This is the sec­ond of three sex­tile align­ments of Mer­cury and Mars. With Mer­cury ret­ro­grade and so turned inward in Vir­go, and Mars new­ly feel­ing its way in Can­cer, the mes­sage from the stars has shift­ed from July 11 when Mer­cury was in Leo and Mars in Gemini.

Now the quick­en­ing touch of Mars inspires Mer­cury to lead you inward and deep­er; reflec­tion, intro­spec­tion and self-crit­i­cism are all enhanced. Your insight is sub­tilized by the watery depths of Mars in Can­cer as it com­bines with the ana­lyt­i­cal lucid­i­ty of Mer­cury in Vir­go. Thoughts and Feel­ings work togeth­er here to guide you into a greater depth of self-awareness.

Where in July your mind was aflame with the desire to explore and share your excit­ing dis­cov­er­ies and real­iza­tions, this time is more pri­vate, more per­son­al as you explore the inner depths of your assump­tions, per­spec­tives and points of view.

This is a gift, a gift of clarity…think well.

Nep­tune pays a return vis­it to Aquar­ius today till Feb­ru­ary 3, 2012. The dream of sal­va­tion through inven­tions and tech­nol­o­gy is kin­dled anew. The world hungers for and seeks some quick fix or easy escape from the phys­i­cal, social and spir­i­tu­al debts it has incurred.

When Nep­tune returns to Pisces in 2012 there will be a gath­er­ing real­iza­tion and acknowl­edge­ment of the need for pro­found spir­i­tu­al trans­for­ma­tions and sac­ri­fice. There will be no quick fixes…

You are already in the shad­ow time of the old order; the twi­light, the dawn of a new age is gath­er­ing and you must turn and let go of that which can­not pass as you move into the light…

A new world is arising…believe and behold.