This is my 180th astrology column. Since they come out about every 10 days, that's about 1800 days, or not quite five years. Except, of course, that 36 columns a year, times five years = 180 columns. One way or another, this column represents five years of completed astrological practice. I want to thank my readers for sticking with me for the ride.
The Sun enters the third decan of Cancer on 11 July 2024 at 4:08 pm EDT — and remains there until 22 July at 3:45 am EDT for a total of ten days, 11 hours, and 37 minutes. Austin Coppock called this decan The Overflowing Cup while T. Susan Chang called it Refusing the Call. Both are appropriate names, given the decan's associations with the Three of Cups in Tarot.
While it's hard to know how common this calendar was in the Greco-Roman world, these ten days were associated with Hecate/Hekate, the goddess of the three-way crossroads and of magic. This may be because this is one of the Moon-administered decans along with Taurus II, Libra I, Sagittarius II, and Aquarius III. When we look at the deities associated with these decans — the Horae (or seasons), Hecate, the Erinyes, Kore, and Osiris — there's an interesting mythic cycle here at work — the Horae represent the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, which is perhaps the most basic cycle of all. The Erinyes represent another cycle, the circle by which vengeance is visited upon the perpetrators of crimes through consequence — few succeed in ending the cycle of violence once they have begun it. Kore, the unnamed flower-maiden who goes to be the bride of Hades in the underworld, only to return as Persephone, stands for the promise that all life goes into death eventually; and that all dead matter is eventually recombined to bring forth new life. Osiris is the reminder that even spirits cross back and forth between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living — that none of us are fully condemned to be on one side for forever.
And Hecate? What cycle does she represent? It's fairer to say that she represents the breaker of cycles. Standing at the Three Way Crossroads, she invites you to go back the way you came... or to make a different choice this time around, to take the path to her left or to her right, and choose differently. There's a surfeit of future crossroads, of course, places where the choices multiply — but this first one is perhaps the most essential: go back to what you were doing before, or pick one of the other possible options. Break free.
It is that ability to change, to do something new, to choose some other path, that perhaps forms the realest definition of what magic does. It's less Harry Potter, spells flying through the air — and more Samwise Gamgee standing on the road out of the Shire, "this is the farthest from home that I've ever gone." Is this where you turn back to the familiar and the safe (even if it's depressing or awful or unsatisfying)? Or is this where you accept that the wild unknown lies before you, and you dare to keep going anyway?
The Four of Cups as drawn by Pamela Colman Smith points most fervently to this possibility. In it, a young man sits cross-legged under a tree, and a magical hand emerges from a cloud to offer him a fourth cup. There are three already on the ground that he's rejected. If you stay here, you're going to get more of the same, I suspect — or you can get up and try your hand at something else. That decision to get up and go elsewhere? That's magic at work.
The four dodeks of Cancer III are Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini. First is the flip-flop, back and forth, of being the fish in the fish tank or the pond, swimming first this way and then that way, back and forth, constrained by the limits of your space. Then comes the fire in the head of an idea: escape, but where to — upstream or downstream? Where do we go from here? Then after a long period of patient consideration, it's the bull-rush for the exit, the plunge over the waterfall or the leap up the rapids at the head of the pond. New decisions, this way or that way, emerge beyond that first indecision — and that's Gemini's thoughtful consideration of new possibilities.
Planetary Placements
The chart of July 11, 2024 is a day chart with the Sun about 48° past the Midheaven in the ninth house. The Ascendant is in Scorpio, and only Pluto and the Moon are on the eastern side of the chart, while most of the planets are on the western side of the chart — indicating that the ten-day period ahead will involve a series of reactions to experiences and events begun by others. The Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus are above the horizon, while Mars, Neptune, Saturn, and Pluto are below — making ordinary public matters like taxes, business decisions, and bureaucratic snafus to be front and center, while private matters are likely to be more actively malicious and long-lasting.
