The Astrology for August 2023

The planetary delineations described below are for the location of Melbourne, Australia and so you will need correct this for your location when reading these blogs. Also keep in mind that my days begin from midnight and not dawn.

The month begins with a strong yearning to challenge and change the established norms and authoritarian structures in your life. The changing aspirations of society form a part of the influence of Venus retrograde where your consciousness yearns to evolve. It also manifests as a yearning to moderate your influence in relationship through inconvenience. In this way you are coerced to change your ways somewhat to mitigate conflict. With Mars trine to Jupiter, your enthusiasm and energy helps you achieve favourable outcomes. Saturn conjunct the fixed star Deneb Aldige, reinforces your aspirational nature.

August 2 brings the Full Moon in Aquarius where your inner tension and drive are heightened by the needs of the collective challenging your own competing needs. What are you not achieving that you need to? The solar-lunar month of Leo comes to fruition as you more clearly articulate what it is you need from the core of who you are and what you need to achieve for yourself. To love and respect yourself. As the adage goes, only a well nourished self can then nourish others.

There is also a benevolent, generous and positive spirit today with the Moon’s aspect to Jupiter as well as the previous day’s Mars/Jupiter contact still active. This gives way for later in the day when Mercury opposes Saturn with more serious and constructive thinking about your relationship to the world around you and how you can support that through practical measures. The Moon in aspect to Chiron helps prevents the possibility of isolating yourself, feeling the need to reach out and connect with others.

August 3 begins with a more restless drive but take care with hasty actions as breaks or severances in relationships could result from a lack of foresight. Remember that good will is reciprocated and so achieving for others as well as yourself will ensure optimal outcomes. Then later in the day, there is a need to retreat when others are pressing you to extend yourself. Old habit patterns surface as compulsive behaviours blinds your objectivity.

August 4 continues with the theme of old habit patterns surfacing with the conflict between your feeling and reason natures. But giving way for a more optimistic  and grounded outlook. Your energy heightens with the Moon opposing Mars. It can also signal issues at home. By the end of the day you simply need to withdraw as you struggle to meet the needs of your inner self.

August 5 begins with a restless night, much dreaming and consequently a poor night’s sleep. You may wake with an urge to do something different or shake up the complacency of those around you. This quickly shifts into the narrative of feeling the weight of your obligations driven by poor self esteem. There is some confusion and heightened sensitivity of everyone around you which adds to this as old habits prevent connecting or communicating clearly. There comes the arousal of deep feelings and the urge to make some changes as you feel compelled to complete your unfinished business.

August 6 will be a lot more peaceful with feelings of balance along with a deeper appreciation and understanding of your own needs. Although your values can get in the way of being able to assert your own needs. So the best course of action will be to simply do nothing as your convictions are simply not sound enough and if you push too hard then this may impact upon your health. For the tendency today is also dictated by the alignment of the Sun and Jupiter, bringing much enthusiasm and energy but also the tendency to extend yourself beyond your resources. By the end of the day though, take heart, as you will come to a greater appreciation with the clearer feeling of your strong alignment with your inner self.

August 7 is a day for retreating, being lazy and overindulgent. Maybe creative or reflective. In any way you choose. August 8 will have a similar feel to it. You want to be slow and deliberate. You will come by information about your past or about your family. Then comes the Third Quarter of the Moon, the final crisis of this solar-lunar month where connections or ways of being will be challenged. Late in the day then comes  the conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter when reflections upon whether you are helping or hindering the birth of what is of value to you right now will become clearer.

August 9 will be an active day where moods will change quickly and the pace reflects an impatience and the need to escape from the mundane routine. Underlying this is a certain degree of struggling to meet the needs of your inner self. Then late in the day a heightened sensitivity and compassion overwhelms you and an early night might just be the key, a way to channel the intensity. 

Late in the day as well, along with the following three days, comes the influence of the retrograde Venus aspecting Uranus. The focus of this will be connected with seeking excitement or resolution through relationships. Whether or not this brings conflict will just reflect the degree to which you need to break free. A way of diverting such disruptive energies can be placated through seeking out new and exciting experiences.

August 10 will bring conflict into relationships reflecting how out of touch and isolated you feel. But Jupiter conjunct Alamak and Menkar brings a readiness for change and being open to the collective.

August 11 starts with a focus upon your authenticity. Your alignment with your values calling for more honesty from yourself. But today also brings some resolution here as the Sun and Moon make their final constructive aspect marking a final understanding and integration with your inner self and what it is you most require. This is backed up by the Moon and Chiron in constructive alignment with each other and will go some way to mitigating an underlying sense of haste.

On August 12 you will be more sensitive to the influence of others. But you will work more successfully with this, discovering new ways of acting which stop you feeling persecuted or powerless to change your situation. Then late in the day comes peace where you feel more in control of your emotions.

August 13 will be a more settled day with strongly positive feelings and being more able to articulate your feelings will help immensely. August 14 is another strong day where you feel more innovative, positive and confident. It marks the inferior conjunction of Venus with the Sun and so a turning point in the Venus retrograde cycle. By late afternoon the tone changes as you begin to feel more sensitive. Conflict is possible unless you open yourself to empathy, allowing for each others differences.

