How about that?? It’s my first astrology column that’s not in Leo! If you want to re-read the old advice and see if it lines up, you can check that out here – one, two, three. (you can also re-read my last mundane astrology column here, and you can expect the second in mid-September 2019). For now, we’re looking at the rising sign astrology by decans of August 23 to about September 2, 2019. My goal here is to write at least 36 columns (one for each of the 36 Decans or faces, which I learned about from Austin Coppock‘s book 36 Faces, describing the 10-degree divisions of the Zodiac). We’re going to start with some of the Planetary positions and aspects, and then explore what what means by Rising sign (the sign that contains your Ascendant, or eastern horizon). Let’s go!

Planetary Placements

The key planetary placements at the Ingress are as follows. The live Acendant, the part of the sky where the planets come up over the eastern horizon, is indicated by the Third Decan of Leo, at 29° Leo, in the very end of the first house. Mercury is a morning star in this position, almost nineteen and a half degrees ahead of the Sun. Venus lags as an evening star, “under the beams” alongside Mars, sharing the sign of Libra with the Sun. The Moon is conjunct the Midheaven (MC) in the late degrees of Taurus, sharing the sign with Uranus; almost square to the Sun, she’s halfway through her waning phase in the Fifth Mansion, “the White Spot”, favoring intellectual activity. Watery Neptune stands alone in Pisces, making waves in the deep places of your life; trine to the North Node in Cancer and sextile to the South Node and Saturn in Capricorn, the aspects it rules tend to be unusually limited and unavailable, even as your genuine needs keep growing. The great stellium of this year in Capricorn, formed by Saturn, Pluto, and the South Node, continue to stare out balefully at the rest of your chart. Brilliant and forgiving Jupiter lounges in state in his own favorite home, in the warmth of Sagittarius, affected by a limited yet favorable trine from Mercury. The Imum Coeli, the place where your dreams dwell, hovers for the moment in secretive Scorpio.

Horoscopes

Leo: You can probably feel the energy of the last month or so, waning already. You’ve been on fire with skill and cleverness of late; even with that energy slowing down, you’re still able to pull all the marrow of life out of what remains. Your communicative skills remain in full flower, but there’s a growing tension between what you want to do, your present dreams or goals, and the expectations that superiors are placing on your work. It’s time to produce some high-quality product or service to your superiors, but be sure you communicate your wants – and their claimed needs – clearly. Some money-management projects yield fruit; save the seed of future growth, even as you cut loose a few coin. There’s not enough money yet to achieve certain career aims, and to make desired changes in the household: pick one and see it through, and accept delay on the other. Make work projects personally fun, and don’t be too judgmental of your work; as write Anne LaMott has written, “write sh*tty first drafts.” You have to pull the bowstring back and hear the vibration in the string, before you know it’s time to release There’s less work than usual at your workplace, and the result is likely some toxic gossip and some infighting over an empty throne; focus on building a legacy and establishing architecture, instead of defending territory. The net brings you news of old matters that make new waves this season; it’s likely to be both more than you want, and less than you deserve. Whatever the turbulence is, you can’t expect to wait it out, because it’s not going away; instead, keep plugging holes, keep bailing, and gradually build a watertight resolution over time. A big surprise at work upsets everyone’s comfort; while it’s almost certainly too late to do anything about it, and things may get dark, use what time remains to craft the intelligent solutions. You’ll likely need more downtime and alone-time in the next ten days, but put limits on how much of it is spent being crabby at home.

Virgo: The next ten days open with a personal project finally bearing fruit — but more work is going to be needed before that fruit is ready to pick. Exercise a little personal discipline; don’t hone the picker’s knife yet, and allow the work to ripen some more before seeking the harvest. A pipeline of sorts brings a dream of yours right into the neighborhood; don’t get hot under the collar, but wait to see what manifests. There’s a chance to make a little money from home, or to solve a few household challenges with some generous gifts; be sure you’ve got any lingering legal questions resolved before moving on with the work, though, or you may find a surprising inherited problem. You tend to find pleasure in some really dark but practical stuff, and right now there’s some obstacles to those ordinary joys. Try to separate what you treasure, from what you find noxious. Your spouse or business partner is wrestling with a double-header of a problem; work out a three-pronged solution with them, and you’ll find some worthwhile surprises in that. An electrifying opportunity for learning or travel may come along — take it and work out the consequences later, but for now, ACT on it. A knotty problem presents itself, but put your thinking cap on and you’re likely to solve it in no time— but the window for deriving some great benefit from your solution has likely passed. Save the remembrance. Your friends want to see more of you; indulge them, but don’t indulge too much yourself.

