As of 7:11 am EDT (11:11 UTC), Jupiter is now in Virgo. It will be there for the next year or so, which means you have some time to adjust to this new feel. To help you navigate the transition, here are the August horoscopes for Marie Claire magazine, written by Eric Francis.
Cape Split on the Bay of Fundy, where high and low tide can vary by 15 meters in one cycle. The whitewater at the top is the tide rushing into the bay. Photo by Eric Francis, with Andrew Robertson piloting his Cessna 172.
Eric returns to Planet Waves FM today (and the rest of Planet Waves this week) with some stories from his recent trip to the Bay of Fundy and Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.
Astrology covered on today’s program will cover the Leo New Moon and Jupiter leaving Leo and entering Virgo this morning, plus retrograde Venus conjunct the Sun. Filling in a bit more detail on that, this week we reach the peak (and midpoint) of Venus retrograde, as Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun.
Today is also the 14th anniversary of the Aug. 11, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief — wherein George W. Bush was warned by CIA officers about 9/11. Eric will look at that chart.
Musical selections for today’s program will be traditional Acadian music — that is, party tunes of the people who settled Nova Scotia in late 17th century and became the Creole people of New Orleans.
I’ve written more about this week’s major astrological shifts in Monday’s Astrology Diary. If your energy was feeling a little ‘odd’ or ‘edgy’ to start the week, or the waning Moon has you slowing down, you’re in tune with what’s happening. Mercury opposite Neptune offers a caution to notice what you do and do not know for sure in your dealings with others.
There is a lot of fire in the sky, with significant clusters of planets in Leo and Aries aspecting each other along with minor planets in Sagittarius. That’s a lot of movement and flow in the realm of spirit; it could be easy to get lost in ‘inspiration’ without taking action, but for one thing: the fire planets are making some squares to planets in other signs.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
This will help with getting some traction by giving you something to push against to make things happen in your daily life. Namely, the squares from the Leo planets to Saturn in Scorpio are setting the theme this week.
We have the Sun in mid Leo and Mercury, retrograde Venus and Jupiter clustered in late Leo. It’s those clustered planets that are forming conjunctions to each other and squares to Saturn. What this creates is a pair of dual imperatives: to expand and move forward on the one hand, and to cut back or set limits on the other.
I explored this theme in depth in yesterday’s Monday Astrology Diary. Between today and Friday, Venus and Mercury make their exact conjunctions to Jupiter and squares to Saturn, heightening the personal, tangible expressions of the astrology. For example:
Tonight on Planet Waves FM, Eric will be covering the unusual and beautiful Full Moon that takes place Friday at 6:43 am EDT (10:43 UTC). This is the Aquarius Full Moon, which can only happen with the Sun in Leo.
The waxing Moon viewed through the Casco Days Ferris wheel. Photo by Amanda Painter.
Amy Elliott wrote Monday’s Astrology Diary previewing this aspect. You might think of this Moon as evoking a humanitarian spirit, where individual consciousness meets the world around it in a meaningful way. This is not easy for many people, trapped as we often are in false concepts of individuality, and conditioned to obsess over separate interests.
Len Wallick has also interpreted Friday’s Full Moon here in his Moonshine horoscopes. These horoscopes are written for your Moon sign (where the Moon was at the time of your birth). There are instructions on the Moonshine page for how to find your Moon sign out if you do not know it, but you can also read these horoscopes for your Sun and rising signs for additional layers of insight.
The Moon/Sun opposition makes some interesting aspects, including a provocative alignment with Pholus in late Sagittarius. The Moon aspects Pholus at 45 degrees while the Sun meets it at 135 degrees; these are not aspects you hear a lot about, though they can have a way of getting things going, and it will be interesting to see what collective events develop toward the end of the week.
