#376-"To Loving What Feels Impossible to Love"-Week of August 3, 2026

A Compassionate Return

After last week's culmination, the Full Moon activating all three great cycles, the nodal shift, Lammas marking the first harvest, this week offers a more interior quality. Three personal planets on the move. A significant healing threshold turning inward. And the week ahead already gathering its own considerable activation.

But first, this week. Which is asking something particular of us.

Key Cycles This Week:

Monday, August 3: Chiron stations retrograde at 1 degree of Taurus, retrograding back into Aries and turning direct in early 2027. 

When Chiron entered Taurus in June we named a new era of healing work beginning — the wounds of body, earth, and resource. But Chiron is not yet fully committed to Taurus. It is turning back to complete what was not yet fully metabolized in Aries since 2018. The wounds of identity, agency, the right to exist and take up space. The armored individualism that mistakes isolation for strength.

This retrograde is not a setback. It is a deepening. And Chiron does not return to Aries empty-handed. It has touched Taurus, briefly, but genuinely. The wounds of scarcity, of distorted relationship to resource and embodied worth, are now being carried back into the Aries review. What would it mean to act and assert from a place of genuine embodied sufficiency rather than the chronic survival-level scarcity that dominator culture has installed in so many? The two wound territories are informing each other through the retrograde.

You might notice this as a revisiting of something you thought you had moved through. Let it be a compassionate return rather than a discouraging one. The Shamanic tradition knows that the deepest healing rarely happens in a single pass.

Thursday, August 6: Venus enters Libra. Sun in Leo trines Saturn in Aries. 

Venus moves into her home sign, where she will remain for just over a month. After Virgo's careful discernment, Venus in Libra breathes into the relational field with greater ease and natural grace. Beauty as a value. Fairness as a felt sense. The recognition that relationship at its best is a genuine art form.

On the same day the Sun in Leo trines Saturn in Aries. Creative expression meets honest reality. What has been alive and expansive in Leo season finds the grounded commitment that gives it genuine form and staying power. A good day for clear-eyed recognition of what is genuinely sustainable and worth building further.

Sunday, August 9: Mercury enters Leo, remaining about two and a half weeks. Mercury in Leo squares Chiron in Taurus. 

Mercury moves from Cancer's careful feeling-toned interior processing into Leo's warmth and creative conviction. The Communicator now speaks from the center rather than the periphery. More direct, more vital, more willing to be seen in what it knows.

On the same day Mercury squares Chiron freshly retrograded toward Aries. Where has the voice been shaped by survival rather than authentic expression? Where has it learned to be smaller or more deferential than what is actually true? You might notice something you want to say meeting an old hesitation you did not know was still there. Stay curious about that hesitation. It may be pointing to exactly where the voice is ready to grow.

Looking Ahead

Next week Venus in Libra activates the air planets, moving toward opposition with Saturn and Neptune in Aries and making contact with Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini. Mercury in Leo activates the fire planets, trining Saturn and Neptune in Aries and moving through Jupiter in Leo. Let what this week offers be genuinely received before the next wave of activation arrives.

Reflection Questions

1. As Chiron retrogrades back into Aries, what wound around identity, agency, or the right to take up space is asking for one more honest and compassionate look?
2. Venus entering Libra invites genuine relational intelligence. Where in your relational field is the cultivation of real balance and right relation most needed right now?
3. Where does the wound around speaking from genuine conviction still shape your voice, and what wants to be said that has not yet found its full expression?

If the depth of these cycles is stirring something in you, a desire for grounded support in understanding how they are moving through your own unique chart, I offer astrology sessions designed for exactly that.

You can find the link to schedule under What's Open Now at Sheila's website: ontheedgesofchange.com.

