Planet Waves Monthly for July by Eric Francis
Aries (March 20-April 19) — A combination of factors is offering you one of the most social and creative times of the year. I suggest you do all the playing and exploring that you can, and learn how to make these things a priority. Truly appreciate the subtle things in life, and give yourself room to experiment. One year from now you’re going to be living under very different influences, arranged around a high priority on growth and personal responsibility. These may represent a total transformation of your self-concept and life circumstances — if handled well, for the better. At the moment, you’re under little pressure to be or become anything other than who you are. Yet you have plenty of room to explore your possibilities, to make friends and to experiment with business and creative projects. Most people are not so eager to try out anything other than what is familiar. Now is your opportunity to learn the art of stretching into your potential, when there is no unusual pressure to do so. Learn the art of being open minded, open to experience and open to people. Be present for what is in your immediate surroundings. Get good at questioning everything. When Saturn and Neptune move into your sign next year, you will be happy you have mastered some of these skills. The most important of them is to have a conscious relationship to your potential. Play with seeing and feeling what is possible, and then trying it out. Develop your game — well before the 2025 astrological Olympics.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — You may be in one of those restless moments where it seems like the whole world is stirring inside you. Your chart looks like you may be worried but know there is nothing to be concerned about; you may be feeling deep desire but are unsure what you want. You could be feeling like something is missing, though you’re not sure what it is. You could just as easily align with your inner drive and channel all that energy — it would take no time. All you have to do is step out of your own way and admit what you want, and recognize how much you have to offer. Note that having is not for its own sake, but for the purpose of sharing, extending and increasing. And if you are in possession of some truth about yourself, recognizing your nature and living out loud will help you feel like you’re living with purpose — the rarest spiritual quality of our times. As for your means of personal expression: gentle, slow and methodical are the way. Start with a single idea and develop it: one interesting sentence, one unusual photo, three notes of music that sound beautiful together. Then grow the crystal into a new vision. If you follow through every day on even a simple idea, a series of opportunities to get into the flow will present themselves. Yet this can happen only if you’re actively engaged rather than distracted, preoccupied or entertaining yourself. Keep your hands and mind busy with what matters to you.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — The message of the forthcoming Mercury retrograde (Aug. 5-Aug. 28) is to get your home in order, then get your mind in order. The two are related, and the order of operations is logical. Start with little clumps of wires near your television or monitor or router, sort them carefully, dust and wipe them off, and move on feeling better. Then move onto stacks of paper, or even one of them. Do your filing. Organize and back up your disk drives but do not make any permanent changes (such as deletions); save that for September. This is all physical metaphor for your mind, and as Mercury (your planetary significator) backs into Leo, the emphasis shifts to your thought patterns, communication style and beliefs. Together, attention to these things is a lens. If your cables and files and disk drives are in order, you will have a much easier time understanding the true nature of your mind — which is light. Without a clear lens, visible light is impossible to see clearly. And that clear lens is about your emotional orientation, which in turn relates directly to your physical environment. It’s difficult for you to feel good, think clearly, or be creative in any form of domestic chaos. Make note of interpersonal situations that arise over the next few weeks, with the intent of evaluating whether they are healthy for you. Assess the nature and origin of communication breakdowns. Note how you may contribute to these situations; it will be fairly easy to see — if you’re looking.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Transform any concerns you may have about money directly into business ideas, or a plan to be more visible and accessible. Retrieve pre-existing plans you may have set aside, dust them off and consider their potential value. Use any anxiety you may experience and transform it immediately into some form of creative action — such as working on your business plan, or some form of establishing and developing your value. Your sign has Leo on its money house — the sign of gold. Always remember that. Note that for the past few weeks, important planetary indicators suggest that you are more vulnerable to a kind of free-floating anxiety, and that at times it may be exaggerated. The issue with this kind of fear is that it can graft onto nearly anything, and make it seem like that thing is the source, rather than a kind of projection. This same astrology can stoke your creative imagination, though it may feel edgy. Yet if you work that edge, you will see where you can push some boundaries and go beyond limits that are purely mental. This kind of creative product can have its own sense of danger, and that’s the place to work with it in a positive and useful way. Real ideas move energy and they do something else: they challenge what exists now. And that alone makes any actual, sincere creative activity a little too much for most people to handle. But don’t let this stop you.