We are pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with one of our favorite astrologists (and talented yoga pro), Chani Nicholas, to bring you weekly horoscope readings. Check back each Monday to see what’s in the stars for your week! The week starts us out with a square between the moon and the sun. This is a crisis point, a growth opportunity as we trudge towards the full moon on Sunday. We need these moments, they offer us clarity of purpose and point to the passions we must serve. More is revealed as the light of the moon brightens each day. Watch your choices and actions closely as they influence the outcome that Sunday will reveal. On Friday Mercury conjoins the sun. This is traditionally referred to as entering the heart of the sun and the ancients saw it as a potent time to ask the brightest light or highest consciousness for help. Take time on this day to consider what you might want to petition the ones in charge for. On Saturday the sun and Mercury pass through a trying square to Saturn just before the full moon in Aquarius on Sunday. The energy of this combination builds all week with the resounding sounds of responsibility, reliability and accountability. When Saturn is in the mix we can be sure that our work is cut out for us but we can also be sure that if we do it there will be one hell of a graduation ceremony at the end of it. Roll up your sleeves, dear ones, this week means business. Aries & Aries Rising The pain that is caused by feeling that we aren’t accepted for who we are by the group we are with can be excruciating. We are all here to dance our dance the way we dance it. When others misunderstand our steps it can have us feeling like we aren’t entirely sure where to set foot next. But when we find the tribe that fits us best there is a support the size of a Texas two-step awaiting us. Sunday’s full moon occurs in your Eleventh House of social standing and those who help us achieve our lifelong goals. This is a full moon loaded with laborious lessons: lessons that, once learned, can move us faster than fleeting fun-filled fantasies, but that are often slow to make their point. You seem to be hemmed in by your own insecurities or supported by your internal geometry during this latest peak of the nocturnal luminary. Whichever extreme you are in will become overwhelmingly evident as the week builds. In fact it really doesn’t matter which extreme it is. All that matters is that you stay with yourself throughout the process. You are uncovering who you are while standing against the backdrop of the group, or perhaps in front of it. The group does not define us but it can let us define ourselves against its generous landscape. No one said you had to fit in. In fact if you try to blend your brilliance into the muted hues of the collective not only will you appear as ridiculous as a non-native person in a war-bonnet at a festival, you will be as insulting and hurtful to your own soul as they are to indigenous communities. Don’t insult your wild, un-tamable and brilliant self with such wastes of your precious time and potential. It doesn’t matter if every single one of your insecurities comes up in the most public of ways. The only thing that matters is how you embrace them, how you dance with them and if you can keep your sense of humor intact throughout the process. Make sure you take some time on Friday as Mercury moves into the heart of the sun, to ask for and to receive creative inspiration. Ask your lovers for exactly what you want. Ask your art form to speak through you. Coo, woo and yoo-hoo your way into getting the attention of all of your muses. Care less about what others think about you and so much more about your connection to the things that move you, because when you move from your heart you move us straight into ours. Taurus & Taurus Rising Warning: People may appear farther away than they actually are. They may also feel increasingly more prickly that they actually intend to be. It may be a good time to put on a little gear before you go out to build on the construction site of love. Love can act as a structure that, if built with materials that adhere to one another, can be home to the fulfillment of our hearts’ desires. Being in healthy relationships demands that we have excellent boundaries. It demands that we pay as much attention to the building as we do to the bountiful feelings we experience inside of said space. It demands that we give up seeing things from only our side of the bricks. If you take care of yourself, tend to your career goals, spend good time at home and tend to the heartwarming fires that await you with beloved family members (kitty cats, cuties and cousins included) you’re bound to be standing on better ground to build from. If you aren’t, you’re likely to end up at the wrong site completely. Take some time on Friday (it’s a special day as Mercury enters the heart of the sun) to ask for what you want out of a home life, family structure and inner sanctuary. Sunday’s full moon lands in your Tenth House of your life’s calling. The energies entwined with this moon can cultivate the creation of some kick-ass ground rules for you and for your partners, but this is true for all those you are in actual (or imaginary) relationship with. This week will tend to reveal what’s real and what is just another structure built to