‘Nymphs Hunting’ By Julius LeBlanc Stewart 1898 {{PD}}

All you need to know today is this: instincts are healthy and right-on; thinking is confused, obscured by illusion or misunderstanding, or too influenced by our wishes to be accurate. Go with the inner voice, the quiet one that saves you from yourself and prompts you to do the ‘right’ thing.

(Perfecting today: Hygeia conj Sedna, retro Mercury sesq Neptune)

The table’s all set for a Happy Birthday. ‘Open Door on a Garden’ By Konstantin Somov 1934 {{PD}}

For those born with the Sun at 20 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). Dear Cancer, your Solar Return brings a period, lasting through to your next birthday, that can best be described as an Earthquake. Now consider: earthquakes can be long and frightening as the ground rolls and heaves beneath you, or they can be abrupt as the two plates whack together, or they can be imperceptibly slow, with change coming inch by inch. This change may be obvious, or may be unnoticeable until much later, but in any case offers you a re-making, as well as a new emotional take on your personal authority and how to exercise it, with a consequent opening up of your belief system, your reach, and your world. Good luck!

‘The Parable of Wise and Foolish Virgins (unfinished)’ By Peter von Cornelius c1815 {{PD}}

Could we really have too much wisdom–is that even possible?–or is it that an abundance of practicality surfaces, making for effective decisions even as it may cut us off from creative influences? Balance may be the key today, as it seems duality of choice is ours. Actions and choices may hurt or heal in a big way, simultaneous with either a denial of or pressure from group demands or a denial of our own originality and uniqueness. The central issue, it seems, the one that’s distorting our understanding and so our ability to interpret the energies around us, is a personal conflict we may be experiencing around our ambitions and heart’s desires. What do we want, especially in matters of aesthetics, cooperation, love? (Zeus in Libra) Answer that, and everything else, what we want to change, what we want to secure, falls into place.

(Jupiter sxt Pallas, Mars trine Chiron and sq Uranus, Sun sq Zeus and contra-parallel Pluto and Saturn)

The table’s all set for a Happy Birthday. ‘Open Door on a Garden’ By Konstantin Somov 1934 {{PD}}

For those born with the Sun at 19 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). Change is a comin’, dear Cancer–you can sense it ’round the next bend, can’t you? Really, you should know that the anticipation you feel will cause more upheaval than the actual endings and beginnings, when they come. Take advantage of your current internal emotional harmony and get yourself ready, chiefly by re-thinking the role you want to play and the image you want to have, and be very conscious of what you envision this solar year, through to your next birthday, as you have an unusually compelling ability to create it or draw it to you–so make your ideals your dreams. Good luck!

By Anders Zorn 1889 {{PD}}

For real: today the more we honor our unique individuality, act on our Soul’s mission, respect ourselves and our inner wisdom, concentrate on using our creative energies in positive and productive ways that truly represent who we are, and avoid power struggles or arguments with those in charge (or those who just think they’re in charge!) the more this day can show us what inventive, clever, imaginative people we are. It’s a day for aiming for the ideal in all we do, a day to accept the gifts of spontaneity and to appreciate the ingenuity of the human Soul, and if you approach all you do in this manner, you’re sure to reach day’s end much more fulfilled than you started it (and more pleased with yourself–go ahead, you deserve to be) .

(Pallas semi-sq Ceres, Uranus parallel Juno, Sun contra-parallel Jupiter and trine Neptune)

‘Cakes, 1963’ Photo By Pplachigo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28954794

For those born with the Sun at 18 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). Dear Cancer, where you’re headed, in the largest sense, occupies your thoughts this year, and for good reason: you are shaping the future with big, bold strokes, and will be bringing about the kind of change you’ll look back on later as turning points, as life-defining. Positives involve your ability to take what you’ve learned in the past and use it well; negatives include a disconnect between thought and action. Reconcile these last two, and you could have your best year yet. Good luck!

By Fulvio Spada from Torino, Italy – Isla Espiritu Santo, Baja California, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40014196

Do relationships provide surprise hurt, or a difficult healing, today? Words may be aggressive, but they’re carrying the energy of the retro Merc, a need to do, to act, that we can’t wrap our heads around, can’t sufficiently organize, and the demands of the social order only add to the tension, resulting in, what else? Frustration. One thing we can be sure of: what the social sphere wants is contrary to our well-being. Something else we can count on: the spontaneous, the revelation, the shock, all ultimately deliver a reward. So, we get to the end of the day with some very positive results, even if the getting there was a little rocky.

‘A Little Rocky’–or did I mean this?

