Relationship lab is gearing up. A little more personal work is in store to get ready for it, and this week brings some last-minute but crucial prep. We get a check-in on how we’re doing with self-mastery when the Sun waves goodbye to Saturn while exiting Libra, and we see how much we have matured. The Sun enters Scorpio and greets its ruler, Pluto, and a major opportunity opens for each of us to step into personal power. Take it; it will help you for longer than you think. By the end of the month, lab will be in session for the next three years and shift our focus, again and again, from the inner self to the outer relationships that reflect it.

The lab bell sounded with the Libra New Moon this past weekend. (Read my report on the site for a brush-up on it.) With it, we’ve entered a new and decidedly different dynamic in relationships. Our side of the relationship equation is more intact, complete and balanced. Our animus and anima, or the inner male and female, are harmonious and cooperative, getting along much better than ever. Since we’re not internally at war (or, at least, not at the level we’ve experienced before), our expectations and agendas in relationships are different. This means everything we experience with other people is being updated, which translates for many of us into new friends and partners as well. The new people who come in will have a very different dynamic; the people who leave will clearly belong to the past. Yes, leaving is still ongoing, and in many instances we’re the ones stepping out the door. We don’t have to continue in relationships that are built on conflict, or domination, or control, or demeaning, or any version of our self that is less than who we are. If we feel we “have” to stay in the relationship, say for job or family reasons, we don’t have to continue in the old dynamics. We can choose to opt out of them. True, there may be repercussions, but consider the alternative. This week helps us along in our choices.

Before you say “yes, but” and defend why you have to stay in a bad situation: You have a choice. You always have a choice. No one commands or controls you. No one “dictates” to you without your consent. A story I heard lately that drove that point home, about an organization that has been taken over by the current president, whose overreaching includes forcing the selection of award recipients when everyone else wants to honor someone different. The person telling me this painted the president as an intractable tyrant who ramrods her decisions down everyone’s throats, but all I could think of was — and you let her? You can’t all band together and out-vote her? Or vote her out? My informant could not see how each and every participant was handing power over to this individual and creating the monster they were experiencing. This kind of scenario is up for a new script now. If you’re in an equivalent situation, whether it’s with a social group or a co-worker or a relative (and, yes, I know the last two are tricky), stop and think. You don’t have to fall lockstep into your old reaction. You can interact differently. In fact, the more effective your boundary and self-mastery work has been over the past two years, the more unlikely it is that you are even capable of going back to your old ways.

The new relationship paradigm is based on respect, negotiation and cooperation. It’s the next logical step in the process each of us has undergone in the last two years. You are more aware and respectful of your own emotional and physical needs, your energy, your boundaries and even the passions and urgings of your soul. You know yourself better. You know your bottom line, what you value and what you don’t any longer; you know what you’re willing to do, what you’re not willing to do and where you’re willing to compromise. You’re capable of taking care of yourself, or you at least want to be in the position to do that. Every aspect of this awareness comes with you now when you interact with someone else. The certainty you radiate about yourself affects how people treat and respond to you. When you proceed from the position of being honest with yourself, you can be more upfront with others about how you’re going to be with them. If both sides of the equation are doing this, relationships are going to be more respectful, harmonious and mutually beneficial. If competition and control issues go off the table, think of what two people pooling their energies might be able to create. And if two people doing that commit to the union, imagine the deepening and powerful of their joint efforts. That journey is what’s in store when Saturn moves into Libra at the end of the month.

We get a taste of harmonious interactions this week, with Venus and Mercury both in the sign of Libra. Their presence in the home of graceful words should bring the general tone of discourse down to calmer, kinder and pleasanter levels. Tricky topics will be easier to discuss. Cease fires can be called in interpersonal battles; points of agreement and compromise will be reached. The benefits aren’t merely for troubled situations; neutral to positive ones will benefit, too. Make a point to get out in public, to contact friends and to socialize. People are going to want to spend time together and enjoy each other’s company. After last month’s roller coaster ride, we could all stand to share some cosmic cotton candy. Take some and pass it around.

