The Astrology of August 2012 - for Everyone

The Astrology of August 2012 

Course Correction

As many already know, between January 2008 and February 2011 the three, powerful outer planets all made very important ingresses. They have now settled into their new signs. The disruptions connected with these ingresses have ended, but our lives will be in a state of continual transformation for the foreseeable future.

The new planetary arrangement supports complex, rapid, systematic change. For the foreseeable future, it will keep things unstable enough to motivate change and fluid enough to permit change. It will not keep things unstable or fluid enough to cause outright disaster. It will produce changes so pervasive and on such a scale that all of our lives will inevitably be significantly affected.

All change is stressful. Continuous change of this magnitude will be especially stressful. The cumulative effects of these stresses will test everyone’s stress-management and life-management skills. We must be mindful that those with low levels of such skills, or none at all, could crack under the continuing strain.

Some of us have the luxury of gaging the relative difficulty of each passing month, noting which area of our lives the planets are focusing on. For many, though, it is just one darned thing after another. An a continuing accumulation of stresses and challenges, one blending indistinguishably with the next.

Sweet and Sour

The charts for June and July were both dominated by bad news (June’s more than July’s), August’s chart contains good news and bad news. The supportive aspects are sufficient to counter the worst effects of the bad aspects and enough to give many of us a leg up and a way to avoid the worst outcomes.

Combined, the difficult aspects motivate us to make changes and the positive aspects help us re-position ourselves. It presents us with an unusual, paradoxical combination of frustration and opportunity.

First the Bad News

As I run through the challenges in the chart, please keep in mind that this is only the “bad news” portion of the analysis.

Pressure Cooker

There are two Full Moons in August, 29 days apart: August 2nd and August 31. That will increase psychological pressure significantly.

August’s chart is dominated by what I call a Double “Hard Yod,” forming a species of hard six-pointed star. (A single Hard Yod us made up of a square and two sesquiquadrates.)

It is a blocking structure comparable to those in the charts for June and July. It will produce interpersonal friction and seemingly irresolvable dilemmas.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Technically speaking, this chart, at its most basic, contains a number of broad but potentially very difficult, disruptive oppositional relationships.

The destructive and disruptive energies of these oppositional relationships is harnessed by a single difficult but much less dangerous structure, the Double Hard Yod, which is itself embedded in a matrix of supportive aspects.

The Double Hard Yod and the supportive aspects in which it is embedded, bring the difficult energies of these oppositions into tense but productive relationship. Amidst the head-butting and grudging compromise, and the building of brittle consensus, we should remain mindful that disaster is being averted.

The Makings of a Perfect Storm

The Double Hard Yod, which embraces almost every point in the chart, continues many themes familiar from June and July and earlier. It has a strong subjective, psychological and spiritual emphasis. It also foretells the onset of significant economic changes on the day-to-day, grassroots level.

Taken by itself, the six-pointed, Double Hard Yod depicts a perfect storm of existential fears, psychological and spiritual turmoil, economic challenges, turf warfare, political conflict and generic power struggles.

The blocking structure prevents an outright blow up, but, taken by itself, it makes resolution of conflict or the achievement of clarity and certainty virtually impossible.

The following is a list of the influences caught up in the Double Hard Yod, the difficult and dangerous ingredients, the bad news in August’s good news/bad news chart.

• Neptune is on the Ascendant, close by Chiron. Personal identity becomes even more fluid and indistinct. Our involvement in the world around us grows more tenuous and tentative. Events make us increasingly aware of our frailty and vulnerability. Many of us will withdraw, or continue to withdraw, psychologically.

• Pluto and the Moon are in the 10th house. Authority figures become obsessed with maintaining control.

• Mars is closely conjunct Saturn in the 8th house, with less than one degree of separation. This causes sharp disagreement over financial issues: taxes, social programs, pensions, insurance, etc. It also points to explosive levels of frustration over continuing lack of progress in important financial areas. Taken by itself, this is a potentially violent, distinctly revolutionary vibe.

