The reigning need of the day continues to be driven by the Moon in pioneering, inspirational, falldownstairsbecauseit’sfasterthanwalking Aries. This start to the work week may be RAMbunctious, but you can accomplish much. Do your best to get things out the door today and tomorrow, especially if you are pitching something new. By midweek, we will be switching gears significantly, as suggested by

1. Venus leaving dramatic Leo for prissy Virgo on Wednesday (changing the tenor of social expression);
2. Jupiter, planet of expansion (and a key symbol in business) turns retrograde on Thursday, which may hold some ventures and Big Ideas back for a few months (for necessary review and re-tooling);
3. Friday, Saturn, planet of structure and ambition leaves cerebral, people-pleasing, balance-seeking Libra for a three-year trek through the emotionally controlled, cut-to-the chase, pay that balance NOW sign of Scorpio;
4. Mars, planet of action leaves Scorpio for high-flying, opinionated Sagittarius on Saturday;
5. Neptune casts its trademarked rose-colored fog of illusion and confusion through the whole week, as we shall note in events that range from the sublime to the surreal. And here I’m thinking back to some of the weird headlines we saw in late March and mid-April, when similar patterns were in effect.

So now you know what we’ll be talking about this week, and for today, let’s talk about Item #5, since the planetary patterns involved were part of Saturday’s Full Moon. In that chart, Venus was approaching an opposition to Neptune (exact Wednesday at 6:28PM ET); Mars was squaring Neptune (exact next Monday). What does that suggest? Illusion, idealism, fantasy, delusion, spirits of ALL kinds, sacrifice and healing in social expression, arts/women/finance. That’s Venus. For Mars, we can expect news of intangibles, hype, glamour, people too sexy for their shirts, fanaticism and con artists (with the emphasis on “artist”) — and maybe, just maybe, some stories of authentic salvation and genuine compassion.

Neptune is the energy that dissolves whatever it touches. For those of us living in a world of physical reality, dealing with Neptune can be like dealing with fog or quicksand. One hazard is noted in this front page piece on Valium, which apparently was introduced in 1963, at the beginning of the status quo-disrupting Uranus-Pluto cycle (now, at the current Uranus-Pluto square, the Valium plant is being closed). One benefit of Neptune: dreams and visions. We need our dreams to inspire us to reach for realities that do not yet exist in the known physical world.

Another front-page story  — this one illusions on the campaign trail perhaps inspired by Sasha Baron Cohen — is here. And finally, an intriguing “violent outburst” that seems in synch with the explosive potential of Saturday’s Full Moon: an explosion at an acid factory in Japan, with consequences likely to disrupt the status quo. Why? Because the factory is the third-largest manufacturer of super-absorbent polymers, which are used to make disposable diapers. Potential silver lining: landfills probably don’t need more disposable diapers… ; )