Recording this on July 31st — which is also the last day for the WOMANSWORLD coupon for the Venus Retrograde: Heroine’s Journey, if you’re reading this in time. 25% off, all caps, one word. If you’re reading this after July 31st, the coupon has expired but the class is still open — current pricing and all the details at louiseedington.com/VenusRetrograde2026. We have lots of sign-ups already and the downloads keep coming. This is going to be extraordinary.
I also want to say: if you’re going through some major awakenings right now, if your brain feels thoroughly fried by this energy — you are not alone. I’ve been in it too. This week’s energy speaks directly to all of that. Let’s get into it.
We are still in the basket. Held. Rocking. And Chiron is the root beneath it all — grounding us into the earth, into the wound, into the medicine. Hold that image this week.
Uranus has moved off the exact 4° mark, but Neptune, Pluto, and Jupiter are still speaking to each other over and over. These outer planet aspects hold for months, and every time a faster-moving body hits those degrees, the whole configuration activates again. We are not at the end of this. We are in it, and we will be for a while.
What I keep returning to is this: we are in a time of choosing what we birth. That’s what the basket/cradle feels like to me — we are being held in a pressured container and a possibility simultaneously. How we respond is where our free will lives.
And I want to add a note about Manwë — I’ve added it back into the chart this week. Manwë is now at 6° Aries, which is the degree of the next peak of the cradle — the second basket that forms in June 2027. The Lord of Grace, the breath of life, is already there. Already marking the ground.
There is still almost no earth in the sky right now. Venus is in Virgo as the primary earth energy — though I want to firmly set aside any talk of Venus being “in detriment” there. She is not weak. We have to look at the whole chart, and right now, Venus in Virgo is doing exactly what she needs to be doing: leading the way with discernment, meaning, and devotion. Not weakness.
Chiron retrograde is in Taurus but about to dip back into Aries. The point is: the lack of earth is real this week, and so is the prescription. Ground yourself deliberately. Nature, bare feet, earth under your hands. Grounding meditations. Stones that anchor the lower chakras. This isn’t optional — it’s the medicine for a fire-and-air-heavy sky.
From the Red Seeds Tarot and the Witch Oracle: Two of Seeds, Seven of Torches reversed, Three of Seeds, and The Story Keeper.
Balance, depleted courage, community (including with all the parts of yourself), and the question: which stories are you telling yourself? The Story Keeper arrived, and it’s not an accident — this week is about the stories that have been running us, and consciously choosing different ones. More at the end.
The week is dominated by:
A mutable T-square carrying over from the full moon (Venus, Mars, Ceres, now with the Moon joining)
Chiron stationing retrograde at 0°52’ Taurus on Monday — at the threshold degree, squaring the 0° Aquarius hot degree
Venus square Ceres on Monday — a significant meeting of these two
Last Quarter Moon at 13° Taurus (the goddess number) on Wednesday, building toward the eclipse
Venus entering Libra on Thursday August 6th — her own sign, through September 12th
Mercury leaving the retrograde shadow this week
A water grand trine (Hecate, Asteroid Lilith, Haumea) running through the week
An air grand trine forming Friday (Moon/Sedna, Venus, Juno)
The Sun conjuncting Isis as Osiris moves ahead — the myth I spoke about in the Aug 12th eclipse video
Also traveling with the Sun all week: the asteroids Isis and Osiris. They met on July 20th. The dismemberment and rememberment is ongoing.
We open the week with the Moon still in Pisces, moving through what has become a sustained mutable T-square of change. On the July 29th full moon, Venus and Mars squared each other. Now Venus is approaching a square to Ceres, and the Moon is caught in the middle of all of it — pulling us through the question: what beliefs, what stories, what perceptions need to change?
The Moon conjuncts Nessus — and I want to say something about how I’m reading Nessus this week. It’s not about horrible things inside you that need to be rooted out with self-punishment. It’s about the poisonous beliefs and stories that have been instilled in us — by upbringing, by culture, by a world built on a paradigm that doesn’t serve us. That’s why the Story Keeper card came up. The revealing of the poison this week is really the revealing of which narratives have been toxic to your sense of self.
The Moon then squares Mars, opposes Venus, squares Ceres, and squares Asteroid Lilith — all in mutable signs. A lot of change energy, adaptability energy, the-table-must-be-flipped energy. This is happening within and without simultaneously. The divine feminine rising says: we are multi-dimensional, we are right brain and left brain, we are not going back.
