The theme of August is preparation. Some of us will be preparing to go back to school or to work. Some of us will be preparing for quarantines, restricted movement, travel, or social distancing. Some of us will begin preparing for our next phase, which will take place over months or years. At the start of the month, take note of what you must prepare for.

In magic, a pro-tip is to bring what you desire closer to you by believing it is on its way and acting accordingly. If you want love, start unpacking barriers you might have to intimacy. This can be practical, as well. If you want to move, start clearing out your clutter and packing up the house. If you want to start saving money, create a savings account, even if you can only put in $10 a month for now. Prepare on the magical and energetic levels, if that is what is calling your name.

Preparation processes also include the internal. When we aren’t quite ready to make external shifts—when we don’t quite yet know what we want next—we can tend to our soil. Whatever we want to grow deserves to be nurtured under the best conditions. Take stock of the activities that make you feel your best and commit to making them a part of your routine.

Preparation also includes doing certain things that you don’t want to do, but have to do in order to create change and different paradigms. What are the “good shoulds” that have to be listened to and instated? What do you have to quit? What do you have to throw away? What needs to be organized? What do you have to prioritize? What has your intuition been telling you for weeks, months, or years, that it is time to take action around?

The Tarotscopes below were channeled and written by meditating on each archetype and pulling a Tarot card for them. You can read for whatever sign you feel called to: some read for their Sun, rising, Moon, or all three. As always, take what you need & leave the rest. If your Tarotscope doesn’t resonate now, you may want to go back at the mid-point or end of the month to re-read.

Please note: If you don’t know if you are allergic to a specific herb or plant, use caution or consult with your herbalist or doctor before ingesting. Never leave a lit candle or flame of any kind unattended.

Aries
Page of Cups

August is a month ripe for exploring love. New beginnings don’t just happen, they are created. And whether it’s by choice or necessity, you are more than ready for a fresh start, Fiery One. Put the past to bed. The more you turn towards sweetness, the more hope will emerge. Drench the roots of your imagination in fantasy. Dress up for the adoration coming your way.

Write the next chapter of your life through action, confessions to the Universe, and diary entries. Don’t hold back: include everything you need to receive in order to feel seen, held, and ignited. Include all the details that will make your days meaningful and magical. Fine dine and flirt with yourself, friends, and potential suitors. Love is not performance, manipulation, or mind games. You’ve been there, you’ve done that, and you aren’t repeating yourself again. Run far away from anything that promises you something for nothing. 

When was the last time you let yourself believe that dreams can come true and special sparkly moments are still easily available? In a world full of cynicism, sweetness and hope create a ripple effect. Practice romanticism for a spell. We need more dreamers.


Suggested spell ingredients: Seahorses, vulnerability, tea parties in the park, extravagantly staged selfies, mint water, and kisses.

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Taurus
Ace of Swords

At the start of the month, you may feel especially risk-averse: in one way or another, you’ve been backed against a wall. Everything feels both flat and heavy: try as you might, solutions still seem out of reach. The themes that need attention are very real and hold a lot of weight. Ironically, it is lightness that will ignite the clarity needed. Keep things simple. Stay in the role of being the observer in the movie of your life as much as you can, and the fog will lift by the New Moon.

Clarity will be found by taking risks. Detachment is the key to unlock a long closed-door. Whenever possible, adopt perspectives that haven’t been explored. If more consciousness expansion is needed, prioritize activities that open the mind.


Remember that as you proceed with a lighter grip and an expanded consciousness, larger groundwork is being cleared and primed. You are in a transformative process of changing belief patterns about what is available to you. Security doesn’t have to mean settling for less. You are changing your identity on a fundamental level: removing labels and adding possibilities. A longer life pivot begins this month.

Suggested spell ingredients: Guided meditations, clear quartz, belly breaths, white candles, internet detoxes, and an afternoon spent by a waterfall.

