Highlights for July 20-26, 2020: A Storm, Joy, and a Messenger

The Storm, Joy, and a Messenger

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The storm

The second Cancer New Moon of the summer (July 20, 2020, 10:33 am PDT) is at 28.26 Cancer, on the Sabian symbol A storm in a canyon. Powerful Cancerian emotions are yearning for release at this New Moon – the concluding chapter of a story that began at the June 21 New Moon.

That New Moon carried the thunderous portent of a Solar Eclipse, square Mars. The world was boiling over like a pan of water left on the stove for too long. We were called to stand up and to fly our colors. Here in the U.S., it felt like the entire country was splintering into bits.

The New Moon is normally the phase for planting new seeds that you hope will flourish in the coming months. This New Moon point, however, is in a very close opposition aspect to Saturn. It offers the image of stormwaters straining against a dam, ready to overflow or to break it apart.

Seeds that are planted now will struggle to flourish. Much better is to double-check the foundation of the garden itself. Saturn, still retrograde, suggests something has been overlooked in the structures you’ve been carefully building over the past two years. Slow down, find it, and correct it.

”Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don’t lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.” ― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

Recovering joy

Pulling ourselves over the side of the New Moon dam, we land gracefully, and gratefully, onto Leo’s sunny savanna, as the Sun enters its home sign this week (July 22, 2020, 1:37 am PDT). As the Sun transits through the signs of the zodiac across the seasons of the year, it instructs us how to find joy and purpose, and how to shine. In Leo, we seek joy through leisure and play.

A good friend of mine has suffered terrible loss in the past couple of years, including the loss of two pets in quick succession. Recently, she invited a kitten into her home, and she says she hasn’t laughed so much in ages. Watching him frolic, jump, and provoke the older cat in the household into play brings much comic relief and delight to her days.

Leo represents this quality of play, pleasure, and entertainment – a spirit that, for many of us, has been sorely lacking in recent months. For the next month, as the Sun shines here, see how you can recover it, and find more reasons to laugh.

“When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.” ― Shannon L. Alder

Answering the door

Let’s say that an idea – perhaps we could best describe it a hunch – has been tickling the back of your mind since early June. It’s something you might never even have considered back before the world went a little crazy. But the fact that so much is changing has opened up a little crack in the safe, staid boundaries of your life.

Pay attention this week, as Mercury in intuitive, cautious Cancer makes the last of three sexiles (the other two were on June 5 and 30) to disruptive but energizing Uranus in Taurus (July 22, 2020, 1:25 pm PDT). After nearly eight weeks with Mercury in Cancer, including a retrograde night of the soul, this is the week that a door opens, a messenger arrives, a sign appears. Your job is to recognize the opportunity that it offers, and grab hold of it.