Weekly Astrology Forecast | Week of August 24th - August 30th, 2020 | frustration, choosing our battles, getting past the block, moving forward, unexpected news and opportunities, results, keeping our feet on the ground

There is alot going on this week and next. Alot of ups and downs. All three of our personal planets are active with the outer planets - chickens being brought home to roost. Mercury, Venus and Mars all have challenges and opportunities.

MONDAY - Mars squares Saturn (retro) 19 degrees
TUESDAY - Mercury trines Uranus (retro) 10 degrees, Venus opposes Jupiter (retro) 17 degrees
WEDNESDAY - Mars sextiles North Node 26 degrees
THURSDAY - Venus trines Neptune (retro) 19 degrees
SATURDAY - Mercury trines Jupiter (retro) 17 degrees
SUNDAY - Venus opposes Pluto (retro) 22 degrees, Mercury opposes Neptune (retro) 19 degrees

We begin the week with the Sun having just left his home sign of Leo (this could make us feel a little let down maybe, a little like that end of summer feeling, maybe a little tired) and moved into practical Virgo - that back to work/back to school vibe will be starting to kick in now.

Right out of the gate, Mars - our passion, our actions, our anger - moves into his first (of three, over the rest of the year) squares with "line-n-the-sand" karmic Saturn. So whatever we are trying to do/push forward is meeting resistance in terms of rules, limits, timing problems, etc.

(now this is his third Cappy square because he has faced off with Jupiter and Pluto for a first pass already, so we should feel a let-up for awhile once we get past this one)

We want to do this, whatever this is, and we can't. Or we don't want to do this and our feet are held to the fire. Our focus could be on what we can't do/can't have. Saturn is karmic energy. Cause and effect. Mars is our courage/initiative, without which we might never do anything new or challenging, and then once we do those things (or don't do them) Saturn holds us accountable for our actions/in-actions. They can work well together, but here we get the 'butting heads' part.

Patience is needed. Endurance is needed. Work can be demanding. We are playing a long game - keep this in mind. 

Mars is strong in his home sign of Aries. Saturn (authority, limits) is strong in his home sign of Capricorn (and he's got his posse with him and Mars has already moved past them), but he is retrograde. These limits/responsibilities are probably not brand new. We are really feeling them now because Mars is lighting a fire under us via some situation/emotional tension. We have to be smart and focused and continue taking the actions we can take. We can't get all wrapped up in having something exactly a certain way. But we all know this by now.

Squares with Saturn can be exhausting/can burn us out if we keep pushing or fighting. So, we better be sure this is all worth it! We better be picking our battles! Because, yes, with Mars in Aries for the rest of the year - there will be battles. Also keep in mind on a whole other level these Capricorn blockages are unwinding hundreds of years of collective karma and will surely trigger uncomfortable emotions as old ideas about who we are are broken down.

Normally Mars squares Saturn, the energy lasts a couple days because Mars moves fast - we hit an obstacle/hear a "no", then we re-group, we move on. But this year, although yes, we re-group and we move on - because of Mars' upcoming retrograde, and because Jupiter and Pluto are with Saturn in Capricorn, too - we get to do this multiple times with multiple powerful energies (all answering to Saturn). These are major, major karmic release points - so much karma that has been holding us stuck is being shaken loose - there is just no way to know where this is all going. We can't see there from here, BUT it will be the things we do now that set up what happens later/what we have to deal with later.

With so much uncertainty, there is no easy road, but there is a road. Make your life as simple as you can. Think small. Think local. Think about what you can do with what is right in front of you. Collectively, we are in the thick of the most challenging energies of our lifetime. Winter is here. Bad decisions are biting us in the ass. So are good ones that don't work anymore/line up with the future.

After Mars gets past Saturn (he, as we, moves from 19 Aries to 26 Aries in TWO DAYS) his next aspect/portal is an opportunistic sextile to the North Node (our collective way forward) and trine to the South Node. There ARE ways to move forward after we get past this square! So although these blockages create tension/frustration - they also have the effect of making sure we’ve divested ourselves of everything old and worn out before we move on again. So, after Monday and until Mars stations retrograde on September 9th - WE ARE FULL STEAM AHEAD.

Mercury is trining Uranus (unexpected good news, new ideas being considered and Uranus is retrograde, so this will have its roots in the past) and then Mercury is trining Jupiter (again with roots in the past, now broadening our view, making us more optimistic, more hopeful) - we would have a Grand Earth Trine here - and we will in a couple weeks actually - if Mercury wasn't moving this fast, but this is still good news which could present itself  as actual good news.

Mercury rules the post office, a much needed service, and here in the United States hopefully we get some good news for them!

