The Astrology of July 2024: Reality Filtration

Is there July-ness? An essence that is particularly of July. Of course, we’ve lived long enough in Gregorian brackets that yes by association we can make correlations to what regularly expresses between the last day of June and the first day of August. A certain light and temperature. Although, looking under the hood we find calendric July is basically the Sun’s transit from 10 degrees Cancer to 10 degrees Leo, so mostly Cancer season then the experience of cardinal water phase morphing into fixed fire. This will often include, as it does this year on July 5th, a New Moon in Cancer, where we subjectively settle our feelings and direct our focus and attention on comfort and libation. With nice weather often comes the need to relax and commune with close friends and family and enjoy the abundance of nourishing foods generating in the world, and of course time spent in or by the water.

As the Sun spans Cancer to Leo, so will Mercury who can only get under 30 degrees away, and Venus who can only get under 50 degrees away from the Diurnal Luminary. Depending on if they are ahead or behind the Sun or when and where their retrogrades take place will decide whether we will be having a more wet or hot July across the personal and mundane spectrum. This time they are leading the charge and go into Leo respectively with Mercury on the 2nd and Venus on the 11th, making us enthusiastic to expose our selves, turn up the charm, perform, celebrate, invigorate and resonate the naked truth. Things being bright, naked and celebratory sounds like a beach party, and this is what tends to happen, giving context to why we’d be strutting around in our birthday suits publicly without much hesitation. Parades, fireworks, ice cream and fun for everyone of any age ensue. Fire can be about enthusiasm and what gets us excited, so fixed fire can be about what generally always gets anyone or everyone feeling warmed up and ready to go.

Clarence Ruth

The Sun in Leo can mean there is a full Moon in Aquarius. It makes sense that if its bright and sunny and celebratory crowds fill the public spaces we take the opportunity to go off the map and explore some new territory, head to somewhere new we haven’t been before, with some distance from the masses. Although, we get a second dose of Capricorn Full Moon instead. The first one having landed just after solstice at 1 degree Capricorn on June 21st and the second one that July will host being a month later on July 21st at the final degree of the Goat’s sign, Saturn’s yin domicile of Cardinal Earth. So, this July there is a culminating preoccupation with history, infrastructure, management of systems, what we are locked into and what keeps us shielded from harm, how we strategize and even what karmic bonds are on reality’s chessboard with which we must take care to move in a particular order. This is on the earthier end of the July spectrum (we receive our Aquarius Full Moon on August 19th this year), but as certain summers go, we may use the stretch of nice weather for being productive with our projects rather than investigating the unexplored. Although, some earth in the mix to keep things weighted down into reality and not blow or float away is called for with Jupiter in Gemini ruling Saturn in Pisces, the two ultimately ruled by Mercury in Leo, which has us thinking mostly about our selves, the variety of options opening up for us, and where things are naturally obligated to flow to. Of course what we are selfishly excited about (especially with the South Node in Libra and North Node in Aries at the time, decreasing accommodating and increasing autonomy) expanding ideas, and needing to heed the heavy vibe does probably benefit from some kind of reality check, some filtration system to flow through. Think of it not as the fly in the ointment. It is not a fatal flaw, nor is it a road block, but an opportunity to use the mass amount of considerable mutable modality of the moment to finally begin to unlock old karmas and maneuver through the chess match with fate towards a win revealed by daimonic thinking.

Adam Elsheimer

The old post-christian West’s version of eastern philosophy's interpretation of “the ego” slows this process down. It is not egotistical or selfish to do what you were truly incarnated to do, be, express or experience. When everyone gets right with this dynamic there will be a lot less stepping on each others toes and allowance to fit into the larger pattern as a whole in our proper positions, being sovereign for our selves and not attempting to rule or dominate others. We could not see the ego as not guilt inducing in the Christocentric era, which also begot the Darwinian might-makes-right by nature logic malfunction. Energy must flow as it is meant to so embrace your higher intelligence via what energizes you at a non-intellectual, non-rational and non-sentimental level.

