The Astrology Blog 19 July 2021
All times in BST
“Bottom line, I removed myself from the victim mentality and took control of my life… When you’re willing to accept that you’re the problem, you immediately become the solution.”
Eric D Thomas – b 3 September 1970, motivational speaker, author and pastor
“Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions.”
Tony Robbins
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Tony_Robbins
CORRECTION FROM LAST WEEK
Firstly a correction for a mistake I made last week which I realized after I’d sent the mailing, oops, too late, and several sharp eyed students pointed out to me. I drew a diagram of the Aspect Pattern called a YOD – or Finger of Fate – which was supposed to show how Venus and Mars in Leo were five signs away from the two slowest moving planets – Neptune in Pisces going one way and then five signs apart from Pluto in Capricorn going the other way. In the middle of these aspects we also had the Sun in Cancer opposite Pluto, but this was not part of the YOD.
When two planets are five signs apart the aspect is called a quinqunx. It’s considered to be a minor aspect but it’s linked to blind spots, which includes mishaps, accidents or health matters. My own blind spot was clearly in evidence as even when I drew that diagram I knew it was wrong. Even though I was doing it in a hurry I should’ve ended up with a clear isosceles triangle but I didn’t stop to think about it! And the reason for being in a hurry was to accompany a good friend to a hospital appointment, so there’s the health issue too, or part of it.
It’s clear to me now that the Sun (health/life force) Pluto (endings) opposition was on my mind as I was also heavily preoccupied with another very close friend here being seriously ill in hospital. So often these major aspects pick out those who link to the planets involved. Maggie, with her stellium of five planets in Scorpio (Pluto’s sign) had pulled off the death – rebirth trick many times over the last few years in her battle with cancer – Scorpio’s key phrase is “I regenerate” – but she passed away on Monday evening. Her birthday is a month before my own, same year, and we met when we both arrived in Greece that same summer of 1995 and had been close friends ever since. She’s a huge loss.
THE SUN & VENUS
There are two separate threads running through this week and the first one is the final phase of the Sun and Venus current journeys and the beginning of the next. Both will change sign on Thursday but before they do they come together by a minor aspect, exactly one sign apart, this evening –
Monday 19 July
- Sun 27 Cancer semi-sextile Venus 27 Leo 20.18
Thursday 22 July
- Venus ingress Virgo 01.38
- Venus 0 Virgo opposite Jupiter 0 Pisces 13.46
- Mars 25 Leo quinqunx Pluto 25 Capricorn 15.04
- Sun ingress Leo 15.28
Any Sun (life/light) Venus (love/sweetness) combination is a plus for our close relationships and also tends to score quite heavily in the helpfulness department too. I’ve noticed many times that when Venus is involved in this minor aspect with either the Sun or Mercury that my women (Venus) friends in particular pop up, either to meet up for pleasure or to offer whatever help or support might be needed at the time.
You may find yourself on the receiving end of generosity or have the chance to be generous yourself and make a difference. Note that Venus rules both love and money. Maggie used to talk about “the generous gene” – some people having it, and others not! With her Sun – Jupiter conjunction she definitely did.
If you’re not the generous type try it out, research actually shows that helping out others – money, material things, time, ideas, energy – makes the giver happier and healthier too, even creating a euphoria called the Helper’s High. The bottom line is that generosity creates connection and closeness, the very things that have suffered through the long months of lockdown.
Treat others but treat yourself too. A bit of self love this week will go a long way. Venus is love but she also rules beauty, fashion and pampering. Go shopping or book that hair appointment, as Venus aligns with the Sun and then on Wednesday reaches 29 degrees of Leo, not only the Sun’s sign but also the degree of the Fixed Star of Regulus, the Heart of the Lion. I’ll never forget one year in London going to the hairdressers on the day that Venus was on Regulus (happens only once a year) and it was full of women with long blonde hair (manes) having highlights (the Sun) done!
VENUS INTO VIRGO
Venus’ change of sign is something of a mixed bag. She enters Virgo in the early hours of Thursday morning which is her sign of “fall”, which makes sense when you consider that Virgo belongs to Mercury, planet of thinking rather than feeling.
In other words, Virgo’s skill for analysis and precision reach their full potential through Mercury, planet of the mind, but these same qualities of perfectionism can be passion killers for Venus. After all, what lover, partner, friend, child wants to feel as if they are constantly being scrutinized, dissected under a microscope and given marks out of ten? Ever tried to “reason” with yourself or anyone else who’s in love or in a state of obsession? Oil and water come to mind.
But to get to the real point, and the reason for the choice of the quotes for this week, is that the big message is to guard against fault finding. Any kind of prolonged moaning or whingeing puts us in victim role, which isn’t just about saying “poor me”. Victim behavior disempowers us – ie makes it someone else’s fault, things are happening “to” me instead of “because of” me etc. Eric Thomas (quote at the top) is apparently huge on You Tube mostly because he doesn’t just talk the talk. When his own life fell apart it included two years of being homeless. Don’t we just love a comeback kid!
Of course we need to say how we feel, and of course the pandemic still restricts us, but if you’re having the same conversations re personal issues over and over, feeling the same frustrations over and over, then nothing is changing. In this last month alone I’ve done 26 readings and not one of them was about the pandemic. Life always goes on, and what we’re not changing we are, at some level, choosing.
This leads to the other message which is one that I always post when Mercury is retrograde, ie Venus struggling in Mercury’s sign can add up to the same thing, which is to stop trying to fix others and to concentrate on yourself. For example, if you’ve been trying to understand someone for a long time – years? – and you still haven’t got there, what’s the point in persisting? Change tack.
