Quote of the week

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

The context for August is that it is a tough month. There are high tension aspects between the malefics and five planets in their retrograde phases, contributing to some very intense energy for the month of August. However, this week will offer us a bit of respite as some nice benefic interplays are occurring.

As the Moon wanes from last week’s fullness, she’ll start this week off with a lovely conjunction with Jupiter while trining the Sun. Although very fleeting, this configuration will spark some hope and positivity at the beginning of this week which is a nice respite from the intensity of August. On Monday, you could feel particularly energetic and full of adventure, solutions you’re seeking could present themselves, someone may come to your assistance, or you may receive some good news or good luck. Make sure you position and plan for yourself to receive some luck, because as they say, luck is ‘labour under correct knowledge’. Be open and have gratitude, and the cosmos might deliver!

The Mercury trine Uranus/North Node (15-17 August) around the same time may bring some sudden revelations about expanding your goals and ideas for life. Mercury is strongly placed in Virgo so it can offer a razor sharp wit, unwavering vigilance and analytical prowess as it supports you in breaking through to new paradigms in your material goals and ambitions. The beginning of this week is a great time to do some reassessment of your goals and ideas which may have taken a slightly divergent path recently. You’ll have the Moon Jupiter conjunction to help with long range visioning while Mercury trine Uranus/North Node will bring in some novel strategic ideas to the table. So get your inner scribe out and start making notes.

Venus also trines Jupiter (18 August) which will add so much goodness into the respite of this week. Who doesn’t love it when the two benefics dance a waltz together? The beauty, rhythm and flow of the ordered cosmos will be evident this week if you look around you. Things falling into place, being exactly where you need to be at the right time, information coming to you when you most need it – this kind of thing. Trining from the fire signs, you’ll feel this serendipity most if you have significant placements in Leo, Aries or Sagittarius. You could make the most of it by following your inspirations this week and spontaneously flowing with what sparks your flame. And as Venus will be the ruler of this week’s Third Quarter Moon in Taurus (19 August) she’ll bring this positive trine to the act of releasing so that you may be happy to let go of some things that have been a challenge to detach from. A time for positive unbindings, emotional releases and material detachments could be the flavour this week.

By the weekend, Mars will enter Gemini (20 August) – a significant change because the fiery planet will now spend until 25 March 2023 in this sign due to its upcoming retrograde phase. What this means is that the house that Gemini rules in your chart will suggest an area of your life where you’ll be extremely busy and preoccupied with. There will be lots of action and initiation of projects in this area, as well as possible experiences of impulsiveness, anger, hard work and restlessness. Overall, this will be an area where Mars will be looking to forge progress on its plans over the next seven months, which in normal circumstances would only spend approximately two months in. Here, you’ll feel a great pressure and impetus to prove yourself in something related to this part of your chart for this seven month period which may involve a lot of headbutting, assertion, pushing and pursuing. Like a soldier gaining new territory, there’s much to explore, protect and establish here. So, as Mars enters into Gemini this week, think about what it is about that particular house that could be the possible contents of its seven month stay.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Mars in Gemini is the word busyness, like bees preparing to swarm. But unlike the single-minded focus of the bees’ intention to find a new home, Mars in Gemini could be fickle about what it wants. Luckily there’s abundant energy to go around because there could be a lot of energy wasted on zig zagging from one idea to the next. There’s a fire in the mind which could see ideas initiated quickly but dissipate even faster than they rose. Passions are aroused like dancing hot flames, and at the same time, dangers of the mind are also present without careful attendance of the fire. Yet, the creative and dynamic essence of fire could also see some productive manifestations that could only occur when ideas receive enough fuel to get them off the ground. 

So, Mars in Gemini will be an eclectic bag of energy balls to juggle – be prepared for some scatteredness to come. Use the last few days of Mars in the slow moving Taurus this week to firstly take a deep breath, and secondly to think about what’s going on in your Gemini house right now that you could anticipate to be stimulated over the next seven months. If you’d like to plan this out in more detail, a consultation will be helpful and quite important for those with a Mars timelord this year or significant planets and points in Gemini.

Lastly, we end the week with a Mercury opposite Neptune (21 August) which will be one for the dreamers. Such an aspect is always good for significant dreamwork and analysis. The duality between waking and dreaming consciousness will be highlighted, and the merging of the two worlds could see more lucid dreaming, daydreaming or an ability to tap into that special space in the gap this week. Fraud and confusion are also commonly seen when Mercury combines with Neptune but the strong placement of Mercury shows a high degree of honour which may overcome any trickster antics. Nevertheless, be on the lookout for any such possibilities.

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See you next Sunday for the next installment of planetary news.

Shu xx