Midlife Transits

Getting your act together. I nominate that as the official motto of your birthday month this year. There’s an eclipse in your sign on the 1st, the last one in a series. It represents your chart’s last big push to help you get your act together (if you haven’t already) for about the next 10 years.

When I say ‘act’ I mean the way you present yourself. An eclipse series in your own sign is partly about the facade you adopt when you’re out and about in the world, performing actions where other people can see you. Everybody needs a decent protective facade, a set of habits of behavior that will get them through the day until they can get home and lie around in their underwear or whatever it is they like to do.  The universe has been trying to help you buff up yours so that you will easily appear reliably competent, accomplished, or whatever you like. If you’re not quite happy with your own act, do something in July to tweak it toward being closer to your ideal.

Of course, in addition to getting your act together, you’ll probably be getting other things this month, too,  such as birthday presents.  Leo energy from Mercury would like to get its hands on some luxury possessions, so if your gifters have the resources you might drop a few luxury-oriented hints. If you want a birthday gathering (why not?), Venus in your sign will smile on your get-together from the 4th through the 27th.

For those of you who are technically inclined, it might be good to know that math-loving Mars is in math-loving Gemini all month. Strangely or not, given the Cancer sun sign reputation, a flair for geometry and such is one of Cancer’s hidden talents. (Your sign is good with that spatial thing.) If you care to make use of the energy, it’s there bubbling in the background of your chart.

As for your year ahead, the two big things are Uranus in Aries and Neptune in Pisces, both relatively new energies for you to get used to. Uranus in Aries affects your solar career house and it wants movement in your career. Fast movement. It’s particularly strong in July, because it stations this month before going retrograde.

When Uranus wants movement by the way, it wants movement away from things, rather than toward them. It’s a planet that dislikes intimacy and it will encourage you not to get too close to bosses or people at your company, partly because it may want to jump ship at some point for a more exciting venture. Just so you know.

Neptune in Pisces wants movement too, but more along the lines of long-distance travel, which it is eyeing longingly. If it can get you on a plane or a boat, it will do so. Pluto in Capricorn will be stirring up relationship issues for some of you and Saturn will be stirring up home issues for some others. Those not directly affected by exact transits to their natal planets are probably used to the influences of these planets by now, though.  Jupiter in Taurus just wants to have a good time. But hey, who doesn’t?

Happy birthday!

Uranus in your own sign barrels to a stop in July, then turns retrograde, perhaps frightening the faint of heart with the intensity of its energy. Look for some sort of a shift around the middle of the month. Uranus provides a community-oriented energy and it’s working in concert with your ruler Mars this month. Mars is in Gemini, another people-oriented sign in a people-oriented spot in your chart.

Pluto in your solar 10th house is not on board, feeling a bit surly about Uranus’s enthusiasm for clumps of people. I don’t know how that will play out in your life, but a sample manifestation would be being very busy throughout July, with lots of stimulating people contact that periodically makes you wish everyone would just leave you alone so you could get some of your real work done. Or perhaps your extracurricular activities, group activities, will conflict with your work responsibilities. Another possibility is that Uranus will exercise his rebellious side, urging you to not do anything that Pluto thinks you ought to do.

Meanwhile, there’s a solar eclipse on July 1 that affects your house. Or houses if you have more than one. Some of you will actually move, which will make the month even more hectic. Some will have work to do on their residences or perhaps family issues to attend to.

If the domestic issues involve other people, then Venus in Cancer for most of the month should help soften the energy. Some will even see an addition to their familities at this eclipse. The importance of this eclipse will depend on whether or not you have already made a significant change in your living situation in the past two years. If you haven’t, this eclipse is likely to be important. If you have already, you may feel no effect.

I should also mention Jupiter in Taurus in your second house of income. Jupiter is the publishing planet, and those of you with a way with words could pick up some extra money doing some work in this field. Work your connections in this area, if you have any.

Mars in Gemini will help in this endeavor too during July, as it is in your words and phrases oriented 3rd house of communication. You could start writing a book, or perhaps contribute a chapter to a book that is written by a group of people.  In fact, it is possible that Mars in Gemini will make you feel as though you absolutely must express yourself this month. The stars are good for educational writing too and for those who work in institutions of higher learning. If you are not comfortable working with words, look at other options for increasing your income during Jupiter’s transit over the coming year.

July also sees a lot of luxury-loving Leo energy lighting up your solar 5th house of pleasure. As Venus moves into this sign at the very end of the month (the 28th), it will try to pull you toward indulgence in luxury objects. Splurge if you can afford it.

Uranus in Aries skids to a stop in July. Uranus’s job in your chart is chew over some anger that your chart is generally trying hide from others or at least not foist upon them. Or it may be chewing over a craving for excitement that your chart is similarly trying to keep from being obvious to everyone else. When Uranus stations and retrogrades as it does this month, there is the possibility that some of the anger or craving will go accidentally flying through the windshield as Uranus hits the brakes.

