Dear Friend and Reader:

With each passing day the sky takes on a more dramatically different shape than it’s had in many months. The cardinal grand cross pattern held for so long that it was starting to feel like a feature in the landscape, and now it’s given way to a new constellation.

Rook; photo by Charlie Lemay.

This consists mainly of a concentration of planets in Leo, and another in Scorpio. We’ve had relatively little action in Leo for quite a while. Scorpio for its part has been home to Saturn, though now Mars has slipped in, as have Vesta and Ceres.

The fixed signs can represent a stalwart quality, though with planets in two such powerful signs in a square pattern, the feeling is more like tectonic plates pushing up against one another. Both Leo and Scorpio contain vast energy reserves, and now they’re being activated by tension from both sides — with Jupiter and Saturn, the two most massive planets, involved. (Note, Jupiter square Saturn happens as an exact aspect on Aug. 3, 2015, though it’s close enough now to be a developing story.)

Squares are good for motivation and action because they have such an unresolved feeling. One way they tend to work is by calling attention to one side of the aspect, prompting some work, project or activity there, and then being called to the other side of the aspect, and prompting some work there. In other words, the equation is worked one side at a time, and then gradually it balances out and the square expresses itself as an integrated whole.

People with strong natal squares can be involved with this process for many years as they work out their seeming contradictions. In a sense, squares are self-activating, always pushing for achievement. And at the moment, we have clusters in Leo and Scorpio that are square one another; for example, on Aug. 9, the Leo Sun will make a square to Saturn in Scorpio — a good aspect for getting a lot done.

As this is developing, the Moon is about to enter the scene. It ingresses Aquarius Saturday at 9:52 am EDT (13:52 UTC) on the way to the Full Moon, exact Sunday at 2:09 pm EDT (18:09 UTC). This will create a T-square pattern — a grand square (or cross) but with one point of the cross unfilled, at least by any of the well-known planets.

Stroke; photo by Charlie Lemay.

The Full Moon will add momentum to an already powerful aspect pattern, though because one set of aspects involved are oppositions, that will provide a mode of expression. It’s as if the Moon helps release the potential of all that Leo stuff square all that Scorpio stuff. The mode of expression will come through Aquarius, which means groups.

Rather than representing all of society, Aquarius represents selected, self-selected or closed groups. The term ‘community’ is overused these days. There is no community of Firefox users, there are just people who use that browser. There is no MSNBC viewer community; people tend to watch TV at home, away from most other viewers. But there are indeed communities, collectives and groups, and that’s what Aquarius is about, and it’s where this energy will manifest.

It is worth having another go at explaining an idea often presented by Alice A. Bailey about the relationship between the signs Leo and Aquarius in the collective sense. She explains that individuated consciousness is born in Leo; that is, a kind of self-awareness that is born from a kind of hazy mental state she calls mass-consciousness. This is the awareness of people who identify with the mass of society and have not begun to understand themselves as individuals.

Leo provides the spawning ground for individual consciousness. This can come with some bravado, over-assertiveness, visibility and drama — all seemingly necessary for recognizing that one is indeed oneself, as distinct from other selves. This is not as obvious as it seems, or as popular. It’s much easier to distinguish yourself by being a proud consumer of Diet Coke than by understanding your purpose in life.

One of the basic ideas of Bailey’s approach to astrology, and what I would consider well-grounded astrology, is that opposing pairs of signs work as one system. They are opposites that contain one another, like the yin-yang symbol. When Leo meets Aquarius, the individual enters a group environment and encounters other self-aware individuals. A group is not a mass — it is a collective of individuals who consciously retain their individuality within the group.

Shaman; Photo by Charlie Lemay.

This can be a confrontation, or it can feel like an emergence into an eagerly awaiting collective. Sometimes both qualities are present.

What we get with this Full Moon is the full activation of Leo-Aquarius, with both sides of the equation lit up by the luminaries — something that happens just twice a year (the second time being the Leo Full Moon). This will give us a progress report on our experience of being self-aware individuals, and how we integrate that selfness and awareness into a group environment.

