By Amanda Painter

The astrological traction that has been available to you all week (and which you’ve hopefully used to move some project or facet of life forward) is still in force. Though as we head toward the weekend, there are a couple of shifts in the energy.

Photo by Amanda Painter

The first of these is Mercury’s move out of Sagittarius, where it has been for more than two months due to its recent retrograde. Mercury joins the astrological throng in Capricorn (which includes Saturn, Black Moon Lilith, Pluto, the Sun and Venus) at 12:09 am EST today (5:09 UTC).

You may find this brings a little more grounding and precision to your thought processes. Mercury in Capricorn tends to indicate practicality and good concentration.

Those qualities get a boost from Mercury’s conjunction to Saturn (which rules Capricorn), exact at 2:03 am EST (7:03 UTC) on Saturday. If one of your recent activities has been to formulate a general plan of action, you may find it easier now to focus on the details of that plan.

That said, with Mercury in Capricorn — especially with so much additional Capricorn energy, and particularly in a conjunction to Saturn — you might find you need to make a little extra effort to bring empathy and humor to your interactions. Saturn’s influence on Mercury can sometimes be one of negative thinking, related to an overabundance of caution or fear.

There are plenty of times in life when it’s wise to be cautious. But the overall image of the astrology right now still speaks of the potential for productive movement, and that may be particularly true with Mercury on the Aries Point. (The first degrees of all the cardinal signs — Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn — resonate with Aries Point energy.) This is where the personal and the collective intersect.

Given some of the pressing social and political issues we’re all facing at this time, I get the impression it’s more important than ever to speak out, rather than to let fearful thinking convince you to keep quiet. It’s up to you, however, to weigh your personal circumstances and any potential consequences.

Yet with Jupiter in Scorpio still applying in a sextile to Pluto in Capricorn, you have some real mojo for making creative changes in your life and to your surroundings — especially if you use your sense of empowerment to benefit those around you at the same time. Taking advantage of any spontaneous changes in your environment may harness some particularly fruitful regenerative energy. Be sure to share what you learn.

In the midst of this potential for productive movement, however, there’s an indication you might start to encounter some tension. The Sun and Venus in Capricorn are moving into a square aspect with Uranus and Eris in Aries, in effect now through the weekend. On one level, this could signal a feeling of being at odds somehow with the current cultural-technical environment, or with the identity you’ve created in it thus far.

At the same time, I wonder if it might also represent some practical leverage you can wield against the chaos? What might that look like to you? One idea that comes to mind is choosing ‘old’ ways of expressing yourself (such as email instead of Instagram, or even — gasp! — picking up your phone to make an actual call rather than texting or using Facebook).

If you’re feeling at all frustrated in your efforts to express yourself and feel heard, Eris looks like a caution against using so-called passive-aggression (or any kind of subterfuge) to get attention. To my mind, that includes things like making a seemingly general post to social media in an effort to garner sympathetic reactions (or to indirectly call someone out) if you have the capability to speak directly to someone specific about how you’re feeling.

With the Sun and Venus in a square to Uranus, we get a reminder to be as conscious as possible about seeking new experiences in relationships, and to disrupt everyday routines (at work and elsewhere) intentionally. It’s the things you’re trying to ignore — such as impatience with the status quo or certain restrictions (whether set by you or by others) — that have the potential to be unpleasantly disruptive. Expecting the unexpected can help some; even more useful is if you’re willing to get proactive about seeking new experiences, and about expressing that need to those you care about.

Whether you’re feeling tension or inspiration with this week’s astrology, the message seems to be the same: get busy, get creative, and be direct and intentional about it. Remember: you can be practical, be flexible, experiment, have fun and be warm to others all at the same time. It’s not as hard as it sounds if you’re willing to be fully present in what you’re doing.

The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual by Eric Francis, will be your best guide to the major astrological shifts ahead. If you pre-order now, you’ll not only get all 12 signs of the written reading for $99, but we’ll include three extra videos covering the forthcoming sign changes of Saturn, Chiron and Uranus. These videos are only included if you get all 12 signs. You may choose your individual signs here.