Horoscopes for Week of July 5

Mercury changes signs from Cancer to Leo on Friday. Venus moves from Leo into Virgo on Saturday. And the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon in the 20^th degree of Cancer at 3:40 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 11.

Aries – I want to encourage you to honor your needs this week, most especially your emotional needs. You know, we’re never too old to lie in bed and cry all day if that’s what it takes to feel better. In fact, I’m going to suggest that it’s our collective taboo against healthy self-care that is primarily responsible for us polluting the planet’s water supply with a toxic blow-out so large it mocks our ability to even imagine it. I’m also going to assert that it is precisely this inability to know when and how to process our uncomfortable feelings that is causing us to rape and maim and murder the plants, animals and other humans we share the planet with at historically staggering rates of carnage. Sunday’s solar eclipse in your 4^th House of home and family is asking you to identify and let go of an emotional pattern you inherited from your family of origin. Identifying it means naming it (i.e., “If I feel vulnerable that means I am weak”); letting go of it usually involves allowing yourself to feel what they said you couldn’t or shouldn’t feel. Sure, this is going to hurt at the outset. But it’s usually over a lot faster than you think and you know you’re going to feel amazing afterwards.

Taurus – You continue to move forward into the new experience of life that you started creating for yourself back in April and May. If you’ll recall, you were engaged in tearing down a few misconceptions about who you really are so that the true you could shine forth more fully. Sunday’s eclipse in your 3^rd House of mental patterns encourages you to take the next step in this work by naming a habitual thought or way of thinking and talking about your world that isn’t working for you any longer. You’ve long been able to justify this mental pattern to yourself out of something that feels to me like misplaced loyalty – e.g. you loved someone with all your heart and so you have to stay faithful to their negative way of thinking, or you love your father or mother, so you feel obligated to perpetuate their fear-based thinking. It becomes clear to you this week that you can still honor the past while letting go of this old, limiting habit of mind. And how good are you going to feel when you stop thinking someone else’s fear thoughts and start thinking your own love thoughts?

Gemini – This week plants the seeds of a new relationship with money or a new income stream you’ll be developing. You may be asked to let go of a current client, possession or source of income this week; if so, know that life is helping you reconfigure for the long haul. Sunday’s eclipse in your 2^nd House of money and income is the sixth in a series of eight eclipses falling on the money axis of your chart from 2009-2011. Eclipses can often be uncomfortable because they force us to move faster than we were planning to. But most of our reasons for staying put boil down to the ego’s fear of change, and eclipses are the Universe’s way of blasting us through that fear and into a better place. You definitely have help if you need it. Your chart shows that a parent, friend or colleague understands what you are going through and is there to help you out – all you need to do is ask. Use this eclipse energy to start developing a flexible attitude toward money that is aligned with the rapidly-changing global environment. You have many talents and you’re only really happy when you’re involved in several projects at once – you’ll do best in the years to come if your career reflects that inner energy.

Cancer – The funny little secret about “manifesting” and “abundance” that the Get-Rich-Quick gurus don’t tell us – perhaps because they’ve forgotten it or maybe they figure we wouldn’t believe it – is that manifesting true abundance always proceeds by subtraction. Huh? Yes, I tell you! Because we are everything already; the only poverty possible is our mistaken belief that we could ever lack for love. Next Sunday’s solar eclipse in your sign asks you to identify and release a belief about yourself that keeps you from living in joy and from abandoning yourself to the love and freedom that is your true nature. Be inspired by these lines from Rumi’s poem “This Is Enough”: Sugar merchants, I have news. Joseph has arrived from Egypt with the essence of sweetness: a fruit cobbler that can save your soul! Spirit wine! And if there is something else you want, that came too. This is enough was always true. We just haven’t seen it…

Leo – Resist the urge to go out and do something rash because you haven’t gotten what you wanted yet. Things are going better than you think they are; once you’ve made up your mind to manifest something new, you tend to get impatient if it doesn’t show up in your reality immediately. Give yourself until mid-August to manifest the next level of whatever project you’re working on. Let me explain. First, you’ve got your ruling planet the Sun in your solar 12^th House of the deep unconscious mind until July 22. With the Sun in the 12^th House, this period is focused more on letting go of self-sabotaging habits and working in secret than it is on outer progress. In fact, Sunday’s eclipse in your 12^th House wants to teach you about the power of tuning in to your subconscious personae. You’ve also got Mars in your 2^nd House of money and income through the end of July; Mars in Virgo requires you to take a detailed, step-by-step, logical approach to creating more money and more of what you want. Finally, Saturn finishes his three-year tour of your 2^nd House on July 21. This means you’re in line for a big money or abundance gift in the coming weeks. You don’t have to bend your world out of shape to receive your gift. You just have to be as patient, prepared and trusting as you possibly can be.

Virgo – Considering the state of the Universe, things should be going pretty well for you right now. This all depends on how you’re doing with your anger/aggressive/assertive energies, of course. With Mars still in your 1^st House through the end of the month, you can make a lot of progress toward just about anything you put your mind on, provided you’re dealing with anger and frustration appropriately. “How do I know if I’m doing it right?” you ask. The main point is awareness. If you’re blowing up at people over peccadilloes or spending hours beating yourself up for a stupid mistake, you’re not aware of what’s really bothering you. If you don’t know, ask to be shown: “What am I really angry/upset/resentful about?” It’s just like getting rid of weeds in your garden – once you find the root of your suffering, the mind weed is much easier to eradicate. Sunday’s eclipse in your 11^th House helps you focus on your goals by repeatedly asking you to consider what you really want out of life. Hint: Deep down, you do know the answer to this question. Would it be so dangerous to just whisper it to yourself?

