Tonight, we enter the Last Quarter phase with a Moon in Taurus. This is a lovely Moon, calm, grounded, and benevolent. She is exalted in Taurus and rules this middle decan.
The overall chart is complex, with difficult patterns. So I’ll say up front we’re in difficult terrain, as we head into two eclipses.
Yet this Taurus Moon brings balm. Think cozy, comfort food, your most supportive peops, and touching grass.
The Moon squares the Sun in mid Aries. This Sun has left the opposition with Pluto, is separating from (but still close enough to) the conjunction with Jupiter, while trining Saturn.
From the Sun’s point of view, we’re ready for bold action. We’ve had a Jupiterean boost and have completed Pluto’s challenge. Trining a strong planet in Aries should be another boost, but this is Saturn, not comfortable in Aries and ready to slow things down. Anticipate roadblocks.
Mercury is now moving forward, but still within their final review period. Not retrograde but slow and reflective. This too can feel like a desire for new directions and fresh ideas, but the past still holds on. Mercury leaves the retrograde review on August 6, but may not feel re-energized until they enter Leo on August 9.
Venus is in the final, anaretic degree of Virgo. She’s separating from her square to Mars and Ceres. She’ll enter Libra, her own home, August 6. At this Last Quarter, at the end of Virgo, she’s deeply reflective. She knows what has been lost and what remains at risk.
Venus also sits at the bottom of an out-of-sign Kite pattern in which she trines Pluto and Uranus, and opposes Neptune, as those three trine and sextile each other.
This Kite marks where we are in the calendar. For Celtic peoples, this is Lughnasadh, the time of first fruits. Today, we sometimes see this as a harvest festival, but it is not. The position of Venus at the end of Virgo speaks to this reality.
First Fruits is the time when berries ripen on the vines, and are gathered as food as much as celebration. For farming people, the time before harvest was risky. Bad storms, fires, anything that could harm the ripening grain and other crops put everyone at risk.
In Ireland, July was called the Hungry Month. Stores from the previous harvest were mostly gone. The new harvest was not ready. A dangerous time.
Lughnasadh is a celebration and a memorial. Lugh, the god of many skills, initiated the festival to honor his foster mother who had given her life to secure rich harvests from the fields.
We celebrate what we’ve been given, as we honor and protect what we hope to receive. At the very end of Virgo, with Venus, we see that everything alive must die. Lughnasadh captures this moment of recognition and hope.
Mars is not making any aspects in this chart, and is also out of bounds. At the end of Gemini, Mars also knows we can’t have everything all at once. We must choose one, and let the other go.
We’re at an inflection point. Astrological Lughnasadh arrives August 7, within this phase, when the Sun reaches 15º Leo.
With the exalted Taurus Moon, we celebrate what we have and what we love. With an eye on Venus and the outer planets, and OOB Mars, we’re aware of what could be lost.
We hold both at once.
Title photo from a photo by the Alex Escu on Unsplash
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