Feeling the Heat? Take a Soul Vacation

The intensity is on as August opens, whether by actual temperature or from life itself.  For many it feels like we’re living inside of a pressure cooker.  Wow.  Five out of ten planets are retrograde motion on August 1^st, soon joined by Uranus turning retrograde at the end of the first week; meanwhile we also prepare for the third and final eclipse of the summer on August 11.

Spinning your wheels?  Life turned upside down?  Well…yes.  The first three weeks of August in particular may have you feeling stuck.  There is very little traction.  Our efforts to push ahead feel swallowed up by a black hole.  

Why?  We aren’t supposed to be moving forward right now.  If ever there was a time of reflection and introspection, this is it.  Two key interpersonal planets, Messenger Mercury and Motivating Mars are retrograde for the balance of August.  Mercury deals with communication while Mars sparks our actions.  In reverse gear, we can feel our work bouncing right back at us without any feedback or barely inching forward.

If you are trying to get anything accomplished other than routine details (and not even then in many cases), this can be a very frustrating three weeks.  With these planetary retrogrades comes the usual astrological cautions:  avoid signing significant contracts or making major purchases, especially anything mechanical during the Mars retro period.

So how do you make August work for you?

Pick up the cosmic cues.  We have a whole lot of heightened intuition.  Our instincts are super sharp thanks to Jupiter in Scorpio harmonizing with Neptune in Pisces.  Quiet your mind, pursue solitude so you can feel your natural internal guidance system, your soul’s GPS.   Scorpion Jupiter gives us expert x-ray vision while Piscean Neptune has an accurate finger on the pulse of life.  Your life.  These two lead us with pure certainty about what is actually happening in our lives.  Pay attention. 

Ask whether it is easier or more work to bury your head in layers of denial…just because “that is the way it is” or  ”that’s the way it’s always been done”.   Um, no, no, no, no, no….  Not anymore.

Maximize August by leaning into self-reflection.  Even if you can’t spare or afford a whole week off for vacation, taking a day or long weekend from your regular grind for radical self-care, pampering and healing will do a vast amount of good for your body, mind and spirit.  Let your mind off the hook for now.  Play.

The Lunar North Node in Leo is all about creativity, having fun, building a sand castle and mud pies for the sheer joy it gives, not for any status or how productive it makes you feel. This is not such a time.  This August is anything but a classically productive period.  Hard as this may be to digest:  we are supposed to putter right now.  Dilly dally. 

Puttering is actually very helpful.  It allows our minds and spirits to imagine possibilities even if we aren’t aware of it.  Gardening, washing and waxing your car, cooking a favorite dish come to mind.  Utilize this opportunity for a soul vacation.  For inspiration and imagination.  Puttering is productive in an altogether radical way…not the linear, Western hemisphere notion of productivity.  Being still and simply being this month is equal to getting a full night’s sleep.  You emerge on the other side awakened, refreshed and ready to go.

Feeding this great shift is Radical Uranus in earthy Taurus.  It turns retrograde motion on August 6^th and continues to square off with Mars in Aquarius.   The Great Awakener suddenly jolts our internal awareness.  Our ideas and ingenuity clash mightily with traditions, available resources, or other inhibitors if you are thinking along old lines.  These conflicting forces are pushing us to think and do in completely new ways.  Not just “out of the box” methods but perhaps by following unheard of, wildly different, alternative paths.  Many are being forced to break apart from what no longer functions anymore.  Expect abrupt announcements, course corrections, surprise and seemingly inexplicable events to throw curve balls at us.

Meanwhile, healer Chiron in fiery Aries catalyzes Capricorn Saturn to generate entirely new platforms on which to build our future.  Create a new, functional and efficient foundation to grow your life.  There is a tremendous physio-psychic push and pull occurring both internally and externally in our lives.  What are you being shown now?  Often repeatedly?  How and what are you asked to be in this world?  One thing is for sure:  once August has passed, we face an entirely new landscape.  The old is gone and with it, outdated modes of living.

On August 7^th, Venus enters Libra for the remainder of the month.  In her own sign, the planet of love, money and relationships smooths out ruffled feathers stirred up by the on-going cosmic tugs of war.  Try focusing your attention on art, beauty and extending an olive branch to those you disagree with.

If not now, when?  If not you, then whom?

You will be so glad you did.  Surprise yourself, surprise whomever you’re sparring with, to reach across what divides you to find common ground.  This will serve you in good stead heading into the third and final eclipse on Saturday, August 11^th.  This occurs on a New Moon and challenges Jupiter in Scorpio.  Our will and emotions pull us one way – big, brash and boldly, while Jupiter shows us what is really happening in vivid colors.

