Astrologers Russ Von Ohlhausen & Shannon Gill
How is 2023 treating you? ✨ This week our favorite astrologers, Shannon Gill and Russ Von Ohlhausen return, giving us the Cosmic Cliffs notes for the rest of the year. By examining the powerful planetary movements and their impact on our experiences, we gain a deeper understanding of the profound shifts and opportunities that lie ahead. Join us as we navigate the celestial currents and uncover the hidden wisdom of the stars.
Highlights:
Why does this summer feel heavier and not as carefree as usual?
How can astrology serve as a lesson plan for personal growth?
What is the significance of ancestral healing, clearing old patterns, and stepping into personal power as a means of preparing for the emergence of new systems and collective ways of being?
Since many planets are in retrograde right now, what are the keynotes to focus on during retrogrades?
What’s Pluto’s role in bringing forth a time of great revealing and the prophesied time of the apocalypse?
What challenges might be expected during the full moon in Pisces and its conjunction with Saturn?
What themes should we be aware of when the eclipse season starts September 29th?
What are the key astrological transits for the rest of the year and what can we expect?
Do dark forces catalyze human evolution? Are they necessary to push us out of our comfort zones and drive collective growth?
What are the core lessons of the Aries/Libra axis?
The importance of taking time out of the routine during full moons and new moons to check in and realign with your goals and intentions.
How do Aquarius and Uranus influence the current trajectory towards a futuristic system? How does this indicate a move towards a new reality and the need to preserve individual sovereignty?
SHANNON GILL is an Evolutionary Astrologer, Jungian Counselor and agent of personal and collective transformation. With a background in Buddhist psychology, Dance Therapy, archetypal soul-work and indigenous ceremonial arts, Shannon facilitates transformative personal and group experiences utilizing the integration of the wisdom of the cosmos, embodiment practices, sacred ceremony and ritual. www.shannonleigill.com
RUSS VON OHLHAUSEN is a research astrologer & consciousness catalyzer. His work echoes a synthesis of spiritual & material observance commingled with science, religion, myth, metaphysics & most importantly–nature. www.vonohlhausen.org
Shannon and Russ’ ASTRAM academy is a school for higher learning, for better understanding the Heavens above and their connection to the worlds below Astram.org.
Their non-profit, The Shift Foundation, is focused on growing a a community of volunteers, healers, practitioners, free-thinkers, artists, networkers, guided souls and like-minds to help facilitate the shift in human awareness. www.theshiftfoundation.org
TIANNA ROSER is an Usui Reiki Master Teacher, Soul Plan Practitioner and Certified Clinical Hypnotist specializing in Past Life Regression, Life Between Lives Regression and Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT). She uses tools and processes to help people experience their true self, the source of real healing and growth. Learn more at AwakeningTransformation.com. Tianna is the author of the book, “Awakening Transformation: A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming Your Higher Self.” Her book is filled with practices to lighten your spiritual journey and accelerate growth, available on Amazon.
TIM HOWE has always been interested in unusual and strange phenomena and considers himself to be a consciousness explorer. He was born and raised in Table Rock Village, Wyoming, which happens to no longer exist. He currently makes his home in Austin, Texas where he is constantly surrounded by beautiful females (wife, daughter and cat).
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Enter to win a FREE copy of my book, “Awakening Transformation: A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming Your Higher Self”. This Goodreads Giveaway ends 8/31/23.
TRANSCRIPT
Tianna: Well, we're totally due for a cosmic update. Oh my goodness. I have clients coming in saying. Summer is supposed to be fun. And what's going on? I'm not having any fun. This is supposed to be my recharge time. And I always think about how grateful I am to be aware of astrology to have some awareness of what the lesson plan is. Just imagine like we're all in class. And if you don't know what class you're in every day, and nobody gave you the syllabus, how confusing it is. But whenever you come in and you give us Yeah. These, astrology updates and it's kind of the syllabus of like, oh, okay, so we just moved into Aries North node and Libra South node.
And for the next 18 months, I want to be aware. I'm working on boundaries and and balancing my needs and others. Okay, that's the class I'm in. But Man, if I didn't know I was in that class, I would be like, why are people not honoring and respecting my needs? Or, , so forth. So, I really want to reiterate how grateful I am.
especially, , Shannon, you came into my life and before that, I was just very vaguely aware of astrology, but I wasn't really paying as much attention. And now I really pay attention to it. Like I said, kind of as a lesson plan of . What is the collective and what are the cosmos bringing to me to learn and grow from?
Shannon: So thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. And I'm so impressed with your astrological knowledge, knowing the nodes and what that means. And It's amazing, , I've always been really passionate that you don't have to be an astrologer, that you can just learn a little bit about your chart, follow it and follow , the movement of the planets and have it greatly serve your life. I mean, it's sort of like if we're going on a journey or a trip, and we have a choice to take a map, usually we would want to take a map, right? Yeah. Yes.
Russ: Yes. I'm very impressed with your opening statements there, because I feel like I learned something too. So that's what is great about having these dialogues and, oh yeah, she framed something in a way I needed to hear right now, because I can often be up in the analytical space with all of this and it's like, okay, making it practical, practical is something that, looking at it through both lenses, the, perspective of where the soul is going, what's actually happening to us, boots on the ground, And, , yeah , that's important why we have these dialogues periodically , to re ground.
Tianna: Yeah, I think, , amongst the four of us, we have a lot of different perspectives that we bring to the table. And it's really cool because, Tim's going to have this, , lived person in the world experience. And then I'm going to have some of this, , . Everyday client kind of experience. And then of course , Shannon works with people every single day and they're reading and then Russell, you have that like high, high level, like really broad, , well, we all, we all have a little bit of alien experience, , where you can pull from to, yeah, that's high level. I mean, that's becoming more and more of our collective conversation now too, which is really interesting.
Russ: Yeah, it's getting crowded up here in the higher dimensions. I'll say, well, maybe we can start off with I feel like there's a lot of stuff cosmically going on right now that we're in the middle of, or that just kind of shifted.
Tianna: And even though maybe when you guys came in January, in the beginning of the year. We talked about it, but back in January, talking about what's happening in July, , you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's gonna come up, but then when it hits, then you're like, oh, yeah, I need to pay attention to these things.So maybe starting off with what's going on right now.
