We’ve been testing and tasting new energy combinations for months. In July, the final ingredient joins the mix. It’s like adding an unfamiliar substance to a chemical reaction with no idea of the ultimate outcome, or even what will happen next.

The blend is volatile, fast-acting, unpredictable and in some ways revolutionary. It’ll shake up thinking, communication systems, and lines of authority. It’ll speed up the pace of everything – yes, life is only getting faster and more chaotic – and propel us forward, right as other influences are taking us over old territory.

Head spinning. Paradoxical. Disorienting. Possibly fun, for those who ride the winds. It may feel at times like a giant Himalaya, the midway ride on a circular track with hills and valleys that goes faster and faster and faster until it suddenly hurtles backward, faster and faster and faster.

Cosmic Dramamine might be handy.

The month has relatively few major aspects, but that only adds emphasis to the action. That begins with an appropriate bang, on July 4: Venus’ conjunction with Uranus isn’t merely declaring independence; it’s instituting it. The two planets are ending their time in Taurus (Venus for weeks, Uranus since 2018) with a veritable blow out of everything they govern. Relationships, resources, values, creativity, finances, all manner of creature comforts are breaking open, apart, though, out, you name it.

Options and possibilities open up while dust is flying, as Venus immediately scoots into Gemini and our social mode becomes palsy-walsy, curious, light-hearted and loose, until the 30th. Uranus will hover in the shock zone for a few more days before moving on.

The paradox of moving backwards surfaces before the Fourth is over, though, with Neptune stationing retrograde. Only three months into Aries, he is retreating until December. Until he returns to the final degree of Pisces (and the zodiac) in mid-October, we’ll be revisiting the energetic flares that have been coursing through us since he entered Aries at the end of March.

He and Saturn continue to be the greeters of the zodiac, and they offer their structure, wisdom, inspiration and faith, cloaked in fieriness, sense of mission and warrior streak, to all of our interactions, when Venus sextiles the pair on July 6. With this christening, Venus’ travels through Gemini promise to be more passionate than what could otherwise be footless traipsing through the sign.

The chemical reaction begins in earnest July 7. The final outer planet shift occurs and puts all of the bigger influences into fiery, fast-acting and largely verbal interplay, with only Jupiter in Cancer throwing sensitivity into the works. Uranus enters into Gemini for the first time since the 1940s, unleashing who knows what changes in thinking, messaging, media, modes of transport and more. He’s bringing a coming attractions trailer of what’s in for shake ups, because he’ll retreat to Taurus in November for a final round of clean-up before he moves fully into Gemini. Expect the pace to accelerate beyond what we’ve already experienced, and the chaos to escalate.

His first day in the sign coincides with huge developments in love, money, desires and power. Venus is moving from the aftermath of the awakening, liberating meeting with Uranus to collaborating with the agent of unavoidable change. The contact is organically routing out deadweight and debris from the July 4 blast. What’s left is intensifying and coming to the surface, where it cannot be hidden or denied.

Triangulation, beware: this trine could out you. Another possibility (and not mutually exclusive) is an encounter triggering a life-upending explosion of “I must be with this person” at the Venus/Uranus conjunction and deepening of the connection at the trine to Pluto.

Take stock of your foundations at the Capricorn Full Moon July 10. The exercise may feel more cold and calculating than the usual full moon. This one’s a status report on how well you have been providing for yourself (and anyone for whom you feel responsible).

The backward vibe fires up when that Moon’s ruler, Saturn, stations retrograde July 13. It’s been in Aries only since May 24, and it will slip back into Pisces, for clean-up work, at the beginning of September. As it reverses its jets, it makes an all-but exact conjunction with Neptune on July 17, presaging a complete meeting next February. How has your relation to spirit and guidance fired up since April? What are you mastering?

Mercury’s retrograde follows, starting July 18 through August 11, from 15 Leo to 4 Leo. He kicks off the retreat with a sextile to Venus, opening the way for a flurry of people, desires and situations from the past to reenter our thinking and lives. Since Leo is the turf, look for ways to reclaim waylaid bits of yourself.

And the usual Mercury retrograde cautions apply: Place “re” in front of just about every verb; rework, revisit, reorganize. Don’t assume other people are operating from the same meanings or assumptions, even if they’re using the same words as you. Tie up or finish old business; put off launching anything major until the messenger god is moving forward again.

High energy and spirits get another boost when the Sun enters Leo July 22. Options to shake up your life explode on impact, as he sextiles Uranus July 23. Demands to get desires met are in the air, with Venus squaring Mars the same day. She says what she wants and isn’t waiting for him to deliver it at his convenience; she shoves him to go for it – a dynamic that will play out in interactions down here.

The Leo New Moon July 24 has the potential to consecrate your life. A trine to Neptune enhances creativity and elevates your existence from getting by to something more inspired. A trine to Saturn instills mastery over that inspiration and brings it into physical form.

Injecting the divine into your inner fire leads to awareness of how and where you are apart from the collective, whether that’s your friend group or the world at large, as the Sun opposes Pluto July 25. Look for ways to claim your place, when Saturn approaches (but does not entirely complete) a sextile to Pluto two days later.

Nurturing, nesting instincts soon take over. Venus enters Cancer July 30 and socializing shifts from running here and there in packs to making emotional connections, sharing food, and hunkering down at home.

By the end of the month, clarity arrives. We may not understand the world at large or where life is taking us, but we do have a sudden understanding of ourselves, thanks to Mercury meeting the Sun. And that may be the most to hope for – for now.

More in my OM Times guide: How to Handle Mercury Retrograde in 2025.

Re-blogged on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Kathy Biehl. Do Not Copy.

Header Image by CrystalWind.ca

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