August 16 - September 10, 2021
She is the goddess of good taste, the mistress of manners, the empress of elegance. Venus in Libra has arrived. Aphrodite is in her element. Awaking this morning into the masculine, cardinal, diurnal air sign of Libra—her other home—she feels calm and comfort wash over her. Here, there are friends to be called on and mates to be made, lovers to bed and to wed. Venus in Libra cannot live without love, and she finds it in the mirror of every friendly face she encounters. Relating runs in her blood. It’s a stimulating world of fashion, philosophy and art, and harmony is the key to her heart.
Venus in Libra deals in justice, rightness and fairness, and likability is her currency—not an easy tightrope to walk. When unable to eradicate ugliness, she turns it into art. When pushed, she kills her haters with kindness, and she knows you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. She makes lemonade out of life’s inevitable lemons.
Where Libra falls in our charts is where we are always weighing out the scales of symmetry, civility and equality. The house(s) that the sign occupies can expect some designing and decorating, with Venus traveling through. For some, this transit may bring peacekeeping, for some, people pleasing, to that area of life. It’s a welcome dose of creativity and cooperation, and a beautiful balancing act.
August 11 - August 30, 2021
Mercury moves into Virgo, and the next thing we know we’re all aboard the Magic School Bus to Busytown. You may find yourself surfing on a sound wave, swinging through the stars, navigating a nostril or investigating your intestine. The possibilities are endless. As the messenger planet whizzes through its home sign for the next (almost) three weeks, we set out to explore the microcosms and the macrocosms around us and within, and to take a closer look at the building blocks of daily life. Mercury in Virgo brings with it an empirical eye, a rigorous routine, and a practical point of view. There is a scientific method to its mutable madness, as it exalts in a playground of curiosity, observation, and experimentation. We begin, in fundamental fashion, with questions: What is your favorite subject? What has your focus lately? How are you processing your environment?
When Mercury grounds down and gets granular, it becomes clearer than ever that the mind and body are a labyrinth. A wheel made up of smaller wheels; gears ever turning, ever grinding. As Miss Frizzle reminds us, “if you keep asking questions, you’ll keep getting answers.” Fun for this inquisitive traveler, but a potentially never-ending ride. During this transit, remember to give yourself a break, to reach a conclusion, and rest. As our hands and minds pare, prune and perfect the Virgo-ruled house(s) in our charts, there are wonderful discoveries to be made and humbling realizations to be had. Let us just be careful not to get lost in the weeds.
This year, and for the next two years, we can think of Leo and the Leo-ruled parts of our charts as the birthplace of a new sense of self. One of the signposts, or crossroads, along the long and winding coronation street is tomorrow’s New Moon, with its strong Uranian influence, and coming on the heels of the Sun-Mercury conjunction. Under this lunation, the ego is evolving, and things are being born anew. Sometimes—often—such an act requires a rebellion of sorts, a break from tradition, or a new perspective: looking at things, or at ourselves, from a different angle.
So do you, or don’t you dare? Depending on your natal relationship to the fixed signs, this New Moon could bring any number of novelties. For some, it could be a new haircut, or a new toy; maybe a new drama or a new love. For others, a revelation of the heart, a change in leadership, or a crisis of conscience. It may feel exciting or inspiring, uncomfortable or unsettling. For each of us in our own small way, it is a great leap forward. So whatever we are revitalizing or revamping, let us remember that radical need not mean rash, and innovative need not mean impulsive. This lunation is a divine spark, a firefly in the dark: how we capture it and play with it, feed it or free it, is up to us.
