By Amanda Painter

How’s your sleep this week? And your relationship to authority figures — the ‘real’ ones and the internalized ones? Where are your thoughts going, and how do you feel about it? What about your urges and responses in your more intimate relationships? How conscious are you about using your energy in a creative, focused way?

As we end this week, several planetary events are conspiring to drive questions like those. The headlining act is the Aries Full Moon on Sunday.

Before we get there, Mercury enters its pre-retrograde echo (or shadow) phase tomorrow. On Saturday, Venus opposes Uranus to add a little extra voltage. Let’s take them in chronological order.

Mercury entering its shadow/echo phase Friday evening is your heads up to prepare any and all things related to communication, its related technologies, spending, transit, and how you handle your frame of mind in general. As in: back up your computer, tie up any loose ends with contracts and major purchases, and begin to get back into habits that help to safeguard against sending emails that ought not to be sent.

Mercury won’t actually station retrograde until Oct. 31 (Trick or Treat!). But as you may know, things can sometimes get even funkier prior to the retrograde than during it. Mercury will station direct — still in Scorpio — on Nov. 20.

Do what you can to get very comfortable with diving deep, since Mercury is in Scorpio for the long haul (it’ll finally leave that sign on Dec. 9). If retrogrades generally signal reviews, this one appears to be a full-on self-investigation (and yes, this has fascinating implications for the impeachment hearings in the U.S.).

Who knows? You may even find yourself using Mercury’s current role as a P.I. to get under the surface of some sudden, unexpected event in an intimate relationship this week. Although Saturday’s opposition between Venus in Scorpio and Uranus in Taurus could simply translate into seeking out unusual new entertainment, art, recreation or other stimulating activity, both Taurus and Scorpio have strong sexual signatures.

Does that describe just a new flirtation? Or a need to escape routines in the bedroom? None of this need be upsetting or disruptive if you can be curious and flexible (not physically flexible, though it certainly couldn’t hurt).

Yet Taurus and Scorpio are fixed signs, and could just as easily describe resistance to new people or to new adventures; that could cause some stress. As could any unresolved tensions in a close relationship, should one person ‘surprise’ the other in some way that pushes the buttons of their insecurities. It’s not an excuse to avoid the new or to repress your need for it; it is a reminder to be as honest as you can, with yourself and with those you’re involved with.

Interpersonal relationships always come into focus — and sometimes under strain — with Full Moons. This may be doubly true when the sign Libra is involved.

On Sunday, Oct. 13, the Aries Moon opposes the Libra Sun at 5:08 pm EDT / 21:07:45 UTC. (The Moon enters Aries the day before, at 12:46 am EDT / 4:45:35 UTC on Oct. 12).

The Sun and Moon will be exactly square Pluto in Capricorn. Not only does this count as an activation of the coming Saturn-Pluto conjunction in January (which involves Eris in Aries), it also describes some potentially hefty internal pressure that may be undergirding any interpersonal confrontations that are brewing.

Yet there is some auxiliary assistance with whatever compelling changes to behavior or emotional self-analysis Pluto is describing in this Full Moon chart. It’s coming from Jupiter (and Ceres) in Sagittarius, making friendly aspects to both the Sun and Moon.

Jupiter could offer some buffering from any fears or other tension-causing emotions that might crop up around actions you feel you need to take this week. It’s not so much about taking risks or getting ‘lucky’ as it is a description of how reflecting on your long-range plans may offer a boost in being able to do what needs to be done. It might feel like an adventure, and chances are you’ll learn a lot in the process (and may even teach by example). These are lessons that could serve you well the closer we get to January.

Finally, taking a quick look at the minor objects and points aligned closely with the Full Moon, we get another iteration of some of these themes. The Sun is conjunct the Uranian point Zeus, Bacchus and Icarus; the Moon is conjunct Eris. Conjunct Pluto is the centaur planet Chariklo.

Putting it all together, this seems to describe the conscious channeling and directing of creative energies to transcend restrictions and limitations. It’s a unified use of this energy — rather than, say, something like a manipulative tactic that divides you from yourself as you try to get what you want.

Self-sabotage is unconscious, but can have significant impact on a person’s ability to direct their life toward what they truly want, including (perhaps especially) in relationships and processes of individuation. Often this unconscious self-sabotage arrives via baggage, emotional triggers and repressed energy (anger, sexual energy, etc.) getting provoked.

Perceived threats to safety — such as the need to make changes, or to stand up to someone with power — tend to stir the pot of this material. Yet positive, focused, conscious self-expression, driven by the need to evolve in response to internal and environmental changes, can win out. If you want to continue growing, it must.

Think of it like a dance (cue the asteroid Terpsichore, Muse of the dance, which is in Cancer, opposite Pluto). Partner dancing is another way of thinking about oppositions; meeting another with a give and take of movement, rather than straight-up confrontation. If you can dance with the ebb and flow of the changes already in motion — the internal and relational tides — you may find a situation resolving of its own accord by Monday.

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