As the editor of the Astrology Arizona newsletter, I compose an overview of each month. Today we take a look at the primary factors for the month.

The Overview for July

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In 2024, the month of July puts the focus on the area of our charts where we have late Taurus, early Gemini, Cancer, and Leo. That means we’re in transition, moving out of the purely personal third of the zodiac and now beginning to expand into the interpersonal signs of the zodiac. This month also sees Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto retrograde, with Mercury slowing down rapidly, preparing to go retrograde in early August.

Due to the inner planets transiting Cancer and Leo, and Mars transiting the last half of Taurus and the first quarter of Gemini this month we continue to see activity outside of the “containment zone” shown by the span between Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus. When the inner planets occupy Aquarius through Taurus and conjunct the outer planets, it’s time to pull the energies inward, and when they’re between Gemini and Scorpio the energies are more expansive in the outer world.

We’ve had some important conjunctions in recent weeks which are impacting us, including the April 2024 Jupiter conjunct Uranus which initiated a 15-year expansive enjoyable adventure in originality wherever we have 22 Taurus. We also recently had Mercury conjunct Venus at 1 Cancer, which will be in play through March 2025.

This month features all the inner planets through Jupiter and Uranus in forward motion, with Saturn and Neptune both beginning their retrograde review period. And we continue to be in a peculiar time, since the first 5 days of July are still under the influence of the June 6 New Moon at 17 Gemini, as well as the recent Full Moon of June 21 at 1 Cancer/Capricorn.

These hold sway until the July 5 New Moon at 15 Cancer/Capricorn which will bring a month of high productivity and relative stabilization with the Lunation filling in sextiles and trines with Mars sextile Saturn and creating 4 points of a Great Sextile, triggering resonant void points in mid-Virgo and mid-Scorpio. All in all, it should be an extraordinarily productive month! Much of whatever we begin during the month of July will be intensified by late September when Mars transits 15 Cancer and triggers the influence anew.

Pluto leads the outer planet occupied span through early 2025. This month begins a long run of oppositions to Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus with the oppositions to Pluto by Mercury, Venus, and the Sun throughout July. These can help us see to the core of things, but be alert for hidden agendas, corrosive attitudes, and underhanded methods. Hard aspects to Pluto often bring extreme situations and people which requires honesty to the core and a fearless willingness to purify whatever needs purification.

The excellent thing is that the transits through Cancer all trine Saturn and Neptune while sextiling Uranus, showing a generally harmonious and productive time. And as noted, the first half of the month adds Mars transiting Taurus en route to its conjunction with Uranus, setting another two year cycle into motion.

Now that Jupiter’s in Gemini, it gives a Gemini backdrop to planets we have in Sagittarius and Pisces, as well as the houses where these signs are on the cusp. Jupiter in Gemini will bring new information and perspectives to those things it rules. Still, the conjunctions in Taurus will rule the coming year until the conjunctions with Jupiter in Cancer in June 2025.

Saturn is now retrograde and still occupying the degree of its recent station. It will be occupying its 2024 Shadow zone between 13 and 20 Pisces through February 2025. We now begin to receive the promise of that which nourishes us “at the end of our day of labor,” and by July 22 we’ll get a return of “taking a walk with our wisdom” to receive a blessing we’ll carry into the future. In any case, the primary Saturn theme for the rest of this year and early 2025 is going to help us finish some things, forgive some things, and bless some endings.

The Spiritual Field

We continue to be blessed by the closest Neptune sextile with Pluto in 30 years, with Uranus joining the “three note chord” by the Summer of 2024. With Uranus in late Taurus, Neptune in late Pisces, and Pluto in late Capricorn/early Aquarius, we will have a very strong “double sextile/trine” which should favorably impact all planets we have in the last 7 degrees of Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces. The Spiritual Field represented by these outermost planets is helping stabilize our late Earth and Water sectors in the spiritual sectors of their signs.

This is preparing us for an entirely new experience of Spirit and Life in 2025 when these Spiritual powerhouses shift out of Earth and Water into Fire and Air, joined by Saturn when it enters Aries creating a “three note chord” of harmonic consciousness. That means 2024 and 2025 will spiritually harmonize planets we have in the late degrees of the Earth and Water signs, while in 2025-2026 they will do the same for planets we have in the early degrees of the Fire and Air signs. This was discussed in greater depth in the AAZ April master class on long wave political cycles of change by Tony Dickey and Gary Lorentzen.