At the same time, Venus (feeling her way through emotional Cancer) is moving through her own challenging oppositions to these Cappy planets - this week and next!

Our relationships, our values, our money. In Cancer this can be about a home/family/mothering/home business/family business situation. She has a nice trine to spiritual/imaginative (and retrograde) Neptune, so we need to hold onto our dreams, even as we release our grip and expectations about how we are going to get to them. It’s time to make sure we can stand the life we have built, and not only, and not simply that, it’s time to make sure we are building our life into a journey that taps into, that relates to, our deepest desires. These are water signs - Cancer/Pisces - so this is more about how we want to FEEL anyway. What we need to feel safe/secure.

At the very end of the week though Venus will oppose powerful Pluto just as Mercury is opposing powerful Neptune.

Venus can get kind of needy in Cancer and Pluto can intensify this feeling of "must-have". Oppositions are well, oppositions, yes, but also projections, so we are probably assigning too much value to something outside of ourselves. If we don't actually need what we think we do, Pluto is just the fellow to yank the rug right out from under us. On the other hand, oppositions are like Full Moons and can deliver results - here is what we have attracted. Maybe we do get more.

With Mercury opposite Neptune at the same time it will be hard to know what is real. Some things that seemed too good to be true earlier in the week, might flip around on us at the end of this week or into next week, so although we want to allow ourselves to dream and hope and feel good, yes, please, just let's keep our feet on the ground at the same time. The realistic Virgo Sun will help with this.

This is alot to have happening in one week and since all these aspects involve our personal planets, this stuff will impact us personally as well as collectively.

Basically we are all dealing with an underlying intense frustration, some with mind bending anxiety and it’s all below the surface (until it isn't), and happening while we attempt to maintain a facade of OK-ness, so we don’t lose everything and plummet off the face of the earth.

That about sums it up I think. Or is this just me? 😜

Back with some dailies where we factor in the uber important Moon and I have a big picture just about ready to post as we continue the Wuhan/Pandora series.


xo all

photo by the talented Milan Vopalensky

Today's Astrology Forecast | Friday, August 21, 2020 - shifting beliefs, rabbit holes, painful encounters, let's give each other a break

The Moon is void until 5:16AM EDT when she moves into Libra.

During last night's void in Virgo, she squared the North Node (in Gemini) and the South Node (in Sagittarius). A road diverges in the woods. We could find ourselves changing our mind now about what we believe to be true. That is OK. This is what the North Node in Gemini is designed to do.

Stay curious. Versatile. Focus on facts and not what we believe about the facts. If we are too wedded to beliefs that are no longer serving us, are hurting us/beliefs that are too fantastical, these kind of celestial road markers can bring us back to Earth.

Older and wiser with maybe a greater understanding of the other side. 

Keep in mind Neptune is back to the degrees he traveled during the 'witch hunts', and he is retrograde now, which is a good time to go inside and get a grip on what really makes sense here! Keep in mind also the axiom of both quantum physicists and magical thinkers - reality is what we make of it.

What are your thoughts (North Node in Gemini) making of yours?!

Asteroid Hygeia is in Gemini now - we are only as healthy as our choices/our thinking. Self-care is about more than hand washing and Vitamin D.

The Moon in Libra will have us feeling nurtured (or not) through balance, through our relationships, through beauty.

Her only aspect today a painful opposition to wounded healer Chiron in Aries, so old wounds could be stirred.

Issues around self-doubt and self-worthiness could surface.
 
Chiron in Aries forms a natural opposition to Libra (and this is part of the Aries/Libra polarity dance), so this could be a time when the other people in our lives, and the people we meet, who have the energetic frequencies that can easily re-wound us (trigger our early wounding/past life wounds/familial karma), will do just that. 
 
It can be painful, but this is the path to SELF- LOVE. 
 
And yes, it is strewn with roses and thorns. 
 
Tomorrow, our Libra Moon (above and through us below) has all her squares to the Cappy planets, plus will square her ruler (through disposition) Venus, in Cancer, and oppose Mars in Aries.

So today and especially tomorrow look quite dicey.

Rough waters. And the Libra Moon likes things smooth and balanced, so we will feel them. 

Go gentle with yourself and other people over the next couple days. We are all fighting a hard battle and none of us really know what the hell we are doing ...


xo all

Heads up - there is some wonderful energy coming our way during the first two weeks of September - we will talk big picture in the next post!

photo by the talented Hart-Worx

Today's Astrology Forecast | Wednesday, August 19, 2020 - getting organized and moving into our New Moon plans, don't shoot your eye out

Our Leo Moon went void last night (1:38AM EDT) off her conjunction with Mercury. She was void until 4:20AM EDT when she moved into "let's get this thing organized" Virgo. She will trine a retrograde Uranus (the unexpected future) at 9:51PM EDT.

