August is Freedom Activation Month
Sun season is here and we all may be feeling an ounce of the lion’s roar. Good. Use that roar with intention (hopefully a positive one). The Sun entered its home — or what we in astrology call its domicile — of Leo on July 23rd and will stay there until August 22nd. August is the month of intense heat and spark and has bore many important moments for the civil rights of Black life in this material realm.
There were some key dates that I knew top of mind like the birth of Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17th) and Fred Hampton (August 30th). I learned that the Haitian Revolution was in August (August 22nd) as well as Nat Turner’s Rebellion (August 21st). Black August originated after freedom activator George Jackson was murdered (August 21st) during a San Quentin prison rebellion. I use the term freedom activator because we are inherently free even if we are being told that we are not. I think the various forms of actions towards civil rights that have taken place since Black people were brought across the Atlantic were moments of remembering our freedom and then invoking it. August also commemorates the lost lives of fellow freedom activators James McClain, William Christmas, Khatari Gaulden and Jonathan Jackson. Let us also have a moment of silence for the transition of freedom activator John Lewis who left this earthly plane on July 17th. In astrology, the Sun represents the self. I have also read and heard that the Sun could represent the father or father figures in a chart but I have also heard that theory debated, a debate I won’t pull you readers into here.
What is it to be in your power? How do you get there or cultivate it?
I have been sitting with these questions this summer, and I have learned that one element to my personal power has been doing things that result in me feeling Spirit FULL: spending a lot of time in the sun (masked), and under the shade of various trees, getting a lot of sleep, taking baths, volunteering with kids in the community garden near me, talking to some of my neighbors, laughing with some of my neighbors, setting boundaries with energies I am taking on (or not). I had been so out of tune for so long, I was no longer sure what a sustained frequency of feeling good could feel like. I have never felt as much resonance as I do now with Audre Lorde’s quote, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.” Perhaps, warrior mode could look a lot of different ways. When I was a child, my mother would sometimes lock herself in the bathroom for some peace. She has worked as a court reporter for the county courthouse for over thirty years. She was often subjected to the entitled attitudes of lawyers and judges and their requests for their depositions. One time, a judge was yelling at her on the phone demanding her deposition. My mother warned the judge that if she continued to yell, she was going to hang up the phone. The woman went on with her tirade and my mother hung up. The next day, the judge came down to the court reporters’ office and asked for my mother. She apologized for being a bitch (her words) and shook my mother’s hand. My mother needed that bathroom time to call her energy back or shore up for moments like these. Her hanging up the phone was also an important demonstration to me as a child (though I did not have words for it then) of being in one’s power and activating freedom. I encourage you all to take whatever version of your bathroom time might be, call in help if need be. Your kids, spouses, partners, plants and animals will be fine.
This month, the Sun is doing its thang, along with the other personal planets. Here are some conversations that will be taking place: On August 2nd, the Sun now in Leo will square Uranus currently in Taurus. On August 16th, the Sun will form a trine with Mars which is in Aries. On the 17th, the Sun will form a conjunction to Mercury. There is an interesting opposition on August 25th of Venus in Cancer and Jupiter currently in Capricorn. We have a full moon in Aquarius on August 3rd and a new moon in Leo on August 19th. We are officially out of our summer eclipses and our next eclipse will be a lunar eclipse in Gemini on November 30th. What I have outlined here is just some of what is happening in the skies. I have taken the above interactions and some other planetary movements and synthesized them into your horoscopes below. I hope you engage in activities that lead your spirits to being filled and as George Jackson said “…discover your humanity and your love in revolution.” Oh! To quote another freedom activator, astrologer Walter Mercado, “mucho, mucho, mucho amor.” I sign off with much, much, MUCH love.
– Natalie Peart
Art Credit: Afrofuture scopes design below by Macy Rajacich.
Natalie Peart is an astrologer, artist, writer, media producer and yogi based in New York City. You can keep in touch with Natalie on Instagram (@natal_lines).