Uranus will occupy the third decan of Taurus for the rest of this year through early July 2025. This is a Capricorn sub-influence with an added dose of Saturn, so there’ll be more structure and discipline and less micromanagement of details. The Cosmic Awakener promises us a new life and rewards which will certify our worth as we assert our unique qualities and find a new way of awakening our heart’s desire in June/July. We’re moving through an emotional or social awakening leading us to the individual and spiritual sector of late Taurus by late June.

Neptune at “the end of the end” of Pisces is giving us all a sense of vast feelings and finality. We’ve been in a purification process since December and now move into an oceanic feeling of dreaming the future we want to see become manifest. This year we experience the vast unifying field as we prepare to move into a more fiery collective energy in 2025.

With Pluto in early Aquarius, we are living on the cusp of historical change. As it just went stationary retrograde at 3 Aquarius, we’ve begun a wild ride into a time of defiance, rebellion, with many refusing to follow what they believe to be authoritarian control systems. Be open to “regrasping past experience” and see it from a different angle of understanding due to a “sharp self-examination.” Be fearless in making the decisions you need to make.

We also have several long wave Aries cycles in play. Jupiter launched a major healing and mentoring cycle when it conjuncted Chiron at 15 Aries on March 11, 2023. That began a long wave Chiron cycle which will last until the Summer of 2036. And we just finished a 2 year Mars/Chiron cycle and began a new one at 23 Aries.

Not all Chiron cycles are the same length. When Chiron transits between Aquarius and Gemini, it moves relatively slowly and has conjunctions with Jupiter about every 13 years. However, it can take 19-20 years for the next conjunction after Gemini or Cancer. That means once the conjunction at 16 Gemini happens in the Summer of 2036 we won’t have another conjunction of Jupiter and Chiron until the Spring of 2056 in Aquarius, which will launch another long term “expansive healing/mentoring” cycle.

Planets Slowing Down, Speeding Up, or Shifting Signs

This month shows all the planets from Mercury through Jupiter (and Uranus) moving forward with Pluto, Neptune, and Saturn retrograde. Even though Mercury will continue to slow throughout the month, with Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in full forward mode, ride the wave and make as much progress as possible!

July brings us four planets changing signs. This month the Sun, ruler of Leo and Cancer, will give us two (Cancer and Leo). Mercury, ruler of Gemini and Virgo, will give us three (Cancer, Leo and Virgo). Venus, ruler of Taurus and Libra, will give us two (Cancer and Leo). And Mars, ruler of Aries and Scorpio, will give us two (Taurus and Gemini).

Mars

Mars is currently still fast in motion, but has now begun to slow. The slowing will continue until it goes retrograde at 7 Leo in early December, but we can still get a lot done quickly in July if we keep it slow, steady, organized, and in the flow.

Mars helps us act with precision and persistence; In February when it transited 1 Aquarius we renewed the larger theme of the Grand Mutation of 2020. Each time Mars transits 1 Aquarius every 26 months, a new iteration of that 20 and 200 year air theme is set into motion. We now should have hit our stride with Mars in Taurus, with new discoveries coming once it hits Gemini.

This month Mars activates the house(s) where we have 17 Taurus through 8 Gemini. From July 1 through 6, Mars is in the Virgo decan of Taurus, ruled by Mercury with an extra dose of the Moon. From July 6 through 20, Mars is in the Capricorn decan of Taurus, ruled by Saturn with an extra dose of Saturn. From July 20 through 31, Mars is in the Gemini decan of Gemini, ruled by Mercury with an extra dose of Jupiter.

Between July 1-10, Mars will prove agitating to those with planets between 17-24 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Between July 10-20, it will have an agitating effect on planets between 24-30 degrees of the same signs. And between July 20-30, it will have the same effect on planets between 1-8 degrees of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.

As I’ve offered before, when Mars is within a degree of forming or separating from a hard aspect with a planet, slow down and show deliberation and caution in how you use force. Hard aspects to/from Mars always require that we moderate or antidote impulsiveness and impatience.

Sign Focus

This month the sign focus shows a preponderance of Cancer and Leo, with a significant Taurus presence most of the month. The month begins with Mercury in Cancer, quickly moving into Leo. Shortly thereafter, Venus leaves Cancer and enters Leo, and then Mars leaves Taurus and enters Gemini just before the Sun leaves Cancer and enters Leo.

So the first third of the month features one visible planet in Taurus, two that leave Cancer and enter Leo, with both Sun and Mars shifting signs within a few hours of each other between July 20-22. By the end of the month we’ve already begun our Virgo experience for 2024.

