On the Erotic Ecliptic for July 2023 UPDATED

Sign-by-sign forecasts are now up for paid subscribers!

Photo by Color Crescent on Unsplash

Dates to Note July 2023

1^st: Sun in Cancer conjunct Mercury (1:06 am ET)

2^nd: Venus in Leo square Uranus (10:34 am ET)

3rd: FULL MOON IN CAPRICORN at 11 degrees (7:39 am ET)

6^th: Mercury in Cancer square Chiron in Aries (12:28 am ET)

9^th: Mercury in Cancer trine retrograde Neptune in Pisces (7:57 pm ET)

10^th: MARS ENTERS VIRGO (7:40 am ET), Mercury in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn (4:48 pm ET)

11^th: MERCURY ENTERS LEO (12:11 am ET)

12^th: Sun in Cancer square Chiron in Aries (8:06 am ET)

17^th: Mercury in Leo square Jupiter in Taurus (8:49 am ET), NEW MOON IN CANCER at 24 degrees (2:32 pm ET)

18th: NORTH NODE ENTERS ARIES

20^th: Sun in Cancer trine Neptune in Pisces ((9:07 am ET), Mars in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces (4:39 pm ET)

21^st: Sun in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn (11:53 pm ET)

22^nd: Mercury in Leo trine Chiron in Aries (2:57 am ET), VENUS STATIONS RETROGRADE IN LEO (9:33 pm ET), SUN ENTERS LEO (9:50 pm ET)

23rd: CHIRON STATIONS RETROGRADE IN ARIES (8 :42 am ET), Mercury in Leo square Uranus in Taurus (5:39 pm ET)

27^th: Mercury in Leo conjunct retrograde Venus (11:16 am ET)

28^th: MERCURY ENTERS VIRGO (5:31 am ET)

Lilith remains in Leo all month, traveling from 19 to 22 degrees.

I hope the soft, warm waters of Cancer Season are keeping you in a womb-like state of safety in these intense, Plutonian times on planet earth. With the Sun, Mercury, and Juno in Cancer, we need to find a space to feel secure emotionally, physically, and spiritually, and living through a climate apocalypse with a side order of Christofascism can make that very difficult.

As I write your July forecast, wildfire smoke is once again blanketing the New York City skyline. When I opened my blinds this morning, the haze was thick and orange-grey. On this last day of Pride month, the extremist MAGA Supreme Court decimated an anti-discrimination law in Colorado and basically created open season for bigotry against queer people.

This, only a day after they destroyed 50 years of precedent by killing affirmative action. What started a year ago with Dobbs ripping away our rights to control our bodies continues until we do something to restrain this rogue court’s outrageous, cruelty-is-the-point rollback of our fundamental rights. I see this as part of our Pluto in Capricorn mission, as it traverses the final degrees once again during the next six or so months.

If you’re reading this, I assume you’re someone who celebrated as I did in the summer of 2015, when SCOTUS decided same-sex marriage was the law of the land in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges. On the day of that momentous decision, Venus was at 17 degrees of Leo and turned retrograde later that summer. That was the last time that Venus was retrograde in Leo. Venus is already in the shadow of the upcoming retrograde. Venus retrogrades every 18 months but only returns to particular signs every 8 years, returning us to those themes, for better or worse. (For more on the dates, outlines, and what Venus Retrograde might mean for you personally, see my June forecast).

Today, with Venus at 20 degrees of Leo, the return is unquestionably worse for society at large, and queer people and their allies especially. SCOTUS ruled that a bigoted Christian nationalist web designer in Colorado can discriminate against married or soon-to-marry queer people because it violates her right to free (bigoted, hateful) speech. Venus is set to station retrograde on July 22^nd, and this feels like a flashback that no one asked for. From “love is love” to “you may not freely celebrate your love” — we are heading back to a separate-but-equal America for marginalized people.

Justice Sotomayor said it best: “Today the court relegates LGBT people to second-class status.” The conservative court wants to turn back time, but we cannot let white supremacist heteropatriarchy win. The way this court has overturned long-held precedent as Pluto spends its last few months in Capricorn, reversing the last 50 years of progressive change in the affirmative action decision and others should shake us to our cores and wake us up into action. Over the next six months, as America’s Pluto Return finishes up for real, we’ll begin to see what a better future might look like, but only if we organize.

