Planet Weather for the Week of August 26, 2007

                                                                                                                                  

SkyWatch – Moon phase of the week: 8/28 -- The Moon reaches perfect fullness at 6:35 AM EDT at 4 degrees of Pisces. This is just after moonset on the East Coast but the eclipsing Moon (see below) will be still above the western horizon over the central and western U.S. Skywatching event of the week (and the month): 8/28 -- Coincident with the Moon reaching perfect fullness this month, there will also be a total lunar eclipse during this Full Moon. Portions of the eclipse will be visible from most parts of North America. The partial phase begins at 4:51 AM EDT (when the Moon will still be above the horizon over the U.S. East Coast); totality begins at 5:52 AM EDT, and ends at 7:22 AM EDT, with the partial phase coming to a close at 8:24 AM EDT. This last Full Moon before the September Equinox is known to some Native America tribes as the Sturgeon Moon, marking the time when these large Great Lakes fish readily present themselves for dinner. Other tribes know it as the Red Moon because the moon rises looking somewhat reddish through the sultry haze of late summer. Space news of the week: -- is a big nothing -- we mean a really, really, really big nothing! There is an enormous hole in our universe! In fact, the hole is nearly one billion light years across. (Folks, a light year is roughly six trillion miles long to start with, so this big nothing is nearly six trillion billion miles in expanse.)  The discovery of this hole caught astronomers by surprise because it is not your ordinary black hole, which is actually not nothing but matter so compressed that even light can't escape it. No. This hole truly consists of nothing, nothing, nothing at all. Other space voids have been found before, but nothing (so to speak) on this scale. The best guess is that it started out as a region of relatively low gravity and the regions of higher gravity surrounding it simply gradually sucked all its matter away. And you thought your life was a void.... Go out! Look up!

 

Knowing when VOC Moons occur is a key to planning your astrological 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, or delays. If you want specific outcomes or if timeliness is critical, choose another time if possible. 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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This week – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday are the most active energetically and potentially most productive days (depending on what you’re doing!) Keep in mind the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse of 8/28/07 may cause some distractions. On 8/27/07, the Moon is VOC/Aquarius from 9:23PM to 10:34PM EDT – on 8/29/07, VOC/Pisces from 6:22PM to 12:25AM EDT (8/30/07) – on 9/1/07, VOC/Aries from 1:16AM EDT to 1:35AM EDT.

 

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.

 

Mercury in mutable, earth Virgo opposes (180deg.) Uranus in mutable, water Pisces @ 17deg. on 8/28/07 @ 3:38PM EDT.  Mercury opposes Uranus on the same day as the dreamy and often confusing Piscean Full Moon. Expect an amazing insight (or two!), or something that shocks you into a new and truer version of yourself. Thinking out of the box will bring you to other levels of integration and meaning. Take the high road when it comes to interpersonal conflicts. Forge solutions via the big picture, keep the ego at bay, and enjoy the grace of compassionate understanding.

 

Full Moon in Pisces – Every year around this time there is a Full Moon in Pisces, and so this is the time to re-dream for the coming year. As you might know, the Full Moon indicates a completion of expression. It’s the time of flowering and flourishing. This is a perfect Moon to meditate and attune yourself to whatever moves your soul energy the most, and then follow those threads to wherever they lead. Every Full Moon allows some “far-seeing,” which is an old term for insight or precognition. A Piscean Full Moon is even more conducive to divining the future via energy feelings and moods that you may tap into during this time. Of course, this means you need to make yourself available to receive more subtle messages, best accomplished during quiet and reflective times. If you search the ethers of your being during this Full Moon you may find a closure, an ending to an emotional cycle, and a new beginning will appear in the approach to the next Full Moon, in Aries.

 

NewsBits: Lunar Eclipse @ 4deg. Pisces. We are in eclipse season and this Full Moon is also a Lunar Eclipse. In two weeks, we’ll have a Solar Eclipse (at the New Moon) in Virgo. Eclipses emphasize degrees of the Zodiac and if they make intimate contact with your chart via planets or angles, then life will unfold in a big way over the next year (in particular) according to the planet(s) involved. Check with a professional astrologer for specific details pertaining to your chart contacts. Piscean issues involve the soul and spirituality, of both people and the environment. A Pisces dilemma is often a form of pollution and consequently the need to purge, sift, and refine. Pisces is a very porous water sign and too easily absorbs negative environmental influences and the emotions of others. If Pisces is accentuated in your chart, it is, therefore, vital to pay attention to what is influencing your life at any given time and to use the opposite sign, Virgo, to balance. Vigo is the process of discrimination; or, to put it another way, the setting up of appropriate filters and boundaries to both allow and disallow energies, emotions, and information, or other influences deep into the being or of the world environment. So…an eclipse in Pisces and along the axis of Pisces/Virgo symbolizes the task of refinement. If the filters are too tight, we may lose inspiration and the delicate energies of magic. If we allow too much, we become overwhelmed and stressed and forget who we are. Or we seek escapes that may be negative. There is another part of this axis and in particular of Pisces, and that is, the search for meaning. Is the work we do contributing something of value to the greater whole? That is one of the big questions of Pisces/Virgo. Am I meaningful in the context of my environment, my family, my friends, and my work? We need the down-time to contemplate and recalibrate these larger questions of our lives. Besides, you know what they say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” So, use this eclipse to re-inspire yourself, and to find necessary escapes that will allow for renewal and rest, peace, quiet, love and compassion, for we live in a world where there is tremendous suffering. Each kindness you bestow helps to soothe the confusion of spirit that all of us to some extent, whether consciously aware or not, struggle with in these times.