This Week in Astrology – 21st – 27th October 2013

“I can’t make a decision” I wailed at him, a hiccup, a sob. Oh the eclipse got me good! Slap bang on my Mercury which is the apex to a perfect yod with Uranus and Neptune, I woke up Friday feeling confused and anxious. I had a decision to make and the more I thought about it, the more my imagination embellished it; the more Uranus dug further and further into the future analysing every possible scenario until my mind felt it was about to cave in on itself and I was so strung out I felt like I was going to snap. The High Priestess glared at me from my tarot reading, surrounding by a bunch of swords cards.

“You already know what to do” she snapped. “Sort your head out”!

Luckily, I had a kind voice of reason to turn to who knows my twisty, turny mind well enough to straighten it out. And now its all better. It seems like once I’d voiced the fear, the real fear, not the tales I was telling myself, the feeling evaporated. Oh and the bailey’s ice cream helped 😀

Meanwhile, I got into a discussion with someone who is constantly second guessing their messages from the universe. The message to me is clear but for them, they are lost in what they want it to be instead of what is. It’s monkey mind all over again. In my experience, the message is always clear, but sometime the mind isn’t.

Mercury retrograde swings into full force on the 21st October. As I said in my Mercury Retrograde post, it’s about playing detective, hunting out truths and doing some serious self psycho-analysis. The difficulty is that all week we have the waning Mars opposite Neptune still in effect which is clouding the issue. As co-ruler of Scorpio, it’s like Mars is being shown some scary visions of what’s to come and he doesn’t know whether to run and hide or try to battle it out. Of course it’s in his nature to fight, but it’s like trying to stab a ghost. In fact old ghosts do tend to come up when Mercury goes retrograde anyway, especially in Scorpio! So there could be a tendency for efforts to be wasted on fighting something that isn’t even real. It’s a real test of your metal.

Saturn makes a conjunction to asteroid Deucalion on the 22nd October. This aspect is a reminder that you’ve already been through worse, or even the worst. Now it’s time to use what you have experienced to make a better future. Start making the plans.

On the 23rd October, the Sun moves into Scorpio. “Hello, hello – what’s going on here then?”. Saturn’s not going to explain himself to anyone and Mercury is going a bit pink around the ears. The Sun entering Scorpio is like switching a torch on in the dark and catching the guilty party at it!

The Sun’s entry into Scorpio stirs up the mix, forcing a period of self-analysis to route out our own inner guilt or shame. We all make mistakes, now it’s time to learn from them. Maybe it’s about learning to be ok in the dark. We can’t know everything, even when we want to. There’s some intense thoughts going on but these do not have to dictate how you feel. Sometimes you just have to trust the guidance you are receiving. Look at the evidence.

Pluto is conjunct asteroid Bacchus on the 24th October. Yes, Bacchus is the God of wine and riotous drunken celebration but the wine and revelry is connected to other states of consciousness – its shamanic. Sometimes it’s necessary to loosen the reins of control in order to experience a different state of mind. A loss of control can represent an opportunity to re-align with your own inner power. Pay close attention to animals that appear to you today whether in real form, through dreams or simply through synchronicity. Your power animal may have a message for you.

The Sun moves into a trine to Neptune on the 25th October. With the Moon also entering Cancer, Friday will see a passing grand water trine that softens some of the intensity of the Scorpio action going on.  At the end of the working week, make some time to kick start your imagination. Watch movies, go to an art exhibition, listen to music that moves you. It’s a day to seek inspiration and offer compassion. Send out healing or pray for those who need it.

Venus skips into a quincunx with Jupiter on the 26th October. To make sense of the many options you have, you need to follow only those that connect to your personal sense of integrity. If your self-esteem is wavering, there may be a need to check in with your beliefs. Generally there can be a tendency to go overboard in an effort to please someone else. You don’t have to prove you are worthy of love. You are already good enough.

The Venusian theme continues to the end of the week as Venus makes a conjunction to asteroid Hebe on the 27th October. Hebe was the young lady who brought the cup of ambrosia to the Gods which kept them young and beautiful as well as bestowing immortality upon them. Back in the real world, the march of time goes on and despite the media’s constant homage to youth and beauty, we grow older. We get wrinkles and grey hairs and scars. The key today is to look in the mirror and acknowledge your beauty. Joy in life keeps you young.

So it seems that there are two themes of the week. One is about learning to untangle fact from fiction, getting to the real truth of a situation and being willing to give up control to paradoxically gain control. The other theme is connected to letting go of a need to prove yourself (or your innocence!) to someone else or even to yourself. With Saturn, Mercury retrograde and the Sun all creeping about in Scorpio, fear can get the better of us so it’s important to stay connected to your heart and remain clear in your intentions.

If all else fails, adding a little left-brain thinking into the mix never hurt. Whilst Scorpio is highly intuitive, Pluto also likes evidence and is pretty good at piecing together an accurate picture through logical reasoning. The following video is a reasoned analysis of what to do about climate change but his process can be used with any life decision. Sometimes you’ve got to face the worst case scenario in order to make a decision and cast those shadows away once and for all.

Painting – ‘The girl with monkey’ by  Sergey Solomko