A time-honored strategy sometimes utilized in football and some other sports is often called a shift. It happens when the players (often on both teams at once) line up in a particular formation, then shift to another formation just before the play begins. It is an attempt to disrupt the opposition in order to gain an advantage.

Shifts work for two reasons. First, each formation has weaknesses as well as strengths. Hence, based on what they expect to encounter, teams make plans in advance. Shifting from one formation to another compels the opposition to adjust their plans.

The other reason to use shifts has to do with time. The opposing team usually has precious little time to make an appropriate adjustment of its own in response to a shift, increasing the possibility of being caught off guard mentally or off balance physically.

Over the next handful of days, the sky will demonstrate a shift of sorts. It will be a more pronounced and comprehensive shift than is usual for such a short period of time. You need not fear it. The objects involved are not opponents seeking to defeat you. They are simply large chunks of matter moving in their respective orbits as they always do, but shifting to a different formation in relation to each other.

It’s a matter of information and its interpretation. The solar system is just that — a system. In any system one part or combination of parts will constitute information. That information, if properly interpreted as part of a greater whole, will provide data about any other part of the system (including you) and the system as a whole. Astrology is simply a method of interpretation that makes correlations with your life on Earth.

Those correlations in turn can be combined with other forms of information you use every day in order to evaluate your options and make decisions. Right now, a straightforward correlation would indicate that you should consider at least initiating some shifts of your own either to gain an advantage or to adjust appropriately to shifts going on around you, beginning this weekend. As a matter of fact, it appears as though there will be several shifts to be initiated (at least) between now and Tuesday.

It all begins with Mercury leaving Leo behind and entering Virgo tomorrow shortly before 3:15 pm EDT (19:14:43 UTC). Among other things, Mercury corresponds with your mind and its means of communicating. Such earthly correlations with Mercury tend to function very well while Mercury is in Virgo. Hence, you might want to shift into a more communicative and thoughtful way of doing things, at least until Mercury leaves Virgo for Libra on Aug. 27.

The shifts continue over the weekend. Overnight between tomorrow and Saturday (for most of you), the Moon moves from Taurus (where it is today) and into Gemini. Later on Saturday (shortly after 7:32 pm EDT, or 23:32:09 UTC) Mars leaves Cancer behind to enter Leo.

The Moon changes signs every two or three days. Hence, lunar shifts do not usually correlate with major changes. It’s more of a rhythm thing, like shifting your weight to the appropriate foot at the right time.

Gemini is the other sign (along with Virgo) where Mercury is strong. By implication then, simply knowing about Mercury entering Virgo tomorrow can help you get off on the right foot with the Moon (and its correlation with your emotional side, among other things). You can start your weekend knowing that some of what you will want to communicate will probably involve how you feel as well as what you think.

Mars, on the other hand, will remain in Leo until Sept. 24 (or Sept. 25, depending on your time zone). As a result, you will have more time to make or initiate a shift in your life that correlates appropriately with how Mars (forms of energy and the issues of desire, among other things) expresses in your life. By the same token, however, the consequences of shifting (or not) will last longer.

Additionally, you might expect earthly manifestations of Mars in Leo to express more strongly and in a more straightforward manner than in Cancer. Assuming that expectation is accurate, your implied role (at first, anyway) will be to govern your personal desires and energies more thoughtfully by integrating your awareness of Mercury’s shift to Virgo.

Finally, on Tuesday, Jupiter shifts from Leo into Virgo where it will wander around for about a year, amplifying the situation represented by the shift of Mars. In other words, Jupiter’s shift will probably correspond with more time to adjust, offset by a longer process of change and more enduring consequences.

As a planet, Jupiter also correlates with more complex and interactive subject matter than the ‘personal planets’ (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars). Therefore, this weekend will also be an appropriate time to anticipate and make plans regarding where you fit in with others.

Just as with the Moon in relation to Mercury (and Mercury in relation to Mars), however, you can make a good start adjusting to Jupiter’s impending new tenure by realizing that all you do this weekend will set a pattern. This pattern will either get you off on the right foot with Jupiter in Virgo, or require you to make further adjustments over the next 12 months or so.

Hence, for this weekend at least, think. Think and communicate both your thoughts and your emotions equally, and while doing so be aware. Be aware of the energetics of your communication and whether those unspoken energetic signals coordinate with your desires. Proceed with a sure and certain knowledge that your every act will also be amplified in your future.

