Welcome to Indy Maven’s monthly astrology column coming by way of Kelli Jenkins and Hayley Trussell, better known around Indy as the Spellsisters. Check out their website and Instagram feed for even more info from the world of horoscopes and tarot, or to book a private reading.
August 2021 OVERVIEW
We don’t realize just how astonishingly breakable we are until we experience a brush with disaster—the universe sees your precarious behavior and checks you with a cosmic close-call. This summer is characterized by extremes: extremely sexual, extremely fun, and extremely risky.
August is feral and fun, and we are entering the most animalistic phase of the summer. Throughout the month, we find ourselves engaging in dangerous behavior without knowing that what we’re doing is dangerous. The wool is completely over the sunglasses and it’s impossible to notice that things could go so awry while you’re having so much fun. But, right now, even when you recognize the weight of your decisions, you don’t know that the consequences could be yours. There is a shadow lurking just beneath the surface of all the freedom of summer.
Where we’re going, we don’t need rules… but the rules always catch up and find you. All summer, boundary lines have been blurred and we can’t stop pushing on the bruise. Eventually, it opens a wound. While you’re engaging in all of your borderline dangerous behavior, Mars and Pluto square up in Capricorn and Aries, creating friction between the light and the shadow. Suddenly, the film of opulence covering the excess we’ve indulged in all summer seems like it’s spoiled. The shadow you’re unconscious of is just beneath the surface about the emerge.
Hot summer teenage love vibes are what you’ll remember about August. But the reality is that you don’t realize how easy it would be to have your sexuality and overindulgence used against you. This month’s early full moon in Aquarius is square Uranus is, activating a conflict between what you desire and what you think you’re supposed to desire. Finally admitting where your true self lies is emboldening you—it sounds good but is actually kind of dark, and it’s impossible to turn back from here. Once you’ve admitted you’re in love, you can’t take it back; when your true feelings are exposed, you can’t put them back.
When Mercury enters Leo on the fifth, a compulsion to confidently talk about how you’re challenging your own status quo is impossible to resist. The same day, Venus is conjunct the north node in Gemini and she’s giving us Midsummer Night’s Dream vibes: things that are oddly romantic are hazy and unclear. The romantic cloud you fell into earlier this summer will inspire a healthy dose of perspective. You fooled around and fell in love—and now you’re required to deal with the very adult consequences.
But on August 8, the Lion’s Gate Portal new moon in Leo activates so much momentum. The endless excess of summer feels oddly depressing and a touch unsettling. There is no denying that what you thought was unattainable or super far off is suddenly right before your eyes and easily taken for granted. The month closes out with a second full moon in Aquarius (the first was in July). What summertime sadness do you need to release?
With such an emphasis on Aquarius iconoclast vibes, you’ll feel oddly willing to be caged down around the end of the month as Mars squares Saturn on August 24th. Everyone is feeling tired and ready to surrender from the vacation that never ends. With Venus opposing Jupiter and Pluto on the 26th and 30th, respectively, our time has come to challenge the dream we bought into in July. As you’re getting what you asked for, consider why you no longer want it. Are you constantly striving for a future and never recognizing when you catch up with it?
BIRTHDAY SPOTLIGHT: Leo (July 23-August 22)
You know the rules and you relish in breaking them, Leo. This is usually because the rules are built for the masses and you are always doing things a little differently—you have to put your own stamp on everything you say, do, are. This birthday month will have you embracing your honest self, the one that doesn’t need to perform for others. Your New Moon in Leo on August 8th will have you focusing on self-care and personal renewal: you are casting off old masks that died a long time ago. It’s time to let go of the old roles and the self-consciousness that has kept you codependent on others’ support. You need to realize you’re your own biggest fan and it’s safe to relax into your own self-love. Nothing will keep you from standing out as exceptional right now, except your own dependence on accolades and your own fear of failure. Still, you’re built to sparkle this month and others can see it too. This is not always the best time to fight back and defend your truth, but with the Full Moon in Aquarius posited in your solar house of relationships, you might need to set some fierce yet simple boundaries to maintain your self-image. Aquarius rules rebels and individualists and it’s the shadow of your deeply performative instincts. You’re interfacing with a divine counterpart that is providing a mirror for your deepest shadows. You may encounter a person in your life this month who will not back down from their own agenda and yet paradoxically has everyone listening and converting. They are modeling an appropriate method of interaction that you need to embrace over the coming months. This may be a romantic time for you, but your stubborn sign would have to allow it. You don’t need any followers to lead.
Famous Leos: Jennifer Lopez, Greta Gerwig
Local Leo: Tyler Rader, beloved bartender at Thunderbird
Thunderbird | 1127 Shelby St. Indianapolis, IN 46203 | thunderbirdindy.com
RELATED: YOUR JULY 2021 HOROSCOPES WITH THE SPELLSISTERS
AND NOW FOR THE REST OF YOU...
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Nothing is fixed and the future is both forever and impossible. You’re entertaining wild intellectual theories this month as you navigate your own inner chaos. Sometimes it helps to have a mental life raft as you wade through eternity. “What’s the sound of one hand clapping?” You’ll find out this month as the New Moon in Leo on August 8th enters your solar house of the subconscious. Despite the feeling that you keep generating more and more questions and no answers, you’re actually making significant progress. The inroads of your psyche require tending to too, after all. It’s just, you’re the least comfortable of all Zodiac signs when the scenery starts to shift and you enter the abyss. That’s ok, you’re learning to relax into a no-control mindset. As the Full Moon in Aquarius enters your solar house of work and habit, you may recognize a familiar beast emerging to take the pressure off: workaholism. You’re oddly more comfortable overworked than underworked, so use this time to enter a meditative daily practice. It will feel like work but it will be nourishing your spirit in the way you need in August.
Libra (September 23-October 22)
The world is your oyster in August, Libra. The only not-quite-fixed thing is that you are not feeling like you can do it alone—you need a group, an organization, or a partner to make it feel meaningful and real. You’re growing in your capacity to understand the cosmos. With the New Moon in Leo on August 8 in your solar station of community, you may join a group or constellate a network of friendships that creates something entirely new. Something that starts as a grassroots endeavor could end up taking shape into a whole new path that doesn’t fit the normcore vibes you’ve been abiding by. With the Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22, you might be at the helm of this alternative lifestyle, or you could be inviting other people to celebrate the life you envision. Since this moon will fall in your 5th house of parties and children, you may be welcoming a friend’s new child into your home or hosting a party for multiple, separate friend groups to attend. You’re blending communities, not only because you’re the perfect person for the job, but because you’re about to make a breakthrough and you can’t do it alone.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
Just because you’ve lost doesn’t mean you’re forever a loser and just because you used to always win in a certain area of your life doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Dear Scorpio, you understand the unfairness of existence—it’s time to grow and move forward on the arc of your journey without looking back. With the New Moon in Leo in your 10th house of career, you will be making strides to incorporate old skills into your new goals. Your heart is heavy with dreams and you may be feeling overwhelmed as you work to get there. The Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22 shows you focusing inward and replenishing your much-needed momentum for your future. You may experience a need to change homes or upgrade your surroundings because suddenly everything just feels wrong. Your intuition is correct—this is not your home anymore. Like a hermit crab, you’ve left your shell for another that suits your size. You’re growing in leaps and bounds, so don’t forget to connect the dots before your light gets too big to manage.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
Your chaotic energy is always welcome in the world of the cut-and-dried, Sag. But nobody asked you to take it this far! Just as you’ve been trying to scale back, you’re being asked to push forward, submit before the unexpected deadline, put pressure on your goals until they start to burn you out. It’s not your fault, you’re trying to set boundaries and be mature, but with the New Moon in Leo in your cosmic 9th house on August 8, you kind of *have* to do it—the time is now or never. You’re picking “now”—smart choice. You may end up securing an out-of-state trip or a soul renewing course of study right now. The Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22 indicates that you’ll be puttering around and spinning your wheels mid-month. Don’t let the overwhelming influx of emails, phone calls, texts, and requests let you lose focus. You are able to multitask best when you realize it’s all a game. You may be needed locally at the end of the month, taking care of minutiae. You won’t be bored but you may be tired by the end of August.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
Everything is illuminated. You’re dazzling in a soft, elegant way that only a Cap can be in the month of August and you may be feeling a touch out of your element. The sexual charisma you’re anchoring into others borders on the pheromonic. You cannot be held responsible for what you do to other people this month. The New Moon in Leo on August 8th has you magnetizing money and sensuality your way, even as you feel at your most ragged and unsexy. Sleep deprivation has your eyes relaxed and your unapologetic bedhead is reading wild. You’re somehow getting a raise or a job offer, even though you have no idea what they could see in you. Just as you’re getting used to this, the end of the month’s Full Moon in Leo confers a bit of pragmatism back into your life. You’re used to watching your pennies and saving for a rainy day, but what if THIS IS YOUR RAINY DAY. It may very well require you to shift into a different mindset and accept that not everything can be totally accounted for. Having to spend some to make some doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong: it just means you’re prepared.
Aquarius (January 20-February 18)
This month you’re focused on the sacred other. The shadow, the mirror, the integration of your opposite. An independent sign such as yourself usually has a tendency to focus on what you already enjoy, but August has you focusing on what others like and what others have to show you. We all know you have amazing (albeit quirky) taste, Aquarius, but with your cosmic house of relationships activated, you might feel dingy in comparison to your cute friend or counterpart. You’re learning someone’s preferences and the little things that make them tick and incorporating them into your larger gestalt of self. You may be beginning a new relationship or phase of an old one. The Full Moon in Aquarius enters your sign with alacrity on August 22 and has you renegotiating the terms of your most essential friendships and commitments. Maybe how you’ve always done things is no longer relevant: maybe you can learn to love in a different way if it will make you feel closer. Intimacy isn’t something you’re afraid of this month, but you may realize the lines between self and others are blurred AF.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
You see what’s real at the beginning of August, something your fantasy-prone sign isn’t comfortable with. As the New Moon in Leo on August 8th touches your cosmic 6th house of work and routine, you’re stabilizing what it means to have a habit. It doesn’t always have to be something toxic—you can use the habitual to create transcendence if you use it consistently. With the Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22nd infiltrating your inner sphere, expect radical insights, weird dreams, and a feeling of blurry lines around all of your responsibilities. This is not unfamiliar territory for you, but you may forget to acknowledge the ways that your inner world undermines your more outer focus. Now would be a good time to reset the narrative that you have any sort of control. The events that happen this month will force you to see that unconscious forces drive your behavior and ultimately lead you to divine riches or ruin. It’s time to start implementing a grid of absolutes within so that none of your responsibilities are missed in the chaos of your current reality.
Aries (March 21-April 19)
The New Moon in Leo on August 8th, shows you focusing on love and creative matters, as all manner of exciting projects and love affairs start to escalate. You’re ready to love with abandon but in order to do that you have to step back into overwhelming weather: exes, other people’s children, failed dreams. It can be quite intimidating when you really prefer to just keep moving forward and not think about the consequences of any future action. You’ve learned a lot through trial and error, Aries. Not everyone knows how to recover. The second Full Moon in Aquarius of the year on August 22 has you engaging with the collective. Expects visits from friends and unexpected dreams to come true. You’re setting the stage for a future that you know only a glimmer of. You are expanding your worldview to include new friends who don’t limit you. Expect some endings and new beginnings in your friendships as you expand and contract to fill the lives of those that arrive on your path.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Nothing is as it once was, and you’re speculating in August just how far removed you have actually become from your former self—the one you thought you’d always be. Not everyone has the capacity to float forward without looking back, but old suffering has lost its graveness: you’ve been so distracted by your busy life that you didn’t notice that you had finally let it all go. The New Moon in Leo on August 8 sends auspicious beams to your solar house of home and family. Any resentments or hidden trauma is getting patched with the gold of forgiveness. With Leo so focal over the past few weeks, you may have noticed some reasons to soften your gaze over your past lives. “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.” By the second Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22, you’ll be focusing on where you’re going and how to get there. Sometimes the easiest way to move forward is to finally make a solid commitment to something you’ve been wishy-washy about. We plant seeds whether we know it or not.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
You’re willingly entering the Matrix, Gemini. You may find that you’re willing to sell yourself out/short in August if it means more free time, more creature comforts, and more daily joy. This is not the problem that other people make it out to be—you know what life is worth to you and you deserve the best it has to offer. On the New Moon in Leo on August 8th, you are clearing old ways of thinking and learning to communicate your desires with patience and maturity. Your sign naturally can’t help but always admire the cozy parts that make life more enjoyable. You’re learning that you don’t always have to sacrifice them to finish the job or be an adult. On the Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22nd, you may be pushed to confirm a major trip or school situation that takes you outside your comfort zone. If you can manage to bring what makes you feel safe along on your adventure, you might be able to grow without sacrificing your little joys.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You’re feeling a distinct urge for selfishness this month, as the Full Moon on August 8th in Leo has you hoarding resources and acting self-indulgent. Sure it’s nice to share but now is just not that time. It’s time to grab for what you want and fight the opposition if you feel like someone is encroaching into your territory or rivaling you for what is rightfully yours. You will have a major cosmic reset in the area of finances this month, where you might finally for once take a bunch of money out of savings and do what you planned, or finally start hoarding your money for a dream you know won’t be a viable option until later on. With the second Full Moon in Aquarius on August 22, you’re releasing your grip on other people’s money and learning to depend on yourself. You may see a loan dry up at this time and force you to make other arrangements. Other Cancers may see an inheritance or investment dividend appear on a schedule that no one could have predicted. Expect money coming in and out but don’t expect to hold onto it.
Photo by Schwebach Photography.
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