Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius | what are we afraid to confront, something is eclipsed out or out of our way, think before acting and then re-think, releasing detachment and distraction, a chart for how to NOT end up in a dystopian nightmare

At 4:19PM EDT, today, with the Moon at 4 degrees Aquarius (on the South Node) opposing the Sun at 4 degrees Leo (on the North Node) we have a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse.

This one is so gnarly I almost didn't want to write about it - I think that's the main reason I procrastinated the weekly until it was too late to write! 

I have heard this is the longest lunar eclipse of this century (some astrologers believe the length of the Moon impacts the length of time its energy is in play - if this is true, this one will have a long impact). I am not sure how I would verify this, but I do know it is the second eclipse (of three) during this long, hot summer.

Full Moons bring energy to a "peak"; to a culmination, maybe to an ending. Eclipses eclipse something out; we get re-set.

If you have planets or points near or on 4-5 degrees of the fixed signs - Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio - some area of your life will be very, very different in 6 months (lunar eclipses play out over 6 months - although this one could be longer). For everyone else this eclipse is bringing something to a peak, culmination or an ending. Emotions will be running high now.

The Eclipse is involved in a T-Square with unpredictable Uranus - with Uranus being the focal point and the Moon is conjunct a retrograde Mars (action/anger/passion). Venus has barely squeaked past her opposition to Neptune (we talked about this for Monday and Tuesday), but the dynamic is still in play here. Jupiter loosely fills in the missing leg of the T-Square (Scorpio!). Mercury has just stationed retrograde, so is strong and still and out of sorts. Saturn is trining Uranus and Saturn/Uranus are the co-rulers of Aquarius and of this Eclipse. There is more, but these are the major players here. Whew!

With the Moon conjunct that retrograde Mars - our Mars retrograde, Mars/South Node story will be activated BIG time. HERE is a post about that. We are now at the HEART of the Mars retrograde season and the heart of eclipse season. This is the date we circled on our calendar weeks ago.

This is about us breaking patterns of behavior.

Let's unpack the chart.

The SUN is sitting strong and proud in his/her home sign of Leo. Leo is represented by the lion. A lion is a cat. If you live with a cat you have some idea of what this 'king of the beasts' thing is all about. It becomes the cat's house. You become the cat's human. Cats rule. The male lion doesn't just get to mate with his choice of lioness. He gets all the lionesses.

(and now I am picturing a whole lineup of that little guy from Peanuts dragging his blanket)

Leo represents royalty and generosity and fun and creativity and greed. The shadow of the Leo archetype is a kind of arrogance or self-importance, but what you will find with most Leos is that they have a presence - they impress us. Ruled by the center of our galaxy, the Sun, they rule center stage. We all have Leo somewhere in our chart.

And we all have a stage that sits empty when we don't do our Leo!

It is hard to see when a Leo is not OK and needs help because they unconsciously give us a feeling that they can handle anything. So, when Leo energy (and this can be a Leo Sun or ascendant or anyone speaking from the space we carry Leo in our natal charts, ie if you have Leo in the 7th house and are talking about your partner or if you have Leo in the 2nd house and are talking about your money) is asked, "how's it going?" and Leo energy says "not great, actually I am barely hanging in there" - the other person, instead of asking "why, what's going on?" would be more likely to laugh it off and say something like "me, too" and launch into their own story.

It's hard for other people to relate to Leo as "one of us".

Aquarius energy - which rules this Lunar Eclipse - is the opposite side of the same coin.

It's the energy of "we". It is detached (this doesn't mean unaware or involved) and emotionally non-reactive - note I mean the energy and not all Aquarians, no one is just one thing! It doesn't need to feel special because it already knows it is special - it rules the 11th house (of 12) Aquarius is advanced. It is the sign that comes after the sign that rules achievement. Aquarius knows everyone is special (and the challenge with that is in allowing the Leo specialness to shine and not create a space where everyone being equal means everyone being the same - this is some of what is happening with the rise of populism, people thinking they are trying to hold onto what makes them special when they are really grasping at the dying embers of what makes them the same).