• The Sun is in Leo in the 6th house, near the Descendant. The ego is heavily dependent on the opinions of others. Leadership and independent action will be suppressed.

• A South Node stellium (including Lilith, Jupiter, Vesta, Ceres and the South Node) clusters near the cusp of the 4th house. This will cause confusion on the level of core psychological and spiritual issues.

People will continue to experience high levels of inner turmoil. Psychological and spiritual transformations will deepen and intensify. In some cases, this could lead to desperate, irrational acts. Confusion about nurturance issues, about providing the essentials of life for ourselves, our families and our neighbors, will continue.

Revolution on Main Street

• Uranus and Pallas are in Aries in the 2nd house. Radical, revolutionary new patterns of economic thought and behavior are emerging on Main Street and at the grass roots level. This dynamic adds concrete, material ingredients to what is an otherwise highly subjective mix.

For example, Amazon.com is planning same day deliveries in the US. New policies on US credit card transactions are going into effect. In California, local governments plan to seize troubled mortgages from investors using the power of eminent domain in order to lower payments for home owners.

But we should probably also expect to see revolutionary, reform-oriented actions of various kinds in the retail realm. I have in mind recent demonstrations against Chick-Fil-A for the anti-gay policies of its owner. Main Street could once again become the favored venue for political action.

Each of the influences just discussed is challenging in its own right. Each is embedded in a single, integrated blocking structure, moderating the influences and bringing them into tense, but productive relationship.

This integrated, blocking structure, is further embedded in a matrix of helpful, supportive aspects.

The Good News

The charts for June and July were dominated almost exclusively by hard, challenging aspects (June’s more than July’s). August’s chart, by contrast includes a fairly strong mix of protective, facilitating aspects and at least one major source of positive synchronicity.

The supportive aspects are not strong enough to overwhelm the difficult ones. But they do further moderate the destructive potential of the individual elements.

June and July required us to “bite the bullet.” In August, opportunity will tend to dovetail with need, smoothly enough, at least, to get us passed the rapids. Windows will open when doors close.

• At 0 d. 44 m. Pisces, the Part of Fortune is exactly conjunct the Ascendant. This is a powerful source of positive synchronicity.

• Neptune is powerfully placed in Pisces, its home sign, very close to the Ascendant and the Part of Fortune. When associated with such a positive influence, Neptune is a source of mysterious good fortune.

Since both Neptune and the Part of Fortune are so close to the Ascendant, August’s chart is suffused with a subtle and persistent kind of positive synchronicity. Things will tend to work out in mysterious ways, for mysterious reasons.

Better Than It Looks

The Double Hard Yod involved almost all of the points in August’s chart. Similarly, almost all the points in August’s chart are tied into this sturdy, resilient matrix of supportive aspects, of trines and sextiles. This would include all the points involved in the Double Hard Yod, discussed above.

This means that all of the difficult and uncomfortable situations likely to be created by the Double Hard Yod will come with ready-made workarounds. Not solutions, but workarounds, stopgaps, detours, temporary fixes.

August will not bring the grand resolution we all hope is somewhere in our future. Rather, it will bring a mosaic, or, perhaps, a crazy-quilt, of new, workable arrangements, or accommodations - temporary ones. Something will allow us to muddle through, keep going, at least for now, probably longer.

There is a certain headlong, willy-nilly, improvisational quality to August’s chart. Choices are difficult, yet people must act, if only tentatively and commit, if only temporarily. People will have to move fast and without much in the way of advance notice. As in previous months, it will be very difficult to know exactly what is going on at any given moment.

The North Node - In The Eye of a Perfect Storm

The North Node is still in Sagittarius. This month it is in the 9th house. It urges far-seeing, answers to current challenges, answers based on wisdom, experience and scientific study.

