Ask the Astrologer is back, with one final question for 2020! Over the next week or two, or more, I will be publishing updates received from previous letter writers. New questions welcome, if you have not submitted before or if it has been at least a year since your previous submission and you have provided an update.

I am looking at separating from my husband and moving back to my home country. I understand I have a tough challenge ahead, as my husband is quite vindictive and he may not make it easy for me, especially with the child custody involved.

I do want to know my prospects back home, I feel I can do professionally better there. Though not sure if I will ever find someone else.

I have zillions of questions in mind, and I know all cannot be answered or predicted. I do want to know what is in store for me in the coming few months, I feel I am going to step on a land-mine and things will start exploding. I would love to get advice from you.  - JPR

Seems to me you’ve already stepped on the landmine. You have many significant astrological events going on right now. The more significant events are touching your birth chart, the more active, possibly to the extreme, your life is. 

Being a double Sagittarius with most of your planets in that freewheeling sign, and change making Uranus conjunct your natal Sun, I expect a life full of activity suits you, and that you are naturally inclined to just plunge into experiences without giving them much thought. 

Your Virgo ascendant may be a bit more cautious--I suspect that played a part in your decision to write to me, looking before you leap--but it’s ruled by Mercury in the volatile last degree of Sagittarius (any planet in the last degree of its sign is a bit of a wild card. Not quite knowing whether it’s one sign or the other, it behaves like a little of both and has its energy revved up. And this is Mercury we’re talking about, which was known to the ancients as the planet that loves to break rules).

This may be a time of crisis for you, but times of crisis also bring opportunity. If there’s one gift a packed Sagittarius gives, it’s the ability to see opportunity even in the least likely places. Use that gift, and things should work out, even if there are moments when they don’t seem to.

That said, I expect things to be turbulent for you right now. You’re going through multiple significant astrological events. I ran your chart and your transits and progressions for approximately the time when you wrote to me.

A quick detour to explain for readers not fluent in the language of astrology: transits are the movements of planets through the sky in relation to planets in the birth chart. Progressions come in more than one form, but what I’m using here is secondary progressions, the most common progressions technique. 

In secondary progressions, the chart is drawn for however many days after the native’s birth equals however many years old they are now. When you’re 36 years old, your progressed chart matches what was in the heavens when you were 36 days old. The angles of the chart (ascendant, midheaven, etc.) are progressed approximately one degree for every year of life. Everything else is progressed at the speed it actually moves at, which varies depending on the planet.

The planets from Jupiter on out do not move much by progression, so in the chart I posted, the transits for those planets, on the date I cast the chart, are shown. That reflects where in the zodiac they actually are right now (those planets don’t move much in a month). For the rest, their positions by progression are shown. The transits and progressions are on the outside of the original natal chart. Neither replaces the natal, they’re simply layered over the natal and used for predictive purposes.

When any of the following progressions happen, the months or years surrounding them tend to be highly significant, and usually very active, times in your life:

• A progressed planet changing signs

• A progressed planet crossing a house cusp, especially if it’s entering one of the angular houses (first, fourth, seventh, or tenth)

• A progressed angle changing signs

• A progressed angle conjunct a natal planet

• A progressed planet turning retrograde or direct

You have several of those things going on right now, and have for the last couple of years, and will for about another year or two. 

As of about a month ago,* when you wrote to me and I cast your chart, including your outer planet transits and inner planet progressions for that time (all of which are still within a degree of where they were then), you have the following going on:

Progressed ascendant has just changed signs, entering Scorpio.

Progressed Mars is within a degree of your progressed ascendant and will also change signs soon. This is an especially significant sign change for Mars because it will be moving from Libra, where its energy is hampered somewhat, to Scorpio, where it shines. Mars gains more ability to act like assertive, decisive Mars when it makes that shift. I see a correlation with you deciding your marriage isn’t good for you and making the decision to end it, instead of just trying to go along to get along, which is what Libra wants to do. 

Your progressed Sun is in the middle of Capricorn, where Pluto ran right over it a few years ago and this year, so have Saturn and Jupiter. Pluto is the Big Bad Wolf planet. Wherever he is, he huffs and puffs and blows the house down. Traveling with Saturn and Jupiter, he’s got law and structure with him (Jupiter traditionally represents law and lawyers, while Saturn stands for order and structure). Divorcing a vindictive husband, which is sure to require lawyers and courts, fits that picture. 

Incidentally, Pluto is also associated with explosives of all kinds. Your phrasing “I feel I am going to step on a land mine” reflects this brush with Pluto. Since Pluto has already rolled over your progressed Sun, I say you already have!

Your progressed Moon has recently crossed your descendant, entering your seventh house, and will soon change signs, from dreamy Pisces to active Aries. In your seventh house, it shines a spotlight on your marriage and, in more general terms, on partnership. In Pisces, it helped you vision what could be, what you really wanted. In Aries, it brings decisiveness and willingness to act. This echoes your energizing Mars progression.

On a pleasanter note, your progressed Venus is coming to your natal Sun. That may highlight Venusian things for you--your marriage, for example--and it may also help open the door to a new relationship if that’s what you want. Or it may shift your focus to cultivating a relationship with yourself (Sun).

Either way, between that and the decisiveness of your current Moon and Mars progressions, it looks like if and when you enter a new relationship, it will be on your terms. Don’t worry about finding someone else. Do what you must to take care of yourself and your child(ren). Romantic relationships tend to show up when we’re ready for them.

Your progressed Mercury is stationing direct, at 0 Capricorn. Degree 0 of any cardinal sign (Capricorn, Aries, Cancer, or Libra) is an especially charged point; we call it the Aries point.** While your natal Mercury is extra revved up by being in the final degree of its sign, progressed Mercury is revved up in another way. Even if it were not stationing on that point, it would still contribute to this being a highly significant time for you, because the years around a progressed planet changing direction are always highly significant. The actual change in direction will come in about a year, but you would already be experiencing the effect.

Since Mercury is the ruler of both your ascendant (self) and your midheaven (career and public image), this change in direction goes along with a shift in your sense of self, your career, and your place in the world and your community. If you’re going through a divorce, that’s naturally going to change your place in the community. People will no longer see you as your husband’s wife. This is also a time for self reinvention. It’s a great opportunity to become who you wanted to be but couldn’t be before.

Since you’re having this Mercury progression, self and career are touched no matter where in the world you are. You could move back to your home country and see a revolution in your career. If your right to live and work in your current country does not depend on being married to your husband, you could also stay there and see a revolution in your career. Perhaps opportunities on the ground would be better in one place than another, but you’re the one who’s in the best position to judge that.

*Three months ago, now. I wrote this post well in advance of publication.

**The astrological signs are measured not by the placement of constellations, but based on where the sun is at the equinoxes and solstices. The cardinal signs are the signs the sun enters at the exact moment of solstice or equinox. That makes the cusp of each cardinal sign a highly charged, energetic point. From there, the zodiac is divided into 30 degree segments, which is how the rest of the signs are defined.

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This feature currently runs when I have submissions, and may become regular again if there are enough submissions. Click here to read the ground rules for Ask the Astrologer questions and here to submit your question. Pseudonyms are used for all letter writers, including the one above. Previous letter writers are welcome to submit updates if they have a meaningful one to share.

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New to astrology? See an unfamiliar astrological term in the above post?

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