The Summer Season begins on the 21st with the Summer Solstice as the Sun enters the Cardinal Water Sign of Cancer. We may wish to go in new directions but with a sense of being held back by our responsibilities and our obligations.
If we would think outside the box and consider alternative means to accomplish our goals, we could draw upon our experience and our developed expertise and blend them into a new trajectory or a streamlined methodology in order to work smarter rather than harder. Although many of us have been conditioned into believing ‘no pain, no gain’, we could deflect such nonsense and make it far easier on ourselves.
At the beginning of the Summer season, Venus opposes Mars on the 21st. Relationships might prove dicey if we are looking at a tug-of-war between our personal interests and the interests of someone else. Collaboration, even to the point of accommodation but not capitulation, could prove the wisest and more effective approach. Although competition often concentrates on a win-lose modality, we can realize the greater benefits from win-win scenarios.
The early Summer season is replete with various landmines, energy configurations that may prove to be stumbling blocks or to the extreme, implosions and explosions. Much of it may revolve around our individuality tied to how we engage our community. Are we willing to stand out or looking merely to fit in?
Either disposition can have its assets and its liabilities. The 23rd has the Sun sextile Uranus, and Mercury opposed Pluto. Our desire to make changes in our life can be tentative. Hesitant to upset someone or the people around us, we could be skittish in expressing our desires and our future plans. Either we could close down by feeling overwhelmed by countervailing forces, or we might explode in a volley of vehemence. Unfortunately, balance may be lost, but balance in these volatile times is hard to establish, much less maintain.
Extreme actions can take hold on the 25th with Venus square Jupiter and the Moon transiting the Jupiter-ruled and expansive Sign of Sagittarius. Our appetites may know no bounds. We might feel entitled [one of the main characteristics of present society] to have what we want and then some and in fact for us to want to have it all. Excess at this time could mask an existential despair, a feeling of being a stranger in a very strange world, with us feeling too often under appreciated.
This latter part of June and the beginning of the Summer season may not be an idyllic walk through the park. It is essential that we be aware and mindful, maintain a bemused attitude toward our own and everybody’s idiosyncrasies and acknowledge the saying that ‘life’s too mysterious, don’t take it serious.’
Mars turns retrograde on the 26th. We might feel our energy depleted and our ability to forge ahead into new trajectories stymied by our hesitancy or by a belief that we do not have the resources to successfully push ahead. We could sense that we are only spinning our wheels, exerting ourselves without a great deal of forward movement.
Perceived frustrations and delays can be reinforced as we end the month of June. The Sun opposes Saturn on the 26th, an energy configuration heightened at the time of the Capricorn Full Moon on the 28th. The wind may be knocked out of our sails as we experience obstacles standing in our way and old issues demanding attention. Although there are times when we need to go back in order to move forward, the process can be wearying and worrying and so we might discern our efforts to be Sisyphus-like, rolling the boulder up the mountain only to have it fall back on us.
Turning inward and concentrating on our own personal interests may salve our concerns, but the 29th has Mercury exiting Cancer to enter Leo. As if a voice in the wilderness, we may cry out to emphasize our individual talents and abilities. People could be grandstanding as if talking louder would make their words better understood. Each of us might call out: “Do you hear me now?”
The answer might not be one that we would wish to hear with the month ending on the 30th with Mercury square Uranus. What is said may not be what we wish to hear. Communications can be off, misunderstandings rampant and transparency minimal. The Mercury square Uranus is my least favorite aspect for travel, and especially air travel, and I try to avoid it under this energy configuration influence whenever I can. There can be problems with high technology and computer issues. Our mind may be racing but the translation into comprehension could prove difficult.
Let’s enjoy the early part of this month of June and recognize that we do not live in a straight-line reality but rather a long and winding road with various twists and turns. As the saying goes: ‘the true art in life is the art of truly living.’
We come into the month of July with a sense that no matter how dire circumstances may be that we are truly protected. We may wish to take some quiet time for ourselves, withdraw into our own personal world and feel the comforts of home and family.
