If you’ve received an email doing the rounds announcing that Mars is its closest to the earth this month in 60,000 years, it’s not true. That news is six years out of date. In 2003 Mars was that close to the earth, but no, it didn’t look as big as a full moon back then even when it was that close!
Speaking of full moons, this week’s full moon is more significant than usual because it is slightly eclipsed by the earth’s shadow (an annular lunar eclipse). This eclipse in the zodiac sign Aquarius isn’t visible, but from an astrological perspective it still has impact. If you have anything around 14 degrees of Aquarius in your birth chart, you are likely to feel the winds of change moreso than others this week. Yet given that we’re all immersed in the energies of the Aquarius triple alignment right now, it’s a week when significant events might play out. Small things could unfold into more obvious manifestations later so take notice of any flashes of inspiration or unusal moments – either fabulous or frustrating – as they might signal things to come. Hints about the future offer opportunity for choice and free will. With the eclipse in Aquarius, it’s important to go slowly as anxiety, rebelliousness or over-excitement might heighten, if not in yourself, perhaps in others. Those who cross your path this week might bring anything from upsetting accidents to delightful synchronicities. The eclipse itself happens at 10.40 am Melbourne time on Thursday 6 August, so look to the skies on the evenings of Weds 5th and Thurs 6th for inspiration from this lunar eclipse full moon.
The lunar eclipse on the 6th ends the eclipse season that started on 7 July with an eclipse in Capricorn. This week’s eclipse is the third and last of this current six-month period. The next happens on New Year’s Day 2010. We can all breathe a sigh of relief as eclipse season volatility wanes over the next week or so. Not that the cosmos lets us rest on our laurels for long these days. Next month, the ruling planet of Aquarius, Uranus, gives us all phase three of its tug-of-war with Saturn (phase one was November 2008, phase two was February this year). We start to get a taste of what this third and final hit might be about when Saturn is triggered from 8 to 13 August. You might feel frustrated by rules, systems, corporations, habits, bosses or traditions that seem hopelessly stuck in their ways, cold or outdated. It could well be the case that your ideas are bringing much needed breakthroughs, so gear yourself up to make a positive stand for change. If you feel like you’re going to pop from frustration, reflect on what the limitation is that’s driving you insane and come up with a sensible, rather than explosive, action plan. Next month while Saturn is undergoing its third onslaught from Uranus, Mercury will also be Retrograde. Between 16 to 19 August we have an opportunity to deal with whatever blocks or difficulties we have with getting our messages across to others in order to prepare us for when we might need to make a stand next month.
On 10 August Juno, the goddess of commitment, begins a Retrograde phase. Until November she retraces her steps to see if she’s overlooked any partnering opportunities from earlier in the year, or to see if there’s unfinished business to clear out in order to help her move on. She does her backwards march in Aries, a zodiac sign often associated with arguments, anger, separation or, more positively, assertiveness, courage and independence. Over the next couple of months, Juno helps us all, men and women alike, to find the right balance between freedom and connectedness in relationships. She especially helps us understand what we will or won’t put up with, and might get a bit feisty if she feels her individuality or equality is threatened. Juno is not in the mood for the sugar and spice of romance if it’s hiding deeper problems. She calls both women and men to account to find ways to assert independence in relationships without turning love into war. Juno is also the Queen of Heaven. In Greek mythology her experience of her rightful place as respected queen beside her king was thwarted by the wayward wanton ways of her husband Jupiter. When Juno is in Aries, a fight for equality is likely in situations where the masculine might’ve taken power over the feminine.
I’ve saved August’s biggest astrology news until last… On 22 August the North and South Nodes (aka ‘the axis of fate or destiny’) finally move on from their zero degree point (where they’ve been at a standstill for the past two months) and move into fresh zodiac signs. This moving of the axis of destiny into new signs happens approximately once every 18 months. In this current switching of signs, the South Node moves into Cancer and the North Node into Capricorn. What a relief that these cosmic portals (which influence soul contracts, soul mate decisions and other behind-the-scenes potentials of destiny) are finally waking from their slumber. They’ve been like keys sitting in a lock the past two months waiting to be turned. Or like pin numbers typed into an ATM without the OK key being pressed. For those of us who feel as if we’ve been sitting in limbo land, going around in circles or being alchemically transformed from the inside out one time too many, on 22 August the OK button finally gets pressed. If you have anything at 29, 0 or 1 degree of the zodiac you might particularly have felt this turning-point tension and are likely to receive evidence that the cosmos is answering your call.
So what do South Node in Cancer and North Node in Capricorn represent, given that we’ll all be under the influence of these energies until March 2011? The Cancer/Capricorn polarity is about getting the balance right between home and career, between our private and public selves, between our domestic lives and desire to hibernate and our worldly lives and desire for success. The South Node in Cancer asks us to clear out habits we’ve been using as crutches to keep us in our comfort zones. From big addictions to small, any unhealthy reliance is being questioned and overhauled by the South Node in Cancer. Whether we’re addicted to chocolate or cocaine, our partners or our jobs, it’s time to find safe ways to let go of addictions and implement new, more life affirming patterns of nourishment. For many of us, it’s time to ‘leave home’, whether literally or internally. If we have not internally left home we might still feel controlled on some level by the rules, laws or beliefs of our family or origin or even our past lives. It’s truly exciting to think that the South Node in Cancer is here to help us clear old programming so that we can follow the ‘true north’ of the North Node in Capricorn. Capricorn is a zodiac sign that helps us make and achieve goals, and the North Node prods us towards making plans that are relevant to who we are now, not who we were in the past.
On a finishing note, I’m intrigued to see how at the moment that the Nodes shift signs, Venus is about to move out of Cancer and Mars is about to move into it. On a deeper symbolic level, this seems to indicate that the feminine (Venus) is saying goodbye to dealing with the behind-the-scenes domestic tasks of nurturing and tending to emotions, and the masculine (Mars) is about to have a go at trying out this realm for himself. Without falling into the trap of seeing Mars-masculine as always representing men and Venus-feminine, women (because we all have both within us), there is a general sense that the cosmos is letting us know that the feminine has finished a major cycle of dealing with Cancer issues (emotions, home, family) and it’s now the masculine’s turn to give those things a shot. Let’s see what positives we can take from the feminine ways of engaging with emotions and what negatives we can leave behind, and let’s look forward to what insights the masculine can bring into how to cherish and respect the emotional realm.
Remember if you’d like to know what the second half of the year has in store for you, your zodiac sign forecasts are now at their final reduced price of $4.95. Go here to order. And if your inner self would like some extra TLC this month, consider attending the Heart Chakra Happiness workshop on the 23rd – details here.
Wishing you well in August 