The Astrology of July 2021: Slap Awake
Primordial Pool Party: New Moon in Cancer
The start of July contains a series of jolts and starts from malefics and outer planets making for a cacophany still riding on the vaulting seas of romantic and mystical Jupiter in Pisces who might lace everything with an atmosphere of escape raft a la Kon Tiki while the thunder rolls and sea monster sightings are just a part of the fantasy novel genre and register as less alarming as they might if Jupiter wasn’t creating such a cushion. Zeus’ lubrication runs out late in the month, but we might find we are beginning to check in on what remains in the jelly jar in a deeply contemplative way by the 9th of July when we recieve a New Moon in Cancer. If there is going to be consistent fricative events strewn like forgotten land mines across the landscape of 2021 then we’ll want to keep things wet so we don’t all get rubbed raw in the process of our radical upgrades. How much abundance of balm and refreshments there is to go around starts to read on our radar around this time. If we are going to keep up the Sturm und Drang then there should be plenty of Riesling to quaff. There is a primordial element burbling up from the abyss here as well. This was the place of old floods, the perennial deluges which greened the fertile fields, and the annual time to pause and think about the new life that has come into the world. Just over a week and a half after hearing the proverbial new born baby’s first cries we might, as the excitement dies down a bit, let the feelings for new life express within us. A philosophic turn, but one begot from the natural cycles washing and flowing within us. As mammals we share ancestry with all the other animals we see. We all climbed out of the muck at some point way back. If we are looking for a we are really All One orientation we might consider this, before primates even showed up on the scene animal parents roamed around who make us and all other species essentially cousins. In our broader ecosystemic family reunion, is there enough food and drink and places to sleep for us all to go around?
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William Scharf
Mars opposite Saturn
Mars trine Chiron
Mars square Uranus
Sun sextile Uranus
Mercury Square Neptune
Venus trine Chiron
Venus square Uranus
New Moon Cancer 3
Mercury ingress Cancer
Mercury trine Jupiter
Venus conjunct Mars
Sun trine Neptune
Sun opposite Pluto
Mercury sextile Uranus
Venus ingress Virgo
Venus opposite Jupiter
Sun Ingress Leo
Full Moon Aquarius 1
Mercury trine Neptune
Mercury opposite Pluto
Mercury ingress Leo
Jupiter RX ingress Aquarius
Jupiter opposite Mars
Mars ingress Virgo
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Joseph Wilson Forster
Attraction and Action: Mars and Venus Tango
Looking back to the top of the month right of the literally bat we get a cracking opposition between Mars in Leo and Saturn in Aquarius. Conjunctions consolidate significations, squares clash with tension and oppositions call for balance. In this case it is equal measure between installing innovative new constructs and tactically operating in an honest way. Can we fit into the new conceptual parameters while still acting ourselves or do the updated societal designs prevent us from defending our identity. Are we going to lash out and break protocol or are we going to keep our weapons where everyone can see them while leaving the emerging artifice unscathed? With Mars and Saturn aspecting there is always stop and go attempting to fit into the same space, but in this case its throw some breaks on here and hit the gas elsewhere. Can certainly slow our progress, but is also the recipe for industriousness, if we can sync up to the lock step.
