Veronica Perretti [00:00:00]:
Hello, and welcome back to the essential astrocast. I am your host, Veronica Peretti. As I said last week, we've got a lot going on astrologically. In August. We're kicking it off with a new moon in Leo and Mercury retrograde. So here we go. This week, I'm coming to you a little bit late. I am recording this on Friday, August 2.

Veronica Perretti [00:00:25]:
Many of you know that I had a baby 16 months ago, and the podcast has been not so consistent in terms of schedule the past couple years. I'm really trying to make sure I get to you before these big events. So that's really my goal these days. And this week was really a quiet week other than the stuff that's coming up this weekend and really starting today. So I'm here to talk about that. So we got a big August, okay? Especially mid month, that week of like the 12th, it's going to be be bananas. So if you can keep your schedule light in August, please do. I know that is a privilege, and not everybody has the opportunity or the privilege to manage their schedule.

Veronica Perretti [00:01:13]:
But, you know, don't bog yourself down with a lot of social commitments. Don't take on more than you can chew. Be really mindful of your time, and be really mindful of your bandwidth, of your energy. It's August. August is generally a time of, for many of us, rest before we enter the school year. I know for many people, school year starts early in August nowadays. So it's not really a rest. Mercury retrograde is generally a time of reflection, of slowing down.

Veronica Perretti [00:01:46]:
So you have the ability to look back on what's happened over the past few months and just check in. You know, this mercury retrograde starts in the sign of Virgo and moves back into Leo. So early Virgo, late degrees, Leo, those are the places in your chart that are going to be impacted by this mercury retrograde. So before we get into that, I want to tell you what's happening today. So as I record this, on Friday, August 2, Venus is in a square to Uranus. That might sound familiar because last episode, I spent a lot of time talking about Mercury Square Uranus because Mercury Square Uranus was all over the charts of the people that we talked about last week, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and that other guy. And this week, you saw more information coming out. You're not here for a news recap, but, oh, man, Mercury Square Uranus, it's still at play.

Veronica Perretti [00:02:48]:
That Mercury square Uranus is going to be a part of this entire mercury retrograde because it's present as we move into mercury retrograde. But mercury will come back to that spot two more times. So moving on from that, Venus is square Uranus. Venus and Mercury are generally pretty close together, and they travel pretty close to the sun. So they're generally in this little game of, you know, one is right in front of the other, and then the other catches up, and then one's retrograding. So they're kind of playing this funny game of tag all the time. Venus came right behind mercury after Mercury squared Uranus, which was back on. So Mercury squared Uranus on the 21st.

Veronica Perretti [00:03:41]:
That was the Sunday that Joe Biden stepped out and handed the baton to Kamala Harris. So we know Mercury Square Uranus is a big part of this whole story that we're in. So, of course, Venus is coming in behind Mercury and making that same square. We are dealing with some of the same themes. And, of course, this was a very venusian week, so issues pertaining to women were very much a part of what we were talking about this week. We were talking about single cat ladies go into the polls. Of course, reproductive rights is always of top of mind these days. So Venus issues, we're also seeing a lot of different opinions on the first female president.

Veronica Perretti [00:04:30]:
Is America ready for a female president? Those are some of the themes that are playing out in the collective consciousness. So it was a venusian week. We had Venus involved in a few different things, but mainly this Venus Square Uranus is the big thing. And that is happening today, on Friday, as I'm recording this, August 2. But Venus will move into Virgo on Sunday. And it is not a place where Venus is generally so happy to be. But I kind of love Venus there because Venus is really discerning when she's in Virgo. So she's going to get pretty clear.

Veronica Perretti [00:05:10]:
And, you know, Venus and Virgo is a great time to edit. It's a great time to edit your wardrobe. It's a great time to edit the aesthetics of your home. It's a great time to be discerning in your relationships. Where do I really want to be spending my energy? Where do I want to be spending my time? Who are the people that deserve my biggest sense of love and energy? All of that is to say, anybody with a late degree Leo planets, late degree Taurus planets, late degree Scorpio planets, late degree Aquarius planets. You guys are feeling these squares to Uranus. So today, this weekend, you're feeling that Venus square Uranus, and you're going to be feeling that Mercury square Uranus when it comes back next week. So everybody with late degree of fixed signs, the fixed signs again are Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio.

Veronica Perretti [00:06:13]:
If you've got late degree fixed sign stuff, these squares to Uranus are intense because Uranus is sitting there in the late degrees of Taurus. And whenever planets come through those other signs, it's going to square or oppose that Uranus. And Uranus, remember, brings change. It is the shaker upper of the zodiac. It likes to stir it up. It likes to stir the potential. So it's equal opportunity stirrer. It likes to stir up for good, stir up for bad, doesn't matter as long as there is some sort of breakthrough, as long as there is some sort of shaking free of bondage, shaking free of the status quo.

