Trick or treat!

If you’re looking for something scary this Halloween, be advised that planetary patterns favor the weird and wacky over ghouls and goblins. The Moon is still in Aquarius, which favors the unconventional. If you haven’t figured out what costume to wear, a helpful boost to the Moon from Uranus may spark your imagination before you head for the office. Oh go ahead, wear something fun to work — you know you want to. I’m wearing my native costume.

Whatever you’re wearing, keep putting the Aquarian networking potential to good use, aided and abetted by three cooperative connections that will be exact on Saturday: between Mercury and Jupiter; Venus and Pluto; Mars and Neptune. These suggest inspired communication and thought processes, some of which may be quite magical. A sexy spin, perhaps, or something equally spellbinding. Let’s hope you’re the one casting and not the other way around.

The Moon goes void on a bit of a bump at 2:22AM ET Saturday, on a challenge from “wet blanket Saturn”.  Moon doesn’t enter Pisces until 12:37PM ET, so feel free to sleep in and chill. Avoid impulse purchases during the void.

Don’t forget to set your clocks back before you go to sleep on Saturday; Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday morning.  The Pisces Moon favors the soulful, the artsy and compassionate; plan your day accordingly. A cooperative connection between the Sun and Pluto favors power and regeneration, which can be a good thing, depending on one’s agenda. Power can be used for good and not-so-good, doncha’ know. The planets have no say in these matters, but people do.

You can drift into the office on Monday, as the Moon will be void from 4:05AM to 1:53PM ET. The mood should shift noticeably when the Moon enters Aries in the afternoon.

And now, the news.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has a birthday on Saturday. And yesterday he published an essay yesterday acknowledging that he is gay and very proud of it, thank you very much. Mr. Cook is a Scorpio with Moon in pioneering Aries. Without an exact birthtime, we don’t have the exact degree of the Moon, but given the timing of the announcement, it could be between 11 and 14 degrees of Aries, and thus being supercharged by the Uranus-Pluto square, suggesting an upset and/or empowerment. This Moon is part of a tense T-Square pattern in his horoscope — between Saturn at 13 Capricorn and Mars at 16 Cancer, suggesting, among other things, the potential for extraordinary drive and discipline. Mars and Saturn have also been under high tension, suggested by contact with Uranus and Pluto — and this will continue into next year.

Interesting to note that Mr. Cook’s Scorpio Sun is tightly conjunct nebulous Neptune, suggesting among other things, a visionary potential, empathy, and also that ego identity issues may be rather bewildering.  You can’t tell from a horoscope if someone is male or female, but you can tell if that person may struggle with issues of self-determination, including sexual expression. I once worked with a client who was transitioning from male to female, and the timing of her public declaration of her gender identity, name change, projected hormone treatments, etc., were perfectly in synch with patterns in her horoscope. It made perfect sense, and my client found it very reassuring to learn how planetary patterns validated her struggle and decision to change.

In other news, a drama perfectly reflecting the determination of one individual (Uranus in Aries) to defy the Established Order (Pluto in Capricorn) is going on way up in Maine, as nurse Kaci Hickox rebels against the state’s efforts to enforce a 21-day quarantine since she returned from West Africa. Meanwhile, in the NYT Sunday Magazine you’ll find a harrowing and poignant account penned by journalist Theo Padnos about being kidnapped and held captive in Syria.

Planetary patterns are relatively quiet now, but as we get closer to November 10th, headlines are sure to become volatile, as Mars comes into contact with Uranus and Pluto. Not only that, but on December 15th, we’ll have the sixth of the seven exact squares between Uranus and Pluto. So it made sense that another missive from The Hathors was delivered via sound healer Tom Kenyon yesterday, giving us a heads up. When was the last missive sent? On March 26th, a few weeks before the fifth exact square. I am fascinated by their consistent sense of timing, as noted in this forecast from last December.

Whoever or whatever The Hathors are, what they have to say about climate change, government/institutional breakdowns & breakthroughs — and especially the crisis in spiritual evolution and consciousness that we face collectively on Planet Earth — is mirrored by the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square and other significant alignments, etc., etc.  What they als0 offer (via Kenyon) is a number of practical meditation techniques to keep you grounded and clear in these challenging times. That is why I find their posts relevant and helpful.

On a housekeeping note, if you are interested in booking a personal astro-logical consultation for yourself or for a friend, I am extending my Mercury retrograde incentive for new clients through November 12th, as we are still in the “shadow period” of the last Mercury retrograde. At some point in the not too distant future, I do intend to raise my rates, to reflect the two years of study and knowledge accumulated since the last modest increase. And I wanted to give you plenty of notice in advance, with much gratitude for your continued support.

Thank you for reading this forecast. Have a fabulous weekend!