"Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking."

— Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now

There are building tensions this week which are leading towards next week's crisis-driven Aries Full Moon (4:26 AM PDT 24° Aries/Libra) on October 17th. The Libra Sun's desire for peaceful balance is less than helpful and seems to stifle the clear communication and emotional clearing that is desperately needed here. Libra wants to keep trying to connect with others even thought the tendency is to keep uncomfortable emotional truth 'tucked away' in order to avoid stirring things up — which winds up creating building frustration. Jupiter stations to go retrograde in Gemini on Wednesday of this week, ruled by Mercury in Libra. Mercury completes a trine to the stationing Jupiter just one day earlier. We might expect the Mercury-Jupiter trine would help us [...]

"And all at once, summer collapsed into fall."

— Oscar Wilde

This week begins with the Autumn Equinox, ushered in by the Moon's trine to the Sun and Pluto just before the Sun arrives in Libra. Later in the week, that remarkably stabilizing and beneficial Grand Earth Trine is followed up by another Grand Trine, Mercury's trine to Uranus and Pluto on Tuesday and Wednesday, which suggests feelings of confidence coupled with powerful intellectual ability. However, there is a strong and seductive undertow — Mercury's opposition to Neptune — suggesting a significant vulnerability to 'magical thinking' and deception. Venus, ruling the Autumnal Equinox, squares Pluto before heading into the 'deep waters' of Scorpio. The Venus-Pluto square suggests some [...]

"What happens is consciousness operates in mysterious ways. One of those ways is that the old paradigm suddenly starts to die."

— Deepak Chopra

We begin to get hints of broader shifts and changes this week. The Sun escapes the opposition to Saturn and makes a promising square to Jupiter. Essentially, optimistic Jupiter seems to take over the reigns from Saturn this week, drawing our focus away from constraints and self-doubt while encouraging exploration into new territory. We are still in the waxing phase of a well-grounded and extremely productive lunar cycle, following last Monday's Virgo New Moon (6:55 PM PDT 11° Virgo). As we move through the 1st quarter of the current lunar cycle, there is a restless and somewhat chaotic atmosphere that may [...]