miles) of Mars, which is about one-third the distance between Earth and the Moon. That’s a special moment, but only one moment in a long process during which Siding Spring has taken billions of years to find its way to the inner solar system.

After Sunday, comet Siding Spring will continue on, not to pass this way again for about a million years. Mars will also continue in its familiar orbit and through its long process of astrological conjunctions in Sagittarius, which Eric described last month.

At the time Siding Spring is closest astronomically to Mars, several of those astrological alignments with Mars in Sagittarius will be very near exact (to within less than one degree), as will an auspicious aspect from Venus in Libra.

Most exact will be the Sagittarius conjunction from Mars to Quaoar, an object orbiting the Sun out beyond Pluto. Eric has referred to Quaoar as “one of the more profound points” Mars will be conjoining with during its first passage through Sagittarius since October and November of 2012.

Nearly five years ago Eric correlated Quaoar with the long process and continuation of “family patterns” and your own connection with creativity itself.

Perhaps the enhanced awareness brought by Siding Spring’s one-off conjunction with Mars, combined with the words you are now reading, will function to make you more conscious of this particular biennial merger of Martian energy and Quaoar’s symbolism.

Perhaps your enhanced consciousness will (as Mars would have it) motivate you to intentionally apply your own energy toward resolution of a long-standing family pattern (or two), and your own relationship with creation so as to make it a bit easier to proceed and continue with your life henceforth. That’s how things have the potential to work out based on what Venus will be doing on Sunday.

For when Siding Spring makes its closest brush with Mars, Venus will be within hours (and within less than one degree) of its closing sextile to Mars. As such, it will be the last major aspect between Venus and Mars before their next conjunction on the Aries Point this coming Feb. 22.

Sunday’s closing sextile from Venus to Mars will be exact early Monday at 1:18 am EDT, 5:18 UT. Given how aspects to and from Mars tend to be most emphatic prior to exactitude, however, the timing with Siding Spring could not be better.

Sextiles, a separation of 60 degrees on the zodiac, are (in the words of Robert Hand) “a time when you can act with little resistance from outside circumstances.” In other words, a relatively easy time is indicated for Sunday if you can find it in yourself to take it easy.

Given how aspects between Venus and Mars inherently correspond with relationship, Sunday will also be a great time to relax and have a little fun while you act in concert with others to resolve burdensome issues interfering with the process and continuation of relationships. That is, provided your inside circumstances permit.

Indeed, your inner circumstances will be the crucial factor regarding what Sunday’s profound, once-in-a-million-year conjunction of comet 2013 A1 Siding Spring with Mars represents for you.

It would be a shame to spoil that moment by choosing to focus on fear, dread or other heavy thoughts. It would not help you to proceed and continue with your life if you were to ignore the opportunities indicated by Quaoar, Venus and other objects aligning with Mars as Siding Spring passes this way but once.

Yes, the world has some serious problems to resolve at this time. Nevertheless, it’s important to distinguish between actual problems and fear of problems — especially if it is only internal circumstances that make the difference.

It’s even more important to realize that every moment in your life passes this way but once, just as a certain comet will on Sunday. Why not make that moment the best you can make it, then continue and proceed with every moment thereafter? If there’s anything to astrology, you should.

Offered In Service

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