August is a “5” Universal Month [8 (August) + 6 (2022) = 14 = 1 +4 =5] in a “6” Universal Year. In numerology, 5 is the number of changes and transformations, and we will see this play out astrologically throughout the month. August is our big transition month of the year – we will be getting a lot of “hits” to our ongoing and tightening Saturn-Uranus square through all of the planets that are transiting the sign of Leo. This is going to illuminate for us where we need to show up better for ourselves (the Leo journey is always about the self) by highlighting where we are still stuck in the past. As we exit August, we are going to head into a heightened retrograde season with most of our outer planets, Mercury, and Mars all retrograding at the same time as each other. This is our chance to change before we have to – August will be a month best used by showing up for yourself and doing your personal work.
The Set Up
We begin the month with the Sun and Mercury in the sign of Leo, Venus in Cancer, Mars conjunct Uranus and the North Node in Taurus, Jupiter newly retrograded in Aries, Saturn in Aquarius, Neptune in Pisces, and Pluto in Capricorn. By month’s end, all of our personal planets will have changed signs: the Sun will be in Virgo, Mercury will have moved through Virgo and on into Libra, Venus will be in Leo, and Mars will be in Gemini. With both Mercury and Mars entering the signs that they will retrograde in, the lasso of the retrograde season will be lying in wait. August is the time to stack the deck in your favor while you can.
The big theme for the month is one of the deepest Leo lessons: you must show up for yourself and do your own work before you can stand up and lead (the inevitable Leo birthright). In a month of ego stories, the big flex is going to be keeping your heart open and your mind curious.
The Nitty Gritty
August begins with a bang when Mars meets up with Uranus and the North node at 18° Taurus on the 1st. Uranus has been trying to escape the cloying gasp of Saturn in Aquarius for almost a year and a half now and Mars, the planet of fire and action, may supply the energy for this to actually happen. This could be a really good thing – things need unsticking, after all. Remember that Mars+Uranus has explosions (and perhaps in the case of Taurus, eruptions) written all over it, and the North node is a point of fate. This is a day that will inevitably create breakdowns and breakthroughs and where every individual person falls on this line will have a lot to do with how much they are meeting their own life and doing the work that it entails.
Though Mercury in Leo has already passed the point of its square to Mars and Uranus (and its opposition with retrograde Saturn), the energy of this conjunction will draw all four of these planets back together as well as the lunar nodes to reactivate our fixed grand cross in the sky. We’ve been feeling this since last week and it will be hit on multiple times throughout the month as the Sun and Venus also transverse the degrees of 17-22° Leo later this month. This is where the hard work is – there is really no avoiding this energy during the weeks ahead.
Whatever it ends up being, there is some situation that NEEDS addressing – for the collective as well as in our individual lives. Fixed grand cross activates all four of our fixed signs and tends to highlight, in some fashion, the areas of our lives where we are holding on too tight. If you are capable, loosen that death grip – just because you have held on to this thing, doesn’t mean that it’s useful or necessary to carry with you during this time. This is the sunk cost fallacy – the time that you have spent holding onto something or working on something has no bearing on its current worth to your life. This energy, and the shadows that arise in relation to it, will be active all month.
If there is a way through this fixed inertia, it is through our hearts. Venus in Cancer makes a sweet and quick sextile to Mars and Uranus on Tuesday 8/2 showing that our way forward is through understanding. The more than you can forgive others, and moreover, the more that you can forgive yourself, during these first days of August, the more that cracks in this tightly held vise may appear for you. Here we will need to tap into the mature Cancer energy that doesn’t hold on for the sake of holding on but instead fosters interconnectedness with independence and space for individuality.
As frustrating as it may be, sometimes things need to hit us squarely in the ego because that’s the only way that we can see – and then after we have seen, move forward. On Friday, 8/05, we experience the first of the big lunar hits to our Saturn-Uranus square of the month through our moon in Scorpio. Again, this is our fixed grand cross now activated with the moon and South node in Scorpio – it may feel like a lot. We may feel like we are going nowhere fast.
All of the fixed signs have an agenda: Taurus wants to stand still to create structure and ground, Leo wants to stand still to be seen as a leader, Scorpio wants to stand still to go deep and understand, and Aquarius wants to stand still to be seen as the Contrarian/Anti-Leader. All of these signs play an important role in human development, but each in their turn gets in the way of the other. The energy all weekend may feel like too many minds; like everybody has a different idea about where to go and what to do to solve things. Or maybe, with Mars and Uranus still so closely matched, just to fight about it.
When nothing can get done, there’s not much that you can DO about it. This might just be a weekend to fuck right off – maybe to run away to the beach (the lovely moon in Scorpio, Venus in Cancer, and Neptune in Pisces trine on Saturday is highly supportive of water work) or to just back off and let the other people fight it out. Since nobody’s listening, there is no point in trying to get your point across of your voice heard. The flex is to stay out of the fray and let the lesser-aware types do what they will do anyway.
The first weekend of August is for the birds, as I mentioned above. We get a very brief watery trine which may help the right people to patch things up, but for most of us, it’ll feel more like headbutting a wall than getting anywhere. On Sunday 8/7, Mars in Taurus meets up in an exact square with retrograde Saturn in Aquarius. Remember that setbacks happen and how we react to them is what matters at the end of the day. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. This weekend, and all month, if you are moving forward and making progress, you can happily consider yourself ahead of the game.
The second week of August isn’t a whole lot easier. On Tuesday 8/9, transiting Venus meets up in opposition with retrograde Pluto in Capricorn. This may be an emotional day – the point where Pluto sits in Capricorn was a part of Venus’s retrograde cycle back in December-February and there may be some unfinished business around Venusian issues that needs some attention. Venus enters Leo on the 11th, so it would be advisable to put down what old ego stories you can about who you’ve been and what/how you attract your others BEFORE she enters the sign of the lion.
8/10 and 8/11 are going to be rough days all around. The transiting Sun in Leo meets up with the North node via a square on Wednesday and then squares Uranus directly on Thursday under the light of the Aquarius full moon. This time our fixed grand cross involves the Sun in Leo, Uranus and the North Node in Taurus, the South Node in Scorpio, and retrograde Saturn in Aquarius. We should breathe a sigh of relief that Mars has moved farther away from his conjunction with Uranus by this time and isn’t playing along with all of these bad actors.
I may sound like a repeating record but: these energies are not new. We will be experiencing this energy weekly as the moon moves to conjunct, square, and oppose this difficult square between Saturn and Uranus. All we can do is grit our teeth and try to remain aware during these hot days as they arise – they are perhaps a bit of a hint into our future. This is due to our North Node’s influence – the North and South nodes represent where the point of eclipse is – so we will inevitably revisit these energies again as we enter Scorpio season and our new eclipse cycle.
It might appear that every problem that has ever existed rears its ugly little head during the height of this energy under the light of our Aquarius moon. This is retrograde Saturn during his hard work – you cannot fix what you cannot see, after all. When there’s no easy sailing in sight, you still need to get there so you might as well batten down the hatches and get to fucking work.
With our Sun in Leo, the halfway point between Taurus (the sign of the north node) and Scorpio (the south node), this full moon will activate some of that eclipse energy that we felt back in April and May and will get to revisit again come Scorpio season in October and November. Expect big changes to show themselves even though they may not be able to be fully implemented until later in the year. The story is starting to unfold – stand witness to it and make changes where you can if you feel off course.
The energy will settle down a bit by the weekend but we’re still in a heightened and energetic phase. On Sunday, 8/14, the Sun in Leo opposes retrograde Saturn, and Mars in Taurus trines retrograde Pluto in Capricorn. Where do you need to put in the work to be in control of the change that needs to happen in your own life? Saturn in Aquarius demands that we show up for ourselves, that we take an active part in the transformations in our own lives. It’s likely to feel personal and immediate.
In the third week of August, energies are lighter and we can breathe for a moment. The moon in Taurus will conjunct Uranus and the North Node and square off with Saturn (and our Sun in Leo) but this energy should feel so familiar that we are just a bit uneasy as it passes through.
Saturday 8/20 is a day to pay attention to. Mars enters Gemini, the sign where it will remain in retrograde from October through February, and Mercury enters its pre-retrograde shadow at 24° Virgo. This is the twilight zone, we will need to revisit the points between 24° Virgo and 08° Libra three times in the next couple of months.
Both Virgo and Libra are signs that like to be in service to other people. Virgo does so to feel useful – Libra does so to feel connected. The dichotomy between these two ways of showing up for our others will be highlighted throughout this retrograde cycle. It might be worth journaling (a Mercurial activity, of course) about where you feel that you fall on this scale and whether you think that your style of being of service is serving you.
On Monday 8/22, the Sun enters the sign of Virgo, and Mercury (now in their shadow) trines retrograde Pluto in Capricorn. These last degrees of Capricorn, where Pluto now resides, were an important part of our first Mercury retrograde of the year and we may see some repeating lessons around letting go and moving on arising from what we experienced during January and February. This aspect will be repeated three times over Mercury’s retrograde cycle: first, when we move in forward direction, a second time while Mercury retrogrades, and a third time when we return to forward movement. It may be hard to see the forest for the trees right now as it can take the whole of one retrograde cycle (or more) before we fully grasp what has been put before us to learn.
Now, as the Sun enters Virgo, we are going to get deeper into the work of the month. As I said above, Virgo is a sign that is all about being of service. The shadow side of Virgo can be a belief or feeling of only being valid if you are of service. In Virgo season, we need to remember to be in service to ourselves.
On Wednesday, 8/24, Uranus stations retrograde at 18° Taurus. When outer planets station, they hold the same degree for an extensively long time. This shows that something about that point, by degree and sign, needs to be put into the spotlight. It is worth noting that the North Node has just barely creepy past Uranus to be sitting at 17° Taurus so it may just be that fate itself needs to be put into the spotlight. It may be a time to roll the dice if you’re up for a game of chance. Or it may be a time to bundle up under the covers if you are not.
On the 25th, Mercury enters Libra, Venus in Leo squares off with the North Node in Taurus, and we get another hit off of our Saturn-Uranus fixed square from Venus and the moon. We may know what we want but realize that we are going about it in the wrong way. Or not notice. Or one of our others may be going about trying to get what they want in the wrong way. Either way, nobody is in the mood to sit down and listen or seek any sort of compromise. The big flex is, again, to stay open-hearted here, but it may prove extremely difficult.
The energy continues all the way through the weekend as Venus in Leo then has to almost immediately square off with Uranus who has just stationed retrograde and the Sun in Virgo squares off with Mars in Gemini under the light of the new moon at 04° Virgo.
Walk the fuck away and then, once you’ve calmed down, thank me later. There’s no winning this fight. Venus opposed retrograde Saturn the next day, proving my point. Until we find some sort of compromise – we will all just be hurting each other. And with Mercury about to retrograde in Libra – the SIGN of compromise – I can promise that none of it is happening, or sticking around, any time soon.
The last three days of August will be (thankfully) uneventful. If we’ve done our work, we may be simply licking our wounds, or looking ahead. If not, with the retrograde cycle about to begin, we’ll be getting another go of it soon enough.
The Details
8/1 – Mars conjunct Uranus 18° Taurus
8/2 – Venus in Cancer sextile Mars in Taurus, Venus in Cancer sextile Uranus in Taurus
8/4 – Mercury enters Virgo
8/5 – Fixed Grand cross: Moon in Scorpio square Sun In Leo and retrograde Saturn in Aquarius, and opposed to Mars, Uranus, and the North Node in Taurus
8/6 – Water Grand Trine: Moon in Scorpio trine Venus in Cancer trine retrograde Neptune in Pisces
8/7 – Venus in Cancer trine retrograde Neptune in Pisces, Mars in Taurus square retrograde Saturn in Aquarius
8/9 – Venus in Cancer opposed retrograde Pluto in Capricorn
8/10 – Sun in Leo square North Node in Taurus and South Node in Scorpio
8/11 – Full moon 19° Aquarius, Venus enters Leo, Fixed T-Square: Mars Uranus and the North node square to Sun and Moon, Mars in Taurus sextile retrograde Neptune in Pisces
8/14 – Mars in Taurus trine retrograde Pluto in Capricorn, Sun in Leo opposed retrograde Saturn in Aquarius
8/16 – Mercury in Virgo trine Uranus in Taurus
8/18 – Venus in Leo trine retrograde Jupiter in Aries, Moon in Taurus conjunct Uranus and square to retrograde Saturn in Aquarius
8/20 – Mercury enters its pre-retrograde shadow at 24° Virgo, Mars enters Gemini
8/21 – Mercury in Virgo opposed retrograde Neptune in Pisces
8/22 – Sun enters Virgo, Mercury in Virgo trine retrograde Pluto in Capricorn
8/24 – Uranus stations retrograde 18° Taurus
8/25 – Mercury enters Libra, Venus in Leo square North Node in Taurus, Moon in Leo square Uranus and North Node in Taurus
8/26 – Moon in Leo opposed retrograde Saturn in Aquarius
8/27 – New moon 04° Virgo, Sun in Virgo squares Mars in Gemini, Venus in Leo squares Uranus in Taurus
8/28 – Venus in Leo opposed retrograde Saturn in Aquarius