Planet Weather for the Week of August 24, 2008

 

SkyWatch: Moon Phase of the Week: 8/30 -- The Moon enters Her New cycle at 3:58 PM EDT, at 7 degrees of Virgo. Look low in the West the next day or the day after to see her slender crescent following the Sun below the horizon. Skywatching event of the week: Venus, Mars, Mercury, and possibly Saturn can still be seen together very low in the West immediately after sunset, although the lingering light of dusk may wash out Mercury and Saturn. Mars and Venus will slowly draw closer together every evening as we proceed into fall. In the classical myth, the god Mars and goddess Venus were trapped in a net during a lovemaking session by Venus's jealous husband Vulcan, the divine blacksmith and god of volcanoes. Let's just hope there are no eruptions this go-round! Space news of the week:  Dwarf planets or "plutoids" or both? The debate continues, with one side proposing to restore Pluto to its status of "planet" along with four other sizable, Pluto-like bodies recently discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune. SkyWatch sides with the notion of "grandfathering in" Pluto as a planet and, in fact, using Pluto as a kind of "planet standard." If a newly discovered celestial body is as big as or bigger than Pluto and orbiting the Sun, then  it's a planet. If it's smaller than Pluto, then it's not a planet, whatever else we might want to call it. This would give our Solar System a total of ten planets instead of the old nine, because it would include the recently discovered Eris, considerably larger than Pluto (and much farther out). But that's cool. A "Planet X" had long been prophesied.  Go out! Look up!

 Knowing when VOC Moons occur is key to planning your successful week!

 

The Void-of-course (VOC) Moon is a kind of limbo. As it reaches the end of a sign, the Moon makes no major aspect to another planet before it enters the next sign. VOC is best for less outcome-oriented activity, since VOC often means detours, distractions, drifting, or delays. If you want specific outcomes, or if timeliness is critical, don’t use a VOC Moon time. VOC is best for processing, imagining, creating, and open-ended activities, like parties, research, or cleaning your desk/closet for instance! It is said that when a new action is initiated during VOC, “nothing will come of it,” or energies go in unplanned directions, which may not necessarily be negative.

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Week of 8/24/08 – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the most active energetically and potentially very productive days – more Moon or planetary aspects for engagement with others or projects, and/or producing results. On 8/25/08, the Moon is VOC/Gemini from 5:52PM to 8:18PM EDT – On 8/27/08, the Moon is VOC/Cancer  from 8:13PM to 10:51PM EDT – On 8/29/08, the Moon is VOC/Leo from 11:44PM to 2:18AM EDT (next day)!

 

PlanetPatterns:

The following planetary energy patterns flavor the day and are felt or experienced often hours before and after their exact culmination. They remain effective, certainly until the next major planetary pattern comes along to shift the energy gears.

 

Mercury in mutable, earth Virgo square (90deg.) PlutoRx in mutable, fire Sagittarius @ 28deg. on 8/27/08 @ 9:36PM EDT. Venus/Virgo squares PlutoRx @ 28deg. on 8/29/08 @ 5:50AM EDT. Pluto has a challenging meeting first with Mercury and then with Venus. These meetings will be intense, in-depth, and are likely to stimulate your vulnerabilities or wounds. With Pluto there is no mincing words, its energy is direct, probing, and instinctive. There is no hiding from Pluto for long. The challenge with these aspects is to come to terms with your shadow, your dark side, and bring it to consciousness or address it fairly in your relationships. Pluto also concerns the use of your available resources, whether financial, emotional, sexual, energetic, or spiritual.

