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| Bicycle Fence Catherine Al-Meten |
Astrology, August 12-19
“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” ―Kenji Miyazawa
On Tuesday, August 12 Venus entered Leo where it will stay until September 5. Coming in the light of the Full Moon in Aquarius on August 10, it joins the Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter also in Leo. This stellium of planets and the Sun in Leo, fires up the midpoint energies of those with personal planets, the ascendent, or the Sun and Moon within 15-21 degrees of Leo, or any of the other fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius). While we will all feel the effects of this cluster of fire sign energy in some area of our lives/charts, those with fixed sign transits and aspects will experience this energy strongly.
The Sun remains in Leo until August 23, and is just past halfway through the cycle in the second decan of Leo. The outgoing, dramatic, and self-assuredness of Leo Sun adds a dramatic flair to whatever area of our lives where Leo resides. We have a strong desire to celebrate, rejoice, and expand our dreams and visions, both of which are very clear and insightful right now. One exercise you might consider doing to capture some of the flair and excitement that is alive right now is to jot down (words or sketches) different day dreams, passing thoughts, nighttime dreams, or visions that come to you during meditation or other contemplative moments. Save the ideas, images, and thoughts to be used later to provide some spark and flash to other projects. This is truly a time when our intuitive sense are charged up, and whatever is coming into our imagination or is breaking up within our consciousness, is full of energy, power, and desire that can help shape and color your dreams and goals.
Mercury in Leo from July 31 to Friday, August 15, stimulates conversation, inner dialogue, and all forms of communication that enhance and brighten your outlook if seen in the larger context of your life journey. Notice who and what is showing up in your life right now, affirming and touching you on levels that have been dormant or ignored (by you and by others). Mercury in Leo is about letting ourselves express fully what we feel, desire, and yearn for. This is also an excellent time to form goals and allow our desires to take the shape of voiced interests and expression. Seeing our needs, we are better able to ask for what we want, and to allow ourselves to let our desires be expressed. If we have to convince someone, or ourselves, that we are worthy, that our goals are achievable, or that our dreams can come true, this is the time to put those desires into some form. While we may not be as supportive or understanding of others right now, we are certain about what we need and want in order to achieve balance and harmony in our lives. We are very aware of where our energy is being drained, and where we need to rid ourselves of stuck or repressed thoughts, grief, or anger. Releasing anything that blocks energy, is done through various forms of communication now. In two days Mercury will enter Virgo, where it will stay until September 2.
When Mercury enters the pragmatic earth sign of Virgo, we get more analytical and precise in all forms of communication. We seek greater clarity, as we filter through what is necessary and what is not, what is consequential or inconsequential, and to how we intend to direct and allow ourselves to maintain good communication in meaningful, fitting, and practical ways. During Mercury’s passage through Virgo, we get sift through the minutiae of our lives to come to a greater sense of what is right and healthy for us in the ways we relate to others, and in the manner we seek to understand and be understood.
Over the past week (August 8-11) we experienced a learning triangle―the Sun and Mercury square Saturn in Scorpio and Trine Uranus in Aries, which sent some of us into our shadow energy and the less redeemed parts of our nature. We may have felt we were regressing to behaviors we had outgrown or forgotten we were capable of over-reacting like a hormonal teenager. Saturn tries to control or regulate this type of behavior and thinking, however with Venus entering Leo and Mars in Scorpio, things are heating up. Our feminine and masculine energies are at war with one another (both within us and within our relationships). The feminine and masculine within us seeks to resolve the conflicts that cause us to feel as if our freedom and independence is threatened. We can go to war with this, trying to close one or the other aspects of ourselves down, or we can befriend our differences, and find places of compromise, interdependence, and harmony―adjusting our needs, desires, and interests with those of our other half. While the source of the struggle is really within ourselves, we often experience and act it out in our relationships. Rather than looking for conspiracies, or in weaknesses and flaws in one another, it might be best to acknowledge the full spectrum of a person’s being, and relax a little in how we build up our expectations.
