Current Transits for August 2009 Current Transits for August 2009Here's some of the important astrological news this month ...
Pallas enters Virgo, 8-1
Ceres enters Libra, 8-3
Full Moon / Appulse Lunar Eclipse at 13Aq43, 8-5
Juno Retrograde Station at 4Ar36, 8-9
Jupiter Quincunx Saturn, 8-19
New Moon at 27Le31, 8-20
Mars enters Cancer, 8-25
Vesta enters Leo, 8-28
Saturn Quincunx Chiron, 8-31
An online ephemeris for the month is available.
When the waveform graphs for August first came off my printer, my first thought was "Good, we get a break!" The mild looking waveforms were a welcome sight after the last 3 months of raging storm patterns. And then I got to page 3 and saw the raging storm that dominates the last half of the month and I realized the break was all too brief. Yes, the Neptune knot is still going strong. The knot consists of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune all in late Aquarius with help from Uranus over in Pisces. The knot was particularly tight in late May, when all this intense energy first checked in. But even though the orbs are getting a little looser these days, the knot is still a cosmic dynamo. Every storm since early May has been triggered by one or more fast moving planets making aspects to all 4 knot planets simultaneously. So far, this energy has been exciting and stimulating (perhaps too much so), but also rather ungrounded and unconnected with the rest of our lives. This is about to change, since the Ol' Taskmaster Saturn is about to enter the picture. Saturn forms quincunx aspects with Jupiter on the 19th and Chiron on the 31st; this is followed next month by a quincunx to Neptune (Sep 12) and an opposition to Uranus (Sep 15). We can no longer treat these energies as "just spiritual" influences, as Saturn is forcing us to integrate these higher realms into mundane life. Just as there is no distinction between the inner and outer worlds with Neptune, there is no clear cut difference between spiritual and everyday either. So Saturn is a full-fledged member of the knot for awhile -- get used to the shift! Pluto pops out of his obscurity every now and then and then there's the lunar eclipse on the 5th. This should keep us busy once again...
August is a fairly busy month, although many of these astrological events hardly count as earth shaking affairs. The 2 "big aspects" this month both involve Saturn hitting planets in the knot group. Mars moves into Cancer on the 25th. All the asteroids get their share of the action, with 3 of them changing signs and Juno going retrograde (on the 9th). The full moon on the 5th is also a lunar eclipse, the third eclipse in the last 4 weeks.
Pallas moves from Leo into Virgo on the 1st. She will stay in this sign until Oct 3 when she heads into Libra. This is not a very glamorous placement, but it is quite useful. Pallas is an intelligent, perceptive and savvy gal who can look at a situation and size it up in an instant. Both Pallas and Virgo have a practical mental/intuitive quality, making us interested in figuring things out and making sense of the situation we're in. Both the asteroid and the sign also have associations with the healing arts, so practitioners in this field may find their skills more refined than usual. It's as though you just have a "sense" of the human organism, the blocks and problems it encounters and how to get to the root of the problem. For regular blokes, such a health interest may express itself more as a new diet or exercise program. There's also an artistic streak to this placement, usually in the crafts area. You may not get much recognition for your efforts during this time, but you sure can learn a lot if you pay attention. Hone your skills and expertise. People will notice later...
Ceres shifts from Virgo into Libra on 3rd, where she will stay until Oct 12 when she enters Scorpio. Ceres (and her Greek counterpart, Demeter) is the Great Mother, the symbol of caring, nurturing and coming to terms with our connection to all of Life, what I call The Great Web of Life. Libra, of course, is all about relationships and partnerships of various kinds, especially romantic ones. This is a time to learn to appreciate and honor all your relations with loved ones. This is a two-way street, however. While you get to enjoy the goodies of being loved and cared for by others, you also have to take responsibility to supporting them in turn. Constantly giving or always taking is a lousy foundation for a relation -- mutuality is the key. Libra sometimes falls into the habit of "managing" her loved ones as if the relation is a business arrangement. Ceres doesn't operate like that, as only honest and heartfelt motives get her approval. We're not meant to be alone -- soulful connections are what make life sweet. Living with an open heart nurtures all of life.
If you go strictly by the waveform for this chart, your instinct would be to write off this full moon. You have to dig pretty deep in order to find any significant patterns in this chart. The 4 knot planets (Jupiter, Chiron, Neptune, Uranus) are essentially cut off from any of the faster moving planets and thus quiet and below the radar. Pluto forms a wide Grand Cross with Venus, Juno and Ceres, with help from Mercury and Pallas. Mars, Saturn and Vesta form a third group. The Sun and Moon are somewhat on their own, although they make numerous weak contacts with the other groups. In short, a mess. If this wasn't an eclipse, I'd be unimpressed.
