This week’s astrology is marked by successive objects moving from Leo to Virgo — culminating in the Venus-Mars conjunction in early Virgo on Saturday. The overarching message appears to be one of integration: of your inner feminine and masculine, your receptive and active sides, your yin and yang tendencies. It’s not always clear how to do this, and seems to be getting more confusing for some people in today’s world, yet is clearly crucial.

Pollinator on a wild chicory blossom; photo by Amanda Painter.

But first, let’s get oriented.

Mars left Leo and entered Virgo earlier today. Venus will follow suit on Wednesday.

On Friday, the Sun makes the same move, at 6:02 am EDT (10:01:52 UTC). This marks the beginning of the last phase of the current season (summer in the Northern Hemisphere, winter in the Southern Hemisphere), as we head toward the equinox in one month.

About four-and-a-half hours after the Sun enters Virgo on Friday, the Moon enters Gemini. And a little more than 20 minutes after that, the Gemini Moon squares the Virgo Sun for the last quarter Moon.

Late Friday night, the asteroid Juno also enters Virgo. Then on Saturday, Venus and Mars meet for their conjunction — which is exact at 1:04 pm EDT (17:04:25 UTC). Virgo is often described as a sign related to activities like service and teaching; astrologers frequently mention the healing and helping profession of nursing as stereotypical for people with strong Virgo signatures.

Coming at the end of Northern Hemisphere summer, this sign also relates to the harvest and to other forms of ‘gathering in’ that tend to occur this time of year.

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There is no looking to astrology to explain two mass shootings in 24 hours, or the 36 of them in the United States so far this year. Or the 100 or so really nasty ones since 1966 (which seem to be concentrating in our era). There’s also no denying that our nation needs to change — and that nobody seems to know how to do it, or how to agree on what the problem is, or might be. [You may listen to my special audio comment on El Paso here.]

It’s not mass shootings. It’s not merely too many guns, or that the easiest thing to purchase besides one is a politician. It’s that we’re dealing with a blind spot, which affects everyone and everything.

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Mercury stations direct Wednesday night in Cancer at 11:58 pm EDT (3:57:41 UTC Thursday). This happens just 46 minutes after the Leo New Moon is exact. ‘Hump day’ may feel more like ‘bump day’ with some unexpected moments, and it looks like they’ll arrive with an important question: Are you willing to see through the bullshit (including your own) — and can you have a sense of humor about it?

Found object display from Bare Portland’s “unboxing party,” in which the contents of an auctioned storage pod have become the basis for a multi-stage, participatory theater piece. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Here’s what’s up astrologically: Mercury is stationing conjunct the degree where the Sun was for the July 16 eclipse — which is square Eris in Aries.

Mercury may be the planet of the mind and communication, but in myth he was also the Trickster — in kind of a little kid way. Eris also has an element of that, though seemingly less playfully in her myths. Hence the idea that a sense of humor could be useful this week, particularly as we get to Wednesday and Thursday; Mercury stationing direct can be marked by a revelation of truth or previously missing information.

Given that the Mercury-Eris aspect is a square (rather than, say, an opposition), this may describe you revealing the truth to yourself as much as speaking it to someone else, or having someone speak it to you.

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This morning (Sunday), retrograde Mercury and the Sun aligned in a conjunction, marking the midpoint of Mercury retrograde. That retrograde ends on July 31, with Mercury in a square to Eris (and conjunct the recent eclipse degree). This suggests that we’re heading toward some unexpected development that has the power to shake things up, though in subtle ways.

Seed head of a Tragopogon or Goat’s Beard; photo by Amanda Painter.

You will definitely want to keep your sense of humor through this phase, and treat lightly any gaffes, mishaps or lapses of reason that infiltrate your reality.

Mercury is considered the trickster, though in truth, Eris is the very master of the game, and the two will be provoking one another. Eris, particularly in Aries, would appear to signify a more aggressive form of game playing; Mercury’s tricks in myth generally were of a lighter tone, though anything in Cancer can veer into hypersensitivity.

