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.

Mercury conjunct Venus - October 15th

Relationships require communication. Relationships require digging into the dirt and muck and getting to the truth. Relationships require honesty - honesty that must be kind, even if it isn’t always “nice.”

Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? These three questions are often said to be the ones to ask yourself before saying something, and it is suggested that if the words do not meet at least two of these criteria, they are better left unsaid. Mercury in Scorpio excels at true and necessary, but not always at kind. On Monday the messenger deity gets some help with that from Venus, who in turn badly needs their way with words.

“Nice” is the enemy of kind. “Nice” is “I’m going to pretend that didn’t hurt me because I feel bad when I make someone else feel bad.” Kind is “I’m going to let you know that hurt me because I want us to have a better relationship.”

This is true regardless of the nature of the relationship. Romantic or not, two people with a connection of any substance are in relation to one another, and that dynamic is up for review this whole Venus Retrograde cycle.

So take the opportunity, if there is a conversation you have been avoiding with someone you care about deeply, to offer a prayer to Venus and Mercury and go into that discussion Monday with an open heart and a brave tongue. You’ve got this. The hour is ripe.

And the conversation is gonna happen sooner or later anyway.

Ceres square Pluto - October 17th

(Content note: Discussion of sexual violence)

Ceres is not generally one to get along with the God of the Underworld. After all, he kidnapped her daughter. And in traditional tellings of the myth, Ceres was so enraged at this abduction that she turned the planet into a hostile wasteland.

This is the myth we are living now. The young maiden, the goddess of the Fertile Spring, has been raped by a wealthy patriarch. The sexual violence inflicted upon young women by powerful men is everywhere, in everyone’s faces. The rape of the Earth by greedy corporations has reached a crisis point, and when Momma Earth ain’t happy, ain’t nobody gonna get out of facing her wrath.

The New Moon highlighted this aspect last Monday, and on the days before and after it. Think back to then. What were you doing when you faced the news that the bad guys seem to be making gains this round? How did you face that news?

More news is coming on the 17th around sexual violence against woman and ongoing violence against the Mother of us all. It is the same patriarchs who would deny the sovereignty of women’s bodies and of the body of the Earth. It is the same forces that would oppress us all to take from those bodies.

We must not fear the wrath of Ceres as she razes the Earth. We must not shy away from the howling rage at the violations suffered. We would do best to lean into that scream, lean into that fire, and show the world that we stand with Mother Earth, who is reacting to her violation by destroying her oppressors.

Sometimes it’s the only way to make people know you cannot abide by oppression and violence any longer.

So don’t do anything that you’re not okay with the consequences of, and certainly don’t randomly burn down a local business. But if you want to express your rage through direct confrontation with those who have violated your sovereignty, the Goddess of Earth is on your side right now.

Mars semisextile Neptune and Sun semisextile Jupiter - October 18th

The Ceres-Pluto story is shown from the other side here: The masculine energies are being snuck up on from behind by spiritual and divine forces of enlightenment-or-bust.

Semisextiles are considered a minor aspect by most astrologers, but I find them to have powerful, tangible effects you don’t see until suddenly you do. The semisextile works in the blindspot of a planet, sneaking around in the shadows like stage crew, setting the scene so the audience (you) never notice what they’re doing or that they’re doing it, just the end results.

Mars and the Sun represent masculinity-as-cultural-constructs. They show how the concepts of maleness and masculinity are expressed and codified, modeled and expressed. They may not represent the true inner masculine nature for everyone, but they certainly show the cultural contexts for them and how those contexts are constructed and internalized.

Neptune and Jupiter represent one’s relationship with the Divine, the greater spiritual truths, the numinous, the Higher Wisdom. Other things as well, but what they have in common most of all is the line to the gods we can pick up and call them on.

So that line is getting a jolt of electricity sent straight down it from them to us, right in the cracks in the armor of masculinity-as-an-institution, masculinity-as-it-is-felt, masculinity-as-it-is-understood.

So men may find themselves shocked by how different their understandings of themselves-as-men are on Thursday as divine revelations come out of nowhere and barely register as such. If your social media is full of LGBTQ folx, expect some more folks to come out as non-binary or trans this week. Gender is a construction overall, and finding that maleness doesn’t make sense anymore (individually and/or ontologically) is indicated here.

And if you’re trying to get one up on patriarchal power, this week gives you a chance to do that while they’re distracted. Godspeed.

Mercury square Mars - October 19th

If you didn’t have the important conversation you needed to have with your partner on Monday, it may just happen spontaneously on Friday. Possibly with some more contention than it needs.

Fortunately it’s happening with contention that is naturally focused on what both parties have in common in terms of outlook and priorities. Things are easier in the verbal altercations and contentious conversations than they may seem at first - the outcome may come faster and more smoothly than it looked like it would early on, with the end result being less dissatisfying than you were worried it might be.

Soothe the wounds that happened over the weekend - it’s a good weekend for it.

Moon in Pisces trine to Jupiter - October 19th - 21st

What a beautiful Moon. What a beautiful weekend.

I don’t usually cover the Moon on this blog, but this one is too nice to pass up. From 4:21pm on Friday, October 19th until going void on at 7:48pm on Sunday, October 21st (Eastern Time), the Moon in Pisces moves towards a trine with her ruler when she’s in that sign, Jupiter.

This makes for a weekend full of expansive, spiritual, fertile, and bountiful possibilities. This makes for a weekend that’s good for getting pregnant, starting creative projects, getting spiritual work done, getting scholarly work done, starting a research project, making new friends, meeting new lovers, having a party, going on a journey, and just generally activities you want to turn out to be fun and productive. It’s some of the best you can do during this time of Venus Retrograde in Scorpio.

