Star Struck Style

Today is an interesting day, astrologically speaking. Mars enters Cancer, Mercury opposes Pluto and forms a trine to Neptune, Venus forms a trine to Uranus, and the moon enters Leo as it approaches the sun just ahead of tomorrow’s solar eclipse.

I probably should pay attention to the alignment between Venus and Uranus because both planets are personalized in my horoscope, but I’m more interested in Mars’ ingress into Cancer. “Café Astrology” describes the event as follows:

“We are cautious and conservative under this influence, but we will fight for, about, or on behalf of those people and things that are dearest to our hearts. Much of what we do depends on our current mood, although we are strong and patient during this cycle. We’re also very intuitive and can be moved to take action to bring peace, comfort, and safety to our lives during this period. We go to bat for our loved ones. It’s a powerful time to set ego aside so we can move our plans forward. Inner satisfaction and love are generally more important to us than outer achievements at this time. Personal and domestic goals are our priority during this phase.”

I suppose that I’m most intrigued by the idea of “inner satisfaction” because I’ve spent most of the past year just trying to be satisfied with “my own little world.” Currently, Venus is transiting my introspective twelfth house, and I’ve found myself enjoying my time alone more than ever.

I don’t expect this feeling to last too long, though. The sun and Mercury will enter my gregarious eleventh house in a couple of weeks, and Venus will move into my first house at the same time. Until then, I’m going to look at the next couple of weeks as a summer vacation of sorts. Back when I used to write for fashion magazines, August was the month where barely anyone worked. A few people stayed behind and attended to the day-to-day issues, but there was an industry-wide easing of expectations. For a few weeks, you could relax a bit and pull yourself out of the game without feeling as if you were going to be left behind. I feel as if I need to do that right now. I’m not working any less — in fact, I’ve been working more — but I don’t feel compelled to bury myself in work at the moment. That feeling has allowed me to enjoy the time in between my shifts, and that’s where I’ve been discovering “inner satisfaction.”

I expect to feel this way for a while with Mars moving into Cancer. Eventually, the red planet will move up to the top of my chart, and I’ll probably start to feel a lot more ambitious. But in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the “peace, comfort, and safety” that this ingress promises. I might not be a part of the fashion business anymore, but I can still take a mental break along with all my former colleagues this August. At least that’s what the stars are telling me to do . . .