This is Kathy Biehl of EmpowermentUnlimited.net with Astro-Insight for the week of August 21st, 2023. Have you been having a lot of weirdness with communication lately? Emails suddenly getting filtered into junk? Email being blocked? People acting like they’ve lost their minds? Conversations that degenerate really quickly into utter confusion? People’s phones calling you from their pockets without them knowing that it’s happening? Yes, indeed, we’re heading into another Mercury retrograde this week. It’s one of three big astrological events that are occurring with a lot of little ones embroidered into the background. Let’s start with the pivot moment because why do anything in order? Why do anything in sequence when Mercury retrograde is involved? Mercury stations retrograde on the 23rd right when the sun moves into Virgo, which is a sign that Mercury rules and where Mercury currently is. The planet of communication retrograde in Virgo means God is in the details, or the devil is in the details, or both at once.
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This retrograde continues until September 15th, and it will especially involve practicalities and things having to do with how we actually run our lives down here on planet Earth. But wait, we get a double your pleasure, double your fun aspect to this because Venus is still retrograde. So from the 23rd until September 3rd, two of the three inner planets are retrograde: Venus, ruling relationships, pleasure, creativity, money in the high drama sign of Leo, with the cosmic messenger in the sign ahead of her Virgo. Starting in October, she will be traveling through the same part of the sky where Mercury is currently backtracking. You can look at what the cosmic Messenger is doing now as preparing the way for October. The dual action retrograde is going to accelerate or amplify the phenomenon of ghosts from the past, which could be people popping up in your mind, people that you knew actually a long time ago, unfinished business, old projects.
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It also amplifies the possibilities of a terrific amount of miscommunication, misconnecting, misfiring, misaligning. Double check dates when you’re scheduling things. Don’t assume everybody’s referring to the same day, even if you are using the actual date on the calendar. Double check meanings of words; double check assumptions. The positive end of this, the positive potential is cleaning up a lot of stuff, putting a lot of things in order, fixing, reorganizing, putting situations and projects and communications and agreements back into a healthier, clearer status. We go into this and into this week facing a really major choice. Are we going to approach life from a position of personal power or are we going to be acting as if we are at the mercy of outer events? Choice is yours. There may not be a whole lot you can do in the outer world, but your attitude and approach can make a huge difference.
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And then as if in a pre-show for Mercury stationing, retrograde, we get a day of not really being able to grasp anything, maybe even physically a sensation of pushing at clouds at trying to do something and watching things kind of dissolve into dust or glitter or “what was that?” as Mars opposes Neptune on the 22nd. Fear not, the possibility of really targeted, focused action comes very quickly by the 24th. Mars’ final task in the sign of Virgo is streamlining, focusing, intensifying, purifying action as he trines Pluto on the 24th. Actually facing and working with deep dark forces within yourself could get you somewhere. This is definitely a formula for effective targeted action. Maybe really seriously cleaning out a closet, metaphoric or physical cleaning your bathroom, more like it, cleaning the basement, more like it again, real or metaphysical, doing something potentially unpleasant, doing something that you have avoided and just getting it over with. And in the aftermath of this Mars scoots out of Virgo into Libra, which he enters on the 27th, where he will stay until
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The middle of October. Mars and Libra interested in playing nice, maybe not directly going at whatever a situation is, but maybe being a little manipulative or setting up the game pieces so that someone sees what is obvious, maybe taking action to work toward collaboration or fairness, or creating something of beauty, of harmony or a situation with another person. Mars has definitely been attending to the details while in Virgo. Mercury is carrying that baton now. The upshot of all of this: you may do something that you didn’t think you were capable of before the week is over. You will find that slowing down, maybe even asking questions, taking second looks, all of that aids you in the long run. And maybe using nicer, more civil language will get you further. As they say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Or to quote the Disney Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
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Just remember, most of the sky is retrograde right now, all the outer planets except Jupiter, as well as Mercury and Venus. Inner activity, inner developments may in the long run be more important than whatever is going on out in the world. Allow yourself to slow down, take second looks. Don’t take much at face value. Give yourself time to get more information before making a decision before responding. And don’t forget, at least up here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the end of summer. Why not enjoy it a little bit?
Homing thought of the week:. Measure twice, cut once and then smile.
Song of the week: Come Clean by Hilary Duff, and the
Image of the week is: plastic surgery to repair disfigurement from an accident or a wound.
You can learn more about this in my guide to Mercury retrograde, which is at OMTimes.com. I’m Kathy Biehl, a professional astrologer with more than 30 years experience. Visit my site ,EmpowermentUnlimited.net,to join my mailing list and book a session with me. I host the show Celestial Compass on OMTimes Radio on the first and third Monday of every month at 5:00 PM Eastern, and this Monday we are talking about Neptune in Pisces and Fluid Creativity with a music professor who has about the most fluid creative path. I
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Have observed, a longtime friend of mine, Fred Everett Maus. I host Celestial Compass on OMTimes Radio on the first and third Monday of every month at 5:00 PM Eastern. I also host lively conversation on Facebook at Empowerment Unlimited and the group the Astro-Insight Lounge. I have lots of bonus content at patreon.com/kathybiehl, and I’m really grateful to the people who support my work there. I’m on Instagram and Threads at @kabiehl and on YouTube at the Professional Aquarian channel. Talk to you next week.