July spells relief, thank goodness! Energy definitely eases up from last month although things are still pretty active for all of us, and go with the flow is still the message.

July comes in with an emotional overtone to all the fire and air energy of this year. We may see some emotional responses to the activities and changes in our lives. Jupiter starts its one year passage through Cancer this month - a quest to find a deeper level of emotional self-reliance.

Mars goes direct, bringing the ability to initiate in whatever directions have been revealed to us. Since Mercury went direct the end of last month we have noticed things opening up and starting to move. Communications are flowing again. July will let things really start shift and go forward. This alone relieves a lot of pressure for all of us.

Sun is in Cancer and the Evolutionary Astrology mantra is: I grow emotionally as I move forward. We are in the middle of the astro month where we learn to take care of our own emotional needs so that we may participate in the world around us with the freedom of self-responsibility. We are co-creators with the Creative Principle.

We are still in the midst of eclipse activity, some of the last eclipses in the Cancer-Capricorn axis. July 5 brings a Lunar Eclipse at 13/14 degrees Cancer-Capricorn. This is the annual time of year to ground all these emotions with the knowing that we can take care of ourselves, we can survive and be responsible for whatever we need to address. We can take care of our family.

The South Node in Capricorn from April 2000 through October 2001 wants to bring up everything we have suppressed and buried because it was too emotionally painful. Family experiences from earlier times in this life, and past lives, are being released to better understand the lessons they represent for us. Watch for emotional situations repeating themselves and an unconscious desire to bury things again.

The North Node in Cancer during this same time period brings the opportunity to initiate new ways of loving ourselves and others on deeper and deeper levels. It brings the energy to move into taking care of our own emotional needs and desires regardless of our personal, family, work and relationship circumstances.

Emotional self-reliance means you and you alone are responsible for your emotions and your emotional needs and desires, no matter what your relationship situations may or may not be. When we take responsibility for meeting our own emotional needs we can then release the need for controlling others. There is no more need to project our emotional desires on others in order to feel loved. We learn to love ourselves.

This Lunar Eclipse will reveal the ways in which our personal family situations have instilled emotional co-dependency upon us and therefore the steps necessary to heal these old patterns and our families. How can you love yourself better? This is the path to loving others better and then allowing others to love you better.

So, allow whoever pushes your emotional buttons this month to be the mirror back to you on how you need to love yourself. May you be successful.

Remember: the relationship you have with yourself is identical to the relationship you have with God/Goddess. Both relationships are one and the same and really mirror back to you your beliefs about God/Goddess. Do you cherish yourself and the temple of your soul?

Or, do you punish yourself and dangle the carrot? Everything will be OK when I lose weight, make more money, find someone to love, (become perfect)....... These are your deeper beliefs about the Source, and the patriarchal conditioning that we are imperfect and therefore not worthy of love. You are worthy because you are alive and breathe air, period!

God/Goddess, natural laws and spiritual principles, love you as you perceive them to be. How conscious are you of these unconsciousness patriarchal conditionings of imperfection guilt? Is your Source an angry, judging God? Or, a loving, nurturing Creative Principle?

July 5 Venus enters Gemini for a month. Here is energy to let go of those emotional insecurities and shift into however we need to better take care of ourselves. There is curiosity to look for a different way to engage in interacting with others.

When we really work on self-reliance (Venus) issues we realize the world is love and everyone is love. Venus in Gemini says everyone can teach me about love. Maybe it is time to move on to a new partner. Maybe it is time to try new ways of giving and receiving love in your current relationship. Maybe it is time to really be in your relationship with yourself. A self-reliant Venus in Gemini says I'm OK whatever my circumstances are, and I am open to learning new ways to love.

On July 6 Mercury makes the 3rd and final waxing trine to Uranus retrograde at 24/25 degrees Gemini-Aquarius. This aspect symbolizes a lot of the energy for the year. Insights and surprises abound to wake us up, move us forward. The individuated unconscious mind (Uranus) is bombarding us with messages (Mercury) that allow us to look at things differently. The waxing trine asks us to expand into the new. The shadow is continuing to reinterpret things the same old way.

Venus makes a waxing trine to Neptune retrograde on July 12 at 7/8 degrees Gemini-Aquarius. The higher (Neptune) and lower (Venus) octaves of love - here is the chance to open up and love others in the highest and best ways possible. It is easy to love the ideal. It means paying attention to new ways to love on personal levels. It means finding the love of God/Goddess within us.

The waxing trine aspects bring the ease to change how we love if we make the effort. With Venus and Neptune it can bring the disappointments of repeating the same old love patterns. If you find yourself repeating those old love patterns, mentally ask what must change. The insight will be there if you search for it.

