Today's Astro plus Pallas into Virgo | a break from routine, feeling at home in unusual situations, sobering up, dealing with authority and limits, the devil is in the details, exacting standards, keeping our eye off the prize, releasing the need for applause

sleepy little sailor by waveystar

At 8:03AM EDT today, the Moon enters Cancer turning our emotional focus for the next couple days toward home, family, renovation, relocation, mom, patriotism and apple pie. We want to nurture and be nurtured. Our attention turns to what we are growing.

We (and other people, of course) can be more sensitive now.

"My house here is painted the yellow colour of fresh butter on the outside, with glaringly green shutters; it stands in full sunlight in a square that has a green garden with plain trees, oleanders and acacias. It is completely whitewashed inside, with a floor made of red bricks. And over it there is the intensely blue sky. In this house I can love and breathe, meditate and paint."
 - Vincent van Gogh


Home projects, getting the kids off to school, nurturing activities and just curling up on the sofa and getting away from it all will be enticing.

First up, three hours later, an opportunistic sextile to "out-of-the-box" Uranus (retrograde in Taurus), so a good time to handle any family/home situations in unusual or modern ways. We could feel at home in unusual situations or with unique people. This could be a good aspect for kids going back to school today - a break (Uranus) from home (Moon).

The mood gets heavier after lunch (12:22 PM EDT) when the Moon opposes sober, authoritative Saturn. The kids get restless, the teacher (and need to sit up straight) sets the rules.

I know someone who is going to traffic court tonight and that sounds about right, too. This could also be a home vs work or family vs work in the world issue. The Moon is at home in Cancer and Saturn is at home in Capricorn, so both are strong and at their best. Worthy adversaries, but Saturn is standing still and preparing to station direct right now, so UBER powerful. If we are feeling depressed this afternoon/tonight know this is a transit. It is transitory. Saturn is heavy.

We will feel what we are carrying now.

Today we also see asteroid Pallas (patterns, strategies and tactics) move into exacting Virgo. Our plans/strategies become more precise, more practical.

(we also have Mercury - communication/ideas/information - moving into this same space tomorrow, a space he/she RULES)

If we can avoid the critical, nitpicky Virgo crap - the perfection story based in our fear of whatever we are doing being judged not quite up to snuff - we can make real progress by focusing on the details and putting one foot in front of the other for the next few weeks.

With Pallas in Virgo - and Mercury about to join in - it will be easier to see what fits and what doesn't. What works and what needs fixing/tossing. What is possible and what isn't. We analyze. 

We feel the need to "get it right".

Remember Virgo is the chapter, in our hero's journey, that follows Leo. The space where those pesky "other people" start to factor into things. The space where we carry that thing we have created in Leo and bring it into the service of other people.

The space we release any need for applause. 

So, it is likely best to focus on our TACTICS rather than goals/results for now. We trust the best, most carefully worked out tactics to produce for us the best results - but we keep our eyes on the tactics - the one foot we are putting in front of the next - NOT on the finish line.

We will talk about this more tomorrow.

xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of September 3rd - part 1 - smooth communication and information flow on MONDAY

diagonal people by Igor-Demidov

We have a very active week with multiple planets changing signs, one planet stationing direct and a New Moon!

I had family over for a barbecue yesterday, so didn't get to the weekly. I will either finish out this post later today or tomorrow morning or do dailies this week.

MONDAY - Mercury sextiles Venus 
WEDNESDAY - Mercury inconjuncts Mars, Mercury moves home to Virgo and inconjuncts Chiron
THURSDAY - Saturn stations direct in Capricorn (2 degrees)
FRIDAY - Mercury trines Uranus and Saturn - Grand Earth Trine(!) - and the Sun opposes Neptune
SATURDAY - Venus squares Mars
SUNDAY - Venus moves into Scorpio and we have the New Moon in Virgo (17 degrees)

On MONDAY the Moon continues her two and a half day monthly journey through Gemini. We are busy. We are communicating. We are running errands. Information is moving. Maybe sibling issues and the local community are keeping us active.

