Sun sextile Jupiter

The Sun and Jupiter are in exact sextile today, with the Sun in Libra and Jupiter in Leo, and the contact is still tightening. Jupiter is the planet of increase. Sepharial records that his Sanskrit name, Brihaspati, means the Lord of Increase or Expansion, and the tradition credits him with optimism, generosity and a fruitful turn of mind. The Sun lends confidence, loyalty and a willingness to stand behind what one says. In Libra the Sun is in its fall, which Ptolemy explains by its passing into the lower half of the year, where its heat begins to wane, so its self-assurance runs lower than usual. Ptolemy counts the sextile among the harmonious configurations, and Jupiter's sextile makes up much of that shortfall. The day leans toward goodwill offered and received easily, and toward thinking larger than this season otherwise invites.

Running alongside it, and tightening, is a trine between Mars in Leo and Saturn in Aries. Mars brings ambition, executive ability and the push toward new projects. Saturn brings patience, method and results that match the labour put in, slow but sure. Saturn is in its fall in Aries. Ptolemy's reasoning is that where heat increases, Saturn's cold diminishes, so its restraint has a less secure footing here than usual. Sepharial holds that Mars and Saturn, difficult in hard aspect, do good work in a harmonious one, and this is that case: drive with staying power behind it, effort that holds once it is made.

Mars is also less entangled than it was yesterday. Its sextile to Uranus and its opposition to Pluto have both dropped out of orb, so its force now runs mainly through Saturn.

The Moon entered Sagittarius today, and that move closes a grand trine in fire: Moon, Mars and Saturn, each in a different fire sign, the figure still applying. Six bodies sit in fire signs in all. Read as one figure, the three support each other and need nothing from outside, so confidence, initiative and steadiness come without strain. That ease has a cost. A closed circuit holds no pressure, and nothing in it compels anyone to use what it offers. Ease that goes undrawn on simply passes. The Moon's part lasts only while she is in Sagittarius, which is a couple of days. The Mars–Saturn trine beneath it continues past that. All of this is felt more strongly by anyone with planets in the early to middle degrees of Aries, Leo or Sagittarius.

The same Moon is in exact opposition to Uranus, retrograde in Gemini, and already separating. The Moon carries adaptability, variableness and a love of change and adventure. Uranus is the principle of sudden release, of what was long held arriving all at once. Opposed, they produce restlessness and an appetite for something different. The impulse is to drop a routine abruptly rather than adjust it. Because the contact is separating, it is sharpest early and loosens through the day. It sits harder for anyone with planets in the first degrees of Gemini or Sagittarius.

Venus, retrograde in Scorpio, is in a less comfortable position. Her square to Mars is easing, but her square to Pluto is tightening. Venus signifies affection, pleasure and fine feeling. A hard contact from Pluto is where pressure is felt as pressure, and the counsel under Pluto is consistent: do not let frustration accumulate, and do not give way to emotional coercion, whether it comes from another person or from your own insistence on getting a particular response.

Venus is also exactly quincunx Uranus. Our tradition divides here. Ptolemy holds that signs five apart share no familiarity, and he does not count the angle as an aspect at all. Modern practice reads it as one of adjustment, and we follow the modern line while keeping the disagreement open. On that reading, what Venus values and what Uranus wants have no common ground, and the result is a run of small corrections rather than a settlement. Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn, read as what refuses to be accommodated, sextiles Venus and is quincunx Uranus, so the three form a yod with Uranus at the apex. Since one of its points is minor, we claim nothing more for the figure than that: Uranus is pulled by two demands it shares nothing with, and it keeps adjusting.

The practical use of the day is to spend the fire deliberately. Choose one piece of work that has been easy to leave alone and give it steady effort while Mars and Saturn hold. Let the generosity of the Sun–Jupiter sextile go somewhere specific rather than staying a mood. Where affection feels pressured, say plainly what you want instead of pressing for it.