It’s a cruel, cruel summer — but to be honest, things will definitely be looking up again come August. It’s July in particular that contains some of the most challenging astrology of this entire year, and though there’s really no such thing as “preparing for an eclipse,” we can at least hold space for the possibility of confusion, upheavals, and sudden openings and closings — and for our own capacity to adjust and persevere. More than anything else, we can give ourselves permission before the fact to not know exactly what we’re doing just yet; to let ourselves off the hook in advance for all of the things that are beyond our own control.

All of that might sound more doom and gloom than it needs to, and frankly, eclipses can be exhilarating in all the best ways. Eclipses are the airport conveyor belts of destiny, speeding up the passage of the inevitable in an effort to get us to the right terminal. Those circumstances you’ve been done with since yesterday that you now find untenable? Don’t be too shocked at how quickly things can change for you. Eclipses are a reminder that nothing is ever fixed or permanent, and that includes what you love as much as what you hate.

With the current eclipse sequence occurring along the Cancer/Capricorn axis, this love/hate dynamic feels especially relevant. The North Node in Cancer is drawing in more things to love, more reasons to protect each other even more fiercely, and more memories that we will cherish in the rearview window of nostalgia. The South Node in Capricorn, which is sitting with the gravity-bending weight of Saturn and Pluto, signifies the heaviness of all the things we’ve been forced to endure, the waning power of organized, official cruelty, and the futility of holding on to all the ways we’ve had to harden ourselves in order to survive. The conditions at the U.S. border certainly reflect this, but surely there are ways you’ve built walls around yourself too — walls that have now outlived their necessity.

On top of it all, Mercury will be retrograde this month too, spending part of its journey in Cancer. There will be blunders and misunderstandings as we navigate our way through the chaos of this eclipse window, but there’s something poignant about mining the past for clues as we take significant steps to leave it behind.

Mercury Retrograde does have a divine purpose beneath all the annoyances, and it’s to present us with a riddle or puzzle. During Mercury Retrograde, we strengthen our neural connections and form new pathways by going a way we wouldn’t have normally gone. Mercury is the god of transit, which means it’s about being in between. We’re not completely in the clear to start The New Thing because there are still loose ends we need to tie up, and sometimes that means going back or reflecting in order to complete the stage of the process we’re already in. We can’t have the answers just handed to us — unfortunately! We have to figure it out ourselves, and sometimes we do this by being reminded of something from our past, or by having to redo something we thought was finished. Mercury will begin its retrograde in Leo, offering a revision of the tall tales we’ve drafted about our lives. When it dips back into Cancer, we’ll be fully engaged in a trip down memory lane — one where old childhood friends may resurface to remind us of who we really are.

Here’s a brief summary of all the commotion happening this month. May it be an empowering, eye-opening, and reorienting one.

July 2: Solar eclipse at 10 degrees Cancer opposite Saturn
The answer lies in greater care, better care, and what you really care about

July 7: Mercury stations retrograde at 4 degrees Leo conjunct Mars
Don’t be mean if you don’t really mean it

July 16: Lunar eclipse at 24 degrees Capricorn conjunct Saturn + Pluto, opposite Venus
Release the weight of previous struggles that are keeping you locked in isolation

July 31: Mercury stations direct at 23 degrees Cancer opposite Pluto; New Moon in Leo conjunct Venus and square Uranus
Dust your shoulders off, do your thing and adjust your crown

This post was originally published on 7/2/2019 on thedailyhunch.com.