At 4:36pm Eastern, the Moon moves into Aries — direct, initiating, burning off what doesn’t belong — and finds herself at the midpoint of a sextile between Juno and Sedna. Our sacred contracts with each other, and the energy of adapt-or-create-something-new. There’s a lot of adaptability energy in this week. Your beliefs and perceptions are being asked to adapt. This is not comfortable. It is necessary.
A day of several significant stations and aspects.
The Moon in Aries activates Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus — the basket, again. These slower-moving planets are in conversation over and over for a long time. You will keep feeling this.
Saturn retrograde squares Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn. Saturn is the guide for Capricorn, and Black Moon Lilith has moved into the sign of our institutions, structures, and man-made laws. She is saying: none of this is working. Saturn retrograde is in review — going back over what we’re actually building, what needs to collapse, and what needs to be rebuilt from different ground.
Venus squares Ceres — and this is worth noting. Venus and Ceres last met at 0° Aquarius with Pluto on December 7th, 2024. This was covered in the two “Fools and Lovers” videos I made with Dawn Hild — links below. Zero Aquarius is a very hot degree: it’s where Venus, Ceres, and Pluto met; where Saturn and Jupiter met; where there was also a Venus-Mars conjunction. Alpha, omega, infinite possibilities, the Fool’s leap. Venus and Ceres have been moving apart since then, and now they’re making their second opening square after their last conjunction at 8˚ Taurus on April of this year— a mutable square of change. What began at that extraordinary 0° Aquarius meeting is now pressing for another shift. Venus is still the only major planet that has crossed the South Node. She is leading the way into a more meaningful, earthly, interconnected life.
Mars trines Chariklo — taking action to weave the new story. Chariklo as Grandmother Spider, as Story Keeper, as the grace-spinner who is not only keeping the old story but helping us write the new one.
Chiron stations retrograde at 0°52’ Taurus — at the threshold between Taurus and Aries, at a zero degree. This squares the 0° Aquarius hot degree. Juno is about to move back toward Chiron, opening up the wound around our core values, our materialism, how we use our earthly resources. Chiron will go back into Aries to complete what needs completing there, and then return to Taurus for the longer journey. But right now, at this station: what is the wound around your core values? What is the medicine?
Mercury reaches 22° Cancer — and I feel this one, because I have a 21° Sun. Twenty-two is the master builder number. Mercury then squares Pallas Athena — cardinal signs, new beginnings, speaking truth to power. Speak your truth. Speak out. The mind filtering through the heart, speaking from the place of creative strategy and wise justice.
The Moon conjuncts Saturn at the end of the day — a reality check, or some real clarity arriving. Take it.
Mercury in Cancer trines Nessus in Pisces — a water trine. The heart-mind meeting the centaur of ancestral toxins and inherited poisons. How have the messages and stories of the old world been poisonous to your sense of self? What toxic beliefs — about your worth, your identity, your place in this world — are ready to be washed away?
This is not about self-flagellation. It’s about seeing clearly and releasing. Let the water trine do its work — water erodes. Water seeps into everything and finds its way through.
Black Moon Lilith squares Pallas Athena in Aries, then opposes Mercury — creating new strategies, writing the new story, speaking from a place of creative intelligence and wild elemental self-knowing. The old story of who you should be is going. The new story of who you actually are is forming.
Chiron retrograde sextiles Asteroid Lilith — an opportunity to go back to the original equality. In the myth, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, created from the same dirt, at the same moment, equal. This is the story of the sacred marriage — the integration of opposites, masculine and feminine, self and other. The healing opportunity here is returning to that original wholeness.
The Moon sextiles Chariklo, sextiles Mars, conjuncts Eris (still some tables being turned, within and without), then conjuncts Vesta — the sacred inner flame. Before you can write the new story, you need to deeply accept all the parts of yourself. The dismemberment comes before the rememberment. This is the actual journey we do in the Venus Retrograde class. And I have to say, this time is so potent for it.
The Moon sextiles Ceres — the Great Mother, the heart of the cosmos. The cosmos is inherently creative. That creative energy has nothing to do with gender — it’s woven into everything.
The Moon moves into Taurus before the end of the day — settling into earth, the senses, the body, the root.
The Taurus Moon conjuncts Chiron — Chiron stationing retrograde in the very first degree of Taurus, Chiron who was discovered at 3° Taurus, Chiron who is the root of the basket. A quick look at those wounds before Chiron revisits them more fully after returning to Aries. This is a taste of what’s coming: the wound around our values, our connection to the earth, our hoarding, our materialism, what we actually need versus what we’ve been chasing.
