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“Volatile” would be a good word to describe the chart of this Full Moon, and because there is an eclipse, we should pay close attention, since eclipse charts are generally in effect for several months to a year. You need only read the news on any given day to see the dramatic changes and upheavals that have accompanied the square of Uranus and Pluto that has been in effect for a few years now. This eclipse activates that square, and lights a fire under it through a Fire grand trine. Find the chart here, if you want to follow along.

Creative Fire

We have an interesting confluence of energies coming up this week. First, Pluto goes direct at 8:37 pm on the 22nd (all times EDT). Then, less than two hours later, the Sun enters Libra, giving us Pluto stationing direct in the Libra Ingress chart on a Dark Moon. Just over a day later, there is a New Moon, still on the sensitive Aries Point at 1 degree of Libra. (The Aries Point is zero degrees of any cardinal sign. Anything within a degree and a half or two degrees of that point is given strength and emphasis, and gets things moving)

The cardinal ingress charts — in other words, the charts of the solstices and equinoxes — are usually predictive for the next three months. (Occasionally, they will be in effect for longer — the influence is more like a tide than a line drawn in the sand.) A New Moon chart that is not an eclipse is predictive for the month ahead, and Pluto going stationary direct is…well, you know how hitting just the right note can set up a vibration that shatters glass? Listen as Pluto’s hum changes key and increases in volume now that he and Uranus are once again heading towards each other. They meet in their next exact square December 15th.

Take your ordination in the rains from heaven and the winds of change that have gathered around us. Let it come, this new world. As I have written before–these are the times we are made for.
~ Byron Ballard
 
The Virgo New Moon happens tomorrow, August 25th — you can find the chart here. Before I get into the analysis, I want to emphasize again that lunation (New and Full Moon) charts can be worked with on an individual level to bring out the most positive characteristics of the planetary alignments, even if the chart has numerous difficult aspects. On a wider, country-wide level, however, on the larger social/political/economic stage, we are likely to see the difficult aspects manifesting in difficult ways more often than not. When a chart is cast for an entire country — as I do with these lunation charts, which are cast for the USA — you’ll see the issues highlighted in the chart reflected in the news, in the national conversations, in your life and the lives of those around you, but in differing degrees and in different ways.

Obviously, not everyone is going to be equally affected. For instance, in my post on the recent Full Moon, I said there would be widespread flooding in the country, as indeed, there has been — widespread and record-setting. But not everyone has been flooded out, and some people are more strongly affected by these events than others. I also spoke of the need to deal with anger in that same post, and you may have experienced feelings and/or incidents  of anger in your life, or seen it manifest in the lives of those around you. Certainly anger has been at the center of the national conversation around Ferguson, MO, entrenched racism, and the militarization of the police. Much depends on the birth chart of a person, or even a town. (The incorporation chart of Ferguson, MO, for instance, is being strongly aspected by current transits and lunations.)

We need not feel ashamed of flirting with the zodiac.  The zodiac is well worth flirting with.  ~D.H. Lawrence

I find that a lot of people shy away from astrology because they believe it is based on incorrect astronomy, and so cannot possibly give accurate information. Perhaps they’ve seen a video by Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson taking about how the constellations don’t line up with the signs anymore, and that pesky “extra” constellation (or two). Unfortunately, both Nye and Tyson are clearly ignorant about astrology — a great deal more ignorant than most astrologers are about astronomy. We are not only fully aware of the positions of the constellations, the precession of the equinoxes and the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun (OK, I’ll try to tone back the sarcasm) but astrology is divided into two major branches based on how we deal with the constellations (groupings of stars) and the precession of the equinoxes.

I’m not going to address the different types of sidereal astrology, of which Vedic astrology is one. Sidereal astrology carefully makes allowances for the precession of the equinoxes, because it works with the positions of the signs relative to the constellations. I’m going to explain the basis of Western astrology, a tropical astrology, which determines the position of the signs relative to the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth. I find that a number of astrology students worry about learning the “technical” side, but while the math of astrology can get complex, the basic astronomy really isn’t very difficult to understand, and understanding it will give you considerably more insight into the craft than you could possibly have without it. So I encourage you to take a deep breath and jump into the learning — I’ll make this as easy as possible. Ready? OK, let’s start.

Meanwhile, back on Earth…

Like many astrologers, I took a look at Robin Williams’ chart last night, because I found myself wondering what sort of a man he was underneath the tremendous talent, what pressures he was currently under, and also to consider — again — the personal and cultural realities that can drive people to take their own lives. (If you want to follow along, the chart is here.)

The first thing that jumps out from his chart is the preponderance of planets at the top of the chart, a southern hemisphere emphasis (yes, when you are looking at a chart, the southern hemisphere of the chart is on top. Just put yourself in the center of the chart, as if you were going to cast a circle. Face East, toward the Ascendant. Now face South. Yep, there you are.) A large number of planets in this area of the chart generally indicates someone whose life is inextricably entwined with the collective, often to the point where their personal will is subsumed in the needs and desires of others. This is, of course, often the case with celebrities, especially those who, like Williams, tend to be deeply emotional and empathetic. And that’s the second thing that jumps out at us about this chart.

 “Not for ourselves alone are we born”
~Marcus Tullius Cicero

Full Moons are not in effect for long — usually just until the next New Moon — nor are they generally as powerful as New Moons, but this one, happening Sunday, August 10 at 2:10 pm EDT, looks to be more powerful than most. The chart (cast for Washington, DC, and so predictive for the entire USA) shows an emphasis on the ninth house of legalities, religion and foreign policy. Problems come from two difficult planets (Mars and Saturn) conjunct in an often difficult house (the twelfth),  in the fixed — and often difficult — sign of Scorpio. The focus of this Full Moon is on balancing the needs of self – or Self – with the needs of others, or the collective.

Do you remember the story of Odysseus, who had to navigate his ship between the six-headed sea monster, Scylla, and the whirlpool Charybdis? I suspect quite a few of us will be feeling that energy in our lives soon, if we aren’t already, and, as with Odysseus, the only option is to make a choice. Figuring out what action to take means we need to take time to reflect — but not too much time, because events will call us to take action. You’ll need to steer a careful, attentive course through the choices that are presented to you in the upcoming weeks.

The planetary alignment that is energizing these navigational hazards is the station of Saturn and Uranus within less than half a degree of an inconjunct (150 degree) aspect with each other, July 20-21. Saturn in Scorpio is stationing direct, Uranus in Aries, retrograde. The inconjunct is not one of the most powerful aspects, but it packs a punch, and this close, with these two powerful planets almost motionless in the sky and in tight aspect for over a month, I expect it to shake things up a bit. Jupiter will also have moved into Leo a few days before the planetary stations, and Mercury will be out of its shadow from the last retrograde, joined by Venus in Cancer.  So the overall energy is going to change fairly dramatically in mid-July.