burn up. If you forgo your life’s calling because you are overly involved in relationship drama you won’t be happy and you’ll most likely resent those that held captive your creative energies, energies that would have been better off spent building your dream-life than just another disaster-date. In short: choose you and from that place see who still fits the bill. Gemini & Gemini Rising Perhaps there is no greater resource than a mind that can think for itself. Untethered and unafraid to venture beyond the bounds of what the state tells us is our possible potential, a free mind is truly able to move no matter how bound the body it is in is. Sunday’s full moon blooms in your Ninth House of traveling leaps and bounds beyond your hometown. It takes someone with the capacity for forward thought to make it past the gates of what everyone murmurs is plausible. It’s no small thing to fly free. Anyone that does knows that it isn’t free at all. There is a great cost to being one’s own person. There is a great cost because there is also a responsibility that many of us have towards our community, our family and our tribe. The question is who wins? Does it even have to be a losing situation? We think we are alone in this conflict. False. But while we all face it in some way, very few of us have the privilege to acknowledge it, confront it, and do something about it. So the question is, what will you do with your privilege? It’s not good enough to just to develop ourselves in all sorts of fascinating ways and sit around thinking about how fantastic our fascinating is. Not according to my astrology. According to my astrology and your chart, this metaphysical evolution must be put to use in some very practical ways. The extremely creative potential of this month’s moon should not be wasted in navel gazing and self-congratulation. In fact on Friday, your ruling planet, Mercury will conjoin the sun and when this happens there is a profoundly potent opportunity to ask for what you want. And it just so happens that this occurs in the domain of your chart that is about your mind, communications and divinations. Ask for the signs, the conversations and the words you need now. Then trust them when they waft your way on the winged feet of Mercury. Say thank you and put the words into practice. Ask, receive, give thanks, take action. Cancer & Cancer Rising So much of this week’s astrology focuses on personal responsibility, keeping our side of the street clean, interpersonal boundaries and self vs. society. For you this keeps working your abilities and your aversions to supporting yourself. The price of every opportunity is our resistance to it. We have to pay in full from the account we are most miserly with. We have to pay in full from the get go, otherwise we are only permitted to look in from the front door like cheapskates of the heart. We are the ones that can let ourselves into life. No one else can pay our admission and even if they could, we wouldn’t feel like we deserved to be where we got if we let that happen. Sunday’s full moon occurs in your Eighth House. This is a place in the chart where we can lose a great deal. We can also take what we have and merge it with what others have to create something truly prosperous. But in that we have to lose our desire to control everything. When we come to the table knowing who we are, what we have and that we paid our own way with funds earned honestly (according to us, not social morals), we can trust ourselves to move slowly. Slow enough to know if the ones we are partnering with are worthy of our time. We can also hold ourselves accountable for the choices that we make because we know what is ours and we know what is theirs. Let all those that you partner with do their own work. Let them do their work and you get down to the business of doing yours. You have a tremendous amount of building to do this year, enough to keep you up deep into many a nocturnal spell. Besides, you just get grumpy and ridiculous when you’re in your codependent goo. And no one needs that. No one. This full moon wants to help you learn the beauty of bonding while keeping your boundaries bumpin. Let it. The only reason why you become obsessed with another person’s business is that you are too afraid to do your own. If you do, it might just spell success for you and then what would you do? Let’s find out, shall we? *Insider trading tip: Use Friday to ask for what you want and need in terms of your financial well-being but specifically pray to understand and overcome all of the obstacles that you have to believing that you deserve it. Leo & Leo Rising Dust off your cat suit, you’re likely to need it. There’s a confluence of energies that culminate with the full moon on Sunday and you need to be ready to give us your best super hero strut. You can’t don that kind of attire or display that kind of domination without being noticed. Good thing you’re programmed for love and appreciation. Good thing you don’t shy away from the wilder weeds of your landscape because right now they seems to be taking over. Erotic energy is fun. The ego loves to muck around with it, but our hearts and our integrity pay the price for the misuses of this mistress. There is something specific that you are up against when it comes to this kind of self expression. It could have something to do with your family