Having barely scrambled back out of the eclipse portal, we prevailed! Like crawling through one of those tree branch nests at the top of Ajax, one side was the jagged eclipse scree field and the other side was the relatively “normal” Aspen reality. I’m relieved we’re looking at eclipse season in our rear-view mirrors once again. Now we just need to survive the airport vote and the bridge repair.

The moon continues playing a significant role in this week’s astrological activations. It’s opposite Jupiter stationing retrograde on Wednesday. (Mercury’s not the only planet that does that.) On Thursday, the moon squares the sun for the first-quarter moon’s autumn squirrel-like activity. On Friday, the moon passes by Pluto, as our shadow work planet ends its retrograde cycle.

Retrogrades happen when we earthlings appear to pass by a planet. Imagine you are bombing down Spar (or 1 and 2 Leaf if your Spar speed days are over) and there is a tourist skiing ahead of you. You pass them (of course) and for a split second it seems like they are moving backwards. It’s a weird trick of the eye that brings on a little vertigo, as what seems normal suddenly isn’t. 

That’s retrograde. The planets are always moving forward. They simply appear to move the “wrong” way from our earthly perch. It’s an optical illusion upon which we scapegoat all our woes. And, in the case of Mercury, to which we assign a ridiculous amount of influence.

Interested in having an Alchemical Astrology reading with me?

Let’s look at your Soul path and see what is coming up for you.