Mercury just turn retrograde, which it does for three weeks three times a year, and is always a time to review, refresh, remember, and pick up our lost pieces.
Sure it’s important to practice basic Mercury retrograde skills, be careful of the messages you send, keep careful track of important personal items, and avoid accidents of inattention. Confirm reservations. Keep track of your phone and car keys. Assume any conflict that sprouts up is based on a misunderstanding, and work to correct that problem. Schedule in time for delays and bring a good book along wherever you go. Stop pushing new work forward and finish what’s already on the table.
This time Mercury retrogrades in the middle of community-oriented Aquarius, opposes expansive international Jupiter and brings our minds back to not just our personal history, but social history. It asks us to look a little deeper at the stories of our life and stories of our culture to see more clearly, and make reparations if needed, so the past can nourish us rather than restrict us to an old and unproductive pattern. Any time our minds go back to the past we can use it to either chew over old wounds and make them worse, or we can go back to see if we can get some of the shrapnel out of the wounds, remember the sweetness, or retrieve lost gifts. So when we find ourselves dwelling on stories of the past, let’s ask ourselves why we’re here and how we can make the visit productive.
Friday begins under a tender, meandering Pisces Moon with Mars and Neptune also conjunct in intuitive Pisces, a weekend-long aspect which brings out our vulnerability and the gift of dreaming, and may lower our energy level. We won’t really want to face harsh realities. So let’s use a moment of escape in a good way. Take a break and be fed by music and art, daydream about alternatives to conundrums, and come back to our logical work refreshed.
Over the weekend an Aries Moon urges us to create new beginnings, but now is a better time to experience one-off events as well as work on unfinished business and follow through on unfinished joys.
Next week starts with slow winter inertia under an earthy Taurus Moon, but that allows us to get oriented and assess what really needs to be done, and what unnecessary busywork we can put off for now. As the week progresses, look around for an urgent short-term project that looks like it’s only a sidebar to our plans but is knocking on the door and needs to be dealt with now. Venus joins Mars and Neptune in Pisces on Tuesday and adds to this spacey, intuitive, and less aggressive but more potentially passive-aggressive quality. Watch political decisions be proposed based on articles of faith and imagination (for better and worse), instead of on logic and a clear grasp of facts. And let’s be careful to balance the two ourselves.
In this intuitive but not particularly logical time, our creative and artistic expression can be strong, our senses are heightened. We can use these next imaginative few weeks (until February 20 when Mars enters Aries) to drift and dream the next chapter of our life into existence. We have an action-packed spring on the horizon, now is time to heal, renew, prepare, catch up, and listen deeply to make our action clean and inspired.
Friday, January 23: The energy swirls one level but seems to swirl in place on the other; we feel busy, but are we getting anywhere. Let’s focus on the quality of our interactions, the kindness of energy between our sensitive hearts, and keep our expectations low on a practical agenda with the Moon in subtle Pisces. Leave the day with people feeling heard and understood. We’ll appreciate low-key rest or a moment in a magical realm tonight.
Saturday, January 24: We are more antsy, ambitious but not particularly efficient, as the Moon enters Aries and squares the Sun. A trine between the Moon and Saturn asks us to get things done, but the stars don’t align for launching new projects. Go back to an old ambition, complete unfinished projects, or explore a familiar trail. Just rein in an edgy irritation and a return to old anger for retribution this afternoon; it will only up the ante. Tonight, let’s suspend expectations and do what we really need to do as the Moon trine Saturn.
Sunday, January 25: We want to change it up this morning but may have some karmic responsibilities to complete, or oddly pivotal events to respond to as the Aries Moon squares Pluto and trines Uranus. An uncomfortable morning can unfold into a more expansive, generous, peripatetic afternoon as the Moon trines Jupiter. Engage a spontaneous last-minute adventure and share perspectives.
Monday, January 26: The mood is more stubborn and settled today as the Moon enters earthy Taurus, get a steady groove going and pursue that which takes steadiness and endurance rather than finesse or flexibility. Check to make sure everyone is on the same page, as what needs to be done can be equally clear, but totally different, to others.
Tuesday, January 27: We get squishy and soft this morning as Venus enters Pisces. We won’t think anyone for rushing us, guilt tripping us, or stepping on our emotional toes. We need to find a good use for our sensitivities and finesse a new understanding, a new sense of beauty. Midafternoon let’s take this new sensitivity out to understand some key player and change the dynamics with empathy as Mercury trines the lunar nodes. Tonight, generosity brings generous returns as the Taurus Moon squares Jupiter. We may want a surplus of delicious food or sensory pleasure to soothe our aching nerves.
Wednesday, January 28: The energy still swirls in place and has trouble moving forward this morning unless we simply put one foot in front of the other. It’s a good morning to tend to earthy chores like laundry or filing. Conversation picks up, we get more nervy and interactive this afternoon as the Moon enters verbal Gemini, but can find ourselves at cross purposes with one another as the Moon squares Venus and opposes Saturn, and easily unsettled by relationship oddities. If so, let’s not get tied up in verbal knots, but stand back and feel sympathy underneath.
Thursday, January 29: Take the opportunity to communicate while the Gemini Moon trines the Sun and Mercury in Aquarius midday. Share camaraderie, grow understanding in snippets, just know that attention spans are short and people are feeling touchy and a bit nervous. Some low-level anxiety homes from our unusual sensitivity. This can sharpen our temper or bring out our klutzy streak if we feel pushed or rushed around dinnertime as the Moon squares Mars. Let the conversation be far-ranging tonight; expand understanding but don’t expect to solve the problem.
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