Mars square Saturn ℞ in Aries · Sun square Uranus in Gemini

The headline today is Mars in Cancer squaring retrograde Saturn in Aries, both fallen, both stumbling in signs that don't suit them — but Mars receives Saturn by domicile, which changes the character of the fight considerably. Saturn is squaring from Mars's own house, so Mars can't quite refuse the confrontation, but neither can it be ambushed. What could have been a nasty, grinding aspect between two debilitated malefics reads more like an argument between people who share a lease: real friction, but nobody's leaving. The applying orb of just over a degree means the next three or four days carry the weight of this, not just today.

Add to that the separating Sun-Uranus square, which has mostly already discharged whatever it was going to — a jolt from earlier in the week whose aftermath you're still cataloguing. I wouldn't overread it now.

Mercury is combust in its own domicile, which is one of those conditions that classical writers argue about endlessly. My own view: the domicile placement protects the intelligence even as the Sun burns off its outward expression. You know what you think; you may not manage to say it well. Venus, meanwhile, is quietly excellent in Libra, and I notice I keep wanting to skip past her because nothing dramatic is happening there — but a benefic in domicile, dignified and unafflicted, is doing steady work in the background of the chart whether or not it makes headlines.

The Moon has just entered Aries and forms a mutual reception with Mars, which sharpens the Mars-Saturn square rather than easing it — the Moon is now a live participant. She passes through the Wall mansion, good for study and for keeping one's own counsel.

The Full Moon is nearly exact. And the South Node sits on Regulus: an old honor being undone, or set down. That one I'll let stand as it is.