The Ascendant is in Scorpio III The Crow, giving shape to a desire to draw shiny and beautiful things toward ourselves. This may manifest as disgust with current ugliness, but also as a desire to root around in the unpleasantness, looking for a few jewels of excellence amid the offal.
Pluto is about to conjunct the Lot of Fortune, which represents the place where we have the greatest potential to adjust course or change our routines and direction. In the fourth house, the two together suggest that there are some financial issues at home that need to be addressed, critiqued, and adjusted. Are you living within your means? Who in your household has the greatest opportunity to change the economic equation, either by bringing in more money (better job) or reducing expenses? Try not to let this turn into an emotionally overwrought criminal investigation of spending habits — this is a family show, and one in which you're doing what's good for the whole household, not just one person; that will require compromise.
In the fifth house, the Imum Coeli indicates that there's a lot of satisfaction in wandering — the grocery stores looking for the cool new food you want to try (while soaking up the air conditioning), the beach looking for the perfect suntanning location, the social media sites for the best drama. However, the square to Jupiter reminds you not to waste time because there's other duties to attend to. Saturn puts some rigorous limits on fun — unless you can restrain yourself from social media for a while. Maybe get rid of some apps from your phone so it's not so much of a nuisance for a while? Neptune is going to promise great enthusiasm divorced from fact for each and every cool little nuance you can imagine — especially in the US or France, where one election is heating up and another is cooling down. Recognize that you can't believe everything you read, even by the poolside.
The Nodal Axis is starting to count down the last ten degrees to its shift from Aries-Libra to Pisces-Virgo in late January. As the North Node passes through Aries I The Double Bladed Axe, be alert to your tendencies to divide and separate one pastime or hobby from another, or one child from another. Are the kids getting along? Is quilting or sewing or woodworking or building Legos really as much fun for you as it used to be? Meanwhile, the South Node promises that the shit is coming out in questions of the administration of justice — we're all sort of aware of a series of ways in which the rules have been bent or broken, and the trouble is just starting. Expect more over the next few days as the Moon passes through Libra I Blindfold and Sword, and Mansion 15 The Covering. Someone is going to get exactly what they want from the court — but it's definitely a case of be careful what you wish for.
Mars sits below the horizon in the seventh house, while Uranus sits above the horizon. They'll conjunct on July 15, 2024 at 10:04 am EDT. For US east-coasters, this will be in the ninth house — where Mars can indicate car crashes, legal trouble, difficulties with your university advisors, and Neptune promises ongoing spiritual vision but also mental confusion. This conjunction is not a great time to be in an altered headspace. Kary Mullis, the 1993 Nobel Prize recipient in chemistry in his autobiography Dancing Naked Through the Mindfield, recalls creating a hallucinogenic chemical which wiped out his ability to recognize faces for three days. However, a Mars-Uranus conjunction is often a time of great intellectual ferment, both before and after — just remember that you're not the only idiot in a car on the road! Save the daydreaming for the picnic, and drive sober.
Jupiter in the ninth house promises a bureaucratic snafu or two (snafu, for those who don't know this word, comes from a World War II acronym in the army: Situation Normal, All F*#ked Up) — but also suggests that, if you can keep your wits, generosity and patience about you, you'll have a lovely story about an encounter with a state or federal employee that solved your problem in the least possible amount of time. Keep your anger on a tight leash, put a calming hand on your college or spouse's shoulder, and be as gracious as possible in the moment. Find reasons to celebrate later, and tell of your triumph at someone else's dinner table.
The Sun is in Cancer III now, and will be until July 22. As he passes through this last decan, he'll be passing through terms dedicated to Jupiter and Saturn. The advice here is to focus on playing by the rules and being open expansive early in the coming week, while restricting your activities later on. Find lots of things to be enthusiastic about right away and do! all! the! things! but be more picky and choosy as these next ten days progress.