If there were ever a time to check your ego, this would be it!  Adding to the conflation, Messenger Mercury exactly squares off with Jupiter in Scorpio now too, playing tricks with our thoughts if we aren’t careful.  Watch for deception, grand illusions and grandiose notions in yourself and in others; you may encounter huge asks, your eyes being way too big for your stomach, biting off more than you can chew.  You get the idea.  It is great to think big and live large but Scorpio Jupiter will make you keep it real.  Do not get sucked into any smoke and mirror spin job…that you absolutely can’t live without ”X” or must believe “Y”, or else…  Rather, use this energy to step back from your life to look at the global picture you want to paint and vision forward.

Set aside what you hope might happen and ask the hard questions:   what is really going on?   With focus and attentive effort, this otherwise confusing energy can be harnessed to your benefit.  The August 11^th eclipse affords abundant creativity with the Sun, Moon, Mercury and North Node in passionate Leo.  Craft three to five intentions you hope to accomplish in the next month, season or year.  Hand write these and either plant them in the earth or cast in a moving body of water.

The following week, Messenger Mercury turns direct motion on August 20^th.  Feel the collective sigh of relief?  Technical glitches be gone!  Slowly we are inching forward again, where our efforts to get ahead will stick.  No sign appreciates this quite like Virgo, master of function and efficiency.  So when the Sun enters analytical and earthy Virgo on August 23^rd, we regain traction.   Proceed with major purchases and signing contracts.

A few days later, like layers of blindfolds being peeled off, Mars finally turns direction motion on August 27^th under the glow of the Full Moon the day prior.   What has been brewing all month now rises to a head, culminating.  You can feel the stagnating fog that permeated our energy lift away.  We can see clearly again.  We’ve waited so patiently (or perhaps not) to get going already, to get ready for fall.  Returning from vacation, literal, mental/emotional or otherwise, the Virgo Sun helps us plan and prepare.  Buy all those back-to-school supplies, new equipment, clothing, and so on.  After Labor Day, we feel a surge of energy.

A useful reframe of the old first day of school question, “what did you do over the summer” might be:  “what did you learn over the summer?" 

The promise of a new day and a new season await your response.

Are you the problem or are you the solution?

Try not to let the sultry summer month of July deceive you into thinking it is all that laid back.  Multiple layers of unfolding cosmic energy will have you feeling like you are fighting against titanic forces if you try to accomplish anything.  You are.

Better to go with the flow. Ride the wave.  Vacation anyone?

Our time this month is marked by two eclipses (the first of three this summer) and Messenger Mercury turning Retrograde.  Motivating Mars has already turned retrograde (June 27), turning our active energies inward.  If ever there was a time to remove yourself out of the fray, this July is it!  When possible, take time off and take care of yourself and loved ones.  Enjoy the warm, playful summer Sun sign of Cancer.

July opens with Messenger Mercury conjoined to the lunar North Node in Leo:  we are a chatty bunch, creative, festive, ripe for the Fourth of July.  Your messages will be heard…so a note of caution here:  think before you speak as the Mercury/North Node pair challenges Radical Uranus and opposes Mars.  This is a potentially explosive combination.  Watch what and how you say it and even then, expect that your words may not be received with the spirit you intended.

Generally, I refrain from dire predictions in my forecasts; however, the 4^th of July holiday in the United States looks particularly dicey.  Please move deliberately and choose your words carefully the first week of the month.  Accidents on both individual and collective fronts are possible.

Softening the edges of this sharp energy is a gorgeous angle between the Cancer Sun (our will), Generous Jupiter (abundance), and Neptune (inspiration).  Our intuition is off the charts now so trust your instincts as they are accurate.  Time spent on, in or near water July 1-8 is especially healing to cleanse your mind and heart; clear away mental cobwebs keeping us trapped in old thought patterns.  We have the ability to really tune in now.  Your connections to others, both human and spirit, are super sharp.  Listen.  What do you hear?

Also helping us navigate bumps and obstacles is the beautiful angle between Saturn and Uranus in earth signs.  These two keep our feet on the ground with practicality and focus our energies productively like a finely tuned machine.  If you are seeking solutions for a long-term problem, Capricorn Saturn and Uranus in Taurus point you in the right direction to find reasonable answers. 

By July 10^th, Venus, planet of love and money, shifts into industrious Virgo, while the same day Generous Jupiter turns direct motion.  You can just about hear the Hallelujahs! as the titan of abundance moves forward again.  This particular passage of Jupiter through Scorpio has been most revealing.  Scorpio deals with secrets, sexuality, big money and power among other traits.  Jupiter is the largest energy in solar system. 