As of this morning, the Moon is in cardinal Libra, bringing a desire for more diplomatic and graceful interactions than might have occurred yesterday. Did you get a little inflammatory on social media yesterday, like I did? Whoops. Today’s Libra Moon might urge some finessing of your stance — not backtracking per se, but a reconsideration of what is truly justified.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
The bigger story, or at least part of it, is the Sun in the next-to-last degree of Cancer. Wednesday night at 11:30 pm (Thursday at 3:30 UTC) the Sun will ingress Leo.
Leo is a fixed sign, which means we’re in the middle of the season — yet the big news of this season is Venus stationing retrograde Saturday.
In today’s Planet Waves FM, Eric will be looking at the station retrograde of Venus in the first degree of Virgo. This is happening conjunct an unusual point called Transpluto, which has a way of hyper-focusing Virgo tendencies.
Eric will also begin the discussion of his Astrology for Artists approach to reading charts and putting astrological information to work.
For some preliminary thoughts on the Sun entering Leo and Venus stationing retrograde, check out Monday’s Astrology Diary — a collaboration between Amy Elliott and Eric. With these two astrological events happening so close together, “the effect is multiplied, and you may feel a condensation of experience.”
In tonight’s Planet Waves FM, I’ll be looking at the astonishing synchronicity of Western powers reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran at the same time the New Horizons spacecraft passed through the Pluto-Charon system after a three-billion-mile journey. Planet Waves FM is usually published by about 5 pm EDT (17:00 UTC).
Sneak peek at Pluto: according to the New Horizons social media team, this is the last and most detailed image of Pluto sent to Earth before the moment of closest approach, which was 7:49 am EDT this morning. You can track Pluto’s progress here.
I will look at the chart, and we’ll have our first view of the close-ups of Pluto (expected around midnight today; they take more than four hours to reach the Earth from the edge of the solar system).
This has both astronomical and symbolic implications, which manifested spontaneously as these two highly unusual events aligned: a proposed treaty to slow down nuclear proliferation, and a spacecraft reaching the Kuiper Belt.
To commemorate the moment, I’ll be playing music from the “No Nukes” concerts of September 1979 including truly gorgeous performances of “Cathedral” by Graham Nash and “The Crow on the Cradle” by Jackson Browne. The No Nukes concerts were performed in response to the Three Mile Island partial meltdown. Artists involved recognized the connection between nuclear power and nuclear bombs.
I’ll also have an overview of the Cancer New Moon, square Eris, which I introduced in Sunday night’s astrology diary. This is a stunning chart, also featuring a Mercury-Mars conjunction opposite Pluto. Inner planets are aspecting two of the planets that define the edge of the solar system, concurrently with two simultaneous conjunctions.
Apropos of Pluto, I’ll be a guest tonight on the Kepler College all-day Pluto commemoration. I’ve chosen to be on at 11 pm EDT. Check this page for details on how to listen.
Apropos of the New Moon, I’ve called for a schedule change for the late-week Core Community edition. In order to publish closer to the New Moon (which is Wednesday at 9:24 pm EDT, or 01:24 UTC) we will be publishing on Wednesday evening. If all goes well, the issue will be out a few hours before the New Moon.
Len Wallick will also be covering the New Moon in his column this afternoon on the main Planet Waves website.
If you scroll and click through, you’ll also find: Judith Gayle’s latest musings on politics and spirituality and “our fear of flying“; Amanda Moreno’s investigation of the potential beneficial use of apocalyptic imagery; guest-author Prana Regina Barrett’s article on making Tantra workshops (and any teaching) more Transgender-friendly; and a Monday tarot reading from Sarah Taylor that’s part of a clear progression, with Pluto holding the key.
Catch you later on the website, and on Planet Waves FM.
Lovingly,
Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $97/year. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Office Manager: Lauren Gdovin. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Client Services: Amy Elliott, Lisa Gatto. Media Consultant: Andrew Marshall McLuhan. Research, Writing and Editing: In addition to those listed above, Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward.
