weekly astrology forecast | July 18 - 24, 2022 - verbal power struggles and ego hits before the king comes home to his castle making summer official and all of us alot more shiny

 

This week starts out with power struggles, truth bombs and intense turning points, and ends with some OPTIMISM and GOOD NEWS! 

 

MONDAY - Mercury opposes Pluto

TUESDAY - Sun opposes Pluto, Mercury enters Leo, Chiron stations retrograde

WEDNESDAY - 3rd Quarter Moon Aries

FRIDAY - Sun enters Leo

SATURDAY - Mercury trine Jupiter, Ceres enters Leo

MONDAY - TUESDAY - on their way out of Cancer, first Mercury and then the Sun opposes powerful Pluto. This is part of last week's Full Moon story when the Moon opposed and then crossed over Pluto. 

Emotional conversations/information can cause power struggles. Words can be intense. Compulsive. Manipulative. Important TRUTH BOMBS are tossed. People will be more acutely sensitive, more easily triggered. There will be over-reactions based on what we can't see (old wounds, etc). We will be feeling what people are really saying or we will think we are (because we are really hearing our mother, etc). 

 

Oppositions can bring endings, so maybe something Mercurian gets sorted out now. Final words are spoken. Oppositions can also expose our projections, so, for example, if we think someone is trying to manipulate us, and maybe they are, but we need to look at our own motivations/words/actions, too, because the source of the situation is generated from within us. If we get real with ourselves we can usually see how we are trying to control them/the situation, too. 

 

Conversations can be complicated. We could be talking/thinking about death or other Scorpian subject matters - taxes, inheritances, wills, reproduction, intimacy, sex, other people's money, shared finances, investments, third party situations. We could be shown an area where we have grown bitter/decayed.

 

People might be talking over each other/feeling unheard. Since this is a brief collective transit let's give each other a break and not read too much into things said now. Know everyone is doing the best they can. The Sun's follow-up opposition will make everything more visible as 'power is illuminated' - what we have/what we don't have. With Mercury's immediate move into Leo, ego blows are possible. Fears of loss can be triggered. Again, the opposition can bring an ending and/or intense situations/illuminations. Power struggles.

Plutonian endings are permanent, and if something ends, well, now we know where we stand and still standing we are (in the 2020's if you aren't lying down in a big old mahogany box, and I think I can safely assume you aren't, we are STANDING).

 

After his face-off with Pluto, Mercury (communications, information, our mental processes, siblings, local community, commerce, transportation) says hasta-la-vista, baby to emotional Cancer and hello to fiery LEO.
 

Leo is the space we carry what 'makes us special'. It also speaks of our relationship to special/to royalty/to the king. With Mercury (communication, intellect) here, it will be easier to put our 'special' into words and to connect with the ideas and conversations that will push forward whatever we are most passionate about.
 

We will want our words to be heard and appreciated now. Even the most reticent among us will want an audience. Our thinking/ideas (Mercury) can catch fire now (Leo). Or we will want them to. The Sun/Pluto opposition happening at the same time as the Mercury ingress into Leo speaks of this year's Mercury in Leo season being peppered with some power struggles/endings.

 

Leo is a fixed fire sign, so words can burn and words can dig us even more rigidly into our positions.  With Leo there is great opportunity for win-win and also for 'nobody wins'. The energy is excellent for teaching us how we express what we are passionate about. It's very supportive of 'top of the mountain' heart-filled type of proclamations and proposals. 

 

Do people listen to us? Does what we say matter? We will care about this now.
 

Speaking from our hearts will connect us to other people's hearts. Encouraging words will matter. This is very powerful energy. Leo is our superpower and should be used wisely. People will hear us with their heart and well as their head. This gives the potential for hearts to expand as well as to be broken into little, tiny pieces. Keep this in mind. Also the Sun/Pluto opposition happening at the same time as the Mercury ingress speaks of this year's Mercury in Leo season being colored with verbal power struggles/endings. Mercury will be in Leo until August 4th.

 

This is also the day Chiron stations retrograde at 16 degrees Aries. An old injury/physical ailment can flare up. An area of emotional/mental vulnerability (very old wounding) can be made visible/activated to be worked with. In Aries, this is all about giving us opportunities to access our courage, our passion, our anger, our MOTIVATION. To learn we CAN take care of ourselves/be ourselves. Keep in mind, Chiron's wound never fully heals. We are always made to pull that band-aid off again and again, but over time we learn to integrate the wound, to work with it, to let it strengthen us without hardening us, to use it to help other people. 

