As we begin this week, Mercury and the Sun are moving into a set of interestingly coordinated aspects. Taken together, the message could be read as: Dream big, but recognize your actual limitations. Keep it real (and ethical) in your thoughts, words and actions.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
Getting the week rolling is Mercury in Gemini making a trine to Jupiter in Libra, exact Tuesday (11:45 am EDT / 15:45 UTC). At its simplest, this aspect is pure optimism.
According to Robert Hand, it’s great for making plans for the future, and for business and financial moves and contracts — in part, because it assists in seeing all the possibilities so that you can use them well.
Yet Jupiter is known for being all promise and no follow-through. Being intentionally disciplined will get you further than taking passive or ‘easier’ options. Mercury in this setup taps into the wisdom of Jupiter. You might ask yourself what wisdom is worth these days. More to the point, what is wisdom worth if you don’t act upon it?
Consider that Mercury is simultaneously square Neptune in Pisces (exact Wednesday, but in full effect now). This is a caution to beware of over-idealizing anything you might be doing some Jupiter-style planning around. As Eric put it, “make sure what you believe is really true, even if it’s inconvenient to find out that it’s not.”
With Mercury being the planet of communication and thinking, there’s real potential for confusion — especially in any situation where you might be trying to evade a confrontation or avoid seeing facts that don’t support your dream.
What suggests there might be a confrontation? That would be the Gemini Sun, making an opposition to Saturn and Ixion in Sagittarius (exact Thursday). The Sun represents your consciousness. Saturn here can represent limitations, especially in the form of an authority figure, or someone or something to whom you are obligated in some way. Ixion brings in a question of ethics, and the potential everyone possesses to abandon them.
Part of an installation at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, MA. Photo by Amanda Painter.
With another nod to Robert Hand, a Sun-Saturn opposition can present an urge to express your needs that runs up against people who seem to stand in your way or hold you back. Like with any opposition, the key is negotiation.
If you encounter a situation fitting this description, remember that this need not feel like a winner-takes-all, life-or-death contest. As Mercury-Neptune suggests, evasion is not going to work in your favor; but an honest try for a balanced compromise might.
Yes, expressing your needs matters; fulfilling your obligations does, too. Finding a solution is not a matter of stubbornness, power-over or deception; it will be the result of expressing yourself honestly, and asking others to do the same. The more actively you engage with who or what is limiting you, in an open dialogue, the more likely it is a resolution can be reached that’s workable for all involved.
This becomes especially crucial with Ixion in the picture. Even if the other person you are dealing with is not being honest or ethical, that is not a sign that you can join them without consequence. True, having the Sun and Mercury both in Gemini may make it easier to see both sides of a story, or more. But no matter how many sides you see, you still have to reckon with reality: the truth of how you feel and what you desire; the facts of your obligations and agreements; what has been done and said; the limitations of time and space.
Also, as Eric suggested, “There is ‘the truth’: god is love. And the pragmatic truth: being kind and helpful; and applying wisdom.”
These things need not stand in the way of your dreams. If anything, they may help you toward them.