Today is Friday, Oct. 7, 2016
Hebrew date is 5 Tishrei 5777
Islamic date is 5 Muharram 1438
Mayan Tzolk’in Day is 12 Kimi
Mayan Long Count is 13.0.3.15.6
Julian Day is 2457669
Today’s Birthdays: Niels Bohr (1885-1962), R. D. Laing (1927-1989), Desmond Tutu (1931), Toni Braxton (1967), Tim Minchin (1975), Aaron and Shawn Ashmore (1979).
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
— Desmond Tutu
Special Comment: Mercury and the Aries Point
Today Mercury enters Libra (see times listed in almanac). It’s been in Virgo since July 30; its long stay in that sign was due to the retrograde between Aug. 30 and Sept. 22. In our fleeting time zone of the internet, nine weeks ago seems like another era. Consider how much your concerns and priorities have changed since then.
The first degree of Libra, Mercury’s current position, is part of the Aries Point — the first degree of all four cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. Technically, it’s opposite the first degree of Aries, which is the intersection of the private and the public realms.
That idea — that what is public and what is private have an intersection — may have seemed like a viable political theory when it was proposed by Second Wave feminists of the 1960s and 1970s. That came in the concept that there’s no private life that’s not in some way influenced or even dictated by some larger public life; or as Carol Hanisch proposed in 1969, “The personal is political.”
Today it’s a plain and not so simple reality. In our world of internet surveillance, of many people publishing about their most private experiences, and of nearly everything else that happens being recorded on video, this idea has new meaning.
Mercury facing the Aries Point describes the topic of the conversation being relationships (a theme of Libra), simultaneously the most private and most public subject of all. One hint about the nature of the conversation is the role of sex in ‘committed’ relationships and marriage. What are your deeper feelings on this theme, beyond what you’re supposed to think? What about sexual curiosity? What about the feeling that many people have, that they want deeply to share their authentic emotional sexuality with more than one person, and be open with others about this?
Mercury in the first degree of Libra suggests that speaking for yourself can have profound implications for others. It’s worth taking the risk of being open about your reality.
Moon Phase: Moon is in waxing crescent phase and enters First Quarter phase on Oct. 8 at 9:33 pm PDT / Oct. 9 at 12:33 am EDT (04:32:56 UTC).
Next Full Moon is on Oct 15/16 at 9:23 pm 10/15 PDT / 12:23 am 10/16 EDT (04:23:02 UTC) in Aries.
Next New Moon is in Scorpio on Oct. 30 at 10:38 am PDT / 1:38 pm EDT (17:38:08 UTC).
Moon Sign: Moon is in Sagittarius and enters Capricorn today at 1:40 pm PDT / 4:40 pm EDT (20:39:47 UTC).
Sun Degree: 15-16 Libra.
Planetary Stations and Sign Changes
Mercury enters Libra at 12:55 am PDT / 3:55 am EDT (07:55:29 UTC).
Moon enters Capricorn at 1:40 pm PDT / 4:40 pm EDT (20:39:47 UTC).
Interesting Selected Aspects
— Vesta square Rhadamanthus at 9:41 pm 10/6 PDT / 12:41 am 10/7 EDT (04:41:34 UTC).
— Venus square Eros at 2:54 am PDT / 6:54 am EDT (10:53:58 UTC).
— Sun square Pluto at 12:33 pm PDT / 3:33 pm EDT (19:33:17 UTC).
— Sun trine Asbolus at 4:43 pm PDT / 7:43 pm EDT (23:42:52 UTC).
If Your Birthday is Oct. 7
(The Day of Defiance) | Get Your Birthday Reading
You know by now that your instincts are sure. There is a core within you to which you can always trust, however fast the rest of the world may change. What you have is the ability to speak for yourself. This, in turn, may resonate with others more than you suspect at this moment. You don’t need to fear that others, particularly close partners, won’t understand you — the chances are overwhelming that they will be grateful you’re expressing yourself.
Written in the Planets
When Venus is in Scorpio, it grants an opportunity to do something that is usually avoided in our ostensibly abstinent culture: be open about our desires. Conservative Christian policy on sex is really about valuing appearances over honesty, which might also be said about our political system.
The plain truth may be less unromantic than you might think; and at least it’s real. The evolutionary step would seem to be about being turned on by actual feelings rather than the fantasy that they don’t exist.
Often this comes down to putting things into words and having them acknowledged. Words sincerely spoken, or expressed with curiosity, are a potent tool for affirmation, which is why ‘saying something’ feels so courageous. Today, Mercury makes its exit from a long stay in Virgo (associated with Mercury retrograde) and enters Libra. There, over the next few weeks, it will make a series of aspects to planets on the cardinal cross, including to Jupiter, Mars and Uranus-Eris.
That will provide plenty of fodder for useful conversations, particularly with Mercury in aspect to the Aries Point (see special comment above).
This live audio class covers the most basic level of astrology: where things happen, the houses. If you understand the houses as environments and groups of themes, you can read a chart. We will hold the class by teleconference at noon EDT on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. You may sign up here.