Veronica Perretti [00:06:53]:
And so because that Mercury, Uranus is so a part of this story that's going on politically, I mean, I'm obviously being optimistic and my opinion is incredibly biased, but it does make me feel like, okay, maybe we are actually ready for this shift because of the timing of it all. Okay, what is good news is that Venus will move into Virgo on Sunday the 4 August, and she will meet up with Mercury next week because Mercury will at that time be retrograde and moving backwards. So he's going to retrograde on the fifth. So Monday the fifth, you don't want to be doing a bunch of stuff on Monday. You definitely do not want to have a full plate of mail to go out and packages to send and emails to get to. I feel like this week, somehow, every time we're in the last week before mercury retrograde, I end up doing a bunch of stuff that I wanted to do a month prior. Cause I wanted to be way out of the shadow, and somehow I end up doing all of this important stuff right when mercury is about to station today, we actually went to the post office. It's like classic mercury ruled place for a passport application for my son.

Veronica Perretti [00:08:14]:
And I'm like, oh, geez, they're taking his birth certificate and they're sending it to the passport agency and, oh, my God, I just hope we got this back. You know? I feel like I'm always in that vibe of gotta get all this stuff done. Now. With that said, mercury retrograde is not bad. It's not evil. It's not to be demonized. It's a natural occurrence. And it is an encouragement for us to reflect and slow down.

Veronica Perretti [00:08:43]:
So we can't always be moving forward. We can't always be pushing energy out. We have to take time to sit back and see where we've been so we can appreciate and make plans for where we're going. Therefore, mercury retrograde is an important part of our life. Even if you didn't know astrology, it makes sense that someone who's always pushing forward is going to miss a lot of things. They're going to make a lot of mistakes because if you don't slow down to check in, reflect, check your work, you're going to have big mistakes, you're going to have things that you miss. So that's what this time is about. Because it is in Virgo.

Veronica Perretti [00:09:29]:
It's going to be, it's a mercury ruled sign. So it might feel a little more classic mercury retrograde, meaning, you know, postal stuff, packages, missing emails, sitting in the draft folder. But remember, most of mercury retrograde is actually going to be in Leo. And that's much more on the emotional realm because Leo is a fire sign and fire signs are generally pretty emotional. Mercury retrograde and fire can bring up a lot of frustration and anger and things are going to continue to get heated as we move toward the fall, as we move toward election season. I know many people listening are interested in the world events of the astrology, so I'm peppering it through. I think it's also important to remember that you're coming here so that you can tune into the astrology to have a deeper connection with yourself. And the astrology is just a mirror for our own consciousness.

Veronica Perretti [00:10:29]:
So it is cool to look at the world events, but I always want to bring it back to how are we working with that energy? Because that's what's important. Because how you show up in your life is going to have a ripple effect on how the people in your life feel and how they show up in their life. So that's what's the most important thing regardless of what's going on in the news. But we know that for sure these planets have an impact on our energy and that energy has a pattern and we can see that pattern in the news. So be prepared for the attacks to get a little bit more nasty as mercury retrogrades and heads back into Leo. So after mercury stations, he's in Virgo, Venus is going to come through and be like, hey, I was just back there and Mercury's like, I'm going back. I got to check out those degrees of the chart a second and third time. So I'm going to head back.

Veronica Perretti [00:11:30]:
I'm on my way back to Leo. I got to check in on what everybody's doing back there. I got to check in with Uranus and see what trouble he's up to. And Venus is like, okay, see you later. I'm going to journey through Virgo. Just smooth sailing ahead. So Venus is going to keep moving forward. Mercury is going to go back and trudge up some trouble for us.

Veronica Perretti [00:11:54]:
Yeah. So as I mentioned, August is going to be big. There's a lot of astrology coming. We're going to talk about that next week. In terms of the next Mercury Uranus square. You already know that's a big part of it. We will also have, I believe we're going to have Mars Square, Saturn. That's going to be a big one.

Veronica Perretti [00:12:13]:
We're going to have Mars and Jupiter joined together. All those things are on the horizon and they're brewing. This is some of the biggest astrology of the year, maybe the biggest astrology of the year, but it all starts now. And it starts with this mercury retrograde and it starts with this new moon in Leo, which is this weekend. So the new moon in Leo occurs on Sunday morning, eastern time at 07:13 a.m. and it's at twelve degrees Leo. So if you have something at twelve degrees of the fixed signs, again, we're talking fixed signs. You guys have everything going on right now.

Veronica Perretti [00:12:56]:
So if you have something at twelve degrees of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus or Scorpio, then you know that this new moon is going to be a big one for you. So I apologize if you hear it. I will try to edit it out if possible. So with that in mind, the new moon is kicking things off. You know, new moons are always about beginnings. New moons occur when the moon and the sun are in the same spot. And because they're in the same spot, there's no space between them and there's no space for the sun, the sun's light to be reflected by the moon. Because when something is right in front of your face, you can't see it clearly.

Veronica Perretti [00:13:45]:
So we are. New moons are a time of before the new moon, you release. So if you're listening to this before 713 am eastern on Sunday the fourth, that's a time of the dark of the moon. That's the time to release. After the new moon, then you set your intentions as to how you move forward. I will be teaching a restorative moon ritual on Sunday the fourth athlete 04:00 p.m. eastern time. You, of course, are welcome to join that if you're in cosmic yoga club, but you also can drop in.

Veronica Perretti [00:14:20]:
So I will leave a link in the show notes for you to sign up for the drop in, it's dollar 35, and you can just come and join us just for the new moon ritual, if that is something that you're interested in. So if you don't know what it's like to set your intentions for the new moon, or you want some guidance around that, or you just want to experience what the new moon ritual with me is like, you're welcome to drop in and join us on Sunday. What I love about this new moon is that it takes place with Venus at 29 degrees. Leo, many of you remember that 29 degrees is the anoretic degree. Some people call it a crisis point. It is a point of no return. It is the feeling of, I've got to do this thing, and if I don't do it right now, I'll never have the chance again. That's what 29 degrees feels like.

Veronica Perretti [00:15:09]:
What I love about this particular new moon is that with Venus at 29 degrees and the new moon being in the same sign of Leo, where the sun is the ruler, there is a sense of really honoring your desires and allowing yourself to receive them. Venus is in Leo, answering to the sun. The sun is in his home sign of Leo. So there's power in this new moon around setting your intention for what you truly desire and taking the actions to allow yourself to receive it. And so oftentimes we will set intentions or do manifestation work, but we're not doing the work that we need to do to allow ourselves to receive that gift, to allow ourselves to receive that blessing, to allow ourselves to receive that wish. And that is the thing about intention setting. You know, it's not just, I'm going to make a wish and then the universe is going to bring it to me. You have to do the work of taking conscious action and allowing yourself to receive the fruits of your action.

Veronica Perretti [00:16:28]:
So, of course, from a yogic perspective, we talk about detachment and not being married or stuck on the fruits of your labor. Being in love with the process, allowing yourself to do the work for the sake of the work, being detached is really amazing. I think you want to be detached to it, looking a particular way or controlling the outcome. You still have to do the work of understanding your own worthiness and allowing yourself to receive joy, pleasure, goodness. So we can be detached and not hung up on how something will look in the end, but we still have to do the work of really feeling worthy of receiving what it is we know we want. And I think that's where some people in our culture get really hung up because we live in a culture where we are taught to always think we're not enough. Because that way we can buy a new supplement, or go on a new diet, or do a particular workout, or sign up for a course. And those things aren't inherently bad, but they often put us in a place of feeling like we're lacking, like we need to do something to be better.

Veronica Perretti [00:18:09]:
And when we're always coming from that place of needing to be better than we are right now, we don't take time to slow down to reflect. Thank you, mercury retrograde, and appreciate where we are in the moment and appreciate how freaking awesome we are in this moment and how much we deserve and are worthy of receiving whatever it is that we want. And satisfaction is really about allowing yourself to want and then allowing yourself to receive the thing that you want. And that is the essence of Leo. In my personal opinion. Leo is so much about having desires, wanting to be seen, wanting to feel special, and then allowing ourselves to have what we want, allowing ourselves to be seen, appreciated, valued, and adored, and allowing ourselves to feel special. And those are all things that are fundamentally human. But for some reason, we have a lot of shame around it in our particular society and our culture.

Veronica Perretti [00:19:15]:
I did not expect to go on this complete tangent, so I'm gonna roll it back into astrology, but that is just something I've been thinking about with this new moon. I have a really profound relationship with the new moons in Leo because pretty much everything that is really, really big and awesome and amazing and life changing for me has happened in my adult life since I've been doing this practice of setting intentions, new moon rituals, etcetera has happened with the energy of a new moon in Leo. So I talked about this a while back, but I got pregnant or found out I was pregnant right after the new moon in Leo, after I was told that I wouldn't be able to get pregnant without IVF. And then I ended up getting pregnant naturally. And it's a longer story that I did share on a previous podcast that all occurred around the energy of that new moon in Leo. And then I have other things that have happened in my life around that new moon in Leo. So for me, I've noticed that this new moon packs a real punch. I do not have any planets in Leo.

Veronica Perretti [00:20:26]:
I do not have a lot of planets in fixed signs either. My Venus is in Taurus, so some of those new moons in Leo did involve my Venus, but I don't have a ton of fixed energy in my chart and my angles are not in fixed signs. All that is to say something about the new moon in Leo. It's powerful. That's all I'm saying. So even if you don't have a lot of Leo in your chart, even if you're sitting there thinking, I don't have any fixed energy in my chart, I don't have any Leo, that's not going to be a big deal for me. Neither do I. And let me tell you something about that new moon in Leo.