Shannon: Yeah, absolutely. , you're right. It's speculative when we're looking at transits for the future. I mean, that's the power , in understanding archetypes is , we can prophesize and we can try to make predictions, but it's a completely different story when we're in it because the spectrum of experience , is endless. It's going to affect all of us in all these different ways , and so , I giggled when you said, your clients are kind of like, what's up? This is supposed to be like fun in the sun because it's so true. , , I was revisiting our January talk and remembering you asked us if we had a theme, right?
I thought of it as sort of this year, 2023 being an existential initiation, and that was due to, , really , what initiated in March, which was those two big outer planet changes, right? We had Saturn move into Pisces and Pluto move into Aquarius, which The magnitude of that is huge because it only happens once every 248 years. So it was sort of like the sense of where we're, initiating the new world. We're initiating this new paradigm in some ways without a map. In other ways, we do have, , the astrology and the archetypes look to, but we're also being initiated into, the embodiment of the teachings.
It's one thing to conceptualize and , to talk and share ideas, but , to live the principles is really what's being required of us right now to really make this, this big leap or this big shift in frequency. And so I feel like the first half of the year we were sort of Moving into this new terrain, we were sort of initiating into these new energies and sort of figuring out, like, being in a new home, like, oh, okay. So this is where this would go. And this is this and this and that. And . It was fairly manageable. And then come summer in June is when all the outer planets started to retrograde. So that's what happens is that the planets do their forward motion and then they sort of pause and they go seemingly backwards in the sky.
And that's when . Our forward movement is sort of paused. And we look within and we say, well, wait, how is this actually going? And so, like, in June, pluto moved back into Capricorn. So remember it moved into Aquarius. So we had three months of like, oh, this new, catalyzed experience of the future and we sort of got glimpses and then it moved back into Capricorn, which is something that we're still dealing with right now.
It moved to the anoretic degree. Which is known as the death degree, which is a critical degree. , it's meaning that something is at the end and it's kind of like Pluto's doing the cha cha, like two steps forward, one step back. And going back into Capricorn,, when we think about Capricorn, , there's always more than one way to look at a sign.
We look at how it exists in the world. And so we think about Capricorn in the world is the system, the structures, the foundation, the government, things of that nature. And then we look at the structures within our own world. And so we've been invited to look personally, and I work with clients, , at our own hidden dependencies.we're wanting to build this, this new world of sovereignty and unit of consciousness, but yet yeah. We are also very dependent on a system that has not had our well being necessarily at the height of its in tentions, but we have to look also at our own personal dependencies within our relationships and.
Also, Capricorn has to do with integrity and alignment. So where could we possibly be , out of integrity or alignment with our principles? And how are we building this new world or actually working against ourselves in that way?
Russ: Yeah. So, I look at this whole thing as a, , uh, alchemical process that we're moving into with, Capricorn Aquarius , two saturnine, but quite different energies. So , I'm picturing in my head a beaker with a solution that's being alchemized, and, you have impurities in the solution, and you pour another solution in, and, shake it up a bit, and it coagulates, and that's when Pluto moves back into Capricorn, and it moves back, it does its dance, and you shake it up a little bit, you pour out the impurities, you do it again, and we're at the last phases of this part of the alchemical process, the recoagulation.
So, once we pure off these last bits of impurities and what's happening in the world. Then we're going to move into another phase alchemical process. This was when Pluto moves fully into Aquarius. And that's where we're going to see major, major changes happen rapidly. So , this is a dying process that we have to go through, but so something else can be reborn. This is the same thing that happened at the Initiation of our country. And so we're looking at the same thing through , the larger lens of the nation going through the same process , as we move forward to, but you're going to see it reflected in our own personal lives, that's what's important as well.
Tianna: Do you have any suggestions for people? , I definitely have felt it really hit in my personal life as well. What are your suggestions for people dealing with these challenges or these initiations?
Yeah, I feel like we are being challenged, , if we want our freedom, quote unquote, and our sovereignty, well, then we have to let go of daddy, like we can't have it both ways.And so what does that mean? We're not really sure what that looks like, oh, we build community and we start relying on each other and we work organismically, one of my favorite words, but this is all concept until it's actually. Integrated into an evolving system. So I think that's good that we have, , a spectrum of time to work with this as it's going back and forth because we're kind of finding our way in the dark a little bit and so I think we look at places where we are maybe not taking full responsibility for our role, or we're too dependent. Maybe we're dependent on our partner, or maybe we're just in the back of our mind going. Well, my parents are going to be, not here for too much longer.
Maybe that's going to be taking care of my future or, there's ways in which, , we are maybe not. Activating our particular contribution and we think about Aquarius or any sign for that matter. You always want to look at the polarity point to get the full spectrum of information. Aquarius is the whole, it's the group. It's the community. It's the organism. The polarity point is Leo, which means that Leo is our particular contribution. Our individual spark and creative obligation. To create that cohesion within the community. So I think and another thing that we're going to talk about today is this is like, such the perfect time because Venus is retrograde in Leo.
And so we are given this opportunity. To explore, what that might be, what is our relationship to the larger evolution? And how is it related to our personal gifts, our personal light? And are we living that? Are we giving that I might also add that, , you could look to the chart, your personal chart and see where this is occurring, what houses, and that should give you a theme or a flavor of what you may see playing out, now.
And then, of course, in the next few years in your own life personally.
Definitely, definitely. Yeah, another thing I just want to add about, , I know we need to move on to the second part of the year, but , just kind of always important to see that there's, there's a spectrum of time, right? We're still in these retrogrades till the fall. So I want to name them. Saturn is also retrograde, went retrograde the same month in June. It was Pluto, Saturn and Neptune all went retrograde. So that's a lot of like halting of moving forward and like screeching going backwards. , And so Saturn rules Capricorn, and so , it's similar in a way archetypally, which is a way to understand astrology, you can look at the sign that , uh, is ruled by which planet and try to understand the relationship there.
But basically it's saying the same thing, like it's time to get real. Do you have a plan? Are you in integrity and alignment to it? If not, what do you need to go back and reassess? And then the Neptune retrograde is really interesting because, first of all, Saturn is in Pisces, which is ruled by Neptune.So it's almost, it feels to me like , a lot of the work is inside. And we talked about this in the first part of the year. We talked about we're really being called to be an integrity to the higher laws. And so when Neptune goes retrograde, which is the ruler of Pisces, , one of the questions to ask is, is there any way that you're escaping from?