Rene Magritte
With Mars trining Chiron in Mars’ sign this move into July’s territory is comfortably uncomfortable, presented with barriers we are wont to cross them, head into territory that might have been too radical previously, but with Mars’ next aspect squaring Uranus we are finding ourselves quite ready or not to pop out of our groove and further up the track than we could have ever got to in gradual motion. The pressure put upon us right now is mostly mental. Aquarius is a world of control via concerning data, but not afraid to innovate even when it presents spirit crushing solutions to previously unsolvable issues. What might be holding us back at this point is not much more than speculative calculations, and in this instant we might be too lit up with real urges and impulsive energy to heed the official warnings. Venus trines Chiron and squares Uranus next so our desires are in line with our impulses, we want to get over some stuff that sat festering and hop the fence to new territory, even if its technically restricted. This leads us right up to the Cancer New Moon on the 9th, so it’s around this time we are pausing and looking about for refreshments with new found appreciation of what a cool down feels like and how it really is necessary to not overheat in the action. Mars and Venus are coming together in quite a sexy show off kind of space, making direct contact by the 13th of July, just after the Moon brushes over them and feels them up the morning before, bringing the whole night sect together. We are taught to distrust our subjective experience while simultaneously society strives to use our emotions and needs to manipulate and control our behavior. The night sect in Leo orients our intuition, needs, desires and impulses of defense around exactly how we see it from our particular corner of reality, how it simply clearly seems to be for all to see in the light of day. Bringing our emotions and instincts out into the open and consolidating them into a single space and particular dynamic central to our narrative places our attractions and actions onto center stage. Mars and Venus in conjunction can go off different from person to person. For some it is being trigger-happy about our desires, for others it is getting our hands slapped away from the cookie jar, for another it is aggressive pleasure, either a sexy conflict or love that leaves bruises. Sexual tension, beautiful anger, challenging desire, spicy sensuality, elegant weaponry, harsh art. When Ying and Yang are gathered into the same place it is advisable to consider the ubiquitous symbol of taoism. A measure of yang within yin embracing yin within yang kept circulating and flowing in constant motion. This is fire element so certainly this is energy. We might find an energetic and mental lock step concept to innovate within at the start of July, and as we hop the fence into radical new territory physically over the next few days and seek the distribution of cooling resources to refresh us under the New Moon by mid month we would do well to keep the energy flowing and circulating as our pleasure centers mingle with our fight or flight instincts right before our very eyes.
Edvard Munch
Venus and Mars, being inner planets make regular conjunctions, this is not necessarily a monumental event. That being said we can pull some threads and see this is a minor detail in the story, but one that weaves into a much larger pattern going forward and backward in time. Because of their variable speeds they meed again in the territory of Capricorn throughout February and cross hand in hand into Aquarius the first week of March. This connects what happens with our passions energetically and under the spotlight here in mid July to the manifest chess tactics of concrete desire this winter and how that moves directly into new designs for 2022, decisive maneuvers for the labors of love. This border that Mars and Venus will touch upon together between Capricorn and Aquarius has been a very pivotal couple degrees for the story of 2020 and 2021. Saturn first ingressed across it at the beginning of quarantine with Mars then came across again with Jupiter and the Moon around the election and emergence of vaccines, so this third consolidation upon these degrees says something about the new world emerging at the start of this 200 year Air period and how it plays into our personal existences, and where our desires fit into a world of dispassionate protocols and mandatory protective measures and digitalized, virtual, remote everything. On a completely personal level we might want to pay close attention to how our passions stir mid July as this will likely reflect in what we do in February and what we think in March.
Venus moves into Virgo a week after the conjunction with Mars on the 21st, where our pleasures become much more particular and what seduces us much more specific. This detail oriented style of desire comes just in time to form an opposition with Jupiter before he heads back into Aquarius, into copresence with ruling Saturn set on designing innovative new restrictions, and out of Jupiter’s own rulership. Pleasure channels flood as they narrow until suddenly fun and celebration aren’t even important pieces of the equation anymore. Just before Jupiter’s re-gress into Aquarius we receive a Full Moon on those first degrees of the same sign late on the 23rd, the very degrees so highlighted in March and December 2020, at critical parts of the plot mechanics. Heaping helpings of Aquarius have been overly stressed for months and months already, but in a stretch of skies when uncertainty and blurred information has reigned so supremely, the sensitive Moon might light up the space and speak to the needs of alienation and detached observation. What is going on here? What does it mean. The Aquarius Moon comes every July, usually with a need to go rogue during a socially over stimulated period of Summer activity, to slip away from the festivities and disappear down a road less traveled and strike upon new ideas. Amidst an over abundance of Aquarian expression the Full Moon here might illuminate more nuanced personal meaning to the story of “social distancing” and new normals, in a way that will be quite obvious and instinctual, in our own lives as well as in the world.
