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.