All three personal planets are making themselves known this weekend — Mercury, Venus and Mars. In the most general terms, this means the emotional tone for everyone will be shifting, and that shift will be from the inside out. Depending on what’s resonating most strongly with you lately, these movements could feel either like mixed messages or a study in rich contrasts (think hot fudge sundae).
I’m going to begin with Mercury, because Saturday it makes a conjunction to Nessus, the unofficial star of the show this week. Nessus is one of the centaur planets, a class of objects named for half-human, half-horse characters in mythology. In astrology, these objects generally represent old family patterns, shadow material and buried wounds, bringing all of it to our consciousness so we can recognize it, deal with it and release it.
Eric and I have covered Nessus in several recent articles (notably on Monday, Tuesday and last Thursday, plus PW FM). The main themes for Nessus involve patterns of sexual and emotional abuse, potentially inappropriate sexual contact, other forms of psychological wounding of a sexual type, and the idea that “the buck stops here” — that is, that once you know what’s up, you get to resolve and release the karma. You have the honor of stopping any of the negative patterns Nessus represents once you see them clearly.
What Mercury brings to its conjunction with Nessus (which is in late Aquarius) is a more intellectual take on all the shadowy, potentially painful stuff you may be working through right now. Mercury rules the mind and communication. One way to think of Mercury conjoining Nessus in airy, detached Aquarius is that it’s a chance to take a more logical, less emotionally-invested approach to the process. Writing (whether in a journal, blog comment or letter) could be helpful.