Astrology Highlights for Aug. 26-Sep. 1, 2024: Regrets, I’ve Had a Few

Regrets, I’ve Had a Few

This week’s Last Quarter Moon (Aug. 26, 2024, 2:26 am PDT) is in Mercury-ruled Gemini (with the Sun in Virgo, Mercury’s other home sign). At the Last Quarter we look over our shoulders at what we’ve done and failed to do, and occasionally, there will be regrets. Particularly with Gemini involved, they could be regrets over things we’ve said.

Born at a Last Quarter Gemini Moon, I’ve said plenty of things I later regretted. Once, a kindly viewer tipped me off that a video I’d uploaded might benefit from a little trimming. When I watched it, I was mortified to hear myself – enormously frustrated at the technical challenges of finishing the video – blurt a frustrated expletive that I’d overlooked clipping out! I hope no one was offended by it, but I have to admit that I had a good laugh at myself when I heard it.

This Last Quarter Moon is a moment to focus on and tame not only our tongues, but our busy, chattering, Mercury minds. The calmer the mind, the more control we have over what we say, and the fewer regrets we’ll have to live with in the long run.

Embracing the Unexpected

A friend tells the story of meeting her longtime partner, who had to work hard to win her affections. From the start, she enjoyed their conversations, his wit, his many fine qualities; but he simply didn’t fit the physical profile of her romantic fantasies. If anything, he was nearly the opposite, dressed in a package that was completely unexpected. Over time, though, she realized that what was inside the package was the real thing – and that was the beginning of a strong and happy union.

When Venus, the planet of taste, aesthetics, and desire, trines Uranus (Aug. 27, 2024, 00:24 am PDT), there’s an invitation to embrace the unexpected. Uranus challenges us to get outside our usual concepts of attractiveness, of what we enjoy, the people we want to spend time with. Venus in Virgo emphasizes the true value that lies beneath the exterior, and the qualities that sustain affection after physical passion subsides.

Uncomfortable Truths

We want to believe the best about the people we love. But no one is perfect, however much we love them. And this week’s Venus opposition to Neptune (Aug. 28, 2024, 1:25 pm PDT) prompts us to consider whether we can still love those closest to us even after we see their less than lovely side.

Even if your relationships are doing just fine, this aspect can reveal uncomfortable truths about basic values. Politics, figures of inspiration, our approach to earning and managing money… any of these can suddenly be revealed as naïve or wrong-headed.

Venus moves quickly, so this transit has only a glancing influence, no more than a couple of days. But if Neptune has been leaning on planets in your chart around 27-29 degrees of Pisces or Virgo, this transit could trigger an important shift in how and whom you cherish. Walking away is not always the right response to disillusionment. But sometimes, it’s the only one.

Flooding the Inbox

Mercury stations direct this week (Aug. 28, 2024, 2:14 pm PDT). When it turned retrograde on August 4th, I was finishing the last week of my sabbatical. And because I didn’t have things scheduled, and I wasn’t really using technology that much, I sailed through that week of Mercury Retrograde. The minute I returned to work, though, I began navigated an endless obstacle course of aggravating technical and communication problems.

This one will get added to my archive of anecdotes that suggest Mercury Retrograde is most difficult when we’re trying to follow a tight schedule or accomplish something that depends on many moving parts working together, and tends to be less problematic if we’re not on a schedule-driven treadmill. As Mercury turns direct, it’s on the Sabian symbol, 22 Leo, A carrier pigeon, and I’m going to assume that this means a slew of new messages are headed our way after a delay in the retrograde queue, and we can expect a lot of information flooding our inbox at once.

A Balanced Dish

My Libran husband is a wonderful cook. He’s from the culinary school of “if a little bit of an ingredient is good, then certainly four times as much must be better.” And usually, the results are stupendous. But now and then, things go off balance and there’s a vegetable and rice dish with too little rice, or a pasta salad with so much lemon that it makes you pucker.

Balance is best in cooking and in most things. But is that also true of love, ruled by Venus? And can one ever have too much money or beauty, also ruled by Venus?

Well, yes, actually. And while Venus is in Libra (Aug. 29, 2024, 6:23 am PDT through Sep. 22), it’s important to seek balance in even those things. In many relationships there is one person who loves more, or is vastly more beautiful, or brings far more wealth to the table than the other. But we don’t all have to bring the same qualities to a relationship, just as long as the sides of the scale balance out in the end.

Making Space

Here’s why I love the desert: it’s so empty, and the sky is so big, that I feel free to do and be anything. My real life is filled with beloved possessions; I love my creature comforts. But there’s no question that “stuff” weighs us down in many ways, as we pay for it, store it, and maintain it. It’s probably a common fantasy to think of chucking it all and starting over someplace new, with a big, empty slate and limitless possibilities.

There comes a time when even cherished possessions have outlived their usefulness. The emotional connections they represent may need to be released, or we simply want to lighten our load for the journey ahead. As Venus trines Pluto (Aug. 29, 2024, 7:32 am PDT) this week, don’t be surprised if you feel a sudden desire to get rid of things and create more space for yourself.

Hoofbeats

As Uranus heads toward the final year of its journey through Taurus, it’s as though bulls have been running wild through the streets. As Uranus turns retrograde (Sep. 1, 2024, 8:18 am PDT, through Jan. 30, 2025), the streets may seem a little quieter… for the moment.

But inside of you, those hoofbeats are still pounding away, restless, as though you’ve internalized those stampeding hoofs. In the quiet of a late summer afternoon, maybe working in your garden, you begin to wax philosophical. Maybe the tumult of recent months reflects not just an external world that’s constantly shifting, but your own desire for change.

Astrology works, we assume, because of some mysterious connection between all things. The sky reflects the quality of that connection – it doesn’t create it. And Uranus turns retrograde, it doesn’t stop being the God of Chaos. It just means we turn away from outer chaos long enough to find those thundering hoofbeats inside ourselves.

Secret Business Meeting

As Pluto made its first epic shift into Aquarius in March 2023, my social media and podcast feeds exploded with breathless headlines about artificial intelligence, widely believed to be associated with Aquarius. “Is this how it all finally ends?” was the general tone; would we all lose our jobs? Would robots finally destroy civilization?

There are many good conversations to be had about how to manage the dizzying advancements suggested by Pluto in Aquarius. AI is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. But one thing I think we’ve seen in the past 18 months is that while there’s no stuffing the genie back into the bottle, there’s more that can be done to prepare for the new paradigm. Our best hope is for human consciousness to make at least as great a leap forward as the one we’re seeing in technology.

Pluto retrogrades back into Capricorn this week for one final stay (Sep. 1, 2024, 4:57 pm PDT) before returning to Aquarius for good on Nov. 19. In the meantime, it sits in the final degree of Capricorn, asking some practical, pointed questions about the genie, the bottle, and the future. The Sabian symbol for 30 Capricorn seems ominous: A secret business meeting. But it’s also a symbol with the capacity to point toward positive collectivism and troubleshooting. On the agenda: What groundwork can be laid, and protections put in place, to make the most of this new Pluto in Aquarius era?