The Week Above is a weekly astrological "weather report" detailing the major planetary configurations for the week ahead. All times given are in Eastern Time. There will be references to your birth chart and your Sun, Moon, and Rising signs throughout. If you aren't sure of what that means, check out Astrodienst for free online chart drawings, and Cups & Crowns for the basics of how to understand a drawn chart.

If you enjoy my writing and find it valuable, consider supporting me on Patreon. Future posts will feature horoscopes for your sign if certain goals are met.

New Moon in Libra - October 8th

Abuse of power comes as no surprise.

When those who would take advantage of their positions of power to sate themselves on the disempowerment of others discover their abuses have been brought into the light, a primary strategy is to frame their actions as “just the way things are.”

The way things are needs to change.

Howls of rage fly through the night. Ceres, tightly conjoined this new moon, seeks vengeance against Pluto, whom this new moon squares, for what he has done to her daughter. But Proserpina moves to the underworld now; the leaves fall from the trees and a chill is in the air.

The powerful are not stripped of their ill-gotten gains in a season. Neptune, Lord of Confusion, is in quincunx with this new moon, shifting the patterns of light so that the feminine rage is dispersed into directions it cannot effectively move in this dark night’s cycle.

A single changing of the guardians cannot undo centuries of rot.

Therefore this new moon asks us to take our rage, take our howls against injustice, and work our magic with them, not trying to find a quick solution, but a plan for greatness to come in generations not yet born. Not trying to push in a single direction made available to us by those who would stay in power, but bending ourselves with the currents, finding hope and heart in higher truths.

Justice may be the bending of the moral arc of the universe, but we must be the ones who make it bend.

Commune with the mysteries. Speak with the goddesses. Hide your workings in the night. Gather with your coven.

Seasons may come and go, but the right acorn planted in the right soil grows into a hundred-year oak.

No one is going to save us except all of us, together, saving all of us, together.

So shall it be.

Mercury enters Scorpio - October 9th

A sharp tongue begets truths, though it may beget other things as well.

A precise lance into the primary vein of thinking may inject some wisdom there which was not available otherwise.

A brilliance that can be simultaneously shadow-centered can play with darkness as it is brought into the light.

Mercury governs intelligence of the facts-and-figures sort, analyzing and sorting, tallying up the details. They also govern communication of the practical sort, as well as the tools of transportation and messaging.

In Scorpio, the fleet-footed deity takes their facts and figures and messages and dives into the deepest truths, the hearts of the matters, the secrets buried in the dark. It’s good for telling your partner, your therapist, and yourself about what’s really been bubbling up from the bottom of your heart during Venus’s retrograde, giving insight and language to an overflowing well of emotion.

It’s time to think clearly about what wants to remain hidden but cannot for much longer.

Mercury remains in Scorpio until the end of October, returning briefly for the first 12 days of December. This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Gemini or Virgo, or in close aspect with Mercury in your natal chart, or if you are an investigator, lawyer, writer, analyst, accountant, journalist, or involved in communication or transportation otherwise.

Mercury opposes Uranus & Venus squares Mars - October 10th

While Uranus is in the early degrees of Taurus, anything entering Scorpio is going to run right smack into it.

Uranus is a disruptive influence to say the least, yet also adds a not-insignificant touch of genius to the planets it comes into contact with.

Venus’s square to Mars takes place the same day Mercury’s opposition with Uranus goes exact, though its influence will be palpable in the days preceding it and some of the days after it. While the last square between them was only a month ago, the final square of this triptych will not take place until March.

Mercury opposed Uranus involves sudden shocks to the systems of modern life—your server, your phone, your Internet. It may be positive, in that those who work with technology may be struck by sudden epiphanies of efficiency and innovation—or it may be bugs in the code that need immediate fixing.

Venus square to Mars brings out the aggressive side of Venus, another testimony to the theme of feminine anger this retrograde cycle. That within us which is feminine—and regardless of gender, we all have it—is pissed off right now, and wants to take action.

Take strategic action, however, as male power structures are fighting back, even as the masculine is concerned with the future it wants. Battles between genders are emphasized this week, and I would advise every gender to think it through before picking how to act on that rage.

Angry gets shit done, but it can lead one to take impulsive leaps if not careful. Especially as the Mercury-Uranus opposition makes the analytical mind more prone to sudden leaps as well.

Look carefully before you leap.

Juno stations Retrograde - October 12th

I would not worry about this retrograde as you might worry about other retrogrades. Juno is an asteroid, and her influences are subtle.

This is her angle on current themes, which she repeats in a unique voice:

Juno is the partnership asteroid, but Juno’s marriage to Jupiter was not usually a happy one, at least not in the myths that have survived to the present day. Juno therefore represents a kind of feminine energy which is sick and tired of men’s shit.

It can usually subsume that under desire to please one’s partner, but this is not one of those years.

The first degree of Gemini, where Juno stations, tends to bring up themes of being endlessly trapped in one’s own self-confounding except for occasional moments where the walls of the self-made cage disappear entirely and massive forward momentum takes place.

As Juno stations retrograde, there is both: The rage against patriarchal bullshit feeds into a great push forward, but if it isn’t breathed into the right way, if true hope for the ability to make serious change isn’t fully embodied… That rage is liable to trip over its own feet, taking comfort in familiar solutions that have never completely gotten us out of this mess, but at least feel familiar.

On the flip side it can feel like that anger has no place to go. It can feel like being trapped in a relationship that doesn’t work and wondering why you don’t just leave. It might be time to leave. It also might be time to reevaluate why you haven’t left before.

Change occurs when we fully embrace the possibility of change. A need for freedom is nothing if your wings have been clipped and you never learned to run without them.

So learn to run. Don’t bother with the old solutions. Find yourself a brand new path.

We can do this. All of us, together, can do this. But first we have to get out of our own way.