The beginning and tail ends of today will be very different: this morning almost serene with a trine between Mars and Neptune and this evening more electric with the Sun opposite Uranus. So it’s a yoga and yoghurt-type morning, and a panicky (have I packed my packed lunch for tomorrow) type of evening. The answer is that no you haven’t packed your packed lunch, but the good news is that your telepathic guides will prompt you just before you go to sleep. Numerologically, today is a 9, so if that is your number you could buy a lottery ticket, and if it is not you may try channelling on its significance, which is what Sarah and I will be doing in the Light Body meeting this afternoon. There’s a day’s grace before the partially eclipsed New Moon on Tuesday (11th) to get re-established at your desk in the office, eat your sandwiches and put on a pound in weight (nothing drastic). While you are sedentary, go through your New Moon ritual of intent. If you know what house in your birthchart the New Moon falls in, then you will know what area of life to plan for. Otherwise, try the Virgoan virtues of economy, purification and perfectionism in the Virgoan-related areas such as your workspace (re-arrange the icons on the desktop of your laptop), your environment (take your carbon footprint down a notch) and health (wean yoruself off the herbal tranqillisers). Thursday (13th) is a beauty for travel and philosophy (recommended reading for your journey: “Great Railway Journeys” by Michael Palin on the physical plane, “The Art of Travel” by Alain de Botton on the mental plane and “The Camino” by Shirley MacLaine on the spiritual plane). But reading on your journey, you’ll miss the delights of looking out of the window: the fen wide skies, the rabbits on Ely marshes, the piglets at Waterbeach…Actually, the physical and mental journeys you undertake around 13th could be profound and healing, for Chiron sextiles Jupiter and trines Mercury this week. Take a notebook with you on the journeys as the insights or poetic lines or sketches that appear can continue to inspire for the rest of the week, and a little beyond. That small red embroidered notebook could serve you better than Michael, Alain or Shirley on future journeys. Wot no scary aspects? No, the second half of the week is strictly for your healing…

Did you find the healing key provided by Mars and Chiron last week? Perhaps it was a symbol, or a philosophical thought. The Mars and Chiron healing effect is still influential this week, so you can still use it, though watch for the philosophical thought or symbol to change form or evolve. The big event of the week, and it’s about 3 hours away as I write, is the entry of Saturn into Virgo. Saturn has been in Leo for the last two and a half years, teaching you something, maybe that when you are feeling frivolous someone else may not be. So for Leos it’s party on dudes, but bearing in mind what came up for you. For Virgos, it’s down to serious business, maybe economies or ecologies. How important is this astrological event in the scheme of things? Diarists flip your pages back to mid-July 2005 when Saturn moved out of Cancer and into Leo: then we had liberated an emotional issue and begun a new test of our creative expression. More dedicated diarists (such as moi) flip back even further to the last time Saturn was in this exact position, to mid-November 1977, and you will have a more accurate picture of what to expect in context of the area of your life which is most involved, though you’ll have moved on and will experience on another level. The significance of this event may be temporarily lost in the maelstrom of squares starting tomorrow (3rd) which form part of a loose Grand Cross in the mutable signs composed of Mars in Gemini, Mercury and the Sun in Virgo, Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces. This could be an initiation for the uninitiated, but certainly we will all have to pull together, and where we have differences put them aside. If anything, the intensity of the Grand Cross was stronger last week, but I didn’t spot it in time (a few people reported feeling intense depression just after the eclipse) – sorry folks! Here’s the breakdown: Mercury squares Pluto early tomorrow morning and if you are travelling make sure you are accompanied by St. Christopher and your travelling Angels. There’s a sextile in the evening between Venus and Mars sandwiched between another two squares: Mars square Uranus earlier in the evening, and Sun square Jupiter in the early hours of Tuesday (4th) morning. For Mars square Uranus read expect the unexpected, including electrical faults. Venus holding hands with Mars brings harmonious cooperation between the sexes. Sun square Jupiter doesn’t mean much harm, but can swing to extremes, so a balance needs to be found. These aspects taken all together mean that events can take over, but hold fast to loyalties and alliances and remember that we are all one. We are all in it together. As Suzuki Roshi once said, in the front of a vegetarian cookbook “We are all friends from past lives”. Wednesday (5th) Mercury enters Libra, and if Wednesday is particularly important in your life, it is a good day for dialogue, and you may have a lot to catch up on. Pluto goes stationary on Friday (7th). It’s been taking a long lingering nostalgic glance at Sagittarius before it moves into Capricorn in January. There is still a lot of co-operation going on between Pluto and Saturn, so any benefits you accrued on August 6th when they were in trine can still work in your life. You may be able to see now what a permanent marker that was for you. Jupiter also sextiles Chiron, and that philosophical tenet or healing symbol can be re-charged. Finally, Venus goes stationary on Saturday (8th) after a few weeks of reuniting us with past loves, picking up personal stitches and seeing how they fit into what we are making of our lives. Pause to look at your handiwork. In the meantime, I am carefully keeping an eye on our two cats who have Saturn transiting their Sun this week…

