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Horoscope: November 11 to 17, 2019
Astrologer Pam Younghans writes this weekly astrological journal based on planetary influences, and offers perspectives and insights to assist you in making the best use of current energies. This column is not intended as prediction. Your own experience will be more specifically defined by transits to your personal chart.
Highlighted Aspects for This Week
All times listed are Pacific Standard Time. For Eastern Time, add 3 hours. For Greenwich Mean Time, add 8 hours.
MON: Mercury transit of the Sun
TUE: Full Moon 5:34 a.m. PST, Mars sextile Jupiter, Mercury sesquiquadrate Chiron
WED: Mercury sextile Saturn, Sun sextile Pluto, Mercury trine Neptune
THU: Venus square Neptune
FRI: Ceres enters Capricorn
SAT: Venus sesquiquadrate Uranus
SUN: Venus trine Chiron
FROM OUR EARTHLY PERSPECTIVE, Mercury and the Sun align about six times every year—three times when Mercury is moving direct, and three times when Mercury is retrograde. But it is much more rare to have an actual Mercury transit of the Sun, which is when Mercury passes directly in front of the solar disk.
There will be only 13 Mercury transits of the Sun in the 21st century, and one of them is tomorrow (Monday, November 11). Our last experience of this phenomenon was fairly recent, on May 9, 2016, but the next will not be until November 13, 2032.
THIS MORE PRECISE alignment of the two planets highlights the often subtle effects of a regular Sun-Mercury conjunction. Usually, we would simply forecast that communications and information would gain importance on the day of the alignment, and that we would find ourselves drawn to writing, recording, and planning according to personal agendas. But, with Monday's transit, communications potentially have a greater, longer-term impact, and with Mercury in Scorpio, information is likely revealed that has profound effect. Adding to this is the fact that Mercury is now retrograde, which draws us more deeply into our own ruminations about what we are now ready to release, that has been holding us back in some way.
This transit is an opportunity for a mental reset, to see the truth about a situation, and to receive inspirations and realizations that we may not have accessed before. On the down side, it may magnify nervous mental energy, especially if we're already fretting over one thing or another. For that reason, we want to remember to breathe, release, allow, and remind ourselves that there is A Plan In Effect.
ADDING to the impact of the Sun-Mercury conjunction, it is activating the influence of a fixed star called "North Scale." According to astrologer Roderick Kidston, this star is said to carry the energy of the ancient Egyptian goddess Maat, who personified truth, justice, and cosmic order.
As the Sun, Mercury, and North Scale align at 19° Scorpio on Monday, the search for truth deepens on many levels, potentially leading us to life-changing realizations.
Mercury's transit of the Sun will begin at 4:35 a.m. PST and will last about 6 hours from start to finish.
OUR FULL MOON on Tuesday occurs at 5:34 a.m. PST, when the Moon is at 19°51? Taurus. You may recall that this lunar cycle began with a very Uranian New Moon on October 27, indicating that the month ahead would see unexpected developments that could set us off balance and require us to look at some area of our lives in a new way.
A Full Moon is always a time of completion and reckoning, when we come to terms or bring to fruition all that has transpired since the New Moon. It can also be a time of illumination, given that the Moon is at the brightest phase of its cycle.
AT THE TIME of this lunation, the Sun and Mercury are separated by only two degrees, so we can expect more revelations and significant communications to take place. And, the Moon is at the same degree as the asteroid Vesta, which represents devotion and service, especially of a spiritual nature. Astrologer Demetra George has written that when the Moon and Vesta align, our capacity for "emotional rapport and sympathetic understanding" is increased.
Supporting a harmonious unfolding of events—and a positive resolution to the issues that have set us off balance in the past two weeks—the Full Moon is trine Pluto and Saturn, and in sextile aspect to Neptune. These aspects will help us focus our intentions, open our hearts, and do the work that needs to be done to achieve successful outcomes.
THROUGHOUT this week and next, the planet Jupiter is in alignment with the Galactic Center (GC), which is currently at about 27°05? Sagittarius. Philip Sedgwick, the acknowledged expert on the GC and many other cosmic realities, tells us when we connect with the GC, we have "instant access to a download of Divine Insight." The access is so immediate, our only job is to "clear our mental decks, set the agenda and then do the hardest part of any spiritual exercise: Listen."
You may have already been feeling this alignment building over the past week or more, since Jupiter is currently less than two degrees from that point and has already been amplifying its energies. According to Mr. Sedgwick, "physical sensations often accompany the flow of information: itching scalp, burning in the palms, gurgling stomach, heat in the back of the neck or at the base of the spine, pressure on the temples of the head and overall tingling. Sometimes a light-headed feeling, like that experienced after consuming an excessive amount of sugar or caffeine."
THERE IS A CHALLENGE involved in this download of brilliant insight: The GC can provides us with information that is quite advanced, requiring that we let go of existing concepts and perspectives, a process that is hard for most of us. But how synchronistic, that at the same time Jupiter is conjunct the GC, we have the Mercury transit of the Sun in Scorpio to help us purge outdated thinking patterns.
Astrologer Melanie Reinhart shares that when the GC is stimulated by a transiting planet such as Jupiter, "A process of awakening is initiated. A time of accelerated spiritual development occurs, with its attendant life challenges which may include rapid change, separations, crisis, illness and stress as outmoded ideas are released."
She continues:
"Expect a major ‘life-review’ of a very particular kind. Density, opaqueness and blockages within the mind and the soul are being spun off, as in a centrifuge. This is a perhaps useful image for the Galactic Centre—a centrifuge—where everything is spun away from the dark centre, revealing an empty space.
"This ‘empty space’ is where we are receptive to Grace, and like the black holes said to reside at the core of the galaxy, it generates the substance which will birth the new, individually and collectively."
These are profound times, indeed.
*****
IF YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK: If you choose to take advantage of the opportunity, your journey takes you to new spiritual heights and psychological depths this year. You have the capacity to explore the truth of your being, to purge unwanted emotional patterns and attitudes, and to release them fully from your energy field, so that they no longer limit your progress. The door is unlocked, but it is up to you to open the door and walk through it. On the other side is a more expanded understanding of your purpose and your place in the universe. (Solar Return Sun sextile Saturn, trine Neptune, sextile Pluto)
For previous weeks of the Astrological Journal, click here.
About the Author
Pam Younghans is a professional astrologer, editor, and writer. She lives in a log home northeast of Seattle, Washington with her beloved animal companions. She has been interpreting charts professionally for over 25 years. If you are interested in an astrology reading, e-mail
