This week, the road starts out with plenty of potholes but leads to some smooth terrain, which can make a real difference for the better in your personal connections. Steer carefully and watch your speed, and everything ought to turn out fine. Get behind the wheel determined to do things your way though, and you could break an axle.
Since they are parked at the front end of a work week, Mondays and Tuesdays always present an opportunity for agitation, and this Monday and Tuesday present special opportunities for you to lose your cool with someone close to you: The Moon in Aries (which is always a potential cause for crankiness) passes over Uranus, squares Jupiter, squares Pluto, squares Venus, and opposes Mars before settling into the more stable groove of Taurus on Wednesday. Your best move may be to breathe deeply and remind yourself to stay calm. Or, if you can get away with it, call in sick from work. Also, call in sick from your relationships too if you can do that. Just hide, already!
If you’ve paid much attention to astrological forecasts over time, you’ve encountered the phenomenon of Mercury Retrograde before, and been warned about the potential for agreements and phone calls and short trips and commerce all going wonky. Yes, that’s generally true, but this time we have a Double Dose of D’oh! to accompany the retrograde which begins on Thursday.
Mercury stations and goes backwards right on top of Neptune in Pisces. Mercury in Pisces doesn’t exactly have the reputation for solid analytical skills in the first place, and conjunct Neptune? Well, this is no time for precision work. However, as is often the case, there is a blessing in disguise. A stationary Mercury is particularly brilliant (both to look at in the sky and in terms of intellectual results). That mental sharpness, when combined with the Neptunian quality of transcendence, can make for some amazing results. So, if you’re looking to write the perfect love letter, initiate a creative writing project, or simply use your words and ideas to charm the pants off of someone, Wednesday may provide the perfect circumstances, especially given that a sextile to both planets from Moon in Taurus adds a touch of sensuality to the proceedings.
Writing that love letter (even if “love letter” in your case means “asking your boss for a raise” or “sending out resumes”) may be more effective now for reasons well beyond the Mercury station. Venus is finally moving forward and pulling away from the conjunction with Pluto and the opposition to Jupiter, which means that emotional demands will generally be a little saner than they have been in the last week. Pouring a little sugar on your interpersonal connections is often a good idea, and may serve as a preventative measure, as there’s a Full Moon on Valentine’s Day… making an already pressure-filled day even more potentially unlovable. That, and the seemingly unavoidable Uranus-Pluto square is once more tightening up, so make nice with folks while you can.