Today Mercury stations retrograde at 26º Aquarius, and it will station direct at 11º Aquarius on February 21. Mercury retrograde periods are a time of reflection and review, particularly in terms of communication, the transmission of ideas, how we access and process information, how we articulate our perspectives, as well as the movements of material goods and travel. During these periods, things often do not go according to plan. It is best to use this time to read and re-read, take the time to develop multiple possible plans and contingencies, holding off making final decisions or determinations—because you very likely will not have all the information that you need in order to come to such conclusions—and practice listening more closely, especially when miscommunication happens. Look to the area of your chart occupied by Aquarius to determine what part of your life is potentially undergoing review. During this retrograde cycle, Mercury will make a clarifying conjunction with the Sun on February 8, a challenging square with Mars in Taurus on February 10, a supportive conjunction with Venus on February 13, and an affirming conjunction with Jupiter on February 14. While we won’t fully gather or understand all the details of this retrograde until after Mercury stations direct, this period from February 13-14 when Mercury is enclosed by the benefics could describe stumbling into helpful conversations or supportive connections, even if we don’t yet fully understand how we got there or what their influence will be.
 
For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021, available for immediate download.
 
[Image reads MERCURY STATIONS RETROGRADE AT 26º AQUARIUS 30 January 2021 in gray letters on a dark purple background]

​Today Mars will make a conjunction with Uranus, both at 6º. This conjunction comes a week after the square between Saturn and Mars, just three days after Jupiter makes an overcoming square to Uranus, and a month before the first Saturn/Uranus square—all big stories for the year that cut around and through one another. Jupiter is still within one degree of the square with Uranus at the time of its conjunction with Mars, offering immense affirmation to this conjunction and potentially enlarging whatever force Mars and Uranus will describe. Separating from the restrictions and limitations of Saturn, Mars encounters Uranus that demands breaking away from the establishment. Mars is in its antithesis or detriment in Taurus, a place as far from its home in Scorpio as it can be. In Taurus, it must make use of unfamiliar resources. Fixed earth is slow, sustained, and deliberate, which can be challenging for assertive and impulsive Mars. Yet Uranus, the planet of upheaval, disruption, and revolutionary change is in a long process of breaking up sedimented and static patterns in whatever area of our charts are occupied by Taurus. The conjunction with Mars can be like setting the charge to a landmine or a match thrown into explosive materials. The assertive, impulse qualities of Mars may be propelled by Uranus’ drive and amplified by the separating square from Jupiter. Expect upheaval perhaps moving faster than it should. We may not even fully recognize or understand the implications of this conjunction until November 17 when Mars will oppose Uranus from Scorpio, in its domicile and strength. This is how a combustion of radical change in a fixed earth sign can unfold—with longer, slower implications that are nevertheless irrevocable in their effects.
 
For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021, available for immediate download.
 
[Image reads MARS CONJUNCT URANUS 20 January 2021 in violet letters on a dark red background]

​Today Jupiter in Aquarius will make a superior square to Uranus in Taurus—both at 6º. Jupiter is the planet of growth, expansion, and abundance, coherence and the power to affirm. Uranus is the planet of revolutionary change, often in the forms of disruption and upheaval. Today and the days surrounding this aspect could hold a wave of potential or promise for embodying radically new possibilities, for moving in revolutionary relationships to our own bodies, our own pleasures, and one another. In the midst of so much social and political upheaval—particularly in the United States where I live—it matters what revolutionary movements we encourage to grow and where we are rooting such movements. You might take time to observe: what impulses and desires are being magnified, amplified, and affirmed? What kinds of worlds could such longings bring into being? Listen to the longings of your body for what kinds of change are necessary. It may be, in fact, that the series of squares between Saturn and Uranus and the hard aspects between Saturn and Mars throughout this year are in some way reacting to this burst of affirming revolutionary potential that we receive as Jupiter makes this square with Uranus. Notice what new possibilities feel affirmed or supported right now, and see if you can hold onto this belief in what is possible as we move through the more challenging aspects between Uranus, Saturn, and Mars throughout the rest of this year.
 
For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021, available for immediate download.
 
[Image reads JUPITER SQUARE URANUS in bright yellow letters on a dark gold background]

I am so excited about this event!
COMING 5 FEBRUARY 2021:
Fridays for the Future - Monthly Virtual Movement Gathering
sponsored by
Livable Futures and FLUX + FLOW : Dance and Movement Center

Michael J. Morris will guide us in Witchdancing, a Butoh-based movement ritual practice developed from their own ongoing practices in both witchcraft and Butoh, and inspired by the work of Alkistis Dimech, Tatsumi Hijikata, Kazuo Ohno, Anna Halprin, and Keith Hennessy. This practice asks: what if a dance is also a spell with which we conjure our bodies and the worlds in which they live? In Witchdancing, we move through a continuous series of images, qualities, and states, engaging in a metamorphosis of the body. The movement is improvisational and requires no previous dance experience. The practice will be supported by an original soundscore by Moxy Martinez.
5 February 2021
5:00-6:30pm EST on Zoom
Donation based workshop: As participants in reparative justice, we offer all our workshops free of charge for BIPOC and by donation for others.
Register here: https://www.flux-flow.com/events/2021/2/5/fridays-for-the-future-michael-j-morriswww.flux-flow.com/events/2021/2/5/fridays-for-the-future-michael-j-morris

Throughout 2021, Mars will be making a series of hard aspects with Saturn: a square, an opposition, and another square. Today Mars in Taurus is making an exact square with Saturn in Aquarius. Hard aspects between Mars and Saturn were the most challenging aspects in ancient astrology. Saturn restricts and refuses, whereas Mars charges into combat, intent on severing and separating, the aggressive drive to take action and see results. Mars pushes for movement and momentum, whereas Saturn holds tightly to slowness and restraint. Mars and Saturn made two squares with one another in 2020 while Mars was in Aries and Saturn was in Capricorn—both in their own domiciles—but now Mars is in its antithesis or detriment in Taurus, a weakened position by sign as it is overcome by Saturn in its second domicile of Aquarius. Already fixed earthly Taurus challenges Mars to slow down and attend to material needs of the body. This could describe a prohibition on action, a refusal of forward motion or momentum, and the exhaustion that comes when we try to move through an immovable barrier. If there are actions you are trying to take or movements you are working to mobilize, expect to encounter resistance or refusal that has the potential to exhaust already limited or depleted resources. What if you instead moved at the pace of land and bones, the earth beneath your feet and flesh? This Mars/Saturn story will continue to unfold through the opposition in November, so build up your resources for challenges that are yet to come.

For more about the astrology of the year, check out my Astrology Guide for 2021.