Scorpio is the sign on which this opposition is balanced, providing an energy source spreading out to both Leo and Aquarius. Scorpio serves as a reminder to remember the influence of what usually goes unsaid, what lurks below the surface, what is invisible or unacknowledged. This includes the hormonal level of reality, the fact of biology, and the ubiquitous presence of sexuality and death (awareness of which are significant aspects of mature self-presence).

Scorpio is also the reminder to account for the fact of desire, and to understand how its influence motivates groups and the individuals that
make them up. It seems fair to say that both the Leo and the Aquarius sides of this equation will remain a mystery unless all those Scorpio factors are taken into account and given a voice.

This week’s horoscopes are based on the chart for the Aquarius Full Moon.

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: $99/year. Core community membership: $149/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Brendan Merritt, Amy Elliott, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Elizabeth Michaud, Amanda Moreno, Amanda Painter, Casey Smith, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward. Special thanks to the Fact Checkers List, and to our main astrology fact-checker Alex Miller, and Amanda, who goes over all their suggestions. Aunt Josie Forever!

 

Good as Gold: the 2014 Midyear Reading for All 12 Signs

If you have not already noticed, 2014 is really two years in one, with version 2.0 beginning right about now. With all of the inner planets direct, Jupiter entering a fire sign and Mars coming home to its native Scorpio, a whole new concept of life and of astrology is reaching out to us.  I will be unfolding this brand-new aspect pattern for all 12 signs and rising signs in my midyear reading, called Good as Gold.

Good as Gold will explore the relationship between self-esteem, creativity and money. The three are so closely interwoven that in a successful person they are indistinguishable. While you’re on the way there, these elements need to be understood one at a time, as specific concepts, goals or challenges.

I will provide ideas, strategies, motivational rants (my speciality) and ideas I’ve learned in therapy to get the blocks out of the way, access your courage, and invoke your vision for yourself. Jupiter is about potential, but that also means that the human part of the equation is making that potential real.

How do you manage the transition out of something old that is not really working and into something new, with the simultaneous demands of a learning curve, balancing yourself financially and staying inspired? These and other things are what I will be exploring.

Good as Gold is available for pre-order now, at $49.95 for all 12 signs. As usual, we start with the lowest price for all 12, gradually raise the price, then sell one reading for about what we were initially asking for all 12. Now is the
time to get the best rate on the whole package, so you can listen to your Sun, Moon and rising signs, and check in with the readings for your collaborators.

Recycled? Repurposed? Re-Directed Art

By Amanda Painter

Sometimes when the tension of an impending Full Moon feels like it will never abate, a good laugh at something silly can vent some of the pressure — leaving space where more substantial interpersonal negotiations can occur. To that end, check out Re-Directed Art by David Irvine of Brampton, Ontario (Twisted Sifter has compiled a fun gallery of favorites).

Using cast-off prints, lithographs and occasionally original pieces that he finds at thrift stores, yard sales and even the curb, Irvine paints in pop-culture icons and characters of his own devising, giving new life and an original twist to the wall art.

He says he “will never paint over the existing signature and depending on the project will adapt the traits of the original (colouring, lighting, brushstrokes etc.) or will go in a complete opposite direction and achieve a high contrast in imagery.”

Due to how popular these gems of visual irony are, Irvine sells originals only on his Etsy site; prints are handled by Society6 and Redbubble. And if you have an idea you’d like to see him try, he’s open to discussing commissions via email. How could you not laugh every time you pass by one of these on the wall?

The Gaza Humanitarian Crisis — and the Aquarius Full Moon

Planet Waves FM is presented without commercial interruption, sponsored exclusively by our subscribers and our Core Community members — that would be you.

In this week’s edition of Planet Waves FM,
I go over the chart of the Aquarius Full Moon and the current fixed grand cross that’s developing. Then I have a long talk with Karen Pardini about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Our musical guest is Last Good Tooth.

 

Your Monthly Horoscopes — and our Publishing Schedule Notes

Your extended monthly horoscopes for August were published Thursday, July 24. We published your extended monthly horoscopes for July  on Thursday, June 26. We also published an Inner Space horoscope for August Tuesday, July 29. Moonshine horoscopes for the Capricorn Full Moon published Tuesday, July 15. Please note, we normally publish the extended monthly horoscope on the first Friday after the Sun has entered a new sign.