The North Node is not tied directly into the Double Hard Yod or the matrix of supportive aspects. It is, by contrast, involved in two angular, oppositional relationships with deeply, deeply confusing influences:

The North Node forms a broad Grand Cross with Neptune on the Ascendant opposing the Sun and Mercury on the Descendant and the South Node Stellium on the IC, at the bottom of the chart. This stellium includes, Lilith, Jupiter, Vesta and Ceres. The overall formation is not very exact, but it is exact enough to affect us.

These adverse relationships set along the power and relationship axes, indicating intense interpersonal and political cross-currents. The planets involved indicate the need to make high stakes moral and material decisions amidst considerable outer confusion and inner turmoil.

In essence, this chart poses a question for all of us. Given a highly fluid, challenging situation, one laced with adequate but temporary solutions, which way will we jump.

Will we move in the direction of the wise, far-seeing, Sagittarius North Node solution?  Or will we slip back into the familiar, comfortable errors of the past and repeat history?

The chart also seems to be promising to give us the results we deserve, based on our choices, so we know quickly whether we are making the right choices or not . . . if we have the eyes to see.

In sum, August’s chart shows us a world enjoying a tenuous respite from its considerable difficulties, staring at the possibility of chaos, searching for order and direction.

[To understand how this month’s North Node affects your natal North Node, think of it as a transiting influence. Gauge its likely effects by the way it aspects your natal Nodes.]

Sign-by-Sign Forecast for August 2012

 Astrology Forecast for August 2012

FOR EVERYONE ~ Resistance is futile.  The creative among us are inventing new and better ways to put the pieces of our lives together, including the financial pieces. Their ideas are going to shake things up. And annoy the powers that be.  We can ignore what they are doing, for awhile.  Or, we can join them and share the benefits and the grief.  Those who don’t are only delaying the inevitable, though. These disruptive little innovations are only the first ripples of a wave of revolutionary change.

SIGN-BY-SIGN

♌ LEO ~ (July 22 - Aug. 21)  People wrangling.  Leo prefers room to maneuver. This month, they’ll only have wiggle room, and not much of that. People are stubborn about what they think they want.  They will have to settle for something else, but they are in no mood to negotiate. Use your Leo super powers to create consensus around something nobody realizes they want, yet.  In some cases, this might only be a willingness to continue looking. Keep long-term financial affairs simple and straightforward. Luck will flow from mysterious sources.

♍ VIRGO ~ (Aug. 22 - Sept. 21) Double due diligence. People think they know what they want and won’t negotiate, much. Things are changing fast, though, and not one of their firmly held preferences seems relevant to anything.  The future depends on these milling masses forming into teams and moving in a realistic direction. Virgo’s ability to see details no one else can and to interpret invisible, rapidly shifting patterns is indispensable, now. Still, even Virgos must be careful about what they choose to believe.  Lady Luck will lend a hand.

♎ LIBRA ~ (Sept. 22 - Oct. 21) Push. Libra is the sign of judgment as well as tact and diplomacy. Sometimes, Libra must make a decision and, well, use force instead of tact to implement it.  You can do a great service by making judgment calls and ‘motivating’ others to go along. People are wasting precious time, rejecting good answers while they search pointlessly for perfect ones. You know intuitively what will work well enough.  Make decisions. Give certain people a little shove in the right direction. Good things will happen.

♏ SCORPIO ~ (Oct. 22 - Nov. 20) Vindication. Your long-term financial affairs will now settle into more stable, reassuring patterns.  You can expect continued success in your efforts to change work habits and personal habits, too. You will also succeed in changing the way other people treat you at work or in any setting where negotiation is required. Scorpio has been impatient with the pace and direction of events. Both people and events will now start vindicating your opinions. You could find yourself in the midst of mysterious and glamorous happenings.

