revealing our wounds

the july 2004 forecast

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uranus, neptune, and pluto are retrograde.

mercury opposes chiron	24°06' cancer/capricorn	july 1
full moon	10°54' cancer/capricorn	july 2
mercury enters leo	0°00' leo	july 4
mars squares the lunar nodes (transiting eclipse point)	7°47' leo/taurus/scorpio	july 5
sun conjoins saturn	16°50' cancer	july 8
mercury squares the lunar nodes (transiting eclipse point)	7°38' leo/taurus/scorpio	july 8
mercury conjoins mars	10°50' leo	july 10
mercury sextiles venus	12°09' leo/gemini	july 11
mercury opposes neptune	14°37' leo/aquarius	july 13
sun opposes chiron	23°17' cancer/capricorn	july 15
mars sextiles venus	14°55' leo/gemini	july 16
mars opposes neptune	14°32' leo/aquarius	july 16
venus trines neptune (3rd of 3)	14°32' gemini/aquarius	july 16
mercury trines pluto	20°02' leo/sagittarius	july 16
new moon	25°13' cancer	july 17
venus squares jupiter (3rd of 3)	16°26' gemini/virgo	july 20
sun enters leo	0°00' leo	july 22
mars trines pluto	19°53' leo/sagittarius	july 25
mercury enters virgo	0°00' virgo	july 25
venus opposes pluto (3rd of 3)	19°52' gemini/sagittarius	july 25
venus sextiles mars	20°47' gemini/.leo	july 27
full moon (secular blue moon)	8°51' leo/aquarius	july 31

all dates are based on pacific time.

only a small handful of major planetary events occurs in july, but that does not leave the month without interesting and unique phenomena. compared to may and june, july will see the resolution of issues more than their initiation or complication. while the sun is in cancer, saturn’s role in our lives continues to be key. underscoring that is the fact that saturn’s new yearly cycle starts this month, as chiron reaches the culmination of its cycle in the opposite sign of capricorn. cancer-capricorn establish a theme of survival, where fear and protectiveness drive human decisions.

venus’s after-effects

now that venus has returned to direct motion, we will experience the unraveling of the knots which became twisted up during its six-week retrograde. it was as momentous as promised, with cia shake-ups, yet more revelations of the bush administration’s long-term incompetency and prevarication, and more proof that the iraq war was all around a bad idea. as venus makes its third pass over the same space in gemini, the aftereffects of these revelations may be felt more acutely. more people are speaking out with a strong voice against the mind-bending fear-mongering of the us’s rogue administration, whether it is al gore’s eloquent speeches, michael moore’s fahrenheit 911, stephen paine’s common sense revisited, or the moveon-common-cause-sponsored expose of fox’s shameless pro-neocon bias under the guise of “fair and balanced” reporting. as the republican party stoops to new lows with its ad likening kerry to hitler, words like “coup” and “treason” are being used with increasing frequency when referring to the bushies. more books and articles are becoming available which articulate clearly the flaws in neocon reasoning and how people are being mesmerized through fear.

the energy of this focus will be spent by the end of july, although there will be subsequent triggers to it in august and september. the third and final contact of venus with pluto occurs on july 25^th. the second contact, on june 2^nd, occurred in the midst of the full moon-venus transit intensity. this was the time of the cia resignations and ronald reagan’s death, e-ballot questions, high gasoline prices, and new revelations about the true, secret workings of the bush administration.

saturn’s new yearly cycle

these are all — blessedly — to be expected in the second full year of saturn’s transit through cancer. as with its transit of any sign, it begins to dawn on us what our weaknesses are (related to the sign it is in) and how to correct them. it has finally dawned on me what the one, simple sociological effect is that saturn in cancer tends to produce: isolationism. people tend to find reasons to stay home, become walled off. whether it is because of their fears of terrorism, the price of gas, or unnamed anxiety due to the subliminal content of news and entertainment programming.

another thing that seems to have arisen in stark prominence is the issue of national sovereignty versus international authority; and the acceptability of invasion as a pre-emptive strike. these are all cancerian issues, since they involve nationalism (family loyalty on a grand scale) and protection of the home(land). ironically, george w. bush, our resident cancer-in-chief, has crystallized this issue for us. given that it exists as a human issue, it is great that he is good (or bad) enough to play it out for us so we can see the horrors of its repercussions. i believe that, as our nation is a cancer, these empire-building beliefs have been held (perhaps more recently dormant) since the inception of the nation. it’s time we got our dark side out in the open and dispensed with this aspect of it.

