The Week Above is a weekly astrological "weather report" detailing the major planetary configurations for the week ahead. All times and dates 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, you can support me on Patreon. Future posts will feature horoscopes for all twelve signs if certain goals are met. I’m also available for readings.

Mercury squares Mars - January 8th

This is a simple enough transit to explain: Arguments.

Bickering, disagreement, contentious communication. You get the idea.

Mercury is feeling amenable to Mars and Mars is doing his own thing so I don’t expect the sorts of arguments happening around the 8th to have a peaceful, smooth-it-over outcome. The options are walking away and coming back to it in a few days if need be or one party achieving a Pyrrhic victory. Your odds of looking good to anyone watching the argument are lower during this one too. There’s just too much anger there.

This transit will affect you most if your have the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, or Mars in Gemini, Virgo, Aries, or Capricorn.

The Sun conjoins Pluto - January 10th-11th

The Sun conjoins Pluto every year and shows us something new about how we use and feel about power. Something not necessarily of any particular tone—that’s between you and your chart—but a development in that ongoing conversation nonetheless.

So watch the news for power plays, and watch your own life for how you react to them. There’s something to be learned here about why you seek power, or avoid power, or have a complicated relationship with power, or whatever it is for you.

This, I should mention, is more likely to be power in the power-over sense for most people. Unless you’re already in the thick of using power as a collective agreement towards action, in which case you’re gonna have a very productive Thursday evening.

Pluto, in its greatest expression, is exactly about that kind of power—the unification of us all towards achieving transformative goals. If that sounds like your cup of tea, set aside some time during this transit to meditate on what this looks like for you. Power is meant to be shared, and the greatest power of all is when nobody is using it to dominate anyone else.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Capricorn.

All-Day Void Moon - January 11th

The Pisces Moon goes void with a sextile to the Sun-Pluto conjunction at 9:25am EST / 6:25am PST on the 11th and remains void until 3:18am EST / 12:18am PST on the 12th. I usually only put the time in EST, but I wanted to make a point here that the Moon is void allllll daaaaay on the 11th.

Void moons are generally not good for initiating actions you want to lead to results. So no sending emails you want to turn into something, no making requests or proposals, no buying things you hope to use, no initiating projects you want to complete, etc.

It is an excellent time to quietly meditate, contemplate, goof off, clean up, clean out, throw out, or other actions targeted toward a void.

Ronald Reagan would use void moons to make announcements he wanted people to ignore—bad or politically damaging news. If you have to do something but you want nothing to come of it, Friday’s the day for it. We all have trash to take out.

Mercury conjoins Saturn - January 13th

Mercury’s really getting beaten up this week, huh?

Saturn is the planet of obstacles and limitations. Mercury is the fleet-footed messenger deity whose nature is to move swiftly and get as much done possible as they can. That’s not an option here.

Expect stonewalling, blocks, obstacles, postponements, delays, and a serious, sober tone around communication, technology, organization, analysis, and thought processes this weekend.

If you have a hard aspect (conjunction, square, or opposition) between Mercury and Saturn in your natal chart, this is likely an ongoing story for you. The next chapter of that story begins this weekend, so do your best to take it seriously as a learning experience (which is something you’re good at anyway) because there’s good potential for growth here.

There’s growth potential for all of us with this, particularly if you’re someone who needs practice choosing what you say carefully.

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

Jupiter squares Neptune - January 13th

Jupiter square Neptune is one of the defining aspects of 2019. We’re going to feel it to a greater or lesser extent all year, and especially from January 6th-20th.

Jupiter expands, crowns, and elevates what it touches. Neptune takes what it touches out to the far reaches of the infinite universe. Neptune is in Jupiter’s sign, Jupiter is in the superior position, and the significations of the two planets are generally compatible. So the negative qualities of Neptune—delusion, addiction, confusion, and escapism—are unlikely to be as big of an issue here as they can be when Neptune gets involved with other planets in other signs.

Jupiter and Neptune both have themes of spirituality and idealism—here those themes are strengthened in the collective consciousness, so expect huge religious experiences to be part of the collective story during this time. Expect idealism to be strengthened beyond reason, even as it’s getting beaten up by The Boneyard (what I’m calling the Saturn-South Node-Pluto pileup in Capricorn). This is a good time to start up a new spiritual, magical, or mystical practice, as transcendent experiences are a bit easier to come by right now. Spiritual experiences were one of the main themes I saw this past weekend with the South Node Solar Eclipse which astrologers weren’t feeling amazing about, but it was in aspect to Neptune and Jupiter and the spiritual component is part of the South Node in Jyotish (Indian astrology), so I expect that to be an ongoing part of this year’s story as a whole.

Hope is easier to come by with Jupiter in aspect to Neptune, even if these dark times we live in would seem to preclude that. So keep your chin up, get right with your spirits, and have a productive time with mystical inclinations.

Until next week,

Ursula