The Moon sextiles Asteroid Lilith, squares Juno (we are renegotiating all our contracts), and opposes Haumea — the handle of the basket, pure regeneration in Scorpio. Taurus is the root. Haumea is the handle. Between them, the basket is being held.
Mars sextiles Eris — the action-taker and his sister, the table-flipper, in flowing conversation. Angry, yes. Purposeful, yes. Take the action. Flip the table. Lots of truth-speaking is happening right now. The Moon sextiles Hekate — the torchbearer showing the way — then squares Pluto and squares Jupiter. These were the key players at the basket’s first peak. What is changing? What is starting to shift? Gradually, everything is moving toward that South Node drain.
Mars sextiles Vesta — speak the truth to yourself first. Look at yourself honestly and ask: has that been true? Let’s do things differently.
And then: the Last Quarter Moon at 13° Taurus, squaring the Sun at 13° Leo. Thirteen — the number of the goddess, the witch, the spiral. The crisis in consciousness of the fixed signs, as we move toward the eclipse on August 12th. Are your values working from the heart? Are you integrating right brain and left brain, masculine and feminine, the opposites within? This is the question the Last Quarter Moon in fixed signs is pressing.
Jupiter conjuncts Hygeia — the great expander in conversation with preventative, holistic health. Eight is the infinity sign on its side — complete balance, the eternal loop. Jupiter and Hygeia together at 8° are saying: your health, within and without, is an infinity loop. What you put into it comes back around.
Venus enters Libra — her own sign, where she’ll be through September 10th. She is still the only major planet to have crossed the South Node drain. She has been leading this whole procession. And now she steps into the sign of balance, relating, justice, and the scales.
Venus in Libra will oppose Neptune. She will bring balance. She is another indicator — along with everything else — that we are being asked to integrate the opposites. Heart and mind. Masculine and feminine. Inner and outer. The scales.
Mercury leaves the shadow of its retrograde — and squares Eris as it does. The messenger, coming fully out of the retrograde, speaks truth to power. Speaks up for the outsiders. Speaks about core beliefs and what has been witnessed. This is quite profound energy.
Hekate squares Sedna — the torchbearer at the crossroads, meeting adapt-or-transform. Adapt the narratives. Adapt the thinking. This is all people, all of us.
The Sun at 14° Leo trines Saturn — a fire trine of determination to be the change you want to see in the world. Saturn retrograde, yes, reviewing, but the trine says: act from the determination. Keep building.
The Moon enters Gemini and immediately squares the Nodes at 0° Aquarius and Leo. The Nodes that have just changed signs. North Node Aquarius (the people, the future, the collective), South Node Leo (releasing the age of kings) — this square just screams no more kings to me, in the context of everything else happening this year. This isn’t only about any single political figure. The patriarchy, as a paradigm, is in its death throes. It’s clinging on. But it’s going.
A water grand trine has been running in the background all week: Hekate in Pisces, Asteroid Lilith in Cancer, and Haumea in Scorpio. The way-shower, the original feminine refusal, and the regeneratrix — creating, washing away the old, regenerating what’s new. This is ongoing. This is in the background of everything.
And as the Moon moves into Gemini, we get an air grand trine: Moon in Gemini, Venus in Libra, Juno in Aquarius (Juno has moved back to 0° Aquarius — that hot degree again). Writing the new story. Renegotiating the sacred contracts. The new way of relating, of thinking, of being in community.
Venus perfects her trine to Juno at 0° Aquarius — that place where Venus, Ceres, and Pluto met in December 2024, where everything began. Venus is now bringing the relational, the creative, the loving energy directly to our sacred contracts with each other and with the future. Chiron also squares Juno — the wound around our contract with the Earth, with our humanity, with how we live in relationship with everything we’re part of.
The Moon trines Pluto, sextiles Neptune — the basket activating again — and then: the Moon conjuncts Uranus in Gemini. Expect light bulb moments. Aha moments. Possibly arriving from unexpected places or through sudden shocks. Uranian awakenings don’t always knock gently. Sometimes they arrive like being hit around the head with a piece of timber — oh. Right. Now I see. In Gemini: perceptions, communications, voice, the stories you tell about yourself and the world.
Mercury squares Vesta — speak from that inner flame. Speak from the heart. This is for the rebirth.
