By Amanda Painter

Even if Monday’s partial lunar eclipse was barely a blip on your radar, it’s possible that Mercury is starting to get your attention. And if the eclipse felt pretty gnarly for you, chances are Mercury was upping the ante. On Saturday, Mercury stations retrograde in Virgo at 9:00 pm EDT (1:00 UTC Sunday).

Sure, the road looks straight enough from here… Photo of a street in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, by Amanda Painter.

If you have not already begun battening down the hatches of your digital tools, communication habits, financial transactions, travel protocols and general ability to focus mentally, you’ll want to get on that.

We’re in the ‘storm phase’ — the couple days on either side of a planetary station. Mercury is slow and powerful, and it’s in a sign that it rules — so you’ll want to mind your mind.

Virgo is certainly an earthier home for Mercury than Gemini is, but it’s not immune to things like over-focusing on certain details and thereby missing other puzzle pieces; or changing plans so many times that chaos, rather than clear and efficient implementation, is the initial result. Yet, while that might give you a general sense of what to watch for, the chart for Mercury stationing retrograde brings out more nuanced themes.

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The Aquarius Full Moon and lunar eclipse are behind us. Today, the waning Moon moves on to Pisces. The Leo Sun is moving closer towards its conjunction with the ascending lunar node. We are in the eclipse zone, a temporal period when events tend to open, close and compress into a higher frequency more than is usual.

The eclipse zone also has a spatial component. If you are not aware eclipses are happening (and when), it can be a challenging space to occupy. Simply having an awareness of the timeframe involved cannot help but empower your understanding.

Your cognizance of a given eclipse zone can conceivably be enhanced if you also comprehend what distinguishes the two eclipses that usually boundary the time and space within (sometimes there are three eclipses). In this column on Friday, one correlation was already revealed: yesterday’s lunar eclipse was a very exact astrological duplicate of the one that took place precisely 19 years earlier.

In addition, the closing event ostensibly leading us out of our current zone (the total solar eclipse coming up in less than two weeks) will take place on exactly the same date, and in precisely the same degree of Leo, as the solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 1998.

Of course, the context is different this time, with exception for the Sun’s proximity to a lunar node (the essential requisite for eclipses), and its rhythm with the Moon. The planets and other points on the zodiac now are significantly different from how they were in 1998.

For example, Donald Trump is now President of the United States. Context is a factor when you consider that the Great American Eclipse on Aug. 21 of this year will closely conjoin The Donald’s documented natal ascendant.

You also have reason to raise an eyebrow. This Aug. 21 will also be the 110th birth anniversary of the late John George Trump.

John G. Trump was Donald’s uncle, the younger brother to the president’s father, Frederick. Now, in addition to the Sun, Moon and Donald’s ascendant we have yet another point merging in the penultimate degree of Leo on Aug. 21: Uncle John’s natal Sun.

Uncle John was something beyond an interesting fellow. After failing to get along with his older brother in a real estate venture, John decided to go to college. Fred (who was not exactly known for such generous deeds) paid the tuition in full, all the way to a doctorate.

After getting his PhD, John proceeded to become something more than just your usual electrical engineer. He became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among the most elite academic institutions in the world. During the second World War, he worked in MIT’s top-secret “Rad Lab” (“Rad” for “radiation”). John was also a trusted liaison of the U.S. Government.

In addition to working with the U.S. military and its allies in the development of radar and other technologies, John G. Trump was tasked with interviewing German radar technicians after the war. That’s right, he was part of what some have called Operation Paperclip.

Perhaps most interestingly, it was Uncle John who was assigned to review and analyze private papers confiscated from Nikola Tesla’s New York hotel room after Dr. Tesla’s death.

The Sun is now returning to the same degree of Leo it occupied when Dr. J.G. Trump was born. On that day the New Moon will be so precisely aligned with the Sun as to cast a shadow across the U.S. And it will all take place on one of the most distinguishing degrees of the U.S. president’s natal chart.

If history proves anything, it is that prediction is perhaps the worst application of astrology. Therefore you will not read anything here about a remarkably well-preserved Uncle John showing up in a highly modified DeLorean on Aug. 21, looking for his nephew.

