August Star Calendar
Welcome to eclipse season. Please take a seat and a cup of something fortifying. We have a lot of ground to cover before it all starts quaking. Again.
The scene set for August...
The nodes shifted on to the Leo (South Node) and Aquarius (North Node) axis in the last week of July. Mercury shot out of retrograde and Saturn shunted in joining Pluto and Neptune. The fabled stars exacted and its prophecy rang out through our worlds. All now return to their former multiple point pulsing as their transits continue the story after that seeding point. The Aquarius full moon flung open the gates while nodding to all our past and futures. Eclipse season is now upon us as the next sabbat turns the wheel again.
Calendar Notes for Practicing Prophets
This Witches Calendar is your regular hats up, designed for the power of perfect timing to really make a difference to your planning and your life. Arriving here at the start of the month for beloved patrons and revealed week by week on Substack as we make our way through its twists and turns.
Our monthly magical calendar includes all the key astrological aspects, moon sign and planetary phase information. Keep your eye on its changing wiles as I tend to add to it here throughout the month with updated info and links to keep everything in one place for witches of the Covens. All dates are in Australian (Sydney) Eastern Standard Time (aest). Please adjust to the local time zone and place you live for this intel to make a real difference in your life. This month the moments really matter.
If you have a diary of any kind, may I also recommend manually dropping the big shifts in? Though robots and computers can do all the mundane scribing and scheduling for us, any astrologer or mystic will tell you that the research is where the wisdom hides waiting for you to discover it. Any neuroscientist will tell you how good pens and paper is for your brain and its learning. Only your mind can link the stars to your life and parse the patterns that matter. I love to muse on them well before they arrive and I do all of it, including this, by hand and head and heart.
Forewarned is not the same as forearmed if you don’t invite the knowledge into your daily lexicon and use it as part of your prophetic practice as well as your mundane.
Welcome to August, another threshold event that will last all month and pass in a shuttering hail of Moments. And so it begins...
August 1
Calendar Sabbat // Imbolc (south) and Lammas (north)
For the first time ever the calendar arrives before time. Feels like a miracle worth clocking for posterity, we may well have skipped into another dimension.
August 3
Chiron Retrograde in Taurus
Until the first week of next year, this retrograde bridges two distinct dimensions of healing and understanding for those paying attention to all the shadows knocking. In June our wounded healer finally moved on from Aries’ identity wounds and plunged us into the material world of the body, the earth and all our physical resources. Picking up where Urania left off revolutionising our relationship to all of the above in Taurus for the last seven years. Both ensuring none of us can proceed without paying our dues to the corporal nature of this life. When Chiron retrogrades back into Aries for a last hurrah, expect a potent physical preview of pain points or healing still required. Everything we have technically built atop the real world still has to put its roots and foundations into the good soil of material reality and experience. Healing is making it work on more than the imaginal plane. The difference will continue to show itself out.
August 7
Venus into Libra at 5.12am aest
Venus sits elevated in Libra casting her discerning gaze over a revolutionising relationship playing field. As everyone finally loses patience and tolerance for self service as a love language, Venus offers more than a spoonful of sugar to bridge the gaps in reciprocity. Diplomacy is the only way to meet in the middle. Charm is vastly underrated as a kindness and manners still go a very long way. The shadow of this transit abandons itself to all the others tugging on heartstrings and playing in the shallows of love as a transaction. Later this year Venus’ next retrograde will begin in Scorpio and end back in Libra as Lady Love makes her way through the shadows and fight of the Via Combusta. Smart socialites will be busy preparing for its fire season from now. No dead wood, no lit fuses, no false promises. To thine own self be lover, first.
Sabbat // Imbolc (south) and Lammas (north) at 9.41pm aest
The midpoint of Leo is halfway between solstice and equinox and its threshold has been observed since ancient times. In the south Imbolc heralds rebirth, the kind that starts to rumble underground long before it sprouts above. Life glimmers in a new way at this time of year. An intrinsic awakening and a clarion call from the future, from your resurrected self, to keep going. In the north Lammas marks the first of three harvest festivals, this first one operating as stock take of the high season and a heads up to eye your preparations for the descent. Literally the best time to make hay and the most of the light.
In a year of torrenting change our thresholds are precious resource, just as our rituals are blessed architecture.
August 9
Venus in Libra opposite Neptune retrograde in Aries
Lady Love arrives well prepared for a smoke show and Neptune’s favourite flaming cocktails as both let the hard edges soften. They throw wishes and dreams on the table and pick through the glitter together. Be wary of delusional wishboning and using flattery as a weapon to get your way. Nothing is set yet and the undertow is drawing us in ways we can only feel, not see.
August 10
Dark Moon O’Clock
If it feels like I am going a smidge early this month to the dark moon, you’d be right. This one’s crucial - consider it as vital prelude to an eclipse. Ruthlessly under-schedule and keep as many of its days as clear as you can. Consider how battened the hatches can be for a valuable day or two. This cauldron space will be seriously influential on your Leo eclipse experience. Plans are already afoot to cultivate a spacious and supportive balsam in the Coven.
