Saturn, the planet of grown-up thinking, is moving through a sign that believes in fairies.
Since just before the summer Solstice, Saturn (realism) has been inching backwards in early Pisces (the otherworldly and uncanny). In August it occupies the same degrees it was in two months ago. As the month begins, it opposes Mercury; as the month is closing, it opposes the Sun.
Saturn in Pisces is a paradoxical placement. This is the planet of disciplined focus, but it’s in a sign that erodes boundaries. Saturn says: Stand up straight, state your case, clarify! But Pisces whispers: There’s no difference between me and you. Everything in the world is part of the same swirling undifferentiated whole.
Saturn says: Draw a line in the sand! But Pisces blows it
away with an ocean breeze.
Compassion fatigue
We’ve just begun the two-and-a-half-year run of this curious transit. It has made us painfully aware of the chaos of life, while insisting that we eke out a role, nonetheless, within the messiness.
The mass mind isn’t doing too well with this. The prevailing mood is in crucifixion mode, victimhood, or compassion fatigue.
As individuals, we have a better chance of appreciating the transit. Especially if your chart contains planets around the 6th degree of mutable signs, you will have a chance to go deeper with it this month.
Don’t assume that because you’re confused there must be something wrong. You’re being schooled in the principle of karma, but it may not be clear what caused the consequences you must face up to. Your unconscious mind may be better equipped to understand the cosmic lessons than your rational mind.
Don’t try to figure it out. Marinate in it.
Dreams and myth
This is a great transit for artists, whose job it is to put formless energies into form. Pisces governs all excursions into the collective unconscious: fantasies and dreams, myth, spiritual transcendence, mass grief.
We often retreat to these elusive realms as a means of escape. But not right now. Saturn, the planet of responsibility, encourages working within these arenas, with seriousness and patience.
Mischief maker
Uranus, now 2/3 of the way through the sign Taurus, is up to its tricks this month. It will square the Sun and Venus for about a week (8/8-15) and then station retrograde on the 28th.
Any planets you may have around the 24th degree of fixed signs will have been feeling Uranus’s lightning strikes for a while now. But on the exact day of the station, it really crackles.
On that day, astro-heads of a ritualistic persuasion will want to pay their respects. Blow off expectations; dye your hair; devote the day to guerrilla theater. Show props to the quicksilver god by doing something wild and crazy.
Not wild-and-crazy relative to society or friends or family. Wild-and-crazy relative to you.