At 8:58AM EDT, Mercury (in confident, loud and proud Leo) will sextile (opportunity) Venus (in Libra) at 25 degrees.

This is a three-peat aspect with the last sextile on August 18th when Mercury was retrograde. So something now could connect back to that date and/or to the previous Mercury/Venus sextile.

This is easy communication, the ability to get someone else to "buy in" to what we want. An opportunity between our Leo (creative projects, children, romance, recreation) and our Libra houses (relationships). Reach out to other people early in the day while this aspect is hottest.

Note - we are still under the influence of yesterday's Moon square Sun (Gemini/Virgo) - choices, decisions, information overload, obstacles.

At 1:37AM the Moon will go void and then move into Cancer at 8:03AM EDT on TUESDAY (turning our focus to home, family, home business, mother, nurturing issues for the next couple days).

Also on Monday, Venus enters her upcoming retrograde shadow.

This means Venus (as us) begins traveling degrees she will travel again while retrograde (October 5th to November 16th) - she will be back to this week's exact degrees in November. Right now she is still in her home sign of Libra. She will move into Scorpio next week and spend most of her retrograde in Scorpio.

So, if we have planets or points between 0-10 degrees of the fixed signs - we will likely feel this retrograde strongest, but everyone will be impacted either directly or through our interactions with other people. The most directly impacted will be planets/points in early Scorpio. Taurus planets (opposite the retrograde Venus) will experience oppositions - issues coming at us from the outside, culminations. Aquarius and Leo planets/points will experience the tension/stress of squares. The other water signs - Pisces and Cancer - will experience trines (brakes off).

29-25 degrees of Libra and the other Cardinal signs will also be impacted. The most directly impacted will be planets/points in late Libra. Aries planets (opposite the retrograde Venus) will experience oppositions - issues coming at us from the outside, culminations. Cancer and Capricorn planets/points will experience the tension/stress of squares. The other air signs - Gemini and Aquarius - will experience trines (brakes off). We'll talk about this as we move through it.

With Venus retrograde we will be re-examining WHAT WE TRULY VALUE.

In Scorpio, events can conspire to show us the ways we merge our emotions/bodies/finances/resources and if this stuff is still working for us. Venus rules relationships, balance, love, money, women, beauty, our resources, our values and self-esteem.

Relationships are tested. Our values and self esteem are tested. Our ideas of beauty and women are tested. The ways we handle our money and resources are tested.

If we have lost ourselves in something - maybe this autumn is the time we come up for air ...

In the meantime, this week, we will want to pay attention to the Venusian themes in our life (the stuff she rules) because with Venus set to revisit the degrees she is walking now (two more times) - these situations are going to be in play for awhile. It could also be that something that starts now will come to a dead stop later on (and with Scorpio ruling death I do not use this word lightly), so keep this in mind.

xo all - back tonight or tomorrow

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | this weekend and a peek ahead into September

mettres les voiles by Marion-Volant

On FRIDAY, we have Venus (in Libra) semi-square the Sun (in Virgo). If we had these planets semi-square in our natal chart we might find it hard to accept a compliment or take money for our services. We might continually short change ourselves. Or maybe our self-worth would get wrapped up in our bank account in other unhealthy ways. With Venus in the sign of relationships now and the Sun in the sign of the critic we might have to bite our tongue to avoid talking about the things we notice that said out loud could be more unkind than helpful. There is probably no such thing as constructive criticism.

The Moon is active. We have the Moon conjuncting Uranus disrupting our comfort zone then moving into a stabilizing trine with Saturn in the early A.M. which is good for taking action on things we want to last. The Moon (uber comfortable in Taurus) trines the Virgo Sun at 12:45PM EDT. This is opportunity for material gains and good energetics for business, negotiations with co-workers, progress with health issues, etc. We will do our Virgo. Play the hand we've been dealt. Focus on the little things. Do the thing that is right in front of us. The Moon will sextile Neptune in the evening, so a good movie/date night. Good for creativity, imagination, healing.

