Posted on July 30, 2018 by Henry Seltzer of ASTROGRAPH.COM
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The astrology of August continues to be wild and wooly, with another eclipse as well as the ongoing retrogrades of Mars and Mercury. Pluto is again featured, along with Mercury, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune. The Aquarius Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse from July 27th, preceding the August month by a few days, is quite powerful, making a T-square to trickster Uranus in Taurus, and conjuncting retrograde Mars at three plus degrees of Aquarius, precisely semi-sextile to the limiting energy of Saturn in the same degree of Capricorn. This is indicative of a slow-down on getting things accomplished, due to both the retrograde condition of Mars and also to this aspect to Saturn. What we are able to do now has therefore become less important than how we are able to be. When we apply ourselves to look beneath the covers of all our motivations, we are better able to understand what we are about, and to perhaps come closer to discovering our actual purpose here in this physical plane of delay and travail. Because Saturn in Capricorn also trines the antithetical energies of prominent Uranus in this recent eclipse configuration, becoming increasingly close over the course of the month of August, we are also quite aware of the polarity between conservative and progressive agendas. In these uncertain times, some might see this as maintaining the status quo course versus shooting wildly off in novel and irresponsible directions. A more optimistic reframing might be that we balance the fear that leaves us staying stuck by the intentional attempt to break free of existing dysfunctional patterns by bravely going forward with untried and untested new ideas.
Of course the oppositional battle of right-left concepts and sloganeering can be seen as quite rampant in the daily news cycle, a trend that is unlikely, incidentally, to fade away anytime soon. This is what we have by now become almost inured to, along with the appearance of more and more radically surprising events, as supported by the symbolism of prominent Uranus. Just when you thought that things could not get any stranger… X happens. We must recognize that this basic polarity of stop and go is also playing out in our individual lives as well. What is it that you wish you had the nerve to go off and do? How do you feel that you have to rein in a wild impulse that might well not work out at all? If only it weren’t for the danger of losing money what indeed might you be willing to go out and try to accomplish? And so on.
Other outer planet themes are present in the August astrological line-up, and emphasized in the timing of the Leo solar eclipse and New Moon of Saturday, August 11th. This is quite a dizzying configuration, representing a continuation of the themes of major structural transformation that have been present all this summer. Because the eclipse degree of 18 plus is a good match for Pluto’s degree in Capricorn of 19 plus, representing an inconjunct aspect of 150 degrees, there is thus a continuation of the plutonic themes of transformation and loss. The good news is that you are not being encouraged to give up anything that you cannot do without. With Uranus and Pluto both emphasized in the timing of this summers eclipses, their fading square alignment is also emphasized, the hallmark aspect of this decade, leading up to the major cultural transformations of 2020. The solar eclipse degree is actually the focus point of a yod from Neptune and Pluto, as well as a sesqui-yod from Chiron and Saturn. This is powerful, and implies that our inner wounding is up for us, as well as our issues with authority, and as well as the necessity for some form of solution to arrive, in finding the way to move beyond these issues. Because retrograde Mercury squares Jupiter in this eclipse configuration, while aspecting Neptune, all the outer planets are included, and the message is that we need to get beyond egoic illusions and physical plane desires in order to address our true needs.
These are difficult times that we are going through. And yet, as our human inheritance implies, we cannot really learn and evolve in any other way, or else we would be doing it. With this as with many other things, an accepting attitude can work wonders.
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