Astrology Highlights for Oct. 7-13, 2024: Getting to the Top

From Here to Eternity

Together, Venus and Mars tell a story of passion, where beauty and pleasure meet physical desire. This week, Venus in Scorpio meets Mars in Cancer in a rapturous trine aspect (Oct. 8, 2024, 3:22 am PDT). When this aspect is exact between two planets, it means they’re in signs of the same element, which in turn means that their natures emerge from the same quality and disposition. Their attraction to each other seems inevitable, like the relationship between the head cheerleader and the captain of the football team.

In this case, Venus and Mars meet in the water element, soulful, imaginative, and deeply empathetic. Here, two lovers give themselves to each other on a beach, rolling around in the pounding surf, ala Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity. Is this the beginning of a greater love story, or simply a night of erotic pleasure? It hardly matters; one night of passion can seem like a lifetime between lovers who feel as deeply as Scorpio and Cancer.

Words Have Wings

When Mercury in Libra meets Jupiter in Gemini in a convivial trine (Oct. 8, 2024, 5:23 am PDT), words have wings, the gift of inspiration, and possibly even prophecy. To have Mercury, the wordsmith, working in the service of Jupiter, keeper of the Big Picture, is the best of all possible worlds. It’s easier just now to put grand concepts into easy-to-understand, usable language.

A word of caution, though: Mercury and Jupiter together in air signs can get so engrossed in talking about things that they don’t always quite get around to doing them!

The Church Inside

What do you believe? What’s your creed, your set of deepest convictions? And where did they come from – your parents, the religious tradition in which you were raised, the books you read?

Jupiter is the planet that awakens questions about the way the world works; and this week, as Jupiter enters its 4-month retrograde period (Oct. 9, 2024, 12:05 am PDT, through Feb. 4, 2025), the answers to those questions must be sought from within. Think of this as attending the church inside of you.

For 9 months at a time, while Jupiter is direct, we go to church, study with a guru, take courses to help us pose better questions about life and answers about what comes after it. But during this precious third of the year, while Jupiter is retrograde, it’s important to focus on the beliefs that emerge organically from inside you. Of all the things that you believe, what has been given to you by others, and what comes from your own sense of what is true?

Getting to the Top

Has a matter been resolved, or is there still space for negotiation? Depends on whom you ask this week. The First Quarter Moon in Capricorn (Oct. 10, 2024, 11:55 am PDT) favors unilateral, executive determinations about which course of action to pursue – which places it in direct conflict with the Sun in Libra, which prefers to explore all sides of a matter before making a decision.

The Sun and Moon are in a square aspect at the First Quarter Moon. Planets in a square aspect have to figure out how to work together to make each of them stronger, and that’s doubly true at this First Quarter, when both the Sun and Moon are in aspect to feisty Mars in Cancer. In our quest to take executive action, we also need to listen to the Sun in Libra’s side of the story, which is that nobody gets to the top on their own. Nobody. When the chips are down, we have to rely on others to help us get further along on our path, and to acknowledge their contribution in getting us there.

The Dormant Volcano

A volcano can stay dormant for thousands of years and still be capable of tremendous damage. Roman writers described Vesuvius as having been covered with gardens and vineyards before it erupted in 79 CE, destroying Pompei.

When Pluto is retrograde (in this case, since May 2, 2024) for half of each year, it’s like a dormant volcano. It seems that forces of power and control have receded and that peace and pleasure are the law of the land. But under the surface, destructive power is building. And a day or two around the day that Pluto stations to move direct (Oct. 11, 2024, 5:32 pm PDT) is when it’s most likely to blow.

The Man Who Knows

Just hours before entering mesmerizing Scorpio, Mercury connects with penetrating Pluto in a compelling square aspect (Oct. 13, 2024, 7:03 am PDT). Magician Claude Alexander Conlin, billed as “Alexander: The Man Who Knows,” was born with these two planets in aspect. Conlin was a popular stage mentalist of the early 20th century, offering private psychic readings and authoring self-help books with a spiritualist theme.

I was introduced to Alexander in an Ocean Beach consignment store, decades after his death. A print of one of his promotional posters, maybe five feet tall and featuring his trademark, penetrating gaze, stared down at me from the wall. Mesmerized, I almost took the poster home with me and was deterred only by the price tag and a lack of adequate wall space.

Such is the compelling power of Mercury with Pluto. Today, use this combination’s mesmerizing powers of focus, concentration, and persuasion to make long-awaited breakthroughs in your work, and anything else that requires determination.

No More Idle Chatter

When you’re interacting with the UPS delivery person or a checker at the grocery store, pleasant chit-chat is just the ticket. Since Sep. 26, Mercury in Libra has favored just that: being what the person in front of you needs you to be, mirroring them back to themselves.

But as Mercury enters Scorpio (Oct. 13, 2024, 12:23 pm PDT) that’s no longer the way the conversational wind is blowing. Tired of idle chatter, we long to dig deeper, ask probing questions, and perhaps call out hypocrisy when you see it.

Practically speaking, Mercury in this sign is excellent for research, writing, editing, and cleaning up financial affairs, among other things. Magically speaking, Mercury transiting through Scorpio is richly creative, with a powerful talent for transforming raw emotion into something that deepens and enriches the soil of the soul.

Luck

Why do some people seem to be so lucky? Astrologers associate Jupiter with luck, and certainly there seems to be an element of good fortune in the lives of those with Jupiter or its signs, Sagittarius and Pisces, prominent in their birth charts.

I don’t particularly believe in fate, but I do believe in luck. There are some people who seem to have a miraculous ability to deflect bad fortune and attract wealth and support. Then again, I suspect that may come down to an accepting, cheerful attitude.

We get a couple of days this week to put that to the test. As the Sun in Libra trines Jupiter in Gemini (Oct. 13, 2024, 8:52 pm PDT), luck asserts itself; see if you can grab a piece of it as it flies by. Those with the strongest will and the greatest confidence will likely do best, but this cosmic windfall is accessible to everyone. The week should bring good fortune to our Leo planets and houses, ruled by the Sun; and if your birthday falls during this week, you can probably expect a little something extra in your stack of cosmic birthday presents.