SATURDAY has an active Moon and is another mixed bag. Just being a Saturday should help!

By SUNDAY at 4:02AM EDT the Moon will move into Gemini focusing us on Gemini themes for the next couple days - information, communication, local issues, transportation issues, sibling issues. We will be busy, more chatty, better able to multi-task.

At 10:37PM EDT on Sunday we have the last quarter Moon of the month with the Gemini Moon squaring the Virgo Sun. We are likely overloaded with information by now, much of which we don't need. Virgo wants to cut to the chase and Gemini wants to check out every angle. It is time to be discerning. This speaks of a crisis of choice. The Virgo Sun advises us to choose what is most practical/realistic now. We might want to keep our options open, but that will just keep us stuck - for many situations it is time to choose (but not all, remember, I can't see your chart- use your own discernment). This is also the day Mercury exits his retrograde shadow - meaning he begins to travel new degrees. This summer's Mercury retrograde in Leo is behind us. Whatever we were supposed to learn we have learned. What we do with what we have learned is up to us.

Spending Sunday doing the weeklies means I never seem to have the time to look further than a few days ahead which really hampers these forecasts. I am not sure what to do about it!

Let's review a bit.

We had a Pisces Full Moon last weekend. It might have left us physically drained, especially in the early part of this week.

With a Pisces Full Moon something is released/drifts away/dissolves/culminates. We move into a new cycle leaving something behind us and we know what we need to carry into the new cycle by what has been lost if that makes any sense. We carry what we are left with. We dance with the one left on the dance floor. You get the idea.

The Grand Earth Trine (during the Full Moon) speaks of loss leading to gain - but maybe we can't see that part yet. Earth signs won't be rushed! Earth progress takes time. Earth represents real things - things we can see and touch. Baking a cake takes time. Growing a tomato takes time. Cakes don't bake if we keep opening the oven door. Seeds won't grow if we keep digging them up to check their progress. KNOW the space created by the loss creates a vacuum to be filled. Trust it.

This summer's eclipse season and retrograde cycles have put us through the wringer. For some people the resulting changes are visible things/visible losses/visible changes. For other people this stuff is more internal. Or I should say this stuff is internal for everyone and for some people there are external changes.

We are moving ahead now, but we want to take it slow.

Mercury leaves his retrograde shadow on SUNDAY. He is squaring Jupiter. So we want to RECEIVE the information (remember Jupiter is deep in Scorpio) and then be patient with what we do/say/think with it.

Mars is direct now (since Monday), but had been retrograde since the end of June and he has a few weeks before he leaves his shadow (starts covering totally new territory). He is now back to the degrees he covered around the middle of May (a big time astrologically because we also had Uranus move into Taurus at that time). There was likely something back then we were really wanting (where is 28 degrees Capricorn in your natal chart?). Then over the summer something shifted. This could have been something big or something small. But now Mars (as us) is back here again.

We have learned alot this summer. Goals changed. Soul contracts finished up. Where do we now stand with this thing we were wanting then? How do we move forward from this same space now that we have been re-booted?

By around September 6th Mars will be in full force and moving forward in Capricorn - where he is exalted. This is the day Saturn will station direct. We have been on a long, backward journey this summer. Now our thinking (Mercury) and actions (Mars) reach their logical conclusion. Saturn rules karma. And karma is really just cause and effect. We have consequences.

Maybe we meet a goal. Maybe a responsibility clobbers us in the head. Daddy's home.

On the same day Mercury finally leaves Leo and moves into Virgo where he will begin trining (brakes off) both Saturn - authority, stability, structure - and Uranus - change, revolution, freedom - for the next few days.

If a decision wasn't reached at that Quarter Moon - here is where our minds are finally made up - we are READY TO GET TO WORK.

Remember Mars is exalted (at his best) in Capricorn.

This is because hot-headed, fiery Mars gets the structure he needs to succeed within Saturn's limits and constraints. Limits are our friend now. We don't rush with Mars in Capricorn. We are grounded. We are determined. We can work alone or we can lead. We can get things done.  