Life. and where are you escaping to? And are you living in any, in any type of an illusion? Like, are you telling yourself stories that maybe aren't true? , and that is also something we need to be really awake and aware of what we are manifesting on a daily level. The energies are really intense out there if you're awake and you're paying attention. So there's a real desire for relief. There's a desire for, some kind of, , an escape, really, , from everything that feels like it's It's kind of crumbling upon us, but this is where if we're doing our daily practices and keeping our mind and our body clean and clear. We literally have a different experience of it.
And so with Neptune retrograde, it's really asking us to be an integrity to how we are staying present. How are we staying present? So those are the big things that happened in June. And then July, I have to say, a lot of people are saying maybe the biggest month of the year. It's close. March was big. July is really, really big. I know this probably won't go out till. maybe early August, but I'm going to name some things because, again, they pertain to the rest of the year. , which, Tiana, you started off so beautifully saying, yes, the nodal axis shifted out of Scorpio Taurus into Libra Aries.
So the nodal axis is the line of fate. It is the axis of polarity that affects the collective consciousness and has to do with our collective karma to clear up and our dharma. And again, it's really helpful to know where this axis of polarity lies in your chart. So, specifically where Libra is, where Aries is, because this axis is what creates the eclipses.And the eclipses are the power points in the year that force the big changes upon us. And we're going to have an eclipse season in October, November, which we'll talk about. But even before we get to the eclipses, we've already started to feel the shift. Yes. Tianna. Is that an agreement?
Tianna: Yeah.
Shannon: Yeah. And so this is the axis of self and other. This is the axis of, me versus we relationship to others, our relationship to ourself. And I think I'll wait to go into it more specifically when we talk about the eclipse, but basically we're trying to balance out our solo needs and our solo drives with our interpersonal relationships, our desire for union versus our desire for independence and autonomy, self interest versus justice, things like that.
And so we're really being called to purify our personal missions, to look honestly at where we fall on that spectrum. Some people. Give their self away, , and our people pleasers and we'll do anything for intimacy. Other people are maybe on the other end of the spectrum where it's more self focus and, focused on their own needs, their own drives, their own future. The other thing about the Libra Aries axis is this is the axis that rules the armed forces. It rules the army, the Navy, the air force, even though we think about Libra being peace and our allies, it also rules enemies. And so this is really interesting. Whenever we get to the eclipse season is that it's really going to force some of these global issues.
Just to highlight that or to accentuate that, we look at the fact that now, as of July 22nd, Venus, which rules Libra, so again there's a similar archetypal resonance there, is now in retrograde. And so Venus retrogrades much more rare than Mercury. Mercury is three times a year. We're really familiar with that, which Mercury rules our functionality, , how we're operating our mental sphere has to do with how we communicate navigate the world.
Venus is our relationships. And so, The combination of this axis of fate moving into the axis of relationships and Venus now retrograde is saying, , there's no more, hiding the skeletons in the closet or running from this or that when we're in retrograde, it is basically, where the energy stops moving forward. And it's forced back internally upon us and so when we think of a retrograde, we always use the rewords. It's a time to rewrite, revisit, reassess, reconsider and Venus again is relationship. It's a relationship to self primarily and which is a. Vibrational frequency, which is a magnet that then will bring in the sacred mirror, Libra, the relationship to other.
So Venus rules Taurus relationship to self and Libra relationship to other Venus also rules our relationship to life. It's what we want. It's what we desire and it's what we need. And so these are big considerations when we think about Venus that we're often told it has to do with our values because our values. Which is what we want and what we desire, then end up being the foundational principles of that which we want to create, which then becomes our reality, so Venus retrograde is pretty much everything in a way. Venus rules the whole spectrum of life.
Tim: Everything you said always resonates with me, Shannon. It's so beautifully put, too. I have to say that first. Thank you. It really makes sense that all these retrogrades are happening because, for me personally, I've been replaying a lot of things. that happened to me in my life over and over again, and I'm like, , analyzing it from a different perspective, and I'm realizing that there are these patterns that keep playing out, like, over and over again, and I think, , once I recognize them, I'll probably be able to break them, but it's just been really intense for a while, for the last few weeks, and I feel like I'm probably not alone in that.
And, , it's funny because you were saying earlier that we have to figure out if we have any illusions that we're living by , and Tianna and I looked at each other and we kind of smiled because we for sure thought that Russ was going to chime in and say something about Beyond the Illusion at that point because he always does.
Russ: Oh yeah, sorry, no, no. I missed your cue. I missed my cue on that, so. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man.
Shannon: Well, I want to just add something in relation to what you shared, Tim. First of all, I love that another retrograde word, replay. I love that. You know how we can just spin our stories in our head, right? Something else that was bringing up the intensity level in this last month or so is that when the nodes shifted into Aries Libra, they started being squared by Pluto.
Yeah. Because Pluto's at that death degree, that anaerobic degree, and the nodes move backwards in the zodiac, so they move to the death degree, the 29th degree of Aries and Libra. That's an exact T square, which is a tense aspect in the sky, and basically what it's saying, Pluto is saying, Something has to die.
Pluto is the planet that rules regeneration, like a snake, constantly shedding skins. , I have always said, On the podcast, to my children, we can't have summer without winter. It rules that regenerative process through death and rebirth. And Pluto , doesn't mess around. It's going to bring up from the surface, whatever has been sort of hiding out or lurking.
And then also that last new moon and cancer on the 17th of July was not your normal new moon. New moons don't tend to be that. Emotional, but it was exactly opposed by Pluto. So again, I keep hearing from all my clients like, wow, so much emotionality, so much stuff coming up that anaerobic degree of Capricorn. Capricorn is the family. , this is the structure. We talked about the structure of our government. Well, it's the structure of our family as well. So that square and these energies are saying what is left undone. That's so
interesting. I'm glad I have people like you who know all the fine details of astrology because always, it's super fascinating how specific it is.
But yeah, I've been doing a lot of kind of ancestral clearing and healing. So it's interesting when you talk about family because it's like these patterns that I recognize within myself, but then I can see it across my family line. Yeah. And it makes sense in the way that you were explaining it.