No need to be unduly alarmed. Reassure yourself and others that these sensations are just feelings that Uranus is chewing over, not indications of frightening resentment or self-destructive impulses for danger. Uranus is just exploring unfamiliar parts of your psyche, not giving you a command to be reckless. It’s all cool; no need to jump off any boats.

It’s not a bad idea to keep a journal or a dream log during this period; it could help Uranus connect the dots so that you get the self-understanding that Uranus is ultimately going for. Uranus doesn’t like ‘musts,’ ‘shoulds,’ or anything else that unduly restricts your freedom. He can be like the two-year-old of planets, instinctively saying ‘No!’ whenever told to do something. So you might explore whether or not anything in your life is subconsciously chafing right now, even though awhile ago it was just fine.

Uranus is also the opposite of possessive–so sometimes it requires a bit of work to realize that he might want you to set someone else in your circle free. Self-help books can be a good investment when you have a long 12th house transit, as Taurus does for right now.

On a lighter note, Mars is in Gemini and your solar 2nd house of spending money. Gemini is a natural flirt, so you may find this a month when you are laying down the bucks to strike sparks with a special someone. Happy Jupiter is also in your sign and would probably approve of any fun expenditures you have in mind. Jupiter and Mars can also be creative forces, encouraging craft-y endeavors and creative projects. If neither of those fits, treat yourself to whatever pleases you. If you really can’t afford a splurge, at least go window shopping.

You can also use the energy to set financial goals for the next couple of years; that’s about how long it takes for a Mars cycle to play out. Mars is a confidence builder; you can use him to pump up your financial attitude.

There’s also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the 1st. This is the last of a series in your solar 3rd house and it fits right in with Mars and Jupiter. If this eclipse affects you, it is likely to require you to make some sort of a mental effort (or maybe a physical effort) to master some concept, skill, or information you’ll need in your life going forward. Both Mars and Jupiter this month love that sort of thing; they love to learn stuff, whether it be how to make something, fix something, or understand something. Because Cancer is a family-oriented sign, you may start a new endeavor with a family member at this time.

Toward the end of the month, the emphasis on family picks up in a new way. The sun, Mercury, Venus, and a new moon on the 30th will be in the sign of Leo. Leo represents your domestic life in your solar chart. When the sun and new moon are in Leo, they mark the annual dog days of summer when family desires may conflict with your own. Keep the lines of communication with family members open and strong this month; talk things out. Venus should soothe any conflicts that arise when she enters Leo on the 28th.

Not much emphasis on partners or your love life right now, but Mercury does move into your solar 5th house of love and fun on the 28th, so things may seem a bit more romantic then. Finally, Saturn starts moving forward at a reasonable speed in your solar 6th house of work and health, so things may start picking up on those fronts.

Uranus in Aries comes to a stop in your solar 11th house this month, then turns retrograde. That makes it especially powerful this month. We’ve talked about Uranus in Aries representing friends and groups, but the 11th house is also the house of systems. It’s a good month for you to objectively evaluate yours to determine if they are working as well as you’d like. A useful system makes Uranus happy and a happy Uranus is a good thing.

Mars is also in your sign all month long. Mars likes goals. It likes to know how you are going to accomplish them from beginning to end. If you can come up with a suitable goal, Mars would be happy to team with Uranus to help you devise and implement a system for achieving it.

Mars only visits a sign once every two years, so if you can get started now, you have a good shot at achieving a medium-range objective, something concrete that you know how to do. Since the rest of your chart seems fixated on possessions, you might want to make a goal regarding something you want to buy or own. For a variety of reasons, including the sun in Cancer, your chart is just heavily into material objects right now.

Part of this has to do with Jupiter in Taurus for the next 12 months approximately. Taurus is the sign of possessions and material objects, so it is theoretically making everyone the world over a bit more stuff-obsessed than normal. Theoretically, this would bode well for the economy as it would signal the unleashing of pent-up consumer demand that would raise confidence and produce jobs. Jupiter’s been disappointing in that regard during the first month of his stay in Taurus, but there’s still time for him to get things going.

Jupiter is also the long-distance travel planet. In Taurus, he barrels through your solar 12th house. This can have the effect of making a vacation or trip seem like it’s a long way away and will never come. You can plan and dream, but it might be better to wait before you hop on a plane. That’s because the 12th house is the sector of dreaming before doing.

There’s also a solar eclipse in your 2nd house of things this month, on the 1st. And yes, it also is about possessions and material objects. This is the last in a series of eclipses that has taken aim at your finances. It could have you finally getting around to making that big purchase you’ve been thinking of but haven’t been ready to commit to before.

Theoretically, this purchase would be an investment in the future, something substantial that could last for a decade or so. An eclipse indicates that the time to act is now. Trust your instincts. Embrace the world of things for the moment, as well as the world of ideas.

