Transits for the Leo-Virgo Lunation

Smoke fills the air as I write these words, the archetype of Mars igniting the Earth’s landscape with extreme heat and lightning strikes. The year 2020 has been defined by the great conjunction of Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto, and now that Mars is square to the Capricorn stellium an already inflamed and feverish world catches fire once more. Whether fires in Australia or California, the heatwaves rippling across the globe, or the fevered foreheads and burning lungs of those struck by the crown virus, the world is expressing the intensity and heat of the archetypal zeitgeist in myriad ways.

During this lunation cycle the inner planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars form an intertwining dance with the outer planets in quick succession. Neptune is in a soft sextile to the Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto conjunction, and Mercury and Venus form major aspects to the entire set of planets, with Mercury trining the stellium and Venus opposing it, and Mercury opposing Neptune while Venus trines it. Together they form an exquisite and rare mystic rectangle, a complex aspect pattern made up of two oppositions, two trines, and two sextiles. Mars joins the dance, continuing to square Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto, and finally squares his lover Venus on the same day Mercury sextiles her. One can perceive an image of archetypal forces weaving a sophisticated pattern around our Earth, drawing us all into the dance in one form or another.

Transits of the Leo–Virgo Lunation

*August 18 @ 7:42 pm PT* The New Moon in Leo comes at last, closing out the Leo lunation cycle instead of initiating it—as has been the case for every previous lunation cycle this year. Plant your seeds of intention in the sunbaked soil, and offer them the creative fertilizer of the Venus-Uranus sextile that also comes into exact alignment on this day. The heart awakens with new and unexpected desires, bringing breakthroughs, excitement, and experimentation in love, romance, and friendship.

*August 19 @ 6:30 pm PT* The Moon and Mercury both ingress into Virgo by the day’s end, bringing the thought and feel of late summer into our bodies and minds. Our needs must be met in certain and specific ways, following a familiar and logical pattern, as Mercury steps into rulership and enjoys the benefits of exaltation as well.

*August 22 @ 8:45 am PT* Virgo welcomes the Sun into the late summer sign, and the height of Solar dominance begins to dim slightly into the softer hues of a deepening afternoon sky. Virgo is a Mercury-ruled sign, but unlike Mercury’s other domicile Gemini—in which conversations dart back and forth in quick dialogue between the twins—the Virgin is “one unto herself” and thus holds the contemplative conversation within in a space of self-reflection.

*August 23 @ 4:35 am PT* Scorpio Moon forms the waxing crescent sextile to the Sun in Virgo, the first alignment between the luminaries in the Virgo lunation. The wheat stalks send forth their slim leaves, beginning to grow the seeds of intention planted in Leo’s hot summer soil. Deep emotions may feel balanced out by a logical approach to integrating their reasons for arising.

*August 24 @ 11:19 am PT* Mars in Aries squares Saturn in Capricorn, culminating the first of three sweeps across the great stellium. The ferocity that has been building throughout the month meets a firewall, containing and constricting the energies, building frustrations and stamina. But beware the dormant volcano, which may be accumulating greater pressures under the forces of negation.

*August 25 @ 10:58 am PT* As the Moon in Sagittarius squares the Sun in Virgo, Mercury forms a trine with Uranus while Venus opposes Jupiter. The archetypal dynamics are complex and multifaceted, as a quickening rational mind tries to make sense of Venus opposing the Capricorn stellium and Mars squaring it. The lovers Venus and Mars start their tango, while the fate of the whole world is seemingly caught in the balance.

*August 27 @ 2:13 pm PT* Venus in Cancer trines Neptune in Pisces, pulling four of the five outermost planets into major aspect with the principle of love and beauty. The heart may be opening generously and feeling tendrils of romantic daydreams, but the potential of challenge and intense transformation lies on the immediate horizon.

*August 29 @ 6:28 am PT* Mercury in Virgo trines Jupiter just as the Moon passes through the great Capricorn stellium. Emotions and intimate relational dynamics may be intensified, but perhaps Mercury can offer a means to express and interpret those feelings, bringing the insight of the storyteller to reflect on one’s innermost dynamics.

*August 30 @ 6:31 am PT* Venus in Cancer opposes Pluto in Capricorn, aligning at the midpoint of the stellium, while Mercury opposes Neptune in Pisces. The glistening beauty of the serpent coils around the bleeding heart, while the mind is awash in daydreams, delusions, and fantasies.