August 15 will be a day for keeping to yourself and watch out for that programme of self sabotage as this will stop you from achieving your goals. But there is excitement brewing with the aspect of Mars trine Uranus building and dominating the next four days. This combination allows for new and unexpected encounters and activities. There will be the need for a break from the routine and allowing new elements into your life. It gives you the opportunity to be daring and courageous. It allows you to be open to taking more risks than usual and in doing so allows for the breakdown of barriers to your personal growth.

August 16 marks the final day of the Leo solar-lunar month as the Moon moves towards the New Moon phase. It starts as a positive day where connecting with others will work well. If shopping then you will feel tempted to spend more than usual. This will help you feel a lot better about your circumstances. August 17 possesses similar sentiments, shaking up your personal growth, allowing for new things to enter into your life in this new phase of the solar-lunar cycle. There is an underlying sense of needing to change what you know as your duty to others. To prevent you feeling at their mercy and this marks a good segue into the upcoming solar-lunar month of Virgo. Later this evening will be a good time for retreating and avoiding any disruptive influences.

August 18 marks the conclusion to the Mars-Uranus aspect and August 19 begins with emotions influencing your decision making more than usual and enhanced by a feeling of disconnection with self. But your stronger affect will allow for more meaningful connections with others. However, in this mix will also be feelings of impatience and irritability along with a lack of compromise. Great control will need to be exercised to break down the formidable barriers. 

Then late in the day your intuitive capacity will be heightened and you will be better off avoiding those recreational substances to which you will be more sensitive than usual. Here marks the heliacal rising of retrograde Venus. This phase comes five days after the inferior Venus conjunction, marking a time when crisis arises. There can occur such things as natural disasters, the fall of world leaders, changes in religious directives, significant scientific discoveries as well as resolutions on legal matters, immigration and other matters of significance. Maybe the final verdict on what happens for Julian Assange can be anticipated.

August 20 may be a bit of a low point in the month and a good time to just retreat and look after yourself and your loved ones. For the next three days leading up to the Sun moving into Virgo will mark a passage in time for deep reflections. The growing sense of trusting your own instincts and not the propaganda dictated by authorities or by their publicity machine, the media. 

The value of self lies in the complex depths of spirit within and not in the external trappings of life, such as qualifications and electronic devices. Technology can never replace intuition. It does not even come close despite its power. What happens though is that we lose confidence in ourselves and then seek external validation. These few days carry with them these reflections in so many intimate and varied ways. Tune into yourself and feel whether your alignment is true to what you yearn for at the deepest levels of your being.

Toward the end of August 23 and into the day of August 24 we have the influences of Venus and Jupiter, Mars and Neptune combined with the Sun moving into Virgo. This can be a very self indulgent time and you will be more susceptible to the effects of substances, medicines and foods than usual. So take care as misadventure will be a strong theme over this period. You will want to enjoy the company of others and connect with them closely. This will be a good use of this period. On the other hand for some with lowered immunity, this will be an important time to retreat as you will be more susceptible to becoming sick than you usually are.

So begins the next solar-lunar month in Virgo where the focus of your work will be upon personal efficiency and effectiveness and how to augment this through managing your life and your duties. Included in these lessons are messages about focusing upon your health, eating and living according to what is optimal for yourself. We also come to the First Quarter of the Moon which will heighten your inner tension as you embrace and embody the qualities of Virgo. Then begins our next phase of Mercury retrograde.

Mercury is the trickster and so messes with communication. If you can avoid it, do not move, quit your job, emigrate, travel or spend a lot of money between now and September 16. And if any of these things cannot be avoided, then make sure your plans are clear as miscommunication and misinformation will be rife. So for instance, if moving house just double check you have ordered the removalists for the right day. Also, as usual, avoid signing contracts but if these can’t be avoided then make sure they are very clear and you have them verified by a solicitor. 

This is the second phase of Mercury retrograde in the earth signs and it is very much in keeping with the themes of the solar-lunar month, the themes of Virgo. This is your chance to plumb the depths and work upon your own personal effectiveness in the world. Enjoy this opportunity as it will not be as productive later given all the planetary signs at this time.

August 25 and 26 are dominated by Mars trine to Pluto and while the urge is to become more effective at changing the world around you, what you will find is that this must be done for the good of both you and society or later more stressful transits between these two, beginning with October 11, may sow the seeds of your own undoing. You must be clear that what you are doing is aligned with your own values.

August 27 will bring inner harmony and a day of being slow and deliberate, nothing too testing as the previous days. August 28 will be more social while August 29 will be more intense leading either to a deepening of understanding or conflict in relationship. You may get frustrated by feeling bound by obligations or feel just out of touch. Mars has now moved into Libra, intensifying issues within relationships or within families. It can be a time of open hostility or else a time for getting a better sense of how you impact others.

August 30 may prove to be a day to avoid contact with others if you do not wish to feel obligated and then August 31 brings us to the Full Moon in Pisces, illuminating how well you are doing with your own personal effectiveness. Have you got the balance right between influencing others and being influenced yourself?

Does all this make good sense for you? Do you wish to plumb the depths, probe deeper and know more? Just go to this link https://marklambrick.com/contact/ and request a personal astrology reading from Mark.