The August Solar Eclipse and New Moon is a Wild One

The Solar Eclipse New Moon of August 12th, taking place at 10:36 am PT, has been much anticipated by astrologers. Not only is this lunation a very directly energizing eclipse, the first of two this month, but it is also full of transformational and transpersonal intensity from the outer planet combinations that it triggers, and that are also triggered by multiple personal-planet interactions. Outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, are still closely aligned in the pattern that they have been in and out of for the preceding year or more, which this year has come to be called the Barbault Basket. This is due to noted French mundane astrologer André Barbault and his prediction that the 2026 year, and especially July and August, would be very consequential. In this eclipse configuration the manifold mixing of personal planet placements weave in and out of the basket still formed between the outer planets. Saturn also gets into this picture being closely septile Uranus, quintile Pluto, and trine Jupiter and the eclipse point by about 5 ½ degrees, being precisely trine the Sun-Moon/Jupiter midpoint within ¼ of a degree.

The entire pattern here, including Saturn, reminds me of the quite similar pattern from the volatile 1960s. This was a time when the government was pursuing a war in Vietnam with certain factors – done in secret – that were very damaging to the countries of the region, and their populations. The resulting counterculture signaled a moment when American society was ready, willing, and able to change, and in a sense had to, for its very life. Thinking of our own time, this story might sound familiar.

The further planetary patterning of this eclipse lunation is indeed rather intense. Mercury, now in Leo, at 5° and thus matching Uranus at 5° Gemini, in perfect sextile, is also a match with Venus at 5° of her own sign of Libra, another perfect sextile, with Mercury at the midpoint of Venus partile trine Uranus. Meanwhile Mars at 0° Cancer is in partile (or same-degree) sextile with Chiron, the Wounded Healer, at 0° Taurus, indicating hidden complexes being forced out into the open; thus making waves and sometimes high seas. We can see that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto still come into symmetrical play – only at most a degree off from last month’s full flowering of the basket pattern at 4° all around – and interact with personal planets at 0° Cancer (Mars) or 5° of their respective signs (Mercury and Venus). Venus is in fact part of a tight grand trine with Uranus and Pluto, plus being additionally closely aspected by the eclipse degree in a semi-square of less than a degree. This presages telling evolutionary effects for our existing relationships and could also be indicating the prospective presence of new key relationships coming into being, or at least of new wrinkles appearing in the ones that we already have.

Then there is the Mercury pattern in this eclipse configuration – opposite Pluto and trine Neptune, Mercury at 5° Leo is also partile sextile Venus on one side and Uranus on the other. This is therefore a big moment for Mercury in this eclipse, and for information and learning of a kind that transcends the ordinary and that may, with reflection, get us much closer to the heart of any matter.

As far as the 1960s vibration emerging – that was in the setting framed by the Vietnam war and now we have the problematic recent ‘forever’ wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran… so there is something of a match in that way. We all might need to think about what indeed we are aiming for in this country, especially as we head for the existential mid-term elections when our entire democracy could be on the line. At issue might be whether people of good conscience can step into the leadership vacuum that we are, in one way or another, all experiencing. It doesn’t matter white or brown, republican or democrat, we are generally having that sinking feeling about our ship of state.

These are difficult – and also entirely transformational – times. Not only Pluto, but also Neptune can be transformative and productive of new vision. Then too, Uranus as well lets us know about what is occurring that is beyond the physical. There is in all this a certain degree of chaos that is introduced. A wise man once said, “Do not dwell on the chaos, but await the birth.” And that perhaps remains the truest statement of where we are right now.

The August Solar Eclipse and New Moon is a Wild One

Your Essential Qualities

Get Your Free Birth Chart!

August 2026