August 16th, 2013

August 16th, 2013.

Leo (July 23- August 22)

Your August Horoscope by Susan Miller

It is your birthday month, but you will be celebrating in a new and very different way. As a Leo, you love to be with friends, for you are gregarious and warm hearted, and the pure joy you take in life makes others enjoy being with you. This month you will be filled with ideas for your future, and you see them in your mind's eye like a series of snapshots that, when strung together, form a series of storyboards that could be your future life.

This month, take time to envision your future. Don't let anyone tell you that daydreaming is a waste of time - the only people who would dare tell you that are people without any vision. With Jupiter, giver of gifts and luck, in your highly creative twelfth house, the time you take away from more mundane matters to think, muse, and imagine your future will pay off in a big way. You also have Mars and Mercury in this same area of your chart, energizing your subconscious mind, the very part of you the twelfth house holds sway over.

You won't feel like socializing a lot this month - this birthday month seems to be more private. You do need rest, so plan a soothing vacation where the most strenuous thing you need to do is pick up a book or newspaper, or pour yourself a glass of iced tea. You've come to learn that it is not always about the number of people around you, but the quality of the friendships and the love you exchange that matter more. You are reordering your priorities this month, a process that will begin now but go on for the coming eleven months. You are preparing for the best year of your life, to begin on July 16, 2014, when Jupiter enters Leo, and this outstanding phase will continue to August 11, 2015.

Those coming twelve months will mark one of the very finest years of your life, filled with happiness and fresh starts, but only if you have taken the time now to prepare for that year. In order for things to work out to your delight, you need to know precisely what you want to happen. Many people say they know what they want, but when pressed get that faraway look in their eyes, showing that, in fact, they are not sure. Don't be that girl or guy. Imagine your new life down to the tiniest details - the room you are in, the clothes you will wear, the light coming through the window, the flowers on your coffee table and how their fragrance fills the air - every bit of what you can conjure up will help you frame that moment so that you can get to it.

You will also be uncannily intuitive this month, to the degree you surprise and even frighten your friends. You won't have any idea where these on-the-money hunches are coming from all of a sudden, but you will know, like you know your name, that you can trust your inner voice. That is smart - do so - for those intuitive flashes of insight are being given to you from a loving universe to protect you and to help you set your compass in a whole new direction. By next July you will be ready to start a new chapter for the future. In the meantime, this month, your inner voice will tell you which projects to accept and the ones to decline - and later you will see how accurate you were.

This month, the new moon in Leo on August 6, at a critical 15 degrees - an unusually friendly one - will bring your dearest dreams into focus. You will feel centered and at long last will become closer in touch with your deepest hopes and desires. If you should have a yearning to discuss the deep mysteries of life in August, that would sound right, as the ninth house, where you are hosting the genius planet Uranus (beautifully oriented to this new moon), will coax you to ask philosophical questions and debate all kinds of possibilities with friends.

This same new moon in Leo on August 6 will work to open you to new stimulation, and possibly new experiences, with new colors, tastes, sounds, scents, art, and music of foreign cultures in the coming weeks. You may travel overseas shortly after the new moon of August 6 has appeared, and if so, this will be a magnificent month to go. Uranus may bring up surprise opportunities to travel, quite at the last minute. Having help from Uranus is rare, making this new moon outstanding.

If your birthday falls on this day or within five days of this new moon of August 6, you will have even more reason to be excited - this new moon is speaking directly to you!

The full moon of August 20 in Aquarius, 28 degrees, will again put emphasis on your partner, whether your partner happens to be someone you love romantically or is someone you collaborate with in a close business relationship (like a business partner, agent, publicist, lawyer, manager, and so forth). Last month, on July 22, we had a full moon in the same sign, Aquarius, and that also emphasized your partner and was 0 degrees. It is rare to get two full moons in a row in the same sign, but that is what we have now. Leos born at the end of July would have felt last month's full moon more, while Leos born within five days of August 20 will feel this one.

Full moons wrap up conversations, so you may be coming to a conclusion about the future of one close relationship. For some readers, this may mean an exciting and very romantic engagement. If the coming together of you and another is for business, you may be getting ready to sign official papers. For others, it may mean that you mutually agree that it's too soon and will table the commitment (which is a decision in its own right). Still others will agree to table the decision by saying "maybe later" and for still others, the full moon may bring a feeling of "this is not for me" and a breakup.

This full moon will fall very close to Neptune, so you may feel very inspired and in love!

If you are merging energies for a creative purpose, the other individual in the partnership you are forming may bring out the very best in you, showing the talent inside you that you never knew existed.

