As we take a turn to the latter half of the year, August allows us to bathe in the glow of Leo season with relish. It will be a month of positive turns and new beginnings starting with the New Moon on August 8 and leading into the Full Moon on August 22.
To see what's in store for you, Astrologer Clarisse Monahan shares your August horoscopes below.
LEO (July 23 - August 22)
Usually Leo season is all fireworks and champagne exploding over sable night skies, but things might feel somewhat less popping this go around for the Cat. While your ruling planet, the exalted Sun, is transiting your 1st House of Self until the 22nd, it is being “opposed” by strict Saturn in chilly Aquarius. Oppositions occur when a planet is 180 degrees from another planet on the zodiac wheel. Such placements with Saturn cause tensions between all planets and houses involved. In this case, Sun-in-Leo (lots of fire) is at loggerheads with Saturn-in-Aquarius (tons of ice). Therefore, you could very well be feeling hot and cold this Leo season—both toward your Self (Sun in 1st House) and toward your business or life partners (Saturn in 7th House of Partnerships). When the Sun shifts over to grounded Virgo and your 2nd House of Finances on the 22nd, this song of fire and ice will stabilise, as punctilious Virgo energy will focus your attention toward getting money matters more in order.
VIRGO (August 23 - September 22)
The red planet, Mars, is glowing hot in your 1st House of Self until the middle of September. Mars passes through a natal sign every two years, so this is a somewhat rare transit that will have you feeling all double espresso inside. While this is a great transit to kick-start a project—or finish one that has been looming—pay attention to work/life balance and avoid over-taxing yourself. Remember, too, that bellicose Mars is transiting the 1st House of Self. While Mars isn’t super aggressive in Virgo, be on the lookout, nonetheless, for needless self-reproach and criticism, which you struggle with even when Mars isn’t all up in your sign. On the 22nd, the Sun inaugurates Virgo season, further energising your practical nature. With all these high octane transits, your countertops and kitchen floors are going to be extra clean this August.
LIBRA (September 23 - October 22)
Because your ruling planet, Venus (Love and Money), moves so quickly through the skies, it doesn’t stay long in any sign. Enjoy, therefore, Venus’s short homecoming on the 16th of the month, when it begins a three-week stint among the Scales. Since one of Venus’s functions is to make self and surroundings more aesthetic, this brief transit should be seen as a time to beautify home and body. Venus’s presence in your sign will also increase cooperation in love and at work. Unlike, say, Capricorn, your nature favours strong partnerships and Venus loves to promote social harmony, especially during its time at home.
SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21)
August is about friends for you. Indeed the next six weeks find your ruling planet, pugnacious Mars, scorching through your 11th House of Friendships, Networking, Hopes, and Dreams. The Sun also moves into your 11th House on the 22nd to inaugurate Virgo season, so we’ve got a lot of fire (Sun, Mars) and analytical energy (Virgo) circulating around friendships and networking. The plus side of this: you are going to have a lot of gusto for your BFFs this month--dinner dates, listening, talking, confiding, planning. But be wary: Meticulous Virgo+reckless Mars+your sharp Scorpionic nature might provide the basis for piercing, harsh, or critical words. Because the 11th House also has to do with aspirations, this Mars transit will have you feeling energised among group projects in the service of bigger goals. Your penchant for digging deep into the arcana of bylaws, policy, and procedures will be especially enhanced and could greatly benefit a friend.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 - December 21)
Leo, fellow fire-sign,”trines” your house until the 22nd, meaning it is 120 degrees apart from you on the zodiac wheel. Trines are super auspicious placements, allowing you to bask in another sign’s glory--like a favoured prince or princess next to the ruling Monarch. Leo is nothing if not royal, so expect to feel quite atop a gilded throne this season, especially when it comes to 9th House matters (philosophy, travel, spirituality). And yet, like Prince Hamlet, there could be a twinge of melancholia to your outlook this month in that your ruling planet, Jupiter, Lord of Grape and Wine, is now going retrograde into Aquarius and your 3rd House of Communication and Siblings. Leo loves to dramatise: Is there something that needs to be expressed to a brother or sister? Praise, love, concern? With clarifying Aquarius in the mix, perhaps you will find the right words necessary to give a sibling long needed encouragement or advice. On the 22nd, the Sun enters into Virgo and your 10th House of Career. This is a choice placement for getting organised and recognised on projects.
CAPRICORN (December 22 - January 19)
Leo season flavours life with a sense of flair and flamboyance—two things not usually associated with your more understated silken elegance. But with that big Leo-Sun lighting up your 8th House of Secrets and Intimacy until the 22nd, perhaps it’s time to get slightly more freaky with intimate partners. Share a secret, fantasy, or kink. What’s the worst that can happen with such a confession? Well, lots of things. But that’s both the risk and thrill of intimacy. When the Sun shifts into Virgo season and your 9th House of Philosophy on the 22nd, you will feel more in your comfort zone. Virgo’s detail-oriented nature and the epistemological persuasions of the 9th House are much more in line with your calculating Goat-steps. This is the time to read some heavy-duty prose, or, since the 9th House also concerns travel, to start developing a highly specific itinerary for a trip that involves lots of trains, planes, and automobiles with the help of Virgo’s added meticulousness.
AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18)
Due to your more abstract and impersonal concerns for things like humanity, the collective, and the common good, you’re often characterised as detached and perhaps even cold, when it comes to one-on-one relationships. While caring for humanity is fine and good, this month is all about the personal for you. Indeed with the Leo-Sun in your 7th House of Marriage and Partnerships until the 22nd, you’ve got double fire heating up your usual coolness in interpersonal affairs. This will not be a time for abstract ruminations on distributive justice. Instead, Leo’s flair for the dramatic could have you playing a more emotionally robust and impassioned role amid the kitchen sink realism of married life. On the 22nd, the Sun moves into Virgo and your 8th House of Secrets and Intimacy. Again: nothing impersonal about this 8th House transit, especially with Mars there, as well, until the middle of September. Malefic Mars+Virgo (details)+ your Aquarian nature (cerebral) can lead to excessive fretting and worrying about 8th House concerns such as shared finances, taxes, and sexual potency. But don’t fret too much. Lucky Jupiter just entered the Waterbearer at the end of July and will stay there for six months. True, Jupiter is not particularly well placed in your sign at the moment, but even a weak version of the Wine-Lord is better than no version at all.
PISCES (February 19 - March 20)
Your ruling planet, exuberant Jupiter, just went retrograde at the end of June and then left your sign entirely July 28th. With Jupiter at home in the Fishes for the last couple months (it entered on May 13th), you were probably surfing big positive cosmic waves, each one breaking your way in glorious slow motion tracery. After that big surf transit, It’s understandable if you’re feeling a bit like you’re in an old track by the Weeknd at the moment (deflated, faded, can’t feel your face). Know this, though: despite Jupiter leaving your House, it isn’t letting you down. Indeed the Luck-giver has just entered into your 12 House of the Unconscious. While on paper anything dealing with the 12th House (a zone of murky, bad energy) doesn’t sound great, Jupiter’s presence there actually has the effect of warding off enemies. So even in its weak, retrograde motion, Jupiter is looking out for you. And what’s more: Jupiter will be in the 12th House for the next six months, meaning a respite from enemies milling around your local coffeehouse, salon, or saloon.
ARIES (March 21 - April 19)
Maybe more than any other sign this year, the Ram is going to appreciate Leo season in all its Bollywood excess. Why? You’ve got the Sun transiting your 5th House of Fun, Romance, Creativity, and Entertainment until the 22nd. That is to say, you have a great alignment of season, house, and your Aries nature. Use this rockstar transit to explode with creative pursuits and don’t be afraid to strut tall because it’s all Miami Sound Machine at their “Conga” peak for you this Leo season. But then, because the zodiac is a cruel mistress, be prepared for a volte face, as the Sun switches over to your 6th House of Routine with the start of Virgo season on the 22nd. Virgo, the actuarial adjuster of the zodiac, loves the 6th House, but after your Leo season romp you will be bristling at the imposition of order that Virgo will require.
TAURUS (April 20 - May 20)
This is a month of Fun, Games, and potential excess for the Bull. It’s going to be all about your 5th House of Creativity, Romance, Fun, and Entertainment throughout August. Until the 16th, your ruling planet, Venus (Love/Money) is in the 5th, where she is said to have her “joy.” But be alert to the fact that you have reckless Mars there for all of August, too. Like Sid and Nancy (or Kurt and Courtney Love) this particular Mars-Venus placement in the 5th, while thrilling, can lead to heavy excess—and your nature, which loves luxury, doesn’t like to say no to splurges either. If you can’t resist the yen to spend, do so on fun domestic stuff, as you also have the Leo-Sun lighting up your 4th House of Home until the 22nd. When we switch to Virgo season, the Sun will move over to 5th House, too. Enjoy the shenanigans, but don’t break the bank.
GEMINI (May 21 - June 20)
August should be seen as a month to focus on family. Up until the 22nd, the Leo-Sun limns your 3rd House of Siblings and Communication. Leo likes drama and to put things on display: what needs to be dramatized and talked about with a brother, sister, or both? Things don’t need to get heavy: the point is to connect with your siblings in some way to start the month. On the 22nd, the Sun moves into Virgo and your 4th House of Home and Parents--family again. But here the Sun will join malefic Mars. This might be a rougher transit. Mars and analytical Virgo can easily bring tensions and criticism to conversations with Mom and Dad about or around home-life toward the end of August.
CANCER (June 21 - July 22)
While your nature isn’t fiscally inclined, you nonetheless have some transits this month that will energise the financial sector of your life. The main one : the Leo-Sun is lighting up your 2nd House of Money until the 22nd. What kind of heat do you want to put there? Indeed Leo is all fire. It empowers decisions and bold moves. With that in mind, this is a good time to think about 2nd House concerns—savings, superannuation. Don’t associate these money matters with abstract numbers and figures, though. Use your emotional nature to connect them to goals closer to the heart and home, like putting aside money for a down payment on a trim abode. Money for you always needs to be in the service of the hearth—that is when it flourishes most. On the 22nd, the Sun moves into the 3rd House of Communication, where it joins confrontational Mars. Precise Virgo with the Warmonger planet can lead to harsh words, fault-finding, outbursts in speech. As such, Virgo season might be a bit of a challenge. But, if managed properly, it might also be a time for you to express yourself directly and forcefully on topics of emotional resonance that usually prove elusive.
