August is going to be a very Leo month, with the Sun, Moon, Venus and Mars all in the sign, to be joined by Mercury on the 12th. A good dose of fire is very helpful with extracting ourselves from the doldrums, and the swamp created by the Capricorn convergence.
For many of us the last month has felt like spinning our wheels, without getting much traction or clear forward motion. Leo offers more dynamism mixed with grunt to potentially burst us out into clearer ground, especially when the New Moon goes exact on the afternoon of the first.
However, there is still a degree of unpredictability, even chaos in this emergence.
New Moon in Leo conjunct Venus
As with of July, there is a very clear focus on relationships and sexuality this month. Venus in Leo is a passionate, erotic, forthrightly creative energy that demands expression, with a distinctively queenly quality about her in the sign of the lion. Positively energised by the New Moon, she speaks of new beginnings in our love lives, and in our creative surges into the world. And while essentially harmonious, Venus in fire will not take crap from anyone, setting good boundaries while demanding equality and respect.
And she will need some passionate outlets; good-quality sex and creative dance come immediately to mind!
New Moon square Uranus in Taurus
This is the clearest demonstration of the chaotic unpredictability of the month.
Uranus’ drive to create dramatic and liberating change is essentially unstable but with a clear intent to break up redundant patterning, stagnant relationships and creative apathy. On one hand Leo will love the energy of Uranus but on the other this is a struggle of Titans, between two equally stubborn energies. One can imagine a dramatic build-up of energies that moves from frustration into potential explosiveness, if healthy releases are not found.
Uranus highlights the urge towards individual freedom, for taking risks in self-expression and affirming one’s individual genius, none of which responds well to feeling controlled either from within or without.
So, give yourself permission to take some space from significant others, or to step up to that creative idea that you’ve never allowed yourself to pursue.
The barometer reflecting how well we’re doing with Uranus is our level of excitement and inspiration. See what really turns you on!
The Leo Moon conjunct Parvati and Venus
This is a beautiful combination of goddess energies, and an incredibly loving one at that. The traditional goddess of love Venus is exalted by the presence of Parvati, the goddess of the sacred marriage who in many ways is a more involved form of herself. The presence of the Leo Moon in the matrix adds considerable emotional energy to the combination and making the two other goddesses more available emotionally, so that we can connect with each more deeply through our feelings.
As you might remember, Parvati was on the North Node during last month’s eclipses, pointing us all in the direction of evolving relationship towards the ultimate goal of the sacred marriage, both within ourselves and ideally, with another. She starts the month at very late Cancer but also enters Leo on the fourth.
This combination offers continuing refinement of our capacity for love while enhancing our capacity to be more dynamic, expressive and open heartedness in the way we express our love in the world.
Parvati, Venus and the New Moon aspecting Chiron, Hygeia and Hecate
Here then is the core constellation of this month’s chart in harmonious aspect to the three great healers within each of our psyches, a combination of the more masculine Wounded Healer in Aries, the kundalini Goddess of Healing in Gemini and the Witch Queen/Medicine Woman in Libra.
Clearly then, we have a great deal of highly accessible healing energy available to us, enhancing all forms of healing, meditation and other spiritual practices, with a strong emphasis on healing of, and with, fire energy. This often requires physical and vocal outlets to give the dynamism of the Aries and Leo appropriate vehicles for expression.
The healing opportunities of the month then are simply fabulous, especially when you consider that Uranus is simultaneously breaking up old forms of rigidity, resistance and blockages within us. As the old cracks open, it opens the floodgates for all this available healing power to move more easily through us.
And there is a mental and intellectual dimension to this, with both goddesses in the air signs, allowing more healing energy to be directed through teaching, writing, communication and focused thought.
Jupiter in Sagittarius Is a Big Player This Month!
Not only is the New Moon trining the benevolent giant Jupiter, as is a conjunction of Mars and Juno also in Leo but during the course of the month the Sun, Venus and Mercury will take turns in trining this planet of grace, growth and expansion.
So whatever challenges we might be facing ( see below for more of those), there are these very clear lines of grace that allow for easier releasing of the old, developing greater trust and faith in the flow of things, of gathering the abundant learning and opportunities that Jupiter inspires us to take on and, to break out the intensity of this period of time with some good healthy fun and expression.