So we have a couple weeks in September to settle in and get things going especially the stuff that feels like it has been dragging on and on and

then on September 10th - 11th, Mars moves into Aquarius - for the 3rd time! - here's to hoping the "third time is the charm" rather than "three strikes we're out"!

NOTE - we are far from out.

In Aquarius he will once again journey over Black Moon Lilith and the South Node and by the end of September he gets back to 4-5 degrees Aquarius where we had the Lunar Eclipse at the end of July.

Mars in Aquarius doesn't play by the rules. He can be restless and impatient and dangerous. And he will be squaring anything-can-happen Uranus. So there is alot of wildcard energy left.

Lots of loose ends and shifts are still ahead of us this month.

Another thing we have setting up is a long T-Square between Venus (women, love, money, relationships, self-esteem, our values), Mars (our initiative, action, passion, anger, courage) and Uranus (freedom, individuality, change, innovation) beginning around September 2nd and lasting almost all month. Mars is the focus of the T-Square so we will need to be active and brave. There could be relationship/financial challenges (we want freedom - Uranus AND we want the relationship/money - Venus). We don't want to go all hot-headed and do things we will regret later. We don't want to toss the baby out with the bathwater (babies are kind of cute after all). Mercury will be in Virgo to help us think things through.

Venus starts walking the degrees she will walk back over (three times total) beginning on Monday. So a Venus storyline is opening up. Most of her retrograde will be spent in deep, dark Scorpio in October, so October will be a complicated month and whatever we are dealing with begins to take form next week.

It's Virgo season though so not the time to look too far ahead with any of this - it's like we would be walking through the woods looking off into the distance and stepping on the flowers and mushrooms! Where are our feet?! Watch out for the fungi, folks! The fungi are our friends. Mostly.

September is active with lots of challenges and gifts. The time around September 11th, when Mars gets back into Aquarius will be IMPORTANT, the time  when Mars returns to square Uranus around the 18th will be IMPORTANT and the time around September 27th when Mars returns to his eclipse degree of July 27th will be IMPORTANT.

AND that is just Mars! We have alot of other pieces to the cosmic puzzle!

First up, a long weekend for many people in the United States because we have the Labor Day holiday on Monday, so appropriate for Virgo season, don't you think? Uranus in square to Mars has totally taxed our nervous system - let's give ourselves a break.

xo all

Astrology Forecast for Creatives | Week of August 27th - the delays come to an end, proceed cautiously and strategically, hair-trigger tempers, communication challenges, intense emotions, big plans and even bigger ideas, life speeds up

Time goes by like a train by Julie-de-Waroquier

Some of the big aspects for the week ahead are:

SUNDAY - Full Moon in Pisces
MONDAY - Mars stations direct in Capricorn!!
TUESDAY - Mercury square Jupiter
WEDNESDAY - Mercury inconjunct Pluto
SATURDAY - Venus opposes Eris
SUNDAY - Mercury leaves retrograde shadow

SUNDAY Morning EDT we have the Full Moon in Pisces I wrote about HERE. The day is colored by its aspects as well as a couple I missed in that post including Venus (strong in Libra) opposing Pluto (retrograde in Capricorn) which could bring relationship power struggles, money issues, an almost suffocating desire for something, maybe outside interference in a relationship - the bottom line for us - know this aspect, in play for a couple days, could bring up intense feelings and strong emotions. 

On MONDAY, the Moon (in Pisces) conjuncts Pisces ruler Neptune at 8:05AM EDT. We might feel more sensitive/compassionate and we are certainly more likely to take on other people's emotions - this would be an excellent morning to meditate.

At 10:05AM EDT Mars stations direct at 28 degrees Capricorn - a space where he is exalted.

Whatever stalled or stopped around August 12th will get moving again.

Maybe ego-driven plans (or some area where we wanted our way) and positions that did not work out quite as we expected have caused us to re-flect and re-vise. Between now and September 18th (the final Mars square Uranus) we should get a wrap-up/resolution. If we are smart and paying attention we have received clues from Mars this summer about how to deal with Uranus in Taurus over the next few years.