Offered In Service  

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Dear Madame,

Recently a vibrant, fun, Sagittarius woman I’ve been seeing since last winter decided she needed some time away from me. This, I assume (or I hope!) is part of the Venus retrograde thing right now.

I know this seems like a really basic question, but does this mean she’s not going to return? She’s asked that I not contact her at all, and I’m respecting that even though it really hurts not to hear her beautiful voice. I’m a Piscean dude. Have I got too much fire on my hands? Will Venus burn me with her hot coals this summer?

— Fried Fish

Dear Fish Fry,

What’s curious to me, dear finned one, is what you’ve left out of your letter — WHY. Why is your centaurish friend cantering off, leaving your ears wanting for her dulcet intonations over the speakerphone? Hm?

I’m curious because you Fish Folk usually adopt a ‘swim and let swim’ philosophy about intentional coupling. Fantasizing Fish? Yes. Fretful Fish? Not so much. What gives? What’s actually happening? I can’t speak to that.

But you asked about Venus. Yes, indeed, this could be a Venusian dodge calculated to cut you out. However, that’s not a given because I see another piece to this puzzle that definitely deserves examining.

Let’s give Saturn a squiz, too. He’s had his cold and heavy hand in here as well.

You say you began seeing one another this past winter. At that time Saturn was just beginning his new adventures in the sign of Sagittarius, giving all our Saggos a new opportunity for focus and gravitas. This past spring, though, Saturn sat in the same spot for about five weeks, preparing to turn retrograde and revisit his old Scorpio stomping grounds.

It was at that time your Saggo darling may have felt decidedly hemmed in with multiple responsibilities and demands. As a fundamentally freedom loving sign yourself, you can appreciate that you may have chafed your Lady Friend.

As Saturn moved back into the sign of Scorpio this summer, the story shifted into an even deeper and possibly darker mood. For Saggos, the theme was fundamental: these were the last days of a season that began in 2012, and one that challenged them to wrestle with their own mortality.

You see, the typical carefree persona we all adore in Sagittarians has been tempered the last couple of years with Saturn in their solar 12th house. Call it a perpetual haunting. They’ve been doing it tougher than a bail-bonded Hollywood starlet sporting a semi-perpetual ankle monitor. Carefree? As if. When you’re hounded and held back under perpetual observation by the stern eye of Karma in the shape of Sheriff Saturn for nearly three years, memories of Good Time Sally could seem, in retrospect, just silly.

This Monday Saturn turned direct again, preparing himself to begin tracking across those last degrees of Scorpio. Whether she’s aware of it or not, Saturn could be the true source of your Saggo’s reluctance to mix ’n’ mingle. The Old Man won’t return to this land for another 30 years. That’s kind of a big deal, you know. So consider that. It’s quite possible your dearest needs these days to reconsider all that’s passed these last three years. Venus retrograde just gives it that extra anti-social spin.

Will she return? I have no clue. But if she does, it would help if you consider the influence of Saturn’s final lessons this summer. While you may have caught her on the upswing last winter, seemingly free from the dark shadows of the 12th house experience, Time demanded that she revisit that territory this summer to finish old business. It’s sort of non-negotiable. And tough.

When Saturn finally reaches Sagittarius’s green pastures Sept. 17, you’ll begin to recover the early degrees of Sag, echoing those first days of your acquaintance. If there were ever a time to meet for the first time again, mid-September’s your go-to zone. Until then, find a different focus for your sizzling Saggo fantasies.

Swim loose, FishMan.

— Madame Z

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
— John Muir

Should your life be somewhere between intense and overwhelming right now, it’s almost certainly not just you. If you also have a paradoxical sense of at least one shoe taking forever to drop, you are probably not the only one. Whether unresolved tension or unrelieved intensity is preponderate for you at this time, indications are that you are not alone.

It’s easy to feel alone when you have been too darn busy to stay in touch. Alternatively, you might feel isolated because you have retreated from engagement in order to take rest or nourishment. Either way, it’s tempting to get down on yourself.

Rather than beating yourself up, however, take a moment to at least imagine the possibility that many (or even most of us) are faced with the same temptation.