Venus and Mercury are both in a sign different from the Sun. This is usually another marker of great intellectual ferment. George Bernard Shaw once said (I can't find the exact quotation), "most men think about sex four or five times an hour. I think about something other than sex three or four times a day, and for this I am credited with being an intellectual." For many traditional astrological texts, the presence of these two planets in a sign other than the Sun's sign represents the ability to think unselfishly and creatively for a little while — and for this week, it's going to be easier than normal to put your brain and your booty to work on different sorts of problems. Take a leaf from GB Shaw's notebook, and give your creative and intellectual attention to career-defining problems and their solutions.
Mercury is not yet retrograde (they'll be retrograde 6-28 August 2024). However, they will enter the so-called shadow period on 17 July 2024, when they reach the degree at which their retrograde will end — and this usually is the beginning of the slowdown. Keep an eye out for where your communications difficulties at work are likely to arise, and note any delays in contracts, challenges in meeting payroll, or other difficulties that signal where trouble is coming from.
As noted already, the Moon is about to pass into Libra, but she's not actually there yet. In the eleventh house, in Mansion 14 The Unarmed, she signals the end of inappropriate friendships and the dissolution of formerly inseparable bonds. More than one pair of BFFs is going to break up in days to come over the most innocuous matters, particularly after July 17 (and the start of that Mercury shadow period). But it's worth attending to the underlying reasons, which are not going to be entirely divorced from sexual (or sensual) misconduct, or seething, explosive revelations about matters long ignored or swept under the rug. What was hidden and embalmed is likely to rise again.
Horoscopes by Rising Sign
Decan I of any sign (usually covering the 21st of the month to the first of the following month) is free to all visitors; Decan II is only available to Patreon and Ko-Fi.com subscribers; and Decan III is available to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and MailChimp subscribers.
Due to my particular celebrations this week of five years of astrology columns, my horoscopes are available to all for Cancer III.
Scorpio: You have rules about talking about your long range plans: namely, don't. But this may be the week to break that edict with a few choice friends — and let them poke at the genuine gaps in your plan, and help your plan stay upright and operational. If you haven't operationalized this plan yet, it's time to put some of your plans into daily practice, too: an hour here or there is necessary to long-term success, even if it's a decade out. Professional matters require delicacy and tact, but you'll also want to show off your results. An argument is likely to arise between you and any significant other — questions of how to approach intimacies and what rules govern who's "in" and who's "out" of your social circle may predominate. Put some focus on future travel plans for the coming year, and decide on the months, at least, that you'll be making longer journeys or taking workshops or classes to improve your life.
Sagittarius: Financial questions put pressure on you, as the needs of two weigh more heavily than the income of one. A journey is undertaken for necessary and important reasons: where should your focus be? Extended family matters can prove costly when not addressed, but sometimes staying out of them is still the best course of action. Stick close to home and household for quality results; you may want to be in charge, and do all the fun things — but the real scutwork lies in being there for your friends — at least some of whom will be breaking rules and covenants to their own detriment; stay on your own side of your fences. IF you don't know where the fences are... be more cautious than usual. Take care with work in the next few days, and don't work harder than your infirmities permit. Find contentment in the long and winding path.
Capricorn: A significant other may be on a journey that you have a hand in preparing for or organizing. There will be the usual cooing and last-minute advice at the car door, and some professional organizing on their behalf — but it's largely out of your control whether they break or bend the agreements you already have. Be generous and kind in your woolgathering moments over the next ten days — your worries and mental gymnastics about this or that scenario will not serve you well. You have your own inner circle to focus on, and there's some commercial scheme in the works — union negotiations not going well? Your bid for a raise being turned down? There's still a chance to salvage this craptacular pageant, but it might require some sovereignty at home and in daily habits, and some requests for assistance from siblings or cousins or friends. Personal pleasures may seem far removed, and that may be cause for anger or explosive moments; some deep breathing and touching grass are worthwhile endeavors in coming days.