As an eclipse, this is a young one. If you look at the Saros family (groups of similar eclipses spaced 18 years apart and spanning 12 to 14 centuries!) for this event, you'll see this is only the 3rd eclipse in this family (out of 71 total) that began in 1973, during the Nixon years. This family is just getting started and I'm not certain what the family resemblances might be yet. (If you want to do some historical digging, the first 2 eclipses in this family were 1973-7-15 and 1991-7-26.) Perhaps events in coming months will resemble events around the previous family members. Something to ponder...
Which leads back to the question, what do we make of this mess? When a chart has no obvious focus, fall back on the basics. Eclipses are typically the harbingers of coming changes, a call to do some housecleaning in some part of your life described by the houses of your birthchart containing the Sun and Moon. Aquarian themes are emphasized now, since that's where the Moon is placed and it goes over Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune on the 6th. Aquarius is about big ideas and grand plans, the desire to leave the past behind and forge a new future. Not too surprisingly, people are a bit cautious of making radical changes right now -- we're all rather rattled by the roller coaster we've been through the last year. We need to ask ourselves whether the risks of a new path are less than the risks of continuing with a status quo that is obviously broken. It's going to be tough work to forge some kind of consensus about the way to move forward and I'm afraid it's going take years, not months, but this is also an exciting time to reinvent ourselves. Just make sure your "changes" actually make a material difference -- shifts in attitude don't count if your life stays the same. Saturn is saying "Show me!" I'm still not sure what to make of Pluto hanging out with all those lovely ladies...
Juno reaches her retrograde station of 4Ar36 on the 9th. She will back up to her direct station of 21Pi32 by Nov 3 before resuming normal forward motion. Speaking of relationships, Juno is the Queen of Partnerships. Her forte is close, personal, one-to-one connections based on love and mutual respect. However, if she gets less than the full package she bargained for, she can turn quite nasty and vindictive. Since we are entering a retrograde period when Juno dances back and forth across the Pisces-Aries border, we can expect some major mood swings from her until she gets things right. We're emerging (since her moving into Aries on Jul 2) from her Pisces mood into the Aries way of doing things. Instead of being (too) open and accommodating, as well as willing to overlook her partner's shortcomings, Juno is more apt to demand "What's in it for me?" these days. There's a tendency to run roughshod over others. It seems she flips from one form of dysfunctional relationship to the other, without recalling her real goal, that elusive love and mutual respect. We've got more flipping to do when she returns to Pisces on Sep 14, so the story is far from resolved yet. Try out new options and try not to blame everything on your partner. It's hard for Juno to remain patient with a bad situation, even when it's her fault. The road to love is never simple for her...
Jupiter is quincunx Saturn on the 19th for the 2nd of 3 such contacts. Their initial contact was on Mar 22 and the last contact will be 2010-2-5. Jupiter and Saturn together rule the social realm, the larger world of people and institutions that we are all a part of. Jupiter is more the expansive side of the equation, all the goodies and benefits we take in by participating in society, while Saturn is the restrictive side, all the duties, responsibilities and impositions that we need to perform to fit in. The 20 year cycles between these two giant planets seems to have a critical influence over the affairs of nations, governments and other large institutions, such as the international banking system. The quincunx phase of the cycle is typically a period of readjustment and midcourse corrections, when situations become seriously out of whack and need to be rebooted. The last 18 months, since the first beginnings of the financial meltdown and large social shifts around the world, has been nothing but readjustments. The first contact of this quincunx was in the early days of the Obama administration, when the economy was hitting bottom and its prospects were still uncertain. A few months later, there are signs of improvement, although we've got a long road ahead of us -- Jupiter and Saturn move slowly, unlike people's emotions. Stabilizing the immediate situation is a good start, but in the long term, the system needs some major overhauls to meet new demands on our world. The next few years may be painful and jarring -- it's a long time until Jupiter and Saturn make anything but disruptive aspects. But if we rise to the challenge, we'll have a much stronger foundation on which to build.
Unlike the full moon, there's plenty of life in the new moon chart -- the big August storm is still in full bloom. The Sun and Moon are directly opposite the Aquarius knot planets. All the other fast moving bodies are aspecting the knot as well. There are all sorts of interesting patterns in this chart, including a Yod pointed at Neptune and friends, plus a strange looking T-square (Uranus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury). The chart is so strong because almost all the planets are part of the main pattern. Only Pluto and a couple of asteroids are out of the main picture.