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Gemini
8 of Wands

Decision fatigue has permeated your days as of late: specifically, it has impacted the more joyful, connective, and creative realms that stoke your inner flames. It is hard to connect to inspiration when your energy is taken up by decidedly unsexy activities. There is a specific strain of frustration that accompanies wanting to do all the things, but being limited by time, physical or mental health complications, resources, responsibilities, exhaustion, and a global pandemic. It can feel almost impossible to get back into a creative flow. Luckily, the energy of this month will help jumpstart some dormant sources of life force.

August is a month of moving parts. It will acquire adaptability, strategy, and a bit of ruthless focus on your part. Go easy on yourself. Give yourself playtime, recharge time, and schedule in creative pursuits. Write down all that supports you and center those activities. Write down all that drains you and see if you can let those go. Remember that growth also looks like weeding, pruning, pausing, rest, and discernment.


Pull the plug on any sources of energetic codependency. Plug into experiences that light you up, affirm your natural skills, and that place you squarely in the flow of your soul’s core purposes.

Suggested spell ingredients: Bibliomancy, oranges, lemons, orange candles, citrine, and to-do lists that facilitate movement, networks, and connection.

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Cancer
8 of Swords

Trying to be everything to everyone all the time is a losing game. In fact, it is one of the many curses the white supremacist patriarchy threw at us to keep us obedient and small. It has certainly kept you feeling frozen and trapped in the past. You did not sign up to be the entire world’s therapist, thank Goddess.

Luckily, you’ve woken up from the spell that says you are only worth something if you are producing something at a machine’s pace, or processing someone’s emotions for them. Luckily, you have plugged back into what is yours and yours alone. Your unique perspective and gifts are to be focused on now, as well as your intuition and ability to breathe life into futuristic paradigms. Don’t doubt the visions that continue to appear before you. Feel the difference a clearer energy field and a clearer mind make.

August is a month where you will trace the outlines of new realms. It’s no secret you’ve been ready for a real shift, but have been waiting for more clarity, or maybe the “right” time. If something is going to change, something has to change. This month, prepare by connecting squarely with the beliefs you need to foster in order to tap into your power.

Suggested spell ingredients: Feldspar, new emotional contracts with yourself, peppermint tea, rainbow-colored candles to help you envision your future, and an afternoon spent learning a fun, brand new skill.

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Leo
Page of Pentacles

Cellular transformation occurs in August. All the healing you’ve been focusing on, all the relationships you’ve been invested in, and all the effort you’ve put in have integrated into a tangible transformation. Look around, acknowledge what you’ve built and created. Tune in, affirm how far you’ve come in terms of feeling safe enough to trust your instincts. Lovely Leo, pay attention to what becomes easier when you no longer question your inherent worth and divine right to be here, enjoying your life.

In this resourced space, it is safe to cultivate a beginner’s mind. Be curious about habits. Be aware of the distractions and limits you create. Pretend that inquisitive aliens have landed on Earth, and you are trying to explain to them why you do certain activities or behave in certain ways. This will help you take steps forward in more aligned directions.

This is an opportune month to create new systems in how you care for all things related to home. This includes, but is not limited to, your body, finances, business, living space, car, garden, favorite trails, neighborhood, communities, chosen families, art, and spiritual practices. Tend to all the soil that makes you feel excited, nourished, and safe to put down roots.

Suggested spell ingredients: Patience, yellow candles, orange roses, pink moonstone, and tapping meditations.

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Virgo
10 of Wands

There is doing the work, and then there is all the work that goes into sharing it. There are the acts of thought and creation, and then there are all of the efforts that go into execution, consensus, and dissemination. Yes, you are brilliant at it all, but having to do it all has gotten to be too much. This month, drop all the superfluous “shoulds” that only end up in resentment and exhaustion. You are a miracle, not a martyr. Adjust accordingly.

The truth is, you’ve been operating beyond capacity for years, and now you are operating beyond capacity in a pandemic. Certain expectations need to be adjusted or thrown away all together. It is ok if when boundaries are created they aren’t received well by everyone: that’s why they are boundaries. It’s ok if you, or your work, aren’t always understood.

