The Astrology Blog 23 August 2021
All times in BST
“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”
Hugh Laurie
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Hugh_Laurie
MISSING ELEMENTS
The Sun left his own sign of fiery Leo last night and is now on the month’s journey through Virgo, sign of Mutable Earth. It’s not the first time that I’ve noticed this change coinciding with the end of the blazing heat here in Greece and the beginning of perfect weather.
The forecast for the next ten days is 30 – 34C which of course is still hot but, when you’re trying to work and generally run your life, is hugely more manageable than 36 – 41C, and another world compared to that brief time of 45+ when even the phone was turning itself off because it was too hot.
The Sun’s exit from Leo means that we’re now entering a time of no fire ie no personal planets in the fire signs (not including the Moon), which will be the case until 7 October when Venus enters Sagittarius. We had the same thing at the beginning of this year, from 8 Jan to 20 March.
At a general level watch out for flagging motivation. Fire symbolizes our passion and our joie de vivre, how we put energy into the things that matter to us, how we spark up and initiate things, what gets us out of bed in the mornings with a spring in our step, how we move on those vital moments of inspiration and intuition, how we blaze our own trails or enter into the spirit of things wholeheartedly.
That’s why I chose Hugh Laurie’s quote for this week. A friend had posted it on Facebook and it immediately grabbed my attention. He’s a livewire Gemini but with Moon, Venus, Mars and Uranus all in the Sun’s sign of Leo. You can hear the fire in his words.
Earlier in the year that no fire period coincided for many of us with the New Year starting in lockdown and dragging on relentlessly and it was notably hard to get enthusiastic about anything. In some parts of the world that is repeating at the moment, eg Australia, at the moment Sydney is in lockdown and curfew until the end of September. Thankfully here life goes on as normal.
But in the last 18 months nearly all of us have “had to wait” in one way or another, with some experience of lockdown that either slowed things down, interrupted them or stopped them altogether. For some people this has been disastrous psychologically. If you’re not a naturally fiery type anyway it can be hard to rev up again.
When there’s a missing element in the natal chart amongst the personal planets, Sun through to Saturn including the Moon, this has to be interpreted in its own context. For starters, it doesn’t mean that the native lacks the qualities associated with the element. It is obviously a ridiculous statement to say, for example, that someone with no water has no feelings.
We all have feelings. Rather, a missing element often symbolizes something that was absent, discouraged or ignored in the upbringing, and therefore something that we have to figure out for ourselves.
Here are some examples as discovered through my own client work:
- No fire – a lack of value placed on spontaneity, risk taking or the child’s individuality, experiences that sabotaged confidence
- No earth – a lack of money, physical or emotional security, or lack of instruction re survival skills
- No air – a lack of encouragement with learning, no interest or value placed on the child’s expression of personal views or ideas
- No water – a lack of regard for the child’s feelings, a family culture of devaluing or suppressing emotions
I’ve also noticed many times that when a missing element represents the things that we can’t find in ourselves, that they’re the things we seek in others. It is by no means a hard and fast rule but when you discover an element to be missing then check the Descendant (beginning of the 7th House of Relationships). It is astonishing how often that element is on this important angle as it very often symbolizes what is absent within and therefore what is sought from “the other”.
TURNING UP THE HEAT
If we had no earth I’d say go and walk on the beach or get your hands dirty, if we had no air I’d say reach out to friends, join a group or start writing. At a literal or symbolic level this time of no fire is a great time to find some heat of the pleasurable kind! What’s your passion?
For me that’s happening in an obvious way, I’m so looking forward to Summer School starting in the middle of next week and welcoming my students in glorious sunshine. They’ll be my first visitors in a year and I can’t wait for all that energy to come through my garden gate, to go out for dinner and talk shop.
The big message for this week is to have a look now at what has gone off the boil in your own life. What would happen if you decided to put some energy back into it? What are the things that you’re always going to do “tomorrow”? Where has a confidence issue nudged you into hiding? What are you avoiding or even totally ignoring because you’re “not ready”? What genuinely became impossible with lockdown time and where has lockdown become the excuse? Ouch. Time is our most valuable commodity because one day, for all of us, it will run out.
A GOOD URANUS STORY
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58253378
Last week I said that there would be “good” Uranus stories out there but generally we don’t see good news reports. So I loved this story, which happened just as Uranus was turning retrograde last week in alignment with the Mercury – Mars conjunction, all adding up to upheaval/chaos or the thing you least expected. The title of the feature was, “Snake slithers out of spice shelves at Sydney supermarket”.
The shock of finding yourself up close and personal with a 3m (10 foot) snake would be enough to freak most of us out completely! Okay, all of us. Ms Alati, the customer it happened to, told the BBC that she just turned her head and it was 2cms (less than an inch) from her face.
But she stayed calm. The brilliant Uranus twist to the tale, no pun intended, is that even though she’s only 25 years old Ms Alati turned out to be a trained snake handler and catcher. You couldn’t make it up.
“He was looking straight at me the whole time, almost like he was saying: ‘Can you take me outside please?'” she said. She retrieved a snake bag from her home, returned to the store, “tapped him on the tail and he just slithered in”. She then released it away from houses in bushland.
