Happy Monday everyone, and just past the first quarter Moon! Today Venus enters Cancer where she will slowly being activating a cardinal grand cross throughout the Month of August. Meanwhile, Mercury is moving toward an opposition with Neptune and another retrograde, Jupiter is closing in on a square to Pluto and another opposition to Uranus, and the coming full Moon is a lunar eclipse. Hold onto your butts! 🙂
Rather than breaking down each transit’s themes today (we will do plenty of this in the weeks to come), I thought we’d start our move into August with an overall read on the combined energies of the planets right now.
An I Ching Meditation on August’s Astrology:
* The 54th hexagram of the I Ching is called “The Marrying Maiden,” and it refers to a difficult and subordinate position we find ourselves in, where we do not have the power, rank, or authority we’d like, or we are forced into subservience, forced to tow the company line, or desperate for power or gain that is out of line with our actual position in life.
* Hexagram 54 utilizes the story of a “second” or “subordinate” wife within an ancient Chinese family. She marries into the family and is therefore subordinate to the first wife. The hexagram uses this situation (however much it may be outdated for us today) in order to offer a few important teachings.
* Let’s say you are a favorite employee of your boss, but you answer to a few other people above you in the company, in this situation you have to be very careful that your bosses’ affection for you doesn’t create division between you and your higher ups. Personal love, personal attention, personal affection, within the rules and boundaries of institutions, governments, organizations or systems of order, have to be dealt with very carefully in order to both maximize those personal connections while not disrupting or upending the simultaneous importance of the clearly defined boundaries and rules of the entire structure. Personal favoritism and order have to go together appropriately…
* For example, this month we have a lot of intense astrology that will likely pertain to the presidency and the general political climate here in the USA. It is likely given the intense involvement of Venus in Cancer within the grand cross that nepotism and/or family favoritism, insider or personal relationships and benefits, as well as the institutional boundaries or laws crossed inappropriately because of those relationships, will be one of the main archetypal themes we witness in the collective drama.
* The personal message is to be wary of boundaries, to be careful to maintain boundaries and respect for order even in the presence of any opportunities for favoritism or personal relationships or desires to advance your ambitions right now.
* When the 3rd line of hexagram 54 changes it says “The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine.” With Venus coming into the mix of the grand cross and opposing Pluto, this line is especially important. One translator writes, “This pictures the situation of a person who longs too much for joys that cannot be obtained in the usual way. He enters upon a situation not altogether compatible with self-esteem.”
* Another teaching of hexagram 54 has to do with personal desires putting us into agreements, contracts, organizations, or legally binding situations that are unfavorable to us but we enter into them because we feel we have no other choice, we have a lack of dignity or self-esteem, or pride or selfishness is leading us into a trap, our desires are about to put us into a kind of prison.
* The situation may provide us with some form of shelter or support, and some level of our desires may be satisfied, but otherwise we may soon find that we have gone too far and compromised ourselves.
* The transformed hexagram is number 34, the power of the great. This hexagram has to do with our integrity and the restoral of our integrity. Given all of the above, we can therefore expect that August, in the most basic terms, will have to do with relationships, boundaries within organizations, nepotism, favoritism, what we compromise or do not compromise for the sake of personal desires or gain within larger systems of order, the traps we put ourselves in for the sake of power, the loss of integrity and restoral of integrity, the attempt to gain power through favors, the power others hold over us because of personal favors or even family connections.
* For a while now, seeing Venus coming through to activate a loose grand cross, I’ve wondered what role the powerful women in our country might play in the unfolding of this dramatic political story we’re in the midst of. Given the themes above, I wonder how the relationships between men and powerful families, and especially the women involved, might participate in the events to come. This is only speculation based on the symbolism of Venus, but it’s an interesting side note that I’d like to develop further as the month progresses.
More to come!
Prayer: Teach us that integrity trumps whatever we think we might gain through the bending or disregard of appropriate rules, order, fairness, thoughtful consideration of others, or right conduct.
Rather than breaking down each transit’s themes today (we will do plenty of this in the weeks to come), I thought we’d start our move into August with an overall read on the combined energies of the planets right now.
An I Ching Meditation on August’s Astrology:
* The 54th hexagram of the I Ching is called “The Marrying Maiden,” and it refers to a difficult and subordinate position we find ourselves in, where we do not have the power, rank, or authority we’d like, or we are forced into subservience, forced to tow the company line, or desperate for power or gain that is out of line with our actual position in life.
* Hexagram 54 utilizes the story of a “second” or “subordinate” wife within an ancient Chinese family. She marries into the family and is therefore subordinate to the first wife. The hexagram uses this situation (however much it may be outdated for us today) in order to offer a few important teachings.
* Let’s say you are a favorite employee of your boss, but you answer to a few other people above you in the company, in this situation you have to be very careful that your bosses’ affection for you doesn’t create division between you and your higher ups. Personal love, personal attention, personal affection, within the rules and boundaries of institutions, governments, organizations or systems of order, have to be dealt with very carefully in order to both maximize those personal connections while not disrupting or upending the simultaneous importance of the clearly defined boundaries and rules of the entire structure. Personal favoritism and order have to go together appropriately…
* For example, this month we have a lot of intense astrology that will likely pertain to the presidency and the general political climate here in the USA. It is likely given the intense involvement of Venus in Cancer within the grand cross that nepotism and/or family favoritism, insider or personal relationships and benefits, as well as the institutional boundaries or laws crossed inappropriately because of those relationships, will be one of the main archetypal themes we witness in the collective drama.
* The personal message is to be wary of boundaries, to be careful to maintain boundaries and respect for order even in the presence of any opportunities for favoritism or personal relationships or desires to advance your ambitions right now.
* When the 3rd line of hexagram 54 changes it says “The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine.” With Venus coming into the mix of the grand cross and opposing Pluto, this line is especially important. One translator writes, “This pictures the situation of a person who longs too much for joys that cannot be obtained in the usual way. He enters upon a situation not altogether compatible with self-esteem.”
* Another teaching of hexagram 54 has to do with personal desires putting us into agreements, contracts, organizations, or legally binding situations that are unfavorable to us but we enter into them because we feel we have no other choice, we have a lack of dignity or self-esteem, or pride or selfishness is leading us into a trap, our desires are about to put us into a kind of prison.
* The situation may provide us with some form of shelter or support, and some level of our desires may be satisfied, but otherwise we may soon find that we have gone too far and compromised ourselves.
* The transformed hexagram is number 34, the power of the great. This hexagram has to do with our integrity and the restoral of our integrity. Given all of the above, we can therefore expect that August, in the most basic terms, will have to do with relationships, boundaries within organizations, nepotism, favoritism, what we compromise or do not compromise for the sake of personal desires or gain within larger systems of order, the traps we put ourselves in for the sake of power, the loss of integrity and restoral of integrity, the attempt to gain power through favors, the power others hold over us because of personal favors or even family connections.
* For a while now, seeing Venus coming through to activate a loose grand cross, I’ve wondered what role the powerful women in our country might play in the unfolding of this dramatic political story we’re in the midst of. Given the themes above, I wonder how the relationships between men and powerful families, and especially the women involved, might participate in the events to come. This is only speculation based on the symbolism of Venus, but it’s an interesting side note that I’d like to develop further as the month progresses.
More to come!
Prayer: Teach us that integrity trumps whatever we think we might gain through the bending or disregard of appropriate rules, order, fairness, thoughtful consideration of others, or right conduct.
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