A New Moon in Leo approaches and a pretty loud Mars-Pluto square is in our midsts, which the New Moon will end up aspecting. We are about to begin a new cycle of self-expression and radiance, but as we know from any hero’s journey tale, there are trials the hero faces up against in order to fulfill their mission. Cue Mars in Aries square the triple lineup of Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in Capricorn.
Keep reading this forecast below or watch the video version on YouTube here.
What I love about this Mars square to the Capricorn planets is the possibility that our spirits may be up when it comes to facing obstacles in our lives and all the objections we have to why we can’t do something.
It is actually likely this week that we may be feeling frustrated or thwarted, more intensely aware of the things that stand in the way of our goals or happiness – we just want a thing and we’re frustrated that we don’t already have it.
It is time to divest our vital focus and life-force energy that is going into punching some wall (mad that the wall exists) or feeling internally defeated by the wall, and to instead experiment with a new strategy.
In our particular situation, we may gain some leverage or mobility if we understand more deeply the nature of the impasse – a kind of reflection or pause that frustration often asks of us.
It is as simple as the fact that when we have a goal – a place we want to go – there are internal fears that hold us back. Addressing these root level fears is part of the process of reaching the goal.
So what then of external blocks – like, it’s not our psychology but it’s something out there, in the world or in other people, that blocks us? Well – that’s not in our control. What is up to us is how we choose to respond and how we choose to identify our role in the situation, and that is where we may experience breakthroughs most readily.
Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the vibe feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox, sign up for my mailing list here.
Here’s our week in more detail, after a few announcements.
New solo episode of Magic of the Spheres podcast out! On this episode I share thoughts on closing a chapter on being open to “casual” experiences in love and sex to make way for partnership. I wanted to verbalize something we don’t normally talk about freely online (I mean, some people do but not a lot). Tune in where you listen to podcasts or on your browser here.
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This course is all levels. Have that click where you *get* astrology and can begin to form your own interpretations, or profoundly deepen your existing awareness. Learn how to read charts as a whole from the perspective of reincarnation – what past life themes have you brought into this lifetime that you are still working with? What is your purpose in this lifetime, and what helps you to evolve? Gain a personal mythos and a soulful context for a deeper understanding of any area of your life – and learn wisdom teachings of depth astrology that you can engage to empower your soul’s potentials.
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This course also explores the inner-psychological, often hidden/private, processes that go into the cultivation of an online life or a public presence. The resistances and anxieties that come along with this are archetypal and human, and very much part of the path.
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Here’s our week:
August 13, 2020
Mars in 23 Aries square Pluto retrograde in 23 Capricorn: 12:14 AM PDT
(Image: Mihail Dinisiuc)
Mars will retrograde in September and come back to make this aspect again on October 9, and then once again when Mars is direct. The third and last Mars-Pluto square of this cycle will take place December 23. This entire time, the Mars-Pluto square will be in orb (influence) so we’re looking at a Mars-Pluto zeitgeist for the rest of the year.
- There is going to be a dynamic friction between core integrity and boundaries, with power, vitality, and/or anger. Having good boundaries might mean NOT taking on problems that aren’t ours, or not getting involved in compromising situations that we’d later be angry about. Having good boundaries might mean NOT getting agreeing to a situation below our standards and then feeling frustrated about it. See what I’m saying here?
- When we are feeling angry or frustrated, we might reflect on its shadow component: where have we given our power or agency away? (Sometimes “righteous rage” is spoken of which in a sense would be situations where we choose to respond to injustice. I am not talking about that here.) Considering the shadow of where we have given our power away when we are angry is an alchemical act of self-reclamation – pulling parts of ourselves back from where we have projected our power and made ourselves victims in the process.
- This transit may also signify the discovery or experimentation of new ways of standing up for ourselves or for others, in places where there is active conflict. There may be a psychological component – for example…
- In many stories that involve an aggressor/bully and a victim, there is limited help from the environment to intervene. Like with schoolchildren, when someone is being bullied and the story’s focus is on the person who is being bullied learning how to stand up for themselves and face their enemy. This is an obvious or direct example. A less obvious example may be when a person repeatedly experiences a type of behavior directed toward them that they don’t like – such as being disrespected, condescended to, or taken advantage of. While there may be some wish for the environment to change, or for other people to change, a deeper alchemical power exists here of the underdog (cue Mars and Aries) learning how to step into their power in the face of such conflicts. This way, the underdog’s power doesn’t dangle in the hands of other people’s changed behavior which may or may not happen.