Chiron will get all the way back to 11 degrees Aries on October 23rd when he will station direct and begin his journey back over 11-16 degrees Aries for the third and final time. People with natal and progressed planets/points near 11-16 degrees of Aries or the other cardinal signs - Cancer, Libra and Capricorn (via squares and oppositions) - will likely feel this transit strongest.

 

On WEDNESDAY - the Moon in Aries will square the Cancer Sun at 27 degrees. 

 

This is the Moon/Sun's final square before next week's New Moon in fiery Leo, so it will pay for us to pay attention. Squares are tension/frustration. They force ACTION. There could be something here about taking care of ourselves/acting independently vs caring for someone else or a home/family situation. Aries squares can make us antsy/impulsive and Aries Moons make us prone to anger before other emotions, so we will need to be smart about this and still we could need to show courage, initiative, anger, passion now. Maybe something about a home or family situation needs to change. Luna's square to the Sun will be her closing aspect in Aries, before she goes void for four hours giving us a chance to chill out/calm down/relax before she squares Mercury in Leo from Taurus when things could get LOUD and people more dug in. Just keep in mind, the important aspect is this Aries/Cancer square that requires some kind of adjustment/action before next week's fresh start. 

On FRIDAY - the Sun enters his home sign of Leo! 

 

The world BRIGHTENS. In Leo, we focus on what our heart wants, children (and our inner child), romance, fun, creative projects - we (and everyone else) want attention. Your Leo house (and the house of your natal Sun) is the space you are meant to SHINE. Prepare to get very shiny. Summer is OFFICIAL.

 

On SATURDAY - Mercury, at 8 degrees Leo, trines Jupiter in Aries. 

 

GOOD NEWS. Optimism. Big thinking. Expansive words. Good for planning. Good for travel. Good for legal matter/contracts. Shiny ventures/our heart expands. If you have this aspect natally - Mercury trine Jupiter - you better figure out how to make the most of it! This is also the day Ceres joins Mercury and the Sun in Leo. Now the Mama-Bear is having fun, too. Is loud and proud. The Moon is in Gemini and sextiling the Sun and Jupiter and Mercury - 

 

what more can we ask for?!

xo all

 

heads up next week's New Moon in Leo is especially POSITIVE and loving with UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITIES for everyone! - check your natal chart for 5 degrees Leo for Luna's field of play, also expect a BIG post this week about the Uranus/Mars/North Node energies at the end of the month and beginning of August that are going to rock our world!

artwork by the talented lavilsa

today's astrology forecast | Sunday, July 17th, 2022 - outgrowing the nest, time to go, time to let go plus Venus enters Cancer

 

 

The Moon is in Pisces now. We are nurtured/nourished by our dreams and imagination, by art and music. We are moved by our intuition. At home in water. Connected to what we can't see, what has been put away, what is behind us/behind the scenes. 

Luna sextiles Uranus at 11:00 AM EDT (change is good, anxiety is soothed by connection, meditation, art, music), meets ruler Neptune at 11:06PM EDT (heightened sensitivity, creativity and intuition, could make for some potent night-time dreams) and trines the Cancer Sun at 11:25PM EDT.

The trine is this month's Waning Trine. Water. A frictionless point of release between last week's Capricorn Full Moon and next week's Leo New Moon. Pisces/Cancer. Flow/letting things go. Good for emotional connections/endings that offer compassion, nourishment, healing. Share what you are feeling. And maybe do some cooking - Cancer can connect through food/our stomachs/a well-made potato salad. 

This is also the day Venus goes into Cancer. We talked about this in the weekly HERE. Venus shows us how we relate to others, what we are attracted to in others, what we value. Venus in Cancer is sentimental, loyal, wants to feel safe/at home. We might find the next few weeks a time when we need to give and receive nurturing to be happy/satisfied. 

 

Some other things happening now we talked about in the weekly, but I missed today's Ceres/Pluto opposition, so thought I'd pop in about that since these two met up during January 2020's Saturn/Pluto conjunction (time runs out), so something else concluding now in relation to that time-frame. Oppositions are like Full Moons - can bring illuminations and culminations. So, it's interesting we had the Full Moon a few days ago right on the "time runs out" degree and now this Ceres/Pluto opposition and Mercury meeting the Sun (superior conjunction - another 'result'), the other "time runs out" energies. 

 

As I said in the Full Moon post - we really are 'walking away from the end of the world'. Time to move on from 'time runs out'. 

