Sun trine Uranus | Venus on the North Node - getting noticed by doing our own thing

miss kI by thephotogenesis

Today the Sun, in Leo, trines (brakes off) Uranus, in Aries.

This is a good day to put an innovative spin on something or step into the spotlight in some unusual way.

Leo is the space in our chart (what house is home to Leo in your natal and progressed charts?) where we embrace our passion and make ourselves visible to other people (Leo's polarity space of Aquarius). What looks like is just for us is really for everyone.

Now is a good time to claim our passion; claim our creativity in a new way. It's never too late to begin again! New opportunities and breakthroughs can happen now. If you have the opportunity to show a different side of yourself - take it.

Leo, and the Sun, rule our 5th house of creativity, romance, children, joy, games - it's the house of pleasure - a shake-up in any of these areas (and/or our Leo natal and progressed houses) is possible now - doing something different is the key to making the house of pleasure pleasurable.

Venus, hanging out on the North Node of Fate, is making us very attractive to our best future. She is pulling us toward our greatest and most beautiful good. Can you feel her? xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of August 15th - the small beginnings of a BIG eclipse season

disappear by spell-bound 170

There is some disagreement between astrologers as to whether Thursday's Full Moon in Aquarius is or isn't a partial lunar eclipse (astronomers say no).

I think since part of the Moon will be red and part of the Moon will be missing (get up super early to see this for yourself) - this is a partial eclipse but even if it isn't it can't hurt to factor this into our thinking. A Full Moon reveals and an eclipse conceals. So, just know that if something is brought to light now we may not be able to see the whole picture.

Let's take a look at this Full Moon and a brief look at what September's solar and lunar eclipses (September 1st and 16th) are going to look/feel/behave like and what the whole season will offer up.

ECLIPSE SEASON IS GOING TO BE BIG!

Now, this week's eclipse isn't a 'true' eclipse (those start in a couple weeks). Eclipses can act as a kind of cosmic reboot; like when we download new software and have to turn our computer off and back on for the newly downloaded material to function properly. Except in this case, we are the computer, and our connection to a changing cosmos gets "reset".

Eclipses are some of the most dramatic means life has to draw our attention to spaces that need to change. They allow us to move from one level to another in some area of our lives very quickly. They can have influence weeks before and sometimes kick in 1-3 months after they have happened (often to the exact day).

Eclipse or not, significant changes are not far away - this would be a good time to slow down and take the time to analyze situations. We will be dealing with energies and situations we haven't worked with before so we need to be gentle with ourselves and other people. 

It is very difficult to see what is real and what is not real right now 

and sometimes we can only navigate through our sensitivity to our own discomfort. As we turn away from undermining beliefs and habits and relationships we can find ourselves heading in the right direction almost by accident!

Let's start with a sneak peek at the Full Moon partial lunar eclipse on August 18th - this is in our Aquarius house (natal and progressed) at 25 degrees.

This eclipse includes a Yod (finger of God, yes means exactly what this would make you picture in your head, it's saying LOOK HERE) pointing at Jupiter (in Virgo).

We've got the Moon sextiling Uranus (in Aries) and both the Moon and Uranus inconjunct to Jupiter. So, we've got the Moon in Aquarius (ruled by Uranus) and also sextiling Uranus. Uranus is very strong here and sextiles represent opportunities. Uranus and Aquarius are about stuff that is "out of the blue", unpredictable, new, technology, freedom, rebelliousness, genius, humanitarian - you get the idea. Aquarius is the sign of the genius, the rebel, the humanitarian, the criminal - and yes, sometimes all in the same person!

This Full Moon offers unusual opportunities to be brilliant or to be a humanitarian or to rebel against something impinging on our freedom or to devise the perfect cyber crime! 

(although maybe skip the cyber crime because although eclipses often conceal things - this one being more Full Moon than eclipse it is more likely to reveal than conceal)

I'll do a Full Moon post, but know with this Moon sextiling (opportunities) Uranus - the planet of  "anything can happen", well, anything can happen. The Moon has Jupiter getting uber close to Mercury.

(the exact conjunction is the following Monday, so maybe if whatever happens involves a communication or conversation or an announcement it will happen then, although with Mercury's upcoming retrograde he will be hanging out with Jupiter for quite a while)

The last time we had an eclipse in Aquarius was on August 7th - 8th, 1998 (anything special happening in your life then?). August 7, 1998 was the date the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were attacked with car bombs (killed more than 200 people). If you are old enough to remember the Bill Clinton presidency, this was during the time of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and was just a few days before Bill admitted on national television that he had in fact had a relationship with her. Two weeks later the Clinton administration bombed (August 22nd) Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation. You might also remember there were some critics at the time who thought the whole thing reminded them of the movie "Wag the Dog" - a movie about a politician who invents a war to take people's attention off what was happening at home. Not sure what this says about what is happening in the world today - but it is interesting the time period reflected back to us now.

Before the next eclipse (the Solar eclipse in Virgo on September 1st) a lot is going to happen including Mars meeting up with Saturn in Sagittarius. This is BIG.

We'll unpack this later in the week in more detail. 

Just know that Mars is not only meeting up with Saturn (August 23) - he is going to move past Saturn. If Saturn is the old man who sends the young man off to war to keep him busy so the young man will not think about unseating him then Mars is the young man back from battle and running right at him. We can also think of Saturn as that wall we can't get past ... except now we do. And what it takes to move us past that wall is the " unknown thing" that is going to happen here. Then Mercury goes retrograde, so whatever happens we will have plenty of time to think about it. Next comes a challenging solar eclipse. Then we have the final exact Saturn/Neptune square on September 10th (the last two exact square dates lined up very closely with the Paris and Orlando terrorist attacks). Then we have the lunar eclipse.

