The meteor shower of the mighty giant Orion peaks overnight this week, and with Moon at New Phase, conditions are great for casting your wishes up to the falling stars ~ and making use of Orion's belt of invisibility.

It's often said Harvest Moon is given its name because it's the Full Moon closest to autumn equinox, and because it’s big and bright, farmers can stay out later in their fields. But the real meaning is deeper and reveals an innate sense of how to live in harmony with the cycle of the year. 

There's a terrific tale unfolding in the sky right now, with the great constellation Orion rising up in the morning sky in the east while the starry crown slopes toward the west, where the Sun is setting below the celestial equator now that it’s equinox time. 

Sun and Moon get in a game of celestial teeter totter with Saturn just prior to equinox, setting the stage for dynamic encounter with the self in an endlessly turning world

The Moon was fully eclipsed last Sunday and will spend this week waning through its gibbous phase, until it arrives at the last quarter of its cycle next Sunday, September 14th, when it reaches the horns of Taurus, the Bull, activating a "holy secret."

On Sept 7 there’s a Total Eclipse of the Moon, only visible on one side of the Earth, in Asia, not in the US. The Moon will rise Saturday evening, the night before eclipse, 20 minutes before the Sun sets, the two great lights straddling the horizon, “dividing the day from the night, a sign for seasons, and days, and years.”

In August, there’s a formula for finding the most romantic night of the season: Once the Moon comes New, count seven nights while watching for the summer’s brightest star to reach the zenith. Then the conditions are right for the love story that unfolds overhead, bridging the vast expanse of the Milky Way river of stars, and gathering us all in its wake.

This week's waning crescent Moon is a boat of spirit knowledge, bearing earthward all it has gathered in the celestial light throughout the month and bringing it ashore during the few days before New Phase when we don’t see it.

Tuesday morning, the planets Venus and Jupiter will be spectacularly close, while overnight Tuesday, the Perseids come to their peak. It is the stuff of the world's greatest love stories, and you don't want to miss it, any of it.

The convergence of things that takes place every year in the first week of August includes the seasonal cross quarter; the Christian Feast of the Transfiguration; and the anniversary of the birth of Victorian poet Alfred Tennyson, whose love of astronomy is a celebration of this starry season.