We’re Actors On A New Stage With A New Set – The Bigger Picture

We’re still in the initial years of a new era in human evolution. The Grand Mutation of Jupiter conjunct Saturn at 1 Aquarius began a new 20 year Aquarian Era in December 2020, as well as a new 200 year era, moving global energies out of Earth and into Air. We’ve begun to grow beyond the materialism of the past 200 years and have entered two centuries of Air emphasis, with its qualities of relatedness, receptivity, versatility, movability, lightness, and cooperative ideas, visions, and ideals.

We’re still "under the beams" of the Solar Eclipses we experienced in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 and these “cosmic recyclers” continue to remove what we no longer need in our lives. Take note of where you have 1 Cancer, 24 and 13 Sagittarius, 20 Gemini, 11 Taurus, and 2 Scorpio, since we’ve all had t let go of many things related to these sectors the past few years.

The May 2022 eclipses with Sun in Taurus have shut down old value systems in that sector, as well as the Scorpio sector via the May Full Moon Wesak Festival eclipse. The Scorpio Solar eclipses are already leading us to say goodbye to the past, giving up some old ideals. You can find out more about Solar and Lunar eclipses by going to my numerous articles in the archives on how eclipses work.

The April-May 2023 eclipses have begun to work their magic on our Aries and Libra sectors for a long time to come. The Solar eclipse at 30 Aries as well as the October 2023 Solar eclipse at 22 Libra are also shutting down parts of our lives where we have those signs. We now have the Solar eclipse at 20 Aries added to the list, as well as the late March Lunar eclipse which is shutting down parts of our lives where we have early Taurus and early Scorpio.

As we study how successive Eclipses have affected various areas of our charts and lives, we can get a sense of the utility of these “Cosmic Recyclers” in removing what we no longer needed in those areas, creating a void which attracted new life experiences. They invite us to look back, and then forward, to see the continuity of “letting go, taking in, letting go, taking in” across the years.

Primary Action Beats for the First Half of the Month

July begins under the influence of the June 6th New Moon at 17 Gemini, putting the focus on transmuting our physical vitality into the power to build ideas. The subsequent Full Moon at 2 Cancer/Capricorn is giving us an elevated wider view of things and a sense of needing to make sure we’re using power in a measured way.

The first week of the month features Neptune going SRX at 30 Pisces, the degree of “dreaming the future you want to see made manifest.” Other significant factors are Mercury trine Neptune, then entering Leo and opposing Pluto, creating a very favorable energy in the last degrees of the Earth and Water signs and the first degrees of the Fire and Air signs. Keep the positive view, find ways to relieve tension, and uses the Venus trine Saturn to keep it calm, stable, and focused.

Mars is sextile Saturn the entire week, favoring solid planning and a productive easy flow. The New Moon at 15 Cancer on July 5 sets a new monthly theme into play, that of “materializing the spiritual,” or finding a way to ground the greater Truth in solid nourishing forms. As that new Moon is favorable with both Mars and Saturn, we’ll have a “Four note chord” of productive harmonizing awareness in play for the rest of the month.

The first week of July has the Moon transiting between Taurus and Leo, and between Leo and Scorpio the second week of the month. The second week of July also features Venus sextile Uranus, Mercury sextile Jupiter, Sun trine Saturn, Venus trine Neptune and the entering Leo and opposing Pluto. These aspects are phenomenally productive, harmonizing, and should bring stability and flow to all planets we have in the middle of the Water and Earth signs.

As the first week of July is under an “Old Moon,” seek to bring things to completion and close out old areas, preparing for a burst of new energy in the second and third weeks of July. All in all with such productive aspects, the first half of July should be a time of maximum progress in whatever we’re doing, with solid plans, ease of flow, intuitive knowing, and sound methods.

Primary Action Beats for the Second Half of the Month

The last half of July shows Mercury rapidly slowing down in its shadow zone. Get things prepared for the retrograde by finishing up what needs finishing, scheduling research, reviews, or rehearsals during the RX period, and getting ready for the “fragmentation bomb” coming in August with Mars conjunct Jupiter exactly square Saturn. As Jupiter also enters its shadow zone on July 15, we’ll be sensing “things to come” which may need review or reconsideration from a Mercury angle in August and a Jupiterian angle from October through January.

