DR. G’s FLUTE HOROSCOPES August 2023
by Rachel Taylor Geier
Happy August! As Summer winds down to a close, the planets are also trying to close up shop on a few things in your life that need to be addressed. This month we have not one but two Full Moons. Full Moons are about chapter endings. Do you need some sort of closure in a difficult situation? Do you have complicated relationships in your life in need of an intervention? These Full Moons will make you deal with the stickiness in life so you can look forward to brighter times ahead in the Fall. We also have a Mercury Retrograde mid-month. Make sure to back up all technology and avoid signing any contracts during this time. Mercury likes to create problems within even the most harmonic of relationships. Be patient with delays and use the time to instead reflect and take it easy. Face your challenges this month with courage and resilience. Better times are just around the corner!
Leo (July 23-August 22) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 7th house of relationships. You may need to have a serious chat with someone in your life that has been having a rough time. Perhaps you have a student that has been so overbooked with other extra-curricular activities lately that they have little time to practice. This would be a good time to remind them of practice expectations and calmly discuss goals during this busy time. Be open to compromises that make the most sense.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 1st house of identity. This New Moon will demand that you focus on you. What is an important goal that you may have been putting off? Is it hosting a recital? Take the first steps. Select a date, time, and location. Book an accompanist. Pick out some repertoire.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 2nd house of income. The Mercury Retrograde will ask you to reevaluate your job. Are you living up to your full potential? Are you looking for a new challenge? What do you need to do to earn a promotion at your current gig? Most importantly, does your job make you happy? If not, Mercury will demand that you make a change.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 2nd house of income. Your attention will shift onto your job when the Sun moves signs. This is a great time to look at job boards. Is your dream job out there? Is there another opportunity with an organization or orchestra that better fits your goals and/or interests? Go for it! The worst they can say is no.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 8th house of banking and finance. You may be paying the final bill on your new flute at the end of the month. Congrats! That beautiful new hunk of metal is officially yours! Make sure you carefully review all closeout paperwork. We are in a Mercury Retrograde, after all.
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. This Full Moon will ask you to consider revamping your schedule. Like many Virgos, you may be overworked. Have you said “yes” to too many obligations? Write out everything in your weekly schedule. What can be delegated to others? What no longer has a place in your life?
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. This New Moon will ask you to practice a bunch of new repertoire. You’ve likely just spent most of the summer hopping from one masterclass/convention to the next and have a great list of all the amazing flute works you’ve heard along the way. Test them out for yourself. Can you program any on your next recital? Go for it!
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 1st house of identity. This Mercury Retrograde will ask you to reconsider your most important flue playing goals. Use this energy to create a mid-year’s resolution list. If time, space, month, and effort weren’t roadblocks, what would you want to accomplish with your flute career? Start making that goal a reality. What is the first step?
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 1st house of identity. The Sun will bring your goals into focus when it moves signs. Talk out some of your ambitions with a mentor or a trusted flute friend. They may have some great ideas about how best to move forward. Or they might put you in touch with a great contact to help you out.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 7th house of relationships. A toxic relationship in your life may need to be addressed around the time of this Full Moon. Perhaps things are coming to a head, and you really need to clear the air to start fresh. This may be a colleague who is determined to compete with you over everything. Or a student that just doesn’t practice. Talk it out!