Libra: You’re feeling the need for some down-time, and that need is highlighted by some issues that make you want to withdraw your creativity and your drive from everything and everyone. However, both your dreams (what you want) and your reputation (what people believe about you) require you to communicate clearly with friends, colleagues, and professional associates — and this is why you’re getting up early these days, to make big on those promises to yourself and others. People as close to you as brothers and sisters are expecting you to lead them… and they’re going to find ways to pay you for this work, not just monetarily but with honors and recognition, eventually. Right now, it just feels tense, but remember what you want and seek it out. Home just sucks right now: clean out the rotten food in the fridge, get rid of that noxious thing on the chair in the living room, and maybe a yard-sale (or a dump-run) to get rid of some stuff is in order. Your career will thank you, which is where you’re being nurtured right now anyway. You’re worried about a health issue, but some of it will be solved with drinking some more water and shedding a few more tears; a good long swim wouldn’t hurt, either, because there are limits and boundaries to any trouble, no matter how all-encompassing. Life and death issues in ordinarily comforting fields have energized you to a heightened mental frenzy — but some things are past solving. Prayer beads and patience will calm some but not all of the frenetic brain-squirrels; going to a pick-your-own orchard or fruit-tree grove will also remind you that life does go on, and that the Sun keeps shining.

Scorpio: You’re living out some big dreams these days, but those dreams are in a state of some tension with your romantic partner, your career, and your family. Your star is rising in your workplace, and if you communicate some of your ambitions, you may win some temporary leadership roles that lead to bigger things. Family relationships that have been important for a long time are waning in importance; you’re aware that things are changing in your household, but they haven’t finished changing yet; that leads to some difficulties during this ten-day period. And your romantic partner has made all sorts of big plans of their own — some of those plans seemed fine when they were just planned in their own head, but some surprises may arise when they have a chance to play out in the big field of real-world experience. That’s likely to put additional stresses on your family and work, and you’ll have to decide where to direct your energy. Fortunate and generous Jupiter dispenses wealth, though, and right now he’s sending good news your way, supported by clever Mercury. Some of those funds should be reserved for a surprise — possibly unexpected but necessary travel. A territorial dispute — with a neighbor over a boundary, with a co-worker over zones of operation and responsibility — brings a sense that you have to wrangle over what your duty and dignity demand. But think about whether empire-building is really worth your time right now, and maybe it’s OK to be content with less; fight for what you actually want, but don’t bother if it’s really about the fighting. Your home is likely to diminish in importance over the next ten days; it’s not that you need to move or repaint the living room or that anything is likely to go wrong. It’s just that your attention is necessarily elsewhere. Remember to pay the bills and keep up to date on mail-collection, but don’t sweat the build-up of small annoyances just yet. If you have children (or they’re on the way) be aware that you’re about to get both more, and less, of them than you want at the same time: they’ll be needing your time in a giant burst for back-to-school or end-of-summer tasks…but when you need them, Poof! off in a flash and no work to be had from them at all. It’s going to be much the same for all your last-days-of-summer fun: too much of some things, and not enough of others; try to be flexible and open to surprise — a few days at a beach would be a good idea. With partners (romantic or business), there’s going to be a flurry of projects and programs that are just a little past their prime — but a truly revolutionary opportunity for them is building up just off-stage. Don’t feed too much fuel to the little things, but try to see the big picture for them. You may be called away on a long business trip on short notice — use this as a chance to solve some of that territorial wrangling, but make sure you save your receipts, and put any deals in writing. Writing and communicating is really your career superpower right now — actively communicate plans and projects to others, while being clever about who knows what. One friend’s big shine is overshadowing some important men and women in your life, and hiding some awkward truths in need of more careful analysis.

Sagittarius: It’s a fortunate period in your life when you can just have clients or bonuses or what have you, just come to you — and that may happen in the next ten days, although it will feel like you had to work like mad to get there. Watch the expanding waistline carefully, if you don’t want it to get too big. Money matters are subject to limitations, of course, and you’re not getting much time with family and local friends this week. However, an unexpected wave brings you more and less than you expected in a temporary home — you find your responsibilities unexpectedly limited, and a chance to sample genuine riches. Your health improves as a result of more frequent walking, although you find yourself treading the same old circuit as before. You make a significant trip for the sake of learning and business; and new opportunities grow from it. Your professional garden bears fruit, in a sense, as you gain a long term client or three — just be aware that your grasp of conflict and coherence isn’t quite up to snuff yet. You’re finding that you want a lot of time alone, but that isn’t playing well with people who genuinely want and need your company. A radial new idea finds support in unexpected places; make sure you find the allies to bring it to fruition.

