This week’s big event is Saturday’s partial solar eclipse in Leo, which concludes a three-part series set against the backdrop of Mars and Mercury both being retrograde.

Last year’s partial solar eclipse over Pittsburgh. Photo by Nick Amoscato

As ever, eclipses tend to induce a sense of compressed time and of everything being turned upside down.

For some, this can mean a breakthrough; others simply find themselves taking one day at a time until normal service is resumed. I’ll have more to say about this particular eclipse below. First up, though, is the astrological Lammas, or Lughnasadh, which occurs when the Sun reaches the midpoint of Leo: the height of the summer season. That’s coming up Tuesday morning ET.

Notably, when the Sun arrives it’s very tightly conjunct the asteroid Pallas, which represents politics, strategy and intelligence. It certainly does no harm to add an extra layer of forethought to just about everything at present, especially with two inner planets in reverse gear.

Speaking of, on Wednesday night the Sun and Mercury form a conjunction. This marks the central point of Mercury’s current journey backwards through Leo: always an interesting development, and usually positive. Look for clues in this moment as to where the retrograde might be taking you. What’s changed since Mercury’s station on July 26, or since the last Sun-Mercury conjunction on June 5?

Asking this may also give you insights into Saturday’s eclipse, which we briefly discussed here. The Sabian symbol, A Houseboat Party, refers to the very human tendency to take short breaks from routine, enough to catch a glimpse of what freedom feels like, before relapsing into rigid frameworks, which feel safe and comfortable. Yet if there’s one thing no-one can afford to do right now, it’s to remain within those narrow guardrails, which are reinforced by the binary absolutism of the digital age.

Take every opportunity you get to introduce nuance and complexity into your thinking, or into the conversation. If you don’t understand something, educate yourself. And above all, when the dust settles after these eclipses and retrogrades, keep on doing precisely the same.