The Strongest Versions of Ourselves
When the Sun trines Saturn (Nov. 17, 2025, 12:56 am PST, 25º15’ Scorpio and Pisces), it shines its brilliant light into some of our most fearsome places – and it doesn’t shy away from what it finds there. The Sun in Scorpio is like the intrepid team of investigators from the X-Files, investigating the truth with the aid of gigantic flashlights. And with Saturn still retrograde until next week, most of these investigations have to do with gremlins from the past that still haunt us.
We may uncover these demons in the world around us, or, more likely, within ourselves. They show up in the ways we’re out of integrity with our deepest values; where we’ve taken expedient shortcuts; where shame has caused us to shave away a few points of accuracy from the truth. These are the sorts of missteps that undermine our strength.
Saturn’s purpose is to make us the strongest version of ourselves. And each time we’re willing to face what embarrasses or scares us – a pit filled with spiders, snakes, a vulnerable conversation with someone close to us – we become just a little bit stronger.
Connect the Dots
In an action-packed week, Mercury overachieves as it sextiles Pluto (Nov. 17, 2025, 12:36 PM Pacific Time), opposes Uranus (Nov. 19, 2025, 3:45 am PST), trines Neptune (Nov. 19, 2025, 4:21 am PST), trines Saturn (November 22, 10:45 am PST), and trines Jupiter (Nov. 22, 3:37 pm PST). It also makes a conjunction with the Sun, but we’ll cover that separately.
These are links in a planetary chain that connects Mercury with the same aspects in the last week of October and coming up in the first week of December. Mercury, the planet of communication, perception, and connection, revisits Pluto’s power, control, and intense focus; Uranus’ command to change our minds and look at things from a different point of view; Neptune’s healing, intuition, and compassion; Jupiter’s desire to reach for the stars; and Saturn’s willingness to build a platform for success.
There are other Mercury developments later in the week. But know that on these days, as Mercury revisits so many past aspects and retrogrades into Scorpio (Nov. 18, 2025, 7:21 pm PST), it’s probably best to slow down, look within, and see if we can connect the dots to the recent past – and prepare for what they’ll bring in December’s first week.
To Get the Benefits, We Must Change
This week’s New Moon at 28º11’ Scorpio (Nov. 19, 2025, 10:47 pm PST), along with Mercury, is in a grand trine aspect with Jupiter and Saturn. That means they are trine Jupiter, they’re trine Saturn, and Jupiter and Saturn are trine each other. It’s a big, happy configuration of effortless flow, which can be advantageous, but can also descend into inertia and complacency if we’re not careful.
Luckily, the New Moon is also opposed Uranus. something like this opposition to Uranus sitting in the middle of a grand trine introduces some much-needed motivation to put all that flowing energy to good use. The world opens up and becomes larger. We tap into our innate authority. Our Scorpionic power is unleashed. But there is a caveat: In order to get those benefits, we must first be willing to change.
Goodie Bags
Mercury makes a conjunction with the Sun this week (Nov. 20, 2025, 1:23 AM Pacific Time, 28º18’ Scorpio), and when this powerful conjunction is exact, it is in a condition called cazimi, which means “in the heart of the Sun”.
When a planet is that close to the Sun, it’s like someone who gets the chance to hang around with a celebrity and bask in their reflected glow. They get a little more attention. Maybe they get favors, or get into the restaurant or concert or club along with a celebrity.
When Mercury is cazimi (exact between Nov. 19 at 10:31 PST and Nov. 20 at 4:15 am PST), it’s in a power period that is especially strong for having important conversations, for writing or communicating, maybe making a difficult phone call you’ve been needing to make. You’ll tend to think clearly and well. And you’ll probably catch a few goodie bags that the celebrity left behind.
How Does It Feel?
This week brings the second sextile between Uranus and Neptune (Nov. 20, 2025, 6:33 am PST, 29º29’ Taurus-Pisces), the latest in a series that will unfold through 2027.
The sextile is the first major aspect between Uranus and Neptune since their 1993 conjunction in Capricorn. The first of these sextiles was on August 28 of this year, in the wriggly, impatient signs of Gemini and Aries. This time around, they are at the very end of Taurus and Pisces, and there’s a bit of a difference in tone.
