“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum

Although we may begin the day with a feeling of strength, we will need to let it go and allow the questions and challenges to gently roll while staying focused on a broader perspective. The Moon goes void-of-course this morning at 9:04 AM PST. Emotions are on edge, ahead of tomorrow morning’s New Moon (7:05 AM PST 4° Sagittarius). Faith is needed if we have any hope of carrying yesterday’s foundational activity forward into a new round initiated by the New Moon. There may be a number of rash proposals to sort through, born out of frustration and a lack of control. The blind corner we’re turning is particularly unnerving today.

THE WEEK AHEAD: This week challenges us to focus on finding our internal sense of direction and stability. We gain only a few clues from Tuesday’s potent New Moon (7:05 AM PST 4° Sagittarius) of how to navigate towards a more safe and secure position. In fact, the New Moon’s quincunx to Uranus suggests that we are turning a blind corner which may obscure the significant effort that will be demanded. Faith is required (along with an internal navigation system) in order to take advantage of the newly forming stability in the atmosphere. Neptune stations direct, providing the promise of increased faith, inspiration, creativity — but also a ‘fuzzy’ sense of direction and an increasingly foggy atmosphere. We may take some solace in a feeling of camaraderie and group efforts of various kinds. However, there are some dips in the road and discouragement is a significant factor when the demands seem to become oppressive. However, by focusing on collaboration and group efforts — something larger than ourselves — discouragement fades. We find ways to hold tightly to optimism despite the developing challenges and demands indicated by Jupiter’s arrival in Capricorn next Monday. We seem to have an aversion to any overt suggestions that we should hunker down for a long haul. Even so, we seem to be gently guided towards doing just that through a growing interest in working collaboratively within a larger group towards a greater purpose of some kind.

ASTROLOGICAL SNAPSHOT

Today is the 336th day of 2019
20 days until the winter solstice
79 days until Mercury Retrograde
30 days until 2020

Sun is in Sagittarius
Moon is in Aquarius
Mercury is in Scorpio
Venus is in Capricorn
Mars is in Scorpio
Jupiter is in Sagittarius
Saturn is in Capricorn
Uranus is retrograde in Taurus
Neptune is in Pisces
Pluto is in Capricorn
Chiron is retrograde in Aries