This week the Moon wanes through blazing skies. Now that the Sun has followed Mercury and Venus into Leo, there is a clear majority of planets in fire signs. Fire agitates and calls to action, yet it consumes resources quickly, leaving only ash and the memory of light. Burning bright, there is much to see, yet the well-lit spectacles and debacles may only serve merely to steal and scatter our attention.
This week does not want for high production value drama. At the periphery of our consciousness dance a variety of seductive entertainments, each vision capable of absorbing us. Shakespeare wrote that all the world’s a stage, but sometimes that stage is an exploitative side-show at a sleazy carnival. The feelings of disgust, outrage, and novelty which it provokes only guide us deeper into a state of hypnotic fascination.
Yet it it is not a singular show, with a unified theme and coherent plot, but a full three ring circus, each stage competing with the others. A schizophrenic rainbow of competing agendas and perspectives dance through our media and mind. The contagious images enter through the eyes, infecting us. With visual contact we become carriers. Thus the wise limit their exposure to the world’s more venomous spectacles.
Yet we are capable of neutralizing and even transmuting poison. Indeed, the only cure for snake venom requires that same venom. Though wisdom sets limits to our exposure, we cannot shut our eyes completely. Nor should we, for justice demands witnesses. It is instead a matter of being more than another traumatized bystander to history- it is about a being agent of transmutation, the quiet cauldron in which the venom becomes the medicine. Still, we must be careful, for our alchemical strength has limits, for when we take in more than we can transform, we become a mere vector for the plague we wished to cure. To paraphrase Nietzsche, “Whoever fights clowns should see to it that in the process they do not become a clown.”
Order
The strong Sun in Leo spends the entirety of the week applying to a trine with Saturn in Sagittarius. This relative harmony between cold, dutiful Saturn and the bright, vital Sun makes clear the need for order. Deadlines loom and responsibilities call. Look to catch up on delayed projects or reaffirm your commitment to lapsed regimens. This Sun-Saturn influence permeates the week, providing a container for the eccentricities of its constituent days.
The Herald’s Errands
Mercury is our busiest planetary body this week, trining Uranus in Aries on Tuesday, squaring Mars in Scorpio on Friday and then entering Virgo on Saturday.
Mercury’s trine with Uranus on Tuesday is helpful for innovative thinking. This aspect favors novel approaches to problem solving, and radical re-envisioning of how we think of and present ourselves. Yet pattern-breaking also has a potentially negative side, as it can tempt us to ignore the bounds of both good taste and common sense.
After trining Uranus on Tuesday, Mercury moves on to the potentially nasty square with Mars in Scorpio on Friday. Harsh words and unhappy travels are common under Mars-Mercury contacts. With the two planets placed in Scorpio and Leo, you may also experience a conflict between optimism and pessimism, a war between bright and dark perspectives within and without.
On Saturday, Mercury enters Virgo, where the swift planet will reside until October 7th. Mercury is at the height of dignity in Virgo, as the messenger is considered to be both exalted and within its rulership there. For electional astrologers, it means a generous helping of auspicious dates for the clever planet’s areas of concern.
Yet the reason for this extended stay is that Mercury plans to slow down and then retrograde amidst the Virgin’s fields. While Mercury’s delicious essential dignity will provide the best the planet has to offer before and after the retrograde, the very same strength should serve to make the retrograde itself all the more disorienting. Although Mercury enters Virgo this Saturday, and thus begins this storyline, the planet’s retrograde station is not until August 31st.
