What’s brewing in your horoscope this summer? The stars suggest that we will find it in ourselves to devote attention to the health of land, rivers, lakes, and oceans… and for each other. It’s a time for gatherings and for relaxing moments, for appreciation of the light of the sun, and how it begins its annual descent even as it gives us its all.
As summer begins, the Sun enters the sign of Cancer crossing an equinox point in the solar path through the zodiacal year. This is a halfway point in the year marking the Sun’s highest latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. At this time, we experience the maximum length of daylight and the deepening greens of spring’s young foliage. From here, we enjoy the height of summer, but also it heralds the beginning of incremental decreases in the amount of sunlight. This is one of the reasons the sign Cancer is associated with remembering and sentimentality. Embedded in this time of seasonal abundance is the quiet reminder that every season comes to pass.
As the Sun crosses that turning point Jupiter remains in the earth sign Taurus. There is a harmonious relationship between the Sun in Cancer and Jupiter in Taurus. Saturn now retrograde in Pisces is also involved in this relationship, initiating a summer when collectively we’ll be concerned with the welfare of our lands, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Cancer is guided by the Moon, our local satellite who cares for us with its gravitational tugs and pulls, working together with the Sun to keep biodiversity on Earth flourishing. Jupiter and Saturn in water and earth signs remind us that the life-giving abundance Earth provides is a generous gift to be savored but must be respected and cared for.
July 22, Venus will station retrograde in Leo near Mercury while the Moon is in Venus’ sign Libra. This commences a 42-day period where we may feel heavy-hearted and contemplative regarding the ways in which we give and receive love. It is also a prime time to be grateful for friends and lovers that have revealed more of ourselves through the delicate exchange of relating. Retrograde, Venus also engages our creativity with subversive modes of aesthetic expression conjuring inventive approaches to convivial summer gatherings. This point leaves a watermark embedded with the symbolic reminder to relax and consider how we define beauty within our environments and those with whom we surround ourselves.
Aries
Aries, revering the independent spirit you possess the bravery of a lone wolf. In relationships, you nurture the space where autonomy is held simultaneously within harmony. Summer begins with the Moon, Venus, and your guiding planet Mars in your fifth house of love affairs and pleasure. All three planets in the fire sign Leo at this time are operating with a glowing expression. Ushered by the Sun, there is a gravitational pull to this configuration creating a ripe opportunity to engage with the sensual delights of life; romance, good food, leisure, and the arts. Enjoy a night out at the theater or a favorite tavern striking up conversation. Show up boldly, flirting with the tactility of human-to-human connections. Pleasure, love, and creation require vulnerability and risks. Just before Venus catches up to Mars in the sky to form a conjunction, it will station retrograde, moving backwards, echoing the pull and tug of temptation. Venus retrograde reminds us that love and creative pursuits are always a gamble. Willfully steep in creative chaos, luring intimacy to your flame.
Taurus
Jupiter holds the most powerful gravitational pull besides the Sun. Since May 16, Jupiter entered Taurus and has been transiting your first house of identity, perception, and appearance. Jupiter in the earth sign Taurus asks what you are drawn towards and what elements in your immediate environment ensure a sense of comfort. Transiting your first house, Jupiter suggests reimagining the proclivities of your five senses. Our attraction to things is peculiar and particular. Rest and listen this summer to the subtle wisdom of your sixth sense. Jupiter in Taurus suggests earthy flavors, textures, colors, and scents available for making the experience of life novel and interesting. Saturn in Pisces forms a favorable aspect to Jupiter, further tuning this transit with a taste for austerely dreamy things. Think soothing music, sublime fragrances, simple decorative objects, foods that are light but nutrient-dense, and garments that cover through crisp, light layers. There is a grounded yet light-footed approach to this astrology. A tepid effervescent celestial breeze that invites opportunities to be purposefully lost in your thoughts as well. Definitely stop to smell the roses.
Gemini
This year your guiding planet, Mercury, makes its retrogrades in zodiacal earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn). Later this summer, possessing much strength, Mercury will station retrograde in Virgo in your fourth house of lifestyle. Cleanliness is next to godliness are words you live by. Your guide Mercury signifies not only your mind but also matters of the home. With Virgo in your fourth house, you think a great deal about home, maintaining a sanctuary to rest a fluid mind. Throughout most of July and August, Mars and Saturn form a challenging aspect stressing the balance of your life’s work and life at home. Plan now the granular details of cleaning, organizing, and completing any domestic projects you’ve neglected. Come late summer, mind your mental hygiene as you may become lost in the details. A practical use of this time would be to ground yourself in new practices around your living space, creating a comfortable hub for summer reading, daydreaming, and conjuring domestic magic. All of which are Gemini delights.
