Partial eclipse of the heart

The reason you guys haven't had a decent update on what the sky is doing from me lately is because I've written about it already (here and here, especially) and I'm not one to repeat myself unless I have a new spin on it.

Well, I have more to add about Mars: it will be stationing (appearing to slow down relative to earth because we are about to pass it) in square aspect to Neptune, and between the station and the beginning part of the retrograde, it will remain in square aspect to Neptune for two months, beginning next week and becoming less intense around the beginning of December (then returning briefly in March with Mars moving in the right direction). A square is a harsh aspect indicating that the basic function of the signs the given planets are in do not agree: in this case, Gemini, or air/ideas/circulation vs. Pisces, or water/passivity/sacrifice. Mars is the planet of action and Neptune is the planet of purification via obscurity (it tends to subtract things from your life that shouldn’t be there if you want to actualize your highest potential). Everyone understands that if you have an active Mars transit, you feel angry and/or are motivated to do something about what's bothering you. If you have an active Neptune transit, it's hard to find your ass with both hands.

Donna Cunningham, on my list of favorite astrologers, refused to talk about people with Mars-Neptune aspects in their birth charts, because she said she didn't have anything nice to say, which makes me laugh, because it is a very difficult aspect to tame. Mars-Neptune is the "what (the fuck) are you trying to do?" aspect in my mind, emphasis on *trying,* because often it's either unclear what the person's intentions are, or the outcome of their efforts are bonkers. Neptune is the ultimate passive planet, and Mars is the ultimate aggressive planet. Combine them and what do you get?

So what does it mean for you that Mars and Neptune are in an extended face-off? It means your actions might not have the intended outcomes. It means that if your intentions aren't pure of heart, the chances of your actions being sabotaged increase. You might find yourself needing to act in secret/hide what you're doing. Worst possibility: you could get poisoned (unlikely, but Neptune rules poison, so if you see news about some poisonings that are intentional or otherwise during this time, you heard it here first). Best possibility: you might find yourself doing something altruistic. Mars will also be in trine aspect to Saturn during this time, which is a nice aspect and one of sustained action, so if you're helping someone else out right now, you might be doing that for a *while,* so...pace yourself. And also, prepare yourself for some head-scratchers when it comes to the actions of other people, especially Mars-types (manly men, warriors, surgeons, police officers, welders, construction workers, athletes, etc.). Basically I'm saying there's going to be some misguided attempts to accomplish something, especially if those actions are coming from a purely selfish place. This is true no matter who you are.

Do not have surgery during Mars retrogrades unless you absolutely need to, by the way. That's a general statement and I think the aspect to Neptune this time around puts some exclamation marks on this. Do not refuse surgery if it's going to save your life, but don't do anything elective if you can help it, because the outcome will not be as expected. With surgery, you REALLY want the expected outcome, right?

Enough about that. I haven't talked about what Venus is doing in a while, so let's cover affairs of values and romance, shall we? Last December, Venus went retrograde, and mid-retrograde, conjoined the sun in an inferior conjunction, meaning that Venus was between the sun and the earth, which is a seed time for new things, romance and values-wise, or in some cases just how we relate to others. So if you had something new come up in December/January of last year, pay attention, because we are about to see the superior conjunction, or outcome of these efforts, when the sun is between Venus and us, which is October 23. It just so happens that two days later, there is a solar eclipse at basically this location, meaning the sun and the moon appear to conjoin but the moon comes between the sun and us. The moon is our feelings function and the sun is what we are trying to *do* in life, and eclipses portend change, generally. Usually not big, scary change unless the eclipse in question happens to fall on one of the angles of your chart or on your sun or moon, but that is a different topic for a different day. What you can reasonably expect to see with this is a few 180s: a couple who decided to get married last winter calls off the wedding, or someone who decided to make more of an effort to be nice to their mother-in-law suddenly decides it's not worth it to try. The eclipse is in Scorpio, so these reversals might seem like they're coming out of nowhere, but they're really coming out of someone's emotional depths, which means the observable change has been brewing for a while. So if you see that, or are on the receiving end of it, keep this in mind.

Also, the sun and Venus will be traveling together in the sky (relative to earth, of course) for most of October and the beginning part of November, which is generally just *nice,* but somehow I think that most people won't feel that as strongly because they'll be busy noticing Mars vs. Neptune and Saturn vs. Uranus.

I don’t think this fall is going to be boring, that’s for sure.

XO,J