The Moon in Gemini sextiles Saturn — a little clarity, a little focus in the midst of everything spinning. Then sextiles the Sun at 15° Leo — a world point, a degree of collective significance. And the Sun is now conjunct Isis, as Osiris moves ahead of them through Leo.
The myth I spoke about in the eclipse video is still alive in the chart. Isis gathering the pieces. The patient, devoted work of rememberment. Everything moving toward the eclipse on August 12th. What pieces of yourself are you gathering? What is being put back together?
The Moon squares Nessus — one more look at the toxic narratives, the poisonous stories. Then we close the week in the waning energy of the approaching eclipse. A lot of releasing happening within your consciousness. We are at another crossroads.
The eclipse is coming. Ground yourself. Write the new story.
Two of Seeds (Pentacles) — I Am Balance:
This is a time of tension and struggle to maintain a balanced life. We are juggling so much — the inner work, the outer chaos, the waning energy approaching the eclipse, the mutable T-square, the brain-frying changing of perceptions.
Creating balance in our lives enables us to navigate a healthier rhythm. Remember: we need to take care of ourselves first, or everything else will start to tumble down.
This is the prescription: balance your central nervous system. Balance your energy. Make a conscious choice to do that before you do anything else. The grounding work IS the self-care work this week.
Seven of Torches (Wands), reversed — I Am Depleted:
Upright, the Seven of Torches is courage — standing firm in difficulty, resilience, the inner flame holding steady. Reversed this week: a lack of belief in yourself. Feeling like quitting. Wanting to give up. The sense of I surrender, I can’t anymore.
You may feel some of this. It’s allowed. And the response is not to push harder — it’s more grounding, more self-care. The surrendered chicken is not the goal. The grounded, rooted, held-in-the-cradle person who lets themselves be rocked for a while — that’s the goal.
Three of Seeds (Pentacles) — I Am Community:
Before the reward, there must be labour. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy.
Something is being created and planted right now — and it may be in its early stages. Sometimes we can envisage the way forward but find it genuinely hard to bring in the harvest. The invitation is to keep tending it.
And here’s what I love about this card this week: community includes the community of all your inner parts. The Three of Pentacles is often read as working with others — and yes, that too. But right now, in this time of dismemberment and rememberment, it is also the community within you. All of those parts deserve a place at the table. Even the unruly ones. Even the ones you’ve been dismissing.
May we offer our work and creativity to our community, to the world, and thereby become connected to something larger and greater than ourselves.
The Story Keeper (Witch Oracle):
This is why I think Nessus came up — not the external poison, but the poisonous stories. The Story Keeper arrived right on time.
“You are made of moonlight and stories. The night and the trees know this. Which is why, when you need a change in your narrative, you would do well to seek their counsel.”
(Seeking counsel from the night and the trees — that IS grounding. Going out into nature to listen.)
“Some stories lift us up and encourage our potential, our inherent magic. Other stories limit, diminish, or destroy our worth. You are being asked right now to consider which stories you are listening to, and which ones you are telling.
Telling yourself a story of empowerment will bring a surge of energy to you. Notice how your shoulders drop, your breath deepens, your heart warms. Telling yourself a story of scarcity or disempowerment leaves you tight, small, and cramped.
While we are very selective about the books we read and the stories we watch on film, we are far less selective about the stories we tell ourselves. Now is the time to question the narratives you are allowing into the ear of your spirit. Are they helpful or hurtful?
A witch acknowledges her stories of lack and frustration, but she chooses to focus on the ones that nurture her vitality. You are perfectly imperfect. Now is the time to write this new story. Don’t let those stories run your patterns.”
A week of mutable T-square and changing perceptions. Of Chiron at the root, grounding the basket, pressing on the wounds around values and the earth and what we’ve been told we’re worth. Of Mercury washing the toxic beliefs out in a water trine. Of the Last Quarter Moon at the goddess number pressing the question: are you living from the heart? Of Venus entering Libra, still leading the way. Of the air grand trine writing new stories in Gemini. Of the Moon conjuncting Uranus and the aha moments arriving.
And through all of it: the Story Keeper, asking which narratives you’re allowing in.
The night and the trees know you are made of moonlight and stories. Go out and ask them which ones to keep.
Ground yourself. The eclipse is almost here.
— Louise
Venus Retrograde: Heroine’s Journey — the WOMANSWORLD coupon expires July 31st, but the class is still open. Details at louiseedington.com/VenusRetrograde2026
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