Also on July 12 Mercury makes the 3rd and final conjunction to Jupiter at 29/30 degrees Gemini. Realizations and conclusions of understanding how your life is evolving. This can lead to more insights into new ways of expanding your thinking and your evolving beliefs. Can you quest to understand how others look at the universe and find the common ground with them?

Later the same day (July 12) Mercury and then Jupiter move into Cancer. Mercury is full speed ahead and barely spends 2 weeks there. Watch for the continued emotional messages that will come through. If it is hard to speak up about those emotions then something is going on beneath the surface. Inwardly ask what needs to be understood. Where are you afraid?

Mercury in Cancer must feel safe in order to speak. A gentle, non-sexual touch or hug is sometimes enough to unblock those vocal cords and help us speak. Remember this with your loved ones this month. A touch is worth a thousand words. Speak your emotional truth. How many times can you hug yourself and say "I love me" this month?

Jupiter begins its one year passage through Cancer on July 12. Jupiter brings us the quest for our personal truths and beliefs. In Cancer this will happen through the emotional levels and family environments. Intuition operates on an emotional level, and in Cancer, Jupiter will bring us those messages of truth via how we feel when we hear or speak our personal truths/untruths. Pay attention to the instinctive, gut emotional responses of your body to know your truths.

Jupiter in Cancer will help with the insights for deeper ways of loving ourselves and continuing to move into self-reliance. Lesser-evolved souls will be invested in trying to convince others that their version of the truth will make us feel secure. In reality if it is not in alignment with natural laws and truth, it will make us feel controlled.

Those who are invested in the patriarchal conditioning of victimization and victorization will find their limited interpretations of the truth to reinforce their hopelessness and powerlessness. The emotional upsets we all receive from time to time may be looked at and understood from the perspective of gifts in how we may love ourselves better.

Jupiter in Cancer is a time to search for our spiritual families. For some, this will bring the family of origin closer together. For some, it may bring an ability to leave the family of origin and find the family that will support us and our evolving beliefs.

In general, Jupiter's year long passage through Cancer will have all of us pondering healthier ways to support our emotional needs in our family units. Again, how can we intuit better ways of loving ourselves instead of looking for it from others? How can we especially stop blaming our family backgrounds, or past lives, and take responsibility for ourselves?

Venus makes a conjunction to Saturn July 15 at 10/11 degrees Gemini. These 2 planets tend to bring a sobering reality to love, or lack thereof, if we are not working on self-responsibility for meeting our own needs. This an empowering moment to mentally affirm and look at new ways we can take care of ourselves.

There is an ability to, again, make those shifts that have us taking charge of our lives and what we want to happen in it. Any hurtful, painful experiences at this time represent the gift to show us where we are still caught up in some level of co-dependency.

Next, Venus makes an opposition to Pluto retrograde on July 17 at 12/13 degrees Gemini-Sagittarius. There are lots of messages in the middle of this month to help us love ourselves better. And we can count on others mirroring back the ways to do so. Lesser-evolved souls may really get caught up in the clash over whom is going to get their needs met first and most.

The potential of this aspect is really understanding the ways to fully step into self-reliance on the deepest soul levels, and therefore creating equal relationships. The blessing is if we can just take another step in that direction. Perfection is a process. Listen to what others have to say about love and see if there is an opportunity to expand your own ideas and beliefs about love.

Then Venus makes an opposition to retrograde Mars on July 19 at 15/16 degrees Gemini-Sag just before Mars turns direct. Again, more messages on healthier ways of giving and receiving love with others. Venus in Gemini is receiving plenty of information from Pluto (the unconscious desires of the soul) and Mars (the conscious desires of the soul) about our desires for love right now. There is a quest on how to achieve those desires as well.

There may be clashes over who is right and who is wrong in love. There may be those in our lives who want to tell us how we can love them so that they feel safe and secure. There may be realizations of whether or not a relationship will work. There may be those great insights on how to improve our relationships to more equal giving and receiving. There may be blossoming in relationships.

The variations in love are endless. The theme is to project as little as possible on to another and meet your needs yourself. Then others in our lives are free to give, free to love us, or not, as they choose to do so. May you be successful in loving yourself fully. May you be successful in loving others as they truly desire to be loved. May you accept them as they desire to love, or not love, you.

Mars retrograde never quite makes it back to Pluto retrograde in Sag. However, it comes close, within a few degrees. Close enough that this month allows for major revelations at this time on our deepest desires filtering up to the surface to be recognized and initiated. The search has been for the returning desires that will bring us closer to the Source.

Natural, spiritual laws and principles (matriarchal principles) teach us that the tools that separate us from the Source are the same tools that help return us to the Source. God/Goddess is expressed everywhere. This particular Mars retrograde cycle in Sag has had a major emphasis on the meaning of our lives and making the process of living life spiritually meaningful, and, to really move towards returning to the Source.