(Venus sq Chiron, sxt Uranus, and nov Hygeia, Mercury conj Mars, Sun qnx Jupiter, Jupiter contra-parallel Hygeia)

For those born with the Sun at 16 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). This solar year, dear Cancer, through to your next birthday, you may face and deal with real-world circumstances and the ways these restrict, confine, or suppress you, and you may also utilize an enhanced ability to bring what you imagine or visualize into material form. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword and may take some getting used to, but eventually you’ll catch the rhythm and find that the more you work to knock down barriers and bring the real world, especially the environment, into alignment with your Soul’s deepest intentions, needs, and reasons for Being, the better your results. Good luck!

‘Cakes, 1963’ Photo By Pplachigo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28954794

‘Actors in 1860’ By 四代目中村芝翫 Nakamura Shikan IV CC BY-SA 4.0

I don’t mean to get all real-world nitty-gritty on you, but today we might see, experience, find something contrary to our health. Now I’m defining ‘health’ in the broadest possible terms, so this might be physical, related to diet, exercise, the cleanliness or other disposition of our environment, or it may be mental, emotional, or psychic, something only recognized from the inside. In whatever form it shows itself, empowerment is only gained by careful attention to what we’ve been ignoring or denying. It’s in excavating what we’ve rejected about our own lives that we access an outlook that’s genuinely effective in dealing with those less-than-sani circumstances, making it possible to move forward–everything else is Kabuki theater.

(Juno qnx Black Moon Lilith, Saturn contra-parallel Hygeia)

Comments submitted, books ordered, and requests for service made between 5 and 7 July will be answered/ fulfilled on the 8th.

‘Cakes, 1963’ Photo By Pplachigo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28954794

For those born with the Sun at 13 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). Dear Cancer, your solar year, through to your next birthday, may be filled with challenges requiring you to decide what’s wise, or what’s practical–and there may be a further challenge that you live that wisdom, or those practicalities. It’s a time of getting your psychic house in order, and focusing your attention on Self-development. Hints for success: realize that opportunities and ‘the facts’ both demand adjustments to their truths–there’s no other way, and intuitions and feelings, even when they seem to be about others, are really about the Self, and you’ll be miles ahead if you see them that way. Good luck!

By Matthew Bargo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11564056

What is it about reality, or the obstacles we face, or the rules or requirements that constrain us, that’s tempting us to flee into the past? It’s a quicksand of already-hardened cement, capturing us if we happen to put our foot in it before it sets, and unforgiving if we’re outside trying to break it apart, to break in, to–what? Though the first refuge we think of from what’s nagging at us is the past, we’d do better to look at two things: how reactive we’re being to the social order–are we acting and choosing because that’s what we want, or because we want to be different than what we’re seeing around us?–and how much maintaining our current power position/ status/ sphere of influence is really costing us. We have to take a moment and look at these issues, as there’s no way to get their measure when we’re actively in motion with them, as Heisenberg can tell you (if you’d like a deep dive). Once we’ve paused and observed, we can see that opening to our instinctual nature, while keeping what we truly care about in mind, is the only way to divine which way, and how, to proceed.

(Saturn conj SN, Mars sesq Jupiter, Venus qnx Ceres, Sun semi-sq Sedna)

‘Cakes, 1963’ Photo By Pplachigo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28954794

For those born with the Sun at 12 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). Everything that happens this solar year, through to your next birthday, dear Cancer, is about developing wisdom, developing skills, or developing both. We might say that’s the very essence of life, but you’ll enjoy a period during which it will be easy to (you may even be required to) focus on yourself and your needs and life course. It’s important that you find a way that’s entirely suitable to you specifically–that’s what this year is about. You’ll be aided by good instincts and the ability to resist the lure of the past–what’s over is over, and you may be an excellent example of this for others. The emotions will offer special attunement to your Soul’s needs–go forth, listen to yourself, and do what needs to be done, to truly align your way in the world with who you are at core. Good luck!

‘Unconscious Rivals’ By Lawrence Alma-Tadema 1893 {{PD}}

The spontaneous or the accidental may seem to work against us, but in reality what we don’t expect serves to heal, empower, or spur wise choices. Incorporating those surprises will lend our efforts authority, and offer inspiration that shows us how to get around obstacles as well as how to allow the creative to flow.

(Chiron trine and Uranus sq Juno, Mars trine Ceres and parallel Pallas, Venus enters Cancer, Mercury sesq Neptune)

‘Cakes, 1963’ Photo By Pplachigo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28954794

For those born with the Sun at 11 Cancer. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). You may spend the coming Solar year, dear Cancer, feeling your way forward, testing the waters for the smart move, the practical alternative, and the skills you need to acquire. It’s a year of building yourself, and that where you attention and efforts should rightly be. This could be rough on relationships, but will act to help you shed those who aren’t right for you, and who won’t fit into the new and improved life you’ll have by your next birthday. Use feelings and intuition as a supplementary guide, and enjoy this time when you can and should focus on You. Good luck!