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 all twelve signs if certain goals are met. I’m also available for readings.

Mars enters Pisces - November 15th

Finally, he swims.

Mars has been in either Capricorn or Aquarius, the two Saturn-ruled signs, since March 17th. Mars and Saturn are the planets traditionally known as malefics, meaning they make stuff happen that doesn’t usually feel as good. Mars, the lesser malefic, has been answering to Saturn, the greater malefic, for most of 2018, which is one of the many factors in this year being such a shitshow for so many people.

On November 15th, Mars enters the territory of the dual fish, Pisces, where he answers to a benefic, a planet that makes stuff happen that usually feels good. Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter is in good shape right now being newly in Sagittarius. Therefore Mars will be much better behaved in Pisces than he has been since early March.

Mars is the principle of action and aggression. He shows how we move our bodies, what we do with our testosterone and adrenaline, how we want to fuck, and what gets us angry. In Pisces it’s free-flowing, maybe a little unfocused, but generally considerate of others. Mars in Pisces likes to dance. Mars in Pisces wants to make love the way the ocean makes love. Mars in Pisces is angry with the heat of the universe’s core. It’s infinite, but dispersed.

At its worst, it tend towards the vampiric, particularly if it’s ill-placed. Psychic vampires come out of the woodwork during Mars transits in Pisces, and if you’re prone to attracting these types, keep your psychic shields up during this transit. Honestly you should probably be practicing that all the time if you’re prone to attracting vampiric types, and I recommend Christopher Penczak’s book The Witch’s Shield for learning basic psychic self-defense if you’re not familiar with the techniques already.

Psychic attack and defense gets emphasized during Mars’s time in Pisces. Mars rules attack and defense, and Pisces is the most psychic of signs, as well as the sign that struggles most with setting good boundaries around its psychicness. And in general.

So be conscious of your boundary setting, and how deep your aggression and anger go during this time.

Mars will be in Pisces until the evening of December 31st. This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Pisces, Aries, or Scorpio, or in tight aspect with Mars in your birth chart, or if you are an active, driven person in general, or psychically sensitive with trouble setting boundaries.

Venus stations Direct - November 16th

She is risen! Sound the horns, she is risen!

Venus’s retrograde has been an underworld journey for sure. It has been a time of harrowing challenges to our hearts and our relationships with that which we have loved and valued, all of which has been reevaluated.

Dry your eyes, the worst is over.

Venus’s direct station is conjoined the fixed star Spica. Spica has qualities of brilliance, adding a powerful shining light to whatever it touches. According to astrologer Ryhan Butler, Spica has the power to bring happiness to the depressed when used magically.

Take a moment, if the Venus retrograde of October and early November has been hard for you, to do a little ceremony on the 16th to fully release that which has left, if you haven’t already. It probably left for good on Halloween at the latest, or at least that was when things really turned around. But do a bit of detail work on cleaning up the remnants this Friday, Venus’s Day, perhaps just after sunrise if you’re up that early. If not, any time during the daylight hours is good.

There is beauty, and love, and holy light here on this side of the underworld journey we all went on the past month and a half, and Venus’s direct station is time to acknowledge and celebrate it, and embrace fully the changes that have been made.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Taurus, Libra, or Scorpio, or in tight aspect with Venus in your birth chart.

Mercury stations Retrograde - also November 16th

Your word of the day is “slapstick.”

Mercury is not at its best in Sagittarius. Wanting to find the specific information it seeks, Mercury wanders the vast libraries of Sagittarius, getting distracted by everything along the way. Its communication skills turn into shooting its mouth off. Its careful organization turns slapdash.

Mercury also doesn’t do so hot in hard aspect to Neptune. Neptune tends to get Mercury’s day planner soggy and unreadable, messing up its ability to sort and separate as the pages get stuck together with saltwater. And this Mercury retrograde station happens in an exact square with Neptune.

Therefore all of the typical Mercury Retrograde mishaps will happen a lot. A whole lot. A whole heck of a lot between now and December 6th when Mercury stations direct. Back up your hard drives before Friday, preferably before Thursday. Expect transportation delays, miscommunications, scheduling errors, missed emails, technology failures, all of the stereotypical stuff of a Mercury retrograde.

But expect it to be easy to take it all in stride, too.

Mercury is a malleable planet, tending to take on the qualities of whatever it’s most closely configured to at any given time. This time, that’s Jupiter in Sagittarius, which is happy, buoyant, and gregarious right now.

In spite of all the mishaps, this Mercury Retrograde will have an almost excessively cheerful quality to it, and the mishaps will mostly land like slapstick comedy. Things will seem funnier in general. It’ll almost be a bit druglike in terms of the hilarity in the atmosphere, with laughter coming easily throughout this Sagittarian time.

So don’t worry too much about your quality of life being affected by the mishaps, it’ll all come out as a lark in the end.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, Midheaven, or Ascendant is in Gemini, Virgo, or Sagittarius, 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.