The ways in which to do so are now upon us as Mars turns direct on July 19 at 15/16 degrees Sagittarius. This is one of those time periods when our deepest desires are being made known to us. Our souls have been throwing off the past and we are now ready to make major steps forward.

Limiting beliefs are revealed and we can leave them behind. Those in our lives who are limiting us are revealed and we will leave them behind if necessary. The Sag archetype follows its quest for deeper truth with or without others. May you understand your life's new directions and move forward in those intuitive ways you know are best for you.

May the tools (career, relationships, possessions, money) in your life be utilized in ways that bring you ever closer to God/Goddess. May your actions be an expression of your deepest beliefs. Beliefs that the Source is pure love questing to love better.

This is a time period when lesser-evolved energies (people, countries) may feel so frustrated with their necessary steps to move forward that they fight to defend the illusion of separation and create all kinds of - they are right, we are wrong - situations. Pray for peace, send them love.

Collectively, some of us are really getting "it" that everything is energy and each of us individually make a difference. May enough of us realize it. Emails abound during this Pluto, and Mars, in Sag time to set intent and pray for love and healing at specific times across the planet. Add your energy to the whole.

Mars direct now says it is time to walk our talk, our beliefs.

July 20 brings us another New Moon in Cancer at 28/29 degrees. Twice this astro month we are being given opportunity to set new intents in love. May this end of the Sun's passage in Cancer allow you a new beginning in really loving yourself on the deepest levels possible.

No matter what your emotional circumstances are, each and every emotional experience is an opportunity to love yourself better. And from that, an ability to love others with a fullness of self that is neither selfish or selfless.

The Sun enters Leo on July 22. The Evolutionary Astrology mantra is: I align my will with divine will. This is the annual quest to express the fullness of self into creativity. This is the time to evolve our egos, and to make ego an expression of soul.

Leo and its expression of ego get such a bad rap. The most evolved souls still express an ego. It is just so much more aligned with their individualized soul which is so much more aligned with Divine Soul. This is our time to strive to do the same, a step or leap, wherever we are.

This is the crest of the wave from the sea. This is the expression of God/Goddess manifesting. May your creative ventures over the next month allow God/Goddess to express its creativity through you. Leoian energy must realize it is not the source of creativity; it is a channel for the expression of creativity from the Ultimate Source.

With Mars now direct from its bi-annual retro cycle and Sun in Leo it is full speed ahead. Things are loosening up and moving, shifting, growing. Remember to go with the flow. And, continually ask how you may align your will with Divine Will.

Venus makes a waxing trine to Uranus retro on July 26 at 23/24 degrees Gemini-Aquarius. A few more insights into this never-ending quest for love. This aspect will bring to the surface whatever has been building all this month. There is a need for objectivity in whatever ways we have not been wanting to face our love issues.

Venus and Uranus bring excitement and upsets, positive and negative, we each determine our specific circumstances. Venus must evolve and grow into new ways of loving however Uranus brings it up for us. Can you be more objective and move forward in whatever ways are being revealed to you?

Mercury moves into Leo on July 30 for a fast 2 week passage. It joins the Sun in changing our focus to ourselves. Messages will come through over the next few weeks on what we need to know about, and how we need to grow in, our creative self-expression. Watch the tendency to think you are the center of the universe. Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius will remind you it is not so. Watch for the messages on how you can best fit your creativity into the larger needs of the whole.

Finally Sun makes an opposition to Neptune retrograde on July 30 at 7/8 degrees Leo-Aquarius. An annual revelation of how Spirit is manifesting in us. Neptune in Aquarius want spiritual truth. Sun in Leo wants manifestation, creation. Together we can each learn how we can manifest Creation, how we co-create.

This is a time period to directly connect with God/Goddess. Ask how you may bring spirituality into your everyday creativity. All work is an expression of Spirit. This is the time to receive the gifts on how you may do so.

There has been relief from June's mental push; however, major emotional growth has replaced it. May you reach success in loving yourself better in order to express God/Goddess through you in your highest and best creative ways.

There is no substitute for loving yourself. May you realize this message and share it with others, helping them to love themselves better. That is the true creative expression of the Divine manifesting in a zillion different ways. Let's quest for the truth to co-create in healthier and healthier ways.

May God/Goddess bless you in July!

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If this is your first time reading my forecast.........I suggest reading the entire forecast to receive an overall impression of the energy for the month, and then refer back to it as things arise. My intent and desire is to help you understand the opportunities for personal changes on emotional, mental and spiritual levels which manifest the physical reality of your world. I send you blessings for a growing, evolving month!

P.O. Box 552, Rapid City, SD, 57709 605-348-5111, 877-348-5111 Email: kimmarie@astrologybykimmarie.com