(and no, I'm not sure what that means in practical terms either, but I have a feeling the end of the month and early August's meeting of Mars and Uranus and the North Node of Fate will give us a pretty substantial clue)

Ceres and Pluto are old enemies. Pluto's kidnapping of Ceres daughter Persephone threw Ceres into great grief and the world into great death (as her mourning created the seasons). She could be understood to represent 'season of life' situations, especially times when things are outside our control or when we need to let go and hang on too long. She can also represent times of complicated compromises/concessions (eventually Persephone was allowed to return to her mother for half of each year) - what we have to learn to live with.

 

The Ceres/Pluto is kind of echoing today's Waning Water Trine in Cancer/Pisces and anytime we have repeating aspects we need to pay attention. Maybe someone/something has 'outgrown' the nest. And this might even be about some kind of strange "safety net" nest we have created since January 2020 in response to collective events.

 

Delayed endings are deadening.  

 

This is a good day to let go of something/someone/some situation - the trine to Pisces will allow a gentle, drifting dissolve. 

 

(and, yes, this all happening at the Venus ingress into Cancer, complicates her time here)

 

As always take what fits and is useful, toss the rest.

xo all

artwork by the talented GaudiBuendia

today's astrology forecast | Thursday, July 14th, 2022 - rose colored glasses alert plus our words are our future

 

The Moon finished off her days in Capricorn last night with a conjunction to Pluto (we talked about this in the Full Moon post). She was void until 5:01AM EDT this morning when she moved into Aquarius. For the next two and a half days we are nourished/nurtured by stepping back and seeing the big picture, by intellect, by detaching a bit from our emotions, from our friendships, technology, groups, causes, individuality, freedom. 

The Moon squares Mars in Taurus at 2:38PM EDT (antsy, impulsive, defensive) and sextiles Jupiter at 5:29PM EDT (opportunity for growth through groups/friends, optimism, fresh starts), so once we get past this afternoon's square the Moon in Aqua can strut her stuff (so can we). 

This is also the day Venus squares Neptune and Mercury sextiles the North Node. 

 

Any Venus/Neptune connection is creative, imaginative, great for making music/art. A time for spiritual work, meditation, healing. But Venusian things/people/situations can get a bit muddled. Tend to dissolve/drift off course. Not the day to go shopping with a new credit card. Not the day to run off to Vegas and marry that guy you met last week. This is tricky rose-colored glasses territory. Neptune can be tiring/distracting, lure us away from what we are doing/need to do via a glass of wine or a Netflix marathon. That might be OK, but if something practical must get done we will have to rely on that Moon/Mars square to push us through. 

Mercury sextiles the North Node and trines the South Node. Here is where applying what we have learned about the Taurus/Scorpio polarity over the last few months CAN PAY OFF. 

 

It will be very easy, since the trine requires no effort, to fall into old verbal habits - talking about the complicated drama, over-thinking, reading about death/decay, making ideas too dark/intense, etc, but where the future is/what will get us where we want to go is the sextile to the North Node in Taurus. This one requires a little more effort. The flow is still smooth, but stagnant if not activated. Here is where talking/thinking/communicating in a calmer, more stable, more practical, more peaceful way can pay off over time. Talk about the new growth - WHATEVER THIS MEANS TO YOU - and not the old decaying past. Keep in mind, the trine to the South Node will make it very EASY to talk/think/notice in the same old ways, we have to make the EFFORT to reach for the new words, the new conversation, the simpler idea, the new way of thinking/seeing (note Mercury is in home/family/mom centered Cancer, so conversations may be centered here, may even be about old situations since Cancer is about our roots, but now is the time to talk/think about them in new ways, to listen with new ears).  

 

We have to trust the greener grass is over THERE.

 

xo all

photography by the amazing iNeedChemicalX

the meaning of the astrology of the Full Moon in Capricorn | July 13, 2022 - walking away from the end of the world

Wednesday's Full Moon in Capricorn (2:37PM EDT) is a particularly demanding and ambitious one. Capricorn Full Moons are always heavy. Our emotional Moon, challenged in cold-as-ice Capricorn, is opposed by the Sun in the Moon's sign of Cancer. This one, conjunct powerful Pluto and on an uber HOT degree is particularly hard-core.

In Capricorn the Moon is cold and practical, reserved and quiet. Picture - Mama-bear CEO or maybe better yet, Mama-bear GENERAL. 

 

This is about the collective Cancer/Capricorn polarity AND the themes of our natal Cancer/Capricorn houses. Both Cancer and Capricorn are concerned with issues of SAFETY, both value TIME and are guardians of the legacy of our ancestors. The polarity is about family vs. work. The security that comes from nurturing ourselves, nurturing others or being nurtured vs the security that comes from having work in the world and money coming in/in the bank. Our nest at home vs our place in the world. Summer vs. winter. Preparing for birth vs preparing for death. Babyhood vs old age. Mom vs dad. 