Not that this week promises fluff. It’s got anything but. Saturn is continuing to close in on a square to Pluto, which will build until the middle of November. Institutions and boundaries are being redrawn. Structures are being remodeled, cut back or dismantled, from our personal ground rules and internal attitudes to the outer situations that provide support and security in our lives. The Sun meets with both ends of the square as he leaves Libra for Scorpio — a move that takes him from the territory where one of them, Saturn, is heading, to the dominion ruled by the other, Pluto. Thursday the Sun makes a growth aspect with Saturn and the results come back from a pop quiz you may not have realized you were taking. How do you handle autonomy and responsibility? The day’s developments illustrate how much you’ve grown over the past two years. (Early morning dreams give some perspective on your spurt, too.) Friday the Sun enters Scorpio minutes before the Moon enters Capricorn and conjoins Pluto. Personal power is the issue of the day. Are you slave to cellular impulses? Some will surface, but that doesn’t mean you have to hand them the steering wheel. Instead, use the day’s intensity to gain clarity and consciousness of what you want and need at your core. Tie them to higher will and you may find that they become non-negotiable. Whether that happens or not, you will find that your comfort level with yourself is greater, which may take the form of simply not apologizing for being who you are. Stand in your power. A door is opening that supports and requires it when the Sun sextiles Pluto Saturday morning. The Sun’s contact with Saturn was a form of recommitment ceremony; the one with Pluto is more of a minor makeover to fit the new role. Drop attitudes about yourself that don’t serve you any longer. Cut away the impulse to go along with something that you don’t really like, just to be nice or to keep the peace. Accept the opportunity, whatever form it takes, to stand in your power and act with integrity.

It has the impact of surgery on the ego — surgery that doesn’t leave you aching in bed recuperating, but instead lightens your load and immediately revitalizes you. The impact sets the tone for the Sun’s month in Scorpio. With less weighting us down, we can dive deeper and deeper into experiences. And as the Saturn/Pluto square locks into place next month, we’ll have the inner strength and fearlessness to face whatever that redefining aspect brings. Life is becoming more intense and more meaningful, because our experience of it is more intense and more meaningful. Be fully present now. Don’t worry about what might be happening next week or next month or at some far off time like, for pity’s sake, 2012. Live now. Each moment has a sharpness and awesome beauty that can take your breath away and immerse you in the wonder of being fully alive.

Monday: Pace yourself. The night wasn’t exactly restful, and odds are you’re starting the week at less than full energy. It’s a morning of keeping to yourself and working on what’s in front of you. Use discretion in your choice of conversation partners, particularly as the afternoon peaks. The air crackles with a testiness that could be infectious. It’s easier to maintain control if you postpone chatter until the workday ends EDT. Moods lighten then and the desire surfaces to kick back and enjoy. Nothing’s in the way, so indulge.

Tuesday: Pace This is the day for communication. Reach out to people you’ve been wanting to contact. Brainstorm the future with kindred spirits. Watch for information and messages about situations taking off or expanding, particularly if they started around the spring equinox and stalled. Breakthroughs and lucky breaks are possible and probable. In any important conversation, reconsider the topic with this question: How could this be bigger and better? Go for broke. Spirits are high, so tricky conversations will go better (and longer) than you might have expected.

Wednesday: Pace The good vibes continue. The day’s only major aspect is a lovely Moon/Venus sextile early morning EDT, which sprinkles the air with the soothing, happy sensation that all’s right with the world, for now. Keep on talking. Proceed from the assumption that you’ll be meet with harmony and cooperation and you will be. If the evening brings off-kilter sensations, check in with your higher guidance.