Capricorn: You’re probably feeling like you should be in black all the time — or failing that, a glow-in-the-dark outfit — you either feel like standing out in a serious/important way, or at least being visible. Money isn’t really an issue at the moment, or at least, it’s less important compared with some other issues, which is that you really have to figure out what your responsibilities are, and to whom — lots of people are saying “not it!” as though you hadn’t been doing stuff for them for months or years, and right now they’re claiming there’s no chain of command. There is a chain of command that’s still functional, though — and you’re closer to the top of that chain than you think. By setting some good schedules and boundaries for yourself, and accepting some responsibilities as worthwhile, you can make some real waves in the neighborhood, and send a much-needed tsunami onto some otherwise-comfortable coastlines. Expect more emotional engagement out of your romantic partner and business associates — the intellectual work they’re doing is important, but they need to show the heart at their center still beats. It may be a good time to work on your own solo project, or to figure out the limits of your own insight and then expand that frame of reference. This may be a good time to get up and go somewhere else, at least for a few days, as well — attend a conference, build some new skills, meet some new people, and take the cure-of-fresh-air, or at least a fresh perspective. Among friends, and with professional colleagues, you have a chance to manifest some big dreams for yourself and step into a larger role. A communication regarding a legacy or an ancestor may show up — and if you’ve had a brush with your own mortality recently, it may be time to put some old paperwork in order: communicate your wishes clearly.

Aquarius: The usual order of your world is probably turned upside-down right about now, with your partner sending clear signals about what’s expected of you; try not to that message needle you. A financial surprise requires a solution which is partly practical, partly emotional; it’s not impossible that it will involve overturning some long-standing customs at home, though — and a significant moment for decluttering is probably long-past due. Have you thought about a yard sale recently? You may have had a scare around your health and mortality, and some forward-planning may be worthwhile… but it may be hard to balance the drives of “right now” against the future-proofing solutions you have in mind for the future. You have big career dreams, but you’re not making any forward progress at the moment — give it some time and hold off on trying to be decisive; instead direct some of your energy into the broadest-possible vision you have for the future. If a friend offers to pay you for some work, it’s worth taking the job… but be generous in setting your hourly rate, and merciful if it’s still too much. Better to be among friends than thinking about the darkness and the woe in the world right now; solitude is poisonous to your heart right now. It would be best to be out making change in the ways you can, than thinking about all the things you can’t.

Pisces: You’re making waves in your life right now, taking on more responsibility for your own happiness. That comes with a weird sense of duty to people who’ve been your friends for years, but not actually enjoying their company. There are some venomous friends that it might be a good idea to leave behind, gently. No need to make a big production out of it — but if they’re planning on drowning, maybe they shouldn’t pull you under, too. You have actual neighbors and local responsibilities to think about, not people who are too far away or too caught in their own dramas. This doesn’t mean cut out actual blood family right now — any issues there are too close to the light to be seen clearly. Wait until some of the glare has eased. At the same time, try not to be too undone by the sense of waste that comes from realizing that you’ve let unpleasantness linger too long in your life. Instead, communicate clearly with underlings and contractors, and business allies; get your health records up to date, and get your uneasy dreams under better management. There’s some sunny days left this summer; surprise your beloved with a visit or two to a neighborhood gem. An expansive project brings good news to your career and to your reputation, but don’t let it go to your head, and don’t get over-invested in it; the credit may go to the uninvolved rather than to the field hands that did the work.

Aries: You may be about to pump a bunch of money into a potentially revolutionary idea… but a more careful assessment of the potential for waste in this project should be observed, and a clear-eyed examination of the drive and leadership capacities of the project managers and boosters should be spotlighted. The idea itself is great — but the executives and their ideas about what’s required may not be. Home and family are calling out for more attention than usual, but there’s real responsibilities that just seem to slowly consume your time in fits and starts with pernicious regularity. Bad habits and good habits are equally likely to bear fruit, and some of each are ripening right now; a clear-eyed evaluation of your practices would be valuable. Don’t try to change these habits just yet, simply notice which ones are yielding results; and tie your own actions to your sources of sorrow as best you can. It’s time to learn some new things, and you may find that there’s a commission or an honorarium attached to a speaking or writing project. You may find that there’s a season of discontent brewing in your life, as well — friends are backing down from some commitments, and any time that you’re alone, you find a turbulent sea threatening to spill out from inside you.