Were it true that many people (if not most everybody) you know have been similarly unable to cover all their bases recently, you would know what to do. Your own experience would dictate that you show the same patience, compassion and tolerance you hope to receive. It would also assuage your concerns to hear assurances that things will get better one way or another, as opposed to being the recipient of pressure to do more than you can manage.

Interestingly, there is one motif unifying this moment in astrology that symbolically supports the notion that many of us really are in the same tippy canoe. It’s the same tableau that implies an impending release or relief. It’s a pattern currently being expressed by Mercury, Jupiter and retrograde Venus in Leo, along with Mars in Cancer and Saturn in Scorpio. All are moving through the final few (or ‘anarectic’) degrees of their respective signs this week.

The anaretic part of any sign represents intensity. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. The energetic demands of the Sun, Moon or one of the planets so positioned can often be redeeming. However, with fully half of the sign rulers occupying the latter degrees of their respective signs at the same time, indications are that a sense of both extremity and some sort of strain are probably widespread.

By the same token, any experience concurrently shared by many (no matter how challenging) enhances the possibility of equally widespread understanding. In order for informed compassion to carry the day though, you have to break the icy grip of isolation and reach out to reassure others with words you long to hear and gestures you would be relieved to receive. 

Reassurance is the upside of a planet moving through the anaretic degrees in direct motion. For any such object is by definition on the cusp of entering a new sign. When you consider the palpable refreshment that often accompanies just one planetary ingress, you can easily imagine how several such changes in a short period of time might well correspond to a significant amount of solace.

Indeed, such changes are not long in coming. By this time next week the earthly archetypes of no less than three planets will be manifesting from entirely new fields of expression.

Mercury will move first, entering Virgo on Friday to ease your mind. Mars will follow on Saturday, shifting into Leo to quicken your consciousness and enliven you body. Then, Jupiter will end more than a year in energetic Leo next Tuesday to begin a trek equally as long through the modulated frequency of Virgo.

Finally, Saturn will complete nearly a year of transitioning from one sign to another next month by settling into Sagittarius for the long run of two years more.

If you can only manage to grasp one message from the astrology this week, it would be the proverbial advice that “this too will pass.” Nonetheless, it would be helpful if you could venture a step or two further.

Whenever others express regret, it would soothe so much to simply reply with reassurance. Similarly, requite remorse with forgiveness, and healing will be the result. Responding with compassion for those who are contrite will likewise function to literally change the world for the people in question. 

Most of all, reach out to at least one of those who have withdrawn. Contact those unable or unwilling to either express their bewilderment or ask for pardon; let them know it’s not just them, but all of us on the cusp of changes that promise to be as liberating as the world is now weighty. It’s a promise that all of us (not just you) can act to make real.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

To our national shame, it is becoming the norm to see a weekly police killing of an African American, with Sam Dubose and Sandra Bland the most recent victims. The targeting of African Americans has been made more than obvious in the way the criminal justice system is set up: from street arrest, to violent confrontation, to inhumane and deadly treatment during or on the way to incarceration.

Sam Dubose’s killer, university police officer Raymond Tensing, had a look of outraged disbelief as he watched the video footage of his encounter with Dubose — disbelief that his own arrest, for killing Dubose, was even happening. Even though his own body camera betrayed his lies about his actions and about being dragged by Dubose’s car, the man pleaded not guilty to the crime of first degree murder.

I hope to be wrong on this, but it would not surprise me at all if we find Tensing at minimum a racist, perhaps even a white supremacist. And even if he isn’t, he has on his side a criminal justice system that will find cause for his defense based on a tradition of police bias and racial profiling. Tensing is now out on bail and, unfortunately, that is no surprise.

If there is truth to Raymond Tensing being a racist, he joins others who have found a home in police departments, where racial profiling against African-Americans is institutionalized. And regardless of their fellow officers’ guilt or innocence, they still protect their own.

Homeland Security Newswire reported that in 2009, Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano updated FBI reports on domestic terrorism from 2004, 2006 and 2007 alerting Congress of the local threat from right-wing extremists and other hate groups. These reports were met with criticism from conservative members of Congress and the media, who called Napolitano’s warnings “politicizing.” The article goes on to report:

The FBI notes that since then, most of the extremist groups have been using secretive tactics in order to keep themselves under the radar. One such maneuver is to go to various police stations and offer information in order to gauge the agency’s interest in an organization.

