The Stars This Week — March 7th v. 2/9

Mercury-Uranus conjunction: human ingenuity on parade

One of the distinctive traits of the human race is our adaptability.  We aren’t the fastest animal on the planet and we aren’t the strongest, but our brains are sufficiently developed that we can adapt fairly quickly to changing circumstances.  That adaptability has fostered an enlargement of our brains to a point where we have reached a positive feedback loop: larger brains leads to more adaptive skills, which leads to still larger brains. 

The invention of computers and other new forms of information technology has presented the human species will yet another adaptive challenge.  As the speed of communication accelerates, we need to adapt to a much faster and fragmented world.  Traditions may still be respected and daily routines still followed, but there is now an greater open-endedness to our lives as technology recasts the contours of the human experience.  E-mail, cell phones, and the various forms of social networking increase the density of our communication and re-orient our mental framework towards a more rapid and shorter style of interaction.  Multi-tasking increasingly seems to be the necessary adaptive behaviour in this wired world. While this quick and flexible mental approach undoubtedly has its place, it has recently come under scrutiny since evidence suggests that attention spans are shrinking, especially in the young.  The result is that we may be better equipped for shorter, quicker tasks but our distracted attention makes it more difficult to concentrate for longer stretches and perform ‘higher’ intellectual functions. 

The reason for this long-winded introduction is that the astrological highlight this week embodies much of the energy reflected in this technological revolution as Mercury conjoins Uranus in the sign of Pisces. Mercury is the planet that symbolizes intelligence, communication, analysis and dexterity.  Mercury is a rational and logical influence in our lives and directs our efforts toward solving problems and sharing our ideas and perceptions with others.  Uranus represents originality and freedom and is closely associated with creativity, technology and invention.  The combination of these two planets this week will underline the importance of quick thinking and making snap judgments and developing new solutions to age-old problems.  Since no two planets reflect this notion of technologically-driven multi-tasking quite as well as Mercury and Uranus, this may be a good time for investing in a new phone or computer or broadening your horizons to include more of the wired world into your daily life. 

What’s intriguing about this Mercury-Uranus conjunction is that it occurs in close aspect with Neptune and Rahu.  We talked about Rahu last week and while it definitely has its dark side, it also tends towards innovative thinking and searching out new possibilities.  Amid all this dry, rational innovation, however, the week will also feature a softening influence from visionary Neptune.  Neptune concerns itself with human ideals and the imagination and can reflect a heightened sensitivity to the feelings of others.  When Neptune is prominent, it often fuels an interest in the highest human ideals and may manifest in the form of artistic or sacred pursuits.  If Mercury calculates and analyzes, and Uranus accelerates and breaks free, Neptune dreams and inspires. 

So the influence of Neptune this week may provide a very nice imaginative counterbalance to the ingenuity and rationality of Mercury and Uranus.   As a result, communication and thinking processes may be infused with insight, intuition and vision.  Where Mercury-Uranus creates epiphanies and lightning-quick insights, Neptune invites revelations that inspire us to new heights in the aesthetic and spiritual realms.  This is therefore a fairly rare alignment of planets that should greatly enhance any new projects or tasks begun this week, especially if they are in the fields of communication or technology.

As with all planetary patterns, there is a risk that the more negative sides may manifest especially in people whose horoscopes may be afflicted at the moment.  We should therefore be careful about trying to do too much at once as our multi-tasking efforts may produce confusion, impatience and nervousness .  We may feel so stimulated by all these brilliant ideas and experiences around us that we neglect the more down-to-earth and mundane areas of life.  Even Steve Jobs has to take out the garbage and do the laundry.   The strong Uranian emphasis here may also represent a reluctance to compromise as we fall in love with the originality of own ideas or suffer the ‘too clever by half’ syndrome where solutions are too complex to be truly effective.  This is one of the common pitfalls when Mercury’s rationality is combined with Uranus’ need for speed.  We can become so absorbed by the process of thinking that we block out other types of perception and experience.  Thinking too much is therefore a real possibility this week, especially in at the expense of the emotions and the senses.   Insight and logic may be able to discover a fascinating new process to produce wine more cheaply, but rationality has no say in the enjoyment one gets from actually drinking it.  But no doubt a Mercury-Uranus person would figure out a way to account for the genetic variations in human taste buds and come up with even tastier vintages that better fit our biological uniqueness.  Here’s to human ingenuity!

Have a great week,
Chris