On the Erotic Ecliptic PRIDE EDITION for June 2023

Horoscopes For Your Pleasure Overview: sign-by-sign horoscopes coming June 1

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

Dates to Note June 2023

2^nd: Venus in Cancer trine Neptune in Pisces (6:42 pm ET)

3^rd: FULL MOON IN SAGITTARIUS at 18 degrees (11:42 pm ET)

4th: Mercury in Taurus conjunct Uranus (3:49 pm ET)

5^th: VENUS ENTERS LEO (9:46 am ET) , Venus in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius (12 :05 pm ET)

11th : Pluto re-enters Capricorn (5 :47 am ET), Mercury in Taurus trine Pluto in Capricorn (6:26 am ET), MERCURY ENTERS GEMINI (6:27 am ET), Venus in Leo square Jupiter in Taurus (11 :40 am ET)

15^th: Mercury in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces (12:09 pm ET)

17^th: SATURN STATIONS RETROGRADE IN PISCES (1:27 pm ET)

18^th: NEW MOON IN GEMINI at 26 degrees (12:37 am ET, 11:24 pm PT on the 17^th), Sun in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces (11:54 pm ET) – Father’s Day

19^th: Jupiter in Taurus sextile Saturn in Pisces (11:53 am ET) – Juneteenth

21^st: SUN ENTERS CANCER/SUMMER SOLSTICE (10:58 am ET), Mercury in Gemini sextile Mars in Leo (11:23 am ET), Mercury in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries (9:42 pm ET)

22^nd Mars in Leo trine Chiron in Aries (11:52 pm ET)

25^th: Mercury in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces (6:36 pm ET) 

26^th: Mars in Leo square Uranus in Taurus (5:23 am ET), MERCURY ENTERS CANCER (8:24 pm ET)

28^th: Sun in Cancer trine Saturn in Pisces (9:43 pm ET)

29^th: Venus in Leo trine Chiron in Aries (4:41 am ET)

30^th: Mercury in Cancer trine Saturn in Pisces (2:24 am ET) , NEPTUNE STATIONS RETROGRADE

Happy PRIDE MONTH, loves! As May’s eclipse season cum fixed sign square extravaganza cum Mercury Retrograde nightmare fades out, we meet the much mellower astrology of June – with a couple of major caveats. June, a solstice month, is one of the hinge points in tropical astrology – one of four annual moments when our world turns toward a brand-new season. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the fecundity of spring becomes the lushness of summer. Think of it as the next stage of your cosmic lust continuum that will intensify and expand all summer long.

With both Mars and Venus (as of the 5^th) in big-hearted Leo, we’ll start to see the shape our summer love (and sex) stories might take. Venus Retrograde won’t officially begin until July 22^nd, but the shadow period opens on the 19^th, so gird your loins and charge your sex toys accordingly. The love goddess is now in pursuit of the passion planet, but she never quite catches up. The closest these cosmic consorts will get is 4 degrees away from one another starting on the 22^nd, until Mars escapes into Virgo on July 11^th. Regardless of the upcoming Venus Retrograde, this 3-week phase could be ridiculously hot and ridiculously confusing. Established relationships might feel like dramatic minefields and every single meet-cute or Hinge date could seem like you’ve met The One. You might think you’ve experienced The Best Sex You’ve Ever Had. Asterisk ALL of your emotions because after Venus stations retrograde later in July, reconsideration will be warranted.

Between the 11^th and the 21^st, take note of your feelings, tune into your heart, and make a calendar note if you hear from an ex. A fertile, creative, dramatically deep self-love story is starting now, despite the accompanying drama, and when it’s all done in September (after Venus stations direct) you’ll probably understand your own desire nature and attachment style far better.

Venus only retrogrades in 5 of the 12 signs ( in the kinkiest way possible). This happens every 18 months and lasts between 40 and 43 days. The last time the love planet reversed course in Leo was the summer of 2015. You can expand the aperture on this timeline by rewinding every 8 years – all the way back to the summer of 2007, 1999, and before if your love/sex life was active at that time.

Questions to consider in June and all summer long:

·      Do you have any planets in Leo? What house in your chart is ruled by Leo? That’s where the action is.

·      What happened the last time Venus stationed retrograde? (Late December 2021 to January 2022, in Capricorn). You can course-correct now.

·      Are you a Libra Sun or rising or a Taurus Sun or rising? (These are the signs ruled by Venus). You may feel this more than other average humans!