You do have, however, some interesting material to share around a campfire with other astrologers. Who knows, the eclipse zone we are now entering may very well represent a New Age very unlike what some astrologers have predicted.

Now could be the beginning of a space and time defined by the best shaggy-dog and ghost stories you have ever heard. Pay attention. Before this is all over, you might be living a bestselling novel. It would be a shame if you were too spooked to enjoy the ride.

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It might be useful to compare the astrological components of eclipses to the elements of a telescope. You could say the Sun and Moon are like lenses (or even mirrors). The lunar nodes work like the tube, providing alignment. Finally, Earth (and you) would correspond to the eyepiece, or possibly the telescope’s operator.

Telescopes are great tools. With one, astronomers can spot something (such as a comet) coming. A telescope can also be used to look back in time by taking in the radiant emissions sent out by distant stars and galaxies billions of years in the past.

Ideally, eclipses can function in the same way: as useful tools that provide perspective on both where you have been and what may lie ahead. The partial lunar eclipse coming up on Monday will be taking place with the Sun precisely (to the degree) in the middle of the fixed astrological sign Leo. At the same time, the eclipsed Full Moon will be in the middle of the fixed sign that opposes Leo: Aquarius.

When the Sun occupies the middle degree of a fixed sign, it is the midpoint of a season. Events correlating with such “cross-quarter” points are considered by multiple cultural traditions to provide an excellent perspective on both the past and future.

Even in our modern age, there are vestigial commemorations of mid-season such as Groundhog Day (with the Sun approaching the middle of Aquarius), May Day (with the Sun moving close to the midpoint of Taurus), and Halloween (when the Sun is in mid-Scorpio).

Interestingly, the cross-quarter days corresponding to the Sun at Leo’s midpoint have not been co-opted into commercially or politically oriented culture like the other three have. That’s good news. There will be no contrived artifice to obscure your perceptions when the Sun, precisely at the midpoint of this season, exactly opposes the Moon just as precisely at the midpoint of its monthly cycle during a lunar eclipse. All you have to do is remember just one thing.

It would be helpful for you to recall how many of the best astronomers in history did not (at least at first) understand what they were seeing when they first spotted something through a telescope. Galileo recorded what he thought to be either a star or a moon of Jupiter. In fact it was Neptune, unwittingly sighted more than two centuries before it was recognized to be a planet.

Likewise, William Herschel originally thought Uranus to be something other than a planet. Similarly, galaxies were seen long before they were fully understood to be as we now know them.

So, if you do detect something coming through the compound lens of a cross-quarter day concurrent with the lunar eclipse on Monday, give yourself a pat on the back and appreciate such a special moment. Simply understand that what you have sensed may not yet be fully defined. Be careful not to draw hasty conclusions or make summary judgments about the specifics. Give yourself credit, but allow for later observations and other points of view to determine exactly what you have discovered.

As regards to seeing into and understanding the past (and how we got from then to now), Monday’s lunar eclipse will conceivably function as a telescope in that way too. That’s because the Sun and Moon’s positions on the zodiac will exactly (to the degree) duplicate where they were for a lunar eclipse on Aug. 7, 1998. What’s more, the total solar eclipse coming up on Aug. 21 of this year will see the Sun and Moon merge in precisely the same degree of Leo as the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 1998.

In other words, what started 19 years ago this month is now (at least symbolically) about to come full circle in some way. Of course, many other parts of the equation will be different. The Aug. 21, 1998 solar eclipse, for example, did not cast its shadow across the same path the Great American Eclipse will trace.

What an extraordinarily precise correlation between past and nearly present events on the zodiac is likely to offer is information. Just as the light only now arriving from ancient stars tells us something about how things got to be the way they are, so will the metaphorical telescope this upcoming set of eclipses will provide.

Hence, starting on Monday, begin looking ahead — but not with any illusions of absolute certainty or clarity. The details will come later, but that’s no reason to dismiss the importance of any discoveries you may make. Also, do not neglect to commence looking back — not in the expectation of repetition, but to gain a greater appreciation of the role rhythm and rhyme play in the song of your life.