In the third week of July, we see Mercury quincunx Saturn, Sun square Chiron, and Mars conjunct Uranus all on July 15. The first requires adjustments and sacrifices, focusing on our togetherness and the more permanent forms of wisdom we value. The square is a turning point in our mentoring or healing, with recalibration of many things in our lives as we open to a concentrated dose of spiritual energies which show us the way to a “transcendent security.”

Mars conjunct Uranus ends the cycle which began in August 2022 when they last conjoined at 19 Taurus. That event initiated a new spontaneity these past 2 years where we have 19 Taurus in our charts. This new Mars/Uranus conjunction begins a 2 year cycle at 27 Taurus, which should help us adapt to circumstances and offer our wisdom to our world in subdued ways.

The third week of July is dominated by that conjunction, but also by Sun sextile Uranus and Mercury trine Chiron followed by Mars sextile Neptune on July 20, Mars then enters Gemini, and immediately trines Pluto on the Full Moon of July 21 at 30 Cancer/Capricorn, marking the first Full Moon in many months where the Sun of the Full Moon is in the same sign as the Sun in the previous New Moon. I explain why this is important in the Lunation articles on my main site.

Heads up at the Mercury trine Chiron, since it’s bringing us all a concentrated dose of spiritual energies which point the way to genuine happiness and good fortune. This will be important when Venus makes the same trine at the end of the month.

Other major aspects in play on July 21 are Venus sextile Jupiter, Mercury square Uranus, and Sun trine Neptune, showing that the two weeks which follow the Full Moon are sure to be expansive, favorable, enjoyable, occasionally disruptive, but always with our intuition fully functioning!

The third week shows the Moon moving from Scorpio to Aquarius, and the last 10 days of the month show the Moon moving from Aquarius to Cancer. The Sun enters Leo on July 22 and immediately opposes Pluto, bringing to light those things we saw or perceived during the Mercury opposition. This can help us understand why we had to let go of certain things and people during the Venus opposition Pluto. The fourth week finds Mercury quincunx Neptune, bringing important decisions to be made as we complete a form of “philosophical fulfillment.”

Other major events of the last week include Mercury entering Virgo and the Sun sextile Mars on July 25, Chiron going SRX on July 26, and the same day Mercury quincunxes Pluto, forming a Yod which is a “double expansion through sacrifice” type of configuration. Venus quincunxes Saturn on July 26and we close the month with Venus trine Chiron on July 30, promising the attainment of “good fortune” if we’ve been open to the concentrated doses of spiritual energies brought in by Chiron the entire month.

Evolutionary Development

This is the twelfth month of the North Node in Aries era! This is a time of our greatest development being served by self-initiated activity (Aries) shown through our balanced response (Libra) to an ongoing transfiguration toward an ideal. So we grow through focused action and demonstrate it through expressing our Archetypal Self, whether in the world of inner space or outer affairs. We build through Aries and release through Libra, so adopt a pioneering attitude that is expressed with grace and diplomacy.

The first part of the month we grow through seeing how to focus our individual spirituality in actions which move our destiny forward. Growth is in seeing the trajectory of “the flight of your Soul” as it has yielded a new life order. The second half of the month take a new look at your interpretations of what you’ve been through in the past and give it new meaning.

Our wise friend Saturn continues to teach us through the vast feeling experiences from its time in Pisces, and now we’re seeing what is to be perpetuated into the new era in 2025. We are still learning disciplines of forgiveness and compassion, and this month continues our reward and nourishment “after our day of labor.”

The Sun in Cancer is a time to see the Light of new allegiances and decisions which will secure our inner and outer base of operations so that we may express all we have gathered in a new burst of energy when the Sun enters Leo. As Cancer anchors, grounds, and integrates the evolving cycle for future expression, this is the time to adjust whatever you need to in order to prepare for the new Pluto seeds of the idealistic vision of Aquarius to break the surface at the oppositions this month. This month the flow is clear and the connections are productive. Just keep moving into whatever calls you at the deepest and highest levels of your Being.

We are in our fourth year of the new Aquarian era, with a new iteration of that future-oriented energy set into motion in February. Jupiter in Taurus has helped us get a new grounded expansive view of how to sustain the Aquarian unfoldment into the future. We’ve all entered a new land. Let go of the lesser, accept the greater, and the new land you’re in will be far more enjoyable than the old land you’ve had to leave.