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — The Sun, the Leo luminary, has entered your sign as of a few days ago, and this is serving as a reminder of all that you desire and want to accomplish. But first, take a moment and thank yourself for your devoted efforts of the past year, which have taken you a long way from where you were a year before that. (The concept of one year, a solar cycle, is essential to the idea of Leo.) Mark your progress. Go back to your diary, emails, photos, or whatever, and remember where you were on this day in 2023. Admit that you have done something with your life, and continue to do so. You now have the new influence of Pluto in your opposite sign to drive you. Such can manifest many ways, from challenges to group pressure to public visibility. You don’t mind being seen — in fact you benefit from it, which is true for even the rare shy Leo Sun or rising. As Pluto makes its way through early Aquarius over the next year or so, you will find yourself living in a different world than you ever have. Some factors that have been present for a long time will be removed; others will manifest; and you will continue to go through a series of transformations that bring out deeper and more authentic expressions of who you are and what you are capable of. The most helpful spirit in which to proceed is that of service. You don’t need to aspire to be the best at anything. Be yourself, and be helpful.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — How much can you take for granted? Make a list of everything of real value and consider carefully whether it’s a sure thing. See if you can determine exactly what the guarantee is, who made it, and how you’re entitled to collect. Do you have any part in the arrangement? That is, does your contribution or keeping a commitment make a difference in your assurance? This is a more sensitive point than it may seem: it’s the difference between an entitlement and mutual collaboration. Most things in life are not really entitlements; your landlord may owe you fixing your sink if it breaks, but only if you pay the rent. If she doesn’t fix the sink, you have a right to withhold the rent. I realize this describes features in transactional relationships, though that is what our personal affairs usually become. Often people serve the role of someone who can be held to account, who owes you something, or who may have taken something from you in the past. None of this has anything to do with love, respect or affection. If you want those experiences, then a different approach will be necessary. It’s fair to ask why anyone who is in your life is there.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — The way you learn what is true is you find out — personally and directly. You cannot be told; you cannot read the truth; you cannot learn it in a workshop or from a therapist or clairvoyant. But you can certainly do what you must to find out what is real, what has validity, what matters. And you do this by entering your life situations with your mind open, ready to converse with the people you meet. You can take steps to gain experience by going somewhere, rather than just seeing a video about it. You can guide yourself toward the unfamiliar and stay there a while. At the same time, notice when anyone or anything tries to persuade you of something you don’t have experience with. There may be a lot of that over the next few weeks — and there will be certain people who are highly persuasive. Feel free to question them. Question everything that comes into your field of perception. Look behind the curtain, open the box, and ask about the obvious. Yet to really know something in a useful sense, you have to explore and experience it. To know a place, you need to spend some time there — and you may get a clear idea about where you simply must go from events and developments this month. Do not forget. Do not put it on your bucket list. Determine when and how to get there, and then go, making as few plans as possible. Travel alone or with one other person — not a group.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — The Sun has entered your fellow fixed sign Leo, which is a stabilizing force in your chart. Leo inspires you to reach upward, and to aspire to do great or even greater things. You want steady, lasting, durable accomplishments. You want to provide heat and light for the world around you. Therefore, set the example you would see others follow. This is stepping into your true role as a teacher, which is always about being an exemplar. Such calls for consistency between your words and your deeds. Where Leo is strong in someone’s chart — and it’s very strong in yours, particularly at the moment — you serve as an organizing principle around which certain purposes or a community take shape. Think of the Sun holding all the other planets in orbit. At the moment, Vesta is also in Leo, and this is a factor that describes someone or something that defines space. Homes are best designed around the kitchen or the hearth; then everything finds its purpose and location around it. This serves your purposes many ways — including putting you in a position to observe. You might want to spend as much time in the kitchen as you can, particularly at social events (of your own design or that of someone else). This central function puts you in a position to work with others, make decisions and offers you something all-important: a sense of immediate purpose. And you get to have as much fun as anyone else.