The Daily Astrological Currents by Week

Weekly Summary: JULY 5 - JULY 11

"He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted."

— Lao Tzu

Even though the Moon wanes in light, there is still plenty of intensity to process this week, beginning with a Mars-Pluto trine. Mars makes the final connection — the trine to Pluto — with the 'Big 3' (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) on Sunday. But when the Moon arrives in Aries the following day, on Monday, we're likely to actually see the 'lid coming off', as the journey of Mars through Gemini assumes a powerful 'direct action', communication platform. Intellect is stirred in dramatic fashion — the retrograde Mercury notwithstanding. There is extraordinary courage to challenge whatever seems to be blocking our path, powerfully assisted by the responsibility that is demanded by the Sun's square to Saturn. The energy truly seems 'unstoppable'. Neptune, which has been slowing down for some time now, finally stations retrograde on Tuesday, lending emphasis to the building demands that we ground our inspiration with tangible action. We're still in the process of finding ways to integrate the the swirls of powerful intellect with intense emotional factors. The challenge presented under the retrograding Mercury brings up the reexamination of our dependence on others which must be balanced with our need for independence and 'freedom of thought'. For some, the challenges of dependency may be leading to a great deal of emotional turmoil. We are being offered an opportunity to reexamine our situation and begin to make new commitments that will — hopefully — lead to a more equitable balance between freedom and security. Venus arrives in Virgo by Thursday, adding further challenges to our dependence on the input of others — "Who can we really trust?" Venus also begins to 'see' the challenges of next week's square to Uranus and the followup square to Mars coming on July 29th, which will continue to increase our discomfort surrounding our dependence on the input that we receive from others. Venus, Mars, and Uranus are all in signs that are ruled by the retrograding Mercury. We may be easily lured into a belief that it is the 'bad advice' from others that is contributing to our disappointments. The lessons of personal accountability involving our individual initiatives will become increasingly challenging following Mercury's inferior conjunction with the Sun next Monday, as well as at the beginning of the next lunar cycle at the Cancer New Moon (2:34 AM PDT, 21° Cancer). We may begin to drift towards isolation and try to avoid commitments of any kind if we feel that we are losing our independence. However, our need for others won't be going away any time soon — which is the ultimate lesson that we begin to run into this week.

Intellect and intuition are surprisingly in sync on Sunday. We reach an intense culmination of incredibly insightful opportunities for profound breakthroughs. There is extraordinary courage to challenge whatever seems to be blocking our path on Monday. The 'lid comes off' of some powerful energies and, for better or worse, the energy seems quite unstoppable. Tuesday brings something of a 'gut check' — suggesting some degree of 'questioning' that presents challenges to our interactions with others, bringing a bit more circumspection. There is plenty of support for quickly correcting our mistakes or at least recognizing a clear path to make future adjustments with hope that we haven't completely lost our chance for redemption. On Wednesday, the challenge of depending on others while maintaining our freedom begins to draw increasing focus. For some, the challenges of dependency may be leading to a great deal of emotional turmoil. It is especially difficult to trust the broad generosity and optimism suggested by Thursday's environment. We're beginning to suspect that there are hidden price tags on just about everything. There are few 'hiding places' in Friday's environment. The challenge is feeling comfortable enough to share our nervousness or vulnerability with others in order to gain enough support to establish a firm footing. We are in somewhat of a holding pattern on Saturday. There is a strong tendency towards isolation and continued difficulty in establishing trust.

Weekly Summary: JULY 19 - JULY 25

"To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust."