Cancer season is a time for reflection, and there is much of it to do in the coming weeks. As Mercury and the Sun collide early on the 1st in a powerful cazimi, those depths can be plumbed, and we might have ideas that expand our consciousness, taking glimmers and dream shapes and making them real. The next day Venus squares Uranus, bringing a shakeup or surprise to our love lives (this might be something we experience on replay in the coming weeks, after Venus stations retrograde).

I haven’t written much about Lilith’s journey through Leo since the dark goddess first arrived there last January, but now is most certainly the time to do so, as Venus Retrograde approaches. Lilith, in short, was Adam’s first wife, and she would not take any of his shit. She demanded to be on top, had a powerful sexual appetite, and is said to have been banished from the garden so the dude could go make himself a servant-wife from his own rib. I’m pretty sure she said, “Fuck off into the sea, you worthless asshole” and stormed off in a huff to go have hot sex with demons on the beach. My kinda girl.

Themes around theatrics, over-the-top femme fatale antics, revenge seduction, and campy fashion choices are likely to define our summer. Honestly? Expect to witness couples fighting in restaurants and bars, and someone throwing a martini in someone’s face (maybe this will be you.) We’re all likely to live out our own personal risque rom-com (or favorite softcore porn flick).

Venus is considered the more polite goddess, but when retrograde, she’s thought to be deep in exploration of the underworld and its dangers. If Venus is the good girl (when direct) her sister Lilith is thought of that bitch. The truth is that Lilith is just righteously angry that she’s supposed to hide how much she wants to fuck, and all the other terrible things that have befallen women since biblical times.

I love synchronicity here: Samantha is returning to the Sex and the City/And Just Like That franchise for a cameo this season, as a perfect symbolic/iconic cultural example of Lilith in Leo. So as much as we’re looking back to the summer of 2015 for clues to the current moment, Lilith in Leo is bringing much additional spice and spunk. Not only that — but Venus and Lilith both leave Leo this fall on the exact same day — October 8th.

The Full Moon in Capricorn on the 3rd is a time for release — to stop doing the heavy lifting for a moment. This finds us on a holiday weekend, so hopefully you can take a moment to honor the Cancer-Capricorn axis of your chart and let go of the burdens, stress, and trauma you’ve carried since last January — especially emotional material that feels like it’s lodged in your body. Late-night Moon gazing could be just the thing as long as you’re able to go outside in a clear, smoke-free place.

Mars enters Virgo on the 10th, and begins to outpace his cosmic consort Venus — consider this their long goodbye. We might get pickier and more critical about our lover’s habits and more likely to be careful and selective about our passions and erotic output. Mercury enters Leo the next day, however, so the energy tilts toward fixed fire, not mutable earth, at least for a few months.

Mercury squares Jupiter in Taurus on the 17th, the same day as the New Moon in Cancer at 24 degrees, making this a potentially cranky lunation, but still good for intention-setting and magic-making, preferably on a beach or near a body of water. The magician theme continues through the 20th when the Sun in Cancer trines retrograde Neptune in Pisces, yet this is fraught with tension as Mars in Virgo opposes Saturn in Pisces the same day. All of these planets are telling us: look back and reflect so you know where you are, who you are, and who you want to be with (if anyone) right now.

On July 22nd the moment we’ve anticipated is here as Venus stations retrograde in Leo on the same day that the Sun enters Leo. By now we may know exactly what we’re dealing with, which ex-lover or old crush or old job or source of income is coming back to knock on our door, flirting and tempting us. Between now and September 4th, Venus will appear to move back all the way to 12 degrees of Leo, where it was on June 19th. You may find yourself fixing, tweaking, and addressing issues that came up earlier in the summer — or all the way back in the summer of 2015.

When Mercury and Venus are conjunct on the 27th, it’s an excellent moment to articulate our desires, or at least spend time writing about them in a journal or talking to a friend. Ideally, we’ve spent the previous few weeks figuring this out, listening to our intuition, and working through our feelings so that when we reach the end of July, we’re ready to lovingly but firmly have an important conversation with a lover, past or present, knowing full well we may need to do it again in September, just to tie up loose ends.

In case you missed it, I sent out a quick, fun, sexual astrology survey earlier this week. It’s research for my upcoming book, SEX AND YOUR STARS, due later this summer and coming out in the summer of 2024. I would LOVE it and will remain eternally grateful to you if you fill it out for me. This is also why July horoscopes for my paid subscribers are likely to be a little bit lighter when I post them later this weekend. I beg your forgiveness in advance and hope you understand!