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Welcome to August, folks — the lion’s heart of Leo season. This month is wild, with retrogrades afoot and lessons aplenty.
July came in hot, heavy and trouble-making with Uranus shifting into Gemini and Saturn, Neptune, Chiron — and Mercury retrorading in fire signs.
Blessedly, August brings a bit of reprieve.
On August 6, Mars, our planet of will and war, moves into the diplomatic climes of Libra — bringing with it an energetic emphasis on reciprocity in relationships. In love dynamics, now is the hour to shoot straight about what is and isn’t working and who is doing the lion’s share of the emotional labor.
With Mercury in Leo retrograde or in its post-retrograde shadow for the majority of the month, conversations can be challenging.
However, because Leo rules the heart and Libra is the ambassador of tact, if we speak the truth without fear, our closest relationships can evolve for the better — together or apart.
August 8th brings the peak or widest jaw opening of the Lion’s Gate Portal.
As the ancient Egyptians did, we can think of the Lion’s Gate as the beginning of a new year and likewise offer our reflections on the past and resolutions for the future.
Leo is associated with children, creativity and play. The Lion’s Gate offers the opportunity to revisit our inner child and to ask for insights on how to carry and care for who we once were and who we might yet be.
On August 9th, the full moon rises and shines in the sign of the water bearer, asking us to consider whether we are prioritizing ourselves as a solo act or as one among the constellation of our community.
On the same day, Uranus, the co-ruler of Aquarius, will form a divine Grand Air Trine with Mars and Pluto, propelling us toward breakthrough. To paraphrase Jim Harrison, listen close to the gods that are shouting in your ear at this very moment.
On August 11, Mercury stations direct, though we will still fall through the fog of confusion and miscommunication until the planet clears its shadow on August 25th.
The sun climbs into the fastidious bread basket of Virgo on August 22. Here, the energy is prime for pruning, helping us to plan for the future, cut loose what is not nourishing or efficient and get our bodies right in the here and now.
Right on the heels of the sun digging into the dirt of Virgo, we welcome the Virgo new moon on August 23. This new moon rises at a rare and potent 0°, giving us the clearest slate and brightest chance to reset. However, the new moon will form a wild out square with buck the system, burn the boats Uranus.
Owing to this volatility, your wishes are best spent in the days following the new moon.
On August 25, Venus leaves the moody mud of Cancer for the stage lights of Leo, a transition from couch to pedestal, pajamas to PVC. This is Venus at its most heart-forward, so don’t hold back or in, folks. Let it ride, shout it from the rooftops, and swing from the rafters.
Good luck out there.
Your ruling planet in your opposite sign centralizes love and relationships for you this month, Aries. You may find yourself measuring the investment of your most intimate dynamics, finding yourself wanting or wanting more.
Here, you are asked to bridge the gap between conquest and connection, confrontation and conversation, wanting and witnessing.
Whether this arithmetic brings you closer to the one you love or to the realization that you are both better served by severing ties — the sum total will be clear.
When the sun leaves the pyrotechnic arena, Leo, for the blessed, bountiful dirt of Virgo, your focus moves to how you move through daily life and how you care for the tender animal of your own body. If you’ve been treating that body more like a dumpster than a divine vessel, now is the hour to course correct.
Mars in Libra is rounding the bases in your sixth house of service and ritual, Taurus.
This energy asks you to battle for the benefit of your body. Do not compromise when it comes to treating yourself well and adhering to a pattern that makes you feel happy, healthy and free.
The full moon in Aquarius on August 9th may illuminate the ways that your work is no longer working for you. If you wake up feeling more dead-eyed than ready to go, it may be time to bow out.
Blessedly, the sun moving into Virgo on August 22 offers a tactful slap from your inner child, imploring you to move toward vitality and the alignment of your body with your incarnate mission on this fraught and fragile plane. Change is meant to scare you, but the next few weeks are here to remind you that you will always have what you need and standing still is falling behind.
Ahoy, Gemini!
This month, Mars in your fifth house of play and inspiration feeds your need to create and copulate. Whether getting it on or letting it out, reflect on the ways both actions, sex and art, stem from the sacral chakra and can both complement and coax the other.
