August – The Dog Days of Summer

What are the Dog Days? They begin with the heliacal rise of the brightest star in the sky – Sirius, the spiritual Sun of our Sun. In ancient Egypt, the rising of Sirius signaled the immanent flooding of  the Nile River which overflowed every year and fertilized the soil.

In Greece and Rome, the Dog Days brought the scorching heat of Summer, the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. We sure are experiencing that, temperatures so hot that children and animals get 3rd degree burns when they trot onto the asphalt, rumored to reach 180 degrees during the day, enough to melt sneaker soles and fill burn units around the world. The word Sirius literally means “scorching,” and the constellation in which Sirius dwells is Canis Major – the Dog.

Yes things are really heating up now as we pass the First Quarter of our great transition. 2023 and 2024 are alchemical years. If we choose to let go – of our past, our wounds, our self-image, our conditioned beliefs, our limitations, etc – we open the door to a different future, a new way of life based on the spiritual value of Oneness. In other words, we choose to evolve.

Who wouldn’t want to go on this wondrous journey? The only thing that can stop us is fear of the Unknown. Fear is the flip side of Love and ironically we are more afraid of love than we are of fear. Fear is crippling, but it only defeats us if we let it. We have agency here – we can choose to cower in fear and resistance, and continue to feel like shit and see the world going to hell. Or, we can tap into the greatest force in the cosmos – Love. We can surrender to the love that seeks to burst forth from our core. This Love is like the Nile River. When it overflows its banks, it brings nourishment to the people.

Heat is part of our alchemy. It brings things to the surface. We get irritable, tempers flare and something bursts through our barrier of suppression, making us aware of an unresolved issue. Our defenses are weakened when we’re preoccupied with suffering. If we turn our attention to the other symbolism of Sirius, however, and receive the flood of energy, Light, nourishment and wisdom, the Dog Days can be like a spiritual retreat when we stop our busy activities and bask in existence. Instinctively people vacation at this time. After all it’s also Leo time – like the Sphinx guarding the Pyramids which were positioned to reveal the rising of Sirius. That’s how momentous these days were in ancient times. In our industrial magical world of gadgets we have forgotten so much wisdom on how to live a good life. The Ancients realized that life was sacred and they participated in its sacredness through ritual.

Instead of spiritual ritual, we have To-Do lists and schedules, deadlines, habits and our own daily rituals of feeding and cleansing. But we have lost touch with the Source, so these rituals are empty. Never has there been so much despair, so much loneliness and isolation, so much poverty and disease. We have spent the last three centuries trying to apply science to our problems, but things are worse than ever! That’s because we are the source of our own suffering and the only way to stop it spreading world-wide, is to address the disease within.

All the symptoms of a diseased society have their source in one giant wound – Separation. And the answer to all of them is LOVE.

The Astrology of August

With that preface, let’s look at the amazing synchronicity of the Cosmos that is supporting us through this passage. Let’s start with Venus.

I want to point out that 2000 years of religion began with the appearance of a Light in the Sky. And the Wise Men followed it to the source which was the embodiment of LOVE. Get it?

Venus is the brightest planet and has been beaming her Light upon the world every evening for months. Now she is transitioning. She halted her forward movement on July 22nd, 5 days after the New Moon in Cancer, and one day before Chiron also came to a stop and shifted direction. So the planet of Feminine Love is in resonance with the planet that holds our deepest karmic wounds, the very ones we have repeated in countless lifetimes, the ones we came here this time around to heal and release, at a time when Humanity is poised for a Quantum Leap.

When Venus descends in the sky and disappears, she is making her pilgrimage to the Underworld. Her descent has been linked with the myth of Inanna, a Queen of Sumeria, who answered the call of her sister to help her give birth. Inanna arrived at the gates of the Underworld and was told to remove her crown. As she progressed, she was stripped of all her attachments – her necklace, her breastplate, her girdle,  until she stood before the final gate, stark naked and vulnerable.

At this point the story gets dark. Inanna’s sister Ereshkigal imprisoned her, murdered her and hung her upside down on a hook. Let’s pause the tale to look at the symbolism. We’ve all had a Dark Night of the Soul where we have sobbed our way to the  bottom and given up. And somehow Life sustains us, something rescues us or points the way out. Some ray of light appears, however dim. That’s because we stop trying to control and surrender. It opens up space for divine intervention.

It is torture to be trapped by the dark side of our dual selves – fearing it, denying it, trying to control it, desperate to hide it. This is the human condition. We have separated out of Oneness and in our Duality we see both light and dark. The answer isn’t to block the dark; it’s to bring the two back together. And this is what the myth of Inanna symbolizes.

As Ereshkigal agonizes in the throes of labor, she says she will give anything for relief from her pain. The Galla respond and ask for the body of Inanna which they restore to life. They lead Inanna out of the darkness, cleansed, renewed and refreshed. It’s a tale of suffering and rebirth that takes place when we face our inner darkness.

