Shifting Gears

As I was pondering today's New Moon chart a few days back I noticed that Mercury and Mars are in station. For those who may not know, this means they appear not to be moving and are about to change direction in the sky. That led me to gaze at the ephemeris a bit, something we astrologers tend to do, and then I noticed something definitely worth a mention!

Four of our planets are about to shift gears and change direction in a few days' time. That's four of the five that are capable of doing so—the Sun and Moon moving always forward, of course. Let’s take a look!

 

Mercury is traveling direct again as of today, beginning at 18.10 Aquarius. Mercury had been retrograde (Rx) since 7 Feb when it was at 3.20 Pisces. And no, Mercury Rx is no big deal as you've been led to believe--but that’s another subject.

 

Tomorrow, Mars will turn Rx at 27.32 Libra. Too bad in a way, as he was getting close to leaving detriment and entering his own fixed-water Scorpio, where he is super strong! But it wasn’t meant to be, not just yet anyway. Mars will travel all the way back to 9.02 Libra before turning direct again on May 20.

 

Then, on Monday 3 March, it’s Saturn’s turn. Saturn will begin heading backwards at 23.19 Scorpio, marching slowly--as is his nature--back to the 17th degree. But don’t hold your breath, as it will be 22 July before he gets there and shifts gears once again. When he does, he’ll eventually travel all the way out of Scorpio into Sagittarius--just in time for Christmas!

 

To round out this gear-shifting bunch of planets, Jupiter goes direct again on 6 March at 10.27 Cancer. Like Saturn, Jupiter will eventually head out of his current sign (Cancer, where he’s exalted) and into fixed-fiery Leo on 17 July.

 

Image Credit: Pixabay (CC0)