Have fun this weekend, you’ve earned it.

If your Moon, Ascendant, or Sun is in Pisces, you’re likely to have an even better time, although maybe more prone to relaxation than productivity, unless you already work in spiritual, philosophical, academic, or publishing fields.

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Venus in Scorpio - September 9th

What Love wants and what it needs can be very different.

Love wants kindness. Love wants everyone to get along. Love wants harmony and beauty and things to go smoothly. Love is defined by these things, among others.

But one cannot love another effectively if one is not willing to be radically, nakedly honest. Love requires Truth, and Truth can sting. Love requires vulnerability, and vulnerability can lead to pain.

Scorpio is the sign of going into the deep, dark places that scare us and dealing with what we find. This is why Scorpio is the sign of the Healer—because that is what it takes to heal. This is why magical works of finding hidden treasure belong to Scorpio.

Scorpio is foreign territory to Venus. She cannot be who she usually is there. But if she plays her cards right.. If she embraces the great unknown and allows herself to be naked down to her sinew... She might find herself transformed there.

Venus will be in the sign of Scorpio, fittingly, until Halloween, her stay lengthened by a retrograde in October. She will make a brief foray back home into Libra during November, then be back in Scorpio from December 2nd until January 7th. It will be a long period of needing to know what Love can be when she gets comfortable being uncomfortable.

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

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Mars in Aquarius - September 10

Our ideas of masculinity, as a society, are stuck in the past.

Outdated contexts, social constructions that are falling apart at the seams, ideals based on a vision of what used to be that has little to do with how it actually was and less to do with how it is today.

Aquarius is the outsider, the rebel, the one who does not fit in. It conceives of the future before it comes; it drags us towards the potential for what may be.

Mars is the planet of will, of passion, of drive... Of war, of strife, of anger... Of strength and athleticism... Of the ways that we construct masculinity, within ourselves and as a society. It is not maltreated in Aquarius, but it does not easily find a home there either, wandering as it does, a stranger in a strange land.

Therefore the challenge upon us all, as Mars traverses this unfamiliar landscape from September 10th to November 15th, retracing some of its steps from this summer, is to ask ourselves what future we wish to fight for, what masculine ideal exists beyond the confines of society, what passion can take us beyond the bounds of the present day.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Aries or Scorpio, or in tight aspect with Mars in your birth chart; or if masculinity and/or passionate will are important parts of your life.

Jupiter sextile Pluto - September 12th

Like the turning of the seasons, a gradual, subtle pattern of life comes into sharp focus this week.

This is the third of three Jupiter-Pluto sextiles, the previous two having taken place in January and April of this year.

Jupiter represents the human desire to understand the grand themes of the world, whether via philosophy or religion or educating the higher mind. He is buoyant in outlook, his eyes toward the horizons. He's a likeable ol' chap.

Pluto is the underworld principle―resonant with (but not ruling!) the sign of Scorpio, he too takes us to the dark depths most would rather avoid. Taboos of sexuality, chthonic powers and drives, volcanic eruptions arising from the unconscious. As you might assume, he's pretty intense.

Together in a supportive aspect, we find ourselves dealing with themes of occult philosophy, tantra in its original and Western senses, incredible heroism in the face of personal demons, and views towards foreigners that lose sight of nuance. It is a theme to this year's politics, certainly, but also to the personal journeys we undergo. History, after all, is fractal.

Look back to themes and symbols that came up for you around mid-January and mid-April of this year; if you spot a pattern, it should return this week.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Sagittarius or Pisces, or in tight aspect with Jupiter in your birth chart; or if you are an occultist, priest, or educator.

Venus opposed Uranus, sextile Saturn - September 12th

The ongoing trine between Uranus and Saturn has been a theme of the past couple of years. It is an especially strong one this August and September.

There is a tendency for sudden shocks to existing establishments, and sudden establishing of things whose existence is shocking. Things break into pieces and reform as stronger versions of what they were or something else entirely, or they just break into millions of pieces and those pieces are composted into fertilizer for growing the next big thing.

Venus, in the territory of necessary truths, interacts with this pattern as soon as she enters Scorpio on Sunday, but brings it forth throughout the week. Sometimes Venus likes you to see her coming, sometimes she likes you to see her going. Therefore this aspect and its impact on Love, relations, and aesthetics may not make itself known until the 13th or 14th, but it will make itself known somehow.

This is an amazing time to surprise your partner with something unexpected for the two of you to do together―a night on the town, a poem you wrote about them, a fetish you've been waiting to reveal... Something new and exciting. And I recommend you do so. Astrology lets you pick your poison and turn it into medicine. Shake things up in a fun way and Uranus is more likely to have your back.

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

Mercury opposed Neptune - September 13th

Mercury retrograde has a lot of stereotypes.

It gets overhyped in a lot of ways, but certain patterns do emerge. Among them are afflictions such as delays, mishaps, and plain old weirdness around communication, transportation, short-distance travel, and technology.

These sorts of effects are also known to happen when transiting Mercury is in hard aspect to Neptune, as they are the first half of this week. The emphasis in this context tends more towards the "plain old weirdness" side of things, so I wouldn't over-fret. You might just find yourself talking to an old friend and running out of time because you spent too long discussing your grandparents' respective taste in ice cube trays, for example.

I wouldn't back up my hard drive on Thursday, though.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Gemini or Virgo, or in tight aspect with Mercury in your birth chart, or if you are a writer, tech worker, or lecturer.

The Week Above - October 14th-21st 2018