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More Control Experiments:
Jupiter Returns To Work For Saturn
Jupiter follows into late Aquarius a few days after this Moon, looking to seriously upgrade constructs and upgrade systems and design new concepts out of thin air and make space for them to expand and develop away from constrictive old hierarchies and monoliths. The world struggles to not fall into new totalitarianism as it avoids old crony capitalism, and in our own lives we must attempt to steer clear of laying out the blueprints of an inhuman life for ourselves only to escape the old cells we accidentally ended up in. Not eating food ever again and surviving solely on supplements so as to save enough money to finally quit a dead end job is not a viable strategy, even though Aquarius might have little enough concern for comfort and warmth to think so. Aquarius can be the problematic schematics the engineers cook up that don’t actually jive with a living reality. Good in theory but unlivable in reality. There is no too harsh on paper. As long as everyone follows the plan it will work perfectly and efficiently. The problem being that life has its own agenda, its still not entirely programable. There could be anger and outrage over this at this juncture, as the first thing Jupiter encounters is an opposition with late degree Mars, hell bent on standing up for personal expression and fighting for those brave enough to express themselves honestly. Mars pretty much hops over into process oriented Virgo immediately after, so there is only so much loud and proud resistance before there’s too many tasks to accomplish to really look outside of the set parameters. Looks like a pretty cold and dry turn for the world situation but there could be quite a bit of redesign, upgrade, processing power and acute surgery to perform in your personal life. What new ideas are gaining space to be installed and experimented with and what tweaks might you make on them up front so that they have a chance to make dynamic changes on how your life operates? The movement into Virgo could effect parts of life Jupiter was expanding in Pisces and the Nodes were putting in transition from the eclipses. Pay attention to the particularities of your desires and make the adjustments that could get the gears turning in a more streamlined way.
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What you don’t know can’t hurt you… right?:
Mercury and the Sun slapped around
Despite data abounding getting in depth information and communicating with meaning has been so convoluted in the past year and a half that many people have given up completely and escaped either into a streaming cycle of escape or retreating to an unplugged sector of off the map. In July, beneath the other highly dynamic plot points, we also find our faculties of observation and attention waking up, doused with intoxicants, slapped around, told the truth, facing their fears, freaking out, hearing the lie we want to hear, getting drowned out by a hot signal, having a light shined in our eyes and then told never-mind their’s bigger fish to fry anyway, again the collective integrity is at stake. Sounds like the recipe for making an MK Ultra. But it's really the 2021 mental landscape, which is overtly harsh with Saturn in Aquarius, but also an intellectual wavelength we have to get used to as we move into deeper and deeper Air triplicity territory. Flash forward to Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius 2025. Turbulent data storms and endless design depths.
William Kurelek
Mercury now direct in rulership heading toward the exit of his retrograde shadow has to square Neptune on the 6th before he leaves the home stretch. Neptune is particularly disruptive to Mercury’s significations, as Neptune is fantastical, illusory and ultimately permeable, Pisces likes to mix everything together into an amorphous, undulating romanticized whole, both functions making for Mercury’s job analyzing, communicating and exchanging information in quick, clever, curious and multitracked Gemini incredibly challenging— or does it? The whole experience of Mercury’s retrograde in Gemini and multiple squares with Neptune have seemed to serve up some very obvious significations but since Mercury is in rulership, they are not necessarily that problematic. There were reversals, do overs, corrections, double checks, tech glitches and the whole gambit, and they were liberally doused in idealism, fantasy, escapism, binge streaming and servings of alcohol, but not necessarily to anyone’s detriment. The elastic tether to the details with this rulership Mercury made for an instant rebound to the normal retrograde occurrences, and an instant recognition of the “glad we had to go back and get another look at that”, like check, check, check, check to all the boxes, oh missed one, check, boom. Minimal disturbances. All the while, we may have found ourselves lost in a wave of mystical or cinematic influx that served to soak our curiosity in copious amounts of just what we were wondering about. Squares can be productive. Little alarms that say something has to be done about this. Mercury’s brief and final square with Neptune in this set may be a call to clear away last dregs of confusion via another urgent dose of high saturation amounts of streaming the romanticized version of the info we’ve been looking for which augments the environment we’re immersed in making life transitions in, as this is a mutable square, the axises the eclipses have also been occurring in. Mercury settles into being washed over with romantic notions and groovey vibes and ceases needing so many data points to check as he next moves into Cancer on the 11th, feeling right at home in the lap of comfort and craving fulfillment, thinking more about relaxation, drink, food, family, and philosophy while immediately trining Jupiter as he steps in which allows him plenty of space to ease his mind and enjoy the basic, natural pleasures of life. The Sun then trines Neptune, getting oriented to the vacation mode, feeling some tropical escape might be the ideal objective to pursue actually. But next thing you know he’s opposing Pluto two days later on the 17th. Maybe things haven’t been quite what they seem, or we forgot about the monster under the bed and the skeletons in the closet and white elephant in the room while we were dreaming wide awake. There are serious things and a bunch of foreboding unknowns we need to balance with our desire to simply relax and take care of ourselves.
