What if the choice you're avoiding is the one your soul came here to make?
This week, Mercury stands opposite Saturn — a meeting of the mind and the architect of time. It is a transit of big decisions, careful words, and the quiet weight of consequence. You may feel it as friction, as delay, as an argument you can't quite win. But look closer: Saturn is not here to punish you. It is here to help you grow up.
In this episode, I walk through five movements of this opposition — from the pressure of choosing, to the relief of changing your mind. We talk about how to sit with what's hard, how to soften when you disagree, and how to trust that necessity is the mother of invention. The stars do not decide for you. They simply turn up the volume on what your life is asking you to become.
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Ancient wisdom for daily life. For over 12 years, Nightlight Astrology has offered a grounded, daily conversation about astrology as a spiritual path and a psychological tool. New episodes every morning, seven days a week—no hype, just steady guidance through the seasons of the soul.
Hosted by professional Hellenistic astrologer and teacher Adam Elenbaas, this channel explores traditional techniques — planets, signs, houses, aspects, and planetary dignity — while weaving in archetypal psychology, karma, fate and free will, and the animistic cosmos. Topics range from daily transits and chart breakdowns to myth, meditation, and the practical art of reading for yourself and others.
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ABOUT ADAM ELENBAAS
Professional Hellenistic astrologer, founder of Nightlight Astrology, author of Fishers of Men, 16+ years full‑time practice, 13,000+ client readings, 5,000 students trained.
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Transcript
Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].
Today we're going to take a look at Mercury moving into an opposition with Saturn. This is a really significant transit for Mercury because this opposition is likely to represent a serious point of negotiation, decision making, potential conflict mentally, verbally.
But we're also going to talk about what might make this transit more effective, how you might work with this transit, so to speak, so that it doesn't trip you up. You're going to notice this for sure over the next couple of days.
So I'll also provide you with the timeline, talk about some of the details of the transit, and how long you can expect it to be in the psychic sky, so to speak. So that's our agenda for today. But before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe as always.
It really helps us click notifications. It's free to subscribe. Really helps us grow and sustain what we do. Give us that little thumbs up. You can find transcripts of any of my daily talks on the website. That's nightlightastrology.com.
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Our program is now APAI certified, which means that we have one of the most exclusive certifying bodies in the world behind our program in our school, overseeing our process and saying you guys have a really good one, so your students can get certified through us, which is incredible.
So this is the first step in that process. If you want to get started with us, and everything you need to know about the program is here. We start November 14. There is need-based tuition, so if you're someone who'd like to take it but needs to work within a pretty tight or limited budget.
You can do that. There's a video telling you everything you need to know about the program, tagged on to the end of today's content. I'll tell you all about the course. Early bird sale is in effect right now. You can find that down there.
Save on the cost of the course. There's a payment plan, and then need-based tuition is a payment plan as well. So you can work within a sliding scale. I'll tell you everything you need to know again at the end of today's content.
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So I'm keeping my books open. You can book a reading and tell me exactly what you want. You'll fill out a form and you tell me exactly what you want my eyes on in your birth chart, or what topic or subject you want me to cover.
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But that's there, and if you can't afford my reading, check out need-based astrology readings with our staff as they're gaining experience. We have some tiered pricing there for you as well on the shop page.
My books, the Oracle Speaks, the Audible book is in review, so likely in the literally the next couple of days we'll get the approval from Audible that the Oracle Speaks is ready to go in audiobook form, so you can pick that book up there.
Paperback though, if you'd like, and then go to the events page. Our retreat in August next year: a training in divination and how to be a diviner, how to develop your skills as a diviner, which is just as important as learning techniques and theory.
That oracle within retreat is here in Minneapolis-St. Paul next August. The early bird sale ends in early October, and we have a free informational meeting if you want to learn more about the retreat on September 27th.
So you can check that out here. There's a Zoom link to join. You can learn more, and then every day at Nightlight there's free meditation. So check that out. Come by, meditate with us. That's under the community quiet tab.
All right, let's put Nicchepso up on the screen and get into it. Here we go. So we're taking a look at this opposition. Get the epic pen out here. So Thursday, September 17, we had a lot of Venus Pluto coverage earlier this week.
Today and tomorrow we're shifting gears into Mercury Saturn. Tomorrow we're going to do horoscopes for Mercury Saturn across house axis, just so you can get a real feel for where this is landing. Today we're going to cover it from an archetypal perspective.
So Mercury opposite Saturn. This has been building. If we give it a three degree range. We'll see that that three degree range started yesterday, Wednesday, September 16. Today's the 17th. Tomorrow, the aspect is between today and tomorrow.
