Weekly Horoscope: August 18-24, 2025

It’s a wrap for Leo season this week, culminating in Saturday's radical and energizing New Moon.

Enjoy the “lazy, hazy, crazy” final days of summer. By the calendar, we have many more days to get out and roar, at least until the Sun enters Virgo on Friday, August 22. Each year when that happens, the party is over and we get that “la rentrée” feeling—time to get back to school, work, routine.

Until Friday, we can still tap into the bold, passionate impulse of Leo, encouraging us to play, shine, and express ourselves to the fullest. Monday and Tuesday are especially high-powered days, and we can be productive as well as creative and self-indulgent. The Sun trine Chiron for those days boosts self-confidence, but if we overdo it we may get a reminder about the need for self-care.

On Wednesday, August 20, the Moon adds fire to the Leo party, which rolls on into Thursday.  We may feel an urge to get it all in, sensing that big changes lie in store.

The big shift occurs on Friday, August 22 at 4:34 pm EDT with the Sun’s ingress into Virgo. It’s time to clean up our act under this tidy, efficient sign, perhaps to make up for previous sybaritic indulgences. In the annual cosmic rhythm, this usually is a time of adding some order to our lives by getting organized and implementing new habits and systems. Think closet cleaning and decluttering, and new agendas with task tracking. And filling the freezer with some of this year’s farmer’s market finds. And maybe fine-tuning the nutrition and wellness routines.

American artist and cartoonist Lynda Barry is credited with saying: “Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible BE the unexpected.” That is sage advice for Saturday’s New Moon at 2:07 am EDT. In Virgo, the luminaries will square radical, erratic Uranus in Gemini. This can throw a monkey wrench in all the Virgo focus outlined above. It is likely we will experience disruptions to our routines and expectations. And sudden or surprising events may require us to be flexible and to let go of a Virgoan need to rigidly follow plans and schedules. Here in Quebec, for instance, school administrators are preparing for the year that starts in two weeks, but the province is short more than 4,000 teachers!

Uranus is especially strong right now, as it slows in advance of its retrograde on September 7. Newly in Gemini since last month, we may be experiencing more “wired,” nervous energy and more easily distracted as our minds flit. Yet it also holds spontaneous insights, happened upon when and where we least expect. Creative ideas and wider perceptions are also possible as our brains are slowly being rewired—in a good way.

The side-spinning planet also represents thinking outside the box, even tapping into our own special genius. So with this New Moon, we may experience a sudden download of new ideas, electrically charged perceptions crackling with new possibilities. It can be very exciting—perhaps to much so. Best antidote: keep ourselves grounded with a Virgo attention to our bodies, feeding it healthy foods, and seeking solace in activities like gardening, crafts or even simple chores. Getting close to nature also can heal the soul.

Other planets keeping things “interesting:” Jupiter in Cancer is semisquare, churning up longings for something bigger, better and emotionally fulfilling. As well, Saturn and Neptune, now traveling companions in early Aries, for a quincunx to the lunation, as is Pluto in Aquarius. All the splendid progress we made earlier when these planets aligned harmoniously with one another and Uranus (see last post) may seem like a distant dream.  This applies on a personal level and, since these are transpersonal planets, the collective as well. We will have to make a strong effort to keep the faith and hang onto our dreams.

If we do make the effort, this New Moon can provide a portal, a glimpse of how we might embody our perfect life. It will help us to do it in a Virgo way: realizing our limitations and focusing on small shifts and changes that over time will lead to big results.