Transformational Astrology

July 2010

by Henry Seltzer

The Astrology of July again features Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, as was the case for the past month as well.  This is because the Cardinal T-square between Uranus, Pluto and Saturn, aided and abetted by Jupiter and Mars, is more powerful than ever now, and becomes even stronger as the month unfolds.

Early in the month, on the 5th, Uranus stations retrograde, halting its forward movement into Aries, but also further emphasizing its square with Pluto, urging profound transformation. Then, another dramatic eclipse comes along mid-day on Sunday, July 11th, and it serves to drive the stake even deeper into the very center of our issues. We are called upon to make an important movement in our individual and in our collective lives. If we heed the call we will get busy, and if we tune in to the tenor of the times we will not despair but rejoice that the moment for action has undisputedly come. This Solar Eclipse New Moon in Cancer makes aspects to Neptune and to Mars, just as Mars begins to close in on Saturn in the last decant of Virgo. Saturn itself is less than a degree away from its entrance into Libra, where it will form an almost perfect square with Pluto, and where we will experience the most potent expression yet of its continuing opposition to Uranus, representing the polarity of stasis versus dramatic change.

Saturn with Pluto in its waning square represents tough love, urging transformation upon us whether we think that we are ready for it or not. This configuration reminds us of the 2001 opposition between Saturn and Pluto, the single most important indicator in the chart of 9-11. If we are wondering how the current collision of these powerful archetypal forces will manifest, we have to look no further than the aftermath of recent catastrophic events that have already occurred, and that will go down in history, as the challenge that they represent continues to reveal further complications. I am speaking, of course, of the massive earthquake in Haiti that has left over a million people homeless and living in tents, as of this writing with the hurricane season approaching, and of the incredibly disastrous Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill of late April 2010, still gushing as of mid-June, a disaster of unprecedented proportions that will also be greatly exacerbated by the storms of this summer. Perhaps the time has finally come when the balance tips away from constantly encouraging this nation’s over-dependence on fossil fuels.

July includes another powerful Full Moon, taking place on Sunday, July 25th, with the Sun and Moon in the early degrees of Leo and Aquarius. This Full Moon triggers once again the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square. Now that Saturn has entered Libra, as of the 21st of July, the configuration of these powerful archetypal energies is at one relative peak, although the Uranus-Pluto square remains potent throughout the teens. We might expect during this final week of a pivotal month to see some early warning signs of the tumultuous decade that awaits us.

ARIES (March 20-April 19)

This is another big month for you, Aries. You have been riding the waves of transformation for six weeks now, or more, and this month there are definite climaxes ready to be reached. You are feeling not only the mandate for change but the energy and the will to see it through. Career goals are profoundly shifting and are transforming you in the process. Partnership becomes increasingly important throughout the month, with the keyword: commitment. Novel ideas that will work in your favor are on the rise, as well as an increase in the magical synchronicity contained in each new moment that will enable you to drive them home. Your outer work remains symbolic of inner changes that operate over the course of the summer to take you into an entirely different world.

TAURUS (April 20-May 19)

This is a month of surprising epiphanies and fascinating discoveries, Taurus, but it is depth rather than outer exploration that calls to you now. You are zeroing in on your life work from the standpoint of core purpose, through a series of important wrinkles and realignments in your understanding. Toward the end of the month, family issues come alive for you as an adjunct to your own development. Higher mind activities are calling to you ever more clearly, yet something in your educational experience is quite different this time around. As you continue to reinvent yourself in many unusual ways over the course of this monthly cycle, one thing remains constant; you grow in direct proportion as you get a better handle on what your inner purpose might ultimately consist of.

GEMINI (May 20-June 20)

You have entered a tunnel in time, Gemini. Your chrysalis stage is nearly over and what is beginning is your process of emerging as an entirely different creature. Your values and the resources that you will need to actualize them are undergoing a renaissance also. As you find your feet and struggle to define yourself in new terms, sorting out the possibilities, your visions for a brilliant and novel future have an unusual power of manifestation.  It is also true for you, right now, that writing down your ideas is crucial. Whether by journaling or blogging or even penning a traditional article, you need an avenue for verbal self-expression. Partners are also helpful at this time in getting you off the base and out the door. By month’s end you’ll hardly recognize yourself.

CANCER (June 21-July 20)

This is a wild and crazy time for you, Cancer, but also one that engenders growth. You are virtually seething with ideas, and naturally not all of them will be productive; the task lies in choosing what parts of yourself to actualize, exactly where to depart from business as usual and voyage into the creative and featureless unknown. The July 11th eclipse in your sign signals that this second weekend of the month is fraught with risk and opportunity. As you believe in your powers and follow through with courageous intention, the universe honors you as well, enabling you to strike the blow that releases the manacles of stultified habitual patterns. In the process, you are forging a new relationship to the divine and with everyone around you as well.