Given that Saturn, Pluto and some very fierce goddess energies are still demanding purification and transformation of us, having a well stacked Jupiter is a particularly fortuitous situation.
Basically, it means whatever ancient blockages or shadow areas we have to face, we will learn and grow tremendously from those experiences and, be able to see the less obvious forms of grace and light within the hidden depths of each of us.
Mercury retrograding in Cancer opposite Pluto And Medusa in Capricorn
Mercury/Pluto combinations describe inevitable, unavoidable transformation in our thinking, our beliefs, the deepest structures of our intellects and in our conscious awareness of self. Pluto has a tendency to challenge those taboo areas that our conditioning and family systems have taught us to avoid, by having us face so many previously unpalatable truths about ourselves and about life in general. S/he drops bombshells on our denial and unconsciousness in order to liberate and empower us mentally and spiritually, to speak and live our truths, to have courageous conversations and to pierce more deeply into the mysteries of the inner self.
As both Hades and Persephone, Shiva and Kali, Pluto seeks to enhance our ability to see deeply into situations and other people in ways that allow us to make a real difference in the lives of others, in our communities and our society in general.
The challenge of this to Mercury in Cancer is not to slip into a head in the sand attitude or retreat into emotional defensiveness.
With Medusa in this mix, another area of confrontation is with ancient sources of rage and toxicity, whether from our family systems or our past life records, so that we can draw from the transformative power of Pluto and the same hidden, and loving, power behind the enraged mask of Medusa.
Saturn and Pluto Conjunct the South Node in Capricorn!
I imagine this will elicit a groan from some of you, as this combination, which has been dredging through our past life records for the last six months, is still very much in play. For those of you who are particularly sensitive to the collective energies, this is that deeper layer of murky, intimidating and toxic energy that has elicited so much collective anxiety.
As I said before, whether we know it or not, everybody on the planet is having unresolved issues arising from past life and historical origins. This layer of the unconscious is where the tectonic plates of our reality are moving, which, if we are prepared to work with it, allows for the releasing of ancient trauma, as well as reclaiming equally ancient forms of knowledge and wisdom that seeks to be integrated into this life.
Kali conjunct North Node in Cancer opposite Saturn in Capricorn
This dark face of the Great Mother is demanding to be fully owned and claimed if we are to progress on our journeys towards our ultimate soul purposes. Her presence on the North node reinforces much of what I have said above, about becoming fierce lovers of the truth of things, as it is only from facing the raw truth of things that any real change and transformation can come from.
Part of getting to know her is about seeing through the superficial and uninformed reputation she has for being an enraged and destructive form of the feminine. A deeper truth is that she catalyses pre-existing forms of anger and rage within each of us to surface and be released.
This catalysing will also be part of her opposition to Saturn, contributing to the purification and dismantling of old rigid forms of patriarchal conditioning, negative father influences and past life experiences of the toxic, destructive masculine. (the #me-too phenomena is not just a contemporary uprising, it is driven by much more ancient sources that are part of the collective deconstruction elicited by all this energy in both Capricorn and Cancer!)
And while she can be a destructive influence, in the context of the necessary destruction that proceeds rebirth and reconstruction, she is also an image of great beauty and the all accepting and unconditional love of the Great Mother.
Have a good read of the chapters on Kali in Sally Kempton’s book “Awakening Shakti” and use the mantras and meditations she provides to enhance a deeper connection with this awesome goddess.
And finally, if you haven’t already gathered, August Is a Very Sexy Month!
Already we have seen that Venus and Parvati are together and positively energised by the connections to Chiron and Hygeia. We have seen that Mars and Juno are connected very well with her husband Jupiter and now to top it off, the great tantric god Shiva is conjunct one of his beloved, the goddess Lalita, whose Western name is Hygeia!
This is a classic form of the Shiva Shakti sacred marriage, which is also sextiling in the Venus Parvati conjunction. We can then say that as well as August being a great healing month it is also a very tantric one, with great opportunities for the inner masculine and feminine union, that will also enhance our outer relationships by highlighting the connection between spirituality and sexuality.
And with all that energy in Leo, it is almost a prerequisite, that you have some fun and healthy pleasure on the way, in ways that can balance out the intensity of this period we are living through.
With love and blessings,
Daniel