As with the Quake a few days ago, the hardest part about this chart is figuring out how everything works together. There are so many planets active and affecting us in complicated ways. The Sun and Moon are obviously focused on Neptune and his buddies, so all the weird synchronicities and other wakeup messages from the cosmos are still in full force. We're gradually learning over the last few months how to manage our own energies and psyches more precisely in order to get the desired results in the outer world, but these strenuous lessons are taking a toll, mostly stress and burn out. Sometimes the universe seems to wear us down and break down our defenses before we're open to the evolutionary changes before us. The T-square is also an intriguing subplot. We've seen Saturn opposite Uranus twice before, including Election Day last November. This is a classic pattern of a stuffy old status quo bumping up against the radically new and the urge to overhaul the past. This conflict is channeled through Mars, a call to action. However, all these squares between stressful planets are sure to come across as very harsh and demanding circumstances. You have to be very willing to press your nose to the grindstone to handle this energy. One trick to save your nose is to think clearly and intuitively before you act. A novel approach is more likely to be successful than repeating the old fashioned way of doing things. In fact, let your imagination go wild -- Mars is closely opposite the Galactic Center, the 4th point of the T-square and another hidden partner in the knot energies. It's almost as if this T-square is telling us to stop thinking so much like a human and act intelligently instead. There's a lot going on in this chart and it's going to be a crazy time. Let down your guard -- crazy can be fun. It will be really tough going during this time if you don't learn to enjoy it. Boring it certainly won't be...
Mars enters Cancer on the 25th for a 7 week stay. He'll be here until he moves into Leo on Oct 16 for an extended stay, due to an upcoming retrograde cycle. Mars really hates to be cooped up in Cancer. It's just not his style. Our Warrior God is a man of action, a swashbuckler out there getting it done. Cancer, on the other hand, is more a gentle, stay-at-home family man. Frankly, I always imagine this placement as a strong Roman centurion in full battle gear, wearing a frilly kitchen apron. Cancer is just too much taking care of others and paying attention to their feelings for his tastes. Well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Tone down your more egotistical side and take into account how your actions affect others (assuming Mars is even aware of such things). Try not to ruffle too many feathers. And remember, it's only 7 weeks. You can go crazy again once Mars shifts into Leo, at least until the retrograde station (Dec 20). You'll get through this...
Vesta moves from Cancer into Leo on the 28th. She'll remain here until Nov 19, when she goes into Virgo. On first impression, Vesta and Leo seem like a paradoxical mismatch. After all, Leo is supposedly showy and outgoing, flaunting his ego for all to see, while Vesta is typically (though not always) more retiring and inward. Clichés can be deceptive. In more abstract psychological terms, Leo is about the emergence of the young ego when the child becomes a true individual. Vesta takes this process to the next step. Once the conscious ego has emerged from the unconscious and stabilized his position, it's time to turn towards the unconscious again and start exploring. It takes a strong ego to investigate the inner world without being sucked under. Your ego is both a tool and a safety net during these journeys. It's this inner world that makes Vesta strong -- her power comes from the archetypal forces within, not from the outer world. This is an excellent time for inner psychological work, though I'll be the first to admit that's not most people's idea of a good time. The inner world is more intriguing than most people know...
Saturn is quincunx Chiron on the 31st, the 3rd of 5 such contacts. This group of aspects started back on 2008-10-8 and lasts until 2010-7-20. Chiron is the second knot planet that Saturn engages this summer. It's curious that the first contact of this aspect happened the same time as the collapse of the stock market last fall and the passage of the TARP bill; at the second passage on Feb 4, the stimulus bill was going through Congress. As I said earlier, quincunx aspects are about readjustments when the current path is no longer viable. It doesn't help us that one of the planets here is "take me out to the woodshed" Saturn, while Chiron can feel like picking at an old scab at some level. One Saturn theme is constriction, something most of us are feeling one way or another. A second theme is the issue of responsibility and carrying your own load. Of course, this means different things to different people. Does responsibility refer mainly to taking care of yourself or do you have obligations to society at large, that is, to other people and perhaps to the earth itself? There's an entire political spectrum represented by the "answers" to such a question, but one thing we can (grudgingly) agree on is that the answers of previous years failed us. The Jupiter-Saturn world that structures all our lives nearly collapsed under the weight of wrong beliefs and the actions that flowed from them. It's no secret that the country needs an extreme makeover, a restructuring of an unsustainable lifestyle into behavior more modest and sane over the long run. With Chiron, there is always some jewel hidden away in the psychic closet that we've forgotten over time. Over the next decade or so, there are numerous influences to the US chart that indicate we need to get back to basics and recall (or perhaps recreate) who we are as a people besides just consumers. We've got a lot of soul searching to do in coming years. I hope we collectively do a good job of it....