Contemplations on Spirit
'In this blog I contemplate the means to understand one self and the motivation that moves us to unfold in heart and soul.'
The Kites of August
Monitoring the cycles of the slow planets was something I really only encountered in depth in the second year at the academy, with Karen. Because I actually worked through the academic modules in a crisscross order, certain things ran in parallel for me over a longer stretch of time.
I began my studies in Amstelveen well before my first Saturn return - but something else was happening then. A Uranus-Jupiter conjunction, retrograde, was running through my third house, itself in sextile with a retrograde Pluto through my first house - the same connection between Uranus and Pluto that is active again now, decades later, in the kite of these August days. That conjunction was also inconjunct my unaspected natal Pluto in its own sign, and that contact returns too: my unaspected Pluto currently makes a sextile with transiting Pluto in Aquarius. What I didn't know at the time: this would turn out to be a defining year for the rest of my life. That's not at all how it felt in the moment - I was mostly being lived by the whims of my restless existence.
Right after the birth of my second daughter - so during this very configuration in the sky, exactly on my unaspected Pluto - I understood it was time for a course of study that would really give me something to hold onto. I got in touch with Karen. I'd found her through a book of hers I'd bought, about the astrological windrose. My conclusion: my self-study in astrology had grown wild and unchecked, and I needed guidance. And there she was, with her lovely Indo face and long, sleek hair on the back cover of the book. I was sold on the spot.
Only much later would I understand what unaspected planets are, what that Uranus-Jupiter transit meant, and why I would never really find my footing within existing societal structures. But the beginning had been made, and the building blocks were being laid - and the pattern that began then is the same pattern becoming active again in these August days.
1. The geometry behind the kite
Today is the full moon, and there is a Jupiter cazimi - Jupiter at the heart of the sun - at six degrees Leo, opposing Pluto at four degrees Aquarius. The basket shaped constellation is still at work, and from Amsterdam's perspective there is a beautiful Star of David configuration happening, exact at approximately five p.m., when the full moon is exact.
This is also a reminder that we are here in this plane, the material world, in the matrix - I'm in the matrix of Amsterdam, for example - and that there is a meta vision beyond that, a bigger perspective. I love how astrology pulls us out of our mundane perception and gives us a meta view of existence, a different perspective. Working towards August, there is more interesting stuff going on. Saturn is retrograde in Aries, which stirs up loose ends in a specific realm of your own personal life. This opposing Pluto at Jupiter cazimi is stirring up all kinds of dark shadows and essence within us that we are now unable to mask. It's not really the time to pretend anymore - if you are pretending, it will be very obvious, because masks are dropping by the bushes.
On the evening of August 7, Venus stands high and bright in the west, the first light to appear once the sun has set - and she climbs higher by the day, on her way to greatest elongation on August 14-15. For ten days she'll keep growing more visible, until the point where, on August 10, she completes exactly the pattern this period carries: a kite.
Venus stands at 0°39' Libra - the sign she calls home - forming a trine with both Uranus (around 5° Gemini) and Pluto (around 1-2° Aquarius), and at the same time an opposition to Neptune (around 3-4° Aries). This beautiful basket shaped constellation is between Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Jupiter. Geometrically this is called a kite: a grand trine between three air signs, with a fourth planet adding a line of tension from the opposite side.
A trine is always connected to one element - all the planets understand each other, they speak the same language, they're focusing on the same thing and orienting on the same features. It's easy for them to work together, which is usually perceived as beneficial, though it can also become a bit dull because it's all very polished and smooth. That's not the case right now, though, given everything else going on.
We work with orb: the bandwidth within which an aspect is still active. In a personal transit, the window of one degree before and after the exact point is usually felt most sharply, though the broader influence often stretches across days or weeks. Slow planets carry more weight than fast ones. Uranus and Pluto barely move within these ten days - their degree stays almost still. They are the backdrop that doesn't shift, felt by far more people at once, already present well before the orb window opens and still working after it closes. Venus is the mirror image: she moves through the zodiac at roughly 1.5° a day, and her aspects are brief, individual, less collective. What still gives her weight is that she's in her own sign - a planet in domicile works undiluted, even when its passage is short.
2. Venus opposite Neptune
Venus will oppose Neptune in Aries. Neptune is retrograde in Aries, and Venus is in Libra, her native sign. On the seventh of August we enter the orb, the range of momentum, of that opposition with Neptune. Neptune and Venus actually like each other in some ways - Neptune is more collective, more transcendent, but that whole dreamy part of Venus, the mesmerizing, inspirational part, the aesthetics, the crafting, the enjoying of dreaming into a fantasy world, is very much the same territory.
