gal-dem monthly horoscopes: Cancer season sees us on the brink of societal change
Astrologer Marissa Malik on July's five-planet retrograde and how this Cancer season will see new systems emerge for the individual as well as the collective.
Marissa Malik
08 Jul 2020
Illustration by Nadia Akingbule
The July sky is bustling with activity. While June was focused on facts and figures, July is about feeling our way towards the future.
Five planets are retrograde (eek!) and revolutionary Pluto is redefining norms for generations to come. We’re also wrapping up an intense eclipse season which is defining the work that we need to do for the next six months.
As we transition into rewriting societal structures, unearthing what’s been swept under the rug by whiteness for centuries and responding to the polemic wave Black Lives Matter began, it’s time to embrace our own discomforts and question the foundation of our emotional needs.
Ready to see what’s in store for your sign?
For those of you who like to delve deeper into your astrological sky, I’ve added “Rising” to each sign to remind you that your sky is influenced by both your Sun sign and Rising sign. It’s worth reading both horoscopes!
HOROSCOPES
Cancer and Cancer Rising
Happy solar return, Cancer! It’s your season! There are major movements transforming your relationship to work and labour this month.
July begins with astrological activity buzzing through your zone of ethical values, objects, and finance. It’s time to let those lessons that cropped up during Venus Retrograde last month influence your actions. Ask yourself – what are you investing in, and why? What’s the bigger picture behind your money and material goals? What resources do you have that you could be redistributed as our world’s value systems shift?
Make this introspection a priority, especially when warrior planet Mars crosses paths with healing asteroid Chiron on 14 July. Tears might flow given how frustrating this process can be, but you’re not stranger to emotions! Don’t forget that communication planet Mercury is retrograde until 12 July. This means you can expect delays and brain-fog to long out some of these processes. Build in extra time to complete basic tasks and know when to call it a day and zone out on your sofa.
This month’s new moon occurs in your sign on 20 July, providing the perfect check-in point for you to wipe your slate clean and enter into new routines. Get excited and set intentions intuitively based on recurring themes that this eclipse season brought up for you.
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Leo and Leo Rising
July is a spiritual time for you, Leo. As the Cancer sun moves through the most mystic part of your sky, this month becomes an opportunity for you to envision the future you crave, and dig deep into your psyche.
Things kick off with Mercury retrograding through Cancer until 12 July, evoking ancestral dreams and unexplainable emotions. In addition to this, energies inspire you to explore new concepts and release old viewpoints that do not serve you anymore. No matter how “woke” we think we are, our journeys in learning and unlearning never stop. Ask yourself how you can structure more time for reading and philosophical exploration into your routine. What is your role in the revolution? What lectures should you listen to? Equally, Mercury Retrograde is about rest. Are your relaxation tactics really replenishing you the way you need them to? Reevaluate everything, especially when Mars crosses paths with healing asteroid Chiron on 14 July.
The new moon in Cancer on 20 July is the perfect prelude to your season (which begins two days later!). It wipes your slate clean, and makes room for new emotions to take center stage in the parts of your life that emphasise closure and healing.
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Virgo and Virgo Rising
How are you showing up for your community, Virgo? Your sense of social responsibility is peaking this July. “C” is for compassion, caring and cancer season.
Your month begins amidst another cycle of your ruling planet, Mercury, retrograding through the sky! As it moves through a zone of your chart that rules collectivism and unconventional problem solving, you’re compelled to challenge your own beliefs. How are you looking beyond what’s immediately in front of you in your perspectives? What were moments and places you’ve experienced in the past where you felt “inclusivity” was truly achieved for you and others? Speak with those around you, who you trust. Connect the micro and the macro. Make sure you’re spending time reflecting on the joy you bring yourself and others in this process. There are exciting new opportunities for you to connect experiences from your romantic life into expressions of all types of care for others. Instead of deeming them frivolous, tap into what made them special. It’s easy to lose sight of how love can and should be at the heart of our political actions.
There will be space for analysis, when things get philosophical on 20 July for the new moon in Cancer. The Cancer new moon is your chance to approach new concepts strategically, and turn words into actions centered around nurturing others.
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Libra and Libra Rising
Who you are in a visible, public setting isn’t the end of your story, Libra. No matter how many words you fill the air around you with, or selfies you post online, your relationship to yourself endures. This July is about making the internal and external parts of you align, and setting new boundaries.