Venus slides from your sign to Cancer right after this eclipse, so it appears that your new possession would be something you could not only use but that you would enjoy. It could also be something that promotes togetherness or that in some way relates to gatherings with others or to being able to entertain company in your home. It could even be something that primarily benefits someone else. The bottom line is that this is a month with a lot of emphasis on getting, having, buying, and material objects.  Your chart wants to see packages and shopping bags.

Uranus in Aries stations this month and then turns retrograde. What does this mean to you? Well, Uranus is in a part of your chart that represents forthright expression and blunt honesty, among other things. Uranus will pause in this part of your chart, furrowing his brow and concentrating his energies on just what the heck forthright expression might mean in your life and perhaps channeling his energy into blunt honesty that may well surprise you when it comes out of your mouth or flows from your keyboard.

Being surprised by your own expressive candor can be a good thing; at least it’s meant to be in your chart. Try not to fight the process; see what you have to say. Keep in mind that this is the part of your chart that also represents principles. The idea is to be honorable and true to your principles while disclosing what needs to be revealed. Furthermore, Uranus is the planet of originality; by allowing yourself expression you may come up with an original idea or insight that you will be able to use in the future.

This is also the time of year when inner planets start congregating in your sign to support you. Mercury leads the way on the 2nd, bringing yet more conscious awareness and expressive energy to the month. The sun and Venus straggle behind, entering on the 23rd and 28th respectively.

Your annual new moon also takes place on the 30th. This new moon belongs to you; use it to make a wish for whatever you want. The other inner planets add emphasis and perhaps a touch of drama to your month.

This is also a potentially quite social month for a number of reasons, including Mars in Gemini in your solar house of friendship. Mars is a lot like Uranus this month; it wants you to get straight to the point when you deal with people. But that’s not all. Jupiter is now in Taurus in your solar career house. Jupiter is forthright and honest too and he’ll be encouraging expression in the professional arena.

But wait, there’s still more. There’s also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the first. This eclipse, last in a series of eclipses in Cancer, takes place in the part of your solar chart wherein things are usually obscure, hidden, confusing, hard to understand. The eclipse throws a blazing spotlight on this area of your chart and makes something plain to see.

I am not going to promise that you will like what the eclipse illuminates; you may not like it at all. Or it may turn out to be something ultimately insignificant that you can move past. Most commonly you will find out that someone has been lying to you, but there are other possibilities as well. You may gain a spiritual insight or even start down a new spiritual path.

Mars spends the month in Gemini at the top of your chart, in the career house. Uranus in Aries is in your 8th house, which can sometimes indicate supporters behind the scenes. The upshot is that you may be able to use covert support from higher ups this month to advance a career agenda. Covert is important here, as opposed to loud, enthusiastic, aggressive support–as the 8th house is the site of covert action. Your supporters can be aggressive and enthusiastic, so long as they are discreet about it.

This configuration could also mean that you are the one connecting others with each other, or coordinating a project. Virgos who work with words (lots do) should be especially busy this month. There’s a delicate balance of willpower and push  combined with working with others to be observed here. The formula is caution plus boldness. This transit ends in early August, and Mars will not be back to your career house for approximately another two years.

Meanwhile the long-distance travel planet Jupiter is in the long-distance travel part of your solar chart. Double symbol for putting some distance between you and home base. This influence actually began in June and continues for a year, so you might not be hopping on a plane this month. But…it is summer vacation time and there’s no harm in mentioning that you’ve got the planets for a good one.

There’s also a solar eclipse in the sign of Cancer this month, on the 1st. It’s the last eclipse in a series of ones in this sign and in Capricorn. Some of the eclipses in this series have been quite rough but this one should hopefully be friendly. Literally. It may bring a new friend into your life, one that may be a part of your life for quite awhile.

I should also mention in Saturn in Libra, still chugging along in your 2nd house of money and material objects. Saturn in the 2nd house normally tries to convince a person that he or she does not have enough money and that he or she should take corrective steps to build a better financial future. Saturn also encourages investment in things that are well-made, beautiful and going to be useful for a long  time. Keep this in mind when perusing summer vacation souvenirs. Especially if you go at the end of the month (28th on) because Venus in Leo will be whispering in your ear that you need to treat yourself to luxury items.

Perhaps fortunately, Mercury will move into your own sign on the same date, encouraging rationality. If you are having trouble with joint finances (astrologically, you might be), take steps to be more independent and prudent in your decisions. Bottom line: if you’re going to spend a lot of money on something, make sure it will be truly worth your money. On the love and partnership front, Pluto in your 5th house of romance and Neptune in your house of committed relationships are both peacefully retrograding reducing the chances of action in this area.

The learning is scheduled to continue in the area of relationships for Libra in July. Uranus in Aries, in your relationship house, stations and turns retrograde this month on the 9th. A fair amount of the time when an outer planet turns retrograde something shifts. The shift will particularly affect Libras with the sun at 4 degrees (born around the 27th of September).

