The Astrology of August 2023: Critical To The Mix

Leading up to Venus’ retrograde station, as she was slowing down the nodes slipped into the Libra/Aries axis, placing the Dragon’s Tail into her diurnal domicile. The reality gate of everything queuing up to exit the manifest world situated into the sign of the Scales, meaning that for the next eighteen and a half months refinement would have to be brought to the balance and harmony of things in relation to each other. This would require pulling some things drastically down or totally out of the mix to get an equalization in the composition much less maximilaized and sounding startlingly more sublime. Venus rules what we resonate with, which runs largely on aesthetic qualities, so think like Scott Walker here and in Aries North Node fashion exit the Walker Brothers into a solo career, obsess over your recording sessions and strive for something uncompromising to your own taste and vision. If your record is going to hit for you and no one else then it’s got to be coherently crafted and you likely have to go through some dark night of the soul with it for your own Holy Spirit to reveal to you the nuances which direct you on your incarnated path so you can express what you came to this mortal coil to express. The record metaphor might be literal for some but of course I’m ultimately talking about being the enigmatic producer overseeing the mix mastering of your life as a whole. With Venus retrograde re-evaluating the spiritual central intelligence of Leo ruling not only the South Node but also Jupiter coherent of the methodological philosophy of momentum building sensory craft in Taurus and in turn Jupiter lording over holistic and atmospheric Pisces where Saturn is attempting to let go of some control and figure out how to strategically add form to the flow so as to stabilize and sustain a flow state that installs a productive flow state augmenting the general vibe.

So, if you’re no longer vibing with the horn section you arranged and recorded at some point in the last eight years as you see things a different way from the place you’ve found yourself over the last twelve years and things lingering from the last nineteen-ish years really need to be discarded of it might be time to strike an incendiary match and accept that your taking a new pathway once and for all. Of course, as this is Venus ruling Jupiter and hopefully somewhat subduing the Greater Malefic, go easy on this change of heart, and find real opportunities for pathways to flow your way so you might catch a wave towards the direction your energy wants to go and your attention is leading you. As Leo season has arrived its worth remembering that FIRE, the energetic layer of metaphysical composition, does not answer to the other three elements. It is not rational like AIR and not practical like EARTH nor is it concerned with safety and comfort like WATER. I find there can be some confusion with locating what the energy wants to do sometimes, as people attempting to connect with their heart mistakenly tap into their watery dimension and listen to their needs and directives of care. FIRE is not about care, but instead about excitement, enthusiasm, motivation, urge, inspiration. We can sometimes get excited about an idea, or a well devised plan, but this is FIRE in interplay with AIR or EARTH. In this acute re-evaluation process of what your animating spirit wants, resonates with, values and is attracted to it is important to isolate the FIRE inside us and see what it is in its raw form so that we have the vision and focus of desire with which to inform our objectives as they are fed to Jupiter, Saturn and the South Node’s expression in our lives. We encounter FIRE biologically within our bodies everyday when we are hungry or horny, the need fires which keep us participating in the manifest world, the digestive fire and the libido. In Leoline form, go to the heart-mind and find your spiritual center and feel for what is exciting and inspiring to your sacred incarnated purpose. When I say spiritual I don’t mean in the moralistic or virtue based sense, instead I mean the unfiltered raw animating energy’s selfish and ego driven directives unfiltered and unmitigated by any other factor. In the end this distributes to the wise and sagacious Jupiter in practical Taurus then to the limiting and boundary driven Saturn in Pisces, so don’t worry about the extremities of what you might find via a retrograde Venus’ below ecliptic dip, you don’t have to immediately act on what you see inside the inner light. The point here is to dredge up clarity for which to guide the chain of command across life layers so we are drawn towards what truly satisfies us and carries out our soul driven mission.