William Scharf
Mercury then sextiles Uranus on the 20th, and our urge to experience what is served up upon the table of life is in alignment with urgency to material and sensual pursuits. We put mental energy into shaking free the fecundity the earth offers. The Sun switches perspective two days later on the 22nd, feeling energy welling up from within and emanating down from above things become clear and in the objective light of it all we can show up as ourselves and see what we truly should orient to. Food and drink and rest and sleep are complimentary to existence but the heart beats for more core purposes and we are led by this drum. This lights up the Full Moon in Aquarius late on the 23rd. We have our own ideas, we’ll go our own way, wherever that takes us, we can go out on a limb if we have to. Saturn also speaks through this lunation, here is the new deal you must obey it, and our heats see it squarely and feel its coldness and know we could never resonate with such a plan personally. It’s simply rational madness, soulless.
Charles Seliger
As the month then begins to wind to a close Mercury repeats the trines to Neptune and opposition to Pluto. We maybe saw the thing a week before but only now that events culminated in the Full Moon can we begin to think about and process what that all means. Fantasies and fears considered in a sensitive frame of mind. Then on the 27th Mercury enters the Sun’s sign, Leo already combust, having disappeared from the sky. We might be thinking things very close to our core expression but we cannot say them, and even if we did, they might not be heard. Interesting as this is just before Jupiter returns to being Saturn directed and helps to install the next components of the data driven info monitored collectivist society being constructed by who knows who, as in Aquarius we are oppressed by non-present networks and the collective itself rather than the old regime who resides in the age old castle. Until the 29th we have Mercury, the Sun and Mars in Leo. Being and thinking and speaking for yourself is something that requires some tactics and a bit of bearing arms. After the 29th, when Mars ingresses Virgo, and becomes Mercury ruled he is being directed by this Mercury heading into combustion, cazimi, and fiery regeneration. We purify our ideas of ourselves by performing surgery on our processes and functions. Make sure to take the opposition between Aquarius and Leo very seriously hear, and perform the medicine. If you are going to remain yourself and have a vision, voice and purpose that remains your own then you have to balance that truth with the auto-assembling systems of the collective and digital infrastructure. When weight is added to one weight is added to the other. This is not advice to be the Yankee Individualist American asshole the collectivist progressive liberal woke hive mind criticizes, but instead, know thyself, obtain conversation with your Holy Daimon, connect to deity, to lineage, to what flows through your heart, not in the sense of the apologist new age romantics, but in the ancient sense, the heart as in what was weighed against the feather after your death, what the ancient world saw as the mind, rather than the neuron ball we now place mind in, that brain the ancients saw instead as a coolant sink to keep the humors from overheating— we are talking about the heart mind that is shared with the eternal spirit that resides within yourself, the heart mind that speaks directly with your ancestors, the heart mind that whispers your passions into your ears and advices you on how to live accordingly so as to achieve them. The heart mind that craves expression in adornment, not to inflate your ego but to worship the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, the thread of divine nature within us, to deify oneself and bring more godliness and righteousness into the world, to celebrate, perform, exhibit what is in accord with the life giving Sun, to alchemically transform shit into gold, even in our personal fashion and celebration of vitality flowing from jewelry, make up, dance, charm and attention. Get the fuck out there mother fuckers. Hit the lights.
Sizonenko Yuri