Transcript

0:07

Hello, welcome to Astrology Alchemy. I'm Shelia Belanger, your host for this podcast. Alchemy is defined as a seemingly magical process of transformation. Spiritual alchemy is the process of pursuing the gold of your true nature by transmuting the unrefined limiting parts of yourself. In this podcast, I'll offer you inspiring insights from current astrology cycles that support your path of turning your personal lead into gold. More resources are available at the website ontheedgesofchange.com. Hello, and welcome to episode number 376 of the Astrology Alchemy Podcast. This is for the week of August 3rd, 2026. Here I am, your host and guide, Sheila Belongie A phrase from this week's poem, "To loving what feels impossible to love." After the culmination of last week, the full moon in Aquarius activating all three great cycles, the nodal shift confirming the direction of collective evolution, the sacred time of Lammas marking the first harvest, this week offers a different quality with the astrology cycles. It's not exactly quieter, but it's more interior, more focused on what needs to be metabolized before the next movement begins Three of the personal planets are on the move. A significant healing threshold turns inward, and the week coming, which we'll touch on briefly, carries its own considerable activation as Venus and Mercury begin weaving through the elemental field. So let's dial into this week, which is asking some particular experiences of us On Monday, August 3rd, Chiron stations retrograde at one degree of Taurus. It will retrograde back into Aries and then turn direct in early 2027. When I named Chiron's entry into Taurus in previous episodes, I spoke of a new era of healing work beginning with the wounds of body, Earth, resource, and the profound inequality of an extractive economy collectively Chiron, the wounded healer shamanic one, will spend nearly eight years in the sign of embodied life, Taurus However, Chiron is not yet fully committed to Taurus. It's turning back In the coming months, Chiron will retrograde back into Aries, revisiting the territory it has been working with us since 2018 Wounds around identity, the right to exist, to act, to assert a self in the face of systems that deny that right to so many, both ancestral, family, societal, and collective systems The wound of radical disconnection and armored individualism. The mythology of the self-sufficient one who needs no one and owes nothing. That territory Chiron will be asking us to revisit for completion and integration This retrograde cycle with Chiron is by no means a setback. It is a deepening Chiron returns to Aries to gather what was not fully metabolized before it commits to the long Taurus work ahead You might notice this as a revisiting of something you thought you had moved through. An old wound around identity, agency, or the right to take up space. Surfering aga- surfacing again not to defeat you, but to be seen more completely. What did you not quite finish with in the Aries territory? What needs one more honest look before the healing work moves fully into the body and the earth Let Chiron's retrograde cycle be a compassionate return rather than a discouraging one. Shamanic traditions know that the deepest healing rarely happens in a single pass. It's tidal, it's cyclic, it has its own rhythm And recognize that Chiron does not return to Aries empty-handed. It has touched Taurus briefly but genuinely. The wounds of scarcity, of distorted relationship to resource and embodied worth, of the body that has never quite felt it has enough or is enough, these places of wounding and transformation have been acknowledged at the threshold Chiron helps us carry that awareness back into the Aries work. Your review of identity and agency that these coming months invite you to is now also informed by the question of what it would mean to act, to assert, to take up space from a place of genuine embodied sufficiency, rather than the chronic survival-level scarcity that dominator culture has installed in so many. These two wound territories are not separate. They are informing each other through the retrograde and inviting powerful healing transformation On Thursday, August 6th, Venus enters Libra and the sun in Leo trines Saturn in Aries Two strong movements on the same day, one relational and one grounding. Venus moves into Libra, one of her home signs, where she will remain for just over a month. After the careful discernment and precise tending of Virgo, Venus and Libra breeze into the relational field with greater ease and natural grace. Libra governs balance, beauty, right relationship, and the art of genuine encounter, the capacity to meet another fully without losing oneself in the meeting Venus and Libra brings a quality of genuine relational intelligence to the coming weeks. The desire for harmony here is not avoidance of difficulty. It is the active cultivation of the conditions in which genuine connection becomes possible Beauty as a value, fairness as a felt sense, the recognition that relationship at its best is a genuine art form And on that same day, the sun in Leo trines Saturn in Aries. The conscious self finds easy alignment with the structure. Creative expression meeting honest reality. What has been alive and expansive in Leo season, finding the grounded commitment that gives it genuine form and staying power. This is a really supportive day for honest assessment of what is actually working in creative projects, in relationships, in the structures of daily life. Not harsh critique. That's wounded Saturn. Clear-eyed recognition of what is genuinely sustainable and worth building further And on Sunday, August 9th, Mercury enters Leo, remaining there for about two and a half weeks. And as it enters