What’s the story this week? Not a lot to write home about if you’re looking at the quantity of aspects, but what there is has enough significance to keep you mentally and emotionally alert. All the action takes place on Tuesday 28th August, so ring it in your diary. It may already be ringed, as “back to work” day or “catch up time” or even “decision day”, but take the next couple of days to think things through as Tuesday’s eclipsed full moon could still throw you off your intended course if you are not absolutely aligned with your own pole star. This eclipsed full moon is the opposite (Moon in Pisces, Sun in Virgo) of that which occurred on March 3rd (Moon in Virgo, Sun in Pisces) and for this reason you could see your own world view do a complete 180 degree turn from the way it looked then. That can be a good thing, as you may then complete the picture. So think back to that time or consult your journal, to look at the issues which that eclipsed full moon brought up. What in your life was born at that time? For me it was the Full Moon research project (Moonpod for short) which came about because a few friends experienced extreme emotional reactions at the time, and one of them demanded an explanation! So we have been keeping a record of the fluctuations of the moon as it has affected our lives since then. Some (especially those born under Cancer or with a prominent Moon in their chart) are more consistently affected than others. But as a Sagittarian I have to admit that I have found the Moon’s activities more significant than I had previously given credit. Now those of a nervous disposition look away; those of a prediliction for sci-fi listen up: the other aspect which occurs that day is Mercury opposite Uranus: this has as much effect on the mind as the Full Moon has on the emotions, and again it is an opposition aspect and also takes place across the signs of Virgo and Pisces. You will probably find then that Virgoans and Pisceans out of all of us go through the most changes and metamorphoses this week, it’s safe to generalize. Mercury represents the mundane mind, and Uranus the higher mind, and when they connect there can be a direct stairway to heaven, or an electrical short-circuit malfunction in the nervous system if the light coming through is unable to find a smooth path through the human apparatus. So it could be a good day for UFOs and UFO-watchers and for those practiced in the New Age art of channelling, as well as being an interesting day for the psychotherapeutic profession, but for the rest you have two days to stock up on Vitamin B, migraine tablets and rescue remedy. I also find those eye shades you used to get on air flights to help you sleep (before you were worried about your carbon footprint) very handy. Anyway, that’s it, so take the rest of the week off (actually you may find that the arrangements and appointments just cancel themselves) and enjoy life. There’s a trine between Mars and Chiron some time this week (ephemerides vary as to which day it falls on) so the opportunity to heal is waiting to be seized. I like a happy ending.

Our Moon Research group Moonpod is now six months old, so thank you (you know who you are) for sticking with it, for valiantly filling in all the questionnaires and noticing every nuance of your change of mood, and for even putting up with its branch project the Depression Dossier (which fell a bit flat, but we’re still working on it). Don’t forget to fill in your graph for this week, recording each day’s fluctuations between the five points between agony and ecstasy.

