We come into July feeling the nemesis of this year [the Saturn Aquarius square Uranus Taurus] thwarting our plans, stifling our energy. We may want to engage summertime activities, participate in re-creational events, only to find delays and frustrations obstructing our way.
July begins with the Saturn Aquarius – Uranus Taurus square triggered by Mars in Leo and creating a Fixed Sign T-Square. With first Mars and Venus and then later the Sun and Mercury transiting through Leo, much of this summer has us dodging and ducking the impact of the Fixed Sign T-Square until the third week of August, a time when children are either going back to school or preparing to do so, no matter what format school might be this year.
Mars opposes Saturn on the 1st of July. We might feel as though we are pushing against the tides with our intentions frustrated. Although many of us may be looking at some form of getaway over these summer months, our plans could be restricted either by the powers-that-be or by the costs involved. We can be doing the Texas two-step of one step forward, two steps back and then two steps forward, one step back. A sense of frustration is liable to be exhausting. Our best efforts may be stymied. We could even throw our hands up in despair and decide to stay put rather than venturing forth.
The double punch comes with Mars square Uranus on the 3rd completing the Fixed Sign T-Square, for the time being. If we have been oblivious to the financial costs or merely had a ‘devil may care’ attitude, the stark reality of how things have changed in a relatively short period of time can be like a lateral lobotomy with a wakeup call to what a difference several months have made. We could have a strong economic lesson regarding the devastating effects of inflation and how the factors of costs and prices within various economic sectors have a profound effect. Perhaps we are only now noticing the increased costs of… EVERYTHING. Already, gas prices have risen 50% since last December. Material costs of lumber have virtually quadrupled. Food costs have soared, often masked by smaller packaging so that even when the price seems to be the same, the quantity in the product has been sharply reduced. The realization of spiraling costs might dampen our summer plans or at least curtail some of our intended activities.
Remember this one-two punch of transiting planets through Leo hitting off Saturn and then Uranus continues into the third week of August. So much for ‘summertime and the living is easy’… NOT.
The 5th of July has the Sun sextile Uranus. With an affirmation that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, we might determine to streamline our involvements and be far more resourceful regarding our expenditures, whether our physical energy, finances, or activities. This is a time for us to consider options and alternatives, make changes to the ways we have been doing things, and consider how we are going to be operating under the parameters of the new reality.
Things can get dicey on the 6th of July. Mercury squares Neptune, and Venus in Leo triggers the Fixed Sign T-Square as it opposes Saturn on the 6th, followed on the 8th by Venus square Uranus. Situations might be confusing, communications off with misinterpretations and misunderstanding liable to create relationship problems. We could feel as though people are fixated in their opinion, unable to hear anything other than what they have accepted as fact. Yet, fact can easily morph into fiction, especially during these times when we concentrate on the subjective in our interpretation of the objective. It’s all about the story, the narrative, as opinion wins over the empirical, and emotional thinking wins over rational judgment.
Mercury comes out of its ‘shadow’ of the Mercury retrograde on the 7th as Mercury reaches the degree at which it first turned retrograde back on the 29th of May.
The 8th of July has Venus completing its Fixed Sign T-Square. The 6th had Venus opposed Saturn, the 8th Venus square Uranus. In our society, narcissism seems to have taken a tight grip, which can be evident during this second week of July. Either people may need to come up to our unrealistic standards, or we might take our marbles and just walk away.
Relationships this second week of July can be fraught with tension and turmoil, and largely a result of personal arrogance and an unwillingness to be collaborative. The ‘either you’re with me or against me’ sentiment might be strong and may leave relationships in tatters with some people alone again.
The Cancer New Moon on the 9th [9:17 PM EDT] has the Sun Moon conjunction in the second decanate of Cancer with its Scorpio sub-influence. Are our standards too high? Are we expecting extraordinary transformations in the people with whom we associate? Are we ourselves measuring up to these god-like standards that we are imposing on everyone else?
With the differential being almost like night and day between what we consider an idyllic relationship and the reality of most relationships, this New Moon configuration impacts the next two weeks up to the Full Moon on the 23rd and can have our interactions with people a little strained. Even if we engage other people, we may want to do so on our terms and with a tendency to slip away now and again and go off by ourselves.
The 11th has Mercury exiting its own Sign of Gemini to enter Cancer [4:35 PM EDT]. Mercury has been transiting Gemini since early May, and now with Mercury in Cancer, much of our attention may turn to home and family matters. We might be a little more reticent in what we have to say, which could be a welcome relief for some people who felt under a barrage of constant communications, wide-ranging ideas, and brief interactions over the past two and a half months.