Virgo season comes wth one hand open and the other holding a pair of pruning shears. Here, mutable earth asks you to cut out the clutter within your home and the chatter in the cave of your mind.
At month’s end, Venus moves into Leo and your third house of communion. Send a letter, record the fevered, fever pitch of your orgasm, recite a poem to a stranger, whatever you do, let words and sound be a quick cure.
What gives you peace, Cancer?
Is it the exhale of home, the body of your lover, the quiet hour before the sun pulls itself up?
Whatever it is, make your living space a conduit for it. With prayer candles or blackout curtains, earplugs or a record player — practice making peace your constant companion and where you lay your head, the bed from which all things spring.
In this wake, your intuition will tune itself to the frequency of poetry, trust the images that surface and the messages that wash ashore.
Happy return of the sun to you, Leo.
A retrograde parade is a piss poor way to celebrate the occasion, but here we are and from here we will climb out and up.
Coupled with Mercury retrograde, Mars in Libra adds a sense of weaponry to your words; bite your tongue more than you loosen it and remember that the reception of a message is born in its delivery.
The full moon on August 9th highlights your seventh house of trusted partnerships, when it comes to those you count as close — who have your back and who is only there to clap?
Things lighten up on August 25 when Venus moves into your sign, a yearly rebirth that makes you feel fine as wine and ready for your next roll around.
Mars in Libra hits your second house of wealth and worth this month, Virgo. This is a summons to take stock of what matters most to you and guard it accordingly.
Lest you forget that your energy is currency to be invested rather than spent.
When Mercury goes direct on the 11th, you’ll have a clearer picture of who and what you can trust.
When Venus enters Leo on August 25th, you could find yourself riding the dark wave of a heady, secret, soaked love affair. No telling where that tide might take you or how it might change you.
Ahoy, Libra!
Mars in your sign is a battlecry for your personal betterment. This transit amplifies your ability to take charge, cut bait, tell the truth, make calls and roll the dice on risk.
Represented as it is by an inanimate object, Libra energy can often stall as it awaits activation from an outside force.
But during this transit, I beseech you, don’t wait to be inspired/triggered by another person before making your moves. Sit in the stillness of your self and listen close for the call to action. Speak the truth, even and especially the words taste bitter on your tongue.
Mars in Libra is milling about in your twelfth house of thresholds, sabotage and the unconscious mind. This is not comfortable territory, Scorpio, but it is necessary cobweb clearing that helps you find what elevates and electrifies you and cast off aside the tired, the untrue and that which tests your beauty.
Later in the month, the sun in Virgo throws a light on your tenth house of friendship, utopian ideals, and aligned allies.
Your instinct is a sacred gift that draws and repels in equal measure. Trust that what is right will come closer and what is not meant for you will move on.
August could be a month of breakthroughs for you, Sagittarius. The full sturgeon moon in Aquarius opens a portal for downloads and may offer insights into how the quality of your conversations is co-creating your reality.
The sun’s step into Virgo highlights your long-term goals and social standing. Are you answering a true calling or building a dream you’ve long since stopped believing in?
Inspiration moves toward you when you stop forcing and crack open to receiving.
Welcome to August, Capricorn.
Mars in Libra moves through your tenth house of legacy and purpose, asking you to balance the scales between duty and desire.
Fun fact: the words discipline and disciple are both drawn from the same Latin root disciplina, meaning to learn, to be a student of.
In this sense, I hope you will approach the work you do and the work you do to improve yourself not as a mission with a destination but a ceaseless education that builds on and back to itself.
Ahoy, Aquarius!
The transit of Mars in Libra asks you to consider if you wear your belief system like a loose garment or a breathless corset. Listen to the chorus of contrasting opinion and loosen the stays.
The full sturgeon moon in your sign on August 9th is a prime time to sacrifice who you were and what you believed to the pyre of possibility.
The future begins with your first step after the fire.
No shallow waters for you to wade through this month, Pisces.
Mars in Libra activates your eighth house of sex, death, regeneration and resources. Coupled with the final throes and subsequent shadow period of Mercury retrograde in your sixth house of rituals, this could inspire healing through financial clarity, sex magic, and/or communing with your dearly departed.
You can use words and the language of your body to cross worlds this month.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
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