Mercury and Venus Station in Tandem - the Subtle Points of Human Relations Come Up for Mental Processing and Discussion

We have two planetary stations about to occur on the very same day: on November 16, love and relationship planet Venus stations direct at 25 degrees Libra, and communication and intelligence planet Mercury stations retrograde at 13 degrees Sagittarius (exactly square Neptune in Pisces). 

Mercury will be retrograde from  November 16 to December 6, moving from 13 degrees Sagittarius to 27 degrees Scorpio.

Foggy and ethereal Neptune is also very powerful at this time, stationing direct November 24 at 13 degrees Pisces. Neptune provides a strong influence over the entire Mercury retrograde, a process that comes to its full conclusion on December 24, 2018 as Mercury leaves the retrograde shadow with an exact square to Neptune in Pisces.

An extended Mercury-Neptune square with Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius/Scorpio indicates a veil being dropped over our perceptions and communication that must be gradually worked with and penetrated. There's some mental pressure and challenge as we cut through the confusion and fog, finding just the right words from just the right perspectives as we verbally clear ourselves a path into 2019. 

Mercury square Neptune can indicate difficulty in getting our points across succinctly and effectively. There may be some difficulty being heard or understood. People may hear what they want to hear, or they may pick up on one small point, missing the full picture. These effects may be exacerbated with Mercury transiting the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius. It's hard to sum up what we know or what we perceive, but we have to do our best with these challenging mental conditions.

Stay focused and keep working to verbally cut through the Neptunian fog because effective communication - though trickier than usual to achieve - has a great deal of "permeation power" under these aspects. Getting your point(s) across under these aspects can have quite grand ripple effects, especially in the collective. Your words can reach much further than you might have imagined and could have more sway or influence.

Mercury square Neptune indicates people may be more impressionable than usual to the words, perspectives, or ideas of others - for good or ill. 

So this is a time when our words - if they are being used for good - can have "divine wings." Our words may be picked up and carried and carried and carried to just the right people who need them.

 

Under this square, there could be a sense of being blocked from communication or connection, being isolated in our perspectives. But people are listening. The loving higher intelligence is listening. Our words are hitting their marks. They have influence, even if it is invisible at times.

There's some weirdness related to communication under this Mercury-Neptune square and Mercury retrograde, extending through the end of 2018. Strange connections or coincidences that may be spiritual or psychic in origin. The invisible threads that connect us through time and space being plucked by a force or an intelligence beyond ourselves. A time of heightened connection and communication with the divine, the spiritual, the etheric, the dreamy realms in both waking and sleeping life.

Venus and Mercury shifting gears in tandem indicates that while our Venus retrograde relationship review period (October 5 - November 16) is now coming to a close, we still have some complex mental and verbal processing to do as far as what we've come to understand during that review. 

Winged messenger Mercury will retrograde back to 27 degrees Scorpio and station direct there December 6. This activates themes related to the Mercury-Jupiter conjunction at 27 degrees Scorpio on October 29, which occurred just as Mercury entered the retrograde shadow. Mercury will be within orb of a conjunction to Jupiter, newly in Sagittarius, throughout most of the retrograde process, forming another exact conjunction on December 21 at 9 degrees Sagittarius to mark solstice. 

This is an uncovering, penetrating Mercury retrograde process, drawing some hidden dynamics and some obscured emotional, psychological, and energetic subtext up to surface awareness so that this becomes part of the expressed truth. We're putting some things on the record.

The current astrological atmosphere indicates that some of the more subtle and slippery dynamics of human relationship and human society will be coming up for discussion and that we may find it challenging to get the associated issues into the social or public discourse in a meaningful way. 

Again, persistence is key, while also not wasting our breath in situations or conversations that are hopelessly convoluted or aggravating. The tail-chasing energy of Mercury square Neptune can certainly produce mental fatigue and "heads spinning," so we're looking to unleash our verbal (Mercury) arrows (Sagittarius) only when we have a clear shot at the target with a good chance of making contact.

War and aggression planet Mars will be entering Pisces shortly (November 15 - December 31), forming a square to Mercury Rx at 6 degrees Sagittarius on November 26 and a conjunction to Neptune at 13 degrees Pisces on December 7. This indicates the potential for the activation of etheric or psychic subtext in ire-stirring ways. Subtle attacks that poison, erode, or undermine may have to be verbally hauled out into the physical here-and-now.

The influence of Mars on the Mercury retrograde process indicates some potentially angering or inflammatory subjects popping up that will be drawing attention to broader issues and themes. There's a bit of an edge to this stuff, but that's OK. We can work with whatever is kicked up...

Mars transiting Pisces indicates the potential for increased physical sensitivities to mood-altering (and often delectable) substances like alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and processed foods, so watch your indulgences carefully this holiday season - even though Mercury-Jupiter in Sagittarius will most likely be encouraging you to go for the gusto!

Mars moves into its own sign and crosses the birth point of the zodiac - zero Aries - on January 1, 2019, indicating fresh starts and new momentum available to us as we enter the new year. 

Venus will be moving direct through the retrograde shadow from November 16 to December 17, and we're chewing on the experiences, interactions, and dynamics we experienced socially or in interpersonal relationships during the Venus retrograde process, beginning as Venus entered the retrograde shadow on September 2, 2018.

Mercury and Venus will continue their tandem action in early December: Mercury Rx re-enters one end of the sign of Scorpio at 29 degrees while Venus direct re-enters the other end of Scorpio at zero degrees (December 1/2). Mercury will stop at 27 degrees Scorpio and go direct again. Venus will travel through the full sign of Scorpio.

Venus re-entering Scorpio, the sign of its detriment, indicates that we're going down for one last death roll, combing the murk of human relationships and human society one last time as we close out 2018. Venus in Scorpio can be highly-charged and highly-karmic, so be prepared for some social/relational grease fires or tension, some air to be cleared, some grievances to be released. 

Relationship planet Venus has been in a long-term opposition to status quo-challenger Uranus throughout its retrograde process and forms a final exact opposition to Uranus on the potent 29th degrees of Libra/Aries on November 30.

The changes we need in relationships and in society in general hinge on these points of social/relational tension. They're purposeful. So harness the energy of the charged social arenas as fuel for your own process during the transit of Venus through Scorpio (December 2, 2018 - January 7, 2019), and make your changes. This goes pretty deep. 

We're clearing out shoddy treatment, not-quite-right dynamics, and boring, old sticking points in our relationships, and we're changing things in ways that empower ourselves and others.

Venus leaves detrimental ole Scorpio on January 7, 2019, forming a "Conjunction of the Benefics" with Jupiter at 16 degrees Sagittarius on January 22 that will also be in tight square aspect to Neptune in Pisces.