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Weekly Weather Report

by Stephanie Azaria

Significant Planetary Aspects for:

In honor of the Venus/Mars conjunction in Libra, Kathy is talking about Venus, Mars, love and sex at 7:30 PM EDT Friday, August 20 at The Goddess in Eden in Montclair, NJ. Contact The Goddess in Eden or email Kathy for details.

We are starting to see where all the changes of this summer are heading. Puzzle pieces are falling into place, internally and externally. The big pictures they’re forming are becoming easier to make out this week, which has an air of major culmination on multiple fronts. That’s due to the three significant astrological events that converge over the weekend, right as Mercury is beginning his latest retrograde. Their coinciding means that whatever comes to a head now is not a one-shot deal. We’ll have the opportunity to revisit, rethink and possibly reexperience all of it after Mercury goes direct in September and travels over this turf again.

Relationships play an enormous role in what’s going on right now. They are the arena in which we’re working out, applying and tweaking the big internal shifts we’ve all been experiencing. Each of us has gotten more in touch with our own personal bottom line – our individual short list of what we value, what we have to have, what we’re willing to give, do and accept, where we’re willing to compromise and what has no further place in our life. In many instances, these short lists are quite a bit different from previous assumptions (ours or other people’s), and it’s become hard-to-impossible to keep the disparities under wraps any longer. We’ve all been tipping our hands, intentionally or not, which has resulted in the life-clarifying and sometimes brutal interactions people have been experiencing since the Capricorn lunar eclipse at the end of June. It’s time for things to settle in, at last.

The first balm for this troubled area come from the conjunction between Venus and Mars on Friday. The archetypes of the feminine and the masculine are coming together in the sign of relationships, and there’s no better astrological harbinger for inner balance and interpersonal harmony (and more). The setting for their current get-together is an interesting and not coincidental continuation of how their relationship has been developing lately. In their two dates last year the cosmic lovers brought the feminine into equal footing with the masculine and ushered in a heart-driven mode of living, with the mind and will going after what the heart decides she wants. The pair met in April 2009 at the last degree of Pisces (the current location, incidentally, of Uranus), which united heart/mind, female/male and receptive/assertive polarities on a spiritual level. The lovers’ uniting then came down to earth right before the summer solstice with their second date, in the middle of Venus’ first home of Taurus. Venus is again in charge of their date this time around, because it takes place in her second home of Libra. The blending of the feminine and the masculine has gone from spiritual connection to dense physicality to conscious, intellectual exchange. We’re aware, thinking, talking and, above all, negotiating.

The disruptions, disappointments and departures are over for now, or at least the focus on them. The time has come for figuring out what we’re going to do with the people who’re still with us. All of our interactions improve under this influence. Cease-fires and truces are possible in the unpleasant links we’re stuck with. Good interactions will settle in nicely, and a really wonderful alliance or two may well be struck. Now, the conjunction of Venus and Mars doesn’t necessarily promise the arrival of the love of your life, of course (though it might; Saturn is nearby, beaming staying power and commitment into link-ups that occur, meaning that whatever starts now will proceed slowly and stably and/or – take note! – be hard to extricate yourself from). It won’t necessarily precipitate any one memorable relationship event at all, either. The harmonious union could take place entirely within you. A significant part of it certainly will, with your male and female sides reaching a lasting mutual cooperation pact.

This conjunction will also bring pleasing developments in any number of areas ruled by Venus. We’re so focused on associating Venus with love that we overlook or downplay her other rulerships, but they are often exactly where her influence appears. For example, major Venus transits in the past year or so have coincided for me with furiously digitizing cassette recordings from my longtime singing partnership with a man (when Venus and Mars met in Taurus last year), with peak experiences on stage and, as she reached the end of Virgo, squared Pluto and moved into the cardinal t-square, with the more mundane milestone of organizing more than a decades’ worth of tax records and uncovering documents that affect several thousand dollars in tax liability. So keep your mind and eyes open; this converging of heart and drive can bring valuable developments that have nothing to do with romantic love. The conjunction bodes well for raises and better paying jobs, for increasing the value of a talent or skill, for an upsurge in artistic output, for business partnerships based on reciprocity, and for making peace.

Even as the interpersonal warmth and general good vibes soar, though, don’t go into this weekend expecting sweetness and hearts and flowers. The undercurrents are intense; the stakes are high. Raw truths are surfacing. Deep emotions, passions, compulsions and terrors are finding voice. Two enormous cycles are ending that have permanently revolutionized our approach to relationships. On Saturday, Saturn and Pluto are making the third of three squares that have demanded renegotiation and reciprocity while rewriting the ground rules in all our dealings (the others were mid-November and the end of January). That same day, Saturn and Uranus are having a showdown by declination, in a final summation of the five-part opposition that has restructured the status quo over the past 18 months, and that finished by zodiacal degree at the end of July. We’re subtly shaking up the new structures we’ve been installing and rattling the old ones one last time, to see what unstable parts require attention or removal. If you can’t articulate your personal bottom line now, you will by the weekend, even if it comes flying out of your mouth before your brain catches on. These two aspects to Saturn set the morning-after tone for the Venus/Mars conjunction. Whatever you experience in a close relationship this weekend will not follow a chick-flick script. Developments will be mature, down-to-earth and somehow real, instead of dreamily romantic. They will be intense and unlike what you have experienced before (because everyone is different now), and they are likely to get under your skin and stay there.

