Roll with any twists you may encounter in your morning routine. The energy of the day slows down and stabilizes once the Moon becomes engaged in Taurus at 10:16AM ET. Taurus needs to build material security and comfort, and those are your marching orders for the day and most of the weekend.

Take care of shopping on Saturday; the Moon does not go void until 6:06PM ET. Chill and enjoy a few stimulating sensual pleasures until 1:51PM ET on Sunday, when the Moon enters Gemini and invites you to talk about it. Why stimulating? Because that would be one productive way to channel the willful and potentially provocative release suggested by Sunday’s exact meet-up between the Sun and action hero Mars at 21 Gemini.

The build-up to that release may well be felt between now and then, especially if you have a planet or angle at 21 degrees of Virgo, Pisces, Sagittarius and Gemini. If an angle is involved, work it out at the gym, not on a human being. I would not be surprised to hear you’re feeling restless, irritable or seriously motivated. Be careful around steel, including motor vehicles.

When Mars hit my Ascendant last year, it inspired me to take up dance classes after a lapse of some years. When Mars hit my natal Mars a few months ago, I sparked a friend’s de-cluttering of her apartment with a zealous focus. There are plenty of positive applications for Mars! The down side of a Mars transit happens when the release of energy is taken out on the body in the form of an accident or illness — often inflammatory in nature. Thus, it is helpful to know when Mars is active in your unique horoscope. Consult your local astrologer for details.

The other pattern of note this weekend is Saturn’s retrograde movement baaaaaaaaaaaaack into Scorpio on Sunday at 8:38PM ET.  So from now until September 18th, we’ll see an uptick in efforts made to resolve the heavy issues raised by Saturn’s transit through Scorpio which began in October of 2012. Resistance is futile.

Scorpio is concerned with issues of power and control, of building all the way to Heaven and all the way down to Hell.  These depths and heights apply in  matters of sex, death and (other peoples’) money. Saturn in Scorpio forces us to face the nitty-gritty consequences of our highest and basest instincts; we can not look away. Significant headlines about reproductive freedom (or lack thereof), sexual abuse, capital punishment and crushing debt are likely to return with a vengeance. Once Saturn turns direct August 1 and gets back to Sagittarius, Saturn’s controlling agenda will be more focused on collective belief systems, righteous opinion and other forms of mind control, including religion, journalism and education.

If you have a planet or angle at around 29 degrees of Scorpio, my money says you are feeling a squeeze to streamline or else. This is an opportunity to formulate an ambitious reach based on that feeling of lack or loss. It’s another life transit that would be helpful to discuss with your astrologer. Barack Obama (whose Midheaven is 28 degrees of Scorpio), that means you. Sir Tim Hunt, we’ll talk about you in a minute.

And now, the news.

First, an update on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose horoscope we’ve been tracking for a few years now, ever since he was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a chambermaid in a New York hotel. This upset dramatically altered the course of his brilliant career and is an excellent example of a horoscope under pressure from Uranus, Pluto (and Saturn. too).  That pressure is now off, and as noted here some months ago, patterns in his horoscope suggest success and acceptance. Yesterday, as predicted, he was acquitted of charges of pimping. Thank his lucky stars.

Second, Sir Tim Hunt, whose sexist remarks about women scientists caused an uproar earlier this week has resigned his university professorship and inspired a debate in the pages of the New York Times. Let the record show that Sir Hunt — whose horoscope was briefly discussed earlier —  has transiting Saturn exactly square his Sun and opposing his Uranus right now. For Sir Hunt, it’s time to cut his losses and regroup. His expansive and robust Mars-Jupiter opposition is being hit by Uranus and Pluto, suggesting the potential for, among other things, an upset to the status quo involving his need for earthy, practical, no-nonsense action.

Sir Hunt does not always say stupid things. In April he made headlines in India:

SRINAGAR: Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt today said any scientist can win a Nobel Prize if he or she is ready to work hard and persevere with research in the chosen field of study.

“Anyone can win the Nobel Prize if the scientist works hard on his research subject,” Hunt told young students, research scholars and faculty members at Kashmir University here.

Oh, if only he actually had said “his or her”…

Meanwhile, Neptune. It refers to drugs, fraud, music, film, spirits and oceans, for starters. Look at the headlines — filled with such stories. Actors Christopher Lee and Ron Moody passed away, as did jazz great Ornette Coleman. In New York, a psychic is behind bars after taking over $700,000 from a man who wished to be “reunited” with an unrequited love, even when it turned out that the love interest had died.

I once went to a storefront “psychic” as a research project. As the linked article notes, most of the time these storefronts are empty. How do they make a living with such a high overhead, when their advertised walk-in fees are five or ten dollars? I had to find out for myself.

The psychic made some valid observations. But there was so more she could do to help me, she said. And this involved potions and herbs she could gather — blah blah blah — to break spells and such — for additional — heftier — fees. I was absolutely fascinated. And I said thanks, but no thanks, and left, with my wallet intact.

Speaking of possible deceptions, have you heard about Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who has been accused by her parents of misrepresenting herself as an African-American? It raises an interesting question about unconventional ego-identity (thank you, freaky Uranus in me-me-me Aries), doesn’t it?  Because if Caitlyn Jenner and others like her can convincingly and credibly identify as female despite having been born with a Y chromosome, might I declare myself Hispanic (as Jeb Bush once did) despite my English-Italian-Russian genes? Why or why not?

Meanwhile, the latest leak of the so fabulous that we’re not going to let anyone read it until it gets signed even though it will impact everyone Trans-Pacific Partnership is out. This section pertains to drug companies and public health. You have heard about the TPP, yes?

Update: for those who watched yesterday’s linked video of John Oliver railing about how bail is set in our criminal justice system, note that country singer Randy Howard was killed yesterday by a bounty hunter….

…while in Zimbabwe, a celebrated bounty hunter of another sort was crushed to death by a baby elephant. That’s your schadenfreude for the weekend.

Thank you for reading this forecast.