The next “Exploring Colour, Light and Sound Workshop” will be at Snailwell, Newmarket, on September 21st to 23rd. Further details can be found on Barry or Felicity’s websites (see Contact page). I have been a participant on all the previous workshops and have enjoyed the mix of fun and enlightenment provided by the co-hosts! So if you have ever wanted to paint or sound mandalas, there is still time to book.

Luxuriate only until lunchtime today while Mercury remains in Leo, then when it reaches Virgo it’s pure service, whatever service means to you: whether it’s serving behind the bar, serving your aromatherapy clients (on a Sunday? You’re working too hard) or serving humanity. If you are a Virgoan, you’ll be in your element, polishing the silver. Early evening brings a trine between the Sun and Pluto. If you are preparing psychological ground for something important, such as an emotional healing journey, it will be a good time to meditate and pack your tools: crystals, inspirational listening and reading, and your special earth healing costume. If your healing ground is going to be in the home vicinity this week, then shift some furniture with the help of your feng-shui guides. Just make sure the neighbours aren’t watching, as they already think of you as some New Age cliché (I am of course speaking for myself only). The real work begins on Tuesday (21st) with the conjunction of the Sun and Saturn at the end of Leo. It’s a chance to firm up the foundations or even admire the finished project of something built up over the last two or so years while Saturn has been in that sign, especially if you are a Leo. You do want to see the results of all that hard work, but at times the sheer struggle may have conditioned you to see only the stumbling blocks ahead of you. Tuesday may still be problematic, but you can start to see what you have achieved and the beauty and meaning of the original grand design and the overall plan. That goes for you other signs watching too, but maybe less so. You may have watched the brave lions in your life or may have had your own Saturn-in-Leo demons to face – bravo to everyone! You can at least buy the bottle of champagne even if you haven’t yet got the bottle to drink it or acknowledge the strength you’ve shown. Thursday (23rd) lunchtime the Sun enters Virgo, and we are all starting to feel autumnal even though it is still summer – you know that feeling. Obsessive-compulsives just put down that silver for a minute, you’ve done enough for today. There’s a quiet peaceful side to Virgo which you can access, in contrast to the drivenness. Just lie down now, start to relax and take it easy…We have a month of the Sun in Virgo, and you need to start as you mean to go on. By afternoon tea time you’ll be frantic anyway, trust me, so relax now…put on the snooze button (at work? Just hope no one notices your head on the desk)…You’ll come to with a start late afternoon/early evening as Mars opposes Jupiter pulling your enthusiasms and desires as far as they will stretch. You’ll feel restless, but some of you will be able to rise above this opposition and make something incredibly creative out of this tension (I am thinking about the virtual banquets we dream about). In the early hours of Saturday (25th) Mercury squares Jupiter and everything will be over-the-top: the traffic jam you are caught in on the way home, the quantity of bargain books you are buying in Borders, the shed-load of washing you have accumulated (add your own examples). And that’s just the start of the day…next Mercury squares Mars and if more than one person is irritable that just makes for an indigestible lunch, especially if you are in the Big Brother house. And by the evening, when Venus opposes Neptune the earlier irritability will have been mulled and turned into a gently simmering paranoia, the only antidote for which is for everyone to centre in their heart chakra. Now where did I pack my rose quartz…?

“When you receive your nourishment from light, an energy or a force, or whatever you like to call it, flows into you; it is simply present when you need it. How much comes in depends on how much you use; this is like a law of nature.”

