March 29th ~ April 5th

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Mercury only just stationed Direct on the 28th, and we might stop to ask ourselves at this point: What are we bringing with us from out of the void? What have we learned? What have we connected with? Our fears? Our highest ideals? Our dreams? Our delusions? Neptune is accompanying Mercury out of the retrograde, and so we are confronted with our own Neptune, which for a lot of us is something of a mess. I am hard pressed to remember a more miserable Mercury retro period exasperated not only by Neptune but by a very heavy Saturn/Pluto/South Node conjunction. Weighed down by a myriad of tears and disenchantment, many are scurrying around trying to reorient themselves, after their expectations and hopes were just tossed in the dust heap. 

Neptune does bring trails of disappointment, disillusionment and despair in its wake. Things seem to just disappear when Neptune is about. However, Neptune also has domain over our highest ideals and aspirations, and occasionally these windows allow us to reorient ourselves and our lives in such a way that we can become realigned with those things that are truly important to us: those things that do not have a price tag; those things that give our lives meaning. And if you were to ask yourself, what are those things in your life that would be worth making sacrifices for? Your loved ones? Your art? A good cause? Your work? Which would you really choose in the end? 

Even though Mercury is now direct it will be escorted by Neptune for the rest of this week. It really won’t be until after the Aries New Moon on the 5th that we will regain our verve and energy. We are in the dark of the Moon this week, which is great for tying up loose ends, reflecting and sorting things out all those things that need sorting in our lives. Think about what you might want to take care of in preparation for any imminent new starts that are awaiting us with the next New Moon. 

Everything I had aimed at or wished for or thought, the whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence, fell away or was stripped from me ~ an extremely painful process. Nevertheless, something remained; it was is if I now carried along with me everything I had ever experienced or done… I consisted of my own history, and I felt with great certainty: this is what I am. ~ Carl Jung

And then there’s that Saturn/Pluto/South Node thing. Whether or not you use the true Nodes or the mean Nodes of the Moon, Pluto is pretty much exactly conjunct the South Node this week. The Nodes approximate where the eclipses will fall in a given year, and with Pluto and then Saturn flirting with the South Node this quarter, it adds even greater depth and urgency for releasing through that South Node in Capricorn. Any time you mix Pluto and the Nodes of the Moon you get this sense of inevitability. This can bring inevitable consequences for actions and decisions made in the past. But it is also a reminder that choices and decisions we make now, also will have their inevitable consequences. Fate, or perhaps more accurately, Karma seems to be playing a large part here. Not that it doesn’t always play a role. It’s that feeling of inevitability here that makes this significant.

Events that occur seem to mirror old wounds and stories that had long been buried beneath the surface. They are being brought out in order for us to acknowledge that these wounds are still lurking there and need tending to. If we try to ignore problems that arise, they will just continue to fester and weaken us from within. Therefore these events or catalysts, albeit often painful, are also opportunities to heal and gain deeper understanding. In this way we are being asked to face those things that we would rather not have to face, deal with unresolved problems and issues, and finally, finally tie up these loose ends. 

This not only allows us to make peace with the past and pay up old karmic debts, it also allows us to build stronger, more sustainable foundations in our lives. This applies to governments and societies too, on a much larger karmic scale, so the ramifications of such a transit can be immense, drawing us all along for the ride. We will readdress these conjunctions when Saturn and Pluto station in a few weeks, for wherever these planets fall in your natal chart, these are areas in your life that require some hard work, facing hard truths, and perhaps even some life altering decisions. The time has come. Something is ending in order for you to make a new (more sustainable) beginning. These are just the early birth pangs. 

For next week’s horoscopes click below:

HOROSCOPES