of origin, your culture/culture you currently inhabit or the folks that you share domestic space with. There seems to be a struggle, a pain or a fundamental issue that is teased to the surface. Discord strikes a chord that isn’t too sweet to the ear this week. It’s especially vile when you feel misunderstood by those that are supposed to love you as you are. Use the magic granted on Friday via Mercury’s movement into the heart of the sun by asking for what you want. We all have this opportunity come Friday, but yours is extremely personal. Ask for a deeper understanding of yourself in the form of appreciation, deep appreciation for your absolute awesomeness. Sunday’s full moon occurs in your Seventh House of intimate relationships and one of the questions may be, can those that I love receive the untamable parts of my personality? Is there space for it? This energy can also be related to feeling betrayed, rejected and refused the right to exist on equal footing with those you stand toe-to-toe with. But try not to get too caught up in what others do or do not appreciate about your prowl. You have the secret superpower of Jupiter with you right now that grants you the gift of ease. Use it. You have the gift of giving the benefit of the doubt. You have the wisdom to unwind the reactions that you might normally have to those that try to hurt. You have a little more room to let your beauty unfold and your undeniable, unbreakable and indomitable spirit prevail. Virgo & Virgo Rising One read of Sunday’s full moon in your chart might suggest that if you hold your tongue for too long it could make you sick, quite literally. But there’s no need to be so dramatic. For you, this week’s luminary is a mixture of the sacred and the profane. It would behoove you to become more familiar with the characters in your dreamtime. They don’t always give us the most straightforward of suggestions but Thursday and Friday night are perfect times to ask for information that is. Be very direct with your psyche before you nod off, “I need very clear, specific information about (fill in the blank). Thank you and goodnight!” This is due to the movement of your ruling planet, Mercury, entering the heart of the sun. This is akin to approaching the throne of The Queen of Fucking Everything. Her ear is bent towards you, take it and ask for the answers that you are ready to know. This reservoir of wild energy will speak to you but it prefers to be mostly out of view, speaking from the peripheral, the outskirts and the shadows. This is a Queen of the Night, she operates from secret places. She must be dealt with deftly. If you tune into this less than straightforward sound system it’s certain to whisper to you the secrets of self-possession. There is an assertive new you brewing, ask for help cutting the ties that bind you to some old and outdated indentured servitude. But this demand for answers must come from deep within you in a clear, concise and clean communication. Passing off our feelings of victimization, blaming others for not “getting it”, being hurt that they are not able to read your mind or that they are not more understanding is not going to help you any. And isn’t that what we are here for? Take control of your life by taking responsibility for the pieces that are yours and then let go of the resentments that hold you to the past. Libra & Libra Rising This is the perfect week to ask those that help you for exactly what you need help with, especially on Friday. There is a special concoction of friendly forces that are open to hearing your request- but it’s up to you to ask. We help others when we allow them to help us, for when we do we give them an opportunity to exercise the most spiritual of principals: generosity. One could even venture to say that we have a responsibility to ask for such assistance, to give others the chance to show up in all their royal regalia and grant us some goodness. Sunday’s full moon takes place in the area of your life that is responsible for bringing love to your door and erotic, creative inspiration to your opus. And while you stand in the world still drenched in the good graces of Venus in your Tenth House of your public affairs, this full moon tugs a little at the strings that might still be too tightly strung around your sense of self. Even if everything good that has ever happened to you was strictly by chance, you still deserve it. The fates give us gifts to hold and it is our responsibility to hold them well. Everything we are given needs to know it is loved, otherwise the chances of it sticking around or working for us at all get slimmer by the hour. This full moon has both a wild and unpredictable nature to it as well as a hefty responsibility that comes with whichever ways the winds blow. We might not have the right to choose what comes our way but we have the chance to work with it. Your astrology is recommending you take a risk that you are willing to take care of should it come to fruition. Scorpio & Scorpio Rising A couple of things that are important for you to keep in mind in the coming weeks:
-Every time you witness your anger, rage, fear, doubt, mistrust and desire to seek revenge, it’s an opportunity to bring those feelings to consciousness. Holding them in is the surest route to blowing up and blowing down the house. You are more than a Big Bad Wolf.
