July is a very active celestial month. Right out of the gate BOOM go the fireworks! We barely scratch the surface of this first full month of summer when on Tuesday, July 2nd the New Moon occurs. Not just any old New Moon, July kick starts a fresh lunar cycle with a Solar Eclipse at 4:04 pm EDT. This eclipse will not be visible in North America. We are impacted by it nonetheless.
The solar eclipse takes place at 10 degrees Cancer the Crab. All things home, food, mom, nation/homeland, family and psychological roots are on the table, the focus of our attention. Through much of June we must concentrate on what works and what does not work in this sector of our lives; the need for crucial decision making and the most compassionate strategy about family roles, house and home needs takes center stage through July. Both the Solar and Lunar eclipses as well as Mercury’s retrograde backslide into Cancer guarantee it.
Speaking of Compassion: the intense cosmic activity asks us as individuals and as a nation, where is our compassion these days? Are we acting in the most nurturing way possible for all involved? For the United States, this is notably highlighted by the children separated from their parents at the Southern border. Nothing underscores the plight of family quite like the disastrously inhumane conditions of the immigrant families seeking asylum in the USA.
Expect drama to heighten around this national issue as well as all family and home life at the beginning of July, as Motivating Mars enters Leo joining Messenger Mercury. The pair directly challenges Radical Uranus in Taurus. Think Face Off: each person in opposing corners of a boxing ring or across a mediation table from one another, staring each other down, neither willing to give an inch. There you have the energy of the first two weeks of July.
In Festive Leo, Mercury (communication) and Mars (our active energy) want to enjoy life, have fun and create; while Uranus in Taurus demands change along practical lines: how are you going to pay for all of your fun times, parties and creative endeavors? Oh yes, and what about how your pleasure seeking is impacting Mother Earth?
The caution with Leo is narcissism, pride and drama; the caution with Taurus is steep frugality and stubbornness for the sake of it. This challenging energy is embedded in the solar eclipse for us to take a hard look at. Uranus is The Great Awakener. With the Sun-Moon wedged in between the planetary standoff, this Solar Eclipse is a wake-up call to our most basic functions as human beings: how we take care of ourselves, our home (including Mother Earth) and especially the most vulnerable among us, the children and elderly. What good is a booming economy if we can’t feed ourselves in a few years due to climate change?
Compassion is not limited to human beings; but as of right now, the animal kingdom is showing humanity how best to be kind and nurturing.
Eclipses are doorways, a gateway passage and threshold that mark distinct events or phases in our lives, especially if they impact our astrological chart directly. So whether you are preparing to launch a child into college, giving birth to your first born, changing your diet, buying or selling a home, getting divorced, becoming an empty nester or a grandparent, ALL things home, food, mom and family demand attention this month. We have been feeling this energy building for a while now and it will continue into the fall.
Helping us out over the July 4th holiday weekend, Venus shifts into Cancer on the 3rd. At a world attention-getting degree, Venus, planet of love, money and relationships does her best to smooth out family relations and the home front. As she gradually joins the Sun through the rest of July, the pair reduces tension between Mercury-Mars in Leo butting heads with Uranus in Taurus. They gently remind us that if everyone draws a definitive line in the sand, makes a big stink and claims, “my way or the highway,” what a sad, lonely and hard world this will be. So harken to the energy of the Cancer Sun (our will) and Venus (love/relationships). Build a sand castle, take a moonlight swim, cuddle up with your loved ones, or eat some home-baked pie.
Most critically, Sun-Venus ask us to feel and not think so much. To move from our heart center, intuition and imagination rather than our minds. Can you do it? What a more gracious and loving world we’d live in if we acted from our hearts and souls, empathizing with how another feels. Let’s put aside the Rah-Rah, Me First approach and accept this very kind invitation to dignity and decency now.
Ideally, we allow for the higher minded aspects of Leo and Taurus, so abundantly fertile and creative, to graciously take turns. Instead of digging our heels in over an issue, as the lower forms of this same energy might provoke us to do, better to harness the wild ingenuity they offer. Through the first two weeks of July, Mercury-Mars in Leo form an alliance with healer Chiron in Aries. Apply your creative mind to solving long-standing problems. Leo is as generous as it is creative. While Chiron in Aries finds all new methods to heal and mend what is broken. Additionally, this pair forms a grand fire trine (super alliance/flowing energy) to Ceres in Sagittarius. When we ask questions, educate ourselves and teach others, refrain from assumptions and projections, solutions arrive. Listen instead of talk. Silence instead of noise.