August is all about energetic cultivation—about letting things go and finishing certain projects; about noticing when you are about to be depleted and heeding those signs to avoid bouts of burn-out. You want to be useful, not busy. Don’t let internalized capitalism dictate your habits. You can both honor your ambition and accept that you are a human who needs rest, softness, and flexibility. Don’t let the belief that you have to do it all, by yourself, stop you from creating some of the most important work of your life.

Suggested spell ingredients: Citrine, cord-cutting spells, extra-long baths or showers, at least 3 invitations extended to helpers who can support your new direction (human or not), and sprigs of lavender under your pillow.

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Libra
4 of Swords

August is a month for rest and recovery. It is a month for turning within. Prayer and the cultivation of peace will help you heal from exhaustion.

Recently, in one way or another, you got dragged into a battle you never wanted to be a part of. You had to defend yourself from accusations that did not add up or had to clean up a mess or disruption you didn’t create. Certain external situations have fostered doubt: the residue of the past is influencing beliefs about yourself, and even your faith and resilience. What self-blame or punishment has infiltrated your decisions and view of Self? The person looking back at you in the mirror deserves compassion. They deserve a break.


If it costs you peace of mind, it is already too expensive. It is time to clear whatever isn’t yours away. This can feel uncomfortable. Self-preservation, to the unpracticed, can feel like selfishness. The thing is, you are always going to be a helper. Do you want to be a depleted helper or a joyful one? What matters now is how well you forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for believing any lies that kept you small, for not reading the red flags, for betraying yourself. Start by caring for yourself without guilt or shame.

Suggested spell ingredients: Lotus roots, jasmine oil, carnelian, breath of fire, a deep cleaning and purging of your room, your inbox, your mind, and your negative self-talk.

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Scorpio
Queen of Pentacles

The next version of yourself is on the horizon. This version is demanding more of your time, energy, and devotion. This next version requires spaciousness and slowness, fastidiousness and ferocity. Part of your assignment this month is to name all the non-negotiables you want in this next phase and use them to guide your days.

August is all about opportunities to deepen into the practice of self-trust: to notice where you want to say yes, but actually have to say no. Pay attention to what prompts self-punishment in the form of the subtle neglects: not eating regularly, not getting enough sleep, or other little ways you undercut care. Edge out a little more into meeting your core needs, until it becomes second nature. Little by little, the next version emerges from the current tilling of your soil. 


You don’t need a new workout regime (if you don’t want one), herbal supplement mix (if you don’t need it), or more stuff (unless it absolutely is required). You simply have to slow down enough to find the best answers within. Listen to the wisdom of your body as it stretches out towards an upcoming expanse of green.

Suggested spell ingredients: Silence, rosemary, extended time spent in Shavasana, the smell of wet soil, “No” as a full sentence, and endless hugs for your inner child.

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Sagittarius
Ace of Cups

Much space has been given to the hero’s journey: the emphasis on the external, the often comically grandiose gestures, the conquering of lands that don’t belong to them, and the slaying of dragons to accrue material possessions. This version of transformation that Western culture is inundated with is so often the fantasy of the colonizer’s mind. There are other ways to travel that are equally epic, and those are the ones you are now primed to explore. The realms of love, compassion, beauty, harmony and care are the ones that call out most to you this month. A wholehearted life will open up before you; a thorough examination of your interior world is where the greatest treasures lie.

The levels of healing available to you this month are a result of consistency, awakenings, and the readiness to tap into the wisdom that love offers up. Emotional integrity doesn’t place value judgments on or hierarchies to feelings. Emotional maturity clarifies the internal waters through the potential of greater healing so that there is no difference between what you feel and how you express it. One way to recognize how far you’ve come is to name all you are ready for.

August will be a month to explore what happens when you don’t push, have nothing to prove, or don’t have any agendas other than following pure inspiration and altruistic connections. Watch what miracles unfold when your cup is filled.