Because we’re now in the fourth year of a new 20 year and 200 year cycle, remember a new era has dawned. Have courage and take the initiative to leave the Earth and fly free into the Air of what’s opening as the Grand Mutation expands its promise into the Divine transfigured ideal of a more just truth and future. This month brings stability and expansion of new Aquarian expressions. As always, lighten up, play a little, and be willing to explore new arenas of effective activity where you can work and play with other Light Spirits, and take heart as we stand at the dawning of the coming Pluto in Aquarius era.

We have now collectively transfigured into a greater vision of the one Light/Life we all are together. Continue to find your heart strength and new forms of genuine happiness appropriate for who you are now, and who you are becoming relative to just a few months ago.

We now navigate the cosmic time-space between endings and beginnings so bless and forgive much to flow down the time stream. The past is over and we all have begun our trek into a new world of new potential, new adventures, and new ways to enjoy being ourselves while doing our work of Destiny. Open to the abundance of the process of growth, since we are all on a rocket ship to the stars!

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Since I also include this in the newsletter, I’ll offer it to you here:

PLANETARY MOTIONS IN JULY 2024

(All the degree values listed in the next three sections are computed the same way Sabian Symbols are read; we always round up. 9+ = 10; 19+ = 20; 29+ = 30)

SUN – 10 Cancer to 9 Leo
MERCURY – 28 Cancer to 4 Virgo
VENUS – 18 Cancer to 25 Leo
MARS – 17 Taurus to 8 Gemini
JUPITER - 9 to 15 Gemini
SATURN – 20 to 19 Pisces
URANUS – 26 to 27 Taurus
NEPTUNE – 30 Pisces (all month)
PLUTO – 2 to 1 Aquarius
CHIRON – 24 Aries (all month)
TRUE NORTH NODE – 12 to 9 Aries

SIGNIFICANT ASTROLOGICAL OCCURRENCES IN JULY 2024

(Bold entries are the ingresses, stations, and lunations. Non-bold are significant aspects.)

NEW MOON; June 6; Sun and Moon at 17 Gemini
FULL MOON; June 21; Sun 2 Cancer; Moon 2 Capricorn
SATURN STATIONARY RETROGRADE; June 29 at 20 Pisces
NEPTUNE STATIONARY RETROGRADE; July 2 at 30 Pisces
MERCURY ENTERS LEO; July 2
MERCURY OPPOSITION PLUTO; July 3; 2 Leo/Aquarius
NEW MOON; July 5; Sun and Moon at 15 Cancer
VENUS SQUARE CHIRON; July 5 at 24 Aries
VENUS ENTERS LEO; July 11
VENUS OPPOSITION PLUTO; July 12 at 2 Leo/Aquarius
SUN SQUARE CHIRON; July 15 at 24 Aries
MARS CONJUNCT URANUS; July 15 at 27 Taurus
JUPITER ENTERS SHADOW ZONE; July 15 at 12 Gemini
MERCURY ENTERS SHADOW ZONE; July 16 at 22 Leo
MARS ENTERS GEMINI; July 20
FULL MOON; July 21; Sun 30 Cancer; Moon 30 Capricorn
MERCURY SQUARE URANUS; July 21 at 27 Leo/Taurus
SUN ENTERS LEO; July 22
SUN OPPOSITION PLUTO; July 22 at 1 Leo/Aquarius
MERCURY ENTERS VIRGO; July 25
CHIRON STATIONARY RETROGRADE; July 26 at 24 Aries
AAZ MEETING; July 27
VENUS SQUARE URANUS; August 2 at 27 Leo/Taurus
NEW MOON; August 4; Sun and Moon at 13 Leo
VENUS ENTERS VIRGO; August 4
MERCURY STATIONARY RETROGRADE; August 4 at 5 Virgo

Again, please consider joining Astrology Arizona to get all this and a lot more delivered to your email inbox at the beginning of each month. Members get to advertise their business on our website for free, there’s free access to the fantastic documentary Changing of the Gods, and discounts on recorded talks as they are available.

I want to welcome all to drop by our Astrology Arizona Facebook page and join the social media initiative going on there. Please feel free to contribute a topic, ask about a topic, or anything else related to our new group. See you over there!

I also highly recommend joining our group and coming to our zoom presentations, since we have some of the best astrologers anywhere giving talks about all kinds of great astrological topics. We’ve had “Evolutionary Configurations,” “America at the Crossroads,” “Using Planetary Hours in Charts,” “Outer Planet Cycles and How The Past Affects the Present,” “The Three Part Self,” “How Our Chart Expresses Our Spiritual Potential,” and more.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson

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