Forecast: Late Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, August 5-7, 2012

Sun in Leo and Moon in Aries, 2012

Beginning Sunday 5 August at 2:01p PT | 5:01p ET | 9:01p UT
through Monday 6 August
/moon goes void-of-course Tuesday 7
at 1:05p PT | 4:05p ET | 8:05p UT
until Luna enters Taurus Wednesday 8
at 12:29a PT | 3:29a ET | 7:29a UT

*Carrying on with Grace and Squalor*

You may feel like applying emergency brakes to some of your activities or involvements. They are probably not dangerous but could be overheated (moon in Aries with Uranus while opposing Mars and Saturn) and also dubious (Mercury still retrograde). So you need to calm down and step back. Still, Luna is in good aspect with Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and the sun at various points through this period, so you are on the right track most likely. Delays and dragging slowness are hard to encompass while Mercury backs up. Impatience grows. But if you act carefully and deliberately, strong progress is possible especially late Sunday and Monday.

"The tyranny of time" is an interesting subject. How many mystical or new-agey books have you read which advocated "the timeless life" or "living in the now"? I suspect that some of the authors of those books had Mercury retrograde in their birth-charts. This is not a disability (Sai Baba had it) but a tendency to live in more than one time at once, at worst to be stuck in the past, at best to bridge past and future adroitly. So all of us can be doing this to some degree now, and even beyond Wednesday when Mercury haltingly (very slowly) turns direct.

In a way, this period can be "back to the drawing board" in a positive sense, to get those plans, researches, or programs straightened out as best you can with the best knowledge, information, and intuition you can summon. That could include further thought and study. But you needn't be disappointed if you still feel there is much undone or if your conclusions are still tentative. A breakthrough might be possible, but cannot be demanded.

The noble, brilliant character whose labors for others are brilliantly successful, yet often misunderstood (such as the lion Aslan in the C. S. Lewis stories) can be a Leonine figure and you may be thinking of some such person (the notable and amazing Leo figures in history secular and spiritual are too many for me to list). It is probably impossible ever to thank these individuals sufficiently for what they have given.

Other individuals you note around you, who are basically helpful to you, are conventional in appearance, neat and orderly, effective in their work.

Others of whom you become aware may be in trouble with the law, either persecuted or victims of a frame-up by law officers (there are far too many of those, as anyone acquainted with The Innocence Project becomes aware) or otherwise blamed for what they have not done. If you are one of these, there can be spiritual solace from above at least, and perhaps help from friends, or an administrator who is on the right side.

The pageant-like glory of the Olympics, or anything similar closer to home, can be uplifting. It demonstrates what human beings can do at their most ambitious. Accompanying this is the considerable charm of those who display their bodies, talents, persons and bold attempts.

At a deeper or yet more mature level is the heritage of a spiritual tradition on which you can lean when all else seems frail.

Those who are famous, powerful, or just superior whether recognized or not, are very much on your side if you sidle up to them with honest hope and aspiration. This is especially important whenever misfortunes seem to have spoiled your prospects. The one who has achieved is your inspiration through periods of doubt.

Who is pursuing you? This is the very last period in which Mars and Venus remain in a trine aspect (by ten degrees). I have not over-emphasized this because this aspect did not consummate itself but it has been a nice atmosphere for erotic or affectionate interplay whether outward or more subjective. During this period you might consider what it has meant to be a pursuer or pursued. Which are you, or both? Is this budding love, or lust, or friendly experiment? How has it worked out over the past month?

Coming up is the Mars square Venus period, ouch! which can be harsh, or exciting, or sado-masochistic, or thrilling and then disgusting. This will be in September, not August. I gladly postpone discussion of it. Meanwhile, in this period, it is well to prevent one's heart from misleading one into the clutches of anyone wittingly or unwittingly deceptive, while never squelching that heart's childlike quest for love. (I do not have a formula for this.)

{Late Sunday, Monday, Tuesday} *Carrying on with Grace and Squalor*

Cosmic Piper