LEO (July 21-Aug. 21)

Your neural network is dancing, Leo. Given the tenor of these times, and the astrological configurations that reflect them, you are capable of learning at a faster rate than ever before, and with rapid shifts in point of view. If you can muster up a suspension of disbelief and a willingness to let go of the past, there is opportunity now to think your way through buried trauma of past conditioning. Meditation helps. It might be that difficult interpersonal situations will arise over the first several weeks of this month, but if so their primary purpose is to allow your vision to expand to include a basic acceptance of inner wounding, enabling you to finally move past it. By the 25th you come into yourself in a new way.

VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 21)

Time has come to you now in a big way, Virgo. You might have resisted the pressure of transformation for months, but the leisure to contemplate rather than participate in massive change is rapidly drawing to a close. The good news is that your life goals are morphing quickly, nothing you can do about it, like pulling off a band aid, so that you don’t even have to stop and think anymore. Relationships help to move you forward in proportion to how thoroughly you can shuck old and worn-out patterns of connection. The pain of separating from your false conditioning is far less when you make the transition willingly. So if you have the inclination, take the chance that is presenting itself to you; and you haven’t, take it anyway. This message will repeat until you do.

LIBRA (Sept. 22-Oct. 22)

This is an important month for you, Libra, when you are putting your money where your heart is. You are proceeding now in a way that is firmly based on the ordinary world of intention and causality, and yet responds more poignantly to the rhythm of waves that beat upon a distant shore. In response to this call of the unknown, you are transforming slowly at the very core of your being, and it affects home and family concerns, and everything that you do. Surprising and sometimes sudden enlightenment comes to you from significant partners in your life, and their ideas and actions help you to better define your own. There are multiple universes that lie within you, and that ultimately have a more profound influence upon you than the merely mundane world of surface events.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

This is a transitional month, Scorpio, in which you are debating your choices amidst a veritable sea of possibilities. You might even be getting the idea that if you stare long enough into your future you will see right through it into another existence that is both within and beyond this present one. You are subject to sudden changes in attitude that open up a vision of new worlds that seem expressly set up for you to conquer. Of course, in choosing one potential road you narrow down your chances for any other. The path you take is made by walking it. Toward month’s end, when you emerge from tunnels of profound thought, you have one foot solidly on the earth and yet the other is firmly planted in the over-arching sky.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 20)

You’re opening up to new horizons in the face of challenge, Sagittarius, as you reach for greater intimacy with others and with your own inner workings. Surprising and even startling events have become these days not your nightmare but your cup of tea. A time has arrived in your life of brilliant thinking and creative real-world play, which if you take advantage of it is capable of moving you beyond former high-water marks of personal evolution. Financial and other resources, or their lack, are more profoundly influencing you but in a different way than ever before. You are riding the wave of change into an undefined future that is nevertheless more real and more profoundly based in spiritual progress than any you have previously contemplated.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 19)

You are fumbling your way into ecstasy, Capricorn.  A series of profound shifts in attitude and a scary yet helpful instability at the very core of your being has engendered a tipping point within you that becomes the springboard for profound and necessary change to further itself in your life. Over the course of this current monthly cycle, partnership realignment provides one key to your own process of self-transcendence.  You have been traversing a dark tunnel of imagination and mystery, but toward the end of the month you emerge into the sunlight bearing gifts of the creative darkness within you. These will serve you well in the remaining stages of your journey toward wholeness.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 17)

This is a good time to be alive, Aquarius, and to be sharing information with others. Communication is the name of your game right now, and it leads to many blessings. You are receiving new information all the time, some of it extra-dimensional, so that you have to sort out what to concentrate on as you enter into what is essentially a new phase. Finding your own unique way forward is pressing, and significant others in your life can aid you in your quest. The logic of your commitment to real-world solutions has also never been more fully integrated with otherworldly potential. When you find the right combination you will unlock many doors inside yourself, not least being the pathway to a more fully realized sense of partnership.

PISCES (Feb. 18-March 19)

This is the first month of the rest of your life, Pisces. You have been engaged in a long road of revealing yourself more fully to others around you, in your newfound self-knowledge, and this month you are coming more solidly in tune with your revised understanding. Your finances and resources and even your most closely held values have been undergoing a shake-up that has engendered a rapid-fire flight of new ideas that profoundly impact your sense of societal connection and where it was that you thought you were heading in this lifetime. Commitment is the key. You will find that once you choose your path ahead of you based more firmly on the inner wisdom that you know is yours, all the rest will follow, naturally.

Henry Seltzer, transformational astrologer and creator of the TimePassages astrology software, is based in Santa Cruz, California. An extended look at this month’s star signs is available on his website. Holding degrees from MIT and the University of California-San Diego, Henry is a popular speaker and also offers life enhancing private astrological counseling. Call him at 831-425-3686, or visit his website at www.astrograph.com.