♐ SAGITTARIUS ~ (Nov. 21 - Dec. 20) Outside the box. Challenges appear to be increasing rather than decreasing.  It's getting hard to make sense of tasks that should have been routine. People’s determination to find solutions is increasing too.  But so are frustration levels as real solutions remain elusive. New, innovative ideas are emerging spontaneously among your friends, especially in financial areas. These ideas aren’t fully formed, yet, and many seem merely playful, even whimsical.  Elaborating on these emerging ideas will bring progress where once there were only dead ends.

♑ CAPRICORN ~ (Dec. 21 - Jan. 18)  Forbear. A lot of things would go more smoothly for Capricorns and everyone else if Capricorns could find it in their hearts to take a step back.  It it’s neither possible nor advisable to exert too much control, now. People are trying hard to find a way through current difficulties and they are improvising enthusiastically. Many are coming up with very promising new ideas. You need to give them time to experiment - they’ll take the time anyway and let their promising ideas mature.

♒ AQUARIUS ~ (Jan. 19 - Feb. 17)  Aquarius, Inc.  I never thought Aquarians and finances mixed well. Until now. As you puzzle over your financial situation, others will take a serious interest in what you come up with.  As others puzzle over their finances, many will come up with ideas you could’ve dreamed up. They’ll be willing to fight for these Aquarian notions, too.  You may all end up butting heads with authority. If that happens, dial down the idealism. Needless confrontation could block acceptance of innovative and helpful new ideas.

♓ PISCES ~ (Feb. 18 - Mar. 19)  Leverage. The focus for Pisces is work and income, now. Budgets are tightening. New opportunities are taking shape painfully slowly.  Fortunately, both challenging and supportive influences are all working in your favor.  Pisceans, more than other signs, can help overcome the objections of authority figures to new ideas, on the one hand, and reconcile friends and colleagues to existing limitations, on the other. You can take satisfaction in the knowledge that others can follow the trail you are blazing. Your home environment is supportive.

♈ ARIES ~ (Mar. 20 - Apr. 18)  Fair share. New patterns are emerging in your day-to-day financial affairs. They’ll let you manage your time, energy and other resources more effectively.  You could run into resistance from those who benefited more under the old arrangements.  Obvious ‘imbalances’ have crept in over the years, allowing certain parties to take more than their due. Friendly negotiations are possible.  An appeal for fairness will bring good results.  However, you might have to emphasize the facts of the matter more strongly than is generally considered polite.

♉ TAURUS ~ (Apr. 19 - May 19)  Seek clarity.  Taureans can feel financial conditions in the world around them shifting irresistibly and irreversibly. Pressure is building: significant change is now inevitable in your living and working situations. Recent months brought increased clarity about your personal financial situation. Your financial affairs are in good order, for now.  To keep personal finances in sync with shifting economic trends, you need greater clarity. Decide who you really are and what you really want from life.  Update your ideas about yourself before making final commitments.

♊ GEMINI ~ (May 20 - June 19)  Clearing.  You will experience a surge of optimism and clarity. You will also be able to leave behind attitudes and other habits of mind that have been holding you back.  All of this will help you profit from the new cycle of growth and prosperity that is beginning for you.  But this isn’t just good luck for Gemini. You are remarkably well situated to help others find their way past the obstacles in their paths. A new purity of commitment among Geminis is contagious.

♋ CANCER ~ (June 20 - July 21)  Quiet victories. Cancerians have experienced a quiet personal renewal - a growth in personal empowerment and a renewed sense of purpose.  But old hangups were preventing you from showing the new you to the world.  August will allow Cancerians to draw unhindered upon these new strengths.  It’s happening just in time to help yourself and others break through some major barriers to the realization of important new opportunities.  New insights gained from old friends and youngsters will help you re-imagine your goals for the future.

The Astrology of July 2012 - After Shocks

The Astrology of July 2012

After Shocks

Recap - Set up for Deep Transformations

By now, we all know that the three major, outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, completed highly disruptive sign changes between January 2008 and February 2012. Present planetary arrangements will remain essentially the same for about five years. In that sense, they are stable. Otherwise they are highly disruptive, maintaining a constant state of instability, intense enough to trigger change, but not strong enough to cause outright catastrophe.

