Mercury retrograde

Caution lights are flashing around travel and communications as Mercury remains retrograde in Taurus until May 11. Between May 2 and 19, Mercury covers very little ground, and hangs out in a trine with Pluto in Capricorn. This signals opportunities and softens the impact of the retrograde. Proceed cautiously in financial matters. Big deals you make now are likely to have contingencies and items that will need to be dealt with after signing. Be sure to get these in writing.

Jupiter opposite Saturn

Jupiter reaches opposition to Saturn on May 22. This is the halfway point of the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle that began in 2000– a path you set out on then comes to a fork in the road, where decisions have to be made that will impact the next 10 years. These are the two business planets. Jupiter is “lots of,” Saturn is work. Jupiter expands, creates freedom, and transcends rules and boundaries; Saturn contracts, limits, and creates rules and structures. They will meet up a total of three times between now and March 2011. This meeting is in late degrees of the signs Virgo and Pisces, mutable signs that are about changing, adapting, and staying flexible; the late degrees are about finishing up old projects before moving on to something new. It’s time to tie up loose ends and say goodbye to the past. At the end of May, Jupiter approaches conjunction to Uranus. Flip the page and read the June forecast for more information.

Uranus enters Aries

Another rare event happens at the end of this month: Uranus enters Aries for the first time since the 1930s. Uranus shows us where new technologies, new ideas and revolutionary thinking has the most impact. Reinhold Ebertin described Uranus in Aries as “Sudden outbursts of energy, quick comprehension, restlessness, ambition, fanatical fight for ideas. Urge to strive for reforms – Stubbornness, blind zeal, violence. Dreamy enthusiasts and utopians.” Uranus’ last journey through Aries was an exciting time: 1927-1934, in which we saw economic collapse, the election of FDR, the environmental crisis of the Dust Bowl, the end of Prohibition. If, as I believe, the repeating cycles of history can be read in the transits of the outer planets, then we are in for an interesting seven years.