Earth trines are uber productive - what needs to get moving?!

Mercury comes home to Virgo tonight. We talked about this in some detail HERE for Wednesday.

She/he will be in Virgo only until September 5th, so time to get organized, focus in on the details of something, fix it/make it better.

As she enters Virgo she passes over fixed star Regulus (known as the heart of the lion aka the king, although he moved out of Leo and into Virgo a few years back - maybe now he is the heart of the lion aka the people). Virgo themes include our daily activities, the processes of things, work, health, pets, co-workers, paperwork, cleaning, being of service.

With Mercury in Virgo, our thinking, writing and communication will be more practical and commonsense. We will be all about the details. Nothing gets by Mercury in Virgo. But lots of things get dismissed. If it's not real/not factually stated/if it doesn't work - it's outta here.

Also today a retrograde Pluto squares Black Moon Lilith in Aries (22 degrees).

This could be kind of an ugly energy - like we lash out at someone and hurt them before they can hurt us or someone is manipulating/threatening to reveal dark secrets. With Pluto in Cappy, crumbling power structures - the stuff built on lies and other people's backs - are falling. This isn't about hesitating to speak our truth, we probably won't be able to with BML in fiery Aries anyway, just let's not do this in an intimidating or underhanded way. It can backfire. And by 'backfire' I mean we can burn the whole place down.

Aries/Cappy squares can be like David and Goliath aspects, just make sure you know what you are doing with that slingshot ... because you might take a chip off the giant's shoulder, but shoot your own eye out in the process.



xo all

photo by the talented rust2d

New Moon in Leo | Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - words light the match, brave actions, following our heart, birthing something new, old obligations and rules, a karmic turning point

On August 18, 2020, at 10:42PM EDT, the Leo Moon will meet the Leo Sun at 26 degrees bringing us this year's New Moon in Leo.

After two months of back-to-back emotional New Moons in watery Cancer, we finally get a fiery new beginning! This New Moon rushes in, plants the seed and pushes things forward.

Are we ready?!

This New Moon is happening in our Leo natal house. Our natal Leo house is where we are meant to "shine" - this is where we create, take risks and are "recognized". This "recognition" doesn't mean everyone is going to love what we are doing (although they might!).

But it does mean the stuff we are doing will stand out.

Let's unpack the chart.

The Moon is conjunct the Sun at 26 degrees Leo (so they both got almost all the way to the very end of the sign, before meeting, this matters and we'll talk about it). They are conjunct Mercury. They are sextiling (opportunity) the North Node (our future) and trining the South Node. They are trining (brakes off) an igniting and exact Mars/Eris conjunction. They are exactly inconjunct (rock and a hard place) sober Saturn and exactly sextiling Asteroid Haumea (she is new to me, but we'll take a look). At the same time, because this is an event chart and everything will matter to a greater or lesser degree, Venus is exactly sextiling Uranus.

When the New Moon happens near the very end of a sign, I see it as a push from life to get moving with something. We weren't trusted to take too much time with this because maybe we would never get it going, so this comes in at the very last moment with a kind of urgency. GO.

They are applying to a sextile to the North Node and trine to the South. The sextile is fire/air - talk, communicate, write, start a conversation, reach out. Information comes in. We share what we know. An opportunistic contact is made. The trine (South Node Sag) is a smooth release. Something needs to go and we are ready for it to go. This could be a 'belief' that has outlived its usefulness - maybe something your grandmother believed and maybe her grandmother before her. Something related to the theme of your Sag house maybe. Whatever this is it needs to go and we are ready for it to go. Or maybe I should say as ready as we will ever be. More time, more information, more planning will not make us any more ready. Trust the timing/the cycle.

THIS IS ABOUT KARMIC CHANGE.

We can not be in one state of consciousness without suffering the consequences of not being in another state of consciousness. We can't WAKE UP and then hit snooze and return to that dream we were having no matter no much we want to go back there. We are AWAKE now.

The Moon/Sun are trining a fiery Mars/Eris conjunction. The Sun trined Mars last weekend and the Moon got there today. A trine releases the brakes. This can be a good thing - we are trying to get somewhere and an obstacle is smoothly removed from our path and we can keep going or not such a good thing if that obstacle was the only thing standing between us and the side of a cliff. Avoid anger/violence. Initiate positive action. Passion. Again it's a GO.

The Moon/Sun are inconjunct Saturn. Here's the fly in the ointment, but we know about this fly because Saturn is retrograde, so we're already dealing with this fly. Here is the limit, the rule, the whatever this is - standing in our way. Adjustments must be made for this roadblock is major construction and going to be here for a while. This one is a STOP.

