A Time for Examining Truth
The New Moon phases this year have occurred in mid-month, giving the light of the Full Moons to the beginning of the calendar month. August 1, the Full Moon in Aquarius, and Sun in Leo, put emphasis on our social lives and the opportunity to offer the best of ourselves to the community and to collaborate with others to benefit our shared interests. Leo is generous. Aquarius is intelligent and ready to serve. Summer is the season for community gatherings and social affairs where we find our allies. The first week of August can get us motivated to clean up, sort, and organize with a plan in mind.
Mercury is in its own sign Virgo, influencing scrutiny, detailed assessments, and cool resistance in negotiations, as it opposes Saturn, retrograde in early Pisces. Saturn is the planet of authority, judgment, and blockages, bringing many situations to a slow crawl. We will see the literal events, like roads submerged in flood waters. Proceed with caution and thoughtfulness.
Mercury will station retrograde on August 23, steadily slowing, but will hold its dignity power in Virgo until early October. The value of Mercury gives focused diligence, to pick out rational questions and finding the resolution to problems, to negotiate the best deal. Mercury in Virgo analyzes, defines, magnifies, refines, and specifies. This will begin a season of inquiries, meetings, and testimonies.
Mars, also traveling in Virgo since mid-July, expresses the warrior energy in the sign of strategy, with detailed plans, and military-precise movements, displaying the bravado of skilled actions. Mars makes a friendly trine aspect to Jupiter, seeking a truthful flow of information in the first weekend of August. This Earth trine loves sharing the details to piece together the whole picture, giving scale and perspective to related events.
Consider the tone and delivery of your words, your body language, and the power of attitude during these hot summer weeks of mid-August. Mercury will come short of fully meeting Mars in the perfectionistic sign. Mercury is communication in all forms. Mars is action, force of intention, willfulness, and in Mercury’s sign it can be vocally abusive with criticism. Mars is fast, impulsive, and can be cutting in words and volume. Did I mention competitive?
Venus rules things of value, currency, and attraction, seeking harmony, coherence, and cooperation. While Venus is retrograde, these qualities are a bit reduced and diminished, or reexamined and revalued. The Sun-Venus conjunction occurs on August 13 at 20 Leo and in square aspect to Uranus in Taurus. Then, New Moon on August 15 is at 23 Leo and will emphasize the Uranian sparks of the energy of revolution and challenging the old order of systems, desperate to hold on to all they have built.
Even with Venus retrograde, there is an exciting energy of chemistry with this aspect of awakening, surprises, and the latest information through the second week of August. This is the second of three contacts of this aspect, suggesting that it takes time and further information for society to take in this awakening information. The final act is September 30. Venus is under the Sun’s rays until the end of August when it will rise before the Sun and will station direct on September 4, the same day Jupiter stations retrograde. They are in a challenging square aspect in resistant fixed signs. Jupiter is standing for Truth with a capital T. It is in the middle of the sign associated with money, currency, and value exchange. Venus in Leo leans toward protecting what we value.
On August 22nd, the Sun enters Virgo, as Mars, late in the sign, opposes Neptune in Pisces. This may be something that we question or want to deny. Neptune in the USA chart is at 22 Virgo and square to the USA Mars. This has been a signature of the “war for oil.”
The next day, Mercury turns retrograde while trining Uranus. Watch this late period of August for any number of WOW disclosures and major boat rocking in high places, reaching further than the USA. Mercury retrograding back through Virgo, where it has traveled all month, is mining for gold in the form of information and uncovering deceptions, corruption, and misinformation. This is the area of the ninth house in the USA chart, representing foreign relationships and legal matters.
On Sunday, August 27, Mars moves into Libra, Venus’ other sign of information, making agreements and collaborating with good intentions. As transiting Mars enters Libra, it crosses the Midheaven of the USA chart, suggesting that there is something to “fight for.” Uranus stations retrograde the next day. Then, we get a second Full Moon in the sign Pisces, with Saturn nearby, and in a challenging aspect to the USA natal Uranus. This reactivates the national theme of freedom.
All this energy makes us want to try to make sense of an overload of information that seems muddled or convoluted and intentionally hard to understand. With this, we move on into September with a certain amount of public interest in getting more clarity on some excessively big National issues.
Norma Jean Ream
Norma Jean Ream Bio
Norma Jean Ream has been a resident of Kalapana SeaView since 1988. Astrology has been her passion since 1970. She has a B.A. in Astrological Studies East and West from Kepler College and NCGR Level 4 Certification. Her specialty is in Traditional Western astrology, and she writes articles on Mundane (world events) for her own website, www.AstrologyHawaii.com. She wrote and taught a course in Traditional Astrology for IAA, an online college for seven years. She serves clients with a variety of offerings including personal consultations, Electional timing, Relocation decisions, Horary questions, and Children’s Charts for Parents.
