"Grace, respect, reserve, and empathetic listening are qualities sorely missing from the public discourse now."

— Meryl Streep

The ongoing 'cleanup', initiated by last week's Leo New Moon continues this week. By the end of the week, there will be no less than six retrograde bodies: Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Venus, and Mercury. Uranus will station retrograde next Monday and when Venus turns direct on September 3rd, Jupiter will station retrograde the very next day, on September 4th. This extraordinary retrograde activity emphasizes the "profound reordering" underway in the current lunar cycle. This is a realignment with long term implications and offers important opportunities to prepare for Pluto's next ingress into Aquarius early next year. Mars opposes Neptune on Tuesday, which might sometimes suggest a great deal of creativity but [...]

"Painting is the passage from the chaos of the emotions to the order of the possible."

— Balthus

Venus retrogrades back to square Uranus for the second of three times this week, producing incredibly strong will-power. The waning lunar cycle is still offering potentialities and possibilities for creative self-expression through innovation. There are waves of inspiration and enthusiasm. Nonetheless, obstacles abound, along with significant amounts of confusion and chaos. There are few 'handles' for us to grab onto that would keep us stabilized enough to pursue a steady line of progress. The main challenge is [...]

"Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.'"

— Coco Chanel,

Chiron turns retrograde in Aries at the beginning of this week, joining Saturn and Venus in something like a 'multi-pronged investigation' of our self-esteem and our self-image. Self-doubts and insecurities can quickly produce indecision and uncertainty this week. However, idealism is also growing. A Mars-Jupiter trine is forming all week and will complete at next week's Aquarius Full Moon (August 1st, 11:31 AM PDT 9° Aquarius/Leo) with a surge of enthusiasm and optimism. The bottom line in this week's environment is that many are likely to be looking for some kind of approval or reassurance. Our patience is thin and we may sometimes feel that we are [...]