The cosmic weather continues to be stormy just as it is here on Earth. As we approach the middle of summer, the heat is on to bring to harvest the projects we've been working on. With Venus leaving the evening sky to be reborn as the Morning Star, we are invited to review what we truly love about our lives. Self-express and group awareness are a must for this Friday's Full Moon.

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The Cosmic Story: Aquarius Full Moon 2015 & Venus Retrograde

The Aquarius Full Moon falls on July 31, 2015 while Venus went retrograde on July 25 ^th . You can think of this full Moon as a Blue Moon if you want, although I think the real Blue Moon occurs when there are two full Moons in the same astrological sign. Either way, this full Moon of high summer balances the energies of our individual creative express with the collective consciousness of society. The fullest expression of this opposition is to recognize that we don't exist in a vacuum--we need others to share our experiences and our creations with. This echos the theme of the current Venus retrograde--if we do what we love and create out of that loving space within us, we benefit our group.

The Sun in Leo focuses our awareness on our own individuation--Carl Jung's name for becoming who we are meant to be. The more we know ourselves, the more we want to express who we are to others. Leo's creativity, generosity and gifts want to be shared. The Aquarius Moon shines on our need to collaborate with like-minded individuals. The best expression of this energy is to contribute our gifts and talents as equals, sitting at the Round Table of commitment to the betterment of the world. Our collective concern with our personal welfare to the exclusion of everyone else is no longer viable. We have to take responsibility for our world if we want a better government, better social policies and a better relationship to our Mother Earth.

People with planets in early Taurus and Scorpio will be most affected by this full Moon. Since these energies represent the 4 fixed signs, it's a great time to stop being stubborn about doing things 'my way' and open up to new ideas, new values and new ways of relating.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 8* Leo is: An activist spreading his revolutionary ideals. What a perfect symbol for where we find ourselves today. The old system is floundering but keeps getting shored up by the powers that be, or the old inner rules within us. It's time to listen to the spirit of the times and find a whole different system of connection and community.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 8* Aquarius is: Beautifully gowned wax figures on display. Clothes symbol our attitudes and these beautiful gowns represent a feminine vision of beauty, truth and love. The old system has created lots of ugliness, except for the 'privileged' 1%. Perhaps it's time to demand that any new system we develop incorporate the ideals of Beauty, Truth, Love and Wisdom. There are already many new ideas out there that are being implemented that connect us with these values. Be a revolutionary and embrace a new way of living that is gentle to the Earth and to each other.

At this F ull Moon, Mars in Cancer, Saturn retrograde in Scorpio and Chiron in Pisces form a grand water trine. We are being given the grace to emotionally heal from the inside out. It's time to stop living in fear and open up to the beautiful possibilities that want to flower within us. Both Jupiter in Leo and Venus retrograde in Virgo challenge Saturn to let go of any lingering resentment, bitterness and fear in relationships, while Uranus supports Jupiter and Venus as they open our hearts and urge us to leave fear behind.

Venus Retrograde: The Work of Love July 25--September 6, 2015

To take love seriously and to bear and to learn it like a task, this is [what] people need. Like so much else, people have also misunderstood the place of love in life, they have made it into play and pleasure, because they thought that play and pleasure were more blissful than work; but there is nothing happier than work, and love, just because it is the extreme happiness, can be nothing else but work. So whoever loves must try to act if he had a great work: he must be much alone and go into himself and collect himself and hold fast to himself; he must work; he must become something! For believe me, the more one is, the richer is all that one experiences. And whoever wants to have a deep love in his life must collect and save for it and gather honey.

Rainer Marie Rilke: On Love and Other Difficulties

If asked, most of us think of Love as play and pleasure, but anyone who loves someone knows that love takes work too. It is the most important work we can do--to learn how to listen to the heart, know its truths and act on them. Love wants to see through the collective glamour of romantic love into the heart of the matter. Love asks us how do we let our connection to Self, to others and to the world shape our lives?

For the next 40 days, we get to think about these heart connections and work at them. For the next 40 days, the planet Venus is going retrograde in her final phases as the Evening Star of Wisdom. Go out and look to the West as evening falls and you'll see Venus shining brightly. But very quickly her light will begin to dim and she'll move closer to the Sun until she disappears into its light on August 11 ^th . On August 15 ^th Venus will conjoin the Sun before she reappears in the morning sky on August 20 ^th as Lucifer the Light Bringer, the Morning Star. As Evening Star, Venus symbolizes a wiser love nature that takes into consideration our social responsibilities. As Morning Star, Venus is more instinctual, urging us to find our personal values and subjective love.

Venus is completing a 583 day cycle which began in January 2014 in Capricorn. What did you learn about love and connection in the past year and a half? As Venus ends this part of her cycle, which over 8 years forms a pentacle (5-pointed star) in the sky, she wants us to become wise in the ways of the heart--Leo's great task, which includes the joy of being alive as well as the joy of relating to others with an open heart. If you align yourself with your heart needs, this can be a time of emotional rebirth.

Venus represents the power of love, sex, beauty, our values, the arts, all types of relationships, as well as money and possessions. She symbolizes the power of balance and harmony, attraction and cohesion, pleasure and creativity. Venus, who is a Romanized version of the great Greek Goddess Aphrodite, also symbolizes deep feminine Wisdom, the kind of Wisdom that we develop when we open ourselves to Life and the Creative Imagination and listen to our own instincts, feelings and intuitions.

Venus/Aphrodite is the great Connector, the power of Love in all its phases, the initiator of Psyche/Soul. In the earliest myths, Aphrodite arises from her watery womb when the potency of Heaven mixes with the primal waters of Earth. She is our blessing and our curse, for this myth makes it clear that the truest gift of Life here on Earth is Love. "Love is the Water of Life. And a Lover is a Soul of Fire. The Universe turns differently when Fire Loves Water." (Rumi)

Our patriarchal society has not been kind to Love, instituting 'rules' about love that have twisted Venus' original energy to conform with society's needs. While there are many forms that love takes, patriarchy has only recently begun to let down the barriers it set around Love, our sexuality and the wisdom of the heart. From the twisted side of Venus' collective shadow comes the greed, jealously and entitlement that is rampant in our society. On a personal level, Venus' shadow can make us insecure, needy, jealous, manipulative and materialistic. As a society, we're slowly losing touch with Venus' need for beauty as we continue to ravage the Earth, creating ugliness rather than celebrating beauty.

Old astrological advice says not to start new love affairs or buy luxury items during the 40 days Venus is retrograde. For the soul, it means to stop looking outside yourself for love; it's a time to be with yourself and decide what you long for in your life. When the planet Venus turns retrograde, the energy of love and connection turns within and we get back in touch with our personal values, our individual sense of beauty, our self-love and our need for love. It's a time for literal solitude as well as inner silence, so we can re-connect with our psyche/soul and re-claim our own deepest truths, which always entails the needs of our heart.

As we all awaken from our patriarchal-induced illusions about life and love, we can use the power of our passion to create the type of life that we've secretly longed for since our birth. As the world resonates with the energies of the Pluto/Uranus square, we have the perfect opportunity to incarnate this divine feminine wisdom for our own sake as well as for the world.

Since Venus retrogrades back through Leo and joins up again with Jupiter in Leo, expect to expand on your heart's wisdom. Both planets square Saturn in Scorpio after it turns direct on August 1-2, so we are challenged to integrate the final intimacy lessons of Saturn's stay in Scorpio. Use Jupiter's curiosity and open-mindedness to help you let go of the past and trust in the future. Let your heart knowledge guide you and open you to new experiences and people. The new story is here to stay. Take what you've learned from the old story and then let all the rest of it go.

The astrological energies of the next few weeks are once again intense. Try to attune to them, especially if you have natal planets involved.

1. July 25 ^th -- Venus goes retrograde at 1* Virgo. Mars at 2 1 * Cancer squares Uranus at 21* Aries, urging us to find our freedom and express our needs.

2. July 26 ^th -- Uranus turns retrograde until December 25 ^th . Time to revolutionize your inner life. Old structures of consciousness crumble, so new archetypal patterns can take hold. Work on your inner life until Winter Solstice.

3. July 31 ^st -- Aquarius Full Moon at 8* Aquarius-Leo.

4. August 3 ^rd -- Saturn at 29* Scorpio turns direct and leaves Scorpio behind on September 17-18 ^th until its next visit in 2042. Saturn returns to Sagittarius to begin his 2 year journey to embody the cosmic laws of life. Saturn tests us to discover our limits, reclaim our authority and become more responsible for our lives and our world as we reform our beliefs about life and our part in it.

5. August 5 ^th -- Venus and Jupiter unite again at 29* Leo on the powerful star Regulus, the royal star of the constellation Leo . Venus and Jupiter are guardian stars bestowing blessings and Regulus anchors in creative power. As you can see, the possibilities are endless. They also insist that we love ourselves enough to make our own interests a priority, so we can truly love others. Look to the West at sunset for a last look at this beautiful celestial energy before Venus disappears into the Sun's light on August 11 ^th .

6. Jupiter enters Virgo for the first time in twelve years on August 12 ^th . Jupiter expands our awareness, develops our curiosity, and fertilizes what we desire to make it grow. In Virgo, Jupiter's energy is turned toward mastery, of ourselves, of our talents, of creation.

The energies keep getting stronger. Waves are flowing through us. It's best to just let them take you where they will and then meet the challenge of where you find yourself.

Walk in the Light,

Cathy

Authors Website: http://www.cathypagano.com

Authors Bio:

Cathy Pagano is a spiritual advisor and Jungian psychotherapist, storyteller, author and teacher.

She is the author of a book on the return of the Goddess, "Wisdom's Daughters: How Women Can Change the World".

Cathy trained at the C. G. Jung Institut-Zurich in dream interpretation, has an M.A. in Counseling Psychology in Feminine Spirituality, and is a certified Life Coach.

As an astrologer and storyteller, she weaves the Cosmic Stories written in the stars. From The Bard's Grove, she writes about emerging archetypal themes in movies and books.

Cathy works with the tools of the imagination - dreams, alchemy, myths, astrology, symbolic language, storytelling, ritual - to awaken the Soul's wisdom.



I believe that Americans are called to a higher consciousness at this point in our history. We are called on to live up to our ideals and create the country our forefathers imagined. Inner consciousness needs to be acted upon for social justice.



Cathy believes that our writers and artists must take up our responsibility to create art that inspires, teaches and heals our humanity.



Cathy writes about political, psychological/spiritual, and cultural issues.