The Mutable Mash-up of Mid-August 2024

The Mutable Mash-up of Mid-August 2024

Astrologer Maureen Richmond, Ph.D.

Mid-August of 2024 features a mutable mash-up involving Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, all in hard-angle aspect to one another. As redoubtable as that mix would be on its own, the mid-August mutable menagerie stands out as significant for another reason: it veils a critical point in the important 20 year Jupiter-Saturn synod, a cycle of great societal importance, for it fuses the impacts of the power-broker social planets Jupiter and Saturn in a dance of creative energies which affect both the collective and the personal realms.

The Jupiter-Saturn Cycle Defined

Proceeding from the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which forms once every 20 years, the Jupiter-Saturn cycle encompasses all the possible geometrical relationships two bodies can make as they move within their respective orbits and are perceived here on Earth through the circle of the zodiac. Of outstanding importance in this sequence of aspects are these:

1. the waxing square, which forms in a few years after the conjunction when Jupiter has reached a separation of 90 degrees of zodiacal longitude from Saturn,

2) the opposition, which forms half-way through the 20 year cycle when the two planetary bodies stand separated by a full 180 degrees in the zodiac, with one on each side of the Earth, and

3) the waning square, when the two bodies are again separated by a 90 degree arc as Jupiter slowly returns to conjunction with Saturn.

Together with the conjunction, these four aspect positions mark out the essential structure of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle.

Embedded in the four-point structure is the meaning of the total cycle, as unfolded sequentially at each of the four key moments. Further, the meaning of each point in time becomes evident as the aspect matures to exactitude.

The Current Jupiter-Saturn Cycle

The current Jupiter-Saturn cycle began in late December 2020 with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 0 degrees of the sign of Aquarius. Since that time, Jupiter has moved through the signs of Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and half of Gemini. Likewise, Saturn has moved through the signs, albeit more slowly, traversing all of Aquarius and about half of Pisces in the intervening time. Now, in August 2024, Jupiter and Saturn approach the exact waxing square. On August 19, Jupiter and Saturn will arrive at a precise 90 degree separation in the zodiac, as viewed from Earth, signifying the first major step or unfoldment in the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle.

Such an angle of separation occurs only twice during every Jupiter-Saturn cycle, one in the waxing phase of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle, the other in the waning phase of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle. Only once, however, does the waxing square occur within the 20 year Jupiter-Saturn cycle. Consequently, the Jupiter-Saturn square of mid-August 2024 is noteworthy, for it constitutes a moment of outstanding relevance in the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle.

The story began with the most recent conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at 0 degrees of Aquarius in late December 2020. Anyone not comatose hardly needs to have the facts of world conditions for that period rehearsed, for most persons have the memory of international events at that time etched in memory. The world was in the grips of the stultifying covid narrative, with individual and civil liberties thrown to the wind by an hysterical authoritarian response to what would later be revealed as a deliberate creation of the military-medical-pharmaceutical complex.

Round about December of 2020, people the world over began the long battle to reclaim civil and personal rights. The sign of Aquarius in which the conjunction had occurred was much in evidence in the months following, as large groups banded together publicly to register their resistance to and rejection of unwarranted incursions on freedom of thought, speech, travel, and medical choice. The battle was fought and ultimately won by cooperation and collaboration of the masses and the many, two classic characteristics of the sign of Aquarius. Though the fight for unfettered debate still rages on and much remains to be done in the restoration and preservation of the Nuremberg Principle, policies have been reversed in many of the areas most deeply affected by medical authoritarianism.

Now, in 2024, the world scene has changed somewhat. The excesses of the covid era have been grudgingly acknowledged, but not entirely. The threat of a repeat performance haunts many a mind, but fortunately, the astrological conditions of the present time do not in any way suggest a return to the brutal covid policies of 2020, 2021, and 2022. Instead, something else looms on the horizon, though it might be equally complex and oppressive. In Europe and elsewhere, politicians are giving voice to the notion that any expression of ideas questioning the official narrative on any topic (not just covid) ought by definition to be classed as what they refer to as “hate speech.” They want to end all public discussion of any sensitive issue and make it an international crime to question established authority.

The Meaning of the August 2024 Square of Jupiter and Saturn

By contrast, the mid-August mash-up in the mutable signs of Gemini, Virgo, and Pisces flies smack in the face of the attempt to limit intellectual inquiry and discourse. Venus in Virgo, Mars in Gemini, Jupiter in Gemini, and Saturn in Pisces make it so.

