"It's been a long
A long time coming
But I know a change gonna come"

— A Change Gonna Come
Same Cooke

This week sets up a new gauntlet for us to run. There are two distinct, albeit short-lived, balanced quincunxes to navigate during the first part of the week. We face the prospect of navigating some particularly tricky 'blind corners' indicated by these two potent balanced quincunxes — or YODs— that demand an enormous amount of patience, perseverance, and most importantly, faith. Mercury and Mars, conjunct in Virgo, form a YOD with Chiron in Aries and [...]

"We adore chaos because we love to produce order."

— M. C. Escher

This week's waning Moon sets up something like the feeling of preparing for a major debut. However, the light always dims under a waning Moon so it's hard to see exactly what we're actually preparing for. Last month's Aquarius Full Moon (July 23rd 7:36 PM 1° Aquarius/Leo) provided some detachment which has helped us to set aside some of our more idealistic and unrealistic expectations but there may still be some ego vulnerabilities or nagging feelings of inadequacy. The creative power of the Leo Sun is extremely strong and seems to compel us to move forward even if we can't quite see where we are going. As we begin the week, the superior conjunction of Mercury and the Sun occurs directly opposing Saturn. The Mercury-Sun conjunction in Leo [...]

"Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate."

— J. R. R. Tolkien

Both Mars and Venus (in Leo) move through a sort of gauntlet this week, forming quincunxes to both Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces — creating a powerful but challenging YOD aspect. Mars and Venus in Leo are driving an intense amount of creative inspiration but the quincunx aspect creates the need for adjustments, challenging us to see around a blind corner. The messages from Neptune and Pluto reveal the need for faith and transformation in order to make the kind of creative, innovative advances that we are feeling inspired to manifest. We find ourselves out of our comfort zone, deeply stirred by [...]