Sagittarius season tends to awaken imagery like: laughing so hard tears are running down your face, getting stupid drunk or getting drunk on stupid, philosophical pondering, sitting for long plane rides and checking passports, the gracious grandparents or the rich aunt, gifts and treasures and other things to add to the dragon hoard, holding onto faith and bonfires in the cold, leaping from high places, overextending or oversharing or blowing it all out of proportion for your benefit or embarrassment. It's typically a season of teaching and learning and exploring…
Though, this is the second year that transits to Sagittarius have been squared by Saturn in Pisces and now Jupiter is joining to create a t-square by opposing the Sun and Mercury (currently in its preshadow) in Sagittarius. And while it all feels oh so serious, in this moment I am laughing my ass off because the song by The Backyardigans, Into the Thick of It, was just dumped into my brain. If we treat the season like this, we would be indulging in the very Sagittarian way of being completely unserious even amidst great turmoil. I couldn’t remember the lyrics until I listened to the song just now and it goes:
Into the thick of it. Ugh!
We're tramping through the bush.
On and on we push. Into the thick of it,
But we can't see where we're going.
We've made a stellar start.
To find the jungle's heart.
But all we'll find is nothing,
If we can't see where we're going!
The jungle's kind of tricky,
The path is never straight,
And sometimes there's no path at all
Which makes it hard to navigate.
Although the jungle's thick,
We're moving through it quick.
But that won't do us any good
If we're going around in circles.
Dawg, that was straight channeled from the divine because how else might we describe this cranked and charged mutable T-square, double retrograde season. It is sure to be deeply fucking funny and also like treading through quick sand with a blindfold on. I can’t wait! (also please listen to the song, nothing compares to the horribly sharp “on and on we push” and frankly, it's part of the ambiance of this article)
Mercury retrograde begins on November 25th stationing at 22º Sagittarius, not stationing direct until December 15th at 6º a few hours after the Full Moon in Gemini perfects. While we’re in the thick of it (hehe, haha) Mars will station retrograde at 6º Leo on December 6th. Before getting to Mars, I want to first touch on a few aspects that Mercury has already hit in the preshadow period (November 7th-24th) that will be coming back again to form the story that we’re working with and is ultimately helping us to understand what this T-square is all about. Here’s what I think we should pay attention to:
Mercury squared Saturn on November 12th, it is returning to square it again on December 6th (also coinciding with the Mars retrograde station!), and for a final time on December 27th after Mercury has stationed direct.
Mercury opposed Jupiter on November 18th, is returning to an opposition again on December 4th while retrograde, and for a final time on December 26th after Mercury has stationed direct.
Mercury is one of those planets that, because it’s so quick, the events of the exact degree or day that these aspects return are so specifically relevant to the original aspect. I always keep a detailed log of events of the pre-shadow, retrograde, and post shadow– it’s such an interesting way to illustrate the before/during/after and see the evidence of some shift made within you and within the house Mercury transits. This year, it’s these specific aspects that will be important to zoom in on.
As for what these aspects could represent, you may be noticing that there’s such an impasse, a tangled web of things, in the areas of Sagittarius-Gemini-Pisces and that’s probably because Mercury and Jupiter are mutually receiving one another (From November 2nd through January 8th) and Jupiter also happens to be ruling Saturn in Pisces. Traditional astrologers tend to refer to mutual reception as a very positive thing, one that brings dignity to otherwise struggling and under resourced planets– we’ve all been feeling Jupiter’s detriment this year, resulting in either overproduction or analysis paralysis– and while I think Mercury’s aid is helping us harness Jupiter in Gemini, Saturn’s brick wall of limitation and the general confusing inquisitive nature of a pre-retrograde (also detriment) Mercury is complicating things. Mercury’s retrograde is very welcome, sometimes we just need to turn our heads a bit to see that a brick wall can still be scaled. We can look forward to both the rebirth of Mercury at the cazimi on December 5th (it will be at 14º Sagittarius) and the direct station on the 15th.