It's just been like intense, but powerful and necessary. And I'm embracing and owning it. But, , to think of it in this like really big broad way, , and I've heard that from others too, , that they're also realize that they're doing a lot of ancestral healing that we were coming in and doing this really major deep healing and clearing, , that's why it can feel very heavy because there's these patterns,, that have passed through in many generations that we're really working on that last level to heal and transform on the planet.
Absolutely. And that is where the focus should be is what we can control is what's in our sphere, the work that we're doing in our own universe and our own families and our own systems, even our communities.
Is the micro of the macro. We know this, that we are , fractals of the larger whole. So, we Should never feel powerless about what's going on in the world because it's just a collective projection of what's going on in all of our interior world. So really, that is where the power lies is to take control of our own toxic systems and past and whatever hierarchical and always to come from compassion. And that's the polarity point of Capricorn, which is cancer, the mother. , because no matter how toxic or dark some of this material may be, it's all symptomatic of being in the dark ages. Where we were in that illusion of separation from source from the light and so we as an organism had all the whole variation of dispersions that played themselves out in our human dynamics.
So when we go through these moments, it's like. We don't do it all at once. Thank goodness. We can't do it all at once. But when we're in the retrogrades, it's like, okay, now we dip back into this deeper terrain and we're in a different place than we were before. And so that's really essentially what evolution is.
Great. Well, are we at the point now to look at the second half of the year . Yeah, Let's jump in. Okay, so I'm guessing we're talking August. And so some of the energies we spoke about, of course, are still in play. , and we mentioned that Venus went retrograde on the 22nd, it will be retrograde till September 3rd. But let's look at August, August 8th, Lionsgate. So this is something that is of a lot of people's attention and awareness. It is an alignment of our sun and our sister sun, Sirius, which opens up a portal of higher consciousness it is a kind of a controversial calendar date that some people disregard.
Some people say it doesn't have the merit that it's given, but my personal experience has been that it absolutely can, the veil feels very thin around that time. Yeah. So since we are talking about the lion's gate, I'll go ahead and open it up. I guess I've been. Waiting to I don't want to open the conversation to to higher complexity at the moment, because we're talking about a lot of mundane things right now.
And really what I've been doing is a lot of looking behind the veil. And one of the first things we have in August is the discussion of the Lion's Gate. A lot of astrologers don't focus on this, but it is in alignment with Sirius, Orion, and the Earth. And what we see here is a higher level of consciousness that begins to come in on this focus date. And it usually lasts, in this case, they say from around the 28th of July to August 12th. So that's your portal. For, around the lion's gate. But this is a time when the veil, another period in the year when the veil is thin and it can be a powerful time for many. It's like learning to express your lion traits, to take some personal rulership, ownership of yourself and your projects, like whatever's going on.
Just use that energy, in a Leo kind of way. Also, it's about going into the heart, remembering to find deep gratitude with everything that is going on despite. So that's the Lionsgate portal as it helps open us up if we're open enough, we can see these non divisive non dual light codes. That's what it's talking about. It allows us to open our eyes so that we can see the nature of the matrix a little more. And you just do this all the time when the dimensions become thin and it happens multiple times during the year. And this is one of those that at least, many believe that, , is a good time to do that.
So, yeah, I'll just share that twice in the last few years, I've spent some time opening up. On that day, the Lionsgate day and spent a little bit longer in meditation and being a little bit more intentional and my little brother, John, who crossed over in 2015 came twice , two years apart, in the same way that , he always comes to me through, through music and technology, just kind of confirming sort of like a little high five from the other side, , so for me, I have personal, , Experience that this is , a true opening where the veil is very thin and we can contact the other side or we can utilize that light like Russell said for manifesting purposes.
And so really being really focused during that time. And again, we're talking about Leo season, which the polarity point of Aquarius. The success of our future, for me, lies in the capacity for each of us to give our gift, which is connected to the heart, which has to do with what brings us joy, what brings us into a higher frequency of love. It really is that simple. It's not easy, , but I think we actually overcomplicate things, but we're still untangling ourselves from the matrix. We're still stuck in this machine existence where the program is that we have to work hard and we have to work for, retirement and we have to do all of these things.
But actually, if we spend. More time in the subtle realms, it feels to me like we get kind of become exempt to some of that, like that we actually get to experience life where it flows in these more nuanced, subtle ways where, , it looks like magic is like, wow, this incredible alignment happening. I met this person, they have this thing that I need, or , they're doing the same, that's the synchronicities and the more that we spend time.
Nurturing those subtle realms within and aligning our frequency within. I think that the more success that we can have, the more we can accelerate our progress in that way.
Tim: Yeah, I just want to chime in right here. I think you're absolutely right when you say that. I've found that to be the case in my own life too. It's almost like the harder you try, the more difficult it becomes. So it's like a letting go, but it's also , like you were saying , being aware of the subtleties of what's happening in your life and in your mind and in your spirit. And, I think when you're in touch with that, yeah, that's when the magic really does happen. And it does seem like magic, because it's easy, it's like effortless at that point. And, , yeah, I've witnessed that many times in my life. And I've struggled with it actually because it's easy to fall into the worldly trap of like oh I have to do this. I have to do that. And then you're stuck.
Tianna: I just have to also bring in the perspective and I think this is why it's so helpful to know your own specific chart as well, because although all of that is very true, but like for me this year, , especially maybe like when Saturn moved into Pisces and I have Pisces rising This year for me it's felt a little bit like usually like, Oh, I'm just magically manifesting. And I like to spend my time on all this, but I've had to actually do a lot of discipline and perseverance. So sometimes maybe depending on your chart, what your lessons are, actually, some of us need to more hard work in, cause that's what we're learning right now. And then others, maybe it's like, Oh, you don't have to do so much hard work and you can, , manifest more. That's why I think it's super interesting, , we're getting a reading from Shannon, knowing kind of more. What you're learning right now. It's going to really vary on on what's true for who
Russ: good point. That's true Oh, so on that note, I'm just going to give you a little heads up that I mean I happen to make a final note before we went on today and we're going to skip back over that but August 30th, there's a full moon in Pisces and it's conjunct Saturn So what you just described is like a little dip a pothole , and I'm giving you a little warning, there's a pothole, of the high season Saturn energy coming up, , and it may feel a little messy in this configuration and it, probably gonna feel a little heavy, a little sad again, , , but knowing that, you can plan ahead.
