Cancer Horoscope for July 2023

This is a month of further transformational intensity, Cancer, involving a strong spiritual element in what you do out in the world, including all aspects of your creativity, at a job or on your own, to which you do well to pay utmost attention. This amounts to an evolutionary impulse as you find your way forward. The Full Moon in your opposite sign on July 3rd reinforces this and brings partners in your life more significantly into the picture, while the Last Quarter Moon on the evening of the 9th could raise the specter of ancient wounding and, further, the prospect of healing these residues of early childhood trauma by awareness and loving attention paid. This is especially important in view that if left unattended, these walled-off hidden places within your psyche could have the effect of blocking your progress toward the most authentic version of yourself that you are attempting to bring forward. The mid-July New Moon of the 17th brings fresh energy to your project, and is square to Eris in your vocational sector, indicating a focus – over and above the consensus thinking that surrounds you – on outer world activity as it relates to your own deep purpose.

The following was written by our guest columnist Alea Balzer. You can write her at alea.balzer@gmail.com

Last month's Gemini New Moon fell in your sector of unconscious process and inner work, planting a seed that connected your interior experience to your overall understanding of the world and your place within it. In the astrology of this earlier lunation, continuing into the first half the of present month, you are also challenged to apply your own intuitive moral compass to hone your creative voice in making for a better match with your deepest internal principles and values. This month also expands the story of your ongoing spiritual transformation to your relatively antithetical spheres of self and other, offering that you might powerfully transform your relationships by anchoring within yourself and radiating your circles of belonging further outward. As with the solstice point last month that births your season, July has for you the quality of genesis: the destruction of an old set of patterns to expand into a genuinely new phase.

The month also begins with the rebirth of Mercury through the heart of the Sun in your sign as Venus in Leo makes an applying square to Uranus in Taurus, from the 1st to the 3rd, across your sectors of personal assets and community. This progression reflects emerging internal coherence that will aid in exploring how well you are resourced this month. The influence of Uranus, combined with Venus' applying square to Mars in Leo, offers you the confidence to go your own way. This supports greater freedom in how you relate to groups and friends, particularly those that no longer align with your values. You may receive an unexpected financial or skill development opportunity around this time or meet an exciting romantic or platonic connection, perhaps even a benefactor.

The Capricorn Full Moon of July 3rd lands in your relationship sector. Exploring your connections with others from a space of sovereignty continues. Ruled by Saturn lodged in your travel, education, and belief systems sector, this lunation indicates that your own self-regulation and nurturing strategies provide a scaffolding of inner safety for you to extend outward. Mercury's separating opposition to the Moon further emphasizes your emotional intelligence, offering receptivity to insight or feedback that may emerge from those close to you. The Moon's trine to Jupiter points out that friends, support networks, and authentic connections offer fertile support in your evolving life dreams, possibly through business partnerships, meaningful collective participation, or opening doors relating to your professional ambitions.

July 10th sees Mars enter Virgo, your communication sector, signifying enhanced activity related to writing, speaking, learning, or local travel. Mercury also enters Leo at this time, and makes an opposition to Pluto in Capricorn while doing so. This offers powerful insights, supporting conversations within your close partnerships. The mental agility available to you right now suggests you can transform self-sabotaging mental patterns informing how you connect to others that will support your well-being. Mercury's departure from your sign heralds a period of substantial focus on your finances, skills, and resources, which will evolve over the next six weeks.

The New Moon of July 17th takes place in your sign, corresponding to the identity sector of your solar chart. This lunation may give rise to heightened emotions, possibly continuing to highlight themes around letting go and confronting long-established patterns that shape your relationships. This lunation coincides with the forming shift of the North and South Lunar Node eclipse points into Aries and Libra, forming a cardinal cross with Pluto that animates the horizontal and vertical axes of your chart. The square from Mercury in Leo to Jupiter supports identifying and articulating your emerging personal and professional aspirations, reiterating that tangible support to build and grow these may appear within your social avenues. With the planet of abundance and growth exalted in your sign and Venus blessing your financial sector, asking for what you want right now, particularly around money matters and the value of your skills, will likely be generative.

The final days of your season present a significant juncture — momentum is on offer for whatever seed is growing through you right now, which requires both your conscious intention and courage as well as surrender to a deeper evolutionary process that you cannot control. The shift of the Lunar North Node into the Aries-ruled sector of your solar chart indicates that topics related to your public image and professional aspirations may provide avenues for expansion over the next year and a half, with significant beginnings and endings occurring here and in your Libra-ruled sector of the home and family.

From July 19th to July 21st, Mars in Virgo forms an opposition to Saturn in Pisces. You may be focused seriously on topics related to education, teaching, spirituality, and travel around this time. Perhaps you have reached the limit with certain learning institutions or authorities, are facing a heavy academic workload, or feel conflicted around certain beliefs or ideologies. While you might need a break to recalibrate, this transit offers sustained mental energy to work towards goals in this domain of life – provided they are meaningful to you.

Venus stations retrograde on July 22nd, the first day of Leo season. As the Sun moves into Leo, representing your resources sector, it makes a grand cross aspect with Pluto and the Lunar Nodes, possibly indicating a change or delay regarding material assets. For 15 years, your sign has received the polarized energy of Pluto's transit through your opposite sign of Capricorn, possibly giving rise to challenging transformations in your relational landscape that may have ruptured your sense of selfhood and safety. This planetary progression offers catharsis through conscious recognition of how you have changed within the landscape of love and relationships and that you don't need to repeat the painful dynamics of the past.

This process may deepen over the six-week Venus retrograde period as you investigate your values, desires, resources, and self-worth. This review might be further emphasized by Chiron's station retrograde the following day. With the Lunar North Node now co-present with Chiron in Aries, the next year and a half may open a courageous space to integrate wounding around autonomy and self-confidence through your work in the world, possibly by helping others to heal.

Mercury forms a conjunction with retrograde Venus on July 27th before moving into Virgo, or your communications sector, the following day. The connection of Mercury with Venus indicates ongoing alignment around desire, enabling you to articulate your wants and needs through heartfelt conversations and emotional honesty. It also suggests a reinvigoration of your creative intellectual capacity, which may open new financial avenues. With Mercury operating at full capacity in its ruling sign of Virgo, fueled by the co-presence of Mars there, over the next month, your communication and learning sector promises to be a hive of activity. Channeling the energy available to you this week into such projects may be particularly productive before Mercury enters its pre-retrograde shadow on August 3rd.

You have straddled the future and the past this month, with your spheres of relationality offering significant growth, challenge, and support. July's transits and growth in your career and close connections through a reexamination of your desires, resources, and ambitions, will with the ongoing retrograde of Venus in Leo continue into September. Being present for yourself and your emotional process can help you anchor in agency, allowing for more freedom and complexity in how you relate to others and trust in your unfolding life path.

Cancer Horoscope for July 2023

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