Ruled by Uranus it is the sign of the genius, rebel and criminal. The Aquarius space in our chart is where things will work best by being 'outside the box'. It is unpredictable.

Like Leo, Aquarius doesn't do humble either. 

It's hard for other people to relate to Aquarius as "one of us", too. The Aquarius/Leo polarity isn't about fitting in, because both sides, in different ways, are meant to STAND OUT.

Now even though it's a Full Moon and it's the Moon's show - the Sun is uber strong in Leo - and sitting on the North Node of our collective destiny.

We are either following our heart (that Leo North Node), stepping onto the center stage of our own life, standing on our own two feet or we are avoiding the Mars opposition, avoiding action - doing the old duck-and-cover, hiding out in our comfort zone - which is certain to get a whole lot less comfortable with Uranus there for the next 7 years - staying on the sidelines and away from the limelight. Or maybe we are playing out the same old anger story, or same old impulsive action story that keeps us stuck in a loop - and if we are, the Full Moon at the Mars retrograde mid-point will let us SEE that.

The square to URANUS in today's chart is the wild card energy here. And remember Uranus is uber-strong, too, even though he doesn't like being in Taurus - because he rules Aquarius and the Moon now. Uranus is our fast track on the evolutionary spiral. Something unexpected. Something disruptive. Uranus in Taurus is shaking the very ground beneath our feet, shifting magnetic fields to align us with new realities. Uranus in Taurus is changing what we value. It's also triggering us through what other people have. They have it. We want it. We are triggered. 

Full Moons bring things to light. They bring endings and culminations. The square to Uranus tells us whatever happens here could happen suddenly. Uranian breaks taste like freedom, but maybe only in hindsight. In the moment it could feel like we are dropped on our ass.

SATURN is trining (brakes off) Uranus. Saturn isn't going to stop Uranus - so let's say we have been working our ass off, we could still lose our job, for example - but Saturian energy is available to stabilize something here if we have been doing our Saturn (the work, the responsibility, putting in the time) - so let's say we do lose our job, but the work (doing our Saturn) has resulted in savings in our bank account or resources from the connections we have made with other people - the Saturn stuff will sustain us through the changes. The Saturn trine could also play out as changes that are actually deliberate or calculated even though they appear to happen suddenly.

MERCURY has just stationed retrograde. She is strong and still and out of sorts. Our mind is not going to be much help to us here.

VENUS (from practical Virgo) is still opposing Neptune. The fantasy is still clashing with reality.

The Sun is not only opposing the Moon now - the Sun is also opposing MARS (our action, initiative, anger), retrograding through Aquarius this summer.

So what are we (the Sun) afraid to confront here? 

With that South Node Aquarius being eclipsed - the Earth is blocking the Moon - there is no safe place to hide out. We can't play the Aquarius card and hide out in the audience. We can't play the Aquarius card and hide out in technology. We can't play the Aquarius card and hide out in some kind of "otherness" that keeps us disconnected from ourselves and other people. Aquarius is eclipsed! 
  
And with Mars retrograde there are no bullets in our holster (this is why when we start a fight/lawsuit etc when Mars is retrograde we lose). There isn't even any gas in our gas tank! We come to this time empty of our usual armaments.

During the eclipse - our past conditioning, our past contracts and commitments (including prior life or familial DNA contracts - what we are carrying from our ancestors) - our trauma imprints - with an Aquarian signature (being banished from the group to die in the wilderness, the spaces we don't fit in) or the theme of our Aquarius house are eclipsed OUT. The ways we self-sabotage ourselves here will only be muscle memory after this eclipse. There is nothing, other than habit, supporting their continuation! And the ways they used to work for us - will not work anymore.

I heard a well-known astrologer say something like "we have to step into Aquarius now - be detached, think like an Aquarian", but Aquarius is eclipsed, so I am not so sure of that advice. We have to be acting from our heart/Sun (Leo - the North Node) now.