Aquarius: Household expenses may be drifting far out of line with your initial budgeting, but it's you who have to make the numbers work. The most essential bit here is to seek out new sources of income, and to break some of the rules you have around long-term monetary policy for yourself. If you're self-employed or own your own business, now would be a good time to take yourself to the business section of the library, read some gurus, and figure out a cash-flow plan. If someone else employs you, you probably can't expect a raise — but you can expect that finding a new job will be a relatively long and laborious process. You might want to get some ducks in a row and figure out a better situation. In the meantime, some diplomatic and loving conversations with a spouse or significant other may yield performance improvements — Look for slow, organic growth rather than get-rich-quick schemes, though — it's easy to break the systems you already have in place. Your friends may also have some useful ways to consider the details of your hobbies as potential side-hustles — your hands can do more than just fidget.
Pisces: If you have kids, this week may see you trapped in service to their roundabout expectations and flights-of-fancy. Even without children in your life, there will be wild suppositions about how long a project will take — and a complete inability to keep that project inside your actual hard limits, including things like cost of materials and interruptions from friends. In the long term, there are looming expenses for household matters, and it would be helpful to start planning for them now; you may have to bend or contort your usual rules to make space for those obligations in your financial plan. A conflict or point of contention with a sibling or cousin may spill out this coming week, and it's worth drawing in a parent or other family member to ask for their skill and kindness in negotiating a truce. You will have more opportunities to travel and learn if you set happiness as your principal goal for walkabouts and lallygagging or hiking and day-tripping. Don't schedule the agonizing hike the Broken-Knees Trail for this week — pick the leisurely paved route to the pleasant waterfall instead.
Aries: It will be easy to make each and every day this week your command performance; and when you speak you are likely find a crowd of attentive ears ready to do your bidding. Yet be aware that your own financial situation may be in some turmoil, especially if you share finances with a spouse or significant other. Also you may be playing hooky from the usual standards which you and your significant other uphold together, or treat as unspoken norms. That same easiness of connection makes seductions possible; and raises the possibilities that you can get talked into delightful episodes that don't reflect your usual benchmarks. Those enthusiasms and fancies have long-term value — but they also carry long-term consequences. It would be easy to ask a friend for some of the financial support you think you need — but that may carry familiar or even domestic undertones that will have public consequences for your inner circle of allies who expect you to be a better leader than most. The TL;DR here is that you have morals, ethics and norms that you can easily flex this week toward your own wishes simply because it feels right — but that the costs of each such distortion will be paid later, with interest. Check in around your desires, and ask what's a whim, and what's a heart-birthed will?
Taurus: The next few days bring great potential for self-injury. IT would be wise not to push yourself too hard. Yet be aware that it would be easy to pass this injury on to a significant other, by making them do what you have decided to avoid. Work together with gentleness and graciousness for best results, look out for one another's inner circle of friends, and expend your resources of money and time and personal energy with an eye to keeping your core loyalties intact. Regular check-ins about the state of household and home are advisable, but needn't be secret. Your hobbies and pleasures may be somewhat on display for friends and associates; it's worth letting this information be explored organically, rather than revealed suddenly through sly digging and exhumation of whatever bones people have to pick with you. Your usual habits and patterns are subject to difficult breakdowns and unexpected griefs; ask your friends' help to find your long-term fire. At least one friend is likely to talk you into some really poor idea, whose consequences may not be known for a while. You have a chance to make money from home through secret critiques of others; have your tools available, but choose which critiques to make with caution.
Gemini: Be a big-hearted thinker about your obligations this week. It's easy to say, "that is not within the compass of my responsibilities," and be done with it — but you'll find that your relationship with your spouse or significant other improves with long-term consideration of what your responsibilities include or enclose. Similarly, you may feel squeezed out of shape by what that same spouse expects of you — but the truth is that a little emotional maturity and tactful, loving dialogue, may lead to greater intimacies than you've enjoyed in a long while. Try breaking your rules and undo the dignified posturing — getting dirty, wielding an iron or a toilet brush, or learning how to get a blood stain out of cotton are not beyond your abilities; neither is using the power drill or the circular saw or mowing the lawn. Whatever boundaries you have, both the public ones you tell everyone, and the secret ones you have trouble even expressing to yourself... try breaking them this week. You may find that it brings about more fun than trouble.