What does oppose this entire notion quite literally is July 23rd’s opposition of the Sun and Pluto. There is beginning to be a preponderance of individuals who no longer know where to place their self expression, be it art making or even dressing or decorating themselves and are tending more to dress down and hide out or else be assimilated and syndicated by the digital aesthetic and idea extraction mechanisms which widely disperse and dilute self and authenticity into mass mimicry and impersonation media, whether for sale or entertainment purposes, ultimately all outsider, counter and subcultural networks are now commercialized and made readily available as commodity. We can see that Pluto in Aquarius has Leo on the fritz, as Mercury, Venus, and soon Mars are all experiencing retrogrades there. Clients are asking me wtf to do with all the art they make now that there is no escape from being overexposed to the digital sphere and all niche enclaves have been swapped out with yesterdays mall shoppers. Many of the old guard have vanished into literal obscurity, like creatures forced into nocturnalism.

Matt Gondek

Over time there are cultural changing of the guards in the natural order, but Pluto in Aquarius carries out the corruption and distortion within what is niche, pioneering, and avant-garde as well as new and cutting edge. So, who are all the new people to counter-culture? Something is not right and manipulation and shadow play blow fuses in the spotlights of glamour, attention, self expression, and authenticity. Where the off-map is situated is now not even on the map and I imagine mums will be even more the word than ever before. For instance, the Pluto in Leo generation (hippies cum baby boomers) came up with the idea of “don’t trust anyone over 30” (fittingly as they quickly became the wall street wolves themselves after turning three decades old) and I’ve already heard people say “I don’t trust anyone under 40”. The generation participating the most in the economy at the moment don’t remember life before the internet, so for them life and culture are inseparable from syndication systems. While Saturn is in empathic Pisces along with Neptune I think we are seeing the most unchecked mimicry and impersonation examples edging people out of the digital public as unacceptable places to express themselves (as its Saturn in Pisces ruling that Pluto) but once Saturn goes into Aries fortifications around individuality will likely begin to be assembled like armor defending independent actions. As July contains Mercury’s, Venus’ and the Sun’s oppositions to Pluto in Aquarius it is in this end of the year we contend largely with this longer term (until 2044) cultural dynamic. This generation will not understand what is inauthentic about their behavior and not grasp why they are stealing other people’s identity and intellectual property as the boomers couldn't understand why peace and love flower power was shallow and can’t grasp why holding all the wealth and power until its “pried from their cold dead hands” is selfish. Going basic mode and being in nature (Taurus) or going truly nocturnally covert (Scorpio) are the juxtaposed fixed signs which are playing out in narrative tension with the Leo-Aquarius conundrum, and why people who used to have stick and poke tattoos, noise projects, extreme politics and live in their vans twenty or thirty years ago are now hiding out in regular attire unplugged in undisclosed locations carrying on in their power anonymously. Remembering life before the internet means remembering what it was like to be an animal.

The month begins with Mercury entering Leo and thinking going more self centered, which as previously noted is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s paradoxical that we criticize someone for being “so self centered” while meanwhile we uphold the pursuit of centering ourselves. Obviously, this means centering the self in the whole of the macrocosm, but still within the microcosm of the self we must situate that center as well. Mercury can also process attention adeptly here and has a way of speaking with a charismatic voice. The Sun is on the bend of the nodes though, so generally this means what gets the goods right now is being less charming and more effective, as this moment in early July pulls at the narrative chord of how the current eclipse cycle is conditioning us and the lives we live in. As mentioned, Mercury isn’t having the easiest time facilitating our self expression, he has to contend with Pluto in Aquarius, which means the way of the world currently, and fears or obsessions we are experiencing as a result, are pushing us into upgrading and updating our paradigms and in balance with this what we think and say is not what we might have once thought or said historically. This new version of truth, new kind of honesty, updated display, might be brought about begrudgingly, but we are centering ourselves around that reality regardless for the long hall and allowing ourselves to find where and how we feel good about it.

Darko Drijevik-Montenegro

Venus in Cancer trine to Saturn in Pisces aids in the process of helping us have what we like and makes us feel good so we relax into the harder dimensions of the reality. Although, as we proceed to the 6th she squares Chiron and we can feel how uncomfortable we are with taking action while we’re desiring comfort. Mars sextile’s Saturn just before and slow methodical efforts aid in loosening up, go gradual so as not to irritate by introducing too much too quickly, and maybe getting a little liquored up also doesn’t hurt. By the 8th Venus sextiles Uranus and Mercury Jupiter so getting wild with it and taking more on all follow suit from easing into the motion after some stretching. Its likely here that if you can’t be fully yourself then dispersing yourself around allows for you to speak a little truth to a lot of people or across many subjects. If we talk at length about any one thing we’ll reach subjects I can’t comment on but if we keep changing subjects or keep moving from conversation to conversation I can be perfectly honest a little here and then a little there. I’m sure people have noticed this effect in the past several years now of increasingly contentious issues. This is a time of being quick with it, like its baked in now and become second nature. The upside is it can broaden one’s scope rather than limit each to their pod.