We are evolving into the Age of Aquarius; a time of equality when we will be our own leaders. We have decided (subconsciously) as a collective that one of the ways to make this happen is for us to experience this particular collective shit-show we are now dealing with.

Remember the Hopi elder's quote.

I know alot of people in the spiritual community talk about "ascension" as if we are going to wake up one day ascended and all will be right with the world - as if it is something we are waiting for. This sounds an awful lot like the Christian belief that Jesus is returning to save us (or save some of us) or aliens are. I have no idea if this is going to happen, but I don't see this in the astrology. The astrology shows us the work. We can see the Age of Aquarius isn't anything like the Broadway musical. There won't be any long haired proclamations of peace (that was the ending of the Age of Pisces).

From this closer vantage point - fifty years past the 1960's - it is more obvious two things the Age of Aquarius is about are technology and equality.

These are the trains that will not be stopped.

And we can see by now how great and how beautiful the world can be with our collective focus here and also how easy, and how FAST, we can really muck this whole thing up - keep in mind the Age of Aquarius is set to last around 2600 years, so we will likely create every possible manifestation of beauty and muck at some point - ha!

(The other day hubs and I watched the movie Ready Player One - I love scifi, but am growing weary of all these dystopian dramas. They scare the hell out of me. It can't be good for what we are collectively creating to have millions of us thinking/focusing on this worst case stuff. This one is particularly scary because we can see how "they" could use technology to give people "pseudo-equality" where we are actually living in shacks but we put on a virtual reality headset and can do/be anything - this scenario sounds disturbingly possible if we muck up the next few years, if Aquarius doesn't embrace that Leo polarity of following our heart and being our own king, we end up with a tyrant king, a "they" ruling us)

The South Node in Aquarius and Mars retrograde this summer are some of the ways we make sure we get something great here. We can't skip steps. Whatever is happening in our life - is our little piece of this. When we choose attention over distraction - use technology not let it use us - when we choose the people right in front of us and ourselves over the group, when we aren't afraid to shine and confront (within ourselves and within our past is most likely with all these retrogrades) what is standing in the way of us bringing what we came here to bring and our own hero's journey - that Leo house theme and the theme of our Sun - we all know our Sun sign, right?! Our Sun sign IS our hero's journey.

Because the major players are forming a T-Square, the missing table leg, which is the opposite of the Taurus focal point is important. The missing leg is Scorpio. So the change/surprise/upset will come from our Taurus house, our Capricorn house will support the change and our Scorpio house will require an investment of our energy to stabilize whatever is happening.

I don't have to write this post by sign because we can't miss this energy. It is big. It is powerful. It is designed to shake us out of our distraction and detachment. Stay in your heart. Meditate. Pray. Connect.

With that Mars opposition and the square to Uranus, accidents/violence are more likely, so stay safe. Take your time with things. Something is going to break. Expect tantrums. Avoid angry confrontations and explosive endings if possible. Avoid impulsive actions. Aquarius rules advancement and higher ground - we will reach for that. Remember, we have never been here before!

Shortly after the Full Moon, Venus will trine Pluto so there is a payoff here. We will talk about that later.

xo all

Mercury Stations Retrograde in Leo | finding our voice, re-thinking what our heart wants, expect delays, mechanical glitches, give yourself time to think, expect over-reactions when things go wrong

anna-o photography

At 1:03AM EDT last night Mercury (communication, ideas, thinking, fast moving gizmos, transportation, siblings, our local neighborhood) stationed retrograde at 23 degrees Leo.

He will move backward (our perspective) to 11 degrees Leo through August 19th and then reverse course and begin moving direct again, finally covering new ground in early September.

If you have planets or points between 11 and 23 degrees of the fixed signs - Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio - you will probably feel this retrograde strongest.

When a planet stations he/she is very powerful. I like to use the finger through a flame analogy - you can easily move your finger quickly through a flame without burning your finger, but if you stop mid-flame (like Mercury is doing now), the heat is much more intense and you burn your finger. We have seen violent acts in the world at the time of Mercury's station and this one takes us into a big (and rather nasty looking) Lunar Eclipse conjunct a retrograde and out-of-bounds Mars, so take extra care with your personal safety.