-Every time we bring feelings or parts of ourselves to consciousness that we aren’t proud of we get the opportunity to know ourselves in a deeper way. We develop an intimate partnership with ourselves.
-When we feel like we are on our own side, via this intimate relationship, we have less and less need to react in ways that we later regret.
-Self mastery means being able to alchemize our shame, guilt and fear into fuel for our life’s mission. Refusing to be held captive by the things that haunt us is an integral component of becoming an adult.
-Becoming an adult means we can build like bigwigs, frolic like a fiend, love like we can’t lose ourselves in the process and experience the freedom that only accountability can bring.
I’m not taking back any of the good news I’ve been floating your way for the past few weeks. In fact I urge you to ask for anything you need in terms of manifesting your dream career/work in the world. Do this on Friday but use the week to meditate on the most meaningful things to ask for. Ask your boss, ask your co-workers, ask yourself, ask your angels and ask your community. Whomever can help you in this domain needs to be approached. August is a challenging month, I won’t twist it or mince it. Sunday’s full moon is demanding, possibly even draining-depending on where you stand in relationship to your responsibilities. This moon forces us to take a good long look at how much or how little we live in our integrity. This moon occurs in your Fourth House of getting back to basics. This moon brings you home, meaning awaits you here. Bring your full self back to the spaces that will replenish you. Try not to create strife there so that you can get the calming coolness it wants to offer you. Sagittarius & Sagittarius Rising Seek out untamed minds to study from this week. Ask them questions, ask them answers and collaborate on riddles together. You need the wildest of wisdoms, the whackiest of wonders to ponder and flights so fancy they leave you laughing with delight. Joy can be found in even the tightest of situations so try not to look for perfection-instead giggle with the desire for deeper meaning. Sunday’s full moon does not let up or let anyone off the hook, especially when you are caught slacking off. So don’t. You are held to some pretty intense self-inquiry sessions this month. This week is only the beginning, but there is nothing to fear but the secrets you have been holding from yourself. Disassociation is a very important survival tactic, until it isn’t. There are forces beyond your control that are pushing up against the places you might navigate around given the choice. But you don’t have that luxury here. You don’t have the luxury of forgoing this stage of your awakening. The opportunity to establish a connection to the spiritual forces that sustain you is not one to flake on. And yet psychic forces are not something we want to push or play with if we aren’t able to digest what they serve up. Once we’ve called them, they tend not to retreat. This week and this month you are walking the tightrope of tending to some very excited, exuberant and curious energies as well as those aspects of self you might not yet be too familiar with. Respect the newly awakened wisdom and approach it with reverence and even caution. Feelings of anger, fear, jealousy and the desire to control are good cues that you are on the trail of deeper issues that want to be reckoned with. It’s always good to insulate ourselves with the wisdom of those beyond our years. Those that can guide us past the rocks, the ruff waters and the sharks of our unconscious. Seek these wise ones in real time, in dreamtime and in the pages you peruse. Capricorn & Capricorn Rising Considering the relationship dynamics that have been driving your development, Sunday’s full moon comes not a moment too soon. It occurs in your Second House of resources, self-worth and that ever elusive sense of self-esteem. This is no lite light. This luminary is weighty in its wonder and in the ways it wields its power. You have power. Not over what anyone else does, says or doesn’t do or say but over what you do with it. And there are many opportunities for you to do something with the opportunities coming your way via the resources of others. In fact I would use Friday to ask for loans, business partnerships or financial boons of all kinds – but buyer beware. Only ask for what you are certain you can repay, offer equal goods in return for or match in energy and commitment. We need each other’s riches in order to reach our own. Our ego likes to take credit for our creations but humility knows a deeper truth; there are no original thoughts or creations at this point. We are so much better when we learn to collaborate because our ideas are only a fraction of the whole thought – we need the input of others to draw the entire picture. Everything good that comes through us has been floating about in the ethers exhaled from others, ready to be inhaled and recreated through our unique machinery. There are issues brewing in terms of those you work with but at this point you are pretty well versed in working through difficult relationship dynamics, or you’re just royally pissed off. I’m