Shannon: yeah, you can make space for really on the full moons and the new moons. To be in full alignment is to take time out of our routine. Because we get on the hamster wheel of life. And then we don't even realize, Oh, I've made a wrong turn. Or why did I do that? And so it's a time to check in.
And that's true. We're just kind of talking about August, that full moon does look a little heavy. And we're also going to be in Mercury retrograde starting in August. So August 23rd, Mercury goes retrograde. So we're going to have 6 planets retrograde at the same time. That's a lot. And so just to know that, if it feels like you're walking through mud or that , your goals from January or from the spring equinox are not moving, have a little faith and compassion that we're refining, we're refining, okay? And that, remember, it's not so much about the destination as it is about the journey, right?
So when Mercury retrogrades, it's going to retrograde in Virgo this time. And Virgo is how we. Perfect. , the art of life in a way. So it has to do with the complexity of all the details. It has to do with our health. It has to do with how we operate our homes, our work, everything. And ,well, let me just say this. Virgo is ruled by mercury. So it's kind of like a double emphasis. It's really at home there. And so it's a time to go in and be like, okay, I've been a little bit lax here or this is where I'm checking out there or I've slowly gotten off my diet. Virgo rules our health. And I know Russell and I , we did this really pretty profound six month total cell regeneration cleanse. And then we, , we're like, Completed it and our intention is for it to be lifelong change and it has been for sure, but there's been a little bit of this and a little bit of that and two birthdays in June and family vacations. And, it's like scope creep. It's like, all of a sudden, like, oh, I'm feeling heavy and then it affects your clarity and then it affects your emotions. And it's like mercury retrograde and Virgo is saying, let's be real about, , where do we need to get back into alignment with our self?
Russ: Well, I blame Neptune for that one because , I was really clear for a while and I saw Neptune coming and I thought, oh man, we're going to get derailed on this and we're , the temple's not going to be as pure and we're going to munch. And exactly what happened. So now knowing that it's, I don't feel so guilty that Neptune came and played its foggy trick on me.
Shannon: Well, and Neptune rules Pisces, which is the opposite of Virgo. So with Mercury in Virgo, and then we're going to be entering Virgo season right there at the end of August and September, it's a time to clean things up. It's a time to really get back into alignment and purification. And then in early September, Venus goes direct. And so we're going to start having some clarity. We're going to have the sort of this. Different relationship to relationships, we're going to have already gotten , the memo if it wasn't handed to us, it was shoved down our throat about where we've been out of alignment with self and other, and again, it's not just Venus retrograde, but that Pluto squaring the nodes is bringing up very old patterns.
And we look at Venus retrograde in Leo, and we can say, well, when was the last time Venus was retrograde and Leo to get an understanding of what is closing up, which was 2015. So you can think about that, chew on that a little bit, what was going on for you in 2015, it was around the summer, but you can think about the whole year, because we're circling back to that same material. So when Venus goes direct, we start to implement the recalibration, , and the realignment and moving and moving forward. And then the very next day , Jupiter retrogrades in Taurus. So September. Yeah. So it's almost like, again, it's that cha cha energy.
So Venus goes forward. The very next day, Jupiter goes back in Taurus. Jupiter is the planet that rules expansion. It has to do with our vision. Our reality is formulated through our vision, which is based in our beliefs. So it's good to go back and to reassess. Our perspective now and then so this is again the gift of Jupiter in retrograde and it's in Taurus, which again, here we are.So this is where you learn the archetypes. We've been talking about Taurus because it's one of the signs that's ruled by Venus. It has to do with our relationship to life. It has to do with what we value most. And remember, the North Node has been in Taurus for the last year and a half. So all the eclipses were in Scorpio Taurus.
So we've been getting a deep, , initiation into what's most important. Simplifying our life. Taurus is also love's pleasure. And so with Jupiter that has to do with expansion when it's retrograde is like, where might we have expanded too much? Is there anywhere where we're in excess? , it could be money, Taurus rules money, , it could be food, it could be relationships, it could be resources in general, , and so Jupiter is going to invite us to review and renew our vision and Jupiter is known to be the planet that brings Faith and buoyancy.
So it's an opportunity if there's any resonance of feeling like off track or a little low vibration, to boost one's sense of. Faith and belief in themselves and then the evolution of the world because, it's like if you're paying attention to the news, it can be quite depressing, but again, just to remind that that's just the third dimension of reality and that we are the pioneers, North Node and Aries, the warriors of this new world, which means that we have to understand ourselves on an energetic level to have this new experience of life, we can't get caught up in what's disintegrating. We can very easily get caught up in that storm if we're looking down a lot. So Jupiter is inviting us, excuse me, to look up.And so that's another big thing happening, also in September.
Tim: Yeah, I kind of. can fall into that trap too of what you just said, looking down and seeing the disintegration and getting really discouraged by that, and I think it's an easy trap to fall into, especially for me, because I'm like, one of these people who I want to save the world, like in terms of the ecology of it, the ecological impacts of what we're doing to our earth of What's happening to just everything in general and I really feel strongly affected by that So I have almost like a complex where I feel like I need to do something to save the world whether it's recycling or renewable energy or whatever it might be, I feel that pressure on myself like really heavily and
Russ: spoken like a true Taurus
Tim: Yeah and you also said something that Triggered a memory from the last podcast we did with you guys where Russ actually said that there's gonna be this Expansion from Jupiter and you might expand too much and then you'll have to rein it back in I remember him specifically saying that and I thought to myself, oh, I won't do that. And then I'm thinking now like oh, yeah, I did do that actually Yeah, so that's so true
Shannon: Yeah, no, that's great. I love you sharing that because we haven't gone into the nodes that deeply. But one thing that I want to emphasize is that with the south node in Libra and the north node in Aries, the south node is where we get stuck. The South Node is where we have karma and where we stop growing or there's shadow material. And so we've been talking a lot about how the Aries, Libra, Nodal axis about relationships. But also, if we want to talk about it more collectively, we can look at the shadow of Libra on a global scale is.
Libra wanting everything to be comfortable, Libra wanting everything to stay nice and peaceful, Libra wanting to not rock the boat, , and , birth is active, and here we are at this threshold between the ages where we've chosen to be here, and it's going to require that we activate, which is the north node in Aries, the warrior, so collectively, we're all being called to take on our more active expression of pioneers of spiritual warriors piercing into and beyond this Glass ceiling of existence so that we can truly.