News may be upsetting and might seem to threaten our security, but it would be essential that we not take things at face value or for granted. The more we reflect on what is going on, cut to the core and consider the substance of any situation, the less likely we are to be thrown for a loop by unexpected incidents.
Not that we have to start the month in either a paranoid mood or withdrawal mode. No, we are likely to participate in gatherings both for the social conviviality that summer affords and also to be privy to other people’s interpretation of what is really going on.
The early part of July has a Water Grand Trine with the Sun transiting Cancer, Jupiter in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. Our feeling nature can be heightened, and we might find that our intuitive sense proves more spot on than what empirical evidence would suggest. No jumping to conclusions as we start this month. It would be far better for us to reflect and contemplate, as if we were presented with a complex puzzle that we need to sort out and figure out in its right framework. And, in truth, we are. Reality is not as it has been and today’s goings on seem far weirder and more bizarre and increased surreal than anything Lewis Carroll concocted or Salvador Dali painted. Welcome to our world!
Our ‘feel good’ sentiment can be enhanced on the 5th of July with the Sun trine Jupiter. We may be optimistic, highly confident and exuberant but with a liability to the irrational. For the 5th also has Mercury opposed Mars. We could easily jump to conclusions with a belief that the way we see things and the way we want things to be are truly the way they are. We have to be wary that we don’t leap before we look and even if we do look before we leap our look may be but a cursory glance without truly seeing what is right in front of us. It would be wise for us to curb our enthusiasm and take the time to both delve deeply into a matter before we engage and to feel it out before we launch forward.
During these volatile times, we can be so highly self-protective to the point of what Jimi Hendrix expressed in his song Room Full of Mirrors:
“I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me…”
We can get so caught up in how the world is impacting us and without having an objective, detached viewpoint but rather the subjective perspective of our ego that we don’t truly comprehend the bigger picture, how the minutiae is but a fragment of the totality and the immediate but a tiny fraction of the eternal.
The first week of July could be highly pleasant if we would step away, even for just brief momentary interludes, from the hum-drum routine of our daily lives and engage our spiritual nature and the true beauty and blessings of doing life.
The Water Grand Trine triggered by the Sun’s transit of Cancer is highlighted with the Sun trine Jupiter on the 5th and again on the 8th as the Sun trines Neptune.
If we choose to and not be distracted by needless diversions or putting on our own blinders, then this first week of July can truly enhance our deeper being and comfort us on a soul level. We can refresh and recharge ourselves in this first week of July in the quiet and sanctity of true being.
One of the blessings in my life, a truly transcendental experience for me, occurred when I was twenty traveling through Europe during the revolutionary summer of 1968. I was about to enter my senior year in college and facing the draft in the US with the possibility that I would be drafted for the US war in southeast Asia. That summer, the student-worker revolution was occurring in France, the assassination of Robert Kennedy had happened and the violent protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago were taking place, and I traveled into eastern Europe. Leaving Austria, I decided to drive to Czechoslovakia, a nation that had defied the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact nations with its experiment in independent socialism. I arrived shortly after the Conference in Bratislava where the Warsaw Pact nations decided not to invade Czechoslovakia. The feeling of freedom, the sense of a small nation standing up to a group of nations and winning a major moral victory were intoxicating and made me more appreciative of the freedoms that I had and my countrymen had at that time in the US. While in Prague, I met a Czech soldier who indicated that his feelings and his countrymen’s feelings were like a horse with the blinders removed now able to see all around. Their victory was short-lived, for by the time I reached Paris in August the Warsaw Pact nations had invaded, the workers in France abandoned the students and France returned to its normalcy albeit without DeGaulle, and the US campaigns of Robert Kennedy and ‘clean for Gene’ McCarthy were defeated by the establishment politician candidacy of Vice-President Hubert Humphrey.
There are times, and this first week of July could be one of those times, when we can pull back the veil of Maya, the world of illusion that we live in, and step into a different dimension, a realm of love, peace, collaboration and beauty. Such times provide necessary transfusions to us of what could be — the sense of peace, love and the unfolding of beauty.
From the comfort, solace and nurture of this first week of July with the Water Grand Trine, which continues its influence until the Sun exits Cancer on the 22nd of July, we enter the second week of July ready to make manifest our goals and our dreams. We just have to be wary that we are not carried away by our intentions but rather focus our intentions in a best practices approach, taking things step-by-step but also willing to adapt and change as conditions warrant.
The second week of July has Venus moving into Virgo on the 9th creating an Earth Grand Trine with Venus in Virgo trine Uranus in Taurus on the 11th and Venus trine Saturn in Capricorn on the 14th. Our ability to make things happen by being open to new directions, new methodologies and new connections combined with our experience, expertise and our developed talents can be impressive and successful.
We need to watch for irrational exuberance for Mercury squares Jupiter on the 9th. We may be in an expansive mood. People could be grandstanding, talking the talk but without the necessary resources to back up their claims or presentations. We can only get into trouble if we take things for granted and accept untested assumptions.
Jupiter turns direct on the 10th of July, ending its four-month retrograde cycle and opening the door to generosity and excess. Let’s watch our finances, avoid needless expenditures and keep a focus on our budget.
Apart from this liability to excess, this second week of July is highlighted by the Cancer New Moon, a Solar Eclipse, on the 12th. This New Moon is in the third decanate of Cancer with the Pisces influence. The Sun Moon conjunction is opposed to Pluto but also triggers the Water Grand Trine with the Cancer New Moon trine Jupiter in Scorpio and trine Neptune in Pisces. We also have the Earth Grand Trine with Venus in Virgo trine Saturn in Capricorn and trine Uranus in Taurus.
With the two feminine, negative, receptive Elements of Water and Earth in play, this Solar Eclipse and New Moon can raise questions regarding our life purpose. This period and its continuing influence over the next four weeks may be a period of intense inventory taking, questioning many aspects of our lives, with fear and dread but also the recognition of certain essential eliminations, all in the process of transformation.
During these drastically changing times, people have become anxious, fearful with wild swings between extreme anger and downright despair. Expressions sometimes reflect hate as people feel their world crumbling down around them and make judgment based upon opinion and belief. And yet what we see and what we hear may not be the true nature of what is really going on. What if we could use the volatility of these times as a dynamic catalyst to rid ourselves of the dross in our life and concentrate instead on the pearls of our living? What if we looked at the half glass of water as half full instead of half empty?
One of my favorite stories and an especially apt story for these times and one I have referred to more than once is the Taoist story of We’ll See:
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.
“Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“We’ll see,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.
“How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“We’ll see,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
“We’ll see,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“We’ll see,” said the farmer.
My first spiritual book, apart from the Christian Bible in my growing up, that I came across when I started consciously on my earth journey was the book by Paramahansa Yogananda Autobiography of a Yogi. One statement in that book has always stuck with me and one that I have used mantram-like during the drastic twists and turns in my life journey and especially during the depths of valleys I have encountered is the sage advice given Yogananda by his guru Sri Yukteswar: ‘Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you’.
Can we? Shall we?
The 14th of July is the third factor to the Earth Grand Trine triggered by Venus in Virgo as Venus trines Saturn. Whatever new directions, new trajectories and new connections may have arisen serendipitously around the 11th with the Venus trine Uranus can be solidified now. Blending the new and old might create a solid means to develop our goals and realize our dreams. This week can be a time of interesting, serendipitous contacts and a time of reconnecting with the essential elements of our past. Unexpected scenarios could take greater form now.
The 22nd of July has the Sun exiting Cancer to enter Leo and in so doing brings closure to the Water Grand Trine. Venus sextiles Jupiter at this time. Our focus may be more on having a good time, enjoying the summer sun but with the liability of no expense spared. We can engage re-creational activities and enjoyable pursuits, but it would be wise for us to avoid extravagance. Indulgence and excess are possible. Let’s not allow our appetites to determine our decisions, for we could easily desire more and ever more. Simplifying our lives provides both a broader palette from which to draw and also releases the ties that bind. There are times when a high maintenance lifestyle can be more a warder than an en-lightener.
The last week of July may prove dicey and test our ability to navigate the currents. The 24th has Venus opposed Neptune, followed by the Sun square Uranus on the 25th, Mercury turning retrograde on the 26th and crescendoing with the Aquarius Full Moon and a Lunar Eclipse on the 27th with the Sun opposed Mars and Venus trine Pluto.
With Venus opposed Neptune we could become disillusioned or deceive ourselves regarding someone in whom we had placed blind faith. Although we might have been attentive to how best to present ourselves, we may discover that appearance was not truly matched by the substance. Something can prove lacking but we have to be wary of being too hard on ourselves or beating up on ourselves for a failure to see things clearly when the evidence was not available to us previously.
The entry of the Sun into Leo sets up a Fixed Sign T-Square with the Sun square Uranus on the 25th and the Sun opposed Mars on the 27th at the time of the Full Moon. Even if we wish to forge ahead with our creative projects or want to be on center stage, we might experience delays and frustrations. Not everyone is likely to be on the same page. We could also experience unexpected situations arising that put monkey wrenches in the spokes of our wheel.
With Mercury turning retrograde, with its enforcing Murphy’s Law of ‘whatever can go wrong could go wrong’, it would be wise for us to anticipate delays and frustrations to our plans. We could experience something akin to a spinoff of what 18th-century poet Robert Burns warned us: “the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray”.
This end of July would be a time to slow things down or feel the effects of things slowing down with various bumps in the road. Instead of putting on blinders and being an island unto ourselves, it would be suggested that we draw upon the wise and detached counsel of a trusted friend who can help us see our situation from a more objective perspective. There are times when we are far too close to something and have our ego so attached to what we are doing that it is hard to see our situation clearly. Instead of going around in circles or repeatedly banging our head against the wall, someone else may prove to be the beacon that shines the light on our cloudy scenario.
The Mercury retrograde begins on the 26th of July and continues on into the 19th of August with the Mercury retrograde ‘shadow’ continuing until the 1st of September. During this retrograde cycle, it would be wise to postpone any important decisions or significant purchases. Not being a ‘bar the door and shutter the windows’ type of person, I also suggest that if we do need to make some imposing commitment during this time, that we evaluate and continually re-evaluate our situation to avoid any major screw-ups. And it is essential that we try and avoid our ego determining our choices, for our ego personality can often lead us down treacherous, winding paths that land us up only at a dead end.
The Fixed Sign T-Square with the Sun in Leo, Mars in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus is heightened as we enter the month of August with Mars square Uranus. With our eyes on the distant horizon, we might experience that we have tried to go too far, too fast. The liability of accidents cannot be underestimated, especially if we are pigheaded enough to assume that we can force situations to our control. The concept that ‘haste makes waste’ could be proven true at this time as our frustrations might boil over into rash and impetuous actions. This is a time when we need to be careful in our actions, consider what we are doing and not try to force things. Let’s bear in mind that we are operating under the Mercury retrograde and may not have our best thinking skills at hand. Brawn over brains can be a disastrous prescription but one we might engage at this time. There is a liability to rash actions, terrorist activity and air travel difficulties.
The second week of August has Venus exiting Virgo to enter its own Sign of Libra, and the Sun square Jupiter on the 6th. If we have been a little too self-focused and self-absorbed, we can now take the time to look up, consider what is going on with other people, and seek to engage collaboration. We may be feeling on something of a ‘high’ with the sense that we can broaden our interests and expand our activities and all with the support and encouragement from someone else.
Other people opening doors for us may be evident during this second week of August, thanks to Venus moving into Libra, the Sun square Jupiter, and Venus trine Mars.
The 7th of August has Venus trine Mars and Uranus turning retrograde. We can forge ahead into new directions and find ourselves participating with someone on a project that is intended to create a win-win scenario. We might not take into account fully the resources needed but may be more enamored with the assistance and camaraderie of developing a project together. Good friends can become especially close.
The 8th has the Sun conjunct Mercury. We might assume that we have developed a best practices approach to our plan of action, but our engagement might gloss over the necessary resources to accomplish our goals. This issue of enthusiasm and confidence being over-the-top could be a major sticking point through much of this August month. Have we become dazed by the summer sun? Have we become numb to the craziness going on in the world-at-large that we feel impervious to conditions and circumstances beyond our control or influence?
Someone might prove to be a no nonsense arbitrator of what we are doing and how we are doing it as Venus squares Saturn on the 9th. We could feel deflated by a serious evaluation of our actions and our plans. It’s all well and good to spend time in the airy realm of possibilities, but it’s important that we have our feet on the ground and consider the realistic means to achieve our goals. Past issues can come back in mind and remind us of the definition of insanity attributed to Einstein: ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’.
August 11th gives us the Leo New Moon and a Solar Eclipse as the Sun and Moon conjunct in the second decanate of Leo, the Sagittarius influence. A sense of expansion even to the point of reckless abandon cannot be discounted but increased by Mercury square Jupiter. Although this energy configuration of the New Moon can trigger a highly creative period, a time when we look to put our personal mark on our activities and our projects, we have to be wary that we don’t run before we are truly able to walk. Our enthusiasm may know no bounds and with it a heavy dose of self-affirmation where we assume that whatever we do and how we might do it have the blessings of the higher forces and universal forces. And therein lies the rub. We could easily become enamored to the point of narcissism with our own talents and abilities that we lose sight of the conditions, circumstance and parameters of the environment in which we are operating. Let’s rein in our exuberance and maintain a rational approach to realizing our goals.
Fortunately on the 12th Mars retrogrades out of Aquarius and back into Capricorn triggering a Stellium of three planets in the Cardinal Earth Sign as Mars joins Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn. Instead of being absorbed by the impressionistic images at the far reaches of a distant horizon, we can step back to determine a best practices approach and be far more present in regard to developing a right template to accomplish our goals. We can now become more focused in regard to maintaining the view of our big picture all the while that we are attentive to the essential ingredients that are necessary to compose the successful realization of our intentions.
The second half of August may put the wind under our wings. Relationships and social gatherings can be pleasant encounters. Any questions or concerns we might have regarding our future prospects could be dismissed both by our own faith, no matter how blind our faith might be, and the encouragement and support from someone who may be able to better advocate for us than we could for ourselves.
The 18th of August has Mercury sextile Venus, followed on the 19th by Jupiter trine Neptune and Mercury ending its three-week retrograde cycle and turning direct. Although things can be slightly convoluted coming off the Mercury retrograde and as we seek to get our balance and re-establish our pace, this is a time when our discussions with other people can be pleasant and inspiring. No matter what is going on with us or with other people, we can embrace the sentiment that ‘everything works out in the end’.
Even if we cannot see the wheels operating in our favor, and perhaps with no empirical evidence for confirmation, we might intuit that everything is really okay. This would be a good time for us to step off the track and give thought to what is going. We can replenish our spirit and reinvigorate our soul connection with other people, with our environment and with life itself. We could appreciate the mystery and majesty of doing life. Quiet times of reflection, being out in the sacred cathedral of nature can go a long way towards giving us an infusion of good feeling and internal strength.
The end of August may have us back on track of our normal, daily activities. Even though we are not at the end of the Summer season, an end that unofficially occurs with Labor Day in the US on September 3rd of this year, and officially ends with the beginning of Autumn on the 22nd of September this year, we might feel the beckoning of our daily routine. Schools may be starting or having reopened, and the pull of the regularity of autumn can seem strong and impede on our summer getaway feelings.
On the 23rd of August the Sun exits Leo to enter Virgo. With the Sun transiting Virgo for the next month, an Earth Grand Trine by Sign is set up with the Sun in Virgo, Uranus in Taurus and the three-Capricorn transiting planets of Mars, Saturn and Pluto. We are moving into a time of manifestation and materialization, a time when we can bridge old and new in a manner whereby we can draw upon our experience and expertise and move into new directions and establish foundation stones for our future.
The 25th of August truly highlights this Earth Grand Trine, for on this day and just prior to the Pisces Full Moon on the 26th the Sun transiting Virgo trines Uranus in Taurus and the Sun trines Saturn in Capricorn. The Pisces Full Moon triggers a Kite Pattern chart with the Sun Moon opposition, the Sun still in orb of its Earth Grand Trine and the two other spokes to the Grand Trine, Saturn and Uranus, being sextile to the Moon. This weekend can be an especially powerful weekend where we can blend our intuitive sense with our grounded approach, where we combine our expertise with innovation and create a grand template by which to strategize and devise the most effective and expeditious means to accomplish great results.
What we have to be wary of, and contrary to the energy the week before, is the Venus square Pluto on the 26th. While we might have relied upon and benefitted from the advice of a trusted confidante the week before, this weekend of the 25th – 26th of August calls for us to take someone’s suggestions with a grain of salt and depend more upon our own sense about things and the right action with the right approach for ourselves. If we heed, much less listen to, someone’s advice, we could start second-guessing ourselves and creating difficulties for ourselves when no real problem exists.
This weekend is a good time for us to calculate and evaluate our activities and the prospects for our future. We may put into action on the 27th of August some of our plans and intentions as Mars turns direct in Capricorn giving us a thrust of energy.
While having direction and itinerary in hand, we need to avoid over confidence or assumptions that what we want we can get with little effort on our part. The 28th of August has Mercury square Jupiter with a liability to over exuberance that we might have succumbed to on August 11th and on July 9th, the two other times this Summer season when we experienced the Mercury Jupiter square. Not allowing our mind to race ahead of our feet would be advised. We can be optimistic without being foolish.
September begins with the continuation by Sign of the Earth Grand Trine as the Sun continues its transit of Virgo, Uranus in Taurus and the Capricorn Stellium of Mars, Saturn and Pluto. We may have the urge to put nose to grindstone, concentrate on practical matters and streamline operations to achieve our goals, all the while not allowing any particular detail to be glossed over. Early September can be a highly productive time.
We can draw upon someone’s assistance as Mercury sextiles Venus on the 3rd of September. We can be a cheerleader for someone’s projects just as someone can advocate for our creative abilities.
On the 5th, Mercury exits Leo to enter its own Sign of Virgo accentuating our reasoning, analytical mind and enhancing the Earth Grand Trine. Saturn turns direct on the 6th, ending its five month retrograde cycle where things could have taken longer with various delays and frustrations along the way. The 7th has Mercury triggering the Earth Grand Trine with the Virgo Mercury trine Uranus in Taurus and Mercury trine Saturn in Capricorn. The Sun opposes Neptune also on the 7th.
This is a time for us to devise, strategize and plan. We may be champing at the bit to get on with things, and we may believe we have devised the most effective template, but we could still have a niggling concern as to whether we have covered all the bases, dealt with all the particulars and taken into account all the facets including the likelihood of shifts and changes once we implement our plans. We have to be wary that we are not spending too much trying to get things correct and wind up spinning our wheels and merely creating castles in the air.
The challenge at this time will be one of letting go, recognizing that we have done the best that we can and that our projects have a life of their own where we can be the vision keeper and maintain our hand on the wheel but with the realization that things may shift and change as we move forward with our projects. We may be called upon to trust — trust our own capabilities, trust our integrity and trust that the projects we are engaging will work out by our concentration on developing them and by the natural progression of the projects unfolding successfully.
Whether we can rely upon the confidence of our abilities or we necessitate confirmation from someone else can be an issue on the 8th when Venus squares Mars. Too often we do not trust our own instincts or fully appreciate our talents. We seek the acceptance and approval of the outside world. We mirror our sense of self more by what we do rather than who we are and by how people see us instead of how we feel about ourselves.
Even if we get in our own way and our ego personality highlights our faults rather than our sterling qualities, the Virgo New Moon on the 9th of September gives us the ability to prioritize, the combination of intuitive foresight with practical application, and the persistence and determination to accomplish whatever we choose to engage. We can be in the ‘zone’, get out of our own way and can BE the project we are looking to develop.
Also on the 9th, Venus exits its own Sign of Libra and enters Scorpio. While Venus in Scorpio has Venus in Detriment, being in a Sign that is uncomfortable for Venus, this transit allows us to focus on what we need to do and want to do without overly considering how people might perceive our actions. We may hold our cards close to our chest and just move forward with our plans.
This two-week period under the influence of the Virgo New Moon impacts the end of the Summer season but does so in a way whereby we are concentrating on our goals and ambitions. The Summer sun may entice us to enjoy momentary respites from our day-in, day-out, but our attention veers more toward what we want to accomplish. We are likely to be truly back on track focused on our everyday routines.
The 10th of September has Mars re-entering Aquarius ending the Stellium of three planets in Capricorn but giving greater thrust to our future plans.
We can be feeling upbeat and highly productive as the Sun sextiles Jupiter and the Sun trines Pluto on the 11th. This is a time when our optimism and our persistence can make things happen. We may feel as though we are realizing our personal destiny, that what we are operating at our optimum and achieving our greatest potential. We just have to be wary that we don’t get full of ourselves, be slightly overbearing or critical of other people. If we go there, we can be wasting some great opportunities for collaboration or well-deserved appreciation from someone.
The 12th of September can have us resourceful and adept at being more effective with less expenditure of energy. Jupiter sextiles Pluto, Venus opposes Uranus, and Venus sextiles Saturn. Although we might be intrigued by the better mousetrap and seek to incorporate technological wizardry into our schema, we could discover that we would be more productive drawing upon the ‘tried and true’ rather than the whiz-bang of something new. Experience and expertise may be better able to deal with situations than the latest gadgetry or software applications.
Drawing upon our intuitive sense to devise a best practices approach might be strong on the 13th when Mercury opposes Neptune. Either we can be brilliant and spot on in making our plans or we can be deluded and diverted by images and appearance without doing our due diligence. The more we are able to combine our sense of things and how things ‘feel’ with a critical, reasoning analysis, the stronger our strategies, itinerary and direction are likely to be.
The weekend of the 15th – 16th could be highly productive. Our mind can zero in on the heart of any matter, see the whole picture without losing sight of the specifics. Mercury trines Pluto on the 15th followed on the 16th by Mercury sextile Jupiter. If we have an argument to make, a case to present, then we can be both charming and engaging yet with a laser-like focus on the substance of the issues with little to counter our points. This weekend would be a good time to focus on the truly meaningful, prioritize our activities and budget our resources. We may feel at the top of our game and capable of virtually moving mountains.
With astrology, a reflection of life itself, we realize there are various cycles, different phases with times of streamlined operations and other challenging times.
Although much of the recent days may have been relatively easy gliding, we come to the 18th and may encounter a significant bump in the road. Mars squares Uranus on the 18th, the energy configuration we experienced back on the 1st of August and on May 16th before that. Often in the law of three the first time over is the most severe, the second time over a review of the issue in focus, and third time over brings a completion and hopefully resolution to whatever lesson or challenge we might have encountered. Mars square Uranus warns us not to be impetuous, not to run headlong into a buzz saw and raises the red flag of being liable to accidents. We might try to go too far too fast with this energy configuration indicating a likelihood of leaping before looking. Spontaneity is all well and good but only if we consider the conditions and circumstances in which we are entering.
The end of the Summer season has the Sun conjunct Mercury on the 20th followed by Mercury exiting its own Sign of Virgo to enter Libra on the 21st just before the Sun exits Virgo on the 22nd to enter Libra at the Autumn Equinox and the beginning of the Autumn season. We can tie up loose ends, create an astute template to deal with our routine matters and prepare our way before moving into the season of balancing our actions and our interactions.
Summer 2018… Not All Fun and Games…
