August Horoscopes

Astrology of August
Current Configurations
Past Months

Aries	Libra
Taurus	Scorpio
Gemini	Sagittarius
Cancer	Capricorn
Leo	Aquarius
Virgo	Pisces

August 2011

Current Astrology

	The Sun is in Gemini
	The Quarter Moon is in VirgoThe First Quarter Moon is in Virgo: All day
	Next Mercury Retrograde Aug 23 - Sep 15

August Horoscopes

by Henry Seltzer

Aries Horoscope (March 21 - April 19)
Cardinal Fire. Your ruling planet is Mars.

You are still heading over the waterfall in a bucket, Aries, but at least you are beginning to get used to it by now. Another powerful month for you brings mixed blessings of difficult but transformative energy. This is a contemplative rather than an action-oriented period of time, with Mercury retrograde in your self-expression sector. The pace of conceptual change accelerates but the action slows and the enormous pressure will not fully release until September. There are manic as well as down moments but the experience will in any case be enlightening. Surprises abound. Picking up the pieces and continuing to try to make sense of everything brings its rewards, eventually, as you begin to discern that different place where your life is now heading.

As the month begins, you are facing the stiff breeze of transformational effects on your life in general that have been active over this past year or more, but which are now beginning to reach gale force. You might feel compelled to take action of one kind or another, but this impulse for moving forward has its drawback in the retrograde of Mercury in your service sector and also in your sector of self-expression, so that forging ahead with new decisions are not recommended until the retrograde has passed. Mercury will not leave its retrograde shadow until September 9th, so there might be some benefit to the idea that you watch and wait until then, rather than leaping before you look, so to speak. Although there is also the contrary notion of yielding to the pressure to be doing something, perhaps anything, to carry you forward and get you out of potential dilemmas, forging a middle road is usually the best medicine. The Leo New Moon of the previous weekend has made you itchy for action, while exacerbating the conflicts that you have been feeling lately between outer and inner worlds. Your pursuit of fame and recognition in terms of career and of service to the surrounding collective has been under fire in recent months as you seek a better fit with important internal prerogatives. You are entertaining a rather vague and almost unformed notion: your inner world really matters far more than previously given credit for. Anything you do to satisfy mundane demands such as having enough money or even control must also yield to the requirement that it match you at soul-level. A strong sense of intuitive understanding possesses you right now, so that your nonsense-detector is fired up when the things that you are planning do not meet these internal requirements of Spirit or your Higher Self. As Mercury begins its retrograde during the first week of the month, these nebulous feelings from deep inside you are give a more powerful voice so that your discontent with certain aspects of your outer situation might become more pronounced. The First Quarter Moon, coming along on Saturday, August 6th, when tensions increase, represnets one crux of this initial period of the retrograde. Then the Full Moon of Saturday, August 13th, indicates a time of balance, when your tendency is to bring others, particularly significant partners in your life, into the picture. You are still engaged in a month-long process of refining where you are coming from in your interactions with others, and also with respect to family life. This emphasis on home and family implies questioning the very basis of your security in this world. This is likely to lead to issues that you might not want to face, although it is probably true that sooner or later you must deal with these issues. You benefit from taking the time for inner contemplation in order that you not hide from yourself at this important juncture. The Last Quarter Moon of Sunday, August 21st, reinforces the contemplative nature of this period, since the lunation cycle is winding down and the natural tendency is to pull back and reexamine the events that have transpired thus far. Interesting days surround the Virgo New Moon in the last weekend of the month, taking place on the 28th. Mercury is changing to direct motion and everything in your life is undergoing at least a conceptual shift, providing a glimmer of an idea of where you might be headed with all this. These times that you are living through are fraught with crises that are, as the Chinese proverb says, also opportunities. It helps to keep reminding yourself that the rewards are commensurate with the challenges.