Libra – Envisioning the last few years before the of the Mayan Calendar in 2012 as a rapidly ascending spiral of evolutionary change, scholar Carl Johan Calleman wrote, “In many cases, the goals typical of the Planetary Underworld, such as pursuing a career, may no longer be valid [in the post-2012 era]. Those who deny the change in consciousness that the divine process of creation now brings about — or actually imposes on us — and fail to develop their intuition accordingly will sooner or later find themselves at a dead end.” The way I would rephrase this for you in light of Sunday’s powerful solar eclipse in your 10^th House of career is: “How many more days or years of your life will slip past before you make the choice to throw the full force of your creativity, intelligence and love into doing what really matters to you?”

Scorpio – Like a traveler in a far country arrived at the top of a mountain pass, you are seeing many things in your life more clearly than you ever have before. You now see that the thoughts and messages (whether seeming to originate as suggestions from inside your own head or as commands from the world outside you) that used to control you have only the weight and power you assign to them. You’re also seeing much more clearly than before that all of your self-analysis and the relentless honing of your ability to read others and discern their motivation means nothing if at the end of the day you are still living in impotence and isolation. Sunday’s eclipse in your 9^th House of beliefs and wisdom (“the higher mind”) offers you the opportunity to strip away a programmed perspective on life that is the equivalent of walking around with someone else’s prescription glasses duct-taped to your face. One of the realizations that is likely to come with this increased field of vision is how satisfying it feels to join your mind with a group of like minds who are committed to a dream that is bigger than your personal ego goals. If it takes some work, some trial-and-error, to “get in where you fit in,” is that so high a price?

Sagittarius – Sunday’s eclipse in your 8^th House of shared resources is the sixth in a series of eight eclipses targeted at the money axis of your chart from 2009-2011. While you may not have liked the manifestations of every single eclipse in this series, I’ll bet you can look back at last June and see how much progress you’ve made in taking responsibility for your financial well-being. Sunday’s eclipse focuses on the people in life with whom you have agreements about money, sex and power. This includes personal relationships but could also affect debts that you owe or a spouse’s or business partner’s money. Use the energy of this eclipse to clarify your agreements with these people. If that means drawing up a debt repayment plan or dissolving a business partnership that isn’t working, now is the time to take those steps. (I would wait until after the eclipse to actually formalize any new agreements.) This process of clarification comes with a very nice side effect: it shows you just how powerful you can be working on your own. Keep at it, because you can continue to make exceptional career progress between now and the end of July.

Capricorn – I want to remind you again that Pluto has always – at least until very recently – been worshipped as the god of wealth, in addition to his role as Lord of the Underworld. We here in the modern mind are so afraid of anything that hasn’t been pinned down, embalmed, dried out and classified by the priests of Almighty Science that we don’t go visit the Underworld like they did in olden times. Hmmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with why we are generally so staggeringly poor in all of the things that really count in life – love, health, vitality, creativity, spirit. Your job, of course, with Pluto in your sign for the next fifteen years, is to bring back the wisdom of the underworld journey. By fearlessly going into those dark places in your psyche, you are reclaiming the power, vision, and authority you’ll need in order to architect the new world that wants to be created out of the dust of the one that’s dying away. What Sunday’s eclipse in your 7^th House of relationships seems to be telling you is that it’s time to let go of relationships with people who don’t share your vision, are incapable of nurturing you appropriately, or insist that you stay stuck at a previous stage of evolution. Fearless explorers like you deserve courageous companions, don’t you think?

Aquarius – With a solar eclipse in your 6^th House of work and service this week, it appears you’re being challenged to up your game where a work or health situation is concerned. You may be dealing with the (perhaps unexpected) loss of a coworker or partner, more than likely a man who has been a major influence and help to you. Or you could be facing the need to get serious about taking care of your health or restructuring your routine in order to have the energy you’ll need going forward. With all of that going on, I’d like to remind you that your greatest gift is friendship. If there’s one thing that you do effortlessly and flawlessly well, it’s to inspire others. You know – and show by example – that we’re all basically the same at heart. Deep down we all want to live in a world of love and opportunity, where we are rewarded for our talents and accepted as the unique divine sparks that we are. So as you’re trying to solve your problems this week, don’t neglect your friendships. Not only do you feel better when you celebrate your connection with those you love, it’s highly likely that one of your friends has exactly the answer you need this week.

Pisces – Sunday’s solar eclipse in your 5^th House of creativity, romance, children and pleasure represents a new beginning (and an ending) in this part of your life. Solar eclipses always ask us to let go of something we’ve outgrown. I see this eclipse demanding that you drop a habit (or habit of mind) that has come between you and the direct, childlike, enthusiastic and loving exercise of your considerable creative powers for far too long. The old habit looks to be a behavior you learned in childhood. What I see is that you were made to feel ashamed of what you loved to do  –  playing or dreaming or fantasizing – and so you learned to disguise your fun and call it “work.” This meant that as long as you were working at your creative passion, you could have a little bit of fun and get away with it in the adult world. It also meant building in all sorts of self-destructive behaviors and dubious “rewards” (such as procrastination, over-indulgence, addictive habits, etc.) for just doing what you always wanted to do in the first place! The good news: this eclipse is bringing someone into your life who is going to help you identify these energy-draining, self-defeating behaviors. This person is going to bring some “tough love” your way and he or she will call you on your self-avoidance tactics. So make up your mind in advance to drop those old barriers and rediscover your joy. Because you are a creative dynamo and a magnet for wealth and it’s about time you got back to being who you are.