Taurus: While normally indolent, you may be feeling your ire rise at the state of the world, and you’re ready to trample some injustices into the dust. The minimalist aesthetic (or at least the Marie Kondo mindset of orderliness-as-beauty) is starting to take on some appeal — though it wrestles with the notion, “there’s so much beauty in these things, do I really have to destroy them? Mightn’t someone else want them?” As you might guess, this probably means that the time has come for setting houses in order, and communicating clearly about your vision and plan for doing so. There needs to be a recognition that this isn’t a once-for-all-time reimagining, but an ongoing clean-up and re-ordering. Some things are going to have to go, to make space for what’s new; some things can go to the yard sale, and some will just have to get trashed. At the same time, the cleanup will be fruitful and lost things will reappear. Your partner is likely far away or unavailable in some fashion at the moment, and that feels like a hardship; however, it’s important to recognize that in times like these, this solo-flight is likely to help reveal phenomenal insights about yourself. It’s a good time for setting inheritances in order, and establishing rulership over what legacies have come into your hands; whatever wealth comes to you this season, will likely come from what the ancestors have passed on. You’re feeling a duty to travel to visit old friends and relatives, but there’s some fetid reminders of failure and difficulty there, too. Accept that a little could go a long way. Your career may feel like it’s in decline; no one shines a light on your old achievements these days, and the structured work you used to do is not high in esteem for the moment — however, some current study of processes, procedures, and gardening may yield significant returns in coming years. There’s upheavals among your friends and associates; you like to go deep with a few, but right now you’re aware of how vast a net encompasses all the people you’d like to connect to. Make waves out along these lines, and begin to form a program of reconnection.

Gemini: You are reconnecting to your creative, clever, and cooperative core self these days, and there are some promising signs of success along these lines; remember, though, that self-improvement is just as much about cutting away habits that no longer serve, as it is about taking on better habits. There’s more money coming in than there has been — but a parallel range of expenses that you feel duty-bound to help pay. Keep those flows balanced; recognize that “their fair share” arguments about whether you’re contributing enough or too much or not enough… that’s unpleasant at best, venomous at worst. You’re receiving clear messages that you need to activate more relationships in your neighborhood, and work to bring healing and business opportunities to the network of friends you call “family” or “tribe”… but you want at least some recognition for your work, even if it’s only temporary. You’d hate to feel like you’re wasting your time. A major household project yields fruit in the next ten days, but you’ve also discovered some that you may have made some expensive errors with family legacies. Time may reveal that this hasn’t been as bad as you thought, but you’ll have some nervous hours over the next few days. Your daily labors require a deep delve right at the moment, channeling your big dreams into smaller and more specific channels. Your romantic or business partners are working on their long-range goals and big plans right now, and reviewing old goals to take the next big leap forward; it may feel like a hardship that they’re so distracted, but in truth this is where your financial largesse will come from in the next while; give it due consideration. Usual friends and contacts may be unavailable over the next few days; any specific connection may be breezy or stormy, but the overall condition will be out-of-sync. An unexpected boat-rocking may bring some new career opportunities to travel on some big currents toward your next ports of call.

Cancer: Be cautious about “more” over the next ten months or so, and take to moderation as best you can. If not, there’s going to be more of you, all of it round, and you’ll find that you’ll have to molt your clothes and your look for a new identity. Some unexpected emotional changes will accompany this insight, but you should look for a chance to analyze the situation anew in another 18-22 days. Money matters earn some temporary diadems; you’ll find that you’re able to resolve some personal finance matter successfully, but your next big windfall is likely to come from your regular paycheck. If there’s any irregularity, it’s likely to resolve in your favor, but you may have to ask, and you may have to follow up with bureaucrats and still be unattached to outcomes. Efforts to make your relationship with your neighborhood fruitful, begin to show signs of success; however, the main chance hasn’t yet arrived — don’t harvest the benefits too soon. Work-life balance is out of whack and you’re not getting much quality time at home without money-anxieties — and home seems to involve a lot of communication about thwarted dreams, anyway. Work is providing a steady, stable income, and that may expand soon, but not yet. You’re close to fulfilling some deep fantasies if you want to, but now is the time to develop the plan and have the discussions before you do the thing. Your workplace may be in the midst of some legal entanglements, but there are financial rewards and forgiveness for sorting the mess out. Stick with the difficulties, review old work with a critical eye, and get support from your communications teams. Your partnerships, legal and romantic, are mired in their own particular challenges and hurts. Be supportive, but recognize that they’re likely meshed in duties and responsibilities that feel needful to their personal growth. You may not like it, and you may think they’re cultivating a poisonous garden, but help yourself first. You long to go on a trip, and the list of places you’d like to go is multiplying — but you’re likely to get more of what you want if you help think through a plan for overseas travel rather than simply wishing; and revisiting old haunts is likely to be easier than going someplace new. You’re likely taking stock of friendships and alliances over the last couple of months; this process is certain to continue, but some friends are not worthy of your attention — remaining involved, and lifting them up, may be important to their long-term well-being; but a groundswell of change is still needed.