Can you take a hint?

Today's the day that the sun and Mercury are next to each other from the perspective of earth, which means if you were staring directly into the sun you would see lil bitty Mercury crossing its path. But you can't and shouldn't do that, so we get to settle for NASA imagery instead. What it means is that Mercury is passing between the sun and us, or Mercury is currently as close as it gets to Earth. This means it's a seed time for Mercury things, which does NOT mean it's a time to act. Seed time means planting and growing and not going around yelling all your new ideas (you do that after the retrograde ends in a couple weeks). You don’t plant a tree by throwing seeds in the air, do you? Sit on those idle hands for now. Contemplate one of my favorite topics: how the hell did astrologers know where the Mercury was centuries ago? It's really, really hard to see most of the time. Please explain this to me if you figure it out.

I digress. The sun-Mercury conjunction is often a time of inspiration. Every retrograde time is a period of reorganization in topic-appropriate arenas, and house-appropriate activities. So in this case you find the location of 8 - 9° Leo in your birth chart by house, and that's the area of focus.

Have fun with your new ideas! Here are many other fun facts about Mercury courtesy of the BBC.

The opposite concept applies to oppositions between the sun and any planet form Mars to Pluto in solar system order. In the case of these oppositions, we (earth) are between the sun and the planet in question, so as close to the planet in question as we get. These oppositions are a time for reorganization and some "duh!" moments, or when light is shed on whatever process you've been undergoing for the last 6 months (give or take and excluding Mars since it's on a different schedule) since the seed time when the sun was conjunct the planet in question. Said another way, it's like receiving a status report on how things are going and gives you a chance to make adjustments throughout the rest of the planet's retrograde (the sun opposition marks the halfway point). Also, some of the WTF-ery caused by the planet's retrograde begins to quell, so if you were disoriented by the retrograde it's a time to begin to collect yourself. In the case of outer planet oppositions, the sun's location sheds light on the matters of the retrograde, so you just check the sun's location, degree-wise, in your chart, and again, stay open to themes or little slaps upside the head. Here are the 2025 dates of sun oppositions just to help some of you guys out:

• Pluto (empowerment issues which usually take the form of something that really bothers you): July 25

• Saturn (responsibilities. crushing responsibilities): September 21

• Neptune (enlightenment on a good day, confusion on a bad one): September 23 (note the proximity to Saturn so mixed bag here)

• Chiron (ouchies--that's a technical term): October 17

• Uranus (freedom): November 21 (note the proximity to Mercury, which again might be mixed or could just be some really good ideas)

• Jupiter (really big ideas & belief system): January 10 ('26)