Say again?

Honestly, I don't always love it when what I say is going to happen actually happens to me. Back in January, I said that since Saturn is currently where Neptune was in the sky between 4-10 years ago and there's the opportunity to rebuild in areas that you had losses. One of my meanings that I did not properly emphasize was that there's also the opportunity to get clarity in situations that had none whatsoever. So maybe a handful of you might have someone from your past come back up with some sort of "oh by the way" pretext and give you clarity you might appreciate that sheds new light on an old event. As for me, I got some clarity myself after reaching out to someone I don't talk to because of (in my mind) their wacky and erratic behavior, only to find out that hearing from me upset them. If I tell you more of the story, it will only become worse and more confusing, but 5 - 6 years ago they and I were both experiencing a Neptune transit to our chart rulers simultaneously, so I think the only safe thing to say is that neither side of the story would be accurate. They hurt my feelings, and apparently I hurt their feelings, which was news to me. So as much as everything to do with that situation sucks, I appreciate the clarity. It was previously there was a bubble of confusion, and I prefer knowing "oh they're MAD-mad" to "I wonder what their problem is?"

For what it's worth, I apologized for my part in the dysfunction.

So, there'll be more of that, but hopefully not for me (I'm joking, there's no way this is the only one of these I'll see; I have a year left of this transit because I have multiple planets in Pisces).

Okay, next thing: we are now nearing the end of our no-retrograde zone. No-retrograde zones are usually a time of unimpeded forward motion, even if these are the areas we are sick of moving forward in. When we have retrogrades, we are still capable of forward motion, it'll just be slowed down by planetary energy of some sort, or the lack of said energy (whatever's retrograde). For the past 6 years, late winter/early spring has been the no-retrograde zone, and again, the planetary motion has mostly been limited to a small segment of the sky we are overly familiar with (so a small segment of your chart/life that's stultifyingly boring by now). But now we will have at least one thing retrograde almost all the time until April 2026. Not a typo. Spoiler alert: Mars is retrograde late winter in 2025, and as soon as it goes direct, Venus turns retrograde. That will be a colorful time for most of us. I can't wait to see what happens.

Mercury goes retrograde in Aries in early April, which means that our planet of communication in fast-thinking, fast-talking Aries will be spewing some word salad. Normally Mercury in Aries is the king of the 45 second phone call: relay the message, hang up, on to the next thing. It's more of a radio transmission, really. With Mercury retrograde here, it's like five 45 second phone calls, one after another, and the message is either slightly altered or keeps changing direction. Imagine if you had a drill sergeant who is unintelligible: that's going to be a bad time for all involved, and that's kind of the vibe with Mercury retrograde in Aries (Aries is the most militaristic of signs).

As miscommunications go, imagine someone who is talking to you points at the door and calls it a portal. You know they meant to say "door." They know they meant to say "door." They're still talking but you're not hearing them because now you're visualizing that the door leads to another dimension. So, what did you miss hearing because you were distracted? Or they point to the door and say "turtle." You know there's a terrarium on the other side of the door, but now you're confused: are we talking about the door, or the turtle? This is where we will all see confusion: did you say what you meant?

It's a little caveman-y, Mercury retrograde in Aries.

You might have to put in more time than usual trying to figure out what people meant to say based on what they said.

You know those situations where there's been a miscommunication and all of a sudden you're sending 6 texts or emails or DMs or whatever to clarify, because the message keeps getting MORE convoluted instead of less? Pro tip: stop. Breathe. Get up and go look at something else for at least 2 minutes to reset your brain. Come back when you're calmer and look again. Recruit someone else to read your message to make sure it says what you want it to say.

As always, when Mercury, Venus, or Mars is retrograde, their house location by transit in YOUR chart tells you where in your life the snafus are likely. Generate your chart (astro.com if you're new) and you're looking for the house with this sign on the outside of the circle: ♈️. Google the house to see what it oversees, life headings-wise, and if and when miscommunications come up, tread slowly and patiently through fixing them.

Mercury retrograde is NOT scary, unless it's suddenly possible to get annoyed to death. There's no reason to freak out. There's just a strong case to be made for slowing your roll when you'd like to send 20 rapid fire angry text messages because someone sent you to the wrong Costco or left you the wrong turtle food or ordered 100 boxes of paper clips instead of 10. That's all.

And if you get bad directions, ask again: