The folder of loose ends
Times are given for Pacific Daylight Saving time. Click them to find out the time in your area.
Ispent my twenties climbing the corporate ladder as an executive secretary. With a 10th house Mars in Virgo trine Saturn, I had a singular talent for getting promoted doing administrative work. In seven years of employment at a big water agency, I worked in four different departments.
I was always happiest during the period of time between accepting a job and actually reporting for work. That is the moment in any new enterprise when possibilities are limitless. You are free to imagine that your new boss will be great to work for, that you’ll love your co-workers, that the job will be interesting.
But from the moment I walked into a new office and started going through my desk, I confronted the reality of the gig. The post-it notes littering the desk, covered with inscrutable notes in my predecessor’s craggy hand. Stacks of unfiled reports. A sheaf of phone messages. I would say to myself, with the arrogance of youth, “Well, she just didn’t know what she was doing. I’ll get this straightened out in no time.”
And the gods laughed.
Which brings us to the week ahead. It begins on Monday Aug. 20 with a Sagittarius First Quarter Moon, trine the Leo Sun (4:47 pm PDT) in its last degrees. Perhaps we are celebrating something, or more precisely, the idea of something – and the rest of the week is about walking into a new office and confronting reality.
Wednesday Aug. 22 is an important day; the Moon reaches her Gibbous phase and the Sun enters Virgo (9:09 pm PDT). The Gibbous Moon is a problem-solving and reforming lunar phase; Virgo has a talent for recognizing the essential dysfunction of a thing and organizing systems to heal and untangle it. Here, the intrepid new secretary sets up her new filing systems and begins to break down her work into actionable – and possibly even achievable – steps.
To really shine, though, the secretary must coordinate smooth dealings between the boss and his managers. This looks promising on Sat. Aug. 25, when the Sun in Virgo, Saturn in Capricorn, and Uranus in Taurus convene in a grand trine around 2º30′ of their signs. Trine aspects indicate that the floodgates open and forward movement is possible. Mind you, Saturn and Uranus don’t always have the easiest time working well together; Saturn’s the boss who demands that rules be followed, and Uranus is the roused rabble who wish to do things in their own way. Here, the Sun in Virgo, with her schedules, systems, and practical troubleshooting, greases the wheels and elevates Saturn’s stodginess to effectiveness, and Uranus’ disruption to innovation.
At this point you’re being hailed as a miracle worker, as the greatest thing since Liquid Paper. But then you dig a little deeper into your predecessor’s desk – or even your own – and find the Folder of Loose Ends. This is a graveyard for unrealized projects, knotty correspondence, and stray papers that have no natural home in your filing system. Untidy loose ends, not easily resolved: Virgo’s mortal nemesis.
The week ends on a Full Moon in Pisces (Aug. 26, 2018, 4:56 am PDT) – more about that in my upcoming Full Moon mailing – on the same day Venus in Libra squares Pluto. Pisces is the god who presides over the dark corner of the filing cabinet where the Folder of Loose Ends is kept. It may initially seem as though this folder represents laziness or other moral failings, but what you will ultimately find is that those ends are loose for a reason. You will find that you can only do so much to fix things. Your best efforts can never entirely succeed in the face of intractable bureaucracy, long-standing rivalries and politics, jealousy, and manipulation.
So this week, we do our best to bring order out of chaos, to begin the process of realizing a dream conceived in joy, excitement, and the sense of unlimited possibilities. But in the end, the Folder of Loose Ends will grow a little thicker. And what we learn under the Pisces Full Moon, hopefully, is that things don’t have to be perfect in order to be perfectly acceptable, and even kind of beautiful.
Coming next week: Mars FINALLY turns direct on August 27!
©2018 April Elliott Kent
