By: Janette Dalgliesh – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
16–201 February 2020
Today’s heading comes courtesy of a great meme I saw yesterday: relax, nothing is under control.
That’s exactly the dynamic to embrace this week.
The big news is, of course, Mercury Retrograde (Merc Rx) in Pisces.
No, Merc Rx is not cause for alarm.
Yes, Merc Rx in Pisces is a ton of weird wrapped in a thick juicy coating of WTactualF?
And that’s neutral – neither good nor bad – which means you get to DECIDE what happens here.
You can run around clutching your pearls with all the unfortunates who go into Henny-Penny sky-is-falling mode.
Or, dear reader, you can join me in grabbing the possibilities with both hands, embracing the weird and maximising the magic.
Last week I shared loads of strategies for how to prepare for Merc Rx, and you can definitely use those same strategies throughout this week.
The main energy for this week is Neptunian, and that means giving dreams plenty of space, and being ready to embrace connections you might not previously have noticed.
There’s a school of thought which says before we come here to have our human adventures, we are energy beings swimming about in a kind of energy soup.
Fully connected to all-that-is, to every other consciousness which exists in all of time and space, we are one with the whole of the Universe.
And then we decide to come here and have our human adventure – and the moment we arrive, we begin to experience the homesickness of separation.
As a result, we carry a lifelong yearning for the deepest of connections, a longing to immerse ourselves and surrender to the whole.
While at the same time, we yearn to individuate, to become our own unique and separate Self because that’s what we came here to do.
Neptune represents that craving for surrender, for connection; that desire to tap into the universal, cosmic cloud.
Sun represents our urge to individuate, to form our own unique and separate identity.
Why is this week so full-on Neptune?
Because in addition to Mercury (our thinking) activating Neptune himself in dreamy Pisces – the home sign of Neptune – we also see Jupiter (lord of expansion) activating Neptune, and Sun (our identity) moving into Pisces.
You can expect to experience and notice an increased sense of altruism; an increase in empathy and connectedness; humanitarian impulses to create real and tangible results, for the good of all.
And you may also notice some resistance to those concepts from those who live from enormous fear. That’s okay – keep your focus firmly on the altruistic vibes this week, both your own and those around you.
It’s also a great week for connecting with people who come from outside your current groupings. That means humans who come from different social, ethnic, political or economic groups from you. And it means people who belong to other kingdoms of consciousness – animal people, plant people, stone people.
Magic and mysticism, spirituality and religion are all amped up this week.
The upside is an increase in our ability to work magic, to connect with the non-physical entities with whom we might wish to collaborate, and to explore those non-physical realms which we long to contact.
The downside is an increased potential for self-pity, seeking solace at the bottom of a bottle, or letting confusion get the better of you, thereby creating anxiety. Don’t do that.
By embracing the confusion and the not-knowing, you create the fertile soil where new possibilities, new ideas, new beliefs and innovation can all grow and become more accessible.
This is also a fantastic time to call on political, social and corporate leaders to exercise good conscience and morality.
This is not morality based on any kind of formula or scripture; but rather a morality arising naturally out of empathy for all, out of kindness and compassion.
Altruism rises closer to the surface than normal, and with Mercury being in Retrograde motion, thinking changes more easily.
Individuals who have been rusted on to long-held ideologies might find themselves unexpectedly open to new thoughts, ideas and concepts.
We might witness people in significant positions of power changing allegiances and even making personal sacrifices for the good of all.
And Neptune isn’t the only player at work this week.
At the start of the week, about 12 hours before Mercury goes Rx, Mars moves out of excitable treasure-hunting Sagittarius and into practical, grounded Capricorn.
If you’ve been feeling pressure to take big, bold actions out there in the unknown, that pressure begins to ease.
Instead, you are supported for plotting out the logical and strategic steps you want to take in the future.
All that Pisces action helps us expand our dreams.
Mars in Capricorn helps us map them out.
But this is not about mapping out the one and only path.
Think bigger.
It’s about mapping out possible paths, plural – and those paths do not have to be straight lines.
For example – the straight line path to expanding a business might be buying ad space or posting a ton on social media; the not-straight path might be pausing, taking stock, ditching whatever is no longer inspiring, looking for new left-field ideas and then taking action.
It’s a brilliant week to set the stage for new things that we might have thought were impossible, both personally and societally – especially when we can release our stranglehold on insisting that THIS is how things are.
Let go of the notion that you already know everything, and that you can control everything.
Embrace the uncertainty and the confusion, as magical doorways into whole new worlds.
And let it all be light! The uncertainty can trigger a little angst in our highly protective human brains. With Jupiter in the mix, we also want to allow in some playfulness.
Let your mapping be fun and light and adventurous. If the stakes seem high, take a step back and remind yourself – we’re making it all up, all of the time, so you might as well have fun while doing it.
How to make the most of the week:
- Let your goals be swirled around in the ocean depths, so any outdated ones get swept away. Keep any goals you still love, see them rinsed all clean and shiny, daydream up some new and bigger goals – and then make some maps to play with potential pathways. Skip the digital planning for now. Use coloured pencils or pens and big sheets of paper to activate playful energy. It’s not a time for serious, grown-up spreadsheets and digital solutions. Get your hands into the clay of what you’re creating.
- Activate Neptune energy by connecting beyond the everyday. Meditate, practice lucid dreaming, start or upgrade a dream journal, explore relationships with non-physical worlds and entities. Be smart and respectful about this, as the veil is thin this week. Don’t be “USING” crystals or plants or stones in your magic work – think about having an appreciative and grateful relationship with those plant and stone people instead.
- Write or contact a politician or CEO, starting out from the assumption that they are just another human, equally capable of love, empathy and altruism. Appeal to their sense of connection to others, and ask them to consider changing a policy on that basis.
- And with a Dark Moon at the end of the week, be sure to diarise some time for self-care, reviewing, tying up any loose ends from the month just gone – ready for a New Moon in Pisces on 23 February (yes, MORE Neptune magic!)
- Revisit last week’s article for more ideas you can pull forward for this week
Dream big this week, and be willing to expand your ideas of what might be possible. It’s a perfect time for reviewing and reassessing everything you think you know…
Exact times (US Eastern timezone):
- 16 February, 6:33 AM – Mars enters Capricorn
- 16 February, 7:54 PM – Mercury Retrograde at 12º Pisces
- 18 February, 11:57 PM – Sun enters Pisces
- 20 February, 10:56 AM – Jupiter at 17º Capricorn sextile Neptune at 17º Pisces
- 21/22 February – Dark Moon in Aquarius (prepare for the Pisces New Moon on 23 February)
Janette Dalgliesh has a simple mission in life – to wreak more joy in the world. A keen student of astrology, brain science and Law of Attraction, she serves her people through her unique strategic astrology consults, coaching, teaching and writing. To get Janette’s highly useful perspective on your own chart, visit her website or track her down on Facebook.
Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