Cancer: There's a focus on new learning, and one of the areas where you'll have to do some heavy lifting is in the area of personal finance. This is new for you, and will require some developing expertise and professionalism in areas that are unusual for you. However, if you learn to explain as well as you learn, you're likely to win kudos from employers and friends, and make some real difference in people's lives as you unearth old expectations. A relationship with a sibling or cousin may be somewhat sour this coming week; you'll be able to mend fences in a little while, but some roughness may be in the cards. Be generous with yourself about long range plans (12-18 months out), but think through both domestic and careerist goals with some certainties. A fight or serious argument may be brewing with a professional associate; or you may find you have a bone to pick with a colleague of your spouse — a windfall may come your way, but it's likely to be of delayed usefulness or not as much as you hoped.
Leo: It's a great time for you to talk about yourself and play up your creative gifts. Those powers will be on display anyway, so it's a good time to show them off consciously. Some long-term goals require that you make a journey — either to the heart of your mind to grasp some long-buried emotional treasures, or to the places where you felt most emotionally at peace. It's worth remembering that some treasures, no matter how lovely or sentimental, can sometimes be broken up and sold for their economic value — and that you can be very generous and forgiving to your friends and work colleagues in social situations, but still need to deliver a harsh takedown for the sake of your professional standards, or to maintain the quality of your household or family, or to sustain the intentionality of your business partnerships or romantic relations. In all, remember to hold the boundaries firm that help you sustain your pleasures and hold to your duties this week — and don't let temporary enthusiasms wash them away.
Virgo: Make like a tree and leaf this week — dig your roots into the practical resources you need, and stretch out your hands to draw in the energy you need. Unearth your own inner wisdom from the bones of your life experiences — and, where necessary, balance out economic expectations with long-term goals. You need as much weight sunk into practical issues as you have that's reaching toward philosophical or moral abstractions — and although it's tempting to break rules and put your thumb on the scale, you'll find that may bring about future restrictions and differing visions when it comes to squaring this with your spouse or significant other. That said, it's worth speaking aloud your long-term professional goals and expectations, and sharing those wishes with friends and colleagues. You can afford to be generous with these teammates, because they'll be your collaborators and allies in achieving these goals. There's some risk of a spouse hitting trouble while traveling; a good overview by a competent mechanic of their vehicle would not be remiss.
Libra: You know what the rules are, but there are some standards that you may feel like bending, flexing, or actually breaking this week. And you may believe that shattering those personal boundaries this week would benefit you economically, and that they could be honestly justified despite criticisms. If you have a significant other, though, it's worth asking them to weigh in on possible consequences, because someone in your workplace is likely to shine some very bright lights into some dark corners soon... and if you're willing to bend on this, where else have you cut corners?? Certainly there are some policies that need undoing and revision because they're too stiff and inflexible. Certainly there are tactful, loving circumstances that could be acted out for your colleagues, and people would see their usefulness. Certainly others could learn from your generosity. At the same time, don't expect that you will come off blamelessly in all of this, or that that there won't be argument and conflict. Necessary change is sometimes on the other side of the combativeness, though. Pursue the fights that are worthy, though, and not simply the ones which are personally beneficial.
Colophon
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If you want to read some of my astrologically-oriented poetry, the largest collection is called A Full Volume of Splendor and Starlight, available through my Etsy shop, and containing poems and hymns to the planets, constellations, decan deities, and Moon Mansion angels. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.
I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts. I also use Hugh Tran's Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.
I use Christopher Warnock's The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock's 36 Faces for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.
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