Libra (September 23-October 22)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 5th house of creativity and joy. Have you been working on a super-secret creative project? Finding yourself stuck? The Full Moon will ask you to take a step back and reevaluate your work. Where can you streamline your ideas? Can you package your work in a way that would resonate with more flutists? Edit what can be edited.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 11th house of groups and communities. This New Moon invites a new ensemble into your life. Take any audition available to your around this time. The Universe wants to bring you into a new musical community. This group will help develop both your playing and your network.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. This Mercury Retrograde will send you into the practice room. Are you prepping for a recital? Don’t get too stressed when you run into difficulties with tempos and technique. Slow everything way down and practice in chunks.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 12th house behind-the-scenes. You will be spending most of your time in the practice room at the end of the month. Practice all of the things. Find that scary difficult etude book you hid in the back of your collection. Practice that piece that seems way over your head. Find clever ways to tackle difficult repertoire through slow, deliberate practice.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. The Full Moon will ask you to take an honest look at your schedule. You are no doubt overbooked. Where can you cut a few corners to open up more time each day to devote to your goals? Delegate what can be delegated.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 4th house off home and family. You will be inspired to completely renovate, or at least reorganize, your teaching and performing spaces. Update all furniture and technology. Can you make your space bigger or move to a different space? Reimagine your environment. Change the color scheme or the artwork on the walls. A refresh is perfect to set up the new school year on the right foot for your students.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 10th house of career goals. You have some newfound clarity in what you want from your flute career. The Universe has heard you and will be bringing in a new opportunity that aligns with your ambitions. Follow this lead and say yes to any new flute requests that come your way. You’ve got this! Time to shine brighter than the audience at a Taylor Swift concert.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 11th house of groups and communities. You may find yourself having misunderstandings with some of your colleagues when Mercury goes retrograde. Intonation may be a bit fuzzy. Rhythms may not be matching as well as they used to. And nobody seems to be on the same page about how best to work on these things. Try to remain as patient as possible. Take things slowly.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 11th house of groups and communities. You will likely be knee-deep in rehearsals when the Sun moves signs. Try to give yourself more than enough time between gigs and make sure your practice sessions outside of rehearsal are focused on the priorities. Don’t drill music that doesn’t need to be drilled.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 5th house of creativity and joy. This Full Moon will put the breaks on a creative project you have been working on. You may have spiraled far away from your original design. Is your project now way bigger than you thought it might be? Streamline and edit. Sometimes less is more.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 3rd house of communication. Working on a book, article, or blog series, by any chance, Sag? This Full Moon will ask you to do some serious editing. You might be suffering from writer’s block. Not to worry - Look at the bigger picture. Do your sub-chapters connect to your main concept? Or have you veered off-topic. Review and revise your work so.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 9th house of travel and higher education. This New Moon will urge you to take a vacation. You have been working way too hard lately! Start dreaming of your ideal destination. This may have connections to your flute life (book tickets to see a concert by your favorite flutist!) or may be simply for your enjoyment of life. Plan it and book it!
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 10th house of career goals. Mercury will ask you to do a bit of soul-searching when it comes to your flute career. Where would you like to be in the next year? Next five years? What about 10 years? How do these goals compare to where you are at in your career today? What new action plans can you create moving forward?
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 10th house of career goals. The Sun will encourage you to make some headway on your career goals. There is no time like the present! Apply to positions that may seem way above your paygrade or skillset. You might be surprised. Go for it! The worst they can say is “no.”
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 4th house of home and family. This is a great time to renovate your teaching and/or performing space. Update furniture and technology. If your space is a bit small, consider moving to a larger room or moving your practice off-site. A bigger studio space may attract a bigger studio. If you build it, they will come.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 2nd house of income. You may be applying to a new job during this Full Moon. Check the job boards. Are there any calls for auditions? Take them! You are in need of a new challenge. Strut your stuff. You’ve got this!
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 8th house of banking and finance. Explore financing options that may be available to you to purchase a new flute. You have likely recently tried out a really great new instrument and are eager to add it to your gear. What does your current budget look like? What can you realistically finance and on what timeline? Talk it out with a financial advisor or loan servicer.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 9th house of travel and higher education. A trip you had been planning may be delayed or canceled during this retrograde. Try not to panic. There may have been something a bit wonky with this trip anyways, perhaps given the restraints of other responsibilities that have cropped up in your life. Reschedule your trip for an off-peak travel time.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 9th house of travel and higher education. Expand your horizons when the Sun moves signs. Have you always wanted to take up a second instrument? Or learn a foreign language as part of a potential research project abroad? Sign up for a class at your local community center or college. Connect what you learn here with what you already know about music.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 3rd house of communication. Working on a book, article, or blog series, by any chance? Experiencing writer’s block? The Full Moon will urge you to take a step back and look at your work from a broader perspective. How can you streamline your ideas so they are easily accessible to a wider audience? Sometimes less is more.
Aquarius (January 20-February 18)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 1st house of identity. You may be wrapping up preparations on recital or other major performance. Congrats if you are at the finish line! If, however, you are finding yourself ill-prepared or too booked to actually perform the recital you were hoping to perform, the Full Moon will help you gather the courage to postpone your performance. It’s totally okay! Just because you are moving your recital to a different date does not mean that it will be anything less than awesome when you host it in the future!