going to strongly encourage you to keep your hostility in check when it comes to interacting in social circles. There is a boon awaiting you in partnerships but that doesn’t mean that you can’t totally blow it by being, um…. less than sweet. Aquarius & Aquarius Rising A wild love exposes us. A wild love demands an honesty that rips every lie from our secret clutch. A wild love leaves no room for false identities or placating personalities. Like a howling wind that awakens our fears of being swept away, this force has the power to uncover all of our underground burrows. We cannot control this kind of current, nor should we try. Instead we can honor the thing that derails our dishonesty. We can bow to it. We can say “Yes, I stand here and I will be an active and conscious participant in this process. I will not run in fear from you. I see myself in your fierce love. I meet your weighty gaze with an unwavering one. I will deny my own untamable spirit no more. You give me the courage to let the howling of my heart escape, at long last. I will not repress this. I will unleash it in honesty, with integrity and with a weighted caution and consideration of others but not at the cost of my own growth. My verity resounds with such a clarity it renders all questions about my sincerity obsolete. This gives me the faith I need to go forward. This Sunday’s full moon is all yours, Aquarius. It’s all yours but that means all of the responsibility of bearing it is too. And most likely feeling like its bearing down on you. Pressure. The pressure builds in the spaces between who you are, whom you love and are in relationship with and how you show up in the world. Stress can force something unforeseen to emerge. That can be courage, calamity, clarity or consternation. One thing is for sure, you aren’t hiding it as well as you think you are. That cool, calm and collected container you like to roll in is bound to feel more like a pressure cooker than a calm space to retreat to. Looks like you have some loved ones that want to help you break out of too too tightly tied tedium. Get strength from those that share it with you. Get married to your integrity by the minister of accountability. Get the map to freedom roads from those that have them tattooed on their feet. For extra credit use Friday to ask your most intimate of partners for help. I know, this renders you vulnerable and that’s not generally an option but it’s on the ballot this week. I highly suggest that you vote for it. Pisces & Pisces Rising Due to your wily nature and unpredictable patterns I’m going to outline a couple of different scenarios for this Sunday’s full moon… One is that a past life connection winds its way into your world and stops you dead in your tracks. This connection could provide a much needed renewal and remembering that there is so much more than our sweet and silly plans at play here. It’s also a reminder that the consequences of our actions are not something that we can outrun just because we shed our skin and have a different name on our birth certificate. Another possibility is that you are able to let go of a love that is past due for the compost. No need to hang onto the moldy and the mournful. This can also be about creative projects, friends and dynamics that you have with your children. It’s more about how you think about the situation than the situation itself. And perhaps more than that, it’s about the responsibility that you take in terms of coming to those conclusions. It’s your mind and these are your beliefs-or are they? There is a deep need for you to take seriously what you think about your life and your place in it. It could feel like a bit of a battle, a power struggle or a moment of recognition about what societal conditioning has done to you. If we want to become our own people, if we want to become individuals we must at the very least challenge every law, religious tenant and truism that has been poured into us. Some of these are straight from the heart – the good heart of our people – but so many are from the Machine that just wants us to stay in line and perform the tasks it needs us to – the tasks of greed and acquiring at any cost. On Friday there is a special conjunction of Mercury and the sun. It’s a day to ask the forces that be for exactly what we need. This is happening in your Sixth House of work, service and health. Establishing a routine that brings you into alignment with your goals for a good life is one way to ask for what you need and be an active component in its creation. Another way is to value all of the work that you do and in that valuing don’t be afraid to hold up your accomplishments for all to see. Using Sunday’s full moon to remember your deeper wisdom, that of your spirit and it’s connection to all life no matter borders, politics or prejudices is a good compliment to this. Re-commit to your spiritual practices as a way to establish and remind yourself of what the most essential thing in life to ask for are: the appreciation of simple abundance. For more information please visit Chani’s personal blog, UntilTheStarsFallFromTheSky, or for personal astrology readings please contact Chani directly at chani [at] chaninicholas.com.