Liberation and freedom manifest through the heart...
August begins on a note of stark clarity - a reality check as Mercury meets the Sun opposite Saturn on August 1st and 2nd.
This is the superior conjunction of the Sun and Mercury. Ideas that were seeded during June's Mercury retrograde in Gemini now come full bloom and it's time for a realistic and honest appraisal of the situation, right through the heart. Uranus has the last word on August 4th and 7th (as he squares Mercury and the Sun), and these days could bring shocks and surprises.
Time to think outside the box and break away from any mental prisons.
Chiron in Aries chips in on the 3rd and 4th, helping us express any anger or pain, and offering the chance for a more inclusive perspective, if we choose to take it.
Leo New Moon, August 8th: Bold Endeavours
New Moon 8 August 2021, 14:50BST, @16:14 degrees Leo
The Leo New Moon of August 8th sounds the trumpet for bold endeavours! It falls on the the 2021 Uranus-Saturn square that’s been causing this unbearable friction we're living in since late 2020.
This lunation triggers the need to implement pressing radical changes. The moment has come to show courage and stamina, do what we must and achieve the breakthroughs we need. Let your new-found clarity inform your decisions.
Leo rules the heart and that’s the only instrument worth listening to right now. It's essential that we bypass any old and stale belief systems that constrict the blood flow. By mid-August, a first quarter Moon in Scorpio brings some intense, transformative and action-packed days when a lot can be achieved!
Virgo Season: Analyse, Scrutinise, Streamline, Organise
We’ve also got a lot of planets in Virgo these days.
Venus and Mars are already in Virgo as August begins and there is a great emphasis on details - lots to do, lots to analyse, scrutinise, plan, dissect and organise. Whatever you’ve got to do, it’s all about attacking it methodically, one step at a time.
Venus stays in Virgo till August 16th and Mars is there till mid-September. Mercury joins the Virgo gang on August 11th, giving us five days of intense Virgo energy. Finally, the Sun enters on August 22nd, kicking off Virgo season.
Mercury in its own sign of rulership in Virgo from August 11th to the 30th lends a clear mind, clearer than it’s been for months - excellent for detailed research, analysis and finding solutions.
Venus moves into its own sign of rulership on the 16th, Libra, generating a desire for love, pleasure, beauty, collaboration and social harmony, highlighting the need for greater fairness among people. This latter is a theme that might create considerable friction come the Autumn.
Tuesday 10th-Wednesday 11th of August, we have two oppositions. Venus opposes Neptune, bringing a deeply romantic, yearning vibe, perhaps even a touch of nostalgia on the 10th. Then, on the 11th Mercury opposes Jupiter and big thoughts are sure to overwhelm. Plan ahead but you may just have to go with the flow that day, something Virgo is often loath to do.
Jupiter semisquares Chiron August 18th: “NO” to Progress at All Costs
In a minor story-line, on August 18th, Jupiter semi-squares Chiron for the second time this year (the first was in April and there's a third time in November so that the influence lasts all year long). While this is but a soft pianissimo to 2021’s great big orchestra of cymbals, it is a deeply meaningful tune.
It’s that nagging sense some of us may have that humanity’s vision for a better world is thwarted, blocked and marred by certain selfish and idiotic people. And equally, on the other side of the coin, it’s that rising sense of injustice and rage that arises from feeling ignored, violated and bulldozed over by sweeping ideologies that have no concern for personal autonomy.
This ongoing Jupiter-Chiron theme of 2021 is worth paying attention to. No visionary progress can be made unless the pain and hurt that has been caused is honoured.
Crossing the Lunar Nodes: A Major Crossroads!
We are now half way through this year’s eclipses of May-June and November-December 2021.
August is an important crossroads between past and future when major decisions are being taken that deTermine our path.
All the personal planets square off against the eclipse points or Lunar Nodes in Gemini and Sagittarius during this period - Venus just had her say on July 29th, Mars is next on the 11th and then Mercury squares the Nodes on the 16th. The Sun has the last authoritative word on August 29th and crucial decisions hang in the balance.
The placement of the Lunar Nodes - the Great Dragon's Head and Tail - is the most reliable indicator, astrologically, of the way in which humanity needs to go. It is, perhaps, of the greatest value in what astrology has to offer.
The South Node tends to exacerbate all the negative traits of the sign through which it passes (in 2021 it's Sagittarius) - indicating destructive attitudes that are deeply entrenched and need to be transcended to move forward. The North Node accentuates the positive traits of the sign it transits (in 2021 it's Gemini), as a crucial antidote to the current worldly ills.