This transit is meant to be useful. It’s supposed to teach you something about connection, about equality, about not being able to control everything and not needing to. The bit about not needing to can be a rough lesson sometimes or a mind-blowing one. It rarely occurs to the sign of Libra that relationships do not depend on their ability to control them.

It doesn’t seem plausible to the sign that the beloved others would be able to survive the ups and downs of life without Libra’s gentle, manipulative, behind the scenes plotting, planning, and soothing. The sign of Libra is typically especially apprehensive about the effect of words on people it cares about, thus the famous Libra tact. And yet, sometimes people just say things, without regard for the consequences. Not necessarily out of malice, but because being tactful is hard work and not everyone has the patience for it.

The betting odds are that you will have to deal with this fact of life somehow or another in July. You maybe dealing with radioactive fallout from someone’s shocking announcement, but you may also be learning that the dangers posed by shocking announcements are not as life-threatening as you supposed. I realize this may be scary. Saturn is in your sign and it is his job to make you scared.

Or at least to try to. But the one thing you do have control over is how scared you allow Saturn to make you feel. Or how scared you make yourself feel by dwelling on your fears. So your task in July is really to figure out how scared or brave you want to be and stick to your decision by not letting the fear get out of control. Some of the drastic effects you imagine Uranus bringing may well be imaginary.

With Mars in Gemini in the part of your solar chart that deals with looking at the future, one potential antidote to fear or anxiety might be might be making definite action plans with whoever you are in a ‘we’ situation with. Libra likes contingency thinking, so things like “we’ll do this if that happens, and we’ll do that if this other thing happens” and so on could represent good strategies. This sector of your chart also represents study, so alternatively, it may be a good month for you to really sit down and systematically study something in a field that is relevant to your life.

There’s also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the 1st, that might affect your career path. It is supposed to represent a new start, a fresh chapter in your professional life. If it affects you, you should feel it soon before or after the eclipse date or approximately a month later. Some may have experienced its effects a month earlier.

Toward the end of the month, things get a bit brighter as both the sun and Venus are in Leo (Mercury is there earlier). You can use the energy of your ruler Venus in Leo as of the 28th to enjoy yourself with friends and de-stress.

Yes, I’m going to be talking about love again. Or maybe love and war because there’s a thin line between them, as any self-respecting Scorpio knows. First, let’s get a little business out of the way. Uranus in Aries stations this month, then goes retrograde on the 9th.

Uranus is currently in your solar sector of job and health. This may be where the war comes in, as planets are typically more intense when they station and switch direction. So, perhaps a little warfare on the job, or perhaps a little battle with a health condition. Or maybe not, depending on how drastically Uranus is affecting you these days. It’s a possibility. Another possibility, and not a bad one, is that you will simply become more vigorous or more outdoorsy in your exercise routine.

Back to love. Mars, a romantic player if there ever was one, is going to spend the whole month hanging out in your 8th house of sex, which is obviously an important dimension of love.

Mars loves a little drama, and Gemini doesn’t care if it has to make up the storyline to get something going. Mars also likes the chase, the pursuit. A little sexual drama, a bit of play-acting, some experimenting with roles and so on, could be just what you need to spice up the sex life this summer. Give it some thought. Mars may not be the tenderest of lovers, but he can certainly help bring the passion back.

Meanwhile, Jupiter is in your 7th house of committed relationships–for a year. If you need to get into a relationship first before you can think about spicing up your sex life, Jupiter is here to help. You’ve got to use the energy by actively seeking out relationships to get Jupiter to do much for you, but if you’re willing to do your part Jupiter can make the search easier than normal. I should point out that Jupiter and Gemini are both verbal influences, the kind that can help you craft that online dating profile.

I must also point out that Neptune is currently in your solar 5th house of dating and love affairs. That’s an exceptional degree of focus on love in your chart. I’m not guaranteeing anything you understand; I’m just pointing out the facts.

There’s also a potentially important solar eclipse in Cancer on the 1st. This is the last eclipse in the series affecting this sign. It relates to things like long-distance travel, education, and beliefs. If this eclipse is important in your life (won’t be in everyone’s), it would mark a significant new beginning in one of these areas.

Some of you may have already felt the effects of this eclipse a month ago and some will feel it a month from now. For some people, this could be a relocation eclipse, or signal a move to another country. For others, it will represent a return to one’s homeland for a short or long period of time.

But that’s not all. We are in the beginning of Leo season, which means career season for Scorpio. Mercury will be in Leo for much of the month. The sun will move into Leo on the 23rd, and Venus will on the 28th.

Leo is the sign of the actor (or one of the signs that fits the actor archetype), and that’s the archetype for the Scorpio approach to career. Scorpio is supposed to understand that a career simply represents a role that you play, not an element of life that you should mix up with your true self. Which is a good insight that some of the rest of us could stand to figure out. At any rate, it’s time for you to get out there on stage and play your part this month.

First, Uranus in Aries is having so much fun in your chart that he’s going to stop his forward motion this month and go backward so that he can enjoy the early degrees of Aries again. If you get a chance, it would be great if you could use this energy to bump up your own pleasure profile during this long hot summer month.

