But wait, there’s more!
In my last newsletter, I discussed the powerful Virgo New Moon Solar Eclipse coming up on Thursday. It’s a huge aspect, but it’s not the only big change going on in the heavens in the week ahead.
Tonight, Venus enters Libra – at 10:06 PM Eastern US time on Monday, August 29th – where she’ll remain till September 23rd. Libra is one of the two signs sacred to Venus (the other being Taurus), so she’s right at home in this nook of the Zodiac.
After spending most of August in the uncomfortable-for-her sign of Virgo, she is ready to kick off her shoes and dance in the moonlight. Venus in Libra is the soul of love and romance, the spirit of poetry, partnership, collaboration, compromise, face-to-face communication, diplomacy, harmony, and ideal or (as the poet Percy Shelley called it) “intellectual beauty.”
When Venus and Jupiter met up in Virgo last Saturday, the King of the Gods sent Venus off ahead of him, like a scout or herald. He’ll follow her into Libra 11 days from now, on September 9th – winding up his year-long transit through Virgo and initiating a new 12-year cycle around the Venusian/Libran matters listed above.
Libra is HER territory, so Jupiter is going to need Venus’s instructions as he explores it. Eleven days from now, he’s going to ask you and Venus some important questions. Get your answers ready!
What do you truly love? What do you fantasize about? What satisfactions are missing from your life? To quote Dr. Phil, “You have to name it to claim it.” Speak your truth: even if it’s only to your face in the mirror.
Make sure that whatever you’re creating right now is really what you love, what really feeds your heart, because it’ll be around you for the next twelve years. Now is the time to go for it. Venus in Libra loves to collaborate, and she’s having friendly aspects with pretty much everybody in the sky. Ask her to ask them to help you. You CAN create the life you desire. Dream big, don’t sweat the small stuff, and remember that it isn’t personal.
The other major event this week is Tuesday’s Mercury station. Mercury stops in the sky and turns backward at 9:04 AM Eastern US time on Tuesday, August 30th. He’ll be retracing his steps through the sign of Virgo till September 22nd – when he pivots AGAIN and travels through the same terrain a third time, before finally clearing his shadow on October 6th.
Mercury retrogrades are notorious for miscommunications and technical difficulties – and their influence can always be felt ahead of the actual station. Mercury has been in his shadow for the last 20 days, so if you’ve been having weird issues with technology (as I have) you can just blame him. (Totally kidding, Mercury. Don’t punish me. Love you!)
The beautiful thing about retrogrades is that they give you an opportunity to rethink things, to revise the choices you’ve made. This can be literal: Rose is just now starting to edit the first draft of a play she’s written and Kate is revamping her website. It can also be figurative: friends and lovers from our past often come knocking on our doors when the personal planets go retrograde. It’s the Universe’s way of asking us to make sense of, and then release, the old relationship OR embrace it again for another go-round!
The energy of THIS Mercury retrograde is especially impressive, because Mercury is joined to Jupiter, who tends to act like a big magnifying glass for whatever he touches. Jupiter is the king. Just as he sent Venus on ahead into Libra to scope it out for him, he’s now whispering some final words into Mercury’s ear – giving him some final tasks that need to be wrapped up before they can move on into the promised land of Libra. It’s like the “punch list” that the client and contractor come up with towards the end of a project.
If you don’t love it, lose it. If you do love it, find a way to make it work.
And as always, if it’s in your heart, it’s in your chart!