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By Amanda Painter

Here we are, on the doorstep of this summer’s eclipse season: on Monday, Aug. 7, at 2:10 pm EDT, we have an Aquarius Full Moon and partial lunar eclipse; then on Aug. 21, there’s the total solar eclipse and second Leo New Moon. You might be wondering how best to step into this metaphorical room once the door opens, and the chart for Monday’s lunar eclipse offers some ideas.

Pook’s Hill Lodge, Belize; photo by Hal Cohen.

Anytime you enter a room full of people, you encounter a specific dynamic: one in which you are aware of yourself as an individual and the impact you may have on the group, and are simultaneously aware of the group as an entity with its own presence and impact on you. At least, that’s the ideal.

Many people walk around completely oblivious to both sides of that equation, or else so over-focused on one side of the dynamic that they have no sense of the balancing half. For example, someone who’s very egocentric might only be concerned about their own presence and making sure others respond to them. Someone with very low self-esteem might feel completely at the mercy of a group’s expectations and perceived pecking order, and think they have no impact on the other people at all. It’s also possible not to give any of it much conscious thought.

Yet here we are, just four days from an eclipse involving two very social zodiac signs: Leo (where the Sun is) and Aquarius (where the Moon will be). The Sun in Leo speaks to that idea of being aware of one’s own presence, and the influence or impact you can have on others. The Moon in Aquarius, on the other hand, relates to how group structures, customs and expectations effect you, particularly at the unconscious or emotional level.

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“Somebody said they saw me swinging the world by the tail.”
— Rowland Salley

Up in the sky things keep moving. Celestial cycles never stop. Nor do they ever exactly repeat. Fortunately, there never has been, and never will be, an end-all. Sometimes tragically, the same can be said for be-all. Something always follows. Often, you can play a part in determining what that something is.

If you have been up before dawn lately, you might have seen Venus shining for all it’s worth in the East. It’s so beautiful. It seems so right. You could not be blamed for wanting it to be there always — rising to illuminate the proverbial darkest hour.

Perhaps it is because Venus has been in Gemini since July 4. Gemini is where the ascending heliocentric node of Venus is located. It is therefore, as astrologer Phil Sedgwick puts it, the sign where the “mission statement” of Venus is defined.

If you are reading these words, you were alive (and probably quite aware) when the mission statement of Venus manifested as a visible event. In both 2004 and 2012, Venus, its node and the Sun all lined up perfectly in Gemini so that we could witness Venus transiting the face of the Sun.

Essentially, the Venus transits were eclipses. They were rare, irreplaceable and thrilling experiences that left any astrologer (or astronomer, for that matter) with passion for their work wanting more.

Then, things moved on. The world will not see another Venus transit until more than a century has passed. Among other things, however, the experience taught us how to detect planets transiting the face of distant stars. That is not chopped liver.

Yes, you and the rest of us were compelled to move on as well, but we were left with something more than just a memory. The Venus transits of this century gave us at least one gift that made it possible for us to do for ourselves what we were not capable of doing before.

Now, as Venus moves through the final few days of its 2017 tenure in Gemini, you would do well to remember that mission statements are only beginnings. No matter how inspiring it may be, a discovery of purpose is only a start. In the long run, what really counts is what follows.

After Venus enters Cancer on Monday, all the sign-rulers save the Moon will be set in the signs they will occupy during the upcoming lunar and solar eclipses.

The solar eclipse on Aug. 21, especially, has already inspired and excited the imaginations of millions. No doubt, the actual experience of viewing it will also be enthralling. But it will not be the end-all.

When the sky grows dark for a precious few minutes, a bigger picture will become apparent. Just west of the eclipsed Sun, Venus will appear — not to presage dawn, but as part of a continuum, a whole, a work in progress that you are here to be a part of.

But you can’t be a part of all that the Leo solar eclipse will reveal if you stay in one place after the Moon moves on to allow daylight once again. You can’t move with the universe if you cling to an experience rather than retain its lesson.

Whether you actually see the Great American Eclipse doesn’t really matter. What will matter is what you do after having been (along with the rest of our world) aligned with the Moon and Sun as part of it.

