Starcodes May 8, 2020 Heather Roan Robbins

Mother’s Day is the earthy, flower- loving Taurus holiday that turns our thoughts towards our personal mother- or people who’ve cared for us as one, towards the mothering quality within us all, our ability to mother ourselves, to those healthcare workers who mother are sick, and to our Mother earth beneath our feet. Right now, we could all use some healthy mothering and every mothering soul could use appreciation.

This may not be an easy Mother’s Day, but it can be a grateful one. A serious, thoughtful Mercury — Pluto trine on Friday brings in a somber note. Although azalea blooms and a peripatetic Sagittarius Moon calls us to walk amongst the flowers Friday and Saturday, we know who’s missing, who we can’t see for their own health, and can be painfully aware of the mothers and grandmothers who recently died. This juxtaposition of family, loss, and flowers can stir powerful discussion or moments of unspoken connection.

On Sunday the Capricorn Moon helps us appreciate traditions even over long distances. It will further to find something to be grateful for, for our own health’s sake and for our world’s direction as Mercury trines Jupiter. Share a moment of beauty or comfort.

Then we enter retrograde season. Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter all turn retrograde this week, joining Pluto already appearing to back up against the zodiac from our earthly perspective. Every summer several planets turn retrograde for a few months and encourage us to take the summer off, take a break, and practice we’ve learned. Old emotional patterns return to be worked upon, unfinished personal karma needs attention, and old friends reconnect. But rarely do so many turn retrograde in one week, we can feel a disturbance in the force as the energy swirls and eddies.

Over the next few months these planets return to their positions in January, February, and March, almost back to that moment when the impeachment trial distracted us, the Covid virus built up steam, and Saturn and Pluto conjunct. We’ll think about the same stuff, walk the same path, look at what we did this winter into spring, get a chance to think it through and do it differently this time.

Many astrologers thought that we were facing a potential terrorist attack during those months (Saturn conjunct Pluto, Jupiter conjunct Pluto all in Capricorn)…