Cancer
It was once said that all spirits descended through the part of the sky associated with Cancer on their way to becoming embodied. Cancer, like the ambient sound of the ocean heard through a spiraling conch shell, you give form to spirit and soul. We cannot see spirit per see, but we catch glimpses of it through things we can sense. Through our bodies and the words that we speak, spirit is molded into an expression of vital strength. On July 1, planet Mercury transiting Cancer will conjoin the Sun in your first house of body, mind, and spirit. Hidden within the Sun’s rays during this phase, Mercury is considered to be in the heart of the Sun where it is purified, regenerated, and then reborn when it becomes visible again. Mercury is the god of communication. The Sun, clarity. During this time, you’ll feel as if you’re speaking without words. There is a genuine comfort level when we experience nonverbal communication with ourselves, others, and our surroundings. Things will just feel right without having to understand why.
Leo
This summer, Venus will retrograde in Leo in your first house of body, mind, and identity. While retrograde, Venus will make close contact with Mercury. Venus represents enchantment. Mercury stands for questioning and discernment. Our experience of beauty is not rational. Beauty, when most striking, is enigmatic. Beauty alters and enhances our awareness. Venus retrograde with Mercury is beauty formed from the inside out. The Sun, also in Leo, is present with Venus and Mercury in your first house of the self. As the pivoting axis of our solar system, the Sun is an essential load-bearing column supporting our identity and destiny. During this vulnerable time allow the sway of the Venusian retrograde to work up an aromatic froth of possible identities. Like the heavens that emerge from the shores of our eastern earthly horizon, Venus mythically arrived on the foaming shores of the ocean where water laps onto land. This back-and-forth motion is where new life begins. This summer tend to the transcendent process of uniting your inner and outer appearance. Dress for the gods whether or not anyone is looking. Beauty born pure has no reason.
Virgo
Of the elements, fire exists on what is considered to be the highest spiritual plane. Fire can destroy, purify and nourish. Virgo, you are the earth sign guided by wing-footed Mercury, articulating the architecture within intricate systems of knowing and seeing. At the precise time of the summer solstice, a spirited configuration ignites a positive charge between Mercury and Mars. Mercury in the air sign Gemini in your 10th house asks what are the ideas you’d like to be recognized for. Mars in the fire sign Leo fans a flame illuminating places where you hold onto fear. As fire and air meet in your 12th house, you are asked to question an unconscious voice that has become a source of self-defeat. Like plants and trees that require fire to reseed, allow Mars to ignite your imagination. Write a few pages of stream-of-consciousness writing allowing your thoughts to burn like wildfire. Write whatever comes to mind. Write the same word repeatedly if that is the only message coming through. Now rest, and as your thoughts cool off, search through the “ashes” of your writing for repeating patterns, signs, or evidence of something you would like to reconsider about yourself. This process will bring you closer to a heart-centered awareness that is not possible to reach through habitual thought processes.
Libra
Libras spend a lifetime cultivating the loving and caring skills of the archetypal mother. Every year at summer solstice, the Sun enters Cancer in your 10th house of destiny and mothering in all of its iterations. Among other significations, the 10th house is where we nurture our aspirations into the pinnacle of visible self-expression. This lunar process of listening, reflecting, and caring for others is not unlike the mother figure within a family structure, carefully looking out for the needs of its members. Be conscious this summer of putting your needs aside for the sake of basking in the light of your willingness to please. Like a mother, those around you will often seek your attention for guidance and assurance. Allow yourself to feel resourced as well by those you hold dear. Like a mother, the Moon is always present in the sky, even if you do not see it. Mother figures often willingly and quietly take the backseat for the benefit and comfort of others. At times you must shine when you’d prefer to retreat. As the Sun reaches this point annually in your astrology, Libra, it is a reminder to focus on providing care for yourself as you do so often for others. Remember to mother you must also be mothered.