Another tactic is called “ghost skins.” This involves members of neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups hiding all or part of their affiliation in order to join the military as well as other areas of law enforcement for the purpose of receiving training.

The FBI had it right in 2006. The greatest threat to the country’s security does not come from Islamic extremists threatening to take out a city using a hijacked airplane. It comes from extremists who are home-grown.

From Ruby Ridge to Waco, Oklahoma City and onward, white extremists and other hate groups have never gone away. They went underground, finding safe havens formed under the radar using the Internet like any other political group, as an organizing and recruitment tool. Sept. 11, 2001, was the best thing that happened to the extremist movement because it eased the heat the government had been putting on them for nearly a decade — from the 1990s on. This allowed enough time for these groups to organize militias and stockpile weaponry from lax gun control laws abetted by a Congress that reflexively cowers before the National Rifle Association.

It was difficult to broach the subject of Sam Dubose’s murder on the heels of the death of Sandra Bland, Freddie Grey, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Walter Scott without first finding and looking at a larger picture, which we now have, minute by minute and provided in stunning detail from police cameras.

African Americans are targeted. They aren’t the only target of hate groups under police guise, but they are certainly the largest. If racist and homophobic police can be found in uber-liberal San Francisco, they can be found anywhere.

Until we root out the worst offenders within police ranks — people with racist agendas, anti-Muslim vigilantes, homophobes — armed with deadly weapons and using them indiscriminately, and until there is actual police reform across the nation, the police are suspect. And these deaths will continue.

This is why the Black Lives Matter movement is both timely and important for African Americans and for all of us. This is why the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups since the FBI can’t (because that would be politicizing), needs to be supported at every level possible. We need more sunshine to blast the underside of rocks where these vermin live, undetected.

By Amanda Moreno

The first week of Venus retrograde is just about done. I have noticed that the body seems to be front and center for many people in my life. At a class I taught about the retrograde period the other night, I encouraged participants to really tune in to the wisdom of their bodies this week.

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

Venus spending an unusually long time in the first degree of Virgo seems like an opportunity to prepare what I’m framing — in typical dramatic Leo fashion — as an underworld type of journey. My understanding of this retrograde phase is that Venus as goddess of love and war will be showing all of her faces.

Just about the time Venus went retrograde, I pretty much went all out with dietary changes and a big-time focus on self-care. It wasn’t planned to coincide with the transit. I’ve been experiencing gastrointestinal problems off and on since a bad bout of food poisoning last summer, and I finally just hit my breaking point.

I’m no stranger to elimination diets and whatnot. I’m one of those people who thrives on the challenge and finds it fascinating to spend a few weeks really tuning in to how my body is working, giving it a break from alcohol, sugar, grains and other common allergens. This time around, however, everything but non-starchy veggies, some organic meats, hazelnuts and seeds are all that’s on the menu. And you know… a week in I have to say it’s been shockingly easy. Thank you, Virgo.

It’s got me to thinking quite a bit about the inner side of Venus (the Taurean side) and body love. I have been blessed with an overweight body probably since the age of six, round about the time my dad died. I’ve also been blessed with the ability to love my body, regardless of what it looks like. When it comes to being naked in front of lovers, for example, I figure — hey, they chose to be here, why hide? Swimsuit season…eh, who cares? People might judge, they might not, but I wanna feel as much water on bare skin as possible.

Body love in our culture is something that is praised on the one hand, and then shunned on the other. Wouldn’t want to be too confident or arrogant, after all. I’ve often felt extremely uncomfortable in situations with female friends who are picking their bodies apart and shaming themselves together. It’s as if that act has become some kind of social bonding ritual.

That’s not to say I don’t believe there is a time and place for discussing or confessing our insecurities about our bodies, which is just as important as confessing our love for our bodies when and if it arises. I’ve just never known quite what to do while amongst friends, usually all of whom are a good 50-100 pounds lighter than me, who are lamenting their bulges. It can be awkward, sad and somewhat confusing and frustrating.

Recently, as I work with my own body holding patterns, I’ve been reviewing and releasing several patterns that crept up on me somewhat unexpectedly. The first is the way I have internalized quite literally the guidance I was given from a young age to “suck it in,” referring of course to my belly.

