Question Your Cult: Horoscopes August 10-August 16, 2026

This week is pretty diabolical, I’m not gonna lie. If you struggle with a Mercury retrograde, this is a good week to see how you handle Mercury doing The Most. Truly, I’m laughing a little at how evil it is to have Mercury IN LEO making these outer planet aspects.

This is a great week to notice the cults you are in because you are definitely in one cult or another (we all are, in my view). These are spaces where the community protects the feelings of the powerful rather than the safety of the exploited or vulnerable. These are spaces where you feel safer with people who are in the group than those who are outside of the group. These are spaces where you feel good about hating people who are different than you, even if it is framed as a joke. ahem, sports

This week, you may feel inclined to take any cultish thinking to a dark place and then commit to the depression or anxiety. So, question any thinking you notice. Cultish thinking can also look like worrying that you are worst or seeking affirmation that you are the best.

When we question thinking, it is less helpful to ask whether there is evidence of the thought and more helpful to ask how the thought feels and what it motivates us to do or not do to care for ourselves and our communities. There is some evidence of most thoughts, even if it is bad evidence, so arguing about evidence usually goes nowhere. But, if you can see that your thinking is causing harm to yourself and your community, it is worth changing your mind. There is no shame in changing our minds, and flexible thinking is brave.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Monday, August 10, 2026:

  • Venus in Libra trines Pluto in Aquarius at 11:08am Pacific. This facilitates transformation around our relationships, both personal and within community. If you feel a push to transform how you relate to your partners and the larger community, this is a time that allows you to do that with ease, rather than pressure.

  • Venus in Libra opposes Neptune in Aries on at 3:01pm Pacific. This transit triggers our romantic idealization of the people we love the most. When we can see the best in people, this transit makes it easy to mistake that best for the reality of who they are. It is important to pay attention to the reality of people’s actions at least as much as the potential you see in them.

• Tuesday, August 11, 2026:

  • Mars goes into Cancer at 1:30am Pacific. Mars is going from active, light and breezy Gemini into loyal, patriotic Cancer. This can feel like agitation in our most sensitive spaces. Be aware of the tendency to knee-jerk defend a person, concept, or community just because of familiarity. This can be a sign of resistance to the discomfort of growth, rather than boundaries.

  • Mercury in Leo opposes Pluto in Aquarius at 6:19pm Pacific. This can be a day of dark and depressing thoughts, so remember to access your supports and take mental health seriously. Just because your brain offers it to you, does not make it true. If you experience oppression related to using your voice, remember this is meant to remind you of your own power. Each human voice is powerful, but it is easy to forget that. Question any “black/white” thinking. This kind of thinking is not only racist, it’s also never true (I just said the same thing twice, but I’m leaving it).

  • Mercury in Leo trines Neptune in Aries at 8:46pm Pacific. Normally, I would say this is a transit that allows you to dream big and romanticize without painful consequences. However, in the context of the rest of this day and week, this is another transit to be cautious around. Don’t believe your own bullshit. If your brain tries to feed you anxiety and depression, take a pause and maybe even take a nap. If you can’t see it with your eyes or feel it with your skin, question it.

• Wednesday, August 12, 2026:

  • Mars in Cancer sextiles Chiron in Taurus at 7:41am Pacific. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to acknowledge your wounding around spaces where you have been loyal, but others have not shown the same loyalty to you. This is not something you need to fix or debate with anyone, but rather something to acknowledge and allow. Care for yourself where others have failed to care for you.

  • The Total Solar Eclipse in Leo is happening at 10:36am Pacific. This means the Sun and Moon are both in Leo, but the Moon (internal sense of emotional security) blocks the Sun (overall identity). This is the main event of the week, in my view! Eclipses are associated with the rise or fall of kings, and in our own personal lives this can be translated into power. Consider the power you are clinging to that you may want to release. Consider the places of power you are resisting stepping into. Both are relevant to this eclipse. This eclipse is happening in human design Gate 4 which is all about integrating intolerance so that you can come to a place where you understand others, including what is correct or not correct for you.

  • Mercury in Leo sextiles Uranus in Gemini at 1:47pm Pacific. If you have been doing the work of the week and questioning thinking that tends to keep you stuck and oppressed, this aspect supports downloads of new thinking. This can still feel uncomfortable because our brains resist change, but if you allow the discomfort, moving away from thinking that disempowers you is worth it.

• Thursday, August 15, 2026:

  • Mercury in Leo sextiles Venus in Libra at 9:22am Pacific. If this week was a challenge in your relationships, and you said things you didn’t mean, this is a good time to rethink that and repair it. There is room for you and for other people, so shift away from any defensiveness and toward mutuality.