Your month begins with revolutionary energy surrounding your relationship to home, families, and ancestors. Who do you owe a casual phone call to? Which aunty are you in need of collecting for her anti blackness? As the people closest to you reveal parts of themselves you’ve not seen before, make sure you’re responding to them from a place of honesty in both your words and actions. Connect this back to the notion of what you do “behind closed doors” being directly tied to your external self. Every action counts. Mar’s recent move into Aries will help you be more hardline about what you will and won’t tolerate/accept in your relationships, especially when this energetic planet meets up with healing asteroid Chrion on 14 July.
The new moon in Cancer on 20 July feels like a rebirth, and eases you back into new, socially confident energies.
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Scorpio and Scorpio Rising
How do you know when it’s your turn to speak, Scorpio? When you respond, is it genuine intrigue that drives your words, or a need to escape? July holds more questions for you than answers.
Cancer season finds you antsy for a relocation of sorts. Mercury, planet of communication and travel, is retrograding through a zone of your sky that underpins where you draw your knowledge from until 12 July. During this time, your mental restlessness is mimicked in your body. Escape (safely) to places that are as far away as you can get within the constraints of the world’s pandemic limitations.
Whether it’s through the portal of your laptop screen or a nearby park, let this space be a site of learning and unlearning. Be open to allowing your values to shift, but ask yourself “why” often. On 14 July, when fierce Mars crosses paths with healer Chrion, movement becomes your greatest tool in figuring out what physical needs you’ve been avoiding. Stretch, breathe deeply and turn your mind off completely to find what needs mending.
The new moon in Cancer on 20 July is a much better time to fully and truly state your feelings on the matter. Send that risky text.
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Sagittarius and Sagittarius Rising
Cancer season is here right on schedule for your yearly cry, Sagittarius! Your July sky is full of heartfelt confessions and nostalgic moments. Ready to dive into all the feels?
The month begins with communication planet Mercury moving backwards through the sky in another retrograde cycle. As it cruises through your zone of partnerships and long-term, interwoven bonds, you’re reminded of past heartbreak and loss. This transcends romantic events, too. It applies to all relationships that impacted you on a soul-level, and have evoked transformation in your life on a foundational level.
As these memories come and go, how will you choose to hold them? Not everything is a lesson you deserved to learn. Where you place “fault” has to be a socially informed decision and account for the institutional hierarchies you don’t have control over. New love is always possible, though. Just don’t expect it to feel the same. Mars’s movement through Aries for the next six months reminds you of this, especially on 14 July when this warrior planet crosses paths with healing asteroid Chiron.
The new moon in Cancer on 20 July swims into your sky with a curious twinkle in its eye. Get ready to say hello to new love and/or lust interest!
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Capricorn and Capricorn Rising
Love is never easy, Capricorn. This month you’re reflecting on partnerships and romance; pleasure in all of its fraught forms. Venus retrograde might be over now, but your mind is still swimming through past and present relationships.
Your July begins with majorly transformative energy flooding your zone of selfhood and thinking. As thought patterns which have kept you in unhelpful ruts flow to the surface, major questions about how your actions as an individual arise too. What diminishing narratives do you tell yourself that aren’t actually rooted in fact? Is your sense of responsibility and ideas about what other people need getting in the way of your ability to listen? The month begins amidst another Mercury retrograde cycle, which continues on until 12 July. This transit calls you into deep listening that you’ve been resistant to do. Ask your comrades questions if you’re confused by their words rather than filling in the blanks yourself. On 14 July, fierce Mars meets up with healing asteroid Chiron in an area of your sky that considers the home and family. Expect clarity around what your space (and the people you share it with) really needs around this time.
The new moon in Cancer on 20 July springs you into action as you piece together the bits of knowledge you gained over the course of the month and strategise a plan forward.
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Aquarius and Aquarius Rising
Your routine is in need of recalibration, Aquarius. This month brings you back into your body after creative bursts have thrown you off of your usual (self imposed) scheduled. Are you ready for structure to (re)emerge?
The July sky begins with you calling for revolution in your usual fashion; through an insistence that norms perpetually need questioning and that social hierarchies are inherently born out of violence. As you find the wave of people joining your Uranus-influenced energy in the struggle toward collective liberation, you’re excited but exhausted. Let rulemaking Saturn’s connection with excitable Pluto happening through the 9th motivate you to streamline your “spoons” rather than picking every fight you can. The reflective Mercury retrograde period we’re in until 12 July is calling you to seek steadiness and solidify boundaries, so remember to set ground rules around how and where you want your voice to carry. Words are labour, and so are furtive side-eyes. Look into your past for answers; you’re no stranger to the word no! On 14 July, warrior planet Mars’s connection with healing planet asteroid wants you to stand your ground and speak from a place of honesty.
The new moon in Cancer later in the month on 20 July will bring you the boost of energy you need to push forward into new actions and ideas you’re excited about.
