A Big Broom, a Board Meeting, and Everything Valuable
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
(Note: If you feel a sense of deja vu reading this first section, yes, I accidentally included this in last week’s column. I’m repeating it here where it properly belongs.)
Regrets, I’ve had a few
This week’s Last Quarter Moon (Aug. 30, 2021, 00:13 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 regret. Just the other day, 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.
Sometimes, though, our past words can have far more serious consequences. Recently, the newly hired host of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! resigned after offensive comments he’d made on a podcast came to light. It’s an extreme example of life in the modern age of social media, when most of us have, at some point, posted in haste and repented at leisure.
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.
A big broom
When I was small, I was obsessively neat. I mean, for fun, I used to sweep the front path…and it was made of dirt!
And yet, some of my favorite places to play were messy, even chaotic. One relative’s home was comfortably untidy, and it was liberating to spend time there, where you never felt tense about leaving your crayons or comic books lying around. It was a place that fueled imaginative play.
If Mars in Virgo symbolizes the neat freak who swept the front path, then as it opposes Neptune this week (Sep. 2, 2021, 10:43 am PDT), we behold the magic and inspiration of untidy places. But the opposition is an aspect that requires balance to make it work best, and these days the balance seems off. Neptune is like a tidal wave that overwhelms our modest efforts to keep things tidy. There are no brooms large enough to sweep up the messes that we face.
But Mars in Virgo reminds us that the way through the fog and to put our lives in order is to break things into small, actionable steps, put them on a checklist, and work our way through them. When the future is blurry and the big picture is discouraging, stay busy, and keep your eyes on what you can do today.
Board meeting
Back in the days when I served on the board of my local astrology group, monthly board meetings were a necessary – if not the most thrilling – administrative ritual. There, we brought together our reports, facts, and figures, and undertook more critical decision-making as well.
Mercury is a good planet for gathering information, and in Libra it does a fine job of weighing facts, figures, and fairness. As Mercury trines Saturn (Sep. 4, 2021, 6:30 PDT), it presents that information to the board to be used in long-range planning. Like a board meeting, this meeting of Mercury and Saturn is a fleeting and fairly routine aspect; but especially if you have important planets in the Mercury-ruled signs of Gemini or Virgo, it offers a couple of days of productive brainstorming. Mercury in Libra and Saturn in Aquarius are both sociable placements, so this is an ideal moment to sit together with a friend, partner, or team to set goals with long-ranging importance.
Everything that’s valuable
A young, beautiful heiress is introduced to a man who refuses to treat her in the style to which she’s accustomed. Her beauty and status automatically open most doors for her, and she’s first startled and then outraged to be treated indifferently by a man who refuses to acknowledge her as anything special. And naturally, she becomes somewhat obsessed with making him notice her.
As Venus squares Pluto (Sep. 5, 8:07 pm PDT), the question is, what am I worth? If you’ve fallen into the habit of relying on your past accomplishments, social connections, or attractiveness, a small interaction around this date is likely to call you out on it. When you can no longer rest on your laurels, it’s time to remember – and to cultivate – everything else that’s valuable about you.
Writing and images © 2021 by April Elliott Kent
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