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — You have reached a point in your growth and maturity where it’s appropriate to ask the big question of what you’re really doing on Earth. That so many people squander their purpose and their potential is not proof of reincarnation; it’s evidence of confusion. This life is not about getting it right the next time. You have accepted the mission of living with purpose today, now, in this experience of life. Yet to enter this territory requires you to confront difficult questions, many of which have their roots in the distant past. It’s ridiculous that people are dragging around the unresolved conflicts with their parents even into their 60s and 70s. Yet the answer is not to avoid them. It’s as though you’ve reached a final test of whose values will guide your existence — those of your ancestors, or you, making your decisions today. Confront this head-on, and see the past and its influences for what they are. Yet the other side of this is holding a new vision for yourself, which implies new potentials and possibilities; new experiences of the world and how you live in it. For you, meaning is everything, and for you and all humans, it’s often elusive. It’s something that you must define for yourself, without respect to whether what matters the very most to you matters to anyone else. And this is always about a quest that lacks a definitive endpoint. To stand in your ultimate truth, stand in your reality today, and ask yourself what you would change if you could; what you would create for yourself, if you could.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — Pay special attention to your health this month, by which I mean your general state of wellbeing. You may feel like you’ve got superpowers, and that is true — to an extent. The way the Capricorn solar chart is set up, most matters of health and wellness come back to your mental state. So take care of your mind, much of which means taking care of your body. Be careful of wanting to accomplish everything all at once — Mars is very active for you right now, providing more motivation than you can handle. You may not realize it, but you’re carrying a lot of responsibility right now, and your quality of life depends on your ability to handle it deftly. Much of it is invisible, or out of sight. However, an urgent matter may slip into your awareness at any time. Therefore, be careful what you take on. Make a point of leaving extra bandwidth (time, money, energy, physical space, mental space) so that you have room to process any unexpected developments. You may be inclined to try to take on every challenge or goal at once, and this is both unwise and unnecessary. Or said another way, it’s not a path to fulfillment and improving your life. A better approach would be to choose two tasks or projects that are complementary to one another and dedicate yourself to those. That will be plenty, and place the emphasis on quality rather than on appearance or quantity. Small conflicts could lead to larger ones, and that means be careful with your words.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — You may have to do some detective work this month to find out what partners are thinking, and where they are coming from emotionally. Part of that can involve asking them about their inner situation, though I suspect you will only get a partially-formed response. So you might want to inquire at a series of intervals, and contrast the responses without calling out any inconsistency you hear. If you try to play ‘gotcha’, you may win mentally, but ultimately, you will lose emotionally. And relationships are emotional creatures more than anything else. Most importantly, you must be observant, and listen between the lines. There is another matter to consider, which is the nature of how you perceive your original commitment to someone, and theirs to you. It’s likely that you have different concepts of what this commitment is, and what it means. That is the most significant matter in any relationship, whether the partnering is for personal or business purposes. What is the nature of the agreement? It’s likely that someone in your life has evolved their views, or is considering a different approach. They may feel like they’re in a narrow or restricted arrangement — and you may as well. I wish these things were easier to discuss. They would be, if people were more assured that their food supply, home or companionship were not threatened by the fickle whims of the ego. Therefore, in ways real and symbolic, be reassuring of your presence, and open-minded about the needs and desires of the other.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — YPeople are unlikely to live up to your expectations this month, so it will be better not to have any. And invitations or seeming openings into intimate relating would best be taken with healthy skepticism and a wait-and-see approach. The fact that someone may seem to have a high standard is not a promise or an offer. It’s not necessarily a sign of integrity. Therefore, stay in good standing with yourself, and recognize your own needs, intentions and desires. By now you’ve figured out that most of them can be fulfilled without the attention or resources of others. And at the same time, you have a lot to offer. However, your own emotional situation is already somewhat complicated, and there are many factors suggesting that you’ve reached a new depth of commitment to your healing process. If this involves taking a step back from the world, then use the opportunity for some well-needed solitude. You do not need many people in your life. You do not need to be socially influential. You do not need to be popular. You will benefit from the correct people, with whom you share a mutual understanding and some basic values. To find them, it will help greatly if you’re observant. Listen carefully and thoughtfully to what people say to you — and imagine every word they utter is a statement about themselves. There will be a few times when it’s difficult not to take things personally. Maintaining your objectivity will present you with significant opportunities for growth, if you stick with them — by which I mean, stick with yourself.