*ALSO, before moving on from the returning mutable madness, I wanted to mention: we have our second Jupiter-Saturn square on December 24th. The first one was on August 19th when Saturn was retrograde and Jupiter was direct during our last crazy t-square-retrograde season. After the second aspect on the 24th, Jupiter and Saturn will square for the final time (in cardinal signs) on June 15th 2025. Very relevant to ongoing stories and the current season– comfort zones be gone! Here’s a brief excerpt from the article I wrote a few months ago on this aspect:
When asking clients what Jupiter-Saturn squares have signified in their own lives, the response has overwhelmingly been "this was a big turning point" and it has surprisingly resulted in greater optimism about the upcoming square on August 19th. While reflecting on this myself, I felt a funny resonance with the movie High School Musical (stay with me). Jupiter-Saturn squares are significant breaks in the status quo. High School Musical encapsulates all that this can bring within our personal lives: trying something very new, feeling judgement or pressure to stay within an old limitation that is consistent with what was previously believed or accepted, and overall, growth from challenging the brick wall of status quo whether that be social, financial, or otherwise. It's no wonder that these squares signify major personal turning points. After making this correlation, I looked up the chart of the movie and of course, it was released between the two Jupiter-Saturn squares that perfected in 2005 and 2006 when Saturn was in Leo and Jupiter in Scorpio.
This is also the same article where I made the correlation between the last Jupiter-Saturn square in 2015-2016 and Trump being elected as president…. definitely worth a read, the pattern is eerie.
Moving on: Mars has been in its preshadow since October 5th which has brought up a variety of Martian related dilemmas: frustration, anger, lack of motivation, arguments with ourselves and others, sexual discourse, feminine rage, not knowing what to physically do about a matter that feels exceedingly agitating or urgent– pre-shadow Mars is where we seem to be running in place and simultaneously running out of speed and fuel. Once it stations retrograde, we begin the internal alchemical process of truly unpacking all that has bothered us previously. This is a transit, in signs ruled by the luminaries, that will force us to consider family wounds, identity crises, creative blockages, the desire to be seen, the caretaker’s exhaustion, emotional labor, anger yet to be released, as well as just solely Mars related issues regarding physical activity, mental and physical illness, and the like. These are very emotional signs, Leo and Cancer. They tell us a lot about who we are and what we need. If we are unsure of these things we feel lost and justifiably upset, it’s like losing our center. Think about all that has come up in the pre-shadow, the actual retrograde is a time where we begin to slow down enough to hear what has otherwise been locked up somewhere. This is where we begin to find the instructions for what we can do next.
Here’s a brief timeline of what we’ve been dealing with so far and what is to come:
Mars ingressed Cancer on September 4th 2024, hit its pre-shadow at 17º Cancer on October 5th, opposed Pluto on November 3rd, ingressed Leo shortly after also on the 3rd.
Now, Mars stations retrograde in Leo on December 6th, opposes Pluto for the second time on January 2rd, re-enters Cancer on January 7th 2025, stations direct on February 23rd, re-enters Leo on April 17th, opposes Pluto for the third and final time on April 26th, and finally clears its station degree of 6º Leo on May 3rd 2025.
Mars opposing Pluto and both planetary cycles generally have followed the U.S. Presidential Election closely, it is certainly something to recall and pay attention to around these second and third Mars-Pluto aspects– as well as anything that was and will be happening personally on each hit.
Something else that I’ve been reluctant to talk about, simply because, like, isn’t there enough already going on!?! Is the upcoming Venus retrograde through Pisces and Aries that will take place in the post-Mars retrograde shadow. Venus stations rx at 10º Aries on March 1st and direct at 24º Pisces on April 12th and the Venus pre-shadow begins on January 27th when we’re already IN THE THICK of Mars retrograde……
This is something that I find relevant to the current season ahead of us as Venus will oppose Mars retrograde on December 12th, this is the peak of the cycle that began at the Venus-Mars-Pluto conjunction back in February of this year, I wrote about that here. We can see that Venus, Mars, and Pluto are all very tied up together for the next 6 months (and kind of have already been). Whatever revelations and adjustments are made during Mars retrograde will likely trigger and activate the ones made during 2025’s Venus retrograde and honestly, I’m here for it. Let all the pain and love and everything in between change us thoroughly. It's something to keep in the back of our minds, any Martian shifts made will be informing the upcoming Venus story.
2025 is a very different year, we may first be reviewing a lot of ancient stuff, but in the second half of the year we are beginning many new cycles and transits– especially thinking of the Saturn-Neptune ingress and conjunction in Aries, the Jupiter ingress to Cancer, as well as the first Uranus ingress to Gemini. It’s a new world order, baby.
This is a season to try and stay grounded and as regulated as possible, there is a lot to chew on.
Your friendly neighborhood astrologer,
Katie
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