Mercury opposition Saturn ℞ in Aries · Venus square Pluto ℞ in Aquarius

The headline today is Mercury opposite retrograde Saturn, and I want to say straightaway that it is not the flat obstruction it looks like on paper. Saturn receives Mercury by exaltation, which means the old man is at least willing to hear the messenger out. Expect a hard conversation, a correction, a critique that lands, but one you can actually use. Mercury applying to sextile Jupiter over the next two days sweetens the ledger further: something said or written under Saturn's edit ripens into something workable by Sunday.

Venus in her detriment squaring retrograde Pluto is the other fast aspect worth naming, and here I am less inclined to soften. Venus in Scorpio already works against her grain; add a Plutonic square and you get the kind of desire that argues with itself, jealousies surfacing under the guise of honesty. It is separating, so the worst may already have been said, but the residue lingers.

The Moon ingressed into Capricorn before dawn UTC and sits in the Basket mansion, which is genuinely apt for the day's Mercury-Saturn work: sorting the useful from the chaff, letting the wind carry off what does not hold weight. She is in detriment here but in mixed reception with Mars in Cancer (himself in fall), so the two afflicted planets prop each other up, each borrowing the other's dignity. A functional arrangement between two limping parties. I want to revise what I said about Mercury-Saturn slightly in light of this: the correction that lands today may not come from an authority figure at all but from a peer doing exactly this sorting work.

The South Node is still within a degree of Regulus, and I will not pretend that is minor. Something honored in the Leo house of your chart is being asked to step down from its throne. The Moon's square to Neptune this morning was the softest note in an otherwise dry sky.