There is so much contradiction here, but like all polarities this is really just two sides of the same coin - maybe something labeled SECURITY. We can't own a coin without owning both sides. But we can only look at (focus on) one side at a time. The other side is in the shadows - so we have to flip back and forth and balance this stuff out with our time, attention and resources. There isn't really an end to this or a way to "win" here. We just do the best we can with what we have. Spend too much time with one side of the coin and the other side gets all gunky like those pennies stuck in our car cup-holder that have had coffee dripped on them. No matter how shiny the other side looks that gunky side means we never get to actually spend the money.

(yes, this might be one of my strange metaphors that don't get us anywhere - except maybe out to the car with a squirt bottle of vinegar and a cup of soapy water)

 

Full Moons bring things to a peak or a culmination, so maybe something ends now. 

Full Moons bring things to light (conjunct a retrograde Pluto maybe old secrets or something that has been hidden, the Webb telescope's images certainly fit the bill here and as above, so below, so something in our own life comes out of the shadows, too). Capricorn themes (and your personal Capricorn/Cancer house themes) will be highlighted - tradition, structure, work, obligations, responsibility, authority, ambition, limits, boundaries, restrictions, goals. 

 

Let's unpack the chart!

 

The Moon at 21 degrees Capricorn opposes the Sun at 21 degrees Cancer. She is in the sign of her detriment, out of bounds and sitting on some pretty devastated real estate. The Sun is nestled uncomfortably between Ceres and Mercury. The Moon is conjunct Pluto, trines (brakes off) change maker Uranus and the North Node of Fate, sextiles Juno (EXACT) and Neptune, inconjuncts Saturn and squares Chiron and Eris. Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn and so ruler of this lunation trines Venus (EXACT). The Moon is conjunct asteroid Hylonome (EXACT) and ruler Saturn is conjunct asteroid Polyxena (EXACT).

 

Where do we start with this one? I think with the 'devastated real estate'. 

 

21-22 degrees Capricorn is where Saturn met Pluto (and Ceres and Mercury and the Sun) back in mid-January 2020 - the astrological start of 'time runs out', which I had been calling "winter is coming" all throughout 2019, now better known as 'the pandemic'. Mars (the trigger) crossed the degree in March 2020 as the world shut down. Mars crossed the degree for a second time in late February 2022 as Russia bombed Ukraine (within hours, also within hours of the first U.S. Pluto return, also in play this week through Pluto's retrograde). 

(this being the degree of my natal Mercury, I knew this was also the degree where Uranus met Neptune back in 1993 at the peak of the AIDS epidemic as my life was imploding - not from AIDS - so I should have been thinking 'epidemic' for 2020 pre-covid, but my brain - which Pluto was criss-crossing mercilessly - was thinking 'time runs out' because once Saturn stationed direct in the fall of 2019, whatever was going to happen would not be stopped)

The Full Moon answering to Saturn and conjunct Pluto at 21 degrees Cappy takes us back to the Saturn/Pluto (time runs out), but now pulls in Uranus (both the future and the chaos, humanitarianism, equality and tech that gets us there) - through Saturn in Aquarius. Think of us in a higher level of the game now. We don't know what we're doing because we've never been here before and these massively important degrees have been 'wiped out/reset'. This is probably part of what the 'great resignation' is about. It is very hard to keep doing what we were doing, or return to what we used to do, maybe especially in terms of Capricorn ruled careers/goals.

The Moon is quite stressed here. Looks over-worked. Over-stimulated. Out of the control of the Sun, but also maybe herself (multiple out-of-bound planets right now). This might indicate the need for a break. There is a nice applying sextile to Neptune - rest, make art/music, get into the water/a movie, take a relaxing vacation. It's summer. Life is short. And we only get so many of them. 

The Moon's conjunction to Pluto is intense. We've had a bunch of Full Moons in conversations with Pluto and now here is where the Moon finally meets up with Pluto. And now, Pluto is retrograde, so still an old story from the old world that needs to be finished. A closing chapter about POWER and how we have been conditioned to deal with competition and ambition and tradition and the people who hold/have held power over us and the way we hold power over other people. 

 

The Moon's trine to Uranus and the North Node is pulling us into the future - drawing us closer to the end of July/beginning of August's BIG PUSH FORWARD. The Full Moon's illumination or ending is also freeing/liberating. Something now is in flow with whatever we have STARTING then.