The mutable signs are fundamentally bound up with the drive to explore the universe of knowledge, whether this be accomplished by formal schooling or self-directed informational inquiry. Gemini craves intellectual stimulation in the form of reading, conversation, facts, and figures; Virgo can’t do without the details in terms of scientific data, classifications, and knowledge of procedures; Sagittarius pursues the grand theory of everything; while Pisces hankers after a comprehension of the universe, often in terms of physics, astronomy, or some other form of vastly expanded perspective. All the mutable signs concern phases of preparation or training for a step or stage which lies ahead. Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius are particularly concerned with education, schooling, and the conditioning of the mind with relevant forms of knowledge.

With three of the mutable signs directly involved in the mid-August configuration, the mutable quadruplicity is ably represented. Giant Jupiter in Gemini enlarges upon and brings emphasis to the field of mental inquiry demanded and adored by Gemini, Mars in Gemini brings an urgency about the knowledge enterprise, Venus in Virgo draws attention to the pleasures of learning, while sober Saturn in Pisces calls everyone to the realization that human understanding is limited and must be supplemented by deliberate attempts to encompass the mysteries of infinite space and time. (A case in point which exemplifies the mental potential of the mutable signs: Albert Einstein was a sun sign Pisces.)

The full complement of mutable characteristics brings its weight to bear in the mid-August Jupiter-Saturn square and all that it implies, doing so in the context of the powerful waxing square of the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle. According to influential twentieth-century astrologer Dane Rudhyar, the waxing square of any cycle of paired celestial bodies constitutes a crisis of action in which the impetus received with the conjunction at the beginning of the cycle must be given form in specific actions designed to carry out the purposes sensed at the conjunction.

Thus, the Jupiter-Saturn square of August 2024 constitutes the crisis of action for the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle. At this time, it is incumbent on us all that we implement the understandings and inspirations received in late December 2020. With the waxing Jupiter-Saturn square of mid-August 2024, then, definite action is due and must be taken on the leadings gleaned around the time of the Capricorn Solstice in the year 2020.

Even if it is not clear what those purposes were in December of 2020, the process will still work out, and it will be possible to look back some day and see what indeed has flowered forth as a consequence of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 degrees of Aquarius in December of 2020.

The Nature of the Action to Be Taken

What we are to do at this point comes to mind in the environment of a powerful mutable stimulation. Due to the nature of the mutable quadruplicity, such a moment almost inevitably leads to the sense that the acquisition of more self-education, more information, greater contact with the thinking of others, and a wider comprehension of all situations is of the essence. Here is the very antithesis of the intellectual starvation diet currently so much the darling of leading politicians in both the U.S. and Europe.

Sure enough, while Jupiter and Saturn are square in August of 2024, there is a fight under way between the expansive grasp of everything inherent in the Jupiter archetype and the restrictive, repressive, and fundamentally authoritarian instincts of the Saturn archetype. The stage is astrologically set for a show-down between the forces of free inquiry on one side and the forces of censorious control of information flow on the other. Each must take action on the matter.

And yet, now is the time for each of us individually and all of us collectively to take action implementing the truths sensed at and around the Capricorn Solstice of 2020. Our efforts to do so will occur within the following energetic environment.

The Effects of the Mutable Mash-up of August 2024

From August 11 – 22, Mars in Gemini will activate the Jupiter-Saturn square, interacting with Jupiter by conjunction and with Saturn by square. Mars in Gemini shows that the collective is keen to gather information, travel, move about in mind and matter, and is in no condition to accept constraints on freedom of thought. Conversation itself is a subject of debate. Discussion is lively, not subdued like the authoritarians wish.

From August 16 – 22, Venus in Virgo will activate the Jupiter-Saturn square, interacting with Mars and Jupiter by square and with Saturn by opposition. Human relations are strained in regard to health, wellness practices, education, and oppressed minorities. The victim consciousness often associated with Pisces comes to the fore. Blame and guilt tripping abound.

On August 14, the Moon in Sagittarius will further activate the entire configuration, opposing Jupiter and Mars and then squaring Saturn over the period 10 am – 3 pm CDT. Events of the day in both the personal and public spheres bring the matter of free inquiry out into the open.

As is evident, Mars and Venus will both activate the current Jupiter-Saturn square during the period 16 – 22 August, 2024. Stresses and strains in the human community are sure to bring about a fracturing and fragmenting as issues are examined. This is the time period to observe, for in the events of this period will embody the answer to questions about the nature of purposes sensed at the onset of the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle in December 2020.

Additionally, the date of August 14 stands out as critical, for the Sagittarius Moon will add its power to the mix. Within the waxing phase of its cycle itself, the Moon will highlight the nature of the entire volatile configuration on August 14. On this date, the meaning of the current Jupiter-Saturn square will stand revealed for all to see. Then, by August 22, the mutable mash-up of mid-August 2024 will have done its work, championing the importance of free inquiry and leading us each on our personal paths of deepened explorations.