Mercury's retrograde always proffers strange crossings. Tangling us in language and tech snafu that raises questions and hides easy answers. Changing course and altering propulsion so we move as if in a dream. Conjuring the past, breaching the surface glass we have cultivated to disguise our denizens of the deep. All in the service of a slow dance through our life to date, its revision calling wisdom to our own little boat.

Make no mistake about it darklings, this week reeks of rebirth as the past, present and future intermingle sans frontiers. Between Merc's planetary pinballing, his retrograde and cazimi and a whole new lunar year with the ultra Aquarian new moon, the end of this week won't remotely look or feel like its beginning.

Though the moon is newly reborn in Pisces, this is not a start line from which to clang or bolt or proclaim. Not all moons are created equal and lunar solidarity resists such limiting prescription, tis the feminine after all. In Pisces the new moon is curtains parting to reveal a deep ocean, gently lit by moonlight whose shining surface promise only its depths.

A word to the wise mermaids, as we navigate the fathoms of Pisces season and Mercury's emo retrograde. Though this sign cultivates the shamanic depths and our emotional currents, it also has a spectacular penchant for drama, delusion and evasive bypass. Pisces is just as great at opting out or cultivating unconsciousness. Everything has its shadow.

Grateful as we may be for the ebbing away of that discerning lunar close up, there's no rest for the wicked. Not this week anyway. Claiming centre stage now as the lights dim are our lady Venus and Uncle Pluto, arm in arm in Capricornia.

Let me tell you a tale, all too common. It starts somewhere near where you live with once upon a time but doesn't end in happily ever after. Because as the statistics overwhelmingly prove, the epidemic of domestic violence in our country - and probably yours too - is beyond crisis point and only getting worse.

Dark moon bolthole, anyone? You know by now darklings my penchant for the isolation and wonder of the dark moon. And its blessed bliss is now upon us in the midst of madness, mayhem and a solid first week Mercing.

The glitching is almost delicious as Mercury and Neptune, space and time, solar flares and the Schumann resonance ripple and warp. As though the multiverse has set its sights on a spluttering earth and all kinds of mighty forces have come out to play. Together making for a continuing unprecedented adventure into the roaring twenties.

The sun's plunge into Pisces is our latest initiation point. Now we dive into Neptunia. Pisces is our shamanic sight line, the domain of peak emo as barometer and compass.

Sure it is only day one of the Mercing and already tech is behaving as if from another dimension, your old flame / nemesis / itch has resurfaced and so many ideas are downloading your head might explode like a star. Revolutionary times call for evolutionary astrology. This is no time to whinge about inconvenient blindsiding or bemoan all gadgetry that does not bow to your command.

Two significant movements in the cosmic choreography over the next day proffer a whole new terroir and a strange union of opposites. Merc turns retrograde in Pisces as Mars charges into Capricornia. The former a nebulous dive and the latter a rocket sent from the planet Ambition.

Valentines Day is named for the 5th century saint who used to marry couples in secret and was brutally murdered for his trouble. Terribly romantic unless you are St Valentine and his hung drawn and quartered heart. The celebration Hallmark nicked and beat up into V Day was originally the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia.

The overture and the undertow of our impending Mercury retrograde is already being deeply felt. In a climate of manoeuvering and misinformation, Merc's first rx offers nebulous antidote to a world in the throes of revolutionising itself.