You can prepare yourself for the big event beginning this weekend. Watch, or at least remember, Venus. Should you become wistful, embrace the feeling, but don’t let it hold you back. You have things to do with the gifts these days will provide.

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By Amanda Painter

With yesterday’s Sun-Mars conjunction in Leo beginning to dissolve, you might notice any restlessness you felt abating. Yet the astrology is still offering reasons to stay aware — particularly regarding any decisions you need to make.

Photo by Amanda Painter

Broadly speaking, this is because we’re gradually approaching a pair of eclipses: a partial lunar eclipse on Aug. 7 (or Aug. 8, depending on time zone), and the total solar eclipse that will track across the U.S. on Aug. 21.

On their own, those eclipses are a good reason to keep moving steadily toward any goals, desires or changes you’re envisioning, so that you might feel better able to go with whatever flow emerges at that time.

Yet, more immediately, some other astrology is speaking up. For one, Mercury entered Virgo (one of the signs it rules) on Tuesday. Just before that, it entered its pre-retrograde shadow (or ‘echo’) phase.

Mercury won’t station retrograde until August 12. That may be two weeks away, but it will go fast — and in my experience, Mercury retrograde in a sign that Mercury rules can feel extra-glitchy, or might be more likely to show its hand during the pre-retro shadow phase. So this is your reminder to begin paying extra attention — to whether you’re staying focused, to your communication and the devices that enable it, to tasks that you tend to complete on autopilot, and so on.

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Mars is not visible in the sky right now. Nor are any of the robotic devices that are on or orbiting Mars currently in communication with Earth. All that is because Mars is currently moving on the other side of the Sun relative to Earth. For astronomers and scientists, it is almost as though Mars is not there. Not so for astrologers.

When the Sun is precisely between Earth and Mars, the alignment is called a conjunction. It is not what you would call a rare event (taking place approximately once every two years), but is also uncommon enough to be something less than familiar.

On the zodiac, the Sun conjoins Mars when both objects occupy the same degree of the same sign. Shortly before 9 pm EDT tomorrow (00:56:51 UTC Thursday) the meeting will be exact in Leo’s fifth degree. For all practical purposes, however, the alignment is functional all this week.

Just in case you don’t have a clear memory of June 14, 2015 (when the previous merger of the Sun and Mars happened in late Gemini), here are some astrological guidelines to keep in mind as you observe and navigate your life.

First, think of Mars broadly as having to do with energy. Next, take a similarly wide and simple view of the Sun. The astronomical Sun is an external source of day and light that allows you to see what’s going on in the world. The astrological Sun is likewise a source of illumination, but from within, corresponding to being conscious, and aware of your surroundings.

With the conjunction from the Sun to Mars, then, it is less than likely that your consciousness (or that of any other) will be blocking energy. Instead, anything with an energetic component (whither tangible or metaphorical) is more than probably being expressed through, and unavoidably influenced by, a consciousness. In other words, perspective currently counts for a lot.

In general, two objects conjoining on the zodiac represents the end of one mutual cycle and the beginning of another. If perspective is difficult to come by for you this week, you can always start with that one principle. If you don’t absolutely have to align yourself with another point of view immediately, consider the merits of being patient and allowing your own perception to develop.

Another thing about conjunctions is that the corresponding earthly qualities of the two objects in question will tend to merge — but only temporarily. In this case, it’s a good idea to remember that energy and consciousness are not one and the same, even though it may sometimes seem that way.

If somebody is being more than unusually assertive, take what they are expressing with a grain of salt. It could very well be that emphasis does not, and will not, function to confer either veracity or authenticity.

The same goes for you. Keep tabs on yourself. If you hear your voice raise, or witness either your desires or efforts ramp up, check for what’s appropriate and proportional to any given situation.

Finally, even though Mars is not astrologically absent at this time, all conjunctions do tend to correspond with something not easily seen until later. Allow a healthy respect for what you don’t know now to be part of your own consciousness.

With Mercury now slowing down in Virgo, where it will commence its next retrograde on Aug. 12 (or Aug. 13, depending on your time zone), your consciousness and your mind will eventually catch up with each other to sort things out. In the meantime, you would be well advised not to jump to conclusions that might need (with some embarrassment) to be reversed later.