The usual Mercury retrograde disclaimers will apply for the next few weeks.

It's time to think "re".

Rethink, redo, re-examine, research, repeat, reunion, reminisce, revise, remove (clutter ie the stuff that gets in the way of our life moving efficiently), revisit, relax.

This is not the best time to plow full steam ahead with new things. It's not the best time to sign a contract because things will come to light later that require revision or our thinking (Mercury) can change after Mercury moves direct (September 5th).

It's a good time to READ THE FINE PRINT.

Use clear language - we need to be doubly sure people are understanding what we are saying and that we are understanding other people, because wires get crossed now. Double check the email before hitting 'send'. Mercury, the fleet footed messenger, rules things that are fast moving from our computers to our cars. BACK UP FILES. People and projects from our past can show up because we are looking backward.

Take extra care driving. Slow down. We need to give ourselves extra time to get where we are going. There will be delays - bring a book. This is not a good time to make a major decision and even small decisions will go wonky. THINK THINGS THROUGH. Be clear about the consequences. With Mercury going retrograde in Leo we could be rethinking issues regarding Leo themes (and the theme of our natal Leo house) - things we say/do in public, things we say/do with children, recreation, gambling, romance, creative projects.

Since Leo is a fire sign and fire rules ACTION - we need to be thinking AND RE-THINKING what we are doing. And since fire rushes forward and is impulsive we need to avoid making hasty moves after the re-thinking. We will just have to do things all over again if we do that because more information will come to light later and our ideas/thinking will change.

Be prepared to do the "re's" without any big pushes forward now. With Leo ruled by the Sun and the Sun being the center of the universe - we could be rethinking the way we present ourselves PUBLICLY.

Rushing, while Mercury is moving backward, can trip us up.

Taking our time with important decisions, hesitating, being unsure of which direction to take, needing to think things through slowly and carefully and allowing things to fall into place in their own right timing - are par for the course now.

With Mercury in the white-hot-spotlight of center-stage Leo we can expect people to over-react publicly to delays, mistakes, all the usual Mercury retrograde glitches. Leo is a fixed sign so people will be digging in their heels.

We can catch mistakes and catch up with MISSED OPPORTUNITIES. 

Someone could leave or someone/something from the past could reappear. There could be miscommunications. Stuff could break down. Delays are likely. Plans will change. We can't prepare for everything, but we can slow down and double check what we are doing.

Maybe something from the past needs a second look - something started before Mercury hit his/her retrograde degrees on July 7th. Go back over it. Is it still worth fixing/finishing? Does it stand out (remember this whole journey is in the limelight of LEO)? 

Is it still special? Is your heart still in it?

Until August 19th, when Mercury stations direct, it would be best not to focus too much on future situations, 'what ifs' and final conclusions - let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Let's take care of what needs taking care of in the present and the stuff from the past that has "re"appeared or "re"mains unfinished. Let's take care of the children and our inner child.

We are straddling two worlds now, sitting in the space between the three powerful eclipses -  this stuff is all working together in ways we can't quite see yet! Hang in there. We are all in this together.

xo all

Sun Square Uranus | unexpected outbursts, out-of-the-blue situations and people, getting ATTENTION, staying open to change, the white hot spotlight, healing by re-inventing ourselves

Seaside by rabbit888

Today we have the Sun (at 2 degrees Leo) move into square with Uranus (at 2 degrees Taurus).

This energy will play an important role in Friday's Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius (ruled by Uranus).

Uranus is unpredictable and will not be fenced in. Changes occur suddenly (although not always totally without warning). Routine is upended.

The square to the Leo Sun creates tension/frustration and speaks of the likelihood for whatever is happening to happen in a "white hot spotlight". Whether attention is sought or not here is hard to say. Ruled by the powerful Sun (center of our universe), Leo naturally seeks the center stage's bright limelight.

This week's situation will, too.

We could also be feeling any lack of appreciation or attention very strongly now. 