And because Mars (action) is squaring Saturn (actually sandwiched in a square between Saturn and Pluto) and these two are part of a 'Clash of the Titans' style battle until December - this is going to be an ongoing thorn in our side. Fly in our ointment. Roadblock on our journey.

THESE TIMES ARE NOT THROUGH WITH US.

Sorry to report this, but you already know this, don't you?

The fiery energy of Leo (the GO, the ego) has to contend with the conservative energy of Capricorn (STOP, the reality police). We have to adjust to this before and as we move ahead. Cappy is about responsibilities, commitments, limits, rules, authority. We have to pay attention to this, and we will, because we won't be able to not pay attention (and like I said, this isn't something brand new, we already know about this, are dealing with this), but it's not like the oppositions we have had for the last two New Moons with the Moon/Sun conjunctions in Cancer. Inconjuncts provide amazing opportunities for growth, but both sides need to be taken into consideration and perfection/total satisfaction with either energy is not going to happen. We have to accept a certain incompleteness here. And we can because we have no choice.

Venus is sextile Uranus (in Taurus, so answering to Venus, who is in Cancer so answering to this Moon in Leo answering to the Leo Sun). When it comes to relationships, our resources, money and values, that home/family situation - we can smoothly move in a new, opportunistic and forward leaning direction and won't have to push. We are attracted to change.

The Moon/Sun are conjunct Mercury who is about to take his exit for Virgo, so again, we have to be quick about this! There won't be much time to think because more thinking won't help us. With Mercury coming off yesterday's Superior Conjunction to the Sun - he is kind of the spark here.

YES, WORDS AGAIN. Facts. Ideas. Information.

So what do you know, think, hear, say, read, write? What has just dawned on you? What are you talking about? Do you know? Yes, we are back to this again! And you do know. Maybe some information or deadline gets us moving!

The Moon/Sun are sextiling asteroid Haumea in Libra. She is a Hawaiian fertility Goddess and rules childbirth and renewal. She is associated with creativity and 'bringing forth' something new. In Libra, she pulls in our relationships, balance, fairness and other people into the mix.

Now we can't just take these transits and sit on our ass with them. We can't hear "this will happen to you" (which I never say, but sometimes people have a way of hearing) and have this allow us to be anything we want to be in the meantime and then "this will happen to us" - it doesn't work this way.

This New Moon is in fiery Leo so will involve our natal Leo house theme or a collective Leo theme - creative projects, children, romance, recreation, pleasure, our heart, our heart's desire, the space we are meant to shine, our center stage. 

Here is where we get a fresh start via a spark that is lit through Mercury's meeting with the Sun - information, ideas, conversations, choices that align with our heart/our natural spotlight.

This will be activated through our passionate and courageous action (Mars/Eris). Maybe what we value (Venus/Uranus) is changing or leans into the future somehow. Change is good.

There are old obligations, rules and limits we will have to take into consideration and adjust to. These are not going away during this New Moon period.

This fresh start/new beginning is KARMIC (the Nodal sextile and trine) - a smooth move forward as something else is released. Holding onto what needs to go (maybe an old belief) just jams up the works here.

This beginning - a new chapter within a chapter - is part of the final third act of 2020 - our Clash of the Titans grand finale!

Keep in mind the South Node (what we are releasing) is in Sagittarius - this isn't about what we believe or sitting in hope of something else or something more. This is about the steps we take and the conversations we have and the contacts and decisions we make - small is big, but we have to be brave, yes, there is some risk here - this is LEO! - that can move us into a new direction more in line with our best future. Leo is the sign of our ego and a reactivation of what we want to do/what we came here to do needs to happen now.

This New Moon is a GO. So what are we going to do with it?

If you need help figuring out what area of life this is activating for you just give me an email or leave a comment with your birth date, time and birthplace.

This is a fiery new beginning activating quickly and over the next two weeks within your Leo house theme. Your Aries house is supportive and will tell you what to do/the move to make. Your Cappy house brings what you will need to adjust to (for many people, because this is where Saturn/Pluto met and 'time ran out' this will be about the ramifications of the virus) via old rules, obligations, limits. Your Gemini/Sag houses are guiding your way through this ....

INTENTION TIPS:

Clear a space. Wash your hands. Speak intentionally (and less) in the time leading up to and following this ritual to give your thoughts/words more juice. Don't share them. This is all about you. Let your heart (aided by your head) guide you, write your intentions down by hand in script on a blank piece of paper, speak the words out loud, sit with this as long as it feels appropriate, then burn the paper - release your attention from these things knowing your intention is known.

Life has heard you. 


Know these things are already yours.



xo all


big picture post coming in a couple days and then we get back to that Wuhan/Pandora series