The Week Above is a weekly astrology 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 throughout. If you aren't sure of what these references mean, check out Astrodienst for free online chart drawings, and Cups & Crowns for the basics of how to understand a drawn chart.

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General Notes: Meat on the Bones, Void of Course Moons

This week commences some of the most difficult astrology of 2019, bringing into sharp focus the issues of the Saturn-South Node-Pluto pileup in Capricorn I’ve been calling The Boneyard, as Mars grinds his way into that rock wall over the course of the following week and a half, and Mercury grinds their knuckles in both Mars and The Boneyard. Austin Coppock called this summer “The Meat Grinder,” and as a fellow sayer-of-clever-things, I appreciate the connotation.

This week is notable for another reason: Three very long void of course moon periods. In Eastern Daylight Time, the Moon goes void at 8:01am on June 10th and remains void until 8:29pm the same day. Then she goes void on June 12th at 11:15am until 12:02am that night. Then again she goes void on June 14th at 3:45pm until 5:03am the next morning, just in case any Australians reading this thought they were safe.

Void of course moons aren’t specifically malefic events, they just tend to run counter to the desires of fast-paced, capitalist, consumerist society. Plans made when the Moon is void of course either get canceled, have to be re-planned, or the end result turns out very different from what the plan was. Any work meetings during these times will end up being full of decisions that have to be revisited and changed, any sessions booked will have to be rescheduled or might just end up turning into a different modality when you get there. I remember distinctly one time a client booked a tarot reading with me when the moon was void of course and five minutes into it we switched to astrology for the rest of the reading (they booked an hour and the price is the same). Purchases made when the moon is void of course end up going unused or otherwise become sources of regret—if you buy groceries, you end up eating out. If you buy a dress, you wear it once. I once bought food to donate to a charity drive during a void moon and ended up getting into a disturbing political argument with the reactionary collecting food. Hungry people got fed, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Void of course moons are great times to daydream, to wander, to loaf around, to kick back and relax. They’re great times to get rid of stuff. They’re great times to do things you’re forced to do but don’t want anything to come of—this was Ronald Reagan’s strategy, releasing bad news when the Moon was void of course so it couldn’t do anything to harm him.

So keep all this in mind as you plan your week ahead.

June 9th - 10th: Sun square Neptune, Sun opposed Jupiter

The Jupiter-Neptune square is getting increasingly exact this week, and will perfect on the 16th, which is technically next week so I’ll talk about it then. Regardless, the themes of the Jupiter-Neptune square are intensified this week right as the themes of The Boneyard are emphasized by Mercury and Mars.

The Jupiter-Neptune square brings up a variety of themes, but one of the consistent ones is the possibility of hope and optimism when being hopeful and optimistic flies in the face of apparent reality. Sometimes hope is stupid. Sometimes we need that kind of stupid. This year, particularly this week, is one of those times, and right in our laps lands the lunatic energy we’re looking for.

The Sun square Neptune transit and Sun opposed Jupiter transit happen in quick succession, less than 24 hours apart. The Sun being involved turns the volume up on the optimism part of the equation, as well as on the impetus to do something with all that energy and hope that the world can be a better place. Get out there, sign a petition, buy some wheat paste, start an anarchist revolution in your basement, burn down a system of oppression. Or at least take some chunks out of the foundation. But do it Sunday or later Monday night, because the Moon’s void all day on Monday.

June 12th - Mars conjunct North Node

Speaking of turning the volume up, the Mars conjunct North Node transit, like all transiting conjunctions to the North Node, makes that planet significantly louder and hungrier. This influence is going on all week, but is exact (depending on how you calculate the North Node) on Wednesday. Mars is going to be bigger, angrier, hungrier, hornier, and more frustrated this week because of his conjunction to the North Node. But since he’s in Cancer he’s mostly armed with a teddy bear and a milkshake, so he has to find a way to express his desires and frustrations without having access to his usual arsenal of tools and while acknowledging the obstacles he’s up against that are bigger than him. “Him,” in this case, is Mars, and also whatever Mars is doing in your chart, so look to whatever planets are in Aries or Scorpio and what houses have those signs in them. That’s where your Mars story is taking place.

June 14th - Mars trine Neptune, Mars opposed Saturn, Mars quincunx Jupiter, Jupiter semisextile Saturn

June 14th sees a ton of action all between 18°42' and 18°58' of Cancer, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Pisces. Any planets or points you have around 16-20° of whatever sign are gonna be really active this week, so keep that in mind as you prepare for the week ahead. If it’s a particularly sensitive point—your Moon for example, or your Chiron—be gentle with yourself as this may not be the easiest time for, well, most people.

The pileup of aspects is difficult to talk about without talking about everything together. Mars runs smack into the brick wall of Saturn, partially because he’s a pushing-forward guy but partially because Neptune is fogging up his vision with that trine. Trines are often thought of as “good” aspects, but they’re sometimes better considered “free-flowing” aspects, and when it comes to Neptune decreasing the friction just leads to you sliding further on the oil slick. This is a hard day, where the desire for action is intense, the obstacles seem huge, and the clarity around what to do about these obstacles or where you’re going to run into them is lacking.

Fortunately Jupiter is in the mix, whispering from a place just outside the vision of Mars and Saturn: “There’s a way around this obstacle. There’s a way through this passage. There’s an escape from this prison and you can find it if you look.” Finding it may not be easy, but it’s there, and Jupiter is in the wings whispering hints about how to get to that place, helping remind us to stay hopeful, which is important because with Mars and Mercury in Cancer we are all very much in our feelings right now.

That’s all for this week! If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about your chart, you can book a reading here.