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Aries
Creative fire comes fully back online, Aries, and the eclipse ahead wants you ready for it.
The Sun and Jupiter are both moving through Leo and your fifth house of romance, creativity, and play, which is the most generous placement this sign offers you all year. Mercury returns to Leo on Sunday, August 2, and finally clears the last of its retrograde shadow by Thursday, August 6, so the ideas that stalled since late June can move for real now. A Last Quarter Moon in Taurus on Wednesday asks you to prune spending and simplify what you own before the total solar eclipse in Leo on August 12 arrives. This is a preparation week, not a launch week, and the difference matters.
Love
Say the real thing once Mercury returns to Leo.
Career
Confirm early, pitch after Thursday clears the shadow.
Spirit
Clear space now so the eclipse has somewhere to land.
Your week, day by day
Leo Season Builds Toward the Total Solar Eclipse
Leo season is fully underway and it is carrying more weight than usual this year, because Jupiter is travelling through Leo alongside the Sun until next summer. That combination is expansive, warm, and generous, and it favours being visible over being careful. The Aquarius Full Moon on July 29 closed something just before this week began, so if the last few days brought an ending, a result, or a truth you had been circling, that was the release point.
Mercury returns to Leo on Sunday, August 2, and on Thursday, August 6 it finally clears the shadow of the long retrograde that began on June 29. That is the practical headline of the week. Conversations, contracts, applications, and plans that kept sliding since late June stop sliding. The first half of the week still rewards confirming and finishing, while the second half is genuinely open for forward motion. In between, a Last Quarter Moon in Taurus on Wednesday, August 5 asks a simple pruning question about what you are holding on to purely because it is comfortable.
All of it is a run-up rather than a destination. On August 12 a total solar eclipse falls in Leo, the first eclipse in that sign in nine years, and it will reset something about identity, creativity, and visibility depending on where Leo sits in your chart. Eclipses are not good days for launching. They are better understood as doors that open once and close quickly. Use this week to clear space, settle what the retrograde left unfinished, and decide what you would actually want to walk through. Saturn and Neptune are both retrograde in Aries in the background, which means the deeper questions about who you are becoming are moving slowly and do not need an answer yet.
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Weekly horoscope + planetary forecast — free, no fluff.Frequently asked
What is the most important astrological event this week?
Mercury clears the last of its retrograde shadow on Thursday, August 6, which fully ends the cycle that began on June 29 and finally releases plans and conversations that kept stalling. Before that, Mercury re-enters Leo on Sunday, August 2, joining the Sun and Jupiter. A Last Quarter Moon in Taurus on Wednesday, August 5 adds a pruning theme, and the whole week builds toward the total solar eclipse in Leo on August 12.
What does the August 12 total solar eclipse in Leo mean?
It is the first solar eclipse in Leo in roughly nine years, and it lands in whichever house Leo occupies in your chart. Solar eclipses work like supercharged new moons that reset a theme rather than simply beginning one, and this one carries Jupiter alongside it, which tends to make the change larger rather than gentler. Leo governs identity, creativity, romance, and visibility, so expect those areas to be where the reset shows up.
Is this a good week for starting something new?
The back half of the week is much better than the front half. Hold off on anything binding until Mercury clears its shadow on Thursday, August 6, and use Monday through Wednesday to confirm, finish, and follow up instead. For anything genuinely significant, waiting until after the eclipse on August 12 is wiser still, because eclipse weeks tend to change the terms of what you thought you were starting.
Which signs benefit most from this week's shift?
Leo feels it most directly with the Sun, Jupiter, and Mercury all in their sign ahead of an eclipse there. Cancer finally exits a nine-week Mercury retrograde cycle that ran through their own sign and moves into a strong earning phase. Sagittarius has Jupiter, their ruler, lighting the travel and study sector, and Aquarius is opening the most relationship-defining month of their year with the eclipse landing opposite them.
How should I prepare for an eclipse?
Clear space rather than making plans. In the days before an eclipse the most useful work is finishing what is unfinished, releasing what you have outgrown, and being honest about what you actually want in the area of life it touches. Avoid making irreversible decisions on the day itself, and give the following two weeks time to reveal what the eclipse set in motion before you react to it.
New to weekly horoscopes? Learn how to read your forecast the right way — sun sign, rising sign, planetary transits, and how to actually apply it to your week. For a comprehensive look at weekly horoscope by zodiac sign, Cafe Astrology is a trusted reference.
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