The prevailing urge seems to be to harden around one’s perspective and ideology, to make it bigger and more grandiose, to become even more dismissive of opposition and discourse—but we are in a time when following that urge is likely to draw even more opposition, even more discourse, bigger obstacles that point out the flaws in our reasoning and the lapses in our factual assessment of what is happening.

Mercury and Jupiter remain at an opposition to each other while Mercury slows down and prepares to retrograde. Both are in signs of personal struggle, yet each is in the other’s sign of rulership. So they can help each other succeed or they can bicker and encourage each other to fail and flail.

As frustrating as it is, it feels like the move right now is to move toward more engagement, more conversation, more speaking what is true for you and also listening to what is true for the other person with the same attention and curiosity you’d like them to offer you. Yet it is also a good time to feel out where attention and curiosity feel possible and fruitful, and where bringing those energies would actually defeat and diminish you. Not all conversations are safe, and not all people are willing or able to listen.