Mars won't be covering entirely new ground for a few weeks and it will take him a few days to get back up to speed. The Sun is in Virgo. Mars is in Capricorn. Let's take our cues from that. We'll proceed cautiously and strategically.

EXAMPLE FOR LIBRA/Libra Rising - Mars stations direct in your 4th house of home and family. Progress can now be made with a home renovation, relocation, home business or mother/family situation that may have stalled around mid-month.

Mars is very powerful at station and rules violence and anger so stay safe. No dark alleys. Step back from any potential altercations. Expect to feel rushed. 

The Pisces Moon will be active on Monday - keeping us busy - good for business and good for having the energy to do what we need to do.

On TUESDAY, (in play for a couple days before and after) at 1:31AM EDT, Mercury (in fiery Leo) squares Jupiter (in deep, dark Scorpio).

This is BIG News or information or a conversation. Good or bad the square indicates tension. Jupiter will make everything bigger, but also 'appear bigger' than it actually is. So keep this in mind.

Mercury - our communication, conversations, information, local issues, sibling issues, transportation issues - has multiple challenges this week and remember until next Sunday he/she is walking degrees she has walked before (twice!) so this is a repeat pattern from July 9th and then August 11th.

Some people will feel like they are living Groundhog Day (the movie!).

The square with Jupiter can mean we communicate too much. There might be big, floaty ideas without legs now. The details can be missed or glossed over. Words can be over-the-top now. We can be enthusiastic, but also preachy. Any challenges to Mercury mean we need to take care driving. Sibling issues could also come into play.

Remember this isn't an entirely new situation.

We have been through this before - we should have the tools in our tool belt for this one now. We are ready.

EXAMPLE FOR SCORPIO/Scorpio Rising - Mercury is squaring your sign from Leo, your 10th house of career and public life. There could be an optimistic business idea, professional information or exuberant career news now. Make sure you are reading the situation from a grounded space. Don't over-promise. Don't expect too much. The Sun is in Virgo - stick to the facts. Keep in mind Mercury is walking degrees he walked first on July 9th and then again on August 11th (retrograde) - so what have you learned?

The Moon (at the end of Pisces) sextiles (opportunity) Mars (at the end of Capricorn) at 9:54AM EDT. A good time to exercise - we are feeling strong and satisfied with whatever we have completed. 

We have the courage and ability (Mars/Capricorn) to handle the things we can't see coming (Pisces).

The Moon goes Void for a couple hours until she moves into Aries at 12:35PM EDT.

At 5:37PM EDT the Moon (in Aries) will square Saturn (in Capricorn). This could feel a little (or alot) depressing/pessimistic and isolating so stay centered and know this will pass. Chocolate will help.

The Aries Moon will give us a focus on Aries themes for the next couple days - courage, passion, action, initiative, maybe anger, anything new and ambitious.

On WEDNESDAY, Mercury (in fiery Leo) inconjuncts Pluto (in sober Capricorn).

This is a rock and a hard place aspect between our Leo and Capricorn houses. There could be power plays, obsessive thinking and persuasive, manipulative information/conversations. Avoid pushing your ideas onto other people. Avoid being pushed by other people's words. Secrets can come out now. There probably isn't any middle ground here, so just know that. Agree to disagree. Not really the time for an intimate conversation. Not the time to send the boss a memo (which could be misconstrued) or make an impassioned statement publicly. People could feel manipulated even if you think you are coming in with a higher agenda. Let sleeping dogs lie ... for now.

On THURSDAY, the skies are testy. The Moon in Aries will oppose Venus in Libra at 6:56AM EDT and then move into a square with Mars (in Capricorn). People might be aggressive and unwilling to compromise. Not easy energy for everyone to get along. The Moon goes void at 7:04PM EDT and then moves into Taurus at 9:30PM EDT focusing us on Taurus themes for the next couple days - comfort, security, our money, our values, eating well, taking care of ourselves.

I will write about Friday and the weekend later in the week and get up a big picture post for autumn.

xo all