Victor Tkachenko

The out with the old motif of Venus pinging a point on her eight year synodic cycle, Jupiter always about where he was twelve years ago, that via Leo there is a solar overlay and we also were in the same profection year twelve years prior, and that the South Node is currently following Venus’ lead brings the taking out the last nineteen years’ garbage seems to all be a reflection of Pluto’s generational shifting which is in mid process as he switches from Capricorn to Aquarius, having ingressed the Water Bearer’s sign in March, turned tail and returned to the Goat’s house in June, but goes for another breath of innovative Aquarius in January, hits Cap one last time in September to November 2024 then at last enters Aquarius for the following twenty years. Pluto’s time in Capricorn spans 2008 to 2024 with his Capricorn ingress coinciding with the 2008 recession and subsequent bail outs catalyzed by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Pluto’s initial ingress around Vernal Equinox of 2023 occurred exactly with the failure if the Silicon Valley Bank, shifting the plutocratic power struggles from traditional real estate based institutions to digitally oriented asset classes and tech sector projects. In our personal lives this relocates the background pressure, the unknowns, fears, obsessions, and otherwise ominous external super-gravity, essentially the Dark Matter of our microcosm, over from whatever house Capricorn falls in for us to whichever one Aquarius lands on, meaning a considerable emphasis on one life layer is moving to another life layer. The world at large is going through a shift in concert with the more general Triplicity Shift from an EARTH period to an AIR period, and this Plutonian component alters the distribution of stress in our nativities harmonized to the extractions from what is hanging in the balance as the South Node releases outdated shapes in Libra.

The first Libra eclipse doesn’t actually take place until October, so for now focus on locating the flavors that resonate with what you desire authentically free of any filters which could obscure your total clarity. Venus retrogrades reflect everyone differently, depending on their placements, but in general I find them to be not inherently negative, more a kind of re-evaluation and discovery phase, although what we find can be awkward for us especially in how relations are playing out with those we are in relationship with. We are attracted to things we might not normally be and are likewise not attracted to that which we normally are. Usually by the cazimi, or conjunction with the Sun we arrive at the profound element of our fancy which gets incorporated into our palette and from thenceforth augments our future creations. This is like a painter including a bold new color into their work, from the outside perspective it might mark the beginning of their Red period and take the rest of their canon into a brighter and more personally oriented direction. In the context of the rest of the elements at play, we are finding what satisfies us on a selfishly pure scale within a world that has become increasingly alienating in its progression into digitalized alienation and as authoritarianism has recently slackened we seek to find a flow state where we hope to prepare substantial and stable things during a time of structural uncertainty. What do you truly want now? Why do you want that? What do you want about it? Find the resonating energy which charges the central circuit.

Manuel Mathieu

I’ve noticed in my client practice that professional art critics frequently have Venus retrograde natally. Another metaphor helpful for the moment might be to imagine that your life is a great soiree, ball or gala event and that you are the creative director in charge of curating it. You are auditioning entertainment, selecting decor, making cuisine choices. People come to you presenting possibilities and you have to taste, touch or try this or that to decide if it fits the overall schema and central theme of the affair.

Changes of taste can result in changes of diet, and between Leo and Libra is Virgo, where corrections to the process and operation occur. We might be attracted to returning to ancestral diets, but when we look into holistic health traditions habituation is a factor and when you wish to eliminate an ingredient and introduce others you have to perform the replacement gradually, rather than suddenly switch overnight. This goes even for the ingestions of toxins; ween yourself off slowly. For an individual this could be over the course of days, or weeks or months, but for an entire culture or society this is likely a much longer process. Ancestral diets might lack foods which have come into our bodies through the advent of agriculture and industrialization, and so even though eating wheat or potatoes might have given us dental issues, to return to pre-bronze age diets instantly shocks the cultural pattern. This occurs across the spectrum. Everything we apprehend with our senses we must digest physically as well as ethereally. Return to balance will require the reduction of what does not resonate energetically in the coherence of stable, quality substance across the subtle field as a whole. Rug pulls in the balance are obviously too abrupt and set the scales in swing disrupting the harmony. With the North Node in Aries this will be exactly the case, but as the Nodal events are a fast forward button of the dynamic playing out in reality in general, we must heed but while maintaining grace. As Mars rules the North Node and is in digestion concerned Virgo, where the Sun, Mercury (and eventually Venus) all plan to go on their next sign change leading up to this falls Libra eclipse, tactical action to correct the particulate sorting process and engineering of the operation of our metaphysical, metaphorical and literal stomachs to the minutia is a component of the holistic array playing out.