Weekly Horoscope for Thursday, August 7, 2014, #1010 | By Eric Francis

Aries (March 20-April 19) — You may be feeling a truly odd kind of insecure, as if within your greatest strength lies your worst weakness. You can turn that one around, however. All you need to do is remember that you can. If you think of your experience as being more like a dream, it will be easier to transpose between the two similar thought forms, ‘weakness within strength’ or ‘strength within weakness’. One of the ideas on which the thought form turns is your faith in your power to create. This you have, especially right now, with so many planets moving through your solar 5th house and a spectacular Full Moon coming. Of the Full Moon, the message seems to be reveal yourself. Show the world what you can do, and by extension, who you are. That gesture might be connected with some worry or some fear, though now is the time to push yourself a little, and to take the extra risk, in particular, the risk of being seen, known and acknowledged.

 

Taurus (April 19-May 20) — This week’s astrology describes an adventure of some kind — it looks like leadership, but a participatory variety of the stuff. You may not define yourself as a ‘leader’, though if you remember that all humans are looking to nearly all other humans they encounter as examples of what to be or not to be, then everyone is in the role of setting an example. For you over the next few days, as the Aquarius Full Moon passes through town, you will see the extent, and the relevance, of your involvement in a situation, and the benefit of the example that you set. It would be great if we could go beyond the necessity for bosses, CEOs and generals. By engaging with people on what you might think of as a co-organizational level, you can help the world, or at least your world, take a step beyond that. Trust one thing if nothing else — people respect you for your sincerity. And that is real respect.

 

Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Beware of resentment in any form. Beware of the sensation that someone — potentially anyone, though it looks like someone you’re intimate with — is interfering with your ethics or values. It may be that you really do want to take someone’s point of view on board, but make sure that’s true — make sure you’re not being influenced by some external factor, such as money. One test of the situation is whether you really can say what you feel. Do you believe that you will get fair treatment if you were to speak up? If you’re concerned about either of those things, I suggest you go deeper and investigate what is influencing you. I will give you a clue from your astrology — the concept of marriage is involved. By that I mean what it is, or is supposed to be, or that marriage is the pearl of great price, or your most valuable asset — and your real feelings about that, and I do mean feelings and not your opinion.

 

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Do you identify as a person first, or as a partner first? This is one of the core questions of feminism by the way, discussed by the likes of Simone de Beauvoir and Erica Jong and many others. It was Jong who said that she wanted to be a whole person and not half of a relationship. We need this wisdom now, and I suggest you might be the first beneficiary of this body of thought. It has several branches, including the notion of owning another person, in many different shades and tones; the value of jealousy and the presumption of a right to be jealous; the notion of control; and any feeling that might lead to the desire for revenge. There is a light side to all of this, which is the idea of justice, and justice can and indeed must spread into our most intimate relationships. Remember, though, when you stand up for fairness, do so in a way that is fair. If you want truth, be truthful. If you want partnership on level ground, then be that partner, first and foremost.

 

Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Your life seems to be hanging in the balance, and you may be experiencing some situations as being unusually polarized. This might be showing up as a ‘me versus them’ scenario. You also seem incredibly restless, which is why you may feel like you have interests that are different from those of others, who themselves may be feeling restless and counting on you for stability. Sussing out the full equation, I suggest that the thing, the idea or the necessity that everything is teetering on is nourishment. There are many other manifestations of the astrology, though they appear to be superficial. The nourishment factor is the deepest level. You need it every way, such as food, space to yourself, space with others, and sex. Space and sex intersect with the presence of Vesta in Scorpio — though this may be tricky, because there may be so many people around, sex will happen when there is space for it to happen. This is a core element of nourishment, though most would pretend otherwise.

 

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Are you searching for The One? For the ideal counterpart or reflection of yourself who would complete your life that everyone would approve of, which would lead to perfect happiness? Oh good! I didn’t think so. But you may be feeling some social pressure to fulfill that script. You may be seeing many other people around you play out this particular drama, and you certainly know the perils. I would mention that many seemingly lesser aspects of the game amount to the same thing — the search for the one boyfriend or girlfriend instead of a friend or lover, to give one example. I believe and have observed that people can find unusual compatibility, though the search for The One is much different from this. Your relationship life is potentially far more colorful and more fun than anybody’s prewritten script, anything that your friends would recognize, anything that your friends would approve of.