This opposition, the tension that creates this kite, usually creates a bit of friction that gives direction rather than just smoothness and polish - a bit of action that makes things different, usually better, more focused. But this is an opposition between two very dreamy, soft planets, Venus and Neptune. So what do we make of it? On the one hand, a bit of a break from all the rough edges, the sharp confrontations, awakenings, and revelations that have been happening. On the other hand, there is the risk of sinking into illusion - becoming charmed by something that's actually distracting you from your goal. It's a time where we can be fooled and also fool others. It's a time where we can perceive and channel divine inspiration, and on the other end, a time where our need for harmony and oneness can become intoxicating - a way to escape.
It can be a smoothing of the rough edges of life in general, given everything intense going on right now. But be mindful of knowing your own truth, knowing what you experience as real - it's easy to drift, easy to escape, especially during this time.
This window runs from the seventh of August until the seventeenth - ten days, because Venus is within that orb. That's long for such a fast moving planet. Usually these are more like moods we move through, brief enlightenments, rather than deeply ingrained patterns (that would be more the territory of secondary progressions - progressed Venus can say so much about relationships, affection, and enjoyment, but that's a different story for another time).
The first kite appears on the seventh of August because Venus is high and in her own sign, lingering within that orb until the seventeenth, peaking on the tenth of August.
3. Mercury and the second kite
On the tenth of August, Mercury also enters Leo and, at the fourth degree, will oppose Pluto - creating a second kite conjoined with the first. Mercury is the messenger, the one who can travel through realms, a very fast moving planet, but also the one who deceives - and Neptune can deceive too. This gap that Mercury creates lasts four days, from the tenth until the fourteenth of August, and may bring sharper insights, a greater ability to communicate and voice whatever is happening in the inner realms - which is important. On the other hand, Mercury is a trickster, so stay grounded and keep it real during this window.
4. Eclipse season
Both kites, from the seventh until the seventeenth of August, are also happening during eclipse season.
August 12 : New Moon at 20° Leo, with solar eclipse
August 27 : Mercury cazimi at 5° Virgo
August 28 : Full Moon at 4° Pisces, with lunar eclipse
The Saros line: born at the South Pole, in 1179
This eclipse series belongs to Saros Cycle 10 South - born at the South Pole on March 11, 1179, long before our time, and yet still whispering its presence into the now. According to Bernadette Brady's research on Saros cycles, each series carries its own birth horoscope: a recurring field of reality that, like an old acquaintance, reawakens with every subsequent eclipse in that line.
The aspects at the birth of this series were:
- the New Moon on the midpoint between Mercury and Uranus
- Mars on the midpoint between Moon and Pluto
- Mercury on the midpoint between Mars and Saturn
This marks a line that calls for challenge, and for the release of what has become stuck. This season asks for surrender - to what the cosmos presents, and to the action we take in response. Moving with the flow of life. Sensing where it flows, and where it stands still.
August 12, New Moon with solar eclipse at 20° Leo
Eclipses bring unpredictable turns to the area of life they touch - here colored by the golden glow of Leo. This raises questions that do not speak loudly, but deeply:
- How is our sense of visibility doing?
- And our capacity for inner leadership?
This New Moon also connects with Saturn, giving it a collective dimension - as if not only we ourselves, but something larger, is being questioned through us:
- Where in our life do we feel the responsibility for our authentic leadership?
- How do we make room for this in our existence?
- To what extent are we dependent on validation from our environment - and how do we experience our own, proverbial backbone?
August 27, Mercury cazimi at 5° Virgo
Our life is illuminated by a Mercury cazimi - Mercury in the heart of the Sun - at 5° Virgo, in a yod with the transcendent planets Pluto and Neptune.
Here, Pluto confronts us with the shadow. He asks us to acknowledge our deep desires, capacities, and inner experience, in line with what we truly are - authentic and honest, without detour.
August 28, Full Moon with lunar eclipse at 4° Pisces
This eclipse season closes with a lunar eclipse in the same Saros series, at 4° Pisces, in a trine with Mars in Cancer and a square with Uranus in Gemini.
Everything that still constricts may now be shed - like an old skin that no longer fits. The energy will truly flow toward renewal and innovation. The deeply felt challenges of the past month can be seen in a new light. The worn-out patterns that may have surfaced over the course of this month can now feed the inner fire - a fire that leads us back to what truly nourishes our sense of shelter and emotional safety. And so, step by step, we turn back inward.
5. Closing
There is so much going on in the ether right now - everything digitalized, computerized - that returning to your own practices, remembering who you are in essence, remembering what has never changed within you despite all the circumstantial changes, is something worth meditating on. There is an essence of you that is unchangeable.
Just being who you are, and you will attract whatever is meant for you - dharma is real, it is for everyone, a righteous path. Trust that.
Thanks for reading this, thanks for supporting my practice, thanks for trusting me - I take it to heart. Share this with anyone you feel may benefit.
xx melanie