If there’s one day in the year which inspires a holiday mood it’s the New Moon in Leo today, so have a barbecue and let your hair down, bearing in mind the health and safety issues involved. There’s the firework entertainment of the Perseids meteor shower tonight, so wishing on those is an experiment I will leave to the intrepid explorers amongst you. For the more lily-livered souls, look after yourselves, because tomorrow evening holds an aspect cocktail of double doubt and despondency. The Sun opposes Neptune forcing you to see through the illusions of life (but not before you have experienced the illusion). As if that were not enough, Saturn conjuncts Venus, so having seen through the illusion you are not wild about the reality picture, but the gift is the reality which you need to learn to love. Love yourself. That’s the gift and the reality. Put your heart and soul into it. More challenge arrives on Tuesday (14th) with Neptune opposing Mercury: this is the analysis of the illusion the day after. This is the attempt to make sense of the seemingly nonsensical. You can put it into a poem, because poems don’t have to make sense. I am thinking by now I should be slapping a health and safety sticker on this week’s aspects, but – soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It’s always darkest before the dawn…Wednesday (15th) can deliver us from all that doubt and confusion, can see rewards for all the struggles for comprehension brought on by Neptune earlier in the week. Venus trines Pluto and solid achievements can be forged in relationships. Yes you might have been feeling the aloneness of the human condition earlier in the week, but now you might feel the connectedness too. And there is the icing on the cake of crystal clarity with the Sun conjunct Mercury to contrast with the earlier illusions. Rewards of the heart and mind. And now we’re on a roll nearly till the end of the week, with two more helpful aspects on Friday (17th): Mercury conjunct Venus for starters, good for catching up in friendship, diplomacy if you’re a global player or literary flow if you are an aspiring writer. Then Mercury trine Pluto: deep sharing in friendship, long-range implications if you are a diplomat, and in-depth psychology if you are the novelist. Saturday morning (18th) yields a sigh of contentment and satisfaction through the Sun’s conjunction with Venus: there should be a space for emotional healing, and it’s also lavish for artistic creativity. That just leaves a dose of reality again for Saturday afternoon with Mercury conjunct Saturn reminding you of the transience of transits. You’ve experienced everything this week – time to write your novel.

You have all day to practise your Saturn trine Pluto exercises for tomorrow, as there are no other aspects to distract you. If you haven’t even made a start, please read Steps 1 and 2 to get into the groove. Tomorrow’s event may produce a moment of truth, and put the last couple of years into perspective. Don’t miss it! Tuesday (7th) morning brings an opposition between Chiron and the Sun. Group healing is called for, so find the solution to the crisis, then demand a group hug, saying “Well done, everybody!” Jupiter is stationary on Tuesday, so the crisis may centre around the Sagittarian who may be superglued to the office chair, or hopefully something less dramatic. These Sagittarians can become victims of their own pranks, you know. Tuesday could also be tricky later on, when you are back home from the office even, with a late night square between Venus and Mars. At best this could be a romantic misunderstanding in the manner of the French farce. At worst…? Well, do resist the temptation to gossip, as gossip can be fatal. Venus re-enters Leo on Thursday (9th) retrograding from Virgo. Another chance to glam-up as a break from the Cinderella rags you’ve been wearing lately. In fact, you’ve got until October before the panto rehearsals re-start in earnest. Seriously though, if you’ve been having issues with ex-partners, it’s the retrograde motion of Venus which will require heart-searching for several more weeks. Also on the menu for Thursday is Mercury trine Jupiter, which is pure gold for communication: with your ex, with your holiday tour operator, or even on your mobile on the train (just ignore the tut-tuts from the other commuters). And the rest of the week? There’s a New Moon coming, so start your wish list early.

Previously: Have you identified the forces of Saturn and Pluto as they are working in your life now? (see Step 1) Now you need to bring them both into harmony inwardly: the need for control and the need for psychological truth. Sense where they may be incompatible, and ask your Soul how they can be combined in a constructive way. Then explore how they can be brought together in harmony within the two areas in which they are currently working in your life. If you have not worked that out, then just work with the two principles. Balance the two together and see if there are any structures in your life which are emerging to fulfil the hopes and plans you have around these issues. The whole thing may crystallize and merge in your mind. If that doesn’t happen immediately, let it simmer until Monday’s aspect occurs. Is there any action or idea you need to put into place before then to help the process along? It’s a chance to make your life work, but there will be others. Project forward to what you may be doing at 10.35 a.m. (UK time) on Monday 6 August. As you tune in, you may see the huge pattern of your life and how it intersects with this event. The following quote by Howard Sasportas, though not quite in context, may be relevant for some: “When transiting Pluto aspects Saturn, a force is set into operation which challenges the boundaries, limitations, and inhibitions we have imposed on ourselves.”