It’s fine to party on as long as you share the wealth with the neighbors and newcomers, we are so RE-minded as Messenger Mercury turns retrograde on Sunday, July 7th. For the next three weeks, Messenger Mercury reverses gear and backs out of Leo and eventually RE-enters compassionate Cancer on July 18th. We are pushed and prodded to RE-think, RE-flect, RE-view every aspect of our lives until Mercury turns direct again on August 2nd. The good news is that the very same day as Mercury turns retrograde, the Sun (our will) joins the Lunar North Node (our directional calling) aligning with inspirational Neptune. Dream and flow says this trio. Just don’t get carried away into Neverland. Keeping our feet on the ground are heavyweights Saturn and Pluto in earthy Capricorn opposite the North Node-Sun. Firmly plant roots while pragmatically reaching for the stars.
Neptune helps here in its complement to Saturn-Pluto, offering a creative wonderland for artists and for the rest of us aiming to craft our future. Neptune is the dream, the Sun our will, and Saturn the architect. With focused attention during this eclipse and Mercury retrograde season, harness this energy to design, plan and prepare to build your dream life. Saturn-Lunar South Node says release and let go of what stands in your way. Reduce the obstacles or excess noise inhibiting you from living your best life, while preserving and using the most functional systems and pieces to build further upon. The energy tees us up for the 2nd eclipse of the month on July 16th, at 23 degrees Cancer opposing the Capricorn Full Moon.
This Lunar eclipse along the Cancer-Capricorn axis is an especially hard hitter. The sign of Cancer directly opposes Capricorn and they could not be more different. Cancer’s signature is I FEEL; while Capricorn’s is I USE. Get it? It’s great to be all touchy feely and sensitive but how is that going to work in the real world, this eclipse asks.
This Full Moon is in the opposite sign it rules at the time of the eclipse inciting us to get very clear about the choices we face. Capricorn is black and white, not pink, green or grey. The ordinarily cozy Moon now sets aside its soft, cuddly emotion, any feelings actually, other than crystal clear, efficient function. What works and what doesn’t. Period. Tightly wedged between heavyweights Saturn and Pluto, the taskmaster and transformer, this Full Moon has us dispensing with any aspect of our lives that is not useful. “You cross that line in the sand,” says this eclipse, “and just watch what happens next.”
Saturn-Moon-Pluto in Capricorn are utterly no nonsense. Deadly serious. “You fooled around so long wasting time, your gifts and talents, it’s payback time. Time to pay the piper.” The energy doesn’t care whose toes get trampled, whose feathers are ruffled, whose feelings are hurt. We feel this cutting across ALL racial, socioeconomic, gender and cultural lines. It takes us down to our very foundations and core. From here, we are to build or rebuild every level of our lives: psychological, financial, mental. Really?
Really.
This isn’t a dress rehearsal. It is not kind or nice, playful energy. If you are way off path, out of soulful alignment and in need of re-direction, July can be gut wrenching. Some may head for the hills, some may prepare for the apocalypse; the rest of us are simply asked to get real. If you want all the pretty things in life, then this energy demands it is time to do the work. Now. Not tomorrow. This minute. Yikes. You bet.
The following week the Sun enters fiery Leo on July 23rdwhere Venus joins on the 28th. Yummy. We fairly burst with inventive fertility. Yes we have this problem or that to tackle, but if nothing else, with Mars, the Sun and Venus in Leo squaring off with Uranus in Taurus loves a big challenge to solve. What’s more, the fixed signs of Leo and Taurus have do-or-die stamina and unending perseverance. How will you apply this boundless creativity in your own life?
Of Special Note:
Beginning in September 2019, I will offer astrology readings at Earth’s Hidden Treasures, 63 South Main Street, Assonet, MA. If you are near Southeastern Massachusetts, stop by and discover this amazing metaphysical store! The only one of its kind in the area, Earth’s Hidden Treasures offers a full product line, range of classes and services including salt, sound and aromatherapy. To book an astrology reading, please contact owner Scott Denardo at www.earthshiddentreasure.comor 508.644.7398.