Peak planetary action this, as alway, we begin on Monday, the Moon’s day. Let us start with her movements, because there are some significant aspects she is opening the week with. 

The Moon begins a new cycle in her own temple of Cancer, which is feminine, cardinal and full of intuitive hits. A powerful and fertile New Moon colored by Pluto on Moon-day, July 17th, colored by renewal and beefed up security on the homefront. Look to the house of Cancer in your birth chart for clues at what seeks open channels for vitality, expansion, and protection. This New Moon falls in the last degrees of Cancer, which is the third decan, a decan also ruled by the Moon. This New Moon is under the influence of Pluto, which can intensify this lunar phase and has built-in regenerative powers. The Moon and Sun are both approaching an opposition to Pluto. In general, the Moon oversees daily activities and phases in our lives, the Moon speaks to the matrix we swim in. Cancer, ruled by the nocturnal lunar light, speaks to our roots, our ancestry, our nostalgic past. The Moon tied in with Pluto can have us excavating historic memories, ancestral wounds, and asking for a rewrite. A reset in Cancer can point us in the direction of discomfort, and unfulfilled prayers. With a New Moon here in the shell of the crab, we may seek fresh paths that fill us up on a personal, more emotional levels and forgiveness of times past. This sign is relevant to our security, the home we build and what provides us with nourishment emotionally. A Cancer New Moon lends to greater self-care, which includes who we let into our most intimate spaces, and how we tend to these spaces. Perhaps we crave greater connectivity and honesty with friends or lovers. Maybe an attic in our home and in our heart needs a thorough purging. Use this period to think how we can commit ourself on a path that is more honest and beneficial in regards to relationships and living spaces. Perhaps we use this period to seek out new groups and friendships as well, seeking to create stronger social bonds. This New Moon in Cancer is more of a clearing the rooms of our heart to make space for potting more sustainable people and activities that nurture our environment.

The New Moon coincides with another important lunar aspect, the nodal axis shifting. Lunar Nodes of the Moon, the North and South, are calculated points in the sky that set us up for eclipses. The eclipses that we have experienced for the last 18 months, have been occurring along the Taurus and Scorpio axis. This axis now shifts into the Aries and Libra realm, which sets up the next eclipse season. This shift emphasizes these houses and the topics associated with them, so look to your own chart for where Aries and Libra fall, and if you have any personal planets in these houses, expect further activation in the next 18 months. As eclipses unfold, further exploration will continue. For now, pay attention to what is coming up this week, especially in terms of the individual vs. the collective. The Moon and Nodes aspect Pluto through two tension filled aspects. Subterranean shadows may be surfacing right now, building with pressure and force, and may have us revisiting old wounds. These old wounds may also get triggered July 21st when the Sun and Pluto move into opposition. 

One last aspect happening on the 17th is Mercury’s square to Jupiter, from the signs of Leo to Taurus. This could be a day where personal philosphies and ideals hit a wall of conflict. We may be looking at what we hold as truth, and maybe reanalyzing the facts and even changing our mind. Do we need reorganization on the daily level, are we feeling just plain overwhelmed? On a collective level, conflicting information may be swirling around the ether, so be weary of accepting initial news as gospel. A Leo Moon will conjoin Mercury on the 18th, and hopefully sort out the facts by the end of the day or gift a better method to the madness.

On the 20th, we are asked to slow ourself down, like way down. The morning begins with a softer notion, perhaps preparing us for the day to come. The Sun and Neptune meet through a trine aspect in the early morning, lending a etheral, spirited vibe to the day. This is a great day for meditation, prayer, yin movement to reconnect with those New Moon goals. The Moon herself is conjunct Venus, who is stationing to go retrograde very soon. Take time for self-care, quiet reflective moments, and listen to what is coming through. 

