Mercury square Neptune – Not everything is what it seems

This aspect is now active and exact on 13th November 2012 and in force until around 16th November.

This is one very tricky and potentially difficult aspect to deal with, and over the next couple of days you should all be rather wary of it. As you will be aware Mercury is retrograde and this aspect is often associated with things going wrong, communications getting lost or mixed up, delays happening and technical failures occurring. Now Mercury moving in retrograde will be making a troublesome square to Neptune which has just turned direct. With Neptune retrograde until just recently, our minds will have been clear and open to all possibilities and our intuition will have been serving us well. I don't think that we would have been so open to deception, only to deceiving ourselves. The reason is that any planet in retrograde works on an internal level, rather than in an external manner.

A good analogy for Neptune retro and direct can be seen in the weather. Neptune moving direct is like a low pressure system. The wind blows pushes us off course, the clouds roll in obscuring our view and the rain falls. We may get plenty of ideas, but we can't see properly how to implement them until some clear weather arrives; our intuition may be rather off the mark. The clouds brought in by the low pressure fog our minds and we become susceptible to deception and illusion from others. As the weather may be bad, we put on protective gear to shelter us from the storm and as such we do become more attuned to what is going on around us, and we become more pro-active.

When Neptune is retro, it's like a high pressure weather system. Normally you get clear still weather and you can see for miles in all directions. In the same way, Neptune retro brings clarity to our minds and we can see any problems way before they hit us. This clarity allows us the make use of the ideas we had during the Neptune direct period but it may also encourage us to get rather lazy, complacent and self-delusional because we know what the weather is going to be and we aren't expecting any nasty surprises. As we can see all the possibilities and we know what we want to achieve, we can avoid any dangers without having to try too hard.

Now with Mercury running into Neptune moving direct the chances of things going awry because of wrong or deceptive information. Our intuition may be a bit more tuned in now that Neptune is moving forward, but it better be as the con-artists and deceivers out there will be looking for likely victims. It is not a good idea to deal with important documents or make important decisions under this influence, as not everything we see, hear or experience will be as it seems...

By the way – look at the picture above one more time…

Mars conjunct Aculeus - Taking action to relieve the pain

This conjunction is active from Saturday 10th through Tuesday 13th November

Friedrich Nietzsche the German philosopher wrote “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” and this is exactly what the fixed star Aculeus which sits in the sting in the tail of Scorpio is all about. The sting of a scorpion is used for attack and this star brings attacks of a kind that test your strength of character. You may have to face criticism of some sort that tests your resolve, or perhaps events will happen that cause you a type of hardship that you have to overcome. Life will not be easy, but you find a way to battle through.

Mars arriving to conjunct this star suggests to me physical toil to overcome problems thrown at you, or you may have to take direct action to relieve the pressure you are under. On a more personal level, you may be on the end of stinging words that hurt your feelings, and possibly your reputation.

Look out especially under this influence for people making an effort to repair their lives - I am thinking about the poor East Coast of the US which has had Sandy blow through and now has a bitter storm, high winds and snow to contend with.

China begins the process to usher in a new set of leaders

In Beijing at the Great Hall of the People, the current Chinese President Hu Jintao has been chairing a congress of 2000 hand-picked delegates to oversee a new Chinese administration. I an curious who actually selects the timing for the new leadership congress in China and I wonder if the Chinese actually secretly look at Western Astrology and the planets to select the days, as this conference date was set months ago and yet it is perfectly aligned against the natal Chinese chart for a change in administration.

Obama Wins - Reflections on the day after the night before...

I feel quite satisfied and vindicated today as Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney to secure himself a second term in the White House. I predicted this back in May, and since then I wondered and worried if I had missed something, if I had misjudged the strength of the aspects I had seen. I don’t know about how other astrologers feel and whether they trust their instincts, but I always seem to severely doubt my own ability to see things accurately. I think I should trust my instincts more, as so often, especially recently, I have been close or correct on much that I have written here on Solaris Astrology. Lucky or insightful? I let you my loyal readers be the judge of this...

Now of course the recriminations in the US will begin as a deeply divided nation wakes up to the path that it has chosen; there will be anger in the air now as this was a hugely divisive contest. I am going to point out a date to you not so far into the future and I want you to keep a keen eye on it, because it deeply affects the US natal chart and the newly elected President's one too.