If we are stuck, Uranus contacts can attract people/things/situations that allow/force us to break out of stuck constructs. Or require us to see/act on things in a new way.

Uranus is the planet of genius and rebellion and 'anything can happen'. Now keep in mind Uranus only cares about getting us from A to B via the fastest possible route, he doesn't care if we land on our ass or if the route (like my GPS when I get near a certain body of water and it urges me forward although there is no bridge) drowns us in the ocean.

We will most assuredly wash up at point B, but we might not wash up still breathing. 

So when Uranus whispers in our ear "this job sucks, you need to quit this job" remember he will be out of town when the rent comes due and our wallet is empty.

On the other hand without his "quit this damn boring job already!" we might still be toiling at that job when our grandchildren head off to college.

Uranus rules the sign of Aquarius, our collective 11th house, technology, the future, electricity, social change, groups, equality, science, robotics, liberation, fast change, chaos, PTSD, trends, the genius, the rebel, the criminal, anything new and cutting-edge.

Uranus will always seek to overturn anything traditional or conventional that has outlived its usefulness.

Uranus is charged with disrupting the status quo. It rips apart our safety net. It tears up our contracts. It breaks up stagnant energy. It is electricity. It gets our *ss moving. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury - the way Aquarius is the higher octave of Gemini - Uranus is like Mercury on steroids ... and we have all seen how powerful Mercury is.

And by the way Mercury is standing still and powerful and preparing to go retrograde while we sleep tonight (1:03AM EDT). We have seen violence and trouble before when he/she stations and this time we have the Sun squaring Uranus and we are building toward a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse - so take this seriously and stay safe.

Avoid unnecessary confrontations

(we probably can't totally avoid any confrontation now - our sharp edges will be rubbing up against other people's sharp edges and the rubbing is part of the polishing/smoothing process! - but let's not take things too far).

People could be impulsive.  

Please don't venture into any dark alleys with a flashlight looking for your lost cat. The cat will be OK - the nine lives thing and all, but I can't be sure about you.

With the Sun trining Chiron (in independent Aries) at the same time - changes that "re-invent who we are", particularly in a public way, can be especially HEALING.

xo all

the best way to deal with Uranus is to stay open to changing our mind and direction - big moves are not encouraged with Mars retrograde this summer, but tweaks, especially internal tweaks, are REQUIRED - expect the unexpected - maybe what seems totally crazy will make sense later on

note - with Trump embodying our collective Uranian energy something loud and unexpected will come out with him now and during this next eclipse - although it's hard to say, because eclipse energy moves backward and forward and we have been in eclipse season for a couple weeks - how much of this has already happened, how much will be new and how much is fallout ... with Friday's eclipse activating his 12th house Pluto - secrets will almost surely come out or come to an end.

Venus in Virgo Opposite Neptune in Pisces | when the fantasy clashes with reality

playing with origami cranes by holunder

Neptune retrograde has been very SLOWLY backing through mid-Pisces, and today, Venus, moving industriously through Virgo hits 16 degrees Virgo and opposes Neptune (at 16 degrees Pisces).

I wrote about this transit HERE for Tuesday.

This is Venus - ruler of Taurus and Libra - love, money, relationships, our resources, our values, our self-esteem, women, beauty - standing across from Neptune - modern ruler of Pisces and the ancient ruler of Jupiter - our imagination, spirituality, connection, no-boundaries, water, escape, victims, sacrifice, addiction, illusion, delusion, the things we put away/put behind us/ do last, hospitals, healing, our undoing. Venus is in careful, cautious, dot your i's and cross your t's Virgo and imaginative/drifting Neptune is strong at home in Pisces.

My natal Jupiter is at 16 degrees Pisces in my 4th house (home) and trines my natal Neptune which sits on my ascendant (self).

