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By Elizabeth Shepherd
Thursday evening, the Moon is in Aquarius and still in its full phase. This Full Moon, with the Jupiter-Pluto opposition and all the outer planets in aspect has the potential to release a lot of energy. Has a deadlock or stalemate broken free or is it about to? Is anything erupting to the surface? As we head into the weekend and the tension begins to ease up, the fruits of this lunation will begin to fall from the tree and we will have a moment to lean back, perhaps even with satisfaction, and evaluate the harvest of this cycle that started with the Cancer New Moon on July 14.
As the high tide of the Full Moon dissipates, a peace begins to settle as several aspect patterns start quieting down before new cycles begin. This is a welcome time of relief from the intense transitions that started early in the year with the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in Aries and have now reached a kind of first stage culmination with this Full Moon. The major ingresses of outer planets driving the plot of the past 18 months have now completed (Chiron is the exception – see the Almanack below for details and dates). Saturn and Neptune have joined Pluto in retrograde motion and are inviting us to several months of evaluation and review of their themes in Aries.
For one of this week's featured articles, we are including a beauty Eric wrote last year about the Chiron-Eris conjunction in Aries that names and highlights many of the themes that these Aries planets are bringing into focus. This article is particularly relevant because not only is Chiron turning retrograde this week, but Eris is also in aspect to the Venus-Mars square, while Vesta is applying to a conjunction with Eris. These aspects are also discussed in the next section and in the Almanack.
For additional resources or journaling prompts, I suggest referring back to the articles and horoscopes from the Spring and early Summer. Eric's annual edition horoscope, Inner Light - Inner Peace includes a chapter or two in each sign about Saturn and Neptune as well as Chiron and Eris in Aries and how these will influence each sign's cycles of becoming.
In addition to the Planet Waves resources, going back through any journal entries or creative projects of your own may give you more perspective about what is changing for you. Notice any built up tension in your psyche, any nagging thoughts or feelings that are revealing loose ends and unfinished business. Are you struggling with finding perspective or even knowing where you are? A creative project of any kind may be the way through.
Mercury, although now in direct motion, will spend the next week to ten days finishing out its shadow phase in the emotional landscape of Cancer while slowly picking up speed for its full-strength run in Leo. In this way, the planet of mind, learning, communication, commerce and transportation is also sending the message to let the Cancerian waters recede gradually.
The potential spark this week could come from Venus in Virgo and Mars in Gemini who are still in their square dance, although without the added drama of the Full Moon. It's a separating aspect, and so this also has a feeling of review and evaluation.
There is a kind of alchemy available for squares involving the Mercury-ruled signs which could be described as the evolution from information gathering to the synthesis of meaning. Mars in Gemini is like the elite athlete collecting the information in an almost super-human way, and perhaps overloading Venus who is tasked with finding the patterns and generating meaning from what could feel like too much to process. I imagine Venus taking a deep breath and reminding herself that suffering ends where meaning begins. With a little patience and remembering to bring her innate love and fun to the task, she will certainly have some magic to reveal in this generous and potent space before the next cycles begin. Mars in Gemini is pretty hot, after all....
For Eric's discussion of this aspect pattern, he just released a full-length video on Planet Waves TV. You may also refer back to this article from four years ago where Venus in Virgo was square Mars in Gemini and remarkably, as they are now, in aspect with Nessus in Pisces. How has this conversation evolved in your life?
Also this week, the asteroid Vesta perfects its conjunction to Eris in Aries, just before stationing retrograde a couple of degrees later. Vesta is associated with devotion and is also known for having a Saturnine quality — for providing a strong container for that devotion to thrive in. Taken one step further, Vesta can represent the discipline required for the fire flower of devotion to bloom. The kind of discipline that blossoms into devotion is, as Eric says in the Almanack below, an organizing principle when in proximity to Eris' chaotic field.
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The next lunar cycle brings us into the eclipses, first with a total solar eclipse (the New Moon) in Leo on August 12, followed by a partial lunar eclipse in Pisces (the Full Moon) on August 27-28. This is the great purification cycle that quickens and potentiates beginnings and endings every six months, so this couple of weeks of slowdown is even more welcome.
Write in to tell us how you're experiencing the year up until now. We'd love to hear your stories about your own meaning making discoveries.
Eric will be back next week with an article and the monthly horoscope.
With love,
by Eric Francis with additional writing by Elizabeth Shepherd
Here are the important astrological events for this week:
August 2 — Vesta Conjunct Eris Quincunx Venus — Ultra slow-mover Eris in Aries takes a conjunction from the brightest asteroid, (4) Vesta. Eris represents a permanent standing wave churning up the psychic chaos of the digital era. Vesta offers containment and a sense of order, particularly in three-dimensional space.
Together, the two describe what you may experience as the desire to contain the disturbance and disruption that the digital environment constantly provokes. Think of Vesta as an organizing principle, and if you encounter something in the digital realm that seems insane, consider how you would experience or avoid it in physical space.
Venus is also in the aspect pattern, in Virgo, 150 degrees away from Vesta-Eris. This is not lending itself to easy interpretation, though Venus in Virgo at least addresses the matter of discernment, especially in sexual and food choices, and offers her own kind of containment. Venus in Virgo represents a version of emotional intelligence, bringing the mental condition of Mercury-ruled Virgo into the physical and receptive mode of Venus.
August 3 — Chiron in Taurus stations retrograde — Chiron now in the first degree of Taurus stations retrograde, it then re-enters Aries on Sept. 17, turns direct on Jan. 6 (in a close but not exact conjunction to Eris) and then enters Taurus to stay on April 14, 2027. Chiron in Taurus will last until 2033, when it begins to transit into Gemini.
August 5 — Mars Sextile Eris — This aspect describes what few people want to do, which is talk about desire. There are a few “problems” with doing such a thing, which include embarrassment, and how talking about desire is in itself hot, and then what are you going to do? The best way to avoid good sex is to shut up about it. The best way to make sex more interesting is to have a few honest conversations. Nobody can read your mind, and you cannot expect them to know what you want unless you tell them; and you will not know until you ask someone.
August 6 — Venus enters Libra – Venus has learned Virgo's tough lessons of discernment and synthesis and is ready to beautify her own home in Libra. The more airy and mental qualities of Venus are emphasized here, including ideals of harmony, symmetry, aesthetic beauty and diplomacy.
Eric's in-depth essay on the unfolding Chiron-Eris conjunction, exploring how digital-age conditions are affecting our minds and bodies, the nature of a healing crisis, and several recognizable patterns of digital overexposure — plus what to do about it.
Marking 70 years since the term "artificial intelligence" was first proposed, Eric traces the concept back to a 1956 research proposal and makes the case that a language model, however convincing, is not the same as consciousness or creativity.
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