Suggested spell ingredients: Rose quartz, therapy, reishi mushroom tincture, your favorite poem enacted as a spell, and a night spent writing your own personal mythologies.

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Capricorn
6 of Pentacles

Capricorn, August is a month for examining reciprocity in your most important relationships. Over-giving can be a defense mechanism, as well as being about control. The impulse to always be the giver—the initiator, the responsible one—no matter what can also be a way to avoid intimacy. This tendency ignores and negates your needs. Feigned helplessness gets one out of responsibility. It is time to do things out of excitement and personal fulfillment, not obligation or autopilot.



Start with how you treat yourself. How do you nourish yourself and fulfill your own needs? How do you feed your mind, body, and soul? If you only ever feast off of crumbs of self-respect, you will only come to expect and accept such small morsels from others.


So much headway can be made around addressing certain habits that end up short-changing your time and energy. Try some reframes: instead of using the word “spend,”, try “invest.” Instead of saying “I have to,” try saying “I want to,” and utilizing how that lands to make needed shifts. Take a deep, long look at any patterns around workaholism, or any attachments or identification around responsibilities. Being a human means that you get to have needs. Get to the root of the source of what most motivates, and adjust if the reasons stem from lack, scarcity, or fear. Practice receiving. People want to help. If some compromise is needed, soften into it. Notice how magic and care show up when let your needs be a priority.

Suggested spell ingredients: Honey calcite, the scent of trumpet flower, home-cooked meals, prayers and gratitude to your wisest future Self, and a night or two—or three or four—off.

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Aquarius
The Moon

Much is said about the importance of shadow work, that tender process of examining and owning the exiled and abandoned parts of ourselves. That’s because shadow work is an integral part of owning our brilliance and becoming as whole as we can. Shadow work is also about shining light on the truth. It uncovers and can transform what programs and beliefs we run on. This work summons to the surface the secrets that skulk around in our subconscious. We can figure out what invisibly motivates us and course-correct if need be.


Like the Moon, the subconscious brings forth important information. What you are jealous of in others is what you deeply desire. What you feel lack around underscores where you must pour the most love into. The long-lingering desires that are so tender that you can’t even quite admit them to yourself? Those are the ones that need coaxing, attention, and action around. August is the month to stop breaking your own heart. Admit all that you want and create a nest of acceptance around them.

This month brings the second Full Moon of 2021 in your Sun sign. With its arrival, look for closures and illumination. Underneath its glow, write down all the spiky bits inside that you are finally choosing to love. Write down all the harder emotions you’ve been experiencing and what they need. Be aware of dreams, jealousies, and repeating messages in the ether and internet alike. Become your own symbolism decoder.

Suggested spell ingredients: Full Moon water, black moonstone, owl hoots, lavender ice cream, and an altar made of poems and purple candles lit outside.

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Pisces
The Lovers

Life isn’t only good or bad. Often, it is everything all at once—and this month promises to be as much of a mixed bag as any. The beautiful blooms next to the heartbreak. The inspiration bumps up against mundane drudgery. Your cosmic homework is to stay in the present moment, stay in your body, and keep your own energy intact and protected no matter what.

Once you get accustomed to the power of staying in your own lane literally and energetically, it will be easier to make some choices that have been top of mind. You’ve been getting derailed by thinking that a decision is an absolute that could cut you off from other opportunities. Freedom comes when focus is narrowed: whatever is chosen, ideated, and created now will only open up more paths later. Choose your collaborators and community wisely.

Subvert the binaries that threaten to shrink possibilities: those thought threads that keep you separate, cut off, and feeling not enough. All month, practice the art of the “both/and.” This creates more space. You contain multitudes, Cosmic Dreamer—own it! August is a month that will profoundly change how you relate to, well, everything. Start it off with focus, compassion, and an unwavering belief in your capabilities.

Suggested spell ingredients: Rose petals in your water, baths, bed, vocal toning, rainbow candles, mirrors, and at least one new friend (crows, flowers, and butterflies count).

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