August is a dynamic month full of surprises. It’s all about getting the energy unstuck. Things could come to breaking point in August to help you remove your attachments to certain situations and ideas.
Be prepared for events to shake and destabilise you now, giving you a taste for rebellion!
It’s like we are all entering the birth-canal this month - or the demolition process - with Mars and Uranus launching the wrecking ball... Be ready to come out the other side and rebuild starting in January 2021.
Uranus and the Aquarius Full Moon of August 3rd
The month starts with a Full Moon in Aquarius on August 3rd - a stressful, shocking full moon. It’s also in square to Aquarius’ modern ruler, Uranus, a major disruptive influence. This is the planet that loves to go against the grain... It’s the planet of disobedience, rebellion and shock, but also of technology, innovation, and making a break for freedom. If you welcome the disruptive influence of Uranus you could find yourself able to make refreshing changes this month. In any case, be prepared to deal with the unexpected.
The key message this August is this: experiment! Break patterns and flex your detachment muscles. This can be an unstable, disruptive energy but a liberating one too. Resistance - as they say - is futile.
Uranus is very strong all month long. He’s super-intense as he squares the Sun and Moon on August 1st-4th. And he’s very powerful mid- August 15th as he stations retrograde creating shocking ripples. Also watch for some shocking news around August 10th as Uranus squares Mercury and, a more pleasant surprise perhaps on August 25th when Uranus and Mercury trine.
Mars in Aries about to Retrograde...
Mars, the planet traditionally associated with The Tower card is also very prominent this month, especially as he is strong in its own sign of Aries.
It’s every couple of years that we spend time under Mars’ baleful rays. This only happens when Mars begins to travels around our side of the Sun, which makes him visible from the earth. And that time has now begun.
As red hot Mars starts closing in on us this month, he’s putting the earth in the hot seat, right between himself and the Sun. Mars will retrograde on September 9th and exert maximum pressure for change in the coming months. But you can feel his restlessness even now. And as he closes in, the pressure is rising, ready to explode in October-November 2020. With Saturn and Jupiter retrograde this month too, it’s a case of the cat’s away and the mice are throwing a party! Things can get ugly this August...
Things can get pretty rowdy, raucous and warlike this August. Watch it - it’s Mars looking for a fight!
Mars fire-started crimson rays will be with us well into 2021. You are less likely to just ‘sit there and take it’ whatever it is as we head into autumn and into the new year beyond...
The key message with the upcoming Mars retrograde is ‘this is not a sprint but a marathon.’ Conserve your energies. Don’t spend valuable time / juice in futile acts or conflicts. Work for the long haul.
Mars retrograde from September 9th to November 13th can be a physically exhausting time too (and often noisy with building works, unrest and such things. Most importantly perhaps, watch these dates: Mars squares the Capricorn posse - Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto - three times this month and these are potentially very difficult, explosive moments.
Watch out for explosives and aggression around August 4th and August 13th especially, as Mars squares Jupiter, then Pluto, and for frustration around August 24th, as Mars squares Saturn.
As Mars goes back and forth in Aries he will revisit these squares, and some difficult moments and themes alongside them, in the autumn of 2020 and all the way into January 2021.
Get ready to work out the kinks of a difficult situation the hard way through explosive anger, frustrated force, strategy, discipline & sustained effort this month.
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in the Sky - Retrograde Planet Watching
As the red planet closes in, he’s already visible in the night sky, rising in the east some hours after sunset. Mars will get closer and closer to rising exactly at sunset as the weeks pass - a bright star opposite a red sky, a “full Mars” as it where.
The bright body you might see already high up in the sky at around sunset, however, is Jupiter - the brightest body in the sky absent Venus - and, next to it, a fainter Saturn. Those guys are retrograde too and that’s generally when we are able to see these outer planets from the earth. The illusion of retrograde motion for these planets is always created as we overtake them on the inside lane whilst they travel on our side of the sun.
Leo New Moon August 19th 2020
This month’s New Moon is in Leo on August 19th. This arrives right on the heels of great intensity with Mars and Uranus stirring the pot all the way up to the Leo New Moon. August 14th-18th could mark a peak of activity, madness and excitement as Mars squares Pluto and Uranus stations retrograde in sextile to Venus, not to mention the supreme clarity of the Sun-Mercury superior conjunction and the motivating force of the (Mercury and) Sun-Mars trine.
All this positive, dynamic energy is neatly packaged in a fire-starter of a New Moon in Leo on August 19th. This is such a powerful boost of energy that you may find yourself able to initiate daring projects at that time.
Then, Virgo season starts August 22nd and you’re ready to go into the nitty gritty of whatever you have just begun.
Despite the raucousness, August ends on some lovely aspects: Venus trines Neptune and Mercury trines Jupiter on the 26th-27th, generating optimism and romance.
Enjoy this month, exercise a bit of freedom and fill up your batteries now, ready for the marathon run that begins this autumn.