Coincidence? She added that countless other shoppers would have unknowingly passed by the snake, supermarket shopping being one of the few activities allowed in lockdown, but it somehow chose to appear to her. “They kind of just gravitate to me, like maybe they just sense that I’m the kind of person into caring and protecting animals.”
Makes you think?
WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK
So the Sun has just changed sign and Venus too is on a new journey, having entered her masculine sign of Libra (her feminine sign is Taurus) a week ago and now makes her first aspect, which is the harmonious trine to Saturn, also strong in his masculine sign of Aquarius –
Monday 23 August
- Venus 8 Libra trine Saturn 8 Aquarius 13.49
Venus is primarily love and life’s pleasures, but also money, and Saturn is the organizer, getting our act together, finding the discipline or making those commitments. Matters that take shape at the beginning of the week therefore carry the hallmarks of productivity, reliability and longevity, especially the things that will make our lives better, both now and in the long run.
Libra is all about partnership and cooperation, and Aquarius is the sign of the collective, groups and friendship. So this adds up to positive collaboration, giving or receiving help, brilliant teamwork, meeting up with friends or meeting someone new through an introduction, or a romance shifting to the next level and becoming the real deal.
Conversely, if you’re in the wrong relationship and want out this is the time to do it. Positive aspects to Saturn can also spell “enough is enough”. Either way, things take on a definite shape under Saturn.
CHIRON
The end it or mend it theme is also reflected in Venus’ second major aspect of the week which is to Chiron –
Thursday 26 August
- Venus 12 Libra opposite Chiron 12 Aries 14.30
Chiron is an asteroid discovered in 1977, coinciding with the rise of the holistic health industry and the subsequent spiraling awareness of the mind – body – spirit connection. In terms of astrological tradition Chiron is but an infant, without an official sign of dignity, yet he has already found his way into most Ephemerides, the book of tables that tracks the journeys of all the major planets. Chiron is here to stay.
You would think asteroids would be more minor than planets in their roles of reflecting our life events, but with Chiron I would say that this clearly isn’t the case. If you check your own horoscope for the Chiron transits you’ve had in your life you’ll find that they definitely work, in the same way as transits from planets work. We all have early wounding somewhere but here are the range of associated themes to look for –
Chiron transits signal – emotional wounding, anguish, grief, learning experiences for personal and spiritual growth, finding or giving guidance, evolving own beliefs, healing old hurts, events that unfold in a subtle but meaningful or magical way, the arrival of those who can teach us with their wisdom or heal us with their skills and compassion.
So look out for these themes at a universal level this week. At a personal level, and especially if you have planets or Angles at or close to 12 degrees Aries/Libra, pay close attention to what comes up for you when Venus makes that challenging opposition to Chiron.
MERCURY
Mercury is also strong in his feminine sign of Virgo (masculine sign is Gemini) and takes over for the rest of the week with aspects to two outer planets before changing sign in the early hours of next Monday –
Wednesday 25 August
- Mercury 22 Virgo opposite Neptune 22 Pisces 02.15
Thursday 26 August
- Mercury 24 Virgo trine Pluto 24 Capricorn 15.22
Monday 30 August
- Mercury ingress Libra 06.11
Final aspects are good for wrapping things up and with Mercury that means everything to do with communication – from emails to admin, from checking your facts to setting the record straight. As I write there is already confusion (Neptune) about the testing needs for students flying out next month. I’d been told/had understood one thing, someone else has been told differently. Wherever there’s uncertainty best to take the “belt and braces” approach. Go the extra mile, even if it proves unnecessary in the end.
Final answers are also indicated and underlined by Mercury’s last aspect being the harmonious trine to Pluto, who does endings but also powerful insights. Collect scattered thoughts and do some soul searching, it will pay off.
LAST WORDS
Mercury’s final major aspect is to Pluto as described above but there’s also one minor aspect to come as well with the blind spot quinqunx – made when two planets are exactly five signs apart, ie nothing in common/out of direct line of vision –
Friday 27 August
- Mercury 26 Virgo quinqunx Jupiter 26 Aquarius 16.06
This would appear to add to the confusion thread indicated by Neptune earlier in the week but minor aspects, even when awkward, tend to work through quite quickly in terms of being addressed. The last time I flagged up these aspects I had a flat tyre! I was halfway down the bypass late afternoon and the garage there was closed, I limped home, only a few minutes drive but of course the tyre was ruined.
The alternative was to sit on the side of the road in the blazing heat and try to find someone to come out to me. I often think that there’s a kind of “no win” theme with these quinqunx aspects. It’s either this mistake or that one.
The other quinqunx is from Venus to Uranus at the weekend, within hours of the monthly Moon – Uranus conjunction, and Uranus is a major player at the moment because of having just turned retrograde and therefore appearing to be at a standstill –
Saturday 28 August
- Moon conjunct Uranus 14 Taurus 10.53
- Venus 14 Libra quinqunx Uranus 14 Taurus 18.44
In other words Saturday is not great for having things going to plan, with the double whammy of Uranus the rug puller/surprises and the quinqunx blind spot. Take nothing for granted, keep fact checking, stay flexible, don’t buy things on line, keep hold of receipts – and keep a sense of humour!
Until next week, with love from Greece
Joanna