Mercury into Leo at 2.28am aest
Shot out of the Cancerian waterworld like a planet running for its life, this is the first of two sign changes Merc makes this month as the psychopomp tears through Leo. With a tendency to shoot from the heart while whirling in perpetual motion, watch the roaring and curb any prowling about looking for attention. Instead keep that marvellous mind busy with all we learned through last month’s everlong retrograde. With its shadow outrun and momentum building towards the eclipses, make sure that your reality is keeping pace with your revitalised perception among all the other wild currents.
August 11
Mars into Cancer at 6.30pm aest
As Mars slips into the cosmic womb space of Cancer he cultivates a familiar cardinality, teasing changing emotions to the surface. Intuition vies with impulsivity and sensitivity is fuelled with mixed results. Moods swing like trapeze. The crab’s hard shell is home to what lies beneath and Mars translates this into a fierce protection of all we fervently care for, belong to and come from. Home base as sacred terrain and the body HQ as fortified temple. Ancestral roots as anchor and firm friends as safe harbour in stormy seas. Passive aggression remains this transit’s seasonal allergy but you don’t have to succumb. Guilt trips are never compulsory travel. Boundaries remain a love language all of their own that create space from the fray. Navigate hamstrung power sulking or pouting manipulation with a boxer’s grace and fierce compassion. Movement remains Mars’ best medicine but even warriors get the blues; feed your spark with the comforts of home.
Eclipse Yourself // Leo Dark Mooner
This special event will be live on Tuesday 11th August at 6pm aest
Details to follow as usual darklings, hoping more of you can join us live at this much later time for our extended eclipse mooner.
August 12
Venus in Virgo trine Urania in Gemini
This fascinating duo in conversation across the mutable axis have their eye on the event horizon. Both understand that shapeshifting is far more than a glamour and can only hold as long as your intention does. Despite best laid plans and all the careful energetic hygiene, lightning mainly strikes unscheduled. Wake up calls have a tendency to blare unannounced. Redirection remains a blessing in disguise. Move with the tangents and dwell in probability.
Mercury in Leo opposite Pluto rx in Aquaria
Nothing outs a shadow like the truth and Merc in tell it like it is mode is not taking any prisoners nor passengers on the charge. Every conversation has three levels: what is being said, what is not being said and what lies in the gulf between the two. If you leave the silence hanging inauthenticity will remove all doubt as to its intention. If you can marry truth to power you hold all the cards as the sky dances over you.
August 13
Solar Eclipse // New Moon in Leo at 3.36am at 20° Leo
The Leo new moon offers us all its whole heart with which to begin again, its epic bargain more than a fair trade for a total eclipsing. Deeply connected to the much larger cycles of change that have dominated our year to date, this threshold can conjure fresh streams of creativity borne of all that is authentically you and kick off a process that will carry us through to 2028. South node eclipses are clearance houses and the instant void of this eclipse opens a wonderful portal in which to drop the dross of all your old worlds, its magnificent syzygy the line of before and after. Amplified by Mercury and Jupiter, the Sun is eclipsed in the sign it rules as our world goes dark on something old so something new can be reborn. In the face of sudden change or circumstances, make courageous audacious choices for your future and those you can picture in it.
August 14
Mercury and Jupiter conjunction in Leo
And in the wake of an earth shaking total eclipse of the heart, Mercury whirls into the beating centre of it all. Jupiter is golden and in kingmaking mode for those willing to lead the parade into unchartered territory. This could supercharge an already lit up space or deliver much needed cut through after a wild ride. Keep a mystic’s eye fixed on the horizon and a lover’s on the world about you. Magic happens anyway sometimes. Stay flux-able as we move into the churn between behemoths.
August 16
Mars in Cancer square Neptune retrograde in Aries
This could feel like getting caught between a rock and a soft place that holds you to all its waterworks. Feelings and fluctuations in the current are to be expected but reactionary pouting will hardly cut the mustard. Illusions do not do well on days like this, delusions even less so. Shadow boxing is a mug’s game. Keep all ten toes down in the deeper intuitive tides or you will surrender everything and your energy to the fight.
August 18
Mercury in Leo trine Saturn in Aries
Though we be in the dead centre between the eclipses, everyone needs a fulcrum from which to pivot. As Merc’s heart in his mouth meets Saturn in world building mode, great things are possible. Negotiations get a glow up and fresh presentations garner different results... particularly when they ring with courage and derring-do. Clear comms are rewarded with secure step-ups. The future favours the brave and the Fool-ish.
Venus in Libra sextile Jupiter in Leo
When good fortune meets romantic wiles and nobody runs resistance, everything blooms all at once. Officially a red letter day for date nights, bold overtures and risky business. If you are going to walk on the wild side during this mad season, you may as well keep the stars on your good side. Bat those lashes, darklings. Flirting is a far more effective disarmer than force ever was, and worth its weight in gold as a negotiator. Charms work a treat too on days like these, witches.
