Astrology of 7/12 – 7/18: Gem-laden Dreams and Rabbit Holes

Observe this week as Mars in Cancer squares Uranus in Aries and Venus in Gemini squares Neptune in Pisces. The square is a tension aspect, bringing together a clash in forces. Squares tend to create energy and dynamism, and result in change and growth because the climax of an issue has been reached and can now be more lucidly addressed. Both Mercury in Leo and Venus in Gemini aspect Jupiter in Libra this week also. As a result of these personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) aspecting Jupiter and outer planets Neptune and Uranus, matters of our personal lives this week and matters of the mundane are also windows to expanded perspectives and transpersonal insight. Mars in Cancer squaring Uranus can speak to agitation and frustration that creates emotional confrontation and breakthrough. Venus in Gemini squaring Neptune can relate to a sense of play and escape, mental vacations, of trying new things, of contacting new fantasy worlds. All together, the world of the mundane becomes a little more interesting because we can see that things are more than they appear. That behind any trigger, any signifier – is an entire rabbit hole. Meaning can be actively unfolding, and the path, however full of detours, is full of gems. Gemini and the trickster associated with it, works by having us entertain new perspectives.

Remember we are coming into eclipse season (the lunar and solar eclipses of August) which are powerful times of change. Ichrak of Atlas Astrology and I have teamed up to create an information-packed webinar about what you can anticipate from this eclipse season. If you’d like to receive more information about what eclipses are, sign up for our mailing list below! We’re collecting lots of information to enrich your eclipse season, so don’t miss it! Get your tickets here.

(Top image: Eugenia Loli)

July 14

Mercury in Leo sextile Jupiter in Libra: 1:46 PM PDT

This aspect also forms a yod configuration with Neptune in Pisces at the apex. At the time of the sextile, the Moon and Chiron will also be conjunct to the degree in Pisces.

• Mercury sextile Jupiter can herald a change of thinking – a change in outlook and philosophy. It can take some work to reframe our ideas. Mercury in Leo can represent the part of ourselves right now that wants to perceive more creatively: that we do not have to take definitions of things as we have been told or conditioned. Jupiter in Libra has put us in touch with experiences to expand our understanding of our values, preferences, aesthetic, likes and dislikes. It can become apparent that while we are prone to believe many of our thoughts and rationalizations, our thoughts express values and preferences and these things can be changed.
• The truth will be perceived and also spoken differently when compassion (Neptune in Pisces) is a focus. Opinions (and truth derived from them) can actually molt and change form when compassion/forgiveness is focused upon.
• With the Moon highlighting Chiron (wounds to sense of unconditional love, wounds of separation from source) at the time of this alignment, words and ideas exchanged at this time can be highly healing and magical; or trigger existing wounds. We might take note of which ideas seem to vibrate with the pain body; versus which ideas vibrate relief to that pain body. Adjustments in perception can be made by being sensitive to this dynamic.
• Mercury in Leo and Jupiter in Libra interacting in this way can be very generous, hospitable and magnanimous.
• Saying the things that “go without saying”, words of gratitude, romance and magnanimity lighting up the mundane/routine.
• Chiron in Pisces may speak to the experience of feeling that it is possible fall from grace – that we may do or say the wrong thing and not be loved anymore. (If you think of all of the psychic content on Earth wrapped up in this story based upon original sin etc., think about what it feels like to drop into that whirlpool and to become submerged in that human-made wave. It doesn’t have to be religious; it’s just about the concept of doing something that results in loss of paradise like saying the wrong thing and losing someone else’s affection). This keeps us bound in conditional love; both in our catering to others and our demands/expectations upon others all in a transaction for love. This core issue may disguise itself in many different kinds of scenarios, but each time it is the same theme of the possibility that love, or paradise, can be lost. With this in the background, Mercury in Leo sextile Jupiter in Libra can have choices at either extreme: one is to demand performances of others and of oneself in exchange for love; the other is to dissolve and decondition from these expectations. Both choices can have the appearance of royal decorum, but they vibrate royalty differently.
• Leo is a very dignified and regal sign, and Jupiter in Libra has confronted us with extremes in balance; extremes at either side of an equilibrium. Considering the Piscean/Neptunian influence of this transit, what may also come up is the ways in which regality can be unconditional. The ways in which we can be openhearted, generous and kind (including to ourselves) when the symbols of our reality do not point back to satisfaction, to having what we want, etc. Likewise, when we are at a height and things are really good, Leo here is about how to be able to flow with that and not getting an ego about it, how to be graceful. How does our ego and pride keep its balance with the change of appearances and circumstances?

July 16

Last Quarter Moon in Aries: 12:26 PM PDT

The Sun and Mars are conjunct in Cancer, while the Moon in Aries sits right between Eris and Uranus as it squares the Sun and its ruler, Mars. Pluto in Capricorn forms a T-square with the Last Quarter Moon.

• Mars in Cancer has spoken to many of us through discomfort and agitation. As an archetype, it’s like cutting into (Mars) a crustacean (Cancer). The hard shell cracks open and the soft tender bits are raw, scooped out to the surface and the air. It has been very easy to project this discomfort outwardly and to identify sources of that discomfort, but the yoga of this transit can very much be about identifying the ways we are basically uncomfortable… and then doing something about it. What we do about it though, cannot just be like vomiting it, “let me just get this OUT!” or attacking something…. it’s brought our attention to the strange phenomenon in which the inner-child is a reality which needs not suppression, discipline, or control – but a compassionate inner-parent. In the middle of our deepest discomfort, there is a peaceful way to address it.
• Likewise, Mars in Cancer may have heralded profound levels of comfort, such as being in an endorphin-falling-in-love trip and letting go of defenses and moving into deeper states of connection and bliss.
• As the Moon in Aries squares its ruler Mars; with Eris and Uranus by her side, we can easily feel a sense of urgency to take action in regards to our emotions; sometimes to an extreme. But extreme is not necessarily bad: this can also be about liberation and radical perceptions of freedom. A path we may have never considered before may appear as a choice. Since no advice is a one-size-fits all here, I would only say that knowing this is what the Moon is doing might give context and therefore turn the heat down on something, or the heat may be here to catalyze a change that you do want to let move through you.

