This week we transition from Cancer Season to Leo Season, with the Sun roaring into the sign of the bold, dramatic, and dignified on Thursday. Before then, we may find ourselves continuing to be highly focused upon the ways we are nurturing ourselves, seeing whether there are shifts we can make so that we can feel more nourished, not only physically but emotionally. Are you feeding yourself in ways that truly meet your needs? How are you balancing taking care of what you need while also focusing on helping to support others? Have you been hearing missives from your gut feelings, and have you been honoring them? These are some of the questions we may want to focus upon early this week.

When the energetic shifts from Cancer to Leo, we greet the arrival of a month in which our heart plays center stage. Inviting in romance, showering others with generosity, and tapping into our un-adult-erated childlike spirit resides center stage. We crave fun and playfulness, color and vivacity. Yet as we find ourselves wanting to express the uniqueness that we are, it’s also important to watch the role of pride, and whether it fosters or inhibits our ability to let ourselves truly be ourselves.

Just a day after Leo Season begins, we have an Aquarius Full Moon. With the Sun in Leo and the Moon in Aquarius, we’re called to strike a balance between the I and the We, between radiating our unique sense of self while doing so in honor—rather than instead—of others and the aims shared by the collective.

One of the ways forward is to consider how joining forces with others—notably those who share your visions, values, and dreams of a better world—will allow you feel a deeper connection to your heart and the love you generate. Consider contributing to a cause in which you believe deeply, in a way that only you can. The world needs you, and you need the world: recognizing this symbiotic alliance can go a long way towards smoothing out tensions that may otherwise manifest.

This Full Moon is quite interesting to me, for two reasons. The first requires looking back, the second, looking forward.

For the first, let’s look back…to December. On the 21st, which happened to be the Solstice, we had the Great Conjunction, the union of expansive Jupiter and structured Saturn. Happening every 20 years, this alignment seems to mark the opening of a new collective chapter. It was something tracked for a long time given that before the telescope—and therefore for the majority of the history of civilization—Jupiter and Saturn were the farthest out planets that we could see, and therefore their coming together was thought to be significant. With Jupiter ruling growth, possibility, and wisdom and Saturn governing responsibility, social order, and limitation, it is thought to seed a period in which we give shape and form to new ways to explore and expand societal spheres. The themes in which it does so relate to the sign that these planets are in when they meet up.

So what does this have to do with the July 23 Full Moon? It turns out that the Great Conjunction occurred at 0 degrees Aquarius while this Full Moon occurs at 1 degree Aquarius (this reflects the degree the Moon is at during this lunation). As such, we may see that some of the collective shifts related to Aquarian themes--such as technology, science, the collective, outer space, and the relationship between the individual and the group—that have caught our eye over the past seven months are illuminated and brought to light during this lunation.

The second reason that this lunation is particularly interesting to me is that it’s one of two Aquarius Full Moons that occurs this year (usually we only have one each time that the Sun occupies a zodiac sign). While this one happens at the beginning of Leo Season, the other occurs at the end, on August 22. As such, it seems as if we have not one, but two, opportunities to invite in the understanding of the ways in which individual creativity (Leo) can connect with collective elevation (Aquarius). You may find that the awareness you can gather on this subject this week becomes more mature and evolved when the third week of August arrives.

Finally, Sunday features a Mercury/Pluto Opposition, and in that we may experience an urge to take our communications to another level. Digging below the surface, whether of information presented and/or our well of perseverance to deliver an important message, may capture our attention. Given that this past weekend we had a Sun/Pluto Opposition, you may find that what it is that you feel compelled to learn and/or communicate is kin to something you realized over the last several days.

Wishing you a beautiful week!

xxStephanie

Astrological Highlights

July 20

Mercury/Uranus Sextile

July 21

Venus enters Virgo

July 22

Venus/Jupiter Opposition
Sun enters Leo

July 23

Aquarius Full Moon

July 24

Mercury/Neptune Trine

July 25

Mercury/Pluto Opposition

All days reflect Eastern Daylight Time (- 7 hours GMT)

Stellar Insights: July 19 - 25, 2021

Astrological Highlights