I’m not suggesting that you all suffer. We’ve had enough of that. I’m suggesting it’s time to let go of the suffering, make peace with the past, and embrace our own inner diversity. We have free will. We needn’t fear our dark side. We can choose not to give it power, which we do when we demonize it.

Venus makes her retrograde passage for 40 Days and Nights. Her light is invisible as she is engulfed by the glare of the Sun,  but she will reappear in the morning sky shortly after she makes her conjunction with the Sun. It is at this moment she is purified in the flames and released to begin a new cycle.

We can devote these days to letting go. We can release our pain into the ethers. Gratitude will overcome any regret, any nostalgia, any resistance to letting go. It may be bittersweet, but that is the most poignant kind of Love. Isn’t it bittersweet to be given the gift of life and then to leave it? To have a beloved dog who dies and leaves a mark on our hearts? To lose a friend or lover? Yet these are the experiences that temper the Lionheart within. They make us strong, they make us compassionate, they nourish our Souls and fertilize the soil for new growth.

The cycle of Venus begins when she forms a new Star Point, in a different sign 150 degrees from the last one. For the next 18 months, through 2024, she will disseminate the fire of Leo. The conjunction happens on August 13th at 21 degrees. The Sabian Symbol is amusing: “Intoxicated domestic birds fly around in dizzy attempts.” Rudhyar elucidates: “Unsteady first realization of spiritual being.” That rather sums up our current state. We’re trying our wings, learning to navigate unknown territory, probably bumping off walls and windows.

Despite our disorientation, we will master flight and so much more. Leo gives us courage to express ourselves, to speak up, to be seen. For the last 18 months we have been under the thrall of Capricorn, where Pluto and Saturn kicked off this reign of terror in January of 2020. It has been a stressful time. But now we switch to playful creativity, to living our convictions with pride and courage, to fearlessly loving life. Now we embrace joy.

The theme for August is love and creative play because of the Leo influence, but other forces are at work as well, forging our destiny.

Pluto Squares the Nodes

Pluto is still 90 degrees away from the Nodal Axis, the fulcrum between our past and our future. Which way will the scales tip? It’s up to us. Of course Pluto is the Lord of the Underworld. When a theme is emphasized twice in a chart, we would do well to take the hint. Pluto is asking us to let go. If we don’t, it will be taken from us and experienced as loss rather than release. There’s a finality to Pluto’s influence. There are many issues hanging in the balance – will we have a democracy after next year’s election? Will we finally commit to green technologies? Will we find a way to throw off the oppressive yoke of fear and recognize that we are one species, endowed with the same biodiversity as Nature?

That brings in the dwarf planet Haumea, a creation goddess who rejoices in the prolific diversity of her creation. She is conjunct the South Node helping us release what is dying and no longer nourishes us.

Meanwhile the North Node approaches a conjunction with Eris, warrior goddess who champions authenticity and inclusion. She fights to expose hypocrisy, bigotry, domination and exclusion. She is another agent of unity in diversity. This theme is emphasized by the new location of the nodes as well. North Node is in Aries – new beginnings, courage to step into the unknown, curiosity about new potential.

In the USA chart, the South Node is in our 10th House asking us to look at the way we do business, at the way we treat one another in the market place, at how competition separates us and damages our environment – yes, Ceres is in the 10th House as well, conjunct our natal Saturn. She’s telling us that our harvest is at stake and we need to take our climate crisis seriously or we will face the horror of famine.

The Role of Jupiter

At the Full Moon in Aquarius the lunar axis is moving into a square with Jupiter in our 5th House. This emphasizes the Leo themes – creative self-expression, play, joy in living. Jupiter is adding a tremendous amount of energy to the Full Moon. This giant planet is about opportunity,  about faith that there is a bigger picture, about growth and good fortune. Jupiter is the ruler of the USA chart with our Sagittarian Ascendant. Ultimately it’s about our spiritual welfare.

August begins with the Full Moon at 10 Aquarius on the 1st of the month and ends with the Full Moon at 8 Pisces on the 31st. The Month is bracketed by Super Full Moons. Full Moons are about fullness, illumination, completion, the peak of a process. We move through the month from fullness to even greater fullness. The potential for growth is profound.

I wrote about learning to receive in the last two newsletters. Now is a good time to switch from control to receptivity. The Cosmos is showering us with benevolent energy.

Conclusion

There is much more going on, but I paint with broad strokes today. Five planets are retrograde at the beginning of the month: Venus, Saturn,  Chiron, Neptune and Pluto. Mercury stations retrograde on the 23rd and direct on September 14th with a big focus on Virgo attributes. Uranus, which is the higher octave of Mercury, follows suit on the 28th at 23+ Taurus. So we enter September with 7 planets retrograde.

Retrograde periods support review, renewal, remembering, reconsideration and revision. While Leo is a time of fun and play, Mercury is in Virgo, opposite transiting Saturn, helping us clear out some illusions that cloud our understanding.

I will be back at the New Moon in Virgo, unless I can’t resist writing about the Pisces Full Moon. Enjoy this month. Fall in love with yourself. It’s the most productive thing you can do.

And now I’m on vacation!