July 17

Venus in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces: 7:34 AM PDT

• What was transpiring for you in the realm of love/money/intentions January 12 of 2017? This was when Neptune and Venus last formed a conjunction. Now we reach the 1/4 mark of the Venus-Neptune cycle.

• Venus in Gemini’s prerogative, relative to what was seeded in January, is to take on new masks or develop new experiences to facilitate the intention of the last conjunction, and it may be something we haven’t done before yet so there is an inherent insecurity. If we follow the urge, we may be shameless in adapting new facets of our persona to accommodate a wish or a dream. Are you waiting for your life to give you the feedback and permission? Or are you willing to take a new affect, or mask, and play-act the dream into being? This doesn’t have to be inauthentic; it’s about accessing facets of self you don’t yet feel are integrated parts of you and so still feel like masks. When becoming the masks we wear, we do actually have choice in terms of picking masks we’d like to merge with. (And wherever it is you codeswitch persona in life, you do already know how to take masks on and off. Have you only been codeswitching by necessity? Why not codeswitch for dreams?)
• This transit can coincide with it being very difficult to pinpoint one’s (or another’s) intentions, values, or feelings as they are constantly changing. Signifiers point to meaning, but aren’t meaning, so they shouldn’t be taken as such. This means that you or someone may say something, but what is going to be real is the music behind it. Neptune transits can ask us to be open to the mystery and discerning about how we interpret its workings.
• At the same time, Venus is building toward an opposition with Saturn in Sagittarius. An understanding of what is real, what can be promised/put into agreement is in the works.
• Be aware of the way in which you or others may say things just to put others at ease. When Venus contacts Neptune, she harmonizes with the vibration of longing. She can become another’s fantasy. It can be a form of deception or wishy-washiness; but it’s also a form of romance and a way to play with others. It just depends on the value and intention of the person accessing this.
• This is a good transit for both the imagination of your dreams and imaging the real, action-level steps that accompany them: and then doing it. In the flow, of course, but not procrastinating or just staying comfortable not doing anything. At the moment of this transit being exact, the Moon will be in grounded Taurus conjunct strategy-goddess asteroid Pallas Athena. That’s great for perceiving real, tangible strategies for bridging dreams into reality! If you’re into magic, see what happens if you spend this transit brainstorming and mapping ideas on paper.

Mars in Cancer square Uranus in Aries: 6:35 PM PDT

• Our raw emotion, whether it is anger, agitation, discomfort, or lust, vitality, agreement, charge: is in relationship here to Uranus in Aries, which is the force shaking us up into our individuation. We might be surprised by what it is that vibrates vitality with us and what it is that is causing discomfort, but it’s pointing us toward our growth and cutting edge.
• At the same time, dismissing something in a rather extreme way can be a possibility with Mars in Cancer, let alone when it squares Uranus. Emotions, no matter how urgent, do not always require immediate action or value judgement. It can be a matter of listening to the patterns that emotions create over time for clues a to what is looking for change or support.
• With Mars in Cancer, it can be necessary and helpful to blow steam, and as Cancer is well-known for its side-stepping, beating-around-the-bush crab walk, truly consider the value of blowing steam and softening impact before meeting the issue head-on. Many of us are conditioned to judge this type of indirect confrontational style, but we may need to ask ourselves when it is useful and resonant. Some insights and revelations are only picked up along the scenic, roundabout route.
• The side-stepping may show up by the environment’s resistance: meaning that the direct exercising of one’s will may feel thwarted or dissolved upon impact. It may feel like we can’t do what we set out to do. But, if we stay present and centered with what is coming up instead of trying to force a preconceived plan, we may access the intelligence of this transit’s intuitive detours.
• A will that diffuses and spreads upon impact; a heightened sensation around how anything we do we are also a recipient of (Mars in Cancer is inwardly pointed).

July 18

Venus in Gemini trine Jupiter in Libra: 1:08 PM PDT

• If we’re lazy, we may find ourselves stretching the truth, exaggerating, telling white lies, and/or telling more blatant lies, just because its convenient or makes something smoother or seem better than we think it is. If we apply effort, we can actually find the words to express our genuine sentiments…. and maybe even the way to say it so that it is charming, diplomatic.
• The presence of sweet talk – that might have real actions or promises to back it up, or might not. Sweet talk gets people’s hopes up and is a way to build fantasy worlds together (that can become real!), but we may need to watch how possessive or attached we get to the ideas that are generated here. If the actual real potential behind the words matters to you, don’t just speak with your words or intentions this week – speak with your being, your choices, and your actions.
• In combination with all of the astrology this week, there is a lot of room here to open to our imagination of what it is that we want from life and our experience. It is easy to think that just thinking about something (just imagining it) is not actually doing anything, but part of the process of creation is taking the time to indulge that imaginal space and get to know it. When the time is ripe to act on it, we will have already conceived the new vibration.

Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! We will be entering into the last week of the Moon cycle with the last quarter Moon in Aries – this can be a little sleepy. and it’s at the same time that Venus is contacting Neptune. Part of our self-care this week is around relaxing into our dreams and letting the imagination take up some space. Please share this article on social media and leave your thoughts in the comments – I love hearing from you!

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~Sabrina Monarch

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Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts. She has been collecting astrological experience for over a decade. She also enjoys kundalini and ashtanga yoga, hiking and creative writing.