Mercury conjunct Venus: Remember your mindfulness

This week, a pair of influences involving Venus and Mars is offering a distinct choice in how we respond to our desires. It’s also part of the ongoing grand cross in the cardinal signs.

Specifically, Mercury is making a conjunction to Venus (exact just before 5:02 pm EST Tuesday). Traditionally, this is said to confer a refined, optimistic, artistic mind. This sort of refined consciousness may be more of an option rather than a given, in light of the greater astrological context this week.

To recap, the grand cross is currently made up of Uranus in Aries, Jupiter in Cancer, Mars in Libra and the Sun and Pluto in Capricorn. On New Year’s Day, the Moon joined in through a conjunction to the Sun and Pluto (and, at the time, Mercury). But the Moon moves very quickly, and has not been part of the cardinal grand cross for several days.

That changes today, when the Moon enters Aries at 2:45 pm EST. It is heading for a square to the Sun tomorrow: the first quarter Moon. When the Moon squares the Sun, it will also be closely square Jupiter and opposite Mars.

All of this action on the cardinal cross translates to change and forward movement, both within us and in the wider world, both in ways we can feel and in ways we might not comprehend until we look back on this moment a few years hence. As part of that mix, Mars and Jupiter exact their own square to each other on Wednesday — but you are likely feeling their effect now, and have been for a few days.

Have you noticed that your energies are at odds with the opportunities coming your way or with your judgment? It could be very easy right now to drive past the point you’re aiming for and actually end up working against your own best interests.

This might be true in a relationship context (Mars is in Libra, sign of relationships) or in some issue related to the home (Jupiter is in Cancer, sign of domesticity). For example, you might get so caught up in what you want most in an intimate relationship, that you push the other person a little too hard toward that goal, thereby undermining their sense of being an equal partner — and setting the stage for resistance or pushback.

Or, more mundanely, you might get so gung-ho about re-arranging and beautifying your living space and putting together your new desk (for example), that you fail to notice when you put it together wrong — thereby having to take it apart, re-do it, and eat up all the energy you would have had for the rest of the rearranging and beautifying you wanted to accomplish. It’s amazing how quickly the quest for order can devolve into chaos when one’s drive outpaces one’s judgment.

But what about that Mercury-Venus conjunction in late Capricorn? After all, Venus is retrograde, and although these two planets are too late in Capricorn to be part of the grand cross configuration, their energy is still a personal-level part of the picture. It’s an important counterbalance to the Mars-Jupiter energy.

Mercury-Venus looks like the potential to allow the more ‘enlightened’ lessons love has taught us in the past to guide our decisions and interactions with others now.

Those lessons might be as basic as listening to your lover when he or she expresses desires that don’t match your own; or reminding yourself that their ideas are not actually a threat to you — they are just ideas, and you are okay. Maybe you have learned how much more secure and relaxed you feel when you remember to allow a little compersion into the equation; or that when you’re compassionate toward yourself and honor your feelings, it’s easier to extend compassion toward others and honor how they feel, too.

The thing is, the Mars-Jupiter square will still be asking you to act on its energy, and its outlet might best be physical, to keep it constructive (or at least less destructive on an interpersonal level, even if your furniture gets a workout).

We’ve heard all the ‘enlightenment’ lessons a million times; this astrology is testing your willingness to act on what you know is in your best interests (and by extension the best interests of those you care about), rather than react out of emotional habit. The idea is to practice mindfulness. To do that, you have to remember what you’ve already learned — and let those hard-won lessons guide your words and actions. Your emotions and ego will be testing you.