"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."

— Khalil Gibran

Mercury turns retrograde at the beginning of this week in a remarkably intellectual environment but one that demands that we review our intellectual insights in order to begin to integrate a variety of emotional elements such as fear, uncertainty and vulnerability. Insights come like flashes of lightning but there is no chance of catching this 'lightning in a bottle' or keeping things effectively organized and sorted. This is the time to trust the process as we begin to see a new framework emerging. Some may try to use clever intellectual rhetoric or tease others out of their emotional uncertainty. However, such tactics are only likely to [...]

"If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without ascending it, the work would have been permitted."

— Franz Kafka

This week brings us to a peak of unpredictable, erratic, individual activity under the Mars-Uranus conjunction on Wednesday. Following last week's Mars-Saturn square, where the energy of Mars was channeled, restricted, or constrained, the independence of Mars is unleashed by Uranus. The conjunction can display erratic, impulsive — even explosive elements but we should not discount the creative power of [...]

"If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not recognize it when it arrives."

— Heraclitus

This week's challenge is to recognize unrealistic or impractical aspirations without holding back on the strong desire to experiment and innovate. The challenges are most likely to show up in our relationships with others. We are in an entirely new environment and still trying to get our bearings so our ability to communicate our new perspectives and evolving vision is especially difficult. As we move through the week, there are even more moving parts to contend with. Venus moves into sometimes stifling Capricorn, Mercury leaves Capricorn for the erratic freedom of Aquarius, and Mars leaves Aries, where it has been since late June of 2020, and moves towards an impulsive conjunction with Uranus in Taurus. These three 'personal' planets signal a significant [...]