I had no idea what the actual size of my belly was until last fall when I had my first cranio-sacral massage session. Several hours later, I was standing in my bedroom, and felt all of my abdominal muscles relax — and there it was: a bulging belly. I was horrified and concerned that there was something wrong with me. Thus began an emphasized period of being unable to hold it all in.

As I move through a phase in my life where the predominant theme seems to be one of ‘letting go’, I’m fascinated by just how literally my body has been trained to hold it all in, with so much pressure surrounding those abdominal organs. As I learn to release and relax those muscles, while still paying attention to what posture feels strong to me, I’m also releasing the emotions stored in the “I have to hold it all in” complex and in those organs.

The personal revelations coming from such a pronounced focus on my stomach, the energetic interplay between my sacral, solar plexus and heart chakras, my emotional body and the foods I eat have all kind of come together this week. As this Venus in Virgo energy really seems to be demonstrating to me the inner side of Venus, associated with Venus in Taurus and themes of self-worth, self-esteem, values and resources, I have been brought to a new level of body love. I am cherishing taking care of my body right now. Even as I carry on with lots of client work and grant writing, putting my physical health first has been a full-time job — and it feels like a worthwhile investment.

I am finding patience with myself that I never knew I had. I am listening to my instincts surrounding what I should be putting in my body, and I am loving every extra moment of self care I can find, from detox baths to slowing down my walking speed to feeling the way movement is flowing. For someone who has been learning how to self-parent at the emotional level for a while now, really being able to bring the body to the mix gives me a sense of grounded presence that I can’t say I’ve ever really experienced before. Full-fledged parenting.

Another theme that has arisen is that of truly committing to being here, in this body and on this Earth, and loving all of me enough to figure out how to make the physical vessel that is Amanda a place that is comfortable, strong, healthy and capable of doing whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing to follow my path. I was somewhat shocked when that theme came to the surface, as I’ve always considered myself someone who loves life. But there it was — a little part that is still quite resistant to being earthbound, who feels like being stuck in a body is the worst fate of all. There can be so much pain associated with being in the body.

But then the sense of really, truly realizing what I’m worth, which is a lot, while at the same time realizing that I am my greatest resource, that I am the only one who can save myself — with support from others, of course. Committing to myself, to being fully embodied in this life, feels pretty monumental, even at the same time as it feels obvious and understated.

Part of the reason it feels monumental is because I never fully realized that explicit commitment was a step I apparently needed to take. But I wrote that, and then this article by Margaret Atwood , titled “It’s Not Climate Change, It’s Everything Change,” graced my inbox via a dear Planet Waves colleague.

I then remembered: committing to being here and now, present and alert in a physical body, might actually be a very difficult thing to do. Balancing the fact that there is so much good in the world with the fact that it is an incredibly fucked-up place to be alive and alert is a daunting task. Choosing to keep our eyes open and pay attention to what is going on in the world is something that likely very much triggers the parts that are holding it all in, trying to keep it all together. For me it also triggers the part that is pretty convinced that if she lets go, the rug will get pulled out from under her once again — and avoidance of that level of physical and emotional pain can be fairly hard-core.

I return to this style of personal writing this week because it is what is flowing, but also because I hope some of you can relate. Within each of us lie so many paradoxes and complexities, steps forward and then steps back. All of that is quite beautiful, and I do so strongly believe that learning about the depths of our own beings, and loving ourselves through it unconditionally, is vital for us to be able to join hands and face all that is going on in our world.

Sometimes the focus needs to be at the personal level, and other times the focus moves out. Luckily, when one of us is focused in, we can be sure another is focused out so that nothing will be missed. That is somewhat along the lines of what Venus’ dual rulerships teach us, right? In Taurus, we learn how to hold ourselves and build a container of self-love through the act of realizing what we’re worth; in Libra we get to the extend from that foundation out to the other to see their side from a place of security.

As for Venus in Leo…well, I have no doubt our lovely community astrologers here will have much more to say about that, and I’ll keep you posted as well. What I will say for now is that as Venus ends her time as evening star, disappearing from the sky on Aug. 11, we can use the time to get in touch with our needs and wants and desires.

If you’re so inclined to pay attention to such things, what has your body been telling you? What needs and desires have been repressed? Let’s perhaps pave the way for some celebration of our bodies, shall we? Maybe that’s easier said than done for some of us, but if it feels right, why not?