The week’s flashpoint will arrive on Wednesday when Mercury and Mars will square Saturn under a prickly Aquarius Moon. Thankfully, that hotspot is buffered by the Moon’s visits to Capricorn and Pisces. Under current alignments, those lunar transits will present some very harmonious options. It all gets started on Monday morning when the waxing Moon conjoins Venus, also newly arrived into Capricorn. As Venus is just setting up house here, for her four month stay, this conference with the intuitive Moon provides a good opportunity for receiving hunches and making strategic decisions. On Monday and Tuesday, Capricorn pragmatism will take on an intrinsic quality. That’s because the Moon will be informed by the Sun, Mercury and Mars in watery Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces, the mutable water sign. Add a trine to Uranus in earthy Taurus and a conjunction to Pluto, also in earth-sign Capricorn, and the productive possibilities will reveal themselves. Then comes that bump in the road.

When the Moon shifts into fixed Aquarius Tuesday night, the planets in Scorpio become more problematic. In fact, two of them, Mercury and Mars, will add stress by squaring strict Saturn on Wednesday. Saturn sets limits. Mercury prompting paired with Mars chutzpa, with both instigating from ride or die Scorpio, will test those limits. The Moon’s squares to the Sun, Mercury, Mars and Uranus will further strain tensions. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. This is fight to the death territory. For those who have zero interest in participating in gladiatorial matches, the Moon will slip into gentle Pisces in the wee hours of Friday morning.

Like the Capricorn trip, the Moon’s Pisces journey will be met with planets forming supportive angles. In water, the Sun, Mercury and Mars will trine the Moon, and in dreamy Pisces, it will conjoin Neptune. From the earth signs, Venus, Uranus and Pluto will form those easy going sextiles. Some friction, from a Mercury opposition to Uranus on Saturday afternoon, will stoke embers from midweek battles. But by that time the Moon will be en route to that conjunction with oceanic Neptune. Pisces not only wants everyone to get along, it wants to take everyone to their Zen zone. So though Mercury can, and probably will, stir the pot, a tremendous opportunity to step back and far, far away from the fray will also be present. The week wraps up with the Moon moving into spirited Aries, from where it will form a constructive sextile to Saturn late Sunday night. With only the South Node in a fellow fire sign, Sagittarius, even a feisty Aries Moon will find little kindling for fights. Further, mature Saturn’s tap will encourage adult responses to any conflicts that manage to permeate the peace Pisces left. With a Mars Uranus opposition and fixed sign full Moon and eclipse set for the following week, this week is our last best chance to take things nice and easy.

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Thursday’s new Moon in Scorpio and Friday’s sign changes for Venus and Mercury are set to amplify larger trends. The Saturn Uranus squares in fixed signs have been a hallmark of 2021. As those two powerhouse planets remain in tight alignment through 2022, many of the conditions set this year will cement. For the past two months, as the personal planets cycled through Virgo and Libra, the fixed sign friction has receded, a bit. But the Sun’s entrance in Scorpio on October 23rd put the element of fixed water on the table, and set the Sun on a course for squares to Saturn and Jupiter and an opposition to Uranus. That opposition will be exact on November 4th, the day of the new Scorpio Moon. This also positions the Moon in opposition to astrology’s change maker. Further, that new Moon will reach its zenith on November 19th, the date of the first in the incoming series of Taurus/Scorpio eclipses. Dialing up the intensity, driving Mars entered Scorpio on October 30th. It will square Saturn on November 10th, oppose Uranus on the 17th, two days ahead of that eclipse, and square Jupiter on December 7th. Once Mercury moves into Scorpio on Friday, it will run the same gauntlet. In fact, a few hours before Mercury will square restrictive Saturn on November 10th, it will conjoin Mars.That meeting is analogous to two generals conferring on battle strategies. To say that Saturn isn’t accustomed to taking orders is an understatement. It implements order. Translation: November 10th isn’t an ideal day for picking fights. If initiated around this time, conflicts will likely be protracted and end up fraught with unforeseen twists and turns (thank you Uranus). All of the tension will be adding fuel to December 24th’s third Saturn Uranus square. A day later, December 25th, a newly retrograde Venus will conjoin Pluto. With Venus entering Saturn’s home sign of Capricorn for an unusually long stay, Saturn’s fingerprints will be all over the next four months, and beyond.

Pessimistic, moody and melancholic, Capricorn is not where the warm and fuzzies hang out. Hopes that the planet of beauty and pleasure can infuse the industrious sign with cheer, and yield constructive accomplishments, are not unfounded. Capricorn is ambitious and materialistic, and its regard for earned rewards compliments Venus’s appreciation of money. That said, the oncoming Venus retrograde, from December 19th through January 29, 2022, with its gravitational center conjunct Capricorn-based Pluto, suggests a destructive undertow being added to fixed sign entrenchments. Ruthless, transformative Pluto is of course Scorpio’s ruler. So its presence is already resonating with the Sun and Mars, and soon will be with that new Scorpio Moon and Mercury. The coming Venus transit of serious, sober Cap will last through March 6, 2022. Interestingly enough, on that same day, Mars will also exit Capricorn and enter Aquarius. Stoic, enduring Saturn will be waiting for them.

The last time Mars transited Scorpio was from November 19, 2019 to January 3, 2020. At the time, the origins of COVID-19 were known and the virus was known to be spreading. Scorpio is astrology’s best secret keeper. While medical professionals in China, like the late Dr. Li, raised alarm bells, most of the world remained happily oblivious to the deadly threat. By the time Mars exited the fixed water sign, word was getting out. Epochal events are few and far between, and the pandemic is certainly one. While many astrologers correlate the Saturn Pluto conjunction of January 2020 with the pandemic’s onset, the power of Mars in Scorpio can never be underestimated. Looking back, its precursory role was a key component in the mix. How many lives could have been saved if truth tellers had not been silenced? 2021’s visit, from October 30th to December 13th, coincides with the beginning of two other significant Scorpio cycles.

It takes Mars roughly two years to travel through the entire zodiac. With the exception of prolonged stays due to retrogradation, the planet of raw power stays in each sign for a little less than two months. On November 19, 2021, the axis of eclipses will begin shifting from Gemini/Sagittarius to Taurus/Scorpio, a series that will last through October 28, 2023. On October 11, 2023, for the first time since 2021, Mars will re-enter Scorpio. Further, the South Node of the Moon will move into Scorpio in January of 2022 and remain there until July of 2023. Translation: it’s time to get comfortable with Scorpio.

If that suggestion sounds about as appealing as getting a pet snake, then the next two years will support exploration of the aversion. Snakes are a symbol of transformation, and have long been associated with the sign. Mars probes. When visiting its modern home sign, Aries, its motives are direct and usually obvious. When traversing its ancient home sign, Scorpio, its presence is undeniably felt. Scorpio is the domain of deep-seated, core emotions, and Scorpio and Mars are immensely passionate. In the near term, this visit is getting underway while the Sun is in Scorpio, and on the exact day when that Sun has a tough square to Saturn. Is the taskmaster reprising its 2020 role or underscoring Scorpio imperatives to make changes? There will be a new Scorpio Moon on November 4th and Mercury will be in Scorpio from November 5th through 24th. Mars in Scorpio will indicate where we have real skin in the game, and which skins need shedding. Competitiveness, envy and desires for revenge are a few of Scorpio’s unpleasant messengers. Identifying the psychological needs they represent, and finding healthy ways to fulfill those needs, might make the path ahead lighter and less daunting. Additionally, imagining life two years from now, when the healthier replacements are fully installed, is another way to put Scorpio’s dark inspiration to work.

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