New Year coming..

Not long now, the Moon is Void of Course for about another 1/2 hour, and then moves into the sign of Aquarius.  Good for shaking off whatever was lurking over the last week, but remember that anything you start in the next couple of days is going to experience a long road of work winding up fizzling out in confusion.  If I were you, I'd wait and give the dust time to settle.
 In about 3 days the energy will pick up and be supporting productivity until around the 3rd week of January when Mars turns retrograde.
Have I talked about retrogrades?  They aren't used as such in Vedic astrology because it's a different system of cycle measurement, but in Western, or Tropical, or what most Westerners think of as astrology, retrogrades are the time when the relative orbits of the Earth and some planet are at their closest proximity.  The effect can be a distilled dose of the energy represented by that body.
 Mars on the level of personal astrology has a lot to do with how we get our needs met.  When Mars is retrograde, [ happens every couple of years for about 6 weeks] we get the chance to review how we do that, and also what we are driven by.  It can be a very valuable time or a bloody uncomfortable one.

The turning of the Light

In 5 days the Northern hemisphere gets the gift of the longest night.  There is magic in the feeling of change.  Many are uncomfortable with change, but for millennia it has been celebrated, ritualized and honored.  One way that could be seen is another attempt on the part of humans to believe in control over events.
The night of the Solstice is an energetic portal, one of 8. It releases powerful energies into the global consciousness and supports forward movement for us all.
In the cycle of the astrological year, this door is #7, and can be seen as an opportunity to spend some time in your own interior to decide how you will flow with this surge of energy.  This involves being honest about what kind of life you want and what the price is for that.  Winter is for more than surviving the cold and pushing for more social engagement.  It is a time for cultivating clarity and a core sense of peace.

Mercury direct!

Ok, y'all, you can sign papers at the end of the week, and start new projects.  We are going to have a window in which there is support of nature for activity and productivity until Mars goes retrograde in January.  As we come down from the Full Moon to the New [on Christmas] It's good to not have a powerful attachment to things working out quickly.  More growth after the New Moon.
We are all still being offered the chance to let go of the old way of doing things.  If you want to hold on to a worn out paradigm, go right ahead.  There will be plenty of opportunity to change your mind, redirect and grow forward in the new year, and one way or the other, it's the only direction left.

Mars slows down

Mars' motion is one of the most dynamic reflectors of energy trends and releases in the collective consciousness.  It is in Leo, a fire sign, and a place it likes and feels able to express in, but as it comes to the end of Leo at the end of this month it finishes up a strong forward movement with a loss of direction by opposing fuzzy and deceptive Neptune.  At this time, there's a loss of clarity in the collective mind which undermines some progress made.  This may manifest as people trying to take action, and then becoming unsure of their motivation.  For about a week this continues, but by Nov 08 or so, the fog will lift a bit, and show the areas where details were overlooked, where systems were not allowed to move smoothly because of overriding egos.  Good chance to clear this up before it creates a problem.

Mars changing signs again.

Mars is in the very last minutes of the sign of Cancer, and will be going into Leo @ 9:51 pm EDT.  Mars is one of the major timing triggers, more abrupt than the others, so don't be surprised if you wake up tomorrow feeling as though you aren't getting the attention you deserve [think you deserve], particularly if your birthday is in the early parts of a fixed sign - that would be roughly January 20th, April 20th, July 21st or October 21st.  This is when the Sun enters the fixed signs of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio.  The ego [Sun]  will be energized or challenged [Mars] over the next few days. This will be most harmonious for Leos, and if you are early on in any of the fire signs, [March 21st or Nov 21st]  You'll feel as though you have access to your physical energy in a way that has been missing for the last month or so.
 In addition to the changing of signs, Mars will be coming up on a period of expressing the need for adjustment in how we understand our desires.  Particularly, what we expect from interpersonal dynamics, and why.  What happens is unimportant, how we deal with our expectations is.

Mercury changes signs

On Sept. 9th very , very early in the morning Mercury will leave Leo and enter into one of the signs it rules, Virgo.   Before it does, it makes an opposition to  Neptune which is retrograde in the last degrees of Aquarius.  This is a collective energy of not wanting to let go of an outworn way of thinking about the future.  We have another day or so of this before we are drawn into dealing with a more regulated life.  The full Moon coming up this weekend will be an aid in assimilating all the information we have gotten since  mid July, and some ideas of how to put it to work.
  

Briefly,

The Moon is in Scorpio, troublesome for some, but then, some of us have to live with it.  This particular Moon in Scorpio winds up on Saturday by making a square to Neptune, which is retrograde.  What this means is,  decisions you make for the next 36 hours may look great, but will end up falling apart,  rolling back on themselves, or simply being sandcastles.  There is the illusion of stability.  It's a good couple of days to NOT spend money or do anything that you want to turn out well without deception.

Moon & Saturn

We are still under the thumb of a T square involving Saturn, the planet of established consensus, Uranus, the iconoclast and Pluto the revealer.  The T square creates imbalance and friction, thus, energy.  Tomorrow the Moon [function and development] will join up with Saturn, so expect to hear "no" a lot.   Expect obstacles and a feeling of heaviness in relationships and/or cooperation.  This slow down comes at a good time, after a time of frustration and cross communication, before a time of cloudy motivation.  Use it to focus your intentions and be aware of what motivates the intentions you are focusing.

The last few weeks.

I decided that I wasn't going to get back to posting during the retrograde Mercury even though it's supposed to be a good time to get back to things you have let drop.  There were too many other messes and piles to clean up and go through, but I'll bet you experienced that too. There has been a formation coming and going over the last bit of time that has created frustration for the easy flow of getting needs met, having aims achieved or  moving forward in any way.  We aren't going to be allowed to move forward without carefully examined motives during this time.  Pushing is always a possibility, but there are consequences for that.
This new Moon gives us a couple of weeks to reset our intentions and be clear about the direction we are trying to take, but more importantly, what is behind it, what is the motivation.

True Sun Sign

Every so often, someone trained in Astronomy who knows zippety doo dah about Astrology, but figures that's only a detail, comes up with this same tired approach to refute how Astrology is used.  We astrologers are  not so dim and ignorant that we don't know that the heavens have shifted, but the Astrology of the West [as contrasted with Vedic] doesn't rely on the actual position of the zodiac.  It is figured based on the seasons.  0 degrees of Aries is the Vernal equinox.  Astronomically, that's somewhere closer to 7 degrees of Pisces, but that doesn't make someone who is born on March 25th a Pisces.  They are still an Aries.  I will leave Astrophysics alone, and continue to have a respect for all the study and work that goes into learning that discipline.  I wish they'd do the same for us.

time vs choice

I have not posted, not because nothing was going on, but quite the reverse.
Venus retrograde, then Mercury, then eclipses, Big outer planets changing signs all at once, then backing up as though they had changed their minds, and then once again going into the next phase.  I noticed people all around me, and felt it in myself too, of course, a distinct lack of willingness to cooperate during the retrograde Venus.  Retrograde Mercury is so frequent that most non astrologers who are paying attention even a little bit notice the resonance of that.  It has been a good push forward, all in all.
We have now passed a couple of eclipses and are deluged with an energy asking of us that we pick up the pieces and put them into coherent order.  The pot stirrers are busy, fear is abroad and it is more important than ever to see past the idea of a personal threat to a cooperative solution, to notice that we are all connected and need each other.