As a Libra, you are a secret romantic at heart. You are not a water sign and deeply emotional, so you are easily misjudged, for you are said to be highly analytical and intellectual. That is true, but still, you want love, and this month love and friendship will be the entire theme of a sparkling August. Two major eclipses are due, and that makes August a landmark month, one that can change the direction of your life. You are ready for it, too.

July was a month to reflect on your career – if you want one – and to work hard, but August will be deliciously social, which is just your cup of tea. Before I move on to the eclipses, regarding your career, if you are looking for a job, know that you have Venus, your ruler, at the tip top of your chart, and that means you will be a popular candidate with both VIPs and subordinates. With this month due to be so social, you would do well to circulate at parties and gatherings – you could pick up a tip that will prove helpful in your job search.

The moon rules your career, so with a major lunar eclipse coming up on August 7, stay optimistic. This month brings a very fluid environment, and even if you were stymied by no available jobs, that will change now. Watch to see what comes up near the full moon lunar eclipse in divine-for-your sign, Aquarius, August 7. You will need to know what you want, which are not always so easy. Aquarius rules the digital age, including websites, software, apps, and telecommunications. (Aquarius also rules astrology.) Perhaps that will give you an idea of which direction to go.

Clearly, eclipses are the most powerful comic tools that the universe has at its disposal to get you moving, ready or not. We are now in a new family of eclipses that will arrive every six months, straight to January 2019 when the Aquarius-Leo series will end with the last one that month. Eclipses always fall on either a full moon (lunar eclipse) or a new moon (solar eclipse). Full moon lunar eclipses bring endings, closure, or culminations. New moon eclipses open the door and raise the curtain on completely new opportunities.

At eclipse time, often an event will happen in the outside world, having nothing to do with you or any action you’ve taken, but yet that event will come to your doorstep and change your life quite dramatically. Very often schedules and priorities rapidly change as new information reaches you. Fortunately, the eclipses this month will be very friendly – extraordinarily so. I cannot see all the planets in your unique natal chart, so I cannot quite say you will definitely like all the changes they will bring. I am willing to say, however, that these are the sweetest eclipses I have seen in years, and that counts. Additionally, they are falling in fire-sign Leo and air-sign Aquarius, signs that blend beautifully with yours.

If you glean an idea of the themes that might come up this month, think back 19 years to August 8  and August 22, 1998, for those eclipses were of the same degree and sign as the ones that will be happening this month. Back then, the other planets were not as supportive as they will be now. No eclipse will ever be replicated precisely as was in an earlier year, but it is fun to see what happened back 19 years, for that is the precise cycle that eclipses follow. There will be some threads – themes – that you can find to link the eclipses now to the ones that happened in 1998.

This month, the first eclipse, August 7, will bring the full moon lunar eclipse in Aquarius, 15 degrees, to light your fifth house of true love. If single, you may now make a final decision about someone you have been dating. If you are happy, you may decide to move in together, or to get engaged or married soon. On the other hand, if you have not been happy, and you feel you’ve given the relationship or situation a good try, you may come to the end and leave. That can be a very painful experience, even if you are the one choosing to leave. Fortunately, Jupiter is still in Libra, and will help you adjust to dating new people.

Part of the mission of an eclipse is to remind you clearly that time is marching on, and that you must value your time. You can live a happy and productive life, and to do so, you must live courageously. If you are not happy, there is little chance you will become happy if you wait any longer. The time to act is approaching.

If you are attached, you will have more fun with your mate. (This eclipse focuses more on singles than those married or attached.) You may soon decide to take a memorable trip of a lifetime together to a foreign country. Alternatively, you might discuss having a baby, for the house being lit up rules children. If you are more mature, you may hear big news from one of your grown children, and it would be most likely to be your eldest.

Your same fifth house also rules your creative efforts, so you may finish an important project or be given the green light to start a new one that is dear to your heart. Things that happen at eclipse time carry more weight and importance for the future than regular new or full moons. This suggests that you might get more complex, well-funded jobs after you hand in the one that takes your attention on or near the full moon August 7.

    This has all the making of a glorious month for you. Two eclipses are on the way, and both will be unusually friendly to your Libra Sun. You won’t be called on to focus on work – no, these eclipses will do their best to teach you to play.

If you were born on October 7, plus or minus five days, you will benefit the most from this full moon eclipse on August 7. The same is true if you have Libra rising 16 degrees, or the natal moon in Libra at that degree, and in each case, plus or minus five degrees.

This eclipse is a peach because Jupiter, the giver of gifts and luck, now in Libra, will signal that full moon almost to perfect degree. This makes all the difference in the world! Jupiter took 12 years to get to your sign, and when it did last year in September 2016, Jupiter crowned you celestial favorite. Jupiter will leave to go to Scorpio on October 10 of this year, but until Jupiter departs, you will be outstandingly favored to find love.