Of course, if this is a business arrangement, or if a romantic one, and you don't know one another too well, you might get carried away with Neptune falling so close to the full moon of August 20, so be careful not to rush into any new relationship. It's never wise to sign a contract by the light of neon! That means the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas is out! (Just kidding.) If you do plan to sign papers, I suggest you do so on the very best days of the month - and possibly of the season - Wednesday, August 28 to August 30. Mercury and Pluto and Jupiter will all work together to make those red-letter days - special in every way.

Many Leos are super-creative, and are screenwriters, actors, costume designers, music composers, or artists - the entertainment field brims with Leo because their talents are so right for this field. If you are a creator, then you will find this full moon August 20 ideal for putting the final touches on a major project (allow a plus or minus five days of influence in either direction.) Neptune will give you a great spark - you will add those final touches and be so happy with your final product. You've baked the cupcakes, so to speak, and now it's time to add the pretty sprinkles and rosettes.

The quiet tempo of August - allowing you to withdraw from the social scene and simply think - will end on the day Mars enters your sign, Leo, on August 27. This is great news, as everyone wants Mars in their sign. This only happens for six weeks every two years, but the fact that Mars is coming to you now suggests that you are ready to enter into a brand new, energetic, vibrant cycle. The seeds that you plant, particularly from August 27 through all days of September, will have a great chance of bearing great fruit. (October is due to become a difficult month for everyone, due to a monster new moon, October 4. Make the most of August and September while blue skies and sunny days are due!)

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Summary

You've had a busy set of months, and now its time to catch up on rest. If you can take a vacation, August would be your ideal month to pack and go. With your twelfth house of privacy and reflection lit up with three planets, avoid choosing a strenuous sightseeing journey, but rather choose one that is soothing and calm, perhaps by renting a cottage by the sea, or a cabin in the mountains. Unplug from your cell phone and social media for a few days if you can, as it would do you a world of good. You need to get completely away from everything that holds you in a grip during the rest of the year.

It's now birthday time, and you have a bright new moon in Leo on August 6 to help you materialize a goal dear to you. You must be committed and passionate about your choice, for if you are, the sky's the limit on what you can achieve. Uranus, planet of surprise, will be adding his own brand of luck to the mix, so you may now travel abroad or get special help from people in international settings. If you are involved in a legal action, you may be surprised, in a positive way, by developments that will come up suddenly.

If you need to concentrate on a project, say, to write your screenplay or comedy skit, or do a grant or research paper, by working completely alone, you will yield top productivity. You can collaborate effectively with others later, near the full moon of August 20, but first you will need to hear your voice within. Your intuition will be strong and lead you in the right direction.

Your very close relationship - a partner in love or in business - will be on your mind within four days of August 20. You may be very inspired by this person because you are in love, or because your partner brings out creativity in you never knew existed. Neptune will be very close to the full moon, accounting for this, but if you are not in love, or not collaborating for on an imaginative project, be careful - Neptune can have two sides. In that case, Neptune's presence may mean you don't know all you need to know about your partner. It would be a situation that could eventually put you in jeopardy. Do not rush into a new relationship or make any commitments just yet, not until you feel you know all there is to know about your partner.

If you are in a long-term relationship, you may accidentally discover news that may be troubling to you. In the smoke and mirrors environment that will exist in the days surrounding August 20, you will need to take your time to sort out truth from fiction. Saturn, the planet of maturity and reason, will be friendly, so the long-term outlook for your alliance will be positive, even if temporarily a little difficult. Keep striving to locate the truth, and look into your heart as you do so. Not every Leo will feel this vibration, only those who did not know all about their business or personal partner.

Mars' entry to Leo for the first time in two years on August 27 is an optimistic, joyful sign of happy days to come, all the way until October 15. In that time, Mars in Leo will give you courage, energy, and drive. During that phase, you will stop at nothing to achieve your greatest goals. Save your key initiations for after August 27, for with energetic Mars at your side, it is when you will truly shine brightest.
Dates to Note for LEO

Best days for Leo, romance and for other things too: August 2, 4, the new moon in Leo August 6 to 16 (August 14-16 are especially good days for love within that period), 23, 24, 28, and 29.

A very special day will be August 4, when the Sun, your ruler, will contact Uranus in a friendly way. International deals, immigration matters, travel overseas, legal considerations, and broadcasting/publishing matters go well.

Wait until the new moon in Leo arrives on August 6 to launch your biggest initiations. You will have ten days to act, but the best days occur at the start of this period, and get progressively weaker as you move from August 6.

Mars will be in Leo from August 27 to October 15, your time to shine, and lead. The universe will support you fully. Wait for this phase to launch important plans and ventures.


Happy 28th Birthday to me! xoxo