The Moon's most exact aspect is her sextile to Juno in Pisces. This is about serious partnerships. Creative collaborations that can last. Capricorn and Pisces at first glance seem to make strange bedfellows, but they NEED EACH OTHER to make anything happen. The dream and the hard work. The reality and the vision. Partnerships, contracts - whether this is a beginning or an ending, there is an OPPORTUNITY here somewhere.

The Moon's square to the mid-point of Chiron and Eris give us multiple kicking off points - that only look like our back is against the wall. Squares are under-rated activators. They create tension/frustration, so we MUST move. For some that Chiron wound - fear of being able to take care of ourselves/be ourselves/our personal Chiron wound - will be pushing us in new directions. This is already in play.

Eris's push here comes from a different place. Eris's discovery opened up a HUGE scary can of worms for science. A Goddess as an outer planet?! WTH! "Not so fast," says patriarchal conditioning. Time to constrain. Time to control. Time to set some new rules. And, so as not to promote Eris and Ceres and their ilk (this all being done somewhat unconsciously) Pluto, arguably the most powerful planet in astrology gets demoted by astronomy! And we all know Eris's 'apple' story. Squares to Eris can bring situations where we are pushed to act because of something like a snub. Our action can likely snowball into something much bigger than we intended, for better or worse, so keep that in mind.

 

Saturn, rules the lunation from 24 degrees Aquarius and is EXACTLY trining Venus in Gemini. Venus rules the North Node (way forward). Something here about multiple options when we get real/deal with the reality of where we are now. Don't cling to what's leaving/maturing/the past. A smooth connection to sober and stable Saturn makes Venus in Gemini's usual fleeting attractions more STICKY.

 

The Moon's opposition to not only the Sun, but also Ceres and an out-of-bound, combust Mercury speaks of challenges/situations outside our control. Ceres/Sun opposing Pluto/Moon brings up resource issues, season of life situations or over or under nurturing. The Ceres opposition is part of this summer's Cancer chapter about dealing with 'mother and childhood wounds'. Maybe with the Moon in its fullness and conjunct Pluto we are reminded things cannot stay young/green. With Mercury here, we are able to think/talk 'outside the box', but also outside the constraints of normal rules/boundaries of conversation, others can, too, so keep this in mind. We literally aren't thinking straight/are seeing things we've not seen/noticed before, which can be a good thing or not so good depending on what we do with this. There could be some intense/uncomfortable conversations as the Full Moon energies play out.

The Moon is EXACTLY conjunct asteroid Hylonome, a female centaur famed for tossing herself onto the arrow that had just killed her centaur husband in battle. Saturn (ruler of the Moon) is EXACTLY conjunct asteroid Polyxena, also famous for her sacrificial death. Since the Moon is conjunct Pluto and Pluto 'rules' death (and transformation because death is only transformation) this whole 'sacrificial death' thing is a thing here. 

Mostly this is speaking metaphorically - as all archetypes do. 

Although there may be people who have lost partners, for example, or who have "done their job" and unconsciously 'let go' now (the Moon/Hylonome exact on Queen Elizabeth's Ascendant/South Node with the Sun opposing from her 6th house of health and Mars - the trigger - on Charles' Moon/North Node of Fate mid-heaven 10th house of career/public life). 

We don't want to be sacrificing ourselves to our work/to our goals in unhealthy ways. We don't want to be killing ourselves - again I am speaking metaphorically - following footsteps that lead us absolutely nowhere in this new world. The patriarchy is ending and I am not talking about old white men in suits. The stuff that is leaving still feels very much needed because it is the structural stuff we (and our ancestors) have built our lives with. There is no Plan B for the patriarchy because in reality it has already ended. We are looking at/holding onto something that no longer exists. Most of us are carrying karma and old contracts and commitments that have already ended. 

We have to trust that everything is happening for a purpose. Even the scary ass sh*t. 

 

And, as for Polyxena on the Cancer Sun, well, this, coupled with Saturn's awkward inconjunct to Ceres and Ceres opposing the Moon makes me think of the ways unconditional giving is no longer appropriate. We don't need to celebrate sacrifice. This 'valuing all life' thing includes ourselves. Yes, even if you are an old white man in a suit. Maybe all this 'sacrifice' is asking us what we are willing to sacrifice to succeed or to feel safe? Or maybe for some there is a very real need to 'fall on their sword' gracefully.

One thing for certain and not much is these days - we don't need to catastrophize endings. The Moon's conjunction to Pluto retrograde isn't bringing any losses/illuminations or outcomes we couldn't see coming.  What we need - Jupiter in Aries - is some faith in the new beginning.

I hope something here is helpful now and over the next couple weeks and even the next six months as this Full Moon fully plays out. 

Be sure to get out and walk in it!

xo all