This mid-July period is prime for good times as we participate in various summertime activities. Many people will be traveling, others will be enjoying recreational activities around home. Whatever we choose to do, we’re focused on taking a well-deserved break from what we have experienced and instead concentrating on going for all the gusto.
Mercury trines Jupiter on the 12th. We may be feeling as if we have finally come out from under a dark cloud imposed upon us by the virus and by the restrictive ways the global governments reacted. We might have the sense that we dodged a bullet with no black swans evident from our perspective. We can be upbeat, thinking about all good things with a belief that things do in deed work out in the end.
The 13th has Venus conjunct Mars. We are looking for good times. Whether we stretch our wings to fly away to some distant land or we stay put, either way we are stretching into having fun, enjoying ourselves, and re-creating. Our creative energies are likely to be flowing, and we wish to stand out in whatever creative format we express ourselves. It’s summertime, and we are fully geared to grab our summer with full gusto. If our energy has been flagging, this is a day when we might feel supercharged, ready to take on the world, and put our personal imprint on everything we do.
The pleasant times of mid-July continue with the Sun trine Neptune on the 15th of July. An inner peace could be evident even in the midst of frenzied good times. Reflections and meditations can strengthen our inner peace. Despite the topsy-turvy of all the ups and downs of the past year, we may come to a greater realization that we are on our own personal journey through this life experience. Our spiritual nature might be heightened as we appreciate the beauty in all living things. The narrative can preach dystopia and all the wrongs in the world and in ourselves, but we are far less likely to be buying it. Negativity may be seen as little more than ants at a picnic. The sun is shining whether literally or figuratively or both. No parade rainers for us right now.
The 17th has the Sun opposed Pluto. Obligations and someone’s demands could be calling, but we are likely to tune out the static. This week has been too good a week for relaxation and recreation for us to shut down the music and get back on track of what needs to get done. Necessities can wait, for it is summertime, a season for ‘time outs’ as we enjoy ourselves and let our responsibilities linger.
Being smarter and not working harder may be our sentiment on the 20th of July when Mercury sextiles Uranus. During this paradigm shift things can occur easily and effectively as long as we don’t get in our own way. Life has taken a turn with an element of magic and mini-miracles allowing random things to happen. We just have to have our antennae up, work with peripheral vision, and be open to receive some wondrous surprises. This is a time when we might get some ‘ah-ha’ moments, glimpses of genius, revelations. Every now and then we get reminders that we don’t have to do it all and that the universe works. This is one of those times.
Venus exits Leo to enter Virgo on the 21st [8:37 PM EDT]. The entrance of Venus into Virgo may take some of the fun out of our relationships with people being slightly more critical of the flaws they perceive in each other. Venus in Virgo does trigger by Sign a Grand Trine in the Earth Element. On the one hand, summer is a time for fun and games. On the other hand, due to the topsy-turvy nature of the past year plus, we might discover an attempt to get back to work as ‘normal’. School starts may be earlier this year, workers returning to the office after their long home ‘stays’, and a greater seriousness towards our responsibilities can impinge upon our summertime activities.
Not willing to let our summer go, we might have a push – pull between tending to our habitual tasks and our ‘time outs’ on the 22nd as the two ‘good guys’ of the planetary realm, Venus and Jupiter, duke it out in opposition. We might try to both put an end to our obligations and engage recreational activities with the result being excess and indulgence. The belief that we are deserving of this and so much more could be encouraged by the Sun exiting Cancer to enter Leo [10:26 AM EDT]. Arrogance and narcissism may be in play as we consider ourselves deserving of good times without much effort on our part. Entitlement is liable to crescendo with people doing their ‘thing’ without any regard of rules or regulations and little consideration of other people’s interests.
The 23rd of July has the Aquarius Full Moon [10:37 PM EDT] with the Sun Moon opposition impacted by the earlier Sun Pluto opposition, the Venus Jupiter opposition, and the approaching Mercury Pluto opposition, and a Mercury trine Neptune exact on the 24th. Despite a tug-of-war between individualism and collectivism likely to be debated on the national stage, each of us could feel the pull to look towards our individual future plans, no matter how fantastic we make them out to be, and disregard our present surroundings, surroundings on the collective level that seem to be veering towards a dystopia.
