Process Magic: Astrology of 7/18 – 7/24

We are situated between last week’s solar eclipse and next week’s lunar eclipse – here in the middle of eclipse season, emotionality runs high (which includes a full range of emotional possibilities, including great happiness alongside the potential for murkier feelings). Against this backdrop of emotionality and the acceleration of change which eclipses tend to bring, Venus in Virgo aspects Jupiter and Neptune this week, bringing luck and healing into our lives when we are discerning in matters of the heart and where we practice aligning with our values. The Sun enters Leo this week, also bringing the heart to the center of our experience. It is also the case that deep transformations and ongoing self-discovery processes allow us to be more discerning because we clear layers of unconscious addictions and motivations… being in a wave of that process can be uncomfortable, but there are ways that the desire for a better life and freedom from old patterns can compel us to face the underbelly of our experience.

Virgo brings us the zen-like clarity of having things of earth aligned with the heavens – so perhaps our health routines optimize our wellbeing, our design of our physical space brings us peace, and the little processes we show up for every day match our spiritual/bigger-picture yearnings. Whenever we are experiencing crisis on the other hand, it is an augur that a process has been overlooked. Whether we were avoiding it or we just didn’t have the resources to understand the situation while the crisis accrued, the gentle humility to attend to the situation at hand is part of the Virgo archetype. This week can bring developments such as rewards and harvests in regards to our practices, as well as insights into how we might want to improve going forward. Let Venus in Virgo balancing with Neptune in Pisces be a reminder that improvement upon ourselves and where we’ve come from can always be an act of compassion, a devotional reaching toward greater potential. Save yourself the emotional energy of judgement or harshness when a magnifying glass of self-awareness appears – staying cool in that kind of pressure is a road to mastery.

If you’re new here, I’ve got a free Mars retrograde mini e-book to catch you up on this transit we are currently in the midst of! It’s going on all summer and it’s a transit worth knowing more about. You can sign up for my mailing list to receive it, and you’ll also get these weekly forecasts straight to your inbox.

(Image: Collin Elder)

Here’s our week:

July 19, 2018

First Quarter Moon in 27 Libra (Sun in 27 Cancer): 12:52 PM PDT

Quarter Moons herald turning points. At the New Moon, we are propelled forward by the potency released at the conjunction of the Moon and the Sun. By the first quarter Moon, we are separating from the New Moon and our momentum is that we are being pulled toward the harvest peak of the Full Moon. Our Full Moon on the 27th is a lunar eclipse, with the Sun on the North Node in Leo and the Moon on the South Node in Aquarius conjunct Mars. Here are some themes you might encounter during this lunar turning point:

• Relationship, or our draw to be in relationship – pulls us out of the familiar and pushes us into new and unknown territory.

• Our nourishment (like our self-care, harmonious aspects of our home life) is working if we are getting inspired to emerge out of the nest. There are different cycles of this, with a single day as one example – being that we (likely) get out of bed in the morning and start the day. There is a direct relationship between our modes of rest and restoration with our ability to actively engage with life. If we nest and never leave the nest, energetically that will create stagnation. Often the process of nesting (creating nurture and ease in our lives) will present us with new opportunities to participate in life because we have the emotional support to do so. During this first quarter Moon, movement might open up to leave your nest and follow an adventure. Your nest could literally be your home, or it could be more abstract, like familiar and comfortable patterns that have assisted you up until this point.

July 22, 2018

Venus in 13 Virgo sextile Jupiter in 13 Scorpio: 2:20 AM PDT

(Image: Collin Elder)

Venus-Jupiter aspects bring expansion to love and relationship, as well as a value orientation toward truth. Through the sextile between them in their respective signs of Virgo and Scorpio, these are some potential themes.

• There can be increased compulsion to discern what is actually good for us, versus what we are simply addicted to.

• Abundance and expansion occurs where we align with our heart’s desire. When the mind works in harmony with the heart, we can become strategic about enhancing our lives and making supportive choices. We have a kind of logical permission to pursue what really calls us. When the mind is at odds with the heart, we try to rationalize things that are not necessarily rational, and we risk missing the point. Or maybe we try to convince ourselves of another path that seems more orderly. If the heart and mind are saying different things, our philosophical compass may need adjustment. These discrepancies can be the kind of lived questions that Rilke refers to when he wrote: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

• In this way, not knowing how to be but being until it makes sense is an act of faith and humility – more openhearted than choosing an answer and locking down to that answer prematurely, becoming dogmatic and/or closed-hearted. Philosophical questions about how to orient ourselves to our lives and our realities can open the heart if we allow them to.

Sun enters Leo: 2:00 PM PDT

(Image: Jiang Zhi)

• Leo Season begins with the Sun in conjunction to the North Node in Leo, signifying an acceleration of materializing the Leo archetype – which can mean in other words, materializing the desires of the heart and getting into more contact with the inner-child.

• Something that would be useful to think about with Leo (and while the Sun makes squares to both Jupiter in Scorpio and Uranus in Taurus) is that being in touch with the heart is vital – it’s like a furnace for our happiness, our creativity and our self-realization. But that does not mean that it’s easy. It’s vulnerable, and being in harmony with the inner-child is like having a more vivid temperature check on how you feel – the excitement and joy is uncontainable and contagious, the harder feelings are just hard and right there.

• However, like any film narrative you’ve followed where a character closed their heart and suffered some tragedy for it later on (missed opportunities flown by), this life is not meant to be lived with a closed heart. Living from the heart allows us to be honest with others and to share our affection abundantly & it presses us to be in relationship to our passions and dreams rather than buying into an attitude of defeat or futility.

• When the Sun is in Leo it is a good time to recognize that when we shine, we share light with others and become beacons of inspiration in the same way that we are inspired by others. When the heart is open, validation, praise, and romance can flow openly within and in relationship to others.

• Violence that comes from the heart (like pride or crimes of passion) is mitigated by the mind, a cooler and more detached intellect that can recognize that our own subjective dramas may not be how things actually are. As the Sun in Leo opposes Mars retrograde in Aquarius, we may be challenged with finding the integration between our hottest passions and our sense of reason. Or, to be able to feel the heat and to channel it well.

• Leo signifies our relationship to nobility, and the inherent nobility that exists within the soul (and by extension, our capacity to recognize the inherent nobility in others).

July 24

Venus in 16 Virgo opposite Neptune in 16 Pisces: 12:22 PM PDT

(Image: Dylan Marron)

• A theme might be present around the balance between having unconditional love for another (perhaps for those on a spiritual path who value this kind of inner-work) and for what that actually looks like on a practical level. Cosmic, spiritual love does not always mean an earthly relationship. Sometimes boundary or separation is the love.

• This transit can be high magic for deep forgiveness, and the way that forgiveness frees the forgiver, cleanses our auric field.

• This transit can also be high magic for our relationships – problem solving that yields deeper connectivity; connecting over intricate pleasures; thoughtfulness that is magical.

• As relational boundaries thin, intimacy can be very magical and healing. But it is also a time to honor small internal signals and to be discerning.

Thank you for meditating on the planets with me! Let me know how you’re doing in the comments, and please share this article with your friends on social media!

Book a reading with me for more personalized guidance and insights about your natal chart.

~Sabrina Monarch

Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts, works with clients and teaches. She has been collecting astrological experience for over a decade. She is a novelist and is currently pursuing her masters in Philosophy. She also enjoys kundalini yoga, meditation and ashtanga yoga.