Breaking away

Two notable changes in the sky: Uranus is moving into new (for it) territory, unless you were alive 80 years ago, that is, and Jupiter is moving at its top speed out of Taurus and into Gemini, where it will continue to blow through for several months. Jupiter has two speeds: not really moving and holy-shit-that's-fast. We are now in a time of the latter.

Either way, these bodies are currently in the later degrees of Taurus, which is an area untouched by outer planets for quite some time. Which means: fresh energy. We have been absolutely plodding along in Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries, and anything past those signs (meaning in Taurus or Gemini for right now) is going to feel like a breath of fresh air. If you think about houses of your chart as venues you visit, the one with Gemini in it hasn't had much attention in the last decade, so it might feel like having to dust off old equipment in order to orient yourself, but so be it! I'm bored! Let's go somewhere.

What I just said is kind of an over-generalization: you may remember that in late 2022, Mars, which is not an outer planet, was retrograde in Gemini, meaning it spent about 7 months in the sign, so there was *activity,* except for Mars retrograding is fiasco vibes, or long trips to nowhere (I don't know about you, but at that time, I could not get some people to start talking, and I could not get others to shut up). Jupiter is an opportunity to actually go places, actually meet new people, and actually circulate an in appreciable way. Jupiter's rarely a gangbusters energy, as much as everyone wants it to be, but it does present you with opportunities if you take advantage of it. With Jupiter in Gemini, you'll have a chance to open windows and dust off an unused venue, literally or metaphorically. If you are bored, and someone offers you an unusual adventure that will likely not end with you getting kidnapped in the back of a van, say yes. Maybe we'll see the return of trivia night, since Gemini loves that type of thing.

I have real compassion for people who are just beginning harsh Uranus transits (conjunction, square, opposition), because I'm ending a harsh one, and they tend to kick off with the realization that a part of your life that you thought was solid starts fragmenting, and then life starts moving at weird speeds. Often you have trouble sleeping, which also messes with your perception of time, and at least several plot twists to contend with. By the end, I was combative, and every new plot twist resulted in me saying "fucking stop" out loud to no one. 

On that note, we're currently halfway through the north node's transit of Aries, which puts the south node in Libra. Any given zodiac sign is 30°, and as of this writing, the north node is at 15°, so you can't get any more "half" than that. The north node offers fresh opportunities to move toward, while the south node is loud and distracting (another astrologer I like describes it as a "giant sucking sound"). What I've found during this transit so far is that what I want to do (Aries) is either interrupted or dwarfed by what someone else needs or impeded by their problems (Libra). People born with Libra south nodes spend a lot of time being nice to other people and putting effort into relationship-building rather than doing what they want to do for themselves (and often resenting people who are very obviously doing whatever they want). So, my final nugget of advice for the day is stop being polite if you're putting up with bullshit that's making you uncomfortable: notice how much energy you're wasting when you could simply say "stop doing that."

So to connect my aforementioned Uranus transit and the south node/north node activity: I got back from traveling at the beginning of the year to discover that my gym had a new member who was immediately taken with me. I ignored him, but he locked on to me. He learned my schedule and found a way to be constantly in my face in a bad-surprise kind of way. At first, I ignored him politely, but then I realized that his attempts were escalating and he was not reading my social cues to go away. I started complaining to my gym friends about him, who remarked that they'd noticed his presence, but they didn't look out for me, defend me, or try to keep him away from me, because while he was gross, he wasn't doing anything wrong (Libra!). I wound up having to yell "no" at him, in his face, and I'll escalate my attempts to keep him away from me, just the same way he's escalated trying to get close to me. But politeness (Libra!!) was not working. Lesson learned.