(Image: Josh E Wylie)
- Changing the dynamics eluded to above relates to changing behavior, which can relate to studying others who represent certain character traits you’d like to embody and trying them on. As a personal example, in my early twenties I often felt condescended to and I started to change the storyline by making firm eye contact and generally being more deliberate in my communication. If I felt the person I was speaking to casting me in a role that wasn’t me, I wouldn’t emotionally react to it or play back into it, and I’d watch the projection ricochet back onto them. I energetically would feel into more equal exchanges (wherever I felt condescended to) and would often watch people then nearly or literally cock their heads, and self-correct and re-calibrate with me. It was wild. After time went by, it’s a rare occurrence I feel condescended to because I cleared it from my field.
- In many cases, it can be more powerful to change our own behavior and our own interaction with a given situation than to place that responsibility on others, even if arguably they should change. Society’s ethics should evolve. Vulnerable people should be protected. People should be treated with respect. And for any given moment where that is not happening, do we trust ourselves to have some power and agency to shift the situation from the inside-out?
- Likewise (rather than the underdog situation), if we have possessed aggressive tendencies and have abused our power or been forceful in any way, we might be discovering ways of re-balancing within our environment to be more noble and to re-direct our energies more skillfully. If our actions are causing repulsion in the field around us, or causing visible discomfort in others, it is definitely cause for some reflection. It is one thing if we are ‘being ourselves’ and it ruffles people’s feathers – whatever. It is another if we are rude, unkind, or unaware of other people’s boundaries and this is what is eliciting such negative response. We might then experiment with ways of being more kind and aware of cues in our environment. The warrior isn’t just strong and brute – they are self-accurate.
August 15, 2020
Uranus stations retrograde in 10 Taurus: 7:26 AM PDT
(Image: Kierstin Young)
Uranus will station direct again on January 14, 2020 in 6 degrees of Taurus.
- Uranus stationing during a dark moon (just days before the new) may correlate with epiphanies that involve hindsight or understanding the past from a new angle.
- Having breakthroughs in self-worth is one of the possibilities with Uranus in Taurus. As we increase our sense of self-value there will be moments in the past that feel so lacking in self-worth. Yet this contrast is what brought you to where you are today, so celebrate the fresh new air! The contrast may be part of the brilliance of the illumination you experience now – and part of your capacity to not take it for granted.
August 16, 2020
Sun in 24 Leo trine Mars in 24 Aries: 7:02 AM PDT
- This transit can correlate with a basic sense of joy we feel around being ourselves and acting as ourselves – when we feel animated and motivated about what we are about.
- This is not something that happens accidentally – it is about choice. It is only accidental in feeling when these choice are so habitual that we don’t really think of them as such. In a moment-to-moment flow in your life, tune into if the choices you make either light or dim your fire. This can very well mean snapping out of moods by choice and choosing to boost yourself. (Not the feel your feelings strategy, lol, but dance, shake up the energy, and see how you feel afterward.)
Venus in 8 Cancer square Chiron retrograde in 8 Aries: 4:59 PM PDT
(Image: Butterfly Dress Pledge, Shûji Terayama, 1974)
- There is part of our experience that is instinctually bursting – it just wants to get where it wants to get and is really impatient to get there and frustrated its not already there. This may be a goal we have or a even sense we have of wanting to be “number one”.
- There is some invitation here to slow down and consider the ways that we are cultivating environmental factors in our life to support this goal or desire – things like our home life, our connections, self-care, things we do for fun/leisure. These supports do not have to be obviously tied to the goal. If they increase our overall wellbeing, that replenishes us for our particular mission, or helps us feel less voraciously in need.
- Likewise, we can also intentionally cultivate the urgent flame of our soul’s desires – the part of us that says “today, not tomorrow” and actually shows up, as an act of self-care. The difference between idly dreaming and saying it’s going to happen someday, and just doing it – a loving aspect of ourselves acknowledging it is truly time.
Mercury in 24 Leo trine Mars in 24 Aries: 10:29 PM PDT
(Image: David McCall Johnson)
- This communication energy is pretty candid and unabashed, if you needed that wave to ride. There is more motivation in the field right now to put things out there, than to not. This can relate to conflict coming up, just because feelings and thoughts are being made known in conversation as opposed to simmering below the surface.
- Good-natured disagreements and working things out may also occur, but may be experienced best when all parties involved have a strong sense of self and the energy seems fairly matched. Otherwise, the more certain or more enthusiastic party may be somewhat dominating.