The aspect will pass through, and then we're going to give it three degrees of separation. That takes it to about Sunday. September 20, so the total space would be like this. So there you have it. I, as promised, I'm going to try to more regularly create banners that just give you the dates.
I always mention them, but people I think might be helped by that banner. Some people have mentioned it to me over time, And my Capricorn Moon response has always been like, just pay attention. So grumpy, so mean, so not understanding.
I'm like, you know what? I can. It's easy. I can do that for you. And maybe it's just me being lazy, you know. So here you have it, Mercury opposite Saturn. There you go. We have the degrees between the 16th and the 20th within three.
So I'm always doing engagement range of three degrees, applying and separating. All right. So what we want to cover today is, and that's across the Libra Aries axis. So I've got five things for you to watch for given this archetypal combination.
Before I get into this, I also want to mention just a quick, a few quick production notes. So we are in the process of putting our house for sale. We're moving. We'll see. You know how these things go?
There's inspections, and nothing is done until it's done. But we are relocating out to the country, just getting a little bit quieter, and not we're not moving far from where we live right now. But we're kind of moving into a more peaceful space, a space where you can see the stars at night.
In fact, So that means that my production schedule is going to be a little crunched at times because you know how moving is, and when they're showing the house, I have to be like in and out of here, and they're going to stage this room lightly, which means I think they're going to take down the te.
This room is not going to look so pretty, basically, and I may be recording some episodes in on like you know not my usual studio setting, so that shouldn't be this week. It might be next week or the week after that you start seeing that, and I'll announce the transition.
And in this new space, I have a really cool concept for my next studio. The only thing I can tell you is that the color purple is about 99% going for sure going to come with because that's my favorite my favorite color.
It's not just Prince. It's not just the Vikings. It's me. It's people are always like it's because of Prince. It's no because of my soul. I like purple. All right. Any anyway, I don't know what I'm talking about here.
All right. So let's talk about the first one on my list, which is big choices. When these two planets get together, Mercury is a rational decision maker, and when it faces off against Saturn, Saturn says this is a big choice.
You know, like what are you going to decide? And Mercury's like ah. And in Libra, of course, it really freaks out because sometimes Mercury in Libra can only think about what to do in terms of what other people think or what other people will approve of or what is socially acceptable or diplomatically wise.
But Saturn in Aries is going to push back and say, "Yeah, but what do you want? You know, or could represent someone else pushing back and saying, "I think you ought to make this choice because it's in their self-interest, and you're sitting there going, "Well, maybe I ought to compromise on some level to make sure that the Saturn and Aries person who's pushing at me gets their way and I can be amicable.
You see how dicey it can get. So big choices. First one on my list is that over the next couple of days, if you have some really significant decisions to make, here's my advice for. I'm going to give you advice for each one here.
My advice is to sit down and sit with it. We don't do that. What we tend to do is rationally through a multitasking, never-ending hamster wheel of activity, we were. It's like we're juggling, and we're trying to make a decision while juggling.
Most of us are just not that good at juggling, you know. Like, have you ever tried to juggle? That's not easy. So don't try to juggle too many things while making a big choice. Sit your ass down, sit your heiny down.
Maybe you have Eeyore. You can sit. Maybe you've got a couch with a stuffy. Maybe you need to take a walk and let it breathe. Maybe you get on the treadmill and you listen to some ambient music.
Whatever you need to do to make that choice, you need to give yourself time and space because the pressure of Saturn and the potential diplomatic pressure of Mercury in Libra can tie you in knots, and it can cloud your ability to think clearly.
We don't think of Mercury opposite Saturn as a cloudy transit. But it's a pressurizing transit which can make a big choice, clouded by too many things, too many forces, too many external inputs that are not really our own.
That doesn't mean your all your decisions should be purely selfish either, right? There's some tact and diplomacy that's needed here, but that tact and diplomacy can't be found, and you can't weigh or balance a big choice in any way if you don't get some time to digest what's at stake.
Now, sometimes Mercury Saturn choices come up in a in against the timeline, against the deadline, and that's hard. And there may be no way around some elements of pressure, but you can still find 10 minutes. You can find 20 minutes to sit.
Maybe you don't have days and days, but my my biggest advice to you, if you have a tough choice to make, is sit the f down. Sit with it. Don't just react, because when we sit with it, we're signaling to a higher wisdom that we need help, and that higher wisdom could be ourselves.
Maybe it's the gods, goddess. But when we sit down and we pause and we reflect, we start calling in help. So just remember that number two, weighing all good options. Now I don't want to be purely negative about this Mercury opposite Saturn or oppositions in general because they can bring up pressure and conflict and polarized polarization.
