Note to Readers: on Thursday I published a weekly horoscope that covers Mercury retrograde for each of the 12 signs. All readers may access that here. Below each sign is a five-minute preview of my audio Mercury retrograde reading.

Image by Marina Morales.

Tonight is the Taurus New Moon. It snuck up on us in the midst of much other astrology. The exact Moon to Sun conjunction in Taurus happens Monday morning at 12:13:13 am EDT (4:13:13 UTC).

That will be followed by Mercury stationing retrograde in Gemini less than 24 hours later, Monday at 9:49 pm EDT (Tuesday at 01:49 UTC). The two events are happening close enough to be considered one meta event.

The main difference between the charts is that for the Taurus New Moon tonight, the Moon is obviously in Taurus. For Mercury stationing retrograde, the Moon is conjunct Mercury in Gemini, though the Moon’s emphasis speaks more of similarity than difference.

It’s as if the Moon bridges the two events. In the Mercury retrograde chart, for example, the Moon is in a very close square aspect to Neptune, emphasizing the point that perception requires a rational analysis, fact-checking and other forms of verification.

The message of Mercury retrograde is: don’t take anything for granted. Confirm all arrangements till you’re satisfied that everyone has a grip. Do not assume, especially about how people feel, including how you feel. Feelings will change as aspects develop.

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Note, chart below reflects corrected time.

When Amtrak’s train 188 crashed last night, the planet Mercury was looming right on the horizon. This suggests that the cause of the crash is obvious, and that it would involve some kind of disregarded signal or rule, or misinformation, rather than a mechanical failure.

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Monday evening, Mars will enter Gemini. Mercury is already in Gemini, warming up to a retrograde that begins in one week. So the addition of Mars brings additional focus onto communications and in particular, the whole matter of being right.

Tell-it-like-it-is writer Erica Jong has Mars in Gemini and is one of its poster children.

To put it simply, Mars in Gemini feels right, as in correct — as in the right to be and feel right. But Mercury, now square Neptune and slowing to a station retrograde, is suggesting that this is not such a simple matter.

The Mercury retrograde process is going to bring out layer after layer of information, and Mars will be involved throughout.

There are many reasons to slow down, pay attention and figure out what’s really going on. Even if you think you know exactly what’s going on. Even if you’re certain you’re right and are working with all the relevant facts.

The whole point of astrology is to see what cannot normally be seen; to bring the otherwise invisible or blurry environment into focus. Mars might seem like it’s doing that; Mars in Gemini is assertive and bold, argumentative and self-assured.

But there is reason for caution. This mix of Mercury, Mars and Neptune is suggesting that arguing will prove to be fruitless. Checking your facts, or any relevant facts, will prove to be fruitful. It also may take some time to get to the bottom of things, if there is a bottom.

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This weekend we experienced the Sun-Eris conjunction. As of Monday it’s still within one degree, still vibrating the world. Eris aspects can have a feminist flair. What we saw Sunday, the day the aspect was exact, was Hillary Clinton finally officially declaring her candidacy for president.

The exploding robot, originally drawn for a blood pressure medication advert, now the story of our lives.

Other women have run; she has done the best so far and is the strongest candidate of what is, so far, an admittedly extremely weak talent pool. I think most people would say she’s a bit mechanical; a bit robotic. Nobody can figure out what she stands for. She is functional but seems to lack depth and meaning — that’s a robot for you.

In Thursday’s Core Community edition of Planet Waves, I brought up the topic of the Uranus-Eris conjunction in Aries. This conjunction will be building for a while and then will be exact in 2016 and 2017 — the year of the election and the winner’s first year in office. Notably, the 2016 campaign will be the most robot-infused of them all, using Twitter, Facebook, email, YouTube — all your favorite automatons.

Among its many talents, Eris is subversive. In fact Eris will subvert anything that can and needs to be undermined, and that would include what is happening to people as a result of having their thought processes reduced to a fill-in-the-blanks form that is compatible with an Android.

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Today the Sun is conjunct Uranus. Uranus was the first planet ever discovered by science, in 1781, and after it showed up, pretty much everything changed. When the Sun aligns with Uranus we can get a miniature version of that.

Illustration of Uranus by Corey Ford.

Mostly that change came in the form of machine technology, electrical technology and telecommunications devices. I’ll get back to that in a second.

Be prepared for the unexpected, and to be put in a position where you need to adapt and then adapt again. By adapt, I mean rethink, revise, reinvent, which basically means get assertive about your invention process. Uranus tends to show up when things happen for the first time. You can make this work for you.

Over the weekend, the Sun was square Pluto, which may have felt like a stress test or a moment of get serious. There was also that eclipse of the Moon on Saturday morning, the one I’ve been writing about for weeks. As holiday weekends go, this was a challenging one. It was capped off by an opposition from the Scorpio Moon to Mars in Taurus, which likely added to any stress you may have already been feeling.

Today’s Sun-Uranus alignment in Aries is yet another ramp up. There are two main approaches you can take. In its most common manifestation, Uranus in Aries describes the process of humans being automated, a peril that most don’t know they’re in. That’s because it’s cloaked in the glamour of the very technology that’s doing the automating of its human operators.

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By Amanda Painter

Due to an aspect happening concurrently with Saturday’s eclipse of the Moon in Libra, consider asking yourself what you are devoted to, and then act on it this weekend. Depending on how the eclipse chart overlays your natal chart, this might feel like the more tangible or pressing theme to you; even if it’s not, some sense of drawing back a veil on your ‘deeper self’ is a primary message of the eclipse.

Full Moon Rising behind the temple at Sounion, Greece, June 2010. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis.

This eclipse is the second eclipse of this spring’s pair: a total eclipse of the Moon in Libra with the Sun in Aries (i.e., a Full Moon). It’s exact at 8:06 am EDT Saturday, but the material that emerges will keep developing in the days, weeks and months afterward.

One way to get your bearings and begin focusing your awareness around this event is to think back to the March 20 solar eclipse and trace the development of any ideas or areas of your life that became prominent then, and in the 2-3 days immediately afterwards. Chances are you’ve been working on that material actively or in the background of your awareness for the past two weeks.

That means this Full Moon eclipse, which is a peak in the cycle begun by that solar eclipse and New Moon, may bring that issue to a head or present a way for you to ride its energy further than usual. In fact, eclipses tend to act as levers in that way, especially if you can tune in and use them consciously.

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