Cat’s in the Cradle (Part Two)
Jupiter, which entered Leo three weeks ago for a 12-month stay, makes a series of aspects this week to Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. These aspects aren’t as rare as the ones involving those three planets with one another; Jupiter sextiles Uranus and trines Neptune every few years, and opposes Pluto at least once every six years. But they point out a positivity, and also a hunger, that amps up the “cradle” configuration I wrote about last week.
It’s important to put Jupiter in Leo in the context of the Moon’s South Node entering that sign at the end of this week. Make the effort to balance Jupiter in Leo’s ebullience and, especially, its lust for the spotlight against the South Node’s warning that too much Leo is just… too much.
Jupiter’s trine to Neptune (July 20, 2026, 00:23 am PDT, 4º22’ Leo-Aries) sounds like a lovely dream. It’s especially hopeful for creative ventures. But especially with a frictionless trine aspect, we can become a bit delusional as well.
Jupiter’s opposition to Pluto (July 20, 2026, 7:44 am PDT, 4º26’ Leo-Aquarius) is the spine of this configuration, with a bit of steel and resolve to (hopefully) pull Jupiter back from the brink. But it can also accentuate power issues, and play out through people in power who are determined to exercise their control over the many (Aquarius), in part by squelching individual voices (Leo).
And Jupiter sextile Uranus (July 21, 2026, 4:10 am PDT, 4º37’ Leo-Gemini) is a hopeful message of disruption that leads to positive change. But like all sextiles, it has to be activelychosen and used intentionally.
Listen and Hear the Truth
The Sun’s Cancer season encourages incubation, gestating particular ideas until they’re viable to be put to good use. But the Libra First Quarter Moon (July 21, 2026, 4:05 am PDT, 28º43’ Libra/Cancer) compels us to take action, and specifically to share something we’ve been thinking about since the Cancer New Moon on July 14 – whether or not it’s fully hatched. We don’t necessarily have to share it with the entire world, but maybe it’s time to share it with one trusted person.
The Libra First Quarter Moon is on the Sabian symbol 29 Libra, Humanity seeking to bridge knowledge, suggesting we’re called upon not only to share what we know with the world, but also to be willing to listen to what others have to say. And with the Sun and Moon in aspect to Pluto, this includes knowledge that isn’t always easy to hear. So don’t be afraid to share what you know, but be sure to listen to others as well – and to be prepared to hear the truth.
The Tools
The desire for self-expression is pretty high up on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You have to have an awful lot going right in your life before it occurs to you to want more fun. That said, even a life that offers a roof over your head, food to eat, and safety from imminent peril can be flat, gray, and filled with despair, if there is nothing to feed your creative spirit and no sense that your life has meaning.
This week, the Sun enters Leo (July 22, 2026, 12:13 pm PDT), which is called the sign of creativity; but that doesn’t tell the full story. It evokes visions of a child’s playroom, filled with bright plastic toys, or a craft room with construction paper and Elmer’s glue. But Leo’s desire for creativity transcends the tools we use to summon it. Leo symbolizes pursuits that open the heart and make you feel completely alive, to the extent that you don’t even question whether you’re doing it well, just whether you’re doing it exactly as you like. That can be a challenge for adults, who have responsibilities and full schedules, and who lack a child’s luxurious surfeit of empty hours for seemingly idle pursuits.
But throwing yourself into a creative passion is worth the investment of time, because the benefits spill over into every part of your life, making everything—your job, your relationships—more distinctive and satisfying.
We all have something inside us that wants to be engaged and needs to be shared and noticed. It says, “This is what it’s like to be me. This is how I see the world.” That’s Leo’s destination, and practically any road can take us there. You may enjoy quilting, or cooking, or designing video games; you may be called to play softball, mandolin, or Lady Macbeth. You’ll know the right tools to use. They’re the ones you can’t stop fiddling with long enough to get a decent night’s sleep.
Shifting Gears
You know how it feels to stand up after you’ve been sitting still at your desk for a couple of hours, or to awaken groggy from a long, deep nap, or to redirect your focus after being intensely consumed in a task? That’s approximately the sensation of Mercury stationing direct (July 23, 2026, 3:58 pm PDT, 16º18’ Cancer) after a three-week retrograde period. After a vexing period that began on June 29, the signal light turns green, and it’s time to shift gears and move forward.
But it’s not as cut-and-dried as that. The traffic light clicks over right away, but you’ll probably need a day or two to let your mind awaken, stretch, and focus, and to let matters that have been stuck have a chance to unstick themselves.
