Highlights Oct. 8-14, 2018

Cards on the Table

Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone. Click them to see the date and time where you are.

This week begins with a most compelling Libra New Moon (Oct. 8, 8:47 pm PDT, which I examine at length in this essay. Suffice to say, this is no cotton-candy, gossamer pink, romcom Libra New Moon. It has a dark, gritty edge, compliments of Venus (Libra’s ruler), which is retrograde in Scorpio, and a square to Pluto from the New Moon point itself. Relationships are getting real during this Venus retrograde season – particularly this week.

Superpowers

When I was growing up, my Archie comic books featured ads for X-Ray Specs.They featured a crude drawing of a guy with crazy looking glasses, ogling a woman’s silhouette through a suddenly transparent frock. This held tremendous allure—not because I wished to look through women’s dresses, but because it suggested superpowers of perception. Being able to see through objects seemed just a short step from mind-reading. And who wouldn’t want to have that superpower?

Mercury in Scorpio (beginning Oct. 9, 5:41 pm PDT, through Oct. 30) is the next best thing to X-Ray Specs. Perception seems sharper; even if you’re usually not able to spot the killer early on in a detective story, somehow it’s easier now. Sensing motivations, detecting which parts of a story don’t add up, noticing facial expressions and body language, all add up to something that seems like a superpower, but is really just a by-product of paying keen attention. Perhaps this is why so many talented writers and artists seem to have Scorpio/Pluto symbolism emphasized in their birth charts—they see not just what is there, but what lies beneath it. How it got there, and why.

There are all sorts of reasons that can make us pay closer attention to the world around us. We may feel threatened by circumstances and suspicious of others’ motives; we may be interested in getting something we want from someone else; we may want to use what we see to hurt others. Or we might just delight in solving mysteries. In any case, as the old ad reminds us, X-Ray Specs come with the temptation to use them for dark purposes. Remember to use your temporary superpower for good, not evil.

“Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.” ― Gautama Buddha

Unfinished business

Back in September, I wrote about a square between Venus in Libra and Mars in Capricorn. Now, Venus is retrograde and once again colliding with Mars (Oct. 10, 7:29 pm PDT) – this time in Scorpio and Aquarius, respectively, all sharp edges and prickly independence. In this latest round of the battle of the sexes, Venus in Scorpio isn’t even pretending to be polite; and Mars in Aquarius, liberated from Capricorn’s constrictions, is like a sailor on shore leave.

If there is unfinished business from relationship conflicts that erupted around September 8, here is another chance to lay your cards on the table. Perhaps one of you cares too much and the other, too little. Maybe one wants to reunite and the other has happily moved on. There is little chance of reconciliation when one person is hanging on to the past and the other has become a dot on the horizon. Look ahead to November 9, though, when Venus will have returned to a position of strength (Libra) and will be trine Mars in Aquarius. Whether or not a relationship can be salvaged, the key is to release the anger and bitterness so that both of you are truly free.

“I hate solitude, but I’m afraid of intimacy. I have never wanted a communion of souls. It’s already hard enough to tell the truth to oneself.” ― Iris Murdoch

Heroes

I the square between the Sun and Pluto (Oct. 11, 9:07 pm PDT) were a movie, we’d be rooting for the charismatic young hero (Sun) as he goes into battle against a shadowy, overpowering foe (Pluto). And if this were a big-budget American film, our hero would emerge triumphant at the very last minute.

But this isn’t necessarily that kind of movie. Sometimes, dark forces prevail. The rise of the anti-hero in popular culture can be traced back to a fundamental question: what chance does one puny little human have against a battalion of evil? And is evil an entirely external force, or does it have its origins in something that lies deep down inside each of us?

Pluto would have us believe that everything is meaningless, that we are meaningless; but a couple of times a year, the Sun asserts that in spite of all evidence to the contrary, individuals are important and can make a difference. Maybe the question we should ask, as the Sun squares Pluto, is not whether one person can make a difference in dark times; rather, it’s whether the fight itself ennobles us.

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Seeds of splendour

Something new is drifting into your daydreams. Maybe it’s a trip to Italy, or graduate school, or jumping a freight train with a few belongings in a knapsack. If you’ve been a little bit tired of your life and wondering when the next big thing would come along to grab your interest, pay special attention to these ruminations during the Moon’s Crescent Phase, which begins in Sagittarius (Oct. 12 at 10:59 am PDT). They’re just seeds of a notion right now, and to nurture them, you’ll have to ignore the nay-saying practicality of the Moon in Capricorn conjunct Saturn (Oct. 14 at 7:40 pm PDT).

Now is not the time to consider practicalities; it is the time to nurture passionate interests, which are rare and need time to germinate. But cherish these little seedlings, and by the time the Sagittarius New Moon comes along in early December, you may well be ready to plant them.

“Where once there was a void,
Now at least there are
Seeds of splendour,
Becalmed belief for another time.”
― Scott Hastie

© 2018 April Elliott Kent