Astrology of Saturday, May 16

Last week was full of retrogrades - energy turning within and retreading ground previously gone over. Pluto was already retrograde, then Saturn, Venus and Jupiter joined the retrograde parade. The moon is already in a reflective, not initiation, phase. The moon's nodes have changed from Cancer/Capricorn/ to the more sociable, curious and philosophical Gemini/Sagittarius for the first time in 18 years. And to ad a little action, Mars is in a new sign, Pisces, a sign intimately connected with illusion/delusion, communicable disease and isolation. What a rich stew!

I think there is no denying that if we are talking about going within to ponder what happened recently, you must see a COVID-19 influence. There is a lot of confusion, sometimes downright lies (Neptune) over whether or not to continue to isolate (Neptune and Venus) and confusion (Neptune again) over whether or not the crisis is real or imagined (more Neptune). How to handle social contacts (Venus)? I think the Establishment has an advantage here, even if it will not outlast the summer. Things may get more authoritarian, more confusing, and the strategy on going forward is unclear. But I believe there is a strong influence, although it may be delayed, to pay attention to the science and the facts. This fall, opportunities for abuse of new technology will occur (like facial recognition software for tracing), but so will new advances (like technology for tracing). (Yes, there is a right and a wrong way to do tracing.)

All is not lost, depending on what emerges after this period of reflection. I do think we will continue to see people dying as a result of careless re-openings and confusion over the number of people affected - partly because testing has been by design so limited.