The Commonality
In May 1986, I was driving south on 101 after a short solo vacation to Monterey and Carmel, feeling pretty sorry for myself. I’d discovered a few days earlier that someone I’d been seeing was, in fact, involved with someone else. Not a particularly original story, but a fairly painful and disillusioning one.
This little road trip coincided with an exact sextile from Neptune, the planet of illusion, and Pluto, the planet of cold, stark reality. Pluto was, in fact, parked very close to my natal Neptune at this time, so it was a bit of a double-whammy that insisted I wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.
For nearly eight decades, the sextile of Neptune and Pluto has been present in most birth charts, in various signs and within various orbs of exactitude. It was exact a number of times in 1950-56 and 1976-1986, and this week’s exact Neptune-Pluto sextile (July 24, 10:26 pm PDT, 4º20 Aries-Aquarius) is the first in a series that will last through Feb. 2032, when it finally wraps up.
We could be forgiven for thinking that because this aspect is so common, there isn’t much to say about it. But in fact, it’s a chart signature that binds us together, a point of commonality. Even something like a slow-moving Pluto transit in a particular sign doesn’t last as long as this sextile has.
What’s the nature of that commonality? Here are a few headlines from May 1986: the Soviets revealed the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant; Anne Frank’s complete, unedited diary was published; 6.5 million people formed a human chain from New York to California for the “Hands Across America” charity event.
The through-line led through the revelation or highlighting of something ugly that had to some extent been downplayed or concealed – a nuclear meltdown, a human documentation of Nazi atrocities, and hunger in the United States.
Since the post-war Baby Boom, we’re the generations who have confronted – and deconstructed – our collective dreams. We’re simply not as unquestioningly trusting as some of our predecessors. As my mother once said to me, “I feel sorry for you, because you see things exactly as they are instead of the way you’d like them to be.” I think that’s true, but it’s not just me. It’s the world I grew up in, and the people I grew up with. We believe in dreams, but we don’t necessarily expect them to come true.
Renegotiate
As Saturn turns retrograde this week (July 26, 2026, 12:56 pm PDT at 14º44’ Aries), it’s best to avoid taking on new responsibilities. Instead, focus on commitments that you’ve already taken on – especially the ones you assumed reluctantly – and renegotiate them.
This retrograde station calls back to Saturn’s journey since Feb. 13, when it entered Aries; maybe you’ve taken on more than you bargained for, or your personal circumstances have changed since you signed up for duty, making it necessary to back away.
That’s not to say you should use this as an excuse to give up on something simply because you’ve lost interest. Persistence is a Saturnine virtue. But some challenges simply aren’t ours to undertake, and as Saturn turns retrograde, we are better able to recognize them. And then, once Saturn turns direct (Dec. 10, 2026), we’ll be in a better position to take on the tasks that were meant for us.
Joining the Rest of the Cast
The transiting Nodes have been in Pisces/Virgo since Jan. 11, 2025. “Have faith,” advises the North Node in Pisces. “Even when the world seems to have flown off the rails, even when there’s no reason to believe in anything…have faith.” Meanwhile, the Virgo South Node believes in what it can see, touch, and quantify.
The equation is different as the Lunar Nodes enter Aquarius and Leo this week (July 26, 2026, 5:46 pm PDT). “We’re all in this together,” says the Aquarius North Node. But especially with Jupiter now in Leo as well, the South Node looks like a tempting possibility. “You’ll be fine on your own,” it says. And well…. yeah. But the nodal journey is not about just being fine, it’s about growth. If Leo feels especially comfortable for you, see if you can push yourself out of the one-woman show for at least a little while, and join the rest of the cast.
Beneath the Surface of Still Waters
The Sun connects to the heart of the cradle configuration as it opposes Pluto (July 26, 2026, 11:54 pm PDT, 4º17 Leo-Aquarius). At this annual aspect, the belief that we alone control our destinies is challenged by the awareness of outside forces that can’t be bargained with. Next week’s trine from the Sun to Neptune is like a restful trip to beach; but the Sun opposed Pluto hints, Jaws-like, at the dangers that lie beneath the surface of still waters.
One of those dangers is our diminished sense of community. Pluto has been spending a lot of time recently on the Sabian Symbol 5 Aquarius, A council of ancestors, hinting at the fact of humanity’s shared ancestry. If recent history has taught us anything, it’s the importance of nurturing our connections with one another in the face of stark personal differences and uncontrollable situations. This solar opposition to Pluto is a reminder that any hope of collective harmony lies in our willingness to set aside the need to be right and make each other wrong, and the insistence on being heard without listening in return.
