“Expectations are the shackles that will not permit something to be what it actually is.”

Craig D. Lounsbrough

Pressure builds today in an environment where impractical aspirations threaten to lead us away from practical solutions, rather than inspire innovation. Philosophical ideals need practical structure and recognizable guidelines in order to actually create real progress. Relationships play a key role here, but Venus has moved into the shadow phase of her next retrograde period (May 13th – June 25th) and, is currently slowing down; almost catching up to a trine to Mars — but not quite. Essentially, the connection doesn’t quite get made, restricting our ability to effectively work cooperatively. Nonetheless, if we can temper our aspirations and ideals with practicality and facts on the ground, we will have a better chance of shared understanding which can help facilitate collaboration.

THE WEEK AHEAD: This week’s Sun-Pluto square and Sun-Jupiter square increase the pressure this week. The atmosphere may encourage us to pursue impractical aspirations, especially under the kind of pressure we’re dealing with. Venus has moved into the shadow of her next retrograde period (May 13th – June 25th). In her slowdown, she just barely misses completing a trine to Mars, which restricts our ability to fully embrace cooperation and collaboration. Our progress this week is unsteady. The highly intellectual atmosphere is unstable, allowing emotions to slip in and get in the way of finding enough detachment to keep us fully focused on practical tasks and solutions. Restraint and self-control continue to be important skills over the course of this (now waning) lunar cycle. As well, our search for some kind of tradition or precedent that might help us navigate this atmosphere continues to be mostly unsatisfactory. However, with enough adaptability and resourcefulness, we find important opportunities this week to expand our options, broaden the path, and find alternative strategies and new ideas. The key is to avoid setting our sights too high. If we can stay adaptable, we will find extra ability to be resourceful. Inspiration and creativity, blended with practicality, can help us to find a set of workable guidelines that keep our aspirations in line with the facts on the ground. As well, although independence keeps us straining at the bit, there are some important opportunities to establish promising connections and at least set down markers for future cooperation and collaboration — even though such cooperation is tentative, at best, this week.

The Moon is void-of-course for much of the day on Sunday, sending practicality out the window. Making changes seems especially daunting. Pressure builds on Monday. Our heightened aspirations and philosophical ideals need to be tempered with practical insights. The is some help to channel our creativity and inspiration into tangible progress on Tuesday. Nonetheless, we could still have our head in the clouds by Tuesday evening. Intellectual energy is especially unstable on Wednesday. There are some unexpected concerns over how others are seeing us. Despite the increased intellect, it isn’t easy to agree on the facts. Adaptability and resourcefulness provide extra hope on Thursday. We begin to find ways to adapt traditional guidelines to current conditions. If we are able to slow down enough on Friday, we have the opportunity to discover storehouses of knowledge and new resources. On Saturday, we begin to recognize some new ways to begin to establish new connections and potential new opportunities for cooperation and collaboration.

ASTROLOGICAL SNAPSHOT

 Today is the 104^th day of 2020
69 days until the Summer Solstice
67 days until Mercury Retrograde
264 days until 2021

Sun is in Aries
Moon is in Capricorn
Mercury is in Aries
Venus is in Gemini
Mars is in Aquarius
Jupiter is in Capricorn
Saturn is in Aquarius
Uranus is in Taurus
Neptune is in Pisces
Pluto is in Capricorn
Chiron is in Aries

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