We might prefer to be oblivious to the bigger picture of life as we concentrate on our own personal realm. With Mercury trine Neptune on the 24th much of our attention can revolve around the idyllic, limitless possibilities, and otherworldly dimensions. Perhaps we have all been too traumatized over the past few years by what we have endured and need now just to tune out and escape to our own personal sanctuary, that happy place in our mind where we can luxuriate and not be impacted by the problems or issues that would otherwise just bring us down. Fantasy land also provides a semblance of reality, even if non-physical in tone. And why shouldn’t we concentrate on a belief and hope that ‘everything is beautiful’?
Hard, cold reality could puncture our imaginative ramblings on the 25th of July as Mercury opposes Pluto. Whether the powers-that-be impose new restrictions or we have a sense of the wheels coming off the bus, we could be easily upset that our prancing through the imaginative meadows is abruptly halted by our thoughts turning from the idyllic to the catastrophic. We could feel like pawns in someone else’s chess game, and we have to be wary of falling prey to victim mode. During these tumultuous and disruptive times, truly a transformative phase, we have to determine and then choose whether we are going to take a proactive approach of being aware of the conditions around us and then forging ahead to the best of our ability or if we are going to succumb to being reactive and passive to life and living to which many of us have been conditioned. Each of us has the opportunity to be the hero in our life journey or to be the martyr — always our choice.
The times they are a’changing. We have to decide how we shall navigate the swirling currents.
The last week of July has a great deal of activity with several of the planets making Sign changes. Mercury exits Cancer to enter Leo on the 27th [9:12 PM EDT]. Jupiter exits Pisces and retrogrades back into Aquarius on the 28th [8:43 AM EDT] for its brief and final foray through the Fixed Air Sign. And Mars exits Leo to enter Virgo on the 29th [4:32 PM EDT].
Mercury exiting Cancer on the 27th to enter Leo can give us greater impetus to voice our ideas and express our creativity. Our imagination and our sensitivity may have been ratcheted up over the past two weeks. We might have preferred attending to home matters and keeping our opinions to ourselves. With Mercury entering Leo and joining the Sun in the Fixed Fire Sign we are likely to be more attentive to our personal needs, willing to take a stand regarding what we want, and looking to enjoy our summer re-creational activities. Although brief, a Stellium in Leo is created as Mercury joins the Sun and also Mars, although Mars will end the Stellium on the 29th as Mars exits Leo to enter Virgo.
This entry of Mercury into Leo followed by Jupiter retrograding back into Aquarius on the 28th reinforces by Sign the Fixed Sign T-Square with Uranus in Taurus, the Sun and Mercury and briefly Mars in Leo, and Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. We have to be wary of rigidity and getting fixed in our beliefs where we put on blinders and only accept what we see, although probably from a limited perspective.
For those people with planets in Scorpio, such as Joe Biden with four planets in Scorpio, this next three-week period can be fraught with delays, frustrations and feeling like Sisyphus trying to roll the boulder up the hill only to have it fall back on one.
Jupiter coming back into Aquarius may increase our social engagements and have us considering the far horizons of where we would choose to be. We may see some technological wizardries revealed [quantum technology? med beds? Tesla free energy?, et al.] as advances become ever more evident in artificial intelligence and robotics.
On the 29th, Mars opposes Jupiter just as Jupiter has retrograded back into Aquarius and Mars is about to exit Leo. Arrogance could lead us to take too forceful an approach both in our interactions with other people and in pushing forward with our plans. Discretion and strategy are called for, but both liable to be lacking.
The entry of Mars into Virgo on the 29th ends the brief Stellium in Leo. This would be a good time for us to attend to our health, determine a best practices approach and keeping the idiom in mind that ‘the devil is in the details.’
We may have been a little too gung-ho over the past few weeks. The insertion of the Fire Element may have allowed us to switch from a more passive tendency into an overdrive proactive quality. The Virgo Mars provides a concentration on specifics and the particulars so that nothing falls between the cracks. Although we are still in summer mode, the game of life has changed with drastic alterations to traditional schedules.
This end of July and as we come into August may have us preparing to get back on track whether we are shopping for school supplies or going back into the office after the work from home we have become used to as a consequence of the virus lockdown. Not that life is going back to the way it was. We might experience more hybrid situations where we go into the office once or twice a week and work at home the rest of the week, where students attend school but increasingly draw upon virtual instruction. We are also likely to see an increase in both work-at-home scenarios as people become entrepreneurial and home-schooling, a choice more appealing to parents who have been introduced to the concept during the lockdown and for some parents in response to the teaching of critical race theory and / or gender identity classification instead of biological gender classification.
July 2021… looking for fun amidst the chaos…
