Four Moons Astrology- Donna Woodwell, Austin, Texas

• July 26: Sweet sundae with a cherry on top. Enjoy it with a friend. #
• July 25: Quirky Love. You must love yourself before you will allow others to love you.
• July 24: Sharpen your editor’s pencil. Take a critical look at what you are doing, and eliminate the nonessential. #
• July 23: Downshift. Take comfort in the routine. #
• July 22: High energy day. Harness it well and accomplish many things. #
• July 21: Total eclipse of the Sun. Let old habits and grudges fall away; open the door to something new. #
• July 20: Nostalgia for the playful, witty banter of a 1940s screwball comedy. #

Anais Nin once wrote: “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”  August is a time of blossoming…

Since last fall, we have felt the heightened contest between Saturnine order and Uranian change.  Saturn symbolizes that which binds us into physical manifestation. His counsel: be realistic, pragmatic and grounded in tradition to be successful in this world.  Quirky Uranus urges us to individuate, innovate and free ourselves from constraints that limit our potential.

The third of five oppositions between these two planets occurs in mid September. Like the game tug-of-war, oppositions are about living with creative tension. For a time, one side may win, then the other; eventually we realize that two states may be true simultaneously and we find our balance again.

But in August, a third actor shakes up the game: Mars.  The Red Planet crosses the midpoint between Saturn and Uranus, first squaring Saturn on August 10 then Uranus on August 18.  Passionate Mars leaps before it looks, impelling us to take action, to break through tensions, to open and grow, even if we don’t yet know what we shall become.

Mars also brings us courage; he’s too impatient to be afraid.  He seizes the day.  August is an excellent time to make changes that require an act of will power. Just do it, and don’t look back.

• July 19: Chatty day! Invite friends to lunch, network, make appointments. Then enjoy a quiet evening at home. #
• July 18: Bumpy night? Expect fewer potholes as you drive through your day. #
• July 17: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Shakespeare, As You Like It. #
• July 16: Bees buzzing through a summer meadow. Work in beauty and see beauty where you work. #
• July 15: A cloudy day gives way to an evening glistening with stars. Enjoy it with your friends. #
• July 14: Highwire walking without a net. Nothing slowing you down, and nothing holding you back. #
• July 13: You’ll need your caffeine this morning. Then it’s Run-Jane-Run the rest of the day. #

My Dearest Friend,

Where is the summer going? Can you believe the ISAR astrology conference in Chicago is only five weeks away?  I can’t wait to see you and our other astrologer-friends!

You know I adore Chicago – the restaurants, the planetarium, the museums. My husband was just telling me about the new glass balcony at the Skydeck of the Sears Tower, where you can stand on the glass floor and see 1,353 feet straight down. A news story I read said the idea to build the balcony came from the cleaning staff, who kept having to remove nose-and-forehead prints from the glass windows left by people trying to look down. Someone finally asked, why not?

Thinking of the Sears Tower reminded me of my last visit to the Windy City five years ago. That was just a few days after I found out I was pregnant with my daughter.

As I drove home one morning, I smiled to myself with bemused satisfaction. It was only a few weeks after my husband and I decided to have a baby, but I had a sneaking suspicion I was already pregnant. I wondered: had enough time passed for a home pregnancy test to show an accurate result?

At that moment, a commercial for That ’70s Show came on the radio. The ad played a sound bite from the upcoming episode: “Mommy, Mommy, I think I got Donna pregnant.”

I burst into laughter. Well, that settles that, I thought. I made a detour to the drugstore.

We all experience such magical moments when the Universe spontaneously answers our questions just as we ask them. A lyric on the radio, a perfectly placed bumper sticker, a strand from an overheard conversation, a book that falls open to just the passage we need to hear. These meaningful coincidences are what Carl Jung called synchronicities.

Divination techniques, such astrology, Tarot and the I Ching, are excellent tools for harnessing the power of synchronicities to provide illuminating insights to life’s myriad questions.  Even the Cosmos itself has a funny way of answering our questions, when we ask from the right point of view.

What is that point of view? I keep flashing back to the image of the little girl lying on the floor of the glass balcony, overlooking the world with a sense of wonder and delight, and without fear.

Do you think she would leave noseprints on a crystal ball too?

With Love, from Luna

Last Quarter Moon in Aries, sextile Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius.