Neptune activity brings water issues - rainy weather, flooding - and because this is my 4th house usually leaks, etc. Little things, too, that only a crazy person like me would connect - like hubs drops a huge stack of ice cube trays and 100 cubes bounce to the floor and wet every crevice of the kitchen. The washer fills with water for no reason. Our backyard pool (remember we buried that above ground in the ground a couple years ago because we are cheap and think we're crafty) that has had crystal clear water for weeks no matter what the weather is suddenly cloudy and starting to grow algae, and with guests expected next weekend the problem is taking up this huge space in my brain - which luckily for me is kind of swiss-cheesy anyway after months/years of a Pluto transit - so has plenty of space to worry about this kind of crap.

Neptune in the 4th house, because it dissolves boundaries, sometimes brings insect/rodent infestations (also other unwanted pests including the kind that walk on two legs). Last week I bought some ant stuff because like a fortune teller with a crystal ball I knew they were coming and sure enough, late last night, while we slept, their little scouts invaded our kitchen. Olive started scratching (fleas?) and needs a bath (more water) today.

Now Venus opposes Neptune and brings our Venusian themes into clash with Neptune's imagination.

On Sunday I went to the baptism (more water!) for my brother's son.

I always wear a gray or black t-shirt (yes, always, I KNOW!), so was having trouble finding something to wear that was kind of "celebration church-y", but finally settled on a colorful, summery dress I bought back in early spring and had never worn. I thought, "wow I look really good in this - I need to wear more color!".

All afternoon and evening I was thinking "damn, I look good".

The next morning I headed to Madewell/Anthro to find me some "color".

Now, I knew the Venus/Neptune thing could make my money boundaries leaky too and encourage overspending, so I left my cards at home and brought $100 cash - which I admit didn't work - damn you Visa - because my hand found a loose card in the bottom of my bag at exactly the moment "more COLOR!", another really cute and colorful top caught my eye. I bought myself a kind of splurgy lunch and came home with my bulging bags which dropped to my studio floor with a satisfied plop.

Before getting back to work I decided to check Instagram, which I don't do much anymore, and a photo collage from the baptism/reception caught my eye.

WTF. I looked terrible. Really terrible. They were bad pictures, yes. Bad lighting and my eyes were half closed all the time - I swear I didn't get into the Priest's stash - but even beyond bad pictures the colorful dress (and safety pin I used to make the neckline a little more church friendly) didn't work in reality the way it worked in my imagination. My hair was a mess. I looked a wreck.

Ugh! Venus always seems to be hitting my vanity/self-esteem button lately. 

I grabbed the bags of goodies from my studio floor and tossed them in my car along with the RECEIPTS. This shit was going back. I was kidding myself and it was depressing.

Driving back to the stores I was thinking about the Venus/Neptune opposition, because although I write about these things I don't always practice what I 'preach' and kicking myself but then realized that even as I was kicking myself ("there is no point in even trying here!") I had only flipped the whole thing around again - I was still in a Neptunian delusion!

Drowning in anything is Neptunian trickery.

I am a Neptune expert, but he still gets me.

One of the Virgo (where Venus is), Pisces (where Neptune is) TRAPS is avoiding reality because of the whole perfection thing. We will never be perfect enough or have enough money or enough love, yada, yada, so why bother at all. It is a good excuse to 'escape'.  

I stopped the car. I pulled into a parking lot. I took a deep breath and sorted the stuff in the bags. I kept a couple pieces I knew I would wear, but took most of my purchases back to the stores.

When I got home, my feet were firmly on planet Earth. There was something I could do that was pretty obvious in those photos. I made a hair appointment. I tossed the chocolate donuts. Ack!

I have a family member with a Neptune/Venus opposition in her natal chart with Neptune on her ascendant (we are a family of people with Neptune on our ascendants) - she attracts all kinds of illusory partnerships. She sees all kinds of things in these guys that are not really there - with Neptune on her ascendant they see what they want to see in her, too, of course, until they see what they don't want to see and then things go bad. Then everything is the guy's fault. And it looks like it is. The guy's fault. The other person. The opposition. But she is really setting all this up herself.

Like is tricky people.

Keep it grounded today. Let's look at what we are avoiding because it isn't perfect. Check your bag for that loose Visa. Take care of your roots.

xo all