But the other thing is that you know once it's really hard to make a good choice or really hard to make a choice at all is when there's nothing but good options and you're trying to figure out which is the right one among multiple good options, the reason that I think that this could be actually a good thing is in the background we have Venus square Pluto, and Venus square Pluto is a very fertile space to be making a tough decision within.
Venus square Pluto is has passed, and we're in the kind of rebirthing phase, the fertile opening phase that often comes after a transformative catalyst. And in that fertile openness, right now, the choices, although maybe they're born of some conflict or stress that's come earlier this week, those choices may be about a creative direction to go in, that it's it's like it's serious, but there's multiple options for what you could do with the creative opening that's at hand.
That's not easy, but here's a here's my advice. First, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, which means don't take if you have a few interesting options in front of you right now, or a few good options that we want to call them.
That start with saying thank you. Just take again, take a sit, and start by saying, "I have a tough choice in front of me with some different interesting options. Thank you, thank you for providing these options, and you whether you say this to yourself and you're just calling on your inner self to help, or the universe, however you think about it, you can say these are good, interesting choices.
I don't necessarily know which of them is the best. Again, sit, reflect, and show gratitude when multiple interesting choices are appearing. Now, if you have multiple choices and you're really feeling like one might be right and one might be wrong, ooh, that's a little bit different.
If you're weighing options and you have to balance and do some internal math about what is best, again, the advice I have is to take time, and secondarily say this prayer. Say this prayer to your higher self or to God.
Say, dear universe, I'm afraid I will make the wrong choice. Please help me make the best choice that I can, and please help me live with the consequences if I make the wrong choice, please protect me.
These are such simple things that take two seconds to say, but we don't say them because we think we're alone. We think that we're just by ourselves having to figure it out. And the evidence that we think this way is that we don't ever take the time to say these things, whether they're just to ourselves or again to an external force or power, it doesn't matter.
Just take the time to say them, and then a difficult choice becomes an interesting choice. Number three: serious disagreements can come up when these two planets get together. By that we mean conflicts of thought and opinion, value and philosophy, and that's inevitable in life.
Here's my honest to like people are like, aren't you worried about the world? And yes, of course, but the world is always, you know, it's a pendulum that's always swinging between dark and light. That's the way I see the world.
That's the way I see reality. I can't help that because. I've had my mystical experiences in life, especially working with entheogens, meditation, etc. have shown me over and over again that, like the Buddhists say, reality is this contingent co-arising interplay of light and dark, infinitely.
You know what I mean? And so there's when there is a sense of like like what's wrong with the world. I don't see the existence and interplay of light and dark as an error, but I do see our individual conscious relationship with it as something that can be aligned or in error, and in error doesn't mean, also, it doesn't mean that it can't exist or shouldn't exist.
It just means it's usually more painful, and all of us, I think, are looking to alleviate pain and suffering. That's certainly what the Buddha taught. Here's a way to alleviate pain and suffering. What was the advice?
Soften your heart, right, and try to swing less extremely. We're all going to swing between the light and the dark. Every day is a swing between the light and the dark. Every hour includes little vacillations.
But it does it help anything to think to ourselves when disagreements come up. I am right, and you are damned. You know, I am right, and you your very being is flawed because you don't see it the way I do.
Like, what? What do we? How could we possibly think if we believe in eternity, in the eternal nature of things, or the eternal nature of the spirit soul, how could we think that we know enough to condemn someone else for what they believe or think?
Now I can condemn behavior, hateful behavior, and so forth, but to condemn a living being, like who are we? You know what I mean. So keep that in mind because one thing that can seriously make serious disagreements easier is to loosen inside and to say disagreement is okay.
It's okay that it exists. I I am not made whole by my ideas, I in fact I am already whole, regardless of my ideas, and so is anyone I disagree with. That doesn't mean that the disagreement doesn't exist.
Doesn't mean that there may not be ramifications or choices or contract disputes or whatever, spiritually or psychologically. But it does mean that I don't have to make this disagreement carry the weight of the universe, and it does when we think that every disagreement or agreement is making or breaking us and our dignity, our worth, our value.
What is open-mindedness? In my humble opinion, the more that open-mindedness is defined as exactly this, and if and if you're and if you're if you don't think this way or act this way or behave this way, then you're not open-minded.
That is not open-minded, as far as I can tell. That's not open-minded. Open-mindedness and open-heartedness go together, and this is a really important one for Mercury opposite Saturn because it's very tempting to be like all of these agreements or disagreements can be very heady, very conceptual or ideological or philosophical.
But in the heart, where the heart knows something, the heart can say to be open-minded is to be open-hearted. The two things are the same when the two hemispheres of the brain, or the heart-head connection, so to speak, is there and is lit up like a lantern.
