Alllllllll righty then!

Not as many planetary patterns to write about this week, other than:

• Mars in Gemini sextiles Jupiter in Aries on Thursday morning
• Mercury opposes Jupiter on Friday night

Both of these patterns suggest BIG, as in BIG action/assertion re: Mars...and BIG ideas/communication re: Mercury. We’re starting the week with the ripple effect of the weekend’s square between Mars and the Sun (assertion, aggression involving leaders) and the hard aspects to Venus (money, women, social expression, arts) as it was pummeled over the weekend by disruptive Uranus and streamlining Saturn.

So we have a rush of energy to process, and the thing is, some of it may go nowhere, fast. I say this because next week, Mercury will be slowing down to a virtual standstill, preparing to go retrograde late next week. And Mars is slowing down, too — though won’t’ retrace its steps until the end of October. Your mission is to use last week’s New Moon in Virgo seed-planting potential and review, rethink, sort, analyze and work on a PLAN to walk your actual talk.

Naturally the sight of all these patterns led me to wonder how Beth Owl’s Daughter’s always-in-sync Tarot Card of the Week would reflect the potential for BIG STUFF this week. She did not disappoint, and here it is.

Here’s how the week goes:

• MONDAY: Moon enters Libra at 5:44 AM ET, focused on diplomacy, fairness and balance in relationships. Talking and walking are supported, as the Moon meets up with Mercury at 12:10 PM ET and then trines Mars at 3:49 PM ET. A feeling you may have gone overboard — or are enjoying too much of a good thing (is that so bad?) may peak around 6:59 PM ET, as the Moon opposes Jupiter.
• TUESDAY: Pull it all together, profiting from the Moon’s trine to Saturn, which facilitates the creating of structure — even if they are just in your mind. That trine happenes at 8:12 PM ET.
• WEDNESDAY:  A power play or catharsis may rupture your dreams, as Moon squares Pluto at 6:43 AM ET. Chill during the six and 1/2 hour Moon void. Stick to routine; roll with the twists and flakes, and don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. No impulse purchases. At 1:11 PM ET, Moon shifts gears and enters Scorpio, demanding emotional depth, power and control.  Efforts at such may go swimmingly, reflecting the cooperative energy of the sextile between the Sun and Moon, exact at 5:19 AM ET on…
• THURSDAY. Not only that, but at 7:51 AM ET, we’ll have that sextile between Mars and Jupiter, seeking to expand and inspire with clever, entertaining and intense words and deeds. Watch for news in the world of sports (U.S. Open!), court opinions (documents!!), travel and publishing. Maybe a big weather event, too. A shock presents itself around 11:05 PM ET, as Moon opposes rebel Uranus…with an effort to regain control around 2:02 AM ET on…
• FRIDAY: …as Moon squares Saturn. The morning may be deeply felt (empathetic?) and dreamy, reflecting the Scorpio Moon’s trine (harmony) to Neptune at 8:52 AM ET, followed by a sextile to Pluto at 12:22 PM ET. A square between the Moon and Venus in regal Leo at 1:21 PM ET suggests a clash of social expression/values. Chill during the ensuing five hour Moon void. At 6:39 PM ET, see if you notice the shift as the Moon enters Sagittarius. And by shift, I mean a sense of relief to have escaped Scorpio’s need for control. The Moon in Sagittarius supports those with a need to influence others with their righteous opinions. In your own personal world, a weekend with Moon is Sagittarius is a great time to expand your horizons. Go for gambol in nature – take in a foreign film or any other perspective that is outside your comfort zone. Now is the time to broaden your mind. At 9:49 PM ET, we are sure to have big, broad information to debate, as Mercury in fairness-seeking Libra opposes Jupiter in me-me-me Aries.
• SATURDAY: In the aftermath of last night’s big news, Moon opposes Mars at 8:22 AM ET, suggesting a physical or verbal confrontation, and possibly both.  By 2:07 PM ET, another challenge presents itself  as the Sag Moon squares the Virgo Sun, having a big, broad righteous opinion about someone’s insistence on exacting detail. Who’s gonna mince words now?
• SUNDAY: Steady in the morning; a bit dreamy or bewildering around noon ET, as Moon squares Neptune. Venus is at the verrrrrry last degree of Leo, right on the former guy’s 29 Leo Ascendant and on President Biden’s North Node. Both are likely to get notable attention today — we’ll know it when we see it. When a planet is at the last degree of any sign, it is at a crisis point, and with Venus in Leo, it is a crisis involving drama, honor and reputation, for better or for worse. Moon enters Capricorn after a 12 minute Moon void you won’t even notice. Minutes after midnight on MONDAY, Venus enters Virgo until September 30th. Don’t bother scheduling that face lift; chances are, you won’t be happy with the results.
• MONDAY: It’s a holiday — Labor Day — for workers in the United States, and it’s driven by the Moon in Capricorn, looking to Make Things Happen. If you’re not happening at the beach or lake, you can make something happen around the house. Grab your to-do list and start checking things off.

