Venus Verticordia*, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Mercury is nearing a conjunction with Neptune that will be exact on Friday but will remain in effect for the next few days. Mercury represents the thought function, communication and the manner in which we process our experiences. Neptune is the Great Dissolver, the planet of mystery, mysticism and true spirituality. With Neptune present we face the fact that life more than mere physical reality, and we long to ascend to an experience of the divine.

The conjunction can bring out the best of the two planets or the worst, there is more of a choice with the conjunction than the hard angle aspects (squares and oppositions) which tend to bring out the more negative aspects of the planets involved. Neptune combined with Mercury confers creativity as we expand our ordinary awareness and intellect to channel that divine experience into music, art and writing. Life becomes more imaginative, more mysterious. The conjunction of Neptune and Mercury also tends to obscure what we usually think of as reality and confuse the issue as we reach for the ideal image rather than see what is right in front of us. There can be confusion, illusion and delusion, as well as fabrication and lies.

On Sunday Venus enters Pisces, the sign ruled by Neptune, extending this Neptunian period and bringing a little more romance into our lives. With Venus in Pisces life is a little more beautiful and a little more harmonious as the aesthetics of Venus find expression through the Pisces desire for a divine experience. Compassion (Pisces) between people (Venus) is another hallmark of the Venus/Pisces experience. With Venus entering Pisces, the electrical energy of the past couple of Uranian weeks will begin to smooth out and the peaceful harmony of Venus/Pisces could help to soften things as we move towards the second stage of the Saturn/Neptune opposition.

*Venus Verticordia, the “Changer of Hearts”