Mars in Gemini meanwhile just wants to be the boss of your life. He’s parked over at the other end of the zodiac all month, in the spot where other people make the rules. Not necessarily in a formal way; it’s more that the other people in your life are more likely to feel pushy, dominant, or controlling. The exact manifestation will depend on your own particular circumstances of course.

Your ruler Jupiter, the travel planet, the vacation planet, is spending the next 11 months or so in the sector of your chart that deals with work and health. One of the straightforward interpretations of this is that you may be traveling for work or health reasons this year rather than strictly for pleasure. The other implication of your ruler being in the sector of your chart that deals with job and health is that these things are intended to be more important in your life than normal.

If you do want to get away during the summer, perhaps you can see if the company will spring for an ‘educational’ trip to a company-sponsored seminar. Might be worth a try. If that doesn’t work, you could use the Leo travel energy of this month to communicate with people at a distance rather than laying down your own moola to trek out to see them.

Why not spend the money yourself instead of trying to wangle your employer into doing it? Well, Pluto is retrograding relatively peaceably through your 2nd house of finances, but that doesn’t mean he has forgotten you. He still wants to you to pinch the pennies and restructure your financial life.  He also doesn’t want you spending any money on useless junk.

Pluto wants you to develop a keener eye for what’s a useful expenditure and what isn’t, and he isn’t really taking time off for the summer. Nor will he take time off until you’ve thoroughly gotten the hang of his system. Even in retrograde, Pluto can have a lot of strength, and he wants you to have financial strength and willpower too.

There’s also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the 1st. It’s the last eclipse in Cancer for quite awhile. This one’s a bit tougher to call. You may want to read the scope for your rising sign for additional clues on the possible effects of this eclipse. The thing about eclipses is that they do not always have an effect. If this one does have an effect, it could represent a new beginning in your sex life or in your joint finances.

Uranus skids to a stop in Aries this month, at the bottom of your solar chart. Then he goes retrograde. The effect of this will partly depend on your rising sign and partly depend on whether you have Capricorn planets at 4 degrees (Capricorns with birthdays around the 26th of December have their suns at that degree). The most likely effect is that the bottom line on some issue will become abundantly clear.

If the bottom line doesn’t reveal itself  automatically, you can use the energy, especially around the 9th, to force the issue and get some clarity. It’s also possible that someone will give you some surprising news in the four or five days before and after this date. Whatever the issue in your life might be, it should get first dibs on your attention, and the lines of communication need to stay open.

Other December born Capricorns will be dealing with Pluto more directly, and some of you will be dealing with both Pluto and Uranus simultaneously. Pluto can bring a person pretty low, and it is one deep planet. There’s nothing to do but go deep with it. Even if you were not born in December, having Pluto in your sign can be pretty deep, and it’s good to remember that it’s okay that you are gaining depth. With these outer planet transits a lot depends on the specifics of your chart and your situation.

The Plutonian depths may make the relatively superficial energy of Mars in Gemini in your 6th house of work and health a relative relief. This is not a long transit like those outer planet ones. It lasts all throughout July, though and could bring some energetic variety to your workload. Or it could have you trying out new exercises or sports to keep yourself both entertained and in shape.

Even better, Jupiter has moved into your solar 5th house of fun and love. Jupiter’s a traveling planet, but you might be better off to put the summer vacation on hold til next month and enjoy a little romance right where you are. Because…speaking of romance, there is one last solar eclipse in Cancer taking place this month, on the 1st. This kind of an eclipse almost always refers to another person coming into your life.

Typically this means a new love interest (unless you have recently embarked on a new relationship or are previously committed). Sometimes it means a new best friend or a new business partner, someone that you like, that you would be happy to choose to be with. At any rate, it represents a bit of potential good news, an advancement in the trajectory of your life. Venus will also be in Cancer for much of the month, adding to the pleasure associated with other people.

If things go well in the first part of the month, you may be in a prime position to take advantage of the nice Leo energy in your house of sexuality as the month develops.

First priority of the month is your deep self. Get yourself a journal and start writing in it. First thing in the morning if possible. Jupiter is at the bottom of your chart and his presence here offers you a once in a dozen years opportunity to understand your values more expansively.

Explore your personal or family history. Decide where you want to go, what point you want to reach in the next 6 years and how you might get there. Your journalistic musings need not be formal. Casual remarks work just as well and maybe better.

Uranus in Aries, Neptune in Pisces, and Pluto in Capricorn will all help with this endeavor too. Speaking of Neptune, it is currently transiting your solar sector of material objects and perhaps encouraging you to want a lot more of them. Time to find your way through the thicket of desires by asking yourself the right questions. Part of it is asking yourself what you ought best to be doing for a living.

Neptune is the planet of wholeness, and in this sector, he wants to guide you toward a source of income that reflects your whole self. At the end of the month (the 29th), Mercury will move into practical Virgo, the sign that wars with impractical Pisces. It’s at this point that you’ll be able to get a glimpse of any ambivalence you have about the way you make money.