Start to manifest and see these new systems of sustainability and operating in harmony come into full fruition. And so, we are still stuck in that paradigm of helplessness, which was the program of powerlessness, which came from the Pisces age of power over and so it's each of us that is having to liberate and that's what I'm talking about.
Pluto and Capricorn is saying, where are we still dependent? Thinking that the powers outside of us and they were dependent on something outside of us because meanwhile they're going on with their agenda And we're sitting here sort of like what do we do, right? So this is where the north node in aries is saying, calling all warriors.This is a spiritual battle. This is a spiritual alchemical process that we're in and so even if you find found one little organization to plug into, just something to put your energy into. I bet it would just completely activate and transmute that experience that you're having.
Tianna: Yeah. So this next 18 months, are you saying that perhaps on a collective level, there might be more wars more battle right with Aries North node and Libra South know that there's , perhaps on a global level going to be more of those types of things necessary, but I'm like, , at least if we have a heads up of, there's a deeper spiritual reason why these things are happening, then if we see this on the global stage, maybe it won't scare us as much.
Russ: We have to call it what it is. It's a war and it's going to be a physical war that's on the increase. We already see that happening. We were predicting this several years ago. I think we actually predicted some of this increase specifically at this time. What we're seeing here is, , people may not know this, but utter devastation in Ukraine.
So whatever you hear out there on the mainstream, , there's some intensity happening and it's going to increase and we can't be afraid of that, and the other side of this, that's the Aries energy. It's war. It does have that war quality. It has strength. It has energy. It has initiation and it's activation and it's going to continue to do its part in the equation. And the very uncomfortable polarity of that is, Libra is going to be forced to pick a side, but Libra doesn't like that. Libra wants to keep things in harmony, but guess what? Things are in this reality switch from left to right because we are in a duality.
So you see more and more of this. Now, people are being flipped on. Like they're becoming like, I cannot. Accept this untruth anymore, I'm suddenly they go from, I'm a Biden lover to Trump. It's like that. You see people flipping and that's just a, using that as an example in the political realm of the world. But this is going to be happening, , all throughout that people are going to have to take a stand for whether you are complicit in what's going to be happening, or you're going to take the initiative to become a sovereign individual. Take charge of everything that and what is required to create the next level of our own realities.
And historically, it's quite typical that we that there's world wars. , between the ages along with pandemics. Yeah, so the last time we saw some of these signatures, , we saw the Aries, Libra nodal shift was at the beginning of World War II in September of 39. So we're seeing some, to say that it's not, , we're not looking at that. We have to be real , that this is going to be an increase. And a lot of people are in our field are discussing that, because Aquarius rules, high energy, could that be looking at the new nuclear equation? And so,, these are intense discussions that people don't want to always have, but that's part of the reality that we're facing now. We've never been in this position before. It's, beautifully, exciting in a lot of ways that it feels tragic to watch and it's very unnerving for everyone. So, but that's where we have to walk the center and not be swayed to the left or right of whatever is happening.
Shannon: So just kind of wrapping up September there, Mercury will have its Kazemi, which is where it runs into the sun. September 6th, where usually there's some aha moment. Sort of like the information you were seeking in your underworld journey while it was retrograde and then it goes direct September 15th And then the Aries full moon September 29th Opens the eclipse gate.
And so the eclipse season is always six weeks long when there's two eclipses So September 29th Aries full moon through November 13th Which is notoriously an acceleration of the energies on the planet, a reshuffling of the cards of our lives in relation to our deeper souls contracts. So this is all very conceptual, but it also can be very specific depending on where it lands in your chart. October 10th, Pluto will go direct. Okay, so there's often a little bit of an intense energy whenever it's been going retrograde and then it turns direct and, remember it went back to Capricorn where we were doing all that deep, underworld work. And now it's going to start moving back towards Aquarius again and it will.
Not inter Aquarius till January of 2024, but it's going to slowly start moving in that direction , the first eclipse is October 14th, which is a new moon solar eclipse. It's the first eclipse in Libra of the series since the nodal axis has shifted. And solar eclipses tend to be, because they're new moons, the birth of something new.
However, it's a south node. eclipse, meaning that it's connected to the south node, which is about the past. It's where the karma is. So , anytime there's a new or a full moon, I've learned that it's not really smart to think of them very specifically around beginnings and endings, because with every beginning, there's also an ending with every ending, there's a beginning, right?
So we just know that it's a time of Transformation. So the Libra eclipse is at 21 degrees. If anybody pays attention on that level to the astrology and it's basically saying something's coming to an end in the world, it could be having to do with justice and with the imbalances, , on a personal level. It could be like, there's no more avoidance of the relationship issue. That's been boiling since Pluto square. The node since Venus retrograde, it feels like there's something building. Thank you. That has started with the shift of the nodes, the Pluto square, and then the Venus retrograde that the eclipses are going to snap it.
There's something that's like going to make the final shift, the big, big events in our lives happen during eclipse season. And so whatever has been brewing will probably manifest in some way. Libra is also our business partners, just throw that in, and has to do with, , our partnerships , in the realm of our work. And then the second eclipse will be two weeks later, October 28th, which is a full moon lunar eclipse. And it's the last eclipse in Taurus of the series. So , basically we are wrapping things up that we've been working on in the last year and a half with the nodal axis in Taurus, Scorpio.
And, in a way, the Taurus energy was all about, how are we going to survive? There's all this. And as I guys know, we've got to start growing our garden and, , we need to simplify and we need to diversify our money a lot around like survival. I feel like intuitively this is an invitation to find the balance with that and not just focus on surviving but thriving. How do we balance simplicity with pleasure? Taurus wants to feel good. Taurus wants pleasure. So there's some final decision making around whatever we've been working on in the last year and a half, Taurus also rules the temple. And since it's a full moon lunar eclipse, it could be a time where you're like, you know what, I'm finally just going to accept it.
Dairy does not work for me, and so there could be something more personal that way about how we're honoring the vessel. Cause again, it's everything, the temple, if you want God to dwell, then you need to create space for the divine within. , and also just remembering , the full year theme being the initiation, the existential initiation, the more we can be clear in our vessel and aligned with our values, then, the more success we're going to have in going through these gates that we want to, open up to these higher realms.