 

**Mercury enters cardinal, air Libra on 8/28/08 @ 10:50PM until 11/4/08! This is the sign of Mercury’s next and last retrograde of 2008. As Mercury shifts into Libra, perhaps we will feel less stress, or at least notice that we are stressed. Once we recognize our state of imbalance, the Libra energy can assist us in recalibrating our schedules, weighing and evaluating whatever it is that predominates in typical and consistent thinking. In general, conversations are geared to being helpful and cooperative, if not, that fact will be glaringly obvious and you’ll hear protest. Mercury retrogrades in Libra on 9/24/08, and so its stay in the sign is more than double the norm. The first phase of the cycle until the actual retrograde is likely to be pleasant with much social and favorable activity, since Venus, ruler of Libra, will also be in Libra. Once Mercury turns retrograde on 9/24/08, Venus will have just moved into Scorpio, the sign of its detriment, and relationships and communication will become more intense, especially if too much compromise in the Venus/Libra phase has bred resentment.

 

Venus enters Libra on 8/30/08 @ 10:41AM EDT until 9/23/08 @ 10:59PM EDT. Venus now moves into one of its “home” signs (the other being Taurus). Since this is a cardinal sign, people will be more socially inclined and willing to extend themselves for relationships. There is also more tendency to compromise or to acknowledge the needs of the other. However, that can often go too far – to please or keep the peace, and then anger and resentment build up. Libra positions offer us the challenge to understand the nature of fairness and the extent of generosity and our motives for giving.

 

NewsBits: Olympics are a Wrap! The US leads in the overall medal count, followed closely by China but China holds the most gold medals. The games, as usual, were exciting with some rave personal stories, new world records set, and some bitter disappointments. For the Chinese hosts, it may end in a scandal as the ages of their female gymnasts are being investigated. The required age is 16, but it looks as though several on the Chinese team are 14. This will shift the medal awards for gymnastics and put another blemish on Chinese manipulative tendencies (recall the lip-synching girl at the opening ceremonies – chosen because she was prettier than the actual singer!) The chart of the start of the Games had Pisces rising with Uranus/Pisces in House 1 – we had to expect some hidden things would come to light. Then there was the strong theme of control seen in the chart with Saturn on the West angle of the chart and Pluto in Saturn’s home territory, House 10.

 

Joe Biden! Barak Obama officially announced his pick, Joe Biden as his running mate, on 8/23/08, during a long Void-of-course (VOC) Moon day, from 5:20AM to 5:48PM ET. We can’t be sure what this means. Certainly the decision was made before this day but the official announcement to the public came in VOC time. It could be that there is some discontent about the pick, or something else may surface that is not yet known. Or even, that this pick may not stick? We’ll have to watch and see. Upon further research, it is reported that the first text messages to supporters went out at 2:45AM on 8/23/08, before the Moon went VOC. Is there an astrologer in the Obama camp? Joe Biden was born on 11/20/42 in Scranton, PA, time unknown. Along with his Sun in late Scorpio, Biden has Venus conjunct the Sun and Mercury and Mars, also in Scorpio. He is known for his direct, verbose, and often stinging communication. As sixth-term Senator, he is the current and long-term Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has also served as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has made a name for himself as a strong advocate in women’s rights and humanitarian rights, particularly during the Balkan war. Biden had a serious personal tragedy just after he won his first Senate bid. His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident, and his two sons were seriously injured. His boys made full recoveries, and Biden was sworn in as Senator at their bedside. Biden later remarried and fathered another daughter. Although we don’t know his exact birth time, we expect that his Moon is probably in late Aries, which gives him humor as well as contributes to his assertiveness and verbal gaffes, he’s known for (too quick on the trigger, at times – that’s an Aries trait). Biden’s Mars/Scorpio squares Obama’s Sun/Leo exactly, his Sun/Scorpio squares Obama’s nodes @ 27Leo/Aquarius exactly and Biden’s Jupiter/Cancer opposes Obama’s Saturn, also exactly to the degree. There are other aspects very close within a few degrees. These exact aspects just mentioned between the two men are stimulating and at time will be challenging, but then Obama did say he did not want a “yes” man as his running mate. It’s interesting that Obama chose a super Scorpio man. Hillary Clinton is also a Scorpio.