As the Sun and Mercury move out of range of this aspect, the fusion between the sexual and spiritual energy polarities within us and within our relationships becomes the ruling force in our attempts to control and direct Saturn and Uranus energy in our lives. . We hold onto whatever our unresolved issues are as if they could help us control the direction of our lives, our relationships, and our connection on our life paths. Divorces become more contentious, disagreements and control issues heat up, and conflict reigns in any area of our lives where we fail to see how we can become our own worst enemies. We seek to control, yet we are in need of releasing and letting go of the reigns and even the need to control or have the answers we seek.
This is going on as I write, and at the same time, the gracious Sun in Leo moves into the 3rd decan of Leo, where it considers itself the ruler of all its domain. In whatever area of your life the Sun is transiting, look for issues related to power, authority, and our need to be heard/known/acknowledge/affirmed. We know our true worth, and demand it be respected. Later in the month, August 2, when Mercury forms a sextile to Mars and Saturn creating a Yod effect with Uranus, we can expect to experience some fireworks in whatever areas we are seeking a release of pent up energy, emotions, or unresolved grief, anger, or ego-related issues.
We long to break free, yet we are holding onto the familiar (whatever patterns of thinking, behavior, or decision making we have relied upon). For real change to take place in this area of life, we have to release whatever is already dead weight, draining our energy, or outliving its usefulness. We ‘know’ what this energy is, yet we sometimes think we can continue doing the same thing and get different results. Real change requires a complete adjustment of internal and external energy.
Sometimes we have to ‘act as if’ changing external situations and the environment; other times the change required is within our own attitudes, behavior, and perspective. It needs to happen on both levels, and during this time you should be able to feel, see, sense, and intuit where this needs to take place in your life. Next week we will examine this more closely, but for now, notice what is building up, and attempt to be as authentic and hones with yourself as you can be. Knowing who we are means recognizing what is true for us, regardless of what we might want to be ideally, despite the expectations of ourselves and others, and regardless of what we had hoped to do, be, become, or learn. Recognize your truth, and the guiding principles of your life now. You might start making small changes in the way you look, behave, or organize your work or run your daily routine.
Do something out of character, and stretch your limits more in the direction you hope to go. If, for example, you long to get more exercise, but still have not gotten up from your desk and taken a 10-minute break, do it now. If, for example, you are sitting around expecting someone to do something that needs doing, or change their opinion about a decision you are going to make, make the decision yourself with no further input. For example, if you usually wait to hear from someone before deciding what to fix for dinner, decide for yourself. See if you can stop taking care of everyone else for a change, and do something that takes care of your own business. Now when I suggest this, it does not mean to leave the children or the baby alone so you can go for a walk. It means to adjust your life in a small way so that you do something to meet your need for fresh air and exercise instead of waiting for ‘enough time’. Bundle the baby and children up, and head out for a brief walk around the block, or take your dinner to the park for a picnic. Eat breakfast for dinner, or eat dessert before the main course once in a while. Take a different route home, or move your furniture around so you change your view and outlook. Mix things up that help you change your perspective and routine, and notice where your daily routine, your thinking, and your habits are stuck in a rut.
Whatever conflicts we have in our lives right now, require that we not change others but that we change ourselves, our outlook, and our own attitudes and behavior…and oh don’t forget those expectations we all claim not to have. Notice what you expect of yourself and of others, and then consider what needs to be released. What is not working? That’s the first place to look, and then make some small changes to adjust to your real needs, not the ones you had 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Life changes, and unless we unload the luggage from that past, we simply carry around old desires, unfulfilled dreams, and worn out dreams. We have no room in our lives for what is longing to be born. What is longing to be born in your life now? What gifts, skills, and resources do you have to help give birth to new aspects of your journey? You have the power, the gifts, and the energy. How you use that power, those gifts, and that energy is up to you.
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” ― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Our passions, dreams, energy, pain, and life experiences and dreams are what we are here to master as we seek to live more fully, completely as our life purpose directs us, and our hearts lead us. Use this one beautiful life to create the life you long to live, and then you will be able to give and receive love fully for you will know who you are and will be accepted as such.
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