An Introspective and Intense July

The Astrology of July features Mercury, Chiron, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. Mercury is in retrograde in Cancer throughout the month, when you take the period of its retrograde shadow into account. Mercury changes to direct motion on July 20th and escapes its retrograde shadow in early August. The usual symptoms of missed connections and mechanical breakdowns are likely to be present, with the inner reflection that is also charactEristic of this period as our mental process runs backward. Searching within is made all the more poignant by the realization that important choices eventually need to be made if life is to go on in the most valuable way. This summer might be just the time to rethink core beliefs regarding where your life is taking you; it could be amazing to contemplate what you can indeed accomplish when you reorient yourself to soul purpose.

Perhaps the biggest news of these current configurations is the long-standing trine alignment between Saturn and Neptune, which lasts all month long. Jupiter, having moved into Cancer, forms its own trine with each, making a grand trine, getting stronger throughout the first half of July and peaking on and after the July 12th weekend. The energy of Jupiter is to expand and make more prominent. Saturn in Scorpio represents, paradoxically, a shutdown of emotional connection together with a concentration and a focus there. We stop, look and truly listen to what our deep inner voices are saying. When farmers want the water in the irrigation ditch to really soak in, they slow down the flow. As we do, it helps if we can attempt to be as free as possible from any and all preconceptions or agendas, trying for simple presence.

Neptune is equally prominent, in the Water sign of Pisces, in very nearly exact trine to Saturn, with Jupiter in trine with each for the first two thirds of the month, through the Full Moon of the 22nd. Mars also comes along by the 16th to add an even stronger burst of energy to the Saturn-Neptune trine. Neptune represents the unknown, elusive and illusional part of our inner world that reaches beyond the everyday one of getting and spending, connecting to dimensions that transcend the physical plane. When you enter Neptune's realm, a certain suspension of belief is required, and this helps in getting closer to understanding yourself at the deeper emotional levels that the Water signs imply. You could think of this powerful mid-month grand trine, with Mercury Retrograde, as a respite from business as usual, and from the angst and fraught decision-making of these climactic times; an energetic promotion for our society's long-overdue evolution toward a more compassion-oriented network of interconnection.

Chiron, the Wounded Healer, also prominent in Pisces, represents another factor in the current cosmic landscape of planetary archetypes. Chiron is aspected by Venus at the moment of the New Moon, and by Mercury when it stations to direct motion on the 20th. Chiron represents, as Neptune does, and as the Water signs in general point to, the deeper and more unconscious parts of ourselves, and the parts most likely to be overlooked by our everyday minds. Underneath the surface there may lurk vestiges of ancient trauma, since we typically could have closed off access to the memories of inner childhood wounding as too painful to admit to conscious awareness at the time. We are being given another chance to accept and acknowledge these walled-off parts of ourselves by the prominence of Chiron in this monthly cycle, together with the inner orientation provided by this concentration in the Water element.

Summing up, this month's powerful Saturn-Neptune trine gives us a break from day-to-day concerns and angst. This last is represented more by the Uranus-Pluto square, still active and returning with yet another exact hit in the fall. We are on the path, like it or not, and entirely prepared or not, and there is nothing to do about it except to put one foot ahead of the other with as much consciousness as we can muster. We benefit along the road by taking a rest from our labors and peering inside ourselves to obtain what glimpses we can of our deep inner process.