Jan 28 2009

Moon is Pisces was sextile Pluto at dark-thirty in the wee hours, and is sextile Vesta exact at 8:54 am PST. Probably Mercury will be getting all the attention today, so the best advice is Don't Panic, not that anyone listens to such advice...

Today we enter the exit stiction phase of Mercury Retrograde, which lasts beyond Feb 1, the official resumption of normalcy, whatever that is. If communication is missed, misunderstood or combative, desires are thwarted or blocked, you feel stuck or bottled, interpretations are taken in the worst possible way, that's retrograde---the shadow or trickster side of Hermes. It could be opposite day, but it might not be. If you ask if it is opposite day during opposite day, what answer do you get? See the link on the left under connections. The official retrograde is Jan 11 thru Jan 31, however there is more to it. Think of overlapping waves, and think of a slowly swinging pendulum. At the upper end of each swing it slows down before reversing direction. Likewise, the relative motion between Earth and Mercury passes through phases of forward, stiction, reverse, stiction, repeat. The stiction phases overlapping with the "actual" retrograde are in some ways less fun and more troubling than the "pure" retrograde. So, Jan 7 thru 17 are stiction days, overlapping with pure retro Jan 11 thru 31, overlapping exit stiction Jan 28 thru Feb 7. Relationships are prone to questioning and upsets during the stiction phase, those with a deep or solid connection will survive. An Archetypal explanation as to why bouncebacks usually don't last is that they start during retrograde right after a stiction induced breakup.

The Birthcard today is the Queen of Clubs, a Mercury expression of a Mars core, with a 3 of Hearts inside and a 10 of Diamonds outside. QCs include Michael Bolton, Robert Novak, Arthur Laffer, Aaron Spelling, Cher, and Paul McCartney.