Stay fluid this month.
As July begins, the Mars-Uranus conjunction (7/3) may provide a jolt or two. It’s a practice session for the wobbly Saturn-Neptune conjunction, acting up again this month. That transit, which peaked as the year began, was the earthquake whose aftershocks we’re still feeling.
In an actual earthquake, we’re told not to batten down the hatches. It may seem counterintuitive, but stiffening up and bolstering our defenses is exactly what we should not do. This would be good to remember especially around July 6th, when the Sun squares Saturn.
The wiser approach, to psychological earthquakes as well as literal ones, is to stay flexible, like a cat. That’s the way to land on our feet.
Retrograde stations
Early in July, Neptune stations at 4 1/2 Aries (7/7). In late July, Saturn stations at 14 Aries (7/26). Until December, both planets will be traveling backwards towards the degree of their epochal conjunction last February.
As the year winds to a close, Saturn and Neptune will be seven degrees apart, sending echoes throughout the mass mind of the question this transit has been asking us all year: How do we navigate a world where there’s no consensual agreement about what reality is?
Greater 
intelligence
We’ve each been grappling with this quandary in our own unique way (check your chart for the house Saturn & Neptune are passing through). Our sense of solidity (Saturn) has been eroding (Neptune). Things that used to keep our lives steady and predictable have become dubious and inconsistent.
So know that it’s not just you. It’s a destabilizing situation, by definition. But the transit has a spiritual purpose, and if you see it this way, you’ll not only suffer less discomfort, but perhaps find your life deeply enriched.
Neptune’s premise is that the psyche has many dimensions, some of which are, and will always be, a mystery. There’s a cosmic intelligence available, far greater than our limited sense of self. We just have to remind ourselves how to access it. This is easier when Neptune is dominant, for example in the days immediately around its station 7/7.
If Neptune is touching one of your planets or angles, avoid the superficial lore surrounding this inscrutable planet. It isn’t aiming to undermine you or deceive you. It’s not there for the purpose of inducing fatigue. Those things tend to happen when we resist its teachings, not when we follow its lead.
Rather than forging ahead with exertions of will, wait for Neptune to inspire you. This is trickier if the transit is hitting an egoic planet, like Mars or the Sun, or any natal planet in Aries. These may bristle at the thought of just sitting and waiting.
Societal pressures, too, fly in the face of Neptune’s subtle approach. We’re taught that success means pushing our way through life, making things happen. Modern culture harbors the assumption that willpower is only way to get things done. But our best bet right now is to hold our fire, and wait for Neptune to whisper its plan.
Neptune isn’t out to deny our ego. It’s just telling us that ego isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of being human.
Active receptivity
This month’s station can show us the ways the X factor enters our lives.
In theory, we all have access to this understanding at every moment. But this access must be deliberately maintained, which is difficult for the proud modern mind. Is the cosmos making this difficult on purpose? I would say yes. The difficulty is part of the lesson. Neptunian awareness has to be purposely cultivated, and this is where Saturnine discipline comes in.
These two planets are traveling in the same sign, all year, for a reason. Neptune is supplying the doors of perception, and Saturn is supplying the key to open them.