 

Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Do you really want to be the boss? Do you really need to? Despite some recent impulses to that effect, I really don’t think so. Taking authority (in any conventional form of the notion) would be pointless in this situation. Yes, you know things really should be happening a certain way. What you want is cooperation. For that to happen, it would help immensely if you cooperated. Make it a point to work with, collaborate with, and draw inspiration from others. Consider this a special benefit of who you are. Out of these associations, another model of leadership will emerge — something more distinctly collective, made of individuals, self-organized, in which everyone has their unique role. Everyone knows that the world can work this way, and many people have been envisioning this for decades. Even if it’s not happening on a massive scale, it can happen in your life.

 

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — I love the connection between the word ‘authority’ and ‘authorship’. Authority means taking control over something, which is directly related to creating a story. If we add the concept ‘authorized’, that means you certify that the story you are creating is in fact of your own creation, and something you approve of. How would it feel to live this way? You know you want to; you know that the element of story has been vital to your life lately, as has the element of being present for your own power, and also willing to use it. If this makes you nervous, think of it as writing the story you want to tell. The great thing about writing is that it can be rewritten, revised and re-thought-through, and when you are doing this with your whole existence, you know you really are living. You are indeed the author of your own life, so pick up your pen and make contact with the page.

 

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — So many possibilities! So much hesitation. What is going on? That would be a good question to ask yourself. I detect a scenario where you feel as if pursuing the best life has to offer could lead to the worst life has to offer. I think this is a common phenomenon, though for you right now it may be operating in an ‘unconscious’ way. By that, I mean that it may seem like something else, or you have not given language to what you are experiencing. As for those supposedly worst things, they all seem to be shadows cast over desire. Desire is indeed haunted in our society — by various religious perspectives that call it sinful, or attachment, or the cause of all suffering. I suggest you be honest with yourself about what you want, and put it into words so that you can look at them and read them back to yourself. You may need to go through several layers of desire to get to the core of the onion; or you may recognize a distinct, unique constellation that says something that only you understand.

 

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — The question of Self is written all over the sky right now. Many people offer the idea that all love is rooted in selflove, though there is a question lurking behind that — at what point does selflove become narcissism? I will tell you — it doesn’t. They are two different things, both of which are part of our psyches and part of our environment. Often narcissism describes the lack of selflove, which is how you can identify it. Yet there is that part of the psyche that must focus exclusively on its own experience; that must admire itself in a fully self-absorbed way, which is different from the gentler and subtler light of actually loving oneself. Narcissism is a problem, but the bigger question is what to do about it. Loving oneself is part of the solution, though I think that indulging the full experience in a fully conscious way can be helpful. Consider the possibility that your life is all about you. Consider the idea that existence is a reflection of the fact that you exist and nothing more. I am not saying this is true — I’m saying it’s worth running through your biocomputer and seeing what you get back.

 

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You’re getting the message to take charge, though you may feel like you’re headed for some obstacle you presently cannot see. That may be true, though to me it looks more like a point of contact where you actually get to accomplish something, make a change or take control of your destiny. There are two distinct sides to Aquarius. One is the egalitarian, we’re-all-in-this-together side. The other more resembles a drill sergeant. You’ll need to draw upon elements of both to make the most of the astrology that will be coursing through your chart like lightning the next couple of weeks. Remember that all groups need leaders, even if their only role is to focus the agenda and the conversation. Leaders are wise to draw their power from the consent of the governed, making it clear that leadership is an act of service. Get permission from those you would supervise, take charge and get things going.

 

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — You seem to crave bonding to a creative project, and I suggest you tie the knot. You may have several choices, but you know the one that you want as your primary devotion. Like any devotion, this will require what some would consider sacrifice, though this looks more like arranging your life around the commitment. You have plenty of energy — I really mean more than you need, so you actually have the mojo that you need to tune your life to the occasion. All of this coincides with some new horizons opening up on the work front. There seems to be something happening on a scale that you are unaccustomed to, at least any time lately, and it may feel a little daunting — though I suggest you not be daunted, and rather align yourself with the highest and best possibilities. That is your path to the highest and best results.