Fishy Fishy Fire Fire!

Today is Friday, December 2, 2011. Today the waxing mutable Moon in Pisces is at its quarter phase. This means we’re halfway between the partial solar eclipse we had in Sagittarius last week (New Moon) and the total lunar eclipse coming up in Gemini on Dec. 10 (Full Moon). Between eclipses, the steps we take can have quantum effects, and quarter Moons usually indicate a turning point of some sort. Currently, there’s a theme of malleability running through much of the sky in addition to some lusty energy — and a continued advisory around communication.

As this porous, receptive and introspective Moon moves through Pisces Friday and Saturday, it will make squares to many points in Sagittarius, which may have a provocative effect on many people. Efforts to treat this rationally may be complicated by Mercury retrograde, so some extra care will be required. Check yourself if you feel a disagreement brewing and tread lightly, gauging whether others display any self-understanding in moderating your responses.

Saturday evening at 9:51 pm EST the Moon enters Aries, immediately forming a conjunction with Uranus — that will make for an interesting Saturday night, especially on the heels of all this inner-seeing and inner-feeling of the prior two days. The fiery moon will come with a boost of confidence, and potentially false confidence. Continue to proceed with caution, check your facts and especially check your opinions.

You may have noticed that the Venus-Pluto conjunction, though it’s in cardinal Capricorn rather than a mutable sign (where almost everything else has been happening), seems to be lubricating the X-rated imaginations of people all over the place. True, not everyone is feeling this to the same degree and not everyone is in the same sexual phase of life. But with most of the weekend’s aspects involving mutable signs, it seems a lot of people are feeling like Gumby with a hard-on. Desire is having a way of overreaching normal social rules; that is occasion to experiment and for some caution as well.

The great thing is that given the internal nature of squares, Mercury retrograde and even eclipses, it makes perfect sense to direct your sexual attention inward. Go ahead – warm up and get ready to stretch a little. Let yourself bend and flow. The ambiguously gendered Mercury is in a position to lend some additional flexibility to the mutable fire of our Sagittarian journey. Part of what we’re letting go of in our era are rigid beliefs about sex and gender.

Barbara Koehler, one of the regular Planet Waves commenters, noted the following about the current astrology yesterday:

Even little Mercury is not to be considered solely/soul-ly masculine or feminine; he is a balance of both. Way ahead of his time, he might be leading us to a better understanding of how to harmonize the many energies we have to juggle within and without. As much as Mars might be inclined to say, ‘This is what I am’, he probably should take a moment to remember that he is in the other sign that Mercury rules [Virgo]. Mercury, after all these centuries, has a pretty good idea of what to expect from Manly Mars and has no doubt activated his flexible gender button in anticipation. It could be a good thing for the Sun, a decidedly masculine energy himself, to have by his side the non-committed Mercury whose ability to dodge and weave just might save some face in a showdown between Mr. Sunshine and Mars.

That ‘showdown’ is today’s square between the Sun and Mars, which we have been feeling as it has been forming. It’s a call to action, and some real fire. The ‘dodging and weaving’ Mercury will be making is its own square to Mars and conjunction to the Sun as it dances backwards through Sagittarius over the weekend. Len Wallick offered some sage and sane insights on how to work these squares in his column yesterday. And by the time we get to Monday, Venus will be forming an earth trine to Mars, which is a softer aspect. At that point, if we’ve stayed limber with Mercury – in mind, body, sexuality and spirit — we may find ourselves in a sweet spot of balance and integration.

If you’re not quite there — such as, experiencing the Sun in Sagittarius square Mars in Virgo as conflict between your beliefs and your rational mind — know that there is a way to get beyond both belief and rationality, and reach awareness of what is true for you.

Blending Venus and Mars in earthy signs is a calling to guide one’s feelings into the body, though Mars in Virgo is about expressing the exact nature of desire — and that calls for words. Mars in Virgo has very specific desires, and everyone will have more fun if these are identified, expressed and explored playfully, and this might include starting with your imagination (but not necessarily ending there). Chances are, you’ll learn more about yourself, too, even as you play with others.

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