Also trying to “fix” someone is to start from the premise that they are somehow already broken, faulty or wrong. Which by definition risks putting us in the place of the one who is perfect and right. Is this true? Does this work? Whenever we ask ourselves that question the answer is usually no. Venus lining up opposite Jupiter may inflate certain issues but, like the Sun – Venus combo, also invites generosity.
Working on ourselves, from the inside out, is far more effective than trying to fix others, from the outside in. In others words, when you’re being the best possible version of yourself – eg busy with your work, your friends, your interests, good boundaries, not getting sucked into dramas out of your control, not looking to someone else to make you complete – your internal world becomes a much happier place. Your external world will then change to reflect this. Try it and see.
VENUS OPPOSITE JUPITER
Venus in her sign of fall making an opposition to a retrograde (coming the other way in reverse) Jupiter (all things related to overseas) as her first port of call on this new journey could be troublesome in terms of new rules and reading the small print. Also in the natural scheme of things Virgo rules the 6th House where we locate all matters relating to health.
As we all know the rules are changing all the time and there’s a huge hoo-ha about the UK ending all restrictions today just as the number of cases is soaring again with new variants. There’s also growing skepticism about the jab as fully vaccinated health secretary Sajid Javid has tested positive, and the backlash of Boris Johnson, who was in the contact chain, trying to get out of self isolating and having to do a rapid U-turn in the ensuing avalanche of criticism.
The bigger issue indicated astrologically though is that both Venus and Jupiter are known as the Benefics, the good things of life, and this opposition is like being let off a leash, especially given that one of Jupiter’s issues is freedom and liberation. So it’s great for fun and letting your hair down but it’s not so great for the longer term implications of virus control, or for freedom at any price. Nice try Boris.
So continue to use your common sense when you’re out and about, especially as in the middle of this picture we also have Mars finally making that exact quinqunx to Pluto, having made the one to Neptune yesterday. Remember that this is part of that YOD formation, with Venus making the same aspects last week, and at the time I said that it was probably misguided to try and look at these aspects separately.
This turned out to be horribly true when Germany, Holland and Belgium were caught by surprise (quinqunx) and devastated (Pluto) by flash floods (Neptune) and the horrendous clean up job is ongoing. In Germany a rescue package of €300m is being proposed, which gives us an idea of the extent of the damage done, and will be on the agenda for Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. This is the day that Venus will be on Regulus so it should go ahead with no delays.
Been broadsided? If you have planets or Angles at or close to (within two degrees) the degrees/signs involved in this YOD (23 – 25 degrees of Leo, Capricorn, Pisces) then you may find yourself doing your own cleanup job from issues that came to light in the last couple of weeks. These configurations are textbook for hairline fractures suddenly becoming widening cracks on your road so pay close attention to anything that you know you’ve been ignoring for a long time.
MERCURY ON THE MOVE
Mercury is at full speed and makes a string of aspects to the outer planets throughout the week, all wrapped around the Full Moon –
Tuesday 20 July
- Mercury 14 Cancer sextile Uranus 14 Taurus 10.39
Saturday 24 July
- Full Moon 1 Aquarius 03.38
- Mercury 23 Cancer trine Neptune 23 Pisces 17.36
Sunday 25 July
- Mercury 25 Cancer opposite Pluto 25 Capricorn 21.14
The outer planets all have very distinct dark and light sides, so trying to second guess them is tricky. The first thing that comes to mind though is yet another week of conflicting information (Mercury), shifting goalposts or of a matter testing our patience to the limits. These aspects may work individually or as a gang! Either way, here’s a quick guide to their job descriptions –
- Uranus – by positive sextile, groups and gatherings, spontaneity, friendships, exciting news. Bigger picture – drama, sudden change, disruption, impulsivity, the unexpected, rebellion, shocks or surprises, the bolt from the blue, the arrival of those who knock us off balance, who challenge our views, sweep us off our feet or turn our world upside down.
- Neptune – by positive trine, romance, creativity, empathy, soul connections. Bigger picture – confusion, uncertainty, delusion, deception, soul searching, a lack of purpose or direction, being “all at sea”, grief, events that make no logical sense, mystical experiences, surrender, sacrifice, the arrival of those who mesmerize, manipulate or idealize us, the roles of Victim/Rescuer
- Pluto – by opposition indicates a matter reaching an end, no more to be done, cancellations, depressing news, losing things you won’t get back, a total change of heart or mind, especially as this is Mercury’s last aspect while in Cancer. Bigger picture – endings, loss, absence, disempowerment, “death and rebirth” processes, events that are overwhelming or which are taken out of our hands, the arrival of those who fascinate or control us, or for whom we give everything up in order to start a new life.
FULL MOON IN AQUARIUS
Look out for the usual lunacy or matters coming to light. One of the Full Moon’s jobs is to illuminate.
We have a lunation approximately every two weeks – New Moon, Full Moon alternating – so these are usually evenly distributed throughout the signs. This year however we have two Full Moons in Aquarius, this one at the beginning of the sign at 1 Aquarius and the next one on 22 August at the end of the sign, 29 Aquarius.
In other words they both pick up the Sun in the opposite sign of Leo at the beginning and ending of that journey, as the Sun arrives in and then leaves his own sign. Am not entirely sure what to make of this symbolically other than it suggests to me that the supposed true picture this week is going to change and will look very different by the time the next Full Moon rolls around, especially in relation to groups and gatherings as Aquarius is the sign of the collective and the things that affect all of us at a universal level.
This would appear to be backed up by the fact that Jupiter, now retrograde, will return to Aquarius in the middle of next week and won’t be back in Pisces again until the very end of the year, and I’ll be talking more about this next time,
Until then, with love from Greece
Joanna