Now I will take a little detour here to explain to the Libras born approximately October 15 to the end of the sign, October 22, why life with has been so difficult. Uranus is now directly opposed to your Sun, a very severe aspect that denotes either difficulties in health or with a serious, close relationship in love or business. If you ARE getting along fine, you may have been concerned about your partner’s welfare because he or she may have been going through a tough time. Or, your partner may have betrayed you, and that would have been the source of the pain you feel. (I am sorry to have to even raise the possibility.)

So many Libra readers have posted on Twitter that they are not having an easy time that I have to take a moment to talk about what Uranus is doing in your chart. If you are born in late in the sign, October 15-22, you have been under very strenuous aspects, and although you will get relief, it will not be for a while. We all get this aspect, but when it comes – a once-in-a-lifetime aspect, due to Uranus’ orbital path, taking 84 years to revolve around the Sun – it usually feels hardest when Uranus is in direct contact opposite your natal Sun. Usually it takes two years to become fully free of it.

You are almost there. By May 15, 2018, Uranus will move to Taurus (leaving the difficult spot for you when Uranus toured Aries). From May 15 to November 11, 2018, you will get a respite. The pressure will again start up again in November 2018 when Uranus will retrograde back to Aries and, admittedly, will press on you until March 6, 2019. By then, March 2019, you will be done, finished, never to deal with Uranus in this position again in your lifetime.

This is not a process where you would want to simply set your alarm to wake up March 2019, when Uranus is finally in Taurus for good. Rather, the universe wants you to learn something from the experience and to make appropriate moves to correct whatever situation you face. Uranus will be testing the strength of all your closest relationships – your marriage and your close, contractual business relationships. Those that last will practically last forever, but those that have to go will quickly break down. Uranus might alternatively test your health.

These aspects are meant to make us wiser, stronger, and more flexible and resourceful. If you are between the ages of 39 and 42, you also had extra difficulties from Uranus, for you are in its half-cycle, when Uranus opposes the place it was at birth. In your case, you dealt with both aspects at the same time, and that also gets so much sympathy from me. Any harsh aspect from Uranus, no matter what it is, deserves tender loving support from friends and family (although it is not always forthcoming). No matter, we all emerge from these tough periods that give an attractive patina of confidence to those who have faced difficulties and rose over them. It’s a time to exert your independence, and again, to find your inner strength and courage.

Now let’s go back to the good news – the second eclipse, August 21, a total eclipse of the Sun in Leo, 29 degrees, that will light your eleventh house of friendship and social groups. This gorgeous new moon eclipse will open you to new people and events. If you moved to a new locale and have been not been making friends, this eclipse will help you circulate more socially and make at least one friend who will become a mainstay in your life. Even if you have not moved, you will still see a fresh crop of people enter your sphere. You may get more involved with social media, or you may join a professional group.

A group may become important too. For example, you may join the tenants committee, the parent-teacher organization, a humanitarian group, or charity. This series of eclipses will help you make a difference. In fact you might even consider running for political office. The eleventh house of the horoscope reveals the kind of contributions we make to give back to a society that has given us so much, and to leave the world a better place.

This same house is the house of hopes and wishes, so you may see a dream you’ve long held come true in coming weeks. It may be a material wish – “I want a new car.” Or it might be a spiritual wish – “I want a baby.” When the eleventh house is lit up, you need to believe in miracles, because they can come to you. Here is why:

At eclipse time, August 21, a golden triangle will appear in the sky, the most harmonious aspect possible. On one point of the triangle you have Mars, planet of action, conjunct the moon and Sun (the solar eclipse). The second point of the triangle brings Saturn, the planet of long-term thinking and stability. The third point on this golden triangle will be Uranus, planet of surprise. All these heavenly bodies will work together to bring you a happy set of experiences involving new and ongoing friends, your activities in groups, a burgeoning social life, and the possibility that your career might even take flight from this eclipse.

If your birthday falls on October 22, you will feel this August 21 solar eclipse more directly than most Libras. Every Libra, however, will love this eclipse. As I often say, open the window, sit back and see what – or who – flies in.

A solar eclipse will affect you for six months or more. This is a new moon, so watch what happens – who you meet, where you go. A new person may appear at this time, August 21, and that person seems to have a golden purpose for you. You will either work together or enjoy being together, and in the latter case, you may be stimulated by ideas and the new people that your new friend will bring to you.

