Highlights for July 12-18, 2021: To Reach the Clouds

To reach the clouds

Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.

A vast, level place

For forty-five minutes on the morning of August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit walked, danced, and lay on a high wire suspended between the unfinished towers of the World Trade Center – a quarter of a mile above the streets of Manhattan.

Like all astonishing achievements, this one was years in the making. It required hours of research, a team of compatriots, and the refinement of Petit’s natural grace and balance through hours of practice.

Jupiter pulls us toward the clouds, urging us on to spectacular adventures and impossible dreams. But nearly every dazzling Jupiterian undertaking begins with Mercury, who asks, How is it to be done? What do I have to learn, and what skills must I acquire, to accomplish this audacious feat?

This week, Mercury trines Jupiter (July 12, 2021, 12:45 pm PDT) on the Sabian symbol, A man suspended over a vast, level place. Dream big – and then, set about acquiring the knowledge and skills that will ultimately bring your vision to life.

A reunion of lovers

In the 1981 film Reds, Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton portray journalist John Reed and writer Louise Bryant, whose tempestuous love affair spans the political and social tumult of early 20th century America and Russia. As Reed documents the Bolshevik revolution, Bryant gradually transforms herself from a middle class dilettante to a formidable writer and activist. So fully is she transfigured that when Reed goes missing in Russia, Louise – now his wife – manages against all odds to gain entry to Russia and survives prisons and icy tundra in her search for him.

Uncertain whether her husband is alive, she meets a train in Moscow that she’s told might be carrying him. She slumps as the last passenger disembarks, with no sign of Reed. But then she turns and finds him standing some yards away, noticing her at the same moment. Dirty, tired, haggard, and in Reed’s case seriously ill, they fall into one another’s arms – two halves of the same whole, reunited.

Whenever Venus and Mars meet, they tell the story of a reunion between lovers. In recent weeks, Venus and Mars have each done battle with Saturn and Uranus, and the struggle between rules, restrictions, independence, and rebellion has taken its toll on them. As they make their first conjunction in two years (July 13, 2021, 6:33 am PDT), they sink gratefully – if a little the worse for wear – into a passionate embrace.

This is a resetting point in the life cycle of relationships. The past two years have tried us sorely. Some of us wonder whether we can mend tattered friendships and reinvigorate love affairs strained by either the constant companionship or heartbreaking separation of the pandemic.

But Venus and Mars in passionate, heartfelt Leo state without hesitation that there’s more love in us, and that we’re ready to give it. If the light of your closest relationships has dimmed, here’s a chance to make them burn bright again.

Dream a new you

The Sun in Cancer makes one of two annual trine aspects to Neptune this week (July 15, 2021, 1:49 am PDT). It’s a generally favorable aspect that lends itself to a few pleasant days (one before and one after the exact aspect) of spiritual rejuvenation. Since the Sun represents the ways we create, re-creation – time to simply be and to play – is vital to keeping our creative energy vibrant and healthy.

So find a minute or two for recreation this week. Relax near the water, enjoy music, catch up on sleep, and engage in spiritual practices. This week is a good one for a spiritual retreat. It needn’t be anything formal, fancy, or expensive; just a bit of time set aside for meditation, relaxed pleasure, and re-creation – some time to dream a new you.

A Ferocious First Quarter

From last week’s tribal, insular New Moon in Cancer, we move to the First Quarter Moon in convivial Libra (July 17, 2021, 3:10 am PDT). The First Quarter is for flexing our muscles, getting into motion, and pursuing what we want – which, very often, requires that we gain the cooperation of important others, represented by Libra.

This First Quarter Moon falls on the Sabian symbol An eagle and a large white dove turning one into the other. It’s easy to find Libra in the dove, a symbol of peace. But the Moon is square, and the sweet Sun in Cancer opposite, fierce Pluto – and that’s where we find the eagle. This is one of the moments when the mild need to find their ferocity and the ferocious must make peace with their own hearts.

When the Sun opposes Pluto (July 17, 2021, 3:46 pm PDT), it highlights the fundamental disagreement between personal will and larger, impersonal forces. On the heels of the Sun in Cancer’s trine to Neptune, dreaming, wishing, and imagining are our watchwords. The general societal vibe is much more sanguine this summer than last, with happy gatherings of family and friends. But under the surface lies Pluto and difficult matters, even danger, that remain unresolved.

Pluto is on the Sabian Symbol 26 Capricorn, A water sprite. This degree, where slow-moving Pluto has spent a certain amount of time this year, evokes the animating spirit of nature and the power of natural cycles. We can create things by force of our will, but as individuals we’re hard-pressed to match the power of the planet.

Summers in the Northern Hemisphere have become more and more volatile. We enter the heart of Cancer’s season apprehensive about never-ending brush fires, hurricanes, flooding, and other natural disasters; they’re a lesson in the power of the natural world and the limits of our ability to control it. But here’s another way of thinking about Sun/Pluto times: When we stop trying to hold the world up on our shoulders, denying reality, and trying to force things to work out the way we’d like them to, we’re invited into a world that’s much more powerful than our own tiny solar systems.