We are now offering for pre-order the 2015 Midyear Report — The Art of Living / Astrology for Artists. The theme is how to live artfully; how to turn your life into a creative project; and how best to integrate conscious creation into your life, as a way of life. This is a 12-sign audio reading plus an introduction which will move elegantly through the astrology of the second half of the year — Venus retrograde, the two additional Venus-Mars conjunctions, the two additional Venus-Jupiter conjunctions, and Jupiter ingressing Virgo. You may pre-order here. Note, this fantastic project is a fundraiser for Planet Waves. Thank you for signing up. You will love it. By the way, I describe the project in detail, along with my personal commitment to the subject matter, in the last segment of last week’s Planet Waves FM.
Believe it or not, Mercury is getting ready to leave Gemini tomorrow. Due to its recent retrograde, it has spent a little more than nine weeks in a very mentally oriented, verbal, dualistic sign; chances are you’ve gotten rather used to it.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
When it enters Cancer at 2:52 pm EDT (18:52 UTC), you can imagine it as a shift to feeling your thoughts. Traditionally, Mercury in Cancer has often been classified as a placement that’s ‘too sympathetic’ and ‘too receptive’. I suspect, however, that you might actually experience the change of expression as more like a quick, refreshing dip on a hot, dry day.
We are, after all, emotional creatures; a solid dose of empathy and heart is important to balance the tendency to get stuck in our heads. And Mercury will zip through Cancer in about two weeks, so you don’t need to worry about getting waterlogged.
Until then, Mercury is opposing the Galactic Core, the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, which lies in the direction of late Sagittarius. It might be an interesting experiment to try a little meditation or similar exercise and see if what Eric describes as ‘our cosmic homing signal’ comes through.
Speaking of Cancer, Eric has been absorbed in recording the Cancer birthday reading, which he should have ready for you later today. That means you can still snag it for the lower pre-order rate now; it makes a great gift, and is fantastic for those with Cancer rising, too.
Not everything is all about Cancer, however; with Venus moving into late Leo, it’s time to start talking about Venus retrograde. Stay tuned to the Planet Waves website and watch for your Thursday issue for more information. Eric is also planning a fantastic Midyear Reading based on the upcoming Venus retrograde.
On Planet Waves FM, Eric will look back at this weekend’s Grateful Dead 50th anniversary concerts and their place in American social history. That program should post around 5:00 pm EDT or shortly after this evening.
Amy Elliott was kind enough to stand in for Eric on the Monday Astrology Diary. Focusing on the Cancer Sun’s opposition to Pluto in Capricorn, she writes that this week is an opportunity to understand when a line has been crossed, and to begin to work out how to respond.
Venus conjunct Jupiter in Leo on July 1, viewed from Portland, Maine. They can still be seen after dusk in the western sky, though much further apart. Photo by Amanda Painter.
Fe Bongolan parses and cheers Greece’s populist stand against economic oppression (Greek citizens voted resoundingly against the bailout conditions proposed by the EU) in her latest column.
Pausing for a moment of mid-year reflection, Amanda Moreno works through some ideas about hierarchy and the process of ‘othering’ that she sees around her at all levels.
In a tarot reading that sees two major arcana cards and one from the minor arcana, Sarah Taylor explores what it means to experience illumination after a period of reflection, and how that has the potential to shift you from one state, or place, to another.
And on Saturday, Planet Waves celebrated the USA’s birthday with several offerings, including Eric’s archived article on liberating sexual pleasure, titled Coming to the Revolution; and Judith’s Gayle’s heartening take on Sen. Bernie Sanders (and others) entering the presidential race. As she notes, “There’s energy stirring from the bottom up to take on the greed and avarice at the heart of our social and political problems.”
Visit the Planet Waves website later this afternoon for Len Wallick’s column; I’ll be back there Thursday with a look at the weekend’s astrology.
