A fun spin on serious cosmic stuff! Wendell C. Perry has 40 years experience studying astrology and how it impacts personalities & relationships. He's written two books & published articles in astrology magazines. He's happy to share this website so that you, too, can have fun with astrology to help you in everyday life!
In my forecast for Aug. 6, 2023 I predicted we would be in a celebratory mood on that day. That prediction was based on the transiting square between the Sun and Jupiter and it may have worked for many people across the nation. (It certainly did for me.) But for a certain group of people on the docks in Montgomery, Alabama it was somewhat less than accurate.
I’m talking about the brawl that occurred in that city between white boaters and a group of African Americans on an excursion boat. Videos of this event are currently burning up the internet and it will no doubt become fodder for political pundits on both sides in the coming days. On the surface this was simply an example of a group of people, mostly young men, getting caught up in a violent moment, but at a deeper level it was a fateful collision between white privilege and black rage.
For the folks involved in this altercation (particularly the several who were arrested) my forecast for Aug. 6 might have seemed overly optimistic. (I do try to emphasize the positive in these daily forecast.) In reality, however, what happened in Montgomery was a perfect expression of the dark side of Jupiter’s influence. Jupiter expands everything, including our sense of righteousness. Combatants on both sides of that confrontation no doubt felt that their anger and violence was somehow righteous and that kind of Jupiterian righteousness almost always ends with innocent people getting hurt.
However, there was another astrological factor at work in this event. As I pointed out in my last “Following the Moon” article, we are in the midst of a long tern square by Pluto to the Nodes of the Moon. On Aug. 6 that aspect was within three minutes of the arc of being exact. In a chart done for Montgomery, Alabama for 6:45 PM (fifteen minutes before police were called) Pluto is exactly on the Ascendant. (Click here to see the chart.) The Nodes are often considers indicators of karma and the karma around the dock in Montgomery, where Africans fresh from the deadly “middle passage” were sold as slaves, is thick.
I had previously associated this Pluto to the Nodes square with the heat wave and climate change, which is a another matter steeped in karma. Now I wonder if we are also going to see more altercations that reflect the karma of race in this country. The aspect will remain close thoughout August and into September and Pluto shows up on the Ascendant of every American city at one time or another during the day. This could be a long, hot summer in more ways than one.
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Following the Moon: Aug. 1, 2023
The New Moon chart for July 17 (click here here to see the article and the chart) featured the Sun and the Moon in the Ninth House. I felt this indicated movement in the matters currently before the court. We got plenty of that during this past lunation period. First we had the judge in the Hunter Biden case withdraw a previous plea deal. Then we had new charges added to one of the two indictments against Donald Trump, along with rumbles of a impeding third.
One thing I got wrong, however, involved the conjunction of Mercury to the Midheaven in that New Moon chart. I thought it might highlight the media, since Mercury is associated with communication. Instead, we got Mercury’s association with commerce and travel in the form of threats of a strike by delivery drivers at UPS. We can thank the square of Jupiter to Mercury in that chart for the fact that, at this time, it seems that such a strike has been avoided.
The Full Moon chart for Aug. 1 (click here to see the chart) is similar to the New Moon chart. Once again we have the Sun in the Ninth House with the Moon in the Third and we have a planet conjunct the Midheaven. In this chart it is retrograde Venus, which is square Uranus and quincunx Neptune.
Jupiter is the planet of bounty. When Jupiter is making a transiting aspect to a planet or significant point in your horoscope you expect good luck. The problem is that Jupiter’s motion through the zodiac is typically rather speedy and its transit often last little more than few days. For this reason, generally speaking, Jupiter transits rarely coincide with major turning point unless they are supported by other, long term transits.
The exception is when transiting Jupiter is moving retrograde (and therefore slower) or, even better, when Jupiter is aspecting an important point in your chart by secondary progression. These secondary progressed aspects can last years, and those years can be years of incredible bounty in your life. However, they can also be years of excess and waste. Too much Jupiter, like too much of anything, can have devastating results.
A good example of this is the life of Maria Schneider. (Click here to see her horoscope.) Schneider was a French actress who is most remembered nowadays for her role in the controversial 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris.” The film was made and released during a time with Schneider’s secondary progressed Jupiter was conjunct her Descendant and, true to form, it catapulted the 19 year-old actress from obscurity to international stardom.
In my comments on the Full Moon chart for July 3 (click here to see the article and the chart) I noted that the placement of Pluto on the Descendant, along with the aspects to Mars, indicated violence. Of course, predicting violence in America is always a safe bet, but this past lunation period was particularly bloody, with 200 people dying of gunshots over the July 4th holiday weekend alone. This number was actually lower than last year, but we’ve added to it since with random shootings in New York, Georgia and other places around the country.
The other “big” news was the discovery of a half gram or so of cocaine in a common area of the White House. The fact that the secret service was unable to determine where it came from has angered certain members of Congress, but given that the July 3 lunation chart had the Sun in the Twelfth House of hidden things, is that really such a surprise?
The New Moon chart for July 17 has the Sun and Moon once again in cadent houses. (Click on New Moon to see the chart.) However, this time it’s the Ninth House which is typically associated with things like higher education and philosophy. It is also associated with the courts and, these days, the courts seems to be where all the action is.