On a related note, Aquarians have planets in both sectors of the solar chart that relate to writing. You have a mix of factors that relate both to short pieces (Uranus in Aries) and longer works, such as books (Saturn in Libra). One tactic to deal with both influences might be to work collaboratively with a group by assigning each member a chapter. Or by working in short chapter-length bursts toward a longer project.

Meanwhile, sexy animal Mars is spending all month in your solar sector of love. Get out your friendly Aquarian microscope and study the desires of your significant other so you can learn what he or she wants and needs in matters of intimacy. How much space does he or she need compared to you, for example. The payoff is more and better sex and love, especially as Venus moves into your 7th house of relationships at the end of the month (on the 28th). You can get closer to your lover this month if you just pay attention.

On that note, be present when you are with him or her; think about we instead of I.  An excellent day for amorous communication is the 4th of July. Not such an excellent day, the 7th of July. Thus, a short trip over the holiday weekend might be a real tonic for your relationship if you don’t extend into the week after. By the way, if you have children, pay attention to them too!

There is also a solar eclipse in Cancer this month, on the 1st, which can also impact your relationships. It’s the last one in a series that has been trying to affect your work or health. This eclipse may change your personal relations with co-workers, presumably in a positive way.

Aquarius often gets close with co-workers, feeling them to be like family. With Venus moving into Cancer soon after the eclipse, you may feel a new level of comfort with those you work with. Other possibilities for this eclipse include starting a new health regime or getting a new pet!

Piscean finances are subject to erratic bouts of contraction and expansion these days due to the influence of Uranus in Aries in the 2nd house. This month Uranus stations and then goes retrograde, which theoretically indicates that the contraction half of the equation is about to kick in. Prepare accordingly. That’s doubly true if you are contemplating spending money on your house these days, which you might be, thanks to spendthrift Mars in your solar sector of home improvement.

That’s triply true if Neptune in your own sign has abandoned all interest in checking in with the actual reality of your life these days. Not as true if Jupiter in your solar 3rd house has you bringing in some extra money through writing or communication endeavors. If Jupiter in Taurus does not have you bringing in extra money this way, see if it might be possible to do so. Position yourself for further financial growth by exploiting your information and communication capabilities and potentials.

You can also seek a bit more money from your regular job when Venus enters Leo on the 28th. But do the work first, then ask for the money! If I sound like I’m ringing the warning bell when it comes to your finances, I am. Uranus in Aries can behave as if he is declaring actual war on your financial stability, and if he does declare war, he will win it.

The ultimate result of Uranus in Aries for 7 years is a far different financial path than any you’ve been on before, which can be liberating in its own way. But it’s a twisty journey from here to there. Part of the idea, if your financial decisions are entangled with others, is for you to learn more financial independence. Mars in the 4th house is a notorious money suck, pulling your cash down the drain of repairing or maintaining your home.

Ask questions and get specific information before spending large sums of money on anything. Do the math before you commit the cash! Fortunately, Mars will only be in your 4th house until the very beginning of next month and how expensive home maintenance is depends partly on where you live. Fortunately as well, you can use the Neptune energy to escape from any stress–at least for the moment.

Some of you may also be tempted to move to a bigger, nice place this month due to a solar eclipse in Cancer on the 1st. This eclipse falls in your solar house of love and children, but it can affect residential matters too. As in moving in with someone! This of course will make you want to make your new home all nice. Maybe you can do some things to spruce up the place without costing much money if you invest in some do-it-yourself projects.

Occasionally, this energy in Cancer will break up an existing relationship so that you can enter into a new one, but most frequently if you are in a relationship it will just make it stronger. Take a look at your relationship with your significant other or your children over the past two years and see how far you’ve come. Chances are, it’s quite a ways.

There may be adjustments to be made, though. Sometimes this eclipse also signals a new beginning for your children, such as them going off to school or spending the summer elsewhere. Mars in Gemini can also affect your relationships with family members you are close to, sometimes indicating a temporary separation or division.

As a professional astrologer, I encounter a fair number of people who are trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up. This is one of those common life dilemmas, and it doesn’t matter if you’re 56, or 63 and retired, or much, much younger. I thought I’d share a few observations on astrology and career choice based on my observation. So here are 5 Things To Know About Choosing the ‘Right’ Career.

1. Your intuition is probably right. I’m frequently amazed at the ingenious ways that people manage to choose occupations that are ‘astrologically correct.’ People find jobs doing all kinds of things I’ve never heard of, it turns out. And there are many ways to use your chart’s energy. If you have a strong intuition about the kind of career you’d like, listen to it. The chances are that you have an inner sense of what will make your chart (and you) happiest.