So November feels like more of a reflective month, and I think that's because we're sort of, , integrating the eclipses, and we've had just a lot of, like you said at the beginning, Tianna, intensity from the summer , and so Saturn goes direct November 4th. And, Saturn has been forcing us to think about, how effective have we really been with our strategy that we set in place at the beginning of the year of the infrastructure of our world? And so when it moves direct November 4th, we can make those adjustments , and just accept that this is, wherever we fell asleep or wherever we were checking out, or we got a little off track with this out or the other, it's time to sort of bring everything back into alignment and get that plan into action.
And that's really the only outer planet aspect in November. And, and then we just roll on into December where it feels like. The invitation is to truly clarify the vision , December tends to be a reflective time, , where we're wrapping up the Gregorian calendar year and December 3rd, Jupiter will go direct. So remember, Jupiter was all about the refinement of our vision, the sober assessment of where we may have expanded in the wrong areas. It had been retrograde since September 4th, so December 3rd, we get to sort of rebirth that vision. This is Sagittarius season, so there's something about being jovial, , around the holidays, so it does feel lighter.
Neptune will also go direct that same week, December 6th, and so, , With Neptune, that was the planet of Pisces, where We might've been escaping or, , living in an illusion. And so December 6th, it goes direct and it's sort of like, all right, where did the year go? Coming out of the illusion. And I don't know if you guys feel like this, but I'm constantly sort of tripped out by the reality of time or the illusion of time. I'm just like, wow. It just really emphasizes the importance of making every day count. Every day, like every day, if you can have a good day, and I think about my brother, John, , who passed in 2015, he was a Pisces. He would say, "If I can just get up in the morning and make my bed, I know it's going to be a good day.”
And that for him just meant like the rituals are important. Like the focus on the details are important. Because they set the tone for the day and I can really feel that I can really feel like if I if I wake up in the right way and I do my practices and I exercise my body and I clear my mind and I start with the right substances juice or whatever it is, it affects my entire day and then I can go to bed and feel good at night and then that week feels good and then that month is more productive and we don't lose time because we are Slowly sort of like discounting the importance of the integrity and alignment to the higher laws, the natural world.
Tianna: I feel so grateful in the work that I do because I do so many past life regressions where every day we're going through someone's whole lifetime, right? A whole past life. And then we're looking at it from the big picture, so it's constantly has my mind thinking that like, oh, if I died today. Do I feel complete or where do I need to make adjustments so that I will feel complete? And so I feel really grateful to constantly have that mirror of what's important, where do I want to put my focus and attention to? I don't know if you're finished with December, but so far, I'm really liking that it sounds like this lightness that's coming , cause I feel like the past few years, there would be something big eclipse or like , Saturn's changing or something. There's been big things kind of still happening at the end of the year. And since this whole year has felt like there's a lot of big things, it sounds really nice to be able to, like you said, feel the holiday season. feels light and jovial versus, maybe something squaring something else. And, maybe you still have a surprise to tell me, but I'm kind of hoping , Oh, this sounds kind of nice. Yes. Tell me there's going to be a happy ending to this year.
Shannon: It really does feel that way. I mean, we have the planets changing directions of the outer planets. We do have Mercury doing its last retrograde actually retrogrades four times this year, which is a little bit more uncommon, but I feel like that. It's actually not a bad thing because it gives us this opportunity to go ahead and start. I don't know, cleaning the engine in a way for the next year. It's going to retrograde and Capricorn, which is our structures and back into Sagittarius, which is our vision. So it sort of feels like it's really priming us to move into 2024 already really in more alignment. And focused and , then Pluto enters Aquarius in January, I think it's January 24th. And so, I feel like things are going to speed up again.
Tim: What I was going to say earlier is that, well, right now we're in the middle of a big heat wave, right? But there's the bigger picture like, there's this, general warming of the planet. And it seems to be really emphasized this summer because of all the record breaking heat.Do you guys have any thoughts about that and just the planet warming in general and, not even really from a astrological perspective, unless you want to, but just what are your ideas about what's happening there?
Russ: Yes, we are. Warming and yes, we are coming out of a very low period. We've been in higher periods starting around 4000 years ago. We've been up and down, , even in these cycles in the last 2000 years, we've gone through these many ice ages and whatnot. So we're actually coming out of a very low period comparatively to over 6000 years ago. , and at the end of the younger dry ice. Period, that was around 11, 600 years ago.
So that was when we saw a peak from from the ice age So yeah, we're at a little pothole Associated with Pisces again and it lowers our temperature It is like the valley of the shadow of death and when you're in a shadow it lowers your temperature and we're gonna come out of this shadow and it's as we do so The Earth is going to warm up. The whole solar system is going to warm up. So what's happening is these vibrations that we relate to , as particles from the sun and energy with the planets, you could compare these to spiritual vibrations. So we're seeing these, as truth vibrations coming in.
So, the truth is going to heat things up, literally. That's what's happening. And then this is associated back to astrology with Pluto. , I see this synergy happening with Aquarius, the shift, and then of course the Uranian energy attached to that. These are two signatures of truth. They don't care about feelings. They don't care about what we've built. They're here to make a change. And that's what the energy is about. And part of this is, wakening up the energy within people, but it's also physically affecting the earth. And it's going to raise our temperature again, back to where it was. Prior to 4, 000 years ago.
Tianna: Wow, 11, 000 years ago or 4, 000. I was like, this is a very big picture that you're looking at.
Russ: Yeah, this is, we're talking about a pothole that started about 4, 000 years ago. The temperature dropped. And you saw, the spread of cultivation and farming and everything, , , you can see it back in our own history and they've gone up and down, but now things are beginning to increase again. So we're going into a very high vibration and a high temperature state.
So it's going to raise the temperature by a few degrees. They have evidence of all this captured in the recent ice cores in the last five years or so. And there's something else that actually I overlooked that I would throw in there. When we're talking about this last eclipse in Taurus Taurus is the economy and so, , we've been going through this volatile time With the economy and this is sort of this last moment here before we move into the axis of War actually and so there's Definitely some connection, I feel of what's been evolving within the economic system.
Well, it's also the breaking down of economies and governmental structures. And , so what we're seeing here is a chain, it's going to happen very quickly. And so it's already started in many parts of the world where we're going to be switching into a digital currency. That's a big thing. People in America, we're going to be buffered to the last minute, finally , but it's already happening. So as of July 21st, I believe the first CBDCs are being issued from the United States government, so that just happened , , in the last few weeks during the Venus retrograde, shadow period.
