“It’s an excursion into the odd and the very, very different.”
Rod Serling
Emmy-Award-winning writer and host Rod Serling’s description of TV’s “The Twilight Zone” series aptly applies to 2020. This week’s astrological highlights include a full Moon in Pisces, a tough Venus square to Mars and sign changes for Mercury and Venus. At first glance, those sign changes seem like promising infusions of welcomed, new energies. After all, Mercury and Venus are moving into the yang, or positive polarity, signs of Leo and Libra. However, due to its forthcoming retrograde, Mercury is entering territory that it will traverse and revisit from now until November 10th, territory that will ultimately entangle Venus. In addition to their associated delays, miscommunications and technical malfunctions, Mercury retrogrades typically frustrate our intentions to fully resolve matters. Throw in heaps of Libra’s infamous indecision, and you can start to see how issues that are coming to the fore now may well be heading into a kind of cosmic twilight zone. Forming an overarching autumn vision now, or at least a solid game plan, isn’t a bad idea.
Late Tuesday night, or early Wednesday morning depending on your time zone, the Moon will be full at 10 degrees of Pisces, aligning nicely with ingenious Uranus. Home of the mythic, mystic and artistic, Pisces explores life through imagination. This full Moon presents an excellent opportunity for tapping into creative and spiritual insights to problem-solve. Meditation, dream recall and interpretation and automatic writing are good tools for doing so. Like a celestial sifter, rational Mercury, at home in practical Virgo, will help us sort out the details. Adding further refinement to those Pisces dreams, Mercury will trine Capricorn-based-Pluto on Tuesday and Saturn on Thursday. The clarity we glean into midweek will come in handy on Friday when Venus squares Mars. If we can remain focused on the big picture, then we can either sidestep Mars provocations or strategically address irritating people or situations.
Mercury Rx – Oct 13-Nov 3
Sep 23rd Mercury enters Rx zone 25 Lib 54
Sep 27 Mercury enters Sco
Oct 13th Mercury Rx 11 Sco 40
Oct 27th Mercury re-enters Lib & Venus enters Lib
Nov 3rd Mercury direct 25 Lib 54
Nov 10th Mercury re-enters Sco
Nov 19th Mercury exits Rx zone 11 Sco 40
(Nov 21st Venus exits Libra)
On Saturday Mercury moves into Libra, giving us our first taste of autumn. Libra is the cardinal air sign of harmony, balance and diplomacy. 2020’s challenge for Libra is that the planets visiting this Venusian sign during the next two months will be opposed by Mars and squared by Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. For example, and quite auspiciously, on September 23rd, the day when Mercury enters its retrograde shadow zone, at 25 degrees of Libra, it will be squared by Saturn. On the following day, it will form an exact opposition to Mars. This is astrology’s T-square, an aspect intent on forcing decisions. When its inhabiting planets are in the blockbusting cardinal signs, breakthroughs are emphasized. This is terribly uncomfortable terrain for Libra, a sign in constant pursuit of beauty, fairness and perfect equilibrium. For us, the cosmic catch is that we cannot break new ground without disruption. Mercury will influence when we decide to keep the peace, when we decide to speak our peace or when we try to integrate the two. True to form, Venus will attempt to avoid the fracas altogether.
“Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.”
The Twilight Zone
On Sunday, Venus exits the cardinal commotion when she abandons emotional Cancer for sunny Leo. In the optimistic fixed fire sign, she’ll be poised to encourage confidence, creativity and constructive applications of Martian spontaneity. Venus in Leo will also support immense generosity. After that, her next tour stop is a Virgo visit from October 2nd to October 27th. But, much like a twilight zone character, Venus will ultimately also end up in Libra’s quagmire, on the same day retrograding Mercury re-enters it. Cue up that familiar theme song. In essence, from now through November 21st, when Venus moves on to Scorpio, we’ll be grappling with Libra conundrums
Editor’s Note: The first episode of “The Twilight Zone” aired on October 2. 1959, under a Libra Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and N. Node.