And now, the news.

If you watched this week’s Whether Forecast — part of Avid Reader Alison’s cool podcast, 2022: The Year of Love — you heard me answer a viewer’s question, and I hope it gave you a greater understanding of what astrologers are looking at when they interpret planetary patterns. Here is the link to that video.

Here’s a recap of key happenings this year that we could file under “U.S. Pluto Return.” For a reminder of the astro-logic of the U.S. Pluto return, here’s a blurb from this Forecast, posted in January.

A lot of news over the weekend and today reflects the high-energy aggression/assertion of Sun square Mars. Another lot of news reflects the unconventional-yet-streamlined effect of Saturn and Uranus as they made contact with Venus over the weekend. In no particular order:

• Monster floods in Pakistan, where a third of the country is under water. If we use this horoscope for Pakistan, we can see how such disruptive, devastating events would be happening now.  Transiting Pluto opposing the Cancer Moon suggests extremes in matters of emotional/home security; Saturn and Uranus are in hard aspect to Pakistan’s t-square among its Ascendant, Sun and Jupiter; Neptune is squaring (flooding?) Uranus, ruler of Pakistan’s Midheaven (public status)…and that’s just a thumbnail sketch of current patterns.
• Scientists now say that Greenland really is likely to dump a gazillion zillion thrillion gallons of melted ice water into the ocean, raising sea levels around the globe.  This might be an utterly fascinating story, if we didn’t all live here, right?
• In Brazil, the last member of an isolated indigenous tribe dies
• Nebraska school shuts down student newspaper after LGTBQ publication
• Dr. Emily Porter blew up Twitter and has organized a boycott against CVS after a one of their pharmacists refused to fill a 55-year-old post-menopausal woman’s prescription for a medication she needed to take before an upcoming surgery…because the 55-year-old post-menopausal woman couldn’t prove she wasn’t using the drug for an abortion.  Roevember is coming. Are you registered to vote?
• The release of the redacted affidavit filed in order for the FBI to obtain a search warrant to retrieve stolen classified documents taken by TFG to Mar-a-Lago was bad news for national security. It got some people on the Twitter thinking about an article that showed up last October, as Saturn and Pluto were turning direct: “CIA admits to losing dozens of informants around the world”

On the softer side, but still in sync with those heavy/disruptive/desirous planetary patterns:

• NYT op-ed: “Summers End, But Our Desires Last  Lifetime“
• An apt Jane Austen quote that made the rounds on Twitter: “Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.”
• “Can Coco Gauff the Tennis Prodigy Become a Tennis Legend?” is the cover story of the NYT Magazine.  Genius female athlete who “plays under the weight of high expectations” — total reflection of planetary patterns, right?
• “A new start after 60: ‘I finally became the artist I always felt I was inside'”
• Venus-Uranus suggests unconventional attractions; Saturn adds a lifelong bond, as in “His emotional support animal is an alligator. They sleep in the same bed”
• “Text your friends. It matters more than you think”

Meanwhile….

I told you that Mercury entering Libra would activate the horoscopes of people with planets at 0 degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn):

• Elizabeth Warren is concerned that the Fed will tip the U.S. into a recession
• “Mar-a-Lago stay helped save [Rudy Giuliani] from drink and depression, book says” — oh — and there were tunnels involved, too. How does that sound for our national security?

• Ted Cruz blasted after calling those who would benefit from student loan relief ‘slacker’ baristas

• Justice Samuel Alito is the subject of an in-depth profile in The New Yorker, described as “a big one,” as you can see below. Here’s what’s going on in Alito’s horoscope. 
  
• 

Finally…

When I was looking at this week’s planetary patterns, I had a sense that it was an apt time to launch a rocket — more likely at the end of the week. Turns out there was a rocket launch in the works — the Artemis — and it’s the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built. I learned after recording this week’s Whether Forecast that the launch was scheduled for Monday (today) at 8:33 AM ET. Looking at that chart, set in Cape Canaveral,  Florida, I did not think it was helpful to have Neptune opposing the Ascendant and squaring the Midheaven.  On the upside, it suggests something visionary. The downside of Neptune is that it is associated with the dissolving of boundaries…and what happened today is that the launch was scrubbed…because of a leak! They’ve rescheduled a potential launch for 12:48 PM on Friday 9/2 — and I’ll be watching to see what happens just after 12 PM ET. No predictions here. This is a research project. As Yogi Berra always said, “You can observe a lot by watching.” So let’s watch…and see what happens…and take copious notes.

Here’s the 411 on personal consultations.

Here’s the link to Episode 14 of “Off the Charts: A Stellar Newscast” — with my brilliant colleague Whitney Fishburn. New episodes drop every other Friday.

Thank you for reading this forecast — and sharing it with your friends.