Working with the Planets
Mercury Retrograde Shadow: be afraid, be very afraid
faced up to the reality of Saturn in Gemini
and Pluto in Sagittarius.
Saturday 24 October 4.15pm: Mercury
leaves shadow phase 15° Libra 55’.
If there are no serious transits creating
real problems alongside Mercury, though,
there is a lot you can do during this long
period of notorious stop-start. The old
idea that putting ‘re’ in front of anything,
works well. So during the periods of
Mercury Madness around now and just
ahead, from 28 August to 24 October
2015 (try it and see) you may be able to
successfully rethink, review, reschedule,
rehearse, revise, or retrace your steps.
Keep an eye on the North Node in Libra
as well, as it may be operating alongside
Mercury Retrograde in the same house
of your chart. If you have anything from
0° through to 15° Libra (or your clients
do) then track the transits. And for God’s
sake, don’t lose your paperweight.
What to expect from Mercury in
August-October 2015
Living well with ‘alien’ worlds
“To strive so that all men may one day be able to understand each other,
is that not the noblest of ideals?” Amin Maalouf, Leo the African
Jessica Adams
If you have never tried the shadow
system, why not put it to the test? Here
are UT times and dates for the next
Mercury Retrograde period in 2015 [see
explanatory box Mercury Retrograde
Shadow above if still unsure of
calculation method]:
Friday 28 August 9.16am: Mercury enters
shadow phase 0° Libra 53’.
AA president Roy Gillett focuses on September to November 2015
Jessica Adams books
Jessica Adams BA is the author
of Essential Astrology for Women
(HarperCollins), 2020 Vision (Viking),
Handbag Horoscopes (Penguin) and
Astrolove (Corgi). She will be speaking
at The Company of Astrologers in London
on 5 November 2015. Visit Jessi caadams.
com for more details.
If the events leading up to and during the 2012-15 cardinal
square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn
triggered traumatic disruptive change, the consequences
of that change are shown by the mutable T-square between
Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune that builds through this autumn
to a climactic grand cross with the inner planets in June 2016.
The months from autumn 2015 to late spring 2016 will see
a build-up of intense critical resentment (Jupiter applying
to conjunct North Node in Virgo) about ongoing feelings
of religious and personal vulnerability and victimisation
(opposed Neptune in Pisces), exacerbated by frustrating
obstacles (T-squared Saturn in Sagittarius). People and
circumstances we cannot and ‘do not want to’ understand
will be in our way, engaged in what seems like unreasonable,
intransigent, sometimes brutal behaviour. Wanting for evergreater freedom, we will be frustrated and feel blocked by
‘enemies’ and ‘strangers’ who, like us, seek happiness but from
diametrically different perspectives; the clutter of too many
contradictory needs.
An atmosphere of people being quick to judge and resent, while
slow to understand and sympathise, will lead to dysfunctional
relationships within families and between groups and within
societies. In the United Kingdom, separation between rich and
poor could move political debate away from the middle ground.
The US Presidential Election will be especially divisive. Violent
fragmentation within and between countries and religious
cultures will intensify.
[See Transits 7 June 2016 chart]
The chart drawn for a random moment in London on 7 June
2016 shows the mutable T-square approaching the nodal axis
and made into a grand cross by Sun and Venus in Gemini.
Augmenting this tension to strain at the leash, break out and
fragment, is Mercury in Taurus which, after opposing Mars
(retrograding in Scorpio), accelerates to replace Sun/Venus
and sustain the grand cross. Earlier that morning, Moon in
Cancer, still anxiously full of the emotional intensity of its
recent trine to Neptune/South Node in Pisces, opposes Pluto
in Capricorn. Underlying it all, Jupiter in Virgo accelerates
finally to complete its trine to Pluto in Capricorn. Whatever the
circumstances, whoever does what, the mood will be to battle
on to rise to the surface of our endeavours; not to sink, but to
pay the price of swimming to what we see as our salvation.
A better way
We are looking to these months so far in the future, because in
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Sep/Oct 2015 The Astrological Journal
7 Jun 2016 Transits 12:00pm BST -1:00 London, UK
the period immediately before us, we can only avoid the worst
in 2016 by opening our minds and hearts now, to learn from
and go with the flow. Times of mutable astro-events can be
refreshingly free, if we put our fixed attitudes and initiatives on
the shelf for an exploratory while. This does not mean to ignore
or abandon them, rather to be open to seeing what additional
possibilities could enhance them.
Accept the truth of a relationship difficulty, you have suspected
for some time. Let yourself be relieved of a work responsibility
that seems to give life meaning, but actually enslaves. Have the
courage to see a doctor about a suspected worry. Open your
mind to an opinion or situation previously always rejected
out of hand. Move away from a protected environment to
experience life through the eyes of enemies and strangers.
Visit places that have always seemed alien. Spend much more
or much less money than normal. Talk to strangers. Forgive
or postpone debt repayments. Objectively seek to understand
the minds of people who commit terrible acts. Negotiate with
enemies, forgive and make peace.
Times of dominant mutable astro-events do not have to
overwhelm. They can push us into wonderful new worlds and
experiences, where we enjoy the differences, the debate, the
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