If I could have one super power, it would be to erase evil events before they occur.
My work as an astrologer is to guide and uplift where possible. So as a human being but particularly as an astrologer, I am discouraged by the violent global events of June and July. There is just no accounting for human behavior. Energy may be directed either positively or negatively. And if we focus our energy toward positively, this summer may be a truly transformative time.
Transformative possibilities continue into August as it opens with Motivating Mars finishing its tour in deep and intense Scorpio. There is significantly more planetary activity this month than last, the trickiest part of which finds Mars shifting from psychic Scorpio into adventuresome Sagittarius where it will join Saturn later this month. Our attention shifts away from attention-getting crises toward how to manage the gravity of philosophical differences driving said crises (often violent).
First, though, let’s look at the energies building up to this climax later in August. To begin with, Messenger Mercury entered health/work-minded Virgo on July 31. For the next two months, all through September and even into the beginning of October, Mercury draws our thoughts toward planning, perfection and acute detail. Mercury is at home here in the sign it rules and commands a tremendous work ethic.
The first week of the month the Messenger planet tangles with Motivating Mars and Saturn which demand freedom rather than planning or details. Sagittarius is big picture energy; if anything, we are directed to honor our truth no matter whom it offends. Mercury in Virgo pulls the other way: So you’re unsatisfied with your job/home/partner/finances? Get down to business and make a plan. Pull out some paper and pen, your laptop and calendar and chart a course. Change does not happen without effort says Virgo. Elbow grease and using your head are the only way to get things done. Shift, change, move forward. Step by step. Plan. Step by step. Rest. Repeat.
Our motivation is directed by Mars and as it moves into Sagittarius on August 3, pushing toward Saturn, Mars drives our efforts while Saturn sets the agenda; meanwhile Mercury tells us how to think, what to do and in what order. With Mercury rabidly discerning every detail as Mars/Saturn look at the global landscape, things can get dicey. The most effective way to manage these contrarian forces is to take turns with your efforts. Like a painter, step back from the picture you are working on and see it in full, its entirety: where you need to add, delete, edit, re-do…then, go to it, attend to the details in that sector of your life.
With the New Moon on August 2-3, if we align our thoughts and actions carefully, we are afforded an excellent opportunity to set the course and reap rewards over the next month. This New Moon is wildly creative as it forms tremendous alliances with Saturn. Think of it: your creative urges and will (the Moon and Sun) are underscored by fiery Sagittarian Saturn responsibility to honor your truth, to do that which you believe in wholeheartedly. At its core, that is Sagittarian energy: philosophy, personal truth, belief, and understanding. Joining creativity and personal philosophy is very powerful stuff. Combine that with Messenger Mercury and Generous Jupiter in planner Virgo and you’ve got yourself super potent forces to work with.
This force is strengthened and highlighted as relationship-oriented Venus enters Virgo on August 6th, the same day Mercury conjoins the Lunar North Node pulling us toward our goal. Mars/Saturn push us to dream BIG while Mercury/Venus/Jupiter/North Node in Virgo tell us exactly how to make that dream come true. How to make it real. This energy can feel daunting. And, Virgo, because it sees every single detail in how much work there really is to fulfilling the dream, you can be riddled with self doubt or second guessing. A word of advice here: Don’t. Just don’t. Do not go down the path of doubt. Remember, if you are aligned with positive action and know that you are given ideas and dreams for a reason, whether for self-improvement, positive life change, growth and development, only good can result. The great news is that the Sun cycles through creative Leo well into August. So it roars right back at all those naysayers, needling self-doubting thoughts and Negative Nellies dancing in your head. The Leo Sun is can-do energy like no other. It tells us to go ahead, step out into the world in a great big way and take up space. This desire is particularly strong from August 10-18 when the Sun aligns beautifully with Radical Uranus. Our ingenuity and creative engine is running full speed in whatever sector of your chart this alignment occurs. Truly, breakthroughs are truly possible now; and with careful application of your will, change naturally follows.