So it is no wonder that the Me-Too movement began under this combined influence, exposing the misuse of power and sex, especially in the workplace.  Many notable titans across multiple industries have toppled under this passage.   As Jupiter moves forward and finishes up its tour through Scorpio in 2018, expect more dirt and secrets to be revealed.  With Jupiter’s handy alignment to Neptune in transparent Pisces, everything is coming out in the wash; all will be made to come clean.   

This is a time of hard truths, truth telling and speaking truth to power.  Scorpio is psychology: the plumbing of our psyches and souls in the largest possible way via Jupiter.  Citizens of the United States are having a deep look at what is real and what is not, sorting facts from “fake” news.   Is Fox or CNN real news or is one a propaganda machine; or, as some believe…are both?  When we become removed from actual facts, observed data, and so immersed in “spin” that we can no longer discern truth from illusion, we tread very treacherous waters indeed. 

The key to sorting fact from fiction is to know yourself.  Read, learn, ask questions, understand.  Know that there are different realities for each of us, lenses of experience that we look at the world through. 

Perception is everything. 

Enter the New Moon Eclipse on July 13^th.  At 21 degrees Cancer, the Sun-Moon pair directly opposes Pluto in hard-core Capricorn.  It shows in no uncertain terms what works and what does not work around family, food, home, country, mother, nurturing.   Healer Chiron challenges Saturn now, ruler of Capricorn, pushing us to heal long-buried familial wounds. 

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. 

Leading into mid-month, the question to ask now is:  What needs to change in the arena of family, country, house and home? 

Is it, could it be, perhaps…you?   

Do not be afraid to ask yourself if you are contributing to the problem or if you are offering solutions. The great news is we have a tremendous amount of cosmic support with this eclipse to pivot and alter our course of direction.  We have not just one but two immensely supportive planetary combinations in water and earth to help us navigate the uncharted terrain ahead.

Venus in Virgo aligns with Capricorn Saturn and Uranus in Taurus while Piscean Neptune flows beautifully along with the Cancer Sun/Moon and Scorpion Jupiter. 

These are SIX of our ten planets assisting us during this potent solar eclipse.   The balance of planetary power is supporting us!  Change is rarely easy, but often essential if we are to grow and thrive.  The alternative is stagnation, or worse, facing a slow, drip-drip erosion of what we seek to hold on to, staying the same because we fear anything different while watching it slide out from our weakening grasp…   Staying put and staying the same because it (insert relationship/job/etc., here) is convenient, functions on the surface, when underlying you feel your soul dying is sad at best and fatal at the most dire.

The earth troika of Venus-Saturn-Uranus shows us our resources and how best to utilize these to implement change.  The water trio of Sun-Jupiter-Neptune eases our path forward with connections and ideas.  All you need to do is take the first step; make a plan then follow through.

Eclipses mark distinct passages in our lives.  Navigating these takes awareness and yes, grace.  The days between eclipses operate like black holes – so be very careful not to make key purchases or sign significant documents during this time as deals, partnerships and arrangements secured between July 13 and August 18^th are likely to end up unraveling. 

Contributing to the cosmic crosshairs is Mercury Retrograde from July 26^th, the day before the total lunar eclipse on July 27^th.  With the Sun now in Leo opposite Motiving Mars in Aquarius conjoined the lunar South Node, much is to be released.  Careful to bend toward construction, rather than destruction. The most productive use of this energy is creative.  But it is a reflective creativity.   Messenger Mercury is turning our thoughts inward.  Ideas generate; inspiration soars, stirring the thought pot.  Store your ideas and review them carefully over the next month.  See how they feel to you on different days.  You will know if they serve you well or if they were simply flashing mirages.

Slowly through August, these multi-layered cosmic cycles unfold what is best for us, for our health and well-being, for our future.   In this frazzled and fragmenting world, sit still this July and sift through possibilities.  Meditate and feel.  Remember how?  

Feelings arise from your soul.  Allow these to steer your boat forward.

OF SPECIAL NOTE:  Please join me at Spiritfest on Thursday, July 19th from 5-10 pm at the Pembroke Country Club, 94 West Elm Street, Pembroke, MA,  I am offering readings along with many other healers and holistic practitioners.  Vendors include holistic and fitness professionals, natural products, energy healing jewelry, crystals, aura photos and more.  For more information or to register please visit:  www.myhealthyliving.eventbrite.com.