Eclipses sometimes ask for a sacrifice, so you might see a different friend leave you – you may see a friend move away, for example, or, you may grow away from a formerly close friend, perhaps because your interests have gradually changed with your lifestyles. That happens when an eclipse “eclipses out” someone from our lives. Indeed, life is a process of continual change.

The August 21 eclipse will be called the Great American Eclipse in the news because it will be visible only over the United States, starting in Oregon and moving diagonally toward the east coast during its point of totality until it reaches South Carolina. You can read about it on the NASA website. TV and newspapers will be filled with talk about it, as this is the first time since June 1918 that we have had a solar eclipse like this one.

I feel this would be the ideal month to read my essay “How to Deal with Eclipses,” found on the homepage of my AstrologyZone.com website, lower left hand corner. If you want to read it on my premium (paid subscription) app, Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone Daily Horoscope, then go to the iPhone or Android app menu, find Life+Love, then Susan’s Essays, and you will find it.

By the way, on the home page of my website (but not on my app) I have a Table of Mercury Retrograde Periods and a Table of Eclipses, and in both cases they range from 1994 to 2030. Look at it when you are at your computer – I put those tables there to help you plan big initiations for the future.

This month, Mercury will be retrograde from August 12 to September 5 in Virgo, but you will be so busy socially that I don’t think you will be too affected by this period. Don’t take a new position – wait until September – if possible. It is also not wise to buy electronic equipment, appliances, a car, or other machines with moving parts during the retrograde. I feel you’ll be absorbed by activities with friends, and proving there are good parts of Mercury retrograde, one friend you’ve not seen in ages could make an appearance. Enjoy August, dear Libra.

This has all the making of a glorious month for you. Two eclipses are on the way, and both will be unusually friendly to your Libra Sun. You won’t be called on to focus on work – no, these eclipses will do their best to teach you to play.

The first, a full moon lunar eclipse in Aquarius, 15 degrees, will arrive on August 7 and will brilliantly light your house of true love. If you are single, you may meet your one true love, most likely at a party, barbeque, or other gathering. It all starts with an optimistic attitude and a spirit of generosity – there will be no room for you to carry a list of qualifiers in your mind of whom you’ll date and whom you won’t. Be open and you will be surprised.

You will get a double dip of pleasure if your birthday falls within days of October 7. If you are dating seriously, the lunar eclipse will crystallize feelings in your relationship, and you may now make plans to move in together, get engaged, or be married. Or, if you feel you are basically incompatible, you will now leave.

If you have children, one child will have outstanding news to share to make you proud, and that child is most likely to be your eldest. An eclipse in Aquarius always brings Uranus, the sign’s ruler, into the mix, and here Uranus will bring surprise. At the same time, Uranus will be beautifully conversant with Saturn, the planet of long-term gain.

Jupiter is in Libra, making 2017 one of your finest for falling in love, and best of all, Jupiter will be watching over this eclipse in a very involved way. You are planting seeds for your emotional future now, and starting a new cycle that will take you forward for the next decade or more, dear Libra. If you have already found your match and are in love and attached, this eclipse will have the power to strengthen the bonds between you.

A friend will be your full focus at the second eclipse, a new moon solar eclipse in Leo, 29 degrees on August 21, to light your eleventh house of friendships. A solar eclipse opens a path that will take you in a new direction, and because Uranus is involved in a supportive way, you’ll find this week sparkles with unexpected joys. You may make a new friend who becomes very special to you. Or, you might plan a vacation with an old friend – something you may have always wanted to do – and have a riotous time together.

Alternatively, you might decide to get involved with a charity, community project, or political organization, and possibly take on a role at the helm and surprise yourself with the change you are able to affect in time, usually within six months. Because this is an eclipse, the actions you take at this time should have special meaning.

This same house, the eleventh house, also rules hopes and wishes, so just after August 21 and in the weeks that follow, you may see that something you have dearly wanted to materialize will likely do so before your eyes.

All month, you appear to be surrounded by many people because you may be going to a trade show, athletic event, wedding, lavish birthday party, or other event. You will do best by being out and about, not shuttering yourself in. Be open to meeting new people.

Mars, planet of energy, and will be in your friendship house and send a perfect beam to Jupiter, planet of good fortune over the weekend of August 19-20. Mars and Jupiter will align perfectly, so that’s the weekend for a party, to attend one or give one, or to gather up your friends for a big, fun dinner. Circle it! August 19-20.

If you are married or in a serious, established relationship, your partner will be supportive and affectionate and good natured about having your friends join activities. A dazzling triangle will appear in the sky, linking surprise-a-minute Uranus in your house of serious committed partner, to Saturn, planet of long-term good, in your house of promise, to the solar eclipse in your house of friendship. No doubt about it, this is a social month where routine cares can be set aside, and you can give in to love, sweet love.