Glacier speed

Mercury isn't retrograde. Give it a few days and it'll pick up speed and you can resume Mercury activities. It'll be out of aspect to Neptune around 10/12-13, so if you've had some bonkers communication mishaps, any time after that would be the time to straighten them out.

As I mentioned, Mars and Neptune are in bad aspect to each other and will remain that way until Mars is mid-retrograde (or mid-December in normal human terms) which basically takes the teeth out of whatever you're trying to do. Personally, I think about what I want to do and how I want to assert myself and then I second guess that, because my Neptune transit to my Mars is still fresh in my mind, and that was rife with unintended consequences of utilization of Mars energy. It's perfect weather for psychic stuff, though, and having crazy dreams.

Uranus and Saturn are very close to each other, also in bad aspect. I think the people most impacted by this are the ones who are hanging on to their personal status quo for dear life. And those people are MISERABLE.

Pluto's going to go direct in a few days, meaning it's stopped in the sky now. This can have a spooky feel to it, almost as though you can feel the plot of your life shift if you have an active Pluto transit. If you’re feeling this, it’s normal.

Jupiter leaves Aries for Pisces at the end of the month, specifically 10/29, which is two days before Mars goes retrograde. Halloween: mainly tricks this year. Tricks that are on you. Aries is Mars' sign, and Jupiter's going backwards into Pisces, Neptune's sign. So even more of a loss of oomph on top of an existing lack of oomph. And then it returns to Aries in December 21, so it's a really, really brief stay in Pisces. But overall the message with Mars retrograde, Mars+Neptune, Jupiter in Pisces seems to be about what you're trying to do and how hard you're trying to do it: let go, relax, dream about it, and then actually do something about those dreams in mid-January.

Regardless of whether Mars is your chart ruler, find transiting Mars in your birth chart (~22° Gemini) and realize that that little red sucker is not moving for a while, and you may be losing your wherewithal to continue doing what you’ve been doing for the past month or so. That’s okay, in fact, that’s appropriate.

Whether we love it or not, slow is normal right now.

XO,J