I visited my friend Dominick’s cafe this morning (Dominick’s Cafe at Dreamweavers), walked into the kitchen and discovered him explaining to his food prep staff how to wash grapes in dish detergent. “Not a lot, just a little,” he said, as he swished a few pounds of green and light purple grapes in a bowl of suds.
I asked whether this was about getting the pesticides off the grapes and he said it’s because people sneeze and cough all over them in the supermarket. All fruit that comes into the cafe is washed — including lemons and bananas. I laughed and said, “Virgo rising.” He is, with Pluto in the ascendant — very, very Virgo rising. (Dominick, who is a talented hobby astrologer and got the joke, has also been on a years-long campaign to get high fructose corn syrup out of the cafe, right down to the ketchup.)
This week we get a taste of Virgo-Pluto energy with an alignment that a reader pointed out in an email a few minutes ago. Mercury is now in late Virgo and is about to enter Libra, as part of its retrograde sequence that will unfold over the next six weeks. (Please see note at end about my Mercury Retrograde Report.)
Mercury therefore opposes the Aries Point or first degree of Aries. Mars for its part will ingress Cancer. Pluto is already standing in the first degree of Capricorn; so we have a Mercury-Mars-Pluto t-square right on the cardinal points. That one is going to ripple through the news, and it’s here to help us change our mind about something. Probably, knowing the human tendency to littleness, it will be about something small, but even that can be a good start and there is always the potential to make an actual decision or two. Venus will be in the first degree of Leo. That decision can be based on creative thought rather than sentiment or an emotional response.
Venus, Mars and Mercury (all of which are changing signs this week) and will be aspecting Pluto in early Capricorn. This has everything to do with sex and by sex I mean the honest awareness of sexuality and all its implications. Mercury is about communication. Every now and then the sky agrees with me: talking about sex, in actual depth, from a place of authenticity, is one of the best things we can do to help ourselves, improve our relationships and improve our world.
Wavers, I’m just wrapping up a Mercury Retrograde Report that sums up the forthcoming series of events and also offers a special 12-sign horoscope on the subject. We will have ordering information about that posted here tonight. If you’re on our Sample List you will receive an email later. The report will be half price for subscribers.
GG,
I don’t know if telling you this is any help but my husband, who is 56, was let go from seven jobs between 2004 and late 2007. He and I have four children still at home and up to that fiasco, I was a stay-at-home mom that has been home for 17 years. He has a bachelor’s degree. He found out that with a fingerprint clearance card, he could get hired on as a substitute teacher at the local school district for $75 a day (which was better than the unemployment here which was max $240 a week) He started doing that and found he LOVED teaching kids. He decided not to keep looking in the type of job he had been in (finance) but instead to get his Masters in Education with Teacher certification. I had the choice to either go to work (making minimum wage because I had been out of the workforce so long and have no degree) or I could also go back to school to get a degree as well so in the future I would be in a better position to help my family financially as a Student counselor. We are living on his substitute teaching salary and student loans.
My point in telling you this? Maybe you will find your better place through this time of being laid off and Merc retrograde. If nothing else, you could supplement your income as a sub until you figure out what you need to do (if you have a degree and if the district there allows it). The schools love male teachers because they have so few of them and affirmative action requires that they hire more.
This is not to tell you what direction to go but to let you know that times like these often bring you to a turning point where you find where you need to be. My husband has always had a passion for helping children; he also found he loves the non-competitive working atmosphere that teachers seem to have. Good luck and know many of us are either in the same boat or are pulling for you (or BOTH). Take care.
here is the rewrite of that line:
<< Venus, Mars and Mercury (all of which are changing signs this week) and will be aspecting Pluto in early Capricorn. >>
Thanks for pointing out the error, Len. I would love to see us all get better at editing astrology. Usually there is a logic to mistakes; even though they are errors they’re not generally haphazard. I do something daring here, which is work without another astrologer editing my stuff — so I count on my readers to spot my mistakes. I do make them on a fairly regular basis; thanks for lookin’ out. Credibility is essential in what we’re doing here.
Thank you, PT. Very kind of you.
I keep telling myself that the universe wants me to be somewhere else. I just hope it’s an ok place.
regards.
Eric,
i know that i’m quite the dyslexic neophyte when it comes to reading an ephemeris. i also know that i live in a brittle glass house when it comes to making errors on this site. However, as far as i can tell, Pluto is not changing signs this week (nor again for about a decade and a half).
GG- My heart goes out to you. i’m 56 and on the same edge you are. i would say that the advice you asked for was offered in good faith and compassion. We are all in the same boat, or will be before this is done. You are not alone.
Offered In Service,
Len Wallick
GG – V sorry to hear about your situation re work. That must be unnerving for you to say the least. I wish you well on your ‘paid break’, that it is very temporary and that good things are getting into position during this Merc X in readiness for your next move. Best wishes, PT.
Oh, that makes me feel better. Yes, I’ll be able to collect unemployement, although it doesn’t really cover expenses. But maybe I can coast till after October.
Thanks very much. — GG
I would say that you have a few weeks to do a search and still start after Oct 14, the end of the echo phase.
If you can, I would wait until Saturn changes signs on Oct. 29 and start after that. More than honoring Mercury it’s crucial to let Saturn makes its big moves before we make our big moves. Hopefully you’ll have unemployment for a while and I think that assuming you’re American you collect on that in good conscience as a paid break…
This is a good question and one that I will add to the report.
I have a bit Merc Retrograde question, Eric.
I know you are about to do a special report. If I can afford it I will buy it: I have been a PW subscriber for 2 years or so.
But here’s my retrograde question: I about to get laid off from my job. I won’t go into the details, but I’ve worked for this company for 8 years, I’m pretty good at reading the signs.
(They’re firing old timers like me so they can bring in newbies for lower salaries.)
I think the axe is going to fall right after Labor Day, when all the employees come back from the holiday. I am 90% sure I am next to go.
So if they can me, it means I will have to conduct a job search during Mercury Retrograde! I have no choice, I don’t have a lot of savings and I need to get a new job ASAP.
But I know that starting new things, like jobs, during a retrograde is not such a hot idea.
What would you suggest?
thanks.