Batten down the hatches and don the Aquarian cyberproof lady armour, darklings. February's day of reckoning has arrived in a strange huffy haze designed to get under your skin. Merc in full retrograde flight today squares off with our twisted firestarter hankering for the clash like a bull in a china shop.

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.

This week is a warm up in every sense with Mars dominating the outer reaches of Aries. Next week we enter a period of epochal change overflowing with once in a lifetime seismic shifts. The kind that tilt worlds and herald revolution. But first Uncle Mars is having his way with us, offering the kind of life coaching that is low on saccharine and heavy on imperative. All the better to set a fire beneath us.

You know by now darklings that I never send you hurtling towards potential astrofuquery without a strategy. Our twisted firestarter is throwing his significant weight around this week. See post below for why this isn't a terrible thing. See list below for what to do when Mars attacks.

This guy is a walking community service announcement for the back end of this particular eclipse season and we all have Uncle Mars to thank for this. Our planet of Get Shit Done can fast turn into a war mongering trail of destruction when engaged the wrong way.