We have, then, entered an era of deep transformation. There will be systemic, systematic reform of existing institutions. New institutions will emerge, some affecting individual nations, others affecting whole regions of the world. These trends are already apparent.

For example, in Europe, Angela Merkel is pushing for structural changes in the Eurozone. These energies will get at her at least some and probably a lot of what she wants.

In the US, we are seeing sweeping reforms in the US health care system after all. The Arab Spring is bringing deep political and social transformations to the Arab world.

None of these changes will be followed by a gradual, anti-climactic relapse into old patterns. The new planetary energies are destroying the very foundations of the old status quo.  (More on this below.)

June Recap - Permanent Revolution

 
June’s chart revealed an immense power release captured and channeled in deeply transformative ways.

The Uranus/Pluto square was exact for the first time on June 24th.  The irresistible desire for greater freedom came hard up against the immovable object of existing power structures releasing immense amounts of energy.

This long-awaited square detonated within a complex blocking structure, preventing a catastrophic release of Uranus/Pluto energy.  Instead, a Uranus/Pallas conjunction on the descendant channeled the force of the Uranus/Pluto blast into the deep transformation of relationship patterns.

To help punctuate events and forever differentiate what came before June from what comes after, there was a lunar eclipse on June 4th.  The summer solstice, another temporal threshold, occurred on June 20th. Adding to the general confusion, seven bodies were either retrograde are preparing to retrograde.

The world is sustained by a vastly complex matrix of relationship patterns. These patterns govern all manner of human interactions. They tend to be stable over many generations.  After disruptions of any kind, these patterns bend the world back into something closely resembling its old shape, century after century.  Three steps forward, two back.

The immense transformative energy of the Uranus/Pluto square was channeled, through the Uranus/Pallas conjunction, into the transformation of this vast and ancient matrix of human relationship patterns.

As these patterns are transformed, the world will change profoundly and permanently. Typically, revolutionary changes break and fade on these invisible patterns.  Now, revolutionary changes within these pervasive patterns will create the basis for radical and irreversible changes, changes far greater than we usually associate with the average revolution.

Current headlines are beginning to offer many examples of national and world leaders who broke ranks with traditional allies or departed from their usual thinking - who broke the patterns of past behavior - to bring about important changes.

  Closer to Home

 
On the micro-level, many people experienced life-changing events in June.  Life-threatening, life-ending illnesses struck suddenly; chronic health conditions worsened.  Pending surgery became urgent. Challenging conditions in the home approached crisis levels. People faced financial roadblocks. Many were forced into an early retirement for which they were not financially prepared.
 

July’s Chart - Through the Looking Glass

July's chart is a comparatively pale reflection, a mirror image, of June's. For most of us, July will also be a welcome opportunity to reflect, recuperate, reconsider and regroup. People will begin to grasp the implications of June’s pivotal events and, for many, those implications will be breathtaking.

The fact that July’s chart so nearly reflects June’s has importance in itself.

Mirror, Mirror

 
June’s aspects are more exact than July’s. Also, sign and house placements have shifted somewhat.  However, it remains true that July’s chart is a fainter echo, or pale reflection, of June’s.

1. June’s chart is dominated by an intertwined double T-square, a hard, six-pointed star.  July’s chart is dominated by a hard Yod, a five-pointed star.

June’s chart presents an impassable barrier, a major hurdle.  July’s chart presents a complex set of densely interrelated issues that we must seriously engage to make any progress.

2. A Uranus/Pallas conjunction sets on the descendant of June’s chart. A Uranus/Pallas conjunction sets on the ascendant of July’s chart.

The first transforms relationship patterns.  The second transforms individual, personal patterns.

The other aspects in the June and July charts are likewise mirror images or echoes of each other.

July will be a continuation or repetition of June, just not as intense.

