Battle and Retreat
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
North star
What’s the meaning of life? Whenever Jupiter is retrograde (since June 20), we map the territory of our own belief systems. Our religion, our teachers, the great thinkers of the ages: external messages about why we’re here and what it’s all about are digested during Jupiter’s retrograde periods, as we sift through them to find a truth that sits well with us. To locate our north star, as it were.
We’ve been assisted in this effort by Mercury, also retrograde since Sep. 27. Have you taken some time to slow down, turn off all the noise, organize your thoughts and make sense of new information, facts, and ideas? Reconnected with friends from the past, perhaps, who’ve inspired you to reflect on how you use communication to build relationships?
This week, Jupiter (Oct. 17, 2021, 10:30 pm PDT) and Mercury (Oct. 18, 2021, 8:17 am PDT) turn direct on essentially the same day. Within hours Mars, the action planet, trines newly-direct Jupiter (Oct. 18, 2021, 7:36 pm PDT), declaring that the time has come to move ahead – and decisively – in the direction of your own north star. And as Mercury eventually connects with Mars (Nov. 10) and Jupiter (Oct. 31), it brings at least two perfect opportunities to tell your story.
Exit strategy
Each Full Moon shines a beacon on things we haven’t been able to see before, and particularly on the inner, lunar landscape. During each Sun in Libra season, an Aries Full Moon highlights the ways in which we’ve been prioritizing ourselves, whether more or less than is healthy for our relationships with others. And this particular Aries Full Moon (Oct. 20, 2021, 7:57 am PDT), with the Sun, Mars, and Moon all tangling in a furious t-square with Pluto – is like being shoved out onto a moonlit battlefield with rockets bursting all around you.
Should tempers flare or confrontations grow uncomfortably intense, the exit strategy lies in the Cancer house of your chart. (Don’t know how to find it? This blog post might help!) Reconnect with family, home, pets, and nourishing activities, and generally gather emotional reinforcements against upsetting realities. Here’s where you can fortify yourself for conflict by remembering what’s worth fighting for.
Diplomat
The battle implied in the Aries Full Moon chart ignites the following evening, as Mars squares Pluto (Oct. 21, 2021, 9:19 pm PDT). This powerful aspect catalyzes a conclusion to something that began at the Mars/Pluto conjunction of March 22, 2020. If that time period rings a bell, it’s because in the US, that’s when the country began shutting down and going into quarantine against the pandemic. In the 19 months since then, we’ve seen new conflicts even among friends and family with whom we’ve traditionally been aligned in matters of politics and world view. Expect another milestone in this journey that revives these broad disagreements.
Mars, still in Libra, prefers to use rational, civilized methods to achieve its aims. But as it squares Pluto in Capricorn, negotiations will generally be productive only if the diplomacy is based in hard-edged pragmatism. Good manners and carefully-chosen words can succeed, as long as there is a spine made of steel just below the surface.
Off season
lLongtime followers of my site are aware that a couple of times each year, my spouse and I spend a week or so in a small seaside village on California’s central coast. It happens that one of those weeks falls in November, when the Sun in Scorpio transits my twelfth house, a house of retreat and introspection. The seashore in off season suits us to the ground. We spend a lot of time in our hotel room, listening to the ocean. Meals are simple. We read books. Sometimes, it rains. We don’t have to take any special clothes with us. We get to just relax, do exactly what we want, let ourselves be exactly who we are, and luxuriate in being several hundred miles from our everyday lives.
Even if you don’t go to the seashore, the season when the Sun is in Scorpio (beginning Oct. 22, 2021, at 9:51 pm PDT; Oct. 23 most everywhere else) can be very restful. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s a time when the days are growing much shorter and we begin to have what passes for cooler weather even in Southern California. This is a season for backing away from the social spotlight to spend some quality time being 100% yourself. Ideally, you should be able to look into the mirror during Scorpio’s season and be greeted with a reflection that looks just the way you feel inside.
Writing and images © 2020-2021 by April Elliott Kent
More about this week’s planetary highlights in our latest podcast episode!
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