The Moon will then enter Virgo by noon, shifting the mood, and ramping up martial activity. Yet I beg for you to go slow. Mars meets Saturn through opposition, and this is an aspect that sticks a leg out to anything moving too fast, wrecklessly, or just plain in the way. Saturn shades Mar’s heat and plans, you may have been feeling ramped with kinetic energy since Mars entered Virgo last week, a true task rabbit. It is great energy for streamlining projects, whipping the mind and body into enduring shape, but both need cutback days to rest and recover. Mars and Saturn opposing one another may just be the period to downshift into 3rd gear, even neutral and coast on all you have accomplished up to this point. This energy can already be felt, but will peak on the the 20th.

I nervously laugh as I write this, because this is my big workout day for my marathon cycle. This is also the exact day of my Mar’s return at 6 degrees in the first house of body and mind. So... may I heed my own advice and apply brakes when needed.

The 21st, the Sun and Pluto meet in opposition at the final degrees of the Cancer and Capricorn. This opposition will be the last for the Cancer Sun in this Pluto*Capricorn cycle, and this could be a resolution in the house that Pluto has been transforming since 2008. Pluto is retrograde, tying up the details of his near 15 year cycle here, leaving for good in January 2024. This opposition can bring deeply cathartic revelations, a killing off of final strands of ego that keep us from fully immersing into this area in a more evolved sense. This tension can also add to the Mars*Saturn dynamic in almost obsessive, determined, hyper-focused manner. The Sun, illuminated wisdom, is really seeking something deeper, but at what cost? I think we need to step back and return to the yin energy trying to pushing through and meeting stronger forces like Mars and Pluto. Allow Saturn to constrict a little, and set some firmer boundaries. Be aware of Plutonian plates that may be shifting under your feet. Ground the martial mental energy stirring in your mind. Set the ego aside, and open your heart to what is trying to bed down and take root.

The Sun makes a grand entrance into his home sign of Leo on the 22nd, and Leo is also hosting Venus’ retrograde that begins around this solar shift. All eyes here please, the Sun would like your attention! Fiery and fixed, Leo season sparkles with all that is regal. This is the season of blazing optimism and confidence. Venus, who supports all of these Leo traits reverses course on this day of the Sun’s ingress. This Leo season may just be a little different, but may have themes or notes from July of 2015, the last time Venus went retrograde in Leo.

This is a 40 day and 40 night retrograde period of our sparkling Aphrodite hiding out and reflecting on topics such as relationships, romance, desire, creativity, pleasure. Venus retrogrades can have us reviewing our courtships, returning back to the canvas, rethinking our relationship to pleasure and enjoyment, questioning our self-worth, and even mending open emotional wounds. This retrograde period can stimulate us to expose a point of pain in our life and reanalyze it from a fresh perspective, and hopefully apply a compression of compassion. Leo influences us through the Sun’s solar energy to bring in deeper wisdom and insight. Anything you have been emotionally toiling over, this may be a good period to allow it to really surface and let the Sun’s sanitizing light disinfect it.

Hints to what may surface around this Venus retrograde could have initially begun around June 19, the pre-shadow of this retrograde. Reflect back to any quiet stirrings that began to whisper around Venusian themes, they may just get louder right about now.

The week closes with a square from Mercury in Leo to Uranus in Taurus on Sunday. We can feel mentally overstimulated, a good day to watch stimulants, decrease scrolling of social media, and honestly just step out into some fresh air. Use the Sun’s day to play outdoors, sanitize and relax the mind and let go after this wild week of planetary action.

*When we have a week with heightened planetary movement, a good reminder to all of us, we cannot just look at one transit in a vacuum and we need to take into account our own natal chart. If we have personal, natal planets or angles being activated by the movement of the transits, it will hit your life in a more tangible and potent way. Not every astrological forecast will apply to your life the same way as your neighbor, some transits go completely undetected. Educate yourself with a birth chart reading, learn where your natal planets fall, explore the themes and patterns of your own chart. These forecasts become wildly richer with meaning and help prepare you for any astro-weather unfolding. Reach out to me if you would like a personal natal chart reading. Together we will navigate the stars to orient your life.*