What this will all look like is still to be determined.

OK back to the week ahead - On Monday, the Capricorn Moon keeps us busy and on task. On Tuesday, coming off her opposition to Neptune, Venus, maybe a bit disillusioned from analyzing 'the dream' and facing her 'wall', hooks up with the North Node (our collective destiny, the best way forward) - this is a great day to start something or work on something or meet up with something or someone that aligns with where we want/need to go. If it's our best way forward things will click into place and we will attract what/who we need (remember this is still Virgo - so our attention to detail and focus on little things can make a big difference). Let's pay attention to what happens now. This is positive news for Venus and Virgo themes - love, money, women, our values, our work, our health, our animals and co-workers. In Virgo we will find real, workable solutions and improvements. Mercury is also preparing to go retrograde and walking the degrees he will walk two more times, so whatever we are working with will be in play for many weeks. On Wednesday, Venus trines (brakes off) Pluto so the Venus themes of women, love, money and our values have an easier time with authority figures, applying a stricter focus and maintaining our sense of purpose. We start to break through any lock ups and move forward. On Thursday, we have a Full Moon in humanitarian and freedom loving Aquarius (next post) so all week the energy will be intense as we build toward whatever the Full Moon will eclipse out, reveal, conceal or complete. On Friday, the Moon (in Pisces now) hooks up with Neptune and squares Mars and Saturn, triggering the approaching final Saturn/Neptune square (we've been dealing with this dreams vs. reality stuff, our beliefs, boundaries, etc, all year) and probably focusing us on whatever it is we need to release/finish before the final Saturn/Neptune square on September 10th. We'll want to step up and take action on any responsibilities that come up now (Saturn/Mars). With Uranus and Mercury again aspecting each other there could be unexpected news. Dreams may prove important and even prophetic.

There are no Void Moons during business hours. The basic energy is on releasing, finishing up, cleaning out and creating space for what is next! We are approaching the end of Leo season, and with so much energy in Virgo it may feel like summer is already behind us, but it's not gone yet. Remember, to enjoy these last few days - get outside and have some fun! xo all

knowledge is power ....

magnifier by nuno canha

Today's first quarter Moon (in Scorpio) puts whatever was started at the New Moon to its first tests. Maybe we are learning something now to help us choose a different/better/simpler way forward.

With Mercury (in Virgo) trine (brakes off) Pluto (retrograde in Capricorn) - knowledge is power. Details are powerful, too, and carry the seeds of our success or failure. Look closely and carefully. 

Good energy for making important plans - a conversation or communication (Mercury) with an authority figure or someone or situation holding power (Pluto) can move something forward in a big way.  

Excellent energy to present a well-thought out idea to powerful people.

Trines release restraints. If we have our foot on the brakes trying to keep some information from reaching someone in authority - this could be the transit (brakes off) that opens the flood gates. Trines can also help us deal with indecision by releasing cleanly all that doesn't belong in a particular situation.

daddy's home | Saturn Moves Direct August 13th

dad by pete barker

Here is a link to my post when Saturn went retrograde at the end of March.

On Saturday, Dad (Saturn) is back from vacation. Have we been goofing off? Staying out late? Run up the electric bill? Worn out his favorite chair or left his tools out in the rain to rust?

With Saturn back in direct motion by next week - we might find ourselves having to confront tougher deadlines, stricter limits or road blocks. We could be up against "external authority" and "time" restraints in some way. Whatever we've been going over since very late March or early April when Saturn began to backtrack over 16-9 degrees Sagittarius (what house(s) does this hit in your natal/progressed charts?) can begin to move forward now. We will still be covering old ground here until November though.

He'll immediately square Venus in Virgo. We will have to adjust our approach to what we want. Something is ready for our renewed effort and attention now. What is it?

While Saturn was retrograde we fed ourselves on power that came from the past - maybe strong personal values (what did Dad teach us by his presence or lack of presence, by his examples good or bad), deep instincts or the qualities of ancient heroes and heroines or our ancestors. This was maybe potent nourishment or it wasn't and we felt weaker, but either way, the question now is how this will find a place in our life going forward.

If we keep trying to shape our world to fit something in the past (the good old days that only existed in our heads because we were asleep) we will certainly fail.

These are uncomfortable times - we are almost certainly better off hooking our coattails to what is in flux than anything covered in mothballs. 

All this Virgo is showing us we have to face our fear of imperfection; of being rejected. We can't stay comfortable anymore. It's better to allow the ancient story to be complete in itself. Its own chapter. Its own story. We don't really wish our grown children to be babies again, do we? We can let the old chapter be a source of strength and then get on with the business at hand.

We have a brand new chapter kicking off when Saturn meets up with Mars later in the month and damn it will be a doozy - the kind of chapter people will sneak ahead to read and want to re-read later when the book is finished!

As we move into Virgo season, we will accomplish more when we let go of the need for achievements and recognition this doesn't mean we won't have these things only that we can't need them if our true goal is peace and happiness.

We could simply move through life by doing what works then changing course when it stops working.The problem is we don't let go of what isn't working - remember our bodies crave what is familiar over what is good. We could waste this push forward in struggle or we could just move another way in constancy.

We'll move with an open heart and yes this will be tricky with Venus in Virgo wanting to dot I's and cross T's but it's the only way we ever really get anywhere anyway ...