February 2nd ~ 9th
“The Torment of Saint Anthony” by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Mercury enters Aquarius conjunct Pluto
Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. ~ August Wilson
On February 4th or 5th (depending on where you are in the world) Mercury enters illuminating Aquarius and lines up with the dark lord Pluto. Strangely enough this will be the first time in our lifetimes that Mercury and Pluto will be conjunct in Aquarius. As we do with all Mercury/Pluto conjunctions, we will still be led to confront ourselves, including the dark parts, but we are doing so through a different sort of lens. And perhaps even surprisingly so. Like a eureka moment, or a sudden glimpse that catches you unaware, or that lets you see things as they truly are, we are being asked this week to see things in a whole new way. We are being asked to Discover, to Observe, to Know.
This may require a little research, asking relevant questions, and a willingness to dig deep beneath the surface. For that is what Mercury/Pluto does. It gets to the underlying causes. It solves the mystery, and gives us the remedies to our problems.
Just know that Pluto work is not that easy. It requires courage, humility and absolute honesty in order to reap its rewards. Some of the things that some will experience this week, are:
an over-exuberance about an idea or your own point of view. When we make our own discoveries, we can be so thrilled and exuberant that we will want to share them with with the world!
finding yourself so focused or obsessed about something, someone or an idea to the exclusion of all else
being confronted with someone or a group of people who are overly insistent, or even fanatical, about their point of view
wanting to get to the bottom of a mystery or wanting to solve a problem.
fascinated by the mysterious, by secrets, and more willing to tackle subjects that you would normally avoid, or not want to talk about
But perhaps what is most illuminating about this transit, is that it helps us to assimilate and more clearly understand and define what the Pluto ingress into Aquarius might mean for each of us individually. What you are discovering this week? What are you learning? What part of your life and your perspective is being transformed?
Venus at the bending of the Nodes
Narcissus seems at first to be merely an image of vain self-love. But he may also be seen as an image of self-discovery, for loving another must spring first from recognition and value of oneself; otherwise it is a sad and often fruitless exercise in seeking in the other what one has not yet discovered within. - Liz Greene
Perhaps what Liz Greene is telling us, is that in order to fully love another, we first have to value ourselves. So, in the vein of a more divine selfishness, a more confident and self-aware approach to relationships evolves when the South Node is in the sign of Libra. This week, Venus in Capricorn comes to the bendings, or the mid-line point between the North and South (True) Nodes.
With the South Node in Libra, we are all going to be exploring relationships within some sort of context: who we are attracted to, who we are with, why we do relationships the way we do. And one thing that will probably become evident, are how some of the old ways of relating will no longer suffice. And this can become more evident as we become aware that there might be other ways of doing relationships that might actually be better.
With Venus at the bending of the Nodes you may feel some of your own alliances shifting. Some seem to be fading away, while others become more important. Perhaps you may even experience some overlap between old associations and any new ones that may be lurking on the horizon. At the bending of the Nodes we can often feel like we are standing between two doors, one that is closing behind, while another that is opening before us. And while there may be some sadness for what we are leaving behind, there can also be excitement for what may be.
In some way, as we are also approaching the New Moon in Aquarius on February 9th, we are all being beckoned to consider new possibilities in our lives. You may have already experienced some of the restlessness that the Uranian New Moons have been sowing these past 6 months. At approximately the same degree as the upcoming Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in April, the next New Moon is giving us a glimpse of what could be. Hang on to your hats everyone, for when the New Moon is square Uranus, as this one will be, there’s just no telling what is going to be cropping up and into our lives!
And then there is this:
i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth day of life and love and wings and of the gay great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any-lifted from the no of all nothing-human merely being doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) ~ e e cummings
Happy Imbolc!
For this week’s horoscopes, click below: