August Highlights
Venus will be retrograde from July 27 through Sept. 8. The Aquarius Full Moon is July 30. The Leo New Moon is Aug. 13, conjunct Mercury and opposite Neptune [please note correction: prior editions said 'opposite Saturn', which is an error]. The Pisces Full Moon is Aug. 28, and a
total lunar eclipse.
August is the last full month that Saturn is in Leo for this cycle. Saturn changes signs to Virgo on Sept. 2. Supposedly sign changes of Saturn don't happen very often -- about once every 24 to 30 months, but I seem to keep writing about the next one. We last experienced a Saturn sign change in July 2005, and many extraordinary developments followed. Here is one short way to summarize Saturn in Virgo: It will be the first time in five years that Saturn is not in a sign considered its fall or detriment -- in other words, in a sign traditionally considered difficult.
The combination of the planet of structure, form and integrity with a sign associated with many of the same properties will come as a relief, a welcome change of pace and also a productive time when actions speak louder than words (it has been a while, hasn't it). The thing about Saturn in Leo is what you accomplished during that phase, though challenging, is likely to have lasting, durable value. Most of the great inventions of the world, from the transistor to recorded music to moving pictures, are all phenomena of Saturn in Leo.
Much more about August 2007 is in the
Spiral Door Almanac for 2007. The horoscope below will appear later in the month in Chronogram magazine in New York with different articles in different editions:
The Yes Men in Albany, and
Where's Your Data? in the Hudson Valley.
Aries (March 20-April 19)
You are not splitting in two. It is, however, true that you are rapidly approaching a branching of the roads where you will get to choose between a life that is predominantly dictated by your social life, and one that is nourished and sustained by your increasing creative passion. What divides the two is less about "what you want to be doing with your life" and more about your willingness to take the kind of risks that change you. When it comes to friends, you may want to choose from among those who are distinctly unafraid to stand out; who refuse to conform to what others expect of them, and who insist on honesty as a way of life; and who define themselves by their ability to change rather than to stay the same. This is what you are learning and these are the kinds of teachers and companions who will be the most supportive of you at this time. You may feel concerned about how meaningful your friends who may not fit this description are; but I propose it's now time for them to come to you, rather than you going to them.
Taurus (Apr 21 - May 21)
In these days and weeks, you may find yourself alternating between the utmost confidence and paralyzing insecurity. Because you like your world to make sense, the division may be more unsettling to you than it would be to other people. Let's add a few others contrasts, while we're swimming in the midst of some provocative astrology. You may be squirming around wondering whether your ideas about the past really are better than all the revolutionary things you've decided to embrace the past couple of years, while at the same time you may in these very days feel confronted by just how limiting and confining those old ideas are. Yet in an odd way, while they offer the momentary feeling of security and stability,
fixed you know that you need to set the foundations of your life on stronger ground than your predecessors have ever done. By now you know that there is one component of strong that you can sum up as durable, and another that you can sum up as flexible. Events this month will go a long way toward conspiring you to work both sides of the equation.
Gemini (May 22 - Jun 22)
You may feel forced into a decision you are not ready to make, but I propose there are a few potential distortions you need to check out before you over-react. One, to what extent are you getting caught in the unspoken beliefs of others? This is another way of asking who is setting the terms of reality. Somebody always defines the framework of what is possible. You need to know who it is. Second, what happens when you turn up the energy on your point of view? Does the space you're in get larger or smaller? Last, in what direction is time flowing? This is another way of asking what constitutes progress. You may feel like you are swimming upstream in a very fast current, and as a result, getting nowhere. But this is actually an illusion created by your experience of one particular relationship. The solution to all of these issues is clear thinking and open discussion. But when the time comes to talk, I suggest you understate your case. The person you're addressing actually knows what's up; all you need to do is remind them that you know too.
Cancer (Jun 23 - Jul 23)
You are in an excellent process of defining what is important to you. A review that began as a kind of personal inventory earlier this summer has evolved into a careful look at your values system, your attitudes toward money, and what you have learned in the past couple of not-so-easy years of Saturn transiting your adjoining sign Leo. (For two years before that, Saturn was in your birth sign, which brought many similar challenges and points of inner growth and confrontation.) This month is the time to prepare the final report, which will be preceded by your current retrospective exploration. Keep your focus on the past as much as possible. Keep asking the question, "How did I get here?" See if you can identify key decision points that led to turning points that got you where you are today. Through this process, you will find the present, where you can ask the most important question in the universe: Where am I, and what am I doing here?
Leo (Jul 24 - Aug 23)
Subtler events and ideas than you may imagine will determine the course of your life, though some extraordinary developments are in the offing. You're often in the position of being the person who holds the bottom line on reality, who is responsible for being a grounded adult and for setting the terms of what is real and what is not. This puts close partners into the role of what may at times seem like unrealistic dreamer, and at others seem like informed visionary. You do an excellent job of setting the limits that make progress possible. You may want to consider a role reversal, and put your imagination to work. Certainly, circumstances of your life are providing a sense of confinement that is (on our particular planet) excellent fertilizer for the imagination -- perhaps one of the few that actually works. You're holding in your hands vital information about what it means to be stuck, and you're on the threshold of discovering how you and the people closest to you can get brilliantly unstuck.
Virgo (Aug 24 - Sep 23)
One of the great Virgo secrets is how overwhelmed you can feel at times, and how you then ride that energy and break through to new universes of your life. This month promises to turn your inner reality into Bondi Beach of the mind, where you will surf the massive cosmic waves for days and weeks on end. You have learned in recent years that fear is basically the illusion created by responding to your abundant creative potential with negativity. It's a kind of psychic drag created by resisting your natural strength. It helps of course if you can see the positive potential of your creative power. As long as you let go of your past mental habits that is surprisingly easy, and that, in turn, is facilitated simply by noticing what they are. At a certain point, the quest to maintain self-awareness gives way to creative breakthroughs, which in the coming month or two seem poised to come as a series of developments that carry you further from any phase of your life that you remember, or for that matter that you have forgotten.
Libra (Sep 24 - Oct 23)
All I can say about your planets this month is that the words "highly unlikely" come to mind, along with "unusual propitious meeting" and "retrograding into the future." Highly unlikely refers to someone highly unlikely to be your friend coming through in an extreme pinch; "unusual propitious meeting" is like the Odd Couple to the 100th power, but in the form of a beneficial encounter that you simply could not predict, potentially with someone who you have viewed as an adversary at a less mature time in your life. Retrograding into the future could mean that what seems to be a setback of some kind turns out to be a development that alters your life path in a truly positive way. In any event, your friends are your most precious resource right now, and one character who shows up in the current act of your life will be highly influential in helping you wiggle into your special niche in society: both social and economic. It is always the combination of long planning, the goodwill of your friends and dumb luck that makes that happen, and you have all three going for you right now.
Scorpio (Oct 24 - Nov 22)
You may not be sure whether a partner or close associate is thwarting your professional aspirations, or helping you in a backwards kind of way, but you'll feel better if you remind yourself that you're the boss. As the boss, you can afford to give others some slack to do what they do, whether they do it well or poorly, and whether you understand it (at the moment) or not. This is to say, you may not actually comprehend the nature of soon-to-unfold developments, or be able to assess their impact, but you would be wise to observe with more emphasis than on taking action. You may be tempted to respond as if you're standing idly by; you are not. Rather, under this scenario, you would be waiting for your opportune moment. Meanwhile, consider for a moment how you may be perceived by certain key individuals, or one in particular: as vastly larger than life, but as a kind of powerful friend in need of their special contribution to your work or reputation. You may think this is ridiculous, and yet they may be right. Give it a little time.
Sagittarius (Nov 23 - Dec 21)
You are not, as I have said, the "struggle with faith" type, but you seem to be processing something these days in your relationship to that entity known as God or, if you prefer, your higher self. The questions seems to be about who is more committed to whom, or should be; something about free giving and receiving of gifts; but more to the point, the role of divinity or spirituality in human love. One thing that warrants mention is that nearly all schools of religious thought stay in business because they elevate something over human experience, and usually that something is abstract. Even those who have an alive, active and creative relationship with spirit can get caught up in the teachings of schools of thought that say it's more important than something that could be described as ordinary, physical or humanly nourishing. I would issue a word of caution about any and all ideas that propose there is something better than we can have as people -- human beings having a human experience. And usually there is a hidden agenda.
Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 20)
You are right to be questioning commitments that you have made to others, but notice that they are finally questioning the commitments they have to you -- and the chances are, discovering they have at least a debt of gratitude to you. It may go further than that, and this would be a good time to collect old bills and reckon emotional accounts. Remember, you have the prerogative to forgive old debts, though I suggest you do so consciously and verbally. There's a gift in this for everyone; debts take up energy. If, in particular, you are feeling sexually blocked, try unblocking your money. Rearranging your commitments, negotiate with people you owe money to, or let go of the ones who owe you something. Do a thorough review of any relationship where sex and money are both a factor involved in the commitment structure. Turn over rocks on unspoken promises, ungrounded expectations or situations where something is linked with something else when it has no business being so.
Aquarius (Jan 21 - Feb 19)
Is a third party involved in a romantic partnership of some kind? I suggest you not decide immediately they don't belong there, like so many people do with an involuntary response that resembles the gag reflex. I also don't suggest you grit your teeth and bear it, either: instead, try opening up and letting some of the subtler elements of the truth rise to the surface of reality. Here is the question you really need to ask yourself: what turns you on? You might want to put that to everyone else involved, once you've asked yourself and gone at least two layers down for your answer. Study the meaning of age differences, power differences, the different ways that people choose to negotiate their surrender, and the relationships of everyone involved to people in their past. Past lovers often loom around like phantoms in the eaves, when they need to be given a clearer voice and honored for who they truly are. You are a presence who stands large in the lives of others. You can stand to know exactly what people feel and why they feel that way, and everyone will experience a sustained rush of liberation in the process.
Pisces (Feb 20 - Mar 20)
Two questions for you this month: what would you do if you were really free, and what would you do if you could focus on what matters the most? There seems to be an intersection approaching where the two probability fields intersect. Looked at one way, it's a narrowing of the path of your life; looked at another way, you have an opportunity to arrange your priorities, particularly where key relationships are concerned. For way too long, many things that don't really matter to you have taken exceptional amounts of your emotional energy and material resources. It has been a long time since you went into command mode on your most important life situations, physical circumstances and professional commitments, and such a moment is arriving fast. You can go a long way toward preparing yourself by knowing what matters long before anyone asks you or expects you to put your feelings, credibility or cash on the line. Make sure the people you care about know you care about them, and make sure you put the question to anyone with whom you are experiencing doubt.
CREDITS: Associate Editor: Priya Kale. Webmaster: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Proofreader and Fact Checker: Sara Churchville. Horoscope Editor: Jessica Keet. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli.