Leo, it squares Chiron in Taurus Mercury now moves from Cancer, where it has movie-- been moving through the feeling field since mid-May, almost three months, including its retrograde period, and now it moves into Leo. The communicator steps into the sign of the heart, of creative expression, of the courage to speak from genuine conviction rather than careful calculation Mercury in Leo communicates with warmth and generosity. It wants to inspire. It speaks from the center rather than the periphery. After months of Mercury in Cancer's careful, feeling-toned interior processing, which was essential, this shift brings a different quality to thought and speech, more direct, more vital, more willing to be seen in what it knows And on that same day, Mercury squares Chiron freshly retrograded. The communicator meets the wounded healer shamanic one in tension. You might explore where does the wound around speaking from genuine conviction live in you? Where has your voice been shaped by survival rather than authentic expression? Learn to be smaller, more careful, more deferential than what is actually true. Mercury square Chiron asks that question directly. Not to wound further, but to illuminate. This square creates enough friction to make what has been unconscious visible. You might notice this as the day when something you want to say meets an old hesitation you did not know was still there. Be curious about that hesitation. It may be pointing to exactly where the voice, your voice, is ready to grow And then I wanna honor a bit of the coming attractions looking ahead. Take this week as a little pause point, okay? Next week we carry... There's some really significant activation as Venus in Libra and Mercury in Leo begin moving through the elemental field of the social and transpersonal planets. Venus will activate the fire and air planets, moving toward opposition with both Saturn and Neptune in Aries, and making connection with Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini. The relational field meeting structure, dissolution, transformation, and awakening in rapid succession. You might take lots of naps this week, okay? Mercury in Leo will activate the fire planets, trining Saturn and Neptune in Aries, and conjunct Jupiter in Leo. The creative voice finding alignment with structure, vision, and expansion simultaneously So you might consider this as a week of preparation. Let what these cycles offer you this week, Chiron's compassionate retrograde, Venus's graceful arrival in Libra, and Mercury stepping into creative conviction. Allow yourself to genuinely receive these before the next wave of activation arrives And here are three retrograde, here are fr- three retrograde, here are three reflection questions to be with. First, as Chiron retrogrades back into Aries, what wound around identity, agency, or the right to take up space is asking for one more honest and compassionate look? And here also remember the wound of, "I have to do it myself," the solo agent, the lone wolf. Nobody is there to support. That is also part of the Chiron in Aries healing process. Secondly, Venus entering Libra invites genuine relational intelligence. Where in your relational field, humans and more than humans, is the cultivation of real balance, beauty, and right relation most needed right now And then lastly Where does the wound around speaking from genuine conviction still shape your voice? And what wants to be said that has not yet found its full expression? So if those reflections serve you this week, be with them. If they don't, let them go So the poem, I return to one of my favorite poets, Rosemary Wahtola Trommer. The poem this week really invites a shifting of that old story of I-ness, gotta do it all myself, no one else there, all of that, which we all carry. It's a collective challenge The podcast poem is called The Possible by Rosemary Waatala Trommer Starting here. I want to remember the spaciousness that emerges in me when my heart knows itself as an expression of the one great heart In those moments when the I slips away and the we is all When love is unbound from the walls of my chest and expands across mountains and deserts and oceans, and returns with the peaks and tide in each breath. When the rightest parts of my being unclench themselves as if all the bars of the inner prison dissolve, and what's left is freedom to love beyond judgment, beyond should and should not, beyond how my one small heart is capable of loving I remember the first time I felt love carry me through a moment I knew I could not meet alone Since that time, I am learning to trust that the heart of all hearts can rise up in any moment to illumine the path I do not yet see as possible Since that time, I am still surprised, but not surprised, when the spaciousness opens me again to loving what feels impossible to love May that po- poem bless you this week and help you to open your heart and your awareness Thank you for your continued support in so many ways of this podcast. The usual ways, telling others about it, liking it, sending donations, just smiling and feeling the love that's present in our entire field And I want to remind you that if the depths of these cycles is stirring something in you, and it would support you to have grounded support for you in understanding how these cycles are moving through your life, I am offering a few astrology sessions this summer. If you're interested, you can go to my website, ontheedgesofchange.com, and look on the homepage under What's Open Now. Thank you. You have been listening to the Astrology Alchemy podcast with your host, Sheila Belanger. Resources are available at the website ontheedgesofchange.com. Thank you for listening. Bless your alchemical journey to embrace the gold of your true nature.