August 8 ~ 15th
Mystical Celestial Hexagram (StockCake)
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world. ~ Jack Layton
On August 8th/9th a Full Moon at 17º Aquarius will illuminate all things Aquarius. Full Moons are times of culmination, fulfillment, and disclosure. They can bring things to an end, reveal things that were previously hidden, and make us aware of things that were previously inscrutable. With the current Saturn/Neptune transit of uncertainty, the Full Moon might even bring some welcome clarity this coming week. Not only because of the Full Moon shining a light in the darker corners of our lives, but also because of a confluence of long term as well as short-term transits involving the direct station of Mercury on August 11th, as well as the ruling planets of Aquarius, Saturn and Uranus. This is not only about clarity, but an understanding of where we might fit in within the changing patterns of our lives, and even the world at large.
Note that the Moon will be brightest on the night of August 8th to 9th. And in the morning when the Full Moon sets you may even get a treat, for from the day of the Full Moon and until August 11th, you will be able to see the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the early morning sky, a transit that has to do with an abundance of love, hope and connection. Venus is often the brightest planet in the sky. And combined with Jupiter it represents our big vision and hopes for the future. Jupiter, a planet that has to do with morals and ethics, will also be shining brightly in the early morning hours due to it being in its retrograde phase.
All signs have ‘ruling’ planets, and Aquarius has two: its traditional ruler Saturn, and its more recent ruler Uranus. On August 11th, these two ringed giants will make an exact sextile with Saturn at 1º Aries 12’ and Uranus at 1º Gemini 12’. Sextiles are aspects of potential. At the Full Moon in Aquarius, we are being asked to ride the wave of change in order to align ourselves with our highest potential that is lying in wait within our own hearts and minds. Saturn sextile Uranus gives us the opportunity to give form to new and innovative ideas. This can include revolutionary advances in technology. It can also include a changing order in society. But one thing it can bring us individually is the realization that you don’t have to keep doing things the same way you always have in the past. That there might be alternative, and even better ways of approaching the challenges in our lives.
Sextiles contain potential for good outcomes. But they are the sorts of good outcomes that require a little effort on our part to see them, and take advantage of them. They don’t happen automatically. And when both Saturn and Uranus are involved in any sort of aspect, it also requires a willingness to step out of our comfort zone to some extent, and/or be willing to do things in a new or different way.
Saturn is also currently conjunct Neptune, so that Uranus not only makes this exact sextile to Saturn this week, but is also closely sextile to Neptune at 1º Aries 50’. This is especially significant this week, because there are a total of 6 planets all in these early degrees of the signs in which they are traveling. And they are all aspecting one another, forming what looks like an (almost) Grand Sextile. This is a planetary picture with 2 intersecting Grand Trines, that looks quite like a hexagram, or a 6 pointed star, where each planet is approximately 60º away from the other. The only missing piece of this Grand Sextile would fall in the early degrees of Sagittarius. So anyone who has a planet or significant point between 0º and 4º of Sagittarius will complete the planetary picture and benefit highly from this configuration. Also anyone with planets or significant points in the early degrees of any of the fire or air signs will benefit as well. That includes Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius.
But we’re all going to benefit! For this rare configuration will fall some place in your own natal chart, opening up all sorts of creative and unique opportunities if we dare to put them into application. On August 10th/11th Mercury stations, ending its retrograde phase. At 4º Leo 15’, Mercury will oppose Pluto in Aquarius, trine Saturn and Neptune in Aries, sextile Uranus in Gemini, and sextile Mars in Libra. For the past week, Mars in Libra has already been positioning itself within this planetary configuration. And with both of these inner personal planets involved with the outermost planets this week, it’s bringing a more personal significance home to us, of what these major transits mean to us in our personal lives.
In the days leading up to the direct station of Mercury, we often find our minds and awareness shifting back to what we usually associate with as being ‘normal’. Yet there is nothing truly ‘normal’ about this and the previous retrograde phases of Mercury. Both were trying to allow us to adjust to a new normal. To be willing to look at things from another perspective, in such a way that you can finally see the truth. Not just what we want to see, but the way things actually are. Preceded by the Full Moon in Aquarius, a culminating and illuminating Full Moon, the truth is there for all to see. It’s just a matter of being objective enough, willing enough, and brave enough to see it for what it is.
On the night of or just before the Full Moon in Aquarius on Friday or Saturday (3:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time on August 9th; 0:55 AM Pacific time; 8:55 AM British time) ask yourself:
What might you want to change in your perspective that will allow you to see the possibilities unfolding before you? That might even bring the fulfillment of your dreams?
What has been the impact of any recent changes that are occurring or have occurred in your life?
What have you been avoiding, and in what ways are you limiting yourself, or holding yourself back out of fear and uncertainty?
What are those things that are standing in the way of you being able to grow in the ways that you might not have previously thought possible?
If you have come up against a brick wall, are you willing to consider alternatives? And if so, what might they be?
What would it require for you to be true to your convictions, beliefs and ideals? What would it take for you to step up to the plate, to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk?
Times of uncertainty call for creative and alternative solutions. And the (almost) Grand sextile affords us opportunities to adapt in the best ways we can. Saturn/Uranus combinations can be associated with invention and technological breakthroughs. But there are other breakthroughs that can occur now that have to do with the progress of Society as a whole. Saturn, is about trying to find our place, our position in this time of change and uncertainty, and along with Uranus means having to readjust our goals and strategies in the process. It also means to bring our personal goals and strategies more in alignment with our ideals (Uranus sextile Neptune), especially where it benefits a greater cause, whether that be to humanity as a whole, to support civil rights, the environment, or greater fairness and equality.
Way back in 1959, at a youth march in support of integrating schools, Martin Luther King, Jr. proposed that whatever career those young people might choose, that they also pursue an avocation along with that: to be a dedicated fighter for civil rights. In other words, to make a career of humanity. He asked:
Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.
Just the sorts of innovative ideas that Saturn/Uranus transits support. And so may we all take these words to heart.
For this week’s horoscopes, click below: