Happy Monday — and Tuesday!

Did anyone else notice the subtle shift in energy around 10:13AM ET, the exact time of today’s New Moon? I was up very early this morning, as I have been in recent days, checking on the comfort of my beloved but ailing 17-year-old kitty. I planned to write this forecast in the dead of the Moon, but as it turns out, I needed more rest. What time did I wake up — without an alarm? 10:13AM ET — to the minute. Coincidence or conspiracy? I offer this an example of how you can use the times provided in this forecast. If something notable happens in your own personal world, see if it’s in synch with an exact planetary pattern. If you know your horoscope well enough to know what degrees your angles and planets are at, you can really have fun with this exercise. If you don’t know where your planets are, there’s a little Astro-Basics Report you can order here that will clue you in.

The New Moon — i.e.,  the monthly meet-up of the Sun and Moon — happened at 2 degrees 19 minutes of Virgo. For those of you who like to look up the Sabian Symbols, read for 3 degrees of Virgo (always round up to the next number when using these Symbols).  A New Moon offers us an opportunity to re-set  intentions and goals for the next lunar cycle.  Sometime today or tomorrow, light a candle and make a list.  Around September 2nd, on the First Quarter Moon, we can expect a challenge to those goals, with appropriate adjustments made. At the time of the Full Moon on the 8th, we can expect illumination on the success or failure of our goals for the cycle. If we succeeded, we can consciously release our success into our reality; if we failed, we let go of whatever did not work. After the Third Quarter Moon on the 15th, we can review our achievements, tie up loose ends and get ready to begin another New Moon on September 24th.

Last month’s New Moon in Leo focused on creative self-expression. How do you express your bliss? Keywords for this month’s Virgo New Moon  include perfection, discernment, work, service, integration, analysis. Whom or what does your creative self-expression serve? How does it function? How have you cooperated with and/or integrated it into your daily routine?

Virgo also rules the digestive tract, where it keeps busy instinctively separating the wheat from the chaff. It keeps elements that provide nourishment and eliminates those which do not. Some digestive systems work more efficiently than others, depending on what they are given to process. What is your process? Is it efficient? What does your gut tell you? Your instincts may well be functioning with laser beam intensity and accuracy in the wake of this New Moon — and I was delighted to see its potency reflected with the usual astonishing synchronicity in Beth Owlsdaughter’s Tarot Card of the Week.

So what’s so potent about this New Moon? First, a potentially ruthless application of penetrating energy, for better or for worse , suggested by today’s hook-up (at 3:30PM ET) between action hero Mars and stern Saturn in take-no-prisoners Scorpio. If you’re in a vengeful mood, you could do some damage. If you want to execute a meticulously detailed plan that might even have a humanitarian purpose, you could create something wonderfully helpful and healing. What will you choose? Aiding and abetting this meticulous plan or a genius germ of an idea is mental Mercury in Virgo, supporting the Mars and Saturn. This suggests exacting efficiency and ease of communication. Not a bad week to make a pitch — just avoid the Moon voids.

As for the humanitarian part, this morning at 5:38AM ET we had a lovely alignment between Venus (love, money, social expression) in drama queen Leo and Uranus in pioneering Aries. Venus-Uranus contacts suggests a willingness to go outside the box, and as long as you’re not a cat, that is usually a very good thing. Expressed with passion, this plan may well challenge the established order, suggested by a tense connection between Venus and the Mars-Saturn hook-up. In the past we’ve seen Venus-Saturn challenges reflected in “cutting” or  “chilly” or “reality check” headlines…. and also by stories of “women of steel” (up side). This challenge is exact at 2:22PM ET on Tuesday. An example of an reality check just in:  a report from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. An example of a “woman of steel” — see note on author and pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder in a few paragraphs.

Venus will challenge Mars on Wednesday at 11:46AM ET. We can expect combustion or fiery passion between the sexes, and the latter can be quite juicy. It seems to me that this Virgo New Moon, together with these challenges to Venus,  is inviting us to consider how we can better integrate feminine archetypical expression (Venus) vs. masculine/patriarchal archetypical expression (Mars-Saturn) — perhaps with a spiritual perspective, suggested by an opposition between Moon and nebulous Neptune, exact today at 6:15PM ET. For those seeking a dreamy escape tonight, there’s your opportunity.

The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon at 3 Virgo is “two guardian angels”. Now this is a very comforting image. But why two? Perhaps one is masculine and the other is feminine — or some other duality? Sabian Symbol guru Blain Bovee writes that the angels suggest “divine stewardship”, and that we might consider this Symbol as with an eye open for “soft, imperceptible realities that stand guard” in the face of hard or otherwise unyielding structures, or new ways of thinking seeking to penetrate old forms.

You will be more personally influenced this New Moon if you have planets or points around 2 degrees of Virgo, Pisces, Gemini and Sagittarius. And this week, those of you with planets or points at around 16-19 degrees of Leo, Taurus, Scorpio or Aquarius may well experience a release of the conflict or ambitious call to action suggested by the tension among Venus, Mars and Saturn. For example, Barack Obama’s Ascendant is 18 Aquarius. Today he authorized “air surveillance flights of ISIS over Syria,” as a “potential precursor to actual airstrikes”.

In other news, the autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of “Little House on the Prairie,” will be published this autumn for the first time. Yup, finally the real story of her life, not the fictionalized — albeit much-loved — version.  Wilder’s horoscope has the Sun at 18 Aquarius and Mercury conjunct Jupiter at 15 Aquarius — a powerhouse combo for a writer.  Also of note: her charismatic Mars-Neptune square has been supercharged by Uranus and Pluto for several months now. And the book publication will coincide with her fifth Saturn return, an event everyone experiences every 28-29 years. A Saturn return is a critical stage in life development, usually offering an opportunity for a new lease on life.  Isn’t astrology amazing?

Keep your organizational focus going on Tuesday, as the Virgo Moon is well-supported during business hours. Get if off your desk if you can, as the Moon goes void at 10:29PM ET… until 5:54PM ET on WEDNESDAY. That should make for some interesting upsets at the U.S. Open. Go with the flow of whatever twists and delays may crop up in your efforts to more forward in a straight line; stick to routine and chill, chill, chill. Your other Moon void this week happens Friday at 12PM ET — until Saturday at 4:53AM ET. Sounds like an early start to the Labor Day weekend….

…which you might as well enjoy to the fullest, given the “bitter, frigid conditions” predicted this winter by the Farmer’s Almanac. This is the same publication that correctly predicted last winter’s polar vortex (modern meteorologists did not). How does the Farmer’s Almanac do it?

The publication, not to be confused with the New Hampshire-based Old Farmer’s Almanac, uses a secret formula based on sunspots, planetary positions and lunar cycles for its long-range weather forecasts.

Of course it does.

Your donations never fail to make my day, with much gratitude to you for  your appreciation. Gratitude also to those of you who share this forecast with friends. Here’s the 411 on personal consultations. Have a wonderful day!