• Saturday, August 15, 2026:

  • Mercury goes conjunct Jupiter in Leo at 4:22am Pacific. Listen, Mercury’s journey through the stars this week is diabolical. We go from dark thinking, to confusion, to now this transit, which is associated with inflated, exaggerated thinking and communication. My goddess, what a week!! What you say and what you think matter. If people correct you on it, thank them for it because they are welcoming you to their perspective on reality. Look at your own narcissism and be open to questioning it.

• The Moon travels through Leo, Virgo, and into Libra this week; Saturn continues in Aries.

These are the principles to consider for the week of August 3, 2026. It is worth taking a look at both your rising and sun sign horoscopes (visit astro.com to find your rising sign):

Aries: Capitalism tells us that what we create, whether it is professionally, through hobbies, or even as students, should be productive and marketable. That asks us to make our human experience secondary to our service to institutions. Right now, you have an injection of creativity, and it doesn’t have to be pretty. Make ugly art and creation babies. They matter because you do.

Taurus: Most people who are socialized as women are taught they should receive pleasure from other people seeing their beauty. This can also teach us that other people’s pleasure is more important than our own. Right now, consider how you can honor your own sacred energy by including beauty in your every day and most private parts of life. Nobody else needs to be involved for you to experience the pleasure of beauty.

Gemini: When you hold a beachball under water, the deeper you hold it, the higher it pops out of the water when you let it go. After the recent Mercury Retrograde in Cancer, your thoughts might feel like a beachball pulled deep under water. This week, as your thinking starts to dry out, start expressing what you’ve learned about your values recently with your closest community, then see what that inspires you to create.

Cancer: Many of us were raised to believe that values fall into two categories: good and bad. “Good” values typically adhere to rigid moral hierarchy, while “bad” values center human autonomy. You can tell what I think about that by how I wrote it. Values are actually what is meaningful to us: what we “value.” For you, right now, that is expanding. Assume your personal preferences are part of what you value and start to communicate those.

Leo: Ego is a healthy part of being human, and it generally only becomes unhealthy if the sensitivity of our ego limits us or motivates us to dominate others. When we worry about being too much for others, that is a sign ego is limiting us. When we worry other people’s actions will reflect badly on us, that can be a sign we’re dominating. Right now, expanding who you are means being too much. Be big in your communication. Listen to others, but listen to yourself first.

Virgo: The Hermit card in Tarot represents a time to go inward and explore your subconscious or unconscious world. Your unconscious, like many people’s, can be rigid around right-and-wrong, good-and-evil, us-and-them, and other protective polarities. Right now, consider how you can communicate those, even to yourself, your therapist, or in a journal, without judging them. Now is a good time to expand how you see yourself and the world and communicate that expansion, starting with your unconscious thinking.

Libra: One of the best scenes in any movie is when there’s a dance or party and everyone makes room for the main character to dance their ass off. These scenes are fun because usually it is the character expressing themself even if other people don’t like how they do it. This week, think about how you can fully express your star power in your friend and social groups, even if it brings up wounding around needing other people to like you in order to be safe. Dance your heart out and trust yourself to make it safe.

Scorpio: Knowing something and being able to communicate it in service to others are two completely different experiences. You’ve been invited to start an expansion process in your career, and this week your thinking and communication is more able to come on line to express that expansion. Treat yourself kindly through this process and remember that what is best for you is ultimately best for everyone.

Sagittarius: Most people want to travel because they imagine escaping from everyday reality, seeing exotic beauty, and learning about different culture. But, when they are confronted with different values and have their beliefs challenged, people are often less excited. This week, consider how you can have the experience of international travel by challenging your own belief system to expand. Your beliefs should serve you, not the other way around.

Capricorn: Humanity can center any value or concept in the way we create institutions, and in the U.S., we choose property as the value. There are many other values I would put forward as better, including health, prosperity, sustainability, or mutuality. This week, consider what it would mean to center beauty as a core concept in the structures you build within your life. Take actionable steps to offer beauty as service, while keeping things authentic.

Aquarius: Wanting to have someone partner us is different than wanting to partner someone else. Both can be possible at the same time, but they are different considerations. This week offers you the chance to have insight into whether you are partnering to have your needs met or to expand your ability to connect and support others. Both are ways of being that could be right for you. You deserve to have your needs met and to have the experience of supporting others.

Pisces: When our bodies change, it is like traveling to a different country. We see things differently, people treat us differently, and we move in space differently. This week, pay attention to how big you allow yourself to be physically and energetically in the spaces you occupy. If your brain tells you that you are not allowed to be too big, consider whether that restriction would apply to travel. Now is a good time to question that kind of limitation on your body and daily habits.

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