By David Ockrassa
Mid-summer comes to us at 6:51 AM EST on June 21st this year, or 3:51 AM for the West Coast. Commonly called the “start” of summer, it is, of course, the high point of the Sun in its apparent orbit around us, and from here on the daylight portion of each day gets shorter.
The hard aspect between Uranus and Pluto continues. While Jupiter has moved a bit out of reach to make the T-Square with them, Mars has gone direct since the Spring Equinox, has moved up to make another T-Square with those two outer planets. So while the Jupiterean urge for more / bigger isn’t such an impetus at this time, Mars is pushing us to take some sort of action. Yet Mars isn’t going to be behaving for us, since he’s peregrine – he has no essential dignity in this chart. So he’s sort of a “loose canon” at this time, with few restraints on how he might be pushing us to DO something, anything. It’s up to us to keep his urgency in check, and that’s not going to be a simple task. Lying opposite Uranus, who wants to create change for the sake of change, and square to Pluto, who is pushing for a total removal of old and tired ideas (and structures, since he’s in Capricorn), the Mars energy wants us to take action on anything and everything – right now.
Don’t.
It may be extremely easy at this time to “throw out the baby with the bath water,” and it may even feel – temporarily – that that’s a good thing. But when the transits pass, we may regret what we’ve done and miss what we’ve tossed out. (That’s always a concern with Uranus transits, of course, but heightened at this time.) By becoming aware of the pressures to act we can perhaps gain some control over those pressures. While we all probably have “baggage” that we can dispose of, we need to take the time to honestly evaluate the current value – or lack of value – before acting.
Mercury is retrograde in the Equinox chart, emphasizing the need to think first, and maybe second, before taking action. Since he’s in Gemini, one of his his Signs of rulership, his message is at least partly that we should gather as much information as we can on any issue, and look it over from all sides. Examine. Re-examine. Set it aside for a day and look at it again, from another side. (There are usually at least two sides to anything, and often more than two!) And then, maybe, think about it some more? Actions taken under this current T-Square may not be reversible.
Pencil these four planets around the outside of your birth chart to see what areas of your life these decisions and actions are impacting. Mercury at 27 Gemini, Mars at 14 Libra, Pluto at 12 Capricorn and Uranus at 16 Aries. The latter three are, of course, in Cardinal signs, and all are wanting us to start something. Mercury in mutable Gemini wants us to be flexible and adaptable. So we might want to start by looking at smaller changes than the Cardinal’s want, little steps toward what we’re seeing as the goal so we can back-track a bit if needed. Avoid making huge changes at this time unless you’ve spent considerable effort and really studying them and their possible unintended consequences.
Transiting Venus, a symbol of what we want at the moment, sits at 27 Taurus, a Sign she rules. So her influence may also be strong at this time. Yet she is making no classical aspects to any other planet in the Equinox chart, so she may function as another type of “loose canon” for us at this time. She may push us to pursue what looks good (for now) without any consideration for other facets of our lives. With no other planetary energy to control her and / or provide a direction, expect a wide variety of things to look very appealing now. Keep a tight grip on your credit cards! For what looks good at the moment may not be so nice once we get it home – or when the bill comes in. And here again, that bill may not be just financial. Since she’s operating under the overall influence of the T-Square, the sudden and catastrophic changes may look real fine now, and not so beneficial in a few weeks.
Another indication that waiting is, for now, a good strategy, is the applying trine from the Sun to Neptune. The actions (and reactions!) urged by the T-Square may look very appealing to us at this time, and, yes, Neptune can be very uplifting and spiritual. But he can also be an energy that clouds our perceptions and make things look better than they might actually be. So we have another hint that waiting – and continuing the process of re-evaluation – is the best strategy to follow at this time. Mercury will go direct on July 1st so that may be when things start to clear up in our minds. If possible, wait until then to make any life-changing decisions. Spend the time between now and then looking at them from all sides, with an eye to not just the immediate results, but also to what else might come of those changes. Extra thought and honest analysis now may save heartbreak later.