2. Your intuition is probably right. Yes, I’m saying it again. Often people want a consultation when they are doing work they know is not right. But they have a desire, an aspiration to do something else. They’re just pretty terrified that they’ll never get the chance to do it, that it’s a pipe dream, that they will suffer terrible humiliation if they ever reveal their secret ambitions. This happens all the time. Almost every time, the chart indicates that the secret and embarrassing aspiration is perfectly appropriate astrologically. Yes, the person has the right motivations and talents to be a nurse. Yes, the person has the intellectual ability to get a teaching degree. Yes, the person has the right kind of caring and patience to be a youth counselor. At least, the astrological chart indicates the person does. Just as I am amazed at how resourceful people are in finding the ‘right’ kind of work, I am equally amazed at the normal human terror so many of us have of sharing our gifts. Sometimes I think there must be a vast nationwide conspiracy convincing people that they are not going to be allowed to do what they like and are good at.

3. Timing’s important. The aspiration may be exquisitely valid, astrologically speaking, but the timing may be terrible–again, astrologically speaking. Sometimes a woman with two kids, no husband, inadequate health insurance, and a whole lot of bills is not realistically going to be able to pursue that degree in education right now. It doesn’t mean that she won’t be able to later. But there are steps that will need to be taken first. When I do consultations, my first priority is to try to hear the person’s own intuitive sense of how their chart works for them. My second priority is to validate people when they need validation and encouragement to be themselves. But my third priority is to give people a realistic sense of timing. If a person wanted to be a doctor, it would not serve her to expect to make the decision and then start practicing medicine the next day. It takes a long time to acquire the necessary education and credentials. Charts are often constructed with their own ‘long-term’ processes. Sometimes it takes a lot of life experience and maturing to be an effective entrepreneur or youth counselor or even artist. When a chart says ‘not right now,’ to a dream, it does not mean ‘never, you arrogant fool.’ It means ‘not right now.’ Part of my job is giving a person a sense of when ‘yes, right now’ can be expected to occur, when opportunities will open up.

4. Confusion works. Many, many people start down a career path and end up dissatisfied at some point. And with the dissatisfaction comes confusion. Confusion is a good thing. It is not a pleasant thing; I personally hate it. I would abolish it from the astrological lexicon if I could, but I can’t and thank goodness. Confusion is incredibly effective, and often a signal that a major career upgrade/breakthrough is in the offing. Confusion and stuckness are two of mankind’s greatest friends, which kinda makes you wonder why we need enemies. If you come to me for a career consultation, you will probably want me to make the confusion vanish instantly. And I won’t. But I can tell you how long the confusion needs to last, how to make the confusion productive, and I can help you understand why the confusion is so valuable. Basically, it means your chart is working on something big, and you’ll gain from cooperating. You just need to know how.

5. Honesty works, too. Honesty is often painful for us humans, and strangely it is often acutely painful when it comes to what we want out of work. I don’t know how or why so many of us seem to end up in environments that tell us that we ought to value things that we don’t, but somehow we do. A woman with a chart that wants to make money and be a powerful business owner somehow is raised in an environment that wants her to be an altruistic homemaker. She wants to rule the world of plumbing supplies and yet she’s told that only greedy people make money and she should teach inner city schoolchildren. A man who doesn’t care if he ever makes enough money to support a family, who would be happy traveling the world as a folk singer, is told he needs to be the accountant in a family business. A natural freelancer is encouraged to get a steady job. A woman who wants nothing more than to be an administrative assistant with a satisfying family life is told she needs to get a law degree and make partner. I see this all the time. The first step to finding one’s ‘right livelihood’ is often admitting that you don’t want to save the world, make a mint, be poor, dress for success, get a job with good benefits, plan for the future, or whatever other truly admirable thing your parents have told you that you must want but you just don’t.

Given our conditioning, it’s not surprising that it’s often hard to figure out how to make our talents work with the world around us. Coming to terms with our true vocational natures is not always easy. But boy does it feel good when you get up the courage to do it.

Part 2

5 More Things to Know About Choosing the ‘Right’ Career.

6. It’s Not the Right Career, It’s the Career for Right Now. As a kid, I internalized the idea that when you grew up you became something (like a baseball team manager or a writer) and then you stayed that thing forever. As boomers have experienced, this is no longer the cultural ideal for a lot of reasons. And it never really was the ‘natural’ human pattern. Baseball managers start as baseball players. Movie stars become directors. Businesspeople become politicians. Teachers open dry cleaning businesses. Nightclub owners become journalists. People’s lives and careers change over time. They’re meant to. I’ve read non-astrological sources more than once that talk about apparent ‘internal clocks’ that prompt people to change careers or jobs every so often. I see a handy guidebook to those internal clocks in a person’s chart. They’re important.