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 7th house of relationships. You will likely be making a new flute friend around the time of this New Moon. Attend all the networking gatherings you possibly can around this time. Strike up conversations with flutists you admire and others you have not yet met. There may be opportunities to collaborate in the not-so-distant future.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 8th house of banking and finance. Watch your bank accounts closely during this retrograde. Mercury can create chaos with missed autopayments or weird double-charges on subscription plans. Check your balance every couple of days to make sure everything is on the up and up.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 8th house of banking and finance. The Sun will encourage you to consider investment opportunities when it moves signs. Start thinking long-term when it comes to your financial goals. What do you have saved up for retirement thus far? Have you even thought about retirement yet?
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 2nd house of income. This Full Moon might have you closing the book (literally or in your soul) on your current job. You are ready for a bigger and better challenge. Start applying to other opportunities. Keep your connections positive at your current gig until you land that next role. No burning bridges - You never know when opportunities to collaborate with your former colleagues will arise in the future.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. You might have been struggling with a piece in the practice room recently. Perhaps you selected a work for an upcoming recital that is a bit more complicated than you realized. The Full Moon will ask you to dial the tempo way back and dissect the work into smaller, bite-sized chunks. If it still isn’t coming together, it is totally okay to shift your attention onto another work.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. This New Moon will add another responsibility to your daily/weekly routine. This is not an activity that you will want to pass up as it will open a number of important new doors to you in the future weeks and months. Perhaps you will get a call out of the blue to audition for the sub-list of a local orchestra. Just say yes. This is a nudge from the Universe!
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 7th house of relationships. You will likely have misunderstandings with, well, everyone when Mercury goes retrograde. Try to keep things light and make sure anything you communicate is short, clear, and sweet. Others are not hearing you as clearly as you would like during the retrograde. Be kind to them. Be patient. Try to understand various situations, both inside and outside of rehearsals, from other perspectives.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 7th house of relationships. Your focus will be on the others in your life with the Sun moves signs. Although Mercury is retrograde, you might use this energy to schedule a few coffee meetings (both virtual and otherwise) with your colleagues. Keep topics light and informative. Ask what they are working on. Share your wins and struggles. Avoid heavy topics or talks of collaborations just yet, if at all possible.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 1st house of identity. This Full Moon will encourage you to rethink some of your most important flute goals. Create a mid-year’s resolution list. What in your flute life needs changing or updating? When was the last time that you updated your website? When is your next recital? Are there any groups holding auditions that you would like to participate in? Think bigger and don’t be afraid to cut out the responsibilities that no longer serve you to make space for new opportunities in the future.
Aries (March 21-April 19)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 11th house of groups and communities. You may be saying goodbye to a performing ensemble around the time of this Full Moon. Perhaps the rehearsal schedule does not jive with your competing responsibilities. Or maybe you are just craving a new challenge and new connections. Whatever the reason, make sure not to burn any bridges. You never know when opportunities to collaborate with former colleagues will pop up in the future.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 5th house of creativity and joy. This New Moon will inspire an awesome new creative project. Do you have a great idea for a super unique recital or have you thought about organizing your own online course covering something interesting and outside-the-box? Start writing out all of your ideas. Chance are you will find a gem among your brain dump.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 6th house of daily work and health routines. Mercury Retrograde will wreak havoc on your daily schedule. Yes - meetings and lessons will be unavoidably canceled out of nowhere. Unpredictable traffic or weather crisis will cause you to be late to rehearsals and other meetings. Try to go with the flow knowing that this will be a crazy time. Accept it. Change direction. And brush off any inconveniences.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 6th house of daily work and health routines. The Sun will ask you to sit down and iron out your crazy schedule as much as possible. You may be so booked with so many things that there is no room for delays and chaos. Clear out any meetings or responsibilities that you can safely delegate to someone else. Work-life integration is important. Make sure you are planning time for you!
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 12th house of behind-the-scenes activities. A piece you have been working on in the practice room is not coming together. You have practiced it slowly, in different keys and meters, in chunks, backwards, forwards, and everything in between. It is totally okay to give this one the boot and try out another work. Return to this one later down the road.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 10th house of career goals. This Full Moon will encourage you to take an honest look at your flute career. I know, that sounds very scary. But there is a point! Perhaps you have been trying for several years to be one type of flutist (aka the flutist your previous private flute instructor wanted you to be) only to find that that flute life doesn’t really fit your personality or interests. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t do it! It is hard to admit when you need to pivot. Status quo is safe and predictable. But don’t you deserve more from your career? Think bigger. Put an end to goals that go nowhere.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 4th house of home and family. You may be moving to a new house or studio location. Think strategically about how you want this new space to function for your flute business and/or life. Cancel clutter. Create a welcoming sitting area for parents and students. Make sure furniture is updated and repairs are completed in a timely fashion. Make your space work for you!