Strengthening this passage is Saturn turning direct motion on August 13. We get a gigantic kick in the pants, telling us to get going with our Responsibility to fulfill our potential. Our dharma and karma. What we came to earth to accomplish. All of these forces increasingly build up to the Full Moon on August 18th. This Full Moon bears a lot of helpful energy with it as North Node/Venus align with Pluto (transforming our relationships and what we focus on) and Messenger Mercury’s pairing with Jupiter (masterful touches to our work and projects). The cautionary angle here is Mars/Saturn’s continuing conflict with illusory Neptune. Mars/Saturn are hell bent searching for truth(s) we must face while Neptune reaches for the escape hatch. There is a lot of disillusionment, wanting something else instead of what we have, refusal to accept the present moment in favor of wishful thinking. Again, allow this conflicting energy to take turns: continue to dream and work for the ideal (Neptune) but face the truth you are dealt with honesty. Resisting or pushing against the flow is wholly a waste of time and energy. If you do, you’ll find yourself further and further behind in the game.
A note of warning here is global events. As we know, we have free will and may direct our thoughts and energy anyway we want. So it must be said that darker drives continue this month, driven by beliefs and personal philosophy (Mars/Saturn in Sagittarius). Some such as ISIL clearly think their beliefs are right, correct, Holy, and the only path to embrace. It is my sincere hope that the darker choices and paths are contained, this month and in the future. Humanity is really being shown light and dark, goodness and evil in stark contrast now. At few times in our history has there been such an increasing emphasis for the individual (and thus collective) to choose sides; and that one side is the correct side to stand on, stand up for. This is dramatically playing out on the US political front.
As the days of August unfold, we are squeezed to make our choice. If you are uncertain, be still, turn off the phone, listen to your heart; act in good faith and conscience. Ask yourself which path leads to love, health, healing, grace, unity. And which path divides, separates and leads to disconnection? This is truly an auspicious time. No hyperbole here. As we face collective choices as a nation and world, so do we also on an individual level. Will you stand up for yourself, your child, your employees, your community?
Enormously helping us all month long is a series of key planetary alignments in earthy Virgo with transformer Pluto in pragmatic Capricorn. It keeps our feet on the ground and our minds and hearts realistic. Given the times we live in, that is a very good thing. First, on August 11, the Lunar North Node (our directional calling) and Messenger Mercury align with Pluto. Our thoughts match our desires. Next at mid-month, August 15-19, the North Node and Venus align with Pluto, fostering our relationships and desires, perfecting these, building healthy relations, whether to loved ones, work colleagues or ourselves. This is highly useful energy, especially in sequence. Use it to your full advantage. It is a terrific time to plan anything: travel, personal or work projects, self improvement goals.
Right around the Full Moon, Mercury/Jupiter oppose healer Chiron. There is an emphasis on what we need to cleanse and release from our lives in order to heal, and in many cases, heal really old wounds such as toxic relationships, thought processes/traps, poor eating or exercise habits, finances and spending patterns. With all of the Virgo planning energy, map out exactly how to revise areas of your life that do not work efficiently.
By August 23, the Sun joins the troika in Virgo, aligning our will to our efforts. We will need this very pragmatic, earthy energy focus as the Sun/North Node challenges Mars/Saturn squaring off with Neptune/South Node the last week of the month. You may feel off–balance or thrown off-kilter by people and life events as August closes. The point of this conflicting energy is to ground us, really push us to focus on what is real and what is most definitely not real. With Mars/Saturn in the middle of the other two pairings, we are driven to find the truth of the matter, and of ourselves. There is a whole lot of disillusionment and delusion to cut through here…a sorting through, gutting out and focused discerning to determine what is smoke and mirrors versus what is actual and factual.
Ask: where are others leading you on, deceiving you (at home, work, national politics). Where are you misleading or kidding yourself? Leading up to the Lunar eclipse on September 1, it feels like something really has to give, especially as Messenger Mercury turns retrograde on August 30. For the first three weeks of September, we are offered a wonderful chance to review, revisit, repair and revise absolutely any part of our lives that is broken. We are human and we make mistakes. As much as Virgo quests for impossible perfection (chastising ourselves with full-blown self-flagellation as we go), it is also the Great Healer. Tend to your wounds now, be they open and festering or old and scarred over. It is time to get real. Time to be healed.