Astrology for Sunday, 16 August 2020:

Today the Moon in Cancer moves through an opposition to Jupiter retrograde in Capricorn, a trine to Neptune retrograde in Pisces, and oppositions to Pluto and Saturn, both also retrograde in Capricorn. The Moon is dignified in Cancer, a shelter from which to connect to our aspirations and dreams as we confront ongoing regressive politics and systems of control. Alongside these lunar aspects, the Sun in Leo makes a trine to Mars in Aries. Both planets are vibrant and strong in their domiciles, and together they describe focused clarity, assertive vision, and courageous drive to advance that to which we are devoted, particularly in areas we might think of as agency, autonomy, and self-determination. With both Mars and the Sun in fiery signs in which they seemingly depend upon none but themselves, the ease of this trine could promote the sense of a self-sovereign subject, independent in influence and authority. But it is perhaps in the trine itself—the relationship between them across elemental triplicity—that we recognize what Judith Butler describes as the limits “to any notion of autonomy that establishes the individual as alone, free of social conditions, without dependency on social instruments of various kinds. Autonomy is a socially conditioned way of living in the world.” As we reside in confidence and reassurance in our access to resources we need in order to bring about our will, may we also recognize that whatever feels like individuation or autonomy is profoundly shaped and supported by a world of others to whom we belong and on whom we rely.