Diary at the ready – what were you doing the Saturday before last (20th) at 3.21 am (UK time)? Some of you may have been nurturing a talent for writing (especially poetry), with Mercury trine Neptune. I was preparing to go and see Marianne Williamson. Did you have a significant dream, perhaps? Anyway, whatever it was, may re-occur today as Mercury retrograding again makes a trine to Neptune. So there’s a chance to fine-tune the poem, re-evaluate the spiritual philosophy, find more meaning in the dream. While you are flipping back through the pages of your diary, have you perhaps noticed any odd encounters with Scorpio animal totems over the last two weeks, during the period around the square of the Sun to Pluto? They seem to have been coming out of the woodwork for all around me: we’ve had a fox (cunning) in the garden, a friend had a bat (rebirth) in her conservatory, yet another found a black widow spider (shudder) in her supermarket grapes, and lastly another friend had a difficult encounter with a stoat (stealth) which may also qualify (although may be a Piscean creature). So I’m just wondering if these are harbingers of a collective shift in consciousness, possibly connected with the Saturn-Uranus opposition in November. The New Moon tomorrow (Monday 29th) at 6 degrees Libra will benefit relationships and the Arts especially for those with birthdays around this time or who have 6 degrees Libra rising (which seems to me the commonest rising degree of a sign, the least common being 1 degree Pisces). So there will be many out there who can take advantage of this New Moon to re-align harmoniously with their own hopes and for the world. It could also be a help in new peace initiatives. As we move into October on that wave of harmony, we find on Thursday (2nd) another helpful aspect in relation to peace moves, Mars sextile Pluto. It may have been this aspect which the aforementioned Scorpio animal totems were trying to highlight, for it represents a constructive harnessing of the aggressive forces of human nature and nuclear energies. As aspects go it’s not that rare, but it is essential that these forces are used helpfully and are not kicking off destructively. Under such an aspect it is possible to get people working together, and for loose cannons to arrive where they would do least harm. Mars is at the end of Libra too at this time, so we are placing last orders with diplomats and negotiators. The week ends on another Scorpionic note, with Mars entering Scorpio on Saturday (4th), and the message of those creatures may reach a clarion call. What forces are stealing a march into your life, and what needs to change or transform in order to bring about a new birth? I am currently buying stocks of “Communication with All Life” by Joan Ranquet to give as Christmas presents this year.