August 22
Venus in Libra opposite Saturn in Aries
Lady Love and Father Time have more in common than first glances might afford, both devoted to a values system that reflects essence and rewards experience. What feels reciprocal and has legs in real life could root right into this polarity if all the cards have been placed on the table. Overblown resistance to such exposure is avoidant at best and an abandonment of the self at its most dangerous edge. Feel your way through the challenges and trust your impulse for your own fate.
August 23
Virgo Season
Sun into Virgo at 12.18pm aest
For those not as comfortable with chaos, Virgo’s structured pragmatism arrives like hospital corners on a cold night. A mutable sign built on reliable adaptability, more than capable of switching gears in tandem with reality bites. As the earth element of the species Virgo uses an innate holy trinity of embodiment, purification and healing as its sacred offering. Care is a multi-directional blessing that grounds itself in ritual. Marrying discernment to critical thinking is elevated to an art form in Virgo, planning and the comfort of routine engineered as science. Preparing for tangents affords contingency and reasonable control fosters security through uncertainty. Lists become a spell all of their own.
August 25
Mercury into Virgo at 9.04pm aest
There’s no place like home and Merc has certainly been on a mad dash to get here, just in time to play a starring role in the next eclipse. Mercury in Virgo lets the change we have integrated on the fly meld into a moral compass that shifts perception permanently. The trickster in his own domain boasts supreme pattern recognition plugged into all the higher octaves, most especially the Uranian channel. Cultivate telepathy and all the ‘ceptions as your bespoke group intel rather than handling each as distinct threads. Make sure the weave is not pulled too tight. Similarly direct laser focus to any gaps in transmission or leaks in communication as the eclipses show up the fault lines.
August 27
Mercury Cazimi in Virgo
As Merc pinwheels through the heart of the sun on his way to the eclipse, epiphany could well arrive on winged heels. At the very least some clarity and cut-through, enough to move the needle before the sacrament. Look to this day to confirm any extra sensory perceptions that your whole world has been gaslighting for its own comfort or contingency. As the altar beckons and the knife glints in moonlight, make better choices once all the information is at your disposal. Consider that all the cazimis and epiphanies so far this year are combining to point to something very specific as the planets exact.
Eclipse Yourself // Pisces Full Mooner
This special event will be live on Thursday 27th August at 9am aest
Details to follow as usual darklings, hoping more of you can join us live for our second extended eclipse mooner and circle.
August 28
Lunar Eclipse // Pisces Full Moon at 2.18pm aest at the fabled 4th° Pisces
Every lunar eclipse demands a sacrifice and that we hold its relinquishing sacred to the path forwards. This wild season is not nearly over and the second eclipse in Pisces comes fully loaded. Opposite Mercury post cazimi and with Urania in Gemini squaring the lot in an alternating current of interruption and discord, this line-up is slipstreaming rapid blink change that will ripple for months to come. This eclipse brings closure to processes at play on the old axis of nodal influence since 2025 as part of the overlap that bloods us into the new. Seek completion where you can and misty eyed dissolution borne of surrender, because intention is at best an optimistic option. Trust the sky and hold fast to your soul’s deeper knowing, even when the world quakes and shakes.
August 30
Jupiter in Leo trine Saturn retrograde in Aries
Another story told in three parts thanks to the rx re-shuffling, this aspect will helpfully repeat to build and build upon the fresh foundations we are establishing. Our braver new worlds will take our toil as well as all prior learning to do more than survive these inhospitable climes. Problem solving is how we create realities that endure rather than simply hold on. Simple pleasures and purpose led devotion delivers on its promise. With three bites at this cherry, invest lavishly in your dreams. Hard work rewards your commitment to something beyond the moment.
What Was That?
In procession through the ages like a glittering string, eclipses ripple in multiple directions so this one will stretch its tendrils all the way into the new season now upon us. September issues forth a different chime. The world has changed irrevocably since we crossed the threshold of the last seasonal shift at solstice, in some strange way such a short and a long time ago. By the time the new month arrives, we will feel like we have again moved into another realm distinct from where we were when we started. The seeds that we cradled in July will begin to pulse in this new ground and very different weather.
Events in August
Book in with Bohomofo Sunday 2nd or Sunday 23rd
Sunday Salon @ Wild Ginger (Sydney)
Cards and coffee + reiki bliss outs + energy healing
Friday 7th
Sabbat // Imbolc and Lammas
Tuesday 11th
Eclipse Yourself // Leo Solar Eclipse Mooner
At the new time of 6pm aest
Thursday 13th
Leo Solar Eclipse
Sunday 23rd
Virgo Season
Thursday 27th at 9am aest
Eclipse Yourself // Pisces Solar Eclipse Mooner
Friday 28th
Pisces Lunar Eclipse
This month’s Witch’s Calendar features the glorious evocative artwork of Tin Can Forest who also make wonderful zines and t-shirts from their creations.