Scorpio
Scorpio, you’re a patient lover spending vital energy assessing the most potent use of your power. All the while, discreetly negotiating trust for those close to you. As the Sun ingresses into Cancer you will have the Moon, Venus, and your planetary guide Mars in Leo transiting your 10th house of ambition and visibility. Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war, orbit along opposite sides of Earth working symbolically together as a generator converting bodily emotions and energy into electricity (i.e. relationships). Mars in the fire sign Leo in your 10th house is eager for heated and meteoric action. Venus, closely following Mars is your seventh-house guide of relationships, shining brightly in the evening sky indicating a person of fascination. This could be a romantic flirtation or friendly collaboration, but the act of courtship appears to be of prominence. Allow this intriguing dance to metabolize as Venus will station retrograde near the end of July and you’ll both be reconsidering the acts of affection that make your heart beat. Around July 27, Venus and Mercury will conjoin, signaling an alchemical clue of the chemistry brewing within this starry-eyed interlude.
Sagittarius
Oak trees, known for their strength, are slow to mature. They produce acorns only after decades of growth and have for millennia been associated with great sages. Your planetary guide Jupiter, who shares a symbolic correspondence with oak trees, is in Taurus in your sixth house of affliction and disorder. Curiously, once mature, every four to ten years, certain oak populations will simultaneously produce little if any acorns, only to produce an opulent harvest of acorns the following year. Sagittarius, you are optimistic and faithful of the natural order of things. As someone who is comfortable taking up space, as mighty oaks do, your vitality may spread thin at times, deflating your great aspirations. Therefore, the sixth house of toil is a tough place for Jupiter in Taurus because it requires that you be patient while a new cycle sprouts. Like the oaks who pause their acorn production in order to ensure future growth, find solace in their wisdom that a more expansive future comes after a time of pause and rest.
Capricorn
We cannot count solely on our peers and family to develop our beliefs. At times we must go at it alone. This summer, Mars in the earth sign Virgo will oppose your planetary guide Saturn while retrograde in Pisces. This configuration between Mars and Saturn can have an untethered quality when it comes to feeling at home or of like mind with family and friends. Like a floating island you may feel the nauseating tug on the heart of homesickness while anchored by the stability of lineage that bonds families and folks together. The mythic symbol for Capricorn is a chimera composed of a fishtail with the torso of a goat straddling liminal spaces between the aquatic and terrestrial. Capricorns are concerned with the preservation of tradition, which can easily dissolve depending on who steers the narrative. Amidst unstable circumstances, you, more than anyone, understands that within every lineage is preserved an ancestral core that cannot be shaken. Capricorn, become a bridge among your kin, reconciling what beliefs hold water and those that have hardened into stone.
Aquarius
In folklore, wells were venerated for their abundance of life-sustaining water. Aquarius, you are the water bearer in the sky pouring from your celestial urn a spring of everlasting life. Since time immemorial water has been regarded as miraculous and sacred wells were visited by those seeking blessings. Your planetary guide Saturn entered the water sign Pisces in March and is since transiting your second house. The second house includes topics such as material possessions, food, and currency: a reservoir supporting your life force. The ancients referred to the second house as the Gate of Hades leading to the underworld. The underworld held the wealth beneath Earth upon which empires were built. By chance, the goods of the underworld are plentiful for some and not others. Full or dry, the content of one’s well is relative to individual needs. Moral and spiritual impoverishment can come with a big bank account. Saturn offers sobering perspectives on the delusions excess or lack can stir. If possible, lower your bucket into your own “well” and offer charity to those in need. And if your well is low at this time, consider what resources you have to work with and creatively do more with less.
Pisces
Days before summer solstice, Saturn will station retrograde in Pisces where it has been passing through your first house of the mind, body, and soul. During this time, you have been surveying the unlimited power of your extrasensory perception. Upon this retrograde Saturn asks to dive deeper into any part of yourself that has lost touch with nature. More specifically, your nature. Saturn embodies a melancholy that comes with the awareness of our detachment from ourselves. As a Pisces, you feel things deeply. One stone thrown into your ocean sends ripples to its edges. Nearby, Jupiter is in a friendly configuration with Saturn offering a helping hand through the metaphysical obstacle course Saturn retrograde has initiated. Jupiter in Taurus is generous like oozing amber honeycomb. To adapt to this slow Saturnian growth do as the bees do. Metaphorically feed on local and select regional ingredients. Immerse yourself in the organic matrix of familiar ecologies. Like the healing qualities of local honey you’ll be tempering the connection between yourself and the natural world.
Story and Imagery by Shane Powers, Enon Valley Astrology
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