Now for some non-Venus news: Pluto returns to Capricorn on the 11^th, after giving us the broad strokes of what the Pluto in Aquarius era might look like over the next twenty years. As predicted and feared, we literally got the launch of brain chips last week -- Elon Musk’s “neuralink” got FDA approval. Over the last few months, AI has expanded exponentially both in our collective consciousness and across our data systems as essentially every company and rando reply guy jumps on the bandwagon. Just after I initially posted this, I read this unnerving story about AI causing human extinction. The upside? Organized labor, union movements, and working-class rebellions exploded across continents, from France to our own WGA (more of this, please.)

Pluto’s last dance in Capricorn takes us back to some of the themes around autocracy versus democracy that we’ve faced over the last decade, and the cracks in our structures/systemic failures in our society. This invokes, once again, America’s Pluto Return, and the struggles we still face to reform and eradicate the entwined evils of capitalism, white nationalism, and patriarchy as our next election season takes shape.

Pluto will return to Aquarius early next year, and remain there until 2044.

If you’re digging this so far, you may want to sign up for a paid subscription, which comes with lots of other perks, including juicy, detailed sign-by-sign horoscopes (see more details by clicking below). For just $36 bucks, you get a lot of unique content from the author of the forthcoming Sex and Your Stars (Sounds True, 2024) that you can’t get anywhere else (because I’m taking the year off from writing horoscopes for mags/sites until I finish my book).

The first weekend of June is fantastically romantic and totally wild. A soft and nurturing Venus in Cancer trines mystical Neptune on the 2^nd, spoonfeeding us sweetness and magic and softening otherwise harsh aspects. Illusion, delusion and getting drunk on love are the vibe. We’re already in the energetic window of the Full Moon in Sagittarius as the month opens, and the lunation perfects on the night of the 3^rd. In short, the prior weekend is AMAZING for magic-making – and for imagining the world we want to live in.

And we need this, because Mercury and Uranus will be conjunct in Taurus later on the 4^th, and this can make us feel anxious, shaky, and accident-prone.

A few hours after Venus enters Leo on the 5^th, she opposes Pluto, putting a fine point on the way our relationship dramas are often born of fear of loss, a hallmark of anxious attachment styles. The way this is going to come up during the summer! Before assuming you’re being wronged by a lover, ask yourself what you’re afraid of losing (because of what you’ve already lost).

Saturn stations retrograde in Pisces on the 17^th for the first time since it entered this watery world in March. This is a reminder to take stock of our Pisces-ruled house and review what we want to build there during the next few years. What kind of emotional scaffolding do you need to erect to get that done in the most practical, least painful way? 

The New Moon in Gemini is exact the next day, and the Sun squares Neptune later that afternoon. We might feel like absent-minded professors around this time. Something brilliant is trying to emerge and creativity is surging, but it’s all shrouded in a pink fog of inexactitude. Juneteenth is paired with a Jupiter sextile to Saturn, a super friendly meeting for these two powerhouse planets and the first time they’re waving to each other from their respective perches in Taurus and Pisces. This is a day to celebrate freedom and joy and take action on ending white supremacy. There is Please won’t you be my neighbor energy here – bring your neighbor a freshly baked pie or at least say hi to them instead of pretending you’re reading something on your phone.

The Summer Solstice brings all the magic on the 21^st, delivering the Sun to the nurturing waters of Cancer and making us all hella clingy. Mercury is happy as a clam in its home sign Gemini, sextiling Mars and then Chiron, making us chatty and introspective at the same time. Given the looming Venus Retrograde we can all feel by now, we probably want to talk about love and sex all day and night.

Neptune goes direct on the 30th, snapping the lights on in some part of our consciousness that went dark five months ago. It may feel pretty bright and daunting at first.

If you’re digging this so far, you may want to sign up for a paid subscription, which comes with lots of other perks, including juicy, detailed sign-by-sign horoscopes (see more details by clicking below). For just $36 bucks, you get a lot of unique content from the author of the forthcoming Sex and Your Stars (Sounds True, 2024) that you can’t get anywhere else (because I’m taking the year off from writing horoscopes for mags/sites until I finish my book). Sign-by-sign horoscopes for paid subscribers will be posted on June 1st. Rather than send out another email, I will just update this post when the sign-bys are ready to go, so paid subscribers should check back then!