Photo by Krystle Merrow
It’s Leo season, and as I watch my cats go from lying down dead asleep to fighting each other in two-minute increments, I am thinking about how Leo the lion is kind of just a giant housecat—and the astrology this Leo season is kind of like my cats fighting at maximum zoomie speed at 2 AM, running up and down the house sounding like bowling balls wearing tap shoes.
This is to say—there is a lot of astrology.
The big story of the sun in Leo takes place in the mutable signs of Pisces and Gemini, with Virgo briefly joining the fun towards the end of the month. Jupiter and Mars will be conjunct in Gemini from the 13th–18th, and Saturn in Pisces will square them during that time and hang onto his square with Jupiter until the start of Virgo season on the 24th. Towards the end of that square, Venus in Virgo will briefly oppose Saturn and square Jupiter/Mars, forming a two-day transiting T-cross. During the peak day of that astrology—August 19th—we will also have major astrology in fixed signs, with the full moon in Aquarius, sun conjunct Mercury in a transiting T-cross to Uranus in Taurus.
Two T-squares, a full moon, and a Mercury retrograde cazimi. Did I mention it’s the first day of the Democratic convention in the USA?
This astrology is: tense, changing, unstable, and yet: stubborn, unrelenting, change resistant, and yet; unreliable, confusing, and yet; expansive, opportunistic. Sounds exactly like US politics.
Although there’s plenty of memes and reasons to get more into US politics with these horoscopes, I’ll back off that content in favor of what I do best: the personal.
These peak hot days of August will be confusing, busy, and intense. They will be ripe with opportunity for interpersonal conflict, feelings of resentment, and interpersonal 180º surprises.
One thing I love about a T-square is that they’re lovely to interpret. They’re common in natal charts, frequent in transits, and have a nice key for understanding how to balance them. Tracy Marks describes T-squares as a three-legged table in which the table is missing its fourth leg, and instead of balancing out the table by replacing the leg, we pile stuff up on the corner opposing it to prevent it from tipping over. It’s much more efficient to simply replace the leg, but we get lazy and hyper focus on temporarily patching the problem instead. When interpreting them I consider the opposing point of the focal planet of the T-square—I consider the point where the table is missing a leg.
For these horoscopes, I am focusing on the mutable T-square with Mars/Jupiter as the focal planet and Sagittarius as the release point. To translate: I am focusing on the astrology that sees a lot of tension between signs that are about adaptability, and which bring a lot of attention to planets about anger, violence, and expansion. To combat that, I am asking us to consider growth, learning, and foreign experiences.
With hopes we can all find that wisdom,
Amelia
Find your horoscopes after the jump!
Horoscopes are written using whole house calculations and are meant as inspiration and affirmation. Specific calculations are made for the rising signs, but if you don’t know your rising sign, you can read for your sun. You can access your birth chart at astro.com, café astrology, or many other apps and websites using your birth date, time, and location. You can also find out lots of personal information by booking a reading with me here.
Aries
The Mars/Jupiter conjunction in Gemini brings attention to your communication. What do you say and how do you say it? What do you think and how do you think it? This aspect of life could get you into trouble and feel overwhelming this month, Aries, and this is always a threat for your lot
People might be expecting a lot of you, and you might have a hard time not living up to those expectations. It’s a lot of pressure to be exacting in what you say, and for Aries people who sometimes speak before they think…to get around this, find ease and release through listening. Seek to expand instead of to share, to grow instead of to gain, and to listen instead of speak.
These options will help take the pressure off the need to feel like you have to say exactly the right thing.
Taurus
The major astrology of this month focuses in around your second house of resources this month, Taurus. This affects your financial resources as well as your stuff, your energy, and your values. This could look like fights about money or possessions, or instability in how you hang onto these things. This is a particularly sensitive area for Taureans, and feeling overwhelmed about it is not great for you. This is such a hard lesson for you, but I invite you to practice detachment this month.
