Since July was a humdinger of a month with the Barbault basket, the nodes changing signs and the intensity of the Jupiter-Pluto opposition inflamed by the Full Moon we arrive into August with a need to calm down.   And the cosmos agrees, leaving us alone to take a breath and re-group.  The Lion’s Gate Portal when the Sun aligns with the fixed star aka the grand central sun Sirius  reaches maximum on August 8 – the same time every year.   This is a great date for releasing all that is blocking the manifestation of your intentions.     After that comes the Big One on 12 August when the total solar eclipse (visible in the UK and Europe early evening) downloads its eery shadow.  The last time I witnessed a total eclipse like this was on August 11 1999.   I remember it well.  A dear astrologer friend of mine, Shelley Ackerman (now sadly passed) flew in from her native New York to view it in my garden and around midday, things turned to twilight and back again!   At that time we were so aware of the turn of the century to come in just a few months.  It seemed to be the marker point for the end of an era and the start of a new one. So I will be watching this one (with eye protection of course) and pondering these huge celestial cycles…. On August 28th we receive another cosmic instruction care of the eclipsed Full Moon in Pisces which embraces Mercury, the communication planet and squares up to revolutionary Uranus……    the jury is out as to whether this will bring global unrest into a new peace or produce another trigger point.   It’s a close call.