Veronica Perretti [00:21:00]:
It's magic. So set your intention. Come to the new moon ritual. Join me. So we're just kind of keeping it easy, but I'm going to try to edit out some things today. Let's see how it goes. All right, back to the astrology, because I'm rambling and we're at 24 minutes, and I thought this was going to be like a ten minute episode this weekend. The new moon in Leo is again, I love this new moon, that Venus Square Uranus will still be there.

Veronica Perretti [00:21:26]:
So if there's something that you're desperately wanting to change, if you know that something has to change, this is a good new moon to harness that energy and take conscious action. So that's the essence of the new moon. We will have that mercury stationing in the new moon energy. So we'll see how that. But it'll be stationing, basically slowing down to a stop. So we'll see how that plays out. We do have a beautiful. There's a Mars sextile to the sun moon.

Veronica Perretti [00:21:58]:
So it's applying meaning that it's leading up that next week we're going to have a Mars the sun sextile Mars. But that, I would say, is also in the energy of this chart, as is Jupiter, because Mars and Jupiter are close together. They're approaching that conjunction that they're going to have in August. So we have Mars and Jupiter sextilling the new moon, the sun and the moon. And that is also another wonderful part of this new moon chart, because those planets, Mars teaches us how to go out and get what we want. Venus teaches us how to receive it, how to allow ourselves to have it. Jupiter amplifies everything it touches. Jupiter is always the bringer of blessings, teaches us about having faith not only in ourselves, but also in whatever the higher power of our understanding is.

Veronica Perretti [00:22:48]:
Having the help of Mars the action taker, and Jupiter the faith giver with the new moon. It's awesome. It's so nice. Doesn't mean there aren't challenges, doesn't mean that there aren't some things that are a little uncomfortable that Venus Square Uranus is unsettling. Uranus is never one for making things comfy, but all in all, a great new moon for setting intentions. And I hope you will join me to do that on Sunday at 04:00 p.m. eastern. And you can sign up using the link that I have in the show notes or going over to my website.

Veronica Perretti [00:23:22]:
And you go to veronicapuretti.com events and it should be there and you should be able to sign up for it. Or you can join cosmic yoga club and then you can come every month. Cosmicyogaclub.com okay, the last thing is Mercury retrograde. As I mentioned, he will be stationing to retrograde on Monday. So, you know, we're already feeling it. We're already really in it. It's just because it happens on Monday. You may or may not feel it.

Veronica Perretti [00:23:55]:
You're probably already feeling it. But we're going to have mercury retrograde for a few weeks. He will go directly on August 28 and pretty much all of August will be mercury retrograde. Yeah. So that's what we're working with. This is probably going to be the toughest mercury retrograde of the year because we have three or four of them every year because of that square to Uranus. So this is definitely going to be the toughest one. I will talk to you probably in a week because I pretty much covered everything worth covering for next week, meaning mercury will retrograde on Monday the fifth and we'll have the sun sextile Jupiter on Wednesday as well as Mercury conjunct Venus on Wednesday.

Veronica Perretti [00:24:46]:
Wednesday is going to be a really beautiful day. I really like all the astrology for Wednesday. Yes, we have mercury retrograde, but there's some other really good stuff there. And the thing is, mercury retrograde does not mean that your life stops. It means that you pay closer attention to things and you make sure that you cross your t's and you dot your I's. You give yourself buffer time. You review, you revise, you edit, you go back and maybe pick up an old project that you left. Or maybe you check in on some old friends, even talk to in a while.

Veronica Perretti [00:25:23]:
You might notice some ghosts from the past come into view for yourself. Mercury retrograde is a time where lots of growth and healing happens. It just can be a little bit annoying when we are really consumed with productivity and wanting to move forward and wanting to get our packages out at the post office and wanting to make sure that our emails get received to the people that we send them to so just give yourself buffer time, give yourself ample space and time and save a little extra energy so that you can tend to things when maybe they don't go the way that you expect them to go otherwise on August 7, Wednesday. That is a lovely day. There are not a ton of other trans. There's not really any other transits next week. So the big stuff is going to start to happen the week of the 12th. So I'll be back with you before the week of the 12th to tell you what's going on that week, because that is going to be the big thing.

Veronica Perretti [00:26:23]:
So definite. If you can clear your calendar from, say, the 14th to the 19th, I would say that would be great. I know that's not possible, but, you know, something to consider. So with that, I am going to go. It's been 30 minutes. I thought this was going to be a ten minute episode. Hopefully I will have this up to you today. I'm doing this on Friday, so I hope to have it up to you by Friday night.

Veronica Perretti [00:26:46]:
I'll talk to you next week. Bye.