To practice the knowledge that it is in connection to others that we know our place on this earth. I would never think to tell a Taurus that stuff is just stuff and doesn’t matter—I’m not a Taurus myself but even I know this isn’t true. But this month’s astrology asks you to dig deeper and see what it is about the stuff that makes feelings of attachment come up, and question those deeper meanings instead of the objects themselves.
Gemini
This Leo season and the conjunction in Gemini brings a lot of focus on you and your lot. With Gemini on the rising sign, this attention is focused on your identity. I often describe the rising sign as being like our skin – it is porous, it is what people see about us first, it is what we seethe world through, but it’s not everything about us.
Gemini rising people are adaptable, chatty, and curious – but the attention coming up this month is potentially too much focus on you. Around the 19th it might feel like the entire world’s eyes are directly on you. Find solace in your closest relationships—the people you feel safe around, the people who make space for your growth.
As a follow up to the introduction to these horoscopes, Gemini rising, I might point out that Kamala Harris is a Gemini rising, and if you feel a bit like you’re a new presidential candidate during a major election and the whole world is relying on you, take solace in the fact that you’re not alone, and at least you aren’t literally running for president.
Cancer
The Jupiter/Mars conjunction in Gemini takes place in the murky waters of your 12th house, Cancer rising. Towards the middle of August you may start to experience intense dreams and mental health difficulties. The dreams might be on the interesting side, so it’s worth journaling, but you’ll likely just want deep sleep amidst all the overall chaos of Leo season this year.
To abate this, focus your attention on your day to day life. Find release and growth in simple and repetitive rituals: breakfast routine, doing the dishes, commute to work/school/play, nighttime routine. These things will keep you going in a month that may feel combative and overwhelming.
On a very practical note, there is a kind of escapism manifest in the days around the 19th, so I’d advise abstaining from or going easy on any consciousness-altering substances.
Leo
Happy Leo season, great big kitty cat. Your season is quite a time this year, and whether you are a Leo Sun or Rising this month is extremely active—but thankfully the major astrology isn’t so much in your sign. This month the Jupiter/Mars conjunction takes place in your 11th house of friends and community. This could look like conflict among friends, overwhelm in social groups, or just a big spotlight on this area of your life taking up a lot of energy.
This astrology has the capacity to be super fun, but also super exhausting. Thankfully there is a wonderful remedy for this: having ✨fun✨. Maybe your friend groups are a bit of a bummer right now—that’s ok, shift your energy to less social fun. Take yourself out for dinner, work on something creative, or do that other kind of thing that’s really fun and best done alone.
All of these are great ways to treat your leonine self during a month when everyone is really caught up in their own shit. Especially around the 19th of August I recommend you carve out a moment for yourself to do something you really enjoy. If that’s your birthday, this idea moves from a recommendation to a prescription. Listen to your astro doctor!
Virgo
The major astrology of Leo season this year takes place in your 10th house of career, bringing a combination of attention, conflict, energy, and focus to this area of your life. It’s likely to be contradictory in nature – at once exciting and stressful, expansive and busy. My teacher once pointed out that the things we want in life are always stressful when they’re happening: the dream vacation involves so much planning, the job we want takes so much energy, the education we applied for is daunting.
This kind of astrology speaks to that, Virgo rising: the energy of this month is the energy of difficulties around that which you are best at. This often hurts the most because the stakes feel high. When it gets overwhelming, retreat to your home. Lately I’ve been thinking about my bedroom as a lovely cave – I keep the curtains drawn for the heat and it’s the only room in my apartment with AC, and on extremely hot days I hunker down in there to do what I need to do.
Find this solution for yourself to get through the worst of the work stress while remembering that it very likely is stress that will lead to opportunity.
Libra
The Mars-Jupiter conjunction in Gemini brings up action in an exciting part of your natal chart, Libra rising, having to do with growth and expansion. This part of the chart rules higher education, travel, and spirituality: the most clear mundane interpretation would be to expect travel. This isn’t the energy of a casual road trip, though, this is more of the kind of trip where things get overwhelming and people fight.
