The planetary tension eases this week giving us an opportunity to focus on digesting recent developments. With six planets retrograde (including Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), we’re still deep in review looking at what is important and determining if priorities need shifting. The process of realistically assessing the landscape of our lives can bring realizations of what needs to be recalibrated so we can move in the direction we want to go. By the time Mercury turns direct on August 18, we should be ready to make those determinations with respect to Mercury matters, including how we perceive and communicate. Mercury also governs the mind’s data processing functions that correlate to learning and how we formulate belief systems that frame our life in this physical reality. Mercury turning direct as it reaches its furthest elongation from the Sun commences the “Promethean Direct” phase of its cycle, which correlates to mental activity being at its most intense. The mental energy we built up during the review period, it is now ready to be deployed so we can turn our internal decisions into reality. We have free will, of course, so knowing what needs to be done doesn’t mean we’re committed to doing it. If we stubbornly resist, we will simply repeat the same lessons endlessly. However, if we allow our inner wisdom to lead us, this phase represents a time of greater mental peace because what is required to progress through the rest of the cycle is now known, and that brings joy as well as an eagerness to get on with the matters at hand. Clarity is a profound accelerator.
On the same day Mercury turns stationary, it forms an exact sextile to Venus in Libra, which infuses our clarity with a sense of inclusiveness. This means that whatever we decide to do, is more likely to manifest if we take others into consideration. Also, with Mercury in sunny Leo and Venus in amiable Libra, we may feel uplifted as we creatively riff off each other in conversation. If the issues we’ve been reviewing during the retrograde period require working them out with another person, we could experience greater ease in expressing the heart as well as the logic in our choices and implement them with enthusiasm and sense of fun. Strong in the sign it rules, Venus represents the process by which we actualize the beauty, harmony and love of spirit in our life. Its alignment with Mercury at this potent turning point therefore could bring about a recognition of how united we are with others in our spiritual intent.
Enhancing this perceptual shift, Jupiter in Scorpio forms the third and last waning trine to Neptune in Pisces on August 19. This supportive phase of the Jupiter/Neptune cycle began in December 2017 with the first exact alignment and had a second peak in May 2018. With the final exact alignment unfolding now we may experience full integration of new truths revealed over the past months. The archetype of Jupiter seeks wisdom through expansion into new territory that includes the realm of visionary ideas. In Scorpio, Jupiter’s search for truth is intensified and encourages us to delve deeply within. The Neptune archetype represents an awareness of our individual existence connecting to a reality beyond the physical. In its home sign of Pisces, Neptune’s quality of all-inclusive connectedness with an enchanted universe is amplified. In the immediate wake of the August 11 Total Solar Eclipse (see last AstroCast), the Jupiter/Neptune planetary pair is working on subtle yet profound levels to open our awareness to the nature of our Being and our purpose in this lifetime. It wants us to know that our life on earth is not an isolated, solitary blip of physical existence, but that we are acting in concert with the anima mundiscribing one individualized movement in a cosmic symphony in the making that has evolutionary implications greater than anything we can imagine. Jupiter teaches us to expand our awareness so we may become more comfortable with encountering the unknown. Neptune teaches us to be conscious of greater and greater wholes of which each of us has a vital role. Meditating on these archetypes can bring about an experience of being one with it all, an experience however brief that can inspire us to stay on the path of truth and wisdom. Pay attention to dreams, visions and even the most mundane symbolic messages. These come from the quiet voice of inner wisdom leading us on the path of love, which is the only real truth.
Here’s the datafor the major aspects this week (Pacific Time, rounded to the nearest whole degree unless otherwise noted).
August 18 – Mercury sextile Venus at 12°Leo/Libra at 8:36 a.m.
August 18 – Mercury station direct at 12°Leo at 9:25 p.m.
August 19 – Jupiter trine Neptune at 16°Scorpio/Pisces at 12:48 a.m.
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