Hang loose

The sky is temporarily a "yikes" situation: Mars is joining Jupiter, the energy which has been exacerbating Saturn (two posts ago) and Mercury is not only retrograde, but headed back toward both a yod with Neptune and Pluto and a square to Uranus: it's in the territory where it was when the Crowdstrike situation happened. Fortunately, both are pretty temporary, but the next week will be a little wacky. Be as patient as possible, and seriously, move slowly. It's the type of energy where if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Excitingly, I found someone who actually writes about political astrology in a way that doesn't suck: this is Brian, and he has an infrequent newsletter, but he likes talking about social issues while I like keeping it more personal. He's very eloquent and he knows his stuff.

Having said that, I want to talk about Pluto, because I always want to talk about Pluto. You could wake me up in the middle of the night and ask a disoriented me if I wanted to talk about Pluto and I would still be ready. So here's the thing: I was told that Pluto in Aquarius was going to be this big progressive wave, in part by Brian, above, but also any decent astrologer with several brain cells to rub together would conclude that Pluto in Aquarius would be a progressive era--perhaps too progressive, because Pluto likes extremes. Given what we've seen lately (by which I mean the last decade or so), "almost too progressive" sounds like a stretch, right? But then the last couple of weeks happened, and I thought to myself "ah, there it is."

In September, Pluto goes back into Capricorn for two months: its last gasp in the sign, and then comes back out into Aquarius in late November, while is spends ~6 months opposing Mars off and on, because Mars will be retrograde in Leo and Cancer beginning in December. Transformation (Pluto) opposed by yelling (Mars). On a macro level, whoever wins the election is going to have a bunch of angry people trying to block them at every turn. On a micro level, those of you having Pluto transits are going to have a heck of a time, as well, with someone or something needling you where it already hurts for 6 months or so. My experience of Mars retrogrades by themselves is that I find myself in bonkers situations that clear up when the retrograde is over, and by the end of it, I want to get off the planet and push Mars out of whatever house it's inhabiting in my chart, because Mars is typically in a sign for ~2 months but when it retrogrades it's in one for 7 months, which is too long.

So, my questions that do not have answers: is 2+ months enough time in Capricorn for Pluto to revive its doomsday scenarios? I want the answer to be "no" but energy is energy and we can't take anything for granted (so please actually vote). This is not me trying to drum up anxiety: I'm just being realistic because I know better than to underestimate what Pluto can do. What does "too much Leo" look like (because Mars will be in the sign for too long)? Well, Leo rules creativity, romance, and ego. A creative project you can't get off the ground? A romance that gets on your nerves? Having to deal with someone (or a lot of someones) with too much Main Character energy? TBD! My best guess is that something you really want to do stalls out for a while. We'll see as we get closer to it. (Also, Mars spends ample time in Cancer during the retrograde, which I will also cover, separately.)

Videos this week:

• Why Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart are friends

• (An absurd amount of) book recommendations for people who want to learn astrology

• An example of family astrology (with my actual family)

P.S. I found this video of Pommel Horse Guy discussing how he trains and it concisely captures the Scorpio work ethic (he is a Scorpio sun). This is how one becomes a “specialist,” which is not for the weak-willed.