The sextile aspect generally sparks imagination and makes breakthroughs possible, makes it easier to translate abstract or spiritual concepts into language, and opens up fertile territory for revolutionary thinking. But while that generally remains true at this latest sextile, Taurus and Pisces are a bit quieter than Gemini and Aries. The opportunity at this sextile is to take a second look at some of the fast-paced changes in technology, such as AI, that have been grabbing headlines this year.
Things have been moving very, very fast, and this sextile might just be a moment to put on the brakes and to contemplate not just what is happening on an intellectual level, but how it’s affecting us on a feeling level. Around the date of this transit, keep an eye on the news and pay attention to conversations around you. How are we thinking about advances in technology, and more importantly, how are we feeling about it?
Chaos into Creativity
When the Sun in Scorpio opposes Uranus (Nov. 21, 2025, 4:25 am PST, 29º26′ Scorpio/Taurus) this week, as when the Sun and Uranus meet in any kind of aspect, the world brings us messages about the importance of change and innovation. In particular, we’re urged to look at the ways we get stuck in our own habits and insecurities, and to experiment with new ways of being.
The opposition aspect often plays out in relationships, and we take turns playing out both planets. Stuck in patterns of resentment, jealousy, or possessiveness (the dark side of Scorpio)? Someone might issue a demand for more breathing room (Uranus). Inconstant with your commitments, dropping out of communication while you pursue other projects or relationships (Uranus)? Expect to be called out on it.
This is not a long transit – its strongest influence is probably a day or two either side of the exact aspect. But because it’s prominent in the chart for the Scorpio New Moon the same day, the New Moon’s 29-day cycle (and its 3-year Lunar Phase Family cycle) initiates a longer process of balancing Scorpio’s intensity with the need for independence and personal space, and to alchemize chaos into creative power.
Vacation from Yourself
It can be so tiring, being human – inhabiting an identity, having a biography, carrying so many memories and grudges and sorrows. What would it be like if we were amnesiacs and had no idea who we were supposed to be? How light it would feel, with none of the emotional burdens and limitations that are part of how we define ourselves.
The trine between the Sun and Neptune (Nov. 21, 2025, 5:05 am PST, at 29º28’ Scorpio and Pisces) offers a mini-vacation from the tyranny of ego, to let yourself float downriver and disengage from who you think you have to be, to wish a new self into being.
Encounters with the Unfamiliar
Once, on a visit to New Zealand, I stepped outside on a cool, clear evening and looked up at the sky. What I saw made me a little dizzy: not just a thick blanket of stars, but constellations so different from the ones I’m used to! As an urban dweller, I had no idea that I’d become so familiar with the night sky – until I saw one that was utterly foreign.
Sagittarius rules our encounters with the unfamiliar. Some of them take us as far away as the other side of the world, where the sky is upside down. But simply traveling to an unfamiliar part of your own city will do the trick as well. Whenever you find yourself feeling a little bit uncomfortable, like a proverbial fish out of water, then you’re doing Sagittarius right. Whatever makes you look at the world, or even just your own life, with new eyes and wonderment – that’s Sagittarius territory. And that’s what you’re invited to explore over the next month, as the Sun journeys through Sagittarius (beginning Nov. 21, 2025, 5:35 am PST, through Dec. 21).
Choices
In a week when the skies are as hectic as they are in this one, a sextile between the Sun and Pluto (Nov. 23, 2025, 11:19 am PST) may seem insignificant. But no connection between the Sun and Pluto is ever unimportant.
The two began a new cycle with their conjunction on Jan. 21, 2025 at the very beginning of Aquarius. When these two important symbols are in a conjunction, there’s enormous pressure to change our current form. Often, this pressure comes from those who have power over us, like a boss, a parent, even a government official.
But at the opening sextile, we’ve gained a little distance from that power struggle. We can begin to see the choices that are available to us – although whether we’re willing to take them, or whether they will take us where we want to go, is another question.
Writing and images © 2017-2025 by April Elliott Kent