Mars may be out of sight, but it is not out of mind. If you can remember only that one thing this week, you will not be giving trouble a helping hand.

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The Sun leaves Cancer to enter Leo today (Saturday, July 22). Tomorrow, the Moon will do the same. Minutes after its ingress, the Moon will meet up with the Sun in the first degree of Leo for their monthly conjunction aptly called a New Moon.

Based on astrological events to follow, tomorrow’s New Moon will initiate more than just a new lunar cycle. Implied by the context for the first of two Leo New Moons in a row is the beginning of a new era for one of your best traits.

One characteristic common to most New Moons is that the Moon is not clearly evident in the sky while conjoined with the Sun on the zodiac. The exception is a solar eclipse. Interestingly, a truly exceptional and total solar eclipse is what next month’s New Moon will also be.

Based on what the two luminaries (Sun and Moon) will be doing, this weekend will begin a unique journey through time. Specific details of your own traversal through the near future will, to a significant degree, depend on what makes you different from others. Implicitly, however, most of those particulars will not be important enough to remember.

What you will retain from the weeks to come will almost certainly not be only about you. Instead, the most salient and lasting impressions formed by all that’s currently getting underway in the sky will probably develop during a temporal voyage of discovery in common with everybody who also possesses one of your greatest assets: mind.

In addition to travels over land, water or through the air; there are other ways to explore. One means of discovery available to nearly everybody is to pay closer attention to what’s familiar.

Even among the people and places you know best is that which is not always (or even usually) apparent. No doubt you have had at least one occasion in the past to wish you had not overlooked something which, in retrospect, was plain to see.

This weekend, the astrology will symbolically begin indicating that such needless oversight need not be repeated. The Sun (corresponding to conscious awareness) and the Moon (correlating with other, less than fully conscious forms of awareness) are proceeding to give you a heads up regarding some exceptional things about to emerge from the ordinary.

Mercury (which, among other things, is astrologically representative of the mind) will be playing an important role too. Further emphasizing what the luminaries will subtly be getting started this weekend is how and where Mercury will be moving immediately after.

On Monday, Mercury will be in the the penultimate degree of Leo — the same degree of the same sign in which the Sun and Moon will get together on August 21 for a total solar eclipse. It is also precisely in that same (next-to-last) degree of Leo where Mercury’s next retrograde will conclude on Sept. 5.

Pause to contemplate that for a moment. One day after the Sun and Moon’s prosaic initiation of a new lunar cycle that could very well conclude in an epiphany, Mercury will be at the exact zodiac degree where the luminaries will next conjoin. It is as if Mercury on Monday will be telling you to think ahead.

As if that were not enough, Mercury will then return to that same degree of Leo a second time about two weeks after the eclipse.

With that return, a Mercury retrograde, which is now still weeks away from starting, will come to an end. It is as if looking ahead with anticipation on Monday will also confer occasion to look back with comprehension, even satisfaction by September. For all of that to happen, however, you will implicitly need to participate in a thoughtful manner.

That’s because intimations of what could very well manifest leading up to, during and following the Great American Eclipse will probably emerge where and when you are most likely to miss them – at least to begin with. A little thought, however, will just as probably go a long way towards helping you to find both your place and your way during what looks to be an extraordinary period.

Some such inklings, much like an ordinary New Moon, will not be readily available through direct observation. With some directed thinking, however, and you should be able to sufficiently infer general trends enough to make up for at least part of what you might otherwise miss.

Other clues will become apparent if you go beyond merely looking, to actually see the exceptional and indicative in familiar routines and surroundings. In order to do so, however, you will have to use your mind to inform your eyes, rather than just the other way around.

To some extent, consciousness and awareness are necessarily intrinsic for all beings interacting with their environment. The quality you might call mind is more rare, but there can be no doubt that you are endowed with it.

The mind’s ability to transcend the moment by both looking ahead and reflecting back is now about to come in handy. It would be fair to say that your mind’s time has come. The time has come for you to put your mind to an even fuller and better use than any which have come before. Implicitly you will not be called to do so alone, but in concert with others who also possess what must certainly be one of the greatest gifts the universe can offer.

Now the time has come to begin giving in return.

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