*September 1 @ 10:22 pm PT* The Full Moon in Pisces opposes the Sun in Virgo, while Mercury in the same sign trines Pluto in Capricorn, bringing in depth and power to the image-saturated mind. The roots may be planted in solid, fertile soil, but the Lunar blossom unfurls its petals in the realm of dreams. Seek to understand the hidden reaches of the dreamworld, unveiling the symbols that arise from the infinite wellspring of ideas.

*September 2 @ 5:18 am PT* Venus in Cancer opposes Saturn, culminating its journey in opposition to the Capricorn stellium. Bittersweet heartache, the poignancy of loss, the beauty of suffering, the commitment of love beyond death. Venus-Saturn is the withered rose whose scent may be even more beautiful in memory than reality.

*September 3 @ 12:23 am PT* Mercury in Virgo completes its trine to the Capricorn stellium with an exact alignment to Saturn, focusing the mind, bringing precision to the intellect, conciseness to the expression of words, and quiet to the whirling world of thoughts.

*September 4 @ 2:12 am PT* Venus in Cancer squares Mars in Aries, while Mercury in Virgo forms a sextile to Venus. These two alignments, each perfecting on the same day, show the different way that Eros relates to Logos versus the Warrior. Mercury and Venus never find themselves more than a gentle sextile apart, always maintaining a harmonious confluence between the mind and the heart. But Venus and Mars can form any dynamic aspect to one another, igniting the friction, conflict, and active allurement needed for passionate love-making or a burned heart.

*September 5 @ 12:46 pm PT* Mercury leaves its exalted home of Virgo to enter into Libra’s domain of balance, harmony, and potential indecision. Although now in Venus’s domicile, Mercury is charmed to be here, working the room with a honeyed tongue, bestowing pleasing compliments and sweet musings upon those who will listen.

*September 6 @ 12:22 am PT* Venus departs the Lunar realm of Cancer and ascends into the Solar domain of Leo, a shining beacon of beauty, style, and aesthetic taste. Allow your individual and radiant splendor to take up the space it deserves, acknowledging that there is room for everyone to be their gorgeous selves.

*September 9 @ 3:22 pm PT* Mars turns retrograde in the final degrees of Aries, increasing the potency of the square to the Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto stellium in Capricorn. Mars will be retrograde until November 13, thickening and coagulating the warrior blood and fire for more than two months. Mars may not be leaping ahead in its usual manner, but its deceleration amplifies and deepens Mars’s anger, assertion, aggression, and energized will to take action.

*September 10 @ 2:26 am PT* The Gemini Moon forms its waning square to the Sun in Virgo, reorienting the energies inward as the Lunar cycle makes its way towards the close. With both luminaries in Mercury-ruled signs, mental activities, conversations, exchanges of ideas, and internal contemplation may feel especially illuminated.

*September 11 @ 1:26 pm PT* The Sun in Virgo opposes Neptune in Pisces, dissolving the boundaries of the ego and identity, permeating the self with mystical images, visionary dreams, religious callings, symbols and signs, fantasies and mirages. The edges of one’s being become blurred, making it hard to differentiate what is yours, and what belongs to the rest of the world.

*September 12 @ 5:41 pm PT* Jupiter turns direct at 17° Capricorn, the first of the outer planets to return to its normal forward course across the starry sky. Jupiter will now move in closer once more to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, crossing over each planet in the final months of the year before at last departing the sign of its fall.

*September 15 @ 8:29 am PT* Venus in Leo squares Uranus in Taurus, adding flair, sparkle, and experimentation to Venus’s already dazzling beauty. The heart wants to be unbound and unrestrained, breaking free from any constrictions, and bringing forth unexpected revelations of desire.

*September 17 @ 4:00 am PT* The New Moon in Virgo offers a fertile, mutable soil in which to plant the new seeds of intention. Mercury in Libra aligns in a square to Jupiter in Capricorn, calling forth grand ideas, inflated thoughts, philosophical musings, and an optimistic perspective on the growing potential of the newly seeded intentions. Plant kernels of hope in abundance now, for although not all may come to flower, some of these ambitious ideas may grow to great heights.