Yeah. So when it enacted sometime at the end of last year, I believe, and then, now it's actually gone into effect. So, we're going to see the United States economy trying out on a larger and larger scale. This model, because that's what the world is going to. And we're not going to escape this. Everything's going towards a futuristic system and that's the signatures of Aquarius and Uranus.
Tianna: I was wondering, when is Russell going to, he didn't mention AI at all.
Russ: I was trying to hold back. Yeah, I was like, well, let the real world stuff get out of popularized this year. Okay. So , what do you see as maybe potential ripple effects of this CDBC? , roll out for the collective or for us individually. How is that going to impact our life? I mean, of course, we don't know for sure.
Right. But logically, it's already begun to happen. You're going to see a delay in banking. , you're going to see ATMs becoming fewer and fewer. They're going to get one of less cash out and actually airports are now setting up to take your cash already to turn it into the digital card and going into the next currency.
So you can just put your cash in and give you a little card back and now you. Turn your cash into so they're working on this model already , I mean, actually it's already in play in several places. So that's going to affect how our day to day banking plays out. You're also going to see more and more banks fall.
So we were predicting these waves of banks, smaller banks fall either being absorbed by the larger banks. This is just , look at nature. Nature does the same thing. , And so it's reclaiming its territory from these smaller banks. It did the same thing back when we had the great depression, all these smaller banks collapsed.
It did the same thing. And when we crossed over in the last, signs between 2007, eight, when Pluto went from Sagittarius into Capricorn, you saw all these banks collapse and be absorbed into larger entities. It's just another wave of that happening at the same crux, but when Pluto is doing its work. So, , we're seeing all this is going to, probably affect people faster than they think. People are going to already signing on to it in Europe. But here, I think we're going to be the last to probably fully accept it. And then what we would think of as those who wish to resist that as much as they can, we'll.
Create a parallel identity and then they're going to preserve their own sovereignty in another way. And that's what we're creating. , that's where it's like the need to preserve our sovereignty is what's going to drive something else to be created. And it's probably going to be in a wall of secrecy for a while.
It's like, how do we do these things? I don't know. , , I want to make sure that I stay sovereign and don't just give everything over to the government. This bureaucracy, this technocracy that's reaching up from the dimensional darkness to hold on to every little individual and a little container of light, just like the matrix looks like that's what's happening is that the truth is being revealed in the darkness wants to hold on to this reality as long as it can.
And everyone here is essentially a source of energy for that. And if we come together collectively and we do something else, creative, that's going to create where we're combining to co create the new reality and of course the forces of darkness are here to stop that. That's why it is a spiritual warfare, a dimensional energy shift, whatever you want to call it.
These forces are now at play and very active in our reality and you can see them if you know how to look. That's what's happening with all this alien, , revelation, the UFOs are coming out and all these, all these things is because, oh, and, and more people are being spotted as reptilian in the airport. I mean, this happened in Dallas last week. whole swarms of people are saying they're seeing these things. It's because the truth is being revealed. There's something underneath this reality that is functioning that is not right. And that's what we're beginning to witness, and that witnessing, and that acceptance that these forces are at play that's what's going to make this shift into a new reality, into the next dimension.
Shannon: Well, that's Pluto bringing everything up, it draws from the underworld, it's the time of the great revealing, right? This is the prophesied time of the apocalypse. But it's important to also understand that though they're, they quote unquote, it's kind of an illusion to think there's anything outside of us. This part of the one mind faction of energy, well, they think that they're, this is just a limitation of language, are trying to prevent us from evolving. They're actually the necessary ingredient to catalyze us to evolve because we don't. Evolve if we're comfortable. We evolve through suffering or through fear.
This is, like I love to tell my clients, we don't wake up in the morning and be like, Hey, it's a great day to evolve. Let's heal today. We're doing it because of that contrasting and antedromia polarity energy that is forcing us to wake up, forcing us to constellate as an organism outside of the system.If we stay comfortable, we stay asleep. So this is how I find it most helpful to work with and dance with duality instead of going into fear, actually understand that that faction of energy is intelligent and it's actually playing. It's very important role in evolution.
Tianna: Yeah, I was thinking, it's applying this to me personally and some of the things that I've been going through and seeing.But then I was thinking what we're talking about before, Pluto going back into Capricorn and us doing these ancestral healing and clearing and working through some old patterns and, Stepping into our own power and then creating things collectively. So it's kind of like this period right now, if we will do our own homework and clear the space for some of that , then, we might not know what these new systems are, but we have to first clear out this stuff and then that'll open the path for these new aquarian and collective ways for us to work together and create these new ways of being that we might not know just yet. But right now, it's like, oh, 1st, I have to go back and take care of this and then that will create the opening for what's coming in.
Shannon: It's just like gardening, like who wants to go out there and do the weeding at the beginning of the season, that's necessary before we can plant the seeds before we can get the fruit of the new evolution. I mean, really, we can look at the evolution of consciousness as a reflection of nature. It's no different. And I think it's very helpful because there is a natural dimension to it.
Tim: Yes. . Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your information with us. Can you please let our listeners know where they can find out more about you?
Shannon: Absolutely. So I have a full time private practice. For readings, you can just go to my website. It's ShannonleeGill. com and it's L E I Gill, G I L L, and then Russell, your website is HolisticScience.net, but it's currently being worked on, but we have, Astrum Our school, astram. org, A S T R A M, , and that is our, big endeavor, a big push for the end of this year. Hopefully, anyone who enjoyed this conversation might want to look at taking a class about how the universe works , and how astrology plays a key part in that.
Russ: So you can find us there. And then of course, Shannon and I, together have... The shift foundation. org and that's our sort of community nexus point. A lot of our events, we do all kinds of, of fun things through there. We actually have a big event coming up September 2nd here in the Hill Country, outside of Austin in Wimberley in the pyramid Samadhi.
So we do these pyramid activations and it's called joy to the world, crossing the rainbow bridge, the technology of happiness, and it's a full day. Activation through the chakras with astrology and dance and singing and food and we'll be doing Many of these hopefully in the years to come. So this is the second one we hope to do about one Maybe two or three a year.