This could be especially true if you’ve been re-living or trying to disengage from old scripts or triggers from the past. What tricks can you employ to avoid getting re-snared — in other words, what have you learned in recent weeks?

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This Tuesday, July 16, is the Capricorn Full Moon and partial lunar eclipse. It’s essentially direct-dialing into the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 2020 — no operator to transfer the call, no Skype interface, no going straight to voicemail. Whatever comes up for you this week with this eclipse is most likely to be what the Saturn-Pluto conjunction is about for you in January.

Image by Lisa Ann Yount.

Is your reflexive response to reading that one of fear, or a desire to avoid it all? Are you at all curious? What are you feeling, and do you have any strategies to address it?

As was noted in the Thursday edition, all the biggest issues right now are Capricorn related: things like family, work responsibility, accountability in many other forms, and corporate and government power. Related to its Saturn rulership, sometimes events or natal chart placements in Capricorn can feel heavy or depressive. Capricorn issues tend to feel very ‘real’ — as in: tangible, concrete, inescapable. Unlike, say, Pisces with its dreamy, ephemeral flow; or Sagittarius with its philosophical abstractions.

So not only does a Full Moon inherently imply a confrontation, but there’s something about that idea carried by the sign Capricorn itself. There are times when we can think of confrontation as being like a dance: two partners facing each other, moving in synchrony with give and take, or with a clear lead and a responsive follow. It can be a negotiation process. Sometimes confrontation is more like mirroring: being met externally by something or someone that offers a view of our inner selves that would otherwise be hard to see and understand.

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Mercury is stationary and just switched to apparent retrograde motion at 7:14 pm EDT (23:14:20 UTC) tonight. It will station direct on July 31 (or Aug. 1 for some time zones). You can read a little more about tonight’s chart here. Of course, no planets actually physically change direction; it’s just a trick of perception due to our perspective here on Earth.

Macro shot of an exotic peony; photo by Amanda Painter.

Even so, Mercury retrogrades do seem to offer unique opportunities for review and introspection — and sometimes maddening glitches. A couple of aspects this week suggest some extra weight and energy to this process, along with the current eclipses.

You likely know by now that Mercury retrogrades tend to be easier to handle the more willing one is to slow down — whether that means being more deliberate in thought, pausing before sending a text or email, delaying major purchases or negotiations, or checking event details before rushing out the door (not to mention staying focused while driving). Yet that’s often easier said than done, particularly in our increasingly fast-paced and digitally based world.

If there are patterns you’d like to shift regarding the ways you handle communication — such as reacting while defensive, over-identifying with your ideas and statements on social media, or more general habits — this particular retrograde may offer a boost with that, since it’s beginning between two eclipses. (We had a total solar eclipse in Cancer on July 2, and the corresponding lunar eclipse is July 16-17, with the Capricorn Full Moon.)

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The next event up is Tuesday’s total solar eclipse in Cancer. This is part of the first eclipse pair solidly on the Cancer/Capricorn axis since around 2009. These are the eclipses that start to ring the bell on the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of Jan. 12, 2020, whatever that is about. Well, we know what it’s about — we’re standing right in the middle of it; however, this is often the most difficult perspective from which to see clearly.

House announcement — We will not be doing an edition of Planet Waves on Thursday, taking a breather in honor of the Independence Day holiday. I am also planning to take a week off from Planet Waves FM on Sunday, July 7. We are planning to have a Monday Morning horoscope for July 8.

Second house announcement — I spent much of the day Saturday recording the Cancer/Capricorn eclipse edition in the Special Reading series. I’ve focused on these eclipses — eclipses in general, and those out to the end of 2020 — for those who want to be educated and informed about this process. The reading comes with many charts and useful articles and is halfway between a reading and a late-night astrology discussion at the edge of the world. The eclipse topic is interlaced with many hints about astrology (current and in general) and what do do with it. It’s $33, or $44 with the complete Astrology Studio for Cancer.

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