Wangechi Mutu

Heres a brief blow by blow of what’s on the astrological menu for August

8/1/23:

-Full Moon Aquarius: Blossoming of the decentralized, conceptual, and hypothetical: Expressed via Saturn in Pisces adding form to the flow, augmented by Jupiter increasing the baseline substance, organized around a re-evaluation of what is authentic desire and true aesthetic. As this is the opposite sign from Leo the spectrum of what is generally celebrated, crowd pleasing, fizzy band sparkly warm hearted fun for just anyone versus the hypothetical, conceptual, avant garde, ideas running among fringe networks of like, minded, cutting edge innovators. When you’re on the Leo end the Aquarius end looks pretentious and trying too hard and when your on the Aquarius end Leo looks basic and just a flash in the pan. Prepare to be inspired to express your self and feel like no one gets you except for a couple other people. If you can, use the polarity axis to gain good perspective on the whole situation.

-Mars trine Jupiter: Detailed tactical action and precise critical corrections harmonized with expansion of baseline coherence and substance growth

-Mercury opposite Saturn: the challenge to balance analytical processes and operations with letting go to find a form in the flow and stabilize the vibe. This is maybe a correction and organization moment relating to the more impulsive or brutish handling of the fine instruments from when Mars was in this aspect a couple weeks prior.

Guy Hepner

8/2/23

-Moon opposite Venus RX: Decentralized needs, abstract experience and need to pioneer balancing with re-evaluations of heart concepts and life purpose desires.

8/6/23

-Sun square Jupiter: Authentic performance of self clashing with expansion of substance baseline and methodological philosophies. The way you see yourself and your view of the world in tension with the real world opportunities present these days.

8/9/23

-Venus square Uranus: Re-evaluations of authentic desire clashing with instability and radical shifts in the baseline rhythm.

--Mercury trine Jupiter: Analytical or technical processes and operations harmonized with coherence of methodologies.

8/13/23

-Venus RX cazimi: 7:10 am: Moment of understanding the nuance of new flavor encountered which augments the entire personal palette.

Wangechi Mutu

8/14/23

-Venus RX trine Chiron: Re-evaluation of authentic desire harmonized to uneasy discomfort and individual healing process.

8/15/23

-Sun square Uranus: Performance of self expression clashing with radical shifts in the baseline rhythms. Signal jammed in how you want to be seen in the turbulence of the current material world.

8/16/23

-New Moon in Leo: initiation of emotional cycle and contemplation of authenticity and central energetic intelligence.

-Mars trine Uranus: Tactical action and precise critical response in operations harmonized to radical changes and experiments with the baselines.

8/22/23

-Venus RX square Jupiter: Re-evaluation of authentic desire clashing with coherence and growth of methodology and substance.

-Mars opposite Neptune: The challenge to balance tactical action and precise critical response in operations with free flowing fantasy, projection and high saturation awareness.

8/23/23

-Sun ingress Virgo: Attention to processes and operations.

-Mercury stations RX: Rethinking, reorganizing and correcting the details of the processes underway.

Wangechi Mutu

8/24/23

-Mars trine Pluto: Tactical action and precise critical response in operations harmonized with ominousness, mystery, unknowns and obsession in historical structures and management of stratagem.

8/27/23

-Mars ingress Libra: Critical response and tactical action in relationality, culture, the arts and general equalization and balance.

Dali

8/30/23

Full Moon in Pisces: Blossoming of subjective experience in the atmosphere, vibe, flow of things, moment of nostalgia and romanticism and large emotions in the field, an empathic episode. This is close to Saturn so the need to accept, let go, add form to the flow state and be responsible for the general vibe as well as monitoring your empathic responses and regulating your emotional saturation.