Tomorrow is the Capricorn Full Moon: this is when the Cancer Sun opposes the Moon in Capricorn. This year, the Capricorn Full Moon happens less than 24 hours after Venus and Jupiter make their first in a series of conjunctions (thanks to the upcoming Venus retrograde).
The Moon rising behind the Temple of Poseidon, Sounion, Greece, July 15, 2011. Photo by Anthony Ayiomamitis.
Essentially, that makes the Full Moon and Venus-Jupiter one event, though it is multi-layered. Planet Waves offers several ways for you to get the feel for this astrology and work with it productively, mentioned further down this letter.
We’re able to offer such a wealth of diverse material, which assists thousands of people around the world daily, thanks to our paying members; if you are reading this, you may be one, and we are grateful that your involvement allows us to serve such a wide audience.
If you have not yet signed up for Planet Waves membership, please consider joining here through one of our sliding-scale options. We take the Art of Service seriously, in all of its many forms, and I hope you do, too.
Now, as for this week’s astrology: Len Wallick has written today’s Moonshine horoscopes for the Full Moon. Len writes these horoscopes for your Moon sign (there’s a link on the horoscopes page to help you figure out yours), but you can also read them for your Sun and rising sign to see how they resonate. Continue reading →
The Sun is now a few degrees into Cancer, and Mars is about to join it there tomorrow. The traffic light has turned green and is urging forward movement, yet you’ll still want to go easy on the gas pedal this week.
A misty summer sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine; photo by Amanda Painter.
The reason is that Mercury, though direct, is still working its way through a tricksy shadow (or echo) phase in Gemini. And today it makes its third exact square to Neptune in Pisces as part of its retrograde process, at 2:08 pm EDT (18:08 UTC).
As Eric has noted, Mercury and Neptune have really been in one very long square, thanks to Mercury’s reversals of apparent motion. This is astrology that asks you to pay attention, particularly to how honest you’re being with yourself.
As a result of the square repeating, themes of integrity, honesty/denial and “knowing when you don’t know” keep presenting themselves for review and integration. This may include various emotional/cognitive patterns from the distant past, such as childhood or familial relationships — especially the more slippery ones.
If you like to track the peaks and patterns of repeated astrological events in your life, here are the dates of the three exact Mercury-Neptune squares so you can check your journal or calendar: May 9 (with Mercury direct); May 29 (Mercury retrograde); and today, June 23 (Mercury direct).
Eric will be covering the major events of this week’s sky in Planet Waves FM, though the program will post to the website tomorrow by 5:00 pm EDT, rather than today.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
He wrote about the “two-stage solstice” we’re experiencing in Monday’s Astrology Diary, noting that Mars ingressing Cancer tomorrow plus Mercury-Neptune today may come with “the sensation of slipping out of something, waking up or some drug wearing off — one you didn’t know you took.”
Elsewhere on the Planet Waves website, Fe Bongolan tries to work through the grief and ideas about American racism in the aftermath of last week’s church shooting in Charleston in her column this week.
In a similar vein, Amanda Moreno also notes that in the context of more collective tragedy, the need for a shared emotional container (provided by retrograde Saturn in Scorpio) is ever more clear.
Sarah Taylor’s tarot reading describes emerging from a place of (perceived) defeat and into the potential to build something that can support both you and others. And Judith Gayle affirms that if voices are being raised against one another, it means the thin veneer of falsehood that existed is disappearing, and we’re getting to the heart of the matter — though it’s a difficult road.
Note that depending on when you visit the website, you might need to click the “Older posts” link at the bottom of the page to get to some of these articles. To read them, you’ll need to be signed into the website. Email us at cs@planetwaves.net if you have questions.
Also, Saturday, we republished one of Eric’s classic articles on sex and relationships, titled Organic Love: An Ecology of Sustainable Relationship. In it, he offers a few ideas about how we might go about creating organic love. Later today, Len Wallick covers Mars ingressing Cancer in his column, which will publish after noon EDT.
