On Task
If you have important work to complete and need some focus and discipline to help you, be grateful for Mercury’s square to Saturn (June 9, 2025, 3:48 am PDT, 00º Cancer-Aries). Nothing will focus a scattered Mercury quite like a hard aspect to Saturn, the planet that keeps us on task with our eyes on our own work.
So, if there’s something you’ve been putting off for a long time, maybe tackling some paperwork in your office, perhaps a significant writing project, or writing a long-dreaded reply to an email, these would all be excellent to tackle this week. If you should find that inspiration isn’t flowing, no matter; what the muse doesn’t deliver, Saturn will accomplish through sheer grit and determination. It may not be easy, but don’t misinterpret that as a sign that you’re on the wrong track.
What Are You Worth?
A beautiful heiress is introduced to a man who refuses to treat her in the worshipful, deferential style to which she’s accustomed. Her beauty and status automatically open most doors for her, and she’s first startled and then outraged to be teased and mocked by a man who refuses to acknowledge her as a goddess. The harder she tries to bend him to her will, revealing glimpses of temper and steely resolve beneath the cotton-candy façade, the more amused he becomes. What she doesn’t realize is that he’s already fallen for the real woman underneath the regal exterior.
As Venus squares Pluto (June 9, 2025, 10:20 am PDT, 3º31’ Taurus and Aquarius), the question is, “What am I worth?” If you’ve fallen into the habit of relying on your past accomplishments, social connections, status, or attractiveness, this aspect can summon a person or situation that calls you out on it. Just remember that when you can no longer rest on your laurels, you’re in a great position to attract what’s truly right for who you are in the present.
Making the World Your Home
This week, Jupiter begins a year-long journey through the sign of Cancer (June 9, 2025, 2:02 pm PDT, through June 29, 2026). It may seem odd that Jupiter, the planet of travel and adventure, is traditionally considered exalted, or particularly strong in Cancer, the sign of home and family. But think about it. If you carry a strong sense of home inside you, you can feel at home anywhere. And after you’ve traveled to a foreign country or lived in a city far from your birth home, you’ve got one more place in the world that feels familiar to you. Spend a little time sharing a meal with people from a different world, and you begin to understand that they’re not that different from you after all.
“Travel is broadening,” the old saying goes. And it is – but not because of the novelty of visiting unfamiliar places and eating new kinds of food. Travel is broadening because it enlarges the boundaries of what feels safe and familiar to you. While Jupiter is transiting through Cancer, open your home and heart and venture out to claim more territory. The more you see of the world, the more of it feels like home to you, and the more of its people feel like your family.
Giving Voice to Empathy
When any planet connects with Neptune, you might assume that its ventures are doomed to failure, victims of a lack of clarity and a surplus of deception. Mercury square Neptune, in particular, was vilified in most the astrology books I read early in my studies.
Maybe the fact that I have this aspect in my birth chart muddles my judgement and proves the very myth that I’m trying to dispel. But I really like this aspect. Squares force us to reconcile different sides of our nature. When it goes up against Neptune, Mercury fights against fog and confusion – and along the way, learns to express Neptune’s poetry, empathy, and sensitivity, and to give it a voice.
As Mercury squares Neptune this week (June 9, 2025, 3:54 pm PDT, 2º Cancer-Aries), give Neptune a voice. Sing. Create art. Make beauty. Listen to those who are hurting. It’s a fast aspect for most of us, just a couple of days; but for some who are born with it, it’s a life’s work.
Is This Enough?
Sagittarius is the “Big Picture” sign, and Full Moons shine a bright, sometimes unforgiving light on some area of our lives. Not surprisingly, the Sagittarius Full Moon (June 11, 2025, 12:44 am PDT, 20º39’ Sagittarius) demands an honest answer to a big question: “Is this enough?” And with the Sun and Moon both trine Mars in Leo, this question contains another, nested within it like a Matryoshka doll: “Are you courageous enough to make your life bigger?”
Each Full Moon represents the culmination of three lunar cycles. The first cycle began at the most recent New Moon – in this case, the May 26 Gemini New Moon, which asked: What will satisfy your curiosity? The second cycle began at the Nov. 30, 2024 Sagittarius New Moon; this Full Moon is the “response” to that New Moon’s “call.” And the third cycle began at the previous New Moon close to this Full Moon degree – on Dec. 12, 2023 (20º40′ Sagittarius). We’re now at the midpoint of a story that began at that New Moon, and it’s a story about your desire for a bigger, freer life.
So, is there a part of your life that you’ve outgrown? How free do you feel? Is this enough? And what are you willing to do to make it even better?
Constancy and Change
Mars and Uranus are an explosive and unpredictable combination, especially when they’re square each other (June 15, 2025, 2:47 am PDT, at 28º54′ Leo and Taurus) and in the inflexible signs of Leo and Taurus.
And yet… what looks like stubbornness from one angle appears as constancy and dependability from another. In Leo, Mars wants to devote the power of its sword to noble pursuits, and will not be swayed in its purpose; in Taurus, Uranus has demonstrated the challenge to overcome intransigence and move the very earth itself in order to change.
The tension of this aspect, then, is around reconciling the power of constancy with the inevitability of change. Mars’ Sabian symbol, 29 Leo, A mermaid, suggests that fantasy and imagination can help. And Uranus is on 29 Taurus, Two cobblers working at table; and while fixed signs like Leo and Taurus don’t necessarily love collaboration, it might yield inspiration and new insights this week.
Regulation
This week brings the last of three squares from Jupiter and Saturn (June 15, 2025, 7:36 am PDT, 1º18’ Cancer and Aries)- the first was on Aug. 19, 2024 and the second was on Dec. 24, 2024.
Imagine you’re a teenager getting a driving lesson from your dad. You take off with a great squeal of the tires, both feet pressed down hard on the gas pedal, while the whole time your dad yells at you to slow down. Pretty quickly, you’re hollering at one another.
The Jupiter-Saturn cycle seeks regulation of expansion, symbolized by Jupiter, and contraction, which is symbolized by Saturn. When the two come together in a square, that effort at regulation can bring raised voices. And because this is the last of three such aspects, this one marks the conclusion of an extended process. Have you managed to get both sides listening to one another? Are you ready for the shouting to stop?
Writing and images © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
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