The Day's Sky
UTC
A thin Moon crosses into Libra, where Venus moves backward toward her turning.
Yesterday the Sun and Mercury stood together in Scorpio. Today they have parted. Mercury, retrograde at 11° Scorpio, has fallen two degrees behind the Sun at 13°, and the review it opened in late October has crossed its center. This is the quieter half of the retrograde. The first half gathered. The second half sorts. In Scorpio the sorting concerns what was kept below the surface: the unspoken clause, the old account, the word withheld because it carried weight. The meeting is behind. The matter it disclosed remains on the table.
The Moon carries the hour. She stands at 28° Virgo, a waning crescent lit at fourteen percent, in the last degrees of an earth sign and the last days of the lunar month. She makes no further contact before she leaves Virgo. Until her ingress she is void of course, and the time belongs to completion rather than to the opening of new matters. Later today she enters Libra, the sign Venus rules, and Venus is there already, retrograde at 24°. The Moon moves toward the dark. The New Moon in Scorpio falls on November 9.
Beneath the Moon's passage, a softer contact holds. Venus in Libra and Jupiter in Leo made their sextile yesterday and remain within a degree of it. Venus, in her own sign and moving backward, is reconsidering the terms between people: what was promised, what was valued, what was owed. Jupiter answers from fire with breadth and good faith. The reconsideration is not cold. Mercury turns direct on November 13 and Venus on November 14. The two inner planets near the end of their return together, and the days before a station are the days its matter grows heavy.
For the day
- Begin
- Tend the record. Return to one exchange from the past weeks and complete it in writing, adding nothing new to it.
- Set down
- Set down the urge to open new matters in the void hours. The late Virgo Moon favors finishing over starting.
- Reflect
- Which agreement, revisited now, asks for fewer words and truer ones?
Exact and in orb
The day
- Exact contact · YesterdaySun conjunct Mercury
The Sun and retrograde Mercury met yesterday in Scorpio, the inferior conjunction that marks the center of the retrograde. The two are now separating, still near enough to share a theme. What surfaced in that meeting is today's material. It does not need to be acted on. It needs to be kept in view.
- Venus sextile Jupiterorb 0.5°
- Venus at 24° Libra and Jupiter at 24° Leo, within a degree of yesterday's exact sextile. Air and fire, at an open angle. The review of what is valued receives generosity rather than suspicion. The contact favors reconciliation offered without ceremony.
- Moon opposite Neptuneorb 3.4°
- The Moon in late Virgo faces Neptune in early Aries across a wide opposition. Precision meets haze. The attention to detail is pulled toward the indistinct. The void hours do not require that the tension be resolved.
- Uranus trine Plutoorb 1.3°
- Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius hold a trine between two air signs, a background of the age rather than of the day. Change in how thought travels and in how the collective orders itself moves in one slow current.
Waning Crescent · 14% lit
The Moon in Virgo
The Moon is a waning crescent at fourteen percent, in the final degrees of Virgo. She is void of course until her ingress into Libra later today: no further contacts in Virgo, a pause between signs. The void hours favor finishing, sorting, and leaving the new unopened for now. In Libra she enters the sign of Venus, where Venus herself stands retrograde, and the Moon's attention turns from the detail to the balance. She enters Scorpio on November 7 and reaches the New Moon in Scorpio on November 9.
- Void of course until
- Enters Libra
- New Moon in Scorpio · November 9
Five planets retrograde
The held planets
Five planets move backward in the sky as seen from Earth, and they divide into two orders. Mercury and Venus, the near planets, are finishing a short and personal review of speech and of value. Both turn direct within a day of each other, on November 13 and November 14. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune keep a longer season. Saturn and Neptune both stand in Aries, the first sign, and both turn in December: Saturn on December 10, Neptune on December 12. Uranus in Gemini holds its review into February 2027. The condition is one of return at two speeds. The close and quick are nearing their turn. The far and slow remain at depth. The day's attention belongs to the first.
One calendar for every planet. Each line runs from the retrograde station to the direct turn; the bright stretch is what remains.
Mercury Rx
Scorpio 11°00′ · 8 days to direct
Retrograde October 24 – November 13
Mercury governs the word, the reckoning, and the traffic of messages between one thing and another. Retrograde in Scorpio since October 24, it returns to what was said under pressure and what was never said at all. Yesterday's meeting with the Sun marked the center of the retrograde and the start of its next cycle. Now past that center, Mercury slows toward its station and turns direct on November 13. The review becomes revision.
Venus Rx
Libra 24°20′ · 9 days to direct
Retrograde October 3 – November 14
Venus governs value, attachment, and the measure kept between two parties. She is in Libra, her own sign, where the question of fair terms is native to her. Retrograde since October 3, she has covered most of her backward arc and now nears her station, slowing toward stillness, her theme at its fullest weight. She turns direct on November 14. What was given, and what was returned, is weighed once more.
Saturn Rx
Aries 9°00′ · 35 days to direct
Retrograde July 26 – December 10
Read the note
Saturn governs structure, limit, time, and the duty that outlasts the impulse. In Aries it stands in the sign of its fall, where the urge to begin outpaces the patience to build. Retrograde since July 26 and roughly three-quarters through its course, it returns to foundations laid quickly. The question is which commitments bear weight. Saturn turns direct on December 10.
Uranus Rx
Gemini 4°30′ · 95 days to direct
Retrograde September 10 – February 8, 2027
Read the note
Uranus governs the sudden, the inventive, and the break in a settled pattern. Retrograde in Gemini since September 10, a little over a third of the way through its course, it revisits ideas, exchanges, and the ways information travels. This is background, measured in months rather than days. Uranus turns direct on February 8, 2027.
Neptune Rx
Aries 1°59′ · 37 days to direct
Retrograde July 7 – December 12
Read the note
Neptune governs the unseen, the dissolving edge, and the image held in faith. It stands within the first two degrees of Aries, retrograde since July 7. The review asks which vision deserves a first act and which belongs only to longing. It is a long background, not a daily summons. Neptune turns direct on December 12.
Also retrograde, as points rather than planets: Chiron, North Node, South Node.
Stations, phases, contacts
On the calendar
- Lunar phase · In 4 daysNew Moon in Scorpio
The Moon reaches her dark on November 9 in Scorpio, the sign that holds the Sun and Mercury. The lunar month ends there. The days between now and then are the closing days. They favor clearing, rest, and the quiet inventory of what is complete.
- Exact contact · In 5 daysVenus sextile Mars
On November 10 Venus in Libra forms a sextile to Mars in Leo. The ruler of value meets the ruler of action at an open angle while Venus is still retrograde. Desire and accord find a common measure. A reconsidered agreement can be carried forward with warmth.
- Station · In 8 daysMercury stations direct
Mercury stations direct on November 13. In the days around the station the planet appears to stand still, and its themes gather force: the unfinished conversation, the record, the clause read twice. After it, the word begins to move forward again.
- Station · In 9 daysVenus stations direct
Venus stations direct on November 14 in Libra, less than a day after Mercury. The two turnings form one threshold. What was weighed in the matter of value and attachment settles into its new terms, and the measure kept between people resumes its forward course.
The dark is near. The work is already in the hands.