Venus, on the 11th into the 12th gets the abrupt switch of being harmonized to Neptune across water signs to opposing Pluto from fire to air. The very hypnotic, luscious vacation vibe suddenly gets whacked with the feeling of being too turned on in a desiccating desert. I’m imagining theres a bit of feels very good and I can almost lose myself in it and get totally swept away except its all too clear suddenly something is fake, artificial and not jiving. Remember last Summer’s Venus in Leo retrograde full of AI selfie filters and Barbie movie make-overs. Unsurprisingly, the quarter Moon in Libra lights up the not playing nice anymore need by the next day, and not long after that Mars in Venus’ other home sign conjoins Uranus mid month, where the ‘when the going gets tuff’ type reaction is Frankenstein the farm tractor and hot rod the project for some urgent shaking up the program and kicking into gear. Strewn about here are squares and trines to Chiron, so across all aspects Venus being plucked out of her dreamy comfort state and thrown against feeling not herself versus a world gone artificial brings more edginess and erratic behavior to the mix, which is possibly great for experimentation, rogue ingenuity and getting on with the way things are now but gears may grind and delicate details diced up in the works, looking more punk than pretty and more pushy than pleasing.

Winslow Homer

Mars sextiles Neptune before entering Gemini, echoing other last look at the fantasy before getting bombarded with new information as a theme this month. Mars’ switch to Gemini is especially significant as he will be heading to conjoin Jupiter in some kind of cyber ceremony by August 14th. Remember Mars was retrograde last time he was in Gemini, and spent a considerable amount of time here from August of 2022 to March of 2023, so harken back to that and add to it that Jupiter is taking a Mars that tried too hard and got licked last season and giving him another opportunity at bat, this time with wonder drugs and more than enough connections to climb and claw his way up and along. This can be good and it can be like rocket fuel to run the weed whacker. Looks like hot rodding things is getting addictive.

Clarence Ruth

And here is then the quagmire surrounding the second Full Moon in Capricorn on July 21st. The Moon needs to burn the midnight oil to manage the system and generate a solid strategy, the Sun is still in Cancer for a few more moments finishing up the food and whatever’s left in the liquor cabinet (trine Neptune), Venus is jiving with Jupiter making desire for authentic self expression and celebrating ones specialness not opposed to disseminating widely everywhere at once, Mercury who still wants to think and talk about ourselves and process how much attention we’re getting gets his signal jammed by unpredictability of the plan and finds shaky ground to stand, yet Mars in the land of multitasking and omnidirectional action feels perfectly harmonized with corrupt networks and powerful progressive technological syndicates. Our reality check does not last long. It’s a fleeting moment of hardness, a temporary stratagem, a borrowed citadel, then the whole disjointed array is uploaded and the camera flash swallows the moment memorializing the future. The Sun immediately enters Leo as the Moon has Aquarius, again highlighting this axis which is now convoluted until 2044 as the Cancer-Capricorn axis was since 2008 up till now. On a personal level this has to do with being thrown into the unknown future and holding together who we are in spirit against unsurmountable dis-personalization.

Vasily Kandinsky

July concludes with the Sun and Mars sextile, bringing expressing brightly into orb with multitasking action, which is a bit slimy salesman or uncaring double dealer, yet also its an opportunity to consolidate focus and agenda in time for Mercury to double down on the details and fine tune the operation in Virgo. We may be getting somewhere. The plot points go relaxing, dreamy, jarring, distasteful, urgent, experimental, brash, disjointed, efficient— as if one dynamic is responding to and learning from the other as the polarity continues to shift and flip flop, which is appropriate with Jupiter being ruled by Mercury and ruling Saturn. This is likely is only the beginning of many months of this game of oscillating modes and sudden jump cuts. Leo and Gemini together can get circusy, so be prepared to go from Sea World to a more clown based theme park and you’re all set.