the place we are headed is a truly international system of conducting world affairs which is based on consensus if not the authority of an international body like the u.n. we must go there, and most of us are at least marginally aware of that. however, there are those “christians” (amongst whom george w. and company seem to count themselves) who believe that we are in the “end days” (cf. the jenkins-lahaye “left behind” fiction series). their general take is, “why bother saving the planet? we’re in the apocalypse now, and we’re going to be rescued one of these crazy days anyway. so let’s plunder the earth while we can and leave the dregs for those poor sad heathen bast***s that are left behind to suffer the consequences while we’re singing in heaven.” it’s scary to have such men and women at the helm, but there is hope that the sane among us will wake up the rest of the sleeping us citizenry to the realization of what’s happening.

saturn’s new cycle begins on the 8^th, but we will begin to feel it at the full moon on the 2^nd, since the sun and moon will be near the degree of saturn then. the moon will carry the sun’s energy forward, so by observing what happens in your life (and the world) between 4 am and 12:17 pm (pacific time) on friday, july 2, you can get a glimpse of the new cycle and its impact in your life. other key dates for this cycle are october 20, november 8, january 14 (2005), and march 22 (2005). events will occur on or near these dates related to what we experience july 2–8.

the dance of venus and mars

electional astrologers (those who choose the best date to start something) are happy now, because there are two more planets they can rely on to produce a good result. because of venus’s current slow speed, she will make two sextiles (a harmonious contact) to mars during july. actually, first mars, which normally travels more slowly than venus, will sextile venus (catch up to her and make the contact) on the 16^th. then venus will pick up speed and catch up with mars, sextiling it again on the 27^th. that gives us nearly one whole month of added chances for success in our endeavors. (while you will need to pick a precise time of day to be sure to take advantage of these energies, your chances of tapping the auspicious times by chance are greater, because there are 8 additional hours each day when initiatives started are ensured of success.) this influence can be taken advantage of through august 6^th.

the week of july 11

july 11–17, a series of auspicious aspects are taking place that present us with opportunities, if we know how to use our experiences well. many of the planets — mercury, venus, mars, neptune, pluto, and sometimes the moon — are in masculine-yang signs, which means that they make harmonious aspects to each other. however, there is a culmination aspect (a fixed grand cross) occurring at the same time if we include the lunar nodes (the transiting eclipse point), which may bring peak events caused by situations which exist in a state of tension. the contact of mars and neptune on the 16^th is the focal point for the pattern. this is not a harmonious contact, suggesting action taken on the basis of false information, delusion, or confusion. as prominently as this is placed in the us and george w. bush’s charts, we can expect some event of national significance fitting this description to hit the news. it is likely to involve false information or reveal the truth about past false information.

this pattern will coincide with experiences in our personal lives, as well as in the world at large, which tie in with events last november (ban on late-term abortions, increasing concern over patriot i and ii acts, the energy bill handout to oil and energy giants) and this past mid-may (rumsfeld/abu ghraib tortures, handover in iraq). this pattern is somewhat stressful, but it has predominantly harmonious aspects to it, suggesting that important events will occur that will bring resolution to recent ongoing problems, even some which have resisted resolution for years. in our personal lives, we can be alert to opportunities for new ventures, growth, and change.

chiron brings out our wounds

as mentioned above, tying in to the saturn cycle is the chiron cycle. as saturn’s cycle begins, chiron’s culminates — on the 15^th. they have been interacting since fall 2003 to reveal our deepest wounds (cultural and individual) so we can overcome them. because chiron is in capricorn, cancer’s opposite sign, it highlights the wounds of both the us and george w. bush. this is in part the reason for the depth of our national crisis — and the extent to which the image of the us has taken a fall. this intensifies the effects of saturn and gives us hope that the problems and their depth will be fully understood and definitively resolved.

blue moon?

the month ends with the full moon in leo, the so-called blue moon, referring to the second full moon in a month. however, since the month was originally determined from new moon to new moon, a blue moon could only occur when we had two full moons in the same sign. so, this is not a true blue moon and bears no special astrological significance.

as to how all these planetary events play out in our world, much depends on us. collectively, we have the strength to overcome our difficulties. as individuals, we must recognize that our stability is based as much on the support we give to and get from others as from our own initiatives. at its best, saturn in cancer teaches us that we belong to the family of humanity. when we truly live that, all divisiveness falls away.