Thursday: Pace Dreamtime is when the majority of today’s activity occurs, so pay attention to how you’re feeling when you wake up. Your subconscious is alternating scenarios of harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding (soundtrack: “Aquarius (Let the Sun Shine)”) with vignettes of frustration and impatience (soundtrack: “Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)”). The dichotomy works out, by the time you rise, into certainty about what you want, what you need to do and the socially expedient way to go about it. It’s a solid plan, but don’t cling too tightly if it gets a cosmic shaking. Mid-day brings a shower of Uranian bolts. Be open to changes in your schedule, your whims and your view point. As the disruption fades, the skies brighten into peacefulness, which nothing dispels for the rest of the day.

Friday: Pace The day has only eight aspects, and all but one occur before 9:30 AM EDT. To say that dreamwork is intense is an understatement. It’s deep sea diving into the psyche. Your subconscious is addressing monumental issues of desire and power. By the time you come up for air and awaken, you’ll have chosen a definite course of action. If it’s not obviously on your mind as you start the day, or if you can’t identify the issues that absorbed you overnight, pay attention to the thoughts that you can’t shake as the day goes on — or to the direction that you feel driven to pursue. Stop trying to figure anything out by evening. Be fallow and rest.

Saturday: Pace And you thought you were going to sleep in? Little chance with a powerhouse morning like today’s. Dreamtime works through a gentle but effective refinement of your personal power. (Sometimes the greatest act of power is knowing that you have it and choosing not to throw it around. See if that concept doesn’t play a role in the dream fragments that come to you.) Once your psyche wraps itself around that, desires take hold that exist far below the level of conscious thought, and possibly even language. There won’t be long to assimilate their ramifications in your sleep. Either some one will rouse you with startling news, or insights could drop into your head of such a magnitude that you sit upright in bed. Making sense of the night may take a few hours. Enlightenment will come easily, either by you asking for it or it simply flowing to you. Truths and answers may crop up in mundane conversation, in song lyrics or on TV, so be alert to words and symbols. (Nothing is coincidence.) Some may bring foreshadowing of the fractiousness ahead this afternoon. Relationships could change on a dime. Keep plans loose and don’t hand your power away.

Sunday: Pace Yesterday’s developments churn through dreams, delivering a bit of understanding and an itch to do something about them. The afternoon brings solidity, calm and emotional detachment, while antsiness returns in the evening. Plan activities accordingly.

Mundane: Pace As Saturn moves into the square with Pluto, watch for signs in the news of fundamental change in big or longstanding institutions. (Feel free to send them to me, too!) One case in point: Conde Nast axing Gourmet magazine at the beginning of October. Gourmet has set standards for food and travel writing for decades, but its sophisticated subscriber (and advertiser) base wasn’t enough to keep it afloat now. Interestingly, Bon Appetit, which has a more mainstream slant and, big surprise, greater circulation, survived the cuts. Back to basics and simpler living is part of Pluto in Capricorn, for sure.

In a lesser known development with possibly more far reaching consequences, two state Supreme Courts are considering rules that would fundamentally change the game for their attorneys. One would make continuing legal education mandatory for attorneys in New Jersey, while a proposal in Texas would require attorneys to publicly disclose if they do not carry malpractice insurance. The merits can be argued both ways on either, but what’s interesting astrologically is that each has an aspect of the increased governmental intrusion that is part of the potential of this square. NJ does this by making only the attorneys, and not the course givers, responsible for reporting the courses they take, and then making the reports are subject to audit, which expands the reasons for the government coming into an attorney’s office and looking at his records. In the Texas proposal, the state could not only be seen as intruding into the private business relationship between an attorney and client, but also into the market and on the side of large firms, which can still afford malpractice insurance when many small and solo ones can not in this economy. The timing is fascinating. The comment period on both rules ends just before the square is exact. My money’s on both rules being adopted.

Kathy now offers shorter SWAT readings of what’s going on right now in your chart (30 minutes, $100) in addition to regular hour-long consultations. Visit Kathy’s NEW SITE EmpowermentUnlimited.net for podcasts, mp3s, a discussion forum and more on the eclipses, the Aquarius/Pisces traveling party and the Saturn/Uranus opposition. To join her mailing list, send e-mail to kbiehl@fortunaworks.com.