FULL BLUE MOON at 7 Leo-AQUARIUS 56
JULY 31, 2015, 6:43am EDT, 3:43am PDT, 11:43am GMD

Image: 28.Soul Mission, collage by Sarah Gallant, evokes Blue Moon mysteries. See more of her cosmically-connected collage work at http://www.loominosity.net.

“…the rare blue dahlia like that blue moon shrewd things happen only once in…”

“So blue, the word and the condition, the color and the act, contrive to contain one another, as if the bottle of the genii were its belly, the lamp’s breath the smoke of the wraith.”

—William H. Gass, from On Being Blue

A BLUE MOON (second Full Moon in one month) ends July with a double exclamation point. Venus returns to Leo, where she will dwell for over two more months, looking for fun in the Sun. Retrograde well into September, this is not a superficial quest. She will soon journey beneath the sky’s horizon, seeking deep within for authentic values, joy and true love. Stories from many cultures tell of the descent of the goddess to the underworld, there to be renewed before she rises again to the light of day.

Don’t be surprised if you have sad or melancholy moments. Scorpionic Saturn challenges Venus to look some tough stuff in the face and turn such lead into gold, to accept yourself fully for who you are and for who you are not. If in this process, you’re feeling the blues, find a window and look for the rainbows in the midst of the rain. Write some soul-rich playful poetry or sing the blues.

“In Balanced Flow where Moon Meets Sun
My StarChild Self On Purpose Runs!
Aligned, Attuned, My PlaySpace Spun
Ready am I, so Here I Come!
Playfully Brilliant in Serious Fun!”
—Mili Dillard, www.PelesPlace.com

“Song Sung Blue, everybody know one,
Song sung blue, every garden grows one…
But you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know it get to feeling good
You simply got no choice.”
—Neil Diamond, #1 song in 1972

Once hot, now cool, blue means many things to many people. What is blue for you? The color of sky or the sea? the Virgin Mary’s robes? jazz or your jeans?

During its approximately 40 days and 40 nights in retrograde, Venus meets up with Jupiter on August 1st and Mars on the 31st. The rare choreography of the 2015 version of Venus retrograde makes for three conjunctions with Jupiter (July 1 and August 1 in Leo, October 25th in Virgo) and three with Mars (February 22 in Aries, September 1 in Leo, November 1 in Virgo). Note the double dose of Leo-Virgo. The gods Jupiter and Mars were both lovers of Venus. In the storyline, we expect these mythic trysts with the goddess of love, but how does all this play out in our lives? In Leo, generosity of heart is one option, but some people will go for the soap opera version. The Virgo version will be naturally healthy and service-oriented. Be gentle with yourself and others.

It’s a good time to take a look back, to honor yourself for your experience and what brought you to this point in your life. I took a good hour the other day to think back on all my previous Venus Virgo-Leo retrogrades. Since they happen every eight years, this repeating cycle is one of the great lessons of our lives. I had to dig a bit for some years, but it was well worth the time, full of revelations. Perhaps you will also find some meaningful resonances to summer-fall of 2007, 1999, 1991, 1983, 1975, 1967, 1959, 1951, 1943, 1935, etc.

The month of AUGUST starts on this Full Blue Moon high, another twilight joining of Venus and Jupiter, and five planets retrograde: Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn. It was a rather queer celestial synchronicity that Venus and Uranus turned retrograde within a day of each other last weekend. These planetary spotlights on high beam clearly indicate new developments on tap, some rocking and rolling round the globe, like the constant earthquakes shaking our planet daily somewhere or other. I heard several stories of accidents signaling a review of current status.

Saturn’s spotlight is turned on high beam also, with its turn-around to forward motion on August 2nd. This rigorous planet finishes up a clean sweep of old business by mid-September, when it moves into Sagittarius. It can be a turning point for many of us to move forward—listening to the advice of Venus for the best results.

Several other planetary sign shifts keep us on our toes. MARS makes a showy entrance into LEO on the 8th, for a strong impact on the global stage and the circus of life (in the big top under the sky). MERCURY moves into VIRGO on the 7th, its most excellent sign, where it applies efficient technique, getting down to brass tacks to find a way to improve things for the long run. No quick fix here. But help is on the way.

The biggest change is JUPITER’s annual sign change—into VIRGO this season— on the 11th, presenting opportunities for “job well done,” and helping to tidy up the last of Saturn’s Scorpio detritus. The wisdom of the Earth instructs our wellbeing.

Let’s enjoy all this extra time with Venus in Leo to recreate and re-create. With full and great-full heart, let’s enjoy what the mirror of life feeds back as a reflection our inner state of Being. It’s not always our pretty side that we see. The mirror may reflect our shadow. Once we see it, it can be turned to brighter expression. A creative response to whatever life shows us allows us to be the best examples we can of who we truly are. “Be all you can be,” was a 1960s army recruitment slogan that caught the essence of Leo’s best potential and heartbased leadership. Which leaders today are really demonstrating that? Ego-logical to Eco-logical, is the new way.

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