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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Michael Cohen’s testimony on the floor of the hearing room Weds.
Photo by Sarah Silbiger, NY Times.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Those who took the time out to watch Michael Cohen’s testimony Wednesday heard him describe what is essentially a vast criminal syndicate led by Donald Trump, which has accompanied him into the White House. Cohen hinted that federal prosecutors in New York City (the Southern District of New York) had a long way to go unraveling the president’s crimes.

Cohen was Trump’s longtime attorney and fixer, who pled guilty to various federal crimes charged by the Special Counsel and by prosecutors in New York City. He was the archetypal right-hand man who makes problems — serious problems — go away. Cohen helped get Trump elected many different ways, including setting up the first campaign website, ShouldTrumpRun.com, in 2011.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring Create and an archive Planet Waves FM selection. We’ll have fresh weekly horoscopes Sunday night.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Now that the Mars-Uranus conjunction is beginning to separate, it may feel easier to look ahead to the next major astrological event: Chiron entering Aries on Monday, where it will stay for the next seven years or so. Also on Monday, the Sun will enter Pisces, the last sign in the cycle. So Chiron begins its new zodiacal ‘year’ (metaphorically speaking) just as the Sun begins to wrap up its own.

Self, shadow and unexplored territory: a July 26, 2004, photo by the Mars Opportunity rover — “one of the most successful and enduring feats of interplanetary exploration” — as it moved further into Endurance Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Between the significant themes that Chiron in Aries will be highlighting, the Sun entering Pisces, and some of the interesting specifics of Monday’s chart, I’m having a little trouble deciding where to start as I write this.

So I think I’ll start with this: Chiron last visited Aries for a brief five-month stay on April 17, 2018; it retrograded back into Pisces on Sept. 25, 2018. Those five months were not that long ago, even if they feel a world away to you now, thanks to a long series of overlapping inner-planet retrogrades (starring Mars) and a couple of eclipses in the mix last summer.

You might find it worthwhile to check your journal or calendar (or similar) to see what exactly was happening for you in mid-April. (This April 15, 2018, Planet Waves essay is worth re-reading, too.)

What you discover could offer some clues to what Chiron will nudge you to begin paying attention to in earnest. While many planets have moved quite a distance from where they were in April, some of the slower ones have not moved far at all. So we’re not going to get a do-over a la Groundhog Day, but there may be some useful echoes.

Chiron entering Aries also means Chiron landing on the Aries Point — that super-charged first degree of Aries where personal and collective matters intersect, often in dramatic ways. As has been described elsewhere on Planet Waves, we have some particularly interesting slow-moving objects either in early Aries or making contact from early Capricorn. These are sharpening or coloring the personal/political nexus.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your extended February monthly horoscope by Eric, Create; and Eric’s Planet Waves FM program.

Dear Friend and Reader:

As has been mentioned elsewhere — and as you’ve probably been feeling — we’re in a rather ‘edgy’ phase of astrology. This could be coming through several ways — such as needing to express something but never getting the right opportunity; or waiting for key information that feels like it will never arrive; or wanting to get moving with a plan or project but seeing no clear path forward. You can probably describe your own version of it — then again, perhaps struggling to identify and articulate what’s going on for you is a primary factor in the sensation (or maybe it’s just not that strong for you).

Photo by Amanda Painter.

We can look to Chiron in the last degree of Pisces and Uranus in the last degree of Aries as the prime suspects for the edginess. To a lesser extent, the asteroid Pallas, in the last degree of Libra, is surely contributing to this overall atmosphere.

Really, though, slow-moving Chiron and Uranus are calling the tune. Chiron will be the first to make its move, entering Aries in just a week and a half, on Feb. 18. Uranus will enter Taurus on March 6. Yet I suspect it may be Uranus that’s generating the stronger buzz right now.

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscope by Amy Elliott, Create; and Eric’s Planet Waves FM program.

Dear Friend and Reader:

We’re approaching the Aquarius New Moon on Monday, which happens at the midpoint of Aquarius — and therefore at the midpoint of the current season (the ancient Pagan cross-quarter celebration known as Imbolc). Yet despite the tone of ‘winding down’ that a waning Moon often brings, we’re in the midst of some other astrology that’s urging action and self-expression.

The path may be snowed over, but it’s still there. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Namely, the ‘personal planets’ Venus and Mars are both in squares to slow-moving outer planets (Eric discussed some of the broader themes of these squares in Monday’s essay).

Mars, currently in its home sign Aries, is making a square to Pluto in Capricorn (exact tomorrow), and is moving toward a conjunction to Eris. I know at least a couple of Aries folks who have been feeling this square pretty strongly, namely as a deep need to get moving and ‘do’ that is being frustrated in various ways.

There’s a lot of energy in a Mars-Pluto square, and you, too, may be feeling a need to get things done (and perhaps you’re accomplishing them). But Pluto, being the Lord of Change, tends to disrupt plans or make it clear where you’ve skipped steps and left loose ends. Having to adjust your course of action is not necessarily a bad thing, even if it’s inconvenient; there may be important lessons involved. With Eris in the neighborhood, however, the mandate to avoid any tactics that are ruthless or underhanded is underlined in the face of frustration.

Venus, for its part, is making contact with several planets and points over the next few days. Just before it leaves Sagittarius and enters Capricorn on Sunday (at 5:29 pm EST / 22:29:07 UTC), it makes a square to Chiron in Pisces. This would seem to bring some impetus and awareness to whatever your healing path currently is — perhaps especially in regard to your relationships, or to how you offer and receive love.

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Dear Friend and Reader:

We are now at the end of day 34 of the federal government shutdown. I am taking this too personally. It’s making me nervous. I feel like the character Tweak in a South Park episode from a couple of years ago, who was freaked out over the Korean nuclear missile thing between Trump and Kim Jong-un.

Craig, right, trying to console Tweak, who is having a hard time with the Korean missile situation. See clip here.

His friend Craig suggests he do something rather than just worry — like bake cupcakes and send them to the Korean leader. So he does, and Kim loves them, and Trump gets mad, and starts insulting and taunting Kim on Twitter, so Korea responds by testing missiles directly over Tweak’s house.

I’m not taking it that personally, but almost. I have Chiron in Pisces on the 10th house cusp and have taken a serious interest in government since Watergate, when I was nine years old. I am finding Trump’s conduct disgusting — beginning with all his bravado about wearing the mantle of the shutdown or whatever he said.

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