Pluto squared the Sun this morning, which may have increased the depth of your experience, whether in joy or suffering or a mixture of both.  There is bound to be emotion today, but the emotion may be cathartic.  It is a tricky week, because the planets are just being plain awkward, for an astrological blogger who likes an easy aspect or two to work with.  The aspects may just be enabling you to see your own processes, and to examine your coping strategies to see if you can do things in a more meaningful way.  The next aspect occurs on Friday 1st October (Thursday 30th September in the U.S.) and is Saturn conjunct the Sun in Libra, forcing a focus on a particular aspect of our relationships.  This can be a battle with our own negativity, and possible exhaustion, as we look to see what is behind it, for instance emotional toxicity such as guilt, or the drain arising from the weight of expectation from others.  All the excitement of the Labour Party leadership contest is over, and I never did get my thoughts together for a blog on it, despite a lot of preparation – that may be due to some of my own negativity.  A grim reality may set in for the Labour Party this week at their Conference if power is what they immediately hunger for.  Alternatively, some constructive insight may be theirs if they are willing to look at their recent history and learn from it.  The winning brother, Ed Miliband (his Sun in Capricorn being in the sign opposite that of his brother David who is Cancerian) is the man of the moment in that Pluto is exactly conjunct his Sun and therefore his own story embodies the recent Saturn-Pluto square and its examination in his life, and that of the Party.  Saturn has now moved on a few degrees, but the lessons need to inform the way he takes the Party forward.  He will also need to rebalance the relationship with his brother.  Natally, Ed Miliband has Sun square to his Chiron (he is always on the alert to crisis and opportunity), and his Chiron is intimately linked with the Cardinal T-square, being situated at the beginning of Aries. So he may see himself as a healer of the Party (that may have been what drove him to stand against his brother David), and his route to healing is through having the Vision (Chiron in Aries).  This is something I suspect he now needs to work towards, having put all his energies into fighting the contest, rather than something he has already arrived with.  But he will have the time to look at this, as he will not be in a position to challenge David Cameron in a real way electorially for some time.  The Labour Party now knows what the vision was not.  Late Friday evening Mercury opposes Jupiter, which though again not a barrel of laughs may seem to pep up a flat week.  People will be in the mood for a prank or two, and manufacture a laugh if there isn’t some real humour forthcoming.  Nevertheless, it may come over as light relief, and lift the mood.  Mercury opposite Jupiter is saying “Let’s make merry”.  If you come across any good jokes earlier in the week, save them up for Friday.  The mood is reinforced late lunchtime on Saturday (2nd October) by Mercury opposite Uranus, adding the trickster to the prankster and saying “We have ways of making you laugh!”.  There is a need to attend to health and safety issues, but the potential combination and mental ingenuity of the two aspects may invite us to take a step out of our usual mental context, to see life differently, “forget your troubles and just get happy” or even to take a walk on the wild side.  Final comment of the week goes to John Prescott in his assessment of the outcome of the leadership battle: “Well done.  Now let’s all unite together and stick it to the coalition.” Over to you, Ed!