The fact that all this is happening while Mercury is stationing retrograde adds to the staying power of this weekend’s events. The station occurs late Friday afternoon EDT, which means that the conversations, developments and issues of this weekend will continue to play out during the retrograde, well into next month. Between Friday and September 12, the planet of communication and transportation will travel from 19 Virgo to 5 Virgo and retrace the territory he’s covered since the beginning of August. On September 27, he will return to the degree of his station, which should reinvigorate (I started to type: reinvirgorate) the internal and external unions, negotiations and restructurings that occur now. Bottom line: nothing is fleeting or ephemeral. Everything is solid and not going away quickly.

Monday: Jupiter opposes Saturn. Take a good hard look at the foundations and walls (and people you perceive as having authority) in your life. They loom larger and feel more solid than usual because of Jupiter’s effect. Are they supporting or constraining you? Hang on to your conclusions. They’ll play into the conversations you have this weekend when Saturn moves into hardball with Pluto.

Tuesday: Nice Moon aspects promise an easy flow to the day that should wash away any lingering distaste from yesterday. Trines to Uranus and Jupiter encourage spontaneity and good-natured impulsiveness. Mid-to-late evening sextiles to Venus and Mars offer the possibility of inner balance, creative drive and social harmony. They presage Friday night in ways that may not be easy to spot yet. Stay alert.

Wednesday: After a morning with no aspects, the skies continue preparing us for Friday. Representatives of our masculine nature, Mars and the Sun, make edgy aspects to Neptune, the planet of higher love and rosy-colored romance, shaking loose some illusions (or our predisposition to them) in advance of the real deal to come. Mercury meets with Saturn by declination, bringing news with a get-real impact. Look at the day’s events as settling you into the here and now.

Thursday: The prep work continues, with edginess between Venus and Neptune, the two octaves of love and art. Note where and how your radar is spiked. It’s likely you’ll feel uncomfortable, excited, scared and resistant, which is a major clue that something big is up. Mercury faces off with Uranus by declination; watch for messages or insights that turn your thinking upside down or show you a possibility that you had never considered. The evening has no aspects. You might use the free form time to think about what you are now wanting to experience in your relationships, at this point in your life.

Friday: Lots happens today. The action begins with the Sun opposing Neptune around sunrise EDT. The movies playing in your subconscious set your tone for the morning and the day. Notice who and what is on your mind. Monitor your expectations, too; they may be a bit off the mark. If you are in any kind of artistic or collaborative work, the atmosphere should bring you superb inspiration, output and cooperation. Even if you’re not, relationships will be front and center and uncommonly harmonious as well. The Venus/Mars conjunction builds to a peak mid-afternoon EDT (2:59 PM), with Mercury stationing retrograde about an hour later. The station will have the effect of prolonging Venus and Mars’ happy vibes for the rest of the day, making this the most memorable date night (in a positive way) of the year. There are no aspects at all after Mercury stations until he meets with the Moon just before midnight. Hearts and minds are on the same page, and how.

Saturday: Communication is the order of the day – deep, meaningful, intense, raw, honest with a vengeance. With Mercury facing Jupiter down by declination, there will be lots of it, too. Saturn completes his final square to Pluto and faces Uranus down by declination. Any relationship that is launching now, or moving into a higher gear, will proceed extremely mindfully on both sides, with cards being put on the table more openly and earlier in the game than the participants have done in the past. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but” will be high on the list of most-repeated phrases. What we hash out this weekend – the way we tell each other what we want, what we’re willing to do, what we want in return and what we will not do or accept – is the first big implementation of our new relationship paradigm. You really are different. Your life really is different. And now you’re seeing that your relationships really are different now, too.

Sunday: The day’s aspects are a mixed bag. The Moon’s activity overnight will encourage some people to ignore what’s on the clock, much less their normal body rhythms, and stay up late simply because they’re enjoying themselves so much. Even if you manage to turn in at a reasonable hour, there’s no need to push yourself when the sun returns. Take advantage of the low-energy morning and regroup, if not sleep in. The second half of the day runs from feeling that your emotions and connections are grounding and stabilizing, to sensing edginess in the air and misfiring in communications, to being willing to kick the walls out if you perceive something/one getting in your way. Tread softly. Everyone’s tired, and the backwash is starting to hit from the intense and powerful developments of the past two days. Continue the process of honest and frank (re)assessment, (re)negotiating and (re)structuring. If you aren’t in the mood today to discuss any of this with the other person concerned, carry the process on with yourself.

Kathy is offering a 30-minute reading of how this summer’s change energies are affecting you at the special rate of $90, good for bookings scheduled and paid by August 15, 2010. To sign up for her mailing list or learn more about her services, visit her site Empowerment Unlimited.