I hate to tell you that, Libra, I know you love a peaceful beautiful journey, but sometimes you have to let conflict happen in order to grow, and that’s really what the astrology of this coming month is asking you to do. When you need a break from it, focus in on your own communication strategies.
This is a great time to check in with your closest friends to debrief—did I say what I mean? Did I mean what I said? Focus on making sure that what you say is what you want to be saying and you’ll have done the best you can.
Scorpio
The major astrology of this month takes place in your 8th house, Scorpio, bringing up intensity, commitments, and entanglements. This part of the natal chart is naturally Scorpio territory, and your sign does better than others at dealing with the inevitable. Colloquially we call the 8th house the house of sex, death, and taxes. I like to imagine a Scorpio, post-coitally lighting a cigarette, talking about death after fucking their accountant.
This is I think the most Scorpio image I can conjure. A cluster of energy there this month can certainly be exhausting, and even for Scorpio people who can hold a lot of space for other people, emotionally draining. Find release by getting in touch with the physical stuff of the world—your physical stuff of the world. Take care of your houseplants, make a budget, arrange your mug collection nicely – just ground yourself in your own physical assets when the complexity of human relationships becomes a bit too much.
Sagittarius
Jupiter and Mars conjoining in Gemini will take place in your 7th house, Sagittarius rising, in the part of the chart that rules your one-on-one relationships. The mid-month astrology of August might bring some tension and unwanted attention to this part of your life. This could mean difficult conflict with your closest loved ones, or just overwhelm in partnership.
The best thing I can suggest, you Archers, is to focus on yourself. Think about the qualities of yourself that you like best. Do things that are supportive of your identity—get a haircut, shop your own wardrobe, buy a hat. Don’t do this at the expense of taking care of your relationships, rather think of these things as actions you are taking in support of them.
Capricorn
The major astrology this month is in a bit of a hot spot for Capricorn, with your sign being typically very concerned with work. The 6th house rules your day to day life and labour – your actual job, what you spend your days doing, and your sense of duty. These parts of life are so important for the archetype of Capricorn, the archetype of the boss, the leader, the Daddy. Take a break from being Daddy for a second this month, you old sea-goat.
You might feel like everyone in your day to day life is on your case, chasing you for things, getting mad at you when it’s not immediate. But for now you need to swim in the depths, both literally and figuratively. The best, most tangible things I can recommend to you this month are to pay lots of attention to your dreams, make a lot of space for them, and spend time in water.
If you live near a body of water like a lake, river, sea, or ocean, please make a visit to one on the 19th of August if you can. If not, a pool will do, or, in a pinch, a shower or a bath. The point is to engage with the element and wash away the everyday.
Aquarius
The Mars/Jupiter conjunction this month takes place in your fifth house – in many ways, Aquarius, this could be a good time. The fifth house literally rules fun. It rules creativity, dancing, pets, parties…the fifth house is about the things that make life worth living. When there’s a Jupiter/Mars conjunction taking place here, this could start to look like a little bit too much fun.
Have you not slowed down since Pride? Since the weather got nice? Since New Years? This astrology makes it seem like not. If the better parts of life are starting to feel like a bit too much, look to your friends. Make social plans that don’t involve drinking.
Join a new club or group of people that have different interests than you. It can help alleviate some of the pressure and take away the potential for conflict and overwhelm.
Pisces
The major astrology of the month for you is focused in your fourth house of home and family – this might be pressure to feel like you are taking care of everyone you consider to be family, physical problems with your house itself, or tremendous pressure on your housing situation.
Stress like this can be exhausting, but it’s likely to lead to results you’re hoping for. I’m happy to report that right now, your career or practice can actually be an area of major relief. Spend time doing what you do best to feel grounded; take the opportunity to learn something new related to your passions. This will help you feel a return to self, and space from the pressures of the home.
It will also give you some space to let those developments at home turn into something you really want.
OMG Stars is our astrology column written by queer astrologer Amelia Ehrhardt (@amelia.np.e). At the beginning of each new astrological season, Amelia interprets the upcoming astrology with a focus on how to navigate current events (astrological and global).
Really enjoy this post. Thanks!