An astrologer might add, “It was the benefics ruling the sky, it was the malefics ruling the sky.” This week the contradictory forces of the beginning of Mars’ retrograde and the end of Jupiter’s come into focus. If things were simple, Mars The Malefic would be type-casted as the bringer of supernatural destruction, and Jupiter, The Greater Benefic, as the bestower of good fortune. But life, the heavens and the times we find ourselves in are much more complicated right now, and we are going to have to find our way through their paradoxes.
Sun in Virgo
Forecast Aug 31-Sep 6, 2020: Stepping Into The Twilight Zone
Emmy-Award-winning writer and host Rod Serling’s description of TV’s “The Twilight Zone” series aptly applies to 2020. This week’s astrological highlights include a full Moon in Pisces, a tough Venus square to Mars and sign changes for Mercury and Venus. At first glance, those sign changes seem like promising infusions of welcomed, new energies. After all, Mercury and Venus are moving into the yang, or positive polarity, signs of Leo and Libra. However, due to its forthcoming retrograde, Mercury is entering territory that it will traverse and revisit from now until November 10th, territory that will ultimately entangle Venus. In addition to their associated delays, miscommunications and technical malfunctions, Mercury retrogrades typically frustrate our intentions to fully resolve matters. Throw in heaps of Libra’s infamous indecision, and you can start to see how issues that are coming to the fore now may well be heading into a kind of cosmic twilight zone. Forming an overarching autumn vision now, or at least a solid game plan, isn’t a bad idea.
Forecast Aug 24-30, 2020: Holding On To Your Steering Wheel
The leadup to next week’s full Moon (late Sep 1st MST) may at times feel like driving behind an 18-wheeler on the freeway, while cargo is falling out of the truck. There is one group of aspects helping us stay focused on our destination and road conditions, and there’s another tossing out the packages. As the saying goes, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Under a Virgo Sun, getting organized for the oncoming obstacles is easier than usual. Signaling that we’re indeed in for a bumpy ride, this week begins with a Mars square to Saturn at a seismic 26 degrees.
Forecast Aug 17-23, 2020: Reaching For Reason
This week Mercury, the Moon and the Sun encounter the ferocious fires of Leo, at their climax, before moving into orderly, rational Virgo. When shifting from fixed fire to mutable earth, we get the chance to distill passion into manageable, practical actions.
Sep 16-22, 2019: Not Going Gentle Into That Good Night
The last week of 2019’s Virgo Sun cycle will be anything but the calm, cool and collected version of the mutable earth sign. That’s because the week will see Uranus make a lunar conjunction, Saturn turn direct, Mars and Pluto combine their considerable forces and the year’s final Jupiter square to Neptune. This is some Virgo housekeeping on an order of magnitude that we have not seen for quite some time.