Today I woke up in Bremen, Germany. The sun was streaming in the windows, although my jet-lagged brain told me it was 2 a.m. My lover went to take a shower, and I strolled into the kitchenette in our little guest apartment, and put together some fruit for breakfast. I used tap water to wash off the tiny, tart red berries called johannesberries.

We’re not tourists. We are here for a while. And so the first thing on my to-do list is “Learn German”.

I’ve never before lived in a country that extends partnership rights to lesbians. My lover and I will have to figure out exactly what to do, but I gather that we will become “registered life partners”. We’ve been married for 19 years – in our own eyes, in the eyes of our families, in the eyes of our friends and community. But through all these years, as we’ve lived in the US, Venezuela and Ecuador, we’ve both checked “single” on innumerable forms.

No matter how out we are, most gay couples are living a lie on some level. We are flesh and blood in our communities, but ghosts of ourselves in our countries. We erase parts of ourselves whenever we deal with governments, bureaucracies, and borders.

And now it’s time for me to live differently. How will this feel? I’ll let you know.

Astrologically, it’s also a period of transition, from now till November 2008. During the next year, the dominant element will change from fire to earth. For many years, we’ve been living with the excitement, fanaticism, and heroism of the fire signs, and we are moving towards the grounded, pragmatic caution of the earth signs.

During the last two and a half years, Saturn in Leo has been like an old queen – dignified, experienced, imperious, demanding – and this is her last month to reign. All the queens and divas among us should have major blow-outs in August. Party like it’s the end of an era, because in September, Saturn will move into the workaholic earth sign Virgo.

Saturn has been dancing a slow minuet for almost a year, and is now moving more quickly and purposefully. When Saturn moves quickly, life lessons are presented at a steady clip. Saturn, as the Teacher, doesn’t have time to nag, harass, or even to repeat the lesson over and over (as she is wont to do in slower times). At this point, you have to learn it fast and then move on.

Jupiter, the planet of growth, career and community, goes direct in August, after being retrograde for the last four months. And so things will begin to expand again. Plans that have been stalled will move forward, especially anything having to do with bureaucracies, governments, and red tape. This is good news for my lover and me, here in Germany, as we move towards a new legal status. Jupiter will be direct until next spring, and will also move from fire to earth in that time.

Does this mean that Bush’s impeachment will go ahead?

This does look like a depressing time for G.W. Bush, with Pluto inconjunct his Saturn. Pluto has to do with large transformations, the kind that are seen as fateful and inexorable. The inconjunct is a karmic aspect, showing repeating patterns. And Saturn is about old unfinished business, including past crimes.

This could mean losses, even reprimands, for Bush. But by itself, I don’t think this transit is strong enough for impeachment. And there are still some protective aspects for GWB, including Jupiter stationing on the trine to his Mercury.

But it looks like a tricky month for the United States. The new moon on August 12 has the sun and moon in Leo closely opposing Neptune, the planet of confusion and obfuscation. Shaky premises and underlying weaknesses could be uncovered, not always in a polite way. Truth doesn’t always happen via news stories and congressional hearings. Sometimes nature forces truth.

The last time we saw a similar configuration was in the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. One day people were living ordinary lives, thinking the levees would hold under the forces of wind and water, and the next day, the fundamental fragility of the system was obvious. Flaws in the social system were also exposed, with painful rawness, to the victims of the hurricane and to the nation.

If the wind whips herself into a frenzy in August, what will the response be this time? If it happens in Mexico or the Caribbean, will the US be there to help?

Another feature of the August new moon chart is a close conjunction between Venus and Saturn in Leo. If Saturn in Leo is the old queen, then Venus is the young sun-maiden by her side. At their best, this is a merging of the old and the new, the serious and the beautiful. For myself, I see this as the time when I’ll be taking my love affair with Marisol to a new level, making it official in a new country.

Venus and Saturn are not always all that comfortable together, however, and this conjunction can mean constraints on beauty, love and pleasure. For Venus, the joy of the moment is enough, but Saturn’s presence brings the past and future into the picture. Sometimes happiness demands a high price.

This Venus/Saturn opposition directly opposes the moon in the US chart. The moon has to do with the home, the land, families, women, children, and personal security. And so my sense is that Americans will become much more aware of historical consequences. Old beliefs and old actions will have an immediate effect on the vulnerable belly of the nation.

Every fourteen years, Saturn opposes or conjuncts the US moon. The last time this happened was in April 2003, and this was when the purported Iraqi plot to kill George Bush Senior was revealed. Was this the psychological trigger that led to our current predicament in Iraq? Did revenge brew in the mind of George Junior all those years? And now will this desire for revenge be sated, and will Congress finally find a way to disengage us from this meaningless war? If the people truly cried out, long and loudly enough, it would have to happen.

Another harbinger of change is the full moon on August 28, bringing a total eclipse in Virgo/Pisces. This gives a strong push for change. In Washington, this full moon occurs very close to sunrise, giving it even more power. The Virgo sun is all about control, analysis, and fine discrimination. It’s relentlessly truthful and essentially pragmatic. It will get a grip on all the confusion, disorientation and disillusionment that the US has both sown and suffered.

For me, I will be making order in my own way. I’ll be learning German, finding a place to live, figuring out the recycling and the trains and all the other details of living in a new country. I’m ready for a new earth age.

Index of Jenny Yates' Writings on Lesbian.com