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Pisces and Pisces Rising
This Cancer season is a creative time for you Pisces. You’re questioning your sources of inspiration in July, and finding comfort in familiar faces and spaces – just don’t get thrown off by an ex-collaborator or romantic partner who wants to reconnect…
The month begins amidst another Mercury retrograde cycle that has you questioning the role pleasure and joy have played in your life, as well as the concept of “authenticity” in your creative projects. Are you crediting your sources? Is the origin of your industry disconnected from how it exists today? How can you avoid facilitating colonial-esque appropriation? Alternatively, you might be considering how the inverse has been true for you; thinking about moments where you’ve let things slide that you actually deserved more credit for. “Ownership” is a complex concept, but your ancestors didn’t work as hard as they did to watch white people and culture cannibalise their practices. Hold your ground, while also knowing your place. On 14 July, when energetic Mars crosses paths with healer Chrion, you’re ready to put new energy into labour and work related parts of your day, which could provide the perfect moment to be your own best advocate.
The new moon in Cancer on 20 July is set to bring you new forms of love and ways of expressing it. Get ready for a new potential cutie to enter the picture!
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Aries and Aries Rising
What does safety look like to you, Aries? Is it feeling held by the words of your friends, or knowing exactly when to expect a message from your bae? As Cancer season brings out a more reclusive side of you, you’re in need of finding balance between socialising and snuggling your pillow on the sofa.
July begins with Mercury retrograding through a zone of your sky that seeks comfort in the familiar. This doesn’t exactly bode well with the perpetually changing landscape of our world politically, so it’s time to start investing your sense of “safety” in less concrete things. What ideas comfort you? What’s something that makes you feel grounded that you can’t hold in your hand? Who do you know will be there through it all? Write this down, and keep them by your bed as affirmations. During this retrograde period, which lasts until 12 July, you’ll be pulled into personal introspection by your ruling planet Mars, too. This energetic, warrior planet has entered your sign and will stay here until January 2021! This means that now is the time to focus on you and the inner work you want to commit to. This holds especially true on 14 July when healing asteroid Chiron meets up with Mars in the sky. If you’ve been contemplating therapy or new types of community healing methods, press the “go” button around this time.
Then, a new beginning opens up when the new moon in Cancer occurs on 20 July. Expect a fresh start in matters of home and family.
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Taurus and Taurus Rising
You’re in a planning stage, Taurus. New types of movement have entered your life, and you’re ready to be strategic about where you go with it. The only thing that might get in the way of your new adventures is quickness to respond rather than listen (and learn).
July begins with communication planet Mercury retrograding through a chatty area of your sky centered around learning through interpersonal exchange. As you let interactions with your local sphere guide your mind, what recurring themes crop up? Who are your go-to mates, and how long have they held that status in your life? Your need to collaborate with others is high right now, so figure out ways to compromise your ideas that you’re still happy with. The outcomes will be more holistic and rewarding in the end. Mercury retrograde ends around 12 July, and a few days later on 14 July, action planet Mars crosses paths with healing asteroid Chrion. This cosmic link up is a powerful one, asking you to sail through the seas of past hardships and figure out what turbulence still exists in your life now. Once you face this obstacle (or at least identify it) your path forward will be clearer.
On 20 July the new moon in Cancer finds you socialising with friends and happily working on new projects, as well as being the voice of those who can’t speak up themselves.
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Gemini and Gemini Rising
It’s really not just business as usual this month, Gemini. Your July sky is encompassed by everything to do with your finances – both how you’re maintaining them to keep afloat and how you’re redistributing wealth through dismantling hierarchies (and more!).
The month begins in the middle of another Mercury retrograde period. Given that this is your ruling planet, you’re feeling this transit to your core! Mercury is a planet that governs communication and travel, so as it moves through the watery depths of Cancer, you’re called to recalibrate your career and finances in these terms. How do your finances impact where and when you’ll travel? How do you discuss money and power with others? What value do “things” bring into your life (versus people, concepts and actions)? The way this all relates back to the larger ethos that you use to guide your life will reveal itself over the course of this month, especially when energetic Mars crosses paths with healer Chiron in your zone of community on 14 July.
On 20 July, when the Cancer new moon darkens the sky, you’ll be ready to step into new ideas about self-worth and value, and create solid boundaries in love.
Learn more about gal-dem’s monthly horoscopes
gal-dem horoscopes: this Spring Equinox, move forward with clarity and intention
This aquarius season is all about moving forward
gal-dem horoscopes: ease into the new year this Capricorn season
gal-dem horoscopes: dim the noise and be intentional this Sagittarius season
