Back in July, our theme was “remedial education” and it looks like that theme sticks with us through August.
As we continue to work with retrogrades and the disruptive energies of Mars and Uranus, we are asked to review what we have learned and continue our work in the cosmic classroom.
So how can we integrate the lessons the planets are currently teaching us? Read the below interview to find out how to go about it and what to expect from the month ahead.
Amanda: If you had to choose a theme for August, what would you say that the energy is going to be like for the next month?
Rick: There’s an intensification again. How do we contain the energy without having it become disruptive?
We’re on the edge of a lot of disruptive energy with Mars in Aries. And we have a bunch of planets that are either hitting or being hit by Mars and or Uranus.
So there’s a bit of a buzz to the month that at times may feel like too much, even beginning with the Full Moon as early as August 3rd. Because that Full Moon is squaring 90 degrees to Uranus.
Uranus is basically the energy of sudden abrupt, unexpected lightning, like electrical change.
There’s an easier flow when we’re open to change and responsive to change. But if we don’t change, what happens is the stress and the tension builds.
On August 1st, we have Mercury in Cancer at the same degree (23 degrees) where Pluto is in Capricorn. So we have a Mercury opposition to Pluto, which again, is stress.
Mercury is first opposing Pluto on the 1st. And then it opposes Saturn on the 3rd, which means that the energy is deep. There’s a powerful undercurrent there as we come into August.
And by the day of the Full Moon, not only is the Sun opposite the Moon, but Mercury is opposite Saturn. This is things pulling apart in opposite directions. And we’re caught in the middle.
We look one way and we see that freedom loving Moon in Aquarius. And we look the other way and we see that heart centered Sun in Leo.
Mars in its home sign Aries which is red hot and maybe brash and maybe seeking a little bit of fight. And Mars, on the day of the Full Moon on August 3rd, is squaring Jupiter, the magnifying lens.
I can see this energy building to another round of a crescendo, maybe not a final crescendo, but at least in this variation on whatever the theme is that we’re in remedial education for. It’s like the energy is stretched to the max. And it’s very likely that we’ll see some fireworks on the 2nd and 3rd.
There’s this kind of stress intention that I think gets August off to a pretty rough start. And it actually may even be the roughest part of the month. The last few days of July were the toughest and I think that leaks over to the first few days of August.
Amanda: So would you say that whatever is set up at the beginning of August, it’s like the crescendo, but then we’re dealing with the aftermath of it through August, or is it kind of an isolated event?
Rick: I’ll let you know when we talk about September. I don’t think it’s an isolated event. But I know that it’s a strong event.
One of the odd things about July was there was very little planetary sign change. There were so many planets that just turned stationary, direct or retrograde.
So there wasn’t much movement on that level. And yet this month, we actually have a fair amount of movement. We have Mercury moving from Cancer into Leo on August 4th, the day after the Full Moon. And that Mercury moving into Leo is new territory..
So August is a separation. August is different. We’re still in remedial training. We’re still relearning, but we’re getting things that are new into the mix of what we’re learning.
Venus moves from Gemini into Cancer on 7th. Both Mercury and Venus, which had been stuck in their own retrogrades in a sign for a long period of time, they’re both moving into new signs.
Mercury is moving into outgoing, expressive, animated, dramatic, strong intentions, Leo. And at the same time, Venus is now moving into Cancer where she might be a bit more receptive and maybe not as much all over the map. I think Venus in Cancer is certainly more sensitive and more nurturing.
And so I think that that’s going to be an interesting dance just because there’s more sign changes in August than there has been in a couple of months. So, it changes things up.
And all of August has Mars duking it out at odds with the Capricorn planets that are saying, hold onto this energy. It’s deep and powerful, restrain it.
The metamorphosis is occurring, allow evolution to occur in its own slow-mo process.
Jupiter making it even bigger, better, greater, more too much. And Mars comes in and goes, I want it now. I want it. And so we’re getting this combative Mars, but what’s it up against? It’s up against a calculating somber, serious playing-for-keeps Capricorn cluster. And so this is going to be a little bit of the background of August.
The New Moon is on the evening of August 18th here in the west coast of the United States. This Leo New Moon is very different than the Full Moon because it is harmonized or trine to Mars now.
At the New Moon in Leo, Mars has just made the square to Pluto and is just coming into the square to Saturn. So it’s been hot and bothered and deep and playing a rough game.
Mercury is also conjuncting the New Moon in Leo. So there’s communication involved. And that communication, because it’s in Leo, is about things coming out into the open.
It’s a tricky New Moon. And we also have one other thing occurring at that New Moon. And that is that we have Venus in Cancer making a sextile with Uranus.
This is basically a… okay, so change is occurring. I’m kind of liking this change. Something here is happening that, even though it’s not easy and wouldn’t be my preference, things are actually changing. If I can make those changes on the inside I’m actually slowly getting with the program.
So I think that there’s some hope.
Amanda: Okay. So powerful undercurrents in the beginning of the month with a type of crescendo, like experience of energy in the beginning, around the Full Moon.
Rick: I got it. The theme.
Amanda: What is it?
Rick: We’re not in Kansas anymore.
Amanda: Perfect.
Get on the waitlist for Rick Levine’s new foundational Astrology Course!
If you would like to see the full-length interview with Rick, you can watch it here
Check out Rick’s workshop, The Astrology of Relationships and Astrology Hub’s Academy of courses
Get your Horoscope sent to your inbox every Sunday
Want to subscribe to The Astrology Hub Podcast? Find us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or TuneIn