As July begins, the Saturn-Uranus square — the drama we’ve been feeling all year — gets a jumpstart from Mars.
Have you identified which parts of your life are expressing the conflict between change (Uranus) and stasis (Saturn)? If not, this Mars transit will probably make it unmistakable.
Mars in transit tends to aggravate and energize whatever it touches. In this case it’s agitating a tension that’s been in the background and is now intruding into the foreground. For the first few days of the month, Mars will sniff out your change-vs.-stasis issues, prodding and poking them to a new level.
Especially if you have planets at around the thirteenth degree of any of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius), Mars may show up as an aggressive force slamming into some ongoing standoff. You or someone else will be called upon to make a decisive move.
On July 6th, Venus enters this same degree range, opposing Saturn, squaring Uranus and conjoining Mars. This extends the tension for another week, and heightens the drama.
Try to see the whole thing as a creative performance (Leo).
Shifts in the wind
There are an unusual number of ingresses this month. On the 11th Mercury goes into Cancer, on the 21st Venus goes into Virgo, on the 22nd the Sun enters Leo, on the 27th Mercury enters Leo, on the 28th, Jupiter heads back into Aquarius, and on the 29th Mars enters Virgo.
Family secrets
Take advantage of your audience with the God of Secrets mid-month, and again as the month is ending. On 7/17 the Sun opposes Pluto; Mercury follows suit 7/25. This is a confrontation between Cancer and Capricorn, both signs of leadership.
Of the two, it’s easier to see Capricorn as being about leadership than it is to see Cancer that way. As an Earth sign (plane of matter), it often expresses as career ambition and managerial ability. But Cancer is equally cardinal — just in a Watery way. Its initiative is expressed emotionally.
Cancer understands the urge to protect, nurture and shelter. When aspecting Pluto, a Cancer planet will feel these urges to be a matter of life and death. The underbelly of domesticity may briefly rise to the surface.
Unease
Typically, we dismiss Pluto’s clues, explaining away our feelings of unease. We explain our feelings in terms of some external circumstance, and wait for the emotional charge to subside; which it soon will. These transits last only a day or so.
But Pluto, the governor of decay, has important information for those who are intrigued by the less savory dimensions of life, including taboo material.
This month Pluto gives us a peek into aspects of home life that are usually repressed. It’s as if there were a crack in the floorboards, allowing dramas from the basement to slowly leak up into the kitchen.
