We’re rolling into another interesting week, having left some rough astrology behind us. Let’s cover that first. Over the weekend, the Moon passed through the Capricorn stellium, currently consisting of centaur Pholus, asteroid Vesta, and planets Saturn, Mars and Pluto.

If you think of Capricorn as trying to structure and contain things, imagine how it would feel with high-output planets like Pholus, Mars and Pluto aboard. The other two — Vesta and Saturn — both describe containers of some kind, so at least there’s some balance indicated. Yet the Capricorn Moon can be reactive, especially when conjunct the hotter planets; and it can be depressive in proximity to Saturn.

Moon’s ingress into Aquarius early Monday morning. It’s just passed by a stellium in Capricorn, consisting of (top to bottom), Pholus, Vesta, Saturn, Mars, Lunar Apogee and Pluto. Chart cast by Io Sprite, an animation program created by Time Cycles Research.

After the Moon was done with aspects to objects in Capricorn, it made squares to Eris and Uranus, in that order. It will move onto Aquarius at 2:50 am EDT (06:50 UTC) Monday morning, which will feel like an emotional bubble bursting (if you’re awake).

The central item of the week, though, is Mercury slowing down to direct motion. The station-direct is Sunday, April 15 at 5:21 am EDT (09:21 UTC). That means that we’ll be in Mercury’s storm phase much of the week, as it decreases in daily motion and aligns to turn direct.

The retrograde goes back to March 22, shortly after the spring equinox. If the new season hasn’t come roaring in, we have an image for that in the astrology.

When Mercury is stationing direct, let everyone else make the mistakes — unless you know that one will negatively impact you, and you have the power to correct it in advance. For your part, take everything slowly and where possible, for best results, delay major decisions and purchases until Mercury is well underway in direct motion. Things to do or decide before the station-direct can flip into reverse on you.

Mercury will station direct with the Moon in Aries, shortly before the Aries New Moon. This New Moon will be nested in the midst of the Uranus-Eris conjunction, a rare event that will call forth a new manifestation of that energy.

For background, Uranus and Eris are in their once-per-century conjunction, which has been the dominant force in our astrology since about 2011 (when Uranus entered Aries). These conjunctions have a wide orb of influence — they can have notable, distinct effects for a decade. However, as this is the first meeting of Uranus and Eris since the 2005 discovery of Eris, it’s the first time this is happening consciously.

(I am one of those minor-planet astrologers who believes that it matters whether a planet has been identified and discovered. It’s of course possible to read a planet’s position going back centuries, once it is known to exist; however, in my experience, “before discovery” is somewhat different from “after discovery.” The difference is consciousness.)

So, to sum up, we are headed into the Aries New Moon as Mercury changes directions, with the New Moon and Mercury s/d happening within a few hours of one another. The Sun’s conjunction to Uranus-Eris, the New Moon tucked into the conjunction, and Mercury stationing direct — all around the same time — will work together to wipe the cosmic slate clean and let the springtime begin in earnest.

Note, two days after the New Moon and Mercury direct, Chiron enters Aries for the first time in a couple of generations. You may read about that here.