• July 12: Give into the urge to play hooky this afternoon. Blow bubbles or dance through the sprinkler. #
• July 11: Update your list of dreams. Then plan how you can achieve them. #
• July 10: When you realize the arrow and target are one, you cannot miss the shot. #
• July 9: Good visibility. Low turbulence. Perfect flying weather. #
• July 8: Tie up loose ends. Make a list of the nagging post-its, work down the list, and reward yourself with a sweet treat. #
• July 7: Full Moon and lunar eclipse. A pragmatic friend offers wise counsel today. #
• July 6: Strange dreams make you want to hide under the covers? Take it slow; focus on the present moment. #

My Dearest Friend,

This morning before dawn I sat at my desk, bleary-eyed, waiting for the tea to steep. I was contemplating the astrology charts for the day’s lunatweet. A Moon-Jupiter-Neptune triple conjunction in Aquarius, what does that say to the world?

As I let my mind wander, I remembered a scene from my childhood. When I was 11 years old, I set the school record in archery. Only thing is, before that day, I’d never picked up a bow.

It was a school fitness day; races and other athletic contests filled the schedule. Archery stations were set up on one corner of the playground. It looked like fun, so I wandered over to try it. The gym teacher showed me how to hold the bow and notch an arrow, then wandered away to help another student.

Standing there, awkwardly holding the large bow in front of the target. I experienced a curious sensation. I felt the shot — myself, the bow, the arrow, the flight path and the target — as part of one continuous, instantaneous whole. In my mind’s eye, releasing the arrow and striking the bull’s-eye was one fluid movement.

Still in my reverie, I raised the bow, and let the first arrow fly. Thwack!  The shaft struck dead center in the middle of the target. Without thought, I shot again. Thwack! Thwack! I hit the bull’s-eye two or three more times in a row.

Then the teacher returned. She looked at the target in disbelief and shock. She asked me what I thought I was doing. I explained. She scoffed and said I couldn’t do that.

Next shot, I still hit the target, but out towards the edge. The magic was broken.

How often are we told things are “impossible” in our lifetimes? So many times that we start to internalize the voices and carry them with us wherever we go? Eventually we might just stop believing altogether. When they are together in the sky, Jupiter and Neptune remind us that there is possibility in every moment, if we only open our minds to it.

A friend gave me a paperweight that’s been sitting on my desk for years. It reads: “what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

An excellent question…

With Love, from Luna.

Moon in Aquarius conjunct Jupiter and Neptune, square Mars in Taurus.

• July 5: Put away the dishes and recycle the bottles first, then kick back and enjoy the rest of the day. #
• July 4: Conflicts crackle in the air. Take a deep breath and count to 11. #
• July 3: To speak or not to speak, that is the question. Consider where your loyalties lay. #
• July 2: Sink into the Mystery… #
• July 1: Wild card! Play it how you want to. #
• June 30: A breath of fresh air. Open yourself to new ideas and new possibilities. Enjoy the breeze. #
• June 29: “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror,” says Kahlil Gibran. #

Fireworks! A shower of glittering stars above and below as planets touch, separate and touch again.

In celestial square dance, graceful Venus and lusty Mars promenade through the early morning skies, marking a summer of Love and War.  They are joined on stage by the more stately pas de deux of Jupiter and Neptune, who meet in the heavens for the second time this month. With all these actors on stage, expect high drama the first week of July.

The summertime music of the spheres climaxes with a threefold embrace of the Sun and Moon:

And the conjunction of our lips
Not kisses make, but an Eclipse.
–Henry King (1592-1669)

Eclipses — the alignment of Earth, Moon and Sun — portend the ending and beginning of cycles. Three eclipses loom on the horizon: a Full Moon eclipse on July 7, a Total Solar Eclipse on July 21, and another Full Moon Eclipse on August 5.

The Solar Eclipse falls in the last degree of watery, sentimental Cancer; this is the time to release old wounds to which we have clung.  “It’s hard to let go anything we love. We live in a world that teaches us to clutch. But when we clutch we’re left with a fistful of ashes,” writes Madeline L’Engle in A Ring of Endless Light.  Hold that which you love with an open hand.

Eclipses usually occur in pairs. Three in a row heralds an especially sacred moment, a cosmic ceremony in which our personal healing is also planetary healing.