  Both Sides Now

 
In essence, these companion charts both examine the same issues but from opposing perspectives.

It’s like a game of chess played from white’s perspective then replayed from black’s perspective. The result is a truly in depth, fully-rounded understanding of the game.

More than that, if we pay attention only to June’s chart, the changes seem relatively limited.  If we look at the charts for June and July together, the ongoing changes seem pervasive and comprehensive. The complexity of the issues grows exponentially.  Like someone put our collective consciousness in a big blender and hit purée.

Changes in planetary motion create vastly confusing cross-currents and the frustration and anxiety that comes with that lever of confusion. Also, a hyperactive south node creates abundant opportunity for unfortunate error.

The overall effect of July’s chart will be to produce a complex labyrinth, a mirror maze, of false starts and dead ends in which many of us are likely to get lost, at least temporarily.

  The Feminine Touch

 
Also, the prevalent influence of Venus and several asteroids - all distinctly feminine in nature - lend the issues and events of June and July a distinctly feminine flavor.  They also push everything in a traditionally feminine direction.  Some issues will be of special relevance to women, but many will affect the feminine impulses in everyone.

Morality and Nurturance

 
The charts of June and July are also about nurturance issues (insurance, pensions, education, welfare, healthcare, food security, etc.). Specifically, the charts are about setting standards in place and placing an appropriate value on the contribution of individuals.

Who deserves insurance, pensions, welfare, healthcare, etc., and why? Who deserves respect, who deserves power? Who has a legitimate claim on the rest of us for nurturance?

Taxes, Nurturance, Values and Behavior Patterns

 
(For the sake of simplicity, I based the following discussion on June’s chart, on the left in the above illustration.)

In June’s chart, Juno in Scorpio in the 2nd house opposes Ceres, Lilith and Vesta in Taurus in the 8th house. (With differences that do not affect our conclusions, the same basic opposition occurs in July’s chart.)

The 2nd and 8th houses define the financial axis of the chart. The 2nd and 8th houses are the natural houses of Scorpio and Taurus, hence essentially financial signs.

Lilith, Ceres, Vesta and Juno have little or no direct connection with financial signs or houses, or with the world’s financial affairs.

They govern long-term personal bonds (Juno), personal empowerment, especially feminine empowerment (Lilith), nurturance (Ceres), and commitment to an ideal (Vesta). They are really about the principles - or patterns - that govern our most important personal relationships and personal obligations.

This opposition blends financial and economic issues, governmental power, and a whole array of issues that are moral or ethical in character.

In effect, this opposition points to conflict over the principles that allow the government to redistribute wealth and guide it in such decisions.

As Uranus and Pallas bathe the matrix of social patterns in transformative energies, the world debates the principles that will, in important respects, determine the new form of these patterns.

Venus as Mediator  

 
July’s dispositor chart offers a revealing picture of how all this works. But in all that follows we must be careful about drawing final conclusions until all the data are in.

Venus, governing our affections, is in the sign of Mercury. Mercury, which governs our ability to communicate, is in the sign of the Sun. The Sun, which governs our higher and deeper selves - who we truly are - is in the sign of the Moon. The Moon, which represents the passive, reactive aspect of our personality, is in the sign of Venus, closing the loop.

Together they form a “reciprocity loop” and, together, Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury share rulership of July’s dispositor chart.

All four bodies in this reciprocity loop govern some important facet of our psyche, as opposed to objective realities. They are, in that sense, “soft” influences. They are also in “soft” houses, houses that strongly affect us psychologically.

Venus is in the 3rd house of community.  Mercury is in the 4th house of family and core psychological issues.  The Sun is also in the 4th house, the house of family and core psychological issues, powerfully placed near the cusp - the Imum Coeli. The Moon is powerfully placed in Libra in the 7nth house, the house of partnerships.