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 5th house of creativity and joy. You may have been working on a creative project and are now staring at a brick wall. The Mercury Retrograde will force you to break down this wall one brick at a time. Look at the bigger picture. Do your smaller details connect to the larger idea? If not, get rid of them. Sometimes less is more.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 5th house of creativity and joy. Your focus will be squarely on improving your creative project. Now that you are working to make your creation better and more accessible to a larger audience, design a decent marketing plan and reach out to businesses or individuals who might really dig your finished product.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 11th house of groups and communities. You may be saying goodbye to a performing ensemble around the time of this Full Moon. Perhaps the rehearsal schedule does not jive with your competing responsibilities. Or maybe you are just craving a new challenge and new connections. Whatever the reason, make sure not to burn any bridges. You never know when opportunities to collaborate with former colleagues will pop up in the future.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 9th house of travel and higher education. A trip you had been planning may be postponed or canceled around the time of this Full Moon. Chances are you have one too many competing priorities and you will need to make a choice between this trip and something so much better (a performance, perhaps)? Follow your instincts and plan for a bigger, better trip later.
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 3rd house of communication. You will be inspired to write an article or blog series during this Full Moon. Did you attend a conference or panel presentation recently that was really inspiring? Share your story. Others may have similar backgrounds and would love to understand a different perspective.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 4th house of home and family. You may experience a few family disagreements when Mercury goes retrograde. Whenever Mercury goes retrograde, he exposes the problems that simply need to come to the surface so they can be worked out. Try to listen more than speak during this transit. Others may be frustrated and want you to really hear where they are coming from.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 4th house of home and family. Your focus will be on your family when the Sun moves signs. Plan a fun family outing. Book some tickets to a symphony or opera performance. Show them your musical world! Explain what a leitmotif is or the significance of a fugal passage in a Mozart symphony.
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 10th house of career goals. This Full Moon will demand that you take an honest look at some of your flute goals. Write them all down! Which ones are the most important to you? Are there any that you are only trying to achieve in order to be the flutist everyone else wants you to be? Ditch those! Those are canceled! Redesign your goals so they bring you closer to the flutist that you actually want to be.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
August 1st - A Full Moon appears in your 8th house of banking and finance. You may be making the final payment on a loan or financing agreement. Congrats! That flute you put on a payment plan is finally officially yours. Celebrate this achievement with a new cleaning cloth or new piece of flute swag. Financial freedom is not always easy - Nice work!
August 16th - A New Moon appears in your 2nd house of income. You will likely be offered a new job around the time of this Full Moon. Keep your eye on the job boards and take any auditions that might be available to you. The Universe is about to offer a very good opportunity to advance in your career. Take it and don’t look back! You’ve earned a chance to shine.
August 23rd - Mercury goes retrograde in your 3rd house of communication. It is never easy when the planet of communication goes retrograde in the house of communication. You may have misunderstandings with, well everyone (which might send Cancers into door-slamming, “I’m never speaking to you again” style rages). Try to take a step back when miscommunications occur. How can you better state your needs and/or intentions in a clearer, more concise, less emotionally-charged way? Keep your messages short, sweet, to the point, with a sprinkle of sugary sweetness to help the medicine go down.
August 23rd - The Sun moves into your 3rd house of communication. Navigating through this Mercury Retrograde will be difficult because the Sun still wants you to get your messages out, either through blog posts, articles, texts, emails, etc. Follow the demands of the Sun but tread lightly. This is a great time to work on drafts of your articles or blogs slowly and deliberately. Take proofreading very seriously!
August 30th - A Full Moon appears in your 9th house of travel and higher education. A trip you had been planning may be postponed or canceled around the time of this Full Moon. Chances are you have one too many competing priorities and you will need to make a choice between this trip and something so much better (a performance, perhaps)? Follow your instincts and plan for a bigger, better trip later.
Happy August!