With the South Node in Sagittarius and the North Node in Gemini, it is imperative to stay open-minded and encourage dialogue, detached information gathering and free speech, resisting the temptation toward passion, blind faith, bigotry and fanaticism, and the tendency to shut out all other voices to defend a single storyline as if our lives depended on it. That's the deal and it's active till early 2022 (that's when the Nodes move into Scorpio and Taurus and the imperatives change).
The Mars-Mercury Dance from August to November 2021: Arguments & Disputes!
Right at this major crossroads we are now facing, on August 19th, Mars and Mercury conjoin forces in Virgo.
This is the first of three Mars-Mercury conjunctions that will take us all the way into late November, lighting the fuse on important disputes and confrontations.
These will pass through three phases. First, in August, comes a sort of bickering over the details - the data-processing and the “how” of things. By October, the argument may well take legal, financial and political proportions, as the conjunction moves into Libra, where Mercury travels retrograde. A third and final Mars-Mercury conjunction in secretive Scorpio in November, with Mercury direct, is sure to be the juiciest, sexiest of them all. For now, expect lots of hectic running around and picking things apart to put them back together again in the middle of the month.
Aquarius Blue Moon August 22nd: Break for Freedom!
Full Moon 22 August 2021, 13:01BST, @29:37 Aquarius
You can probably feel the air crackling already as we head to this month’s shocking, electric and liberating Full Moon Blue Moon in Aquarius of August 22nd.
This month’s Full Moon is a Blue Moon - the second one in the same sign (we usually have only one) and the fourth Full Moon in the Summer (we usually only have three in a season). It’s at the last degree of Aquarius, a crucial humanitarian note that keeps being struck this summer.
Aquarius stands for brotherhood and solidarity, tech and progress, equality and, ultimately, freedom. The very last, critical degree of this sign contains all these concepts in a condensed, distilled drop that’s being squeezed for us to catch around August 22nd.
There’s a sense of urgency and instability to this Full Moon — a last ditch attempt to get something right on a collective, community level.
Uranus, the ruler of this Full Moon, stations retrograde on August 20th, just two days prior the Full Moon, at the same time as the Sun opposes Jupiter.
This is a moment of breakthrough and change, revealing the results of the visions we nourish. It's also a key moment in the Great Experiment that is 2021.
You can cut the tension with a knife as Uranus stations and it may be hard to sleep at night (not that July or June were particularly peaceful).
Positive, liberating developments occur at breakneck speed at this Full Moon, as Uranus trines Mars/Mercury. This event makes new channels available for a shift of consciousness, potentially also sending shockwaves into the earth.
A Decisive August’s End…
On the same night of the Full Moon, August 22nd, the Sun enters Virgo and it’s time to focus on the nitty gritty of what needs to be done.
With Venus, Saturn and the Dragon’s Head all pointing at centaur Chiron - a body symbolic of healing, the elevation of consciousness and the re-integration of shadowy material - it is pretty clear that the social tear that's currently flapping in the wind needs to be mended.
Mercury-Neptune and Pluto, meanwhile, call for some serious detective work to see through the confusion. By the 29th, the Sun cuts across the great Dragon and major decisions hang in the balance. Mercury enters Libra on the 30th, where he will stay for a good long while (because that's where he turns retrograde on September 27th). Let the negotiations begin...
Fun with Sabian Symbols
This month’s lunations involve two Sabian symbols that have everything to do with deep religious feeling and open-mindedness, as we all come together. There's a union of heart and mind and of humanity toward something greater - a voluntary transcendence of personal gripes. A worthy imagery, I’d say, to help us steer through this month’s jarring events.
August 2021 New Moon Sabian Symbol 17th degree of Leo:
“A Volunteer Church Choir Singing Religious Hymns” indicating the “feeling of togetherness which unites men and women in their dedication to a collective ideal.”
August 2021 Full Moon Sabian Symbol 30th degree of Aquarius:
“Deeply Rooted In The Past Of A Very Ancient Culture, A Spiritual Brotherhood In Which Many Individual Minds Are Merged Into The Glowing Light Of A Unanimous Consciousness Is Revealed To One Who Has Emerged Successfully From His Metamorphosis. This signifies an awareness of the totality of one’s being and the “ability for the person with an open mind and a deep feeling for self-transcendence to come in contact with higher forms of existence.”
[*] Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala (NY Vintage Books 1974), pp.141 & 267.
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