Aries: This cycle will feel for you like a cross between a  5 alarm fire and a total blur, but in a good way. No opportunity is too small for you at the present time. The best news is that small jobs well done, will lead to even bigger opportunities in just a few months. Once again, you must pare away at your personal agenda. This is about getting ahead; you can have a life when the dust settles. Make no promises for the next few weeks. Create no personal plans that are neither forgivable nor refundable. You must get ready before the Goddess opportunity knocks. One moment you will be there sitting in a lawn chair, trying to decide between flip flops and sandals and the next you are sucked up in a maelstrom of busyness. Sort out your bestest work clothing now, so that you can be a vision of sartorial elegance, even if you have to change in the loo at work. Uranus is offering you an everything or nothing cycle of opportunities, and the “everything” part is guaranteed to be crazy busy. Now is the time to prepare to head out of town like an 18-wheeler running down a mountain at night, in a rainstorm. Luckily your angels always work overtime!
 

Taurus: Consider this a week of respite and soul searching, now would be the perfect time for a Moon Lodge or maybe a Medicine walk or both. Sometimes when people make no sense, the best form of self-discovery is to communicate  with Nature. As an Earth baby, you know how to commune with the birds, watch the fishies and feel the richness of the soil on your hands as you tend to your garden. Since this is time that demands that you walk your thoughts, simply let your beloveds know that you need your sacred space. Face it, you feel alone in a crowd right now anyway, so why not take a hike into self-awareness? You are now the Waitful Watcher, so even though you can see where some situations are headed, if it isn’t your Life Lesson, you are blissfully uninvolved. There is a healing grace that envelops you when you have the sense to back away and let others learn the consequences of their actions. Certainly you won’t let anyone meet an untimely demise, but short of that you will stay out of other folks business. There are so many questions in your mind that this cycle demands mucho time alone with your thoughts.

Gemini: There used to be fast food commercial where they would put everyday folks into absurd situations. Sadly, there would be only one “aware” person in the large crowd of folks. Everyone else would be so stuck in their little world, that they would be unaware that the elevator in which they were standing. was rapidly plummeting to the basement. Maybe it’s better that way. This week when you find yourself in a room full of people chattering about what to do, you will offer only minimal advice, in order to see if anyone is actually listening. If you get no feedback( which is likely in Retro Mercury...) you will simply take charge. Not that you want to mindja, you just have to get things accomplished. Certainly it is Your Ruler that is going catawampus in the heavens but, this is not your first retro rodeo. With your quick wit and common sense you will finesse it like a Pro and nobody else will have a clue. You’ll fix whatever you can, delegate whatever you can’t and happily count down the days until 9/15 when this season of foul ups bleep and blunders comes to an end. Somebody say, “Amen ! ”
 

Cancer: Yes, dear Moonchild, you have one great secret. This week will find you telling folks what you think about certain situations, and you will do it with humour. Itsa kind way of telling others, that you are no longer tolerating certain behaviors. You have a few found sense of self worth that demands that you and whatever you contribute to others gets respected. Sure folks cannot take advantage of you if you don’t let them, but now that you have muzzled your inner people pleaser, your life will be so much better for it. The recent Pisces Full Moon illuminated a lot for you.  Being dedicated to your beloveds is a given, however, when you begin to suffer for the ones you love, something is very wrong. Nobody you love wants you to suffer, that’s just plain silly. Soooo when you are met by the behaviors that get on your last good nerve, you will be quick with a quip to let people know it’s time to change they ways. By adding a punch line to whatever you decree, everyone saves face, and you still get your very pointed point across. Between schooling folks and running into people whom you haven’t seen for quite a while, your days will be filled with many meaningful conversations.
 

Leo:  So far so good. You are well aware of the patience lessons that are birthed by the present retrograde cycle. You have even made peace, Mostly, with the fact that some folks go from listening to you in rapt attention, to totally oblivious of your existence. Everyone deals with chaos in a different way. Luckily as a true Fire baby, you can and do thrive on it. It’s that “challenge well met” thing that offers a sense of accomplishment at the end of the journey that calls you in every time. Even though you are in a pretty good mind space about it all, you will assiduously avoid dump jobs. When others try to add their responsibilities to your workload this week they will be enveloped by your Nervous laughter. This is not a giggle mindja. It’s that scary kinda laugh that Renfield had when he sat in the asylum waiting for Dracula to stop by for an evening visit. If that doesn’t make a point, I amp it up by rocking and tugging at my hair. After that brilliant performance, folks should leave you alone and in that blessed solitude, you can get things done. Really done…Poke ya with a fork Done that is !

Virgo: People who don’t speak Virgo have no idea how disconcerting it can be to have something bothering you as you sit down to eat dinner or read a book. Sure, you have already put in a long hard day, but honestly now, how can one relax when just in your periphery; there is some kind of mess? It doesn’t have to be a huge pile of distraction, in fact sometimes the teensy things that are out of order, are the worst offenders. Well dear Virgo, you are well aware that if it only bothers you, it still matters, so you will move heaven, earth and refrigerators to nest correctly in your environment. You are not capable of relaxing, if you can see an undone job looking back at you. You are hardwired for an orderly universe. Your junk drawer is neatly organized, your socks are matched and your closet looks better than most pricey clothing stores. Little things that others have no problem overlooking, are so disconcerting to you that it stops you in your tracks. Accept it, Virgo heaven smells like Pledge and PineSol. Your outer world demands are not likely to ease up in the near future. Home is where you go to get healed after you have tithed to the supposedly real world. Fluff your pillows and feather your nest, your overall Wellness deserves it !

 
Libra: This week visits you like a double Lunar Low. You may experience knee jerk reactions to situations that will make you pause before you make any choices. Pausing is good. Take all of the time you need. Should folks try to rush you into making any hasty decisions, take a spatula and layer on phrases such as, “We’re working on it ! “I’ll get back to you,” and my favourite, “ Oh, I’m sorry were you talking to me ?” Then, sit down and make graphs and pie charts and power point presentations, add some pretty graphics and completely tune out the mundane world. This cycle finds you breaking free from your usual technique of asking enough folks what you should do, until somebody agrees with what you had in mind. You must be gentle with yourself until the Venus Mars transit of your Sun Sign is really a done deal. In the interim, your energy level will vacillate along with your attention span. This hot and cold combo will mess with your sense of accomplishment, as well as, your priorities. On Mars days, you will be able to function optimally; you will follow convoluted directions and create order out of the worst chaos. On the Venus days, you will bake cupcakes, throw in a load of laundry and fall asleep before the spin cycle.  Your productivity won’t suffer; it will just be accomplished in fits and starts, and time spent chasing shiny things that catch your eye.

Scorpio: People trust you, since they know that you are wise in the ways of human behavior. You never quite know when and where it will hit but, there you are with a really nice person in a social situation, and the next thing ya know this person is telling you his/her deepest darkest secrets. This may be partly due to the fact that not much can shock you. You understand the dark Moon aspect of the human condition, and it fascinates you. Even in the face of hearing truly yucky, horrid stuff you will look unphased. It’s your nonjudgmental acceptance
of someone’s twisted situation that makes you such a good social worker/family shrink. This cycle of retro “you know what” helps people follow their feelings and thoughts back to their point of origin. All you will have to do is listen, as people are ready for healing, and need to vent. Retrograde “you know who” is all about taking the time for inner vision, for clearing up old miscommunications and misunderstandings. With your amazing ability to focus on the heart of the issues, all you need to do is to gently direct folks toward their path of unfoldment, and wish them well on their way. You are not about to make decisions for others, but you will offer them a variety of options, and send them off with a bottle of Rescue Remedy.

Sagittarius: Remember the day that you had School pictures, and your Mom made you wear your best clothes, except you dropped your chicken nugget on your front and had your moment of shame memorialized, complete with a grease mark on your clothes? Now is the time to be cautious or you may have another similar moment or two.  No matter where you go, or what you plan to do, dress a little better than you had planned to. Every moment could be a Kodak moment, as you bump into powerful people wherever you go. Imagine that you are about to meet your future In Laws and stay on your very bestest behavior at all times. The only guarantee is that, if you leave the house in your nasty jeans and a naughty t shirt, you are certain to meet your Mother’s best friend. She then has to call Mum, because, obviously you have fallen on hard times. Then Mom calls you and offers you money, and well, It goes downhill from there. There is a poem by Jean Kerr that bemoans that fact that whenever she has a good hair day, she has nowhere to go but……”with hair like dried spaghetti ends, that’s when I meet my Bosses friends.”  Please dress purty and be careful out there !

Capricorn: You will find this a cycle of exploded myths. Belief systems should be a comfortable sweater, not a confining straight jacket typea thing. When the basis of one or more of your inner truths is rocked his week, accept the information and go directly to your common sense. The ironclad truths with which you were born are not changing; it’s their application that is transforming. Your Spirituality goes before you. When all the musing is done, you will discover that most of your inner truths remain inviolate. For instance; I firmly believe that when your right palm continues to itch, ( and it’s not a rash) you are coming into money. And poor little Pluto is a planet, there’s no way he can be defrocked now, after he gave us so many life changing Scorpio lessons. AND even though we have the freedom to do it, don’t Even think about burning a flag. You are going through a cycle where your awareness of the interconnectedness of all of life is growing exponentially. Your truths haven’t changed, your interpretation of them has. Life will do that. Eventually you accept that there is no need to protect the truth. The truth has a way of proving itself every time. What is is. What isn’t isn’t worthy of your time.
 

Aquarius: This week finds you front and center just a wee bit more than your comfort zone allows. Granted this will be a time and energy level juggle for you, since you need as much alone time, as you do social time, in which to sort things through. The only hope for the mundane world is to take lots and lots of notes.  Why not pretend to be a Virgo and cross-reference everything you do? Many of your present projects will need a power nap for the next fortnight anyway. This is a perfect cycle during which to go over past speed bumps and clear up any previous misconceptions. This “Re” cycle as in Retrograde “Re” is dedicated to redesigning, redefining, realigning, reassessing and readdressing issues from the past, so that they don’t follow you into the future on little kitty cat feet. Now is the time to highlight and confirm everything in your schedule, on a daily basis. Accept that things may change on a dime. Only two thirds of us are Direct Mercury babies. Don’t follow us, we are lost for the next two weeks. Heck, I spent a recent road trip arguing with a snotty GPS system and she won the fight every time. Retrograde Mercury babies rule until 9/15.The rest of us need a two-week lead and a large flashlight just to find our tusches for the next few weeks. It really is a Bonus, ya know, to get a break from the hectic world and have ample time to beam up to your favourite place, located somewhere between the Moon, New York City, and your happy place. Stay za zen !
 

Pisces: There’s what you owe to your career and what you owe to your family and what you owe to yourself. List them why doncha ? It doesn’t take a great Astrologer to know that your list of “to dos” for yourself is the shortest and oldest one there. Considering, that the items on the list that are dedicated to “little old You,” really need to be done by You, what the heck are you waiting
for ? Initially, you may get questioned by your beloveds, as to what you are doing with your time, since your need to be codependent is pretty much dormant except when it comes to critters. Critters make you mooshy. Me too.  You can’t say no to a hungry critter face. Left to your own resources, you could end up on Animal Hoarders with your couch shredded and the guys in the Haz Mat suits chasing feral cats. Certainly you have responsibilities to others, but your needs should be on the top of the list.  Even if you are supporting many generations of cats, houseplants, fishies and birds, you must find the time to address your needs. Every day you need to shut out the harsh world of sharp corners and ugly realities and heal yourself with aesthetics. Simple pleasures can be sublime. Order pizza, with a big fat salad. Buy paper plates. Take your glass of iced tea outside and breathe in the beauty that is Summer. Share the evening sounds with someone you love in silent communion. Be gentle with yourself and life will follow suit.