7. Know Your Own Job Expiration Date. This goes along with the idea of the internal clocks above. People will often sense in a visceral emotional way (often accompanied by great discontent) when their ability to do a certain job happily has expired. This is not a rational event (although it can be predicted astrologically); it just happens. When it does happen, you need to take action if you want to move to the next level. When I see people who have ended up spending a lot of time in jobs or careers they didn’t like, it often seems to be because they didn’t move when the ticking time bomb inside them said “MOVE!” The internal clock will only tick loudly for a certain period of time (often the length of an outer planet transit). If you don’t act when the time for action is ripe, eventually you and your chart will reconcile to your situation. This is absolutely fine if what you have decided that you want is security or steady employment in the same place for a long time. You can have that if you’re willing to endure these ‘move’ periods.

However, these days I do caution people that staying too long can actually be a career detriment in today’s market and lead to loss of opportunities for promotion and income growth. A person who sits out their discontent for too long can become seen as being difficult to retrain for a promotion, as unambitious, or as inflexible. This comment isn’t based on astrology by the way–just observation of the job market! At the least looking for ways to be promoted when your job clock expires is more prudent than doing nothing.

8. Frustration and Resistance Lead to Best Results. This rule isn’t ironclad but it seems to come into play about 80% of the time and it can be very comforting to know about when you’re trying to change jobs or careers. Briefly, it works like this. The best time to make a change is often during a difficult transit. These transits provide the desire for change, but they also provide obstacles to making the change quickly and easily. You have to work for it. Even a change initiated during an ‘easy’ transit often requires jumping through intimidating hoops. These hoops are a good sign! For example, you are given an opportunity, out of the blue, to design a website for a respected local firm. Since you want to be a website designer, this is great! The catch is that you have to spend money you barely have on a software package you’re not familiar with and produce mockups in 48 hours utilizing formats and conventions you’ve never used before. Panic time!

Panic time is good. Panic lets you know whether this is what you want or not. If you panic and produce the mock-ups, you’re on your way. Same thing applies for not getting the first 6 jobs you apply for, including the dream job you saw advertised. Rejection is painful but not a bad omen. On the other hand, occasionally it will seem like everything is just falling into place and you just scored a job that’s too good to be true, almost without effort. And then the company goes out of business  in six months and you’re stuck without insurance, your last paycheck, or even unemployment benefits. Beware that which is too easy and do not fear that which seems to be too hard.

9. It’s Not in A Government Handbook. Conventional career counseling often attempts to match your skills and interests according to some test (or set of tests) to identifiable currently existing occupations, often those listed in government publications like the Occupational Outlook Handbook. To some degree, any type of career discussion has to take into account common careers that people are familiar with. But… in real life, when I see people who feel satisfied with their career paths, what they do isn’t exactly something listened in the OOH. They’re a chiropractor, yes, but a chiropractor in a group practice that specializes in health promotion publications, and they think of themselves as part of a team of ‘alternative health educators.’ You can’t find that niche in a government handbook, and being any old chiropractor doesn’t fit the needs of the chart.

The things that people actually do for a living never stop amazing me–so many of them I’ve never heard of, and I can’t imagine that a career interests to job matching service would be able to do as well as these people have done by allowing themselves to make the right choices as opportunities presented themselves. I’m not sure you can plan to be an international insurance product inventor (the perfect niche for one chart), but you can help yourself stumble into the right spot.

For one thing, lots of people today are working in jobs that didn’t exist 20 years ago, and by the same token, jobs that are lucrative today may be dead occupations in 15 or 30 years. I mean, no one worked for Google or MySpace or YouTube in 1992. And it’s possible that no one will work  for some of these companies in 2024. So having a vision of what you want would feel like (something you can often generate by working with your astrological potentials) can be a better guide for successful decisions than you might think.

10. It’s Not Just What You’re Interested In. There are a lot of ways to identify the things you are interested in or have talents for. I wouldn’t discount any of them, including ways to assess your own skills. As far as I’m concerned, you might as well avail yourself of all the self-knowledge resources you can. But I’ll add the caveat that it often seems to me that in chart terms, it is not just what a person is interested in. Sometimes, it’s even what a person isn’t interested in.

Charts (or the lives of people with charts) often seem to gravitate with an invisible pull toward industries and sectors represented by certain sign or house energies, even if a person has no real awareness of an interest in that field. This phenomenon would take too long to explain in a post, but I’ll give the example of a person I knew who somehow or another always seemed end up working in a financial services field even though he didn’t care about financial services and his own jobs had nothing to do with them. The placement of Scorpio in his chart seemed to make financial services the industry in which he could most easily find a job doing the type of tasks he actually liked to do.

In other words, you might as well be aware of the types of industry sectors your chart is pulled toward–even if that doesn’t mean you want a traditional job in that field. You may care a lot more about art than about construction, architecture, or the hotel industry. But someone has to figure out what art to put in hotels and new buildings. It’s often the ingenious combination of an interest with an industry sector that provides a satisfying niche. Sometimes finding that niche can mean a previously unattractive industry becomes attractive. Alternatively, knowing what type of sign, house or planetary energy your chart is attracted to can sometimes help you find a more enjoyable way to use it (e.g., using Scorpio energy for research instead of dealing with ‘other people’s money’). And astrology can help with that, too.

Part 1