We become beacons of a different kind of truth-a truth that says, "Here's what I think or feel. I I love you regardless of if we disagree or not. That doesn't mean that I have to be cuddly with you.
It means you. I I grant you the right and dignity of thinking differently than I do, and then I'm going to pause myself before I put you in some, you know, condemned state in my head. And the best way to do that is to keep the heart open and to keep the mind open, and that paradoxically, that can happen.
There's no contradiction to have convictions or values or beliefs or a criteria by means of which you have to make a choice right now that stands for something that you know that you're getting behind something you believe in.
You can. We can all do that while remaining open and caring and respectful of the other. That may not mean a relationship is possible, an intimate one, but it also can avoid these confrontations of differing ideas from being violent, even.
Mentally or emotionally. All right, so number four on my list is stalling, impeding, delaying. When Mercury hits an opposition to Saturn, things that are in process can stall temporarily, or become delayed, or impeded, or blocked.
And necessity is the mother of invention. So, people often here's my advice for this one: is people often take something when it's stalling or being impeded or delayed, and they think to themselves, "I'm being thwarted or blocked, or this is bad or terrible, and they judge what's happening rather than just staying open to it.
So, again, what is open-mindedness with Mercury opposite Saturn. Open-mindedness is a big lesson right now, and one of the greatest ways to develop open-mindedness is to stay curious when things are stalled, blocked, delayed, impeded, even if it's just sort of a real pain in the ass, right?
If we say, well, if we take that seriously, this idea that necessity is the mother of invention, then when there's a block, oftentimes there's a breakthrough, and the breakthrough can be can mean that something is about to happen that's even better than the thing we had planned.
We always make you have to make room for that. The I Ching talks about that all over the place. It says the thing that was planned is not going to happen. Something else, even better, is going to happen.
That's a part of the I Ching in multiple instances, and you know what often comes with that is a change of direction that initially seems to thwart what you thought was going to happen, but then the shift leads you in an even better direction.
We can't. We have to stay creative. We have to stay imaginative. We have to stay curious and open when impediments come, and get creative in response to them-not just in the solution to the problem, but in terms of how we're seeing the problem itself.
It's like when a problem comes up, think of it like an interesting statue of like an interesting god or goddess has just appeared from the ethers, and boom! It's just like right there in the middle of your psychic room.
Start circumambulating that. Start walking around in circles and and praying and uttering mantras and gazing at it. Start looking at it with open mind, and then all of a sudden something comes and it's different, and then we no longer call the stall impediment or delay a problem; we call it a blessing.
We no longer curse our stars; we interact with them. So these are always opportunities. Now, easy for me in my little hat to sit here, to sit here telling you all this, right?
It's easy to speak about these things creatively because they're exciting ideas. Harder to actually be in the shit. You know what I mean? To be actually in the situation where this is required, I don't have that figured out.
But I know I need to do it when it's there. I know that that's the path. I'm just-it's about executing. Can I actually show up and find this creativity when those things come up? Because my initial impulse is like you know, punch a wall type.
I don't actually punch walls, but it feels like that. Number five, changes of mind and maturity of thought. When Mercury opposes Saturn, there's an excellent opportunity to just say, "I changed my mind. I'm seeing things differently.
I have matured or developed my thinking, or my skills, or my abilities in a process of learning. Mercury Saturn can bring about crystallized insights, skill development, etc. So think of something. Remember, Saturn represents maximum extension.
We think about the Sun and the Moon opposite naturally the signs of Saturn in the zodiac. You go out as far as you can go from the lights. You get to the planet dimmest and furthest out.
Maximum extension has been reached. Oppositions are ruled by Saturn, which means when something comes into an opposition with Saturn specifically, you're reaching its maximal extension, its maximal limit. That can mean that you have reached the end of a thought structure or paradigm that was useful and are ready to change your mind, or it can mean that you've reached the maximal extension of something you're learning, and something has totally brightened and matured.
You've learned a new skill, you've mastered a new idea, you're going up to the next level in some kind of learning process. So, all good things. What an interesting transit. Tomorrow, what we're going to do is flip this around through the wheel and look at the oppositions across the whole sign houses.
I think that'll be useful for us. So stay tuned for that. Next, I'm going to tell you about the year one program. We start November 14. This program has just been APAI certified, which is awesome.
What that means is that one of the most, in in my opinion, one of the best certifying bodies in the world has recognized our school as as really special, as as up there with some of the best.
So you go through a process at Nightlight. You're gonna really really learn, and you're gonna. You're going to see everything's taught live, and you're going to see a lot of live in action, a live astrology in action, not just theory and technique.
So anyway, I'll tell you more about it next. Thanks for sticking around. We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye.




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