— John F. Kennedy

Jupiter completes a highly optimistic, inspirational trine to Neptune and an activating, powerfully transformative opposition to Pluto on Monday of this week. An innovative, intellectually expansive Jupiter-Uranus sextile completes the following day — fully completing the coordinated interactions between Jupiter and the three 'Outer Planets'. The completion of these coordinating aspects coincides almost exactly with an intensely activating 1st Quarter Moon — the Moon making the waxing square to the Sun, from Libra to Cancer. Jupiter's sextile to Uranus, coinciding with the 1st Quarter Moon offers extraordinary idealism and inspiration but needs support and reassurance in order to 'follow through' and effectively process the deeper shifts that are underway — a daunting and potentially overwhelming proposition. While we may feel the incredibly activating energies in this week's environment, it is important to recognize that there are much larger processes underway that will take a significant amount of time to 'play out'. Jupiter's benefic qualities certainly suggest good fortune — luck — as well as increased optimism. However, if we rely only on Jupiter's luck, we are prone to find that the luck can often run out before we know it — easy come, easy go. The good fortune of Jupiter always requires the self-discipline of Saturn in order to manifest the wisdom that Jupiter is seeking to discover — the significance of the Jupiter-Saturn interaction is well understood. It is important to recognize that Jupiter's involvement in this initial series of consequential connections with the 'Outer Planets' suggests not only optimism but also, the initiation of a truth-seeking exploration process — encouraged, of course, not only by the innovation of Uranus but also the inspiration of Neptune and the transformative intensity of Pluto. The initiation of this exploration and the inspiring, transformative, innovation process will be underway throughout the ongoing outer planet connections, culminating with the final Pluto-Uranus trine in May of 2028. Jupiter provides the initial expansive optimism of this process but not necessarily the self-discipline and 'follow through' that will be required. It is interesting to note, however, that both Chiron and Saturn will conjunct in Taurus, following that May, 2028 trine and make subsequent follow-up squares to Pluto during the months of June and July of 2028. In general, Jupiter's truth-seeking explorations and discoveries can be seen as a preparation for the building of Saturn's 'structures". In other words, once Jupiter 'Discovers the New World', Saturn takes over to erect and test the structures proposed by Jupiter's discoveries. The inspiration and innovation of the ongoing exploratory processes that are initiated this week will be tested for their structural validity once we reach the waxing Saturn-Pluto square in 2028, which reflects all the way back to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of early 2020.

Mercury is 'practically' stationary this week — remaining on the same degree of Cancer all week — and returns to direct motion by Thursday. The Sun reaches Leo on the day before Mercury's direct station. By next week, the Sun will 'follow-up' on this week's potentially auspicious connections that Jupiter has made with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Although all of these developments might suggest a great deal of momentous activity, what we are most likely to see this week is actually a significant slowdown. In this week's atmosphere it is especially important to remain vigilant with our 'fact-checking', encouraged and supported quite effectively by the sextile of Venus to the stationary direct Mercury. Mercury's retrograde motion in Cancer has encouraged us to better integrate our emotional perspectives with our intellectual understanding, protecting our freedom of thought while finding more reliable ways of independently maintaining our security and stability. This has also been a process that has encouraged us to more honestly assess the validity of our deepest instincts, setting aside trauma-based responses and embracing a clearer perspective on our situations and circumstances. As we reach the end of the retrograde phase of Mercury, we are offered important opportunities to 'lay groundwork' — a Mars-Saturn sextile at the beginning of the week improves our self-discipline — but we still need to maintain a discriminating perspective and 'check our facts' methodically, especially throughout this week. We will learn much more after further investigation — assume nothing! By Friday, a Sagittarius Moon 'lights up' the intense 'Fire Sign Energy' in this week's atmosphere. The Moon makes a trine to Neptune and a sextile to Pluto, as we reach the completion of another in the ongoing series of Pluto-Neptune sextiles (the extended Pluto-Neptune sextile has been in 'orb' since before the first completion in 1950 and will begin to separate following the final completion in 2032). However, this 'action oriented' environment at the end of the week is mainly driven by instinct and is rather unrestrained and lacking in clear direction. As we get closer to next Wednesday's Aquarius Full Moon (7:35 AM PDT 6° Aquarius/Leo), we will begin to gain more and more traction in order to fully engage in the remarkable exploratory process that is seems to get a rather slow start this week. The Sun will conjunct Jupiter at the Full Moon as the Full Moon moves over Pluto. Next week's Full Moon will fully energize the extraordinary exploratory process, despite this week's seemingly 'slow start'.

In Sunday's atmosphere, it is especially important to remain vigilant in doing 'fact-checking'. We will need to do whatever we can to maintain our balance — particularly if we feel that our loyalties are being pulled in opposing directions. We are offered important opportunities to 'lay groundwork' on Monday but the need to maintain a discriminating perspective and 'check our facts' remains extremely important. While there is support for investigation, we may still be easily convinced that it's better not to 'rock the boat' — which is more than likely to be a trap. Our sense of direction is challenged on Tuesday with any number of distractions and tempting 'dead ends'. We are likely to prefer to 'bide our time', rather than strike out too far in any particular direction. We may feel a sense of imperative on Wednesday — 'something must be done'. However, the overall environment seems to stall our resolve or our confidence. We are likely to continue to experience bouts of suspicion for much of the day on Thursday. The value of 'letting go' is especially meaningful since we are especially likely to 'strain at gnats' or obsess over details that will soon be recognized to be 'beside the point'. Friday's 'action oriented' environment is mainly driven by instinct and is rather unrestrained. Nonetheless, we do find some support to help us to stay grounded and aware of the need for comprehensive planning and consideration. The lack of restraint intensifies and there is little clear sense of purpose or direction. We may be prone to isolation on Saturday or at least prefer to act without 'consultation'. Determined independence doesn't offer the sort of productive progress that we may believe it will.