Hence, this reciprocity loop indicates a many-faceted intense discussion grounded in deeply felt emotions and ideas of great personal importance. These discussions, like those supported by June’s dispositor chart, will affect us deeply and directly enough to bring true and lasting change.

A Soft Approach to Hard Issues

 
Venus’s lower octaves have been de-emphasized and her higher octaves have been emphasized by recent astrological events, most notably, perhaps, the recent Venus transit of the Sun (June 5th).

In July’s dispositor chart, this beautiful, softest of soft planets governs all the “hard,” “action” planets, those that have the most direct, concrete, effects in our lives: Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto.

The energetic effects of these difficult and powerful planets will be channeled through Venus. Venus will in turn channel their issues through the other soft planets.

Jupiter, another planet that often produces concrete effects, is governed by Mercury, another soft planet.

All the “action” planets are governed by soft, subjective planets.

Devils Invade the Details

 
There is a catch. A very big one.  Or lots of catches.  The south node tells us what to avoid in a chart.  It represents what is old, outdated and, in essence, unsupported - a sure harbinger of negative synchronicity.

In July’s chart, the south node in Gemini has an especially strong influence.  It extends by proximity or sign placement to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. Vesta, Ceres and Lilith, too. The south node’s influence taints most of the energies in the chart!

The most heavily populated area of the chart is what amounts to an “attractive astrological nuisance.” It is a tempting source of familiar, superficially attractive information.  But information tainted by the south node will be bad information, a source of misguidance and error that will lead quickly and inevitably to bad outcomes.

What this tells us is that we need to put aside everything we know or think we know, everything that is familiar and comfortable, everything that comes naturally or most immediately to mind, to find valid answers to our many challenges.  We must be open to new solutions.

Only the Sun and Moon, which govern human personality, are comparatively free of the south node’s influence. However, they are caught up in an intense, urgent dialogue that is heavily affected by it.

This situation is bound to produce confusion and anxiety in many of us. Because the Sun and Moon are both strongly placed, on or near two angles of the chart, confusion and psychological and spiritual anxiety will invade the entire chart

July’s chart, then, amounts to a test: despite confusing and anxiety-making circumstances, we must remain calm and focused, avoid familiar, attractive, but bad solutions or other glamorous solutions - everything that comes natural to us - even though such ideas surround us on every side and beckon to us constantly.

What is to be done?

 
The north node is in Sagittarius. This suggests that we seek the far-reaching or far-seeing solution, or the solution that grows out of much study, exploration and experience.  The wise but unfamiliar solution.

That’s part of it.

July’s chart has a third force center. Retrograde Neptune is strongly placed in Pisces in the 11nth house, the house of Aquarius and home sign of Uranus.

It rules no other planets in this chart.  It stands instead as a powerful and isolated beacon, drawing us inexorably toward Aquarian solutions and dissolving whatever bonds might prevent us from going in Aquarian directions.

The message here is that we should, indeed, pursue Aquarian goals, move our lives and our shared world in Aquarian directions.  However, we can only do so successfully through study and research, and by exploring unfamiliar pathways.  Emplying to the familiar, failed solutions of the past - even to solutions that seem to have worked in the past – imagining that these will produce Aquarian results, will lead to serious trouble.

Labyrinth

 
The pervasive south node influence will make July very confusing and, in its way, hazardous enough. To that we must add the disorienting and delaying effects of five retrogrades.

Chiron, Neptune and Pluto will be retrograde all month.  Mercury and Uranus will be retrograde from mid-month.  This will make an already extremely confusing month significantly more so.  It will also make it pretty much impossible for anyone to move forward with any project, program or policy.

Glitch

 
Oh, and you might want to brace yourself as both Uranus and Mercury are stationary/retrograde within a 24 hour period around mid-month, July 13th and 14th.  This will put a serious strain on our nervous systems and our cognitive faculties.  On the macro level, it could very well trigger a major communications or information technology failure.

To my eye Uranus and Mercury stationary/retrograde at virtually the same time suggests the mother of all tech glitches.