- At an alchemical, intrapsychic level, if we tend to attract people who talk over us or always seem more certain than us, we are learning how to embolden our personal sense of self.
- If we are feeling so excited and have so much to say that we are wanting to talk over people or dominate conversation, we might consider some outlets for self-expression that allow us to take the floor like that (writing, video, art, etc.) so that we are not using other people as launchpads for our expression needs. Then it makes it easier to really be present and attuned with other people & the true present moment of the encounter.
August 17, 2020
Mercury in 25 Leo conjunct Sun in 25 Leo: 8:07 AM PDT
August 18, 2020
Venus in 10 Cancer sextile Uranus retrograde in 10 Taurus: 12:28 PM PDT
New Moon in 26 Leo: 7:42 PM PDT
In addition to being conjunct to Mercury, this lunation trines Mars in Aries and forms an inconjunct to Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn – highlighting the current Mars-Pluto square. Though Mars-Pluto was the one exact this week, Mars is effectively square the triple Capricorn lineup.
- A New Moon in Leo is a birth of new forms of self-expression and radiating our essence outwardly so that we may be seen and known. Being radiant is also a key toward being generous and appreciative of others’ brightness without feeling jealousy or feeling diminished by it. Certain opportunities or steps on our life path truly open up when we allow ourselves to be self-expressed.
- What holds us back then from being fully self-expressed? One major component is shame or fear of being shamed (cue the inconjunct to Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in Capricorn). If there is a part of us that we are hesitant to let see the light of day — that is most often connected to either shame or a proper sense of timing (also a Capricorn theme). The timing might be the wisdom of our readiness to be seen in a particular way. The difference between if it’s a shame motivation or a timing motivation is the sense of dignity and self-trust present, or not.
- Pride is not typically thought of as an enlightened emotion (it’s even infamously one of the seven deadly sins), but pride burns up grief and shame. It is pride that says, “I was better than that [demeaning situation]. I’m a fucking prize.” I’m not saying this is the end-all – but often spiritual people want to bypass this kind of energy even though its fire can be helpful. As a vibe, pride is a whole lot more empowering than feeling like our life is over or that we’ll never experience joy again. While pride might be detrimental in some scenarios, for quite a few scenarios pride is life-giving. When pride is used to rise above indignity, hardship, oppression, betrayal, etc… it is medicinal. (Pride used to close ourselves off from vulnerability or connection, maybe not so much – unless those boundaries are wise themselves.)
- Pride can come through ceremonially or ritually in dance, or other displays of talent. The power that we feel in those moments can similarly, burn off heavy or stagnant emotions we don’t wish to carry with us. Once you feel more empowered and embodied within yourself, you can attend to your more enlightened or forgiveness based responses, too. 😉
- So back to self-expression, and the question of shame – are there ways that shame and self-doubt have laid over your fire like a heavy blanket meant to extinguish that fire? How complicit are you with that? Have you given any space to fanning your own flames by intentionally cultivating confidence or empowerment? Inner emotional healing work around shame can still occur – but life can be more fun if we also adopt some empowering mindsets that allow us to have fun being who we are, and feel powerful about it.
- As a counterpoint, if there are places in life we tend more toward arrogance and not being open to any feedback or criticism, we can become very rigid and close ourselves off to opportunities to adjust and become more skillful. Making a mistake or getting negative feedback is not the same as being intrinsically bad – and yet we often can conflate the two where we are more habitually prideful. The inconjunct between Leo and Capricorn can relate to the art of the apology – a form of reconciliation that is humble, graceful, and respectful of all parties.
- As we go onto create our experience over the next lunar month, part of our creativity will relate to how we work with obstacles – inner and outer. Shame or the fear of shame is an inner obstacle along many a creative path. It does not have to be fully healed before we do the thing. Doing the thing is an act of courage and transformation through which we are also healed.
- Finally, the regality that we experience in the Leo archetype comes from a person taking full ownership of their cosmic inheritance, of their full sense of self and even ego, in this lifetime. It is an incredible and inspiring thing to do – an act of radiance.
Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term 1:1 work with my students and clients, in the form of mentorship – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to heal, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. If you’re interested in working together in that capacity, I am currently accepting new clients. Send me an email at sabrina@monarchastrology.com to start a conversation and set up a free consultation call.
Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch and Twitter @Sabrina_monarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you next week!
With love,
Sabrina Monarch
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