The planets in cardinal signs are in a tense t-square throughout the week, 2020’s final Jupiter sextile to Neptune is underway and Mercury’s next retrograde starts on Tuesday. The cardinal hot spots include the Sun opposing Mars on Tuesday and squaring Pluto on Thursday and Saturn on Sunday, the day when Mars will square Jupiter. Additionally, on Friday we’ll have a new Moon at 23 Libra 53, while Mars is at 20 degrees of Aries and Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn are at 19, 22 and 25 degrees of Capricorn. Venus-ruled Libra is renowned for its refinement, elegance and fairness. But the Sun and the Moon transits of the cardinal air sign will challenge our ability to stay congenial, cooperative and balanced. The good news is that as Mars continues moving backwards while Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto continue to move forward, tensions will ease. This week might indeed be the last pass of the year’s hardest cardinal aspects.
In other positive developments, the week begins with Jupiter and Neptune forming a supportive sextile for the third and final time this year. It was back on February 20th when they first met, and both planets were direct. Their second meeting was on July 27th, when both were retrograde. This time Jupiter’s direct and Neptune’s still retrograde. Both planets expand what they contact, though Jupiter is less generous in restrictive Capricorn. Their first meeting correlated with the spread of COVID, and their second with the inability of Congress to fund more economic support in the wake of the virus. At that time, President Trump was only able to sign Executive Orders to extend partial unemployment benefits and offer rent moratoriums in limited circumstances. Now that Jupiter’s direct in business-minded Capricorn, this meeting suggests that the next phase of stimulus spending is more probable than it was in late July. But don’t count on anything moving at breakneck speed.
Hasty Mercury will have the brakes on from October 13th through November 3rd. Mercury starts this retrograde at 11 degrees of Scorpio and works its way back into Libra on October 27th. In Scorpio the Trickster is concerned with exposing secrets, lies and crime. On the other hand, in Scorpio, the subject of other people’s money is also on the table. You just never know what that planet will get up to. Venus will also enter Libra on the 27th, renewing some of the cardinal contention. So while cardinal conflicts aren’t completely disappearing after this week, things will simmer down a bit. With Jupiter and Saturn set to leave cardinal Capricorn in mid December and Mars on track to exit Aries in early January, we can at least begin to see light at the end of this tunnel called 2020.
